Edited by Ning
Zhou Ziheng frowned, “If you follow this line of thinking, whichever room each player was assigned to, they’re automatically assigned the identity of the owner of the room. Like you, even their appearance was arranged by the program group at the beginning. It seemed that it was all set, but we were not notified in advance, so that we could have an immersive gaming experience.”
“It was all for that moment.” Xia Xiqing leaned on the back of the chair and stepped on the shelf of the drawing board. He was slightly unhappy that he was successfully deceived by the screenwriter. “To let the players marvel when they discover the truth.” He quickly discovered something unreasonable, “But you and I are both players in the first room. The owner of that study room should only be the male owner. If I correspond to the dead male owner, who are you?”
Zhou Ziheng frowned slightly. This was also where he was puzzled. He looked at the white shirt on Xia Xiqing, thought of the clothing of several other players, and finally looked at his own assault jacket.
“The show crew didn’t arrange my look. I just came in wearing my own clothes…” Zhou Ziheng tried to reason, “You are playing the dead male owner, so your eyes were also blindfolded, and you couldn’t move your hands or feet, because you were already ‘dead’, I would have to help you escape and find the truth…”
“You have the role similar to a detective, or the real breaker of this secret room.” Xia Xiqing could already make a conclusion.
Therefore, he is the dead male owner, Zhou Ziheng is the detective, Ruan Xiao is the female owner, Cen Cen is the female painter, and Shang Sirui is the child.
Then, the problem of finding the Killer from among the five of them turned into a problem of finding a murderer.
All the fragmented clues are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which can only be seen at the moment when each piece is found and restored.
Xia Xiqing looked down at the “poison bottle” in his hand and handed it back to Zhou Ziheng. He scratched his hair, revealing a forehead with a slight widow’s peak, the pair of peach blossom eyes were bright, “Hey, since you gave me such a big clue, I will also tell you a secret.”
I don’t want to know your secret at all. Zhou Ziheng thought.
But facing the camera, he couldn’t speak directly. Xia Xiqing looked up at his face with an expression of “I’m waiting for you to ask me what my secret is”.
Zhou Ziheng had to speak insincerely: “What’s your secret?”
“I'm afraid of the dark.”
I knew there is not a word of truth from this person’s mouth.
Zhou Ziheng said, “Oh, really?”
“I’m serious.” The smile on Xia Xiqing’s face reduced a lot, and he turned his head to look at the drawing board in front of him, “So… if there is a dark room in the future, and you don’t want to be dragged down, just leave me behind.”
You make it sound like I like to bring you with me. Zhou Ziheng’s first reaction was a bit awkward, but he felt even more awkward when he calmed down. The atmosphere suddenly became very strange, which made him helpless. This person usually speaks three-pointers truth and seven-pointers false, so he had to doubt it. But his current tone seems to be very different from the usual.
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.
Before Zhou Ziheng could think through it, Xia Xiqing quickly changed his expression again. He stretched out two long legs, and one foot was almost touching Zhou Ziheng’s shoes. He smiled and stretched out, “Do you believe me now, I’m not the Killer.”
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How can a man be so fair.
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“The remaining three…” Xia Xiqing still thinks that most of the clues were pointing to the female painter, including 《The Clothed Maja》 in the first room. “Does the painting in the first room imply anything? I always think that the third party is the most suspicious.”
The third party……
Such a sharp statement.
Zhou Ziheng looked at Xia Xiqing’s expression and knew that he was already immersed in the game, but this completely violated what he said in the first room.
[When playing this game, the sense of immersion should not be too strong.]
He tried to pull Xia Xiqing out, “The painting does give a lot of information, but you think there are paintings in almost every room. The first room is 《The Clothed Maja》, the purpose is probably to hope that we find out who Cen Cen is when we see her, or that Cen Cen finds out who she is after entering our room. The paintings in this room are a reminder of the private relationship between the painter and the male owner, as well as your identity. The female owner’s room only has a portrait of a half-length body, and she is also wearing a black coat, the purpose of which is to imply the identity of Ruan Xiao. The second room…”
Xia Xiqing listened indifferently, he was a little distracted. His fingers couldn’t help but caressed the white paper on the drawing board, but he suddenly found something wrong. Once again, he carefully stroked every inch of the drawing paper, confirming what he was thinking.
This is not a mere blank paper.
Sitting in front of the drawing board, Xia Xiqing looked at the painting tools on one side of the wooden cabinet. He picked up the paintbrush and moistened it with water. After dipping it in the watercolor paint, he raised his hand to paint on the paper.
“What are you doing?”
Xia Xiqing wrote with a smile, “Obviously, I want to paint.” After that, he held the brush obliquely. Originally, Zhou Ziheng thought he had another fit of mental illness again. Unexpectedly, some words gradually appeared on the paper, which were the parts that the paint could not stay on.
He took the paper off the drawing board, and Zhou Ziheng came closer. “Sure enough, you see…”
“What are you doing?” Shang Sirui’s voice suddenly appeared and interrupted Xia Xiqing’s words. Xia Xiqing subconsciously pressed the paper on the drawing board, quietly took several pieces of white paper from the table, put them on the top of the clue paper to cover the previous one, and clipped them all together. Then he calmly turned the brush in his hand and drew some lines on the white paper. Holding this posture, he looked back at Shang Sirui and Cen Cen, who were close to him, and Ruan Xiao who was following him.
He didn’t know why, but Xia Xiqing felt that Cen Cen’s expression looked a little strange when he looked at him. Could it be that she suspected that he was the killer?
Or, Cen Cen is the killer.
All kinds of conjectures collide in his mind. Normally, his logic will be clearer when he calms down. But now he has to face other players and figure out who is behind the scenes without being suspicious. It’s really a bit difficult.
“Ziheng, have you found anything?”
Zhou Ziheng put his hand in his pocket, holding the poison bottle, and said without expression, “There’s something I think is very suspicious. I just found a torn divorce agreement in that room.”
If you want to eliminate the suspicion, you have to sacrifice the secondary clues to divert their attention.
“Where is it?”
“I’ll take you.” With that, Zhou Ziheng raised his foot and walked to the wastebasket.
“Xiqing, what are you doing sitting here?” Shang Sirui did not follow him. Instead, he went to Xia Xiqing’s side. His hand was still drawing rapidly on the paper. “Ah, I just saw the drawing board and stuff. My hands feel itchy, I want to paint.”
“It’s amazing.” Shang Sirui looked at the gradually forming lines on the drawing board, admiring it, “You paint so beautifully.”
Zhou Ziheng, who came back from another room with Ruan Xiao and Cen Cen, struggled to get out of the closet. He gently held the door of the closet for the two girls behind and let them come out, “Be careful.”
After reading the divorce agreement with them, Zhou Ziheng thought about whether he had reduced their doubts. He unconsciously walked to the drawing board.
He didn’t even notice that he had regarded Xia Xiqing as the only trustworthy person in this game, and subconsciously returned to the area where he was.
“You are really amazing. I have admired people who can paint since I was a child.”
“Next time, I’ll take more time and make a painting for you.” Xia Xiqing turned his face to the side, and smiled at Shang Sirui, who was standing aside. The curvature of his narrowed eyes was very soft and sunny. It’s totally different from the kind of smile he showed to himself. How to describe it, the kind that even the corners of his eyes are full of energy.
It’s very eye-catching, Zhou Ziheng didn’t notice at all that his eyes were completely nailed to Xia Xiqing’s face.
This playboy scum is really playing tricks all the time.
He walked to the drawing board with a cold expression, only to find that Xia Xiqing painted a blooming rose with the red watercolor paint before, and the petals were gently stretched on the white paper, soft and gorgeous.
Blood red roses, pale paper, Xia Xiqing’s profile.
There’s an inexplicable sense of beauty that somehow fits.
“Do you really want to paint for me? Can I have the physical kind?” Shang Sirui explained with a little excitement, “It’s the kind that can be hung at home.”
“No problem. I’ll give you a big painting in my spare time. How about an oil painting?” Xia Xiqing didn’t look at his face, casually held the pen and closed the end, habitually signed a Tsing in the lower right corner of the drawing paper.
“It’s so cool to be friends with a pro.” Shang Sirui sighed repeatedly.
Xia Xiqing put the pen on the table, turned his head and smiled at him, “You exaggerate too much.” Who knew that he’d see Zhou Ziheng’s face when he turned around, he was a little surprised.
He didn’t expect that he was standing behind all the time, but what’s that expression? He looked unhappy and surprised.
It’s really strange.
There was no change on Xia Xiqing’s face, but he wanted to laugh a little bit in his heart. He turned around, raised his hand, opened the clip, and took down the rose drawing paper and the clue paper hidden underneath. He then stood up and went to Zhou Ziheng’s side, folded the painting several times and stuffed it directly into his jacket pocket.
“Here you are.” Xia Xiqing patted his pocket and gave him a sweet smile, “Don’t dislike it.”
In that smile, he exchanged a look with Zhou Ziheng, then turned around, pretending that nothing had happened, and took Shang Sirui’s shoulder, he started to say something, “There is a divorce agreement in that room of Ruan Xiao. I think it should be related to that. Have you seen it…”
Zhou Ziheng put his hand into his pocket. The paper inside gave off an intriguing warmth.
“Thank you.” Zhou Ziheng finally opened his mouth to his back.
You should thank me. Xia Xiqing didn’t look back, only raised his hand behind him.
When he painted, he saw the handwriting composed of blank traces on the paper, with only four simple terms.
[sofa, flashlight, study, lights off]
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The author has something to say:
Zhou Ziheng, a ‘more inner drama than the shou’ gong, a ‘spends all day internally rebuking the shou’ gong, ‘last moment calling him scum, next moment accepting his flowers’… gong.
…ZZH is trying so hard not to like XXQ….and failing so bad…
Thanks for the chapter~
ZZH is really too much on his self he should just accept the fact that he liking Xiqing is our joy!~
Thanks for the chapter<3
thanks for the chapter! ≧♡≦
Really shouldn’t deny it anymore o(￣▽￣)
Thank you for the chapter 🥰💛💛💛
Xiqing is such a flirt, whether knowingly or unknowingly. I feel like my face would be red all the time when he’s around.
Thanks for the chapter <3
Isn’t it hard, ZZH? To dislike our likable XXQ?
The Tsun is strong in this gong! I like it! Keep on suffering! ψ(｀∇ ´)ψ