Chapter 15: Nowhere to Escape

Lin Kuo felt that words like scared and terrified were no longer sufficient to describe Xiaoyu in this moment—even though she was currently pointing straight at his face.

Li Yinan and Liang Sihong both looked uneasy.

Ironically, Lin Kuo was the calmest of them all.

Xiaoyu did seem off, as if she’d been scared out of her mind.

No… Lin Kuo looked at her steadily.

If Xiaoyu had really seen something last night—specifically, seen Lin Kuo—then it made sense that she might have been traumatized.

But it didn’t make sense that she’d point him out so boldly in broad daylight the next morning.

The logic was simple.

If you barely survived an encounter with a dangerous criminal, even if you wanted to identify them, you’d still prioritize your own safety.

The truth was, even if Li Yinan and Liang Sihong teamed up, they wouldn’t necessarily be a match for Lin Kuo.

Right now, they couldn’t help Xiaoyu if they tried.

If she truly thought Lin Kuo was the threat, wouldn’t pointing at him so directly be asking for death?

No.

The person Xiaoyu was pointing at… wasn’t Lin Kuo.

Lin Kuo abruptly turned around.

Even though he was braver than most, what he saw still startled him.

The other two turned as well—
—and it felt like a bucket of cold water had just been dumped over their heads.

The butler was standing silently behind them, watching grimly.

“f*ck.”

Lin Kuo jumped into the room, immediately putting distance between them.

“H-he… he, he…”

Xiaoyu looked toward Lin Kuo with desperate eyes.

The only reason she had dared to point at the butler behind him was because she felt safe with  Lin Kuo present.

Like Li Yinan, she instinctively believed Lin Kuo could protect her.

But now, realizing that the butler might belong to the other side, Lin Kuo shot her a sharp glance—
Shut up. Don’t say another word.

Xiaoyu flinched and curled into a corner, not daring to speak.

After steadying their racing hearts, the three returned to the dining table and sat down.

There were still six breakfasts on the table.

Lin Kuo subtly glanced at the floor—and saw a faint footprint, marked with a touch of incense ash.

It overlapped exactly with Xiaoyu’s position.

But the foot kept shifting slightly, as if something had gotten stuck under it—something hard—and it was trying to shake the discomfort off.

The butler was acting differently today.

He stood warily at the door, unwilling to enter.

The usual fear on his face had faded, replaced by an eerie, resentful glare.

Lin Kuo looked at him, then glanced away and toyed with his breakfast, speaking in a lazy tone:

“There are four of us here, and six on the other side. Four plus six is… ten. So why did you only prepare six breakfasts?”

The butler froze, just for a second—

Then the corners of his mouth lifted into a strange, terrifying smile.

“I’m right. After tonight, there will only be six… forever six.”

Hearing that, Lin Kuo gave him a complicated look. Then, annoyed, he snapped, “What use are you? Scram.”

The butler instantly bristled with rage.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but as soon as he took a step forward, he suddenly stopped.

His voice trembled with anticipation and madness.

“Tonight… it’s tonight. After tonight, everything will be normal.”

He repeated the words again and again, his smile stretching wider, more grotesque—until he started cackling.

Ge ge ge…

After laughing like a lunatic, he turned and left, unwilling to waste more words on a dead man.

Once he was gone, Liang Sihong immediately turned to Xiaoyu.

“What happened last night?”

Xiaoyu trembled.

“Last night… I was hiding in the dining room.”

Just recalling the events made her eyes go red with tears.

“The butler came…”

Li Yinan’s heart clenched.

“Did he see you?”

Xiaoyu shook her head, voice unsteady.

“I don’t know. He just stood at the dining room entrance. He didn’t come in. I… I don’t know if he saw me or not.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Lin Kuo said gently. “Speak slowly.”

Xiaoyu looked at him with deep gratitude.

“He was holding a hammer,” she said.

“A hammer?” Liang Sihong echoed.

Xiaoyu wiped away a tear.

“I don’t know if it was a hammer—it was thin, something for chiseling walls… I don’t know what it’s called.”

Liang Sihong was about to ask more, but Lin Kuo stopped him.

“Let her speak.”

Only then did Liang Sihong shut up.

Xiaoyu continued, “He was chiseling the door…”

Even the memory of the sound made her visibly flinch.

But that wasn’t the scariest part.

What broke her completely was what the butler said while chiseling.

“What did he say?” Lin Kuo asked.

Xiaoyu clutched her head. “He said… he said… ‘I am Xia Xinyu.’”

Then she screamed in horror. “He said he was Xia Xinyu!”

Li Yinan immediately hugged her to calm her down.

Once Xiaoyu had finally composed herself, Lin Kuo asked quietly, “What’s your name?”

Xiaoyu’s voice was full of despair. “Xia Xinyu.”

A muffled thunderclap seemed to explode in everyone’s mind.

During the initial introductions, she had only said “Xiaoyu.”
No one had asked for more than a nickname.

Now that they heard her full name—everyone felt something shift.
The mood turned indescribably heavy.

Liang Sihong, in particular, looked deeply disturbed.

Lin Kuo turned to him. “Last night… the name you heard was probably Liang Sihong, wasn’t it?”

Liang Sihong was stunned. “You… how did you know?”

Lin Kuo hadn’t known at first.

He had only suspected the clue Liang Sihong was hiding was his own name.

But now, after hearing Xiaoyu’s story—it clicked.

From the beginning, when Liang Sihong demanded identity verification, it had been obvious he was overly cautious.

If he had heard Lin Kuo’s name the night before, he definitely wouldn’t have invited him to breakfast so casually.

“If it had been Li Yinan’s name, I’m sure you’d be trying to get me to kill her right now,” Lin Kuo said coldly.

Liang Sihong gave a weak, awkward smile.

“…Because I knew I was fine.”

“I’m fine too!” Li Yinan protested.

Liang Sihong offered an apologetic smile.

She grumbled but let it go—she couldn’t very well punch a guy who was smiling at her.

Still, she was confused.

“What do these names mean?” she asked.

She looked to Lin Kuo. “Boss, what do you think—”

But Lin Kuo had already walked over to the door, studying the frame.

From the beginning, he had noticed the peachwood carvings on the doors.
At first, he thought they were newly carved because they looked so clean.

Now, he understood—

They weren’t new, they were re-carved every day.

He checked the other doors too.

Same clean, “fresh” peachwood patterns.

What did this mean?

Why did the butler say he was Xia Xinyu?
Why did Liang Sihong hear his name?
Why was “A gift to Lin Kuo” carved into the piano?

Lin Kuo no longer believed this was a coincidence.
Too many coincidences meant none of them were coincidences.

But the “people” in the photo looked nothing like them.
Even someone with face blindness couldn’t mistake the difference.

Then what was the connection between their names and these peachwood carvings?

Deep in thought, Lin Kuo walked upstairs to the second floor.

As he reached the top, he felt a gaze on him.
He looked up.

The butler stood at the far end of the corridor, half-hidden in shadows.

The thin light couldn’t conceal the stifling intensity of his stare—
Nor could it hide what he was holding.

When Lin Kuo saw it clearly, he paused.

Then, he turned and hurried back to the dining room.

Liang Sihong saw his expression and immediately asked,
“What did you find? What did you realize?”

“I have both an idea and a discovery,” Lin Kuo replied.
“The idea isn’t confirmed yet, so I’ll keep it to myself. As for the discovery…”

Everyone leaned in.

Lin Kuo said grimly,
“Someone will die tonight.”

Liang Sihong gave a dry laugh.
“Isn’t that already—”

Lin Kuo cut him off.
“I mean a large-scale death.”

Liang Sihong’s face froze.

“And hiding won’t work,” Lin Kuo added.

Liang Sihong’s voice cracked.
“W-what do you mean?”

“You heard what the butler said,” Lin Kuo said sharply.
“And remember—the thirteen doors on the first floor, except for the living room and dining room, are all locked. They’ll probably still be locked tonight. Which means…”

“Our activity range will be limited to the second floor.”

Before anyone could respond, Lin Kuo continued:

“And the NPC who couldn’t stand being on the second floor before is now staying on the second floor.”

“Why do you think that is?”

A chilling realization spread among them.

Lin Kuo concluded, “Cleaning the rooms? I doubt it—unless his ‘cleaning tool’ is that string of keys he’s carrying.”

Liang Sihong’s face paled. “A string of… keys? Is he going to lock the second floor too?!”

Li Yinan gasped. “Then our only space left will be the corridor! That corridor is so narrow… there’s nowhere to hide!”

Xiaoyu finally broke. “It’s over… it’s over… we’re all going to die tonight!”

In the rising panic, Liang Sihong suddenly shouted, “Wait! There’s still the third floor!”

He clung to the thought like a drowning man grabbing a rope.

“Yes—yes, the third floor. We’ll hide there tonight!”

“Ah!” Li Yinan perked up.
Right—the third floor!
They had spent so much time on the first and second floors, they’d forgotten it even existed.

But Lin Kuo didn’t look hopeful.

“If the third floor were safe,” he said coldly,
“why didn’t the butler lock that too? He locked the first and second floors—it could mean he’s driving us to the third.”

Li Yinan bit her lip. “But compared to the second floor… with that single corridor…”

She didn’t need to finish. Lin Kuo understood.

Once the incense ash was sprinkled in a narrow hall, there’d be nowhere left to run.

His voice dropped several degrees.

“There’s still one way to survive.”