Detectives and police officers are inherently practical professions; their work revolves around dealing with “evidence,” always favoring logic and rationality. In other words, they lean toward reason rather than emotion.
At this moment, the emotional approach would be to eliminate Number 10, Liu Qingzhu, while the rational approach would be to take out Number 1, Zhou Wei.
Hua Ru remained silent, without making a choice herself. Number 7, Ragna, helped her decide, opting for the plan to eliminate Zhou Wei.
The four of them strolled shamelessly down the corridor. Xu Kes and Ragna stripped off their clothes again—this time, not even leaving their underwear on. Xu Kes had been a bit shy yesterday and kept his underwear on, but that meant he had to wear damp underwear all day, which was incredibly uncomfortable. This time, he was smarter and didn’t keep any underwear.
Ye Lian’na covered her face with her hands, seemingly shielding her eyes, but deliberately left a crack between her fingers.
Hua Ru appeared relatively normal, walking calmly behind the two men. She didn’t mind seeing them naked—after all, she had originally been a man, so she wasn’t resistant nor particularly interested in such things. However, since she was playing the role of Hua Ru, she had to show some reaction and not appear too calm. So whenever one of the two turned around or looked her way, she would slightly turn her face aside, a subtle gesture to avoid suspicion.
As she walked, she glanced around anxiously, eyeing the tightly closed doors, worried that one might suddenly open. If someone caught them in the act, how could they explain it?
According to their assumptions, the doors couldn’t be opened. The comments made by others during the day had confirmed this: the doors really couldn’t be opened. But what if the door wasn’t closed properly? If it wasn’t shut at midnight, wouldn’t it be possible to open it?
Though she thought this, she didn’t see a single door ajar.
Disturbed by her own thoughts, Hua Ru started testing the doors one by one. She instructed the other three teammates to wait near Room 1 while she circled back alone.
She stopped by Room 15 and twisted the handle. The door opened, and a variety of strange odors wafted out. She hurriedly shut the door again.
In the end, the only doors that could be opened were those of the teammates’ assassin rooms, plus Room 15 and Room 2, where the dead occupants lived.
Suddenly, a bright idea flashed through Hua Ru’s mind. She left the three teammates behind again and entered Room 2 alone, closing the door behind her.
Zhang Huiran’s headless corpse lay carelessly on the floor. It had been carried in by Number 1, Zhou Wei, and Number 12, Xu Kes, after losing a game of rock-paper-scissors. They couldn’t just leave the body in the main hall—would anyone want to eat there? For the sake of the environment, the body was taken back to the room.
She turned on the light. The horrifying female corpse was right before her eyes. As someone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, Hua Ru did the most disgusting and unwilling thing she had ever done in her life—she stripped all of Zhang Huiran’s clothes off, not sparing even the underwear stained with excrement. Of course, these had to be thoroughly cleaned in the bathroom afterward.
Then, she tore a strand of her own hair, divided it into several small pieces, and hid one under the bathroom door, another beneath the naked corpse, and flushed the rest down the toilet.
When she emerged from Room 2, her appearance frightened the three assassins.
Ye Lian’na’s legs went weak and she collapsed to the floor, eyes wide with terror etched across her face. Xu Kes fared better, instinctively stepping back a few paces until he hit the wall. Ragna let out a shout, as if discovering something terrifying, but stopped only after Xu Kes slapped him several times.
These guys were terrible at recognizing people. Compared to Zhang Huiran’s face, they seemed more familiar with the revealing outfit the woman had worn. When Hua Ru walked out dressed in that same outfit, they momentarily thought Zhang Huiran had come back to life!
The two women’s physiques were very different, and the outfit didn’t fit well. When Zhang Huiran wore it, she looked very seductive—the clothing just barely concealed her in all the right places, that teasing, barely-there look that stoked desire endlessly. On Hua Ru, the outfit lost some of its allure and gained a sense of dignity instead.
Their impression of the young girl shifted again.
Clever, intelligent, excellent at acting, noble, proud, beautiful, quick-witted, and inscrutable. After yesterday, two more traits were added: meticulous and extremely dangerous. Now, they had to add two more: fearless and ruthless.
Once Xu Kes and Ragna calmed down, they understood Hua Ru’s reasoning. Wearing clothes while killing was inadvisable—everyone was clearly afraid of getting blood on themselves. The two big men could strip down and fight bare-bodied without concern, but the two women couldn’t do the same; they had to maintain some decorum. Although this was killing, real-world morals weren’t so easily discarded.
Morality is invisible, intangible, yet omnipresent. It restrains human behavior, guiding people on what should or shouldn’t be done, what is right and what is wrong.
Hua Ru didn’t care about being naked or not, but the role she played forced her not to appear indiscriminately naked. So even if she wore Zhang Huiran’s clothes, it was acceptable. Even if the clothes got bloodied, it didn’t matter—after all, she had two sets of clothes to change into.
But… the path of the elegant young lady was going increasingly off-course. No matter how strong her acting skills were, it seemed almost impossible to preserve that noble aura in front of assassins.
Seeing the three hesitating as if they wanted to ask about her outfit, she didn’t intend to explain. They were already overwhelmed with the killing situation; she didn’t want to think about anything else.
After putting away the clothes in her room, she went downstairs to the kitchen. Wearing this outfit was very uncomfortable—the short skirt felt restrictive. The clothes still clung to bits of blood and flesh, looking disgusting, especially the underwear. Even cleaned, the disturbing images in her mind wouldn’t disappear. For someone with OCD, this was mental and physical torture. Enduring the nauseating sensation, she scanned the kitchen. Forget about the two knives in the knife block—there had been another vote before everyone returned to their rooms today, and Number 8, Huang Waikai, was entrusted to keep those two knives. After looking around a few more times, her eyes settled on the stainless steel spatula hanging on the wall.
(In Cantonese) “Can you or can’t you! Don’t try to act cool if you can’t,” Xu Kes chuckled a little at Hua Ru’s serious expression, the tense atmosphere easing somewhat. If the girl picked up a frying pan, he probably would have burst out laughing.
Killing was already enough for Ragna and Xu Kes. Besides, the room wasn’t very spacious, so they couldn’t swing their knives freely. Hua Ru’s presence was somewhat unnecessary; she and Ye Lian’na could just watch from the sidelines. Trying to join the fight would only be a hindrance. Not only because the room was cramped, but also because these two women were weak—calling it politely—otherwise, they were just “trash fighters.”
But seeing her determined look, the two men couldn’t argue. Hua Ru only planned to wait outside and jump in to finish off the enemy if necessary, with no intention to fight outright—just a precaution. That was the lowest common ground everyone could accept.
While the two men regarded her as a burden, she worried the pair might be no match for Zhou Wei. The battle with Number 15 had been extremely dangerous; Xu Kes was knocked out with a single punch. If Ragna also went down, then facing Number 15 would be like a beating on little kids for Hua Ru and Ye Lian’na.
That experience made her fully aware of her weakness in this match. The two men needed her brains, and she needed their fighting strength.
They thought Hua Ru was a liability in combat, but she had no choice but to grit her teeth and face it. She had to protect these two, even if she couldn’t save both, she had to at least keep one alive. This was the essence of “the capable do more work, the wise worry more.”
Nervous and uneasy, she squatted down to pick the lock with a wire. The two men stood by, looking ready to rush in as soon as the door opened. Because the clothes Hua Ru wore were so loose on her, all they had to do was glance down for an unlimited view…
As yesterday, the lock opened easily.
She nodded toward the two, but Ragna squatted down with his back to everyone, signaling them to wait. That guy dropped the ball again at the crucial moment.
(In Cantonese) “Are you kidding me! Failing at the key moment, you really threw in the towel!” Xu Kesi’s voice was loud, tinged with anger.
Ragna gave an embarrassed smile, covering himself with one hand, and declared righteously, “It’s not my fault! This is a normal reaction! You’re the one with no reaction—after this trip, you better see a urologist!”