Chapter 72: The maid is suspicious

Carrying their luggage, Caroline and McCain stood outside the crowd and couldn’t help but ask, “So what exactly is that thing?”

Jing Qizhen glanced at them and felt a rare moment of relief. At least those two didn’t immediately assume he was the culprit after seeing the ‘Snow White’s Magic Mirror’ and charged at him with accusations.

Standing next to his cousin, the sluggish Joyce looked up impatiently and repeated, “It’s a specialty from the erosion area!”

Lu Lingxi seemed unbothered, as if Caroline and McCain’s repeated questions didn’t annoy him in the slightest. He simply pulled two more printed A4 documents from the backpack he had placed on a nearby table and tossed them to the two young foreigners.

Caroline and McCain instinctively caught the documents.

Joyce, who was being forced by his cousin to seriously read the document, was stunned. “How many copies of this did you guys even bring?”

Jing Qizhen: “The plan was to prepare nine copies.”

The implication was simple. Although they only received commissions for eight people, not including the housemaid, they still brought nine copies, considering nine people were missing. It was a humanitarian rescue effort, after all.

Who would’ve thought that upon entering, they’d find the nine foreigners trapped inside the villa, with three already dead and one missing?

After tossing the documents to Caroline and Joyce, Lu Lingxi suddenly smacked his forehead. He remembered that Angelina, the most logical and fluent communicator among them, hadn’t received a single document yet because she had staged her own disappearance earlier.

Lu Lingxi immediately took out another copy and handed it to Angelina, saying with a smile, “This is the last one I’ve got. I have no more after this.”

Although confused, Angelina nodded seriously. “Ah, thank you,” she said, lowering her head to read the document.

The document about the erosion area had been distributed to the surviving foreigners by Jing Qizhen early on.

However, with the tight schedule and constant unexpected events, not a single person had sat down to read it thoroughly until now.

Yun Shuanghua, who had been silent with a cold expression that outsiders might mistake for aloofness, but was actually more akin to mental blankness in Jing Qizhen’s eyes, kept staring at Lu Lingxi’s backpack.

Noticing Yun Shuanghua’s behavior, Jing Qizhen paused and suddenly understood. “You want that document too?”

Lu Lingxi also caught on. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” He quickly took out the last remaining document from his backpack and tossed it to Yun Shuanghua. “The very last copy!”

Professor Jones and the housemaid, who had just walked in, were greeted by the sight of the group of people.

Jing Qizhen and his team were still calmly sitting and going about their business, while the original group trapped in the villa, including Joyce, Caroline, McCain, the previously presumed-dead Angelina, and another unfamiliar Asian man, were all engrossed in reading the documents.

Professor Jones quickly grabbed his own copy of the document, which he had placed at the top of his luggage, and specifically asked, “Why is everyone reading the documents?”

Jing Qizhen looked over and answered sincerely, “Because all the questions you want to ask are in there.”

The documents, meticulously compiled by Tang Song’s advisory team, were highly precise. Moreover, since they were already inside the erosion area and had taken the job, they decided to share their exclusive, carefully curated strategies along with the documents.

Of course, the files didn’t mention Jing Qizhen’s ability to communicate with the Earth or the exclusive clues provided by Earth.

As Professor Jones quickly flipped through the document, he directly asked, “How do you know about the erosion area? How can you be sure this information is correct? Has it been verified?”

Jing Qizhen: “…”

Old Xiao chuckled and said approvingly, “Young people these days have quite a skeptical spirit!”

Jing Qizhen’s response was much more straightforward, “For reference only. Believe it or not, it’s written right on the first line of the document! But for now, I suggest you follow the instructions to stay alive. Once you’re out, you can write as many papers as you like to validate the information.”

Joyce and Caroline couldn’t help but check the first line of the document Jing Qizhen mentioned.

‘Internal document, for reference only.’

There it was… They had skipped over it earlier while reading.

While the foreigners buried themselves in the files, Yun Shuanghua was also engrossed in reading.

Nearby, Jing Qizhen and his team continued their discussion openly, not bothering to keep anything from the others.

Jing Qizhen said, “The magic mirror fell from a room on the third floor. Angelina just mentioned that Sophia was staying in the leftmost room on that floor. Considering Sophia’s poisoning and death, she must have eaten a poisoned apple?”

Manman added, “Based on what the March Hare kept mumbling, the poisoned apple belonged to the Red Queen.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Speaking of apples, I suddenly remembered a related legend.”

Both Manman and Si Jiayang caught on quickly, as did Angelina, who chimed in, “The Golden Apple incident?”

Jing Qizhen nodded again, “Yes. In Greek mythology, the goddess of discord, Eris, left a golden apple at a banquet with the inscription ‘Kallisti,’ meaning ‘For the most beautiful one.’ It sparked a dispute among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, eventually leading to the Trojan War.”

Manman said, “In ‘Snow White’, the queen tries to kill Snow White multiple times because the magic mirror says Snow White is the most beautiful person in the world.”

Angelina was stunned. “I never thought the poisoned apple might be equivalent to the golden apple, symbolizing beauty…”

Jing Qizhen chuckled. “We’re just connecting stories. Compared to Sean, who died on the second day, and Williams, who died on the third day, Sophia’s story seems more isolated. So far, we haven’t found many clues about her.”

Professor Jones looked up from the document, uncertain. “Did Sophia eat an apple?”

The housemaid, still trembling and sobbing, stammered, “Y-Yes! When I was cleaning the villa’s trash bins, I found a shriveled apple core thrown out from Sophia’s room.”

Joyce: “I didn’t eat any apples.”

McCain: “Neither did I.”

Caroline: “Me neither!”

Jing Qizhen interrupted them, “A shriveled apple core? Normally, an apple core wouldn’t wither so quickly, right?”

The housemaid replied, “Y-Yes, I thought maybe someone ate a dried apple.”

Si Jiayang murmured, “Usually, dried apples are sliced first…”

Jing Qizhen asked, “So, was there a dried apple in the villa?”

Caroline answered firmly, “There definitely wasn’t one at the party! I’m sure the dried apple came from somewhere else.”

Jing Qizhen immediately understood. “You’re good friends with the party’s host, David, and helped prepare the food for the party?”

Caroline shook her head and denied, “Of course not. The food and drinks were prepared by the chef and the maids. David and I only finalized the menu.”

The maid, sobbing, nodded in agreement, “Yes, I helped prepare the food for the party. There were no whole dried apples.”

Lu Lingxi, holding a pen, couldn’t help but comment, “Sophia might have eaten a regular poisoned apple and the apple core became dried after she ate it.”

The housemaid let out a choking sound and clasped her hands in a praying gesture. “The kitchen only prepared sliced fruit platters. No one at the party would be gnawing on a whole apple.”

Jing Qizhen added, “Normally, people wouldn’t bring their own apple to a party either. If nothing unexpected happened, we can almost confirm that the apple Sophia ate had a special origin.”

After saying this, Jing Qizhen gave the housemaid a thoughtful look. He couldn’t help but feel that her cooperation was oddly high. She answered every question as if she were an NPC designed to help them clear the game.

It reminded him of when Angelina asked the housemaid to help prepare props for her staged disappearance. Finding so much fake blood couldn’t have been easy but the housemaid managed it.

Moreover, after that, Angelina did manage to survive what could have been a fatal fifth day.

Was it just a coincidence? Or was the housemaid playing some special role in all this?

With that thought in mind, Jing Qizhen decided to be cautious and nudged Yun Shuanghua beside him.

Yun Shuanghua lifted his head from the document to look at him, a faintly puzzled expression breaking through his cold demeanor.

Jing Qizhen lowered his voice and switched to Chinese, “What do you think of the maid’s combat ability?”

Yun Shuanghua glanced at the maid. “Easily handled.”

With that reassurance, Jing Qizhen felt relieved. Still, just to be sure, he asked Yun Shuanghua again, “If the maid suddenly goes berserk, can you handle her and subdue her?”

Yun Shuanghua’s gaze fell on a tray of food on the coffee table that Si Jiayang had just brought over. He suggested, “Another two plates of this?”

Si Jiayang interjected, holding up four fingers, “Don’t be shy, bro. Four plates! I can bake them right now! Want to try other flavors?”

Yun Shuanghua nodded, accepting the offer.

Although his icy expression barely changed, everyone around him could feel the satisfaction emanating from him.

As Si Jiayang headed to the kitchen, Manman couldn’t help but take a closer look at Yun Shuanghua and then exchanged a glance with Jing Qizhen.

Why did it suddenly feel like Yun Shuanghua, in his amnesiac state, was like a mercenary who could be hired with money? Or rather, with bread?

Jing Qizhen said sympathetically, “Thrown into the erosion area without your boyfriend, Si Jiayang, and his cooking skills… no wonder the poor guy’s starving!”

Manman: “…You’ve been eating plenty of what Si Jiayang’s cooked lately, haven’t you?”

Jing Qizhen immediately joined in with Manman for some mutual flattery, “That’s all thanks to your good taste, Manman!”

Manman: “…” Her skin wasn’t thick enough for this kind of public flattery and she struggled to keep up.

Jing Qizhen turned back to the housemaid and asked directly, “When Angelina staged her disappearance, you prepared all the bloodstains in her room, didn’t you? I want to ask, in a sealed villa, where did you get so much blood?”

The maid, who had been sobbing, froze in surprise and hadn’t yet responded when the foreigners around her asked in disbelief, “Are you serious?!”

Aside from Angelina herself, Joyce, Professor Jones, and the others had no idea that Angelina had staged her disappearance on the fifth day with significant help from the maid.

The maid, covering her face, sobbed uncontrollably. Jing Qizhen kept a vigilant eye on her, wary that she might suddenly snap and go berserk.

Unexpectedly, the foreigners reacted far more aggressively than Jing Qizhen had anticipated.

Caroline grabbed the maid by the collar and screamed angrily, “What else have you done?!”

Jing Qizhen: “…”

Well, seeing the short and stout housemaid completely powerless under Caroline’s rage, he became even more convinced that the maid wasn’t some hidden boss.

Angelina couldn’t help but shout, “Let her go, Caroline! She’s going to suffocate!”

Caroline glared at the maid fiercely. Tall and wearing heels at least eight centimeters high, she loomed over the housemaid and created a strikingly intimidating image.

After another sharp glare, Caroline saw the maid’s pained expression, her tear-filled eyes, and, most importantly, her utter inability to resist. With a cold snort, she shoved the maid to the ground and finally released her grip.

The housemaid collapsed onto the floor, clutching her throat as she sobbed, large tears streaming down her cheeks while her body trembled uncontrollably.

The pitiful sight was so convincing that Jing Qizhen couldn’t tell whether she was just a great actress or genuinely distressed.