From the very beginning, the three members of the manor’s owner family had all died. What they saw were merely ghosts disguised as incarnations!
Then what about the butler and the gardener?
A possibility, or rather a conjecture, suddenly surged in Ke Shufan’s mind.
Perhaps this story actually had another version.
An isolated manor, a reclusive painter couple, and an old butler managing the estate for the owners.
On a pitch-black night, as the old butler once again handled various affairs for the manor’s owners, he discovered that his masters possessed such astonishing and hidden wealth.
Controlling such immense riches, the painter couple paid them no heed—or rather, their life’s pursuits lay elsewhere.
Even so, the wealth in their hands kept snowballing, with more and more land purchased and the manor’s area growing ever larger.
Although the painter couple didn’t value wealth, they had no idea that their riches had long attracted covetous eyes.
That covetous person was none other than the butler, who had always managed their affairs.
Every day, such staggering wealth passed through his hands, yet it never belonged to him. In another three or five years, when old age forced him to retire, all he might get was a meager pension.
Unfair!
I work diligently day in and day out, handling everything, yet in the end, I gain nothing!
This thought of imbalance kept festering in that man’s heart.
Perhaps due to the swelling discontent, or truly influenced by some evil force, this resentment and jealousy finally transformed his dissatisfaction into genuine malice!
An isolated manor, hidden and vast wealth—so easily within reach! All it took was a meticulous plan, a declaration of property transfer, and then, a so-called accident!
However, the butler was no reckless man. He didn’t hastily plot to murder the painter couple but instead devised a more covert and thorough scheme.
Perhaps using some kind of drug, or some eerie sorcery, he successfully twisted the child’s mind while also causing the painter couple immense agony.
Then, maybe the same drug or sinister technique was applied to the painter couple. Under the butler’s manipulation, this couple, also affected in their minds, finally made a terrifying decision.
They would hold a “exorcism” ritual to drive “that thing” out of the child’s body.
Little did they know, this was the butler’s ultimate conspiracy.
The great fire burned the painter’s family of three to death. Since the ritual was personally conducted by the painter couple, even a police investigation would deem it an accident, with no way to link it back to him.
Then, relying on that forged declaration—not needing “too much,” just a portion of the property—would be enough to satisfy his greedy desires!
An old butler who had diligently served the manor for decades receiving a portion of the owner’s property wasn’t anything unusual.
Up to this point, it was still an ordinary case of a greedy butler killing for money. But this case happened to be selected by the radio station, processed into a supernatural version of the story within the space it created.
In reality, Ke Shufan’s deduction of the whole story was quite close to the truth. However, in the radio station’s processed supernatural version, the “exorcism ritual,” originally just a facade, actually triggered the summoning of an evil spirit. The summoned evil spirit not only killed the painter couple and their child but also devoured the entire manor. Even the scheming butler, who sought to seize the wealth, and the old gardener, his accomplice, were possessed by the evil spirit and turned into ghostly beings.
In other words, the manor the four participants entered had no real living people at all. Not only were there no living people, but various ghosts roamed about. If Ke Shufan had used ox tears in the manor, he would have directly seen ghostly figures flickering on toys or various pieces of furniture!
If they had been bolder and searched the butler’s room while he was out, they would not only have found the prepared forged declaration, exposing the butler’s plot, but also learned the truth that all living people in the manor were already dead!
“So, that painter couple are already ghosts, but because they still retain their love and longing for their child from when they were alive, in their subconscious, they still treat that doll as their real child to care for. If the doll isn’t destroyed, their killing intent won’t be triggered?”
“I think that’s the case.” At this point, Xiao Bai, who had already thought of this possibility, nodded. “In fact, there might be another possibility.”
“Since the ritual turned from fake to real, have you considered that among the various ghosts summoned by the ritual, perhaps the child’s true soul was actually called back?”
“And that one soul, which doesn’t belong to the evil spirits, might really be residing inside the doll!”
“The reason the ghosts in the manor can’t fully slaughter the participants might be due to its restriction!”
“So that means…”
“The gardener and butler’s guidance for us were all traps in the story, designed to make us mistakenly believe that the doll is possessed by an evil spirit and that destroying it with a special item is the way to end the story. But actually, I suspect the ghosts in the manor, though powerful, are restricted by the story and can’t destroy the doll themselves. They need the participants to do it, breaking the story’s limits. And when we found that secret room and heard the special item’s prompt, we completely fell into habitual thinking.”
Looking back now, the special item’s prompt only said it was for destroying the vessel of a soul’s attachment and expelling the soul within, without mentioning evil spirits or ghosts!
So in reality, that so-called special item wasn’t a shortcut provided by the story for participants to clear it, but a trap leading them step by step to total annihilation!
Having figured this out, Xiao Bai felt increasingly heavy-hearted. This story was far from as simple as they had imagined, and there was no way the horror radio station would offer stories that let participants breeze through…
“What do we do, Xiao Bai? We’ve already destroyed that doll…”
That meant all the restrictions on the ghosts in the story had been lifted. The two of them being strangely transported to this cemetery was already a sign that the ghosts’ powers were starting to affect them.
As for Ye Xiaomei, who had been separated from them, she was likely in grave danger by now!
But at this moment, Xiao Bai and Ke Shufan had no time to worry about others, because right then, they suddenly spotted two white figures floating among the withered trees at the edge of the cemetery ahead—the two ghosts disguised as the painter couple!
Twisted faces paired with eerie smiles, exuding a bone-chilling sensation.
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to leave tomorrow?”
--- PS: Here’s the two chapters I promised earlier, making up for it. I’ve paid off my debts to you, hehe~