The answer lay right in front of them, but Qin Nan hesitated to act. He was afraid that any improper move might trigger a death scenario. In a setting like this, he worried that a ghost might suddenly appear and take all the players down.

  While he was lost in thought, Jian Fan stepped forward without any hesitation.

  "Jian Fan!" Qin Nan called out, trying to stop him.

  But Jian Fan didn’t pause. He glanced into the coffin and then reached inside, pulling out a booklet.

  Seeing Jian Fan emerge unscathed and the surroundings unchanged, Qin Nan let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward.

  "What is this?" Qin Nan asked.

  Jian Fan had already opened the booklet, and upon hearing Qin Nan's question, he handed it over. "It reveals her identity and the secret of resurrection."

  Qin Nan took it and began to read, while Mu Xin leaned in closer. Qin Nan, displaying gentlemanly manners, shifted the booklet slightly toward her.

  The booklet detailed the identity of the female corpse.

  Her name was Feng Xian, and it stated her birth date and that she had died sixteen years ago from poisoning shortly after giving birth to the eldest young lady. The booklet went on to explain that using a woman's blood could keep the soul from dispersing, trapping it within the body. The practitioner would need to use their own heart's blood to draw the soul out and place it in a compatible new body, then nourish the new body with the blood of the practitioner's direct female descendant until the soul and the new body perfectly merged.

  The contents of the booklet were similar to their earlier speculations but still shocking.

  To keep the soul from dispersing, the blood needed was indeed from the young masters and young ladies' mothers. To resurrect one person, how many lives would have to be sacrificed?

  Mu Xin's tone was filled with disgust. "Someone like that deserves to die."

  "I have a question," Qin Nan suddenly spoke up.

  Jian Fan looked at him.

  "If he loved Feng Xian so much, why was he still entangled with the mothers of the eldest and second young masters? Feng Xian must have been alive when those two children were born, right?" Qin Nan asked.

  Jian Fan didn’t respond, but Mu Xin scoffed. "Is it really that hard to understand? He’s just a scumbag. Once someone dies, he thinks that his so-called devotion makes him a tragic lover. It's disgusting."

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Qin Nan fell silent, realizing that Mu Xin, as a woman, had a stronger aversion to such matters.

  "There shouldn't be any other clues here. Let's go," Jian Fan said calmly, seemingly indifferent to topics unrelated to their goal.

  Mu Xin quickly shifted her mood. "Although this is terrifying, it doesn’t directly point to the murderer."

  Jian Fan paused and turned to look at her, meeting her gaze. "So?"

  "I can join you, but I have a condition." Mu Xin dropped her pretense, her expression calm and devoid of her previous hesitations.

  "You can state your terms," Jian Fan said without immediately agreeing.

  Mu Xin wasn’t surprised. "Joining you means I have to give up the connections I’ve built. You need to compensate me or show some sincerity."

  "What do you want? Just say it," Jian Fan replied, uninterested in beating around the bush.

  Mu Xin smirked slightly. "The points in this world."

  What she wanted wasn’t just the 500 points for completing the scenario but to be the one to break the case and earn the additional points.

  By this point, both Mu Xin and Jian Fan understood that to break the scenario, they needed to find the murderer according to the rules. The player who identified the killer would likely receive extra points.

  Jian Fan didn’t agree right away but looked at Qin Nan.

  Qin Nan immediately expressed his opinion. "I have no objections."

  Once they became a long-term team, they needed to balance points among the three of them. They weren’t like Lin Junru, who was inept; no one would settle for just 500 points, or the team would eventually fall apart.

  "Agreed," Jian Fan replied.

  Mu Xin smiled. "I hope we can cooperate happily from here on out."

  Jian Fan didn’t respond but instead brought up a topic unrelated to the current discussion. "Are you sure Zheng Jueming is the murderer?"

  "You guessed it?" Mu Xin was surprised. While it wasn't strange for Jian Fan to deduce this, she felt their sincerity when he agreed to her terms.

  Jian Fan nodded. "You’ve been wary of Zheng Jueming, and now you bring up the topic of cooperation again. It’s not just because we’re a good choice; it’s also due to significant changes in your original environment."

  If Zheng Jueming was indeed the murderer, it meant he would be at a disadvantage in this world, leaving Mu Xin with only Lin Junru. This would be very unfavorable for her in the upcoming scenarios.

  Mu Xin smiled. "Looks like my luck is really good this time."

  "Go on," Jian Fan urged, focusing on the main topic.

  "Zheng Jueming's personality is something I know well. He’s somewhat clever, but that’s not enough in this game. He usually does what I say, and while he might have his own little schemes, he rarely acts on his own," Mu Xin explained.

  Qin Nan understood.

  So, when Zheng Jueming acted on his own, Mu Xin immediately sensed something was off.

  If Zheng Jueming wasn’t the murderer, then what was his sudden initiative about? For Mu Xin, his unusual behavior was a clear indicator.

  "At first, I couldn’t be sure, so I observed him a bit more until the third young master was killed."

  Mu Xin’s reasoning was quite similar to Qin Nan’s. She used the process of elimination, leaving only four options: the third young master, the second old master, and her two teammates.

  She leaned towards believing the second old master’s statements, but Lin Junru—

  "When the time rewound to the night of the murder, Lin Junru came to me. It was indeed the eldest young lady who had castrated the deceased," Mu Xin revealed another crucial piece of information.

  Though they had already suspected it, the confirmation still surprised Qin Nan.

  "Lin Junru relies on you," Jian Fan noted.

  Mu Xin chuckled. "She has no choice but to rely on me. I’ve somewhat cultivated her dependency on me. That way, she won’t dare to hide anything when trouble arises."

  "Why did she castrate the deceased?" Qin Nan asked, genuinely curious about this detail.