The backdrop can also be propped up.

The gleaming knife stabbed straight at the two of them. Bai Xingyi and Gu Huayang dodged to the side, and Bai Xingyi picked up the kerosene lamp tucked at his waist and threw it at the Second Miss.

Soon, Bai Xingyi felt a sense of despair—because the kerosene lamp had completely burned out; the red embers were still flickering, but the fire was gone.

Gu Huayang and Bai Xingyi fell backward, both landing on the ground, thus avoiding the Second Miss's attack.

The second young lady missed her target and was somewhat displeased. She tossed the gleaming knife into the air, caught it, and, gripping the hilt, thrust it at Gu Huayang.

Gu Huayang's glasses shattered, making his vision blurry. He could only vaguely make out a beam of light piercing towards him.

"I'm going to die." Gu Huayang sighed inwardly, resignedly closing his eyes. Before his consciousness faded, he felt a pang of regret that he still couldn't return to the real world.

As the knife drew closer, the excitement on Li Yue's face became increasingly apparent.

Although Bai Xingyi had given up hope, she still mustered her last bit of strength to throw the kerosene lamp that had long since gone out—no matter what, even if she was going to die, she had to make this boss suffer.

The kerosene lamp was smashed straight at Li Yue's face. Suddenly, the kerosene lamp, which had only a tiny red ember remaining, lit up.

Then Bai Xingyi saw the expression on Li Yue's face change from surprise at the sudden change to fear—the spark in the kerosene lamp had reignited the lamp.

The tiny fire snake grabbed Li Yue's hair, and soon, Li Yue's scream echoed throughout the corridor. Then she disappeared, along with the gleaming knife.

The kerosene lamp fell to the ground with a dull thud before going out completely.

Bai Xingyi never expected that he could scare Li Yue away at the last moment with this almost extinguished kerosene lamp.

But it's no use now, Bai Xingyi thought. She felt completely drained and her head was spinning. She was probably about to lose consciousness. If she stayed here for the night, she figured she'd either die or become a ghost.

Just as Bai Xingyi had predicted, she herself soon lost consciousness and fainted.

"Did you experience all this in just a few hours?" This was the question Fang Cheng asked after being stunned for several seconds.

Although he was awake and able to sit up, Gu Huayang still didn't have the strength to speak and could only nod slightly.

The kerosene lamp shone on her wounds, and Bai Xingyi, who was now able to sit up, felt much better. She leaned forward slightly and rested against Fang Cheng: "Thank you, baby. You're so good to me. If we had stayed there for one night, we would both have been doomed."

"Don't be so polite." Fang Cheng wasn't used to such intimate gestures, so he pushed Bai Xingyi away and made him sit down properly.

"Oh, right, I've got a clue about that cat-faced old woman. That person is actually Zhang Tianshi." Fang Cheng remembered that she hadn't told Gu Huayang and Bai Xingyi the information she got in the kitchen. She turned around, intending to call Chen Yi'an and Fu Qu over as well, but saw that the two seemed to be talking about something.

With the idea of ​​not disturbing others' conversation, Fang Cheng thought it best to talk to Gu Huayang and Bai Xingyi first.

As he spoke, Fang Cheng gestured with his hands, recounting all the information he had received from Zhang Tianshi in his soul state.

"Just as we predicted, that young lady must have caused the entire teahouse to become a dungeon in order to bring her sister back to the world." Gu Huayang regained some strength, swallowed to moisten his throat, and began to exchange ideas with Bai Xingyi and Fang Cheng.

"After Li Yin asked Zhang Tianshi how to revive her sister, she sacrificed Zhang Tianshi, probably because the ritual required a human sacrifice," Bai Xingyi said. "However, because Zhang Tianshi concealed something, Li Yue's return was incomplete; only her soul returned, and she couldn't enter her body."

"In addition, Zhang Tianshi tricked Li Yin, causing the two sisters to agree not to appear in the same state at the same time. Li Yin must have found a way to revive her sister, but due to a mistake, the entire teahouse became a dungeon."

"So, under these circumstances, is there any way to resolve the resentment of the two sisters and all the servants in the tea plantation?" Fang Cheng put her hand in her pocket and touched the piece of paper she hadn't had time to look at yet—she heard the same sounds coming from outside as the night before; those people had come again.

"As long as you don't look out the window, it'll be fine." Bai Xingyi said, raising a hand to cover Fang Cheng's face on the side facing the window.

“It’s unlikely,” Gu Huayang sighed. “The only way to dispel the resentment of the two sisters is to bring Li Yue back to life, but that’s unlikely—if Li Yue wants to come back to life, we’ll have to pay with our lives.”

"Moreover, the resentment among the servants throughout the tea plantation is something we absolutely cannot resolve."

Fang Cheng thought about it and realized that it made sense; the number of people in a tea shop must be measured in hundreds.

"Then we can only investigate how to die consciously." Fang Cheng scratched her head. Of all the clues, this was the one she couldn't understand the most—what constitutes dying consciously?

"No matter what, if a person loses consciousness, they can't possibly be conscious, right?"

"This worldview doesn't seem like the kind where you can find a gun to blow your own head off."

“To die consciously…we didn’t expect that either,” Gu Huayang said, frowning. “As the butler, I have a lot of power to rummage through things. But I searched everywhere and didn’t find anything that could kill someone instantly.”

"Ah, this is really brain-teasing," Bai Xingyi said, rubbing his head. "My brain, which has been out of high school for two or three years, is no longer capable of thinking about this problem."

"Oh, right, I still have one last piece of paper I haven't looked at." Fang Cheng took the paper out of his pocket. "Maybe it explains how someone dies consciously?"

Sure enough, there were some words written on the last piece of paper: It seems my writing was too strange, causing you to misunderstand my meaning. That's why you turned to this piece of paper.

Let's write it in a way that's easy to understand.

I'm telling you to die, not that you really want to die. I told you before that my mother was a feng shui master. From when I was little until I was sold, she kept telling me that after people die, they go to all sorts of places, are reincarnated, and then return to the human world.

Therefore, death is also a new beginning.

Escaping the tea plantation means the death of your past self, and the beginning of a new life. But you must understand where you are going. Without a clear goal, you will drift like a rootless duckweed to another world you don't want to go.

This is what it means to die consciously.

Perhaps one of your companions will be misled and become attached to this place. You must tell that person to abandon their current ideas, otherwise they will only be used as a sacrificial offering, becoming part of the eldest young lady's resurrection of the second young lady.

This is what it means to not become an object.

Alright, since I've already written this far, I might as well tell you how to escape the tea shop—just replicate what I did back then. The kerosene lamp is still there, right?

Let's just burn the whole tea shop down, starting in the kitchen. Then have the man who carries the goods lead you out. Remember to have the laundry man and the water carrier each take a bucket of water for self-defense.

After reviewing the equation, there was only silence—that's all? Burning down the entire tea plantation solved the problem?

"Fangcheng, have you finished reading? What's written on this paper?" Bai Xingyi asked, noticing Fangcheng frowning as he finished reading the last page.

“That woman… she made us burn the entire tea shop down.” Fang Cheng turned the paper over, his eyes glazed over.

"Huh?" Bai Xingyi was stunned.

"...That sounds a bit far-fetched." Gu Huayang also fell silent, silently hoping that the stack of diaries wasn't there to bother them.

Otherwise, it would be a real rip-off.

"There's more at the end. I... let me take another look." Fang Cheng glanced at the words written at the end, his eyes widening.

"What's written on the paper?" Bai Xingyi asked.

She said, "I know you'll think this is ridiculous, but that's really how I ran out back then."

"To be precise, I did it according to the young lady's wishes."

"She kept killing the servants at the tea shop in order to bring her sister back to life."

"Logically speaking, she should have been killed by those senior members of the household, but they didn't manage to."

"It's very simple—she got a protective talisman from Zhang the swindler and stuck it on herself. With her sister's ghost, which can appear in broad daylight, tipping her off, those who wanted to kill her unsurprisingly became sacrifices. The day before I was placed on the sacrificial altar, there were hardly any people left in the tea shop."

"At that time, I was locked in a room by the puppets controlled by the young lady. There were four of them with me, and I couldn't escape at all."

"I thought I was doomed too, but unexpectedly, the young lady came over, gave me a kerosene lamp, and told me to go to the kitchen to light up the entire teahouse."

"Taking advantage of this opportunity, I set fire to the entire teahouse, and also set fire to the four wooden puppets next to me. I also grabbed a jug of oil, tucked two kitchen knives into my waistband, took a torch, and rushed out of the teahouse with the few people who were still alive."

"Many things in the tea shop are made of wood—especially after the young lady started killing us servants as sacrifices, a lot of the work was done by the young lady using paper figures and wooden puppets. So, even though many people come to stop us, they are also very flammable."

"As for the eldest and second young ladies, don't worry, someone will stop them. Just run towards your own homes."