Xie Mingchi slumped back into his chair, his face showing a sense of helplessness. "Yeah, it should be my turn now. So can we hurry up and find some clues? I really don't want to die just yet."
He still had a lot of money left in his bank account, and he wasn't ready to give it all up.
Just as he was about to stand up and get back to work, Wan Wuqiu, who had been silent all this time, spoke up: "Maybe there's another reason why we were chosen last night."
Xie Mingchi raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
Wan Wuqiu looked at him calmly and said, "Mr. Du might have thought I'm your ghost puppet."
Xie Mingchi blinked. "What?"
Wan Wuqiu continued, "I made some adjustments on you to make him think we were partners."
Xie Mingchi: "..."
"So, the general rule you mentioned earlier wasn't wrong," Wan Wuqiu summarized. "But there's an additional rule. Mr. Du seems to treat each pair of partners as a whole, and orders them based on the sum of their ages. He probably ignored He Ci, and selected two pairs last night according to their ages, then ordered us four accordingly, which led to the sequence last night."
"Ohhh, I get it now," He Ci clapped his hands, a sudden understanding dawning on him. "But I'm still wondering why Mr. Du ignored me?"
Shen Fianian smiled enigmatically at him. "Maybe he's already considered you and your brother as a pair of partners. That would make us the extra individuals. He probably saw us as just ghost children in the villa, which is why he didn't care about us."
At breakfast, Mr. Du might still have been puzzled about He Ci's presence, but by lunch, he completely suspected he had missed someone, which is why he asked about He Ci.
He Ci clasped his hands together and bowed to Wan Wuqiu: "Thanks for your generous sponsorship, Wuqiu-ge..."
Then he looked up and caught the murderous glare from his brother.
But that look was directed at Wan Wuqiu.
Xie Mingchi was almost laughing in anger. "You... did something to make others think you're my ghost puppet?!"
Wan Wuqiu nodded. "It's the best way to protect you from being found out in the puppet world, right?"
Xie Mingchi: "Did I ever ask you to do that?!"
Wan Wuqiu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I think you did. And I have to protect my allies."
Bullshit.
The more Xie Mingchi thought about it, the more he felt something was off. "Take off whatever you did to me."
Wan Wuqiu shook his head. "Can't take it off. It's part of the puppet world now."
Xie Mingchi: "I... Damn it."
He was completely frustrated. If it weren't for the fact that this guy was pretty good-looking, he would've already cursed his entire family.
Wan Wuqiu laughed at his reaction. "Alright, don't be mad. Let's find some clues and get through today first. What do you think?"
Xie Mingchi glared at him, then finally gave up on venting his anger. "Let's find the clues first." At the same time, he silently made a note to be cautious of this guy in the future. "He Ci, keep recording the changes in the stairs. Shen Fianian, you… go with He Ci. I'm afraid he won't remember."
He Ci: "?"
He Ci: "Bro, are you questioning my professionalism?"
Xie Mingchi silently mourned the death of their unspoken understanding, giving He Ci a "Yeah, that's exactly it" look.
"Fine," Wan Wuqiu nodded at Shen Fianian, then turned his eyes back to Xie Mingchi with a gentler gaze. "We'll do it your way."
The other three nearly accepted the distribution without question. He Ci and Shen Fianian stayed on the fourth floor to record the changes in the stairs and keep an eye on things, while Xie Mingchi and Wan Wuqiu slipped down to the second floor to look for clues.
There were eight rooms on the second floor. Xie Mingchi and Wan Wuqiu first went to the first floor, and after seeing Mr. Du leave the office and head to the third floor, they finally made their way to the second floor.
Seeing that no one was around, Xie Mingchi opened the office door and slipped inside.
Wan Wuqiu entered leisurely, a smile playing on his lips. "Why does it feel like you're stealing a job?"
Xie Mingchi shot him a look. "Are we doing something really respectable right now?"
Even though they were in the puppet world, and there were no moral constraints from the real world, Xie Mingchi still felt uneasy. Especially if they got caught, he'd be done for.
As for Wan Wuqiu, he moved as leisurely as if he had come home, walking around, looking at things, and even picking up a desk ornament to examine it.
Xie Mingchi: "?"
Was this guy really a puppet master who had been through life-and-death situations? Why did he feel so different from everyone else?
Wan Wuqiu pondered Xie Mingchi's earlier words for a while before gazing at him with a thoughtful expression. "What do you consider 'dishonorable'?"
Xie Mingchi was a bit speechless. "If you don't know what to talk about, just don't talk at all." He started rummaging through the drawers, looking for something.
Wan Wuqiu kept staring at him for a long time, but didn't say anything further. Finally, he suppressed the dark flicker in his eyes.
Mr. Du's office was actually quite simple—just a desk and a cabinet as big as a wall.
On the desk was a computer and some antique decorations. Xie Mingchi powered on the computer, but to his surprise, it had no password.
How could such a clever businessman not have set a password for his computer? Or was there nothing important on it?
Xie Mingchi furrowed his brows and opened the hard drive. Inside, there were neatly arranged folders, each named with a date and name.
He clicked on one and found a very detailed document.
Name: Wang Ke
Gender: Male
Age: 12
Address: Baiyun Qingcao Orphanage
Visit Date: January 18, 2012
Personal Situation: Quiet personality, introverted, parents died in a car accident when he was 3, sent to the orphanage by his aunt.
Health Condition: Healthy, all functions normal.
The document also contained a photo of what appeared to be Wang Ke—a shy, reserved boy standing at the orphanage's entrance, with Mr. Du and another man standing next to him. The man's work badge clearly said "Director."
Xie Mingchi opened several more folders, some from earlier years and others more recent. The deeper he went, the more uncomfortable he felt.
At first glance, these documents seemed normal. They just recorded the conditions of the orphans who visited Mr. Du's villa. The children came from different orphanages, and Mr. Du had taken pictures with them and the orphanage directors when he took them away.
But there was a pattern that troubled Xie Mingchi—almost all of these children had no one who could care for them at home, and after the section on "Health Condition," without exception, all said: "Healthy, all functions normal."
Why was it necessary to record that they were "healthy" if it was just a visit to the villa?
Putting it all together, Xie Mingchi realized Mr. Du had selected these children solely for their physical health—especially their organs—and because they had no one to look out for them. Even if something went wrong, no one would make a fuss over an orphan.
The information on the computer ended there. Xie Mingchi turned it off and walked over to the cabinet, trying the handle. Of course, it was locked.
Wan Wuqiu walked over. "Need help with the lock?"
"No need," Xie Mingchi refused curtly, pulling a bobby pin from his pocket and straightening it. He began fiddling with the lock. "If you want to check something, go open another one."
"Okay." Wan Wuqiu shrugged and walked to another cabinet, pulling out his own bobby pin, straightening it, and working on the lock. "When did you hide the bobby pin?"
Xie Mingchi spoke while unlocking: "It was on He Ci's clothes. I thought it might come in handy, so I took it." He glanced at Wan Wuqiu, and was shocked to see him also holding a bobby pin. "Where did you get yours?"
Wan Wuqiu unlocked the cabinet door with practiced ease, speaking slowly, "Ah, you must've seen Shen Fianian's jacket. It's full of metal ornaments, and there were a few bobby pins. Just made use of them."
Xie Mingchi stared at the cabinet he had just unlocked, feeling conflicted. He wasn't sure whether He Ci or Shen Fianian looked more like a tool right now.
Inside the cabinet were neatly arranged file bags, each with a number. Xie Mingchi recalled Wang Ke's number and began searching.
Soon, he found Wang Ke's file. He barely glanced at it before his face turned pale.
"Wan Wuqiu," X
ie Mingchi quickly put the file back and grabbed Wan Wuqiu's arm, urging him towards the exit. "Let's go! Quick!"
He practically dragged Wan Wuqiu out of the office, and the two of them quickly made their way downstairs, hiding behind a pillar.
Xie Mingchi observed the third floor quietly. Before long, Mr. Du came out from one of the rooms on the third floor and headed downstairs.
Meanwhile, the stairs began to shift.
They had just barely escaped…
Xie Mingchi let out a sigh of relief and suddenly realized Wan Wuqiu, the man with the fake face, hadn't spoken a word the entire time. Curious, he turned to ask: "Why didn't you say anything—"
As soon as he opened his mouth, he realized he was still holding onto Wan Wuqiu's arm. He quickly released it, embarrassed, and said awkwardly, "I... didn't mean to take advantage of you."
Wan Wuqiu blinked twice, snapping back to reality. He smiled. "You just grabbed my arm. How is that taking advantage? I didn't know you had such a sense of morality."
Xie Mingchi shot him a look of disbelief. "You're ridiculous."
Wan Wuqiu wasn't upset. He asked, "What's up? You were going to say something just now?"
Xie Mingchi took a deep breath to calm himself and said, "I just saw a file. The boy in that file came here for a visit. He stayed... coincidentally, in our guest room."
Wan Wuqiu thought for a moment. "That is quite a coincidence."
"But that's not the point," Xie Mingchi shook his head. "The record on the computer said his health was fine. But his file in the cabinet confirmed our suspicions."
The file clearly recorded how Wang Ke had played the 'Four Corners Game,' moving from the fourth to the third, then the second, first, and finally disappeared on the fourth floor, along with the other children who came with him.
"He turned back while playing the game," Xie Mingchi frowned. "Turning back broke Mr. Du's rules. He was drugged and taken to the painting frame. Mr. Du used the elevator inside the frame to take him to the third floor. A 'buyer' came that night to confirm what organ they wanted, and then Mr. Du took him to the second floor, where they harvested the organ they needed."
Wang Ke was taken to Room 201.
The organ he represented was the heart.
To preserve the organ's freshness, Mr. Du harvested Wang Ke's heart and stored it in a freezer, to be taken by the buyer that night.
In fact, each of the eight rooms on the second floor, besides Mr. Du's office, represented a different organ—heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, spleen, small intestine.
When the buyers came to confirm what organ they needed, Mr. Du would take the child to the corresponding room for the surgery.
If only one organ was needed, Mr. Du wouldn't be merciful. He would just kill the child.
No matter what, the children who were brought to the villa were doomed from the moment they left the orphanage.
"I also noticed one more thing in the files," Xie Mingchi slowed his breathing and said. "Every time, Mr. Du checks the surgery rooms on the second floor at 4 PM. I had to hurry earlier, so I dragged you out."
Hearing about the entire organ-harvesting process, Wan Wuqiu's face darkened, his eyes filled with contempt. "Someone like that... no wonder they can't rest even after they die. But thanks for pulling me out."
Xie Mingchi looked at him. "Thank me later. I have one question for you—why do you know Mr. Du's rules?"