CH 31.1

Chapter 31

Qin Zhou looked at Lin Yi and slowly frowned. 

Lin Yi’s heart skipped a beat, but he repeated: “Senior, can you read this name aloud?”

He didn’t know whether there was the memory of someone writing Qin Zhou’s name on his palm in Qin Zhou’s mind but Lin Yi could guarantee that no one would have written Qin Zhou’s name using the same stroke order as he had.

If he hadn’t deliberately memorized the sequence of strokes he had used, no matter how good his memory was, if he wanted to recreate what he’d written just now, he would have to stop and recall carefully.

The most familiar character to each person is his own name. No matter how elusive the stroke order Lin Yi had used, Qin Zhou only needed to allocate a little thought to feel the familiarity of his own name. 

Yes, this feeling of familiarity with one’s own name.

Cheng Yang had told Lin Yi that when he was possessed, it felt like he was dreaming, other than that, it hadn’t caused any change to his mood and feelings.

The 2-6 Monster can spy on on a person’s memories and use them but it won’t be able to tap into human emotions; thus, a Monster’s inability to respond to unprecedented events. Lin Yi’s guess was that the 2-6 Monster also wouldn’t be able to tap into the feeling of familiarity towards one’s own name to identify the weirdly written characters.

Qin Zhou stared at Lin Yi for a while, his expression slowly sank.

Qin Zhou looked at Lin Yi and said, “I told you since the beginning, if you have any questions just ask me directly. Don’t use tricks like these to waste time. Lin Yi, you’re delaying right now.”

“Who’s the third person who came in contact with the ghost?” Qin Zhou said in a serious tone of voice.

Lin Yi took a step back, looked at Qin Zhou like some jerk and said disappointedly, “Is Senior really the 2-6 Monster? Why are you changing the subject?”

AD

… Qin Zhou noticed Lin Yi’s expression, paused and said, “Qin Zhou.” 

Lin Yi looked up at him.

“I don’t know about the others but don’t you think I would know if I came in contact with a ghost?” Qin Zhou gave an angry smile. “I gave you time to ask but you didn’t. Even if you still have your doubts about me, there will be more opportunities to test me in the future but you insisted on testing me at a time like this. Little genius, you’re being too smart for your own good, you know?”

Lin Yi felt like he was being scolded by a teacher. He bowed his head and explained in a low voice, “…Because I don’t want Senior to be the 2-6 Monster. I wanted to eliminate any suspicion as soon as possible.”

Lin Yi felt Qin Zhou’s eyes linger on him for a while. He then heard Qin Zhou ask, “Let’s see if I can explain away the reasons for your suspicion.” 

After saying so, he said, “Hurry up, it’s getting late.”

Lin Yi asked, “Why did you want to smoke?”

Qin Zhou said, “I was upset.”

Lin Yi said again, “Why didn’t you tell Luo Yi Xue Chang the specific method.” 

Qin Zhou said, “I have no way of confirming his identity so I couldn’t say it here.”

Lin Yi asked again, “Why did Senior imitate me?”

Qin Zhou looked at him. “When?”

Lin Yi said, “I explained for Cheng Yang that he couldn’t be the Monster and then Senior immediately imitated me and helped rule me out for Ou Ying Xue Jie.” 

Hlc Itbe wjvf j “tj” rbecv, “Pr la kgbcu ab rqfjx eq obg sbe?”

“.”

Olc Tl qegrfv tlr ilqr ja Hlc Itbe’r jcrkfgr. Hlc Itbe vlvc’a jrx lo tlr jcrkfgr tjv rjalrolfv Olc Tl. Lf jrxfv jujlc, “Vb Olaaif ufcler, ktb’r atf atlgv qfgrbc ktb mjwf lc mbcajma klat atf utbrar?”

Lin Yi: “I’m not yet done with my questions.” 

Qin Zhou: “…Hurry up.”

Lin Yi said, “Why when I was talking to Luo Yi Xue Chang, did you direct a look at me like you didn’t understand?”

This time Qin Zhou paused for a moment before giving his answer. “You called him 'Senior'.”

Lin Yi: “Ah, what’s wrong?” 

“En.” Qin Zhou: “It’s nothing.”

Lin Yi looked at Qin Zhou suspiciously, and then said: “When Luo Yi Xue Chang was talking to me, Senior, you also looked at Luo Yi Xue Chang with that look. I suspected Senior of being the 2-6 Monster and wanting to stab Luo Yi Xue Chang.”

Qin Zhou: “… I really did want to stab him a little bit.” Looking at Lin Yi, he said ambiguously, “But I wanted to stab you more.”

Lin Yi silently took a few steps back. 

“Are you done?” Qin Zhou asked, “You, Ou Ying, who else?”

Lin Yi said, “There were three ghosts but there isn’t a third person who came into contact with them.”

Qin Zhou was thinking and Lin Yi said, “But I haven’t finished my questions.”

Qin Zhou: “…This is going to be endless, huh?” 

“Because I want to completely lift the suspicion off of Senior.” Lin Yi raised a finger and in a ‘one’ gesture. “Last question.”

Qin Zhou: “Ask.”

Lin Yi said, “It’s already dark, does Senior really care about the third person? Even if Senior were to find out who the third person is it’s already nighttime and the people have already paired off and gone to their rooms. Are you going to drag out the third person and have him room alone or stuff him into my room with Ou Ying Xue Jie? Doesn’t Senior think it’s too late to be asking me this now?”

“That’s three questions.” Qin Zhou said, “Here’s my unified answer to all three. I was trying to hide your night vision ability for you and this was the only time I had to talk to you alone thus I’m only asking you now. Unless you want to be targetted by the 2-6 Monster. Finally, if there is a third contact, how I’ll deal with it is my business. Since I’m asking you, I obviously have an idea here.” 

Saying so, Qin Zhou tapped his own temple.

Lin Yi: “Oh…”

Qin Zhou said, “Are you sure there wasn’t a third person?”

Lin Yi: “En.” 

Qin Zhou said, “Okay, head on back on your room. There’s no need for me to say it, be careful.”

“En… see you later, Senior.”

With this greeting, he turned and went back to his room. Before closing the door, he saw Qin Zhou going into his own room. The rooms they chose were all on the second floor of the villa.

After closing the door, he saw Ou Ying looking around the room. When Lin Yi came in, she stopped and said, “I wanted to see if I could find any clues in the room. Have you finished chatting with Zhou Ge?” 

Lin Yi nodded stiffly.

When Luo Yi asked him to room with Ou Ying, Lin Yi hadn’t felt much of anything, but now he did.

A million points of little embarrassments.

Lin Yi had never talked to girls much even when he was a child, let alone share a room with one. 

Ou Ying saw Lin Yi woodenly walking in, his arms swinging in unison with his legs. Before entering, Lin Yi was fine, only turning like this after entering. Ou Ying quickly realized what the matter was and consoled him, “Lin Yi Tongxue, please relax.”

Lin Yi: “Xue Jie, I’m very relaxed. I just forgot how to walk.”

Ou Ying smiled and said, “Have you never been in a relationship?”

Lin Yi said, “En, I have yet to suffer from love.” 

Ou Ying’s smile widened. “No way. With how handsome you are, you’re telling me there isn’t some girl chasing after you?”

Lin Yi stopped at a very polite distance away from Ou Ying and said, “No, the people who’ve chased me are all boys. They chased me desperately during the long-distance race.”

Ou Ying was amused into a smile. Her nerves, tensed because of talking with a ghost, finally relaxed. Ou Ying also helped distract Lin Yi. “I’ve searched the room, but unfortunately I haven’t found any clue.”

Lin Yi glanced around the room. The furnishings were very simple, like those ten yuan a night hotel rooms. There was a bed, a full-length mirror, a clothes rack and a mercury thermometer thoughtfully hung on it to show the room temperature. 

“Since the NPC allowed us to choose our rooms at will, there probably won’t be any clues in the rooms.” Lin Yi said, “Xue Jie, don’t be afraid. Being in contact with that thing probably isn’t a rule of death. It probably isn’t even a signal that the rules of death have come looking for you.”

Ou Ying was momentarily stunned. “Why do you say that?”

Lin Yi said, “One was lying on my back and the other was sitting behind the crowd, making no contact with anyone. In the last Rule World, the signal that the rule of death was coming was having the window open. But these three ghosts appeared at the same time but they each did different things.”

“The simpler the rules of death, the easier it is to violate it. But the simpler the rules of death, the easier it is to discover and avoid. The 2-6 Rule has existed for so long. It’s rule of death can’t be something as simple as ‘communicating with ghosts’ or even ‘close contact with ghosts’.” Lin Yi comforted, “So no need to be afraid, Xue Jie.” 

Ou Ying thought about Lin Yi’s words. Truthfully, what Lin Yi said was not unreasonable, but…

“Since you know you haven’t violated any rule of death, why didn’t you room with Cheng Yang?” Ou Ying asked.

Lin Yi made no effort to lie, “Because I want to create a chance for the 2-6 Monster to find me.”

He just hadn’t expected for Luo Yi to room him with Ou Ying. 

Ou Ying asked, “Do you know who it is?”

“I don’t know.” Lin Yi shook his head and said, “I want to take this risk precisely because I don’t know.”

Qin Zhou told Ou Ying about Lin Yi’s propensity to court death when he came out of the 7-7 Rule World so Ou Ying wasn’t surprised by Lin Yi’s boldness.  Instead, she asked, “Is there anyone you suspect?”

“I did until just now.” Lin Yi glanced at the door. “I suspected Senior…” 

“However, I didn’t find any problem with Senior’s answers. Senior also passed my test.”

Ou Ying said, “Zhou Ge should be fine. Else, he wouldn’t have told us that the 2-6 Monster had spied into his memories.”

Lin Yi thought about it for a while and said, “But Xue Jie, given Senior’s ability, it’s impossible he doesn’t understand reverse psychology. If the 2-6 Monster learned of this through Senior’s memory, it’s not impossible that it couldn’t have exposed itself to dispel our suspicions.”

“Of course I’ve thought of that too.” Ou Ying said, “It doesn’t matter if Senior is the 2-6 Monster or not. The only benefit he got from exposing himself is to keep us from doubting him. And see? You don’t even buy it. However when Zhou Ge exposed himself and we found out the Monster had spied on his memory, it made us put our guards up. This is harmful to the 2-6 Monster. Lin Yi, if you were the 2-6 Monster and you had chosen Zhou Ge, after having looked into his memories, you definitely would have had a better way to defuse our defenses while concealing your true identity, don’t you think? It would be more convenient for you to attack us then, right?” 

Lin Yi thought it made sense.

Ou Ying said, “Of course, this is just what I think. I was just exchanging ideas with you and I didn’t mean to refute you.”

Lin Yi nodded. “I know, I do think what Xue Jie said makes sense.”

He realized Ou Ying was pretty amazing. No wonder she was the vice president of the student union. 

“Let’s go to bed first.” Ou Ying said, “It doesn’t matter who the 2-6 Monster is for tonight. The important thing is to sleep through the night.”

While Ou Ying was saying so, she took out the quilt from the cover. There was only one bed and one quilt in the room. Although this was hardly the time to fuss over propriety between men and women, she was afraid that ‘I’ve only ever been chased by boys’ Lin Yi would be embarrassed. She said, “I took out the quilt from the cover, we can each have our own blanket when we sleep.”

Lin Yi: “!”

“No, no, no.” Lin Yi waved his hands frantically and said, “No need, Xue Jie. You just sleep on the bed.” 

Ou Ying said, “Then where will you sleep?”

There wasn’t any sofa in the room, so the only surface Lin Yi could sleep on was the floor if he won’t take the bed. However, the room wasn’t all that large and given Lin Yi’s tall height, if he wanted to straighten his legs, the only place he could lie down was by the door.

The weather wasn’t cold so it wouldn’t be that bad to spend the night on the floor. But the gap between the door and the floor was so wide that a hand slip in from under there. Ou Ying kept feelign it was dangerous there.

If something came in, the spot where Lin Yi would be lying would provide no space to move around. 

Ou Ying thought for a while and said, “I’m afraid so just accompany me, alright?”

Lin Yi: “…”

“Lin Yi Tongxue,” Ou Ying batted her eyelashes and said, “Please.”

Faced with this highly-effective coquettish method of request, Lin Yi was momentarily silent. While mentally taking notes, he asked Ou Ying, “Xue Jie, do you believe that there really are ghosts in the world?” 

Ou Ying had seen and even communicated with the ghost. For a moment, she couldn’t understand what Lin Yi meant by asking this question.

Lin Yi said, “If Xie Jie is scared, I can help you with a bit of brainwashing.”

Ou Ying: “Brainwashing?”

Lin Yi said, “I can create a mental suggestion that there are no such things as ghosts. That way, Xue Jie won’t be afraid.” 

Ou Ying smiled and said, “You’re talking about hypnosis, right?”

Lin Yi said, “Xue Jie, want to give it a try?”

Ou Ying didn’t really want to force Lin Yi to share a bed with her. This was a way for her to gracefully get out of this situation. She said, “Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

Lin Yi begun. Much like the time he kept telling himself repeatedly that his parents were normal people just sick, he kept repeating, “Xue Jie, there are no ghosts in the world, there are no ghosts in the world, there are no ghosts in the world.” 

Ou Ying: “…”

Sure enough, brainwashing.

There are no ghosts in the world, there are no ghosts in the world, there are no ghosts in the world…