Chapter 295

“How could it be...”

Just a moment ago, Mei Lin was full of vitality, but the next second she collapsed unconscious before her eyes; Pulumeliya was thrown into utter panic, her heart pounding wildly in her chest—this girl who had never shown any emotion since entering Vanessa Castle, who always seemed to have everything under control, revealed fear for the first time.

She trembled as she reached out, pressed her hand against a chess piece engraved with the black character “Horse,” and moved it to the opposite corner of the “Sun” square.

She again rewound time by five minutes.

Mei Lin, who had been unconscious, stood once more beside the girl; the instant Pulumeliya rewound, she lunged onto Mei Lin and yanked off the headphones with force.

“Your Highness?!” Mei Lin looked down in shock, seeing the girl’s pale, tear-streaked face in her arms, and her heart lurched: “W-what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Don’t wear the headphones,” Pulumeliya stammered. “Don’t listen to that sound—under no circumstances...”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Mei Lin was puzzled but obeyed without hesitation, placing both headphones and the microphone back into the box, shutting it completely before asking, “What exactly happened? Can you tell me?”

Pulumeliya shook her head: “I don’t know, Mei Lin, I don’t know... Something seems to have happened to Dekin Hansa and the others—you heard the sound in the headphones and passed out.”

“I tried rewinding time with a Huiqi , but it didn’t work, Mei Lin—no matter how far I push the timeline backward, once the Huiqi ends, you still hear that sound and fall unconscious again... Why is this happening?”

“Stay calm, Your Highness—we must remain calm now...” Mei Lin gripped the girl’s trembling hand, her eyes scanning the chess pieces, then sharply surveyed the surroundings, drawing the pistol strapped to her thigh.

Pulumeliya took several deep breaths to steady herself, then briefly recounted what had just occurred:

Mei Lin glanced at her wristwatch—the time was 3:51 p.m.

“According to Your Highness, you’ve rewound three moves—that’s fifteen minutes,” Mei Lin said. “Dekin Hansa and the others must have been attacked at around 4:00 p.m., and that’s when the sound in the headphones came, making me pass out.”

“But after I rewound, the sound didn’t disappear,” Pulumeliya added. “That sound, which should have existed only after 4:00 p.m., appeared at 3:51 p.m.”

Mei Lin nodded, swiftly summarizing the known facts:

1. The rules of the chess game have not failed.

Pulumeliya can still reset Mei Lin’s state through Huiqi .

2. Huiqi is ineffective against “that sound.”

No matter how Pulumeliya manipulates the timeline, once the Huiqi ends, the sound still plays as before.

“It was that bird,” Pulumeliya gripped Mei Lin’s wrist tightly, her gaze sharpening. “Before you passed out, we saw a strange bird flying around us, carrying something in its beak, with a long line trailing from its tail.”

“Really?” Mei Lin frowned—she had no memory of that moment before the Huiqi .

“I know what that line is, Mei Lin,” Pulumeliya said. “Before we set out, I asked Mother Superior what precautions to take when using the chess rules. She told me many things, one of which was this...”

“Whether you rewind or capture, the player can only influence matters within the chessboard. Everything beyond it is beyond our control. Normally, once the board is set, the scope of the ‘game’ is fixed—unless the player deliberately dismantles it, no other variables should arise. But Mother Superior said there is one exception.”

Pulumeliya scanned the room as if searching for the mysterious bird, then continued: “There is a tool called the ‘Ink Square.’ The lines it draws can separate what is inseparable, cut through what is unbreakable, and sever what is unending—and it can also...”

—redraw the chessboard.

“You suspect the object in the bird’s beak is the Ink Marker, and the long ‘rope’ trailing behind it is the Ink Line?” Mei Lin immediately understood Pulumeliya’s meaning: “That bird flew around us carrying the Ink Marker and dragging the Ink Line—was it redrawing the chessboard?”

Pulumeliya nodded: “I believe so.”

Otherwise, there’s no way to explain why Huiqi could only reset Mei Lin’s state but couldn’t make the hypnotic sound from the third floor of Zhong Lou disappear.

“We’re trapped, Mei Lin. The most famous function of the Ink Square tool is ‘drawing a prison on the ground...’” As the situation became clear, Pulumeliya regained her composure, calmly assessing their current predicament.

She was a very intelligent girl, just too young and lacking experience dealing with the unknown—when faced with things beyond her control, she easily panicked.

“It must be that intruder!” Mei Lin tightened her grip on her gun, scanning the surroundings warily. “He must have investigated the Fuli Misi Leite family’s secrets beforehand. Damn it—there’s a traitor in the family! Our information was leaked! He came prepared!”

To be fair, Mei Lin and Pulumeliya’s deductions were not wrong—if core intelligence hadn’t been leaked in advance, who else could have checkmated them here, silently and without warning, while they held the chessboard?

But no matter how hard Pulumeliya and Mei Lin thought, they could never have imagined.

Ning Zhe had never investigated them in advance, he was just... incredibly lucky.

So lucky that any tool he pulled out just happened to counter Pulumeliya’s chessboard.

The wireless headphones lay quietly in the box at Mei Lin’s waist; she now dared not wear them, afraid of falling unconscious again. But what the vigilant pair did not know was that, at this very moment, on the third floor of Zhong Lou, the music had ceased.

The music box contained eight requiems composed by ghosts, each lasting 88 seconds; during the tense moments the two stood before the chessboard, one requiem had already finished playing.

The music box contained eight requiem melodies played by ghosts, each lasting exactly 88 seconds; during the tense moments the two stood before the chessboard, one requiem had already finished playing.

A pair of cowboy boots landed on the third-floor floor.

Ning Zhe stepped over the scattered, twisted corpses, leaving their grotesque deaths behind, and walked calmly into the interrogation room’s doorway.

The heavy iron door had been opened—a massive dent had warped the steel plate into a giant “U,” the iron bar Dekin Hansa had used to brace it torn cleanly in two; the interior was a scene of violent destruction.

Entering the door, passing through the narrow corridor, Ning Zhe reached the room’s interior, where a small, adorable cloth doll shaped like a girl lay curled up beside the wall, hugging the now-closed music box, sleeping soundly like a cat.

Ning Zhe picked up the sleeping Xia Rong, looked up—and saw Xue Xi unconscious in the center of the interrogation room.

And the thing curled in the corner... the “ghost.”

(End of Chapter)

(End of chapter)