At breakfast, the atmosphere at the table was heavy and oppressive.
Among the remaining survivors, besides Xie Mingchi's group, there were Xiao Xiao and Chu You, along with two teams of partners whose names Xie Mingchi didn't quite remember.
One of the teams was clearly just like Xie Mingchi's group—newcomers. They were hesitant and looked as though they could collapse at any moment. They kept asking questions, but not everyone was willing to answer them.
They had entered the puppet world with 14 people, and now only 10 were left.
Four deaths were a normal number, but they all knew that no one had died last night, and Mr. Du was definitely unhappy about that.
At the table, Mr. Du hadn't touched his utensils. Instead, he glared at Xie Mingchi with a sullen expression, as though he could bore a hole through Xie Mingchi's face.
But Xie Mingchi had excellent mental resilience, especially after surviving the previous nights. His mental fortitude had reached a new level. No matter how Mr. Du stared at him, he ate with gusto.
After all, today marked the beginning of their escape. They needed energy to survive.
After a while, Xie Mingchi set down his knife and fork, wiped his mouth, and looked at Mr. Du.
"Thank you for the meal."
Mr. Du was absolutely livid. His face was ashen, and his narrow eyes looked as if they were going to fly off in fury. His voice was uneven when he spoke:
"What is your relationship with him?" He pointed at Wan Wuqiu.
Xie Mingchi shrugged casually.
"Nothing much. We're not familiar."
"Not familiar?" Mr. Du suddenly stood up, his voice rising, "How can you not be familiar with him?!"
Xie Mingchi frowned slightly.
"Then, Mr. Du, would you tell me how I should be familiar with him?"
"You... you two..." Mr. Du seemed at a loss for words, his chest rising and falling with rage. After a long pause, he stormed out of the dining room.
As Mr. Du left, Xie Mingchi heard him muttering something under his breath:
"How can you not be familiar... How could this go wrong..."
Xie Mingchi was puzzled. Why must he be familiar with Wan Wuqiu? And why was Mr. Du so certain? What did he know that made him so sure?
Suddenly, Xiao Xiao across the table cleared his throat, glanced at them, and then left the dining room with Chu You.
After a while, Wan Wuqiu said, "Let's go. We should continue looking for clues."
Xie Mingchi nodded.
This remark was directed at the other four. While Xie Mingchi did have plans to help them escape, he had to consider that his own strength wasn't invincible.
Moreover, Wan Wuqiu had once said something very sensible: "Smaller, reliable allies are far better than larger, unreliable ones."
If they managed to find the soul line, these four could escape too. But if they dragged them into the search team carelessly, they might end up doing something drastic for the extra golden bead.
After confirming that the other four hadn't followed them, they returned to their room. Soon after, there was a knock at the door. He Qi opened it to find it was Xiao Xiao.
"Time's tight. Let's exchange information," Xiao Xiao got straight to the point, closing the door behind her.
"First, the picture frames on the first floor. The children in those frames were all killed by Mr. Du and brought here. When you remove the pictures, the ghosts of those children appear."
Xie Mingchi nodded.
"We discovered this too. It seems like the picture frames serve as a form of... containment for the children's spirits."
"Exactly," Xiao Xiao agreed.
"There's not much useful stuff on the first floor. What we're sure about is that these children turned into ghosts after they were killed. Taking the pictures out releases them. Based on what you said about the four-corner game, I suspect these little ghosts will come out at night as well."
Wan Wuqiu interjected suddenly:
"If the picture frames are for containing them, then why would they be released at night?"
He Qi, thinking hard, said, "Hmm… If they don't come out, who will guide us in the four-corner game?"
Chu You picked up on that, adding, "The children died because of the four-corner game. It's also possible that some vengeful spirits like to see others die the same way they did."
Die the same way…
Xie Mingchi seemed to catch something important.
During the first night's game, his candle had gone out halfway. At the same time, the stairs had shifted direction, and the path ahead had vanished. The little ghosts began laughing in his ears.
At first, he thought the laughter was meant to scare him.
And indeed, it did scare him. If he had been a little more timid, he might have frozen in place, too terrified to move.
But upon reflection, if he had been too frightened to move, he wouldn't have descended the stairs, wouldn't have fallen into Mr. Du's trap. He would have just waited, waited until the stairs reverted to their original form.
Of course, the little ghosts might have been enjoying the irony—someone else would soon die the same way they had.
However, the first night was not enough to draw a conclusion. Looking at the second night, Xie Mingchi had been the fourth person—the one doomed to die in this puppet world.
As soon as he took his first step onto the corridor, the little ghosts began crying in his ears. The further he went, the louder and more heart-wrenching their cries became.
What were they crying about?
If they enjoyed seeing others die like Mr. Du's victims, their cries would have been meaningless.
Then it could only mean one thing: they were mourning him. He would soon join them, dying unjustly, full of resentment and regret.
And these cries had ceased the moment the fake Wan Wuqiu appeared.
Xie Mingchi leaned towards the theory that the little ghosts didn't want him to die. If that were true, the cries would have intensified when the fake Wan Wuqiu appeared, but instead, they had disappeared.
The only explanation was that something had taken control of the little ghosts, preventing them from warning those playing the game.
Xie Mingchi now understood.
He raised his head, rejecting their previous conversation.
"No, that's not right."
He Qi was confused: "What's not right, bro?"
"The picture frames are a means of containing the little ghosts," Xie Mingchi said, "But the little ghosts don't want anyone to die in the four-corner game."
"In other words, the little ghosts don't want anyone to be killed by Mr. Du in the villa."
Xiao Xiao didn't get it. "What are you trying to say?"
Xie Mingchi paused, thinking carefully.
"During the first night's game, I heard the sound of chains coming from the little ghosts."
Xiao Xiao and Chu You didn't get it, but the other three understood immediately.
The only place they had encountered chains in the villa was with the vicious Buddha statue.
They quickly realized that the little ghosts were controlled by the statue.
Noticing their confusion, Shen Finian kindly clarified, "There's a partition in the restaurant. Inside, there's a vicious Buddha statue that Mr. Du uses to suppress the spirits. The little ghosts are under the control of that statue."
He paused and then grinned widely, "By the way, Miss, don't be afraid. There's no puppet world I can't escape from. Maybe you could share your contact details? You and I seem to have a strong connection..."
Xie Mingchi: *...*
"Why did you bring this guy along?"
Wan Wuqiu: "..."
"Why did I bring him along?"
Xiao Xiao saw through Shen Finian's intentions and shot him a dismissive look. "Chu You, he's my boyfriend."
Shen Finian: "..."
"Ah, well, never mind. I'm not interested in married women."
Xiao Xiao snorted, ignoring him as she continued,
"Right, the vicious Buddha controls the little ghosts. It's clear that Mr. Du worships and utilizes the statue, and they share a mutually beneficial relationship."
Chu You asked, "We haven't checked the second floor. We only know that behind the picture frames on the fourth-floor corridor is an elevator leading to the second and third floors."
Perhaps to show some sincerity, Xiao Xiao and Chu You exchanged a glance and said,
"You've probably noticed that some rooms on the third floor have keys, and some don't. We took a risk and entered the rooms with keys. They were all simple sitting rooms, each corresponding to an organ."
Just like the clues they found in Mr. Du's office yesterday.
Xie Mingchi said, "We entered the second-floor office yesterday. It recorded the details of everyone who died here, including both puppeteers and ghost puppets. It seems the buyer selects the organs they want on the third floor, and then Mr. Du takes them to the corresponding room on the second floor for surgery."
"Did you check the operating rooms on the second floor?"
Chu You asked.
Wan Wuqiu shook his head, "We didn't have time."
"Now, we haven't checked the rooms on the third floor without keys or the operating rooms on the second floor," Xie Mingchi said, frowning. "There are too many rooms."
They weren't sure if opening one room might anger Mr. Du. They couldn't afford to split up and open rooms individually—it wouldn't allow for timely information sharing and could result in unnecessary casualties.
At this moment, Wan Wuqiu suddenly spoke up: "No need to check."
He Qi panicked: "Why not check? If we don't, finding the soul line will just be like opening blind boxes!"
"His 'no need to check' means he already knows where we should look," Xie Mingchi said firmly, looking straight into Wan Wuqiu's eyes.
Wan Wuqiu smiled. "You really know me well."
Xiao Xiao was almost laughing in frustration. "Are you guys being a little too overconfident? This is the puppet world, and the ghost puppets guarding the doors are intelligent. We haven't checked at least ten rooms. How can you be sure where the soul line is?"
She was starting to doubt her judgment in trusting these newcomers.
Wan Wuqiu sighed, shaking his head. "Actually, the puppet world is pretty simple. What we need to do isn't go room by room, but figure out the mechanics of the whole place. Like the rooms on the third floor you've seen—they didn't have anything useful, did they? The only point of those rooms was to flesh out Mr. Du's story."
Xiao Xiao shot back, "How do you know the other rooms are the same?"
"Simple," Wan Wuqiu said confidently. "It's already clear that the rooms on the second floor are operating rooms corresponding to organs. The elevator behind the picture frame leads directly to the second floor. Each room on the second floor corresponds to two rooms on the third floor—one with a key, one without. The rooms you've checked are normal, so the abnormal ones are the ones without keys."
He looked at Xie Mingchi. "Remember the servant you scattered?"
Xie Mingchi nodded. The servants in the villa were actually ghost puppets, and when he scattered them, they had fled through the gaps in the picture frames.
"The appearance of the little ghosts always has specific conditions," Wan Wuqiu guided them. "Remember the person who died on the stairs?"
Shen Finian helpfully reminded, "His name was Qi Luo."
"Exactly," Wan Wuqiu said. "When we were in our rooms, there were no little ghosts, but Qi Luo walked from the third floor to the fourth floor. When he opened the door, the room was filled with ghosts. Why?"
Xie Mingchi picked up on his train of thought. "Could it be that... the little ghosts followed Qi Luo's steps, following him up to the fourth floor?"