Mu Yiran's words attracted everyone's attention, including the already desperate Mi Wei.
"From Ke Xun's observation last night, Xin Beibei is restrained by two forces. The first is her own shadow, and the second is the invisible man restraining her neck." Mu Yiran's voice echoed slightly in the extremely quiet hall.
Everyone was concentrating, except Ke Xun, who was distracted: he called his own name so beautifully.
Mu Yiran continued, "We have analyzed before that if these two forces act together, it would be difficult to achieve harmony and unity. In addition, there is another question that cannot be ignored. Why does this force need to rely on the people in the house to open the windows? Since the other party is so powerful, then opening the door and window should not be a problem."
Shi Zhendong said: "The window is latched from inside the house, and I'm afraid someone outside can't open it."
"But how did Ye Ningchenyi die?" Mu Yiran knew his purple room very well. "The windows of our bedroom are always tightly closed and never opened."
No one has thought about this problem. He Yu and Zhang Tianwei lived in the same room before. One of them was bewitched by the painting and opened the window for the other person just like Xin Beibei, so he let "that thing" into the room.
But there was no window in the purple room, so how did Ye Ningchenyi die?
"This matter is too confusing. Maybe that boss just wants to confuse us before taking action. There are colors and mazes, and now even opening the window has become a mystery." Wei Dong scratched his head, feeling dizzy.
Zhu Haowen calmly said, "According to the various clues in the painting, this painting should have a strict logic, but we haven't found the main line yet."
Zhu Haowen turned his gaze back to Mu Yiran, waiting for the answer from the other party.
"Can we understand it this way? I want to call that thing a shadow for now. That shadow can freely enter and exit anywhere because shadows are invisible and formless." Mu Yiran expressed his thoughts. "Our rooms have been shrouded by black shadows, which means that the entire castle is under its control."
Everyone was still confused: "Why do you need us to open the window?"
Mu Yiran didn't care about being interrupted and continued, "There was no window in the purple bedroom, but Ye Ningchenyi was still killed. This shows that the shadow can kill people through the window. Both Ye Ningchenyi and He Yu should have been killed by it through the window.
"The reason why it needs the help of others to open the window is that the shadow cannot control the real object. This requires bewitching people's minds and asking for help from living people."
Qin Ci couldn't help but interrupt him: "Since it can't control entities, how can it kill people through the window? Living people are entities themselves!"
"This is indeed the most crucial point. Once it is solved, the whole puzzle can be solved," Mu Yiran's tone gradually became heavier. "The shadow can only control the shadow. When the whole room is shrouded in black shadow, that huge shadow can contain the shadow of any one of us."
Everyone listened attentively - the only thing Shadow can control is Shadow - this is almost the most standard answer.
"Yiran means that the huge shadow that strangled Xin Beibei's shadow last night was actually the neck?!" Ke Xun asked, and couldn't help but secretly praise Yiran's cleverness in his heart.
"Yes," Mu Yiran cast a cool look at Ke Xun, "I don't know what the shadow represents in this world, but in the real world, the shadow is consistent with the entity, and it can even be said that the soul is connected - although the statement is a bit absurd, but if the shadow is controlled by someone, then the entity will definitely be implicated and suffer the same treatment."
Zhu Haowen fell into deep thought: "We have analyzed before that those who are bewitched may be bewitched by their own shadows."
"This statement still holds true. I still believe that Xin Beibei's behavior of opening the window was driven by her shadow."
"Then the shadow can directly..."
"The shadow doesn't want to die either," Mu Yiran's eyes became deep, "The shadow of a person is bewitched into doing things for the giant shadow, but doesn't want to die for it, so the giant shadow will strangle the person by the neck and drag him away, and at the same time, it will drag his body away with it."
This explains why we saw such a scene on the first night: a huge shadow covered the entire window, the whole room became dark, and then only a strip-shaped black shadow was left in the window. That was actually Zhang Tianwei's shadow being pulled. The moon-shaped pattern passing in front of the window was Zhang Tianwei's body being forcibly dragged.
The same thing applied to Xin Beibei. The giant shadow grabbed the neck of Xin Beibei's shadow and drove the shadow forward. Xin Beibei's body was dragged by the shadow. Even though she squirmed and struggled, she was still forcibly dragged away because of suffocation and the disparity in strength.
All entities seemed to be shaky under the drag of the shadow, which was probably because the giant shadow was unable to "indirectly control the entities".
"Our shadows are actually the medium of the ultimate giant shadow. We may be bewitched into doing things for it, and eventually it will turn them into butcher knives that threaten our lives." Mu Yiran's voice was cold, without any emotion in it.
Ke Xun looked at Guo Lixia's trembling figure and turned his head to look at her - this person was dazed, as if she was frightened, and there was no sign of trembling at all.
Ke Xun's gaze turned to Guo Lixia's shadow again. That shadow was clearly shaking slightly. Ke Xun looked at the shadows of other people, but they were all normal and motionless.
Ke Xun took a breath, but nothing showed on the surface.
A slight laugh suddenly rang out in the hall, like the kind of sneer that could not be held back.
Everyone was startled by the laughter and looked up at the ceiling and every corner of the hall, trying to find the hidden person who was laughing.
The NPC's voice suddenly sounded: "Everyone, enjoy your wonderful work! Afternoon tea will be prepared for everyone with blueberry juice and chestnut cake."
The laughter clearly came from the NPC. It was really creepy, as if everyone's every move could not escape a pair of secretly observing eyes.
In the end, everyone decided to work together and then go together to get signatures after the work was completed.
When Ke Xun was about to walk into the blue door, Mu Yiran's voice came from behind him: "Be careful."
Although these two words are a bit cold, they are sweet, like rock candy.
Ke Xun nodded, and couldn't help looking at the innocent Mi Wei who was tied up in the hall: "If it's because she was bewitched, I would feel better."
Mu Yiran and Qin Ci were left in the hall to guard Mi Wei.
Ke Xun returned to the workshop and casually glanced at Guo Lixia's shadow, only to find that it had returned to normal.
Guo Lixia worked silently and was no longer as talkative as usual.
In Ke Xun's eyes, Guo Lixia is no longer the former Sister Guo, but a bewitched person.
"Sister Guo, don't think too much. You were just a little angry at the time and couldn't control your strength." Ke Xun forced himself to say comforting words.
"Oh, I regret it so much that my intestines are turning green," Guo Lixia showed an expression of great regret, "I actually killed such a good girl..."
"There is no regret medicine in the world. What we need to do now is to find the signature as soon as possible!" Ke Xun said.
Guo Lixia nodded repeatedly: "Yes! Once we find the signature, we can go out! Mi Wei can follow us out too!"
Ke Xun nodded, but in his heart he could not help but marvel at the ingenuity of this bewitching technique: the bewitched person did not change his original character, but a certain point was suddenly magnified when needed, and at this time the person would become a devil.
"Sister Guo, you should take a rest. You'd better take care of your wrist." Ke Xun worked with his hands and glanced out the window. "What do you think is hidden in that maze? We clearly heard other footsteps in the maze today. Whose footsteps did they belong to?"
"There are other people in the maze? It's really creepy." Guo Lixia did not stop working. She was now picking off the leaves of the blue berries. "Didn't they say that the murderer was a shadow? Can a shadow appear in the daytime?"
Ke Xun tried not to look at Guo Lixia, lest his eyes betray his purpose. He lowered his head and put the berries into the glass jar. "I find it strange too. If the murderer is really a shadow, how can the shadow move by itself? It must be driven by a real entity."
Guo Lixia denied Ke Xun's statement: "You are wrong. If the shadow has a physical body, then he doesn't need us to open the window for him."
Ke Xun suddenly found his conversation with Guo Lixia a little funny, because he now treated her as a shadow, but she showed the style of Sister Guo.
"I saw a person in the maze from the window last night. He was a real person, but unfortunately he was too far away to see the pattern on his clothes clearly." Ke Xun said.
"Then could the person you saw in the maze be him? If you can hear footsteps, then it's not a shadow." Guo Lixia's analysis at this time made sense.
"At present, it seems that what the big shadow asks us to do is nothing more than helping it open the windows, or secretly polluting the colors of innocent people..." Ke Xun emphasized the word "secretly", fearing that Guo Lixia would suddenly have an epiphany and realize that her behavior of pushing Mi Wei also fell into this category.
Guo Lixia suddenly looked at Ke Xun: "Team Leader, if there is someone nearby trying to stop the person who opened the window, can they stop him?"
Ke Xun laughed: "It's impossible to stop them. Every time they come to that point, everyone in the room will feel powerless. They don't even have the strength to get out of bed, let alone stop others."
"There's nothing we can do to stop it." Guo Lixia sighed.
"Maybe there is a way," Ke Xun looked at Guo Lixia with interest, "After all, this place is ours during the day. I saw ropes and wooden boards in the lobby of the circular building. There are also many tools in the room of the maze. We can nail the window shut by ourselves."
Guo Lixia did not show the panic expression that Ke Xun had imagined. She even showed a bit of admiration at this moment: "This is a good idea! When the time comes, we will nail up all the windows!"
Ke Xun continued to work calmly: "Okay, when we're done we'll go fix the window! Don't worry about whether shadows can get in or not, at least no living person can get out!"
Guo Lixia's voice was a little hesitant afterwards: "I'm afraid that we have angered that big shadow. That murderer is so cruel. What if he gets angry and kills us all?"
"Yiran said that everyone in the painting must abide by the rules, including the boss himself."