Wind swept in from the sea, letting out a deafening roar as it whipped bean-sized raindrops frantically against the mottled outer walls of the manor.
Inside, peeling paint and plaster flaked off continuously with every footstep. A damp, moldy odor seeped from the cracks in the floorboards, mingling with the salty briny tang of the sea wind, pressing down heavily on everyone's chest.
“Weather sure changes fast nowadays. When you get old, your health goes... my leg aches whenever the wind blows hard.” The old lady, having trouble walking, was the last to come upstairs. She grumbled all the way up, holding a crude, makeshift cane. “Does anyone have a light?”
“Hey girl, do you have a light?” She poked the middle-aged man beside her with her cane.
But in the second-floor study, no one paid her any mind.
The sky had already darkened. A weak fire blazed in the fireplace, its flickering light casting shifting shadows across faces worn with varied expressions.
Rain had begun falling outside the manor, and by the sound of it, it was quite heavy. Water was seeping in along the gaps in the windows and cracks in the walls.
“This damn weather...”
In the stifling silence, only the sound of rain and wind grew increasingly wild. The shabby curtains swayed gently in the wind leaking through the window cracks.
Everyone was trapped in this island manor surrounded by the sea on all sides, facing an endless storm.
Yuan Ying asked, “What happened?”
Zhang Qiumin pointed tremblingly toward the crack in the dilapidated wooden door. The view inside was unclear; only a slumping shadow could be seen.
Zhou Shen began throwing his weight against the door. With a powerful slam of his muscular frame, the entire door and surrounding walls shuddered, immediately sending dust and large flakes of plaster falling from the ceiling.
Bang!
Under the violent impact, the rusted latch snapped free from its socket. The door burst inward with a slam, looking almost shattered after taking the hit.
A man was slumped in an extremely contorted posture inside an old leather swivel chair. The leather on the chair's surface was long cracked, revealing the yellowed stuffing inside.
His head drooped limply to one side, his body slumped like a rag doll. His face was a horrific shade of bluish-purple, his lips slightly parted. His right hand, which had been resting on the armrest, was now stiffly curled, his fingernails showing an abnormal dark tint.
【Hey, I knew it! Recording Guy!】
A9 sounded like it had won a bet, letting out a whistle. 【Oho, trendy. A locked-room mystery?】
Yuan Ying was the first to rush forward, reaching out a hand to check his breathing.
Getting a clear look at the scene inside, Zhang Qiumin backed up again and again until she hit the railing, with nowhere left to retreat.
“...H-He's dead...”
“No visible injuries. Judging by the color of his lips and nails, it's likely poison,” Yuan Ying said, turning to meet the doubtful gazes behind her. “I used to be a nurse.”
“Huh? Leaving aside the fact that the door was locked when we got here, are you judging it's poison based solely on his complexion? Without any odor or other evidence?” Chen Xijian didn't dare get close, yet her tone was agitated.
“Besides, haven't you all seen this man before? He lives in the yard at the end of the alley. Honestly, his everyday appearance isn't any different from how he looks now!”
Chen Xijian gestured toward her own face while pointing at the dead man. “The last time I saw him, his complexion was already pale as a ghost, looking completely like a scarecrow. He looked terrifying, his body was frail, and he had a weird temper!”
She brought up Lin Mo again. “Right? Lin Mo, you remember, don't you? Declaring him dead from poison right off the bat is way too hasty! Did you really used to be a nurse?”
“No! Now isn't the time to talk about that,” Zhang Qiumin realized something, her expression instantly turning extremely grim. “If all of us were gathered together just now, then how on earth did this person die? And he even locked himself in before dying!”
Everyone fell silent.
The old lady leaning by the fireplace made a few muffled sounds, clearing the phlegm from her throat, and spoke faintly, “After Xijian and her friend went upstairs, that kid left. Then Sister Ying left. After that, he never came back down, while everyone else stayed downstairs.”
Well, now the suspect pool was narrowed down to three.
Yuan Ying's expression turned solemn as she looked at Chen Xijian. “You mean you've seen him before? You went to look for him?”
“O-Of course I did,” Chen Xijian subtly felt the atmosphere shifting, her speech no longer flowing smoothly. “Because he really... made noise in the morning, severely disrupting everyone else's rest, right?”
At those words, Zhou Shen furrowed his brows as if feeling singled out, letting out a cold snort from his throat.
Chen Xijian fell silent instantly, shrinking back even farther.
Standing far back at the doorway, Lin Mo broke the silence. “Did none of you ever talk to him about the noise issue?”
Everyone looked at each other. Zhang Qiumin said as a matter of course, “That's because we all wake up very early! Isn't a little noise a minor issue? It's only you young folks who sleep in and have irregular schedules. Neighbors ought to be understanding of each other.”
Hearing this, A9 refused to give up, insisting on showing off its intelligence. 【...Don't you really think the possibility of killing someone over noise is very high?】
Meanwhile, as the only person present who worked afternoon shifts, Chen Xijian blushed with anger. Even though she was somewhat afraid of Zhou Shen, she still stiffened her neck and raised her voice:
“Noise is one thing! If he really kept a dog, we could've found a solution involving the dog. But he didn't keep a dog at all—he was just playing a recording to deter thieves!”
Her emotions began to break down. “Don't you all find this ridiculous?”
Yuan Ying rested her chin in her hand. “So you have a motive for murder?”
Chen Xijian...
Her mood plunged uncontrollably to rock bottom. Her long-suppressed emotions erupted, tears gushing out irresistibly.
“I... I really don't understand. Why is everything I say wrong?” She wiped her uncontrollable tears with her wrist. “I just wanted to find my brother... I just wanted to find my brother, that's all. Why am I here? Why would I... would I kill him just over playing a recording?”
“Besides, besides, Lin Mo has been with me ever since I went upstairs! You clearly knew that! You clearly saw us when you came up to talk to us! Why would you say that?”
“Shouldn't we be providing alibis for each other to clear suspicion? Why suspect me? The situation is already crystal clear!
There is definitely an outsider hiding in the house—like the mastermind behind all this! He just wants us to panic and all die here!”
Yuan Ying was startled by her crying. Facing the barrage of accusations, her arms folded across her chest dropped, and her eyes flickered nervously.
She had only made a casual remark.
...Didn't mystery dramas always go like this? Probing everyone left and right usually baited out a fool or two. She hadn't expected this person's heart to be so fragile.
A9: 【Doge Detective.】
The atmosphere in the room shifted from heavy to eerie, leaving only the sound of Chen Xijian's intermittent, desperately stifled sobbing.
Zhang Qiumin closed her eyes, ultimately stepping up to speak for her. “I've actually seen that guy a few times. He often bought stuff at the convenience store next to the bakery. His health really didn't seem great—he barely had any flesh on his bones and couldn't even stand up straight. The first time I saw him, I thought he was an elderly person.”
She continued, “I meant he looked like a murderer—gloomy vibe. I didn't like him either.”
The old lady also chimed in, “I remember this boy. When he was still alive, I even told him to see a doctor early.”
Chen Xijian nodded repeatedly. “Really! I remember him tripping over fallen leaves once... it was almost like... substance abuse.”
Zhang Qiumin said tentatively, “Could he have just died of natural causes? Just like this little girl said, maybe excessive mental strain from substance abuse led to an accident, and things aren't actually as terrifying as we think?”
It seemed that in every eerie scenario, especially in a Snowbound Manor setup, there had to be a detective-like figure to take charge of the situation.
Yuan Ying assumed that role. After a long silence, she suddenly spoke up, “It's possible... but I'm thinking about why the victim played that recording. Could it really be because a 'thief' broke into his place?”
“I remember the recording started playing later than when he moved in. So it's very likely he encountered a stranger breaking into his yard and, out of fear, played the recording to scare them off?”
...This guess was far too bold.
Not to ward off future thieves, but to guard against past ones?
Yuan Ying took one last look at the corpse in the swivel chair, stepped out of the room, and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. When she opened them once more, her eyes held determination.
“My guess is... this man might be the murderer of the 'younger brother' mentioned by the mastermind over the broadcast.”
Under the shocked, fearful, and malicious gazes of the crowd, she revealed everything regardless: “He was an arsonist.”
“I talked to him early on. The guy was very candid. I swapped secrets with him, and he was constantly feeling guilt and despair over the crimes he committed in the past.
He said he was haunted endlessly by the people who died. The moment he found an outlet, he couldn't wait to confess everything.”
“In his childhood, a fire took his family, and that past trauma caused him to develop mental issues. He roamed from place to place, burning down several historic old buildings, museums, and the like. Although his goal wasn't to kill people, accidents bound to happen in man-made fires inevitably resulted in casualties. In his final act, many people died.”
“Among them were children who lost their families. So he finally had a stroke of conscience and quit, washing his hands of it and fleeing to our city to move into the old urban district.” Yuan Ying shrugged. “Even though he talked about how repentant he was and how he prayed for the dead, it still can't hide the fact that he's a piece of trash.”
“So I'm thinking... did the mastermind's younger brother die in one of those fires, which is why he's been searching for him everywhere?”
Zhang Qiumin was stunned by this sudden overload of information. “Then what about the person you said broke into his yard?”
“I don't know either. My thought is that the intruder frightened him. When someone has a guilty conscience, they naturally fear death to an extreme degree.
Perhaps that person gave him a slow-acting poison, causing his body to deteriorate day by day. Or perhaps that person did nothing at all and just threatened him.”
Yuan Ying let out a long sigh. “But I think the person who broke into the yard and the mastermind aren't the same person. If someone really wanted to kill him, they could've done it from the start, right? Why go through such a huge ordeal?
“Maybe it really was just an ordinary thief, or maybe an enemy whose family was taken by him in the past... who knows?”
Rate on N.U.
