It was already 4 PM, and night would fall in two or three hours, so to be on the safe side, they didn't split into too many groups.
"Why don't we check outside? That pool and the maze are the most prominent features in the whole painting!" Xin Beibei questioned.
Shi Zhendong said earnestly, "Currently, those two things don't seem suspicious. We'd better focus on figuring out the rooms inside the castle."
Xin Beibei looked regretful but didn't say anything more.
The remaining people split into two groups, each checking the other buildings in the castle one by one, and then agreed to return to the hall at 6:30 PM for dinner.
Two hours passed quickly, and both groups didn't dare linger outside, returning before dinner.
Qin Ci's group was responsible for the circular building: "The building has six floors, making it the tallest building in the castle. The first to third floors are accessed via a staircase below, and the layout is exactly the same as the fourth floor. Both have a semi-circular hall and a semi-circular room with a closed door. Currently, the door is the color of natural wood, and the room is empty except for one... large empty glass jar standing in the room, about two meters tall."
Everyone's mood became heavy, as if those empty glass jars were waiting for someone to fill them.
"You mean, the circular building has six floors?" Zhu Haowen, a member of another group, asked. "We're currently divided into five colors, so what's the other floor for?"
Qin Ci was also puzzled. "Floors four, five, and six are separated from the lower floors. Our corridor leads to the fourth floor, and to get to the fifth or sixth floor, you need to climb the copper stairs outside the building. I was thinking that Brother Ke is more agile..."
Ke Xun understood. "I'll go check it out tomorrow."
Ye Ningchen couldn't help but ask, "How's Zhang's situation?"
Qin Ci's expression darkened. "The red liquid is no longer overflowing, and the thing inside has grown to the size of a fist. If you don't look closely, you'll almost miss it."
Everyone seemed numb to the fact that Zhang Tianwei's body was shrinking. The result of this shrinking was probably that he would be completely drained, extracting even the last drop of color.
"What about Haowen's group? Any discoveries?" Shi Zhendong looked at Zhu Haowen.
Xin Beibei looked somewhat displeased, her eyes immediately turning to Ke Xun: "Team leader, what new discoveries has your group made?"
Ke Xun found Xin Beibei amusing, but his group hadn't made any significant gains, so he couldn't laugh at all: "We went to the central building, but the door was locked. We couldn't open it without the key. The two buildings next to it were the same. We had no choice but to go outside and look at the pool and the maze."
"You went to the maze?!" Xin Beibei exclaimed in surprise.
"You seem quite interested in the maze," Mu Yiran's gaze sharpened.
"I've always wanted to go to that maze; I've seen it in movies before," Xin Beibei said, sounding a little aggrieved. "Did you find anything new in the maze?"
Ke Xun replied, "The maze's structure is very complex. We only explored the outer ring and haven't found anything amiss yet."
Zhu Haowen suggested, "If possible, tomorrow we should stand at a high point to overlook the maze and draw a map of its route. That would make it easier to find our way."
Xin Beibei glanced at Zhu Haowen, "So, your group didn't find anything at all."
Zhu Haowen ignored the woman and looked directly at her boyfriend, "We found something wrong with the pool; the coins inside have changed."
"The coins changed? Are they different from what we observed this morning?" Shi Zhendong asked.
Ke Xun nodded, "We were rather hasty this morning, and the incident upstairs interrupted our observation. We only remember that there were coins with a crescent-shaped pattern representing Zhang Tianwei in the pool. As for the well-shaped pattern representing He Yu, no one looked closely at the time."
"What changed about those coins?" someone asked.
"The moon-shaped coins are all gone," Ke Xun replied. "And we searched the entire pool, but we didn't find any coins with the grid pattern."
"What does that mean? Does the coin representing a person's pattern disappear after they die?" Shi Zhendong couldn't fathom the mystery. "But you clearly saw the moon-shaped pattern this morning. Could it be… Zhang Tianwei wasn't dead yet?"
Zhang Tianwei had already been submerged in that blood-red bottle; it was hard to imagine that he hadn't died.
A deathly silence fell over the dinner table.
Ye Ningchen broke the silence: "If the same thing happens to me, please do everything you can to kill me."
What could they possibly do?
Although dinner was plentiful, everyone treated it merely as a necessity to fill their stomachs, barely finishing before trudging upstairs with heavy steps.
The colors in the hall were gradually darkening; the night, unique to this world, was about to begin.
"Be extra careful tonight," Mu Yiran said, not in a hurry to leave the first floor, just like last night.
"I'm the one who should be saying this," Ke Xun said, standing beside Mu Yiran. "The person most likely to be in trouble tonight is Ye Ningchen in your room."
"A predictable danger isn't the greatest danger."
"You mean…"
Mu Yiran gazed at the gradually darkening indigo patterns on the clock: "Indigo is bright, cyan is dark."
"That's true. Regardless of the color, it's inextricably linked to our blue room." Ke Xun crossed his arms. "According to the principle of color addition, the victims related to cyan are either in our room or the green room."
If two bodies appear tomorrow morning, one should belong to Ye Ningchen, and the other could be anyone in either the blue or green room.
"I'm just wondering if the person connected to cyan knows everything," Mu Yiran said meaningfully.
"If you know, why not say it so we can all work together to find a solution?"
"It's hard to say. Maybe you're afraid of being ostracized, or maybe it's something else." Mu Yiran gazed at the pool and maze outside the window, which were gradually turning gray. "Whatever the reason, the dangers of the night are unavoidable. Don't act rashly."
"Yiran is worried about me." Ke Xun's voice suddenly became relaxed—having experienced too many life-and-death situations, some things can transcend life and death.
Mu Yiran didn't speak again. As the night deepened, the fine scroll patterns on his body became distinctly black and white, making him seem like a finely crafted woodblock print.
The two went upstairs one after the other and returned to the second-floor hall.
Although it was night, everything was a clear silhouette, such as the light gray stairs, the dark gray tables and chairs, and the bottomless black floor and walls.
The bedroom door was a bright light gray in the darkness. At this moment, it seemed that there were only four doors. The middle door was now integrated with the wall, as if it had disappeared into the void.
Ke Xun returned to his own room, where everything was just as it had been the night before, with the patterns that belonged to the two ladies lying on their respective beds.
"Team leader, we were just talking about why no one called for help when the incident happened last night." Guo Lixia's polka-dot pattern turned over, seemingly facing Ke Xun. "If something happens again tonight, will they still remain silent?"
"Even if someone called for help, we can't possibly go to other rooms to help." Xin Beibei's body appeared as a narrow strip in the night, covered in tiny diamond-shaped patterns that were dizzying to look at.
Ke Xun didn't say anything and simply lay down in the spot he had been in the previous night.
Now, facing the two women in the same room, his feelings were somewhat complicated. After all, the blue color could only be brought out of the blue room, and Ke Xun firmly believed that he hadn't done it, so the only suspects left were these two women in the room.
"What secrets do you think are hidden in that maze?" Ke Xun suddenly asked.
"There wouldn't be any signatures hidden there," Xin Beibei said.
"How so?"
"There are only green plants there, no other facilities. Unless someone signs their name on a leaf, how are we supposed to find it?"
"Hmm." Ke Xun yawned and fell silent.
Perhaps everyone was tired, for Guo Lixia's snoring soon filled the room.
Ke Xun, however, was wide awake, his eyes fixed on the silhouette-like window and the night outside, as dark as velvet.
Upon closer inspection, the window lattice truly resembled the lilies Miao Zipei had described, each with its own unique shape, but the intricate design made it almost impossible to discern their original forms.
About two hours later, Guo Lixia had fallen into a deep sleep, and Xin Beibei was also completely silent. Just as Ke Xun's eyelids were beginning to droop, the entire room was suddenly plunged into darkness.
In an instant, all sleepiness vanished. Ke Xun silently opened his eyes wide, trying to see through the darkness to everything hidden within.
If, as he had previously guessed, this darkness belonged to a shadow, then how large was the shadow's coverage? And where was the shadow's physical form?
In moments of extreme danger, people often develop a kind of sixth sense, and Ke Xun felt this way, as if he could confirm, without any basis, that the shadow had simply passed by his window.
But as the darkness gradually receded, Ke Xun almost cried out in alarm.
The Morris pattern that had been on the window was completely gone!
This meant the window was wide open.
Who did it? Was it someone outside or someone inside?
Ke Xun remained motionless, listening to Guo Lixia's snoring. His eyes darted around, and he suddenly noticed that Xin Beibei had changed her posture and was now sitting on the opposite bed.
Ke Xun remained silent, trying to make her think he was still asleep.
The diamond pattern that belonged to Xin Beibei remained on the edge of the bed in a ramrod-like posture. Because of the darkness, it was impossible to tell where she was looking.
Was she looking out the window? Or was she scrutinizing Ke Xun's bed?
Xin Beibei sat upright for a few minutes before lying back down.
Ke Xun stared at the open window, realizing he didn't have the strength to sit up and close it. He felt completely exhausted, just like when the shadow descended last night.
Who opened the window? It must be Xin Beibei.
It can only be Xin Beibei, because the window latch is inside the room; it couldn't be opened from the outside.
What does Xin Beibei want to do?
Is Xin Beibei still Xin Beibei?
Did He Yu and Zhang Tianwei open the window from the room this way last night?
Could the shadowy figure only open the window with the help of someone inside? Then, is the shadowy figure a shadow or a solid entity?
Ke Xun stared at the empty gray window frame; the entire window was like an open door, extending an invitation to something outside.