The medium’s face changed. She lunged for the knife. I raised the crystal ball. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll use it!”
But she ignored me and drove the knife straight into the young Daoist. “I chose two people either way. Whether you die or he does makes no difference to me.”
I was horrified. In a flash, I hurled the crystal ball at her head.
Before she passed out, she stared at me in shock. “Why did you hit me?”
I kicked the Daoist’s body under the sofa, tied up the medium, and took away everything sharp. I even cut her fingernails so she couldn’t stab me in the back.
As time passed, I grew more and more anxious. There were only two of us now, and I needed one more person alive to make three.
Luckily, two hours later, someone pushed open the door and walked in. I turned around delighted, then froze. Two people had come in.
After reading the instructions, they both blanched. They picked up their voting devices and hesitated.
“How many did you choose?” asked a woman dressed like a witch, glancing at the bound medium and me.
“Three,” I answered without hiding it.
“I suggest you both choose three, too. I’ve figured out how to complete this task. The prediction doesn’t matter; you just have to make sure the number of survivors matches the number you choose.”
“How could it be three?” The old Daoist frowned.
“There are two of us and two of you. That makes four already.”
I shook my head and plunged the knife into the medium’s chest. “Now there are only three people alive.”
They both stared at me, eyes wide. “You…”
I dragged out the young Daoist’s body. “This is the person the medium killed. Do you understand how the game works now?”
I smiled. They exchanged glances and entered their choices on the devices. I watched closely, and only relaxed once I saw that they had both chosen three.
But the task was still ongoing, which meant there was someone else in Round Two who hadn’t come in yet.
Suddenly, a figure darted past the window. The three of us looked at one another and immediately understood: someone was lurking outside!
The old Daoist had weak legs, so he stayed at the villa. The witch and I chased after the figure, but it had already disappeared.
“What do we do now?” the witch asked.
I recalled the task: Predict how many survivors would enter this house. They had to be alive and come inside.
“Back to the villa!” I pulled the witch along, but the door was locked, and the windows had been blocked, too.
“Could the old Daoist have set us up?” the witch asked.
I was baffled. “But I saw him choose three.”
Comments appeared:
[Hurry to the backyard. There’s an entrance to the kitchen!]
I pulled the witch toward the backyard. Luckily, the door wasn’t locked. She motioned for me to be quiet, and we slipped inside, locked the kitchen door, and hid behind the counter.
In the living room, a fortune-teller in yellow was reading the instructions and hesitating over which number to choose. The old Daoist lay motionless on the sofa, the knife I’d used to kill the medium stuck in his chest.
We watched in silence. Five minutes later, the fortune-teller pressed a button on his device. Strangely, the countdown clock in the room stopped.
The villa door was kicked open, and a group of bodyguards stormed in. Ngô Mạc Yên, the billionaire, walked in slowly. “The task is over.”
He patted the fortune-teller on the shoulder. Apparently, he was the last survivor of Round Two.
Ngô Mạc Yên looked at the control panel his assistant handed him, then said to the fortune-teller, “You chose one?”
The fortune-teller nodded frantically. “Yes. I’m the only one alive in this house. I did it!”
“Is that so?”
Ngô Mạc Yên replied slowly, then turned toward us. “Come out.”
We stood up from behind the counter. The fortune-teller went pale. “How is that possible?”
Ngô Mạc Yên didn’t look at him. He waved a hand. A bullet pierced the fortune-teller’s forehead, and he fell to the floor.
“Congratulations.” Ngô Mạc Yên clapped, looking pleased, then turned to us.
“Welcome to the final round. This time, you must reconstruct the truth and find the real killer.”
The witch stared at him in disbelief. “Didn’t the report on the computer say the killer was a security guard who robbed her?”
Ngô Mạc Yên smiled. “Did it? Think carefully, miss. Was that report really true?”
The witch’s face went pale. “Could it all have been fake?”
Ngô Mạc Yên didn’t answer. He only looked at us coldly. “You’re the last surviving mediums. Begin summoning my wife’s spirit. Ask her directly who killed her.”
His voice gradually grew sorrowful, like a husband mourning his wife and demanding justice.
[Is this billionaire crazy? Isn’t he the killer himself?]
[He’s pretending to be innocent. What a sick hobby.]
[Men put on a whole performance, right up until you’re in tears!]
Reading the comments gave me goose bumps. If I told the truth, I might anger him and get killed. If I made up a killer, I’d fail the task and still die.
I was so nervous I could barely think. Ngô Mạc Yên looked at us, then finally settled on the witch. “You first.”
The witch clenched her hands, swallowed, and pulled out a candle and an inexpensive incense burner like mine.
“Turn off the lights!” she said.
Ngô Mạc Yên nodded. The bodyguards turned off all the lights and drew the curtains. The witch lit the candle and arranged the ritual formation. In its flickering glow, she looked quite professional.
She closed her eyes, muttered an incantation, wrote Thẩm Thanh Huệ’s name and burned it in the incense burner, then drank a bottle of spell water.
Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she began to convulse. “I see it… I see a figure…”
“What does the figure look like?” Ngô Mạc Yên sat up straight, intrigued.
Standing behind her, I saw that her back was drenched with sweat. She kept convulsing. “I see a woman… wearing a blue dress…”
“What’s your name?”
She suddenly grew serious and stared into empty space, as if someone were standing there.
[Is this real or fake? This is getting a little scary!]
[Not scary at all. I fell asleep halfway through the movie.]
[My friend just woke up after I pressed their philtrum.]
Ngô Mạc Yên and the bodyguards remained silent, watching her intently.
“What’s your name?” The witch waved at empty air.
“What… Thẩm Thanh Huệ?”
She continued her “conversation.” “Why have you stayed in this villa all these years? Why haven’t you left?”
Ngô Mạc Yên swallowed, looking tense.
“Why are you still here?” the witch repeated. She stood up, walked over, and hugged the empty air, tilting her head as if listening to someone.
After a moment of silence, she said, “You’re saying you couldn’t bear to leave your husband, so you stayed in the world of the living?”
I was stunned. So that whole act had been fake. After all that thinking, she’d come up with this corny reason, hoping to tug at his heartstrings.
Ngô Mạc Yên burst out laughing. His deep, hoarse laughter shattered the silence, sending a chill through the room.
The witch went pale and tried to keep acting. Ngô Mạc Yên laughed until he coughed, then stopped. “A fraud—and a third-rate one at that.”
He spread his arms, feigning regret. “A failure is a failure. I have no choice but to kill you.”
The witch’s eyes widened. Before she could explain herself, the bodyguards shot her dead.
“You’re the only one left, Quách Dữu.” Ngô Mạc Yên looked at me and pointed to the prop in my hand.
Fail the task and die. I had no choice but to tell the truth.
I took a deep breath, sat down at the table, and laid out the Tarot cards. Then I asked, “What caused Thẩm Thanh Huệ’s death?”
[Has anyone checked the news?]
[I did! I just looked it up on Pixian. It says she was strangled to death.]
[Someone posted a photo from back then. I almost threw up.]
Strangled. I pretended to draw a card and chose The Hanged Man: a figure hanging upside down on a cross.
I looked at Ngô Mạc Yên and slid the card toward him. “In English, it’s The Hanged Man. Thẩm Thanh Huệ was strangled to death.”
He raised an eyebrow, picked up the card to examine it, then said, “That’s right. Keep going.”
My heart pounded. I took a deep breath and asked the Tarot cards, “Who killed Thẩm Thanh Huệ?”
I didn’t look at the comments. I already knew the answer.
I chose the Lovers: a couple in the Garden of Eden, blessed by an angel, unaware that they would be tempted by a serpent.
“Her lover killed her.”
My voice trembled. Ngô Mạc Yên curled his lip, picked up the card, and murmured, “Her lover… That’s right. Her lover.”
Suddenly, he tore the card in half and looked at me, expressionless. “Congratulations, Quách Dữu. You’ve completed the task.”
I got to my feet, trembling, and hurried to speak before he could continue. “Sir, I don’t need the billion. Just let me go!”
He gestured for me to be quiet. “Of course I’ll give you the money. Do I look like someone who breaks his promises? But giving you the money doesn’t mean I’ll let you live.”
Under his icy gaze, I trembled. “What do you mean?”
“Now that you know such a big secret, how could I let you go?”
He took a gun from one of the bodyguards and pointed it at me. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to die.”
As I stared down the barrel, I could think of only one thing: Damn it, I really got set up by the capitalists!
“Why? Why make us summon spirits?” I asked my final question before I died.
He gave me a chilling smile. “Because it’s fun. Is that reason good enough?”
A gunshot rang out. Corpses were everywhere. All the mediums were dead.
“When does the next batch of mediums arrive on the island?” Ngô Mạc Yên tossed aside the gun and asked his assistant.
“Tomorrow.”
“Good.”
He walked over to the camera in the room and switched it off. “One more batch, and my documentary will be finished. When I die, the whole world will remember how much I loved Thẩm Thanh Huệ. They’ll say I was devoted to her, driven mad by love.”
His expression darkened, then he laughed. “Even if Thẩm Thanh Huệ was unfaithful… we’ll be remembered forever, bound together for all eternity.”
He stepped on the shattered Lovers card and left the villa.
***
I jolted awake from a nightmare, thinking I was still on the island.
Remembering that day, I opened my eyes and looked at my chest. There was no wound.
I hadn’t died. Somehow, I’d survived!
The villa had been empty by then, with only corpses left behind. I patted my head, trying to remember. When the gunshot rang out, a gust of wind swept in. Before I lost consciousness, I saw the hem of a blue skirt.
When I came to, the Tarot card on the table had been flipped over by the wind. It showed the High Priestess sitting on an island.
The blue skirt… I remembered the witch’s séance. She’d said Thẩm Thanh Huệ was wearing a blue dress.
I froze, realizing that perhaps Thẩm Thanh Huệ’s spirit had saved me.
[Amazing, OP survived!]
[So OP was the only medium who survived!]
[Run! While they’re not looking!]
Thanks to the comments, I escaped. A billion appeared in my account, but I didn’t dare touch it, afraid the billionaire would find out.
After being saved once, I resolved to seek justice for Thẩm Thanh Huệ.
With the comments’ help, I began gathering evidence of the billionaire’s crimes.
Tomorrow would be busy too. I still had to livestream a love reading.
I lay down, closed my eyes, and drifted off, dreaming of the day the truth would come to light, just as the comments had said.
-THE END-