CH 43

Chen Jinnan was so frightened that he turned his head back instantly and the three of them walked quickly across the corridor and headed to the first floor of the villa. 

Ou Ying’s calm expression was completely replaced by worry. Although she had changed her mind at the last minute and decided not to go for the Replay, it seemed that layer of gauze had been pierced through.

Zhou Gan saw Chen Jinnan’s pallid face and now he was absolutely sure that Qin Zhou was the 2-6 Monster. He and Chen Jinnan had known each other for a long time and this was the first time for Zhou Gan to see Chen Jinnan this frightened.

So Zhou Qian couldn’t help but ask, “Ou Ying Jie, just what is going on?”

Why did their supposed Replay turn into a trap? 

Ou Ying took a deep breath. Actually, she had thought that if the 2-6 Monster was Qin Zhou, doing the Replay wouldn’t be easy. That was why she specially called Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan to go with her. Only that she hadn’t expected it to be this difficult. At the same time, she had a faint feeling that this was normal.

“A Monster’s ultimate purpose for killing is to ensure the continuation of the Rule World. The 2-6 Monster killed Luo Yi mainly to confuse our thinking. If we go a little deeper, it was to not be exposed and to maintain the order of the 2-6 Rule World.”  Ou Ying explained to Chen Jinnan and Zhou Qian, “But what’s his purpose for killing Lin Yi? The 2-6 Monster is Zhou Ge. Could he be so stupid as to think that only Lin Yi knows his identity? Of course not. If his true purpose was to kill witnesses to continue hiding his identity, he wouldn’t have to only kill Lin Yi, but also me and Cheng Yang who’ve been with Lin Yi all this time.”

“Zhou Ge had a lot opportunities to kill us. Like when Cheng Yang and I were going around looking for Lin Yi this morning, he could have done it then. Even during the Anke game. If he’d killed us in the dark, no one would have noticed anything. After all, Cheng Yang and I couldn’t see anything, he could. He went to turn on the lights.” Ou Ying said, “I thought he was still acting when he turned on the lights, until I saw the red spots on his face.”

Qin Zhou hadn’t tried to hide the red spots on his face. This was the damage caused by mercury coming into contact with the skin. If Qin Zhou wanted to hide his identity, he also could have chosen not to open the door instead of opening it and freely letting Ou Ying and her party enter his room.

So Ou Ying realized in an instant that Qin Zhou no longer seemed to care about hiding his identity. At that moment, Ou Ying thought of Luo Yi. After Qin Zhou killed Luo Yi, instead of disposing of Luo Yi’s body, he simply let everyone know that Luo Yi was dead.

But whether Lin Yi was alive or not was uncertain. And people always held on to hope, if they don’t see Lin Yi’s body with their own eyes, it was easy to imagine that he was still alive. If not, why is there no body?

And as long as Ou Ying held onto this hope, naturally, she would take the bait and fall into the trap of doing the Replay to save Lin Yi.

Qin Zhou wanted to advantage of Ou Ying’s troubled state of mind over Lin Yi to get her to do something impulsive. He gave Ou Ying confirmation that he was the 2-6 Monster by showing the red spots on his face. I’m the 2-6 Monster, so if you want to save Lin Yi, don’t hesitate and quickly come to me for the Replay. 

A redness appeared at the corners of Ou Ying’s eyes. She was very glad that she had come to her senses at that critical moment, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

But she still had hope; hope that Lin Yi, who’d been hidden away by Qin Zhou, was still alive.

Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan looked at each other and Zhou Gan asked, “Ou Ying Jie, the what should we…”

“We’re going to be even more careful.” Ou Ying said. 

Qin Zhou already knew that he’d been exposed and also that they’ve realized that the main line they had was a trap. Now the balance between them and Qin Zhou has been broken. After losing their sense of balance, their relationship with Qin Zhou would be more difficult and terrifying. There was no guarantee what Qin Zhou would do in this situation.

Chen Jinnan couldn’t help but shudder when he recalled Qin Zhou’s gloomy expression in the corridor. “Since the main line is wrong, do we have to start from the beginning…”

Just as Ou Ying was about to say something, Cheng Yang’s surprised voice came from the kitchen. “F*ckf*ckf*cuck, Lin Yi Xiong, f*ck you are still alive! F*ck!”

Cheng Yang was so excited that he couldn’t speak straight. 

The weight in Ou Ying’s heart immediately fell away. She stretched out her hand and rubbed her eyes. The back of her hand came away a little wet. “Let’s go and have a look.”

The three of them were practically jogging to the kitchen. Cheng Yang was in a state of insane happiness, shaking Lin Yi’s arm like crazy to express his emotions.

“I just heard noises in the kitchen. We couldn’t find you anywhere in the villa. We kept running back and forth in the kitchen but we didn’t see you. Where were you?” Cheng Yang asked excitedly.

Truth be told, Lin Yi hadn’t completely recovered yet. He was sitting up on the ground with Cheng Yang’s support. He was going to have Cheng Yang take him to Ou Ying to stop her as soon as possible when he looked up and saw her coming in. Lin Yi then he pointed to the refrigerator. 

Everyone looked in the direction Lin Yi was pointing at and Cheng Yang gasped, “F*ck.”

“Cheng Yang.” After Ou Ying saw the refrigerator, the lingering fear in her heart intensified. She knew that Lin Yi must probably be feeling terrible after staying in the refrigerator for so long. “Take Lin Yi to go rest.”

Cheng Yang: “Oh, right, right.”

He then said, “Lin Yi Xiong, do you want me to carry you on my back?” 

Lin Yi shook his head: “I can still use my legs.”

Ou Ying said, “Cheng Yang, you can help Lin Yi walk.”

Cheng Yang: “Oh, okay, no problem.”

Except for Ye Qiong, everyone else was in the kitchen. So was the woman in red. It was just that in everyone’s eagerness to get Lin Yi to safety, they failed to notice her presence. 

Ou Ying glanced at the woman in red and found that the woman’s eyes had been locked the entire time on Lin Yi.

Ou Ying thought for a while and then said to the others, “Let’s all go and have a discussion.”

She had a feeling the Lin Yi knew something. And even if Lin Yi didn’t know anything, they were all curious about what had happened between Lin Yi and Qin Zhou.

After the others followed Lin Yi and Cheng Yang out of the kitchen, Ou Ying asked the woman in red, “Is lunch not ready yet?” 

The woman in red looked away and stared at Ou Ying.

Ou Ying said, “Since you haven’t prepared anything yet and it’s already past lunch then let’s just skip it.”

The woman in red made no comment. Ou Ying turned and left the kitchen.

Just as Ou Ying was entering the room, Chen Jinnan and Zhou Qian also happened to be bringing in Ye Qiong. 

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Ye Tlcu cbvvfv, cbk rtf kjr fnfc wbgf regf atja Olc Tl tjv vlrmbnfgfv rbwfatlcu.

“Ye Tlcu Wef Alf, sbe tjnfc’a ubcf ab vb atf Efqijs, tjnf sbe?” Ciatbeut Olc Tl tjv uefrrfv ogbw atf kjs atf 2-6 Eeif Qbgiv kjr ralii mbcalcelcu bc atja Ye Tlcu wera tjnf gfjilhfv jcv cba ajxfc atf yjla tf ralii kjcafv ab mbcolgw.

“It’s more comfortable to lean back like this.” Ou Ying came over and put a pillow behind Lin Yi who was sitting on the bed with his back leaning against the headboard. She then looked at the other people standing around and then to Lin Yi, “No, I hadn’t. ” 

She repeated her analysis. Cheng Yang looked confused, “Oh my god, that was a close call!”

After her explanation, Ou Ying asked Lin Yi, “Am I right?”

Lin Yi said. “Xue Jie really is amazing.”

Ou Ying smiled wryly and said, “If I really were so amazing, I could have stopped you from getting into any danger.” 

“It was my fault.” Lin Yi said, embarrassed, “It had nothing to do with Xue Jie.”

“They’re all curious about what happened to you so go ahead and tell them.” Ou Ying smiled again.

Cheng Yang nodded quickly: “Yes, why were you locked in the refrigerator?”

Lin Yi simply stated, “I ran into 2-6 monsters last night. I have a problem. I forget things when I’m too nervous. It’s why I forgot I’d run into Senior.” 

He told everyone what happened in the kitchen last night, but he concealed the appearance of ‘it’.

Lin Yi said, “So I bumped into Senior again this morning. I was caught completely of guard and he attacked.”

Everyone was on the edge of their seats listening to Lin Yi’s recounting of the events. Ou Ying said, “Fortunately, Cheng Yang found you.”

Cheng Yang hurriedly said, “No, when the three of us returned to the kitchen, Lin Yi Xiong was already out of the refrigerator.” Cheng Yang knocked his head. “Damn my brain! I obviously heard something but didn’t think to open the fridge to have a look.” 

Ou Ying was momentarily stunned. “Then, was it…the woman in red who let you out?”

Lin Yi nodded. “Yes.”

Zhou Gan was puzzled. “So the woman in red is on our side!”

Chen Jinnan and Su Tianle had the opposite opinion to Zhou Gan. “She’s not. If she were, she woulnd’t be playing the Anke game like this. She obviously wants us to die.” 

Li Dang directly asked Lin Yi, “Why did she let you out?”

Lin Yi said, “I re-speculated the main line.”

When he mentioned the ‘main line’, Chen Jinnan and Zhou Gan couldn’t help taking a few steps closer to Lin Yi. They were grieving just now about having to start over and rediscover the main line and now, here was Lin Yi with another one.

Ou Ying said, “We don’t need to go to lunch anymore. Take your time and don’t worry.” 

“Okay.” Lin Yi tilted his head and coughed. He said: “The woman in red probably invited her friends to play some supernatural horror game in the villa but some unforeseen incident happened during it. It led the woman in red to make a deal with someone outside this friend group and they worked together to kill the rest.”

“During the Anke game, she presented the choice of another more ferocious ghost being in the villa. This ‘extra ghost’ was the one who made a deal with the woman in red. He died, but he didn’t appear in the villa last night which means that he had died outside the villa but he existed here once. I think his death must also be related to what happened here. That explains how he could have died outside but still exist here. Maybe he partnered up with the woman in red and killed the 12 friends. And then maybe he was later arrested and sentenced to death. In this way, his death can be considered as related to this villa.”

Lin Yi spoke in as much detail as possible. He asked Cheng Yang, “Cheng Yang Xiong, did you understand what I said?”

Cheng Yang nodded in a daze and Lin Yi continued. If Cheng Yang understood it, everyone else should have understood it as well. 

“The woman in red couldn’t have started out wanting to kill her friends. It must have been an incident during the supernatural game that caused her friends to think that she was dead. It could even be that the woman in red’s death was related to something they’d done. But in fact, the woman hadn’t died and she reappeared in front of her friends. This is proved by the Rule of Death ‘believing there are ghosts in the world’. Her friends, who’ve already died and become ghosts in this villa still do not want to believe in the existence of ghosts. Or rather, they don’t dare believe that the woman in red had turned into a ghost and is out for their lives.” Lin Yi regretted, “But what is this incident that caused the woman in red to join hands with some outsider to kill her friends? This is just guesswork and I haven’t found any evidence to back it up.”

Ou Ying said, “It’s okay, you can talk about it first.”

Lin Yi said, “Since her almost-death was related to her friends, it must have been that she was betrayed by them.”

Betrayal could easily cause rifts. Almost everyone in the room agreed with him. 

After Lin Yi finished speaking, he added, “But saying she was betrayed is very vague. Why would she be betrayed? Why was there suddenly this other person? How did the woman in red reach a deal with this other person? There are not enough known clues to figure these things out.”

Li Dang suddenly said, “You said they were playing a supernatural horror game. Could it be that this person was actually a ghost they’d summoned? It was the woman in red who summoned the ghost so her friends left her to fend for herself?”

Su Tianle retorted, “No way, didn’t Lin Yi say it just now? The woman in red is a fan of ghosts and the supernatural. The game itself was to summon a ghost. If the woman in red had succeeded in summoning a ghost, she would have been happier than anyone else, right? If we take a step back and think about it, even if the woman in red’s love for the supernatural was as fake as Ye Gong’s love for dragons, if even she was afraid of ghosts, wouldn’t her friends be afraid too? How could they spare any thought to saving her? They were all running for their lives. It doesn’t make a lot of sake for the women in red to blame her friends.”

Zhou Gan backed up Su Tianle. “If it was the summoned ghost, why did it only kill her friends and not the woman in red?” 

Li Dang said: “What if the woman in red is also a ghost?”

Lin Yi shook his head and said, “She’s not.”

He previously speculated that the woman in red was actually human because she used chopsticks to eat. Now he had more intuitive proof. “When she pulled me out of the refrigerator, I touched her hand.”

Although it was cold, it had substance, which was different from the ghosts they encountered for the past two nights. 

Li Dang was convinced, “F*ck, then what happened?”

On one side, Ou Ying, who had remained silent, looked at Lin Yi. “In today’s Anke game, the woman in red made this fierce ghost appear.”

Lin Yi wasn’t surprised, he had expecting it a long time ago. Ever since the woman in red presented this choice, he knew she would keep trying everything to make this ghost appear.

Cheng Yang shivered beside him and said, “Lin Yi Xiong, you have no idea how terrifying the woman described this ghost during the Anke game.” 

Lin Yi was silent for a but and then asked, “How terrifying?”

Cheng Yang imitated the tone of the woman in red: “It turns out that there is a more ferocious and terrifying ghost in this villa! The ghost will kill anyone it gets its hands on! It will twist off your limbs and pull out your heads. It will peel off your skin, drink your blood and eat your flesh, hahahahahaha.”

Although Cheng Yang had only reacted part of what the woman in red did, this passage still made the people in the room shudder. Even Ye Qiong, who was already frightened out of his wits, hid his head in the corner and shivered.

The room fell silent for a moment. It was like the room was submerged in stagnant water, making it a little difficult to breathe. After a while, Chen Jinnan said, “It will kill anyone it can get its hands on. Looks like there’s no escaping it tonight. Why don’t we go do the Replay now? In any case, we already know the main line.” 

“No.” Lin Yi and Ou Ying said in unison. Lin Yi hurriedly said, “…Xue Jie, you go first.”

“We can’t do the Replay.” Ou Ying shook her head and said, “We have no way of determining what exactly was the incident. This 2-6 Monster has existed for more than a decade. And now, it even has Zhou Ge’s memory. It’s bound to catch on to that.”

Chen Jinnan sighed. “I know that too. But Ou Ying Jie, if we don’t do the Replay, we’ll be done for tonight. This ghost killed twelve people when it was alive. Now that he’s a ghost, he’s even more invincible. If we do the Replay, at least, we’ve got a chance.”

Zhou Gan stood by Chen Jinnan. “Ou Ying Jie, I also think what Chen Jinnan said makes sense. Since we’re going to die tonight anyway, we might as well give it a go. And Zhou Ge’s been exposed. Maybe he’s thinking about how to kill us right now. Even Luo Yi Ge…died at Zhou Ge’s hands. This ghost and Zhou Ge together, how can we survive?” 

Ou Ying couldn’t find the words to refute Zhou Gan and Chen Jinnan. What they said wasn’t unreasonable. Moreover, Ou Ying already had a guess as to the second Rule of Death.

She said, “The solution to the first Rule of Death is to tell them that there are no ghosts in the world but now, there’s a second Rule fo Death. Generally speaking, the new Rule of Death would be derived from the existing Rules of the Death. I think the second Rule of Death is simply believing in the existence of ghosts.”

That’s why the woman in red dared to say with certainty that the ferocious ghost would kill people indiscriminately.

Cheng Yang immediately said, “F*ck, what should we do?” 

Stubborn insistence was enough to avoid the first Rule of Death. But the degree of difficulty of the first and second Rule of Death weren’t even in the same dimension.

Controlling one’s inner thoughts is often difficult for people.

Lin Yi was silent. He had the same guess as Ou Ying about the second Rule of Death.

Seeing Lin Yi remaining silent, Ou Ying called him softly, “Lin Yi, what do you think? Do you want to do the Replay?” 

They can’t find any clues to fill in the details of this ‘incident’. The chances of doing a successful Replay was very low. But no matter how you look at it, the survival rate was higher by doing the Replay than surviving the ghosts tonight. Only that the Replay didn’t have any fault tolerance.

Lin Yi said, “Sister, give me five minutes to think about it.”

Ou Ying: “OK.”

No one even dared to breathe too loudly lest their sound of their breathing affect Lin Yi’s thinking. 

Before five minutes had passed, Lin Yi suddenly said, “Xue Jie and Xue Chang Men, do you still remember what the woman in red said the second day when she played Anke?”

Everyone looked at him and Lin Yi reminded them, “The woman in red said, ‘So the three ghosts followed you because they wanted to kill you and two of them succeeded’.”

Ou Ying now had an idea what Lin Yi was going to say. Amid everyone’s puzzlement, Lin Yi said, “There were three ghosts but only two ghost succeeded. So there was one ghost that has missed. So long as we figure out why it missed, we can make it through tonight.”

The people who died on the first night were Gao Xu, He Mei and Zeng Jing. One of the ghosts must have killed two people. He Mei and Zeng Jing were in the same room, they must have been killed by the same ghost. Ou Ying recalled, “So is the reason it missed is because there’s a limit to the number of people who can die each night? If there are three ghosts, only three people can die?” 

“No.” Lin Yi said: “If there is a limit on the number of deaths, woman’s Anke game could have just summoned one ghost and have it kill three people but she didn’t. She summoned only summoned three ghosts and she wasn’t satisfied with the number. It means that there’s no limit to the number of deaths, the more ghosts she summons, the more people die.”

“Xue Jie fell asleep on the first night. Cheng Yang and Ye Qiong Xue Chang passed out. They managed to avoid being approached by the ghosts. What about the othe four seniors? It’s not likely that you were relaxed enough to have gone to bed early or that you were so frightened that you passed out, right?” Lin Yi first glanced at Ye Qiong in the corner. The bruises on Ye Qiong’s forehead hadn’t yet dissipated. It was because of the bruises on Ye Qiong’s head that Lin Yi guessed that Ye Qiong had hit his head and passed out on the first night. Then he looked at the four seniors of the student union. “…But why didn’t the ghosts come to you?”

Chen Jinnan was stunned. “Yeah, why didn’t they come find us?”

If ghosts had come to them on the first night and they saw the ghosts without knowing the Rule of Death, they certainly would have said they believed in ghosts. 

But why didn’t the ghosts come looking for them? Instead, the ghosts simply ‘missed’?

Lin Yi asked: “What did the seniors do on the first night?”

Chen Jinnan recalled, “I practically didn’t close my eyes on the entire first night. I just kept chatting with Zhou Gan.”

Seeing Lin Yi looking at them, Su Tianle and Li Dang replied, “We were singing to each other…” 

“What were you talking about?” Lin Yi asked Chen Jinnan.

“Everything and anything. We just wanted to distract ourselves so we were talking about all sorts of nonsense.” Zhou Gan said.

Ou Ying was stunned for a moment and then she looked at Lin Yi. Lin Yi already understood.

“Then we know the reason for the miss.” Lin Yi said: “If we think of ghosts, ghosts will come to us. The initiative lies with us, not the ghosts.” 

Lin Yi had speculated before that it was because of their fainting, which made the ghosts think that they wouldn’t be able to answer the question, that they managed to escape unscathed. But it wasn’t. It was because their fainting and falling asleep prevented them from even thinking about ghosts that they managed to escape.

On the second night, Lin Yi’s thought were all focused on going to the kitchen to find tools to pouring in the mercury. He hadn’t paid any attention to the ghosts, so the ghosts didn’t approach him. Chen Jinnan’s group knew that they could avoid the Rule of Death by falling asleep and fainting so that was how they passed the second night away.

Cheng Yang was similar to Lin Yi. All he thought about going out with Ou Ying, he hadn’t actually thought about ghosts. It was just that after leaving the room, seeing the ghosts in the corridor, he got too frightened and he was shaken, letting Luo Yi get onto his body.

On the second night, only Ou Ying was found by the ghost. 

Ou Ying said, “It’s true. On the second night, I saw a ghost in the corridor and I couldn’t help but think of Luo Yi.”

Chen Jinnan immediately asked, pleasantly surprised, “So those this mean we can also just sleep through the night?”

Lin Yi didn’t dare to give an affirmative answer. Ou Ying knew Lin Yi’s concerns.  Whether they believed in the existence of ghosts or not will be up to the ghosts to decide, not them.

People dream in their sleep. It’d be fine if it was a dreamless sleep but what if ghosts appeared in your dream. Would the ghosts take that as you believing in their existence? 

Lin Yi said, “Distracting yourselves would be better.”

Distracting their thoughts was safer than going to sleep, But knowing that ghosts would appear to kill people at night, was it really going to be that easy to be distracted?

Cheng Yang asked, “Will everyone room together tonight?”

Lin Yi: “You should room together.” 

Qin Zhou’s identity has been exposed. It was hard to guarantee that Qin Zhou wouldn’t kill someone. If they roomed separately, it would create opportunities for Qin Zhou.

Cheng Yang said in a trembling voice, “But if one of us thinks of ghosts, wouldn’t we just be calling the ghosts to kill everyone?”

Although it sounded ugly, it was a fact.

It wasn’t even nightfall yet but everyone already felt the pressure double. 

Ou Ying asked, “Lin Yi, you mean you won’t be staying with us tonight?”

“Yeah.” Lin Yi said, “I’ll stay in a room by myself tonight. I will think about ghosts and attract the ferocious ghost to come to me.”

Cheng Yang: “Have you given up on living?”

“No.” Lin Yi said, “But if we want to fill up the holes in the main line, you have to know who this ferocious ghost is. I’m the only one who can do this… Ah, seniors, don’t look at me like this… I’m actually an atheist, really. Just because I’m trying to attract the ghosts doesn’t mean I’m going to satisfy the Rules of Death.” 

Cheng Yang thought for a while and said, “Lin Yi Xiong, what if Qin Zhou comes looking for you again?”

Lin Yi said: “Then I’ll keep my distance from Senior in the next life.”

Cheng Yang: “…”

Ou Ying wanted to say something. 

“Don’t worry.” Lin Yi said before she could, “I’ll be careful. You just have to promise not to think about ghosts and call the ferocious ghost to your side.”

Ou Ying took back the words ‘I’ll go with you’ that she had been about to say. She couldn’t stay with Lin Yi tonight. She had to be responsible for these people and prevent them from messing up Lin Yi’s plan.

“Just be careful.” Ou Ying told Lin Yi.

Lin Yi nodded. “En.” 

Ou Ying said: “You can rest in this room, I will take them to the room opposite.”

Lin Yi: “Okay.”

After Ou Ying led these people out of the room, Lin Yi jumped out of the bed and locked the door. After locking the door, he lay on the bed again. He was already very tired after being trapped in the refrigerator for so long. If he doesn’t get some rest, there was no way he was going to be able to deal with the ferocious ghost tonight.

Lin Yi closed his eyes and coaxed himself to sleep by imitating the sounds on his MP4 player. 

After a while, he fell asleep.

It was quickly getting dark. The moment it got dark, Lin Yi opened his eyes.

Having had a good sleep, Lin Yi really felt his body relax a lot.

Without delay, he immediately started imagining ghosts in his mind. 

Imagining them wasn’t difficult. After all, Linlin had laid on his back on the first day. Thinking about this, Lin Yi turned over and sat up on the bed, a serious expression on his face.

This wasn’t right. He’s been thinking about ghosts for so long already. By Lin Yi’s estimate, at least half an hour had passed. But the ferocious ghost hasn’t appeared yet.

Just when Lin Yi begun to suspect that someone else had lured the ferocious ghost away, he heard a very faint ‘kacha’ sound.

It was the sound of a key entering the lock. Lin Yi immediately looked towards the door. The speed of unlocking outside was very fast. The moment Lin Yi looked over, the door lock had already turned and the next second, the door opened a crack. 

All the lights in the corridor had been turned off but Lin Yi still saw the pair of eyes through the crack of the door.

It was the woman in red!

The door was pushed open wider and wider. The woman in red looked quietly into the room and Lin Yi caught sight of what she was holding in her hand.

A wickedly sharp knife.