Chapter 524: 524: The Big Rooster

From the direction of the bloodstains, it’s clear that someone took the ax from the courtyard, went into Lizheng’s bedroom, killed Lizheng in his sleep, returned to the courtyard, and put the ax back.

The ax handle was engraved with a “Ma” character, which indicates that this ax was indeed the murder weapon.

The disappearance of the blood traces by the stump also suggests that the murderer did not leave the yard.

Of course, one could also assume that a murderer, who could nimbly traverse roofs and walls, left the crime scene without leaving any traces.

But this game isn’t set in a wuxia novel; instead, it’s in a poor, remote little mountain village. Bai Youwei doesn’t believe that the game would create characters incompatible with its context.

She thought, just like Shen Mo said, the murderer could either be the corpse carrier woman or one of the villagers here, with no third possibility.

“Why would his household want to kill Lizheng? Was it to assume the new role as Lizheng themselves, so they killed the old Lizheng?” Fu Miaoxue contemplated, “…But this doesn’t make sense either, if they wanted to fool people, it would be more convenient to simply strangle or smother him to death. Why bother to decapitate him with an ax? And they barely cleaned up the blood … Also, what’s up with the Ma family? Why did they suddenly break into hysterical laughter?”

She knocked her head in frustration, “I just hate having to think so hard!”

Bai Youwei chuckled and glanced at her: “Even though you hate thinking, the questions you brought up are all critical.”

She wasn’t sure if this was her inherent talent or potential forced out by the test game.

“Of course!” Fu Miaoxue huffed, “I’m playing the test version of the game after all, I’ve encountered even more absurd situations! I still managed to unravel them~”

Bai Youwei said: “Regardless, our aim is to discover the reason that the corpse carrier woman refuses to stop her actions. The game wouldn’t provide useless clues; Lizheng’s death, the Ma family going mad, must have some connection with the corpse carrier woman. What we lack now is the bridge that connects these clues.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“A customer mentioned the Li family just now, should we go investigate their house?” Fu Miaoxue asked.

Bai Youwei nodded: “Hmm, we should check it out.”

The Li family is key in this game; they definitely needed to inspect her home.

Just as the two were about to leave, Bai Youwei in her wheelchair suddenly stopped, her gaze directed to one side of the courtyard wall.

Seeing this, Fu Miaoxue also stopped and asked her in confusion: “What’s wrong?”

Bai Youwei’s eyes slightly widened, a look of astonishment on her face as she said: “… Look, over there.”

Fu Miaoxue looked over.

It was just a rooster standing in the corner of the wall, surrounded by a few hens.

Fu Miaoxue found it incomprehensible. They were just some chickens, was such a big reaction really necessary?

“Could this be the ‘bridge to the clues’ you mentioned?” Fu Miaoxue asked with furrowed brows.

Bai Youwei gently shook her head, her eyes fixed on the chickens, saying: “I haven’t seen animals in a long time.”

The rabbit in the Tortoise and the Hare wasn’t a normal rabbit.

The frog in Jin Qiu’s ‘golden frog’ wasn’t a normal frog.

The cats in Hide and Seek weren’t normal cats…

At first, she could still see birds in the sky, fish in the water, and occasionally encounter wild cats, wild dogs, and mice scurrying about on the roadside…

She didn’t know since when, but there were no more birds in the sky, no fish in the water, and even ants and crawling insects had disappeared.

Looking at those chickens, Fu Miaoxue said with a chill: “In no time, you might not be able to see a single person either. Let’s go~”

Bai Youwei was reluctant to leave, and told Fu Miaoxue: “You go first, check if they’re back, I want to watch the chickens.”

“Watching chickens?” Fu Miaoxue was speechless and walked away, lifting her skirt.

When she got to the front yard, she felt something was wrong. Could watching chickens be more important than investigating clues at the Li’s house?

She turned back, and saw Bai Youwei still sitting in her wheelchair.

Fu Miaoxue looked behind Bai Youwei—

Huh?

Where are the chickens?

…