The mercenary Ryan had died, but his tongue had not been pulled out.
In Xu Yi's view, the Evil Spirit Mary Shaw was someone who greatly valued "ritualistic sense", and so far, everyone who had died at its hand had their tongues pulled out.
The exception now was not because Ryan was anything special, but purely because his mouth had been wrapped in thick black tape, sealing it shut.
"That's quite clever! You shouldn't be called Ryan, you should be called Morphy," Xu Yi exclaimed.
He could probably guess the other's thought process. After hearing about Mary Shaw's method of killing, Ryan's clever little head started working.
If screaming and opening one's mouth would lead to the tongue being pulled out, then wouldn't keeping one's mouth shut solve the problem?
Therefore, Ryan had his mouth sealed with tape almost all the time, and even, as a precaution, he mandated that his meals should not exceed two minutes.