Chapter 74: Jing Qizhen: “…? Really, Babyball, use some common sense.”

The maid looked at Angelina with tear-filled eyes but said nothing.

Her desperate and helpless gaze, however, made Angelina believe in Jing Qizhen’s hypothesis.

Angelina, caught up in confusion, murmured, “Oh my God…”

Fortunately, after the maid had nearly suffocated earlier, the group silently exchanged glances, each lost in their thoughts but unwilling to press her further.

In a closed-off villa with murders taking place, mutual suspicion was one thing but driving someone to their death was a whole other matter.

Even McCain, who had once impulsively pointed a gun at Caroline, didn’t continue hounding the maid.

Lu Lingxi picked up his notebook and pen again, borrowing two sheets of blank paper from Old Xiao to create a makeshift whiteboard. “Let’s reexamine all the clues,” he said.

Jing Qizhen glanced at the housemaid, then swept his gaze over Angelina and the others before continuing, “It seems that each person in the fairy tale has a specific role, although the story doesn’t follow the fairy tale exactly. At this point, it’s pretty clear that the maid is playing the Maid’s role in the script.”

Manman added, “I guess that means the Maid is obligated to perform the duties of a servant. She might be unable to refuse, or at least more inclined to agree to requests from others with specific roles, and she’s able to complete these tasks relatively smoothly, no matter how difficult.”

Angelina froze for a moment before suddenly realizing, “Are you referring to how the maid helped me find that blood?”

Manman nodded. “The villa itself didn’t have that much fresh blood. While tracing the source of the blood could be a direction for investigation, it seems…” She glanced at the maid, “…she can’t reveal these things. If she does, she dies. Investigating it directly would be very difficult.”

The maid continued sobbing quietly.

Over the past week, the villa had been in a locked-down state, making it hard to tell whose pressure was greater; Angelina, Caroline, and the others, who were trapped in mutual suspicion and fear of imminent death, or the maid, who seemingly knew everything, wanted to help but was helpless to act, and was forced to watch one person after another die.

Now, with everyone gathered and laying everything on the table, it was far more straightforward than their previous individual paranoia and suspicion of one another.

Jing Qizhen glanced at the foreigners. The rescue team had already discussed the possible situation of this erosion area, but apart from Angelina, who provided the clues, the other foreigners were still unaware.

Remembering that Yan Hong was still outside watching the fire, Jing Qizhen turned on his earpiece, set it to speaker mode, and joked, “I’ll brief them quickly and keep you on speaker too.”

Yan Hong replied, “Got it. I understand.”

It was only then that Professor Jones belatedly realized that Jing Qizhen’s so-called rescue team wasn’t as simple as it looked. Besides Lu Lingxi and Gu Leshan, who were dressed in obvious tactical gear, the others in casual clothes likely had no less sophisticated equipment hidden on them.

Joyce glanced eagerly at his cousin Wilcox. “…Cousin?”

Wilcox ruffled his younger cousin’s hair. “Finished reading those documents?”

Joyce shook his head pitifully.

Wilcox said, “Then pack them up for later. Pay attention now!”

Joyce: “Okay!”

McCain and Caroline still exchanged disdainful looks but given the situation, they found places to sit.

They weren’t picky and as the living room sofas were already occupied by Jing Qizhen, who was looking ‘weak and helpless,’ the convalescing Manman, and the villa’s ‘host,’ Yun Shuanghua, they simply grabbed throw pillows, placed them on the floor, and sat casually.

Seeing that no one objected, Jing Qizhen took the initiative to speak. “The storyline in this erosion area is clearly related to fairy tales. So far, the confirmed tales involved are ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Snow White’, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, ‘Cinderella’, and ‘The Little Mermaid’.”

Caroline, like a student in class, raised her arm while sitting on the pillow. “I don’t get it. How did you come to that conclusion? Just because all of you fell asleep when you entered the villa?”

Jing Qizhen replied, “That’s part of it. The other part comes from the victims in the villa.”

Angelina chimed in, “That part of the clue was provided by me.”

Jing Qizhen then recounted the deaths of the three victims in the villa; Sophia, Sean, and Williams, and linked their death scenarios to corresponding fairy tales. He also described Angelina’s account of the March Hare she saw on the third night, holding a pocket watch and muttering peculiar phrases.

Lu Lingxi taped the two sheets of blank paper onto the wall to serve as a makeshift whiteboard.

He stood by the wall with a pen, writing down the names of the characters from the fairy tales Jing Qizhen had mentioned, the three deceased individuals in the villa, the housemaid, and Angelina.

As Jing Qizhen began to explain, Yun Shuanghua finally looked up from the stack of printed A4 documents he had been absorbed in. He glanced at Lu Lingxi’s actions, studying the relationship diagram being drawn with more than a passing interest.

Once Jing Qizhen outlined the intertwined fairy tale plots in chronological order, Lu Lingxi connected the characters from each story with lines, marking their relationships and interactions.

Jing Qizhen said, “Since these fairy tales are intertwined, let’s make a bold assumption that there is only one queen, and that’s the Red Queen from ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’.”

Caroline frowned. “Sophia died from poisoning after eating an apple, so she must have been playing the role of Snow White, right?”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Exactly but there’s more to it. In the villa, no one brought a whole apple to the party and the menu didn’t include whole apples. This means that, under normal circumstances, Sophia wouldn’t have had access to an apple unless it came from an external source. The apple must have been introduced to the villa by the Red Queen, possibly through the March Hare or the Maid, and ultimately ended up in Sophia’s hands.”

Angelina added suddenly, “Just like how I woke up startled on the third night and saw the March Hare, Sophia must have encountered a related clue on the first night.”

Manman interjected, “Not necessarily a clue but she definitely triggered an event tied to the ‘Snow White’ story.”

Jing Qizhen picked up the magic mirror sitting nearby. “This magic mirror was originally in Sophia’s room. After you were all trapped in the villa, Sophia discovered it. You’ve all seen what the magic mirror can do.”

Lu Lingxi immediately wrote ‘magic mirror’ next to Sophia’s name on the chart.

Wilcox exclaimed with some excitement, “Wow! Even though I saw Little Jing’s face in the magic mirror, Sophia had it before we even entered this erosion area!”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Exactly. This means that the images Sophia saw in the mirror were likely different from what we see now.”

Yan Hong, still monitoring the fire outside, chimed in over the comms, “And let’s not forget that the information from these special items in erosion areas appears directly in your mind.”

Jing Qizhen nodded again. “Exactly. In the beginning, being trapped in the villa, you’d naturally suspect someone was playing a prank. That’s human nature. If it were me, I wouldn’t immediately think of supernatural explanations unless there were changes within the villa itself.

“But after finding the special items in the erosion area and seeing descriptive text or experiencing their otherworldly functions firsthand, it’s natural for your worldview to shift and for you to embrace the idea of the supernatural.”

McCain cursed under his breath and said darkly, “Sophia never showed us that mirror.”

Professor Jones, who had attended the party at Sophia’s invitation, frowned slightly but remained silent. Despite feeling betrayed, his personal relationship with Sophia and the fact that she was already dead kept him from voicing his grievances.

Old Xiao studied the diagram he had sketched, then glanced briefly at Professor Jones before stating plainly, “Williams was a hardcore playboy and he was getting pretty close to Sophia at the party.”

Professor Jones froze for a moment.

Noticing this, Manman whispered to Jing Qizhen, “I bet he knew about Sophia and Williams but didn’t realize Williams was a womanizer.”

Jing Qizhen replied, “Even though I’ve never been in a relationship, I know that unbalanced dynamics like this often lead to conflict.”

Caroline, clearly a gossip enthusiast with a sharp instinct for juicy details, immediately jumped in. “It’s a magic mirror, not some wish-granting box that can’t be shared. If Sophia hid the mirror, could it be that she saw Williams in it and worried he’d instantly become a target?”

Jing Qizhen replied sincerely, “Not a bad line of reasoning.”

Although there was no way to confirm this, brainstorming different perspectives was always beneficial.

Joyce chimed in, “Considering Sophia’s connection with Professor Jones, isn’t it possible she saw him in the mirror instead?”

Wilcox’s younger cousin, still holding a grudge against Professor Jones, eagerly joined the discussion with his disdain evident.

Professor Jones, suddenly implicated: “…”

After a moment, he responded with a calm smile, “The images shown by the mirror aren’t necessarily accurate. That’s explicitly stated in its usage restrictions. Just like how Mr. Jing’s image appeared multiple times. We wouldn’t suspect him because of that, would we?”

The Earth marveled, “Wow! Professor Jones had smoothly deflected suspicion!”

Jing Qizhen: “…? Really, Babyball, use some common sense.”

It was because everyone saw it that they couldn’t believe it was true!