“Hmm? Why?” the butler asked.

“If she's going to destroy the music box, then that's exactly what I want,” Mr. Williams replied.

The butler didn't understand what he meant, but he followed his instructions and did not call the police.

After obtaining the music box, Su Lingyan neither went to Hank nor Tina. Instead, she went to find the green-eyed man. She couldn't find him near the alley where they had first met, so she headed to the area where Tina had originally been.

The man glanced at her, looking somewhat surprised.

“How did you get the music box out...?”

“That's right, I brought it out. Didn't you say that no matter what we do, the ending can't be changed? If I keep this cursed music box away from them, wouldn't that change their fate?” Su Lingyan said.

“...Maybe. But the music box still exists,” the man replied.

“So they still can't escape death?” Su Lingyan asked.

“I don't know. I told you already—I know very little.”

“Your name?”

Su Lingyan suddenly asked for his name.

“...Saylor. My name is Saylor,” the man answered.

“Then how does this music box place its curse? What's the effective range? How long does someone need to be in contact with it? Or is the curse hereditary?”

“...”

Saylor was once again left speechless.

“Why that expression? Isn't it better to be thorough?” Su Lingyan rested her chin on her hand and smiled. “Though I suppose you won't answer.”

She had said won't answer, not don't know.

“Hold this for me.”

Su Lingyan took out the music box and handed it to Saile. Though confused, he accepted it.

“It's 11:36 now. In a little while, I'll be able to verify another one of my hypotheses,” Su Lingyan said after checking the time.

“You have another hypothesis?” Saile asked. How did she have so many of them?

“Well... for example, whether you're actually the villain.”

Su Lingyan stepped forward. From Saylor's eyes, she caught a fleeting flash of confusion and panic. Then, seemingly by accident, she brushed against his hand.

Bang!

The music box fell to the ground.

“Just kidding. You gave me a weapon, so you're probably not.”

Su Lingyan picked up the music box and examined it carefully.

“Not even a crack. As expected, it can't be destroyed so easily.”

Instead of dropping the music box herself, she had caused it to fall through his hands. Had she noticed something?

Saylor pondered silently.

“Then why did you give me a weapon?”

Su Lingyan studied the pistol in her hand before aiming it at the music box.

“Was it meant to destroy this?”

She looked at the music box. It was exquisite and perfectly suited to her tastes. Destroying it would be such a waste.

Then she turned the gun toward Saylor.

“Then why don't you destroy it yourself?”

“I can't damage the music box. Perhaps someone else can. I can tell you're not ordinary,” Saile answered calmly this time.

“So that's how the rules are set up. ”

Su Lingyan lowered the gun.

It was now 11:41—the time when the curse was supposed to strike.

“Then let's verify it.”

She started walking into the distance.

“Let's see whether this music box is really cursed.”

Before she even reached Mr. Williams's mansion, she saw a crowd gathered ahead.

Pushing through the people, she took in the scene before her.

A man lay on the ground, covered in blood. Beside him was a bloodstained signboard.

“Why hasn't the ambulance arrived yet?” Tina said anxiously.

“We already called one, but...” a passerby trailed off.

The back of Hank's skull had been crushed inward. His chances of survival were extremely low.

“...Even without touching the music box, he still fell victim to the curse?”

Su Lingyan stared at the music box in her hand.

It could be hereditary, but Tina's parents were still alive. There was no reason the curse would skip directly to Tina.

Was there some hidden detail she was missing?

Or perhaps...

“The curse has nothing to do with the music box,” Su Lingyan murmured.

The music box could rewind time.

Rewinding time did not seem like a curse.

Furthermore, the claim that the music box was cursed had come from the green-eyed man and Mr. Williams.

But were they necessarily telling the truth?

Or had they been deliberately misleading everyone?

By the time the ambulance arrived, Hank had already stopped breathing.

Resuscitation failed.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The second time...” Tina collapsed to the ground.

Then she noticed Su Lingyan—and the music box in her hands.

She lunged forward.

“The music box! Give me the music box!”

Su Lingyan stepped back and caught her.

“Wait.”

The moment she realized the music box was unrelated to the curse, words appeared before her eyes.

When her hand left the music box, the words vanished again.

Cursed? Music Box: An exquisite music box possessing the power to reverse time. Created by a witch to help people undo their regrets. Though this witch nourished herself on negative emotions, she was actually a kind-hearted witch. Unfortunately, she was often misunderstood. How pitiful.

“An item description? Why is it only appearing now?” Su Lingyan said.

Then again, if it had appeared too early, the player would have discovered the secret immediately.

That wouldn't have been much fun.

Su Lingyan loosened her grip.

Tina seized the music box and began winding it.

Time reversed once again.

By now, Su Lingyan was thoroughly familiar with the sensation.

“As I thought, the music box isn't cursed.”

After seeing the description, that fact was all but confirmed.

Her reasoning wasn't baseless.

The music box rewound time and allowed everything to start over.

That conflicted with the supposed goal of ensuring one member of a couple died.

One could argue that the music box existed to trap couples in an endless loop and harvest their negative emotions.

But if collecting negative emotions was the objective, that seemed unnecessarily complicated.

If the witch could create a music box capable of reversing time, wouldn't it be far more efficient to create widespread chaos and panic among countless people?

Furthermore, if the curse truly came from the music box, then Tina and Hank should have been cursed immediately after obtaining it.

Yet Mr. Williams had remained perfectly fine all this time.

Tina's grandfather's sudden death could potentially be attributed to the curse.

However, Tina's parents were still alive, making a hereditary curse seem less likely.

That left only a few possibilities.

And so, she arrived at a bold hypothesis:

Saylor was the one responsible for the curse.