LABMY CH153

“Someone’s dead!!!”

A terrified scream echoed across the second floor.

Jian Yuanbai immediately sat up on the bed upon hearing the voice. Shen Tingyue, who was sleeping beside him, groggily poked his head out from under the blanket. His voice, thick with drowsiness, sounded soft and sweet: “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t sleep well. Having been accustomed to sleeping in a coffin, he had tossed and turned all night, unable to get comfortable in a bed.

Last night, he originally planned to return to the room where he was pretending to be Lu Yongye, taking advantage of the opportunity to sneak back into his own coffin.

But Jian Yuanbai had insisted they sleep in the same room, using the excuse of “security reasons.”

He had even confidently declared, “I’m your future adoptive father. As your adoptive father, of course, I have to ensure your safety.”

Holding onto Shen Tingyue’s hand, he refused to let him leave, which annoyed Shen Tingyue so much that he bit him twice.

The sweet scent of blood that slipped between his lips calmed Shen Tingyue, while also giving Jian Yuanbai even more reason to keep him close.

And so, the two of them had ended up sharing a bed for the night.

Shen Tingyue had been restless, unable to fall asleep, tossing and turning repeatedly. But Jian Yuanbai, who hadn’t slept the entire previous night, was utterly exhausted. Having someone moving around beside him only made it worse.

In the end, Jian Yuanbai simply pulled him into his arms, holding him down firmly to keep him from moving, and then slept soundly himself.

This left Shen Tingyue sulking in his embrace, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. He only managed to drift off groggily right before dawn.

Now, being woken up, Shen Tingyue yawned as he sat up. His pretty eyes were misty with drowsiness, and tears had gathered at the corners due to the natural response of waking up.

Jian Yuanbai was already putting on his suit as he said, “Something must have happened.”

As soon as they stepped out, they saw a crowd gathered in front of a nearby room. The commotion was loud, and the people seemed agitated.

Jian Yuanbai and Shen Tingyue hadn’t even approached yet when a panicked female voice, tinged with sobs, kept repeating, “It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t me!”

“Please believe me! It really wasn’t me!”

The doorway was blocked by people, making it impossible to see inside. But Jian Yuanbai, being tall, was able to peer over the crowd.

On the bed lay a man, roughly 1.75 meters tall, with a strong build. A dining knife was stabbed right into his chest.

Jian Yuanbai recognized him. His name had appeared on the list at 6 PM yesterday.

The entire day prior, everyone had been searching for a way to leave the castle but found nothing. The designated game time was from 6 PM to 2 AM every day.

Jian Yuanbai had suggested that everyone stay in the main hall at night to ensure safety.

But his suggestion was not well received.

With rooms that had locks, people preferred the comfort of lying in bed rather than sitting awake in the hall all night. Besides, as long as their own names weren’t on the list, they believed any danger had nothing to do with them.

For some reason, Jian Yuanbai hadn’t insisted further.

His gaze now fell on the dining knife stabbed into the man’s chest. Last night, he had suggested that this man share a room with them, but he had been flatly refused.

The man had even said bluntly that he wouldn’t be sleeping alone anyway, so there was no need for Jian Yuanbai to meddle.

Now, the man lay dead in bed, and his worries were permanently gone.

The woman who had shared the room with him was crying miserably. The surrounding people were aggressively condemning her, their words sharp and merciless.

“You were in the same room with him last night. If it wasn’t you, then who else could it be?”

“You killed someone and still won’t admit it? Do you think we’ll believe you just because you say you didn’t do it?”

“How dare you kill someone and try to argue your way out of it?”

“Sleeping in the same room as a strange man… I doubt you’re a decent woman.”

“Shameless murderer!”

The woman was on the verge of breaking down, shaking her head frantically. “No! We knew each other before! Really, I swear! It wasn’t me!”

Jian Yuanbai coldly swept his gaze over the ones speaking the harshest words and sneered, “Who knows? Maybe one of you will be the next to die in this castle. You might want to watch your words.”

He stood out among the crowd, tall and sharp-featured, dressed in a suit with his chest slightly exposed. His fierce expression was like the edge of a blade.

The memory of him taking down the blond guy in a single move yesterday was still fresh in everyone’s minds. The ones who had been speaking the loudest suddenly fell silent under his gaze.

Only then did Jian Yuanbai speak again, “She wasn’t lying about knowing him.”

He had observed these people carefully the previous day and had noticed that the two of them interacted naturally, with a familiarity that suggested they had known each other for a while.

The woman nodded frantically. “We’ve been together the past two days! You must have seen it!”

“After someone was electrocuted, and since we couldn’t find a way out of the castle, I was really scared. That’s why I stayed in his room last night.”

“She’s wearing a dress and has no place to hide a knife,” Jian Yuanbai continued. “That room wasn’t originally hers, and his name only appeared at 6 PM. No one returned to their rooms the entire afternoon, so there was no chance to hide a weapon beforehand.”

“Besides, if she were the killer, why would she scream and alert everyone?”

It was the woman’s own scream that had woken them all.

He paused, then added, “Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that she did it on purpose as part of an act.”

He was simply stating all possible scenarios.

The woman, tears still streaming down her face, hurriedly said, “I really didn’t do it! And last night, we were both awake until after 2 AM—I swear!”

“Because we stayed up too late, I slept really deeply…”

A bespectacled man stepped forward and examined the scene carefully. “Then this is strange. How did the killer enter the room?”

He looked up toward the window. “Did they come through here?”

Jian Yuanbai entered the room and looked out through the window, immediately dismissing the possibility.

“Impossible.”

“The distance between the windows of the two rooms is too far for a person to jump across. Although there are trees near the window, they are also at a distance. No one could have climbed the tree and then jumped onto the window ledge.”

When Lu Yongye died, Jian Yuanbai had already examined the window, so no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out who had killed Lu Yongye or how they had done it.

Now, looking at this room’s window again was just to confirm whether the situation was the same in both rooms.

After he finished speaking, the others quickly ran over to check the window. Jian Yuanbai, however, scanned the faces of the group and asked, “Who was the first to enter the room? What was the situation at the time?”

Everyone looked at each other, recalling the moment. The short-haired girl hesitated before saying, “I think it was me?”

“I was right next door. When I heard the noise, I ran out immediately and then saw someone was dead.”

Jian Yuanbai asked, “Did you see the body directly? Was the door open?”

The short-haired girl frowned. “No, the door was closed. I pushed it open.”

The man with glasses turned his head to look at the woman who was crying miserably and asked in shock, “No way, you guys didn’t lock the door?”

The woman was stunned for a moment. “We locked it. We definitely locked the door.”

Jian Yuanbai walked to the door and carefully examined the lock. “This lock has been tampered with.”

“The person who picked the lock couldn’t lock it again from the inside when they left, so the door was easy to push open.”

This situation was different from Lu Yongye’s.

The lock on Lu Yongye’s room had no signs of tampering. As a police officer, Jian Yuanbai also knew how to pick locks, so he could easily tell whether this old-style lock had been tampered with.

As soon as he said this, the group erupted in shock.

From the crowd, a voice exclaimed, “Is someone playing this murder game?!”

The once tightly packed group instantly scattered a little. More than twenty people looked at each other with suspicion, doubt, and vigilance.

“It’s you!!”

Suddenly, the woman who had been sitting on the floor pointed at someone. Her face was still streaked with tears, but her expression had changed. “You know how to pick locks. You said it yourself.”

The blond man immediately cursed, “Bullshit!”

“You were in the same room as this guy, and you didn’t hear a damn thing when he died? Who the hell would believe that? Now you’re just making stuff up and accusing people? You’re full of shit.”

The woman wiped her tears and stood up. “Yesterday, in front of the iron gate, weren’t you the one holding two iron wires and bragging about picking locks?”

“Fuck you!” The blond man was furious. He cursed loudly and was about to charge at her.

Jian Yuanbai raised a hand and pressed down on his shoulder with a half-smile. “Hitting a woman?”

“Can we talk properly?”

Even though his tone sounded polite, his grip on the blond man’s shoulder tightened.

The blond man’s face twisted in pain, feeling as if his shoulder bone was about to shatter. “Fine, fine! I’ll talk properly! Just let go first.”

Clang—

The clear chime of the grandfather clock rang.

The man with glasses spoke up, “We should go downstairs and check first.”

“What do you all think?”

The blond man quickly agreed, “Yeah, yeah, let’s check first.”

Jian Yuanbai let go, and since no one else had any objections, the man with glasses led the way downstairs.

Upon entering the dining room, he was the first to take out a slip of paper. After unfolding it, his expression became tense and fearful. “It’s me.”

He turned around and showed the group the paper. The folded note revealed black handwriting: “Jia Qi.”

The man with glasses—Jia Qi—held the note with a heavy expression.

After a moment of silence, he looked up at everyone and smiled bitterly. “Am I going to die?”

If this had been two days ago, most of the people present would have reassured him with a laugh and told him not to overthink it. But now, with a fresh corpse upstairs, no one could give him an answer.

The woman who had lost her roommate pointed at the blond man. “He’s the killer! Tie him up, and no one else will die!”

The blond man spat on the ground. “You stupid bitch, you want a beating?”

“If I really picked the lock and killed someone, why the hell would I show off my lockpicking skills in front of the iron gate? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

The woman sneered, “Who knows?”

The blond man’s face twisted with rage as he struggled to hold back. “You just like talking shit, don’t you?”

The woman mocked him coldly. “Back then, no one expected we’d be trapped here, so of course you didn’t bother hiding it. But now that we can’t leave, the situation is different. Killing someone isn’t impossible for you.”

“Besides, who was the most excited when all that money was piled up?”

With that, most of the people wavered, beginning to agree with the woman’s accusations. Among everyone present, only the blond man was known to be capable of picking locks, making him the most suspicious.

As the crowd voiced their thoughts, the woman suddenly pointed again, pushing the suspicion to its peak. “It’s you!”

“I’ll fucking kill you! You hear me?!”

The blond man exploded in anger and charged at her, only to be restrained by the crowd, who used their numbers to overpower him.

Even though he refused to admit it, he was tied up tightly like a worm, struggling on the ground.

As he looked up at the woman who had poured suspicion all over him, he gritted his teeth and suddenly shouted, “Fine, I’m a suspect, so you tie me up.”

“But what about her? She doesn’t have any suspicion?”

“They were in the same room. The person sleeping right next to her died, and she didn’t react at all. Who would believe that?”

“Maybe she was the one who picked the lock and then pinned it on me.”

“You’re all tying me up, fine. But what if she’s the real killer?”

He swept a fierce gaze across the crowd and sneered maliciously. “She’s playing the innocent act, and you’re all falling for it. What if she kills every last one of you? That would be hilarious.”

Jian Yuanbai stood aside, neither speaking nor interfering.

When people were in a group, they were easily swayed. Since he had no evidence to prove that neither of them was the murderer, even if he spoke up, no one would believe him.

But based on instinct and the current circumstances, Jian Yuanbai didn’t think it was them.

Under the blond man’s provocation, the woman was also tied up. Clearly, she hadn’t expected things to turn against her, and she kept trying to defend herself.

The scene grew chaotic, while Jian Yuanbai stared thoughtfully at the long dining table.

Jia Qi, the man with glasses, walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “You think something’s off too, don’t you?”

Jian Yuanbai stepped aside and lowered his head slightly. “What exactly is the method that ensures the note appears here on time?”

Jia Qi said, “We’ve kept watch inside, but we haven’t found anyone coming in.”

“How about this time, we just wait in this restaurant and see what happens?”

Their conversation attracted the attention of the group who had already tied up the woman. They all voiced their approval of Jia Qi’s idea.

Shen Tingyue was pushed aside by the crowd pressing in, and he was not happy about it. He used his sharp teeth to gnaw at the soft flesh of his cheek and stared at Jian Yuanbai’s shoulder with such intense focus that it seemed as if he wanted to burn a hole through it.

It wasn’t until someone behind them complained about the crowding that Jian Yuanbai turned his head and noticed Shen Tingyue, who had somehow been squeezed to the back. He looked like a pitiful little creature.

Jian Yuanbai stepped away from the long table. Being tall and strong, he could easily move through the crowd without being jostled like Shen Tingyue was. His composed and confident demeanor made him stand out.

He grabbed Shen Tingyue’s wrist and led him to the edge of the restaurant. Before Jian Yuanbai could say anything, Shen Tingyue had already climbed onto his shoulder.

The sudden closeness made Jian Yuanbai acutely aware of the hands roaming over his shoulder. His gaze darkened, sharp as a falcon’s, as he locked eyes on Shen Tingyue, who was practically burrowing into his arms.

Shen Tingyue, completely oblivious, acted like a small animal claiming its territory. He patted the spot that Jia Qi had just touched.

After finishing, he pressed his lips together and smiled.

Since his strength was too weak, he could only use such a method to quietly satisfy his possessiveness. The little vampire rarely felt guilty, and his smile carried a hint of embarrassment along with satisfaction.

Jian Yuanbai watched this person staring at him, grinning foolishly. He flicked Shen Tingyue’s forehead and asked casually, “Why didn’t you call for me when you got pushed aside?”

Shen Tingyue covered his reddened forehead, rubbed it, then pointed at his own throat and let out two ‘ah ah’ sounds before gesturing toward the crowd.

Jian Yuanbai chuckled meaningfully. “I forgot, you don’t like to talk.”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and lazily leaned against the wall, his foot propped against the baseboard.

He didn’t speak further with Shen Tingyue and simply looked at the long table in the center. If anyone observed closely, they would notice that his gaze was unfocused, clearly lost in thought.

Shen Tingyue, who had been dragged out of bed early in the morning, was still sleepy. Now, he had nothing to do but wait. The others were eating from the long table, but he just sat there watching.

The food on the long table was no longer as exquisite or abundant as the day before. Now, there was only bread and water—packaged bread, at that.

Watching people eat, Shen Tingyue pursed his lips and turned to stare at Jian Yuanbai expectantly.

His gaze got no response, so he reached out and tugged on Jian Yuanbai’s sleeve, finally drawing the tall man’s attention.

Shen Tingyue rubbed his stomach, looking up at Jian Yuanbai with an expression full of longing and silent pleading.

Jian Yuanbai glanced at him. Under Shen Tingyue’s hopeful gaze, he leaned down.

Shen Tingyue’s eyes instantly lit up. He stretched out his hands to climb onto Jian Yuanbai’s shoulders, completely ignoring the twenty or so people still in the restaurant.

Li Lijie, who happened to glance in their direction, suddenly widened his eyes.

Damn! He already knew yesterday that these two didn’t care about choosing the right place for their intimate moments.

But seriously? The restaurant was filled with twenty people, all intensely focused on surviving this deadly game, and these two were engaging in some kind of public shame play?!

Just as Li Lijie was about to awkwardly look away, he noticed Jian Yuanbai move. He breathed a sigh of relief—so the guy finally realized the situation was inappropriate?

Jian Yuanbai reached out and grasped the back of Shen Tingyue’s neck, applying a bit of force to keep him from coming any closer.

Shen Tingyue’s eyes were filled with confusion and longing. In response, Jian Yuanbai pressed a finger against his lips, his thumb gently rubbing over Shen Tingyue’s soft lower lip as he chuckled softly, “Not now.”

Shen Tingyue’s expression instantly fell. His lips pressed together, and his eyes lowered as if a sprout had suddenly lost its sunlight and was about to wither.

Looking at the people eating bread, Shen Tingyue felt both hungry and wronged. He turned his back to them, refusing to look at the food or the “not-so-appetizing” people eating it.

Everyone else got to eat, but he had to go hungry.

Shen Tingyue wanted to sigh. He even considered crawling back into his coffin and pulling the lid shut to sleep.

The two of them were a bit away from the crowd, so Li Lijie couldn’t hear what Jian Yuanbai was saying. He only saw Jian Yuanbai’s fingers brushing against Shen Tingyue’s lips. The two were so close, and Jian Yuanbai’s hand lingered on those lips in a way that looked undeniably intimate.

Li Lijie stared blankly for a moment, then quickly averted his gaze. He decided that his earlier assumption—that Jian Yuanbai was trying to stop something inappropriate—was stupid.

Stop them?

Ha.

Jian Yuanbai probably just thought teasing was more exciting than actually kissing.

He should have realized that sooner.

Jian Yuanbai, unaware that others had mistaken Shen Tingyue’s thirst for blood as something far more scandalous, continued waiting. The wait was unbearably dull, but leaving now would only make them look suspicious.

Seeing that Shen Tingyue was getting bored and sulky, he decided to strike up a conversation to distract him.

Jian Yuanbai said, “Do you know what determines the order of names on the note?”

Shen Tingyue shook his head, still looking disinterested—clearly still upset about not being able to bite him.

Jian Yuanbai lowered his voice. “At first, I thought the order was based on our seating arrangement in the bus.”

“The bus was split into left and right sides, with two rows on each side—four rows in total.”

“Lu Yongye, Li Lijie, and the guy who died this morning were all in the first four seats on the row closest to the door.”

“Last night, I thought the order might follow an S-shaped pattern, like in an exam hall.”

When he mentioned the exam hall, Jian Yuanbai glanced at Shen Tingyue. The boy was listening seriously, his expression unreadable. After a moment of hesitation, Jian Yuanbai still asked, “Do you know how they assign seat numbers in an exam hall?”

Shen Tingyue shook his head, looking confused.

Jian Yuanbai didn’t continue explaining the exam hall theory and instead went back to the topic of names. “But when Jia Qi’s name appeared, I realized I was wrong.”

“He wasn’t in the first four seats of any row.”

The grand castle and its dining hall were spacious. Jian Yuanbai, standing in the corner and speaking in a low voice, wasn’t worried about being overheard.

He turned to look at Shen Tingyue. “Who do you think will be the next name on the list?”

Seeing that Shen Tingyue just shook his head, Jian Yuanbai said, “It might be me.”

“If someone enters my room to kill me.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Shen Tingyue furrowed his brows, clearly displeased. He stared at Jian Yuanbai and whispered, “I will protect you.”

Shen Tingyue scanned the restaurant warily, his eyes sharp like a beast in a dangerous environment, cautiously watching everything around him.

After surveying everyone, he turned back, nodded firmly at Jian Yuanbai, and said, “I will definitely protect you.”

Jian Yuanbai was momentarily stunned, then chuckled. “Then you better do a good job.”

“If I die, you won’t have a foster father anymore.”

Idiot. He had already given himself away and didn’t even realize it.

This boy, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, might truly possess some unknown power. But strangely, despite his lack of vigilance, he was obedient—too obedient.

Jian Yuanbai suddenly had a chilling thought.

Could it be… that Shen Tingyue actually saw him as his foster father?

Little did he know, upon hearing his words, Shen Tingyue’s face remained blank as he thought to himself:

Protect him? Forget it.

I’ll just wait for him to die and drain his blood while it’s still fresh.

Grinding his small fangs against his cheek, Shen Tingyue clenched his teeth.

His dear “foster father’s” blood—he would make sure to keep it well-preserved.