The ancestral hall had already given a blood-written reminder that no one should enter the room after midnight, no matter what.

Although it seemed heartless, Xiao Xuechen still insisted on this idea - everything that needed to be reminded had been reminded. In this situation, Ju Lan went out and ended up being chased. She couldn't blame Xiao Xuechen and San.

If she chose to open the window and let someone in, the consequences might be that one person would implicate two others, and she and San wouldn't be able to escape.

So...sorry.

Xiao Xuechen didn't look at Ju Lan's expression, and the resentful gaze didn't make her feel scared or guilty. Instead, it made her sigh lightly.

Some people...deep down, they still like to blame others for their own mistakes.

"Not bad, quite clever," Yu Xing praised inexplicably, his eyes curved as he smiled.

His gaze lightly swept over Ju Lan, while the window he was leaning against was being knocked on by the villagers with a rhythmic sound. His tone remained unchanged as he saw the villagers with machetes getting closer. "Stop knocking, we won't open."

"How can you bear it!?" Ju Lan gritted her teeth, but the thing behind her was already getting closer. She glared at the two people in the room with hatred, then turned and cried as she ran in the opposite direction.

Yu Xing didn't even glance at the two villagers, but instead chased after Ju Lan in a way that didn't seem human.

Outside finally became quiet.

"Will she die?" Xiao Xuechen touched her arm, her beautiful eyes trembling.

Yu Xing withdrew his hand from the window frame and smiled. "Missie, do you regret it?"

Xiao Xuechen shook her head. "No regrets."

"That's good. I...quite like Missie who understands the bigger picture," Yu Xing leaned against the window and moved his wrist.

Seeing his fair wrist that seemed to have no strength, Xiao Xuechen suddenly shivered.

She remembered the dangerous aura hidden by this handsome guy in front of her.

Liking someone who considers the bigger picture...what if her answer just now was to open the window?

She estimated that San definitely wouldn't open it and would wait until dawn to throw her out.

"However, if the consequence of going out at night is just being chased by two humanoid monsters...it doesn't necessarily mean death," Yu Xing continued, completely unaware that his image in Xiao Xuechen's mind had completely gone astray.

"Yeah...there are many sacrifices that can help her hide," Xiao Xuechen said with a nasal voice, casually sitting on the bed where Yu Xing had just slept. "But judging from Ju Lan's appearance, she probably hasn't experienced many deductions and doesn't have any sacrifices in reserve."

"Oh? Does she need to hide?" Yu Xing rhythmically tapped his finger on the window sill, speaking while also paying attention to the outside.

After all, the village chief and the woman were still nearby, and they might launch a surprise attack.

Moonlight spilled over the desolation, giving the entire village a gloomy yet strangely peaceful atmosphere - if one ignored the possibility of zombies and specters appearing at any moment.

After asking a question, Yu Xing fell silent, and Xiao Xuechen didn't know how to answer.

Do they need to run?

They probably do.

The big shots might have a way to confront them head-on, but as a half-newbie who hadn't reached the level of an advanced deductionist, Xiao Xuechen could only do her best to stay alive.

After all, the three levels of primary, intermediate, and advanced deductionists were often randomly assigned to the same game, and the differences between the three levels were not that great. The only things that could be distinguished were the usage rate of sacrifices and deduction experience.

The real qualitative leap came after becoming an advanced deductionist, but Xiao Xuechen didn't know much about it.

She considered herself a rookie who still had a lot to learn, and San...should be an advanced deductionist, right?

After a while, just as Xiao Xuechen was starting to feel awkward about the silence, Yu Xing continued where he left off. "If she's strong enough, she can hold on until dawn."

"But she's not strong enough."

Xiao Xuechen's words sounded a bit heartless, but it was the truth.

Sure enough, not long after, a woman's scream came from a distance.

Ju Lan, it seemed, had been caught.

Xiao Xuechen sighed again.

She had seen deductionists die many times and no longer felt the initial fear. She believed that she would continue to see more in the future and get used to it.

"I'm so sleepy~" Yu Xing yawned, covering his mouth with his hand, a mist of sleepiness appearing in his eyes.

He unhappily realized that he really couldn't sleep tonight.

With this window, the village chief and the woman could enter anytime when he was off guard and do as they pleased.

One deductionist had already been confirmed dead, and he didn't want to give the specters any more chances to show off.

"Do we need to move things to block the window?" Xiao Xuechen suggested again when she thought of the fading scream.

"Didn't I say it? We shouldn't touch anything in this room..." Yu Xing sat down generously beside her and started rummaging through his backpack. "I have a guess, and if it's confirmed later, I'll tell you."

"Oh...mysterious!" Xiao Xuechen exclaimed, not quite understanding.Yu Xing took out his own easel, which was a box-style easel that seemed to have been custom-made by himself in the past. It was very lightweight, and many tools were directly placed in the box: "Now I'm really curious, Carlos, where did he go?"

Right.

Xiao Xuechen blinked her eyes. Ju Lan and Carlos lived together, but when they woke up, they found that Carlos was not in the room, only a paper figure was left on the bed.

According to the normal process, Carlos, who is not in the room, should be the first target of the ghosts and specters in this village. But they didn't hear any movement, which can only mean that Carlos deceived these ghosts and specters and went to do something else.

"He seems to be a very thoughtful person." Yu Xing had already set up the easel and became interested in this magician who acted alone.

Woke up and the person was gone.

Could this be the legendary "disappearing act"?

Hope to see the complete Carlos tomorrow.

"Um, what are you doing?" Xiao Xuechen looked at Yu Xing setting up the easel and suddenly felt a little confused.

"I can't sleep tonight, so I'm going to paint to pass the time." The moon was high in the sky, and the moonlight cast a cold tone on everything in his eyes. He rarely felt a bit interested.

"Wow," Xiao Xuechen never expected that the character who was a painter actually liked painting. She leaned over to see the tools, "Is it a sketch?"

"Although sketching is fine, but I am best at oil painting." Yu Xing smiled at Xiao Xuechen and took out the canvas, but unfortunately, he didn't bring a stool, so he could only reluctantly use the bed as a substitute.

"Oil painting!?" Xiao Xuechen didn't understand art very well. She thought that an oil painting would take a long time to complete.

"Just paint casually, I don't feel like waiting for it to dry." Yu Xing didn't mind Xiao Xuechen watching. He just had a sudden inspiration and wanted to do something to drive away his drowsiness.

He adjusted the height of the easel, placed the brushes, palette knives, palette, and brush washer on the bedside table with a spring-loaded small oil bottle clamped on the palette, and then took a look.

No painting stick...

A painting stick, also known as a wrist rest, is used to support the arm when painting. Yu Xing, a weak and lazy person, always used it when painting in reality.

"What are you going to paint? Um... can you see?" Xiao Xuechen was a little curious.

It was late at night, and there was no light. The lighting was so dim that she would have gone blind if it were her eyes, let alone painting.

"I can see it clearly." Yu Xing adjusted the colors and looked at the desolate scenery outside the window and the several residential buildings nearby. His eyes reflected a faint cold light.

Due to his body, his night vision ability... was particularly good.

For the next period of time, Yu Xing painted with a brush while Xiao Xuechen watched for a while and found that she couldn't see anything clearly and her eyes were really getting blind, so she took out her phone and started playing mobile games by the window, using the light as illumination.

The two of them occasionally chatted, and the scene harmonized for a while.

However... after a little over an hour, when Yu Xing was painting, there was an disharmonious element outside the window.

It was a head, connected to half a body.

Yu Xing was not unfamiliar with that head. He had just seen it not long ago.

Lifeless eyes.

Grayish-white skin.

Purple lips.

...Prominent livor mortis.

The person... or rather, the ghost, stared at Yu Xing without blinking, trembling lips as if wanting to say something, but the lips couldn't part.

Yu Xing's hand paused for a moment, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Xiao Xuechen, who noticed that something was wrong, suddenly looked up and instantly met the face she had seen in the coffin through the glass.

To read the uncut version, go to [pawread.com].

Zhou Yongsheng!

"Oh my god!"

This time, she wasn't too scared when she saw him through the window. Zhou Yongsheng stood there quietly, without saying anything or showing any intention to harm them. He just silently watched Yu Xing paint, which made her even more puzzled.

Is this a corpse or a ghost?

What is it here for, and is it trying to come in?

On the seventh night, it actually came back, but she didn't know why it came this time.

Xiao Xuechen couldn't help but want to step back, but she saw that Yu Xing didn't react, so she forcibly stayed in place—she wanted to stand in a position where she could push away the specter if it tried to enter through the window, just in case.

"Oh, you're here?" Yu Xing put down his brush and wanted to stand up and approach, but he saw Zhou Yongsheng, who was standing still, suddenly shaking his head urgently and pointing at his easel.

"Do you want to see me paint?" Yu Xing guessed.

Zhou Yongsheng outside nodded.

Oh, he's a true fan? Yu Xing was a little curious. Could it be that all those words his deceased friend, who died young, said online about being a fan were true and sincere?

It's not easy. So, what does he want by bringing his idol to his own village?

Is it just to have his idol attend his funeral?

Yu Xing muttered to himself and picked up the brush again. Zhou Yongsheng stopped moving.

The painting he was working on depicted a real scene, not abstract. The overall presentation on the canvas was the scenery outside the window, with only the window frame exposed at the bottom, and a curly-haired woman playing games on her phone in the lower right corner.

The colors were predominantly blue, cold, and bizarre.

After a moment of eye contact with the silent male ghost outside the window, Yu Xing thought for a moment and made another stroke.A plain-looking young man with a smile in his eyes and neatly dressed, slowly placed himself in the center position.

In the gloomy and cold-colored painting, only this young man was enveloped in warm colors, with no worries between his eyebrows.