3 meters.

2 meters.

1 meter…

As the distance closed, Zhu Jie could even make out the pattern on the first madam's veil. Knowing that delay could bring trouble, Zhu Jie didn't hesitate. She quickly went around the first madam, came to her side, and reached out towards the bamboo basket behind her.

At that moment, everyone held their breath, and Zhu Jie lived up to expectations by actually lifting the lid of the basket.

"She did it!"

Tang Qisheng, who was concerned about Zhu Jie, bit his lip in excitement.

But as Zhu Jie lowered her head to look into the basket, her body suddenly froze. Jiang Cheng, watching from a distance, felt a "thump" in his heart. The scene was familiar.

Sure enough, misfortune struck again. Zhu Jie seemed to have been paused, standing rigidly in place, while the first madam shuffled away as if nothing had happened.

Throughout the entire process, the first madam did not react to Zhu Jie's actions.

"Retreat."

Seeing the first madam shuffling towards them, Jiang Cheng grabbed the fatty and, taking advantage of the darkness, they crouched low and quickly retreated.

To be precise, their hiding place was not in the first madam's path, but Zhu Jie's experience served as a warning. The first madam not far away was highly suspicious, and even approaching her could lead to disaster.

Moreover, Jiang Cheng suspected that the consequences for those not summoned were completely different from those faced by Li Bai and Zhu Jie earlier. They experienced a false death, but for them, it would probably be a real one.

The group watched as the first madam wriggled out of sight, completely disappearing, before daring to emerge from their hiding places. Tang Qisheng was the first to rush to Zhu Jie's side, his eyes reddening.

"Don't touch her yet."

Yao Shunyu and Zhang Qizheng were closer and arrived faster. The two persuaded the nearly desperate Tang Qisheng.

When Jiang Cheng arrived, Zhu Jie was still holding the lid she had lifted, but she had gone further than Li Bai. She had at least opened the lid, and was even holding it in her hand.

Jiang Cheng didn't dare to touch it. He simply squatted down to examine the lid, finding it to be the kind woven from bamboo strips, covered with a layer of brownish-gray grime.

"What's going on? She... she approached the first madam head-on!"

The seemingly steady Tang Qisheng was becoming hysterical.

He gently touched Zhu Jie's body, and the next second, her body suddenly lost support and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Tang Qisheng tremblingly pulled open Zhu Jie's collar, only to see that the red string around her neck had been broken, and the copper coin was gone.

Only after confirming that Zhu Jie still had a pulse did the pale-faced Tang Qisheng regain some composure. "Zhu Jie was only affected after opening the lid, so touching the basket is not a taboo. Also, there's no danger in approaching the first madam from the front."

"We all saw that the first madam didn't do anything, so could the danger be unrelated to the first madam, and instead come from the basket behind her?" Lu Qin offered her opinion.

The fatty swallowed, looking at Zhu Jie on the ground. "Could there be something wrong with the basket? But the basket only contains the hydrangea, how could it…"

"Who said the basket must contain the hydrangea?" Jiang Cheng countered.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone except the fatty became thoughtful. Shao Tong even squatted next to Zhu Jie's "corpse," picked up the lid from the ground, and poked at the obvious brown stains on the lid with his finger, then brought it to his nose and sniffed vigorously.

"It's blood," Shao Tong said, raising his head with certainty.

Hearing this, the fatty's eyes widened. He hadn't considered this at all, but seeing the brown stains that covered almost the entire lid, he could imagine that the entire basket had been bloody a long time ago.

Bloody… what was once inside it?

Everyone had seen the basket. It would be impossible to fit an entire corpse inside, but only a part, like a head, would be no problem at all.

A head… Jiang Cheng already had a guess. Perhaps the basket contained the first madam's head. After all, no one had promised them that the first madam's head was in the basket!

The Disaster-Avoiding Woman, a key figure for clues, hadn't even mentioned the basket. Thinking about it carefully now, this was particularly abnormal.

The Disaster-Avoiding Woman seemed to be deliberately hiding something.

And if the first madam's head was in the basket behind her, then it wouldn't be hard to guess what was pieced together on the first madam's corpse's neck: it was tonight's clue item – the hydrangea!

Everyone present was smart. Jiang Cheng only started it, and everyone thought of the rest of the guess. Although they were experienced, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill running down their spines when they thought of the first madam's terrifying appearance.

A remnant body with a hydrangea on its head. No one dared to imagine what the first madam had experienced before her death.

For the time being, these were just guesses, but it would be easy to verify: just have the next person lift the first madam's veil.

Suddenly, for a moment, the fatty desperately hoped that the next person wouldn't be him, nor the doctor and Yao Shunyu. Lifting a ghost's veil was the kind of exciting thing that only the doctor among the people he knew had survived, but he was also stalked by the ghost bride Wu Yingying as a result.

"Lifting the first madam's veil, that's too…" Zhang Qizheng was a cautious person. Just thinking about this kind of thing was obviously unreliable.

"Why lift the veil?" Jiang Cheng turned his head, looking at Zhang Qizheng with a puzzled expression. "We just need to determine whether there's a human head or a hydrangea under the veil. I think the feel of these two things should be completely different. We can feel it through the veil."

Touching a ghost's head also sounded very unreliable, but compared to lifting a ghost's veil, the former was barely acceptable.

"Brother Jiang is only mentioning one method. If you think this is too dangerous, there is a second method." Yao Shunyu had already sorted out his thoughts. He looked at Zhu Jie, who was motionless on the ground. "Everyone has seen that the lid of the basket has already been removed, and it's right here. So, if there is a chance, you can also choose to take a closer look at the basket, but I personally don't recommend this, because both Li Bai and Zhu Jie were affected after contacting the basket."

Yao Shunyu's words were not difficult to understand. If they approached, and happened to meet the first madam's head's gaze, then the consequences would be imaginable.

Like Li Bai before, Zhu Jie, lying on the ground, also closed her eyes tightly, and the pupils under her eyelids were constantly trembling, as if she was trapped in a dream from which she could not wake up.

Jiang Cheng's heart suddenly twitched. He subconsciously took out his phone. The phone screen showed the surveillance video. In the video, Li Bai, the first to be affected, was lying quietly on the ground.

Although at first glance there was nothing unusual, out of caution, Jiang Cheng decided to take a look at Li Bai.