By the time Yu Sen arrived in the dining hall, Mi Xue was already sitting alone in a corner, eating. Calling it eating was a bit of a stretch; she was actually just sipping some watery porridge and nibbling on cold cucumber. It seemed she couldn’t eat even the most delicious meat at the moment.

What puzzled Yu Sen was that Mi Xue had a faint red line around her neck.

At first, he thought it was a necklace or something a girl might wear, but on closer inspection, he realized that the faint red line seemed to be coming from beneath her skin, an oval shape extending and hidden in the hair at the back of her neck.

Mi Xue seemed to feel an itch on her neck, scratching it after a few bites, making the red line more and more noticeable. Her neck was covered in fingerprints and was gradually swelling.

Yu Sen found the situation quite odd.

Eventually, the girl who had shared a room with Mi Xue last night, Wang Shuanglan, came back with food, noticed something wrong, and exclaimed: “Mi Xue! What’s wrong with your neck!?”

The others in the dining hall were drawn by the noise and looked over. Mi Xue panicked: “What’s wrong? I feel so itchy. I thought it was a mosquito bite!”

“With it swollen this much, how could it be a mosquito bite?” Wang Shuanglan bit her lip, looking pained.

“It hurts so much…” Mi Xue propped herself up on the table, struggling to stand. Her neck was swelling so much that she couldn’t cover it with one hand. “It’s itchy, hot, and painful. How did this happen…”

Someone in the dining hall pointed out: “What’s that red line on your neck?”

Mi Xue let go of her neck, her eyes filled with fear. Her pale face contrasted sharply with the redness and swelling of her neck. “What red line? I’m not wearing a red line… I’m not…”

Realizing that the Grim Reaper’s scythe was already looming over her, she slowly moved forward a couple of steps. Tears streamed down her face, her expression filled with despair, her voice hoarse: “Help me… Someone help me… Please… Save me…”

The dining hall fell into silence, only the sound of Mi Xue’s sobs echoing.

Everyone realized the problem. Her neck had swollen to the size of her face in such a short time, and the red line was becoming more pronounced, as if blood was about to drip down.

This couldn’t be caused by someone, it couldn’t be a normal phenomenon, and it definitely wasn’t something that ordinary people like them could solve.

Mi Xue’s whole body went limp, collapsing on the ground, her body twitching uncontrollably. Someone, unable to bear it, said softly: “Would applying cold water or ice help?”

Of course, it wouldn’t help—everyone understood that.

But out of sympathy, Wang Shuanglan still said softly: “I just saw some ice over there. I’ll go get some.”

As soon as Wang Shuanglan turned around, Mi Xue’s body seemed to freeze in place, her eyes unmoving. Yu Sen watched in slow motion as blood began to spurt out from the red line on her neck. A second later, it was as if a knife was spirally cutting through her neck from the inside out, and her head was severed from her body in an instant.

The person who hadn’t closed their eyes yet had their head fall to the ground like a ball, rolling a few times. A large amount of blood erupted from the wound like a volcanic eruption, so much that you could even hear a splashing sound, which was spine-chilling.

Several people close to Mi Xue were splattered with blood, and their panicked screams rang out one after another.

The scene was so bloody and swift that in just a few seconds, everything in sight was covered in bright red.

Yu Sen frowned, sitting in the dining chair, trying to get a clearer view. However, Si Xuanyang, standing in front of him, shifted his position, perfectly blocking his line of sight.

Yu Sen: “……”

Once could be a coincidence, but repeated occurrences made it hard for him to still believe it was just a coincidence.

Could it be that he had given Si Xuanyang too much of a ‘fragile’ impression before, so that whenever something terrifying appeared, Si Xuanyang would subconsciously block it for him?

What a miscalculation.

But does he really look that fragile? And Si Xuanyang actually believed in his superficial acting so deeply?

Or maybe it’s just because he’s young and inexperienced.

……

In the face of such a cruel ‘slaughter,’ most people present seemed at a loss, especially those splattered with Mi Xue’s blood. Their faces turned pale as they stumbled back, their bodies going limp as they collapsed to the ground.

“How could this happen to her…” Wang Shuanglan murmured in shock.

“It must be the room,” Lin Jianchuan took off his glasses and wiped them with his sleeve.

He said slowly, “Our rooms were all arranged, and we probably can’t change rooms every night. I reminded her last night, but she was too frightened to listen.”

“You did remind her…” Wang Shuanglan couldn’t help but cry. She had also gone to Mi Xue’s room last night and heard Lin Jianchuan telling Mi Xue not to change rooms, “But her room was so blood-soaked and scary, how could she stay there…”

“It would have been better than her current fate.”

Sighing, Yu Sen thought that before the incident, everyone was just speculating. Some were cautious, while others hoped that breaking the rules would only result in a minor punishment, not a big deal.

But reality gave her a brutal lesson. Before she could learn how to follow the rules, she paid with her life.

Mi Xue’s body lay in a pool of blood, slowly growing cold.

Soon, everyone in the dining room left, unwilling to stay in the place. A few people found a curtain and covered Mi Xue’s body and head, hastily finishing the task before quickly leaving.

The smell of blood lingered heavily in the dining room. After smelling it for a while, Yu Sen even thought that the floral scent in the garden smelled like rust.

He glanced at the storage room on the second floor and said, “I guess… the heads in the storage room belong to people who used to live in the old mansion, including the handsome Mr. Li we saw last night.”

“Mr. Li is Mr. Li, what does handsome have to do with it? He’s just a ghost,” Si Nan snorted.

“Mind your own business!” Yu Sen, in a bad mood, shot him a sharp glance, “Others are just handsome. Even as ghosts, they are still handsome. When they were alive, they must have been even more so.”

“Hmph… So you’re not satisfied with my looks now?” Si Nan bantered as usual.

Si Xuanyang, unaware of the situation, felt a twitch in his eyelid.

“It’s good you know. You need to face reality,” Yu Sen shot a sharp look.

“Stop, don’t say anymore,” Si Xuanyang felt he might not want to hear the rest and turned back to the main topic, “Back to the heads.”

“Oh…” Yu Sen thought for a moment and said, “Last night, I saw a scar around the neck of that new groom Mr. Li. It seems he was beheaded in his lifetime.”

Connecting this with the heads seen outside the threshold at night and the heads displayed in the room on the second floor, Si Xuanyang felt that Yu Sen’s point was valid.

“I heard that if a person becomes a vengeful spirit or is eternally trapped in the same place, there must be a cause,” Si Nan said, “I see the people in the old mansion… or rather, those ghosts, are trapped here, repeating the same wedding every night. Could it be that their heads were locked in the cabinets by the manager we saw at the hotel? So their souls can’t escape.”

“So the question is, why did the manager do this?”

“Could it be that the manager is actually the bride from last night? As for the grudges… it’s probably a matter of love,” Luo Yu suggested.

Yu Sen shook his head, “No, I compared it. The chin of the bride last night was very different from the manager’s. Just this point alone makes it easy to distinguish.”

“In that case, to clarify their identities, how about… we explore the bridal chamber tonight?” Si Xuanyang suggested.

Si Nan’s hair stood on end in disbelief, “Are you out of your mind, little brother?”

Yu Sen quickly responded, “If you’re scared, then Si Si and Luo Yu can stay behind. Yang Yang and I will go.”

“No way!” Si Xuanyang looked at him with a hint of anger in his eyes.

“I’m going!” Yu Sen huffed, provocatively raising his eyebrows at Si Xuanyang with a smile in his eyes, the sunlight reflecting vivid colors in his pupils.

Si Xuanyang felt inexplicably dazed for a moment, thinking he must have seen it wrong. When he wanted to look again, the person had already turned away.

He must have been mistaken.

He felt increasingly unbalanced in front of Yu Sen and, upon realizing it, noticed his heart was inexplicably beating faster than usual.

Si Xuanyang looked at Yu Sen’s back and then at Si Nan, unwilling to delve into the obvious reason any further.

---

That night, as the moon rose, they returned to the old mansion and went through another wedding ceremony, then returned to their room.

For the night’s exploration, Yu Sen had purposely taken a nap in the afternoon and was now refreshed and in a good mood.

Si Xuanyang glanced at him, said nothing, and brought the red candle that hadn’t been used up from last night. He also brought the red veil, which was of unknown use, and advised Si Nan, “You two don’t fall asleep too deeply. It’s best to take turns keeping watch. Light the other candle if you notice anything unusual.”

“Got it, stay safe,” Si Nan waved his hand. “Yu Ge, make sure to bring my brother back in one piece.”

Yu Sen rolled his eyes, “Why don’t you make sure he brings me back in one piece?”

“Because my brother would do that even if I didn’t say anything, but you, if I don’t remind you, you probably wouldn’t,” Si Nan said with a look of certainty.

Yu Sen: “……”

Si Xuanyang: “……”

“Let’s go. If we stay any longer, I’m afraid I might kill someone.” Yu Sen sighed.

“Mm.”

……

On a dark and windy night, taking advantage of the fact that there were no people or ghosts around, Yu Sen quietly crept through the corridor, glancing at Si Xuanyang beside him and suddenly bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

“It feels like we’re having an affair!”