"You are the one who killed the residents on the eighth and eleventh floors!"
"And the nanny was your accomplice too."
"Isn't that right?"
Ye Shu’s hands didn’t pause, carefully comparing bone structures. Not only was the man of the house buried beneath this floor, but there were also two smaller bodies…
That meant Lin Yue and Lin Xiaobao had both been murdered, their bodies interred under the floorboards.
The wife was blind.
Her inability to see had spared her.
That’s why the very first rule was made so clear: never let anyone know you’ve recovered your sight.
The wife could only survive as long as she remained blind.
If she ever regained her vision… she’d soon discover her husband and children had all fallen victim.
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, for uncovering the truth behind Sweet Home, progress: 66.6%! Keep it up!]
Ye Shu had thought that finding the bodies and unmasking the murderer would be enough to clear the scenario.
But now, it seemed… things weren’t so simple.
The SSS-level clearance still had 33.3% remaining.
And to find the true husband for the SS-level objective… seemed entirely out of reach.
Yet Ye Shu was certain the bones before her belonged to the husband and children. Where had she gone wrong?!
There was no prompt.
The level hadn’t been cleared.
She would be killed by Lin Qingyue once again.
"Wife, what are you talking about? Aren’t I your husband?"
"If you keep this up, I’ll really get angry."
"Come, sit here by my side."
Lin Qingyue sat on the sofa, composed as ever, showing no sign of being exposed. Instead, he gave a sunny smile and pinched Ye Shu’s pale cheek. "Did you get something mixed up, honey? I am your husband, Lin Qingyue. Don’t believe me? Look, here’s our wedding photo."
Ye Shu stood rooted to the spot.
The groom in her memories, once so clear in the study photo, now bore the features of the man standing before her.
What was going on?!
The harder she tried to recall the true face of her husband, the more the memory slipped away.
As if, all along… the photo should have always looked this way.
……
Ye Xiaoshu stood in the living room clutching an iron shovel, unable to remember why.
Her husband was in the kitchen making dinner, and the two children sat at the table, waiting to be fed. A small black cat eyed her nervously from its cage by the entrance, emerald eyes gleaming.
The floor was spotless, but it shouldn’t have been this way.
She stood, lost in thought.
"Xiaoshu… today I made your favorite congee with century eggs."
The man wrapped an arm around her with easy familiarity. A resentful discomfort rose in Ye Xiaoshu’s heart.
"Xiaoshu? Did I not do a good job?"
Snapping back to her senses, Ye Xiaoshu saw the man putting on a pitiful act, looking up at her like a forlorn puppy, even lifting the spoon to her lips.
"No, you’re fine," she replied.
Faced with his plain, unremarkable face, the unease in Ye Xiaoshu’s heart only deepened. It wasn’t her lack of discernment, but rather—it simply wasn’t the face he should have had.
But what should he look like?
In her mind flashed a face so dazzlingly beautiful, so otherworldly, that her head throbbed in agony and she knocked the congee from his hand.
It was only a bowl of porridge, but just the sight of it made her stomach churn—she seemed to see countless squirming worms inside.
"I didn’t do it on purpose."
Leaving those words behind, Ye Xiaoshu fled from the table, escaping to the bedroom.
She sat on the bed, staring blankly around, certain she had forgotten something—something terribly important.
When Ye Xiaoshu finally left the bedroom, her husband and children were nowhere to be seen. Only a steaming bowl of fresh bone broth sat on the dining table. The scent of meat made her stomach clench—she was undeniably hungry, and yet couldn’t muster the slightest appetite.
There was something… unclean about that soup.
Just as she brought a ladleful to her lips, a sharp burning pain flared on her wrist, forcing her to jerk back before she could taste it.
Suddenly clear-minded, Ye Shu saw the house not as spotless as before, but thick with cobwebs. Dust coated the ground, the bowl of bone broth before her was tangled with women's hair and chunks of bone smeared in black sludge. She almost retched.
She’d been so close… so close to eating that.
Her husband hadn't left after all. He sat on the leather sofa, and if not for the glimmer of malice in his eyes, Ye Shu would have truly believed Lin Qingyue was wholly possessed by the ghostly props.
"Not bad! You woke up quickly this time."
Lin Qingyue was generous with his praise, his eyes alight with approval.
A pit formed in Ye Shu’s heart.
Just as she’d thought, the love-brain prop on the light screen now displayed as broken.
But this time, Ye Shu didn’t wait for Lin Qingyue to act—she struck first. The sword flashed, swift and final.
Thirty minutes earlier—
Ye Shu sat in the bedroom, her shirt stained with sticky congee. She casually glanced at the painting on the wall as she retrieved a cloth to wipe herself down.
The knight’s gaze in the portrait shifted from surprise to disappointment, then settled into calm. No doubt, Ye Xiaoshu’s skill was reincarnation!
What’s more, no one could take this ability from her. At least, not within the rules of the game. He couldn’t strip her of it, no matter how he tried.
She was sharp and cunning—she knew how to hide herself.
Pity for him, though: he remembered every one of those deaths and resurrections.
Ye Shu’s scalp prickled as she wiped her shirt, the vermillion bracelet on her wrist burning hot. She realized that Lin Qingyue, that ghost, was after her again, and her mind whirred rapidly.
More than half the SSS-level scenario was solved—her suspicions weren’t wrong.
It had to be some crucial detail she’d missed.
She looked at the pink, transparent stone on the light screen and suddenly understood. The dolls on her daughter’s wall—inside wasn’t a crushed body, but the same finger bone every time.
She’d found it odd before—how could every doll hide a bone of exactly the same size?
Because all the dolls were the same one!
However many dolls there were, that’s how many times her daughter had relived her fate inside this twisted home.
The taint on her son and daughter was how they’d looked in life.
According to news reports, the victims were found dead after 3 p.m., with two suspects still at large.
The husband clocked off at four in the afternoon and needed half an hour to get home—the timing lined up precisely.
It was entirely possible the husband came home and caught the criminals red-handed…
Anyone experienced in murder knows: if you open the door after a crime and meet a stranger, you risk being discovered.
The simplest solution is to silence the witness.
That night, the criminal broke in and slaughtered the family. Ye Xiaoshu, embroiled in a cold war, had hidden upstairs in the study—overlooked by the panicked perpetrators, thus escaping with her life.
When she came downstairs the next morning, the crime scene had been meticulously cleaned by the culprit.
The children’s room allowed visitors with permission, the nanny’s room had no explicit exclusion in the rules. Ye Shu had entered both and found nothing. That left only one place!
If it were her, she’d hide things there too!
Ye Shu stood in the kitchen corridor, eyes fixed on the gray freezer.
It was the perfect place to stash a body!
The rules had been corrupted, deliberately keeping players out of the kitchen to inspire fear and make them overlook the ever-spotless kitchen.
She pulled open the freezer door…
There, inside, was a pile of frozen meat. The rest, most likely, had ended up in the nanny’s stomach.
The nanny’s newly bought cans were still unopened, yet every night there had been sounds of chewing from her room.
Such an appetite…
Ye Shu guessed what it meant. She stormed into the nanny’s room and split her head with a sword—then discovered a trove of long hair in the drain.
As she’d suspected—even the blind mother hadn’t escaped the curse.
Anyone who’s been blind knows the other senses are sharp. The mother must have sensed her family’s doom. For vengeance, she feigned ignorance… but, in the end, it was futile.
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu has revealed the whole truth of Sweet Home! Progress: 100%!]
[Ding! Congratulations, player Ye Shu, you have found the true husband! Progress: 100%!]
The true source of pollution in this Sweet Home scenario wasn’t Lin Qingyue, but the dead husband, daughter, and son.
The man haunting the study every midnight was the real husband. The only reason he appeared in the study during the late hours… was because, before the tragedy, his estranged wife had hidden herself there.
Ye Shu suspected the children hadn’t been killed on the day of the incident.
Her daughter’s words still echoed, "Mom can’t see anything… you can’t blame her…" The full sentence, Ye Shu thought, was probably: "Mom can’t see anything, so I can’t blame her for not saving me and my brother."
[Player may exit the scenario at any time. Confirm exit now?]
Ye Shu strode out of the room, sword raised, stabbing towards Lin Qingyue.
As expected, she failed dramatically—beaten within an inch of her life. Blood blurred her eyes and the coppery stench filled her nose. She leaned against the wall, stubbornly pulling herself upright, "You bastard, one day I’ll kill you! Next time in a scenario, pray you never cross my path."
Lin Qingyue lounged lazily on the sofa, watching her fade. He couldn't comprehend Ye Xiaoshu—why would someone so clearly outmatched still charge in, certain of defeat? Ridiculous!
Still, her ability to resurrect was mysterious. He’d keep watching.
Ye Shu seized the chance as he hesitated for a breath, then drove the peachwood sword through his chest. Black blood soaked his white shirt.
She spat a mouthful of blood and forced a grin through gritted teeth: "Between mountain and water, destiny runs its course. Lin Gouzi, we’re done. Bye-bye~"
Lin Qingyue struck at air, face cold as he stared after her fading silhouette.