绝代双骄 林志颖

The furniture was European-style, and the whole room has a distinct feminine beauty, with delicate ornaments. Except for the messy bed sheets, the whole room was tidy and meticulous.

Ge Xiu took a flashlight, walked to the dressing table and casually looked over the accessories and photo albums placed on it.

Just as he picked up a small pocket watch to take a closer look, a chilling scream suddenly pierced the darkness, clearly heard through layers of walls.

Ge Xiu turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound.

The pale man leaned against the wall, and when he saw the other party looking up, he raised his eyebrows: “Go and see?

“Alright” Ge Xiu shrugged, put the pocket watch back on the table with a tap, then turned and went outside.

When the two of them came downstairs, some players who had heard the voice as well had already gathered there. They stood pale in front of the porch connecting the hall and the side hall, not daring to take a step forward. The flashlight shone into the darkness, illuminating the scene in the porch.

Large pieces of blood and minced meat splashed on the wall, like a bloody abstract painting, on the ground, there was a person lying on his back.

His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, his paper-white face was devoid of blood, his expression was frozen in pain and horror— his arms were broken and disappeared from the waist down, and broken intestines flowed out from the abdomen, spread haphazardly on the ground, the thick carpet had been soaked with blood, showing a heavy dark red under the beam of the flashlight.

The other player supported himself with the wall, as if it was the only way to maintain a standing posture.

He seemed to be the player who teamed up with the dead person.

The player’s face was colourless and he stammered: “I, I don’t know why it happened like this, I was in the side hall opposite when it happened… We separated for about two minutes, by the time I realized something was wrong and ran over, he had already become like this…”

Du Yan’s complexion was serious: “You don’t know what attacked him?”

The player shook his head tremblingly:

“No, I don’t know.”

Du Yan’s complexion became even uglier.

He suggested forming a team at the beginning because the situation and rules in this instance were unclear. If everyone formed a team, even if some players died, his teammates would still be able to learn some information from it —but the current situation clearly went against what he wished for. The player had died, but no clues were left.

He asked a few more questions unwillingly, but that teammate really didn’t know anything.

— Heard nothing, saw nothing, knew nothing.

While Du Yan was deep in thought, he saw a player passing by him and walking towards the corridor full of minced flesh and blood.

He hurriedly reminded:

“Hey! We’re unsure if it’s safe to…”

Before Du Yan could finish speaking, Ge Xiu had already walked in front of the corpse.

His feet stopped there.

Everyone was startled, looking at the player who boldly walked into the dangerous area with trepidation, subconsciously holding their breath.

However nothing happened.

Ge Xiu turned his head and glanced at Du Yan, saying casually:

“Now you know.”

Du Yan: “…”

Ge Xiu squatted down, narrowed his eyes and carefully looked at the corpse lying on the ground in a strange posture.

He stretched out his hands—everyone could not help but gasp—the young man squatting not far away grasped the broken arms of the corpse without any psychological barriers and pressed the arms that were missing below the elbows to the sides of the corpse, then tore off a piece of ornately decorated tapestry from the wall, wiped the shredded surface of the corpse’s upper body, and pushed back the scattered intestines by the way.

Everyone: “…”

Oh fuck.

A few minutes later, Ge Xiu stood up from the corpse, then turned and walked towards the crowd.

The young man’s face was pale and calm, his hands hanging by his sides were covered with blood, thick drops of blood slowly fell from his fingertips, under the light of the flashlight, both hands were dyed a terrifying scarlet, the face that was too beautiful to be real, looked very eerie in front of the dark scene splashed with red.

The players subconsciously took a step back.

Ge Xiu turned a blind eye to this.

He reached out and pulled down another piece of tapestry hanging at the end of the corridor, and wiped his hands skillfully on it.

The murderous ghost from just now seemed to have turned back into a living person again.

Du Yan collected himself and asked, “How is it? Did you find anything?”

Ge Xiu shrugged noncommittally.

Someone boldly looked at the corpse lying on the other end of the corridor and saw the corpse lying straight on the ground with its only remaining arm sticking to its side.

The slashed place from the elbow to the waist was clearly exposed after wiping the blood. Under the illumination of the flashlight, it actually showed a clear regular arc, as if a line was drawn on his waist with a compass and the part inside the circle was completely swallowed by the void.

“That’s right.” Ge Xiu seemed to remember something, and handed a card to Du Yan with his bloody hand: “This was on him.”

Du Yan took the card.

That was the identity card that the players drew from outside the iron gate before entering the house.

The edge of the card was painted red with blood and the smooth surface was stained with bloody fingerprints, obviously from the young man who handed it to him.

On the card was the symbol of a hoe.

It should be the gardener.

Du Yan made a split-second decision. He looked up at the players, and suggested: “Everyone go to his room now, hurry up, first go to see the clues of his identity, find out his responsibilities, and see how is he connected to the identities of other players…”

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a pale player:

“I’m not going! You guys go yourself!”

Another player who seemed to be a newcomer nodded vigorously as well, his face was wrinkled with panic and fear, his pale forehead was soaked with sweat and he said tremblingly: “He died when he went to his room, who knows what’s in there, right? Would there be any death condition… or something, anyway, I dare not…”

His words did not have any logic.

All players who had a little understanding of the rules of the game would know that the conditions for triggering death couldn’t be so simple.

But under the looming darkness and pressure, the human heart would become unbelievably fragile, making it easier to become paranoid and believe to some seemingly reasonable remarks on the surface.

A wave of panic surged through the crowd.

The whispers exuding the smell of despair lured out the fear in people’s hearts, and the mistrust snowballed like a thrown down a hill.

“How could this game kill players in such a simple way!” A player who had also experienced role-playing instance raised his voice impatiently: “If a person dies, his lines will be broken. If you don’t go now, if tomorrow something related appears in the main plot, other people will be implicated.”

“Didn’t you say that we have to grasp a chance?” The questioning voice sounded again: “But we only have one life!”

“Yes, yes!” Some players echoed.

“Do you know how precious these opportunities are!” Du Yan was a little angry: “Do you really want to know the result of the failure of the role-playing?”

He sneered: “It’s up to you whether to go or not.”

The whole scene suddenly become uncontrollable.

In role-playing instances, the cooperation between players was the most important.

However, fear and anger would drive people to do irrational words and deeds— this was the biggest difficulty of this kind of instance, because every time a player died, a character role would be vacant, but the script is often interlocking, The loss of one link would lead to subsequent collapse.

The atmosphere was tense, like barrels of gunpowder waiting to explode.

Ge Xiu yawned.

He glanced at the anxious crowd without interest, then turned and walked in the opposite direction.

The man who had been watching this farce with cold eyes since just now saw him leave and also followed him, asking as he walked, “Where are you going?”

“Sleep.” Ge Xiu replied without hesitation.

“You don’t want to visit the gardener’s room?” the man asked with great interest.

Ge Xiu walked up the stairs without stopping: “Don’t want to.”

“Why?” The other party asked persistently.

Ge Xiu turned his head to look at him, frowned and asked, “Why do you have so many questions?”

The man shrugged innocently, “Just curious.”

Ge Xiu tsked and asked casually, “What do you think I’m doing then?”

“Do I get a reward for guessing right?”

The man raised his lips.

Ge Xiu shrugged: “I’ll think about it.”

The two walked up the stairs one after the other and quickly left behind the chaotic discussions of the players.

The noisy human voices seemed to come from a very distant place.

The stairwell they walked through was like a narrow world isolated from the outside, only their even footsteps were echoing in it.

“My guess is…” The man narrowed his eyes slightly, a smile passed on his pale thin lips, his dark eyes stared fixedly at the composed young man in front of him, his lowered voice seemed self confident and hoarse in the dark night:

“You have the answer in your heart, don’t you?”

Ge Xiu slowed his steps slightly, turned his head to look at the man who was following him, barely two steps behind, and raised the corners of his lips:

“Hah.”

The smile on the man’s lips widened: “What’s the reward?”

Ge Xiu turned back his head and walked up the last step:

“None.”

The man frowned: “But…”

“I said I would think about it.” Ge Xiu was in his room He stopped in front of the door and looked at the other party with a smile: “I’ve already thought about it.”

The man: “…”

That’s too deceiving.

Ge Xiu pushed open the door and walked into the room: “Good night.”

The man also wanted to go in, but the door of the room was mercilessly closed in front of his eyes, and through the door, he could hear Ge Xiu’s unwavering voice:

“Aren’t you my fiancé? You want to enter your wife’s room when you’re not yet married, are you unaware of the rules?”

The man: “…”

He stood at the door dumbfounded, he really didn’t expect the other to use his previous method to counter him, and now he suffered a dumb loss himself.

Just as he was contemplating, the door that had closed just now, suddenly opened again.

The man was taken aback.

Ge Xiu stretched out a hand from inside the door, pulled the other person over, then leaned over and kissed him on the lips:

“—reward.”