Chapter 12: Rose Manor |
Lin Chen placed the notebook back on the desk and stood by the guest room's large window, anxiously watching the activity in the garden below.
He watched as Qi Si walked over to the iron gate, tapped on the ground, and spoke with the butler who had suddenly appeared. Then, Miss Anna emerged from the manor, and Qi Si approached her with a smile to strike up a conversation.
Lin Chen knew this was his cue.
Qi Si had done his part. Now, it was up to him.
He jogged out of the guest room and made a beeline for the stairs, pulling himself up quickly by the banister.
It was only a single flight of stairs, but he was so nervous that he stumbled several times on the way up.
By the time he reached the third-floor landing, he was already breathless, his skin slick with cold sweat.
The third floor, like the second, had only three rooms. The only difference was the absence of a clock in the corner.
Lin Chen clenched his fists, suppressing the useless hesitation in his heart as he stepped deeper into the hall.
The farther he walked, the stronger this feeling became. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, as if he would never reach the end.
For a moment, he suspected that everything around him had frozen in time, that even its passage was just an illusion.
A fine sweat broke out on Lin Chen's palms, and even his breath came in ragged shudders.
He shook his head, trying to banish the bizarre thoughts from his mind.
"Qi Si already handled Miss Anna," he thought. "How can I fail at something this simple?"
With that thought, he turned and walked toward one of the rooms.
Seeing the thick layer of dust coating the door, he gritted his teeth, gripped the brass doorknob, and gave it a tentative push.
It didn't budge. The door was locked.
Lin Chen, however, breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to open an unknown door in a horror game. Even if there wasn't a jump scare waiting, there was no telling what other horrors he might find.
He repeated the process, trying the handles of the remaining two doors.
They were all locked.
"This should be enough," Lin Chen muttered to himself. "Qi Si only asked me to do a quick survey of the area..."
Muttering to himself, Lin Chen began to back cautiously toward the stairs.
Just as he reached the landing, a soft female voice sounded from right behind his ear without warning. "Who are you?"
The voice was delicate, as silken and slick as an opera melody—it was unmistakably Miss Anna's voice!
Miss Anna... how could she be here?
Lin Chen felt the blood freeze in his veins. The fear was so absolute it paralyzed him, making any large movement impossible.
He opened his mouth to scream, but the sound was trapped in his throat, refusing to come out.
I've been discovered. It's over. I'm going to die...
The past twenty years of his life flashed before his eyes, a grim montage preceding death.
His heart hammering against his ribs, Lin Chen forced his stiff body to slowly turn around.
Standing at the landing was a petite old woman in a red, European-style princess dress. Her white hair cascaded down her back, and her wrinkled face was covered in rotting scars. The flesh around her lips and eye sockets was so decayed that the bone was visible underneath.
It was a truly grotesque and terrifying sight, yet Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as it wasn't Miss Anna...
If she hadn't discovered him, there was still hope of survival...
"Who are you?" the old woman asked, her voice sickeningly sweet. The beautiful sound was a jarring contrast to her horrifying face.
Lin Chen took a step back and stammered, "I... I'm Lin Chen."
The old woman's gaze was fixed on him. "Then do you remember who I am?" she asked.
Lin Chen froze.
He remembered what had happened when he and Qi Si parted ways. Qi Si had taken a few steps, then paused as if he'd just remembered something. He had turned back and warned him, "No matter which NPC you meet on the third floor, don't use any specific titles."
He hadn't understood at the time and had asked why. Qi Si had offered a faint smile and directed him to look at the third rule on the system interface.
[3. Miss Anna is fond of guests and means them no harm, but please remember the correct form of address is "Miss Anna" and no other.]
The young man had said with a teasing smile, "In any case, since the rules mention the matter of titles, you should do your best to avoid making a mistake."
Realization dawned on Lin Chen.
So Qi Si predicted this? A master is a master for a reason.
His thoughts drifted, recalling his memories of Qi Si, including the note he had written on the piece of paper: "There might be two Miss Annas." The words in black and white were more vivid than any other piece of information. The identity of the specter before him was all but certain.
"Who am I?" the old woman asked again, her gaze fixed on Lin Chen as she enunciated each word. "You tell me... who exactly am I?"
Lin Chen swallowed hard. "You are... Miss Anna..."
...
In the garden, the soft earth steamed with humidity. Dark clumps of soil were piled loosely on either side of a freshly dug pit.
Qi Si and Chang Xu both stared down at the corpse in the pit, silent for a moment.
Chang Xu still held a shovel in his hand. Clearly, he was the one who had dug the pit.
Qi Si had just seen Miss Anna off and was feigning a casual stroll—though his path was carefully planned—when he happened upon the scene.
The corpse in the pit was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, though its face had been deliberately cleaned, making it possible to vaguely discern the person's features—
a young man with an unremarkable face.
The way the face had been cleaned was strangely familiar. If Qi Si hadn't racked his brain and confirmed he had no memory of this person, he might have suspected he'd done it himself.
The deceased was wearing a white T-shirt that was anachronistic to the manor, emblazoned with a large, goofy emoji.
Chang Xu concluded, "It's a player. Same cause of death as Shen Ming. Drained of blood by the roses."
That much was obvious.
Qi Si asked, feigning casualness, "Chang Xu, how did you know there was a body buried here?"
Chang Xu countered with a question of his own. "What were you and Miss Anna talking about just now?"
The message was clear: everyone has secrets that others should not probe.
Qi Si understood and offered a sincere smile. "Me? I complimented her on her looks and happened to ask her age. She got angry for some reason and just left me there."
Chang Xu tilted his head, his gaze fixed on Qi Si's eyes.
Qi Si met his gaze without flinching, his expression perfectly candid.
The silence stretched for two seconds before Chang Xu, apparently accepting Qi Si's story, explained, "One of my clues states that Miss Anna believes death is the best fertilizer for roses. From that, I deduced there would be a body buried in the garden."
Qi Si was surprised. He hadn't expected Chang Xu to be so forthright and actually answer his question.
Of course, until he saw concrete proof for himself, Qi Si wouldn't believe a single word anyone said.
He crouched beside the pit, a half-smile playing on his lips. "The 'garden' is about a thousand square meters. How did you pinpoint this exact spot?"
"Instinct," Chang Xu replied, crouching down as well. "My instincts are usually sharp."
"Impressive," Qi Si complimented dismissively. He wrapped his fingers in a handkerchief and prodded the corpse's face. "Feels like the time of death was within the last seventy-two hours. This instance is a busy one, churning through players in waves."
Chang Xu raised an eyebrow. "You know a lot about corpses."
"Professional hazard. I spend my days surrounded by them. You learn a thing or two whether you want to or not."
"I wouldn't think animal corpses and human corpses are quite the same."
"That's just a stereotype," Qi Si replied, folding the handkerchief over and tucking it back into his pocket.
He stood up to look down at Chang Xu, his eyes narrowing into a smile. "Humans are animals too, aren't they?"
He spoke the words matter-of-factly, his tone relaxed and casual, yet they carried an inexplicable, chilling undertone.
Chang Xu's head snapped up, his voice turning cold. "Have you killed someone?"
"No. Don't slander me." Qi Si slid his hands into his pockets, his calm expression making him look particularly innocent. "You're the one who says 'kill' so easily. You haven't killed anyone, have you?"
Chang Xu replied seriously, "I have."
"Are you military police?"
"Something like that." Chang Xu seemed to hesitate for a moment before adding, "The missions I was assigned were basically kill-on-sight. I never failed."
"Is that so?" Qi Si keenly realized that regardless of Chang Xu's true profession, this was a weakness he could exploit.
—Someone accustomed to carrying out kill orders would easily develop a conditioned reflex for killing.
Yezi had approached at some point and now stood beside them. She frowned as she peered into the pit, claiming to be studying the new clue, but it seemed more like she was there to keep an eye on them.
Continuing this dangerous line of conversation was unwise. Qi Si's face once again settled into a gentle, harmless smile. "In any case, Officer, if you run into any other problems related to corpses, feel free to ask me. I can handle simple tasks like determining the cause and time of death."
Chang Xu stared at him in silence, his expression noncommittal.