The office was unexpectedly clean, as if it didn't need any tidying at all. The farm owner she feared was also not present.
The layout was well-arranged, and the lighting was excellent. Being inside, it was difficult to associate this place with a thriller world of horrors and bloody.
One particularly striking feature was an entire wall occupied by bookshelves, densely packed with books.
This immediately reminded Wen Xirou of what Big Shot had told her before they parted.
Perhaps Big Shot was trying to hint at something. Read the books?
Wen Xirou slowly approached the bookshelf, observing its contents.
She had taken a minor course in foreign languages, so she had some basic knowledge of common languages like English, French, Japanese, and German. From this, she could confirm that most of the books on the shelves were not written in common languages.
The book covers were also strange.
She randomly pulled out a book, held her breath, and waited for a moment.
Nothing happened. It seemed that taking a book from the shelf didn't violate any rules.
What about reading it?
"Hmm… Who knows how long these books have been here? I should check if any of them have been eaten by insects."
Muttering to herself, Wen Xirou opened the book.
Checking for insect damage was technically part of cleaning the office. She hadn't broken any rules.
The contents of the book were in the same language as the text on the cover. She couldn't understand it. Just as she was about to close the book and put it back, a card suddenly slipped out from between the pages.
She bent down to pick it up and realized it was an old, faded photograph. The photo showed a tall, slender woman.
She wore an elegant, classical long dress with a shawl draped over her shoulders. Her hair was styled in an updo, and her features were delicate and radiant. She smiled at the camera, a hint of shyness in her expression.
Could this be the farm owner?
Wen Xirou soon noticed faint handwriting near where she held the photo. It was written on it: "Sun Jiawang."
Sun? Wen Xirou immediately thought of the woman in the red dress she had seen yesterday.
However, since she hadn't seen the woman's face, she couldn't be sure if the person in the photo was her.
Besides, "Sun Jiawang" sounded more like a man's name. Maybe he was the one who took this photo?
Wen Xirou flipped the picture over. There was a line of text on the back: "It is easy to paint a beautiful woman's appearance, but difficult to capture her true essence."
What did that mean? She couldn't figure it out but carefully memorized the details of the photo before tucking it back into the book.
Aside from the photo, there were no other clues inside. Since she couldn't read the text, she skimmed through the book and then returned it to the shelf.
Just as she was about to withdraw her fingers from the cover, she suddenly noticed a small black dot on the smooth, pale spine.
Was it just a smudge?
She pressed her fingertip against it and rubbed back and forth. Then, she sensed something unusual.
The black dot wasn't dust. Instead, it seemed to be part of the book cover itself.
The texture of the book cover was odd. The leather was unnaturally smooth and supple—softer than the ostrich leather purse Wen Xirou had once bought.
Compared to this, ordinary sheepskin, cowhide, and deerskin all felt unbearably rough.
Something this soft... A chilling realization struck her. She recoiled, yanking her hand away.
Human skin! The book cover was made of human skin!
And not just any human skin—it belonged to someone who had lived a life of comfort, someone who had never done hard labor.
That tiny black dot wasn't a stain—it was a mole that had grown on human skin!
In an instant, the previously simple and elegant office became suffocatingly eerie.
Wen Xirou stared at the bookshelf, feeling a cold dread seep from her feet up to the crown of her head.
Most of the books had the same type of leather cover. How many people had been skinned to make them?
She hastily placed the book back on the shelf and clamped a hand over her mouth, fighting the overwhelming nausea rising from her stomach.
She must not spit it out! At least not here. Her job is to clean the office, and if she makes the office dirty, it will definitely violate the rules.
It took her a long time to suppress the urge to vomit.
Looking up at the entire wall of books once again, guessing that Big Shot's advice was definitely for this purpose. She knew that clues were hidden in these books. That was why she told her to read them.
Enduring her fear, Wen Xirou reached for another book. Using the excuse of "checking for insect damage," she continued searching for clues.
Perhaps this time, not only could she successfully leave the haunted realm, but she also had a chance to uncover the secrets hidden within the haunted realm.
Wen Xirou knew that many investigators died in a thriller world, but many also managed to escape from it. Among those who escaped the thriller world, there was a category known as "Secrets Unraveler."
To protect the public, the government compiled a database of known haunted realms, categorizing them by difficulty and publishing verified survival rules.
Most of the rules on the forums had been discovered by Secrets Unravelers.
Secrets Unravelers never prioritized survival. Their goal was to uncover the origins of haunted realms so that more people could live.
They deliberately ventured into danger, skirting the edge of forbidden actions, all to gather more information and create a comprehensive analysis of these haunted realms.
Of course, while this work was incredibly perilous, once uncovering a hidden truth, the Haunted Realm rewards the Secrets Unravelers with corresponding rewards.
Could Big Shot be a Secrets Unraveler? Wen Xirou pondered. It was the only explanation that made sense.