Qi Si watched Shang Qingbei's expression stiffen for a moment, a noncommittal smile playing on his lips.
He knew the kid must know something, but he had no intention of calling him out on it. In fact, he deliberately delayed the moment the boy would reveal the key clue, making it easier to shift the blame later.
Shang Qingbei stewed in his own confusion for a moment. When he looked up, he saw Qi Si standing casually to the side, looking for all the world like a spectator enjoying the show.
He strode over and asked in a low voice, "Was this your doing?"
"What did I do?" Qi Si scratched his head, a look of bewilderment on his face. "You, on the other hand, Qingbei... reacting so strongly all of a sudden. Are you hiding something from us?"
Shang Qingbei was choked with fury.
Looking at the young man's innocent expression, he had the sinking feeling that if he dared to agree, Qi Si would immediately make him a public target.
"Nothing," Shang Qingbei spat out through gritted teeth.
Catching Qi Si's patronizingly approving gaze, a ridiculous suspicion suddenly struck him: could it be that Qi Si already knew the instance's underlying rules and had seen through his attempt to hide clues, and was just pretending not to know?
The thought was too outlandish, and Shang Qingbei dismissed it himself just moments after it surfaced.
This was a team instance; survival was the top priority. Hiding clues for one's own gain was one thing, but knowingly allowing someone else to hide them? What was the logic in that?
Two men who looked like farmhands offered a few pleasantries like, "Eat your fill," and, "Enjoy yourselves," before melting back into the crowd.
They possessed the characteristic shyness of small-town folk, their hands swinging awkwardly at their sides. Their quick departure felt less like a polite dismissal and more like an escape, as if they feared being cornered by the players for questioning.
"Let's split up," Qi Si said, laying out a quick plan. "Each of us will explore a different section. We'll compare notes when the feast is over." Then he spotted a less crowded area and headed for it.
He slipped into the shadows, taking in the entire layout of the celebration.
The wedding feast was loosely divided into three sections.
Farthest out was an open-air kitchen where a dozen middle-aged women in floral dresses and hairnets stood in a line by the stoves. Their stout arms moved tirelessly, wielding spatulas to stir-fry an array of meat dishes.
Smoke billowed skyward as red and yellow flames leaped from the woks, flaring high into the air. The entire area was alive with the bustling energy of a grand cooking affair.
Closer in, men gathered around wooden tables laden with meat dishes. Holding wine bowls, some sat while others stood, their boisterous conversations blending into an indistinct but lively clamor.
At the very center was a cluster of people, likely the close friends and relatives of the bride and groom. Men and women alike were dressed in festive red, forming a tight, impenetrable circle. From a distance, it looked like a crimson cloud, obscuring any view of what—or who—was inside.
Considering Xi'er was an orphan, these people were likely all relatives of the "groom." Qi Si found himself pondering the question Shang Qingbei had asked earlier: "Where is the groom?"
The townspeople had been eating for some time. The tables were littered with gnawed bones, and the few vegetable dishes had been reduced to mere puddles of sauce. Qi Si had absolutely no interest in eating food that strangers had been picking over.
He turned his head and spotted a row of freshly made dishes on the stove. Without a second thought, he strode over, unapologetically grabbed a plate of bamboo shoots with beef, picked up a bowl and chopsticks, and squatted in a corner to eat in peace.
Perhaps because it was early in the season, the bamboo shoots were incredibly tender, seeming to burst with juice at every bite. The beef was stewed to perfection, so soft it didn't get stuck in his teeth.
Qi Si was quite satisfied with his meal. Once he had eaten his fill, he carried the plate a little further away and used his chopsticks to sift through the remaining food.
There were no streaks of blood. The entire dish was perfectly normal—a stark contrast to the previous night.
"So, Double Happiness Town can cook edible food after all," Qi Si remarked with a touch of dry humor, his fingers tapping absently against his chin.
Why did the food Elder Sister Xu delivered become bloodstained only after she had left? If she had done it intentionally, what could she possibly gain from it?
She was undoubtedly aware of the food's abnormality, but awareness didn't equate to direct involvement. Was it possible that what happened to the food last night had nothing to do with her at all?
At this thought, Qi Si's lips curled with intrigue. "There probably aren't as many ghosts in Double Happiness Town as we assumed," he mused. "And who's to say that ghosts can't be afraid of other ghosts?"
...
Meanwhile, Liu Bingding had also picked up a bowl and chopsticks, but unlike Qi Si, he wasn't slacking off. Without taking a single bite, he adopted the air of someone mingling, weaving his way through the crowd and moving from table to table.
He was still stewing over the incident on the first day, when a smartphone had materialized in his pocket. It was a grievance he couldn't properly explain.
It was true he hadn't shared the clue right away, but that was because he genuinely hadn't noticed the object. Now, he was under a cloud of suspicion, and he felt more unjustly accused than anyone in history.
The other players were sharp; they wouldn't brand him a killer player over a single, explainable detail. But if trouble arose and they needed a scapegoat or someone to test a dangerous situation, he knew they'd use this incident as an excuse to push him forward.
Liu Bingding, who prided himself on being a seasoned veteran of film sets—a man who had seen it all—couldn't think of a way to clear his name. All he could do was accept his bad luck and try to redeem himself by proactively gathering clues.
His eyes scanned the crowd and quickly settled on a man lingering on the outskirts, someone who didn't quite seem to fit in. "Hey, brother," Liu Bingding said, approaching him. "Nice outfit. You must be doing pretty well for yourself here in town, right?"
The man jumped, startled by the sudden conversation. He stared for a moment before stammering, "Oh, no. I... I can't even find a proper job. I just came back to town to help out Granny Xu."
"Everyone in town seems to respect Elder Sister Xu quite a bit. It must be something, working for her," Liu Bingding said with a flattering smile. "So what kind of work do you do for her? She seems like a remarkable woman, the kind who'd succeed at anything she puts her mind to."
The man laughed awkwardly. "I just help Elder Sister Xu with her matchmaking," he said. "Folks from all over, near and far, come to us when they're looking for a wife. A lot of girls find husbands through us."
A man helping with matchmaking? Liu Bingding felt a prickle of suspicion. Just as he was about to press further, a burly old man came up from behind and slapped the younger man on the back of the head. "Gou'er! What nonsense are you spouting to our honored guest?"
After chiding Gou'er a bit more, the old man turned to Liu Bingding, his face splitting into a smile that was identical to Elder Sister Xu's. "Don't listen to his rambling," the old man said. "He's exaggerating. It's just that Elder Sister Xu has a good, solid reputation. Everyone trusts her, so they naturally come to her for introductions."
So, Elder Sister Xu was a matchmaker. That explained her gaudy attire and affected way of speaking.
Liu Bingding nodded respectfully. "Elder, where might we find the groom? You've shown us such hospitality, and we'd like to follow local customs and offer him our congratulations."
The old man, suspecting nothing, turned and pointed toward the sea of crimson. "He's sitting right over there—the one with the red flower pinned to his chest. But don't worry about congratulations and all that. There are plenty of people in this town who've never even spoken a word to him."
"That's different. You're all familiar with each other here, like one big family," Liu Bingding replied smoothly. "We're newcomers; we can't neglect our manners." He kept a polite smile on his face until the old man had departed, then let it drop and headed straight for the spot the man had indicated.
From a distance, a flash of white stood out against the crimson backdrop. Qi Si was already there, standing on the edge of the crowd, his hands shoved in his pockets. He was gazing at the throng with a languid expression, his thoughts impossible to guess.
As if guided by some unseen force, Liu Bingding drew closer.
Before he could say a word, Qi Si glanced over at him, a faint, apologetic smile on his lips. "Liu Bingding," he began, "I was in too much of a hurry to find clues last night. When I saw the smartphone in your pocket, I jumped to conclusions and suspected you. I shouldn't have embarrassed you like that in public."
"After calming down and thinking it over, I realize that if something had suddenly appeared on my person, I probably wouldn't have noticed right away either. It was reckless of me to act so rashly without letting you explain. That was my mistake."
The apology sounded genuine, not just a flippant, perfunctory "my bad."
Most veteran players were arrogant and stubborn; one who could swallow their pride and apologize like this was a rarity. Liu Bingding was taken aback. "Don't worry about it," he said, flattered. "It was my own carelessness, really. If I were in your shoes, I would have been suspicious, too."
"Still, this is a team instance, and there are no real killer players among us..." Qi Si sighed, then abruptly changed the subject. "I can't find any more clues related to Xi'er. My guess is the groom has the rest. Shall we go take a look together?"
Liu Bingding was still reeling from the sudden apology, but Qi Si's suggestion aligned perfectly with his own intentions.
Xi'er's behavior was strange, and with Elder Sister Xu's warning not to upset her, he hadn't dared to investigate further. The groom, on the other hand, seemed much more straightforward. Surely no harm could come from getting a closer look.
Besides, this celebration was exactly like any rural wedding banquet he'd ever known. If not for the faint gray system interface hovering in the upper-left corner of his vision, he might have forgotten he was in the Weird Game at all.
Seeing Qi Si stroll calmly toward the crowd in festive red, Liu Bingding followed without a shred of doubt.
Qi Si subtly fell half a step behind, and within moments, Liu Bingding found himself at the front, clearing a path.
Liu Bingding used his broad shoulders to part the crowd and squeeze through, with Qi Si trailing silently in his wake.
In the center of the throng, a young man sat on a small stool. Dressed in red with a matching flower pinned to his chest, he was clearly the groom.
The groom was ordinary-looking, with a face like a lopsided potato. His small eyes were vacant, and saliva dribbled from his half-open mouth. He didn't appear to be of sound mind.
He held a piece of a broken mirror, waving it back and forth before his eyes as if it were a fascinating toy.
Qi Si noticed it was a fragment from an ornate makeup compact, the kind a woman would carry. The design was modern, clearly not a local product.
"A fool for a madwoman—a match made in heaven!"
The words came from a shrill voice, dripping with a cheer that sounded less like joy and more like pure mockery.
Qi Si glanced in the direction of the voice but couldn't see who had spoken.
His gaze returned to the groom.
The simpleton was holding the mirror fragment to his lips, huffing warm air onto it. From where the players stood, they could clearly see a thin layer of condensation fogging its surface.
Qi Si approached and crouched in front of the groom.
Up close, he could see the white powder caked on the groom's face, a thick layer like a facial mask that gave him a ghostly appearance.
"Congratulations," Qi Si said, the words delivered in a flat, dispassionate tone. He reached out and took the groom's right hand.
—The palm was warm and damp. The groom was alive.
A sense of dissonance crept over him, and Qi Si's eyes narrowed to thin slits.
Xi'er being alive could have been a coincidence. But the groom being alive as well directly refuted the players' initial conclusion. Double Happiness Town wasn't a ghost town—at most, it was merely haunted.
Most of the information Xu Wen had provided was wrong. Had she deliberately misled them, or was she truly ignorant?
Where was she now? And why had she fed them clues that were the complete opposite of the truth?
The moment Qi Si crouched before the groom, the gazes of the surrounding townspeople had locked onto him, tangible as a physical net closing in.
Qi Si knew all too well that humans could be far more terrifying than any ghost.
For a perfectly normal town to go to such lengths to appear haunted, its residents couldn't be innocent. The clue about the [Person in the Well] was undeniable proof. People capable of that would certainly have no qualms about killing to silence witnesses.
Bathed in the crowd's intense scrutiny, Qi Si calmly withdrew his hand and offered a brilliant smile. "Congratulations," he repeated. "A match made in heaven."
He was repeating the exact phrase he'd overheard just moments before.
The gazes of the townspeople remained glued to him, sticky and invasive, as if trying to peel back his skin and see what lay beneath.
The thin mist that had blanketed the town began to dissipate, and the cold, unfiltered sunlight flooded in, washing over every person and object. The world took on the pale, bleached look of an overexposed photograph.
Seemingly oblivious, Qi Si rose to his feet and slowly made his way back toward Liu Bingding.
A sudden commotion broke out in the distance. Someone shouted something, and a cluster of people fell silent for a heartbeat before erupting into an even louder clamor as the news spread from person to person.
Every head turned, their gazes shifting toward the disturbance. Within seconds, the news traveled through the crowd on a wave of whispers.
"Xi'er is dead!" they were saying.
And then, in a tone that relished the chaos: "Xi'er killed herself!"
Mwahahaha, I'm going to do something big with this instance—everyone, take a guess at the world-building (though I think I might have let it slip in the group chat once, but that's no big deal).