At 7 o'clock, the butler brought bad news.
Because of the passing typhoon, they couldn't go out to sea. The police couldn't come to the island for now, and Mermaid Island was also within the predicted typhoon zone. In other words, they couldn't expect the local police for at least 24 hours.
"Damn it!" Si Yingjie suppressed his churning emotions and said irritably, "What about Yang Xiao? Who's going to investigate?"
"Calm down, brother Yingjie," Jian Jing pressed him back into the chair and said calmly, "The police can't come for now, so we'll investigate ourselves."
Kang Mu Cheng said in a deep voice, "Yingjie, cheer up. You're the host. You need to take charge of the overall situation."
Si Yingjie held his head in his hands. It took him a while to ask, "What should we do?"
Jian Jing said slowly, "We need to figure out what everyone was doing last night to see if there are any alibis." Knowing Si Yingjie's poor condition now, she explained very carefully, "From 7 p.m. last night to 6 a.m. this morning, where were you, what did you do, and who can prove it?"
She continued, "I've already asked the staff. They live in the staff dormitory and can vouch for each other."
Therefore, if there was a murderer, they must be among the guests.
Time rewinded to yesterday.
After parting at the dining room at noon, everyone went separate ways.
Si Yingjie said he wanted to teach Jian Jing to play pool and took Kang Mu Cheng along. The three of them lingered in the billiards room until 4 p.m. When the sun wasn't so glaring, they went to the infinity pool.
There they met A Xu and Coach Yin.
When asked about the whereabouts of others, A Xu said, "Yao Yao and Yang Xiao said they wanted to bake desserts. I haven't seen Ai Lina and Mr. Zong at all."
The five of them played by the pool until after 6 p.m., then went to the dining room for dinner.
Because of the awkwardness that everyone knew, they did not eat together.
Si Yingjie had just entered the dining room and started eating when Yang Xiao said she didn't feel well and wanted to rest. Yao Yao then said she would take her back to the room.
That was the last time everyone saw her. The time was 7 p.m.
Afterwards, Yao Yao returned to the dining room and joined her friends at their table. She also let her friends try the desserts she and Yang Xiao made that afternoon.
At 7:30 p.m., Ai Lina appeared.
She had changed into new clothes. She said she went hiking in the hills that afternoon, went back to her room to take a nap after 2 p.m., woke up at 5 p.m., took a shower, did a spa, and then came over for dinner.
After some small talk, Si Yingjie and Kang Mu Cheng left, and the two went back to their rooms to drink alone.
Jian Jing wanted to give the two friends some private time to chat, so she didn't follow them. She also didn't want to stay with the two parents anymore. She chose to stay and play cards.
This was Ai Lina's suggestion.
But A Xu and Coach Yin, being a couple, wanted to watch a movie together and do some naughty things, so they politely declined.
That was fine. Three people could play Fighting the Landlord. But then Zong Xunmei appeared, smiling and asking, "What about counting me in to play poker?"
Everyone turned their heads. They saw him standing under the crystal lamp. His eyes were slightly open, with a vague glow in them. It seemed like he was looking at you, but if you looked closely, you felt like he didn't care about anyone at all.
"Welcome," Ai Lina said with a flowery smile. She asked Jian Jing and Yao Yao, "What should we play with four people?"
Yao Yao said, "I know a little bit of everything, but I'm not very good at any."
Jian Jing said, "...I only know 21."
Ai Lina changed her words, "Then let's play mahjong."
"You can play mahjong too?" Yao Yao said in surprise.
"Games have no borders," Ai Lina called the butler to bring a mahjong set and played skillfully. "Miss Jian, do you know how to play? It doesn't matter if you don't. I'll teach you."
Jian Jing couldn't help but chuckle.
"What, don't believe me?" Ai Lina glanced at her.
Jian Jing said, "No, I just think your tone is very similar to brother Yingjie's."
"Oh? After all, we're a married couple. It's normal to be alike," she said casually.
Jian Jing just smiled without further comment.
The mahjong game didn't go very smoothly. No, to be precise, it was a mess.
The rules were complicated, with many variations. The other three played very quickly, but when it was her turn, she couldn't make a move for a long time. Relying on intuition, she randomly discarded a tile, and two out of three times she dealt into someone else's hand.
After a few rounds, Ai Lina couldn't help ridiculing, "Miss Jian, even when people are feeding you tiles, you still play this badly. Your skills are really rotten."
Reborn for a year, Jian Jing's acting skills had progressed as much as her reasoning skills. Hearing this, she was surprised and said, "Am I playing that badly? I thought I was doing quite well."
Ai Lina leaned her cheek on one hand, stroking the mahjong tiles with her fingertips. She was half serious and half joking, "Look at Mr. Zong, he's so busy helping you win tiles but it's more tiring than winning himself."
"I wouldn't say it's tiring," Zong Xunmei leaned back in his chair, looked up at Jian Jing across from him, smiling at the corners of his lips, bright eyes, "After all, what I want to win isn't money."
Jian Jing put on a confused expression and hesitated before saying, "I don't know what you guys are talking about. I don't understand."
Yao Yao laughed softly behind her hand, "Hurry up, it's your turn."
She lowered her head. Her slender white fingers slid over the mahjong tiles. Finally making up her mind, she discarded a tile.
"Oh, you just helped me win," Ai Lina laughed brightly. "Thanks a lot."
Jian Jing said, "...Let's play again."
She specially washed her hands and changed to a low alcohol bubbly drink for another round.
Around nine or ten o'clock, her luck turned better. With more experience, and Zong Xunmei's crazy tile feeding, Jian Jing finally won a hand.
"Let's stop, let's stop," Ai Lina stretched lazily. Her curves were exquisite. "With a novice and someone letting me win, it's boring. I'll just go drink."
She got up and stood by the window, gazing for a while. Pointing to a higher balcony, she asked, "Isn't that a great place to stargaze?"
Yao Yao laughed and said, "Yes, the view is especially good there."
"Then I'll go appreciate the night sky," Ai Lina turned around and said to Yao Yao, "Do you want to come along? Let's leave the place to a certain someone—after all, what he wants to win isn't money, right?"
Since it wasn't money, it could only be her heart. Yao Yao tactfully understood and laughed, "Alright, I wanted to get some fresh air anyway."
The two of them took wine and an ice bucket and blatantly slipped away.
"Have a drink?" Zong Xunmei looked at Jian Jing with a deepening smile at the corners of his lips, "You're quite interested in me, aren't you?"
Jian Jing pursed her lips.
Yes, she was very curious about him, but it wasn't romantic interest. Rather, it was a kind of strange intuition—the way Zong Xunmei presented himself didn't match his true self.
Of course, this feeling was very subtle, wavering between existence and nonexistence, like a streetlight in foggy weather, glimmering in and out of sight, only able to glimpse a scale or claw.
Jian Jing believed in her intuition, but she didn't want to expose too much. She turned her face away to avoid his gaze and denied, "No, not really."
Zong Xunmei slowly said, "Don't worry, I'm not a bad person."
His words made her startled. After hesitating for a while, she still followed him to the bar.
Zong Xunmei said a couple words to the bartender, and the other smiled and left, leaving the spacious room to just the two of them.
Jian Jing pretended to be unconcerned. "What did you say to him?"
"I told him he could get off work," Zong Xunmei went behind the bar and looked through the available liquors and wines. "What do you want to drink? A margarita? Sex on the Beach?"
"What's that? Never heard of it," Jian Jing casually said, "I want a butterbeer."
Zong Xunmei chuckled lightly. "It really is a little girl's taste."
She asked, "Don't know how to make it?"
"It's not that hard to figure out," he said. Then he found a small pot for heating milk, turned on the induction cooker, took butter from the fridge to melt it, added a bit of brown sugar and cream, stirred it, then poured in the beer and stirred evenly. After pouring it into a glass, he whipped some cream and slowly poured a layer on top, sprinkling cinnamon powder.
"Here," Zong Xunmei slid the glass towards her. "Be careful, it's hot."
Jian Jing took a sip and swallowed with difficulty after a long while.
The taste was so weird.
But she had ordered it herself, so she had to keep face no matter what.
She pretended that nothing was wrong, convinced her facial muscles were controlled very well, so she shouldn't have shown any discomfort. However, Zong Xunmei still passed her another freshly-made cocktail, the famous Bloody Mary.
"Half price for the second drink?" she asked.
"You'll like this one," he said meaningfully, "It's a lot like you, isn't it?"
Jian Jing raised her brows.
Zong Xunmei's eyes smiled, "It looks colorful and gorgeous on the outside, lovely as a peach blossom. But behind it is intertwined with blood, endless killing intent." He said slowly, "Am I right or wrong, Miss Jian Jing, the mystery novelist who has assisted the police in cracking multiple murder cases?"
She immediately narrowed her eyes.
The seasonal wind had told her that for the sake of safety, the files of all the people who had helped the police solve cases only contained a number. Only a few could access their identities.
How did Zong Xunmei know about it?
She was a little surprised and also felt a sense of confirmation of her guesses - he was indeed not simple.
"Oh, you mean this," Jian Jing calmly kept her composure and readily admitted, "It's just a hobby. But how did you find out? I don't remember telling anyone about it."
"Geese leave traces in the sky. If you observe carefully, the answers become obvious," Zong Xunmei said.
Jian Jing thought to herself: He's just making stuff up.
She turned the tables on him, "That makes sense. It's like some people who claim to be photographers but don't seem like photographers at all."
"Please elaborate," he said.
Jian Jing shrugged her shoulders but did not chatter on like before - not because she was unwilling, but because she could not. The intermediate observation card was enough to deal with most people. But when facing an expert of disguise like Zong Xunmei, she felt somewhat inadequate. She could only sense something was off but couldn't pinpoint the specifics.
Zong Xunmei lifted his glass of icy whiskey and took a sip, hiding the smile at the corner of his lips, "It looks like it's just a feeling."
They had reached this point in the conversation, so Jian Jing had two options: either admit defeat again, show weakness to him, and see if she could fish for more information using her charm, or stubbornly deny it since she couldn't do anything about it anyway.
She didn't want to show weakness, and she felt that with her looks, it would be futile. Just as she was hesitating, light footsteps sounded from the entrance.
"Oh, where is the bartender?" Yao Yao came in and asked, "I'd like to order some chilled beer."
Zong Xunmei opened the fridge and took out a chilled beer, "Anything else?"
"Ai Lina is a little drunk, so I think I'll just have something low proof," Yao Yao smiled, revealing a shallow dimple on her cheek, "Please continue."
At that time, it was 10:40 pm.
Ten minutes later, the intercom rang. It was A Xu requesting the bartender to deliver ice cream and vodka. But upon hearing Zong Xunmei's voice, he voluntarily said he would come to collect them himself.
Shortly after, he came alone, chatted with them briefly, took the ice cream and vodka, and left.
That was 11:05 pm.
Jian Jing had finished her Bloody Mary and was already somewhat tipsy.
"You're a little drunk," Zong Xunmei poured her a glass of Coke, "Drink this."
Jian Jing was about to stop at the right time, but Zong Xunmei picked up the conversation again, "Let me think, when did you first notice me... Oh, lemon."
He smiled again. His eyes contained some slyness but absolutely no malice. It was like a lover's murmur, gentle yet a little seductive, but completely devoid of any murderous intent.
Moreover, now that the conversation had started, leaving at this point would seem like fleeing the battlefield.
Jian Jing had no choice but to take the Coke, intending to use □□ to clear her mind. Little did she know that at this point, the winner was already apparent.
This was no ordinary opponent. She was wary of him, yet unknowingly, her guard had been dissolved - and this was not her fault at all.
His words were so witty and his demeanor so intimate. Even the most aloof woman would feel seduced by his omnipresent charm.
But that was not all.
Over the course of several hours, not once did he touch her limbs, fingers, hair, shoulders - of course this included more suggestive areas like her legs. He maintained a distance, exhibiting gentlemanly manners and propriety.
This seduction was graceful and relaxing. There was not the slightest sense of offensive violation, yet it was full of pheromones - pure, unadulterated attraction between the opposite sexes.
He was also excellent at conversation, tossing out one comment after another like a skilled novelist, timed perfectly to arouse the other party's desire to express themselves.
To be listened to, understood, attracted, affirmed.
Then at some point, passed out on the bar counter.
It was very sudden. In the previous second, she still felt conscious, but the next second when she woke up, she was already in a new environment.
She struggled to sit up and saw the clock in the room display 12:45 am.
"You were drunk," he said. "Go to sleep."
Her fading consciousness told her this was not her room, and she had to leave this place.
But Zong Xunmei only held the back of her head and rested it on the soft pillow, so her body assumed it had returned to an environment where it could rest, and fell asleep.
When she awoke, it was 5:20 am the next day.
A system message hung in front of her eyes.
[Mission Name: Killing Intent in a Love Polygon]
[Mission Description: Blue skies, white clouds, emerald seas, sandy beaches - this tropical island has encountered an unprecedented carnage. Under love's spell, murderous intent closes in. Whose hands are already stained with blood? Please uncover the truth on the island.]
[Mission Reward & Punishment: 30 Courage points for success. No punishment for failure.]
