Chapter 18

5:57 AM.

Zhu Ming stood in the living room and switched off her flashlight.

Dawn was near, but not yet complete. The sun’s radiance peeked over the horizon, its hazy morning light seeping into the living room and stirring the pure darkness into a murky gray. Humming a tune, Xiao Song walked in gently.

But his footsteps suddenly stopped.

In that dim, chaotic twilight, a human figure stood silently.

The moment he saw her, she saw him too.

5:59 AM. The darkness continued to recede. The sun climbed over the mountaintop, radiating intense heat. As shadows and light rotated, a long silhouette stretched out behind Zhu Ming.

Her face split into a wide grin. “Found you.”

With that, she raised the bone-chopping knife she’d hidden behind her back and brought it slashing down toward Xiao Song with brutal ferocity.

The knife was clean and sharp, freshly taken from the kitchen. At exactly 6:00 AM, the bright, noon-like sunlight struck its edge, refracting a blinding, icy glare.

Xiao Song jumped as if his feet had been scalded, spinning around to flee.

A shrill scream pierced the entire villa: “Help! Murder! Help—!”

Just as Zhu Ming wrestled him to the ground, the door to Room 1004 opened. Miss Zhao, her braid not yet combed, rushed out. Seeing the scene, she shrieked in alarm, “What are you doing?!”

Zhu Ming gave her a brief smile. The blade pressed against Xiao Song’s throat.

A line of blood trickled down, seeping into his collar. Xiao Song trembled, too terrified to move.

Zhu Ming said, “Miss Zhao, I’m killing a ghost. You don’t have any objections, do you?”

Xiao Song stammered, incredulous: “I’m a ghost? How is that possible? This is crazy…”

The screams had drawn everyone else out. In the bright daylight, all the doors flew open as people rushed out to see what was happening. They were greeted by the sight of Zhu Ming holding a knife to someone’s throat.

Xiao Cheng, confused, instinctively tried to intervene: “Don’t be rash! Talk this through!”

Yun Zouchuan reacted the fastest, scrambling down the railing to Zhu Ming’s side and standing with her without hesitation.

Old Man Xu and Xiao Xue remained expressionless, waiting for an explanation.

Xiao Song shuddered and shrieked, “I get it now! You’re the ghost! Last night, I was tricked into opening my door! Xiao Zhao used her protective charm to block the first attack. To keep her safe, I left her in the room and ran out myself. Luckily, I’m fast. The butler couldn’t catch me. He gave up once I got outside the villa. I didn’t dare come back in, I was afraid the butler was waiting for me, so I hid outside the whole time! My flashlight went out, and I’d lost all hope, but then the sun rose! I escaped death and came back, overjoyed. And the moment I walk in, Zhu Ming tries to kill me!”

Xiao Cheng said, “Isn’t there some misunderstanding? I stayed with Old Man Xu last night, and my door really couldn’t be opened.”

Zhu Ming ignored the others entirely. She looked at Xiao Song with a profound gaze. This body was warm, breathing, had a heartbeat, bled. What did that prove?

Zhu Ming said, “You claim you lasted until dawn. So where’s your flashlight?”

Xiao Song’s eyes darted pleadingly to Miss Zhao. “Baby, please help me find it! I remember throwing it somewhere near the azalea bushes in the garden. If you find it, it’ll prove I’m not a ghost!”

Miss Zhao didn’t immediately go looking for the flashlight. Her face pale, she stared hard at Zhu Ming and questioned her directly.

“Zhu Ming, are you the butler or not? How else could you be waiting right here in the villa for him?! You said the second victim would be Brother Teng, and it was! And you knew from the start the food in the fridge wasn’t poisoned. You can enter the Butler’s Room at night, and you refused to destroy your own Cleaning Sign…”

One by one, she listed every point of suspicion against Zhu Ming. In this chaos, as his girlfriend, it was entirely natural for Miss Zhao to trust her boyfriend more.

Zhu Ming bit the corner of her lip, her gaze on Miss Zhao. Instead of anger, she laughed. “Nine rooms, nine participants. Isn’t Xiao Song suspicious enough? If Miss Zhao truly believes he’s not a ghost, then… do you dare let him into your room?”

Miss Zhao snapped her head up. “He was in my room last night! What more proof do you need?”

“Did anyone see it with their own eyes?” Seeing Miss Zhao’s urgency over Xiao Song, Zhu Ming’s own pace grew calmer. “Brother Teng, who lived next door to you, is dead. The second floor has a walkway blocking the view. Unless someone was leaning over the railing the whole time, no one could’ve seen Xiao Song enter 1004. Honestly, I thought it was strange from the start. But with you vouching for him, plus the suspicious behavior of others, I couldn’t be certain the ghost was Xiao Song.”

Zhu Ming shifted the knife in her hand, her eyes turning increasingly venomous. “After all, killing the wrong person by accident would be… rather embarrassing. You can’t hide it anymore, can you? The appearance of a tenth person all but tells us a real ghost has infiltrated our ranks. But what proof do we have there’s only one ghost? Maybe the ghost has a helper… Miss Zhao.”

On the very first day, Zhu Ming had sensed a deliberate attempt to force the pace.

So, she’d known there was a mole among them. There were many suspects: Xiao Song, Miss Zhao, even Old Man Xu.

Xiao Song was the most suspicious. He’d discovered the key, yet conveniently couldn’t swim. He was also the first to find those three crucial but hard-to-locate sheets of paper in the basement.

But Miss Zhao was too strange. On the surface, she and Xiao Song were a couple, but her behavior told a different story.

There was a secret between them. And whenever Xiao Song wanted to enter Miss Zhao’s room, she always refused. So that morning after Old Gao’s death had been discovered, a sudden flash of insight hit Zhu Ming.

Perhaps what was hiding among them wasn’t just a mole, but an actual, genuine ghost!

But she still couldn’t be certain who it was. There were too many unknowns. Others besides Xiao Song and Miss Zhao were suspicious. Most importantly, she lacked sufficient evidence to point a finger.

Old Gao’s death gave Zhu Ming her opening. She’d set a trap in advance, just in case.

Then yesterday, Xiao Song just happened to stay in Room 1004 the night before everyone was due to destroy their Cleaning Signs one by one. He had a perfectly good excuse for not being able to open the door to Room 2007.

After that, the tenth person appeared, and the note in the storage room surfaced. Zhu Ming was almost certain Xiao Song was the problem. Furthermore, her probing of Miss Zhao had yielded results, revealing her own previous blind spot: a real ghost could exist alongside a mole who was actively covering for him!

There were still plenty of things she didn’t fully understand. Why hadn’t the tenth person just shown themselves directly? Why did the ghost set up clues to lead players toward completing the formation rather than doing it himself in one shot…?

But the trap was set. If these two took the bait, it would prove they were guilty!

Of course… if the mole was helping the ghost against the other participants, she couldn’t be doing it without a price.

Zhu Ming raised an eyebrow, her tone provocative. “Anyway, Xiao Song’s already stayed in your room for two days. Doing it one more time in front of everyone doesn’t matter, does it? Or… is it that you have a guilty conscience and don’t dare?”

In that moment, the two women understood each other perfectly. But things had gone too far; neither could back down now.

As Miss Zhao stepped backward, yielding the doorway, Zhu Ming felt the last shred of any other consideration for her disappear. Never sympathize with your enemy, especially when she’s willing to send others to their deaths.

Zhu Ming dragged Xiao Song forward, grabbing his collar and shoving him through the door. “You invited him in yourself. Remember that.”

Miss Zhao clenched her fists, her teeth gritted. “Enough! This proves it! Now, what evidence do you have that you’re not the ghost?!”

Zhu Ming yanked Xiao Song back out and slammed him onto the floor. Unhurried, she said, “What does that have to do with me? Don’t forget, you two still have one thing left to do. Take out your flashlights. I imagine a ghost doesn’t need a flashlight. Since Xiao Song went to your room in the middle of the night, he must have had it with him. If you show them to us, it proves you’re not ghosts.”

Following Zhu Ming’s direction could very well put them at a disadvantage. But… if she could prove she and Xiao Song were innocent, Zhu Ming would become the target of public condemnation! This was a case of being too clever for your own good. If Zhu Ming pushed so relentlessly, don’t blame her for showing no mercy.

A dark glint flashed through Miss Zhao’s eyes. She said “Fine,” and ran to the garden to find the flashlight Xiao Song had mentioned.

Within moments, she actually found it. To prove it wasn’t her own flashlight being used to fake evidence, Miss Zhao also retrieved her own flashlight.

Holding the two identical flashlights up, she announced sharply, “Everyone can see! Xiao Song and I are both participants. Zhu Ming, YOU are the ghost!”

Zhu Ming calmly held up her own flashlight. “Mine’s right here too.”

Something dawned on Miss Zhao.

Due to certain reasons, she’d been waking up before dawn these past few days. She was restless; she needed to keep her surroundings under tight control. So, when she’d heard footsteps outside before dawn today, she’d started watching through her peephole.

She saw a figure sitting blankly on the sofa. It was Zhu Ming. Her flashlight’s beam had been extremely dim, and it had gone out before sunrise!

Miss Zhao was a clever woman. She seized the key point almost instantly. “How do we know that’s your flashlight?! Maybe you picked up Old Gao’s! His had no power. Don’t tell us it’s a coincidence yours is dead too! Turn it on and prove it!”

Zhu Ming said, “Sure,” and switched on the flashlight. A faint, dim light appeared.

Miss Zhao froze.

Zhu Ming’s lips curved. “Well, Miss Zhao? My flashlight has power. Satisfied it’s mine?”

A bead of cold sweat slid down Miss Zhao’s forehead. She stared hard at Zhu Ming, a wave of genuine fear washing over her… Zhu Ming’s flashlight hadn’t gone out from a dead battery. She had turned it off herself. How?! Wasn’t she afraid something would happen during that brief moment of darkness?

Miss Zhao realized something. This woman was prepared. She’d calculated everything from the very beginning, including her response. And if that was the case, then what came next—she couldn’t follow Zhu Ming’s script!

A terrible premonition flooded Miss Zhao’s mind. Seeing the mocking glint in Zhu Ming’s eyes, the curve of her lips, she knew for certain there was another layer to her trap waiting.

What should she do now? They’d both proven they possessed flashlights. What else could Zhu Ming pull?

No, whatever her next move was, she couldn’t just react. She had to shut this down!

Miss Zhao shot Xiao Song a meaningful glance. Xiao Song instantly began thrashing and wailing, “Just kill me then! We found the flashlights, that means we’re human! The ghost is obviously in Room 2007. You’re acting crazy, threatening innocent people! Even if you’re not the ghost, you’re the mole! Just go ahead and kill me if you dare!”

But Zhu Ming refused to be sidetracked. She grabbed Xiao Song by the hair and slammed his forehead violently against the floor. “Shut up.”

Thud. Xiao Song’s head spun, biting his tongue too hard to speak.

Only then did Zhu Ming unruffledly explain: “Kill you? Why would I do that? You have a heartbeat, breath, body heat, just like any living person. Such a perfect imitation. Killing you would only make me look more suspicious, wouldn’t it? I’m a fragile woman, you know. If everyone ganged up on me, I couldn’t fight back. And what’s the rush? Things aren’t over yet.”

Damn her! Miss Zhao instinctively retreated a step toward her doorway.

Zhu Ming wasn’t just a schemer; she was viciously decisive with her actions. This forced Miss Zhao’s hand—she could no longer pretend to be a passive observer. What girlfriend would just stand by and watch her boyfriend be brutalized?

It was unstoppable now. There was no stopping. Everyone was watching her. The moment she did anything suspicious, the moment she refused Zhu Ming’s demand, she and Xiao Song would lose everyone’s trust completely. They’d be backed into a dead end…

Zhu Ming didn’t give Miss Zhao much time to think. Her narrow, long eyes curved further, an expression of nonchalant cruelty. “Miss Zhao, you’re the one who reminded me. How does anyone know where your flashlights came from? Now… it’s your turn to turn them on.”