Du Lingyu struggled for a long time to escape the nightmarish reality. Xi Shengnan killed Xia Yu? Xia Yu was already dead when they first arrived in this world! Even disregarding all sentimentality, this didn't make sense, because Xi Shengnan simply had no opportunity to commit the crime.
Du Lingyu rubbed her temples; she was prone to migraines when under intense stress, and this time, not only was there a migraine, but her ear was also ringing.
After finally calming herself down a bit, Du Lingyu noticed Cao Youning had gotten up and was standing beside the bed. He looked as lost and bewildered as she was, his expression less one of sadness and fear, and more of a sense of utter insignificance and disorientation in this world.
Mu Yiran seemed to be speaking to the officer, and Du Lingyu listened intently, but found her comprehension skills were woefully inadequate. Mu Yiran seemed to be deliberately speaking indirectly, as if he were avoiding something while trying his best to make his intentions clear.
Right, it's about time. Mu Yiran couldn't directly discuss time with the Lantern Brigade members, so he mostly used terms like "lighting the lamps" and "extinguishing the lamps" to indicate it.
Fortunately, the brigade commander's comprehension was much better than Du Lingyu's. He nodded and said, "I understand. Although Xi Shengnan is suspected of murder, she was also a victim. Besides, the deceased is gone... I'll send someone to bring a magnifying glass later. We must find a way to find the source of this poison from medical books."
A magnifying glass? Mu Yiran actually got a magnifying glass, and from the brigade commander. Du Lingyu felt incredible and gradually understood why these veteran members could go through so many paintings together. Besides the team's tacit cooperation, having an excellent leader was also an essential element.
The brigade commander was finally leaving. He turned back to everyone and said, "I'll send someone to put the deceased's body in a coffin later, freeze it first, and then bury it in the frozen ground for peace."
It seems that this is the world's final way of preserving the deceased.
Lu Heng rubbed his eyes and said, "Can we go see them off then?"
The brigade commander replied, "Sure."
The door opened and closed again, leaving only the twelve members in the room, along with Xi Shengnan, who was slowly stiffening on the bed.
"Why? I really can't understand." It was Luo Yi who spoke, tightly embracing Xin Chun. "When we arrived, Xia Yu was already dead. Why were Sister Xi's knives on her body? And those two knives were brought in from the outside world! The timeline just doesn't make sense!" "
So, the time in this world is completely disordered. It's precisely because of this disorder that the residents here disregard time," Shao Ling said.
"If they really disregard time, why do they have such an important ceremony of turning the lights on and off?" It was Zhu Haowen who spoke. "I think they have more of a fear, even awe, of time, which is why everything related to time is considered taboo."
Mu Yiran walked to the wooden cabinet, looked at the pile of incense ashes in the corner, and the half-burning incense stick in the ashes: "The second incense stick has only burned a little over half."
"How long is the second incense stick?" Qin Ci asked.
Mu Yiran took out a long, unburnt incense stick: "I used this length as a guide. I marked it with a pen. One section can burn for about 4 hours. Last night I used incense sticks that were 5 times longer, which means they can burn for 20 hours under normal circumstances."
"Yes, only in this way can we make up the 24 hours of day and night," Qin Ci pondered.
Qin Ci walked over and examined the burning incense closely. It was clear that the incense hadn't gone out last night: "Based on its current length, it's about three-fifths of the total length left. That means the incense only burned for 8 hours last night."
Cao Youning rubbed his eyes: "I feel like I slept for a long time last night, definitely more than 8 hours."
Many people also expressed the same feeling.
Luo Yi looked at Ke Xun standing beside him: "Brother, have we counted a day or half a day now? Yesterday's daytime was 4 hours, plus the 8 hours after the lights went out, that's only 12 hours. Does a day here have two sets of day and night?"
Ke Xun seemed to remember something: "I'll go check the 7 lines carved on the wall outside. Maybe they've changed."
Du Lingyu really didn't want to stay in the room with the dead person. Although this person had been very close to her in life, death was death. Feeling sad was one thing, but being with a corpse was another.
Du Lingyu couldn't control her fear. Seeing Ke Xun go out, she followed him out.
The outside was brightly lit again, just like yesterday's daytime. Du Lingyu followed closely behind Ke Xun; the tall man always gave her a sense of security.
Ke Xun came to the wall in the corridor, where the 7 vertical lines were still deeply carved, unchanged.
Ke Xun ran his index finger along the seven vertical lines, feeling their sharp, uneven surfaces. "I always feel like these seven lines tell a story; there must be clues hidden within them."
The light brought warmth and a sense of security, and Du Lingyu felt herself gradually warming up. She then began to carefully observe the seven lines on the wall.
"Don't you think these seven lines weren't drawn by the same person?" Du Lingyu voiced her opinion.
Ke Xun observed closely and noticed that the first three lines were drawn straight and strong, while the last four were slightly slanted, shorter, and had shallower marks—they truly didn't seem to be from the same hand.
Du Lingyu pursed her slightly dry lips and pointed to the seventh vertical line with a trembling finger, saying, "Look, this line is particularly shallow, and it slants sharply to the lower left, just like how I habitually write Arabic numerals..."
The following words might sound ominous, but Du Lingyu said them anyway: "I don't know why, but I always feel like I drew the last line."
Ke Xun couldn't help but turn to look at Du Lingyu, wondering why this girl had suddenly said this.
"I don't know either, maybe it's a girl's intuition," Du Lingyu forced a smile. This topic was a bit scary, and she didn't have any solid evidence. "Anyway, when I was little, my mom strictly required me to write numbers in a grid notebook, so all the numbers I wrote were slanted... And, I think this wall, although it's made of wood, is very sturdy wood. I don't think I could have drawn such deep lines as the first few lines..."
Du Lingyu gradually stopped talking, feeling the hairs on her face standing on end, and inexplicably feeling nervous and uncomfortable.
Ke Xun reached out, paused briefly in mid-air, and gently patted Du Lingyu's shoulder. "In the world within the painting, crying and tension are useless. To survive, we must do everything we can to find clues. However, I found your analysis very helpful."
Du Lingyu tried to stop trembling. "Thank you."
"Actually, everyone has their own characteristics and potential. If everyone can bring these out, then we're not far from leaving the painting." Ke Xun's eyes remained fixed on the seven lines on the wall. Ever since Du Lingyu's earlier remarks, Ke Xun felt as if those seven lines were also watching him.
Du Lingyu nodded, pulling her old cotton robe tighter around herself to make herself warmer. "Also, when I woke up this morning, I smelled a strange fragrance near Sister Xi's seat."
"A fragrance?"
"Yes, the scent is very special, completely different from the incense we burn at night. And it's very faint; most people probably wouldn't even notice it." Du Lingyu subconsciously sniffed her sleeve. "There's still a slight smell on my clothes, probably because I was close to Sister Xi last night."
Ke Xun stared intently at Du Lingyu: "Have you always been so sensitive to scents?"
Du Lingyu nodded: "I'm quite interested in perfumes. I've been taking perfumery classes in my spare time for the past two years, so I'm probably more sensitive to scents."
When Ke Xun and Du Lingyu returned to their room, Qin Ci was flipping through that book… The medical book, with its tiny print, required Qin Ci to squint and strain to read. "I didn't look at this book carefully yesterday, and now I realize the first half is about medicine, while the second half is about poisons."
Ke Xun gently interrupted Qin Ci, "Xiao Du has some knowledge of fragrances; she smelled a strange scent on Xi Shengnan."
Hearing this, Qin Ci hurriedly flipped through a few more pages. "There's a section here specifically about using spices to make poisons... Could it be..."
All eyes were on Qin Ci, and the only sound in the room was the rustling of pages turning, like the slow ticking of a clock.
The sound abruptly stopped, and Qin Ci's hand stopped on a certain page. "How strange, a page has been torn out."
Everyone crowded around to see, and there it was—a page of the medical book, neatly torn out, so carefully that it would have been impossible to notice unless one had turned to that page.
Qin Ci glanced at the previous and next pages: "These records all describe methods for making poison using spices. The torn-out page should also be one."
Everyone remained silent for a long time before Wei Dong finally spoke: "So, the murderer secretly tore out this page and then used the recipe to make poison with spices, killing Xi Shengnan last night?
" "But how could the murderer have done it? There are so many people in the house. If he used incense to poison us, he would have killed us all. It's impossible for him to have only killed Xi Shengnan."
Wei Dong's words made sense; this was indeed difficult to explain.
Qin Ci walked to Xi Shengnan's body, lifted the cloth, and examined it carefully again: "Based on the symptoms, I believe she must have ingested a large amount of poison. Only poison entering the body could cause such severe consequences."
"Dr. Qin, do you mean Shengnan ate poison?" Lu Heng said, "We were all eating together the whole time; she didn't eat anything else by herself." "
Shao Ling: "Let's think back carefully, don't overlook any details. The fact that two knives were missing from that set was due to our negligence. Everyone, think carefully, was Xi Shengnan with everyone yesterday when we were eating or drinking?"
Just as everyone was frowning and racking their brains, Mai Peng suddenly said: "I know, maybe it's that bottle of chili sauce. It seems like she was the only one who ate chili sauce yesterday."
Hearing this, Qin Ci had already taken out the bottle of chili sauce from the cabinet with a cloth and opened the lid.
A spicy smell filled the room. Du Lingyu came forward, frowned, and sniffed carefully: "Because of the spiciness, the fragrance is much weaker, but there's still a trace, it's the smell of Sister Xi."
Mai Peng sighed: "Among us, only Sister Xi and I eat spicy food. Yesterday, I had a bad cold, so I didn't dare to touch chili peppers, so she was the only one who ate it." "
It's not that the veteran members don't eat chili peppers at all, but the label on this bottle of chili sauce says: Extra Spicy Chili Sauce, which makes them hesitate.
" Qin Ci took out a set of needles from his bag: "There are special poison-testing needles in here, which seem to be a special product of this world."
Mai Peng was a little confused: "Isn't using silver needles only for testing arsenic? Sister Xi's poisoning shouldn't be arsenic."
Qin Ci: "These aren't silver needles. The color and texture of these needles are very special. They should be special poison-testing needles. I'll try them."
In the end, the needle that was stuck into the chili sauce turned completely black.