When Yang Chaoyu finished speaking, everyone looked at her.
“What question?” the baseball cap—in other words, Sandao—asked.
Yang Chaoyu looked at Ke Xingyun. “Why did you conclude from the very beginning that Wen Shaoqiao had committed suicide?”
Ke Xingyun froze for a moment, not expecting Yang Chaoyu to question him first.
“Because… the news headline I found said that she had committed suicide. I even asked you before why you didn’t believe the media.” He paused, then continued, “But now I’m not sure whether she really committed suicide.”
“What makes you say that?” Yang Chaoyu asked.
The baseball cap was tossing Wen Shaoqiao’s phone around as he played with it. Zou Qing stood beside him, while Qi Yang lay weakly nearby.
Ke Xingyun pointed at the baseball cap. “That final confession from Wen Shaoqiao said she wanted to end everything…”
“Wasn’t that precisely her suicide declaration?” Zou Qing interrupted.
After she finished speaking, a cool breeze blew in from the stairwell, lifting her long skirt. Although it did not expose anything, she still instinctively reached down to press it flat.
Yang Chaoyu said, “Ke Xingyun, go on.”
Ke Xingyun felt as though he were being singled out, and sounded a little aggrieved. “If it was a suicide declaration, then her expression should have been tired, weary, and devoid of living aura. Even if none of those expressions were present, she should at least have looked resigned—she had already decided her own fate, and it could not be changed.”
Zou Qing sneered and retorted, “Your choice of words is certainly rich. Did she have emotional percentages Marked on her face?”
“Can you let me finish?” Ke Xingyun exploded. “But her expression wasn’t like that at all. It was resolute, as though she were determined to complete some kind of mission.”
“Pfft.” The baseball cap, Sandao, could not help laughing. “If she’s about to go to her death, of course she’d be resolute. Otherwise, she might not succeed.”
“This isn’t a joke.” Ke Xingyun grew anxious. “Most people who commit suicide are weak. They cannot face the hardships of life, or the pressure imposed by the people around them is too great, so they want to escape. Suicide is a coward’s act!”
Sandao’s gaze sharpened. “That isn’t necessarily true.”
He said, “Do you think that once someone wants to commit suicide, they can simply die in an instant? Regardless of the method they choose, when death is approaching, time stretches infinitely. In that nearly infinite span, they look back on the past, reflect on themselves, and may even question their decision. Those who want to end their own lives are brave. It is precisely because they are brave that they can face the torment brought by the process without regretting their choice.”
Zou Qing glanced at him. “You actually approve of suicide?”
Sandao paused, then said, “It isn’t approval. Since the other person chose that path and succeeded, those left behind should accept it.”
As he finished speaking, he glanced at Ke Xingyun. “Rather than denigrating them.”
“I didn’t denigrate them.” Ke Xingyun subconsciously retorted, then let his shoulders slump helplessly. “In any case, our opinions differ. I don’t approve of suicide.”
Sandao snorted.
He had never said he approved of suicide. He merely wanted to preserve some dignity for those who had nowhere left to turn.
Especially after someone he valued greatly had committed suicide.
He did not want to argue any further. Leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, he composed himself and said, “In any case, I believe that child committed suicide. The reason for it is obvious.”
Sandao had chosen his position.
Zou Qing also made her stance clear. “Wen Shaoqiao was simply an eldest young miss who had no idea how bitter life could be. She had eaten well and lived comfortably since childhood, so her nerves were less resilient. Look at those children who grew up without enough food or warm clothes—how many of them commit suicide? Wen Shaoqiao was simply too melodramatic.”
After saying this, she glanced at Sandao.
Sandao did not seem displeased, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Besides, every clue we’ve found indicates that she was living badly. Between living badly and death, there is only one Karmic connection: suicide.”
Ke Xingyun could not help commenting, “I think the real reason is that you dislike her and are jealous of her.”
Zou Qing sneered. “Likewise. Don’t you also like using emotional percentages to make deductions?”
Ke Xingyun grew furious. “I’m an art student. To create excellent works, we have to resonate with people and move our audience first. We’re naturally very sensitive to human emotions. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my analysis. You, on the other hand, act on emotion and make arbitrary assumptions. A character like you wouldn’t survive past the third episode of a television drama!”
“How dare you talk to me like that, brat?”
Zou Qing was furious enough to die, and extended her fingernails, wanting to scratch Ke Xingyun.
Yang Chaoyu knew how formidable her fingernails were and pulled Ke Xingyun back.
“I haven’t finished asking my questions. If you want to argue, find somewhere else to do it later.”
Ke Xingyun said indignantly, “big shot, didn’t you hear her bullying me? You’re actually not taking my side?”
Yang Chaoyu raised her hand and ruffled the short hair on his head.
“If a dog is barking furiously at you, and you bark back at it, how am I supposed to help you? Join you in cursing at the dog?”
Zou Qing’s eyes immediately reddened.
“Yang Chaoyu, who are you calling a dog?”
Yang Chaoyu sneered. “Whoever responds is the one I’m insulting.”
She had not forgotten the grudge between herself and Zou Qing.
Zou Qing had come to apologize, but Yang Chaoyu had not forgiven her then, and she certainly would not treat her kindly now.
Ke Xingyun felt vindicated. He moved closer to Yang Chaoyu, looking pleased with himself despite having benefited, and secretly muttered, “You said you wouldn’t help me get even. Didn’t you just help me?”
Yang Chaoyu glared at him. “I haven’t finished asking my questions. Let’s set aside the question of why you tacitly assumed Wen Shaoqiao committed suicide. Now let’s discuss the second problem you exposed.”
Ke Xingyun widened his eyes. “What do you mean, the second problem I exposed? You make me sound like a spy.”
“Aren’t you?”
Ke Xingyun cried out that he had been wronged.
Yang Chaoyu said, “At the beginning, you noticed many details that I missed, which genuinely impressed me. But after you went upstairs, your cleverness vanished immediately. You spent almost the entire time slacking off, and even the clues were found ‘by accident.’ How do you explain that?”
Ke Xingyun retorted, “I wasn’t slacking off! Wasn’t it because Qi Yang was injured and someone had to stay with him?”
Yang Chaoyu raised a hand to interrupt him.
“Would a normal person sacrifice themselves for a stranger?” Yang Chaoyu could still search for clues and save herself, but Ke Xingyun had been unable to look for clues because he was staying with Qi Yang. If the rule really was ‘without clues, you die,’ then compared with her, he was the one truly courting death.
“Isn’t that because I’m kindhearted? I’m an outstanding young man raised under the red flag, a future pillar of the nation. If I didn’t have a spirit of self-sacrifice, what would become of the country’s future?”
Yang Chaoyu completely ignored his nonsense and looked toward Zou Qing.
Zou Qing hated Yang Chaoyu and Ke Xingyun. Seeing that they seemed to be having internal conflict, she had no concern for making matters worse and said bluntly, “Exactly. Compared with my life, everyone else’s life is dogshit.”
Yang Chaoyu silently looked at Ke Xingyun.
Although Zou Qing had stolen her clue, injured her, and still showed no intention of repenting, at least she was thoroughly evil—a genuine villain rather than a hypocrite.
In that regard, she was far better than Ke Xingyun.
Yang Chaoyu did not deny that there were exceptionally good people in this world who were willing to sacrifice themselves for others, nor did she believe that morality was necessarily tied to age, but…
“If you were truly kindhearted, then let me make Sandao’s position clear to you: when there was no score and someone would be left behind here, shouldn’t you have been extremely worried about Qi Yang’s situation? Given your supposed kindness, shouldn’t you have been anxious about what concerned others and done your best to help him find the hidden clue? But when I asked you to go downstairs with Sandao, why did you refuse? Isn’t that contradictory?”
Seeing his face turn pale, Yang Chaoyu knew she had guessed correctly.
“I… If there hadn’t been any danger involved in guard duty, of course I would have done it…”
“No danger? At the beginning, we knew nothing. The visible threats at the time included two things: the dead Wen Shaoqiao and the overseer. We had not yet figured out their rules of action, but it was obvious that both possessed tremendous killing power. Apart from those two inhuman threats, the five of us did not fully trust one another. The ones most likely to attack from the shadows were the old man and Sandao. You’re so clever and understand people’s emotions so well; you should have been able to tell that neither of them meant us any goodwill. With those two potential threats added in, staying behind for guard duty was quite dangerous, yet you still remained to watch over Qi Yang.”
Yang Chaoyu caught her breath, then continued, “By contrast, at the time, only you and Sandao were going downstairs. Sandao has not attacked anyone to this day, we already knew the rules governing the overseer’s appearance, and Wen Shaoqiao disappeared after a single strike. Whether we went downstairs had virtually nothing to do with safety. Searching downstairs for clues might even have given Qi Yang a chance to live, yet you still stayed behind. Why?”
Ke Xingyun stared at her, completely dumbfounded.
“Big shot, you don’t trust me at all?”
Ke Xingyun activated the “Puppy Gaze” skill, cutting Yang Chaoyu’s health bar in half.
Yang Chaoyu: …Damn.