All the actors gathered outside Xie Qiuying’s room as quickly as possible. There was such big lightning but there was no rain outside the castle. The wind was blowing so violently that people could barely stand.
“The first one to die is really Liang Wen!”
“Xie Qiuying was kind to her. She must’ve been killed as well!”
The actors murmured to themselves, thankful they hadn’t been kind. Gu Yu stared at the scorched black room in front of him and whispered to Jiang Shuo, “Is it really the Tower?”
Jiang Shuo didn’t answer. He just turned around and frowned, “Which one of you persuaded Liang Wen to go to someone else’s room?”
The people here were startled. They didn’t understand the meaning of the movie emperor’s question and all shook their heads.
“What’s wrong?” Gu Yu wondered.
Jiang Shuo sneered, his eyes gloomy. “Someone’s pace is the same as mine or even faster than me.”
Gu Yu was astonished. In front of him was Jiang Shuo, who knew everything, but someone was faster than him.
He cleverly remained silent. After a while, he lowered his voice and wondered, “Brother Jiang, does the lightning really recognize people? It doesn’t recognize the room? Then why did the maid say that about not changing rooms?”
Jiang Shuo frowned deeper at the question. Just then, there was a banging sound from inside the room. Everyone was shocked and looked at each other.
“Help!” A woman’s shrill cry for help came from the scorched black room emitting heavy smoke.
“Liang Wen isn’t dead?!”
Someone recognized it. “No, it is Xie Qiuying’s voice!”
Jiang Shuo pulled the handle and his expression changed when he found that the door was locked from the inside. Who locked the door? A ghost or a human?
Xie Chi arrived one step later and his expression changed when he saw this. Jiang Shuo kicked open the door. Xie Qiuying staggered out and was held by Gu Yu. She looked up and saw everyone, blood finally returning to her pale face. Then she pointed behind her in horror.
There in the room, there was a smoky, charred corpse on the bed. The identity was vaguely recognizable from the outline of the scorched corpse’s face. It was Liang Wen. Oil flowed from the scorched corpse. Liang Wen’s hand that was stretched out mid-air suddenly broke from the wrist and fell to the bed, unable to withstand gravity. There were deep traces of lightning on the wall.
All the actors felt cold. Jiang Shuo asked Xie Qiuying, “Who locked the door?”
Xie Qiuying looked up with surprise. “The door is locked?!”
She saw that Jiang Shuo was suspicious and protested, “It wasn’t me! Ghost… yes, it must be a ghost!”
Xie Qiuying saw that Jiang Shuo didn’t seem to believe her and started to sob. “I have no reason to harm her. If I wanted to harm her, would I stay with her?”
The actors secretly nodded. She knew Liang Wen would die and dared to stay by her side, this was either stupid or kind.
“Then why is she dead and you’re still alive?” Jiang Shuo’s tone was cold.
There was a chill in the hearts of the actors. Their words seemed to be worthless in Jiang Shuo’s eyes. They were just those easily used to provide clues for him. Xie Qiuying seemed frightened. “I don’t know! She was leaning against me when the lightning struck but the lightning only struck her. It didn’t touch me…”
“Got it.” Jiang Shuo stood up and saw Xie Chi standing by the door. His eyes became cold.
Was Xie Chi the one who reminded Liang Wen not to stay in her room? At this moment, the slow actors finally reacted. This lightning was too iconic. It was undoubtedly the lightning of the Tower card. The moment the moon arrived, someone would die.
Once the group dispersed, Gu Yu asked Jiang Shuo in a low voice. “Does lightning recognize people or the room?”
Jiang Shuo wasn’t sure about this and was upset. “Shut up.”
Gu Yu flushed and closed his mouth. Jiang Shuo was silent for five minutes before laughing happily? Gu Yu who was walking with his head down was puzzled. Jiang Shuo was grumpy, cold-hearted and unsmiling most of the time. Yet at this moment, he was abnormally… laughing?
“Is there something good?” Gu Yu flattered him.
Jiang Shuo sneered. “Xie Chi is the next one to die.”
Gu Yu was taken aback. He didn’t understand why Jiang Shuo said this but he always trusted Jiang Shuo’s inferences. He couldn’t help laughing. “This is a great thing.”
***
“The next one to die is me.”
In the hall on the first floor, Ye Xiaoxiao and Ren Ze stood by the Wheel of Fortune and their eyes widened when they heard Xie Chi say this. Xie Chi had been silent the entire time after coming down from Xie Qiuying’s room. Now he suddenly spoke such a sentence and it was really scary.
Ye Xiaoxiao and Ren Ze glanced at each other with doubts in their eyes. They clearly hadn’t turned the Wheel of Fortune but Xie Chi knew who was second. Ren Ze knew that Xie Chi would never joke about such an important matter. His expression was particularly solemn as he waited for Xie Chi to explain.
Xie Chi didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He closed his eyes and recalled the scene of the crows dancing. The head maid’s crow flew to Liang Wen’s hand, the second maid’s crow flew to his hand, the third servant…
“Xie Chi?” Ren Ze called out with concern.
Xie Chi opened his eyes but didn’t answer this. He changed the question. “What do you think about Liang Wen’s death?”
Ye Xiaoxiao answered with uncertainty, “Lightning recognizes people instead of the room?”
Xie Chi glanced at her. “How do you explain the ban on changing rooms?”
Ye Xiaoxiao shook her head. This was what puzzled her as well as the door being strangely locked from the inside. The Wheel of Fortune came true but it was in a different manner from what they thought. According to their thinking, Liang Wen would be struck to death in her own room, not in another room. Yet Liang Wen still died and it was in Xie Qiuying’s room.
Ren Ze expressed his own doubts. “Then is it true that anyone the Wheel of Fortune turns to will die?”
Xie Chi murmured, “I don’t know.”
He moved a chair, sat beside the Wheel of Fortune and thought in his heart ‘Who is the second one to die?’ Then he spun the Wheel of Fortune. The pointer turned rapidly and finally… pointed at himself.
Xie Chi smiled and didn’t care. However, Ye Xiaoxiao was frightened. The question that Xie Chi asked was…
Ren Ze thought for a while and hesitated before finally expressing his own thoughts, “Can it be like this—aren’t the tarot cards only accurate the first time? The second and third time might have wrong answers. Xie Chi, this might not be the first time it was asked. The first time might be… Xie Qiuying.”
Ye Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up. Ren Ze’s idea was obviously logical.
Ren Ze continued. “Xie Qiuying secretly asked this question before and the Wheel of Fortune told her that the first to die is her. This can explain why she was so willing to help Liang Wen. She wanted to find someone to die for her. This way the question of what lightning recognizes is easy to answer. Lightning recognizes the room, not the person. Xie Qiuying learned from somewhere that she just needed to find a substitute and let the substitute stay in the room to die for her. This can explain why the door is locked from the inside. Xie Qiuying did it.”
Ye Xiaoxiao nodded secretly. This line of thinking was very smooth.
“I thought so too.” Xie Chi told them, “Until just now. I am certain that I turned it the first time.”
“Why?!” Ren Ze didn’t understand this at all.
Xie Chi didn’t answer and instead raised his head. “Have you ever thought about why Liang Wen is the first to die?”
Ye Xiaoxiao was stunned. She couldn’t think of anything. Then she immediately realized something and her expression changed. “Yes, it shouldn’t be a random killing. Why was the Wheel of Fortune so sure that it was Liang Wen?!”
Ren Ze also reacted suddenly. Yes, the previous horror movies were all random killings. Whoever had bad luck and strength would die first. How could it be so fixed in this movie? Unusual things were bound to have a demon behind it. Previously, they had subconsciously thought this was very reasonable. Now looking at it closer, they finally felt that something was wrong.
Xie Chi indifferently answered, “It is because there is an order of death in this movie. Liang Wen is the first in the death order to die.”
“The order of death?!”
“Yes.” Xie Chi stood up and said calmly, “The crows dance. Think about it. The maids are arranged in order and who did the crows in their hands fly to?”
Ren Ze had been accompanying Xie Chi. His mind had always been focused, hoping to observe something to help Xie Chi. Now he was the first to react and his expression was very ugly. “The crow in the hands of the first maid flew toward… Liang Wen.”
“T-The second…” Ren Ze glanced at Xie Chi and couldn’t continue.
Xie Chi smiled and finished for him. “The crow in the hands of the second maid flew toward me. So I am second in the death order.”
Ren Ze and Ye Xiaoxiao felt complicated for a while. This was… yes, it was the exact answer, not a guess. However, this answer was too hard to accept. Ren Ze remembered it very well. The crow in the hands of the first maid flew to Liang Wen.
The second maid was Xie Chi.
Third was Ye Xiaoxiao.
Fourth was Xie Qiuying.
Fifth was the mature woman called Liang Zhen.
Sixth was Jiang Shuo.
Seventh was Ren Ze.
Eight and nine were the couple.
10th was the male cannon fodder.
11th was Gu Yu.
“Fu*k.” Ren Ze was completely angry after thinking about it. “Why are the dogs Jiang Shuo and Gu Yu so far behind. Dog app!”
Gu Yu was directly arranged as the last person. This was showing too much favor.
“Don’t be angry.” Xie Chi had already written down the names of the people in the order of death on a piece of paper. He pulled Ren Ze next to him and spoke in a low voice. “I haven’t finished talking yet.”
Ren Ze tried to stay calm but the vein on his forehead was still bugling. This was completely unfair.
Xie Chi’s words pulled his attention back.
“Let me ask you. How many of the major arcana cards can be regarded as people?”
Ye Xiaoxiao knew this more clearly and counted it. “The Fool, the Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Lovers, the Hermit and the Hanged Man…”
She paused and confirmed it again. “There are nine.”
The others were cards such as Justice and Strength. There might be people drawn on their cards but judging from the name of the cards, they must not be counted as people.
“Ten,” Xie Chi corrected.
Ye Xiaoxiao, “Huh?”
Ren Ze was distracted by Lu Wen’s previous joke about a person having only one kidney. Then he hurriedly brought back his attention and answered seriously, “The Lovers counts as two.”
Ye Xiaoxiao was embarrassed.
Xie Chi told them, “However, we have 11 people.”
Ren Ze was stunned for a moment before realizing the meaning of his words. “You mean to say that the cards in the major arcana that can be considered as people correspond to us. Then we have one extra person?”
Ren Ze took out his own tarot cards and countered them seriously. Among the major arcana cards, there were indeed only 10 people.
Xie Chi tone was meaningful. “This is the key point.”
He paused before speaking slowly. “Among us, there is one more person.”
Ren Ze let out a low ‘fu*k’ and his back instantly became sweaty.
Xie Chi didn’t say anything. Among the names he wrote, one name was crossed out. Then under the remaining names, he wrote the tarot cards that corresponded to them. Once he finished, he handed the piece of paper to Ren Ze and Ye Xiaoxiao.
Ren Ze looked at the contents of the paper and the reasonable association. He couldn’t help his hands shaking uncontrollably.
Liang Wen had the ‘Fool’ written under her. It could be understood as her literally being stupid. Xie Chi was the Magician because he borrowed the external forces of heaven and earth and the help of the surroundings to defeat the strong. Ye Xiaoxiao was kind so she was the introverted, kind, gentle and emotional High Priestess.
Liang Zhen, the cold, mature and full-bodied woman who spoke to help them was the Empress who represented rich harvest and benevolence. Jiang Shuo was the high-ranking movie emperor who gave orders so he was the Emperor. Ren Ze was the Hierophant in charge of spiritual enlightenment.
The couple corresponded to the Lovers card among the tarot cards. The Hermit was the male cannon fodder. They didn’t know him but he was probably related to the characteristics of the Hermit card.
As for the last one, Gu Yu represented the Hanged Man. The Hanged Man represented obedience. He was Jiang Shuo’s follower. He was cunning and a sycophant. This fit a small part of the Hanged Man’s characteristics.
Then the name Xie Chi crossed out was… Xie Qiuying.
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