"Perform the summoning ritual, and I'll appear in the mirror."
"Perform the summoning ritual, and I'll grant your wishes."
"Perform the summoning ritual, and I'll decide… whether to kill you."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing in an instant. Cracks formed on everyone's expressions, as if frost were about to bloom across their skin.
Aige was inviting them to summon Bloody Mary.
She told them she could grant their wishes—or kill them.
No one dared to move. They were frozen in place, goosebumps prickling all over their bodies.
Aige seemed delighted by their reaction. Swinging her legs cheerfully, she said, "What's wrong? Don't you all have something you want?"
She turned to Zhen Jia. "Don't you want your partner back?"
Then to Jenna. "Don't you want your life to go back to normal?"
And finally, she grinned viciously and said, "Don't you… want to leave this place?"
The words hit like a bomb.
According to everything they knew, frenzied ghost puppets couldn't accept the fact that they were already dead. In their confusion, they would construct puppet realms to mimic the world of the living, maintaining the illusion that they were still alive.
But Aige—she clearly knew Zhen Jia and Xiaomu were a team. She knew Jenna was a first-timer who refused to accept the truth. She knew they were puppet masters and ghost puppets, knew they were outsiders, and knew they wanted to escape her puppet world.
That level of awareness was far beyond anything they had encountered before.
Aige giggled. "Make a wish. Whatever you wish for, I'll help you make it come true."
Her voice was hypnotic. "Just wish in front of the mirror that doesn't reflect you—I'll grant your request."
"If the ritual is done correctly, I'll appear."
Xie Mingchi jolted and looked at Wan Wuqiu, who was just as stunned.
Aige had outright mentioned the mirrors in the rooms?!
That was rare—unbelievably rare.
She was nothing like a typical ghost puppet. She didn't play by the rules.
Then she stood up, smoothed out her dress, tilted her chin and said, "Think about my offer, dear guests. I hope you have a lovely evening."
With that, she walked out of the dining room.
Everyone had come here to exchange information, but now they sat rooted to their seats, paralyzed.
Daylight hours were short. All they'd learned were about the mirrors in their rooms.
Some people had heard the Bloody Mary story and managed to connect the dots, warning everyone to stay away from the mirrors.
But now Aige had said it all out loud herself. What was left to share?
After a long silence, Jenna finally spoke up, her voice barely audible. "Can we… trust her? Can we actually make a wish?"
Xie Mingchi replied calmly, "That's like knowing she's the Evil Queen from Snow White, and she's now offering you a poisoned apple, claiming it's delicious. Would you eat it?"
Jenna lowered her head in disappointment. "I thought… maybe she was being kind…"
The others scoffed. A gatekeeping ghost puppet being kind? Unheard of. Their whole purpose was to eliminate intruders.
If you made a wish, you'd probably be bleeding in the bathtub five minutes later.
Chu You clapped his hands and got down to business. "We've run out of clues. That's all Aige gave us."
Wan Wuqiu added, "Same on our end."
Shen Feinian clapped cheerfully. "Well then, are we losing someone tonight?"
Everyone else: "..."
He wasn't wrong—but did he have to say it out loud?
And so casually?!
Beside him, Feng Yu looked like he might faint.
Thanks to Chu You's leadership during lunch, everyone saw him as the de facto lead. All eyes turned to him. He thought for a moment and said, "Alright, it's almost dark. Let's head back to our rooms. Stay safe."
With the decision made, no one lingered. They got up and returned to their rooms.
Xie Mingchi still wasn't comfortable with the original rooms assigned to him and Zhen Jia, so he checked a few of the remaining rooms again.
When he saw that the mirrors in those rooms were the same, he couldn't hide his disappointment.
"Fine," he said with a shrug, picking a room at random. "We'll stay here."
Wan Wuqiu nodded. "Your call."
Zhen Jia agreed. "I'm good with anything!"
The room's layout was the same. Xie Mingchi offered to sleep on the floor and let the other two take the bed, but they immediately objected.
Wan Wuqiu: "No way."
Zhen Jia: "Absolutely not!"
Xie Mingchi: "???"
Why the strong reaction?
He could sort of understand Zhen Jia's concern about gender boundaries, but under life-and-death circumstances, that didn't seem like a big deal.
Zhen Jia glanced nervously at Wan Wuqiu and muttered, "I-I'm just not used to sleeping next to someone."
Xie Mingchi frowned. "Then how did you and Xiaomu share a room?"
"We took turns sleeping on the floor," Zhen Jia explained quickly. "Once, in a previous puppet realm, I got up at night and saw someone sitting on the bed. I thought it was Xiaomu… but it was actually someone trying to kill me…"
Xie Mingchi imagined the scene and shuddered. Okay, fair enough.
Then something occurred to him. He turned to Wan Wuqiu. "Is it possible to kill your teammates inside a puppet realm?"
Wan Wuqiu shook his head. "No. The gatekeeping ghost puppets have their own preferred methods of killing. They don't like outsiders breaking the rules."
Xie Mingchi nodded, thinking. "Alright then. Let's stick to the plan. Zhen Jia, you take the floor."
Zhen Jia nodded vigorously. "Of course, of course!"
Night fell quickly after dinner. There weren't any known rules about staying indoors after dark in this realm, but to be safe, everyone locked their doors and went to bed early.
Xie Mingchi's group did the same. After a bit of small talk, they each settled down to sleep.
But Xie Mingchi couldn't fall asleep.
His mind raced with the day's events.
Aige eating mirrors and candles, the eerie mirrors in the rooms, and the things she had said at dinner.
She used the promise of wish fulfillment to lure someone into summoning her through the mirrors.
It was like she knew this entire world was an illusion of her own making. Like she knew they were outsiders. Like she knew they wanted to escape.
Was she remorseful for dragging them in? Or did she simply not want anyone entering her world? Was that why she offered them a way out—through her?
No. That couldn't be right.
Xie Mingchi quickly discarded the idea.
Wan Wuqiu had said that frenzied ghost puppets always had obsessions. And this puppet realm had a very clear theme: Bloody Mary.
Considering Feng Yu's story about the Bloody Mary legend, and the fact that Aige essentially was Bloody Mary, Xie Mingchi didn't believe for a second that she'd help them escape.
Even if she knew they were outsiders, her true goal would be to wipe them all out.
Frenzied ghost puppets were bloodthirsty by nature.
And Aige… she wasn't even like a ghost puppet anymore. She was more like a ghost.
Ghost puppets could eat human food. That's why people had trouble telling them apart from puppet masters—Wan Wuqiu, Shen Feinian, Mr. Du, and others had blended in because they ate like humans.
But Aige? She ate broken glass and candles—things that would make any human bleed just from touching.
Yet she devoured them without a second thought.
So if she was a monstrous ghost puppet, what was her ultimate goal?
To kill them. All of them.
This was only the first night. Her words might've planted seeds of temptation, but no one would actually dare make a wish.
But what about the third night? The fourth? The fifth?
The longer this dragged on, the more unstable people's minds would become. The more desperate they'd be. And the rules for death might loosen. The chances of someone dying would skyrocket.
If no one could find a soul thread, they'd be trapped here indefinitely.
And if Aige brought up the idea of wishing again, someone might actually give in.
But granting wishes? That was a lie. The truth was—she'd kill them.
No one could guarantee the Mary they summoned wouldn't be lethal.
That was her endgame. A drawn-out slaughter. The longer they stayed, the more torturous the deaths would be.
Xie Mingchi steeled his resolve. Absolutely no wishes.
He turned over in bed.
And instinctively glanced at the mirror.
The one on the vanity sat still and quiet. Then he looked at the one behind the door.
And froze.
Aige—Bloody Mary herself—was in the mirror.
As if sensing someone awake, she flashed a sinister smile at him.
She looked completely different now. Her long black hair hung over most of her face, her red dress now stained with something even darker.
Xie Mingchi didn't want to think too hard about what it was.
Aige opened her mouth, her voice hauntingly soft in the stillness of night.
"Do you have a wish?"
She asked.
"Do you want to make a wish?"
She asked again.
Xie Mingchi's mind spun. He knew this was another encounter with a major rule.
As long as he didn't trigger a *minor* rule, he'd be okay. But what was the minor rule?
He didn't move, didn't dare look at her any longer.
Wan Wuqiu and Zhen Jia were both sound asleep—just like Shen Feinian and He Qi during the Four Corners game in the last realm.
That confirmed it. If you weren't chosen by a major rule, you'd fall into deep sleep, impervious to the room's disturbances.
Last time, during night two of the Four Corners game, he hadn't triggered any minor rule.
He hadn't turned around. He hadn't handed over the candle to the ghost.
Then it clicked.
He had survived by doing nothing.
Just enduring it.
He didn't know if the same logic applied here, but it was worth the gamble. So he shut his eyes tight and ignored Aige's voice.
He was terrified. He couldn't look at her anymore. He was afraid he'd scream if he kept staring.
Aige stared at him for a long time, repeating her temptations again and again.
But he never opened his eyes.
She grew frustrated. This human wasn't listening!
But there was nothing she could do. She stomped her foot in anger and moved on to her next target.
…
Later that night, Feng Yu woke up, needing to pee. He glanced around the room cautiously and didn't see anything unusual. Beside him, Shen Feinian was sleeping peacefully.
Feng Yu was scared, but being socially anxious, he didn't dare wake Shen Feinian to ask for company. He had to brave it alone.
He finished quickly and flushed, mentally urging himself to stay far away from the bathroom mirror and get back to bed.
But his nerves got the best of him, and he cast a quick glance at the mirror.
Instantly, his blood froze. His pupils shrank.
Aige was in the mirror.