The space fell into a thick, heavy silence. Suddenly, a sharp wave of dizziness washed over me. In my mind, the image of Phan Ngoc Tien - the shy girl with glasses who had once tenderly tended to my wounds - flashed back with vivid clarity.
I started, feeling as if I had just jolted awake from a long trance. Looking up, I realized that Qing Yashu and Xi Yong'an were also clutching their heads, their expressions filled with shock as if they, too, had just reclaimed a stolen fragment of memory. Only Ky Kha Nhien remained nonchalant, showing no reaction whatsoever.
An icy chill ran down my spine as a realization struck me: ( Why is it that from the moment we stepped into Ky Kha Nhien's room until now, I didn't notice Phan Ngoc Tien's absence? )
Yashu, still lightly rubbing her temples, broke the eerie atmosphere with a trembling voice, directed at the curly-haired girl sitting lazily nearby:
-"That's right... where is Phan Ngoc Tien? Isn't she sharing a room with you?"
Ky Kha Nhien slowly looked up at us. Her gaze was strange, as if she were looking at people asking a redundant question. She replied in a slow, weary drawl:
-"That brat? She's dead."
The entire room seemed to freeze in an instant. We stood rooted to the spot, our hearts skipping a beat. Xi Yong'an stammered, unable to believe his ears:
-"What? What... happened to her?"
Ky Kha Nhien tilted her head slightly, her voice as cold as thin ice:
-"Nothing happened. I killed her."
That casual admission made our breath hitch. Faced with our horrified and questioning stares, Ky Kha Nhien merely turned her face away indifferently, resting her chin on her hand and staring into the void as if the story she just told had nothing to do with her.
Xi Yong'an suppressed his shock and asked in a low voice:
-"Can I know the reason? Phan Ngoc Tien... she was so kind-hearted."
Ky Kha Nhien flicked a glance over; her silence was like an invisible wall blocking any explanation. Before we could regain our composure, she extinguished the topic with a chilling tone, dragging us back to the brutal reality:
-"Focus on solving the puzzle. Based on the tape, it's clear that hunched-back demon is the grandmother. The truth has been revealed; what we need to find now is the key to ending this mission."
Looking at her evasive attitude, I began to piece together the unusual details in my head. A chilling suspicion flashed through my mind:
( Ky Kha Nhien's room is completely clear of the attacking vines, even though I heard a loud crashing sound coming from here earlier. It wasn't that the demon didn't come for her, but that she found a way to drive it away. Most likely, Phan Ngoc Tien was turned into a 'sacrifice' in exchange for this peace. But how did she do it? Could it be that Ky Kha Nhien holds a Gemstone with a power so evil it can strip away a teammate's life? )
That speculation further solidified why Ky Kha Nhien possessed such terrifying power and why all our memories of Phan Ngoc Tien had been so miraculously wiped clean. She truly was a ruthless person, willing to trample on the life of a companion to move forward.
Xi Yong'an could no longer hide his indignation, his chest heaving with anger. Yong'an was a man of integrity; he couldn't accept Ky Kha Nhien's disregard for human life. Seeing the tension rise, I lightly placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling him to calm down:
-"Calm down, now is not the time for us to tear each other apart."
Yong'an took a deep breath to suppress his surging anger, forcing himself back to the unfinished clues. Though he remained silent on the outside, I knew an invisible boundary had been drawn. Between the three of us and Ky Kha Nhien now lay a deep chasm; no one could place their trust in someone willing to use their teammates as a sacrifice.
Yashu pressed the replay button on the tape once more. Static and a childish voice echoed through the gloomy room. She grew pensive and turned to me:
-"Did you notice? The child kept saying 'our family,' but she never once mentioned the father. This further confirms our previous suspicion: the father wasn't very kind to her. But the strange thing is, at the time of the recording, it seems nothing tragic had happened to this child yet."
I nodded slightly, reflecting on the timeline:
-"Based on the tone, this is definitely Yan Yan - the younger sister. It's just unclear if the older sister had already gone missing by this point."
Yashu frowned, her face full of concern:
-"It's strange... If all our deductions about the demon's identity and this family tragedy are correct, then the mission should have been completed by now, shouldn't it? Or does the phrase 'decipher' hold another layer of meaning we've missed?"
-"Perhaps." I replied, my eyes fixed sharply on the tape player. "We need to find another truth. Something that even the police, or perhaps even the victim's family, never knew about."
Amidst the tension, Xi Yong'an suddenly leaned his face in between me and Yashu, interrupting my train of thought:
-"Hey, hey, are you two planning to sideline this handsome teammate of yours? Let me contribute some effort too!"
His sudden appearance lightened the heaviness in my heart. I gave a slight smile:
-"Alright, let's hear the 'expert's' opinion."
Yong'an cleared his throat to find his voice, his expression becoming more serious:
-"Let's say, and I'm just saying 'if.' According to your deductions, both children are dead. One child discovered the father was imprisoning her sibling, and the other was killed by him when he was driven into a corner. So, if the police stormed in and arrested the father, did they actually find where he hid the bodies?"
Hearing this, Yashu raised an eyebrow, an appreciative smile playing on her lips:
-"Haha, you're thinking exactly what I am!" She didn't forget to add a playful jab: "How did you suddenly become so brilliant today, Yong'an?"
-"No wonder from the moment I stepped in here, I felt something was off..." I muttered, my eyes scanning the flickering reflections on the walls. "Did you notice? This villa has far too many mirrors. At first, I wondered why they would do something so redundant, but now I understand. It was a calculated arrangement."
Yashu narrowed her eyes, seemingly catching up with my train of thought:
"You mean... the girl's body is hidden right behind those mirrors?"
-"Exactly." I nodded in confirmation.
-"Good grief!" Xi Yong'an suddenly cried out in lament. "Old Zhao, I've wanted to smash those mirrors since the beginning. If you hadn't stopped me then, maybe we would have caught onto the truth a long time ago, right?"
Looking at his regretful face, I couldn't help but crack a joke to ease the surrounding chill:
-"Who knows? Even if we had found them then, without these clues, we wouldn't have been able to decipher anything. It might have just caused more panic."
As my joke ended, Yashu brought us all back to the difficult reality. She looked around the long hallway, where mirrors of all sizes hung side by side like soulless eyes watching our every move.
-"But the problem is..." Yashu hesitated, her voice dropping low. "Which mirror is hiding the body? There are dozens of them here - are we supposed to smash them all?"