In the lavish dining room, four silent individuals sat.
Even though Gu Zhan said the clues were already quite clear, Sang Yue didn’t believe him. Ma Xiaowen and He Hui still looked lifeless; they weren’t dead, but their souls seemed to have been stripped away.
Gu Zhan knew this was all due to the decrease in sanity value.
Yet, he felt no discomfort at all. The more distorted his body’s sensations were, the clearer his mind became.
It even reached a level where, looking at himself, he felt as if he were a bystander.
Gu Zhan tapped on the table to bring his companions back to their senses: “Do you remember what the sorcerer said? The ghosts in the movie disrupted the filming and trapped us here. We need to find that ghost if we want to escape.”
Sang Yue replied, “This is our main storyline, of course, we remember.”
Gu Zhan said, “So we don’t need to figure out what happened in this place; we just need to know who the ghost is that trapped us in this house. Currently, the only ghost represented in the script is the one possessing Qing Yi and Xiao Xiu... but do you think there is really only one ghost?”
"What?" Sang Yue was stunned.
This was a possibility she had never considered before.
But...
How can one determine how many ghosts there are?
Of course, it would be through their methods of killing, just as there are no two identical murderers in the world.
The Black Crow Mansion cannot have two identical ghosts.
Sang Yue began to carefully recall the events they encountered in the time fragments created by the mage.
The first man had been drowned in the teacup after teasing a dancer.
But the man in Xiao Xiu's room had been burned to death.
Then there was Wang Zhe, who claimed he saw a beautiful woman and fell into a pond...
"Wait a minute." Sang Yue suddenly sat up straight. "What kinds of bizarre events did you all encounter in there?"
Sang Yue said, "He Hui and I encountered something where it seemed like water was chasing us..."
Ma Xiaowen said, "I was stuck in a very narrow place, and it was really hot all around. But I had a special skill that allowed me to create water, so I kept pouring it on myself until I heard a voice from the opera house saying the sleepless night was over..."
Sang Yue said, "We experienced the same thing; after we heard the boss's voice, the bizarre phenomena stopped..."
She looked at Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan had more information than they did, having encountered ghosts multiple times.
Gu Zhan recounted his experiences, and Sang Yue's expression turned somewhat strange: "Why have you encountered ghosts so many times?"
"I don’t know," Gu Zhan replied simply.
Sang Yue said, "It's a miracle that you're still alive after so many encounters."
Gu Zhan said, "From the supernatural events we’ve encountered, we can deduce that there are at least two ghosts here, one related to water and one related to fire. The two NPCs we encountered in the opera house died—one from water and the other from fire."
"Right... right! That’s indeed the case." It was only after Gu Zhan said this that Sang Yue realized, "No wonder I felt something was off before; it turns out... there are two ghost"
Gu Zhan said, "The water ghost might be related to Xiao Xiu, and the fire is probably associated with a child... I’ve heard that child speak."
At that moment, Ma Xiaowen weakly raised her hand: "Then the ghost I encountered must have been the fire ghost. I felt very confined and couldn't move at all... I don’t know what that means."
Gu Zhan said, "The fire ghost only appeared when we were acting alone. For the rest, I haven’t found any commonalities."
Sang Yue thought carefully, and it was indeed the case.
Gu Zhan’s first encounter was when he was alone cleaning Xiao Xiu's room; as soon as Xiao Xiu arrived, the fire ghost disappeared.
The second appearance happened when Gu Zhan and Ma Xiaowen were separated from her and He Hui.
While she and He Hui encountered the water ghost.
Thinking of this made Sang Yue feel a bit scared; she had many moments alone when the ghosts didn’t come after her, which was also a miracle.
At this time, Gu Zhan said, "Since there is a puzzle, we should be safe until it is solved. Let’s finish eating and rest; we need to be in good spirits before we go look for that mage."
They still had one opportunity left that they hadn't used.
"Okay." Sang Yue nodded in agreement.
---
After dinner, the group dispersed to their respective rooms to rest.
Gu Zhan didn’t go back right away; instead, he wandered around his room.
The butler, who had previously disappeared, reappeared, but the door to the hall was still locked, indicating that when they sought help from the mage, the butler was within the mansion; he just didn’t want to show himself.
The butler was very familiar with the mansion's layout; he seemed more like the owner than Gu Zhan, the "master."
Many questions lingered in Gu Zhan's mind.
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in the corridor, staring blankly at the lush green lawn outside.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. Gu Zhan turned around and saw the mage walking toward him from the other end of the corridor.
The Sorcerer also saw Gu Zhan and smiled at him. "Hello, sir."
Gu Zhan asked, "Who invited you to the Black Raven Mansion?"
The sorcerer was taken aback, then smiled even wider. "Sir, you really don't beat around the bush."
Gu Zhan silently stared at him.
The mage helplessly shrugged and said, "It wasn't you, sir, but I cannot tell you who my employer is."
Gu Zhan didn’t ask further and turned back to his room to rest.
---
In the evening, everyone woke up.
Dinner was ready in the dining room, and as they sat down, they noticed one person was missing.
Sang Yue asked, "Where's the butler?"
Gu Zhan had already noticed that the butler would disappear at this time.
He lowered his head to pick up his chopsticks and said, "We’re about to enter the second time-reverse fragment. Don’t focus on irrelevant matters; let's discuss what to do next."
"How can that not be relevant? That butler clearly has issues..." Sang Yue initially retorted, then fell silent, eventually agreeing, "Alright, you're right. For us right now, it really doesn't matter. We need to survive and get out of the second time-reverse fragment first."
Sang Yue picked up her chopsticks and said, "Based on last time's experience, the time-reversal can indeed lead to death. There aren’t many people in this instance to begin with, so everyone should cherish their lives."
After resting, Ma Xiaowen and He Hui seemed to be in much better shape, but hearing Sang Yue's words still made them tremble.
Today, the two of them sat on the same side, shivering together like quails keeping warm.
Sang Yue usually looked down on such behavior. If they were so scared, why had they chosen to enter this game in the first place?
"What segment are we choosing this time?" Gu Zhan asked.
Sang Yue replied, "During the filming of the movie."
After she said this, noticing that Ma Xiaowen and He Hui seemed distracted, she tapped the table and emphasized, "Don't forget, our identities are members of the film discussion panel. Although the ghosts in the movie are terrifying, they are ultimately just a movie script. We need to thoroughly investigate why the film was halted back then, as it directly relates to whether we can get out of here."
However, Sang Yue's reminder couldn't lift the spirits of the two.
He Hui even whispered, "But for us, the world inside the movie is also real because... death is real."
Sang Yue frowned, momentarily at a loss for words.
Gu Zhan interjected, "Let's take another look at the script."
Their script was placed beside their utensils.
It was unclear who had taken it from their room, but it was clearly prepared for them.
Sang Yue's frown deepened.
In this mansion, she always felt like someone was watching her.
She despised this mansion, even more than the fragmented scenes the sorcerer had constructed for them.
Perhaps... this mansion was even more dangerous than those fragments. But at that moment, the beast still lurked behind the curtain, unnoticed by anyone...
"This script we’ve seen before tells the story of a rivalry between the pear garden and the opera singers in an opera house, but at the end of the story, everyone dies."
Sang Yue said, "If our previous speculation is correct, then there is not just one ghost in this script. But why can't we tell from the script at all?"
Gu Zhan posed a new question from a different angle: "In what circumstances would a movie be unable to continue filming?"
"Unable to continue? A strike by the actors? Budget issues?" Sang Yue randomly suggested a couple of possibilities but quickly negated them, saying, "No, it seems like the film didn’t encounter any of these during filming. They... they must have been disturbed by a ghost, right? But why would a ghost bother them?"
At this moment, Ma Xiaowen mustered her courage and said, "Maybe it's because of the content of the script that the ghost doesn't like."
"A ghost has personal preferences?" He Hui muttered.
But Sang Yue's eyes lit up as she suddenly remembered something: "This script is based on a prototype. Do you remember?"
Ma Xiaowen paused and then nodded, "Yes, yes, yes, there is a prototype; the characters have prototypes, and that ghost..."
—also has a prototype.
Ma Xiaowen realized, "Ah, the story isn’t that the ghost came out of the movie, but that the movie was originally about the ghost. If this ghost is dissatisfied with the content of the film, it would certainly stop the filming!"
Sang Yue said, "But that’s not necessarily the case; it could just be a simple act of killing. After all, it’s a ghost, and it's hard for us to know what it's really thinking."
Gu Zhan remarked, "The script only mentions one ghost, but we saw two in the fragmented scenes. Can we conclude that this movie script does not match its prototype?"
Sang Yue flipped through the script repeatedly, saying, "It’s normal for a movie script to be artistically processed and differ from the prototype, right? However... to condense two ghosts into one is quite ingenious."
In the end, she closed the script and said, "It seems the twist lies here. Let’s go check the new fragmented scenes..."
As she spoke, she looked around and asked, "Where’s our sorcerer?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, a light laugh came from the shadows: "Everyone, I am here."
He stepped out from a corner, seemingly having been there all along: "Are you sure you want to enter the fragmented scene now?"
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