Chapter 23: The Price of the Deal |
Vines now coiled around his entire body, making him look like a monster that had evolved from a plant.
After the time reversal, he had managed to maintain his human state while also possessing the traits of a ghost, allowing him to move freely. In modern terms, he was "Schrödinger's Qi Si."
The once-hopeless situation had been turned on its head.
A power that was not his own surged through his veins—violent, immense, and rampaging as if it would destroy everything in its path.
His perspective flickered between a limited field of view and a god's-eye vantage point, materializing the details of every corner of the manor in his mind.
Qi Si had a sudden intuition that, in his current state, he could briefly control the entire Rose Manor, even overriding Miss Anna's authority.
That's right. "Miss Anna" was a living person, but he was now a ghost. And ghosts, of course, could kill the living.
Qi Si pushed aside the corpses surrounding him and strolled casually toward the woman in black hidden in a corner of the garden—Annie, the one who called herself "Miss Anna."
He stopped before her and offered a toothy grin. "Annie, the truth is, you never loved Anna. You just got so lost in the role that you even managed to deceive yourself."
He was gratified to see the savage look on her face, but only her expression changed. The time reversal had frozen her in place; no matter how furious she became, she couldn't move a single finger.
This powerlessness pleased Qi Si immensely.
He let out a soft, threefold laugh and walked straight to the manor's main gate. Squatting beside the inscribed stone pedestal, he bent his index finger and tapped lightly on the ground.
The Butler appeared silently behind him, a programmed smile fixed on his face.
Powerful vines snaked around Qi Si's right arm. He thrust his hand straight into the Butler's chest, where he found nothing but an empty cavity—there was no heart.
Realization dawned on him, and he teased with a grin, "I was wondering how a manor with no servants suddenly got a butler. So you're the brave suitor who was pursuing Miss Anna."
The Butler gave no sign of understanding, maintaining his meticulous smile like a wooden puppet.
It was as if Qi Si instinctively knew what to do. The skills to wield ghostly power had dissolved into his sea of consciousness the moment he and the rose became one, transforming into knowledge he already possessed.
He plucked a rose from the vines covering his body and gently placed it in the Butler's chest. The Butler's vacant eyes flickered with light for an instant before returning to a blank stare.
In a single second, Qi Si had seized control of the puppet. He commanded, "Go to the third floor and bring Miss Anna down."
The Butler chuckled gleefully and entered the old castle, his body moving with a stiff gait.
Qi Si's gaze fell upon Annie once more, his smile laced with biting sarcasm. "If I'm not mistaken, what you loved was never Anna, but beauty itself. That's why you abandoned her after she became ugly, why you couldn't even bear to look at her on the third floor."
"Your pursuit of beauty is nothing more than a pathological transference. Your parents' preference for Anna created the illusion in your mind that beauty equals love. You yearned to be loved, so you craved beauty."
"However, you were keenly aware that you couldn't attain that kind of beauty quickly. So you projected your need to be loved onto your beautiful sister. You watched her endlessly, hoping to become just like her."
"You mistook it for love for your sister, but it was nothing more than jealousy. Otherwise, why would you have prayed to a god to make your face identical to hers?"
Annie couldn't speak. As Qi Si delivered his verdict-like words, her expression twisted savagely. The initial fury faded, replaced by an inexplicable sorrow.
She raised her eyes toward the old castle, just as she had stood silently outside the window on the first night.
Qi Si followed her gaze. From her angle, it was still impossible to see what was happening inside the second-floor room.
In a fleeting glance, something seemed to flash between the crumbling walls of the hallway.
Qi Si raised his line of sight slightly. Through the translucent glass, he suddenly saw a face covered in roses, peeking from a crack in the stonework.
It was Anna's face.
Standing in the garden, one might not be able to see the guest lying on the bed on the second floor, but one could catch a glimpse of the sister wandering the halls.
Qi Si narrowed his eyes.
He suddenly remembered: the final clue was with Zou Yan.
...
The top of the stairs on the second floor of the old castle was now sealed off by wildly growing vines.
Zou Yan remained standing, her body frozen, only a slight twitch in her vine-covered arm betraying any movement.
The moment the time reversal was triggered, she knew her plan had failed. Someone had figured out the key to clearing the instance before she did and had already put it into action.
Who could it be?
Chang Xu, with his obvious government connections? Qi Si, who seemed to be hiding so many secrets? Or Lin Chen, who had appeared completely useless?
There were too few clues for Zou Yan to make an accurate judgment. Her only hope was that whoever it was still possessed a shred of humanity and wouldn't kill her without mercy...
Footsteps sounded behind her. Zou Yan's eyes shifted slowly, trying to catch a glimpse of the newcomer in her peripheral vision.
But it was futile. A chill ran through her back, followed by the pain that heralded death.
A hand pierced through her heart from behind, stealing the warmth of her life.
Blood cascaded down her chest like a waterfall, leaving winding red trails on her long white coat that stretched all the way to the floor, as if connecting to the very veins of the earth.
Zou Yan collapsed forward, her body hitting the floor with a heavy thud that sent a cloud of dust into the air.
From the beginning, she had simply lacked the courage to gamble, never daring to fully transform herself into a ghost. Qi Si, on the other hand, was a man who dared to bet.
In a situation like this, the one who wagered more deserved to reap the greater reward.
Qi Si had always understood the principle of tearing out a problem by its roots. Killing Zou Yan and eliminating any future trouble was imperative.
He waited patiently for two seconds, then added a few more holes to Zou Yan's body for good measure. Convinced she was thoroughly dead, he bent down, flipped the fresh corpse over, and reached into her coat pocket.
It was bulging with a key and a small statue.
[Name: (Data Deleted) Statue]
[Type: Prop (Cannot be removed from instance)]
[Effect: Pray to the god, and perhaps He will answer (Ineffective)]
[Remark: God loves not the world.]
The statue was only palm-sized and felt as cold as ice to the touch.
Qi Si's gaze lingered on the statue's exquisite face—the red in his hand, the slightly downcast eyes—it was identical to the one he had seen in the cemetery in his dream.
Memories linked together into a vast chain. In an instant, a flood of emotions that were not his own washed over him.
Countless thoughts surged in his mind, mixed with indecipherable whispers, as if a multitude of people were praying in unison right beside his ear.
"Welcome back," they said.
A pair of scarlet eyes opened at the bottom of his sea of consciousness. Their gaze bathed his entire being from the depths of his soul, then seeped into every pore of his body like blood.
Blood-stained golden vines descended from the heavens, their ethereal forms waving about aimlessly like tentacles.
The vision lasted only a few breaths. The next second, cracks appeared on the statue, spreading down from its head. Within moments, it crumbled to dust, sifting through his fingers.
Qi Si felt a flicker of disorientation and instantly lost the memory of the last few moments. He subconsciously forgot to even think about the statue.
He took the key he'd found on Zou Yan and used it to open the door to Room 1.
Inside the room, lying on a solid wood desk by the French window, was the third clue.
On a sheet of papyrus, lines of a past record were written in crimson ink.
[The Lord of Gods, exiled beyond the rules of the world]
[The Soul Master who holds dominion over contracts and bargains]
[A great existence more ancient than history itself]
[I offer all I have in exchange for the fulfillment of my wish]
...
[After my sister woke, she seemed to have forgotten who I was. She looked at me with unfamiliarity and fear. All I could do was stay away, to avoid agitating her further.]
...
[I kept the man's body to serve as the manor's butler. I thought he could take care of my sister, and perhaps she would feel a little better.]
...
[My sister actually remembered him! I hid him away, but she came downstairs and searched for him, room by room!]
...
[I asked the god why others were the ones hurt by our deal, while I paid no price at all.]
[The god said that love, day after day, undying until death, is itself a painful price to pay.]
...
[I'm tired, but I can no longer let go.]
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