In Xie Mingchi's view of the world, there were no ghosts.
But after entering the Puppet Realm, his perception shifted. He now knew that in the world of puppet masters, ghosts did exist. However, he still clung to the belief that ghosts only appeared at night.
Now, his worldview was shattered once again.
In the Puppet Realm, ghosts could appear during the day!
Did that also mean that ghosts could kill during the day?
Xie Mingchi didn't dare to think further down that path. He swallowed hard and turned to Wan Wuqiu. "Can you come over for a moment? I need to talk to you."
Shen Feinian and He Qi were both on Xie Mingchi's side, looking at the front of the photo. Wan Wuqiu, on the other hand, was at an angle where he could only see the photo upside down.
So, it made sense to call him over.
Shen Feinian and He Qi clearly saw the little ghost in the photo. Both their faces turned pale, but neither of them said anything. He Qi, in particular, lowered his head and began mumbling to himself: "Holy Mother, protect me... Buddha, protect me... CCTV, please protect me…"
What did CCTV have to do with this?!
Xie Mingchi's mind was on the verge of collapsing.
But Wan Wuqiu didn't move. Instead, he silently looked at Xie Mingchi.
After a moment, he put down the photo he had been looking at and said, "I suggest we put these photos back where they belong. What do you think?"
He still kept his eyes fixed on Xie Mingchi, as if waiting for his opinion.
But Xie Mingchi had a nagging feeling that there was something off about the way Wan Wuqiu was looking at him.
Wan Wuqiu wasn't looking him in the eyes.
It felt more like... he was looking at something above his head.
At the same time, Xie Mingchi suddenly felt a chill running down his back, like a huge block of ice had been placed there, cold and weightless, pressing against his skin.
He immediately broke out in goosebumps and dared not imagine what might be on his back. He took a deep breath, then began to tidy up the photos. "Right, let's get these put back."
Even though he tried his best to control his voice, it still trembled slightly. He Qi probably noticed, since he didn't dare speak a word, just stuffing the photos back into their frames.
Shen Feinian, however, was completely relaxed. "Don't panic, just make sure everything is put back properly, okay?"
"Enough with the jokes," Wan Wuqiu said, his face cold. "Know the time and place."
Shen Feinian immediately apologized, grinning. "My bad, my bad, senior, please don't be angry."
As they continued putting the photos back, Xie Mingchi could still feel the coldness on his back. He guessed that the other little ghost was still nearby, beside Wan Wuqiu.
Sure enough, the moment the last photo was placed back, the chill abruptly disappeared.
Xie Mingchi sighed in relief, then turned to look. As expected, the little ghost that had been by Wan Wuqiu's side was now gone.
"I just saw something standing next to you," Xie Mingchi said without hesitation as the group gathered. "It was a little ghost, the same kind as the one that took us away yesterday."
Wan Wuqiu paused for a moment, then pointed at him. "There was one on your back too."
He Qi let out a sound of shock, then fainted on the spot.
Xie Mingchi caught him in time and calmly pinched his philtrum to bring him back. "Yes, the little ghost disappeared as soon as we put the photos back."
"So... is it because we took the photos down that the ghosts showed up?" Shen Feinian asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Wan Wuqiu seemed to be considering the question. He walked to the earliest photo, then motioned for Xie Mingchi to come closer. "Do you remember what the ghost next to me looked like? Come look at this photo and see if you can spot it."
After reviving He Qi, Xie Mingchi walked over, quickly scanning the photo. His eyes stopped on a particular boy. "It's him."
Wan Wuqiu nodded. "The little ghost on your back was her."
He Qi still hadn't fully recovered. "Then... why did they show up next to you? Wait... do you think it's because we're playing that game again? Maybe if a ghost appears next to you, you end up playing?"
"No," Xie Mingchi answered, "but it might not be about playing the game... It's hard to say."
After all, Xie Mingchi had played the game with Wan Wuqiu the day before. If the rules of the game required a swap of four people, that would be fine. But if it required two more to be added, whether they would survive was another story.
How would the remaining players be chosen? Would they be safe?
If the game was supposed to proceed by having one person swapped out...
Xie Mingchi's head hurt just thinking about it.
Wan Wuqiu said, "We should find more clues during the day. Right now, we know that the ghosts appear when photos are removed. We don't yet know what their appearance signifies, but we can deduce that the children in those photos may have died, or at least part of them did, and they became ghosts after death, lingering in the mansion."
Xie Mingchi suddenly thought of something. "I've heard that when people die, their spirits often remain at the place of death, sometimes repeating the actions they took in life…"
If that's true… why did they die in this mansion?
Wan Wuqiu looked at him. "We can ask Mr. Du during lunch."
Xie Mingchi looked at him. "Will he answer?"
"Not necessarily. The gatekeeper ghosts in the Puppet Realm might lie, or they might refuse to answer. But if they do answer, it's always related to the main storyline," Wan Wuqiu replied. "This place was created by their obsessions, so every detail is connected."
Xie Mingchi nodded. "Let's search the next floor."
They had already gathered all the information they could from the first floor. There wasn't much left there. Xie Mingchi was more curious about the upper floors.
The attendant had said that the second floor was where Mr. Du worked and that they weren't allowed to go there. The third floor was for the dining room and other rooms they weren't allowed to enter. The fourth floor was where they could rest.
The only floors they were allowed to move freely between were the first and fourth.
But the second and third floors weren't without clues. And the descriptions of those floors were intriguing.
The second floor had rooms they couldn't enter freely, and the third floor had rooms with restricted access, except for the dining room.
The third floor had explicit restrictions, but the second floor didn't.
Xie Mingchi picked up on this loophole and decided to go straight to the second floor.
"Where are you going?" Wan Wuqiu asked.
"To the second floor," Xie Mingchi replied.
Wan Wuqiu frowned. "You want to go now?"
Xie Mingchi paused for a moment. He realized that Wan Wuqiu had also noticed the loophole but wasn't planning to act on it yet. "Why?"
"Mr. Du comes out after breakfast," Wan Wuqiu said, stepping in front of him. "We don't know where he's going."
Shen Feinian also joined in. "Yeah, if you end up in his room, you'll be caught red-handed."
If they angered the gatekeeper ghost, it would be like unleashing its full power—much more dangerous.
Xie Mingchi remained silent for a moment, then locked eyes with Wan Wuqiu.
Wan Wuqiu was stunned for a second, then smiled. "You don't trust me."
He knew that look too well. When Xie Mingchi didn't trust someone, that was the look he gave.
Xie Mingchi didn't answer. Instead, he turned to He Qi and said, "Stay alert with strangers. It's a natural reaction."
"Fine," Wan Wuqiu said helplessly. "It'll get better over time."
Xie Mingchi didn't have time to ponder what Wan Wuqiu meant by "over time." He only asked, "Do you two want to come help?"
"Of course," Wan Wuqiu said, following him. "We're happy to help."
The four of them took the elevator back to the fourth floor. After exiting, Xie Mingchi shared his thoughts. "Yesterday's game was played on the fourth floor, but we didn't see any bodies. Considering the layout of this mansion, I suspect Mr. Du might be fond of secret mechanisms. The body might have been hidden by one of these traps."
He also remembered how they had told the fourth person to wait
near the elevator. This wasn't an ordinary mansion.
Xie Mingchi then thought of something else. "Yesterday, I clearly told the fourth person to wait by the stairs. After a while, the stairs moved, but he still disappeared."
Xie Mingchi didn't believe that the boy would walk away when he had already been told to wait, so he figured that the boy must have vanished in place.
Perhaps it was because of some kind of mechanism.
"I think we should check the corridor on the east side of the fourth floor again," Xie Mingchi said. "The fourth person disappeared there. Since everyone focuses on different things, I suggest we take turns checking."
Wan Wuqiu smiled again. Xie Mingchi wasn't trusting him at all.
But it didn't matter. It would get better eventually.
Xie Mingchi led the way to the east side corridor because that was where the boy had disappeared. He was extra careful and even lifted the carpet to check underneath.
After walking a little while, Xie Mingchi noticed a section of the carpet that had been cut, and as he squatted down, he found that the gap stretched for about three meters.
This, combined with the dark patch he had seen the previous night, suggested that this was the section of the corridor that disappeared.
Just as he was about to continue, he heard the sound of stones scraping together again—the stairs started rotating!
Xie Mingchi quickly stepped back from the disappearing area, standing to the side. He said, "He Qi, pay attention!"
"Got it!" He Qi's eyes widened, ready to observe.
But this time, the rotating stairs were from the second floor to the third, not from the third to the fourth. The disappearing section of the corridor remained intact.
At that moment, Xie Mingchi caught a glimpse of someone emerging from one of the rooms on the second floor. The person had a cold and stern expression before heading to another room on the second floor.
It was Mr. Du!
The second floor was where he worked. Was he working now?
Xie Mingchi glanced at the room number. The room Mr. Du had come out of didn't have a number, but the room he was heading to was numbered 203.
Xie Mingchi instinctively looked up at Wan Wuqiu and saw that he was looking back at him.
"Looks like we're in sync," Wan Wuqiu said with a smile. "You guessed right. He's working."
Xie Mingchi immediately turned away, muttering quietly, "Who's in sync with you..."
The four of them took turns checking the fourth floor corridor. During this time, Mr. Du came out once more, entering room 206. Xie Mingchi silently noted it down.
It wasn't just them searching for clues on the fourth floor. Following Xiao Shao's comments from breakfast, everyone was focused on finding the bodies of the two people who had disappeared the night before. To keep things secret, they decided to return to their rooms for a discussion.
"Bro, I found something!" He Qi raised his hand enthusiastically. "There are four staircases from the first to the second floor, leading to four different staircases. There are five from the second to the third, leading to two staircase entrances, one of which has a key and the other doesn't. There are also five staircases from the third to the fourth… well, I haven't figured out much yet, but I can confirm that there are four stair entrances."
"Mm," Xie Mingchi nodded, acknowledging He Qi's findings. "There are four stair entrances from the third to the fourth floor, exactly one for each corridor. But because the corridor can vanish, it means that the stairs don't necessarily rotate according to a set pattern. There's a possibility that two staircases could lead to the same entrance, which would explain what happened to me last night."
"On the east side of the corridor, about halfway through, I found a lot of candle wax drips on the carpet," Xie Mingchi said, furrowing his brow. "That must have been from the candles falling when the boy disappeared last night. But that spot is still some distance away from the stair entrance."
In other words, the boy didn't disappear because of the stairs vanishing.
Just then, Xie Mingchi had a sudden thought. He stood up abruptly and ran out the door again, heading straight for the east side corridor.
He went back to the spot where he had noticed the wax drips, crouching down to examine the carpet closely. His gaze slowly shifted toward the wall.
Wan Wuqiu and the others quickly caught up with him. "What did you find?" Wan Wuqiu asked.
On the wall, there was a huge floor-to-ceiling painting depicting natural scenery. There was one in every room on the fourth floor.
Xie Mingchi hesitated for a moment before reaching out and pushing against the edge of the painting.
"Boom—"
It was the sound of stone scraping together.
The painting moved successfully!
Behind it, there was a hidden rotating door.
Xie Mingchi lowered his head and looked inside.
There were two broken candles on the ground, still faintly smoldering.
And in the gap, a hollow-eyed figure, with only empty eye sockets, was staring at them.