Chapter 23 The Painting

Turning around, Xia Meng looked in the direction the fatty was staring, and her pupils abruptly constricted.

A painting had appeared on the previously blank wall.

The painting depicted a beautiful woman wearing a bright red opera costume, gracefully dancing.

Her steps were light, her fingers delicately held in a orchid hand gesture, her jade fingers slender, her neck fair, and the opera costume hinted at her beautiful curves.

The artist's skill was profound; even though the woman in the painting only revealed a small part of her profile, the alluring charm that was both contained and expressive溢已然spilled out of the painting, creating a powerful artistic effect.

Upon seeing the woman, everyone immediately thought of Young Master Huang's story.

"You... you look at the opera costume she's wearing." The fatty extended a finger, seemingly wanting to point at the painting, but before he could extend it, he seemed to realize something and withdrew it in fright.

"Why does it look so familiar?" he stammered.

Of course it looked familiar, because that opera costume was the one previously hanging downstairs in Young Master Huang's building.

It was also the one... worn by Tang Shirou, who had been skinned alive this morning.

The sudden appearance of such a painting here must have a meaning, and Xia Meng immediately thought of An Xuan and the others, who had been so insistent on barging into their room earlier.

"It's this painting!" Xia Meng said with certainty. "An Xuan and the others were looking for this painting!"

"The one that appeared in their room yesterday... was this painting?" The fatty's eyes widened. This news didn't bring him any sense of security; on the contrary, he was even more afraid.

Because Tang Shirou had been living in An Xuan's room before.

But she was dead.

She had been "married" off by Young Master Huang.

Sitting in a paper sedan chair...

The sudden appearance of the painting made it difficult not to think of the worst possible scenario: could the painting's appearance be a prediction, foretelling that one of the three of them... was going to die today?

But... who?

And why?

Had they done something?

They had been exploring a relatively safe location today, while the other two teams had gone to Young Master Huang's residence and the haunted abandoned house from last night...

*Shua*—!

Xia Meng's expression froze.

She thought of something.

If anything had gone wrong today, it must have been the breakfast.

The blood!

Slowly turning her head, Xia Meng looked at Jiang Cheng with an incredulous and terrified gaze.

The latter was sitting at the table, with no particular expression on his face, holding a teacup in his hand, taking small sips, as calm as if he had just returned from a stroll.

"You!" Xia Meng's beautiful eyes slowly widened. "You! It's you!"

The fatty blinked. Although Xia Meng wasn't as calm as the doctor, she rarely lost her composure like this. His attention even shifted from the strange painting that had suddenly appeared to Xia Meng.

"You ate that bowl of human blood!" Xia Meng exclaimed.

After a moment, the fatty's expression also changed abruptly. He was stunned for several seconds before looking at the doctor, and gradually, his expression began to spiral out of control.

His lips trembled uncontrollably. He seemed to want to confirm something, but... he didn't dare.

Jiang Cheng slowly put down the teacup in his hand. After a moment, he looked up, and in his eyes, staring at Xia Meng, there suddenly emerged many frightening things.

"Hand over the newspaper," he said, looking at Xia Meng.

...

"Miss Zuo." Shi Liaozhi asked with a fake smile, "You and An Xuan went out, did you really not discover anything?"

Zuo Qing glanced at Shi Liaozhi. "I've said it many times. We got lost. By the time we arrived at Young Master Huang's residence, it was already too late."

"Good," Shi Liaozhi nodded. "Good."

Hearing the word "good" repeated twice in a row made Zuo Qing frown slightly, but she still sat in place, her wide sleeves hanging down, covering her wrists.

She didn't offer any further explanations. She seemed like a different person after returning.

Chen Qiang sat on his bed, scrutinizing the scene. Shi Liaozhi's probing was too obvious, and it had happened many times tonight, which was annoying.

It seemed that An Xuan had already obtained a handle on Zuo Qing. Chen Qiang guessed that there might have been a problem when the two of them explored Young Master Huang's attic together, which resulted in Zuo Qing being targeted by a ghost.

But then An Xuan told Zuo Qing that he had a way to help her, so...

Chen Qiang didn't have any good feelings towards An Xuan as a person. He just found it strange why so many people were willing to be manipulated by him.

If he were to be caught with a weakness, his first reaction should be how to counter it, rather than seeking cooperation with someone dangerous, after all... Tang Shirou's fate was a lesson.

From the currently discovered phenomena, as well as some players' fragments of conversations, Chen Qiang had already deduced some things, but they still needed to be verified.

For example... these selected players were all trying to survive, and everyone's ultimate goal was the same, but why were they fighting each other to this extent?

Just to find a scapegoat?

He didn't think so.

The malice here was too great, so great that just standing there, he could feel undisguised gazes from behind wanting to kill him.

Could it be... He suddenly clenched his fist, and his eyes also changed.

Besides surviving, were there other benefits here?