Edited by Ning
Cen Cen looked at the empty bed bottom, a little anxious, “I still have no clue…” She turned to look at Shang Sirui, “Sirui, what should we do now?”
Shang Sirui sighed, “I’ll wait for the execution to vote later,” he took out his phone, and the countdown to the vote was displayed on the screen, “There are still thirteen minutes.”
“Then whom shall we vote for? Is it the same as before?”
Shang Sirui puffed his mouth and frowned, like a child who failed to grab a candy. “Sister Cen Cen, you shouldn’t be persuaded by Xiqing so quickly. Do you really think Ziheng is the Killer? Anyway, I don’t think that Ziheng’s various behaviors looked like that of a villain. What’s more, he’s known for being a study god, it’s normal for him to have clear thinking and solving problems quickly. What we need to do now is to vote out the most likely person as soon as possible.”
Cen Cen hesitated for a while, and asked uncertainly, “Then we have to persuade Ziheng to be with us?”
Shang Si Rui shook his head. “We’ll forget it. He has been with Xiqing all the time, and he won’t necessarily listen to us to vote for him. Ruan Xiao has already agreed with us before, if we all vote for him…” Suddenly, he heard a sound, so he opened the closet door gently, and Ruan Xiao’s voice came from another room.
“Okay, I’ll vote for Ziheng with you.”
Xia Xiqing’s voice also appeared.
“Believe me, there’s definitely something wrong with him.”
Hearing the sound of two people’s footsteps approaching, Shang Sirui quickly retreated. Xia Xiqing and Ruan Xiao came out of the wardrobe and saw Shang Sirui and Cen Cen standing beside the moved bed. Xia Xiqing said, “Have you found any useful clues?”
Shang Sirui sighed, “No… I think there’s nothing left. ”
Xia Xiqing raised his eyebrow and gave Ruan Xiao a look, “Then I’ll go to find Ziheng first. Do you want to join me?”
Ruan Xiao looked at Cen Cen, Cen Cen also looked at her, giving her a look, Ruan Xiao’s face showed a little hesitation, “I…I’ll be here first.”
The expression on Shang Sirui’s face obviously relaxed a lot.
Seeing that they didn’t want to go away, Xia Xiqing was relieved. He left the room of the female painter with a cool face and thoughtfully closed the door for them.
If Xia Xiqing is right, Shang Sirui and Cen Cen will try their best to persuade Ruan Xiao to vote out with them. During this period, Ruan Xiao’s interaction with them will make time for him to find evidence.
Shang Sirui is not stupid. He will find that his plan is falling through. At that time, he will “kill” Xia Xiqing because he is afraid that things will be revealed and come to light.
And this is exactly what Xia Xiqing wants. He wants to force the killer to use his only right to take the initiative to kill, so that he will no longer pose a threat to Zhou Ziheng.
The prerequisite is that he can really find evidence to prove Shang Sirui’s identity to Zhou Ziheng before he died. Otherwise, based on Zhou Ziheng’s prejudice against him, I am afraid he would not believe his own words.
The living room was empty. Xia Xiqing didn’t know where Zhou Ziheng is now, and he has no time to know.
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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There must have been a painting here.
Xia Xiqing took down every piece of clothing in the closet and threw it on the ground. The closet suddenly became empty, with nothing. Xia Xiqing tried to consider the problem by substituting the ideas of Shang Sirui at the time.
Judging from the paintings in the other rooms, the painting here should have been framed, unless he removed the frame, no, no, it was too much trouble and no tools. Shang Sirui didn’t even take out his medical records, so a painting of that size was even more impossible.
Xia Xiqing looked around the whole room. It must be hidden in a corner of this room.
Where is it, where is it exactly?
The situation is really tense. Xia Xiqing feels that his palms are sweating.
He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. Standing in front of the wardrobe, he carefully scanned the entire room. This room is not big, and there are not many places to hide a painting.
Carpet? Impossible. They have stepped on it several times. Xia Xiqing lifted the carpet and there really was nothing. Under the round table? No, he still bent down and checked. There was nothing on the back.
It won’t be so obvious.
He went to the bedside cabinet and opened all the drawers. There were no paintings in it. In fact, there was no painting in it.
Xia Xiqing’s vision finally stayed on the bed.
It suddenly occurred to him that when they got the memo to pick up the pen, they proposed to move the bed to check. Shang Sirui was reluctant at first.
Thinking of his expression at that time, Xia Xiqing was almost sure that there must be something wrong with the bed. He immediately pulled all the beddings off the prop bed and threw them one by one to the ground, leaving only the bare bed board.
No. Still none.
Impossible.
Xia Xiqing tried to replace Shang Sirui’s perspective again, recalling the original details, the expression on his face, and what he had said.
The memory became blurred. The only thing Xia Xiqing was sure of was that Shang Sirui did not want him and Zhou Ziheng to move the bed.
This shows that the “moving the bed” itself can easily expose the painting he hid.
He thought of a possibility that was almost impossible.
Xia Xiqing moved the bed alone, to be exact, he did not move the bed, but moved to the wall and lifted one side. This light-weight prop bed was easily placed on the ground by its side, with the surface of the bed leaning against the wall, and the entire bottom of the bed was completely exposed in front of his eyes.
As he expected, there was an oil painting on the bottom of the bed, which was hastily fixed with wide adhesive tape.
The protagonist in this painting was a beautiful young man with long light brown hair, who was tightly entangled by a banshee with a human face and a beast body. The banshee’s beautiful face looking up at the boy’s serious eyes, and two beast-like claws tightly gripping his chest. His eyes were full of temptation.
Xia Xiqing couldn’t be more familiar with this painting, and it was “Oedipus and the Sphinx” by Gustave Moreau.
Oedipus was almost one of the most famous and tragic characters in ancient Greek mythology.
He was kind and intelligent, full of the beauty of human nature, but he never escaped the oracle of Patricide all his life.
“Oedipus Patricide… ” Xia Xiqing frowned. Sure enough, he was cheated at the beginning.
This painting is the biggest clue to the Killer’s identity. The derailed father and the tense parents had no intention of showing him alms and love.
The beloved son who can only communicate with his father through notes was on a low tide when depression occured.
When his manic depression broke out, he killed his father who had betrayed the family.
This kind of plot is so real that Xia Xiqing felt uncomfortable, but the current tension slightly diluted the physiological discomfort. Half kneeling on the ground, he tried to pull off the tape to take out the painting, but it was so tight that he only pulled off a few pieces of the adhesive with great effort.
“Xiqing? Where are you, Xiqing?”
It’s Shang Sirui’s voice.
Xia Xiqing’s heart was beating so fast. He judged the urgency of the matter with the fastest speed and chose to give up pulling the painting apart.
He couldn’t be the only one who should know about this. He has to tell others. He originally intended to get the painting to Zhou Ziheng, who didn’t believe him at all. Only with the most powerful evidence can he believe what he said. But now it’s too late to explain to him.
His time was running out. Shang Sirui couldn’t wait.
Before he killed himself, he had to bet all his chances on Zhou Ziheng.
Xia Xiqing immediately walked to the door of Shang Sirui and his original room, trying to try his luck to see if he was inside. If not, it would be troublesome. Shang Sirui was already stuck in the living room.
As soon as he opened the door of the study, Xia Xiqing found it was pitch black inside.
For a moment, he felt a strong shortness of breath, and even felt dizzy.
He hesitated a little, and his steps were uncontrollably stagnant. The black room was like a black hole with no end, dangerous and unknown. The thick black penetrated from the boundary between light and dark, and absorbed on his toes, his feet and his calves and dragged him in alive.
So sad……
Xia Xiqing reached out his hand and flurried to touch the light switch at the door of the room in a panic, but suddenly his wrist was grabbed by another hand, dragged a few steps, and walked directly into the room. Xia Xiqing felt extremely uncomfortable, and even lost control of his emotions and wanted to swear. Just when he couldn’t help but want to speak, the unreasonable person pushed him against the wall and covered his mouth.
“Shhh. I found the clue and can go out…”
It was Zhou Ziheng’s voice.
The excessive stress reaction made Xia Xiqing even forget to ask Zhou Ziheng why he knew it was him in the first place, as he clearly could not see anything.
Outside the door, the voice of Sirui was getting closer and closer.
His mouth was covered and he couldn’t speak, but Zhou Ziheng’s strength was so strong that Xia Xiqing had to bite his palm.
Zhou Ziheng released his hand painfully, “What are you doing?”
“I can’t get out.” Xia Xiqing leaned back against the cold wall, panting, his voice slightly hoarse.
In the dark, he fumbled for Zhou Ziheng’s hand, his voice was deep and urgent, “Shang Sirui is the killer, believe me, this time I’m absolutely not lying to you.”
He said these words hurriedly and flustered, Zhou Ziheng’s heartbeat suddenly became much faster, and it pounded his chest violently. He could not tell why, probably because he felt that Xia Xiqing in the dark was too strange.
Before he had time to say one more sentence or explain one more sentence, the familiar metallic voice came from the ceiling.
“The player Xia Xiqing, dies. The player Xia Xiqing, dies.”
Repeated death notices hovered overhead, spreading in the dark.
Although everything in his field of vision was endless black, Zhou Ziheng could feel that the cold hands that had grasped him loosened, and his fingers gradually left the pulse of his wrist.
“From now on, player Xia Xiqing loses the right to speak, please go to the Outing table in the living room and wait for the Outing.”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Zhou Ziheng: I am angry! I recognized my wife in a second, but I was bitten.
Xia Xiqing: Weren’t you very excited? Your little heart was fluttering~
Zhou Ziheng: That.., that was anger!
Damn…..what happened how did my Son die???
Thanks for the chapter<3
He was smart, cunning and knows too much…huhuhu!!!!!
This fool son of mine I know it curiosity kills the cat and it really do kill my son of a cat!
XXQ’s role in this game is the male owner, however, according to the plot of the escape room, the male owner was killed. Because the male owner likely died of poison, I think it is reasonable to assume that the poison is XXQ’s cause of death too, although I’m not sure of how he ingested it. Furthermore, I think that, based on the plot, the players are not searching for any random killer, but rather, they are looking for the person who murdered the male owner. Therefore, it would not make logical sense if the TV program, which has done an amazing job with the methodical puzzles and riddles, allowed the male owner to participate in the execution voting because he should be the victim of the killer everyone is trying to determine.
Eh? EHH? What?? How?!?!?!
Thanks for the chapter~
Ehh?!? Did he faint?! Σ(‘◉⌓◉’)
Baby Xiqing is just too smart ¯(ツ)/¯
Thank you for the chapter 🥰💛💛💛
XXQ who hurt you in the past?! why are you so afraid of the dark? remember, your husband is there for you!
thanks for the chapter! ♡
He already told him who the killer is, I wonder if he will also find the painting?
thanks for the chapter <3
Hehehe Zhou ziheng is done for he starts to fall and he can even see him in the dark🤩🤩
Thanks for the chapter ❤❤
ah, he fainted bcs of the dark. xiqing can’t stand dark room….
err did someone behind this tv program know xiqing??
They are only playing escape room game but I can feel my heart wanting to jump out of my chest QAQ thanks for the update
My god. This novel is too good. Cant wait for next chapter.