The motionless ghost outside the window, the elegant person painting inside the window, a silent and wonderful understanding spread, gradually calming Xiao Xuechen's heart.

She had seen ghosts that didn't harm people before. In deduction games, the distorted order and rules often gave birth to products that contained causality, hovering between reason and chaos.

Specters were the most representative.

Whether they possessed resentment and evil thoughts, or hope and persistence, it was only related to the truth, not their existence.

Zhou Yongsheng... was probably a specter with a highly analytical ability.

Perhaps it was because of the comfortable atmosphere, or perhaps it was the trust in her teammate's abilities, Xiao Xuechen played with her phone, not knowing when she found herself sitting on Yu Xing's bed, and even less aware of when she fell asleep.

She lay carelessly on the bedsheet, the hard wooden board behind her back causing pain, her legs still dangling on the ground. Yu Xing sat on the edge of the bed, silently looking at her.

Is it always like this...

No matter who it is, no matter how dangerous the place is, as long as they are close to him at night, they will feel drowsy?

His physical condition has already started to affect others these past few years...

The brush paused imperceptibly, and Yu Xing concealed the coldness in his eyes.

He needed to resolve this quickly, otherwise, there would come a day when he wouldn't even have the chance to solve the problem.

...

The night was getting brighter, dawn was approaching.

Before the first ray of light seeped in from the mountaintop, a piercing rooster crow started from an unknown place and quickly spread to every corner of Guanjia Village.

Yu Xing squinted his eyes, his painting was almost finished, and it was only five o'clock, earlier than he expected.

He put down his brush, shook his sore arm, rubbed his waist a few times, and also felt sorry for his buttocks that had been sitting in the same place on the hard wooden bed for hours. Finally, he stood up.

The blood message given by Zhou Yongsheng indicated that everything was pointing to before the rooster crowed, which meant that no matter what curse or rule there was at night, it no longer mattered from this moment on.

With the other party obediently standing outside the window as a "model" all night, the village chief and the woman didn't come to bother him anymore.

Yu Xing pushed open the window, supported his body with his elbow, and rested his forearm on the windowsill, looking closely at Zhou Yongsheng's terrifying face. "Since you brought me here with good intentions, what is your wish?"

Zhou Yongsheng widened his eyes, his lips moved several times, and finally separated. It made a voice that was difficult but still audible: "Before... the rooster crows... I can't... speak anymore. I hope... you can... save me, end... all of this."

Save you, end all of this?

Yu Xing's expression changed, even though it was a question, his tone was certain: "The key point is the funeral."

"!" Zhou Yongsheng's excited expression proved Yu Xing's correctness. However, it didn't stay excited for long, its head drooped, and its broken neck suddenly slumped to one side. Yu Xing could tell that it was expressing disappointment, but this effect...

It only showed horror.

"I said... not much, it's almost... dawn, you must... help... help me, I have to... go." It raised its head again, reluctantly looking at him, "You are really... my... favorite painter, I... didn't lie to you."

With that, it started to fade away. Obviously, it wasn't the coffin lying in the ancestral hall, but a ghost returning on the seventh day.

The morning light was about to come.

"Wait." Yu Xing called out to it.

He turned around and flipped the easel over. "Come, take a look at the results of the night, just for you."

Zhou Yongsheng hesitated and looked over.

In the painting, the background was eerie and gloomy, as if it could evoke fear deep in people's hearts. The young man in the center of the painting... was like a ray of sunshine that didn't fit in, with a smile on his lips.

"The way you look alive is based on my guess from the appearance of the corpse. How is it, does it look like?"

"Looks... thank you." Zhou Yongsheng's already stiff decaying flesh moved slightly, struggling to form an arc that couldn't be seen without careful observation. It thought it had the same expression as the person in the painting and bowed to Yu Xing.

A quick look at "pawread.com" will leave you more fulfilled.

Afterwards, it disappeared into the morning light that finally broke through the mountains.

Yu Xing watched it disappear calmly, closed the window, and turned around.

He...

Was tired.

Really tired.

It was only five o'clock, and the crisis had already been resolved. Right now, he just wanted to get some sleep.

Ignoring Xiao Xuechen, who occupied his bed, he walked towards another bed.

...

Hmm, where am I?

It seemed like I had a dark dream...

In the slight pain on her back, Xiao Xuechen woke up from her sleep, groggily opening her eyes.

However--

Opening her eyes, she wasn't in her exquisitely decorated and luxurious bedroom, nor was she on the sofa provided by the company for her rest. Instead, she was in a dilapidated and dimly lit small room.

This instantly sobered her up.

She struggled to sit up, her jacket slipping off her body. She grabbed a corner of the jacket, quickly trying to piece together a reasonable explanation.

How did she fall asleep? How could she dare to fall asleep in this situation!?It is said that this coat was covered by San for her. I really have to thank him... Ahem, that's not the point. The point is, is she crazy? She fell asleep when the specter could come at any time!

With the tip of her shoe touching the ground, her eyes were filled with a complex mix of shock and confusion.

It was already dawn outside. Although it wasn't very obvious in Guanjia Village, she could hear the faint sounds of people waking up outside the window.

The time on her phone screen told her that it was already 8 o'clock in the morning.

Beside her was an easel, with the painting on it still not dry. The style of the painting was quite eerie, and she was first stunned when she saw it, and then admired San's painting skills.

Speaking of San... Xiao Xuechen subconsciously looked towards the other bed and indeed saw San sleeping with his back facing her.

He stayed up all night last night... She felt a little embarrassed. They agreed that they couldn't sleep, but she fell asleep so quickly. It was really inappropriate.

She really couldn't understand why she fell asleep and didn't even hear the rooster crow that had probably already appeared.

It must have been an accident.

She was thinking about it when suddenly, the door of the room was knocked.

"!?" The experience from last night made her instinctively tense up.

"Are you still sleeping? Young man, young lady, something terrible happened. The other young lady who came with you is dead!" The voice of the village chief came from outside the door. Strangely, this time the village chief's voice was particularly normal, as if he didn't remember what happened last night.

"We know, we'll come over right away to take a look." It wasn't Xiao Xuechen who answered the village chief, but San, who she thought was still sleeping but was actually awake.

Yu Xing had only been awake for a few minutes. His voice was hoarse as he got out of bed and said to Xiao Xuechen, "We can leave the room now. Let's go wash our faces and see the situation at the scene."

By "scene," he meant the place where Ju Lan died.

Guanjia Village was different from last night. Even before he left the house, he saw several villagers passing by outside, all in a hurry and with a gossip-like appearance.

None of them were holding candles.

In the distance, the topic of "someone died" was being discussed by the villagers without any restraint. Yu Xing heard it and rubbed his forehead. It was great, the smell of gossip from the middle-aged and elderly residents of the community downstairs.

The news of the death had spread on such a large scale, so it was necessary for Yu Xing to go and take a look.

He didn't want to see how Ju Lan died, but rather the villagers' attitude towards it and how they handled the body.

After adjusting his mental state, the drowsiness on Yu Xing's face faded away, and he stumbled to the door and opened it.

The village chief was standing outside the door, with a slightly worried expression on his face. "Go and take a look quickly. Well, she was your companion after all, don't be too sad..."

Now he seemed normal.

Yu Xing didn't miss the slightest expression on the village chief's face. He looked behind the village chief and asked, "Where is Auntie?"

"She went to make breakfast for you." The village chief pointed to the kitchen.

"She's working so hard." Yu Xing smiled, "Uncle Village Chief, can I use the kitchen sink to wash my face?"

As he spoke, he walked towards the kitchen.

Xiao Xuechen quickly followed. She also wanted to see the woman's reaction.

In the kitchen, the woman was making a bowl of millet porridge, and this time there were no candles around her.

But then again, it wasn't really necessary to light candles during the day.

Seeing the two enter, the woman kindly greeted them, "It's almost done, just wait a moment."

...Everything is normal during the day, forgetting what happened at night?

Xiao Xuechen followed Yu Xing and washed her face with water from the tap in the kitchen. She secretly glanced at the woman's eyes.

Last night, San stabbed the woman's eye with a dagger, she wanted to see if there was any wound.

Under her gaze, the woman finished making the steaming hot millet porridge and finally turned her face.

On the woman's right eye, there was a scar that hadn't been there yesterday, extending a short distance vertically, giving her ordinary appearance a touch of ferocity.

Yu Xing also saw it. He widened his eyes and asked with concern, "Auntie, what happened to your eye?"

"I don't know what happened when I was sleeping last night, maybe I bumped into something. It became like this early this morning." The woman also seemed a little confused. "Come, have some porridge. I heard that your friend had an accident. You should go and take a look later, right?"

"Yes, we should go." Yu Xing held the bowl and gestured to Xiao Xuechen to leave.

In the courtyard, the village chief was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that he had gone outside to participate in the gossip.

Yu Xing lowered his head and took a sip of the millet porridge, feeling warmth in his stomach and a much more comfortable body.

"This is..." Xiao Xuechen became anxious and raised her voice a bit. She quickly realized it and lowered her voice, "This was made by the specter. Are you daring to drink it?"

"It tastes good." Yu Xing satisfiedly took another sip, causing Xiao Xuechen to sigh.

Really, is it important whether it tastes good or not? The important thing is that it was made by a specter!

"The villagers are behaving normally during the day, and you can't tell at all that they are a group of people who would chase others with knives and axes throughout the village at night." Yu Xing raised a new question, "So, Missie, do you think these things have memories of the night?""There shouldn't be, look at this woman, she doesn't even remember that you poked her in the eye, yet she made such delicious millet porridge for you." Xiao Xuechen didn't touch the millet porridge at all, she couldn't get over that psychological hurdle.

Yu Xing: "Hmm, makes sense, if she doesn't remember..."

Just then, the woman came out of the kitchen.

She looked at the two people who were "chatting happily" and walked over with a smile: "Did the little girl feel cold last night?"

"I was going to bring you a thick blanket, but you didn't ask for it."