Not long after I left, the program team's announcement came over the indoor speakers: "Attention, all players, there are thirty minutes left before everyone votes to execute. The countdown will be displayed on your phone screens. Please decide on the killer you suspect within the specified time and go to the dining table to complete the execution together."
Is time so tight? Xia Xiqing frowned unconsciously.
This kind of game is similar to Werewolf. Everyone's identity is in a black box and no one can see it. They can only suspect each other. Even voting is done in a disguised and anonymous way through mobile phones. No one knows who the people around them will vote for.
If a decision is made hastily, it is likely to kill innocent people by mistake and even affect the final result.
To be honest, this is just a reality show, an insignificant game, but Xia Xiqing hates the "game over" of failure the most. He is the kind of person who lives for the pursuit of victory.
No decision can be made casually without evidence to support the facts.
Xia Xiqing led Shang Sirui to the room of the previous hostess and met Cen Cen and Ruan Xiao who were still inside. Until this moment, Xia Xiqing still believed that there was a killer among them, but he had no evidence and no enough clues to prove it.
If you try... it'll be too easy to be exposed.
"Xi Qing," Ruan Xiao unexpectedly called him first, "I want to ask you some questions about painting. I don't know much about art."
Xia Xiqing smiled gentlemanly, "Of course."
Shang Sirui laughed, "I don't know why, but the picture of you two in the same frame makes me imagine the romantic love story of a noble lady and an artist, hahaha."
The atmosphere, which was originally tense due to the countdown, became much more lively, but Cen Cen broke the delicate balance.
Her cold face always had no expression, but now she showed some suspicion, and the deep red lipstick made her face look even colder. "You studied art? I can't understand why someone who studies art can solve these problems so quickly? Is it all because of your artistic talent?"
Although these words were all based on reasonable speculation and anyone who didn't know Xia Xiqing might say such things, Cen Cen obviously had more hostility, which made Xia Xiqing feel very uncomfortable, or to be more precise, unhappy.
But he still smiled and replied, "I studied art, but mathematics is my hobby. Just like Van Gogh said, his paintings are precise calculations. An excellent artist often has a deep mathematical foundation or a keen mathematical sense."
Shang Sirui, who was standing nearby, laughed at the latter part of the sentence. "Xi Qing is also very good at drawing, but he is really good at math. When we were in that room just now, many of the problems were solved by Xi Qing. He is at the god level."
Xia Xiqing frowned slightly. It was a very subtle and brief movement. He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't tell whether it was because of someone's wrong words or the atmosphere.
"Really?" Cen Cen smiled. "I've always wondered if the killer himself also has more information about ordinary players, otherwise he would be at a disadvantage fighting alone. So... what if you are not an ordinary player?"
She asked this... Was she testing him, or was she biting back? Xia Xiqing couldn't be sure, but he knew very well that his current situation was very dangerous.
Everyone was waiting for Xia Xiqing's answer, but they saw him showing a flawless smile. He looked friendly and gentle, but the words he said were very decisive.
"If I really am the killer, the first thing I would do is to 'kill' Zhou Ziheng."
Cen Cen obviously didn't expect him to say such a thing. In her eyes, Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng were allies. "But you have been together since you cracked the room. Aren't you..."
"What about now? Am I with him?" Xia Xiqing crossed his arms and leaned against the wall with a smile, "Where is Ziheng now?" He glanced at the people around him. Ruan Xiao still had no expression on her face. Cen Cen didn't say anything either. Instead, Shang Sirui laughed dryly a few times, "It's impossible. I don't think it's Brother Ziheng. He has been solving puzzles very seriously..."
"Me too." Xia Xiqing blinked, "Am I solving the puzzle seriously?"
He paused and continued, "I'll tell you a very important piece of information. From the very beginning, it was more difficult for me to escape than Zhou Ziheng. My hands and feet were all tied up, and even my eyes were covered, but he was able to escape easily. You might as well think about it. How could the program crew set up such a difficult situation for the killer? On the contrary, it was Ziheng who had the clearest ideas from the beginning. According to your point of view, Cen Cen, isn't it possible that he got the script?"
After saying that, Cen Cen looked at Xia Xiqing with a complicated expression. Xia Xiqing, who was talking nonsense seriously, also looked at her fearlessly. After a moment, Cen Cen raised her foot to leave the room, but was stopped by Xia Xiqing, "I advise you not to go find him. If he really is, and his identity is discovered, you will definitely not survive."
Cen Cen paused. Although she was reluctant, she had to admit that what Xia Xiqing said made sense.
Xia Xiqing observed the expression on her face and laughed inwardly.
Mathematics can indeed only be regarded as a hobby, and playing tricks on people is what he is really good at.
He couldn't let himself be voted out like this. He believed that such a rhythmic speech would not shake people like Ruan Xiao, and it was an ineffective interference. But Cen Cen was different. If she had given him the vote in the beginning, then now that her thoughts were disturbed, who knows who she would give it to. This would give him a chance to survive. For a safe person like Zhou Ziheng, it didn't matter if Cen Cen got one more vote.
But who would Shang Sirui vote for? Xia Xiqing looked at him, but found that he was in a daze, as if thinking about something.
"Don't guess yet," Ruan Xiao calmly broke the deadlock, "Just tell me about these paintings." Xia Xiqing nodded, stood up and walked to Ruan Xiao's side, raised his hand and pointed at the "Unknown Girl" on the wall, "Are you asking about this one?"
Ruan Xiao, who was looking up at "Unknown Girl", nodded first, but soon gave a negative answer, "It's not just this one. I think there are problems with the paintings in every room. It's impossible that the production team picked these paintings randomly as decorations."
Although Ruan Xiao had fewer clues than he and Zhou Ziheng, her intuition was correct. Xia Xiqing understood what she meant, so he said, "You are right, but not every room has paintings, except for the living room. I remember..." He looked at Shang Sirui beside him, "There are no paintings in your original room, right?"
Shang Sirui was stunned for a moment, then thought about it, "Yes, there are no paintings in my room, nor in the living room."
Why did he hesitate
"Is there no painting when you enter the room?" Xia Xiqing asked again.
This time Shang Sirui did not hesitate and answered very affirmatively: "Yes."
Xia Xiqing nodded slowly, his eyes leaving Shang Sirui's face. At this moment, Cen Cen suggested returning to his original room. Before leaving, he looked back at Shang Sirui and said, "Sirui, come and help me move the bed. I want to see if there are any clues underneath."
Shang Sirui said "oh" and followed Cen Cen out.
After such a long time, Zhou Ziheng should have found it... Xia Xiqing was still a little worried that he would be disturbed by Cen Cen and Shang Sirui in his search for clues.
Now the most crucial clue is in Zhou Ziheng's hands.
Until she heard the sound of the closet door closing, Ruan Xiao took out a folded piece of paper from her dinner bag and handed it to Xia Xiqing without saying anything.
This move was unexpected, but also reasonable. Ruan Xiao was indeed a smart person. She made such a decision, and she had probably ruled herself out of suspicion.
Xia Xiqing took the paper and took a look at it.
This was the inside page of a medical record, and a line of words written on it quickly caught his attention.
[The patient, male, 14 years old, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.]
Bipolar disorder, isn't that manic depression? When you are depressed, you will have low moods, and when you are manic, your emotions are difficult to control, and you will do some extreme things that are mentally uncontrollable.
"Where did you find it?" Xia Xiqing was a little surprised. He instantly thought of the medical record that was left with only an empty shell in Shang Sirui's room.
"It's in Shang Sirui's room, hidden in a coat in the closet." Ruan Xiao replied softly, "It's hidden very deeply. It doesn't seem like the way the show crew would place clues."
wrong.
It was wrong from the beginning.
Xia Xiqing leaned against the wall, his mind racing through everything that had happened before, only to realize that since their first meeting, almost every conversation and action was a carefully set trap, waiting for him to fall into.
He originally thought that according to the general program settings, there must be one guest who had a "Muggle" script, but he got the wrong person. The one who really knew nothing was actually the seemingly unapproachable Cen Cen. Not only that, his innate prejudice against third parties also led to deviations in his judgment.
Xia Xiqing's eyes were blank, and he was thinking quickly about the killer's tactics in a short period of time. If he could use execution as a public elimination method, combined with his dark power, he could get rid of two people.
Needless to say, these two people must be him and Zhou Ziheng.
After analyzing all possible solutions from the killer's perspective, Xia Xiqing finally understood. He looked up at Ruan Xiao and said, "Help me act out a scene."
Ruan Xiao felt something was wrong. This person obviously knew who the killer was. The voting was about to start. Shouldn't the safest thing to do at this time be to win over the players on the field to ensure that he would not be voted out? But he looked like he was going to cause trouble. "What are you going to do?"
Xia Xiqing scratched the hair on his forehead back and unconsciously licked his dry lower lip.
"Suicide attack."