After all, Nan Yue viewed the NPCs as companions. To be thought of that way after offering a warning would make anyone feel aggrieved and angry.
"Even if they're companions, I'm no saint; I can't save everyone."
Nan Yue said softly, "He's too weak. Whether it's the person himself or his verbal attacks, they're too weak to have any impact on me."
Nan Yue thought for a moment, wanting to clarify her image in Jiang Siyan's mind. "I just don't like seeing life slip away. It's not that I'm soft-hearted."
Jiang Siyan nodded with a smile. "Yes, yes, of course."
Nan Yue glared at him; his perfunctoriness was far too obvious.
When Nan Yue and the others returned to the third courtyard to find Zhu Xi Ning and the rest, they found quite a crowd gathered there.
However, from their positioning, one could see they were faintly divided into two groups, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense.
The boy they had seen earlier was the leader.
"So, we're going to try to force our way out now. If you don't come with us, don't expect us to come back and save you once we're gone."
A significant number of people had already gathered around the boy, perhaps ten or so, all NPCs.
Not a single scavenger responded to him; everyone remained silent.
They knew perfectly well that whether it was a scavenger or an NPC, violating the rules meant death. They didn't even bother explaining the situation; to them, NPCs were just mannequins.
The deaths of these NPCs might cause psychological ripples only because they looked so much like humans.
But fundamentally, they weren't human, just as this world wasn't the real world.
"None of you are speaking?" the boy said viciously. "You all have decent viewer ratings, don't you? I know you all think you can be the winner, even if everyone else dies."
"But so many people have died now. Can't you show some respect for the dead? There are things in this world more important than money!"
"Pfft, that's hilarious."
Nan Yue glanced over and saw Zhu Xi Ning speaking with a cold sneer, already predicting what was about to happen.
"Such high-sounding words. Aren't you just scared and wanting everyone to test the path for you?"
"What did you say!"
The boy's face was covered in sweat. Hearing Zhu Xi Ning's words, he looked like he was about to jump.
"Isn't it true? Didn't you say you already tried to escape once and saw your companion's corpse at the gate?"
The boy replied impatiently, "Yeah! And without me, you wouldn't even know people were dead!"
Zhu Xi Ning crossed her arms, not giving him an ounce of courtesy.
"If you really wanted to lead everyone to escape because you felt something was wrong, you would have called us the first time you left. You wouldn't have waited until you realized the four of you couldn't escape before trying to mobilize everyone else to test the rules for you."
The girls standing beside the boy lowered their heads, their faces flushing with embarrassment.
The boy's face turned red, but he still tried to hold his ground. "I... I did it because..."
Zhu Xi Ning couldn't be bothered to listen. In this mission where time was extremely tight, too much had already been wasted here.
"How old are you, and you already know how to use moral blackmail? Talking about respecting life and things being more important than money."
"I just want to ask you, didn't you join this stream for money, for profit, or out of curiosity?"
"You signed this contract at the cost of your own life to explore a ghost house where many have died. Did you respect life when you signed that contract without a second thought, treating it like a game?"
"Knowing full well there's something wrong with this house and that the rules aren't fake, you still incite everyone to test those rules. Are you respecting life now?"
"If everyone follows you and they really all die, can you take responsibility for that?"
The boy stood there dazed, but Zhu Xi Ning didn't spare him another glance and ran over to Nan Yue's side.
"A-Nan."
She looked at Jiang Siyan. "Old Jiang, are you okay? Your stream earlier looked a bit terrifying."
Jiang Siyan smiled and shook his head. "Just an illusion."
He sighed softly. "Perhaps the moment we stepped into this house, the vengeful spirits inside treated us as the descendants of the Zhou family."
"That's why they're racking their brains to find ways to kill us."
Nan Yue glanced at the screen. The current stream followed a girl who was with that boy, and she clearly had no heart for streaming right now.
Nan Yue had already given her warning. She had said her piece; she couldn't help them any further.
Xu Yuan also approached. "Sister Nan."
The third day was approaching, and Nan Yue didn't want to delay any longer.
"Xu Yuan, did you find any clues as to why the Zhou family killed so many people?"
Xu Yuan's expression was solemn. "No. I only found that besides the opera performers, there were many girls bought and sold here, as well as some from wealthy families, though their numbers were smaller."
Nan Yue grew interested. "Tell me."
"I found a betrothal gift list, but it wasn't in the wooden building of Liping Garden. It was at a pavilion."
"Pressed under a stone table."
"The betrothal gifts given by the Zhou family were simply staggering. The recipient was the Second Miss Yang of Pingzhou."
Nan Yue pondered for a moment. "In the Zhou genealogy, the first few generations of wives usually have their own names. Later, they just become titles like 'Madam Zhou, née Zhang' or 'Madam Zhou, née Li'."
So, this Second Miss Yang of Pingzhou likely came from a decent family, making it a well-matched marriage.
However, Nan Yue was curious. No matter how tightly the Zhou family kept their secrets, it was impossible for no news of their troubles to leak out.
Why would anyone still be willing to marry their child into the Zhou residence?
But looking at the Zhou family's peak wealth and their unending fortune, the answer seemed to be right there.
"Excluding the NPCs, the scavengers have searched the Zhou residence and Liping Garden almost entirely, yet the reason why the Zhou family did this hasn't surfaced at all."
"That's impossible."
Nan Yue frowned in thought. "They must have recorded these things somewhere, or there's a place that isn't right."
Her gaze paused. "The Lake-center Pavilion."
If any place was the safest, it would be the Lake-center Pavilion, isolated in the middle of the water far from land.
It was also the place Zhu Xi Ning had identified as having the heaviest resentment the moment she entered the mission.
"We definitely need to go to the pavilion, but..."
Nan Yue planned to wait until it was her turn to stream before going up; she could earn a wave of tips that way.
The stream didn't pass to Zhu Xi Ning until nearly evening.
Although the day had been grey with a light drizzle, visibility was even lower at night.
This time, the task with the highest tips on the bullet comments was for her to sleep in the bed in the main hall.
The three of them accompanied her to the main hall. It no longer showed the eeriness from when Jiang Siyan was there; it was quiet, looking like an ordinary, forgotten room.
Nan Yue and the other two stood in three corners of the room. Although they were there, Zhu Xi Ning knew that until the moment of truth, she would have to escape any illusions on her own.
Zhu Xi Ning surveyed the place where she was about to sleep.
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