Chapter 42 Black Frame

It is impossible to sleep on the bed, it is impossible for her to sleep on the bed in her entire life. The floor is straight and hard, and she likes it very much - Tan Zaozao comforted herself in this way while lying on the floor.

After Ruan Nanzhu's ruthless refusal, the situation ultimately ended with two grown men sharing a bed, leaving Tan Zaozao, weak, pitiful, and helpless, to sleep on the floor. Of course, even as she slept, she couldn't help but whisper in her heart, hoping that Lin Qiushi would finally come to his senses and outlast Ruan Nanzhu.

After a nap, it started raining again outside.

Thick dark clouds gathered in the sky, and a light raindrop hit the ground, making a crisp dripping sound. After waking up from his nap, Lin Qiushi stood by the window for a while.

Through the window, he saw the dense bushes outside the castle.

These bushes should be some rose flowers, but because it is not the flowering season and the branches have not been trimmed, they look very messy.

The rain made the air moist, and the strange fishy smell began to fill the air again, but it was not as strong as last night, only faint and barely perceptible.

"What are they doing outside?" Tan Zaozao also leaned over and saw three people walking outside the door with umbrellas.

These guys are all from the team and they look like they are looking for something.

"Look for clues." Lin Qiushi also saw them. "Have you found anything?"

Tan Zaozao asked, "Should we follow?"

Lin Qiushi turned his head and glanced at Ruan Nanzhu who was still lazily lying on the bed.

Ruan Nanzhu caught his gaze and said lazily, "No." He said indifferently, "I hate the rain."

Lin Qiushi said, "Then I won't go."

The person outside the house walked deep into the bushes and disappeared from Lin Qiushi's sight.

"It's so uncomfortable being wet." Ruan Nanzhu casually put on his coat and started to put on his shoes. "We haven't finished exploring this castle yet, let's go."

The castle is so large that it would be difficult to inspect it thoroughly in one morning.

Because of what happened to a female team member named Xiao Su in the morning, if the atmosphere in the team could be described as stiff before, now it can only be described as lifeless. Most people sat in the cafeteria and didn't go anywhere.

In this way, the day passed, and after dinner, everyone in the team went back to their rooms to rest.

Ruan Nanzhu asked Lin Qiushi if he was afraid of being alone.

Lin Qiushi: "It's okay, but if anything goes wrong I'll come find you."

Ruan Nanzhu nodded and watched Lin Qiushi enter the room before turning around and pushing the door open to enter his bedroom.

Because of the rain, it was already dark outside around six o'clock. Before washing up, Lin Qiushi looked out the window for a while. In the dim light from inside, the dense bushes outside looked like clawed hands, spreading across the wall.

The place where the figure was seen last night was still empty, and nothing strange appeared.

Lin Qiushi looked at it for a while before turning around and taking a shower.

After washing, he dried his hair and walked to the bed, but his footsteps suddenly stopped... He saw a black figure outside the window.

A dark figure with its back to him.

The figure was dressed in black and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He stood silently in the rain with his back to Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi felt a chill running down his back. He licked his dry lips, trying to calm himself down.

Although it was blurry, the figure must be that of the castle's mistress. What he saw yesterday was definitely not an illusion.

It's just so late, what is the castle hostess doing in the bushes?

There seems to be no answer to this question for the time being.

The figure in the rain turned into a motionless statue, standing there stiffly and motionless.

Lin Qiushi watched for about ten minutes, but the figure didn't move at all. In the end, he was the first to feel tired. After checking the time, he returned to the bed and lay down on the soft big bed.

However, Lin Qiushi, who had just laid down on the bed, noticed something horrifying: there was a picture frame on the wall in front of him, where there should have been nothing.

In the frame was an expressionless woman, dressed in black and wearing a black hat. Rain was slowly dripping down the brim of her hat. Her eyes seemed half-closed and her face was as pale as a piece of paper - it was the painting, The Girl in the Rain.

Lin Qiushi's whole body froze. He slowly got up from the bed and wanted to leave.

When he reached the door, his nostrils began to fill with the fishy smell of rain again. The smell was so strong that it made him feel as if he was breathing underwater. Lin Qiushi clearly noticed that black stains began to appear on the wall behind the painting.

The stains looked like accumulated water stains, forming strange patterns on the wall, like a face, or a person.

Lin Qiushi turned the doorknob, hurriedly left his room, and knocked on Ruan Nanzhu's door.

A moment later, the door opened. It was Tan Zaozao who opened the door for Lin Qiushi. Seeing that Lin Qiushi's face looked off, she immediately realized what had happened: "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Hmm." Lin Qiushi said, "Something's not right in the room."

"Come in." Tan Zaozao made room for Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi let out a breath and was about to go in when he noticed something wrong... The door in front of Tan Zaozao opened to the left.

In the castle, all the doors open to the right.

Lin Qiushi's expression froze for a moment. Instead of moving forward, he slowly took a step back.

"What's wrong?" Tan Zaozao asked with a puzzled look. Her expression was normal, as if she was the Tan Zaozao who was with them during the day.

"What's your name?" Lin Qiushi asked. "I forgot what your name was."

"My name is Xu Xiaocheng." Tan Zaozao looked at Lin Qiushi strangely, as if he were looking at a monster. "Are you okay? Are you scared silly?"

Lin Qiushi couldn't help but laugh. When no one was around, they all called Tan Zaozao by her real name. He didn't speak to Tan Zaozao anymore and turned around and ran back to his room.

Tan Zaozao seemed startled by his actions. It wasn't until Lin Qiushi closed the door that she reacted. She walked over to Lin Qiushi's door and knocked several times, saying, "Yu Linlin, are you okay? Yu Linlin? What's wrong with you?"

Lin Qiushi stood by the door without saying a word.

Tan Zaozao's voice continued to be heard. She said, "Yu Linlin, come out quickly. Didn't you say something happened in the room? Yu Linlin——"

Lin Qiushi lowered his head and looked at the carpet near the door.

The edge of the carpet slowly began to change color—a change Lin Qiushi was familiar with: the change after being stained by water. The voice outside the door was familiar, but Lin Qiushi couldn't place it. He turned his head to glance at the wall beside him. He saw that the framed photo of the girl in the rain was also beginning to form shallow water droplets, trickling down the frame like raindrops sliding off the brim of the girl's hat.

“Linlin, Linlin——” Tan Zaozao’s voice began to become strange, becoming sharper and more distorted. She banged on the door heavily, as if she wanted to smash it down. “Linlin, come out, come out——”

Lin Qiushi did not respond. He calmly pulled the stool next to him and pressed it against the door.

The floor near the crack in the door was getting even wetter, as if "Tan Zaozao" standing outside were dripping with water. If possible, Lin Qiushi would have loved to see what was happening outside, but he wasn't brave enough to crawl on the ground and peer through the crack. God knows how terrifying it would have been to see a pair of eyes through the crack.

Hearing the knock on the door, Lin Qiushi suddenly felt a little regretful for not taking Ruan Nanzhu's cigarette. At this time, he had nothing else to do, and it seemed that he could only smoke a cigarette to calm down.

The strong fishy smell of water made people's noses hurt. Lin Qiushi stood quietly by the door, listening to Tan Zaozao's voice gradually becoming distorted.

Finally she began to howl, like the cry of a night owl in the middle of the night, which made the listeners' scalps tingle.

"Come out, come out." Something was wailing outside, and a pair of hands began to grope towards the crack in the door.

Lin Qiushi took a few steps back and looked at a few pale nail tips emerging from the crack in the door.

The window, once closed, was blown open by the wind, slamming violently against the frame with a sharp clang. The wind-blown bed curtains stretched out towards Lin Qiushi in the room like two giant hands. Although it was quite far away, Lin Qiushi could still see clearly: the figure standing in the bushes outside the window had unexpectedly turned around to face Lin Qiushi. Just as he had suspected, she was indeed the mistress of the castle.

The woman's pale face was covered with rain, and her dark eyes stared quietly at the location of the room.

Lin Qiushi didn't dare to look any longer, so he averted his gaze and prayed in his heart that the morning light would come soon.

Not knowing how much time had passed, the dazed Lin Qiushi heard a fierce knock on the door.

After rubbing his eyes, he realized that he had fallen asleep sitting next to the door against the wall. He got up from the ground and heard a familiar voice outside the door. Tan Zaozao was calling him: "Linlin, are you okay? Open the door - if you don't open it, I will break in!!"

When Lin Qiushi heard this, he reflexively glanced out the window and saw that the rain had stopped. A little sunlight appeared through the clouds in the sky. Although it was weak, it was enough to make people feel at ease.

Lin Qiushi asked, "What's your name?"

"What's wrong with you? Did you damage your brain after sleeping?" Tan Zaozao was puzzled.

Lin Qiushi was silent for a moment and turned the doorknob in front of him.

The door opened, and sure enough, Tan Zaozao was standing outside. She scratched her head and said, "You look so bad. What happened last night?"

Lin Qiushi didn't answer, but instead asked, "Where's he?"

Tan Zaozao knew Lin Qiushi was asking Ruan Nanzhu, so she said, "Still washing up."

Lin Qiushi: "Hmm..."

Tan Zaozao: "What's wrong?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I think I almost died last night."

Tan Zaozao: “…” Why can you talk about such a horrific thing so calmly?

A few minutes later, Lin Qiushi told Tan Zaozao and Ruan Nanzhu what he had experienced the previous night. Although he spoke simply and calmly, Tan Zaozao felt goosebumps on her back. She swallowed and whispered, "So you didn't sleep all night?"

"No," Lin Qiushi said. "I took a short nap just before dawn."

Ruan Nanzhu remained silent after listening to this, seemingly thinking about something.

Lin Qiushi felt relieved when he saw Ruan Nanzhu. He did not rush her, leaving Ruan Nanzhu some room to think.

Who knew Ruan Nanzhu would just wave his hand and say, "Go have breakfast first. I'm not getting enough blood to my brain and I can't think of anything."

Lin Qiushi: “…” Of course.

The three of them went to the restaurant on the second floor and saw that other members of the team had also arrived. After counting the number of people, it seemed that no one else was killed last night.

The hostess was still sitting in the innermost seat, but her mood didn't seem as good as yesterday. Her face was pale and her expression was gloomy, making people even more reluctant to approach her.

After what happened last night, Lin Qiushi always felt that the woman glared at him when he entered the restaurant.

The breakfast tasted quite good, especially the freshly baked bread, which was fragrant and soft. Lin Qiushi ate several of them with jam.

Seeing that he had such a good appetite, Tan Zaozao tactfully expressed her admiration and said that if she had encountered what happened yesterday, she probably wouldn't be able to eat anything for the whole day.

"What if this is my last meal?" Lin Qiushi repeated what Ruan Nanzhu had said yesterday. "I have to leave this world feeling full."

Tan Zaozao: “…” Why did you start too?

Ruan Nanzhu was thinking about something while eating, and didn't say much the whole time. Only after he finished eating did he find a place and speak out what he had thought.

"She wanted to kill you yesterday," Ruan Nanzhu said, "but you didn't trigger the death conditions, so she didn't succeed."

Lin Qiushi said, "She tried to trick me into the house. If I had gone in, I would have been doomed. Fortunately, fortunately..."

Ruan Nanzhu: "That must be the world of paintings. Only in this way can we explain why the door is upside down." He glanced at the painting hanging next to him and asked, "Did you move the painting on the wall?"

"Yeah," Lin Qiushi said, "When I first came here, I felt the paintings on the wall were unpleasant, so I took them down and put them in a drawer."

Ruan Nanzhu said, "That might be a condition." He added, "But it's definitely not a death condition." The ghosts within the gate were unforgiving. If the condition was triggered, they would definitely not survive the night. If Lin Qiushi hadn't recognized the imposter Xu Xiaocheng last night, they probably wouldn't have seen him today.

Ruan Nanzhu said, "I want to take another look at the painting from yesterday." He was talking about the girl Xiao Su who was framed in the painting. This was the only clue at the moment.

So they went upstairs again and looked carefully at the picture frames, but still couldn't find any special similarities.

"Wait and see," Ruan Nanzhu said, "there will definitely be other clues."

The ghost's actions will not stop and will provide them with more clues.

Then they went back to the group of people who had been hiding in the bushes yesterday and asked them if they had found anything special.

"I found it, but why should I tell you?" The leader of the group was a 30-year-old man named Zhang Tao. He brought a new girl and another young man with him. He showed serious resistance to Ruan Nanzhu's questioning.

"We can exchange clues," Ruan Nanzhu said. "We know a condition that triggers death."

Zhang Tao asked suspiciously, "Really?"

"Of course it's true," Ruan Nanzhu said, "Our team member almost died."

Zhang Tao said, "You tell me first."

Ruan Nanzhu raised an eyebrow and said, "You haven't told us what clues you found in the bushes yet, so why do you let us tell you first? Who knows what use your clues will be."

Zhang Tao asked, "What should we do then?"

Ruan Nanzhu said, "How about this, we both write it down on slips of paper and then exchange them."

Zhang Tao hesitated slightly and nodded.

The group that entered the door should have been a team, but the note kept everyone reserved. Who wouldn't want to be the first to leave and get the clue to the next door? Furthermore, some of these people were unorganized and didn't even understand the patterns of the doors. Even experienced people would hesitate to share their knowledge with such newbies.

After Ruan Nanzhu and Zhang Tao shared the note, they left with Lin Qiushi and Tan Zaozao.

Tan Zaozao whispered to Ruan Nanzhu what he had given Zhang Tao - the content must be false, after all, they themselves did not know the conditions that triggered death.

"I just wrote something down," Ruan Nanzhu said. "It's just my guess. It's a good opportunity for them to try it out."

Tan Zaozao: "How to try?"

Ruan Nanzhu: "If one of them dies, it means the conditions are not right."

Tan Zaozao: “…” convinced.

But it’s not Ruan Nanzhu’s fault for being insincere. The note Zhang Tao gave them was also quite perfunctory. It only said that there was a black picture frame in the bushes.

"The black picture frame..." Lin Qiushi thought of the person he saw outside the window yesterday. "Could the figure I saw yesterday be related to this?"

Ruan Nanzhu said, "Go and see, and you'll know."

Before it started to rain, they hurried to the bushes where they had seen Zhang Tao and his companions yesterday. Sure enough, they found a black picture frame in a corner near the edge. The picture frame was stuck in the ground at an angle, and there were water droplets on the surface.

After Ruan Nanzhu saw the picture frame, he half-knelt down as if searching for something. After a moment, he sighed heavily and waved at Lin Qiushi, "Come and take a look."

"Hmm?" Lin Qiushi walked to where Ruan Nanzhu was and squatted down.

"Did you see it?" Ruan Nanzhu said, pointing at the picture frame.

Lin Qiushi looked for a while before he realized what Ruan Nanzhu was talking about. It turned out that from this angle, his room was framed by a picture frame. The angle of the picture frame was very tricky. If he wanted to look from other directions, he could only see dense bushes. Only his window was exposed in the black frame.

"That's probably the reason," Ruan Nanzhu said. "This picture frame must have been tampered with."

Lin Qiushi asked, "Because there's dirt on it?"

"Yes." Ruan Nanzhu said, "It was turned around by someone... No, maybe it wasn't a human."

Lin Qiushi said, "Then take this thing down first." Thinking carefully, the figure standing outside the house last night seemed to be in the same spot as the picture frame. Could it be that the owner of the picture frame mistook him for part of the painting...that's why all those things happened to him?

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Because he didn't know if the picture frame had any other use, Lin Qiushi didn't dare to take it back. Instead, he found a place that was easy to identify, dug a hole and buried the picture frame.

After the burial, they returned to the castle.

Shortly after returning, it started raining again. It had been raining almost non-stop since we arrived here, lasting seven or eight hours a day. At best, it would clear up briefly in the morning, followed by continuous drizzle throughout the afternoon and evening, making us feel quite uncomfortable.

Lin Qiushi now particularly dislikes the fishy smell of rainwater. Whenever he smells it, he will remember what happened at night.

Because of this, he ate lunch absentmindedly, his attention almost entirely focused on what was outside the window.

"What's wrong?" Ruan Nanzhu asked him.

"Will we encounter those same things again tonight?" Lin Qiushi said, "Oh, so annoying."

Ruan Nanzhu said calmly, "Come and sleep with me?"

Lin Qiushi: "...Let me think about it."

Ruan Nanzhu: "Let me think about it." He seemed a little unhappy about Lin Qiushi's hesitation, put down the knife and fork in his hand and stopped eating.

Tan Zaozao was secretly happy and thought to herself, Ruan Nanzhu, you have finally met your end.

Ruan Nanzhu seemed to know what Tan Zaozao was thinking. He glanced at her indifferently and said coldly, "Do you think there's anything wrong with you?"

Tan Zaozao: "...No, no, no, boss, boss, I need you. Linlin, why are you still hesitating? It's so safe for the three of us to be together. If you encounter any problems, you have the boss to help you! It's so reassuring!"

Ruan Nanzhu: "Heh."

Tan Zaozao felt sad for his lackey.

Lin Qiushi thought about it and felt that it did make some sense. He nodded and said, "Okay, let's go together."

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Tan Zaozao sighed deeply.

Lin Qiushi was baffled and didn't understand what Tan Zaozao's sigh meant.

During lunch, everyone shared the clues they had found. Of course, most people were reserved.

Lin Qiushi told everyone what happened in the house last night. After listening to him, everyone's expressions were filled with fear and relief. Someone even patted Lin Qiushi on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you are really lucky."

Lin Qiushi could only smile bitterly.

Some say he is lucky, but he became the target of attack. Some say he is unlucky, but if he was unlucky, he would definitely not be sitting here today.

So it’s really hard to say what luck is.

Ruan Nanzhu asked if anyone had ever been to the studio on the rooftop and the place where unfinished works were exhibited.

Everyone shook their heads to indicate they had never been there. Someone even said, "Didn't the housekeeper say we can't go to these two places? Why would we go there? Are we looking for death?"

Ruan Nanzhu responded coldly: "Will you not die if you don't go?"

That person: “…”

"Let's go. There aren't any clues here." Ruan Nanzhu led Lin Qiushi and Tan Zaozao out of the house. He said, "The people inside this time are of poor quality. It seems we can't rely on them."

"Poor quality? How can you tell?" Tan Zaozao blinked curiously.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, "Will you obey the NPC's orders 100%?"

Tan Zaozao said, "No."

Ruan Nanzhu pointed behind him and said, "They will."

Tan Zaozao thought about it and felt that what Ruan Nanzhu said made sense. The newcomers this time seemed to be rather timid. Ever since the incident with the girl named Xiaosu on the first day, most of them seemed to be scared out of their wits. Only two or three people were still searching, and the others were either hiding in the room or waiting in the restaurant, not knowing what they were waiting for.

"I'm going to check out the studio," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Although it's quite dangerous, I have to go there." He rolled up his sleeves, revealing his graceful wrists. "After all, these NPCs are all hoping we'll all die inside."

The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu: I want a hug.

Lin Qiushi: Tan Zaozao, your brother Ruan wants to hug you.

Tan Zaozao: ???

Zhu Meng: I want a hug.

Lin Qiushi blushed: Hug, hug, hug.

Ruan Nanzhu pulled off her skirt: Damn it, Lin Qiushi, I’m going to fuck you to death!

Hahahaha, you actually dislike Brother Ruan in men's clothing. This is sexism. I'm reporting you!