After several long, deep breaths, Ke Xun felt his body gradually recover, and he was finally able to clench his fists more forcefully.
Ke Xun struggled to sit up, using the bedpost as a support; he needed to find a way to close the window.
Xin Beibei lay motionless on the opposite bed, whether asleep or observing Ke Xun, it was unclear.
Just as Ke Xun finally stood up to walk to the window, suddenly his eyes went blind, and darkness enveloped everything again.
Ke Xun stood still, unable to discern directions, and dared not move rashly.
This time, the feeling was very clear; something had entered the room, unlike the previous two times when it had merely "passed by."
The vast, invisible darkness left only his sense of smell and hearing alive.
Perhaps Guo Lixia felt fear in her dream; her snoring had lessened considerably, leaving only long, drawn-out breaths in her sleep.
Another sound in the darkness came from Xin Beibei—a series of very rapid, labored gasps, a painful, suffocating gasp.
The darkness had a "colorful" smell, like the smell of berries in the workshop, and like the smell emanating from the bottle where Zhang Tianwei had been soaking.
Ke Xun felt an extremely strong, colorful scent pass by his nose, then gradually faded. His eyes were fixed on the direction of the window, as if the other person was about to leave.
Finally, a gray hue came into view—the color of the window frame. Then the entire square window frame was revealed, and everything in the room gradually became clearer.
Guo Lixia's polka-dot pattern was still fast asleep on the bed.
Ke Xun's own water ripple pattern stood in the center of the room.
Xin Beibei's diamond pattern, however, was being dragged towards the window in a highly distorted manner.
Yes, Xin Beibei was writhing, like a dragged snake, or a piece of fabric being moved.
Ke Xun clearly saw what was dragging Xin Beibei; it came from beneath her feet, black, and about the same size as her.
If he wasn't mistaken, this thing was Xin Beibei's own shadow.
Ke Xun slowly took a few steps back to his own bed, trying to get as far away from Xin Beibei and her shadow as possible.
"Xin Beibei?" Ke Xun finally called out her name. The death had occurred before his eyes; he couldn't ignore it.
The diamond-shaped pattern belonging to Xin Beibei emitted a muffled sound: "Gurgle..."
like a low gagging sound from suffocation.
Ke Xun broke out in a cold sweat, watching as Xin Beibei's body was slowly dragged off the bed and towards the windowsill.
Xin Beibei's shadow gradually stretched to the windowsill, dragging her feet towards it.
Ke Xun boldly approached Xin Beibei's head; now, her head was the furthest point from the shadow, and should be the safest place.
Xin Beibei let out a series of hoarse gasps, as if something was tightly strangling her neck.
Ke Xun grabbed Xin Beibei's shoulders, trying to pull her back, but found his strength far inferior to hers.
Ke Xun mustered his courage and tentatively touched Xin Beibei's neck, finding it deeply sunken—the flesh of her neck felt like it was being tightly constricted by something invisible.
Ke Xun touched the indented shape and withdrew his hand.
The shape clearly came from an invisible, large hand.
Due to the disparity in strength, Ke Xun could only watch helplessly as Xin Beibei was dragged away from the window by her own shadow. The narrow shape covered in diamond patterns writhed painfully, gradually disappearing from the window's edge.
Ke Xun chased to the window and peered out. The shadow had already blended into the thick night; the prominent feature was the pattern belonging to Xin Beibei, swaying precariously under the shadow's dragging, slowly being pulled past the adjacent window and turning into the distance beyond his sight.
Just like he had seen last night.
Only then did Ke Xun feel a chill; his clothes were soaked with sweat.
Ke Xun looked at the windows on both sides and found that all the room windows were tightly closed, so he prepared to close his own window as well.
His gaze swept across the pool and maze outside, but suddenly he noticed a striking black and white pattern in the maze, standing out vividly against the pure gray backdrop.
It must be a person, someone in the maze in the dead of night.
Ke Xun tried to make out the pattern on the person's clothes, but the distance was too great; he could only vaguely make out the person's outline, standing straight beside the maze, as if staring back at Ke Xun
. Ke Xun instinctively closed the window, but didn't leave its side, continuing to observe the other person through the windowpane.
The person stood there for a few more minutes before entering the maze and disappearing.
The night finally passed, and dawn broke.
The first piece of news everyone received was: Ye Ningchen, like He Yu yesterday, had died a ghastly death.
Fortunately, the other two in the purple room were unaffected, and the room itself remained unchanged; the door was still purple.
Ye Ningchen's death might have been expected, but Xin Beibei's disappearance left everyone bewildered.
Many people unanimously cast sympathetic glances at Shi Zhendong.
Shi Zhendong remained silent for a long time, his voice sounding as if he were trying to suppress a sob: "The blue pattern on the clock yesterday was related to Beibei."
"But how was Xin Beibei chosen? Did she also pollute the color?" After saying this, Mi Wei subconsciously glanced at the clock in the second-floor hall, and seeing that it was still the indigo color from last night
, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "Perhaps visiting others can also change the color of the clock." Mu Yiran glanced at everyone, making sure that the remaining nine people were present, before continuing: "Yesterday, Miao Zipei said that the clock changed from orange to blue, which happened yesterday morning, but at that time, no one had started working yet, so everyone thought that this change had nothing to do with polluting the color." "
At that time yesterday morning, everyone was on the second floor, just like now," Qin Ci said.
Mu Yiran continued: "That's why I said that visiting others can also change the color of the clock."
"You mean, someone visited others yesterday morning?" Everyone was puzzled.
"Think carefully, when everyone was examining He Yu's body in the red room yesterday, who was alone?" Mu Yiran posed a question.
Before many could figure it out, Shi Zhendong suddenly said, "It was Beibei. She was very scared at the time, so I told the girls not to go into the red room, but two other girls still went in... At that time, only Beibei was left in the hall."
Zhu Haowen also recalled, "We stayed in the red room for quite a while, at least 20 minutes. What was Xin Beibei doing alone in the hall? Why was she visiting other rooms?"
Everyone was puzzled. Xin Beibei was arguably the most timid person in the group; how could she risk her life to go to rooms of other colors?
"I told you all before that when someone is alone, especially in the lobby, they are more likely to be bewitched," Mu Yiran said, looking at everyone. "I experienced this myself yesterday afternoon. Because of the hallucinations, I couldn't help but want to push open doors of other colors."
Ke Xun, who had been through a whole night of turmoil and was a little listless the next morning, seemed to remember something when he heard this: "No wonder I always felt that Xin Beibei's hostility towards Haowen was somewhat unfounded. Now that I think about it, the temptation she gave her might be related to Haowen."
"You mean, because she was inspired by me, she pushed open our green door alone yesterday morning when everyone was gathered in the red room?" Zhu Haowen said.
"It's very possible, no, it should be said that it's the only possibility," Ke Xun looked at the tightly closed green door. "Blue and green together make cyan."
Shi Zhendong's eyes were red, and his voice was a little hoarse: "But, Beibei didn't do anything else wrong yesterday, and her behavior was no different from usual."
"That's probably the brilliance of this world," Mu Yiran said. "Those who are bewitched by it maintain their own nature, and only suddenly act when they need to do something for it, so that we won't notice."
Wei Dong scratched his slightly messy hair: "You mean to say that the blue stain on Xiao Ye yesterday was also done by Xin Beibei?"
Mu Yiran didn't speak, indicating his agreement.
Guo Lixia frowned: "But after we finished working yesterday at noon, the three of us washed our hands thoroughly, especially Xin Beibei."
"There's no need to leave obvious color on your hands; you can just secretly hide a blue berry in your pocket," Mu Yiran explained. "At 1 p.m., everyone was assigned tasks. The people in the green room continued working, some went to the fourth floor to check on Zhang Tianwei's body, and a few others stayed in the lobby on the first floor."
Wei Dong nodded: "That's right, those who stayed were me, Xiao Ye, Sister Guo, and Xin Beibei."
"If I'm not mistaken, Xin Beibei and Ye Ningchen were quite intimate, weren't they?"
"Yes, Sister Guo was dozing off, and the two girls were chatting the whole time, so I couldn't get a word in edgewise." Wei Dong still felt Ye Ningchen's death was unjust. "Xiao Ye clearly washed her skirt clean, why was it still..."
"Perhaps the colors of this world are defined as indelible. Even if they disappear to the naked eye, they still existed," Miwei's voice remained calm. "That's why the clock suddenly turned indigo at that time!"
Connecting the various omens of yesterday, everyone's deductions now aligned.
"When Xiaoye had her accident last night, did you hear any strange noises in the room? Or see anything unusual?" Qin Ci asked.
Wei Dong looked haggard: "We didn't sleep last night, and Xiaoye was too scared to sleep. Then the room suddenly went completely dark. There was no sound during that process. When the room returned to normal, we found Xiaoye was gone."
"Gone?"
"Xiaoye's markings were gone. Her body merged with the darkness. We only discovered it when it was light…" Wei Dong couldn't continue.
True death in this world is merging with darkness; and in the daytime, it's a deathly white, like a wall.