The girl’s pronouncement struck like a thunderbolt, momentarily eclipsing their fear and compelling everyone to desperately crane their necks for a look—two disturbingly lifelike animal heads were embedded in the center of two adjacent walls, one the elegant visage of an antelope, the other the sturdy countenance of a water buffalo.

Below the two gruesome trophies, winding trails of undried bloodstains marred the wall.

“Th-this couldn’t possibly be their—”

The speaker faltered, unable to articulate the full horror of his realization, but every soul present understood the unspoken words.

The twins who resided on the third floor, their faces ashen, cautiously pushed open another door from which blood also seeped ominously.

The scene within mirrored the gruesome scene in the first room with chilling accuracy: two more corpses exhibiting animalistic traits lay sprawled on the floor, and two newly affixed animal heads stared blankly from the wall.

“Those on the first floor… could it be the same for them?”

With this chilling thought hanging in the air, the expressions of those who had idly touched the animal heads adorning the first-floor walls the previous day contorted in dawning horror.

Just as the atmosphere congealed into a frigid stillness, Jenny and George, alerted by the commotion, hurried up the stairs.

“What is wrong? What has happened so early in the morning?”

As Jenny reached the doorway of the ill-fated room, her face immediately blossomed into a radiant smile. Even George, whose countenance was typically an impassive mask, displayed a faint, almost imperceptible upturn of his lips.

“Such exquisite heads, my dear, come and behold!” Jenny exclaimed, stepping into the room with an almost intoxicated air. “Observe these eyes, brimming with such delicious terror! It is magnificent! Utterly magnificent!”

“It is as if they are still alive!”

As she spoke, Jenny reached out a hand to caress the antelope head affixed to the wall. The moment her fingers brushed its coarse fur, the head sprang to a horrifying semblance of life, struggling frantically against its unseen restraints. Its glazed eyeballs darted wildly, and its tightly sealed mouth emitted a piteous female voice, a strangled cry for help. “Help! Save me! Someone, please help! Help!”

Her desperate screams only seemed to amplify Jenny’s delight. She turned to the assembled group, her smile widening. “Listen! This is the beautiful sound that only the freshest acquisitions possess!”

“Fresh acquisitions are indeed the best! Not only do they produce such delightful sounds, but even their texture is warm and yielding!”

In stark contrast to Jenny’s macabre fascination with the severed heads, George merely cast a cursory glance at them before silently entering the room. He emerged moments later, bearing two limp corpses slung effortlessly over his broad shoulders.

As he lumbered out of the room, a low murmur of discontent rumbled from his chest. “Too scrawny, far too small. Barely enough meat to bother with.”

Those who overheard his callous words clutched at their chests, their hearts pounding with a primal fear. “Where is he taking the bodies?!”

The more courageous among them cautiously followed George down the stairs, only to halt abruptly as they saw him disappear into the kitchen.

They whirled around and scrambled back to the third floor, confronting Jenny, who was still lost in her gruesome admiration. “Why are you taking their corpses to the kitchen?!”

His frantic words caused a wave of horrified realization to wash over those who had partaken in the tavern’s meat dishes the previous day.

“Whatever are you babbling about, my dear?” Jenny turned, her expression a picture of bewildered affection, as if addressing a child who had yet to grasp the simplest of concepts. “Naturally, the meat belongs in the kitchen.”

“Otherwise, it will spoil, won’t it?”

Upon hearing her innocent pronouncement, one individual could no longer contain their revulsion. They clapped a hand over their mouth and bolted for the nearest toilet, where violent retching ensued. Some even desperately shoved fingers down their throats, hoping to expel every last morsel of the previous day’s meal.

George, having already deposited the two meager corpses, reappeared on the third floor. He strode into another room and soon emerged, this time carrying two significantly larger, headless bodies.

A look of satisfaction spread across his features. “Ah, now these have some substance! Tonight, we shall have a barbecue!”

“Jenny has a particular fondness for ribs. Let us grill some succulent ribs for her!”

---

Qiao Yu, clinging tightly to Liu Yanliang for support, felt her legs trembling beneath her. Her gaze inadvertently fell upon one of the corpses George had carried away, noticing a familiar bracelet encircling its ‘wrist’.

A sudden, chilling memory pierced through her fear-addled mind. Just yesterday, a man had remarked that she and Liu Yanliang were a match made in heaven, and as a token of his sentiment, he had gifted them a pair of bracelets.

Initially, she had been hesitant to accept the gaudy trinkets, but Liu Yanliang had persuasively argued that they perfectly complemented their ‘romantic union,’ and so she had relented. He had even personally fastened them onto her wrist.

This seemingly innocuous act had been met with enthusiastic cheers and applause from the onlookers on the street, a bizarre display of affection.

The giddy haze of this unexpected attention had momentarily made her forget the strange and perilous circumstances they were in. What had he said when she had offered to help him put on the other bracelet?

He had claimed a peculiar allergy to leather products, stating that they invariably caused a painful rash upon contact. Consequently, he had also insisted on placing his bracelet on her other wrist.

At the time, a faint unease had prickled at the back of her mind, but she had dismissed it, instead choosing to regard the two bracelets as tangible symbols of their growing happiness.

In a fit of playful pique at his refusal to wear his own, she had taken both bracelets off, but reluctant to discard this newfound sweetness, she had tucked them safely into her pocket.

He had displayed a fleeting moment of annoyance when she had removed them, but upon seeing her stow them away, his mood had instantly shifted, and he had coaxed her with gentle words.

As this fragmented memory coalesced in her mind, a wave of icy goosebumps erupted across Qiao Yu’s skin. She abruptly released the hand she had been clutching so tightly.

“What’s wrong? Are you frightened?” Liu Yanliang’s face was a mask of unease, but calculating that this woman might still possess some residual value, he forced a tone of patient reassurance. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll find a way out of this soon enough.”

“By the way,” he continued, his voice carefully casual, “didn’t you receive two bracelets yesterday? I noticed just now that the… the person’s hand also had a similar one. I’m worried that this might be the condition for death,” Liu Yanliang stated, already convinced of his grim hypothesis, his tone laced with hypocritical concern. “If you still have them, you should discard them immediately.”

“Although we managed to survive one night, there’s no guarantee that tonight will be equally kind. If you truly cherish them, I’ll buy you even finer ones once we escape this accursed place.”

The seed of suspicion that had just begun to sprout in Qiao Yu’s mind was effectively smothered by Liu Yanliang’s seemingly accidental observation.

Despite the lingering discomfort gnawing at her insides, Qiao Yu suppressed her unease and nodded obediently. “Okay,” she murmured.

---

Ding Yi, having returned to their room, sank onto the sofa, her face still pale from the morning’s gruesome discoveries. She frowned, attempting to organize the fragmented pieces of information swirling in her mind.

“What on earth is happening? If having animal products with you means certain death, how did we all make it through last night?”

“Because of the death limit.”

Qin Yuan spoke softly. “Each instance sets different maximum death limits per night. In this case, for instance, a maximum of four individuals can die each night within the specified time. Those who exceed the death conditions can still avoid their fate.”

“As long as you do not commit the same mistake today, nothing bad will happen.”

“How are those who have already violated the conditions for death selected?”

“It is a matter of pure chance.”

Those who had slept soundly through the morning’s horrors finally stirred after the gruesome evidence had been efficiently cleared away.

Jiang Xianqing and Yan Ming were among them.

After listening to Ding Yi’s grim recounting, the two of them huddled together on the sofa, their faces a sickly shade of green, battling waves of nausea.

Yan Ming ventured hesitantly, “Could the meat served in the tavern… could it be—”

Jiang Xianqing clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with revulsion. “Could all the meat in this town be like that? And it’s not just animal heads they serve here.”

Ding Yi shook her head, her stomach churning. “I don’t know. It’s difficult to say with any certainty.”

The two of them gagged simultaneously, shrinking further into the cushions of the sofa.

“Let’s go. Time is slipping away.” Jiang Xianqing adjusted her posture, struggling to sit upright on the sofa, only to wilt again at the sight of the blood-soaked bed and walls.

“That… what are you planning to do tonight?” Jiang Xianqing gestured vaguely at the red and black mess, a bitter taste filling her mouth. “How are you even going to sleep in here?”

“Otherwise… why not join us in our room tonight? Those twin sisters appear quite friendly. I’ll ask if we can take advantage of their hospitality?”

“No need,” Qin Yuan, who had been sitting silently beside Ding Yi with his eyes closed in apparent rest, lazily opened his eyelids. He turned his head to look at Ding Yi and stated with quiet certainty, “Someone will take care of it.”