Wang Heng and Yan Feng had woken up just twenty minutes apart. Based on the remaining drug in the syringe dropped beside them, it was easy to deduce their blackout times and, from there, the time of the attack.
The culprit probably hadn’t expected them to figure it out this way. Both crime scenes had left behind syringes.
But Tang Shen quickly thought of another possibility: the culprit might have done it on purpose, tampering with the remaining dosage to mislead on the time of murder and create an alibi.
However, Matthew had likely witnessed the killer, which further pinned down the timing.
“Why are you asking so many questions? Are you the killer or something?”
“That’s absolutely impossible,” Xu Haokong denied.
Tang Shen continued, “The position was in the middle of the fourth-floor corridor, then the killer dragged him to a hidden corner. Simple and clean technique—no traces except for a towel fiber in Wang Heng’s nasal cavity. Committing the crime on the first day showed solid nerves. Such a random murder scene offered few leads for investigation right now. What about your side?”
In a mansion where most guests barely knew each other, with just victim versus killer identities, even motives were hard to pin down. Random crimes like this were the toughest to crack.
Fang Si Ting asked Qin Shuhui, “Madam Lu, when was the last time you entered the tea room?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because only you can enter it, so I’m asking.”
“Yesterday morning.” Qin Shuhui met Fang Si Ting’s eyes, feeling inexplicably guilty for some reason. She added with an awkward smile, “I’m just an NPC. How could I attack a guest?”
“The maid cleaned the room at 7 p.m. yesterday evening, but from what we saw earlier, someone used the bathroom after that. She also confirmed a khaki trench coat was missing from the closet. The tea room ashtray and floor had plenty of cigarette butts from your brand of women’s scented cigarettes, with lipstick marks on them,” Fang Si Ting said.
Brother Ka analyzed, “So, late last night, a woman met Assistant Yan in the tea room. Something happened, Assistant Yan got attacked, and the woman rushed out.”
“No way!” Li Fei cried out. “It wasn’t me! I don’t smoke.”
The show had few female guests: just her, Film Queen Lin Xiu, and Lin Xiu’s companion Wang Xue, a voice actress.
This narrowed it from multiple choices to three suspects.
“Why so worked up?” Xu Haokong laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re the killer?”
She wanted to say something, but Lin Xiu and Xu Haokong were industry seniors with untouchable status. She swallowed her words.
Being framed as the killer on the show was fake, but offending real people was very real.
“It wasn’t me or Wang Xue—we room together,” Lin Xiu said. “And it wasn’t Li Fei either. She rooms next door and snores like thunder.”
Li Fei: “……Maybe I should just confess.”
It was only the killer role—nothing major.
The live stream chat erupted in laughter.
【This whitewashing just made it look even guiltier—what to do?】
【Shocking gossip! Li Fei snores in her sleep!】
【From today on, little sister Li Fei’s sweet and innocent image is totally done for.】
“There are more women in the mansion than just us three,” Lin Xiu said, holding court in the middle with full queenly aura. “Madam Lu, and the mansion maids—they’re women too.”
“Can guests get knifed by NPCs? Is the show that open-world? Whose fault is that?” someone who rarely spoke up asked in confusion.
Xiao Fen looked over. He knew the guy: a big-V journalist on Weibo with 9 million followers, holding dirt on plenty of celebrities and occasionally dropping massive scoops. H Country’s top paparazzo.
His name was Ma Xingwen.
“Program crew bug? Or a hidden perk?” Zhong Jinghuan said. “Inciting an NPC to knife the killer—if the mastermind’s a victim, it doesn’t break rules. If it’s the killer, it ups the difficulty for the vice squad officers. Either way, one less competitor.”
“Not one of us three anyway,” Lin Xiu said.
“Who skips their own room’s bathroom to use the tea room’s in the middle of the night?” Ou Yu said to Ma Xingwen. “Someone who’d do that either has iron nerves or has lived in the mansion a long time—like the Lu Family NPCs.”
“The killer showered after stabbing? Why, no blood?” Zhong Jinghuan wondered.
“Then they showered before stabbing,” Xue Chengge said lightly. “Man and woman alone in a room, bathroom used—hard not to imagine things.”
“Watch your mouth!” Qin Shuhui snapped, at the end of her patience.
Lu Chengze shot her a dissatisfied glance, signaling her to stay calm.
Denying nonexistent rumors so urgently would only make viewers speculate wildly.
“Why’s Madam Lu cursing?” Zhong Jinghuan said. “He was just making a normal deduction. Don’t tell me you were the one meeting Assistant Yan last night?”
“Makes sense,” Li Fei jumped in right away. “Yan Feng is Madam Lu’s bodyguard and assistant. If not him, why would Assistant Yan head to the tea room at midnight? We only met yesterday—no time to even add contacts.”
“Right, we hardly know each other. But fate brought us together—let’s add now?”
“Sure.” Several guests started exchanging contacts, treating it like harmless fun and zoning out.
Zhong Jinghuan’s detective itch flared up. Excitedly, he said, “Check phones! Whoever called him there will be obvious.”
“Already did. Nothing,” Xu An said. He’d checked the phone first thing. “Squeaky clean, just a pitiful few messages. Clearly brand new, bought days ago.”
“No way—you guys bought burner phones for the show?” Zhong Jinghuan griped. “I brought my personal one. If I get knifed, all my secrets get exposed.”
“Didn’t you watch previous episodes?” Xu Haokong shook his head. They’d all done their homework.
Fake death, real data. Waking up to social suicide.
“So it was a secret meetup,” Xu Haokong smacked his lips. “This sneaky? Super suspicious.”
“I’ll check the victim’s room for clues.” Tang Shen headed upstairs with Peng Xiaoxiao.
Qin Shuhui sighed. “Actually, I used the tea room bathroom yesterday.”
“Madam Lu, why didn’t you say so earlier?” Li Fei said. “I wanted to ask—a tea room needs a bathroom why?”
“Besides tea and calligraphy, I often practice yoga there,” Qin Shuhui said. “Tea after workout refreshes body and mind.”
“So you practiced yoga in the tea room last night?” Fang Si Ting repeated. “No body oil stains on the floor—on the carpet?”
“That’s dirty,” Li Fei said disgustedly.
“Of course not. There’s a yoga mat,” Qin Shuhui said.
“But the yoga mat had dust, and faint marks on the floor—no one’s touched it in a while,” Fang Si Ting said, his fishing expedition successful. “Only the chaise lounge showed signs of use. Yoga on that? Doesn’t add up.”
Qin Shuhui’s face froze. Her gaze turned venomous toward the maid in charge of cleaning.
“Madam Lu, you’re looking more suspicious by the minute,” Zhong Jinghuan said. “You said yesterday morning was your last tea room visit.”
“Just admit it—what’d you meet Assistant Yan there for last night?” others egged on.
“Why would I knife my own assistant? I got him on the show!” Madam Lu cried shrilly. “It was Xiao Fen! Xiao Fen knifed Yan Feng! Why are you all hounding me?”
Finally mentioned, Xiao Fen shrugged indifferently. “Why would I knife him? I’m a victim.”
He pulled out his crumpled card and showed it openly.
“Reckless,” Fang Si Ting said darkly.
This was basically taunting the hidden killer: come get me.
“Inspector Fang, protect me good,” Xiao Fen said pitifully. “I’m just a frail, helpless victim—one wrong move and I’m done.”
“Room together.”
“Then never mind.” Xiao Fen’s pitiful act vanished, interest gone.
Fang Si Ting’s face darkened further.
Still mad about last night in the snow?
Xiao Fen tossed the victim card aside. “If you don’t believe me and think I bribed an NPC to knife Yan Feng, show proof. I can hand my phone to Xu An—check if I ever contacted Yan Feng. No way we both ghosted there at that witching hour by coincidence.”
He tossed his phone over.
Qin Shuhui suddenly lunged, snatching the phone and clutching it.
The sudden move stunned everyone inside and outside the cameras. They couldn’t make sense of it.
The woman desperate to clear her name earlier was now covering for another suspect?
“Shouldn’t you be scared of your own phone revealing something? Why fear mine?” Xiao Fen laughed.
“I……” Qin Shuhui realized her blunder, sat back down, panic flashing in her eyes.
“Last night, I arranged to meet Yan Feng.”
“Called it.”
Zhong Jinghuan clapped, about to speak, when she continued, “But I absolutely didn’t sleep with him last night. I-I just…… discussed something with him. Right, just countermeasures—how to knife a program guest and escape successfully. That’s it.”
When she finished, everyone stared at her in shock.
The living room fell into an eerie silence.
Qin Shuhui, clueless, gripped the phone, unsure what she’d messed up.
“Madam Lu, no one said you met Yan Feng in the tea room for an affair and bed-hopping,” Lin Xiu said, unable to watch. She explained.
Bathroom used, coat missing, cigarettes smoked, Yan Feng knocked out cold.
But no one accused Qin Shuhui of cheating with Yan Feng in the tea room then killing him after.
They just found it odd: Yan Feng attacked in her exclusive tea room, and when did she use the bathroom?
She could’ve said she used it whenever, plenty of timeslots to dodge the attack.
Bathroom use and attack could’ve been unrelated.
But panic made her blurt that out.
If she hadn’t done it, why jump to affair? If innocent, why deny so fast?
Qin Shuhui snapped to, face flushing red. Anger, fear, savagery, panic, despair……flashed through her eyes. Finally, she looked anxiously at Lu Chengze.
Few had thought much of it before, but her expression made the rest wonder.
Lu Chengze’s face turned ashen. He stared without blinking, as if ready to tear her apart.
