CH 12

Tang Xin already sensed Lin Xinghe's devilish nature back when she used Little Xue Ji as a camera. Now as she looked at the moving, but otherwise ordinary, ice sculptures, she actually felt like it wasn't a big deal.

Seems like standing next to the final boss makes you see things differently!

Look at Fang Ziyue who is crying like a squeaky bag. Meanwhile, she already reached the realm of 'it's not a big deal.' (1)

Tang Xin calmly asked Lin Xinghe, "What about the remaining ice sculptures?"

She pointed to the old, sick, and wounded group of ice sculptures in the distance who were too scared of the fire to come over.

Lin Xinghe said, "Burn them all. Don't leave any hidden dangers behind. These are the Snow Woman's weapons. Of course, we have to wipe them out now that we know their weakness. We can't leave even the dregs for the Snow Woman."

Tang Xin said, "Okay, understood."

Fang Ziyue felt the horror of taking the wrong side at this moment. Fully unleashing her lackey talents, she sniffled and said, "I... I can help too."

Seeing this, Li Chengyan didn't hesitate to jump off Chai Yong's boat as well.

After all, Chai Yong had lost a hand and even took an arrow to the right shoulder (2).

"I can help too."

Chai Yong looked disappointed. No matter how stupid he is, even he could grasp at this moment that the NPC had tricked him. There wasn't any secret of the Snow Woman in the Ice Sculpture Garden, only the Snow Woman using weapons to play with their lives.

The people of the town and the Snow Woman are working together. This snowy town is the Snow Woman's base.

"You didn't expect this, did you?"

Chai Yong no longer cared about saving face at this point. The most important thing is to survive and pass the exam. A leader can submit or stand tall as required. After suffering two injuries to his body, his lips were gradually losing their colour and his voice had become weak: "Yes, I didn't expect this. The NPC gave me a false lead and I believed in them."

Lin Xinghe said, "The lead that the staff gave you isn't completely false. There are indeed clues related to the Snow Woman here, and they can indeed be called the Snow Woman's secrets."

Chai Yong was stunned and said, "I searched the ice sculptures for so long. I looked at each one of them carefully and didn't find anything."

Lin Xinghe said, "The reason you didn't find anything isn't because you weren't being careful enough. It's because you didn't fully explore the exam question. Our exam question revealed a lot of information. 'Kill the Snow Woman'⁠—Why do we have to kill the Snow Woman? What did the Snow Woman do that can anger both people and gods? You have to start by considering these questions when doing the problem. The second step is killing the Snow Woman. How do you kill the Snow Woman? Is it possible for an ordinary person to kill the Snow Woman who has unknown abilities? Impossible. Therefore, the Snow Woman must have a weakness. So after entering the exam room, you have to explore the context first, then explore the weaknesses, and then finally look for the weapon that can kill the Snow Woman..."

【Take notes.】

【Devil Lin Xinghe gives an online tutorial on how to analyze questions】

【Coming from an older student's perspective, what Lin Xinghe said makes sense. Look at the topic and think through these three steps. It takes most freshmen until their third or fourth exam to realize this. She already has such depth of understanding in her first exam. This freshman has some potential.】

"The day I got here, I went to the file room and learned that sixteen people went missing—all outsiders, not a single local, and all males. The disappearances didn't start that long ago, only about three months ago. On average, a man disappeared every five or six days. Before you came down the mountain, the town was deserted. The streets were empty. I didn't see a single man in the rescue center. The rescue team's pilot who saved me was also very cautious about this place. He didn't even get off the plane after it landed and immediately left the area..."

Lin Xinghe added: "And today, after you were marked, the town became lively. There was even a market and men were walking outside. Markets usually sell gadgets, but this one mostly carried daily necessities. The stalls that sold rice and noodles were crowded out front. I went to the supermarket and the food section was empty. There were only a few packs of instant noodles left..."

Chai Yong couldn't help being shocked at Lin Xinghe's meticulousness. He completely missed everything she mentioned. Even if he did notice these details, he wouldn't have thought twice about it and would have simply assumed it was the way of the town.

Lin Xinghe said, "I've essentially deduced the backstory of the exam question. The female lead is the Snow Woman. The male lead is Zhang Zheng who is a married man. I didn't know the name of the male lead at first, but I found traces in the Ice Sculpture Garden that the Snow Woman and Zhang Zheng left behind. In fact, the whole storyline is very clichéd. The Snow Woman and Zhang Zheng meet. Zhang Zheng pretends to be single, falls in love with the Snow Woman, and promises to marry her. The two share a lovely time together and at some point travel to the Ice Sculpture Garden. Travelling lovers always want to leave something behind to remember, especially a love-brained woman like the Snow Woman (4). The greatest symbol of love in the Ice Sculpture Garden is a heart sculpture. At the bottom, the ice sculpture is completely engraved with the names of couples..."

"... But again, Zhang Zheng is a married man. Naturally, he can't leave his name with the Snow Woman so openly. The town is also small. There's always the risk of being caught by others. In order to coax the Snow Woman, he took a different route. He buried a doll with their names on it in front of the ice sculpture. When I was smashing the ice sculpture, I tried to think like how a cheater like Zhang Zheng would. Thinking that something might be hidden underground, I randomly started digging and actually found it. This doll only costs a few dollars and looks poor in quality. Only love-brained women would be over the moon for this."

Lin Xinghe took out a pair of dirty dolls from her backpack.

"... The Snow Woman later found out that Zhang Zheng tricked her. In her rage, she killed Zhang Zheng and hung him upside down in his wife's house. I've been to his wife, Sister Meng's house. The walls were renovated to cover up the bloodstains. Judging from the smell that was left behind, he was likely killed only three months ago. The story becomes simple enough after that. The Snow Woman killed Zhang Zheng but not his wife. Instead, she acted like a tyrant, making the entire town do her bidding and demanding a male sacrifice every few days. The people of the town eventually came up with a solution and lured men from outside to serve as the Snow Woman's sacrifices so their lives would be spared."

Lin Xinghe added, "The Snow Woman probably has an antisocial personality. Zhang Zheng is a scumbag but she thinks that all men are bad. That's why she demands a male sacrifice from the townspeople every few days..."

The three who had returned from cleaning up the group of old, weak, and injured ice sculptures overheard Lin Xinghe's words.

It was only the second day and Lin Xinghe already deduced the storyline. She was so quick that they felt... content to just lie down and win.