Chapter 68: Questions about Yun Shuanghua and the collapsed villa

Angelina stared at Jing Qizhen’s calm expression and for a moment, her mind went blank.

After a pause, she found her voice and said, “I don’t know what secret the villa hides but you just burned it down…”

Jing Qizhen: “I only know that cooked March Hares don’t go mad in March. 0.0”

Angelina: “…”

She was unable to comprehend Jing Qizhen’s logic.

Meanwhile, Si Jiayang, who was sitting together with his girlfriend on the sofa, whispered his complaints, “Before the fire, Little Jing didn’t even know there was a March Hare in the villa.”

Manman seemed unconcerned. “That’s not a big deal. Maybe after the villa burned down, we’d finally uncover the rabbit hole!”

After all, the villa had been sealed with vines earlier. The March Hare couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere, so there could only be a magical rabbit hole inside the villa.

Si Jiayang’s face lit up with understanding. “That makes sense!”

Jing Qizhen: “…” Are you two, who spend all day luring single dogs into traps, now openly mocking me? =.=

The Earth became excited immediately and shouted repeatedly, “Rabbit hole! Rabbit hole! Rabbit hole!”

Jing Qizhen: “…What’s wrong with you?”

The Earth, full of enthusiasm, said, “If you enter the rabbit hole, maybe you’ll see that magical fairy tale kingdom, just like Alice!”

Jing Qizhen replied, “I think we’d get stuck halfway in the rabbit hole and have to call 119 for rescue.”

“That realistic, huh?” the Earth deflated instantly.

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Yes. Alice was a small girl, after all. We’re all adults. If we jump in, we’d probably just get stuck in the rabbit hole.”

The Earth suddenly realized something. “Wait! Angelina said the March Hare she saw was the size of an adult in a costume, with ears that almost touched the ceiling. It’s taller than you!”

Jing Qizhen refused to continue the conversation.

The Earth wouldn’t stop muttering, “Let’s jump into the rabbit hole! Let’s jump into the rabbit hole! Let’s jump into the rabbit hole!”

Jing Qizhen: “…” What a headache. What did I do to deserve this?

Gu Leshan nudged Lu Lingxi beside him secretly.

Lu Lingxi, busy analyzing the clues in his notes, finally looked up after several nudges. “What is it?”

Gu Leshan asked, “Do you think it’s really the month of March here? And could the March Hare actually have turned into a roast rabbit?”

Lu Lingxi looked puzzled. “Why are you so concerned about the March Hare? What, craving spicy rabbit head? Let me tell you, who knows what kind of strange creature that March Hare is. And it hasn’t been skinned or cleaned. Even during survival training, I wouldn’t eat an unprocessed wild rabbit.”

Gu Leshan: “…Of course not! I’m not that reckless. I’m just saying the March Hare seems to be connecting all the fairy tales together, multitasking.”

As he spoke, Gu Leshan pointed to the contents of Lu Lingxi’s notebook. “The March Hare is probably a very important NPC, just like that ghost lady you met in the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store.”

Hearing this, Angelina immediately turned to Gu Leshan. It was as if she had finally found someone with a normal thought process!

Startled by her intense stare, Gu Leshan said, “Why are you staring at me? I didn’t do anything!”

Angelina was so thrown off by Gu Leshan’s defensive tone that she rolled her eyes at him, the only ‘sane’ person left.

Gu Leshan: “…”

He felt so wronged!

Angelina turned back, her face filled with frustration, and said to the ever-calm Jing Qizhen, “That’s exactly what I’m worried about! Sophia, Sean, and Williams are all dead. We don’t know what clues they might have uncovered. I suspect their rooms still had important leads! But now you’ve burned down the villa! The important factor March Hare may have been burned as well. How are we supposed to solve this now?”

Her lengthy accusations boiled down to one key point—all potential clues in the villa may have been reduced to ashes.

With the villa in ruins, how could they uncover the culprit and investigate the truth?

Jing Qizhen blinked, hesitating as he looked at Angelina. “You don’t seriously think the March Hare could have been burned by the fire in the villa, do you?”

Angelina: “…?”

She felt her blood pressure rising, almost driven mad by Jing Qizhen.

The Earth, who had been mumbling to himself without getting a response, suddenly froze and blurted out in Jing Qizhen’s mind, “Wait, is the March Hare fireproof? That wasn’t in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ I read!”

Jing Qizhen sighed helplessly, rubbed his forehead, and explained, “There’s a rabbit hole! The fire didn’t grow large all at once. The March Hare could’ve easily escaped through the rabbit hole!”

Angelina was on the verge of a breakdown. “So, we’re still dealing with a crazy March Hare!?”

Manman sighed along with her and suggested, “Once the villa burns down completely, the rabbit hole will definitely be exposed. Why not just put a net over the hole? When it comes out again, we can catch it and take it with us. That way, we can ask whatever we need to.”

Angelina was stunned. “…???”

Gu Leshan was also taken aback. “Uh… Can we really do that?”

Manman nodded. “Sure. The March Hare can speak human language. Just think of it as a person who happens to look like a rabbit.”

Jing Qizhen looked at Angelina with a calm, slightly amused expression. “Be more flexible. Anything that can talk can be directly caught and questioned. That’s why we brought all these tools and weapons, isn’t it? To use them effectively.”

Angelina: “…”

Jing Qizhen continued, “Let’s not dwell on that. Let’s talk about you instead!”

Angelina had completely given up. “What do you want to ask?”

Jing Qizhen was curious. “Why did you stage your own disappearance? What was your goal?”

Angelina explained, “At first, I thought the murderer was among the people around us. Everyone except me was a suspect.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “A reasonable assumption. Makes sense.”

It was a common mindset in ‘snowstorm villa’ scenarios like ‘And Then There Were None’, where trust collapses and people can only rely on themselves. It could be worse if someone had dissociative identity disorder and couldn’t even trust themselves.

Angelina continued, “But by the third day, after seeing the March Hare and the way Williams died, my thoughts completely changed. The one trying to kill us isn’t among our group but it’s something within the villa. I didn’t know what it was but rather than waiting helplessly, I decided to take action.”

Jing Qizhen nodded again and simply remarked, “A good idea. So, you decided to stage your disappearance?”

Manman chimed in, “Or rather, your death? According to Joyce and the others, there were large bloodstains in your room.”

Angelina ruffled her already messy hair. “Everyone had their own theories. I couldn’t convince them of the vague existence of a March Hare. They’d think I’d lost my mind from fear. Only the housemaid believed me. So, I had her help me prepare chicken blood and that night, I scattered the blood all over my room before hiding myself.”

Jing Qizhen immediately asked, “The maid knew about your plan?”

Angelina replied, “She knew part of it. Even though I didn’t believe anyone in our group was the killer, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that whatever was in the villa could possess someone. So I didn’t tell her everything.”

Gu Leshan commented, “Regardless of how much you told her, the housemaid is obviously an accomplice. She hid it well, though.”

Jing Qizhen and the others exchanged glances. The housemaid’s earlier display of panic and fear had been so genuine and she hadn’t mentioned anything about preparing chicken blood.

Such a composed person didn’t seem as weak and helpless as she appeared.

Gu Leshan rubbed his chin. “Do you think the housemaid is just a great actress or does she have nerves of steel?”

Jing Qizhen blinked. “…Maybe she’s just really trustworthy!”

Gu Leshan: “…” I’m speechless.

Old Xiao stopped wiping his cold sweat and smiled bitterly. “Have none of you ever slaughtered a chicken?”

Lu Lingxi raised his hand. “I’ve roasted one during wilderness survival training.”

Old Xiao glanced at Lu Lingxi, sweating even more profusely. “No, I mean, where did that chicken come from? These days, unless you’re in a rural area raising chickens yourself, most people living in cities just buy chickens that are already slaughtered and cleaned.”

Si Jiayang, who had impressive cooking skills, chimed in with his expertise. “Ah, I rarely buy whole chickens! I usually get pre-cut chicken wings, breasts, or drumsticks from the supermarket. Whole chickens are only for making broth and you’d have to go to a wet market to get those.”

Old Xiao turned to Angelina. “Where did the chicken blood come from? Did you specifically prepare live chickens in the villa?”

Angelina, now gripped by fear and unease, stammered, “…I-I don’t know. I don’t usually go to the kitchen.”

Jing Qizhen said, “That’s an easy question to solve. The housemaid is still around, so we’ll just ask her later.”

Si Jiayang muttered softly, “What if it’s like one of those boss characters in games disguised as a neutral NPC? If you don’t interact, it’s fine, but once you talk to them, they turn hostile and attack.”

Jing Qizhen coughed lightly. “That’s possible too. Maybe the party had live chickens or they were just getting creative with fake blood. We can’t jump to conclusions about the housemaid being suspicious. It’s just one angle to explore.”

Jing Qizhen looked back at Angelina. “So, regarding the party, you’d know better than us newcomers. What exactly was there?”

Angelina shut her eyes tightly and shook her head desperately. “I don’t know!”

Jing Qizhen sighed and addressed his companions. “Sadly, it looks like we’ll have to question Wilcox’s younger cousin and those other foreigners again.”

Although Yun Shuanghua had been sitting quietly with a cold expression the entire time, he showed no impatience and listened carefully to their conversation.

That was until Jing Qizhen suddenly turned to him.

Yun Shuanghua’s expression didn’t change but he responded with a questioning glance: “?”

Jing Qizhen said, “I just thought of something.”

As he spoke, Jing Qizhen fixed his gaze intently on Yun Shuanghua’s eyes.

Feeling slightly uneasy under the scrutiny, Yun Shuanghua blinked before finally replying, “What?”

Jing Qizhen asked, “Our group entered this place and encountered the story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. The foreigners trapped in the villa before us encountered a mix of fairy tales about princes and princesses. Naturally, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is also part of that series. So, what about you? Your entry should have been after the foreigners but before us. What fairy tale did you encounter?”

Yun Shuanghua: “…”

While everyone in the villa turned their attention to the suspicious and seemingly amnesiac Yun Shuanghua, the scene outside the villa was equally intense.

Yan Hong and Wilcox were still watching the blazing villa. As the fire grew and spread, the vines entwined around the building were almost entirely consumed by the flames.

Aside from the walls and ceiling, most of the interior decorations, curtains, and furnishings had also caught fire.

To be honest, at that point, there was hardly anything left inside the villa.

Joyce, who had been standing with Professor Jones, McCain, and Caroline, reluctantly made his way to his cousin and cautiously asked, “Um, about Angelina—”

Before he could finish, there was a series of cracking sounds. The vines and damaged windows on the villa began falling and one of the walls suddenly collapsed inward.

Yan Hong exclaimed, “It collapsed!”

Wilcox, stunned, grabbed his younger cousin and shouted in disbelief, “You guys don’t know this villa had a hidden underground passage?!”

Joyce, who had approached his cousin on his own: “…”