Chapter 69: Death time and rabbit sequence

Joyce, who was being dragged by the collar by his cousin, finally burst out, “I don’t know! It’s not even my villa! Why do you keep asking me?!”

Confronted with Joyce’s outburst, Wilcox paused for a moment, caught off guard.

Seeing this, Joyce stood up straighter with renewed determination.

The next second, Wilcox shoved his useless and troublesome little cousin aside with a disgusted expression, grumbling, “If you don’t know anything, then what are you even here for? This villa has kept you trapped for a whole week! And after being stuck here for so long, you still haven’t checked the entire place?”

Joyce: “QAQ!”

This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go!

Yan Hong shot a glance at Joyce but, given that he was Wilcox’s cousin, decided not to comment.

Instead, he pulled out his phone, quickly capturing the scene of the villa’s collapse. He then sent it via Bluetooth to Jing Qizhen and flipped the switch on his earpiece, reporting through the walkie-talkie, “The villa is still burning and one of the walls has partially collapsed. We suspect there’s a hidden passage underneath.”

Hearing the update from Yan Hong, Jing Qizhen finally shifted his gaze away from Yun Shuanghua, whom he had been watching intently.

Everyone’s attention had been on Yun Shuanghua just moments ago. Back when he was still cheerfully cracking jokes at the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, Yun Shuanghua had been the type to taunt the ghost lady, Miss Li, while casually tossing out cheeky remarks.

But now, with his memory seemingly lost and his demeanor cold and impassive, his calm composure hadn’t wavered.

Even as Jing Qizhen and his team stared at him unblinkingly, Yun Shuanghua remained seated on the sofa, calm under scrutiny. Occasionally, he’d return Jing Qizhen’s gaze with a slightly puzzled look.

The Earth, glancing back and forth between them, couldn’t help but quip, “Are you guys competing to see who can go the longest without blinking?”

Jing Qizhen: “…” The moment Earth spoke, he felt like giving up. What a buzzkill!

Realizing he wouldn’t get any useful information from Yun Shuanghua, Jing Qizhen sighed inwardly and turned his focus back to Yan Hong’s report.

Hearing the mention of ‘collapse,’ Jing Qizhen immediately caught on. With a faint smile in his voice, he said, “It’s probably not a hidden passage. It’s a rabbit hole.”

Yan Hong and Wilcox asked in unison, “A rabbit hole?”

Jing Qizhen succinctly recounted the clues provided by Angelina and the group’s earlier analysis, explaining their theory to Yan Hong and Wilcox.

The two exchanged a look and Wilcox immediately dragged his sulking little cousin Joyce back over.

Joyce: “Cousin QAQ.”

Wilcox: “Did you use any fake blood for the party? You know, the kind used by actors in movies or at costume parties?”

Yan Hong reminded them, “Fake blood wouldn’t have such a strong smell of blood, would it? After all, the audience can only see the scene and can’t smell anything. Both Angelina, who staged it, and Joyce’s group, who found the blood in her room, should have smelled real blood.”

Still in the villa, Jing Qizhen overheard Yan Hong and asked, slightly startled, “Fake blood doesn’t smell like blood?”

Yan Hong affirmed, “It doesn’t. To distinguish it from real blood, fake blood products are usually made from thickening agents and colorants. Sometimes a bit of honey is added to increase viscosity. It might taste slightly salty and sweet but it definitely doesn’t smell like blood.”

Wilcox was stunned. “Dude, how do you even know this?”

Yan Hong gave him a sidelong glance and stayed silent.

Being an undercover agent required acting skills and carrying a couple of small packets of fake blood used to be standard practice for Yan Hong. Of course, most of the time, he’d mix real and fake blood to make his performances convincing, occasionally adding some of his own blood to the mix. But that was something Wilcox didn’t need to know…

Jing Qizhen looked directly at Angelina. “Was the blood the housemaid prepared for you actually bloody-smelling?”

Angelina immediately nodded, her response strained, “Yes.”

Manman remarked slowly, “That villa doesn’t seem like a place where you could raise a lot of chickens without hearing any clucking, does it?”

Jing Qizhen fixed his gaze on Angelina. “So, the blood the maid gave you was likely real blood, though not necessarily human blood. What do you think the source of that blood was?”

Angelina’s makeup was smudged, making her expression hard to discern. Hearing Jing Qizhen’s question, her lips turned pale, and she murmured in a trembling voice, “Sophia, Sean, and Williams…”

Lu Lingxi suddenly asked, “How did you handle the bodies before?”

Angelina shook her head. “We didn’t. Back then, everyone thought it was best to leave everything as it was and wait for the police.”

But later, the situation took a drastic turn. Not only did everyone face mortal danger but Jing Qizhen’s group suddenly appeared and set the villa on fire.

Old Xiao couldn’t help but grumble, “You people are something else. Why didn’t you inspect the attic or the basement? Weren’t you afraid there might still be other killers hiding in the villa?”

Angelina stayed silent.

It was the classic case of knowing what should be done but being paralyzed by the circumstances. With everyone suspicious of one another, who would dare to venture into dangerous areas to search? Triggering a trap could mean instant death…

Sophia’s death by poisoning on the first day was still unclear. Was it pure bad luck or had she stumbled upon some clue? The situation remained ambiguous.

However, Angelina was certain of one thing and that was the fact that Sean and Williams had realized much earlier than she did that the issue wasn’t a hidden killer in the villa but something extraordinary and supernatural.

In that situation, Sean and Williams chose to hide the truth. Whether they were forced into silence or stood to gain from it, Angelina still couldn’t say for sure.

By the time she encountered the March Hare and realized just how abnormal the villa’s situation was, her response had been to stage her own disappearance in an attempt to escape the influence of whatever force controlled the villa.

After hearing Angelina’s explanation, Jing Qizhen summed it up. “If there truly is some force in the villa intent on watching you all die one by one, you’d have to hope it has OCD. If the order of deaths gets disrupted and it can’t handle it, it might be forced to abandon its plan. That’s your best chance of survival.”

Manman quietly muttered, “Isn’t this just like the logic in ‘Final Destination’, to break the sequence of deaths to escape?”

Angelina softly added, “After everyone became more alert, nothing happened on the fourth day. My disappearance on the fifth day was fake and nothing happened on the sixth or seventh days either. During those nights, I stayed awake and the March Hare didn’t show up…”

Gu Leshan interjected, “The seventh day isn’t over yet! Don’t jinx it!”

Angelina glared at him fiercely.

Jing Qizhen casually asked, “Why did you choose the fifth day to stage your disappearance? Logically, with nothing happening on the fourth day, everyone should have felt a bit more at ease.”

Angelina replied, “The maid needed time to prepare the props—”

Realizing the implication of the maid’s involvement, Angelina abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

Jing Qizhen’s expression froze as if something had just clicked in his mind. However, he seemed unable to confirm his thoughts, muttering to himself, “The first day, the second day, the third day, the fifth day… the fourth, sixth, and seventh days weren’t available…”

Si Jiayang asked with concern, “Little Jing?”

Jing Qizhen responded, “The rabbit sequence!”

Having played various horror and puzzle games, both Si Jiayang and Manman froze for a moment. Then, almost simultaneously, they exclaimed, “Ah!” Their expressions showed sudden realization with ‘!!!’

Old Xiao, who had no idea what they were talking about, couldn’t help but ask, “What rabbit sequence?”

Lu Lingxi’s face also lit up with understanding. He picked up his pen and wrote a string of numbers in his notebook. “1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, an = a(n-1) + a(n-2)!” Then he crossed out one of the initial 1s in the sequence.

Lu Lingxi then explained on Jing Qizhen’s behalf, “the Fibonacci sequence! It’s introduced as an example of rabbit reproduction, which is why it has the nickname ‘rabbit sequence.’ This sequence shows up coincidentally in many parts of nature. As n approaches infinity, the ratio of consecutive terms in the sequence approaches the golden ratio, so it’s also called the golden ratio sequence.”

Jin Guijuan didn’t understand anything about rabbit sequences or what happens when n approaches infinity, but she caught the critical point immediately. “1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13? Tomorrow is the eighth day!”

Jing Qizhen commented, “The sample size is too small to conclusively confirm the rabbit sequence. But if tomorrow aligns with it, the probability will increase significantly.”

Lu Lingxi nodded. “The rabbit sequence is fascinating. The number of petals on a rose and the branching patterns of trees in each growth year both align with it. I suspect the vines around the villa might follow this pattern too.”

Manman added, “Plus, based on Angelina’s experience, it’s possible to fake things. On the fifth day, she staged a scene with blood for her disappearance and then everything was fine on that day. So, what should we do tomorrow?”

Angelina: “…”

Angelina hesitated. After a pause, she grabbed her messy hair and muttered, “I only picked the fifth day by coincidence.”

Jing Qizhen corrected her, “It wasn’t a coincidence. You asked the maid to prepare materials and she chose the fifth day for you.”

Angelina’s face instantly showed confusion and her voice became halting. “She was helping me? I—I already suspected her… but that blood…”

Jing Qizhen remarked, “In situations like this, I think we should just ask her directly.”

Angelina, recalling what Jing Qizhen’s group had said earlier, became skeptical. “Do you really think asking her outright will make her turn hostile and attack us?”

Jing Qizhen’s expression remained calm. “If she does, that means we’ve got the right person! 0.0”

Angelina: “…”

Why did she suddenly feel like Jing Qizhen was more interested in causing chaos than solving the problem?

Si Jiayang interjected, “The possibility of the maid going berserk seems unlikely, right? After all, she’s been around the whole time, not someone who appeared out of nowhere.”

Hearing the phrase ‘appeared out of nowhere,’ Jing Qizhen turned to Yun Shuanghua. If anyone had truly ‘appeared out of nowhere,’ it was this guy.

Yun Shuanghua didn’t seem to catch the implication. Instead, when he noticed Jing Qizhen looking at him, he simply stared back seriously, his eyes seeming to ask, ‘What’s up?’

Jing Qizhen smiled. “Nothing for now.”

Yun Shuanghua nodded without question.

The Earth glanced at Yun Shuanghua’s cold expression. Instead of finding him intimidating, it felt a bit sorry for him. It whispered to Jing Qizhen, “You’re still suspicious of him?”

Jing Qizhen retorted, “Isn’t that a given?”

The Earth sighed while feeling sorry for Yun Shuanghua. “Maybe he just accidentally stumbled into the erosion area.”

Jing Qizhen replied, “Once we get Tang Song to investigate, we’ll know everything.”

The Earth argued, “Even I know there are billions of untraceable people among you humans.”

Jing Qizhen chuckled. “You seem well-informed. If Tang Song still can’t find anything, why don’t you help me check?”

The Earth fell silent.

Jing Qizhen called out deliberately, “Babyball?”

The Earth immediately replied, “I’ll go check on Tang Song’s side!”

After resting for a while in the villa, Jing Qizhen still felt exhausted. He initially wanted to stand up from the sofa to check the situation outside but had to give up due to physical limitations.

Manman turned to ask, “Little Jing, what are you planning to do?”

Jing Qizhen responded, “I was thinking of finding a water hose to flood the rabbit hole.”

Manman raised an eyebrow.

Gu Leshan said, “I just saw a hose for watering the garden. It should work.”

Jing Qizhen nodded.

Angelina asked, “Aren’t you planning to question the housemaid?”

Jing Qizhen replied matter-of-factly, “We’ll ask during dinner!”

Si Jiayang quickly added, “I just baked some bread and they are still in the oven. I’ll whip up a dish later.”

Jing Qizhen thoughtfully said to Angelina, who had dirt all over her face, “Are you sure you’ve said everything you needed to? If so, you can freshen up now.”

Angelina: “…” Damn it! Get lost, you jerk!