Seventh time.
Xu Xi calmly picked up the drawing book from under the pillow and walked out of the bedroom.
This time he first looked at the wall clock in the living room, which showed 8:01, and he quietly waited for the second hand to move.
He had only observed the time during the first and second instances, and hadn't paid attention since then. Now he could only test it out.
When the pointer reached exactly 8:05, the ceiling fan made an abnormal creaking sound as expected.
Aside from the first time when he heard this noise, during the second instance he was searching the guest bedroom and wasted a lot of time, the third time he was screaming and smashing things frantically and didn't hear it, the fourth time he woke up and went straight to the master bedroom, and the fifth and sixth times were even more not worth mentioning - after waking up he was organizing his thoughts and didn't come out immediately, naturally missing the clue that the ceiling fan would make abnormal noises at a specific time.
Although at first glance this clue seemed useless, Xu Xi didn't think the instance would set meaningless conditions. What appeared useless must contain deeper hints.
For example, since the abnormal noise only occurred at a specific time, did that mean only at this specific time could he find deeper clues?
But where were the clues, and how should he look for them?
Xu Xi thought hard, considering what aspects he hadn't thought of yet.
As time passed minute by minute, he gradually grew anxious, afraid that the hidden clues would become invalid once the time passed.
He couldn't specifically kill himself again just for this!
But when his gaze fell on the drawing book in his hand, a novel perspective he had never considered before suddenly emerged in his mind.
Currently, it seemed this instance was most likely centered around the theme of Mother Tong being domestically abused by Father Tong on Tong Binbin's 9th birthday and then hanging herself.
But looking further, the true core character of the instance might actually be Tong Binbin. If celebrating a complete birthday was the correct way to clear the instance, reasoning backwards from this line of thinking, this entire instance might be dominated by Tong Binbin.
One piece of evidence supporting this conjecture was that he always woke up in Tong Binbin's bedroom.
The instance probably wanted him to adopt Tong Binbin's perspective.
Xu Xi didn't know if his guess was correct, but anyway, make bold assumptions and verify carefully.
So the question arose again - what counted as adopting Tong Binbin's perspective?
Thinking of Tong Binbin's age and height, Xu Xi had an idea.
He didn't approach the ceiling fan, but instead chose to bend over and look upward through the gap between his legs.
This way, he wasn't turning around or looking back.
However—
"Holy shit!!!"
This single look delivered ten thousand points of critical damage to Xu Xi.
There was a man's corpse hanging from the ceiling fan by a rope, eyes bulging outward, a large gash on his head, face covered in congealed blood - a truly miserable death.
This being his first time seeing a corpse so directly, Xu Xi was shocked to the point of cold hands and feet. Fortunately, he had died quite a few times himself, and although still somewhat uncomfortable, he could at least stabilize his emotions.
Coming back to his senses, he suddenly realized - were his previous guesses all wrong?!
The hanging stick figure in the graffiti drawing didn't refer to Mother Tong, but rather to Father Tong??
[What the actual fuck! They're showing me a corpse right after I came in???]
[Newcomers shut up! First someone tell me, how did this newbie know there was a drawing book under the pillow? I saw he didn't even glance that way, yet his hand already pulled it out effortlessly!!]
[No no no, first tell me how he seemed to know in advance that this ceiling fan would be abnormal? He was like he specifically waited for the fan to make noise]
[Upstairs, didn't you also say he knew in advance?]
[Is that the important part?? The important part is how did he know this posture would let him see the corpse?]
[Maybe only this posture provides a certain angle?]
[But why is he so skilled at this?]
If Xu Xi could see the live stream comments, he'd probably explain that it wasn't about this posture having any special angle, but that he couldn't turn his head or body, and this was the most convenient way to look.
As for why he was so skilled - was that even a question? Of course from dying many times.
Currently, what Xu Xi wondered was, since the one actually hanging was Father Tong, then what did the accompanying text mean? What roles did Mother Tong and Tong Binbin play?
Previously he had always treated Mother Tong as the victim when reasoning about the instance background. However, now that he had found the reason for the ceiling fan's abnormality, the corpse hanging from it wasn't the victim he had assumed.
Xu Xi straightened up, his peripheral vision noticing that the corpse was no longer hanging from the ceiling fan behind him.
Indeed, his earlier deduction was correct - using some special methods at this specific time could reveal deeper clues.
It's just that the threads he had previously straightened out were tangled again.
Under heavy doubts, Xu Xi turned on the television again.
With the cartoon sounds covering it, the knocking on the main door sounded as scheduled.
Xu Xi originally planned to listen again to Auntie Wang and Mother Tong's conversation to see if there were any details he hadn't noticed, but when he prepared to open the door, his footsteps suddenly halted.
The knocking sound occurred, but only after he opened the door would that conversation appear.
What about the unopenable master bedroom... would it also require him to knock and wait for some "person" to open it for him before he could enter?
His own conjecture made his scalp tingle with fear, but the more Xu Xi thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, so he decided to try it.
After all, it was just an attempt - if the door opened it would be a huge gain, if it didn't open he wouldn't die anyway, so he wouldn't lose anything.
[Why isn't this person going to open the door?]
[Upstairs, how many idiots do you eat per meal? Opening doors randomly in an instance, afraid the King of Hell won't collect you, right?]
[Why not watch this cartoon? Many instances hide clues in these TVs.]
[What is he doing? Why is he knocking? Can't he just go in directly?]
Under the viewers' gaze, Xu Xi walked to the master bedroom, took two deep breaths, then gently knocked on the door.
After waiting nervously for quite a while, no situation occurred where a "person" opened the door for him.
Xu Xi frowned deeply, thinking to himself that maybe he had guessed wrong. He subconsciously grabbed the handle and turned it.
"Creak—"
Different from before, this time the handle turned down easily.
After his surprise, Xu Xi couldn't help feeling exceptionally delighted.
It seemed his guess was correct - entering indeed required knocking first.
So the reason he died inexplicably when re-entering the guest bedroom to get the drawing book earlier was that he hadn't knocked!
Having figured out the reason for his fourth death, Xu Xi raised his hand and pushed the door open.
"Gag—!!"
As soon as the door opened a crack, an intense stench assaulted his nostrils, even more pungent than the stink from the kitchen refrigerator. It choked Xu Xi's throat dry, made his breathing feel thick and sticky, and nearly suffocated him.