What's that on the bed...??
That's a corpse that's been dead for who knows how many days, are you blind?
This newcomer looks really affected by the corpse smell.
To the person upstairs, go find a corpse that's been sitting around for a while and take a whiff, you'll understand, it's truly unbearable.
? Did something weird just slip in here?
Amidst the live stream comments' banter, Xu Xi tightly covered his mouth and nose, suppressing the intense urge to vomit as he approached the large bed in the center of the room.
If this were him when he first entered the instance, he would probably be so scared he'd turn and run—though more likely, his legs would give out and he'd collapse on the spot.
But now, his mental fortitude had clearly strengthened considerably. At the very least, he could carefully examine the corpse that had decomposed beyond recognition.
Although the corpse's features were unrecognizable, the swollen purple ligature marks around its neck were strikingly obvious.
Without a doubt, this was Father Tong's real corpse.
On the wall opposite the bed hung a large wedding photo, but the faces of the couple remained blurred as if pixelated.
The current problem was: Father Tong had been found, but where had Mother Tong and Tong Binbin gone?
So far, only two rules were clearly established: first, don't turn around or look back; second, knock before opening doors.
The strange noise from the ceiling fan had already been explained, leaving only the chopping sounds from the kitchen as an unsolved mystery.
With an idea forming in his mind, Xu Xi didn't want to stay in this master bedroom a moment longer. In just these brief moments, he felt like the stench was permeating his very being.
Quickly stepping out of the master bedroom and closing the door behind him, Xu Xi took a deep breath of fresh air and headed to the kitchen as planned.
He stood in front of the refrigerator, and as expected, before long, chopping sounds began behind him.
Having experienced this once before, Xu Xi didn't hesitate this time. He bent over and looked backward through the gap between his legs, since it seemed only through Tong Binbin's perspective could he see the true scene.
Just like the previous vision replay, he saw an eight or nine-year-old boy standing on a stool, holding a boning knife and expressionlessly chopping meat on a cutting board. As he chopped, he murmured softly, "Hungry... so hungry..."
Thinking of the meat in the refrigerator and Mother Tong's disappearance, Xu Xi couldn't help but swallow hard, forming a nauseating hypothesis—
Could it be that all that meat in the refrigerator was Mother Tong's? Did Tong Binbin chop up his own mother and eat her??
Those pieces of meat did smell peculiarly foul.
Shivering, Xu Xi slowly straightened up, not daring to turn around directly, and had to back out of the kitchen.
As Tong Binbin's figure disappeared, the chopping sounds vanished too, and the kitchen returned to normal.
Xu Xi plopped down on a chair by the dining table, leaning against the backrest as he began sorting through all the clues and thoughts from beginning to end.
The clues were fragmented and messy, so he could only organize them one by one.
First was the strange scribbled drawing in the drawing book under the pillow.
The ferocious red-faced man represented Father Tong, who drank heavily and committed domestic violence, while the hanging stick figure also symbolized Father Tong, who was hanged from the living room ceiling fan.
Next was the conversation between Auntie Wang and Mother Tong at the front door.
Auntie Wang mentioned hearing commotion from the couple multiple times and pointed out the injury on Mother Tong's forehead, suspecting Mother Tong had been beaten by Father Tong, but Mother Tong lightly denied it.
Xu Xi pondered this conversation several times, faintly sensing something amiss.
Later, Auntie Wang brought up the excessively loud TV volume, and Mother Tong said Tong Binbin was watching cartoons, quickly brushing Auntie Wang off.
Initially, he hadn't paid much attention to these exchanges, but now thinking about it—the overly loud TV volume... was it covering up something?
Various clues indicated Father Tong had tendencies toward heavy drinking and domestic violence, so Xu Xi had always considered Mother Tong the vulnerable party, never associating many events with her.
But what if... Mother Tong was actually the one who killed Father Tong?
Many things would make sense that way.
Let's speculate boldly.
That day was Tong Binbin's ninth birthday, but the couple argued about something and even came to blows. Ultimately, Mother Tong accidentally—or intentionally—killed Father Tong and hung his body from the ceiling fan. This action could be speculated that Mother Tong wanted to make it look like Father Tong had committed suicide by hanging.
All of this was witnessed by young Tong Binbin. Considering the accompanying text, Mother Tong probably vaguely comforted Tong Binbin, saying Daddy was just resting because work was tiring, then told her son she was going out and would be back soon—when in reality, she was probably planning to flee after killing someone.
Then... came Tong Binbin's figure chopping meat in the kitchen.
Actually, Xu Xi still had some doubts—was the meat Tong Binbin was chopping, and that lump of meat in the refrigerator, really Mother Tong?
Assuming it was, then Mother Tong's body had been found too, albeit chopped into pieces and stewed into soup.
He didn't know why Tong Binbin killed Mother Tong or how he managed to kill her. One question remained: where was Tong Binbin? Was he dead, and if so, where was his body?
The instance's background was roughly pieced together, but the method to clear it...
Xu Xi still felt his earlier line of thinking was correct.
The birthday definitely needed to be celebrated, but he hadn't fully adopted a child's perspective.
Seeing Father Tong's and what was likely Mother Tong's corpse, Xu Xi realized what he'd overlooked.
What's the point of celebrating a birthday alone? Birthdays should be celebrated with family!
Dad, Mom, and "me."
He was a genius! Xu Xi thought narcissistically, completely forgetting this was the result of dying six times.
Enduring the overwhelming stench and urge to vomit, Xu Xi carried the corpse from the bedroom and the stew pot containing frozen meat from the refrigerator, placing them on chairs by the dining table.
After shaking off the goosebumps covering his body, he repeated the previous procedure.
However, to Xu Xi's astonishment, after blowing out the candles, the familiar weakness set in again.
...
Eighth time now.
Completely numb.
Xu Xi frantically ruffled his hair.
Seriously, what's still missing?!
What had he overlooked?
Xu Xi couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought.
Another death from weakness—four out of seven deaths were from this cause. Was there some significance to it?
Intuitively feeling this point was crucial, Xu Xi carefully recalled and suddenly realized that the weakness felt exactly like starving for a long time—total body weakness, vision darkening.
Although he'd died many times in this instance, summarizing showed only three causes of death.
First, being crushed by the ceiling fan, and Father Tong was hanged from that ceiling fan.
Second, being decapitated, and Mother Tong was chopped into pieces.
Third was dying from weakness.
Xu Xi reasonably guessed—could this be Tong Binbin's cause of death?
In the kitchen, he heard Tong Binbin's figure murmuring about being hungry and such. Tong Binbin probably starved to death!
He roughly knew what was missing from the birthday procedure now.
Eager to verify his hypothesis, Xu Xi couldn't wait to climb out of bed.
That day was Tong Binbin's ninth birthday, but the couple argued about something and even came to blows. Ultimately, Mother Tong accidentally—or intentionally—killed Father Tong and hung his body from the ceiling fan. This action could be speculated that Mother Tong wanted to make it look like Father Tong had committed suicide by hanging.