Chapter 20: Rose Manor (XIX) Innocent Murder

Zou Yan stood outside Room 3 for a full half-hour, yet she still received no response from Lin Chen. It was as if the room had been empty all along. Yet, she clearly remembered that Lin Chen had entered and never come back out.

In her years as a psychologist, Zou Yan had accumulated vast experience, allowing her to discern a person’s character with minimal interaction. She knew Lin Chen lacked conviction and guile, and was prone to being soft-hearted; generally, he was the type who would never stand by and watch someone die. Where had things gone wrong? Did he know something?

Zou Yan’s gaze narrowed, sensing the faint presence of a "variable." She felt a flicker of unease, but as she looked at her right hand, now entwined with thick vines, her composure quickly returned. It didn't matter. She had already grasped the greatest secret of this instance. Even if she couldn't kill Lin Chen, killing someone else would serve the same purpose. It was a pity, though; Qi Si was clearly the type best suited for the Weird Game. Since he refused to accept her olive branch, he would simply have to die.

Having made her decision, Zou Yan turned and headed toward the staircase.

Inside the room, Lin Chen’s palms were slick with sweat, making it difficult to grip the damp key. He let out a sigh of relief as he heard the footsteps outside fade away. Zou Yan was indeed suspicious; he was glad he hadn't opened the door. Was this what the Weird Game was like? One had to remain vigilant at all times; even among fellow humans, there was no room for trust. Lin Chen felt as if he had realized something, and cracks began to form in the cognitive barriers shaped over his past twenty years.

He took a deep breath, and just as he was about to retreat to the bedside, a knock sounded on the door once more. Miss Anna’s voice drifted in from the hallway: "Is anyone there? Could you please open the door?"

Lin Chen’s hair stood on end. He could no longer suppress the urge to retort internally: "Why are you all picking on me? Do I really look that gullible? At least come up with a better trick, for heaven's sake!"

***

On the third floor, Qi Si stopped at the top of the stairs, peering downward from behind the railing. Black-green vines crept down along the handrails, slicing his view of the floor below into jagged shards. Through the gaps in the foliage, the path ahead was obscured, leaving him to speculate based on the shadows and illusions dancing in the gloom.

Qi Si clicked his tongue twice and whispered, "What a shame not to set an ambush in such terrain. Do you think someone might be waiting to block us down there?"

Chang Xu understood what he meant. The two had already spent an hour on the third floor; there was no telling what variables might have emerged downstairs. The appearance of the "Eye of Hermes" was indirect proof that either Zou Yan or Ye Zi was a veteran player, and that they had full access to information about them. An hour was more than enough time to set a trap.

"Lend me a blade," Chang Xu said to Qi Si, his tone matter-of-fact. "I’ve trained. I can make better use of a weapon."

Qi Si pretended not to hear. He pulled a blade from his wristband, held it between his fingers, and took a half-step back, signaling for Chang Xu to lead the way. He added a layer of blatant moral coercion: "Brother Chang, those with ability should do more. I’ve always admired the police profession—the rest of this road is up to you."

Chang Xu glanced at him, said nothing more, and lifted the vines on either side of the stairs to lead the way. Qi Si followed a half-step behind, maintaining a distance that allowed him to both attack and retreat. After the recent sequence of events, the trust between them was hanging by a thread. Under the "survival of the fittest" mechanism of the Weird Game, there was little trust to begin with; their brief cooperation had been purely out of mutual need.

Chang Xu, facing a crisis of trust after Shen Ming’s death, had found it difficult to find allies and lacked the information to decipher the instance’s worldview, making him desperate for deeper exploration. Qi Si, who knew little of the Weird Game and possessed questionable combat ability, needed a strong companion to act as a buffer. For the exploration of the third floor, they had been the perfect pair.

But now, the exploration was over, and their cooperation felt less essential. Furthermore, Qi Si had openly admitted to withholding several key pieces of information. Though Chang Xu was somewhat slow in social interactions, he was not stupid. He had begun to realize that when he became the target of everyone’s suspicion at the start, it seemed to have been influenced by Qi Si’s manipulation of the other players' thoughts.

At this moment, he had branded Qi Si as "not a good person." Even if he survived this instance, he would never believe a single word from this man again should they ever meet.

The stairs were not long, and despite the obstruction of the vines, they were not difficult to navigate. Turning the corner, the scene on the second floor came into view. Unlike the third floor, where vegetation grew wild, the second-floor corridor was clean and quiet, like the calm before a storm. Whether because Chang Xu had slowed his pace or for some other reason, the distance between him and Qi Si narrowed until they were only half a step apart—close enough to touch.

"Chang Xu! Qi Si! Ye Zi is trying to kill me, help me..."

Behind the screen of vines, Zou Yan appeared, her white trench coat stained with dark, reddish-brown blood. She ran toward the stairs in a panic, her voice sounding wretched. Qi Si looked at her right hand, which she kept hidden behind her back, and let out a cold laugh. "Didn't you already kill Ye Zi? What is this? A vengeful spirit coming for your life?"

Zou Yan froze for only a second before the look of surprise vanished from her face. She did not argue; beneath her calm expression lay an eternal, frozen indifference. It was no surprise that her disguise had been seen through; even without the element of surprise, she was not necessarily at a disadvantage in a direct confrontation. She knew the average strength of players in the novice pool well and understood what she was capable of. She slowly lowered her right hand, and dense, tangled vines erupted from the blood vessels in her arm.

"Sorry, just a wild guess. I didn't expect you to expose yourself," Qi Si said, his smile widening at the sight.

Ye Zi was dead, but the photograph in the second room on the third floor had not shown her face. Did that mean Miss Anna was not omniscient in this instance? The guests who had been snatched and dropped into the manor might seem weak, but that didn't mean they were without a chance to break the game.

Qi Si watched Zou Yan’s performance and recited softly, "My chest decays, flesh spreads upon the earth, roses dwell within, to endure with me until the morrow..."

"So, merging roses with your own flesh and blood is how you exchange for power comparable to a ghost? So that was the meaning of my four lines of verse. Thank you for testing it for me."

Zou Yan still did not speak. In an instant, she burst forth with a speed not belonging to a human, reaching the staircase in a few strides and raising her right hand toward Qi Si. Before her final goal was achieved, any sacrifice was necessary and worthwhile. She felt a twinge of regret that this young man’s journey would end here, but she would never let a moment of soft-heartedness become an obstacle to her plan.

The blood provided the soil for the Weird to sprout; vines grew wildly in the hallway, clawing at the air. The crisis triggered a primal warning in Chang Xu’s intuition. He reflexively hunched his shoulders and tightened his fists, adopting a leopard-like stance, ready to strike. He had been different from others since childhood, born with an inherent ability to suppress certain Weird phenomena, and those who knew him had always intended to groom him into a machine for dealing with the anomalous. Even if Zou Yan had mastered a portion of the Weird power in this instance, he was not without a chance of winning.

Chang Xu fell into a state of strange, singular focus. Zou Yan’s form split into various angles and slices in his field of vision. He found his opening, pushed off the ground, and lunged forward.

The next second, he felt a chill at the back of his neck, followed by the sharp, undeniable pain of a blade slicing across his artery, almost tearing him apart. His pupils dilated and then contracted. Chang Xu realized too late what had happened, but it was already too late. Warm blood sprayed from his carotid artery, soaking his neck and collar, followed immediately by a chill that felt like falling into an icy cellar.

In his fading consciousness, Chang Xu heard Qi Si’s smiling voice: "As expected of someone who’s trained, your carotid artery is much more prominent than an ordinary person’s."

The voice was so light and airy that it triggered a dangerous instinct in him, like a beast facing its predator. He fell to his knees, unable to support his weight, and turned his head with great difficulty. In the dim light, the young man’s white shirt, already stained with blood, was splattered with a fresh layer.

The killer gently wiped the blood from the side of the blade with his finger, his smile appearing even more innocent and harmless, as if someone else had just done the deed. "Sorry, Brother Chang, I’m afraid I have to trouble you to die once."

He paused, adding in a conversational tone, "But considering you likely won't remember this moment later, I’ll skip the long-winded apology."

It was that same infuriatingly boring sense of humor...

Chang Xu didn't know what he should feel. Anger? Hatred? Or, like before, indifference—without joy or sorrow? All he could feel now was the exhaustion urging him to sleep, as if he were being submerged in a stagnant, dead sea. He glanced at Qi Si one last time, finally drained of his last ounce of strength. His head slumped, and he closed his eyes.