translator: honeydew
At this time, the judges watching the scenes on the monitor had quite complex expressions on their faces.
Although going up to the fourth floor was in violation of the rules, it had been sealed with an iron door, so no one could enter anyway. Just the act of walking up the stairs was not considered a violation.
At first, they didn’t pay much attention to Zhou Jiayu’s actions, thinking he would soon come down. However, just when he was about to leave, it seemed he had stepped on something and fell directly onto the stairs, his entire body going limp.
Xu Jian burst into laughter when he saw this situation and said, “Lin Zhushui, your disciple is so delicate.” He had fallen and couldn’t get up.
Lin Zhushui said blandly: “Xu Jian, after so many years, you still haven’t improved yourself at all.”
Xu Jian gritted his teeth and said, “What do you mean?”
Lin Zhushui was too lazy to pay attention to him. He extended his hand and picked up a nearby cup, taking a sip of tea.
Chen Xiaoru also saw Zhou Jiayu on the monitor. She was originally a little bit worried, but when she saw that Lin Zhushui wasn’t moved at all, she didn’t speak up.
On the screen, Zhou Jiayu leaned against the wall. His cheeks gradually hung full of tears, and he even buried his head in his arms, looking extremely pitiful.
Chen Xiaoru said, “Zhushui, is your disciple alright?”
Lin Zhushui said, “He’s okay, no need to worry.”
Chen Xiaoru had to swallow down her words in the end. Although she was older than Lin Zhushui, in the feng shui circle, the only ranking was strength. When he was in his teens, Lin Zhushui had already been a judge in this competition. Even if things really needed to be discussed, she didn’t have the qualifications to give advice to Lin Zhushui.
Zhou Jiayu seemed very uncomfortable, his choking sobs increasing, and his body trembling.
Just as they thought he was about to faint, he unexpectedly calmed down. Xu Jian let out a heavy sigh, clearly having realized the truth: “Empathy?!”
Lin Zhushui was silent.
Xu Jian directly stood up, almost sticking his entire body to the screen of the monitor. He said, “Lin Zhushui— where did you find this disciple of yours?”
Lin Zhushui was too lazy to pay attention to him and leisurely took a sip of tea.
“You’re just going to leave him like this? Aren’t you afraid he’s going to get trapped and unable to come out?” Xu Jian turned his head.
Lin Zhushui said lightly, “He is my disciple, I naturally have confidence in him.”
Xu Jian narrowed his eyes.
In the end, as expected by Lin Zhushui, Zhou Jiayu didn’t lose himself and woke up. However, he woke up a bit too late, only a few minutes before the end of the competition.
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.
Zhou Jiayu hurried to the living room on the first floor.
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Zhou Jiayu looked embarrassed and said, “I haven’t found a doll yet.” After leaving that terrifying memory, some images flashed through his mind. Those images were related to the dolls, and were too scattered and need to be organized, but now it seemed that his time was running out.
Xu Ruwang said, “Zhou Jiayu?”
Zhou Jiayu spoke: “I’m sorry, I’m leaving first.”
He had just arrived in the living room, but hurriedly left. This time he was heading towards the garden outside.
However, when he arrived in the garden, Zhou Jiayu felt helpless. The scene in the garden was vastly different from his memory. In what he saw, the garden was filled with dense roses that were very beautiful when they bloomed. But now, those roses disappeared completely and became flowerless evergreen plants.
“Can’t find it at all.” Zhou Jiayu walked in a large circle around the garden.
Jiba said, “Don’t think about the memories. Can you see black mist? Since the doll is related to the murder case, it is certain to be tinged with resentment. The place where it is hidden should have very dense black mist.”
Zhou Jiayu nodded and looked around, searching for the place with the densest black mist.
He searched once and very soon had a target. By the wall at the southwest side of the garden, the black mist was thicker than anywhere else.
Zhou Jiayu knew he didn’t have much time and quickly ran over. He picked up the gardening shovel placed by the wall and began digging at the soil.
But just as Zhou Jiayu began digging, he heard the sound of a bell coming from the villa, and a faint voice could be heard: “Time is up.”
Zhou Jiayu: “…Time’s up?”
Jiba said, “En.”
Zhou Jiayu put down the shovel and walked back with his head lowered, starting to think about whether he should go google how to write his suicide note.
He arrived at the living room, and all the contestants gave him some strange looks, some worried, some curious, and some malicious and gloating— after all, they were all competitors.
“Are you okay?” Xu Ruwang walked over and patted his shoulder. “Why is your complexion so bad?”
Zhou Jiayu shook his head: “It’s nothing.”
“Don’t take things too seriously, it’s just a competition.” Xu Ruwang thought that Zhou Jiayu had failed, and that was why his complexion was so bad.
“Thank you.” Zhou Jiayu nodded in response to Xu Ruwang’s kindness.
As the competition ended, Xiao Dou appeared again in the living room. She slowly sat down on the sofa and scanned the dolls placed on the table.
Compared to what Zhou Jiayu had seen before, there were several more dolls on the table this time, with the number increasing to thirteen. It went without saying that someone must’ve chosen a wrong one.
The contestant’s expressions were all very serious, but Xiao Dou giggled as she leaned against the sofa, her voice very faint: “Not bad, you’ve found a lot.”
She bent down and slowly picked out the incorrect dolls one by one. From her actions, it could be seen that she took great care of these dolls. Out of the thirteen dolls, there should’ve been ten correct answers, but Xiao Dou picked out four, leaving only nine.
“It seems that you’ve only found nine,” Xiao Dou said.
The doll chosen by Xu Ruwang was one of them. He seemed to be relieved and glanced at Zhou Jiayu standing next to him.
Zhou Jiayu’s lips tightened and his eyebrows furrowed slightly. His beautiful peach blossom eyes lost their usual smile and carried a hint of sadness, causing Xu Ruwang’s heart to tremble.
Sure enough, this guy is just my type, Xu Ruwang thought secretly in his heart.
“What a pity, only nine contestants have passed this competition,” Xiao Dou said. However, there was no trace of regret on her face. Her dark glass-like blue eyes seemed to hold no emotions towards these small matters. She said, “But did anyone else discover anything else?”
This should’ve been the bonus questions section. The contestants were very clear in their hearts that the ten spots were set, which meant that among the contestants who had not found a doll, there was still a lucky one who could enter the semifinals.
So all eleven contestants who were not selected left the room and entered one by one, telling Xiao Dou the “bonus questions” they had discovered.
Zhou Jiayu was in the middle of the line, constantly thinking about where the doll might’ve been buried in the garden.
“Wuwuwu, give me another chance, give me another chance—” Suddenly, a fierce cry broke out from the living room, presumably because the female contestant who had just entered had a breakdown and began to cry.
Zhou Jiayu said, “It’s over, I’m also starting to get nervous.”
Jiba spoke: “Don’t be nervous, you have me!”
Zhou Jiayu: “…” Yes, he was stronger than the others, he had a jiba in his head.
If someone wasn’t nervous, they were definitely faking it. Zhou Jiayu quietly glanced at the monitor and didn’t know that this move was picked up by the judges.
Chen Xiaoru smiled. “Zhushui, where did you pick up this darling, he’s so cute.”
Lin Zhushui lightly said, “Yes, quite cute.”
Chen Xiaoru said, “He’s like a little hamster. That one look from him made my heart soften.”
Xu Jian snorted coldly from beside them.
The contestants in front entered quickly and came out quickly. They were all disheartened and everyone knew their results by looking at their expressions.
In half an hour, it was Zhou Jiayu’s turn. He took a deep breath and stepped into the living room again.
Xiao Dou was sitting on the sofa in the living room, and smiled. “Hello.”
“Hello,” Zhou Jiayu said.
Xiao Dou said, “We can start now.”
Zhou Jiayu nodded and took a light breath. “Hasn’t the murderer already been found?”
Xiao Dou’s smile faded and she said, “What do you mean by that?”
Zhou Jiayu spoke: “The murderer… should be the mistress of this villa.”
Xiao Dou was not smiling anymore. Her lifeless gaze fixed on Zhou Jiayu, and her lips lifted slightly. “Did you go to the fourth floor?”
Zhou Jiayu shook his head: “No, I only reached the stairs from the third to the fourth floor.”
“How did you know?” Xiao Dou said.
Zhou Jiayu said, “Since I could make it to the quarterfinals, I should’ve had some kind of personal method to figure it out.”
Xiao Dou gestured for Zhou Jiayu to continue.
Zhou Jiayu said slowly, “The scene was a little blurry. I didn’t see too clearly, but the one thing I can confirm is that the mistress killed her child, because… he damaged a doll.”
Xiao Dou said, “Doll?”
Zhou Jiayu said, “Yes, a very beautiful, humanoid doll wearing a long black dress.” He tried to recall the doll’s appearance, but as it became clearer, he found with a chilling sensation that the doll… was at least seventy or eighty percent similar to the Xiao Dou staring at him.
Seeing Zhou Jiayu’s frightened expression, Xiao Dou smiled. She stood up and leaned in front of Zhou Jiayu, saying, “The doll you saw, didn’t it look just like me?”
The author has something to say:
Zhou Jiayu: I’m so scared…
Be good, come here, don’t be scared, you won’t get pregnant— Lin Zhushui comforted while zipping up his pants.
honeydew: Hello everyone, chapter releases will be slowing down from here on out due to their length (9k+ characters). I’ll still be updating at least once a week, on Fridays, but expect sporadic updates to become less common.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
AHAHAH ENDING KILLED ME!!!!!!
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Thank you for translating <333
Thanks for the chapter 💕
No worry, tha k you for translating 💐
Omg OMG omg!! I didn’t know someone picked up this novel! It’s been years since it was last updated and I’m so grateful that you picked it up! Thank you! :D❤