Chapter 12: Rose Manor (Part 11) First Exploration of the Third Floor

On the second floor of the ancient castle, Lin Chen placed his notebook back on the table and stood by the French window in the guest room, nervously looking down at the activity in the garden.

He watched Qi Si walk to the iron gate, knock on the ground, say something to the suddenly appearing butler, then Miss Anna walked out of the ancient castle, and Qi Si smiled and went forward to chat with her.

Lin Chen knew the time had come.

Qi Si’s part was done; now it was up to him.

He jogged out of the guest room, rushed to the stairs, and quickly went upstairs, holding onto the handrail.

It was only one floor, but due to extreme nervousness, he stumbled many times.

Standing at the third-floor stairwell, he was already panting, covered in cold sweat.

The third floor, like the second floor, only had three rooms, but the difference was that there were no clocks in the corners.

Lin Chen clenched his fists, suppressing the useless hesitation in his heart, and walked step by step deeper into the floor.

Perhaps due to an optical illusion, he always felt that the corridor on the third floor was longer and narrower than the second, giving him the sensation of being inside a Coffin.

As he went deeper, this feeling became stronger; it seemed as if this floor would never end.

For a moment, he suspected that everything around him had stopped at a certain point, and the passage of time was merely a psychological illusion.

Lin Chen’s palms were sweating, and even his breathing trembled.

He shook his head, trying to shake the strange thoughts out of his mind.

“The big shot has already handled Miss Anna, how can I mess up something so simple?”

Thinking this, he turned and walked towards a room.

Looking at the thick layer of dust on the door, he gritted his teeth, grasped the brass doorknob, and tentatively pressed down.

It didn’t turn; the door was locked.

Lin Chen, on the contrary, breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to open an unknown door in a horror game at all, even if there wasn’t an instant kill upon opening, he might still encounter something terrifying.

He did the same for the remaining two doors, turning their doorknobs.

They were all locked.

“That should be enough, right? The big shot just asked me to simply scout the area…”

Lin Chen mumbled softly, carefully retreating towards the stairwell.

Just as he was about to retreat to the stairs, a soft female voice, without warning, sounded behind his ear: “Who are you?”

The voice was very delicate, as smooth as the water-mill腔 in traditional opera, carrying the damp scent of after-rain — it was Miss Anna’s voice!

Miss Anna… how could she be here?

Lin Chen felt all the blood in his body stop flowing. The extreme fear prevented him from making any drastic movements.

He opened his mouth to shout, but his voice seemed to be stuck in his throat, unable to come out.

He’s been discovered, it’s over, he’s going to die… memories of the past twenty years flashed through his mind, like a dying man’s last moments.

Lin Chen’s heart pounded, and he slowly turned around, stiff-backed, almost stumbling and falling.

Standing at the stairwell was a small old woman in a red European-style princess dress, her white hair spread across her back, her wrinkled face covered in rotten scars, her lips and eye sockets deeply visible to the bone, with fat maggots wriggling.

This was clearly a strange and horrifying sight, yet Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it wasn’t Miss Anna… if Miss Anna hadn’t discovered him, there was still hope of survival… “Who are you?” the old woman asked in a sickly sweet voice. The beautiful voice paired with such a face created a strong sense of contrast.

Lin Chen took a step back and stammered, “I… my name is Lin Chen.”

The old woman stared straight at him and asked again, “Then do you remember who I am?”

Lin Chen froze.

He remembered when he and Qi Si parted ways, after Qi Si had walked a few steps, he seemed to think of something, stopped, and turned back to tell him: “No matter which NPC you encounter on the third floor, don’t casually use specific titles.”

At the time, he didn’t understand what he meant and asked why. Qi Si smiled coolly and motioned for him to look at the third rule on the system interface.

【3. Miss Anna likes guests and bears no ill will towards them, but please remember the correct address: “Miss Anna” and not any other.】

The young man said with a slight, mischievous smile, “In any case, since the rule mentions the issue of address, you should always try to avoid making mistakes in this regard.”

Lin Chen suddenly understood.

So Qi Si had anticipated this? A big shot is indeed a big shot.

His thoughts subconsciously extended, recalling memories related to Qi Si, including the speculation he wrote on paper, “There might be two Miss Annas,” which stood out more clearly than any other information.

The identity of the Ghosts before him was almost revealed.

“Who am I?” The old woman stared at Lin Chen, asking again, word by word, “Tell me… who exactly am I?”

Lin Chen swallowed hard and said, “You are Miss Anna…”

…In the garden, the soft earth exhaled humid moisture, and loose, dark clods of soil were piled on both sides of the pit.

Qi Si and Chang Xu both looked down at the corpse in the newly dug pit, speechless for a moment.

Chang Xu still held a shovel in his hand; he was, of course, the one who dug the pit.

Qi Si had just seen Miss Anna off, and, pretending it was on his way but actually premeditated, he passed by and saw this scene.

The corpse in the pit was covered in blood and gore, but the face had been specially cleaned, making it barely possible to discern its appearance before death—

It was a young man with an ordinary face.

The method of preparing the body was quite familiar; if Qi Si hadn’t thought about it and realized he had no impression of this face, he would have suspected he was the one who did it.

The deceased was wearing a white T-shirt that did not match the manor’s era, with a large, comical emoji printed on it.

Chang Xu judged: “It’s a player, died the same way as Shen Ming, both had their blood drained by roses.”

The conclusion was obvious.

Qi Si tapped his chin with his index finger and asked, “Brother Chang, how did you know there was a corpse buried here?”

Chang Xu didn’t answer immediately but instead asked, “What did you say to Miss Anna just now?”

Qi Si smiled genuinely: “Me? I complimented her on her beauty and casually asked her age. She got inexplicably angry and left me.”

Chang Xu turned his head to look into Qi Si’s eyes, seemingly judging the truthfulness of his words.

Two seconds later, he averted his gaze and said blandly, “One of my clues said that Miss Anna believes death is the best nourishment for roses. I therefore deduced that there were corpses buried in the garden.”

Qi Si squatted down beside the pit, his smile undiminished: “The words ‘the garden’ refer to an area of about a thousand square meters. How did you know the body was right here?”

“Intuition.” Chang Xu also squatted in front of the pit. “My intuition has always been very accurate.”

“Amazing, amazing.” Qi Si offered a perfunctory compliment, wrapped his finger in a napkin, and poked the corpse’s face. “By the feel of it, the time of death isn’t more than seventy-two hours. This instance is quite busy; players keep coming in waves.”

Chang Xu raised an eyebrow: “You know a lot about corpses.”

“You flatter me; it’s professional ethics. I’m with corpses every day; I can’t help but learn.”

“Animal corpses and human corpses don’t seem to be entirely comparable.”

“That’s just the preconceived stereotype of an outsider. Humans always go to great lengths to distinguish themselves from animals, which I find quite boring.”

Qi Si folded the napkin, put it in his pocket, and stood up, looking down at Chang Xu: “Humans are also animals; drain their blood or stab them through the heart, and they’ll still die; cook them, and they can still fill your stomach—isn’t that right?”

Chang Xu also stood up, his back stiffening, and his voice suddenly turned cold: “Have you killed someone?”

“No, don’t slander me. If you can’t discuss rationally, you resort to exaggerating the issue. I didn’t expect you, Brother Chang, to be such a boring person.”

Qi Si put his hands in his pockets, his calm expression exceptionally innocent: “To so easily speak of ‘killing,’ could it be that you’ve actually killed someone?”

Chang Xu said seriously, “Yes, I have.”

“Is that so? No wonder… You said you were a police officer, are you a SWAT officer?”

“Something like that.” Chang Xu lowered his gaze, looking somewhat hesitant. “The tasks assigned to me basically involve immediate neutralization, and I’ve never failed.”

“I see, then I understand…” Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

Even though Chang Xu was vague, he keenly realized that whatever this guy’s true profession was, there was a point that could be exploited.

—People accustomed to executing kill orders can easily develop a conditioned reflex for killing.

Ye Zi had walked over at some point, stopping beside the two, frowning as she looked down into the pit, ostensibly to study the newly appearing clues, but more like she was there to inquire about their movements.

It was not wise to continue a dangerous conversation. Qi Si’s face once again wore a gentle smile: “Officer, in short, if you encounter any issues related to corpses in the future, you can ask me. I can handle simple tasks like determining the cause and time of death.”

“Good, thank you.” Chang Xu responded with a focused gaze, saying no more.