Chapter 75
Mrs. Qiao was making quite a commotion, and sharp, noisy cries came from the tall baby carriage.
Mrs. Qiao rocked the carriage back and forth to soothe the child, promising, “Once Mommy catches the Mouse, I’ll read you a bedtime story.”
Taking advantage of Mrs. Qiao’s distraction with the child, Lu Li and the other two stuck close to the wall, heading for the small door.
“Filthy things!” Mrs. Qiao spun around, shrieking as she grabbed a book from the table and chased after them, trying to strike them.
“Bang!” “Bang!”
Each time the book slammed heavily onto the floor, it left a new crack.
Luo Jia Bai, not very nimble, was nearly flattened.
Lu Li grabbed him and pulled him away from the ever-cracking ground.
The small door was right in front of them.
“We’re here! I can’t believe we got out so quickly! That was almost too easy!” As soon as Lu Li set him down, Luo Jia Bai clung to the small door, half his body already sticking out.
Suddenly, Lu Li pulled him back.
“What’s wrong?”
“We can’t leave yet.” Lu Li stared intently at the book in Mrs. Qiao’s hand.
A corner of a card was sticking out from between the pages, wrapped in a waterproof film, catching the light and making it especially noticeable.
“There’s a Key Item in the book she’s holding.”
Luo Jia Bai saw the card too. Although it seemed like a tall order, his body was already moving back. He asked nervously, “Mrs. Qiao is always holding the book. How are we supposed to get it from her?”
“We can’t snatch it,” Mirella said. “We’ll have to make her put the book down herself.”
Lu Li looked at the two desks, thinking, “We need to help her find the unfinished bedtime story.”
Swap one for another.
As Lu Li walked back, he observed the room’s furnishings. Everything was perfectly symmetrical, in pairs.
Except for one thing.
In the center of the room hung a floor-length curtain.
Lu Li grabbed Luo Jia Bai and ran in that direction.
Mrs. Qiao swung the book, hitting the bottom of the curtain. The gust of wind lifted the curtain, revealing what was behind it.
An entire wall covered with a mirror.
And a railing that clearly wasn’t meant for adults.
“A cognitive mirror for the child, with soft pads on the corners,” Mirella said, touching it. “It’s a soft mirror; it can’t be removed.”
“The railing is to help the child learn to stand.”
Luo Jia Bai was taller than the other two. He reached up to touch the railing and found that if he jumped, he could just grab it. “Could there be something special in the mirror, like in the last round? Our perspective is too low. I’ll go up and take a look.”
Lu Li agreed with his suggestion and added, “Check the baby carriage and the desktops in the mirror.”
He took a running start and climbed up onto the railing, feeling the soft padding wrapped around it.
Luo Jia Bai remarked, “Mrs. Qiao really is thorough, making all these preparations. But didn’t we just see the dead infant in the soup? Then in her baby carriage…”
After climbing onto the railing and seeing the reflection in the mirror, he paused before continuing, “Each contained half a skeleton.”
The mirror showed the truth.
Mrs. Qiao’s child was indeed dead.
She had only one child.
But the room was designed to be half boy, half girl.
Which meant…
“The child died before birth, and after death, the gender was ambiguous. Mrs. Qiao didn’t know if the child was a boy or a girl,” Lu Li said. “Keep checking the desktops.”
“Who allowed you to climb on my railing!?” Mrs. Qiao noticed Luo Jia Bai. Not daring to smash the railing, she could only flap her book at him, trying to drive him off.
“Get down! Get down right now!”
Luo Jia Bai clung tightly to the railing, refusing to let go. Whenever Mrs. Qiao swung the book at him, he ducked his head.
Again and again.
Mrs. Qiao stomped her feet in anger, but there was nothing she could do about the cunning “Mouse.”
Luo Jia Bai looked at the desktops on both sides and muttered to himself, “Found the bedtime storybook, but this will take all three of us…”
He shouted down, “There’s a book on each desk in the mirror now. You two go grab them, and I’ll tell you exactly where they are!”
There was one book on each table.
Two Players needed to search separately.
Standing on the table made it hard to see what was displayed in the distant mirror.
One Player needed to stand in front of the mirror to guide the search.
To obtain the Key Item, all three were indispensable.
Lu Li and Mirella quickly left, sticking close to Mrs. Qiao’s legs, climbed onto the table, and began rummaging through the piles of books.
Mrs. Qiao was so startled that she jumped up, twisted her ankle when she landed, and sat down hard on the floor in pain.
“Not this one, go down, to the left, further left, still below… Yes, that’s the one!” Luo Jia Bai finally got a moment to catch his breath. He hurriedly directed them, first helping Mirella confirm her book, then looked toward Lu Li.
Lu Li pulled out a book from the towering stack and asked, “Is this the one?”
“Yes.” Luo Jia Bai checked against the mirror and asked in confusion, “How did you know?”
Lu Li lowered his eyes. “I just grabbed one at random.”
He saw that the cover of the book depicted a double-page spread of the ocean, so he opened it to look inside.
One page actually mentioned Sea Demons.
“Sea Demons dwell deep beneath the sea year-round. Legend has it they use shells as currency, send messages through song, propose with Pearls, and build wedding homes out of Red Coral. Their power comes from the Moon; every Sea Demon approaching adulthood must hold a coming-of-age ceremony under the witness of the full Moon.”
“A Sea Demon’s life has three full Moons. One for the coming-of-age ceremony, the next for the wedding, and the last for the funeral.”
Lu Li read on.
“Of course, these are all rumors. There are even stranger tales claiming Sea Demons are not only connected to the Moon, but also to time! Their skin can halt disease, their flesh can slow aging, and their Heart can reverse time, bestowing a life as eternal as the Moon. No one has ever seen the true face of a Sea Demon, and none of these rumors can be verified. That’s all for ‘Seaside Stories.'”
Lu Li closed the book and saw that the title was Seaside Stories (Part 2).
Across from him, Mirella held up Seaside Stories (Part 1).
Both books were successfully found. Mrs. Qiao’s mood stabilized instantly; she beamed and tossed the book she used to hit the Mouse onto the floor. Hugging the two bedtime storybooks, she returned to the baby carriage filled with bones.
“So it was these. Yesterday, we didn’t finish (Part 1), so today we’ll continue with this one, and then…”
Luo Jia Bai, exhausted, hung onto the railing, watching Lu Li and Mirella jump down from the table. He suddenly felt a deep sense of peace, followed by an inexplicable wave of anxiety.
His stamina was terrible.
He had only run a couple of steps and was already spent.
Luo Jia Bai couldn’t lift his head, feeling heavier and heavier, thinking to himself, if this is the kind of team…
If these are such outstanding teammates…
He’d have to work even harder to keep up, or else he’d soon become the most useless one.
His head felt light, and Luo Jia Bai fell off the railing.
Just after picking up the Key Item, Lu Li came to pick up a person.
Lu Li reached out in time, grabbed Luo Jia Bai, and headed toward the small door, saying seriously, “Good job.”
“This time your direct deduction was correct.” He praised again, “Luo Jia Bai, you played a key role.”
Bathed in affirmation, Luo Jia Bai slipped into a brief, exhausted faint, the corners of his mouth lifting in a peaceful smile.
When he woke again, he heard the intermittent sound of piano music.
Rubbing his eyes hard, Luo Jia Bai grabbed Lu Li and asked, “Did we clear the stage? Where are we?”
The three were shrouded in a vast shadow.
Luo Jia Bai looked up and found himself facing a gigantic piano.
Lu Li said, “We’re in a Music Room.”
“Right now, the piano is playing by itself.”