Chapter 61
They barely looked at each other for a couple of seconds when, before Qin Zhou could figure out what was going on with Lin Yi, he realized that Lin Yi was about to get up.
He exerted more force, trying to push Lin Yi to stay down.
But something that had just now been so simple and easy to do, suddenly became a lot more difficult. It was as if what Qin Zhou had been suppressing before now was a rabbit and what he was trying to hold down now was a wild beast.
No matter how strong Qin Zhou’s hands were, it would be difficult to suppress a wild beast.
There were still patients standing by their windows and Doctor Zhu was still just a short distance from them; he wasn’t even fully in the building yet. If the two of them stood up from their crouch even a little, they might be discovered. And Lin Yi had just been about to stand up completely.
Qin Zhou had to put in more strength but Lin Yi seemed completely oblivious to it and he quickly and quite easily, escaped his hold.
Losing hold of the other, Qin Zhou saw that Lin Yi was about to get up. He immediately rushed towards Lin Yi and because he did it fast, he managed to make his move before Lin Yi could react. Though, holding someone under his own body wasn’t a particularly successful way to overwhelm someone.
Qin Zhou rested one hand on the back of Lin Yi's head, ignoring the scrapes caused by rubbing across the rough ground to the back of his hand. He put all his weight over Lin Yi, holding him down, preventing Lin Yi from throwing him off.
Immediately, a hand was put on his shoulder. Lin Yi had reached out to grab him, clamping onto his shoulder.
Qin Zhou thought he could hear his bones being squeezed by Lin Yi. He hissed and looked down at Lin Yi below him.
“Little genius, let me remind you once again that it is against the rules for the participants to kill other participants.”
Qin Zhou had no idea which part of what he’d said Lin Yi had heard but Qin Zhou felt the pressure on his shoulder gradually weakening.
He was now out of danger from his shoulder being crushed, but Lin Yi still hadn’t let him go. Lin Yi now had his palm against Qin Zhou’s shoulder, intending to push Qin Zhou off.
But before that could happen, Qin Zhou suddenly covered Lin Yi’s eyes with his free hand.
At the 2-6 Rule World post-instance meeting, Ou Ying had mentioned Lin Yi’s strange condition, saying that Lin Yi would enter something like a fugue state when he was extremely nervous.
Lin Yi himself had confirmed this point as well.
Ou Ying said that Lin Yi had returned to their room as if he’d lost his soul. No matter how she and Cheng Yang called Lin Yi, he gave no response, simply going to bed on his own and closing his eyes.
After Lin Yi closed his eyes, it didn’t take long before he was back to normal.
Qin Zhou had his hand over Lin Yi’s eyes. He could feel Lin Yi closing his eyes, his eyelashes brushed against his palm creating a light tickling feeling.
“Don’t be nervous.” Qin Zhou’s voice was soft but firm. He looked at Lin Yi. “I assure you, we’ll be fine. I’ll get you out of here.”
Qin Zhou felt Lin Yi’s lashes tremble slightly against his palm.
Lin Yi still answered Qin Zhou’s assurance with silence. Although his palm was still on his shoulder, Lin Yi made no more to push Qin Zhou away. His expression however finally changed a bit. His lips pursed and his body became tense.
Lin Yi was back.
But facing this scene as soon as he came back, Lin Yi panicked a little.
Setting aside the problem of whether Qin Zhou had discovered the existence of ‘It’, Lin Yi was currently in an awkward position. With Qin Zhou right on top of him, Lin Yi could even feel Qin Zhou’s body heat and heartbeat.
Ahhh, what the fuck, why did you have to come out at this time?
He roared in his heart but didn’t dare to show any expression on his face. Better to continue pretending for now. First, he had to resolve this embarrassment then he could find out whether Qin Zhou suspected anything.
Because Lin Yi wasn’t resisting anymore, Qin Zhou asked, “Do you feel a bit better now?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Lin Yi: “…”
Qin Zhou realized that Lin Yi was feeling better.
Qin Zhou let go of his hand, stared at Lin Yi and said, “Everyone’s response to stress is different, so don’t be ashamed and think it’s some sort of defect.”
Lin Yi opened his eyes helplessly. When he met Qin Zhou’s eyes, he turned his head hastily. “Oh.”
After confirming that Lin Yi wasn’t going to make any attempt to stand up again, Qin Zhou said, “Little genius, please move your head.”
Lin Yi: “Huh? Oh!”
He quickly raised his head and Qin Zhou withdrew his hand from the back of his head.
Lin Yi saw that the skin on the back of Qin Zhou’s hand was torn and blood was oozing out.
He felt very guilty. “Senior, that, I…”
Qin Zhou shook his hand. He had kept them underneath Lin Yi’s head and now his hand was a little numb. Now that Lin Yi was better, he got off Lin Yi.
Looking towards the three-story building, Doctor Zhu had already walked in and had reached Room 103.
While Qin Zhou was watching, Doctor Zhu came to the window and drew the curtains close.
Qin Zhou looked at the other rooms. Once Doctor Zhu had made it into building, the other patients withdrew and went back to bed.
Beside him, Lin Yi got up from the ground and obediently crouched next to him this time.
Qin Zhou glanced at Lin Yi, who kept his head down, not daring to look at him.
He smiled, then said, “Tonight’s prop should be the octopus.”
The octopus’ container was the one Qin Zhou had broken. He said, “Besides having ten regenerating animals despite only having nine people, there’s another suspicious point. Regenerating animals are important props in the body transfer but just one kind, say the earthworm, should already be enough. Why prepare ten different kinds? The earthworms have already been used on Zheng Anjian and only earthworms need soil among the ten kinds of regenerating animals. Why did Doctor Zhu dig up the soil from the grass garden?”
Lin Yi couldn’t figure out the answer either, so he handed the note he’d written in the morgue to Qin Zhou. It was a good thing he’d written a note as he wasn’t very willing to communicate with Qin Zhou right now.
Qin Zhou quickly scanned his note and then said: “Little genius, these clues should be enough, let’s exchange tasks this time.”
Lin Yi: “What?”
Qin Zhou said, “You figure out the main line of the 16-8 Rule World and I’ll look for the 16-8 Monster.”
Qin Zhou taught Lin Yi a way to guess the main line. “Like how I raised those three questions, you first collect all the clues and pick out the suspicious points one by one. Raise three to five or more hypotheses for each point. At first, forego logic when making your guesses, no matter how absurd or unconstrained. Then eliminate some of the absolutely impossible hypotheses. When these impossible hypotheses have been eliminated and the remaining hypotheses connect together then this has a high probability of being the correct answer. Finally, all that needs to be done is to verify your guess.”
Lin Yi nodded, and then asked, “Does Senior already have the answer as to who the 16-8 Monster is?”
Qin Zhou said, “I have a guess. I made it when you figured out the Rule of Death.”
Lin Yi understood. “Wen Xiaoxuan?”
Monsters wouldn’t allow the Rules of Death to come looking for them but the worsening of the patient’s condition was uncontrollable. Even if you still needed to call Doctor Zhu to completely trigger the Rule of Death, the safest way was to simply have a stable patient .
Among the nine patients, the most stable one was Patient 202. From the very beginning, Patient 202, who had a botched plastic surgery, actually seemed out of place with the other patients. Wen Xiaoxuan was the nursing aide assigned to Patient 202.
Qin Zhou nodded. He then said, “It’s time we go back.”
The two of them had been outside for too long. Patients 203 and 303 were about to wake up. If the two patients still haven’t woken up because of their poor physical function, the two of them needed to find a way to revive them. If the patients die, it would be equivalent to killing an NPC.
Same with participants killing other participants, killing an NPC would have its own penalty.
The two snuck back to their respective rooms. Lin Yi paused briefly after returning to Room 203. The traces he’d left behind of him knocking out Patient 203 with ether had disappeared. He remembered that Qin Zhou had gone back here before.
Qin Zhou had cleaned up for him.
Lin Yi scratched his nose.
What a reliable senior.
He went to check on Patient 203. Patient 203’s breathing was much calmer. Lin Yi opened the window a little more, allowing more fresh air to flow into the room.
As soon as he’d done this, there was a knock on the door.
Lin Yi originally planned to ignore it, but the knock on the door didn’t stop.
Lin Yi thought for a while and asked, “Who is it?”
“Shi Xuan.” Shi Xuan’s voice came from the door.
Lin Yi asked, “Is there something wrong?”
Shi Xuan asked, “Do you have anything to eat? I’m so hungry.”
Lin Yi found it strange that she’d come looking for food in the middle of the night but there was also something he wanted to find on Shi Xuan. Old Lady 102’s corpse had an 8mm hole on the top of her head and he wanted to know if Shi Xuan had it too.
Lin Yi thought for a while and decided to open the door. The last time he went hiking with Patient 203, Patient 203 had asked Doctor Zhu for some food and having not eaten much, Lin Yi brought back the leftovers with him.
In any case, he already knew the Rule of Death and he had a pretty good guess as to who the 16-8 Monster was. Lin Yi took a gamble and opened the door.
Shi Xuan’s eyes lit up. “Have you got any? Is there anything to eat?”
“I’ll get it for you.” Lin Yi was tall and when he said this, he looked up at Shi Xuan’s head. Shi Xuan’s hair was so thick that it wasn’t clear whether there was a hole or not.
Lin Yi brought her the bread and said, “What’s on your head?”
Shi Xuan touched her head, then looked at her hands. “There’s nothing.”
Lin Yi said, “Oh, I saw wrong.”
Shi Xuan tore open the bread and ate it in front of Lin Yi. But even after eating it, she still looked hungry, like it hadn’t satiated her in the least.
“I…” Lin Yi said, “I’m going to sleep first.”
Shi Xuan stood outside the door without moving, chewing what was left in her mouth. “Okay.”
Lin Yi closed the door and after taking a look at Patient 203, he returned to his cubicle and lay down on the narrow bed.
When Shi Xuan was touching her hair, Lin Yi saw two holes on the top of Shi Xuan’s head.
He couldn’t figure out why Old Lady 102 had one hole on the top of her head while Shi Xuan had two.
But he really had discovered a lot of clues tonight and they were all puzzling ones.
Lin Yi suddenly thought of the method Qin Zhou taught him and he decided to try it out.
He first tried to make guesses about the suspicions points that Qin Zhou raised.
Why are there nine participants involved but ten glass containers?
Hypothesis 1: There is a tenth participant
Hypothesis 2: It’s backup in case one of the other props fails.
Hypothesis 3: Doctor Zhu prepared it for himself
Just earthworms would have been enough, why prepare ten different regenerating animals?
Hypothesis 1: Doctor Zhu likes novelty and variety
Hypothesis 2: Doctor Zhu has OCD and he like round numbers
Hypothesis 3: Doctor Zhu is experimenting to find out which regenerating animal is better to use
Almost at the same time Lin Yi made these hypotheses, he ruled out the inappropriate ones.
For both points of doubt, it was Hypothesis 3 that was left. — Doctor Zhu was experimenting which regenerating animal was better to use and the remaining one of the ten regenerating animals belonged to Doctor Zhu.
But there was obviously a paradox in this conclusion. If the regenerating animal is used on the patient, there would be one kind of animal less. Thus, the two empty containers that used to contain earthworms and comb jellies that Qin Zhou saw.
If during the experiment, Doctor Zhu found a certain regenerating animal that was very useful, say the earthworm, since he’s already used it on Zheng Anjian, what would he do if he wanted to use it again?
Lin Yi immediately pondered the third suspicious point that Qin Zhou raised.
Why did Doctor Zhu dig up soil from the grass garden?
Hypothesis 1: He had a special hobby concerning soil
Hypothesis 2: He was looking for earthworms in the soil
Hypothesis 3: He’ll use it for the earthworms living in Zheng Anjian’s body.
Lin Qi quickly got rid of the unlikely hypotheses. If Doctor Zhu had a special hobby concerning soil and he loved it so much that he’d stay up late at night to dig soil from the grass garden, he wouldn’t be discussing history when chatting with Lin Yi. Instead he’d be talking about soil. It seemed that Doctor Zhu liked history more than soil.
Hypothesis 2 was also ruled out immediately. Earthworms preferred to live in moist, loose soil rich in organic matter. The grass beds were exposed to direct sunlight every day; the soil was too dry and the temperature was too high for earthworms.
So, hypothesis 3 was left.
Lin Yi thought of Zheng Anjian’s strangeness, eating the steeped tea leaves and shying away from the light.
If the soil that Doctor Zhu dug from the grass garden was processed for Zheng Anjian, then the flesh of Patient 101 that Doctor Zhu had cut off must be for Shi Xuan.
Comb jellies are carnivores.
No wonder Shi Xuan wasn’t satisfied with bread.
After a pause, Lin Yi suddenly sat up.
If Patient 101’s flesh was for Shi Xuan, why was Shi Xuan still hungry?
Was it because Doctor Zhu went to find Zhang Yunyan and Patient 103 and didn’t have time to feed Shi Xuan?
Then what would happen to an un-fed Shi Xuan?
Lin Yi’s face froze.
She would go looking for prey.
So exciting, thank you for the new chapters.
i think the thing with the hypotheses is from sherlock holmes 👀 once you have eliminated all the options that are not possible, only the truth remains no matter how unlikely it is
Low key thought Qin Zhou would kiss his little genius to bring his consciousness back .. 😗
Interesting！ (◎_◎;)
The difficulty may have just been raised
Thanks for the update!
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
(;ŏ﹏ŏ)
AGHHHH think more about Dr Zhu’s obsession with history and his supposedly correct version of it! There’s clearly a connection between him and immortality