Chapter 15: Rose Manor (XIV) Deductions of the Past

The clues in Chang Xu’s possession were similar to the ones Qi Si already had: four lines of cryptic poetry accompanied by five diary entries. Judging by the tone, the diaries in the two sets of clues were written by different people, each metaphorically revealing different facets of the background story.

Qi Si read through the clues twice, committed them to memory, and then, standing at the desk, copied the clues from his own room onto a fresh sheet of papyrus. Afterward, clutching the red dress, he repeated the deductions he had previously shared with Lin Chen, earning a look of begrudging respect from Chang Xu.

With the two sets of clues combined, a story began to take shape.

"A fallen noble family had two daughters. The elder, Anna, was beautiful and perfect in every way, while the younger, Annie, was quite mediocre by comparison. A man wandered into the manor by mistake and fell in love with Anna. He made every effort to marry her, but unfortunately, he arrived a step too late; believing she had been abandoned by him, Anna had already died of a broken heart."

"The reason time is the most crucial factor is that the mechanical clock was tampered with, causing the man and Anna to miss each other on the night they had planned to elope, leading to a series of tragic misunderstandings." Qi Si looked down at the words on the paper, his voice a mix of a sigh and a mockery.

"Whether out of twisted love or a jealousy she herself might not have even realized, Annie assumed her sister Anna’s identity, met the man when he returned to the manor, killed him, and buried him in the garden."

Lin Chen already knew this information, and since it was too easy to debunk if fabricated and ultimately useless, Qi Si stated it plainly, hoping to lower the guard between the two partners.

Once he finished, he looked at Chang Xu and asked, "Brother Chang, you spent the whole morning digging in the garden—did you find anything else strange?"

Chang Xu replied, "Three bodies in total, two men and one woman. Initial assessment suggests they were all players."

"…Alright then."

So much for that; he had hoped to find the corpse of the hero who had pursued Miss Anna.

Qi Si was slightly disappointed, though not by much. He continued, "I tested the waters; the Miss Anna we saw at the dining table is a living person. It should be the surviving sister, Annie. The real Anna is already dead; she might appear as a ghost."

Upon hearing this, Chang Xu frowned. "It is known that Annie and Anna looked different. If she could impersonate Anna without being detected, it seems she has been able to channel supernatural power for quite some time. I suspect the Rose Manor itself is problematic. She is merely a part of the anomaly, and someone else is orchestrating all of this."

"That is my deduction as well," Qi Si nodded in agreement.

Those who set the rules often have the privilege of not following them, and it was clear that Miss Anna did not have the authority to break the rules. In other words, someone else was the architect of the supernatural rules within Rose Manor.

"The clues to complete this part of the deduction are either on the third floor or with Zou Yan and Ye Zi," Qi Si said pointedly, his gaze falling back on the four lines of poetry at the top of the page.

His own set of verses was ambiguous—part prophecy, part curse—making his heart tighten with a suffocating, sharp pain the moment he read them.

By contrast, Chang Xu’s four lines were much easier to understand:

*I am forever trapped in time,*
*Where dawn and dusk meet in their prime.*
*The cycle repeats, year after year,*
*Yesterday returns, and I am here.*

It was clearly describing a time loop.

Qi Si narrowed his eyes and asked nonchalantly, "Brother Chang, do you keep that 'Pocket Watch of Fate' with you and check it often?"

"Every half hour, on average," Chang Xu said, taking the watch from his pocket to check the time. "In my memory, from the moment we entered the instance until now, there hasn't been any obvious issue with time."

"Is that so?"

***

In Room 1, near the stairwell, Zou Yan and Ye Zi sat at the desk, staring intently at a prop shaped like an eyeball.

[Name: Eye of Hermes (Right Eye)]
[Type: Prop]
[Effect: After placing the left eye in a closed space, one can see what the left eye observes through the right eye. (Can only be used once per instance, for ten minutes each time.)]
[Note: The gods know everything, so says Hermes.]

At this moment, the scene displayed on the eyeball was exactly that of Chang Xu’s room, including Qi Si’s deductions about the background story and their decision to explore the third floor.

"You see, sometimes there is no need for heated arguments. By lurking in the shadows to observe and spy, one can obtain all the information we need," Zou Yan smiled faintly at Ye Zi. "By comparison, causing conflict with them in public is the worst possible choice. We don't have the advantage in terms of brute force, do we?"

Ye Zi swallowed hard, memories of her interactions with Zou Yan flashing before her eyes.

First, pretending to be a kindly soul to avoid suspicion; then, demanding that she initiate a conflict to mislead other players into thinking they couldn't possibly be working together... every move was calculated and seasoned.

Recalling the knowledge Shen Ming had shared with her, Ye Zi asked hesitantly, "Sister Zou, this isn't your second time in an instance, is it? A prop like this isn't something a newcomer could obtain. Are you a veteran who spent points to specify this instance?"

Zou Yan countered, "Aren't you the same?"

Ye Zi shook her head repeatedly. "I'm a pure newcomer. I was trapped by a contract from the company that signed me, ended up in debt, and had to enter the game to earn money. Sister Zou, is there something special about this instance? Why did you choose to enter it? I heard that entering a specified instance doesn't grant point rewards..."

"I see," Zou Yan smiled with realization.

She had no intention of answering Ye Zi’s question. Instead, she looked directly into the latter's eyes, her expression shifting to one of compassionate gentleness. "Can you help me complete an experiment?"

"What experiment?"

The pendulum of the mechanical clock struck the first beat, the solemn chime echoing throughout the floor.

Zou Yan said, "Ye Zi, close your eyes."

***

The mechanical clock struck the first beat: it was one o'clock in the afternoon.

Chang Xu glanced at the pocket watch in his hand, and his perpetually expressionless face finally changed.

"The pocket watch is an hour fast. Just in the last second, the hour hand jumped an entire notch, as if an hour of time had been plucked out of thin air."

Chang Xu’s tone remained flat, describing even this bizarre phenomenon with unflappable calm.

Qi Si grasped the implications the instant he heard those words.

The instance's mechanism had been triggered, and it was highly likely related to the four lines of poetry in Chang Xu’s room.

"It’s a one-hour time reversal," Qi Si judged, narrowing his eyes as he surveyed the surroundings. "Could it be that the supernatural game saw we were at a dead end and, fearing it would affect the average clearance rate, gave us a hint on purpose?"

He made a nonsensical joke, but there was no smile on his face.

Just as they began to study the clues in the poems, another player had successfully triggered the time-reversal mechanism. It was too coincidental to be an accident.

A bad premonition arose, yet Qi Si found himself uncontrollably excited.

He had always been the one pulling strings from the shadows; he hadn't expected someone else to beat him to the punch. Unexpected situations were the most interesting, weren't they?

He stepped out of the room, his gaze lingering on the door of the adjacent guest room.

The gloomy, mottled wooden door was shut tight, showing no signs of anything unusual from the outside, not even a whisper of sound leaking through.

Behind him, Chang Xu seemed to recall something and began searching his own clothing.

A few seconds later, he extended two fingers and plucked an eyeball-like object from his jacket pocket.

The item was already fractured, yet the pupil, covered in bloodshot veins and lines, continued to dilate and contract, mimicking the act of breathing, like the remnant of some monster with tenacious vitality.

"Someone was spying on us," Chang Xu said, tossing the eyeball toward Qi Si to let him examine it.

Qi Si caught it, and the moment his skin touched the cold, viscous fluid, a system prompt appeared before his eyes.

[Name: Eye of Hermes (Left Eye) (Damaged)]
[Type: Prop]
[Effect: ...]

Qi Si understood everything almost immediately.

Chang Xu was completely defenseless against others; in the eyes of those with ulterior motives, he was as riddled with vulnerabilities as a sieve.

If he could be utilized, others could certainly be utilized as well.

Sure enough, once a plan involves more than one person, various oversights are inevitable... His handling of certain details was still too rough.

Chang Xu did not know what Qi Si was thinking.

Watching the young man’s dark expression, he calmly recalled, "Not long ago, Liu Qingye had physical contact with me. I suspect this prop was likely planted on me at that time. I also had contact with Shen Ming the night before; I cannot rule out that possibility."

"It wasn't Shen Ming. Predicting his own death and paving the way for others—he doesn't seem like the type to be that selfless."

Qi Si exhaled softly, gradually suppressing his chaotic emotions, and analyzed concisely, "Ye Zi suddenly picking a fight with Zou Yan was likely just to create the illusion of discord between them. The node for this layout must have been this morning."

Chang Xu’s expression sharpened: "You mean..."