Exposed

"That doesn't seem right."

Yi Jing hurriedly cut into the conversation:

"There could be private belongings in our rooms, and we have a woman on the team. How can you just demand to inspect them? Jiang Yan, what do you think?"

The short-haired woman named Jiang Yan did hesitate at this condition. Having someone inspect her room didn't sit well with her. What if he wanted to frame her and tampered with something inside?

Seeing Jiang Yan's hesitation, Li Xian replied, "It won't be a thorough inspection. I only need to stand somewhere I can see the whole bedroom and take a quick look around. You can watch me the entire time."

The request didn't sound particularly unreasonable, and it left little room for tampering. Jiang Yan began to waver. Seeing this, Yi Jing interrupted again before she could agree:

"But who knows whether the clue you found is real? What if it's a lie?"

"I have no reason to lie."

"Then you should at least tell us what kind of clue you found, shouldn't you?"

Li Xian glanced at Yi Jing, who had abandoned his "gentle" persona and begun openly challenging him, and readily answered:

"It's a clue about the portraits."

"But..."

Yi Jing seemed to want to say more, but upon hearing that, Jiang Yan quickly made her decision. "All right, I agree."

Li Xian nodded. "What about everyone else?"

A fine sheen of sweat had already formed on Yi Jing's palms. He looked at Liang Pei and gave him a slight shake of his head.

But Liang Pei avoided his gaze. "I accept that condition."

Song Qingzhang naturally sided with Li Xian. Even the tall man, who had remained impassive throughout and whose name they still didn't know, nodded. "I don't mind."

In an instant, Yi Jing became the only person who hadn't accepted Li Xian's proposal.

"Brother Jing, everyone else has agreed. What are you worried about?"

Liang Pei seized the chance to add fuel to the fire.

Song Qingzhang chimed in, "Exactly. It's just a room inspection, isn't it? Unless you've got something in there you don't want us to see?"

Yi Jing forced a stiff smile and had no choice but to agree to Li Xian's proposal.

The group went up to the third floor together, and Li Xian inspected their rooms one by one.

He called it an inspection, but he was really looking at only one thing.

There were no problems with the rooms belonging to Song Qingzhang, Jiang Yan, Liang Pei, or "Mr. Zhang." To keep things fair, Li Xian also opened his own door for the others to inspect his room.

Soon, Yi Jing's room was the only one left.

"Open the door, Mr. Yi."

Li Xian stood behind him and spoke in a calm voice.

Facing his door, Yi Jing took a deep breath and unlocked it with his key.

Everyone stepped over the threshold and craned their necks to look inside-

The portrait hanging in his room didn't have a single finger raised.

"Wh-what's going on?" Jiang Yan demanded incredulously. "Why hasn't your portrait changed at all? You knew how to stop the fingers from increasing, but you didn't tell us?!"

[Holy shit, why does his portrait look like that?!]

[I've been watching the streamer's POV the whole time. I had no idea this guy was hiding something so huge!]

[So the streamer already suspected something when he asked to inspect the rooms? How did he know?]

Yi Jing slowly released the breath he had taken before opening the door.

"I can explain."

As though he had prepared his story in advance, he rapidly rattled off an explanation:

"I found out how to stop the portrait's fingers from increasing by accident, but the method is unusual. Only one person can use it at a time, so I kept it to myself. I was only trying to protect myself..."

"And what about this? Was this to protect yourself too?"

Yi Jing whipped his head around. While he had been defending himself, Li Xian had actually entered his room and found something!

Everyone looked into the room. Li Xian held a small note whose contents they couldn't make out. The moment Yi Jing saw it, he charged straight at Li Xian to snatch it away.

Liang Pei and Song Qingzhang exchanged a glance, then grabbed Yi Jing, having already prepared for this.

Yi Jing struggled a couple of times and fell awkwardly to the floor. He looked up at the scene before him, feeling as though the world were spinning.

They were in on it together... That brat Liang Pei had actually teamed up with those two!

No, I still have a chance. Two people haven't fully taken their side yet...

Yi Jing shouted at Jiang Yan and the tall man, who were still trying to make sense of the situation:

"Don't listen to him! He prepared that note beforehand... to frame me!"

To his surprise, the man who claimed his surname was Zhang scoffed. "First you hide a clue about the portraits, then you claim this note has nothing to do with you. Who do you think you're fooling? What's written on it?"

Li Xian read the note aloud, enunciating clearly. "Meet me in the hallway at midnight tonight."

Then he held the note out in front of Yi Jing. "Let me guess. The lady of the house wrote this to you, didn't she? What deal did you make with her?"

"What are you talking about? Why would I make a deal with a monster in the Instance?!"

Seeing that Yi Jing was still making excuses, Li Xian crouched down to meet his eyes.

"When we first met the lady of the house on the first day, she gave you the keys, didn't she? She must have slipped this note to you along with them. That's why you didn't hand out the keys right away, but put them in your pocket first."

"'Midnight tonight' meant that very night. Right around that time, the sound of high heels rang out in the hallway. Everyone must have heard it. That was when you opened your door and made a deal with her."

As Li Xian laid out his deductions, Yi Jing's face gradually turned ashen.

He trembled twice, then slowly lowered his head, no longer meeting Li Xian's gaze.

"You're right. I did speak with the lady of the house in private in the middle of the night."

"What did you talk about?"

"She said she could help me eliminate the danger from the portrait. Then she went into my room and told me to wait outside... I don't know exactly what she did to it. I only vaguely saw her holding something in a can... After that, my portrait wasn't dangerous anymore."

"You're saying she didn't ask anything of you? She just wanted to help?"

"What, is that impossible?"

Even now, Yi Jing stubbornly refused to admit it. Li Xian was so angry he laughed. "Then what was in it for her? Your good looks?"

[It's just an ordinary insult, but coming from the streamer, why does it feel extra brutal?]

[If the lady of the house really picked people based on their looks, Yi Jing definitely wouldn't be in the running.]

[LMAO, look at Yi Jing's face. He's gone green.]

"Bro, stop wasting your breath on him."

Song Qingzhang tightened his grip on Yi Jing's arm.

"If he still won't talk, we can just tie him up and toss him into a room."

"That one."

Yi Jing looked up and followed the direction of Song Qingzhang's finger, only to discover that he was pointing at the room where Feng Tao had died.