456: 8.56 You Should See This

8.56 You Should See This

Where had Baines gone to be carrying a bloodied kitchen knife around? Even if he were to butcher some live animals — not that Lu Yizhou had ever seen any signs of livestock around the mansion — why did he do it himself instead of handing it over to the respective cooks?  2

Also, Lu Yizhou still had not discovered the mystery behind the women Baines had dragged out in a potato sack last night…

What if… he had heard wrong and it was not the two women inside? What if Ailín was right, that inside the storage freezer was human meat — or worse, frozen corpses? Lu Yizhou pursed his lips together. What he could know from other people was very limited. He would like to investigate it himself but somehow, he suspected that everything would be gone by the time he got there, just like the time with the ghost mannequin in his bathroom…

This game was intentionally confusing the players and redirected them further and further from the truth!

Lu Yizhou reconsidered his choices. He still had approximately four and a half hours until the sun fully set and moreover, he had consumed stamina potion earlier so he could not even rest even if he wanted to. He nodded to himself and stood up. "I will go and check the kitchen out."

"I will go with you!" Ji Yan raised his hand eagerly.

"No," Lu Yizhou told him sternly. "Stay here and take a rest. You need to regain your strength for the fight tonight."

Ji Yan looked like he still wanted to protest but before he could say anything, Ailín straightened up from where he was leaning against the window. "I will go with Miss Irene. Ji Yan and Olivia, please take a rest. You two have worked hard to complete the special quest. Don't worry, Miss Irene and I are more than enough." 

Olivia elbowed him on his side with an annoyed look. "Listen to them! Each one of them is much stronger than you! You will not be able to contribute anything even if you go anyway!"

  Ji Yan fixed her with a heated glare before sighing, defeated. He knew that it was the best choice at the moment. "Okay then. Please be careful, you two."

Lu Yizhou nodded. Somehow, his plot radar was tingling. He had a hunch that a development would happen if he were to leave the protagonists by themselves right now. So he gave one nod for Ailín to follow him before he exited the room. 

Their walk to the kitchen was draped in silence, each submerged in their own thoughts. Lu Yizhou still could not stop thinking about Baines, the bodies he carried out of the master bedroom last night, and the unfamiliar figure of his lover he had seen when he was in a coma. Hence he startled lightly when Ailín suddenly asked, "Why do you think this vicious game exists, Miss Irene? Is it weird that I am asking something like that?"

It was because this game was the bug's nest, which was what Lu Yizhou wished he could say. "Not weird. I don't know either."

Ailín heaved out a sigh. "I have seen so many deaths from the very first quest. Not only that, in perilous situations, human's true nature will be exposed. Betrayal, deception, murder, I have seen people do that simply because they were trying to survive. Even though I am – was – a police officer, I can't do anything about it because law doesn't exist here. When I think back about it, it's kinda ironic. This quest, even though it's a little disgusting and creepy, is actually the best I have ever had. You, Ji Yan, Olivia and Diana are good people. Because of you, I think we can get out of this quest alive. All of us." He offered a sideways glance toward Lu Yizhou, sighing. "Do you know that someone always dies in my previous quests?"

Lu Yizhou shook his head. However, judging from the nature of the game, he had guessed it. This was the survival of the fittest. The weak would perish and the strong would come out as the winner. As simple as that. 

"More often than not, players died due to another player." Ailín showed a bitter smile. "I think the real nightmare lies not in this game, but in how it has succeeded in pulling out the darkness hidden within us. Miss Irene, if one day you have to kill someone innocent to stay alive, will you do that?"

Lu Yizhou abruptly halted in his tracks, taking Ailín off guard.

He pinched his brows and let out a sigh. "Listen, I think you have had some misconceptions about me. I am not as kind as you think I am. I am willing to do anything to reach my goal, Ailín." He stared right into Ailín's stunned eyes as he emphasized. "Anything. I have gone through a real nightmare before and for me… this game is nothing more than a child's play."

Without waiting for Ailín to recover from his surprise, Lu Yizhou brushed past him and made his way to the kitchen. He inspected the doorway in case there would be some bloodstains. None. 

After that, he made his way inside. The kitchen was quite large with all the pans hanging neatly on the hook above the stove. The floor was made of patterned ceramics. The overall theme was dark brown and suited this mansion very well. Lu Yizhou walked around once before checking the cabinets one by one. The upper cabinet was filled with plates, bottles of spices and wines while the bottom cabinet was used to store other appliances. 

"Where did you find the comb again?" He asked Ailín who was standing on the doorway, presumably at the position where Baines had stared at them from. 

With a little furrow between his brows, Ailín pointed at the cabinet above Lu Yizhou's head and the one beside his feet. Lu Yizhou probed around there too and found nothing strange there.

Lu Yizhou rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He really could not comprehend this game. At first he thought that the location of Madam's comb might mean something more, but perhaps… it was totally random after all?

During the time Lu Yizhou inspected the cooking area, Ailín had slipped himself into the inner part where the freezer was. He let out a faint choked sound, followed by a strained call, "M–Miss Irene, I think you should see this…"

Lu Yizhou instantly shelved his doubt for later and caught up to Ailín. 

Ailín had dragged the freezer door open halfway, causing cold air to burst out around them. Chills ran down Lu Yizhou's spine, not because of the low temperature, but because of what he saw from the gap of the opened door.

The inside of the freezer was illuminated by an eerie blue light and there were lots, lots of human silhouettes, hanging off midair — no, they were hooked by something on the ceiling with their legs dangling freely. Like they were livestock meat or something.

[666: *retch* why is 666's screen not mosaicked?! 666 is going to file a complaint to Admin God after this!!!]

Lu Yizhou sucked in a breath, nausea churning in his stomach. "Let's go in," he said in a low voice as though he would stir awake those that were hung inside. He heard Ailín swallow audibly beside him before he gave a little nod.

'Daddy…' Ozzie curled tighter around his neck as Lu Yizhou took a step forward. 'They smell weird meow…'

'What do you mean?' 

'I have smelled something like that before. Let me think a bit…' Ozzie let out a contemplating sound. It did not need two seconds for her to exclaim, "Aha! They smelled just the same as the dolls in small Mommy's room! I remember perfectly because it's weird, it smells like human but also not meow!'

Lu Yizhou paused in the doorway. Now that he had the full view of the freezer, he could see that the human silhouettes stretched rows upon rows until the back of the room. It was practically endless. All of them were wearing long, plain white dresses, radiating stillness and death. The thing that was hooking them to the ceiling was actually a string of chains that looped around the small appendage on the back of their neck. Their heads hung low with hair covering their face, rendering him unable to make out their faces.

Lu Yizhou stopped in front of the one closest to him and slowly reached out a hand to brush the hair away. 

An almost gentle smile welcomed Lu Yizhou's sight, almost unnerving when paired with the state she was in.

Lu Yizhou inhaled sharply. Now he knew what Ozzie meant by smelling like a human but also not; because one, she was a mannequin. All of them. Just like Madam Knox's mannequin he found in his bathroom. And two, Lu Yizhou recognized this face very well.

It was one of the women whom he had interrogated back in the carriage, the one who should have died last night when she entered the master bedroom!

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