Finding a girl’s room wasn’t particularly difficult, even in such a sprawling mansion.
Pei Xingyan wandered casually, searching according to the location Su Shanshan had given him.
There were no obstacles along the way. After reaching the second floor and turning left, he easily entered her room.
Living alone had many conveniences—one of them being the peace of mind that came from not worrying about leaving the door unlocked and exposing one’s secrets.
Pei Xingyan pushed open the door, and a faint, refreshing fragrance greeted him.
But suddenly, he felt something was off. The scent was pleasant, yet slightly different from the one Su Shanshan usually carried. Just from the smell, Pei Xingyan would guess that the owner of this room was a very solitary person.
Looking around a girl’s boudoir like this was somewhat rude, even bordering on creepy, but Pei Xingyan was intent on doing so. He found the room’s decor itself rather strange.
It didn’t match the style Su Shanshan showed him.
She was a sweet, sugary girl whose clothes all looked like candy. Part of this was because she needed to roleplay to get closer to her painting subjects, but it was also just who she was.
Su Shanshan was a sweet girl—calling his name sweetly, looking at him sweetly, sometimes even saying, “Baby, open your mouth~” in that sugary way. She was always as sweet as gardenias in bloom.
But the room that now appeared before Pei Xingyan’s eyes made him feel only coldness.
Everywhere he looked were gray things—gray wallpaper, a gray carpet, gray bedsheets and blankets, and a large gray stuffed toy sitting listlessly on the bed like an abandoned pet.
Pei Xingyan suddenly hesitated to step into this room.
But it was only a momentary fear. He pushed the door fully open and stepped in quietly.
The bedside table was gray too. When he pulled the drawer, it didn’t make a sound. Inside lay many items, scattered in disorder, but the mess somehow comforted Pei Xingyan for the moment—disorder was the sign of a living person.
Pei Xingyan rummaged through it. Although he tried his best to avoid seeing anything too secretive, human eyes couldn’t cover themselves like a crocodile’s eyelids; some things would be seen in an instant.
Among the items, he found a broken photo frame with a picture inside. It was the only photo he had seen in the house so far where Su Shanshan was smiling—also the only one that resembled the Su Shanshan he knew.
But the photo was now shattered and hidden inside the bedside drawer…
Pei Xingyan swallowed hard, thinking this was not a good sign.
He kept searching. Suddenly, something cut his hand, and warm liquid appeared on his finger.
Inside were a few razor blades—the kind used for shaving—but obviously, Su Shanshan had no beard. And judging from Pei Xingyan’s restless observations recently, it wasn’t for shaving underarms either—Su Shanshan didn’t have that kind of hair.
As for whether she used these to shave her younger sister’s head…
Pei Xingyan didn’t think so.
That left only one possible use—
“She wouldn’t really self-harm, would she…” Pei Xingyan murmured to himself, heart pounding.
He pressed his lips to his finger to stop the bleeding, then resumed searching.
By now, these discoveries no longer shocked him. Pei Xingyan knew too well that Su Shanshan was no ordinary girl. Even if she were to suddenly stab herself seventeen times in front of him, he would only quietly call emergency services.
But the secret of how Su Shanshan could suddenly change into someone else, doing completely irrational things, still weighed heavily on his mind…
After some time, he finally found a long tube emitting a sour smell. Pei Xingyan opened it to confirm—it was the vitamin C effervescent tablets Su Shanshan wanted.
With the item in hand, he didn’t want to linger in the room any longer and stood up to leave.
But when he turned, he saw another set of photos that startled him.
More precisely, not just one photo, but a whole pile.
Many small photos were hung densely over Su Shanshan’s doorframe.
Pei Xingyan squinted at them and suddenly felt goosebumps rise on his back.
They were all pictures of Su Shanshan, no doubt about that, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find anything in common between these girls other than their facial resemblance.
In some photos, Su Shanshan held her head high in arrogance, an expression Pei Xingyan had never seen on her before. In those photos, she looked as if nothing was worthy of her attention, scornful of everything.
Yet in another nearby photo, she hung her head low, eyes flickering nervously, avoiding the camera’s gaze.
There was even one where she looked fierce…
Another with a blank expression, as if indifferent to everything, as if she had taken psychiatric medication…
One where she happily snuggled in her parents’ arms…
There were many many versions of her…
Pei Xingyan was dumbfounded. He knew well that one person could show different faces at different times and places, which was normal.
But he could also sense clearly, just like the extremely unfamiliar Su Shanshan he had seen before, that the spirit and traits displayed by the subjects in these photos were not from the same person.
He took a deep breath, buried this thought in his heart, and quickly walked out.
The reality was closing in on his suspicions. Pei Xingyan couldn’t say exactly how he felt—he’d long known this would be troublesome, but complaining about trouble was pointless. He needed to find a proper solution.
In his mind, the best case was to persuade Su Shanshan to go with him to see that teacher, Doctor Li, for a checkup. He was confident he could convince Su Shanshan—she always listened to him. If he disguised it as a routine physical, he could definitely fool her. That wouldn’t be difficult.
But…
He didn’t think he could deceive the other “Su Shanshan.” Pei Xingyan still couldn’t forget the girl who sent him videos and pictures in the middle of the night—that was definitely no naive sweetheart. If she could perceive the outside world, she certainly wouldn’t make things easy for him.
Yet if he didn’t try this, what better plan was there?
Pei Xingyan pondered this as he reached the staircase and suddenly heard noises at the door.
Moments later, the door was flung open, and a woman bearing some resemblance to Su Shanshan entered with her head lowered.
Seeing the girl curled up on the sofa, she called out her name in surprise and joy.
Pei Xingyan had no time to think and instinctively hid.
By his experience, this woman was most likely Su Shanshan’s mother.
Pei Xingyan glanced at the girl on the sofa, intending to verify his guess by the name she would call out, but then he forgot this plan altogether.
He only saw that Su Shanshan’s expression changed in a matter of seconds—becoming unfamiliar, with not a trace of the sweet girl who had just been flirting with him.