Infinite Murder Mystery Game: The Beauty with a Delicate Palm

"Very good. Now, think of that knife as another string."

Her hands stopped trembling violently.

"A string isn't meant to pierce the air, it's meant to end noise." The voice remained gentle, yet clearer than ever before.

"Mianmian, now, open your eyes."

She slowly raised her eyelashes.

The face in front of me was still getting closer, a menacing smile on its lips, which opened and closed.

"Kill me."

But those words have lost their sharpness.

"Can you hear the music?"

She heard it, and her fingers tightened.

"The last string."

The blade moved steadily forward along the lines of her arm, precise and crisp, like plucking a string.

In that instant, all the chaotic sounds ceased abruptly.

All sounds are silent.

Her breathing was unusually steady, and the last note of the harp slowly dissipated in her ears.

The train came to a stop, and all the carriage doors opened at that moment, letting in a salty sea breeze, carrying the warmth of the sunshine.

The wind brushed her black hair and wiped away her tears.

The sea is right outside the platform, a beautiful, gorgeous sea.

The girl's eyelashes trembled as she looked at her hands. There was no blood or dust on them. Although she was dressed simply, her face shone brightly in the sunlight.

"Attention passengers, the train has arrived at the final stop of this journey."

Su Mian looked up, stunned. She supported herself and stood up, her steps slightly unsteady as she walked towards a car door. Her pupils reflected the bright sunlight and familiar figures.

"Please pack your belongings, including the memories, regrets, and efforts of your journey."

"Thank you for accompanying us on the entire journey. As the car door opens, may your soul rest in peace and find its final resting place."

The man opened his arms to her, Su Mian jumped out of the car, rushed straight to her, hugged her, tears streaming down her face, and spoke incoherently through sobs.

"Is this for real or a lie?"

At 9:00 AM, he kissed the top of her head and said, "It's true."

"The doors will always be open; outside lies eternal freedom, and endless clamor."

"Dear passengers, until we meet again."

"Mianmian, wake up."

*

When Su Mian woke up, she didn't know how much time had passed. The only thing she was thankful for was that she didn't see a hospital room when she opened her eyes.

But it was an unfamiliar environment. Memories of what happened before entering the instance began to flood her mind. Ma Youhui gave her an acupuncture needle, and then she fainted. What happened next?

She propped herself up and sat up, finally having the energy to look around.

The afternoon sunlight, around three or four o'clock, was filtered through the off-white window curtains, turning into a fuzzy halo that lazily spread across the worn wooden floor.

Several potted green ivy plants were placed on the windowsill, their vines hanging down in varying lengths.

Su Mian's first thought was that she probably hadn't been kidnapped, and secondly, she wasn't dead yet.

So where did everyone go? What about Ma Youhui? What about Qiao Yinuo and Zheng Zizhou?

She rolled over and got out of bed.

The moment I stepped onto the wooden floor, I felt a warm sensation under my feet; the underfloor heating was still on.

Su Mian was stunned for a moment. She turned on the underfloor heating this season either because she was afraid she would get cold, or it was just a habit.

A faded blanket was draped over the sofa, a half-full glass of water sat on the coffee table, and a book lay open with its spine facing up. It was a foreign language book, and Su Mian struggled to read it, so she simply put it down.

After wandering around the room for a while, she finally saw her phone in the drawer of the coffee table, and only then did she realize that she had returned to the real world.

Perhaps because she had experienced too much all at once, her reaction and perception of the outside world became somewhat dulled. She couldn't even tell where she was or what place she was in. She only felt a little more at ease after picking up her phone.

The first thing I saw was a push notification.

[Exclusive Reveal: The Shocking Secret Behind the Capital Institute of Biology—Human Consciousness Used as "Fuel"]

The finger paused.

She clicked on it, and the news article was very long with many pictures, but she only saw one of them.

The photo shows the profile of a man standing in what appears to be a press conference. He is dressed in a sharp suit, with a stern expression, and is looking down at his prepared remarks.

The shooting angle was tricky, only capturing three-quarters of the face, but those eyes—

I recognize it from my sleep.

She scrolled down, and the comments section exploded.

"Holy crap, so those who say they're sending treatment to the degenerated ones are actually draining their consciousness?"

"The research institute isn't for treating illnesses, it's for harvesting resources???"

"Who's this spokesperson? He's so handsome... Wait, is the emphasis on 'handsome'?"

"He's supposedly a biological research expert who returned from overseas, with a Cambridge background, and his family has connections to European nobility."

"Rumor has it that his grandfather has connections to a royal family, but he himself is very low-key and never mentions it."

"So he's back in China to expose this? A true champion of justice!"

"But don't you find it strange that he knows so much detail..."

"Is the person upstairs stupid? They're an expert; they were definitely invited to participate in the investigation."

As Su Mian read through the entries one by one, her expression suddenly became confused.

Zheng Zizhou's name also appeared in the news.

"According to a source surnamed Zheng, he personally witnessed the internal operations of the clinic..."

The following video is an interview where Zheng Zizhou faces the camera with a serious expression, completely lacking the fawning demeanor he usually displays as an idol.

Su Mian got the impression that he was a familiar person showing off, but what he said was indeed the truth, only he omitted the words "copy," "god," and "arbitrator."

He packaged the whole thing as a scientific scandal of "harvesting consciousness under the guise of treatment," and Ma Youhui, who succeeded Huang Wenchuang as the next director of the research institute, naturally became a pariah.

The person who revealed all of this was a "mysterious expert who had just returned from overseas."

No one knows who this expert is, where he came from, or why he has so much evidence.

The news only said that he was "an overseas high-level talent invited by the state to participate in a special investigation". In the comments section, some people found out that he had taught at Cambridge, some people found out that he was related to a distant family of a European noble family, and some people said that they had seen his name in a top academic journal.

But no one knew that his name was Si Shi.

Su Mian stared at that photo for a long time.

The door lock clicked once.

She suddenly looked up.

The entryway light was on, and someone walked in. Backlit, their face was obscured, only a slender silhouette was visible as they bent down to change their shoes.

The movements were slow, as if knowing she was watching and deliberately giving her time to process it.

Then he looked up.

Half a year.

More than 180 days.

She was counting down the days outside, while he was desperately trying to survive inside.

"woke up?"

Su Mian's eyes were hot, but she didn't want to cry, and she didn't want Si Shi to see it, so she just put her hands in her pockets and walked over quickly.

With his red hair and excellent bone structure, he does indeed look like he's of mixed race, which explains why some netizens speculate that he has some connection to European royal blood.

Su Mian has a lot of questions, but she doesn't know where to start.

What puzzled her even more was why Si Shi was wearing a lab coat and had the same logo as the biological research institute, which meant that they might not have left the institute yet.