There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

At this moment, the world designated with the code EA1029392178.

After Xu Shuo opened the door, as expected, it was Pei Sheng who had come to look for him.

"I called you but you didn't answer! It's already half past ten and there wasn't a peep from you, we almost thought you had died suddenly at home!"

As soon as Pei Sheng entered, he started clamoring around, then turned his head to look around curiously and asked, "Is Xi not home? Did she go out without her phone?"

One could foresee, Xu Xi's phone must have also been inundated with calls.

"Overslept."

As Xu Shuo spoke, he walked to the restroom to clean himself up, only to see that Pei Sheng had already sneakily made his way to Xu Xi's room door, trying to open it with a smug grin.

Xu Shuo did not stop him because just as Pei Sheng was about to pull the door open, it was opened from the inside first.

With a somewhat anxious and perplexed expression on her face, Xu Xi stood at the door, looking even more confused when she saw Pei Sheng in front of her.

The previously sneaky Pei Sheng became serious in a second, straightened his tie and said, "Ahem, good morning Xi, just got out of bed with messy hair and sleepy eyes, ouch!"

Xu Xi suddenly came to her senses, ignored him, and bolted out of her room.

First, she looked anxiously at the door of the opposite room that was open, then she headed to the living room, finally relaxing a bit when she saw the young man's figure.

Xu Shuo was in the kitchen preparing to cook noodles, and looking back when he heard the commotion, said, "You're up? Go wash up, and have some breakfast in a moment."

"Make a portion for me too," said Pei Sheng as he followed out.

Xu Shuo counted and added a few strands of noodles for him.

Now it was already half-past ten, and he was afraid that soon after finishing breakfast, it would be time to eat lunch again.

Pei Sheng pulled a small stool to sit by the dining table and, facing the kitchen, said, "How did you both manage to oversleep today? And when I woke up this morning and checked the news, I heard that there was an earthquake in Heiyu District last night, which is really odd, a localized earthquake??"

Upon hearing this, Xu Shuo asked without turning his head, "When did the earthquake happen?"

"Seems to be around half-past nine last night, quite a few people said they felt a slight tremor."

"At that time, I was still in Huangmu District, didn't feel anything."

"But I heard that the tremor didn't last long, and many thought it was just their imagination until they saw others mentioning it online."

"Oh, then check the official reports."

"So what were you doing in Huangmu District last night?"

"Just casually looking into some investments."

The simple broth with noodles didn't take long to cook, and as Xu Shuo talked, he had already served three bowls.

Pei Sheng looked down at his own bowl, then at the other two.

One bowl was full of noodles, and another had fewer noodles but included a poached egg, but his was just broth with a few strands of noodles.

"Are you really just going to feed me plain broth?"

"You've already had breakfast, and you'll be eating lunch soon anyway," Xu Shuo said casually.

"...I've never met anyone as stingy as you," Pei Sheng tugged at the corner of his mouth.

After Xu Xi had washed up and come out, she pulled out a chair and sat down, her gaze lingering with a hint of bewilderment on the few pitiful strands of noodles in his bowl.

Pei Sheng lifted his bowl, took a big gulp, and swallowed both the soup and the noodles in one go, without even pausing.

Seeing this, Xu Xi picked up a clump of noodles with her chopsticks and looked toward his now-empty bowl.

"Burp... no need, burp!" Pei Sheng waved his hand, as drinking the water too quickly caused him to let out two uncontrollable burps.

After settling down a bit, he sat next to them, watching the siblings eat their noodles and taking up an accusatory stance, he said with a stern face, "So did you two go off thieving last night? How could you both sleep so late, alarms couldn't even wake you?!"

Xu Xi nibbled on the poached egg silently, not saying a word, but glancing over at Xu Shuo across from her.

Xu Shuo's expression was calm yet unpredictable, "Came back too late yesterday, just went straight to sleep, forgot to charge my phone, only saw it after getting up."

Pei Sheng listened to him, then turned to look at Xu Xi.

Xu Shuo also looked up at her.

Feeling the sudden gaze of the two, Xu Xi stopped eating her noodles, looked down slightly, and said softly, "I slept too deeply, didn't hear the alarm."

She had an alarm set for six in the morning, ringing every five minutes, and turning off automatically after five times.

But she couldn't remember how she fell asleep last night, it seemed she should have been playing with her phone on the couch all along, but when she woke up this morning, she was on the bed in her own room.

The phone had a record of the alarm, but Xu Xi indeed did not hear it at all.

Had she really slept that deeply?

Why did she sleep so deeply?

Xu Xi's face was devoid of emotion as she stared at the poached egg in her bowl. Although she seemed emotionless on the surface, it seemed to the perceptive that the atmosphere around her was growing colder and icier.

Pei Sheng suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable and coughed, "Well, oversleeping is no big deal. In high school, I even overslept till the next night!"

"Yeah, then woke up only to continue partying at the bar all night."

Xu Shuo coolly rebuked him and then turned to Xu Xi, "What happened to you last night? Was there an earthquake in Heiyu District?" Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

"Oh right, I just remembered that," Pei Sheng suddenly recalled, "If there was an earthquake here, Xi, you should have felt it too, right?"

Earthquake?

Hearing this, Xu Xi's gaze flickered slightly.

Because to call it an earthquake was a bit of a stretch, it was more like some strange explosion, but in fact, nothing seemed to have happened in the direction from where the explosion sound came.

And the moment she heard the explosion, she always felt her thoughts were somewhat slow, and it took her a long time to come around.

And it seemed she fell asleep shortly after that moment.

Overall, it didn't seem like any normal event.

So, nibbling on her noodles, Xu Xi said vaguely, "There seemed to have been an earthquake, but I only felt it a little bit, I'm not very clear about it."

"So it really was a localized earthquake?" Pei Sheng leaned back in his chair, shaking his head in confusion as he took out his phone to check the trending searches.

After they finished breakfast and cleared away the dishes, Xu Shuo went to his room to get his laptop and handed it to Pei Sheng.

Pei Sheng looked puzzled.

Xu Shuo said matter-of-factly, "You came at the right time, so just take this material to the studio. I've already overslept today anyway— I might as well give myself a day off and not go over."

Pei Sheng, "Ah??"

"Is there a problem? I've already done all the urgent work overtime recently, and the rest is your project now," Xu Shuo confidently declared.

"Have you been doing overtime recently??" Pei Sheng's question marks multiplied.

"Anyway, I've already finished my work for today."

"Don't you think it's unfair? We're all working and you're taking a holiday—and it's not even Dragon Boat Festival yet!"

"Anyway, I've already finished my work."

"Then I also... "

Pei Sheng started to say but then remembered, to his dismay, that he was no longer that free-spirited sales clerk; he was now saddled with a big project that was a matter of life and death for both the studio and himself!

The amount of work he hadn't finished really was quite a lot...

After all, it was his first time being a project leader. Pei Sheng wasn't as skilled or fast at work, so now his desk was piled up with a mountain of documents.

Pei Sheng immediately lost his voice.

Seeing his reaction, Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow, "Also what?"

"...Nothing, I need to get back to work."

With a raincloud metaphorically hovering over his head, Pei Sheng picked up the laptop, a mix of resentment and indignation as he left.

Xu Xi was always a slow eater and was still sitting at the dining table. She watched Pei Sheng's retreating back, then turned her gaze to the young man standing nearby.

Xu Shuo looked back at her, "Are you going too?"

Xu Xi quickly shook her head.

"So what exactly happened here last night?" Xu Shuo asked seriously, looking at her.

"I'm really not too sure..." Xu Xi said quietly, truthfully describing the event, "During the earthquake, I heard what seemed to be an explosion near the mall, and then I felt my head getting heavy and dizzy, and I don't know when I fell asleep."

"Do you feel unwell anywhere?" Xu Shuo continued to inquire.

Xu Xi shook her head again.

Seeing that, Xu Shuo relaxed and ruffled her hair, "As long as you are fine. Later, when I go out to buy groceries, I'll take a look at what happened there. Remember to stay as far away as possible from these kinds of incidents."

Xu Xi nodded again.

Neither of them planned to go to work at the company today. By the time Xu Xi finished her breakfast, Xu Shuo had already left to buy groceries. She went to her room to pick up her mobile phone to have a look.

Last night at 9:30, she remembered sending a text to her brother.

Xu Xi stared at the reply text on the opposite side for a long while, her brows slightly furrowed, but she didn't find anything odd for the moment.

Yes, although she always felt something was off, there indeed wasn't anything abnormal.

Was her brother really only in Huangmu District last night?

Xu Xi subconsciously touched the Spiritual Pearl pendant she wore on her chest. The originally sea-blue bead had turned colorless and transparent after these days of changes.

According to her brother, this thing would disappear on its own after being worn for about a month.

It sounded like something quite abnormal.

Sometimes, Xu Xi was really very curious about what the other side of this world was like.

But then again, she couldn't trouble her brother.

...