chapter_160

# Chapter 160: Rules Reversed, Scent of Lies

"Once I had a home too,

With dear father and mother.

One day father got drunk, picked up an axe, and walked toward mother.

Father, oh father,

Chopped so many times, red blood!

Stained the wall red, mother's head rolled under the bed..."

The eerie nursery rhyme echoed through the room.

Strangely, the voices of the two little girls in red and white dresses were completely identical, impossible to distinguish.

Moreover, as they moved, there were no footsteps at all—only the lingering, bone-piercing chill on their backs.

Ji Yan kept his eyes closed, frowning slightly.

He could vaguely make out the singing, now distant, now near...

But he couldn't tell whether it was the red dress or the white dress. Once he opened his eyes to the wrong one, he'd be eliminated on the spot.

And he couldn't just keep his eyes closed every round.

Otherwise, by the time the game ended, he'd have gotten nothing—just gone through the motions, wasting the hard-earned "Nighttime Tutoring" opportunity!

"Father asked me to help him,

We buried mother under the tree,

And then...

Father raised the axe, peeled my skin, and made me into a doll!"

The nursery rhyme ended, and the ethereal, hair-raising singing stopped abruptly.

"Big brothers and big sisters, can you guess who Yi Yi and Er Er are standing behind now?"

The voice fell silent,

And the room sank into deathly stillness.

Ji Yan, seated, decisively opened his eyes.

He slowly turned his head to look behind him—nothing there.

The red dress little girl stood behind Spade 5, while the white dress little girl stood behind Spade 7.

Neither of them had opened their eyes.

Spade 4 and Spade 9 had both opened their eyes, staring at Ji Yan first, with a hint of surprise.

"Looks like everyone's lucky today?"

"Those who should open their eyes didn't, and those who shouldn't have all opened them!"

Spade 9 chuckled.

Ji Yan touched his chest and let out a long sigh of relief, smiling. "I thought I was going to be eliminated!"

Then, the second round began.

After all players closed their eyes, the eerie nursery rhyme continued echoing through the room.

Feeling the chill behind him, Ji Yan's hair stood on end as he tapped his fingers on the table.

About two minutes later, the nursery rhyme ended.

Ji Yan's finger tapping stopped abruptly.

He tilted his head—this time, he chose not to open his eyes.

Meanwhile, Spade 9 opened his eyes again, looking first at Ji Yan.

Behind Ji Yan stood the red dress girl, silently.

Her face, painted with terrifying funeral makeup, was filled with intense resentment as she stared fixedly at Ji Yan's back,

As if the moment Ji Yan opened his eyes, she would pounce on him without restraint...

Spade 9 narrowed his eyes.

He exchanged a glance with Spade 5, who had also opened his eyes...

And Spade 4, with the white dress girl behind him, didn't open his eyes either. His body trembled slightly, a layer of cold sweat forming on his forehead.

In the second round, still no player was eliminated, and no player received a reward.

Then, the third round began immediately.

The nursery rhyme started again.

Two small figures, one red and one white, lightly hopped around the table, their cheerful nursery rhyme laughter piercing deep into the players' souls.

Ji Yan closed his eyes, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the desk.

Soon, the third nursery rhyme ended.

"Brothers and sisters, guess if Yi Yi and Er Er are standing behind you?"

The voices rang out in unison, as if coming from all directions, impossible to pinpoint.

After two seconds of deliberation, Ji Yan decisively opened his eyes again.

Then, slowly turning his head, he looked behind him...

And there, he saw a little girl in a blood-red dress, staring at him with a face full of resentment and malice!

Thick, viscous blood oozed from the black eye sockets of the red-dressed girl. Her lips gradually stretched to her ears. She tilted her head, grinning wickedly, and said, "Brother, it's Yi Yi standing behind you!"

Red dress meant elimination!

A look of terror flashed across Ji Yan's face.

Then he turned to look at Spade 9, who was staring at him, and said, "Senior, looks like my luck's run out—I've been eliminated!"

"Good thing elimination just means leaving the exam room, no horrible punishment. Ah, what a shame..."

But Spade 9's expression at that moment was exceptionally grim.

"You fool!! Why did you open your eyes?!"

Suddenly, a cry rang out in the room.

Spade 4 was glaring at Spade 5, shouting in anger.

Spade 5 had also opened his eyes. He whipped his head around and saw a little girl in a white dress standing behind him.

The white-dressed girl had a pale face, a gentle, innocent smile, and her eyes curved into crescents. "Brother, it's Er Er standing behind you!"

White dress meant reward.

But Spade 5's face showed no joy—only pure terror.

"No!"

"What's going on? Why is there a white dress behind me? There was nothing there!"

Under Spade 5's horrified gaze, the white-dressed girl's pure, innocent smile gradually twisted into something grotesque and distorted.

Spade 5 let out a roar and tried to flee.

But the moment he stood up, the white-dressed girl cupped his head in her small hands. With a cheerful laugh, she lifted it gently, and his head came off like an ornament.

With a thud,

his headless body collapsed onto the desk, blood gushing uncontrollably from the severed neck.

The white-dressed girl cradled Spade 5's head like a Barbie doll, dancing joyfully.

Meanwhile, the red-dressed girl behind Ji Yan, her face full of resentment, grinned wickedly and said, "Brother, you're so smart to know it was Yi Yi."

"Here's a candy as a reward!"

A candy was handed over.

Ji Yan took it, and the game panel immediately popped up.

"Ding! Congratulations, player, for successfully obtaining a reward during Nighttime Tutoring—[Demon's Atonement Candy]."

[Collector's Grade] quality, special reward.

"Supernatural Artifact Description: Legend has it that when the devil Satan came to the mortal world, he loved using this candy to lure girls to hell, trapping them there forever, using their pure bodies to brew fine wine."

Ji Yan held the candy and turned his gaze forward.

Looking at Spade 5's gruesome death, then at the grim, dark expressions on Spade 9, Spade 7, and Spade 4,

Ji Yan scratched his head and asked in confusion, "Senior, doesn't white dress mean reward and red dress mean punishment?"

"Why is it the opposite?"

"Also, didn't you say it was just an expulsion from the exam? How come this senior, Spade 5, has lost his head?"

Ji Yan met Spade 9's icy gaze, appearing dazed and bewildered, as if his brain had short-circuited.

Then he asked innocently, "Or is it that the Rules are actually reversed and inverted, and you, senior, are deceiving me?"

Spade 9 shed all pretense of gentleness, his gaze sharp as a dagger, as if trying to pierce through Ji Yan's head.

He let out a self-deprecating laugh: "I underestimated you, thinking you were too foolish."

"Who would have thought, the four of us were putting on a coordinated act, yet you, with your feigned stupidity, managed to fool and toy with us!"

"Indeed, someone who dares to take the [Spade 1] card and survive so long beside that jinx Liu Congming is no simple character!"

"I'm just curious, when did you first realize we were setting you up?"

Ji Yan then dropped his act, a faint smile curling on his lips: "If I have to say, from the moment I walked in."

"If you had shown disdain and rejection toward my [Spade 1] identity from the start, you might have fooled me more easily."

"But instead, you deliberately welcomed me and kindly explained the game rules. My nose immediately caught a whiff of something wrong."

"This is the Scent of Lies."

"You may not understand my peculiar sense of smell, but to me, lies are like blood—pungent and foul!"