Ye Tiancheng took the photos from the little fox's hand and flipped through them one by one. He found intimate photos of the inn owner, Mei Mei, with different men, but he didn't yet understand the little fox's meaning.
After a cursory glance, Ye Tiancheng looked at the little fox, waiting for him to continue.
The little fox explained to Ye Tiancheng, "Brother, look at these people, I mean the men in the photos. Don't you think they look a little familiar?"
Ye Tiancheng felt that everyone looked different and couldn't figure out what was familiar. He looked again but couldn't see it. "Where do they look familiar? These people all look different. Some are practically ugly, while others are quite handsome."
The little fox prompted, "Then look again at Mei Mei's wedding photo, look at her husband, especially his eyes."
This was already a very obvious hint.
Ye Tiancheng glanced at the appearance of the inn owner Mei Mei's husband again, then carefully examined the different men in the photos in his hand, and suddenly saw something.
The eyes of these people were all the same.
The little fox's tone was filled with uncertainty, and he tried hard to recall, sharing his guess with Ye Tiancheng. "I don't know if I'm overthinking it, but I remember reading something in a book."
"Some people, when their bodies have problems, will replace their bodies to extend their lives, transferring themselves to other host bodies to survive."
Ye Tiancheng realized and asked, "Then, those host bodies..."
The little fox told Ye Tiancheng, "To replace a body, you naturally have to choose a fresh one. But after using these host bodies to live, the original owner of the body naturally cannot continue to live."
In other words, once this happens, the original owner of the body is basically beyond saving, and by the time it's discovered, it's too late.
This was actually predictable. This method of life extension, which could be definitively identified as a dark art, had its own cruelty, but even so, it seemed ordinary within it.
Since the little fox had brought this up, Ye Tiancheng looked at the photos in his hand again. Could Mei Mei's husband have survived using this method?
But why would he need to replace so many bodies?
Since he could live, why did he have to harm so many lives?
Ye Tiancheng frowned. He thought this and then voiced his thoughts.
The little fox continued, "Frequent body replacement is natural because after changing bodies, although they choose fresh host bodies, once they enter a new host body, it means the original owner of the body has died, and this body naturally becomes just an empty shell without a life."
"In the end, to put it cruelly, it's just an outer shell with a limited shelf life. Once the shelf life expires, the host body will decay, just like a corpse, it will begin to rot over time."
"When the host body is damaged, to continue to survive, one naturally has to constantly replace it with a new host body in a timely manner."
Ye Tiancheng's expression grew increasingly grim as he listened, finally exclaiming, "To extend one's life using such a method is both cruel and utterly inhuman!"
The little fox said, "When facing the threat of death, human nature is most vulnerable to testing. Who knows what choices people will make when facing death?"
"Perhaps for some, their own survival is the most important thing."
But this kind of thing was undoubtedly truly very cruel.
Each fresh host body was a microcosm of a family. They might have lived for a long time, accompanied their families, cared for their parents, stayed with their wives, and raised their children. But when they were chosen as host bodies, all hope was gone, and everything ended.
They not only became vessels for others to extend their lives, but this container also had a very short usage period, would soon be damaged, and then discarded in an unknown place.
Ye Tiancheng pursed his lips tightly, looking at the photos in his hand.
He suddenly remembered something and mentioned it to the little fox, "I remember you saw a man who was close to Mei Mei before, and you said that man was particularly ugly. Is he not in here?"
The little fox nodded and showed that person to Ye Tiancheng.
Ye Tiancheng looked at the photo. The little fox's description was indeed very accurate. The person in the photo was very ugly and gave off a very uncomfortable feeling. And the way Mei Mei treated this man, with the same demeanor she showed her husband, undoubtedly created a shock effect like beauty and the beast.
But Ye Tiancheng quickly realized that although he had quite a few photos in his hand, there weren't many photos of the uglier men with Mei Mei. Only the more handsome ones, in short, those who were definitely not ugly, had a few more pictures taken.
Changing bodies, and still being picky about how ugly they were...
"Could the person you saw actually be Mei Mei's husband, and his current host body looks like this?" Ye Tiancheng asked somewhat confusedly.
The little fox said, "I think it's very possible. And based on my feeling, although I have no evidence, I think he has malicious intent towards me... Could I have been chosen as a candidate for a new host body?"
Ye Tiancheng glanced at the little fox's face. "Most likely. Look at how you look. Since they dislike others for being ugly, they would naturally target you because you are good-looking."
The little fox was speechless. Was it his fault for being good-looking?
Was this his fault?
But the little fox also felt that it might not be entirely like this. That malice didn't seem to be entirely about choosing him as a new host body... but he hadn't offended Mei Mei, had he?
He certainly wouldn't have offended Mei Mei's husband, as he hadn't met him before.
The first time, the other party might not have seen him, and the second time, it wasn't his initiative.
The little fox thought with a somber expression, while asking Ye Tiancheng, "But, Brother, don't you think there's something else wrong?"
"I feel like his malice is almost like he dislikes me. This seems a bit unusual. Have I offended them somewhere?"
Hearing the little fox's question, Ye Tiancheng felt it wasn't that simple.
The little fox's temperament and personality were such that he wouldn't easily offend people, let alone offend them to the point of harboring malice towards him.
Could it be that because Mei Mei's husband's current appearance was too ugly, the little fox's appearance caused him to feel unbalanced, so he targeted the little fox for revenge?
But why not choose himself? Did he think he wasn't as good-looking as the little fox, and therefore less valuable?
On second thought, Ye Tiancheng seemed to understand.
Perhaps this was why the fat man wasn't chosen and had never had any trouble? His appearance was actually decent, but not handsome, just average. An average person, easily found everywhere, so it wouldn't attract much attention.
Ye Tiancheng became increasingly speechless as he thought about it, and said softly, "Maybe you didn't offend them. It's all your fault for having a good-looking face."
The little fox was extremely speechless and said nothing more.
Since the information from the photos was clear, Ye Tiancheng could also guess the meaning of other things with about seventy to eighty percent certainty, which were likely similar.
However, even so, Ye Tiancheng inevitably had new doubts.
What did the color of the quilt have to do with this? Could it symbolize that the love relationship between Mei Mei and her husband was built upon the blood and lives of countless people?
And there was another question: they weren't playing a puzzle game, so why provide such hints?
Moreover, knowing this, how should they get out?
Ye Tiancheng looked around the room again, his gaze falling on the wedding photo of Mei Mei and her husband. He knelt on one knee on the bed to reach the photo hanging above. The frame of this photo was slightly lifted, and behind the photo was a solid wall, with nothing out of place.
He then knocked on the wall, confirming that the wall behind the wedding photo was solid, before putting the photo back.
The photo was fine... so the only thing left was the bedsheet?
Ye Tiancheng wasn't a guest in someone else's house, so he didn't care about making a mess. He directly pulled off the bedsheet, revealing the mattress underneath, but found nothing.
Ye Tiancheng then went to lift the mattress. He found it difficult to lift alone, so he called out to the little fox, "Little fox, come help me lift this thing and see what's underneath."
Seeing Ye Tiancheng's actions and hearing his call, the little fox quickly walked over, held the other corner of the mattress, and together they lifted it.
This bed likely had some mechanism. Once lifted to a certain height, it began to slowly rise on its own.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox watched as the mattress slowly rose, revealing a square door with a very old-fashioned lock.
Seeing the door, they knew it was a clue, but they couldn't figure out how to open it.
Ye Tiancheng propped up the mattress with one hand, preventing it from suddenly closing. At the very least, he needed to understand what was underneath.
Then he began to examine the square door and the lock on it.
These old-fashioned locks were not very secure. The older the style, the easier they were to pick. However, Ye Tiancheng had no experience with this, so he wasn't sure what to do.
The little fox, also supporting the mattress, frowned as he watched Ye Tiancheng examine the lock and said thoughtfully, "Do we still need to look for a key?"
Hearing the little fox's words, Ye Tiancheng shook his head. He told the little fox, "Not necessarily. It's not like we absolutely have to find a key. These old-fashioned locks are easy to open. It's just that I haven't learned how, so I don't know how. Do you have any ideas?"
The little fox hadn't expected Ye Tiancheng to plan on picking the lock when he saw it, but he still spoke truthfully.
"I don't know how to open this either, I haven't learned. But I've heard a little about it, something about using a wire, putting it into the keyhole, and then manipulating it in a certain way, and the lock will open. It sounds relatively simple."
"But we don't have any wire on us, so we'll have to look for it."
Ye Tiancheng got out from under the mattress and no longer stood beneath it.
He brushed the dust off his hands and said to the little fox, "I don't know which method is more troublesome, so let's look for both wire and a key. Whichever is faster, we'll use that."
They then began to rummage through the room again, trying to find any place that might have a key. However, to their disappointment, they searched the entire room but found nothing that could be a key, nor anything else particularly valuable.