Chapter 149
Chapter 149
Cheng Miao rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t corrupt the minor on our team.”
Gu Jian grinned with roguish charm. “Your minor tore a female ghost’s head off in the last instance.”
Qi Jiajia stared at Gu Jian expressionlessly, then suddenly tossed him a small pink pill. “In exchange.”
Gu Jian picked it up and examined it. “Oh, a little Item that restores stamina. But I don’t want this.”
Still grinning, he pulled a piece of wire from his pocket, twisted it a few times, and beckoned to Qi Jiajia. “It’s rare to meet such an interesting kid, so consider this a free lesson. We can’t pick this lock, though. Let’s go practice on a door downstairs.”
Watching the two children leave, Jiang Chen exhaled with an amused smile. “What a lively pair.”
Cheng Miao still looked longingly toward Yuko’s bedroom. Jiang Chen leaned against the wooden railing beside the stairs, looking as refined and mild as ever. “There’s no hurry. The instance has only just begun.”
Xiao Yan and Brother Lü were also wandering around the third floor. The castle did not have many rooms, but every floor had a washroom.
“Old Lü, I’m going to the bathroom.” Looking hurried, Xiao Yan rushed toward the end of the corridor. Brother Lü scratched his head and continued studying the paintings from a safe distance.
After relieving himself, Xiao Yan washed his hands. Then he noticed something glittering in the mirror.
“Hm?” He turned and followed the direction of the gleam, finding a tiny doll beside a flowerpot in the corner.
“Oh, it’s you.” Xiao Yan picked up the exquisitely lifelike doll. It was a little girl in a Western-style dress.
The doll’s eyes were purple. They were what had reflected the light in the mirror.
Xiao Yan smoothed its long golden hair, his gaze softening.
He had a younger sister who loved things like this. She called them BJDs and spent quite a lot of money on them.
Xiao Yan’s family was well-off, and since his sister loved them, dolls like this could be found all over their home.
That was why Xiao Yan had not found the dolls frightening when everyone else did.
If anything, they felt familiar, like encountering an old friend far from home.
Xiao Yan gazed absentmindedly into the doll’s eyes. If he could take it out of the instance, perhaps it would make a nice surprise for his sister.
None of the dolls at home were made as skillfully as the ones here.
Suddenly, Xiao Yan heard someone approaching. Alert, he clutched the doll and hid behind the potted plant.
A frail-looking woman came into view, leaning against the wall as she walked slowly. Her hanging hair covered part of her face, but Xiao Yan still recognized her as the woman in the family portrait.
It was Yuko!
He saw Yuko take a brass key from inside her clothes. After glancing around, she pressed a certain spot on the wall.
Rumble.
A hidden compartment opened in the wall. Yuko placed the key inside, pressed the wall again, and waited for it to return to normal before slowly walking away, still using the wall for support.
Only after Yuko had gone far away did Xiao Yan emerge. So Yuko had come to hide the front gate’s key.
Without that key, they would be unable to leave on the fifth day. Hiding it somewhere like this was downright underhanded of the instance!
Fortunately, he had seen her.
The heavens were truly helping him.
He decided the doll was his lucky charm, bringing him good fortune. He set it on the floor, then crept over to the spot where Yuko had hidden the key.
Once he had confirmed the location, Xiao Yan suppressed his excitement and placed his hand over the mechanism, copying what Yuko had done.
The wall did not move.
Huh?
This was definitely the right place.
Xiao Yan put his hand against the wall again and pushed inward.
Nothing. It would not move.
He carefully ran his hands over the wall, searching for a possible protrusion.
Just as he was concentrating on finding the mechanism, Brother Lü’s terrified, panicked shout suddenly rang beside his ear. “Xiao Yan! What are you doing?!”
Startled by Brother Lü’s voice, Xiao Yan kept one hand on the wall as he turned toward the man hurrying over.
“Old Lü, you scared me to death! Listen, I just saw that woman hide a key in this wall. Once I find the mechanism, we can take it out!”
Brother Lü was panting hard. He yanked Xiao Yan’s hand away, his voice taut. “What nonsense are you talking about? Look at what you’re touching!”
Xiao Yan turned back blankly, then flinched violently at what he saw.
There was no smooth wall in front of him. It was clearly the oil painting hanging in the corridor.
Against its bloodred background stood the grotesquely shaped woman, and Xiao Yan’s hand had been resting squarely on one of her enormous eyes, which seemed ready to bulge out of the painting.
Xiao Yan shuddered hard. Dazed, he stumbled back two steps and grabbed his hair, his expression despairing. “How can this be?! I was obviously searching the wall for the key just now!”
“What happened?” Drawn by the commotion, the other players crowded around the pair. Seeing that something was wrong with Xiao Yan, Cheng Miao looked toward the calmer Brother Lü.
Of all the players in this instance, Brother Lü had a relatively good impression of Cheng Miao’s group. He explained anxiously, “Xiao Yan said he needed the bathroom, so I waited for him here. He didn’t come back for a while, and I was afraid something had happened, so I went looking for him.”
Brother Lü looked at the hollow-eyed Xiao Yan and sighed. “Who would’ve guessed that as soon as I turned the corner, I’d see him with his hand on the painting, rubbing it over and over!”
“I wasn’t touching the painting…” Xiao Yan tried to explain, but his mouth opened only to close again helplessly. What was the point? In the end, he had touched it.
“Tell us what happened, slowly. Nothing has happened yet, and the rule against touching the painting was only our deduction.” Cheng Miao patted Xiao Yan and gave him an encouraging look.
When Xiao Yan met her eyes, it took a moment for his gaze to regain its focus.
He stammered, “I went to the washroom and found a doll. It reminded me of some things from the past… Then I heard someone coming, so I hid. I saw Yuko put the front gate key into a hidden compartment in the wall.”
Xiao Yan looked back at the painting and swallowed. “After Yuko left, I thought I’d take the key out, so I started searching the wall for the mechanism… Then Brother Lü showed up.”
Cheng Miao went over to examine the painting. It was some distance from the washroom, while a doll sat on the floor beside the washroom. Everything matched Xiao Yan’s account.
“While you were touching the wall, did you walk back and forth or try a different spot?” Cheng Miao returned to Xiao Yan, who was now sitting on the floor and pulling at his hair.
“No! Absolutely not! I saw with my own eyes that it was right here. Why would I try anywhere else?”
Cheng Miao crouched down and held his hands still. “Calm down. If you really are in danger, you won’t be able to respond in this state.”
Once Xiao Yan had settled a little, Cheng Miao stood and looked at Qiudong. His richly handsome features fit the castle’s atmosphere perfectly as she organized her thoughts. “Xiao Yan must have seen an illusion. The illusion couldn’t attack a player directly, so it could only guide him into touching the painting.”
Looking into Qiudong’s pale eyes, Cheng Miao spoke with certainty. “We don’t know what triggered the illusion, but there is definitely something wrong with that painting.”