To prevent incidents like the room door closing behind them and trapping them, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox did not fully enter the room. Instead, they stood at a delicate position by the doorway.
This position allowed them to easily locate the light switch, as it's typically placed near the entrance.
Furthermore, by standing at the doorway, they effectively blocked the door and its frame, preventing it from suddenly closing and trapping them inside. Even if the door malfunctioned and began to close, it would first be obstructed by Ye Tiancheng and the little fox.
However, their precautions were not as effective as they had hoped.
The moment Ye Tiancheng flicked the light switch, the room instantly transitioned from darkness to brightness. A blinding white light illuminated the space, causing a momentary blankness in their vision.
Blinking away the discomfort, Ye Tiancheng realized his surroundings had changed.
At that very instant, the room door slammed shut. Though they weren't standing inside the room, as the light flickered on, the door had somehow moved behind them and closed.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox spun around. The little fox tried to turn the doorknob, but the door wouldn't budge.
They were trapped again.
"What kind of place is this?" the little fox asked, glancing around warily and inching closer to Ye Tiancheng.
Ye Tiancheng's expression was grim. "We'll take it one step at a time. Since we don't understand what's happening or what's coming next, we'll just deal with whatever comes our way. We're here now, so we'll make the best of it."
He tried to comfort himself.
With no other choice, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox turned their attention back to the room's interior. Everything had happened so suddenly, and their eyes had been momentarily blinded by the sudden shift from darkness to light, preventing them from getting a clear look at the room.
Upon looking back, both Ye Tiancheng and the little fox were slightly taken aback.
Behind them, the room was no longer what they remembered of a typical guesthouse room. It had transformed into a luxuriously decorated, modern apartment, or rather… it appeared to be a bridal chamber.
In the center of the room, the large bed was covered in red sheets and bedding, scattered with rose petals. Above the headboard hung a large, framed photograph of a wedding picture of a man and a woman.
Moreover, the woman in the photo, the bride, was someone Ye Tiancheng and the little fox immediately recognized.
It was Mei Mei, the owner of the guesthouse.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox exchanged glances. The little fox hesitated, "Is this… is this Boss Mei's bridal chamber? Her and her husband's room?"
"It appears so," Ye Tiancheng replied uncertainly.
In the photograph, the guesthouse owner Mei Mei was smiling radiantly and sweetly. Her groom clearly adored her, his gaze filled with pampering and deep affection, indicating a deeply in love and devoted newlywed couple.
The little fox's gaze lingered on the groom's face. He then said to Ye Tiancheng, "The man who seemed close to Boss Mei when I moved in was indeed not her husband."
Ye Tiancheng nodded. "I figured."
"According to your earlier description, that man was unattractive and had an unsettling aura. But the man in this photo has regular features. While not stunning, he's generally quite good-looking, certainly not ugly."
He appeared to be a tall, handsome young man, with a sense of integrity in his demeanor. It was a pity he fell gravely ill later…
If Mei Mei truly used dark magic to extend his life, would someone like him have been willing?
However, facial features couldn't guarantee everything, and a person's temperament could change. In the throes of a prolonged illness, unable to live or die, who could guarantee that even a kind person wouldn't change into something else in their desperation to survive?
Human nature was the most fragile thing under trial.
Therefore, Ye Tiancheng could only look at the photo and say, "What a shame."
With the door impassable, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox couldn't figure out how to leave. They could only try their luck and treat the room as a puzzle to be solved.
Ye Tiancheng walked to the bed and looked at the wedding bed adorned with bright red bedding. The little fox followed, reaching out to touch the bedding and examining it closely. He then frowned.
"Something feels off…"
Ye Tiancheng asked, "What is it? What feels wrong?"
The little fox explained to Ye Tiancheng, "The color of the quilt and the sheets is wrong."
Ye Tiancheng looked again at the bright red bedding and sheets, pondering. "How is the color wrong? Isn't this the kind of red bedding used for weddings?"
"It seems normal."
The little fox shook his head and elaborated to Ye Tiancheng, "It's not quite like this. Red is indeed used for weddings, but it should be a proper red. Many people aren't as particular now, but generally, it should still be a bright, vibrant red."
As he spoke, he rubbed the duvet cover with his fingers and continued, "But, brother, look, the bedding in this room isn't like that."
"This shade of red, leaning towards dark and deep, is actually quite inauspicious. It's already leaning towards the color of blood that has begun to darken and deepen after flowing out."
"This red is somewhat reddish-brown, it's blood red!"
"Using red for a wedding isn't wrong, but using blood red is absolutely inauspicious. Generally, no one would decorate like this."
Ye Tiancheng was taken aback. He didn't understand such nuances, but with the little fox's explanation, he began to notice something. At least he could distinguish colors.
Upon closer inspection, the red of the sheets and bedding was indeed a shade that felt uncomfortable, slightly oppressive, and had the dark red hue of oxidized blood.
Initially, men were not as sensitive to these color differences, much like many men couldn't understand their girlfriends' lipstick shades. But now that the little fox pointed it out, Ye Tiancheng could see it.
Normal families wouldn't use such uncomfortable colors, regardless of auspiciousness. At the very least, they wouldn't use them for a wedding. This was easy to understand.
"I wonder if there's a problem here, or if they simply didn't pay attention when they got married, and it was already set up like this, and this is what we're seeing."
It was indeed difficult to say, and in this situation, anything was possible.
The little fox shook his head. "This village is different from the outside. It has superstitious elements and local customs. Places like this usually have more emphasis on such matters. Even if they aren't very particular, they'd still pay some attention. This is clearly abnormal."
What could be unusual about a quilt and sheets?
Ye Tiancheng thought for a moment, then pulled at the quilt. The texture felt no different from an ordinary quilt.
Then, he found the zipper along the edge of the duvet cover.
Ye Tiancheng unzipped it and began to pull things out from inside the quilt.
At first, things were quite normal. Inside the duvet cover was a thick, solid cotton quilt, but then things took a turn.
Strange objects began to fall out from the duvet cover.
The little fox was almost stunned. He watched as various items, some heavy and some light, like photos, tumbled out.
The little fox picked up a photo at random and suddenly froze.
Wasn't this the man he had seen before, who was close to the guesthouse owner Mei Mei, and whom the little fox had seen elsewhere?
The little fox flipped through more photos and found them even more astonishing.
On these photos, the guesthouse owner Mei Mei appeared with different men, in intimate poses. These men had varied appearances, some good-looking, some not, but their expressions were all the same: they looked at Mei Mei with immense affection.
This feeling gave the little fox a strong sense of déjà vu, but he couldn't recall where he had seen it before.
Suddenly, the little fox looked up at the wedding photo hanging above the headboard and was shocked to discover a startling fact: although these men had different faces, their eyes were remarkably similar.
And this gaze was identical to the way Mei Mei's groom looked at her in the wedding photo.
It was as if… Mei Mei's husband was looking at Mei Mei through someone else's body, with his own eyes.
The little fox suddenly remembered the previous night, when he and Ye Tiancheng had stopped the "Mountain God" and his followers from fulfilling their wishes. He had injured the "Mountain God" with heavenly lightning, and Mei Mei had rushed towards the great black snake with such urgency.
He fell silent.
The little fox collected all the photos as best he could. On some photos, the male partner was repeated. The little fox carefully counted them, and the number of these men roughly coincided with the number of years Mei Mei's guesthouse had been open.
Ye Tiancheng had emptied most of the items from the duvet cover. Seeing the little fox engrossed in the photos, he shifted his attention to other things, a silent understanding between them. He left the task of sorting through the photos to the little fox.
He examined other items for a while. Seeing that the little fox had finished looking at the photos and was slowly lowering his hands, he stopped and looked at the little fox.
"How is it? Did you find anything?"
Hearing Ye Tiancheng's voice, the little fox snapped back to reality. Remembering the situation, he quickly responded, "I… I think I might have."
Ye Tiancheng observed the little fox's expression closely. "You look like you've discovered something significant."
The little fox's state was clearly unusual. Anyone with eyes could see it, let alone Ye Tiancheng, who now understood the little fox well.
The little fox didn't choose to hide anything from Ye Tiancheng. What he had discovered was something he would have to tell Ye Tiancheng sooner or later.
He handed the photos to Ye Tiancheng and sighed softly. "I think I've figured something out. After looking at these photos, I might know how Boss Mei has been extending her husband's life."