[Book Day]

Chen Miemie didn't need the advisory council inside her head to tell her—when Li Liang was dead, the scab couldn't die again.

First, Li Liang had been captured by the Witch. By the Witch's usual methods, Li Liang should have died right there in the interrogation room, but because Chen Miemie wanted to fish for information, he was released.

And the moment he was released, he died anyway.

Back at Fairy Tale Road No. 19, the household's strange creatures naturally launched into a discussion session.

Qinghua conjured up a porcelain blackboard covered in evidence notes and began to preside.

The oddities crowded around Chen Miemie in a circle, joining the discussion.

The scene was a near echo of the days back in Room 1803, South District Tower, Sixiang City.

"I wonder how the renovation is going at home. If I count the time, it should be just about done by now." Chen Miemie shook his head, dragging his thoughts back to the present.

Qinghua began organizing the current situation.

"In just a few short days, we've already run into two separate incidents involving 'stirring up conflict.'

The first: between the [Shedding Skin Clinic] and the [Burger Workshop], someone manufactured coincidences, using Water Gaze to prematurely trigger a curse, and behind the scenes there was a [Butler] involved;

The second: between the Witch and the Geometric Gaoler, someone attempted to use [Gravity Moss] to create a confrontation between the two.

Now we've come across a third.

Senior scholar [Zhiliao]'s direct subordinate Li Liang issued an assassination contract in private. When it came to light, he claimed it was on [Zhiliao]'s orders, but [Zhiliao] himself flatly denies this.

Before the matter could be fully investigated, Li Liang was silenced, and his final confession became an unchangeable piece of evidence."

Qinghua only laid out the known facts, without sharing her own opinions or judgments.

Loop began a preliminary analysis, focusing primarily on the third event, since it was directly connected to Chen Miemie:

"Li Liang's behavior is strange. As the one who initiated the assassination, he knew very well the kind of power behind Miemie. With his high intelligence and low combat capability, he ought to have been extremely cautious—he shouldn't have been exposed so easily. And once exposed, he threw [Zhiliao] under the bus so readily, as if..."

"As if he deliberately walked himself into the trap, intentionally trying to 'sow discord' between [Zhiliao] and Miemie," Qinghua finished the sentence.

Both of the household's master strategists had spoken. Chen Miemie turned his gaze to the hidden wise one, Pure Water.

Pure Water wasn't on his shoulder anymore. Ever since Water Gaze had come to the fish tank, every time the group returned to the shop, Pure Water would hop right into the tank.

The viewing panel of the fish tank had its water curtain drawn aside, and Water Gaze was blinking those big, beautiful eyes, listening to everyone's discussion.

Pure Water, transformed into a tiny droplet, rose up from the water surface above Water Gaze's head:

"I've been thinking—what if we look at these three events from a different angle, tracing them as a whole? Is there any connection?

And I've found a common thread: the Witch is present in all three.

The [Shedding Skin Clinic] and the [Burger Workshop] may seem like a matter between two guilds, but we now know the former deputy head of the [Burger Workshop] was the Witch;

The Witch also happens to be the daughter of the Geometric Gaoler, and the Geometric Gaoler has had his own run-in with the Witch;

Li Liang hired someone to assassinate Chen Miemie, and behind Chen Miemie, once again, is the Witch—for instance, to outsiders, it now looks like Li Liang, a scholar of considerable standing, was killed at the hands of the Witch's leader, Silence.

So, let me make a slightly bolder assumption.

There's some power behind the scenes pulling strings, aiming to make the Witch oppose the current human forces under the Book Seal, provoking incidents, intensifying conflicts, and even pushing toward an ultimate state of irreconcilable enmity."

Chen Miemie nodded along:

"I had a vague inkling, but not so clearly laid out. Pure Water's theory matches what I've been feeling deep down.

If I had just killed that Lady Scab earlier, it likely would have been pin on the Witch too—turning it into another fuse between the Witch and the underworld, the Mist Church."

Daidai sat dumbly on Chen Miemie's shoulder: "But that Lady Scab didn't seem very powerful. We already went looking for her—couldn't they silence her too, and pin the blame on us?"

Chen Miemie gently patted Daidai's head:

"People like Lady Scab—their fighting power might be weak, but as intelligence chiefs in the underworld, when they truly want to hide, almost no one can track them down.

If I hadn't had the advanced task contact info provided by Silence first, and Pure Water's strange tracking method for fish afterwards, and managed to catch her completely off guard, it'd have been nearly impossible to get to her.

Besides, there's no way I'd go and protect her either. I already warned her when I left, told her to close shop and take shelter. Someone as sharp as her won't have missed the message."

Having explained this to Daidai, Chen Miemie looked at the blackboard and revealed a fresh line of thinking that had spontaneously struck him.

"Ping Water's assumption just now reminded me, so let me offer my own hypothesis.

Assume I had never interfered in any of this—how would things have unfolded?

First: if I hadn't gone to the villa to pick fish that day,

then the [Shedding Skin Clinic] and the [Burger Workshop] would've ostensibly pinned the blame on Water Gaze and killed it—but with no one knowing about the [Butler], the two guilds would still hold a grudge between them.

Second: if I hadn't gone to register for [Gravity Moss],

then the Witch would have gone to register instead. The Geometric Gaoler would've directly confronted the Witch, possibly followed by an assassination attempt. Even if the assassination failed, the seed of hatred would've been planted the moment the Witch was identified.

Third: if I hadn't asked Silence to release Li Liang,

given Silence's nature, anyone who'd offended their young master would be put to death on the spot. If Silence killed a well-known senior scholar through private execution, Scholar Court would have held a deep grudge against the Witch.

Look—without me as the wild card, the Witch is now surrounded by enemies on all sides.

The one behind all of this—what exactly their power level is, hard to say—but their scheming runs deep. Figures like the [Butler], Li Liang, the prepared [Gravity Moss]—all of them were calculated, planned, and had been building up over a long time."

Red lay sprawled on the ceiling. She wasn't one for deep analysis, a full-blooded pragmatist, and only asked for outcomes:

"Stirring up the Witch against the humans—what does that accomplish, and who stands to gain?"

The question was, at once concrete and vague, and nobody in the whole room had an answer for it.

The [Forbidden Fruit Codex] had been listening on the sidelines for a while. Now it murmured, "The Reading Day is coming up soon."

Everyone instantly turned to look at it.

The [Forbidden Fruit Codex] didn't need persuading, and continued:

"Once every 120 years, there comes a Reading Day.

On this day, all the seals of the Book Seal disappear. The entire city, every street and alley, will be swamped by countless books. The books line up like soldiers on parade, marching through the streets in a great 'book procession.'

And not just outdoors — in every household, every book indoors temporarily comes to 'life' and scampers around the rooms.

Among those many books are included the monstrous volumes that, ordinarily sealed, are briefly unsealed — one might say that on that day, there's not a single corner in the whole Book Seal where one will not find a book."

Qinghua seemed puzzled: "Doesn't that mean an awful lot of people would die that day?"

The [Forbidden Fruit Codex] waved its little wings:

"No, on [Book Day], all anyone has to do is spend the entire day reading. Anyone who doesn't read will be attacked by the books themselves. Only those with no books in their homes will have the bookish anomalies break down their doors and kill them outright."