Cyshhz 71

The corpse was none other than Wang Zhe, who had fallen into the pond.

Yet in less than an hour, he had already become pale and wrinkled from being soaked. His belly was slightly swollen, though it was unclear if it was from the water or some other cause.

His hair and ankles were tangled with water plants, evoking the terrifying legends of water ghosts claiming lives.

He died a miserable death, and even Ma Xiaowen, who had just been crying and shouting, dared not approach; she could only watch from a distance, tears streaming down her face.

Gu Zhan took a step closer and noticed the body emanating a foul odor.

This was definitely not the appearance of someone who had just drowned!

But this was a game, a dream...

The one who committed the murder was a ghost, not a human.

Whatever happened seemed reasonable.

Sang Yue did not expect that so soon, someone among the players had already died.

The servants of Ye Sheng Ge began to handle the corpse. Sang Yue turned around and said quietly, “Is there somewhere convenient to talk?”

Gu Zhan replied, “Let’s go to Xiao Xiu’s room.”

Someone had just died there, so it was unlikely anyone would go in.

The group moved to Xiao Xiu’s room.

Ma Xiaowen was still in shock, and He Hui was startled again; both of them were not in a good state.

In the room, the only calm ones left were Gu Zhan and Sang Yue.

Sang Yue said, “I suspect that the condition for the ghosts to kill is related to water.”

It could be confirmed that the ghosts here did not kill unconditionally; otherwise, everyone in the theater would have already been dead. Ghosts absolutely lack restraint, and only “rules” could stop them.

They must follow some kind of rules, and only those who violate the rules would die.

Gu Zhan countered, “Your reasoning doesn’t hold; Ma Xiaowen was with Wang Zhe to clean the lake's surface. If it’s related to water, she shouldn’t have survived.”

Ma Xiaowen suddenly shuddered beside them, her already unstable mental state becoming even more precarious.

Sang Yue felt a bit helpless; Gu Zhan’s choice of words was rather blunt. What did he mean by “shouldn’t have survived”? She turned to Ma Xiaowen and comforted her, saying, “It’s okay; you survived, which means you didn’t violate the rules.”

However, Ma Xiaowen still didn’t calm down much from her words, still curled up in the corner, trembling.

Sang Yue had no choice but to ignore her and turned to Gu Zhan, asking, “What do you think the rules for the ghosts killing are?”

“Teasing the song girls here… or having ill intentions toward the song and dance girls here.” Gu Zhan recounted his earlier encounter with Xiao Xiu in the room, saying, “I don’t think she came in just to chat with me; there must have been a reason.”

That’s why he had firmly rejected her at the time.

Xiao Xiu’s expression after being rejected was also quite interesting.

Sang Yue had heard this story once and then again, feeling that she and Xiao Xiu had reached a subtle consensus in some aspects.

She looked at Gu Zhan, holding back for a moment before asking quietly, “What you said to Xiao Xiu, is it true?”

Gu Zhan glanced at her indifferently and replied, “It is true.”

Sang Yue: “………………”

Her gaze swept up and down, and after a moment of silence, she spoke in a strange tone, “I really couldn’t tell.”

He was so good-looking, yet he was gay.

It was hard not to be sarcastic.

She had originally had some admiration for him, but she didn’t expect he was one of the sisters.

Sang Yue quickly dismissed her moment of admiration, saying, “You’re right; so far, the three people who have died are all men… Ma Xiaowen, Ma Xiaowen?”

She called out to Ma Xiaowen, who showed no reaction.

Sang Yue, feeling helpless, stepped forward and patted her shoulder.

Only then did Ma Xiaowen come back to her senses and look up at her.

Sang Yue asked, “Did anything special happen before Wang Zhe died?”

Ma Xiaowen’s expression was blank; after a moment of recollection, she suddenly looked panicked. “He… he on the boat… wanted… wanted…”

She stammered, unable to finish her sentence.

Sang Yue was getting impatient and crossed her arms, saying, “What did he want? Hurry up and say it.”

Ma Xiaowen’s expression was peculiar as she said, “He… hugged me and tried to kiss me, but I rejected him.”

Sang Yue: “…”

To be honest, that was quite absurd.

Sang Yue turned to Gu Zhan and said with a hint of sarcasm, “Is this how you guys are? In this situation, you can still think about that?”

Gu Zhan remained unperturbed. “It has nothing to do with me.”

Straight guys’ matters had nothing to do with him.

Sang Yue was just saying that casually. She turned back to Ma Xiaowen and asked, “Could you explain the situation in detail?”

Ma Xiaowen began to recall.

At first, nothing particularly happened; they arrived at the pond and found a small boat and cleaning tools nearby. There were indeed many fallen leaves on the pond, so they pushed the boat into the water and boarded it.

The retrieval work was not difficult; at that time, the light by the pond was ample, and far from the opera house, there were even servants coming and going.

It wasn’t scary at all.

Wang Zhe joked that they had really picked an easy job; the one delivering the corpse looked like they were bound to encounter danger.

Also, the person cleaning in Xiao Xiu’s room was quite unlucky; with such a strong smell of blood, who knew what they might offend?

Perhaps by the time they returned, someone would have died again.

Wang Zhe said he didn’t want to watch anyone die, but this was a game, so there was nothing they could do.

Then he chatted with Ma Xiaowen about some things related to real life; they had come in together and knew each other in reality.

At this point, Ma Xiaowen hesitated again.

Sang Yue truly couldn’t stand her habit of pausing after every few words. Frowning, she urged her to hurry up.

Ma Xiaowen finally said, “Actually... he is my best friend’s boyfriend, but after coming in here, we ended up together…”

“Your best friend’s boyfriend?” Sang Yue's tone rose a few pitches as she mockingly retorted, “You might as well stop calling her your best friend. This? Best friend? More like an enemy.”

Ma Xiaowen's face flushed, and she anxiously defended herself, “We were both in the dungeon! We didn't know if we could get out... she isn't here... what if we can't get out for a lifetime? Should I wait for her?”

Sang Yue scoffed, “Didn’t everyone enter this game voluntarily? If you didn’t break up before coming in, doesn’t that mean you’re still a couple? If you didn’t break up, isn’t that cheating? What’s with all the excuses?”

Seeing the two about to argue, Gu Zhan interjected, “Stop wasting time, get to the point.”

Sang Yue was interrupted, huffing, she fell silent.

Ma Xiaowen continued, “In short, we chatted for a bit, and then he suddenly hugged me... um, and I stopped him.”

“After that, he seemed very unhappy and went to the other side of the boat, not talking to me. I was a bit scared and wanted to continue chatting with him, so I called him a few times, but he didn't respond. I thought he was angry, so I quietly apologized.”

“Unexpectedly, at that moment, he suddenly said that woman was very pretty…”

Recalling that shocking moment, Ma Xiaowen’s expression twisted. Her sanity value seemed to be dropping rapidly again. To prevent her from going insane before finishing her story, Gu Zhan pressed down on her shoulder and reminded her, “You’re just recalling the past; there’s no danger now.”

Ma Xiaowen paused, finally breaking free from that terrifying atmosphere.

She continued quietly, “I looked around, and there were no beautiful women. I thought he was saying those things to provoke me, so I apologized... But then he leaned out over the side of the boat, and soon, the boat tipped!”

At that moment, Ma Xiaowen was terrified and hurried to the other end to stabilize the boat. Even so, Wang Zhe didn’t pull back; he seemed possessed, laughing maniacally while shouting “Beautiful woman, beautiful woman,” and then he fell headfirst into the pond.

“He sank immediately after falling, without even struggling…” Remembering that moment still filled Ma Xiaowen with fear; her pupils dilated as she trembled and said, “I immediately called for help. The servant nearby heard me and helped pull me to the shore, then went down to rescue him…”

Gu Zhan asked, “How long was it from when he fell until we arrived?”

Ma Xiaowen thought for a moment and replied, “Not long, maybe just over ten minutes.”

As expected.

Gu Zhan straightened up, looking out the window of Xiao Xiu's room.

This place faced the backyard but couldn’t see the pond; standing by the window, one could only vaguely hear the singing outside.

After several layers of barriers, the singing sounded somewhat distorted.

The voices were faint, the high notes strained, and the low notes dull; the off-key singing was like a saw against wood, creaking painfully.

Gu Zhan pondered for a moment, then turned back and said, “I think I understand why they died.”

He had briefly talked with Sang Yue about this before, and now she also understood.

“They must have flirted with or been tricked by the girls here.” Sang Yue frowned. “If that’s all there was to it, wouldn’t the rest of the people be safe?”

Ma Xiaowen still didn’t know about Gu Zhan’s shocking revelation that he was gay, looking curiously at Sang Yue, unsure why they were saying this.

“But there’s another thing; we know that the opera house in this movie script is an important venue, and Xiao Xiu and Qing Yi are both main characters. Some of us have seen Xiao Xiu and know where her room is, but that Qing Yi has never shown up at all.”

As Sang Yue spoke, she glanced toward the opera house's front stage; even from the room, she couldn’t see anything.

“No one knows what role that Qing Yi plays. What if there’s more than one ghost here?”

Sang Yue merely suggested a possibility, but Gu Zhan was quite certain that there must be more than one ghost here.

He was very concerned about how he was entangled with the little ghost before encountering Xiao Xiu and didn’t believe that only men were at risk of death.

That was unreasonable. When entering the dungeon, there were no gender requirements for players, so if a dungeon had only women, wouldn’t everyone be safe?

That didn’t make sense.

But for now, he had no more information.

While everyone was at a loss, the singing in the front hall suddenly stopped.

The room fell into silence.

In the dead silence, they could only hear their heartbeats, and then…

The system suddenly announced a broadcast.

【Congratulations, players have triggered the side quest <Sleepless Night>. The carnival belonging to Ye Sheng Ge is about to begin, and no one knows what will happen. Tonight, no one will sleep.】

【Quest Objective: Survive.】

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