Chapter 9

After bidding farewell to Wu Zhi, Xi Yu was busy until dusk, but he didn’t find any new skill flower cards.

He only familiarized himself with the layout of the General's Mansion before sneaking into the empty kitchen to steal some semi-finished food for dinner. He sat on the grass outside, preparing to fill his stomach.

To his surprise, before he could even take a bite of the pastry, he looked up and saw Luo Xi, dressed in all black.

Xi Yu was secretly surprised and shifted his position to a distance, signaling that he didn’t want to talk.

However, Luo Xi, holding the wine flask he had stolen from the kitchen, leisurely walked over: "What did you and that kid do at the shrine this afternoon?"

Xi Yu was very cautious, but still, he was spotted, and the food suddenly lost its taste.

"Everyone has eyes, so every action must be justified with a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, it’s better not to act at all," Luo Xi squatted near him by the well, casually drinking the sake from the flask. Unfortunately, the scarred face he had made any sense of beauty impossible.

Pretending to be deaf and mute in front of such a clever person wouldn’t be convincing, so Xi Yu said quietly: "Why do you drink so much alcohol every meal? Aren’t you afraid of getting drunk and being harmed?"

Luo Xi: "Who dares to harm me? Just come and have fun with me."

Xi Yu was speechless.

At least, based on the current situation, that unlucky group of "good citizens" certainly had no chance of showing off their power in front of this villain.

Luo Xi took another sip of wine: "Getting drunk is good for sleeping, so I don’t have to hear the ghostly cries and wolf howls outside."

"There’s no sound outside the bedroom, only..." Xi Yu couldn’t resist the impulse to speak the truth: "Only a female ghost."

"A female ghost?" Luo Xi seemed to find it interesting and said deliberately: "Our room doors are intact, they can’t be broken, only yours is broken."

The paper on the door being torn was the female ghost’s claw work, and when reminded of this, Xi Yu couldn’t help but start thinking if there was any deeper meaning behind it.

Luo Xi continued: "If the game’s story setting isn’t useful, they wouldn’t tell us. Since they told us, we should understand more about it."

Xi Yu didn’t understand why he kept pointing things out to him, and just as he was wondering, he looked up and saw a cat springing out of the well: it was the fat, smug, spirit cat that guarded the white side.

When the spirit cat saw the two of them, it stopped leisurely and said: "I want to eat fish."

Xi Yu, benefiting from it, immediately stood up and sneaked into the kitchen to steal some tuna. He thought he might get help from the cat, but it grabbed the fish and immediately ran off without any conscience.

Luo Xi watched the whole process and couldn’t help but chuckle."The cat isn't afraid of you; you're the white side," Xi Yu frowned and said.

Luo Xi: "It's not afraid of you either. Your logic is telling me that you're actually the white side?"

Xi Yu had no response.

Luo Xi put down the wine flask, jumped from the well edge to the ground, and pointed at himself: "Which of my cells looks like someone who would choose the white side?"

Indeed, this man doesn’t follow logic and does things his own way, so he would definitely prefer a faction with higher chances of winning.

Xi Yu regretted his earlier rashness, swallowed nervously, and feared that he might suddenly attack.

However, Luo Xi only slowly walked over, lowered his head, and looked at him: "But you, look at you... this little appearance—"

Xi Yu remained still: "Everyone looks pretty normal. I don’t even remember what happened to me. Maybe it’s albinism?"

Luo Xi seemed to want to say something but hesitated, pausing for two seconds before saying: "I didn’t mean that. What I mean is, you can’t pretend to be a bad guy, so you might as well switch to a good guy identity and let your teammates protect you from the shadows."

"There’s no such thing as good or bad people. Everyone plays the game out of necessity," Xi Yu wasn’t sure whether he was being deceived or not, and he widened his amber-colored eyes, refusing to answer.

"People don’t have good or bad; skills can have good or evil." Luo Xi didn’t continue the conversation, instead looking at the ghost puppet drifting in the distance and softly saying, "Dinner is ready."

Someone had already died today, a defection rule appeared at noon, and the atmosphere in the dinner hall for the evening banquet could only be described as awkward and pretentious.

Yao Chenna no longer threw tantrums and sat closely with Peanut, whispering sweet nothings to each other. Wu Zhi was chatting with Fang Hao and Sun Xiuya. The others were also grouped into pairs or small groups, clearly having formed their own "familiar" bonds.

Xi Yu walked in quietly, turned to the puppet watching him, and said, "I’m not eating. Is there somewhere I can take a bath?"

"Rest assured, the hot water will be prepared for you," the puppet mechanically replied, "Dinner time, everyone must gather."

Xi Yu had no choice but to take his seat at the usual spot.

Soon, Luo Xi and Tong Leshan were unwillingly escorted to the table by the puppet.

Eleven people gathered here, and the atmosphere was as tense as a stretched string, making the air feel thin.

Wu Zhi shot a hostile glance at Tong Leshan, then looked at Xi Yu.

Xi Yu averted his gaze and did not respond."Five days without food or drink, no one can last through that. Let’s stop holding back," Fang Hao said, feeling frustrated. "How about next time we just mix all the rice in the bowls together, then scoop and divide it ourselves? It's much better than starving while doubting everyone."

Tang Yanyan was the first to agree: "Good idea, I'm about to starve to death."

Fang Hao wiped his plate clean, then poured everyone’s rice into it, mixed it up, and divided it into eleven bowls. He said, "Eat."

…………

The atmosphere froze, and no one moved their chopsticks.

Wu Zhi broke the silence and stepped forward to take a bowl: "This time, everyone has to eat. Anyone who refuses is guilty of poisoning."

Luo Xi chuckled: "Then little brother, you go first."

Wu Zhi hesitated, holding his chopsticks, frozen in place.

It seemed that doubt in people's hearts was like a black hole— the more you tried to ignore it, the bigger and more terrifying it became.

Just as the standoff continued, the white spirit cat suddenly jumped down from the roof, yawned, and said, "Someone died on the first day, not bad. Tonight, I'll reward you with a skill flower card, but only one person can draw it."

As it spoke, the puppet came over with a tray, on which lay eleven face-down cards.

Zhu Ge frowned: "This... you're the guardian beast of the white side, are you helping the white side?"

The spirit cat lazily laid down: "It's up to luck, why blame me? If you want to draw, then draw."

The puppet silently walked to Fang Hao, who was sitting at the head of the table. Fang Hao hesitated, then reached out and took one card. The others followed suit.

Xi Yu knew the white cat wasn’t joking. He had great hopes for his luck, but in the end, he only drew a useless point card. He couldn't help but look around, disappointed.

No one in the banquet hall looked happy, and no one knew who got the card, or what it was.

The looming crisis of potentially having secrets revealed hung over everyone's heads.

Unexpectedly, Luo Xi suddenly set the card he was holding on fire with the oil lamp, clicked his tongue and said, "I didn’t expect my luck to turn around, but unfortunately, it's useless."

"Hey!" Ren Bo immediately rushed over, eagerly grabbing the card that was burning in his hand.

This time, Zhu Ge and Wu Zhi were not willing to fall behind either and quickly squeezed over to look together.Unfortunately, most of the card's face was burned, leaving only a few characters visible:

【...Confirm Player's Identity】

Indeed, there was such an incredible skill among the flower cards!

If the owner of the skill analyzes it correctly, they could directly know who the general is!

Xi Yu widened his eyes and suddenly recalled what Peanuts and Yao Chenna had said by the lake in the morning. Peanuts claimed to have an identity that could be proven. Could he be the princess of the black side, with such a skill corresponding to Wu Zhi?

With this thought, his gaze uncontrollably drifted toward that young man.

Peanuts was indeed a bit uneasy and gestured to Yao Chenna with his hand on her back, signaling her not to speak.

Ren Bo was still making noise, grabbing Luo Xi and saying, "Whose skill is this? Explain it clearly!"

Luo Xi looked at him in surprise, then spoke softly: "Let go."

"Heh, with so many of us here, are you really going to get away?" Ren Bo finally became useful, relentlessly threatening him with his fist. "Hurry up and talk—"

Unfortunately, this spoiled young man didn’t even finish his sentence before he became the first to anger Luo Xi.

In an almost unseeable move, Luo Xi swiftly grabbed his wrist, mercilessly pushed him to the ground, and then forcefully pulled him up. "Who gave you the courage to interrogate me?"

Ren Bo was a tall, strong man, but in Luo Xi's grip, he had no power to resist. He could only struggle desperately. "Let go!"

Fang Hao was terrified, unsure of what to do. "Big brother, big brother, don't get worked up, let him go!"

Luo Xi coldly smirked, picked up a pair of chopsticks from the table, and held them just inches away from Ren Bo's eyes. "Didn't look where you're going, no use for these eyes, right?"

This time, Ren Bo was genuinely frightened, his voice cracking as he struggled. "You... don't do anything crazy!"

"Let go." Xi Yu, with an unexpected surge of courage, suddenly grabbed Luo Xi’s arm from behind.

Luo Xi instinctively tried to grab Xi Yu, but Xi Yu didn't back down. He quickly dodged his hand, stepped back two steps, and asked in a muted voice, "Do you want to duel with us? You’re all alone."

Wu Zhi was very concerned about his brother's safety, and anxiously stood in front of Xi Yu. "Big brother, don’t fight with him."

Luo Xi studied them for a moment before his anger shifted to amusement. "Helping each other out, how interesting."Fortunately, after speaking, he didn’t add any more trouble. He suddenly threw Ren Bo aside, venting his frustration by kicking over the mannequin standing nearby, stomping its head until it was crushed, before leaving the banquet hall as if nothing had happened.

Fang Hao squatted down and pulled the trembling Ren Bo up, softly expressing his concern: "I don’t know which side Luo Xi is on... everyone, be careful around him..."

Indeed, a bad-tempered bully who no one could match, his danger level was not much different from that of a snake.

Everyone had different thoughts, and the room was silent.

Sun Xiuyan was trembling with fear: "Are you hurt? I have some medicine here..."

"I'm fine." Ren Bo answered irritably. He was upset about always being unlucky and had hoped to take the opportunity to act tough and vent his frustrations. But who would have thought he'd run into a tough opponent instead? His pride was shattered, and he angrily stared at the direction Luo Xi had disappeared, his eyes bloodshot.

After the bath, it was another sleepless night.

Xi Yu stood in the tightly closed room, holding an oil lamp, staring at the hole in the door, looking outside.

However, after staying awake in a daze until midnight, all he saw was darkness and nothing else.

Just when he was about to fall asleep from exhaustion, a strange sound above his head suddenly echoed, announcing the message.

【Second night, White Side has a player defect.】

Xi Yu immediately woke up, frowning and thinking: It should be Yao Chenna defecting from the White Side to the Black Side, because of Peanuts' special identity and their friendship, she had no reason not to defect.

Now, He Yingqi has been killed by the Black Prince. If he hadn't died unfairly, he should have been on the White Side.

With two teammates lost, and the opponent gaining three more players, the difficulty of this game was no joke.

Xi Yu sighed in frustration, and just then, the oil lamp cast shadows of the wind blowing outside the door.

He quickly crouched to peek and saw the black-haired female ghost in blood-stained clothes. She was stumbling but quickly floating past, disappearing into the night.