Shi Zhendong and Zhu Haowen finally finished their work before 2 PM, and now everyone was gathered in the second-floor lobby.
After hearing about the changes in Zhang Tianwei's body, everyone was stunned and remained silent—out of fear of the unknown, and also out of helplessness in the face of these changes.
Miao Zipei looked up at the clock on the wall, somewhat puzzled: "The color has changed again."
Everyone looked up, but didn't notice anything particularly different.
Only Ye Ningchen said, "It seems... there's more blue in it. It's less like cyan and more like indigo."
"We laymen don't really understand the specific color classifications," Shi Zhendong said, glancing at his girlfriend, who also studied art. "What is indigo?"
Xin Beibei, though not an expert, knew the basics: "Indigo is a combination of blue and purple, but I don't think this clock is indigo."
Miao Zipei's eyes were like a highly accurate color-detecting instrument. He squinted and observed carefully for a while: "The color is undergoing very subtle changes, slowly transitioning from cyan to indigo. The blue remains constant, while the green gradually transforms into purple. I believe in ten minutes, everyone will see a very standard indigo."
Shi Zhendong was getting impatient: "What exactly does this color change of the clock signify? Although I don't remember the specific color changes you mentioned, these colors are all very mixed; cyan and indigo aren't even among our five colors."
"Please have Miao explain each change in detail, and we'll try to analyze them one by one," Qin Ci said.
Miao Ziping was about to explain in detail when he was interrupted by a gasp.
The voice came from Ye Ningchen, who jumped up from her chair in alarm, frantically shaking her skirt: "Oh my god, my skirt is stained with another color!"
Everyone's first reaction was to immediately move away from this girl, after all, staining colors is the greatest taboo in this world.
After calming down, Ye Ningchen felt even more like a plague, and now she deliberately stood far away, holding up her skirt stained with blue juice, sobbing softly.
Ye Ningchen's long dress was embroidered with pale purple flowers, and now, in an inconspicuous spot on the hem, there was a faint blue stain—this fresh and soft color now seemed extremely glaring.
"Who's from the Blue Group?" Ke Xun said, only then suddenly realizing that he was a member of the Blue Group.
Guo Lixia and Xin Beibei, also in the same group, stepped forward, bewildered: "This... we always wash our hands properly before leaving the room."
Ye Ningchen's face turned pale with fright: "What should I do? Does this mean I've contaminated the color? When did this happen? I've never been in any other rooms!"
"As long as you don't bring the color into the workshop, it's not considered contamination!" Ke Xun thought of this and quickly pulled Ye Ningchen towards the bathroom: "Try it, maybe you can wash it off!"
Ye Ningchen obeyed the imperial decree and hurriedly went to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and scrubbed herself with soap.
The people in the hall all looked serious. Zhu Haowen said, "We can't determine exactly when she got the blue stain. If it was in the morning, the room is already contaminated."
"Don't worry, we should be able to figure this out through analysis," Ke Xun carefully recalled everyone's schedule for the day. "Xiao Ye didn't enter the blue room, so the only explanation is that someone from the blue group accidentally brought the dye out and inadvertently stained Xiao Ye's dress."
Guo Lixia and Xin Beibei both frowned, looking completely innocent.
Ke Xun continued his analysis: "Before lunch, everyone except those in the green room had finished their work, so no one else entered the work area after noon. That means if the blue stain occurred after noon, it's very likely it will be fine after washing it off."
Everyone nodded silently, and Shi Zhendong added, "The dangerous time was in the morning. From morning until fruit time, only four people were working. The only person who could have come into contact with the blue juice was Guo… Xiao Guo."
Guo Lixia immediately panicked: "How did it become me?! I've been working all morning, washing my hands thoroughly before coming out, being extremely careful, just in case I brought the stain out! Who isn't afraid of what happened with He Yu yesterday?!"
Shi Zhendong quickly said, "Xiao Guo, don't worry, it's not…" "It's just analysis, I didn't say it was you."
Ke Xun comforted Guo Lixia for a few words, and Guo Lixia finally calmed down, but she still couldn't help muttering, "This bad luck, I even messed up while working..."
Shi Zhendong continued, "At ten o'clock in the morning, during fruit time, everyone gathered in the hall. This was an important time point, and also the first opportunity for Xiao Ye to get blue paint on her; later, everyone went back to their rooms to work, and went out again during lunch time, which should be the second and last time point."
At this moment, Ye Ningchen also came out of the bathroom, her face still as pale as paper: "I washed it several times, and it looks like it's washed off, but I don't know if it's effective."
No one knew how to comfort her; all words were pale now.
"Xiao Ye, who did you have close contact with this morning?" Ke Xun asked, after all, being able to touch the other person's skirt required a relatively intimate action.
Ye Ningchen thought carefully for a long time: "I don't remember having close contact with anyone. During the morning break, I was mostly with Mi Wei..."
Mi Wei's color was yellow, which immediately ruled her out as a suspect.
"I don't think it was in the morning," Mu Yiran said, drawing everyone's attention. "When we left the first floor at 1 p.m., the clock was still cyan. When we reunited here at 2 p.m., Miao Zipei noticed that the clock's color had changed, transitioning from cyan to indigo. Indigo is a combination of blue and purple, so this can't be a coincidence."
Everyone carefully considered Mu Yiran's words. Miao Zipei looked up at the clock, which had now turned pure indigo: "Indigo is a combination of blue and purple. Ye Ningchen's dress was originally purple, but it was stained with blue. The combination of these two colors is exactly indigo! Could this be the clock's message to us?!"
Everyone was stunned.
Mu Yiran nodded slightly: "Miao Zipeng was the first to notice the clock's change, from white to orange. Orange is a combination of red and yellow. Considering yesterday's color pollution incident—He Yu didn't wash the red paint off his hands before entering the yellow room—could this be interpreted as a combination of red and yellow?"
Everyone nodded thoughtfully, completely trusting this hypothesis: "So the clock's change indicates the polluted color! Every time a color pollution incident occurs, the clock's pattern changes color!"
Mi Wei still grasped the inconsistency: "But what does cyan represent? Cyan comes after orange! Cyan is a combination of blue and green, and the clock turned cyan this morning! At that time, no one was in the work area, so what opportunity did they have to pollute the color?"
Everyone fell silent again. Ke Xun felt his head was spinning: "Although we can't explain the source of cyan yet, the previous analysis should be reasonable. We've all witnessed the formation of orange and indigo."
Ye Ningchen was still at a loss: "But what do I do now…"
"Anyway, everyone has already finished their work, so you don't need to go into any of the work areas for now." Qin Ci didn't have a better solution. Ye
Ningchen nodded hurriedly, "But what about when we go to sleep at night? Our bedroom doors are also colored!"
Ke Xun thought of something and looked up, his gaze meeting Mu Yiran's. The two of them frowned simultaneously, seemingly neither of them quite understood.
Guo Lixia also felt sorry for the little girl, "Sigh, why don't you just stay in the second-floor lobby for the night?"
"Wouldn't that be breaking the rules…" Ye Ningchen became listless, as if she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
No one dared to say this, since the NPCs required everyone to go back to their respective colored rooms to sleep.
Just as she thought of the NPC, the familiar music started playing. The NPC's voice was so sweet it made you want to strangle her: "Congratulations everyone on completing today's tasks~ Afternoon tea is ready in the food cart, please open the hall door and help yourselves~ After afternoon tea, you can wander around and enjoy the castle scenery!" The NPC emphasized her words as usual, "Remember not to pollute the colors! Remember!"
These words struck Ye Ningchen's heart like a hammer. The girl was so frightened that she didn't even have time to cry. She looked at Mu Yiran in panic: "Team leader, what should I do?"
Ke Xun didn't expect that Mu Yiran would be elected as the team leader by the purple faction. They were quite a good match...
Mu Yiran's gaze towards Ye Ningchen showed a rare hint of gentleness: "Washing away the color might offer a glimmer of hope. Don't sleep in the living room at night; that's against the rules."
Xin Beibei seemed to suddenly realize something: "Think about the red bedroom. Because of He Yu, the whole room lost its color! If she really polluted the color, wouldn't it affect the purple bedroom too…"
Mu Yiran's eyes held an unwavering certainty: "Painting has its limits, especially regarding the conditions for death. It's almost perfectly strict—it will never implicate the innocent because of one person."
Wei Dong added, "Xiao Ye, don't worry, go back to our room. We're not afraid! If there's any danger, maybe we can help you!"
Ye Ningchen was very moved and quickly nodded.
At this moment, Guo Lixia had already pushed in the food cart, which contained exquisitely arranged Western-style pastries in a round tower shape, and a slender-necked, round-bellied glass dish filled with bright red pomegranate juice.
Everyone was somewhat resistant and chose ordinary tea.
"We still need to keep looking for autographs; we can't waste this precious daytime." Qin Ci ate a delicious cookie, his face expressionless.
"This castle is made up of many buildings. We only know about the square building we're in right now, and the round building over the corridor—we only know about the fourth floor. We have to find a way to figure out the whole castle." It was Shi Zhendong who spoke.
Xin Beibei quickly added, "And outside the castle, we only saw the pool this morning; we haven't had time to see the maze yet!"