CH 67

(Deduction begins!)

(You look at your mother.)

(You: Mom, how is Grandma doing lately?)

(Mother: Grandma is doing well. Do you miss her?)

(You: Today I heard the neighbor saying that you and Dad have neglected Grandma in the hospital, forcing her to sleep in the hallway.)

(Your mother frowns, and your father taps your head with his chopsticks.)

(Father: You don't even believe your own parents and instead trust strangers?)

(You: I heard...)

(Father: Stop talking. Do you think we're heartless?)

(The veins on your father's forehead bulge, as if he's on the verge of exploding.)

(You don't dare to continue provoking your father's anger. Like your mother, he has the ability to kill you in an instant.)

(Your parents refuse to admit it.)

(You don't know if your parents really haven't done such a thing or if they're just acting. Perhaps the situation in the inner world and the surface world is not the same.)

(You sneak a glance at your sister.)

(She's focused on dealing with a chicken drumstick, seemingly oblivious to your conversation.)

(You: Tomorrow is Sunday, do you still have to go to work, Dad?)

(Father: Yes, the company is busy recently.)

(You: I want to go to the city with you...)

(Your parents: You can't go.)

(Your parents speak in unison, and you're so scared that your chopsticks almost fall to the ground.)

(Father: After your birthday, you can go out.)

(You: Why?)

(Father: No why!)

(Your father angrily knocks over the table, and the food on it falls to the ground.)

(Your mother doesn't blame your father but instead gestures and points at you.)

(You terminate the deduction!)

Gu Yi sucked on his chopsticks, silently contemplating.

His father's final look of dismay gave Gu Yi some bad impressions.

He had a vague feeling that his parents' reason for not letting him go out wasn't because he would die if he did, but because they would die if he did.

His parents were limiting his freedom for their own self-interest.

"Brother, that's a pair of chopsticks, not a chicken leg."

"Huh?"

His train of thought was interrupted by his sister.

Gu Yi stared at his sister in a daze, only then realizing that he had been gnawing on the chopsticks.

"What are you thinking about so absentmindedly?"

"Is something wrong with your body? Is the food not to your liking?"

Both parents put down their chopsticks and looked at him.

Gu Yi awkwardly shook his head, smiling and saying, "It's nothing. I was just thinking about a math problem we had this morning. I should have written a better solution."

Gu Yi continued to eat while speaking.

Their concern just now seemed completely genuine.

If they were truly acting, then he could only praise them for their excellent acting skills. Could it be that what his grandmother said wasn't trustworthy?

After finishing dinner with a heavy heart, Gu Yi returned to his room. He took out pen and paper and wrote down new clues on the unsolved puzzle.

1. Whether the seriously ill grandmother is trustworthy.

2. The clue to leaving the inner world may lie with his father.

Creak--

The door suddenly opened.

Gu Yi hurriedly crumpled the note into a ball and stuffed it into the trash can.

"Brother, can I come in?"

His sister was in her pajamas, looking through the crack in the door at him.

"Yeah, what's up?"

Gu Yi grinned.

At home, his sister was probably the person he could trust the most.

Frowning, his sister walked into the bedroom. She stood in front of Gu Yi, looking puzzled as she said, "Are you really my brother?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've been acting strange today."

"What's strange about me?"

"Everything about you is strange," his sister shook her head and said, "I feel like you've turned into a different person."

Gu Yi smiled on the surface, but inside, his was beating non-stop.

He had been playing the role of the character well, and not even the parents had noticed anything wrong. But unexpectedly, his sister had detected something abnormal.

This was enough to prove that his parents simply didn't care about him. They didn't even have his sister's perceptive abilities.

"You're overthinking things."

"Why were you like that today? You didn't say a word at the dinner table, and you were always daydreaming. That's not like you."

"I'm feeling a bit nervous because the college entrance exams are coming up."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, of course."

Gu Yi nodded earnestly.

No matter what, his sister was just a third-grade elementary school student. He casually made up a reason and brushed her off.

His sister looked at Gu Yi with a mix of belief and doubt, then turned and left the room.

Gu Yi turned his head and prepared to continue contemplating the puzzle, but he heard a new notification from the system.

"Your sister is suspicious of your identity."

"Your sister's affinity towards you has decreased."

Gu Yi furrowed his brow.

This unexpected notification had left him feeling uneasy.

His sister also possessed strange powers. If she were to find out that he was just an adventurer playing the role of her brother, would she tear him to shreds?

"What a hassle. I have to figure out how to solve the puzzle while also pretending to be the brother and entertaining a child."

Gu Yi sat in front of his desk and pondered for a moment.

At the moment, he had too few clues to make any progress in the plot. The best he could do was wait for the arrival of the third day and see if the newly unlocked diary entry could provide him with more information.

His mother knocked on his bedroom door, indicating that it was time to go to bed.

Gu Yi nodded and proceeded to wash up before getting into bed.

Today had been eventful, and as he lay in bed, he couldn't help but recall the image of his emaciated grandmother, unable to sleep at all.

"Gu Yi... Gu Yi..."

His mother's voice called out to him.

Gu Yi instinctively thought about opening his eyes but suddenly remembered the hint on the old house lease contract.

So he feigned sleep, silently engaging in the deduction.

(Deduction begins！)

(Your mother calls out two more times.)

(You hear the sound of a door closing.)

(You jump off the bed and peer through the crack in the door.)

(Your parents are sitting in the living room, whispering to each other.)

(You press against the door and listen carefully.)

(Father: Are the kids asleep?)

(Mother: Yes.)

(Father: How many lambs did you get today?)

(Mother: Keep your voice down!)

(Father: I'm sorry...)

(Mother: Today...)

(You can no longer make out what your parents are saying. You crouch by the door, trying to see outside.)

(Your parents are in the living room, speaking in hushed tones.)

(After a while, your mother walks towards the kitchen, and you hear the sound of sawing.)

(Your mother comes back holding something bloody.)

(Father: Lamb meat...)

(Mother: They're here.)

(Your parents both turn their heads to look outside the door.)

(The cat bride and mouse groom you saw in the morning, dressed in black suits, enter your living room. They shake hands and exchange greetings.)

(The cat bride picks up a piece of meat from the table, licks it, and then turns her head to look at your bedroom door.)

(You are startled and quickly run back to your bed.)

(You lift the covers and find the cat bride hiding in the sheets.)

(Your heart stops, and your pupils dilate.)

(You are scared to death.)

(Deduction ends!)