Yu Rui and Feng Huai watched the whole process from behind the door.
“Nice moves, quite professional.” Feng Huai commented.
“Standardized like a textbook video.” Yu Rui added, implying that there were no killing moves and no dangerous people.
Feng Huai understood what Yu Ruui meant, he guessed, maybe Ji Jian was a physical arts instructor in the real world?
After Ji Jian placed Mu Zi in a good position, he looked at the place he just ran out of with a palpitating heart, somewhat hesitant about whether he should continue in or not.
The hourly bell of the opera house echoed in the space, representing the official closure of the opera house and the end of its opening time to the living.
Just like the first night, if you stayed any longer, you would have to avoid the night watchman’s pursuit and expulsion.
Ji Jian pursed his lips, weighing in his mind whether the nighttime adventure was worth the potential reward.
In the end, he decided to leave the opera house for the time being.
He glanced a few more times in the direction of the lounge, unsure if Yu Rui and Feng Huai had already left, but on second thought, he muttered, “Those two look like they can live a little longer than I can …… mind my own business.”
He took a few quick steps in the direction of the gate, then quickly stopped again, he hesitated for a few seconds and then turned back, sighing as he dragged Mu Zi out of the corner and carried her away on his shoulder.
“He has a good heart,” Feng Huai said.
“He’ll have to suffer losses,” Yu Rui said lightly.
[Hahahaha this Ji Jian is still very self-aware]
[As Boss Yu said, he is indeed a silly and sweet novice player. Isn’t he afraid of her suddenly waking up and stabbing him in the back.]
[Hiss, wait a minute, I think I really saw her eyelids move …..]
[Ah, ah, damn it! She really woke up! She opened her eyes!]
Just as Ji Jian was about to walk out of the Opera House door, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his eyes suddenly glazed over, and he stood stiffly in place.
He let go of Mu Zi’s hand and touched his back incredulously.
His back was moist, and his palm was stained with blood, “…… You?!”
Mu Zi slipped off his shoulder and wobbly rushed to Ji Jian, holding a fountain pen in her hand, half of its body covered in blood.
Ji Jian retreated to the wall, his hand braced against the white wall, imprinting several bloody palm prints.
He stared at the murder weapon in Mu Zi’s hand, a fountain pen? Mu Zi stuck a fountain pen into his back? It didn’t even go halfway? How was this possible?
But it was the truth, Ji Jian could even feel a large swath of blood swooning away from his back, where a bloody hole might have been stabbed out, and he tasted a bit of blood still in his throat, perhaps it even stabbed into something.
He was going to die.
[What did I say ah ah ah ah]
[Dying dying dying I dare not look]
Ji Jian watched Mu Zi rushed to his face, the tip of the pen stained with his own blood in front of his eyes quickly enlarged, but he didn’t have much strength to avoid.
Finished. He thought in his heart and closed his eyes tightly, immensely regretting his rotten idea, he should have just run in the first place.
The expected pain didn’t hit.
After two seconds, Ji Jian slowly opened his eyes and saw that Mu Zi had already been cut off by Yu Rui. Feng Huai tied her to a pillar in the hallway.
Ji Jian & the audience:”!!!”
Feng Huai raised his chin slightly at Ji Jian, signaling, “Turn around.”
With one command and one movement, Ji Jian turned his back towards Feng Huai.
He thought that Feng Huai wanted to search for clues on him, such as the small note that had not been found.
He knew he wouldn’t survive, and if his teammate was going to die, then he’d find out everything he could that would be useful to him.
But at least he’d wait until his teammate died.
Slightly consider his feelings before dying ah ……
The more Ji Jian thought about it, the worse he felt, and choked in a small voice, “Am I going to die? But I didn’t get anything, I still want to cure my partner, I haven’t yet completed my wish ……”
“Shut up and don’t bother.” Feng Huai didn’t want to listen to all this nonsense and impatiently cut him off.
Ji Jian shivered from the ferocity, the big and tall man shrank into a ball with pain and aggravation, and still had to show his injured back to Feng Huai.
Feng Huai took out the game props that he got from spinning the wheel-disk earlier: [Infinite Tie] a mid-level alchemy product that claimed to be able to stop bleeding instantly, with no limit on the number of times it could be used, and it could be brought into every game scenario.
“Alright, you won’t die, get up.” Feng Huai bandaged up Ji Jian’s wound, then looked at Ji Jian’s reaction and pulled up the corner of his mouth in some amusement.
Worthy of being a game prop, the effect is immediate, it was originally a bloody hole poked by a pen tip, yet it stopped as soon as it was used.
Ji Jian let out an “ah” and subconsciously got up, his legs were still soft, as he turned toward Feng Huai, he fell.
But before he could hit Feng Huai, he was pulled up by Yu Rui.
Yu Zhi glared at him coldly, Ji Jian shivered and stood still, subconsciously stepping back to pull away.
He clearly felt a prickling itch accompanied by a tingling pain at the place of the back wound, just like the way a new wound healed and grew flesh.
His eyes lit up incredulously, and he knew without asking that it must be some kind of game prop that Feng Huai had redeemed.
The effect was outstanding, the points used to get it must have been substantial.
Ji Jian didn’t think that anyone would be willing to use their points on an unrelated player.
He looked at Feng Huai and Yu Rui and burst into tears, just about to throw his body on them, “Wooooooooo thank you guys, what good people! In the future, if there’s anything you guys need me for, just talk to me, I’ll definitely do what I can!”
Feng Huai smiled, he didn’t think Ji Jian could do anything for them.
He looked at the other with slightly raised eyebrows, “It’s better not to talk so much until you’ve recovered from your injuries.”
“What you need to do now is to get out of here before the night watchman comes over.” Yu Rui remained extremely cold to Ji Jian.
Ji Jian sensibly nodded his head in a hurry, it was better for him, a wounded man, not to stay here and add to the chaos.
As soon as he moved, he disturbed his wound, hissing and sucking in air, he glanced at Mu Zi, who was tied up in front of the pillar in the foyer, he didn’t say anything, and left with quick steps.
“Zi zi zi zi” the movement of the electric baton sounded almost close to Ji Jian’s footsteps, appearing in the foyer of the opera house around the same time as Ji Jian.
Yu Rui and Feng Huai ducked, just to see the night watchman dragging his heavy steps with a flashlight, its beam sweeping and swaying in the large foyer.
As the beam swept over the bound Mu Zi, everyone in the live room lifted their hearts, both worried and expecting the guard’s reaction, yet he skimmed past as if he was oblivious.
[Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! You’re letting it go? Why?]
[Isn’t it true that the guard has to drive away the living when he sees them? Is it possible that young lady …… is no longer considered a living person?]
[……]
The Nightwatchman turned around suspiciously and slowly walked away, a low, dissatisfied mutter escaping his lips, “I’ll find those three stray fishes ……”
Yu Rui and Feng Huai walked out from their hiding place.
Feng Huai frowned as he looked at the back of the night watchman walking away, “Three stray fishes?”
If stray fishes referred to the living people who remained in the opera house, then there was one other person besides him and Yu Rui.
But given that the guard had completely ignored Mu Zi’s presence, who else was left if not Mu Zi?
“Tan Lin.” Yu Rui said in a deep voice.
It had been a long time since their conductor friend had appeared.
The two of them exchanged glances, raising their guard.
They slipped into the old performance hall after the night watchman left, as originally planned.
They returned all the candlesticks to their original places, and saw a finger-width gap pop out of the originally tightly sealed wall with a soft “poof” sound.
Yu Rui pushed the door open, and saw a round-arched passage behind the wall, with small oil lamps on both sides, like in the tunnels of a medieval castle.
“Welcome to the world behind the unseen door.” He said in a low voice, smiled and looked at Feng Huai, “Let’s go.”
Feng Huai glanced at him, nodded slightly and took the lead to step behind the door.
The round-arched passageway was accompanied by a slope that tilted upwards, and it was clear that they could feel that they were moving upwards.
It didn’t seem quite the same as their initial guess – there was only one passage behind the door, and it wasn’t as well-connected and branched off as they had expected.
The two of them didn’t go far before they stopped, and Feng Huai signaled Yu Rui to look at the oil lamps on both sides of the passage; the oil was half-full, and the firelight swayed with the air currents in the passage.
“The unstable firelight shows that the airflow wind direction is not consistent, proving that the direction we guessed at first was right, it can’t be a one-pass cul-de-sac here, there must be different facing cul-de-sacs that we didn’t discover.” Feng Huai said.
Yu Rui answered, then he pressed himself against the wall and searched for it, his fingers brushed over the cracks of each brick, carefully feeling and listening to the sounds behind the wall.
He suddenly moved, his gaze stopping at a spot.
There was the sound of airflow.
He lightly pushed, then heard “click” a small sound, behind them, a piece of brick wall flipped open, revealing the appearance behind the wall.
It was a dark place, and it seemed that no light shone into it.
Yu Rui and Feng Huai looked at each other and turned on their flashlights and quietly walked in.
They walked a short way in, and there was a curtain on the side, Feng Huai looked at Yu Rui, signaling him to pull back the curtain.
He nodded and tacitly stood on the other side of Feng Huai to take cover.
The curtain was pulled open and behind it was a familiar stage – the rehearsal hall.
The lights in the hall were on, and the light shone into the backstage along the pulled back curtain.
Feng Huai raised his eyebrows slightly, after looking around and not finding anything, he put down the curtain and turned to Yu Rui: “This is one of the hidden passages behind the door.”
Yu Rui pointed to a spot behind Feng Huai’s feet and shone the flashlight upwards: “Look.”
Feng Huai looked along and saw that behind his feet, a pool of blackened blood had almost solidified.
Looking upwards again along Yu Rui’s flashlight, Feng Huai’s pupils shrunk slightly, “Tan Lin?!”
A figure was seen hanging upside down from a roof beam a dozen meters above his head, and at first glance looked almost identical to Tan Lin.
“It’s not him.” Yu Rui said in a deep voice, but that was indeed Tan Lin’s appearance, “It’s a body double doll, a game prop, 12,000 points for a chance to use it once, and it can replace what is currently in the situation of the original person in any situation.”
“12,000 points?” Feng Huai let out a soft “hiss”.
“It’s considered an astronomical price for any player, but it’s equivalent to replacing a life, so it’s worth it even if the price is higher.” Yu Rui said.
He used his toes to crush the blood stains on the ground, which were thick and completely dried up below. It was estimated that Tan Lin had already been captured after the first night.
Yu Rui looked up at the double doll, which perfectly replicated Tan Lin’s appearance——
His eyes were round and bloodshot, the whites of his eyes covered as if they were about to come out of their sockets, and they were filled with frantic despair and horror.
His lips were sewn tightly without gaps with thin black thread, bloodied from having tried to open his mouth and tear it open, his hands were clasped behind his back, and his left leg was bent up and tied behind his right leg, hanging upside down from the dome.
“That’s a hint.” Yu Rui narrowed his eyes.
Feng Huai looked toward him.
“It perfectly replicates the Hanged Man in the Tarot, implying surrender and obedience.” Yu Rui said, “- Any more struggling will not help, it will only toss yourself to exhaustion.”
Feng Huai paused, and quickly reacted – this was a hint prepared for Luo Haonan, through such a visually stunning image, announcing to the other party the death sentence prepared for him, both physically and psychologically, giving a hard blow.
Nolan, the conductor who died at the Sif Opera House a dozen years ago, had also announced her determination and fell in such a way that shook the world:
The posture of the dangling person meant that she gave up everything she had in order to accomplish what she was really meant to do in this life – she proclaimed to everyone that she was beyond the pressure and compulsion of her social class, resisting an arrangement that couldn’t be chosen by her, and thus she surrendered to life and embraced death obediently.
But the real driving force behind Nolan’s tragedy was the one who could understand this scene and feel fear for it.