“…But, Zhang Zheng was a married man, so naturally it was impractical for him to openly leave his name with the Snow Maiden’s. The village was small, and it was always possible for him to be exposed. In order to coax the Snow Maiden, he used another method—he buried a doll with the names of the two people in front of the ice sculpture. When I cracked open that ice sculpture, I tried to emulate his infidelity and dug into the ground in front of the statue. I found a low-quality set of dolls, only worth a few dozen yuan*. Only a woman head-over-heels in love would be comforted by this.”
Lin Xinghe took out the pair of dolls covered in mud from her bag.
“…Later, the Snow Maiden discovered that she was Zhang Zheng’s mistress. In a fit of rage, she killed Zhang Zheng and hung him upside down in his wife’s house. I have been to his house, and his wife, Sister Meng, renovated the walls and bought new carpets to get rid of the blood stains. From the smell of the paint left behind, I’m estimating that he was killed three months ago. The story after that is also very simple—the Snow Maiden killed Zhang Zheng, but not his wife. She is acting like a tyrant to make the whole town obey her and demands the sacrifice of a man every few days. The villages later came up with a way to attract men from other places as sacrifices to Snow Maiden to save their own lives. ”
Lin Xinghe added, “The Snow Maiden is probably antisocial. Zhang Zheng definitely was a scumbag, but since she’s never met other men, she thinks all of them are like him. That’s why she asks the people in the town to send men as sacrifices every few days…”
As the others finished off all the ice statues and grouped back together, they also listened to Lin Xinghe’s explanation.
It was only the second day, and Lin Xinghe had already puzzled out the storyline. The speed of her mind was so fast that they felt that she could win while sleeping.
Fang Ziyue asked weakly, “If the Snow Maiden only kills men, why did she also mark me?”
Lin Xinghe asked back, “When you kill men, it’s not necessarily just killing men. When you go to the market to buy vegetables, it’s not a problem to also buy some onions, ginger, and garlic, right?”
It made sense. Fang Ziyue couldn’t refute it.
Lin Xinghe still thanked Fang Ziyue and the others in her heart. Without them as bait, she would not have discovered the way the Snow Maiden marked people. The paintings of the faceless women in the rooms probably gave them dreams, or maybe illusions, and those who were fooled by the illusion would be marked.
The faceless girl in her room had kaomoji features drawn on, which made it lose its effectiveness, so the Snow Maiden couldn’t create a fantasy for her. Tang Xin was saved by Xiao Xue Ji.
It also just happened to prove that Xiao Xue Ji was not the Snow Maiden.
Lin Xinghe didn’t plan to tell Chai Yong why or how they were marked—it was hard to say whether they would hurt her in the illusions.
She had to be careful.
Lin Xinghe’s words lifted her to the position of leader of the students taking the exam.
Chai Yong asked her, “Have you found the Snow Maiden’s weakness?”
“No, but the Snow Maiden must have weaknesses. All things can be broken, and the Snow Maiden cannot escape the law of life. We only stayed here for a day and a half, so of course we understand the Snow Maiden less than the villagers do.”
Tang Xin said, “But aren’t the people in the town and the Snow Maiden on the same side? To them, we are the enemy. Will they tell us the truth?”
Tang Xin thought of a plan, adding, “We can convince some people in the town, communicate with them, and ask them to reveal things about the Snow Maiden. Maybe we can find out how they usually contact the Snow Maiden and ambush her.”
Tang Xin felt that she had mingled with Lin Xinghe for a long time, so she became more courageous.
She asked Lin Xinghe expectantly, “What do you think?”
Unexpectedly, Lin Xinghe said, “The Snow Maiden might also have weapons in the ice park next door. After we have finished burning the ice sculpture park, we will set fire to the amusement park. The alcohol I bought might not be enough. I saw a gas station on the way, so you can consider stealing some gasoline.”
She looked at Li Chengyan and Fang Ziyue, “This task is handed over to you, can you do it?”
“Yup!”
Lin Xinghe said with a grin, “Okay, then I’ll leave it to you.”
Tang Xin asked, “Is the proposal I just made not feasible?”
“It’s not impossible, it’s just that there are too many uncertainties. To what extent do we need to communicate with the villagers? How long will it take? Will it even work? It’s not worth the risk.”
Li Chengyan and Fang Ziyue quickly brought back a few barrels of gasoline.
Lin Xinghe asked them to burn the amusement park, which took an hour and a half.
Lin Xinghe looked up at the raging flames in front of her and said to Tang Xin, “The Snow Maiden makes the people in the town scared. In order to survive, they can only join forces with the Snow Maiden…”
“…So do you want to eradicate such crooked and evil spirits?” Tang Xin asked.
Lin Xinghe shook her head: “No, we are all villains, so we have to think from the perspective of the villains. In order to overthrow the Snow Maiden’s tyranny over the village, we need to become the tyrants.”
Lin Xinghe had never done anything bad before, as she followed the rules her whole life. Unexpectedly, after the school system said she was the villain, she felt at home in the villains’ world. Being a villain was… fun? And inexplicably cool?
Lin Xinghe said, “… As for sincerity, a villain must not be sincere.”
TL Notes:
*Chinese currency (RMB), the conversion factor ranges roughly from $1 USD :￥6 RMB-￥7 RMB depending on the economy.
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