FIMA Ch33: Ghost Nemesis

“I’m going to check out the situation in the nursery where the incident occurred now,” Gu Siyuan said to his two teammates, ignoring Xie Jinzhao’s expression.

Teacher Li and the other two from the Red Group indicated that coincidentally, they had the same idea.

Recovering from the frustration of being rejected, Xie Jinzhao stiffened his neck and stubbornly followed them. Naturally, Xi Shuang wouldn’t stay behind either.

Normally speaking, upon encountering this kind of murder case, everyone’s first instinct should be to go up to the third floor to look at the scene.

However, this was ultimately just a variety show. It wasn’t actually asking you to be a police officer and solve a real case. Were they really going to let you look at an infant’s corpse? It would be censored from above and wouldn’t be able to air.

Therefore, the explanation given by the production team was that the child had already been buried.

Since the program set it up this way, it meant there wouldn’t be any clues on the corpse that would affect the game’s outcome.

The rhythm of a variety show was to pre-set some puzzles, let everyone continuously solve them in sequence, and finally analyze the story behind this Bai family castle. At the same time, seeing the guests crying bitterly while being chased and killed made it even better.

It was a variety show, after all; details weren’t important, sensationalism and entertainment were.

Therefore, experienced people like the Red and Yellow teams would slowly collect clues bit by bit from the bottom up.

As for Xie Jinzhao and Xi Shuang, running straight to the third floor as soon as they came up and then having their souls scared out of them was purely foolish.

After the three groups entered the nursery, they began to observe individually.

There weren’t many items placed in the room; it was eighty years ago, after all.

There was only a crib, a cabinet, a wooden table, two low stools beside it, and a large wooden basin.

Other than that, there was nothing else, and the floor had been cleaned spotlessly.

Gu Siyuan carefully looked around the crib a few times, and then became the first to prepare to leave.

Xie Jinzhao hurriedly stopped his action of looking around and prepared to follow.

Gu Siyuan suddenly stopped at the door, glanced at him, and let out a light chuckle.

This glance was very light and faint, and the chuckle was very shallow, but the meaning behind them was very clear.

For some reason, Xie Jinzhao was extremely sensitive to Gu Siyuan’s mockery, as if it had been carved into his bones from a past life.

Consequently, his backbone immediately flared up. He gave a cold snort, turned his head, and walked majestically in another direction.

As a dead-weight teammate, Xi Shuang also hurriedly followed him.

They walked for a while.

Xi Shuang gently poked Xie Jinzhao’s shoulder and asked: “Why haven’t you spoken at all? What are you thinking about?”

Xie Jinzhao turned his head to look, only to realize that the two of them were actually the only ones left in the corridor again.

He said faintly: “What else could I be thinking about? Those two groups seem to have both found clues, so I’m deducing. Thinking about it carefully, the two of us are the wisest for coming to the third floor earliest. Maybe we’ve actually already discovered some crucial clues by sheer luck?”

Xi Shuang’s eyes lit up, agreeing: “Right, we definitely must have already discovered something, but just overlooked it for the moment. Look at how cocky those two groups are, not even willing to let us follow them. Hmph, they’re just relying on having one more person than us, what’s so great about that.”

Hearing this, Xie Jinzhao spoke with all the confidence of a highly addicted noob: “Right? It’s as if they’re absolutely certain they can find the crucial evidence. Maybe it’ll all turn out to be drawing water with a bamboo basket in the end, and maybe we’ll turn a corner later and discover the crucial murder weapon.”

“Makes sense.” Xi Shuang clenched her fists: “Anyway, we absolutely cannot admit defeat. We must continue to cooperate sincerely and show those Red and Yellow groups with their extra person who’s boss.”

If this conversation were placed in a different context, it would probably sound like the two worst-performing employees in a department, seeing their colleagues get promoted, get raises, and receive commendations, unable to suppress their jealousy, and starting to spout logical nonsense and gossip wildly.

Xie Jinzhao waved his hand to Xi Shuang and said: “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Xi Shuang nodded.

After walking a few steps, Xi Shuang suddenly opened her big, ignorant eyes and asked: “Right, where are we going?”

Xie Jinzhao curled his lips, feeling completely despairing towards this teammate: “I want to go ask that Fourth Wife in the nightgown from before. She is the biological mother of the child, she definitely knows something. At the very least, she knows who had malicious intentions toward the child. Maybe when she was pregnant back then, she was also framed or something?”

Xi Shuang immediately realized: “I get it, I get it. I love reading inner-house scheming novels the most.”

However, things were far from going as smoothly as these two fools thought.

When they walked to the door of the Fourth Wife’s room, they saw that there were already several figures standing inside.

Impressively, it was Teacher Li, Qi Ran, and the others.

Xi Shuang looked at Xie Jinzhao helplessly: “What do we do now?”

Xie Jinzhao was silent.

Noticing the movement at the door, Qi Ran poked his head out and smiled slightly: “You guys came too. We’re almost done asking and about to get our clues.”

Teacher Li also looked at them, joking with a smile: “Haven’t you guys been on the third floor the whole time? Why are you only coming here now?”

Like a dead duck with a hard beak (stubborn to the end), Xie Jinzhao insisted: “No, we came up to the third floor early, and we’ve already interacted with her. We know what we need to know, we’re just passing by now.”

In a rare display of cooperative spirit, Xi Shuang nodded: “Mn.”

After saying that, she followed Xie Jinzhao, turned around, and walked away.

It wasn’t until they walked to a place where the others probably couldn’t hear them that Xi Shuang curled her lips slightly: “Hmph, looking at them like that, they’re really smug, huh. What’s there to be smug about? Maybe the Fourth Wife will go crazy and chase them with a knife later.”

Xie Jinzhao sighed: “If only it were really like you said. Then we could reap the fisherman’s profit while the snipe and the clam grapple.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp, mournful roar suddenly sounded not far behind them.

“It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault! Ahh…”

The two turned their heads to look.

It was actually the three from Qi Ran’s group running out of the previous room with panicked expressions, while the Fourth Wife followed closely behind, wielding a red-tasseled spear.

“Holy crap, she really went crazy!” Xi Shuang was shocked.

Xie Jinzhao hurriedly patted her: “The three of them are together, yet none of them dare to fight back against the Fourth Wife. This means that red-tasseled spear is highly likely a marked weapon. Don’t just watch the show.”

Xi Shuang hurriedly snapped back to reality: “Right, right, right, run quickly!”

During their brief conversation, Teacher Li, due to his old age and slow running speed, had already been caught by the Fourth Wife.

However, the Fourth Wife didn’t kill him with a single strike. Instead, she made him raise both hands and escorted him back to the room.

With a bang, the door closed.

All movements disappeared, and the corridor returned to silence.

“What’s going on?”

Xie Jinzhao and Xi Shuang halted their fleeing footsteps, their four eyes full of confusion.

Right at this moment, the two who slipped through the net, Qi Ran and Lu Yanyan, happened to have fled to their sides.

Curious, and taking the opportunity to gloat, Xi Shuang asked: “Weren’t you guys communicating very smoothly just now? You were about to get your clues. What’s the situation now…”

Lu Yanyan rolled her eyes at her, completely too lazy to answer.

Big sister, even if you’re enjoying the show, restrain yourself a bit!

Qi Ran had always established an image of having a good family background and high educational quality, so he smiled and replied to her question with a few words: “It was quite smooth at the beginning. Before Teacher Li left, he casually asked one last question, and she suddenly blew up.”

“What did he ask?” Temporarily setting aside their rift, Xie Jinzhao asked curiously.

Qi Ran smiled and coughed: “Secret.”

Lu Yanyan bumped Qi Ran’s arm: “We need to go. Although Teacher Li was caught, the clues we have on hand are still enough to continue investigating.”

After the two left…

Xi Shuang asked Xie Jinzhao again: “What do we do now? The Fourth Wife has been angered. Even if we go back, we definitely won’t be able to ask anything.”

Resting his chin on his hand, Xie Jinzhao said: “Then let’s go to the room with the eyeball from before. He likes lying on the ground looking out so much, maybe he just happened to see the murderer the night before last. Then we wouldn’t have to deduce blindly…”

Xi Shuang was a bit hesitant; she had truly been terrified quite badly by that eyeball earlier.

Even now, whenever she thought of it, goosebumps rose all over her body.

Xie Jinzhao glanced at her and said disdainfully: “That was all fake, what’s there to be afraid of?”

“…” Xi Shuang.

Big bro, I wonder who it was screaming like a slaughtered pig earlier.

Now that you can’t see it, you’re acting all tough…

She curled her lips, feeling she couldn’t let herself be looked down upon: “Then let’s go. Let’s hope we don’t encounter anyone else this time.”

Xie Jinzhao felt a faint uneasiness in his heart: “Don’t jinx it.”

On the other side, the three members of the Yellow Group were also moving through the corridors.

Wang Xue said: “What a pity. We didn’t get anything useful from the Eldest Miss and the nursery this time…”

Ji Haoying laughed: “Not getting anything is normal. Our journey so far has been smooth enough. Any more, and we’d incur the wrath of heaven and resentment of men.”

Gu Siyuan shook his head: “Who said we didn’t?”

“…” Wang Xue and Ji Haoying.

They knew the boss wouldn’t speak a single word of nonsense.

But that nursery was cleaner than a ghost, and that Miss Bai was crazy, only speaking two sentences in total. What clues could there be?

Right at this moment, the sound of slapping against a door—slap slap—and an eerie laughter suddenly came from behind them.

Wang Xue and Ji Haoying were startled.

Yet they saw Gu Siyuan still remain unfazed. He even stopped his footsteps and started knocking on the door opposite.

“You’re here?” A faint male voice actually transmitted out from the door gap at the bottom.

Wang Xue and Ji Haoying looked down and locked eyes straight with a distinctly black-and-white eyeball. “Ahhh…” Their screams tore through the long corridor.

The two people from the Green Group who were tiptoeing over in this direction instantly froze, then sped up their footsteps.

After turning the corner, Xie Jinzhao and Xi Shuang exchanged a glance. Sure enough, three figures were standing at the door of the room with the eyeball.

Gu Siyuan looked at the young man who opened the door: “Second Young Master?”

His appearance completely didn’t match the voice and eyeball from just now.

The young man nodded, seemingly in a good mood: “You guys are here to find the cause of my little brother’s death, right? Finally, someone came to ask me.”

Gu Siyuan remained unfazed: “Then it seems you are certain you know something.”

The Second Young Master shook his head: “I only roughly heard some movements. Whether it will be helpful or not isn’t certain.”

Gu Siyuan: “Tell me.”

The Second Young Master continued: “I’m an editor at a newspaper. The night before last, I stayed up late writing articles until around 1:30 AM. Then, at about 2:15 AM or so, while lying in bed, I heard someone breathing heavily as they passed by my door. That heavy breathing sounded like a man.”

Gu Siyuan raised his sword-like eyebrows: “No one in the Bai family knows about your habit of staying up late to write articles? For the murderer to deliberately pass by your door at this time, whether going upstairs or downstairs, he could have completely taken the stairs on the other side. Wouldn’t that be closer?”

Hearing this, the Second Young Master smiled faintly: “You observe very carefully. However, I don’t frequently have to write articles in the middle of the night; it’s just been these past few days, so some people probably haven’t noticed this point yet. Recently, because the war in the north is at a stalemate, our newspaper opened an extra issue specifically reporting war-related news. The articles are urged urgently; we often receive telegrams in the evening and need them printed in the paper early the next morning. That’s why I stayed up late these past two days.”

Gu Siyuan’s expression darkened: “When the nation is swaying in storms, it concerns everyone.”

“Mn.” Hearing this, the Second Young Master glanced at him, fell silent for a moment, and then continued the previous topic: “As for why the murderer didn’t take the stairs on the other side and insisted on taking the longer route over here, you should actually know the reason.”

Gu Siyuan nodded: “Because the Eldest Miss gets up to secretly practice dancing every night.”

The Second Young Master chuckled lightly: “I knew you definitely knew.”

At this time, movements came from the other side of the corridor.

It was Qi Ran and Lu Yanyan, coming up together with Master Bai and the Eldest Young Master. They didn’t know when the latter two had gone down to the second floor again.

Gu Siyuan swept a glance over there, suddenly lowered his voice, and asked the person in front of him: “Does Master Bai also know she secretly dances ballet?”

“Ah…” The Second Young Master’s fingers curled up, and only after a moment did he reply: “He probably doesn’t know. My father is relatively conservative and can’t stand seeing such things. If he knew, he definitely would have thrown away her dance clothes and shoes long ago.”

Gu Siyuan gave him one last look: “Goodbye.”

“You few, you’ve been wandering around my mansion for half the day. Have you found out anything at all?” Master Bai, fifty years old but looking quite energetic, walked over in large strides.

Gu Siyuan said softly: “Pretty much.”

Hearing this, Master Bai’s eyes lit up.

However, the Eldest Young Master’s expression instantly changed drastically: “You’d better investigate clearly, don’t spout nonsense.”

Gu Siyuan shot him a glance and said flatly: “How am I spouting nonsense? Unless I were to say that it was you, Eldest Young Master, who killed your own brother?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?” The Eldest Young Master’s eyes instantly turned blood-red.

Gu Siyuan’s expression remained unchanged: “If it wasn’t you, why are you getting so agitated?”

“You dare to wrong me, I’ll kill you!”

The Eldest Young Master yelled. Suddenly, his hands shook at his waist, and from who-knows-where, he pulled out a marked handgun and aimed it straight at Gu Siyuan.

Holy crap, although I know this is eighty years ago, is there a need for a bug-level weapon like a handgun to appear?

Everyone was shocked, their footsteps shifting slightly, preparing to run in the next moment.

However, this shock truly couldn’t last for long.

A straight, long leg flashed by, bringing with it a gust of wind, viciously kicking the Eldest Young Master’s wrist.

“Ah…” A cry of pain sounded, and the handgun subsequently fell to the ground.

Panicked, the Eldest Young Master immediately bent down to pick up the gun.

However, the moment he lowered his head, the muzzle of that gun was pressed directly against his head.

Gu Siyuan chuckled lightly: “Stand up.”

“No, my god…” Although Xie Jinzhao had known early on that his manager was a “Ghost’s Despair,” watching all of this still shocked him to the extreme: “Why is he allowed to be so arrogant? Do the words ‘yield’ and ‘run away’ simply not exist in his dictionary? In the moment of being pointed at with a gun, his reaction actually wasn’t fear, but resisting without hesitation.”

“…”
The others indicated, We really want to know too.

Especially the two people from the Yellow Group. They just wanted to randomly draw an off-site helper, who knew they’d draw a massive killing machine.

At this time, Master Bai’s anxious voice sounded: “Sigh, this gentleman, my eldest boy was just making a joke earlier, you’d better put the gun away. This thing isn’t something to joke about.”

“Heh… I’m also joking.” Gu Siyuan chuckled lightly and indeed withdrew the gun, even spinning it leisurely twice on his fingertips.

Then, he turned his head, looked at Xie Jinzhao with a smile, and said: “I’m going to the first-floor main hall.”

The show-off meaning in these words truly couldn’t be any more obvious.

Xie Jinzhao couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose in jealousy.

Master Bai and the Eldest Young Master also followed the three from Gu Siyuan’s group down to the first floor.

The two members from each of the Red and Green Groups were still left in place, clearly not intending to give up just like that.

Looking at the receding figures ahead, Xi Shuang said indignantly: “Hmph, look at how high and mighty their Yellow Group acts, as if victory is already in the bag.”

Thinking of how Gu Siyuan deliberately showed off to him before leaving, Xie Jinzhao carelessly echoed: “Maybe they actually guessed the murderer completely wrong, falling short at the final hurdle just when success was in sight.”

Xi Shuang also started to fantasize: “Maybe an NPC holding a marked weapon will rush out from a corner right away, start hacking at them wildly, completely wiping out their entire group in an instant. Let’s see them act rampant then.”

Xie Jinzhao thought for a moment and finally sobered up briefly, saying: “Gu Siyuan has a gun in his hand, the NPCs probably wouldn’t dare to come out either.”

Xi Shuang: “Even if the NPCs don’t dare, if I got a marked weapon, I would shoot them in the back. There should be another marked weapon.”

Hearing this, Qi Ran and Lu Yanyan from the Red Group glanced at them, utterly speechless.

It turns out these two didn’t search for a single clue seriously, but instead spent their time daydreaming here.

Right at this moment, a crisp clack sounded.

The four people looked back, only to find that the door behind them, which had been banging with bang bang sounds all along, suddenly opened.

Next, a person with disheveled hair, whose gender couldn’t be clearly seen, bounded out. Lu Yanyan, who was closest to the door, was pounced on squarely. The next moment, the chilling voice of the broadcast sounded: “Lu Yanyan eliminated.”

Aside from Teacher Li who was held hostage, this was the first player to be eliminated so far.

The few people were stunned. What happened, we didn’t see a marked weapon?

Looking at the disheveled person, the Second Young Master opposite them widened his eyes and said: “Third Mother, how could your door open?”

The group immediately realized. According to the game’s background introduction, this Third Wife was a leprosy patient; anyone whose skin she touched would die instantly.

“Ahhh…” The three survivors immediately split into two directions and started fleeing wildly.

And Qi Ran and Xie Jinzhao happened to go in the same direction, and the direction the Third Wife chased was also this one.

Gu Siyuan, who had just walked to the stairwell, heard the commotion behind him and looked back curiously.

Probably because Xie Jinzhao’s experience in running away today was too rich, his speed was slightly faster than Qi Ran’s.

It was the same principle as encountering a bear in the wild: you don’t need to run fast, you just need to be faster than the others.

Seeing that Qi Ran was about to be caught…

Gu Siyuan decided to wait a bit longer before going down.

Looking up and seeing Gu Siyuan ahead, Qi Ran hurriedly yelled: “Brother Siyuan, save me.”

Gu Siyuan lazily replied: “Right away.”

Qi Ran had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Right at this moment, the Third Wife’s whole body had already rushed up.

The broadcast sounded at the right time: “Qi Ran eliminated.”

The corners of Gu Siyuan’s mouth curved slightly. He raised the handgun steadily with his right hand, slightly closed one eye to aim, and then fired.

Pop… a soft sound.

A flash of blue light occurred, and the Third Wife’s figure directly disappeared.

And at the Third Wife’s original position, a tiny orange-yellow round bead fell down—it clearly looked like a toy gun bullet.

Xie Jinzhao opened his mouth wide.

Damn it, seeing Gu Siyuan’s dashing action just now, I almost shouted ‘Hubby is so handsome’ in my heart. As a result, it was actually a toy gun. Why do I feel like I’ve been teased by an elementary schooler?

Seemingly sensing his gaze, as Gu Siyuan turned to walk downstairs, he tilted his head and shot Xie Jinzhao a glance, a faint smile in his eyes.

Xie Jinzhao puffed his cheeks and made a face at his back.

As Qi Ran was being led downstairs by the staff members, he happened to see this scene. For some reason, an extremely bad feeling suddenly welled up in his heart.

The third floor returned to silence once again.

Xi Shuang popped out from who knows where: “It was actually black technology again! I’ve been completely played by this damn thing enough today!”

Xie Jinzhao sneered: “Who hasn’t?”

The two began cursing together.

Suddenly, their gazes flashed. Where the Third Wife had just disappeared, some unknown item had been left behind.

The two slowly shuffled over and saw clearly that it was a dagger—a dagger with a mark, at that.

The highly anticipated lethal NPC and marked weapon just appeared like this?

The two’s hearts instantly skipped a beat.

Xi Shuang spoke first: “Xie Jinzhao, your chance to turn the tables has come.”

Xie Jinzhao looked at her: “Didn’t you say that if you got a marked weapon, you would immediately go shoot Gu Siyuan’s team in the back?”

Xi Shuang stuttered: “Isn’t Gu Siyuan your fan? He definitely wouldn’t have his guard up against you, so your success rate in ambushing him would be higher.”

Xie Jinzhao shook his head: “No can do. Since I am an idol, how can I do such a thing? After this airs, my fans would probably all strip away completely.”

Heh… after seeing Gu Siyuan snatch a gun empty-handed and hit his target with one strike earlier, who would dare to take a dagger and suicidally throw their life away?

The atmosphere quieted down for a moment.

The two looked at each other in silence for a while.

In certain aspects, they could be said to be the exact same kind of person. So they quickly realized that both they themselves and the other party were essentially paper tigers—fierce in appearance but faint-hearted, all talk and no action.

Instantly, they stopped exposing each other. After exchanging sheepish smiles, they kept their mouths shut, treating their previous conversation as if it had never happened.

Mn, anyway, this isn’t the first time. Getting used to it is fine.

Right at this moment, the unpleasant and ear-piercing broadcast sounded: “Game over. Congratulations to the three players of the Yellow Team for becoming this time’s Adventure Kings.”

“…” Xie Jinzhao.

What do I do if I’m regretting it a bit now? If I take the dagger down and wipe them all out now, do I still have a hope of winning?

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