absurd deduction game.

Chapter 1111 Are you here to see the moon too?

Yu Xing's face showed just the right amount of doubt and concern: "Unfortunate? Mother-in-law, could you tell me more?"

Grandma Pearl sighed and agreed, considering he was a professional investigator and had a partnership with the Harvest Church.

Her gaze drifted out the window, as if lost in distant memories. After a long while, she said, "Teacher Riel... he was a very intelligent and gentle young man, very knowledgeable, and very polite."

"His family used to live in that white house with a small garden at the end of Rose Avenue. His wife was very kind, and his son was just learning to run at the time... What a wonderful family."

Grandma Pearl's tone was full of regret: "But later... I don't know what happened, but I heard that Teacher Riel seemed to have become obsessed with something very profound and dangerous, and he became completely possessed. He quit his job at the university and locked himself at home all day, refusing to see anyone, constantly muttering things that no one could understand... things like stars, eyes, and so on..."

"These are things his wife and I talked about in casual conversation. We had a pretty good relationship back then."

Grandma Pearl lowered her voice even further, with the cautiousness of someone recounting a taboo past: "His appearance naturally attracted the attention of the church. During that time, people wearing church robes often loitered around his house, and sometimes they would come to the shop to buy bread—back then, my mother was in charge of the household, and I was helping out, so I knew a little about it."

"I overheard people from the church gossiping that although Teacher Riel has become eccentric, constantly talking about stars and the universe and acting crazy, he hasn't actually done anything to harm anyone."

"In addition, he has a wife and young son at home watching over him. The mother and son both seemed normal and there was nothing unusual about them. So the people in the church probably didn't think it was a big deal and just regarded it as routine surveillance work. They would probably stop after observing for a week or two."

At this point, a clear look of fear appeared on Granny Pearl's face. She instinctively gripped her apron tightly, her voice trembling slightly: "But who knew... just when the church people thought everything was almost over, and were preparing to go to his house one last time to give his wife some instructions, and then end the surveillance that night..."

She took a deep breath, as if she needed courage to say what she was about to say: "The moon in the sky... suddenly turned blood red! The whole town seemed to be shrouded in a bloody light, a sight I will never forget."

Yu Xing's gaze sharpened slightly.

Blood Moon?
“Those church people who went in that night…none of them ever came out.” Grandma Pearl’s voice choked with lingering fear. “It wasn’t until the next day, when the other church members sensed something was wrong and went to the door, that they found…that they found Riel’s wife and son unconscious in the living room. And those church people who went in last night…”

She swallowed hard before continuing, "One by one...they all...all of them hanged themselves in front of the second-floor bedroom window! Hanging together with Teacher Riel! Just swaying in the wind...swaying..."

Even after more than 30 years, when she recalls this incident, Grandma Pearl's face still turns pale, as if she can still see that terrifying scene.

“I don’t know much about what happened after that.” She took a breath and shook her head. “The Harvest Church classified this as a private case and covered it up very tightly. All I know is that Riel’s wife and son survived after being treated by the church, but… I heard that the Archbishop himself intervened and made them forget the specifics of what happened that night, and only remember that Teacher Riel died.”

"Sigh, it's pitiful. Riel's wife didn't want to leave that house either, so she and her son have lived there ever since. She must be fifty-five now, and her son is thirty-two. Over the years, nothing else has happened, and they've been living peacefully, but she's become much more introverted and rarely interacts with us neighbors anymore."

Grandma Pearl sighed, her tone filled with emotion and pity: "Perhaps it's because she experienced such a great misfortune... Riel's wife is clearly five or six years younger than me, but she looks as old as someone in their seventies or eighties, her energy almost completely depleted. Perhaps... perhaps she won't be alive in a few more days?"

Yu Xing imagined the scene for a moment, nodded, and then asked, "What about her and Riel's son?"

"I heard her son is doing quite well. He's a sailor, strong and cheerful, and goes out to sea every few days. Right now... it seems he's not in town again, gone out to sea, and probably won't be back for a while." Grandma Pearl seemed much more relaxed talking about this, and a smile returned to her kind, slightly plump face.

Yu Xing listened quietly, memorizing all the information.

A blood moon night, a mass hanging... What did the moon, this celestial body, influence that led to the unforgivable and bizarre events that occurred at Riel's house that night?

He thanked Grandma Pearl again: "Thank you so much for telling me this, Grandma. This information has been very helpful to me."

As Yu Xing left the bakery, the almond roll in his hand seemed to have lost some of its sweetness. He turned his gaze toward Rose Avenue, his eyes becoming deep.

The answer, hidden so deeply, lies in that white house.

And his son who was at sea... He was just a tiny baby on the night of the blood moon thirty years ago. Although he lost his memory of that night with the help of the cardinal, did he really completely block out the influence?

Is his choice to become a sailor who spends his life at sea... also a form of unconscious escape?

Yu Xing swallowed her breakfast and walked towards Riel's former home.

……

At the end of Rose Avenue, compared to the other well-maintained houses, the white two-story building appears particularly quiet and desolate.

The white paint had yellowed and peeled, revealing the dull brickwork underneath. The paint on the black wooden window frames was cracked, and there was even a barely noticeable crack in the glass of one of the second-floor windows.

The small front garden had long been abandoned, with only a few clumps of withered yellow weeds and a crooked old rose branch remaining, stubbornly proving that there had once been life here. It exuded a sense of weariness forgotten by time, but it was still clear that it once belonged to a respectable family that was not rich but certainly not poor.

Yu Xing stood in front of the black courtyard gate, her gaze calmly sweeping over the house.

It wasn't until he stood there in person and consciously tried to perceive the situation that Yu Xing realized the condition inside the house was probably worse than he had imagined.

It's so quiet.

It wasn't just a silence in sound, but a deathly stillness in the breath of life.

His senses spread throughout the house, but he felt there was no sign of life inside.

strangeness.

Grandma Pearl said that Riel's wife had been living here with her son all along. Could it be such a coincidence that, around the time the predictor arrived, that elderly woman had already died at home, but no one had discovered it?

Yu Xing glanced around. Even though it was daytime, few people passed by. It seemed that no one cared about the current situation of the owner of the white house.

Never mind, let's go in and take a look first.

He pushed open the unlocked courtyard gate, which creaked softly, and walked up the short stone steps leading to the porch, then rang the doorbell.

An old-fashioned mechanical bell rang somewhere in the room, its sound hollow and distant.

After waiting for more than ten seconds, no footsteps were heard.

Just as Yu Xing was about to ring the doorbell again—

"Click."

The heavy, black wooden door with brass handles slowly opened inwards by itself.

Inside the door was a thick, almost impenetrable darkness.

It was a bright and sunny morning outside, but the light inside seemed to be swallowed up by something invisible. Only a sliver of light shone through the crack in the door, illuminating a small patch of dusty wooden floor by the doorway.

An indescribable odor wafted out from inside the door—a mixture of dust, mustiness, the faint scent of some kind of herb, and an even more eerie smell, like the rust of metal mixed with the scent of old parchment.

Yu Xing's senses spread out instantly, confirming once again that there was no sign of life inside—no heartbeat, no breathing, and no body temperature.

"..." Something's not right.

He felt he might have to start dinner earlier than planned.

Yu Xing took out the Carlos paper doll from his pocket, contacted his teammates, and then put the paper doll back in his pocket. There were also the standard firearms that the Ideal Country had distributed to the investigators there, which he could use later.

After that, his expression remained unchanged, as if he had not noticed anything unusual. He simply stepped into the darkness like an ordinary visitor.

The moment he stepped into the room, the door behind him closed silently and slowly, completely cutting off any light or sound from the outside world. Absolute silence descended.

Yu Xing stood still, squinting at the dim environment in front of him.

This appears to be the living room, with the furniture covered in thick white sheets, like silent ghosts. The air is icy cold, a stark contrast to the warmth outside.

"Ta...ta...ta..."

Suddenly, a soft, rhythmic tapping sound came from upstairs, like someone gently tapping wood with their fingernails.

Yu Xing ignored him, his gaze sweeping across the living room.

On the mantel was a framed photo containing a faded family portrait—a young couple, the husband wearing glasses with a refined appearance, and the wife with a gentle smile, holding an infant in her arms.

The air of happiness almost overflowed from the photo frame, creating a stark contrast with the deathly silence inside the room.

Next to the picture frame was a crudely made ship model, glued together from seashells and conches. The workmanship was childish, clearly the work of a child.

“Rustle…rustle…”

A sound like paper rubbing came from the study next door.

Yu Xing walked over.

The study door was ajar. Pushing it open, I saw several thick books spread out on the desk, their covers printed with intricate star charts. The pages turned rapidly without any wind, making a rustling sound.

On the wall, some complex and distorted constellation diagrams drawn with charcoal seemed to come alive, the lines pulsating slightly like blood vessels, and judging from their almost complete fading, all the marks on the wall were many years old.

So, this was painted by Riel thirty years ago?

Yu Xing didn't go in; her thoughts drifted far away.

Drawing celestial figures on the wall, leaving it covered in dense marks, is indeed a sign of extreme fanaticism; no wonder the church was monitoring him.

But after all these years, has the scene inside this house remained completely unchanged?
He looked at it more closely and then noticed something rather unusual.

In the corner of the desk, there was a sewing basket containing some unfinished embroidery with simple floral patterns. This must be Riel's wife's, right?
Yu Xing simply watched quietly as the pages of the book on the table turned faster and faster, almost tearing apart. The constellation chart on the wall also began to twist and rotate, emitting a dizzying and eerie light.

But that's not enough to make a tree's spirit react.

An unusual sense of tension gradually increased, until suddenly, after exceeding a certain threshold, all the strange noises and lights vanished instantly.

The study returned to deathly silence and darkness.

Yu Xing: "Hmm..."

He didn't touch anything in the study for the time being, turned around and left, heading towards the stairs, wanting to see if the other rooms were the same as this one.

The wooden stairs groaned under his feet, unable to bear the weight any longer.

The higher you go, the stronger the eerie smell of metallic corrosion and parchment becomes.

Once they reached the second floor, Yu Xing's attention was immediately drawn to it.

On the wall of the second-floor corridor hangs a huge painting framed in black.

The painting does not depict human figures, but rather a deep, swirling starry sky. The arrangement of the stars is strangely bizarre, and looking at it for too long feels as if it will suck your soul in.

As Yu Xing approached, the stars in the starry sky painting suddenly shone with a scarlet light, and the entire painting seemed to transform into a gigantic, blood-red pupil staring at him! At the same time, a suppressed, frantic male whisper resounded directly in his mind:
"...They are watching...they keep watching...the answer lies in the trajectory of the stars...why don't you understand...why are you stopping me...!"

The sound was filled with anxiety, anger, and a desperate despair on the verge of collapse, interspersed with a woman's sobs, as if it were the lingering echo of Riel's argument with his wife before his death.

Yu Xing didn't even pause for a moment, completely ignoring the terrifying illusion and whispers, and walked towards the tightly closed master bedroom door at the end of the corridor.

The closer you get to the master bedroom, the colder the air becomes. Under the crack in the door, an ominous, dark red light faintly shines through, like... congealed blood.

He grasped the cold brass doorknob and turned it gently.

"Squeak-"

The door opened.

The scene inside the door was enough to drive any normal person insane.

The master bedroom space seemed to be distorted, no longer a standard square, with the walls and ceiling tilting and wriggling slightly in a way that defied the laws of physics.

The entire room was bathed in a thick, dark red light, the source of which came from outside the window—but the sky outside, which should have been bright daytime, was now an eternal blood red, with a huge moon, seemingly made of congealed blood, hanging in the air and casting a suffocating light!
In the center of the room, there was a rocking chair.

The rocking chair faces the window and has its back to the door.

A very thin, hunched figure sat in a rocking chair, covered with a thick wool blanket whose original delicate pattern was still visible.

His gray hair sparsely draped over the back of the chair.

The rocking chair was slowly rocking back and forth, making a rhythmic "creak...creak..." sound, which sounded particularly jarring in the deathly silent and eerie Blood Moon room.

Yu Xing tilted her head, slowly walked over, and went around to the front of the rocking chair.

The person sitting in the rocking chair was indeed an old woman.

Her face was covered with deep wrinkles, her eyes were sunken and closed, and she was so thin that she was almost unrecognizable. Her hands were draped over the blanket like withered branches, and her nails were gray.

She looked much older than her actual age, as if all her vitality and spirit had been drained away, leaving only an empty shell, ravaged by time and terror.

She sat quietly in the rocking chair, swaying gently in the blood moonlight.

Yu Xing stood before her, silently gazing at the face etched with the marks of cruel fate.

The old woman seemed to sense his presence, and her swaying gradually stopped.

Her sunken eyelids opened very slowly... tremblingly...

What was revealed was a pair of eyes completely covered by a murky grayish-white color, devoid of any pupils or spirit.

Those eyes "looked" in Yu Xing's direction, and the chapped lips moved slightly, emitting a faint sound that seemed to come from another world:

"...You...are you...also...coming...to see...the moon...?"