The castle's interior was complex. After reaching the fourth floor, Ke Xun and his companions walked through a long, open corridor before finally seeing Mi Wei waving to them.
The other end of the corridor led to a cylindrical building. Fortunately, it was bright during the day, and although the source of the light was uncertain, the interior of the semi-circular hall was completely visible.
The other half of the circle led to a room with a tightly closed door, its color a striking blood red.
This color, so blatant and evocative, made everyone hesitant to open the door, fearing it might contaminate the color.
Xin Beibei suddenly screamed, jumping up and down behind Ke Xun—below the red door, a small pool of red liquid, like a viscous pool of blood, was seeping out.
Everyone was far from the door, but their eyes were all fixed on the red liquid overflowing below it. The liquid seemed to be slowly flowing, making it difficult to imagine what was happening inside.
"It's not blood," Mu Yiran's voice remained slightly cold.
Ke Xun looked into his eyes: if it wasn't blood, then it was the color of this room.
"According to previous practice, once a death occurs, the door will turn grayish-white, which is what the NPCs call a room that loses its color." Zhu Haowen's voice suddenly rang out, his eyes glancing at Ke Xun: "We can only conclude now that Zhang Tianwei may not be dead."
The red room originally only housed Zhang Tianwei and He Yu. This morning, their bedroom had lost its color, as had the red workshop on the first floor.
What does this suddenly appearing, blood-red door represent?
"However, none of us now represents the color red, and none of us are qualified to open this door." Qin Ci stared at the large, wide red door, which was much taller and wider than the previous doors, giving off a heavy sense of oppression.
Ke Xun carefully examined the crack in the door: "None of our previous doors had inner or outer locks, and this one should be the same. It's just that there's no wind in this world, so it's closed very tightly."
"But how do we open it?" Wei Dong's eyes searched around, hoping to find a stick or something similar to pry the door open.
Perhaps Ke Xun's words reminded Mu Yiran, whose eyes lit up slightly: "We can try creating wind."
Ke Xun understood immediately and had already walked to the junction of the hall and the corridor. There was actually a wooden door there, but it was usually overlooked because it was always open.
Mu Yiran also came over, followed closely by Zhu Haowen. The three of them worked together to quickly push the heavy wooden door open and close it, trying to send some "wind" into the hall.
"It works!" At this moment, the red door had been "blown" open a wide crack by the "wind," and Qin Ci and Wei Dong also came to help.
Mi Wei thought of something and closed the glass windows on both sides of the hall, leaving the ventilation opening at the door's location.
The five men worked together again to quickly push the heavy wooden door open, this time creating a very obvious airflow, and the red door opened silently.
Although the door was open, no one dared to easily enter, but instead stood outside and observed.
Soon, Xin Beibei's scream echoed throughout the entire castle.
In the empty, semi-circular room, there was only an oversized glass jar filled with a red liquid. For some unknown reason, the liquid continuously overflowed from the jar, spilling across the floor and overflowing into the room.
The red liquid wasn't viscous; it was even somewhat translucent within the jar, allowing a person to be vaguely seen submerged inside.
The person was upright in the liquid, limbs suspended, their original color obscured by the red liquid. It resembled
more of a biological specimen than a human.
Everyone seemed to discern the specimen's indistinct features, but no one spoke.
Finally, Qin Ci said, "It's Zhang Tianwei."
Mi Wei, tears welling in her eyes, covered her mouth tightly with her hand and nodded.
Xin Beibei's distraught cry rang out again.
"Let's go back first, the people in the workshop will be worried." Zhu Haowen glanced at Xin Beibei: "You're shouting too loudly."
Ke Xun pulled Mu Yi and took a few steps back. The red liquid was still slowly spreading outwards: "Why is the liquid in the jar increasing for no reason?"
It was as if there was some kind of inlet at the bottom.
Mu Yiran: "The red creator should be Zhang Tianwei. This liquid may have originated from him."
Mu Yiran's eyes lingered on the handmade clock on the wall for a while before following Ke Xun out of the hall. Her hand was being warmed by a hand warmer. Mu Yiran was about to pull away when Ke Xun leaned closer: "You also noticed that clock? It's exactly the same as the one in our hall."
"The only difference is the background color of the dial," Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun. The other person had already let go of her hand, but his eyes met hers. Mu Yiran's gaze relaxed slightly and turned away.
Zhu Haowen's voice came from behind: "The dials here are bright red, but the dials in the lobby this morning were a slightly greenish color."
Mi Wei joined the discussion: "That slightly greenish color is actually cyan, a combination of blue and green."
"Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple—cyan is indeed between green and blue." Qin Ci followed everyone through the open-air corridor. "What do the patterns and colors of these clocks signify?"
The red dials in the semi-circular lobby might be related to the red "created" by Zhang Tianwei, but what do the cyan dials in the restaurant represent? There was no cyan in any of the five rooms.
When the group returned to the restaurant, the four people from the workshop were already waiting at the table. Guo Lixia asked first, "What kind of eerie screaming happened just now?"
Xin Beibei, still shaken, threw herself into Shi Zhendong's arms, "I was so scared! I was really scared! Zhang Tianwei's body was soaked in a colored bottle, and lots and lots of blood was gushing out..."
Qin Ci briefly described the scene. After hearing this, the four people had complicated expressions, and none of them had the courage to go back to the scene.
While comforting his girlfriend, Shi Zhendong discussed with everyone, "Why did Zhang Tianwei and He Yu die differently? He Yu died very directly, and even the whole room lost its color, but Zhang Tianwei... why was he treated like that?"
"And how was Senior Zhang's body removed? Why didn't we hear any noise?" Ye Ningchen's lips were a little pale. She had previously firmly believed that Zhang Tianwei might not be dead, but she never expected him to meet such a gruesome end.
"Did you guys notice something just now?" said Mi Wei, the calmest of the girls. "Senior Tianwei is very tall, at least 1.85 meters by my estimation, but that bottle… to use an inappropriate analogy," Mi Wei's eyes darted between Ke Xun and Mu Yiran before finally settling on Ke Xun, "that paint bottle was about as tall as Ke-ge."
Ke Xun immediately stated his height: "I'm 1.88 meters," glancing at Mu Yiran beside him, and whispered, "I accidentally grew a centimeter this year; I was 1.87 meters when I was in college."
Mu Yiran glanced at Ke Xun, as if to say: Well, I'm taller than you too.
Mi Wei cleared her throat and continued, "Even if the bottle is 1.9 meters tall, Tianwei inside looks much shorter than his actual height. He's suspended in the liquid, with extra space above and below his head, at least 50 centimeters in total."
Qin Ci nodded in agreement, "I noticed that too. I initially thought it was an optical illusion caused by glass refraction, but now I realize that in a cylindrical glass tank, objects should appear larger than they actually are."
Mu Yiran added, "The reason the red liquid keeps flowing out is probably because it's being drawn from Zhang Tianwei—this must be a drain on the corpse itself."
These analyses sounded rational, but for emotional humans, they were a cruel torment.
"Damn it, so miserable!" Guo Lixia lost all appetite for fruit.
"I'll say it again, how exactly was Zhang's body moved out last night?" Ye Ningchen pressed on with this question. "If they had opened the door, there would have been some noise."
"I think the exit was through the window," Zhu Haowen said, his expression as always. "Only the window in the red bedroom was open, and that can't be a coincidence."
Xin Beibei, hearing Zhu Haowen's words, suddenly seemed to perk up from her panic: "The window can only be opened from the inside out. I've noticed our room's window; it has latches. If an outsider wanted to come in, they'd have to go through the door."
"Why must it be an outsider who opened the window?" Zhu Haowen's cold eyes looked at Xin Beibei.
"You mean, Zhang Tianwei and He Yu opened the window on their own accord?" Xin Beibei was somewhat annoyed.
Zhu Haowen, too lazy to look at her again, said, "People have a thousand reasons to open a window; not all of them are looking for death."
Shi Zhendong was about to smooth things over when suddenly familiar music rang out. The NPC's voice was still sweet: "Everyone has worked hard. It's time for fruit. Please stop working and come to the hall to enjoy some fresh and delicious fruit!"
No one was in the mood for fruit. Mi Wei looked at the clock hanging on the wall: "I only noticed this clock at breakfast this morning. I noticed that the pattern and color on the clock face had changed, but I really can't remember what it looked like before."
Everyone looked up at the classic handmade clock on the wall. The round face had faint blue patterns on it. Ye Ningchen was a little surprised: "When did this clock change to this color? It was bright orange at dinner yesterday!"
Everyone felt a chill, wondering what the change in the clock's color meant.
Miao Zipeng, usually a man of few words, suddenly spoke up: "This clock originally had no patterns, only a white face and black hands. I noticed the color change yesterday evening when orange patterns suddenly appeared on the face. I told He Yu and Zhang Tianwei about this change, and everyone found it strange."
Everyone listened quietly to Miao Zipeng's words, and Wei Dong couldn't help but ask, "Then when did this cyan color change?"
"This morning, when I came downstairs, the first thing I did was check the clock, and the patterns had turned cyan," Miao Zipeng, as an art student, indeed had a strong ability to observe. "Moreover, it's not just in this hall; the same change is happening in the hall of the second-floor bedroom as well."