When the midnight bell rings, the evil spirits I raised will break out of the cage and hunt wantonly in my castle. Only the one who survives can receive my gift.
"I have pulled out the evil spirit, and now the clock is striking midnight."
"Eh...it's already past twelve?"
"idiot."
“You started cursing without hesitation!?”
Ignoring the stunned Ren Xuan again, Gu Moli looked at Hua Qiong. This time, the latter reacted quickly and walked directly to the clock in the corner of the living room, understanding what he meant.
Although time cannot be reversed.
But clocks can run backwards.
"It's just a small matter of calling back."
"Hmm..."
As the hour and minute hands moved back, a melodious bell sound burst out from the clock tower again, echoing throughout the huge living room.
“At the stroke of midnight… .”
"Although there is a problem with the sequence, it does not have a big impact. As long as these necessary conditions are met, then let the evil spirits hunt freely in the castle."
"How?"
Ren Xuan obviously didn't believe it, and continued to put forward his own guess: "Are you going to hold this evil ghost and walk around the castle?"
Zhuge: "Mr. Ren... stop talking."
Hua Qiong: "Silence is golden."
"Why!?"
Ren Xuan showed an expression of disbelief, but when he saw Gu Moli walking towards the stairs without stopping, he reacted.
"...Ah! Is that the sandbox?"
Gym on the third floor.
"It's clearly a gym, but there's an inappropriately large sandbox inside. It's a miniature model of the old Phantom Duke's own territory. Considering the curse itself, you'd have to go to the sandbox anyway. Why would anyone think they were walking around in the castle?"
"Well... .!"
Led by Gu Moli, a group of people strode to the gym on the third floor.
Then, under the gaze of everyone, Gu Moli placed the evil ghost's head on the building representing the Phantom City on the sand table. As luck would have it, the miniature Phantom City on the sand table actually had a tiny groove that just matched the evil ghost's head, allowing the evil ghost's head to be perfectly installed.
Click!
Accompanied by the sound of a mechanism, the evil ghost that was biting Gu Moli's arm tightly opened its mouth again.
but... ..
"Nothing happened?"
"What's next?"
Facing Hua Qiong's doubts, Gu Moli remained calm and said, "No more."
"I believe the exit has been unlocked now. Before that, I will spend a little more time to tell you the truth about the perfect secret room and the strange wall-penetration."
“Huh?!”
"First of all, I want to mention one thing, which is the reason why everyone came to this phantom city. I believe everyone has noticed that Li Shaohua, Yun Xiaoyue, and you, Ren Xuan, your reasons are too lame."
"Indeed."
"I asked that, too."
“Eh!?”
Hua Qiong and Zhuge both expressed their understanding, but Ren Xuan was the only one who looked surprised as if he realized it belatedly. Maybe this guy really has the talent to be a comedian.
"I asked Yun Xiaoyue about this before when we were alone. In fact, she is a reporter. She came to Phantom City to write a column about Phantom City. As for the previous excuse, it was purely a temporary idea to hide her identity as a reporter."
"reporter... ."
"What about you, Mr. Ren?"
"I?"
Facing the gazes of Zhuge and Hua Qiong, Ren Xuan showed a puzzled expression: "Everything I said is true."
"... No, why would you go to see your girlfriend in the middle of the night? If you want to go to your girlfriend's house, it would be more appropriate to bring the gift you bought at noon, right?"
“That’s what I mean.”
"no... ."
Ren Xuan scratched his head: "It was only to hide it from her parents that I came here late at night."
Everyone: “???”
"... Haven't you guys ever experienced this? Because the relationship is confidential, but... well, the throbbing of youth... In short, you can't go in without hiding it."
"... ah, I see."
"You guys, aren't you all single?"
Gu Moli: "Uh!"
Hua Qiong: “Hmm!”
Zhuge: “… .!”
Ren Xuan's unintentional words hit the nail on the head perfectly, and also made the three people present wake up.
There was an awkward silence.
"In short, this is just a suspicious point that is not important. Didn't Zhuge say before that Li Shaohua was actually an accomplice of someone present?"
"Yes, I did."
"But you, the boss, rejected it."
"Hey, hey? Is it my imagination? Are you trying to change the subject?"
"... Actually, this statement is not completely wrong. In fact, Li Shaohua is indeed someone's accomplice, and it was her cooperation with another person that created the perfect secret room and strange wall-penetration that we experienced before. It was just her accomplice, not anyone present."
"That is to say..."
"... Is it Yun Xiaoyue? She's not dead!"
"You guys are seriously trying to change the subject... .Wait!? They're not dead!?"
"wrong!"
Zhuge was the first to raise doubts: "Let's not talk about Yun Xiaoyue, but I saw Li Shaohua with my own eyes. She was definitely hanged outside the window..."
"Just being hung?"
"... .What's the meaning?"
"Li Shaohua was hung up, she was struggling constantly, and finally became too weak to move. Judging from the movements and scenes, she was indeed hanged to death, and died miserably. But there are many ways to be hung without being hanged to death."
"For example, add a hook to the rope, or tie a safety belt around her body? Anyway, you can only see her front through the window, so it shouldn't be difficult to hide it from you, right?"
Zhuge frowned: "This is also a possibility... But where is the evidence?"
"Why did Li Shaohua go to the third floor?"
"Show her abilities? Is it necessary to demonstrate her abilities on the third floor? Zhuge, you are an official, you should know what her abilities are, right? Oh, no need to tell me, after all, there should be a confidentiality agreement, so you just need to think about it in your mind and then tell me the answer."
"... .No."
"Then why did she go to the third floor alone? Was she angry after being wronged? She was so scared when she came out of the bathroom. How could a woman who was extremely scared and witnessed such a bloody scene run to the third floor alone because of anger?"
"This is illogical, and we can only conclude that this was premeditated."
"Is that why you suspect there's something fishy about her death?" Zhuge nodded, accepting this reason.
However, Hua Qiong still had a question: "But in the end, she fell down, right? If she fell from the third floor of this villa and hit the ground directly, there is a high possibility that she would die, right?"
"sound."
Gu Moli added: "The explosion in the kitchen happened the moment Li Shaohua fell. In fact, no one heard the sound of Li Shaohua landing, right? Based on this, it should be easy to lay a black air cushion or something like that on the ground, right?"
“It doesn’t even have to be that complicated.”
"At that time, you were attracted by the explosion and went downstairs directly. I took a look out the window. You can try it now. The glass of that window seems to be of special quality. It looks normal when you look straight ahead, but it will appear very blurry when you want to look down. I think someone has tampered with the details of the structure."
"But this method actually highlights the guilty conscience of the person who arranged it."
"Obviously, there was something where Li Shaohua fell that could not be seen. I don't think it was to prevent bloody and violent scenes, right?"
"Well... ."
"To sum up," Gu Moli concluded, "From my inference, there were a lot of doubts before and after Li Shaohua was hanged, and there were a lot of deliberate elements. Once she, the first eyewitness, had problems, the originally perfect secret room would naturally no longer be perfect."
"Wait, wait a minute!"
At this moment, Ren Xuan, who had remained silent since the beginning, spoke again.
"What about through walls?"
"You know, she ran straight through the gym wall and out. I personally checked here before, and the windows were completely locked. They can't be opened with a key. Even if she had planned it, how did she get through the wall?"
"... ..what a surprise."
"Huh?"
"As a minor character, you actually asked a decent question."
"Hello!"
"I will explain this question to you after we go downstairs and leave this so-called phantom city. After all, it would be boring to explain it too quickly, wouldn't it? If I have to use a vivid example to describe it... well, thirty-three chapters may be a bit difficult, but three chapters are more than enough!"