Transformed into a heartthrob's simp, every day is a battleground.

Chapter 304 Who Am I

Chapter 304 Who Am I

When Fang Shuo saw that the two of them were still holding a blood-stained hammer while they were talking, he couldn't help but raise his hands and beg for mercy, "Gentlemen, please understand, I was just playing the role of a scumbag, not a real scumbag!"

"Speak your mind."

Lin Wen knew they were actually playing a large-scale murder mystery game, so she put the hammer aside. "Seeing the hammer and bloodstains in the trunk, I suddenly remembered..."

"Fang Shuo killed me in a lakeside villa."

“That villa was a bit strange,” Lin Wen said, flipping through her memories. “The entire living room was spotless, without any furniture, as if it had been specially cleaned.”

"Fang Shuo tied me to a chair and said he knew the method and the price of becoming famous."

“I asked him what he meant? This joke wasn’t funny.” Lin Wen looked at Fang Shuo. “He started talking about his famous work.”

"When I talked about that car, I noticed it was parked outside the villa."

"You can guess what happened next," Lin Wen said to Yan Xun, then looked at Fang Shuo, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

"...More or less." Fang Shuo rubbed his nose. "I only remembered my memories after leaving the lakeside villa when I saw the tools used in the crime in the trunk."

The silver car was in their garage; they had already seen the two cars in the garage when they first searched for clues in the villa.

"Because the trunk couldn't be opened," Fang Shuo said. "At the time, we thought these two cars weren't ours."

They had discussed the two cars in the garage, but the trunks couldn't be opened, and they hadn't found the car keys at home, so they assumed they were just props, like the bathtubs and tables.

"Looking back now, it was probably because we didn't explore it enough," Lin Wen said.

"So, you really did something like this just because you heard what the master said?" Yan Xun asked curiously.

Now that things have come to this, Fang Shuo understood perfectly well—before he knew, Lin Wen and Yan Xun had exchanged clues—he sighed, and as the family secret was discovered, the slightest bit of irritation and anger in his heart vanished completely.

"Since you all already know, I'll just say it directly."

"When I arrived at the villa with the crew cut, Xie Qingdu was already dead."

"He was lying on the ground, and the crew-cut man and several others were terrified until the master came over. The crew-cut man immediately asked the master for help."

"Ask him what to do, the monster is really dead!"

"He then questioned the master..."

"What did you say?" Yan Xun asked.

“Didn’t you say he was a monster and wouldn’t die?” Fang Shuo said. “I was so scared I didn’t dare move. I just watched as the master said to the crew-cut guy, ‘You did something like this and you still want to blame me?’”

"Why not think about what if he really turns into a demon and seeks revenge?"

"Upon hearing the master's words, not only the crew-cut man, but also the other two turned pale."

Fang Shuo described the scene in detail, saying that the man with the crew cut grabbed the master's sleeve and asked him to help him, because he was still young and did not want to die without knowing why.

The master then sighed and said he could help the crew-cut man.

He had read about a secret technique in a book, and this place just happened to be the perfect place to perform that technique to suppress evil spirits.

"Nobody dared to move at the time."

"In the end, the master said that if you don't take action, everyone will be doomed, so the crew-cut man made the first cut."

When Yan Xun heard this, he couldn't help but glance at Fang Shuo again.

Fang Shuo asked, puzzled, "Is there a problem?"

"You mean the first cut was from the buzz cut?"

“Yes!” Fang Shuo recalled, “He didn’t hesitate at all and chopped off Xie Qingdu’s arm directly.”

“But I heard from the crew-cut guy that you were the first to make a move?” Yan Xun said. “He said that you made the first move when they didn’t dare to.”

"Bullshit!" Fang Shuo jumped up in anger. "He's slandering people."

"He was the one who made the first move."

"Then came the shirt, the muscular man, and me..." Fang Shuo paused, suddenly confused, "Why did I take action back then?"

“The crew-cut guy said you hate Xie Qingdu so much that you couldn’t wait to jump out.”

He walked to Fang Shuo's side, gesturing with his hand as if to cut his neck, "One cut."

Then he slashed Fang Shuo's arm, "two cuts, three cuts."

Yan Xun was too lazy to bend over, and looked at Fang Shuo's thighs with his eyes, "Four cuts and five cuts."

"There were only three people in the crew-cut dorm at the time, you and Master." He looked at Fang Shuo. "So Master also made a move then?"

"...It seems the master didn't make a move." Fang Shuo frowned as he recalled.

"He only gives us orders."

"Someone made the move twice?"

“…No.” Fang Shuo tapped his head. “I remember the master said that this secret technique requires five different people to perform it.”

He looked at Yan Xun and asked, "Yes, who's the last one?"

Fang Shuo now realized that each of them had some connection with Xie Qingdu. He looked at Yan Xun and asked, "Could it be you?"

"Don't you have any extra memories?"

"No," Yan Xun answered decisively.

Fang Shuo clearly didn't believe it.

"I have absolutely no memory of it." Yan Xun pointed to himself. "If I could remember anything, would my first side quest still be incomplete?"

He didn't hide anything and directly showed Fang Shuo and the others the task panel.

It was clear that his first side quest was not yet complete, and Yan Xun had not yet discovered the secret in his home.

However, Yan Xun completed three of the side quests in "Secrets of Others' Homes" in Part 2: the one involving the crew cut-up guy, Du Yun, and the one involving Lin Wen and Fang Shuo.

The tools used in the crime found in the trunk, along with the details added from their memories, led them to uncover the secret of the red-roofed house.

"Not you?" Fang Shuo thought for a moment. "But there's no one else among us, is there?"

"Could it be Du Yun? Or Shu Fan or Duan Songen?"

“But Shu Fan and Xie Qingdu probably don’t know each other; they’re not from the same school,” Fang Shuo said, offering his analysis. “Duan Songen, on the other hand, has some connection with him because of the Anxin Sanatorium.”

“I think Du Yun is more likely,” Fang Shuo said. “Duan Songen has no grudge against him, so there’s no reason for him to become an accomplice.”

"Could it be that Du Yun had a motive for committing the crime?" Yan Xun wondered what Fang Shuo was thinking.

“Aren’t they from the same year? Maybe they had a conflict in the dormitory sometime,” Fang Shuo said.

Because he was busy looking for clues about his own family, Fang Shuo was unaware of Du Yun's situation.

“It seems Fang Shuo isn’t the murderer,” Lin Wen suddenly said.

"Since you already know the secret of Du Yun's family, and you still ask this question, it most likely means that you know he has an alibi."

Yan Xun nodded. "I'm sure he wasn't there at the time."

“If the crew-cut guy’s memory isn’t faulty,” Yan Xun added.

After all, there was a difference in memory between the crew-cut man and Fang Shuo regarding who made the first move.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Lin Wen said, “to complete side quest 2 in this instance, the players in the five houses need to cooperate with each other.”

She looked at Yan Xun and said, "If I'm not mistaken, you also collaborated with Du Yun to uncover the secret in his home."

This is also the cunning aspect of Side Mission 2.

If Yan Xun could find clues about the secrets of the crew-cut man's family by befriending Xie Qingdu, who is an NPC, then...

In the other families, almost all of them are players, so it's impossible for him to extract information or find clues without being discovered by the players.

"More or less," Yan Xun readily admitted.

Fang Shuo looked at the two of them and asked, "So, are we going to find Shu Fan and his alliance now?"

"After ruling out Du Yun as a suspect, the most likely people involved are..." Fang Shuo looked at Yan Xun and Lou Yanchuan, "...you two, and Shu Fan's family."

“I think I can be cleared of suspicion.” Lou Yanchuan raised his hand, his first statement since entering Fang Shuo’s house. “At that time, I was already unable to walk.”

"They probably don't have that much energy to go over mountains and valleys just to do bad things."

"That makes sense." Fang Shuo nodded, looking at Yan Xun. "And what about you?"

"Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Yan Xun really had nothing to defend himself with—although based on the clues he had found so far, his only connection with Xie Qingdu was with Grandma Yan Xun in the hospital room—but in this scenario, some connections cannot be judged by appearances alone. For example, Duan Songen seemed to have nothing to do with everything, but he was very likely to be the master's "subordinate".

"No," Yan Xun said.

"Then let's go talk to them?" Fang Shuo asked.

"No rush," Lin Wen said. "If we ask them to cooperate now, they definitely won't agree."

"We'll talk about it when they encounter difficulties."

It's getting late, and Yan Xun should go home.

He pushed Lou Yanchuan away from Lin Wen and the other person, and as they walked under the streetlights, he asked Lou Yanchuan, "Why have you suddenly become so quiet?"

“I’m just wondering who’s lying,” Lou Yanchuan said.

Yan Xun understood that he was referring to the difference between the buzz cut and Fang Shuo's memory.

“Maybe they weren’t lying,” Yan Xun said, yawning as he looked at the white-roofed villa so close at hand. “What they’re seeing is the reality of their memories.”

"Ok?"

"According to the clues we obtained earlier, Xie Qingdu should be a dead man who was resurrected by some mysterious magic, a true incarnation of Yin Sha."

"He was buried in the ground for more than 20 years and then he was dug out."

"Whether it's the crew cut or Fang Shuo's memory, that night at the lakeside villa can be described as a bloodbath."

“But would a dead person bleed so much?” Yan Xun said. “The dead cannot be brought back to life.”

"Dr. Du and the master used a secret method, but the child reborn through the womb is still not human; it is just a ghost fetus with a human form."

Yan Xun suddenly stopped in his tracks as he spoke.

He looked down at Lou Yanchuan, who just happened to look up at that moment.

"...So who was I before I was reincarnated?"

Yan Xun hesitated for once, "I have no memory of it at all, could it be related to this?"

Seeing Yan Xun's ashen face and his pained expression, Lou Yanchuan kindly finished the sentence for him, "Maybe you're his father." He clapped his hands, "No wonder Xie Qingdu is so kind to you, it turns out you were father and son in your past life."

Yan Xun: "I'll strangle you."

He pretended to strangle Lou Yanchuan, but after placing his hand on Lou Yanchuan's neck, Yan Xun suddenly felt a little uneasy.

Throughout the entire story, what bothered him most was that he had no memory of it.

And why, despite being skilled in witchcraft, his grandmother seemed unaware that he was a ghost child.

Thinking of this, Yan Xun truly felt as if the sky was about to fall—

He doesn't want a son this big!

Seeing Yan Xun let go, Lou Yanchuan asked curiously, "Aren't you going to strangle me?"

"I'm not in the mood to pinch you," Yan Xun said, pushing Lou Yanchuan into the house with a heavy heart. Seeing his father sitting on the sofa, his feelings became even more complicated.

According to Du Yun's mother, Du Yun used to talk nonsense when he was a child, and the voice sounded like that of a great villain. At that time, Yan Xun had already been born, so no matter how you look at it, Yan Xun could not possibly be the reincarnation of that great villain.

"You're back?" Dad asked without looking up.

Yan Xun responded, "I'll go back to my room."

When he returned to the third floor, he found Shuangshuang standing in front of his door.

He stopped in his tracks. "Looking for me?"

"Some of the things we're moving into are misplaced." Shuangshuang gestured for Yan Xun to look at the cardboard boxes on the ground. "This box is yours."

Yan Xun looked down and saw that his name was indeed written on the cardboard box.

He bent down and opened it, finding his high school books inside. "Thank you?" he said to Shuangshuang.

"You're welcome!" Shuangshuang said generously, as she was about to return to her room.

Yan Xun stepped in front of her, "Shuangshuang, can you tell me something about Grandma?"

He squatted down and looked at Shuangshuang, "I've realized I can't remember anything about Grandma anymore."

Shuangshuang looked at Yan Xun and said, "Then you can help me with my homework."

Yan Xun: "..."

"Row."

He picked up his own suitcase, opened the door, and invited Shuangshuang inside.

……

Shuangshuang sat in Yan Xun's chair, eating the snacks he had bought from the convenience store earlier.

What do you want to ask?

"Was Grandma resting in bed before she went to the nursing home?" Yan Xun asked a question that both he and Lou Yanchuan cared about—was Grandma still alive when Lou Yanchuan saw her?

“Yes!” Shuangshuang nodded.

Have you talked to your grandma?

Shuangshuang shook her head. "My parents had already sent me to boarding school." She told Yan Xun, "I can only see my grandma when I go home on weekends."

"At first, Grandma talked to me."

"But then, Grandma just kept sleeping."

Shuangshuang seemed to recall something that terrified her, "Once, I secretly ran into my grandma's room when my parents weren't looking."

"I want to tell her that Shuangshuang is back."

"But Grandma was sleeping very soundly." Shuangshuang's body trembled involuntarily as she recalled this. "I nudged Grandma, trying to wake her up."

"But Grandma's body is so cold..."

"Later, my dad found out that I had sneaked into my grandma's room. He said that my grandma was not feeling well and needed to rest, so he carried me out."

"Didn't you ask Dad why Grandma's body is so cold?"

“Of course I asked!” Shuangshuang said. “Dad said that Grandma is not feeling well right now, so it’s normal for her to feel cold.”

"But I asked my dad, if Grandma is cold, why isn't there any heating in the room?"

He said children shouldn't worry about so much.

Shuangshuang looked a little dissatisfied as she said this, "I'm not a child anymore."

"Didn't you secretly go over to check after that?" Yan Xun asked.

Shuangshuang looked at him guiltily, "I went..."

"But I couldn't open that door," Shuangshuang recalled. "Dad locked the door to prevent me from bothering Grandma."