Chapter 36.2
He opened the door but nothing happened.
Xiao Tangqiu was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a thick smell of blood drifted into his nostrils. A few girls in the group suddenly turned pale and looked nauseated.
Xiao Tangqiuâs expression was rather ugly as well. He braced himself and dragged Tang Mianmian into the room. Although Tang Mianmian looked completely against that idea, he could only follow Xiao Tangqiu while he pinched his nose.
The thiefâs room had turned into a sea of blood. The entire room was dyed a deep red â not only were the floors soaked in dark, solidified blood, even the walls were covered with countless blood spatters, from top to bottom. What remained of his brain matter glistened in the dim room, along with some other questionable fluids and slush⦠Xiao Tangqiu didnât intend to carefully a.n.a.lyze them.
Xiao Tangqiu strengthened his resolve and pulled Tang Mianmian to look for the manâs body, but they found nothing at all â not in the room, not in the bathroom. Except for a room full of blood and gore, there seemed to be nothing left of the man.
âWhereâs the body?â The middle-aged man wondered out loud, âHeâs dead but his body is missing?â
White-collar Woman couldnât help but ask, âCould he still be alive?â
Fresh Grad laughed scornfully, âThereâs no way he would survive after losing so much blood. Heâs dead as a doornail!â
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian went through the bed and wardrobe but found nothing. Instead, they found several wallets and a bunch of sparkling womenâs jewelry.
The middle-aged man looked at one of the bulging wallets and immediately froze. He subconsciously reached for his pockets. Then, his expression darkened as he cursed, âThat son of a b.i.t.c.h stole from Laozi! If he wasnât already dead, I would kill him myself! f.u.c.k!â
âI knew it! How could my necklace suddenly disappear?! It turns out that he had stolen it!â White-collar Woman picked up a silver necklace from the pile of jewelry and cursed at the thief.
The other wallets and jewelry werenât claimed for the time being. No one was sure where the thief had stolen them from. Xiao Tangqiu randomly looked through the items and suddenly saw a bra.s.s pocket watch hidden underneath the glittering jewelry.
Pocket watch!
His heart skipped a beat as he pulled out the pocket watch.
âWhy is there a pocket watch?â Tang Mianmian looked puzzled. ââ¦f.u.c.k! This guy actually stole off of Lippin.o.bert! He actually dared to steal from him!
Xiao Tangqiu quickly opened the pocket watch. Indeed, there was a photo behind the cover, just like the other pocket watches. This photo was not as dated as the other two. Obviously, it had been taken closer to the current time, but the photo was still yellow with age.
It was a photo of an extremely beautiful woman, and like the women in the previous two photos, her facial features and eyebrows resembled Lily Marleneâs. Although the color of her eyes and hair werenât the same, her temperament was very much like Lily Marleneâs and she could be considered as the most similar to Lily Marlene out of the three women.
He stared at the photo for a while, then found that there was faint handwriting on the back the photo. He carefully removed the photo from the cover, turned over to look, and as expected, saw a line of fine words written at the bottom â Veronika.
âVe⦠ro⦠ni⦠ka⦠Veronika? This is also someoneâs name, right?â Tang Mianmian leaned in, âThis name sounds rather nice and she looks really pretty as well. Alas, what a pity! Beauties always suffer such unhappy fates!â
Although she had a nice name and was a beautiful woman, her photo had become part of Lippin.o.bertâs âcollection,â which meant that she was dead.
Xiao Tangqiu said with certainty, âThis should be Lippin.o.bertâs third wife.â
So far, they had found pocket watches with photos of the last two wives of Lippin.o.bert. They knew their names k2013; Maria and Veronika. They even found a pocket watch with a photo of Lippin.o.bertâs mother, and they also knew her name k2013; Laura.
According to Xiao Tangqiuâs conjecture, there should be another pocket watch with a picture of Lily Marlene in the castle, but they hadnât found it yet.
Where was Lily Marleneâs pocket watch?
âAnyways⦠we can be certain that heâs dead,â Xiao Tangqiu put the pocket watch in his pocket. âThere are still two other players.â
Seeing his actions, someone immediately questioned, âIs this pocket watch yours? Are you going to steal right under our noses? â
âThis pocket watch looks quite valuableâ¦â
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly, âNo, this is a prop related to an important clue.â
Now he finally understood why Su Manluo hid from the newbies. It was because these newbies were more than a little annoying.
âA prop that is related to an important clue? What is it? â
âWhatâs it for? Can it save lives?â
The newbies asked noisily.
Xiao Tangqiu couldnât say for sure what the props were useful for. After all, he was still a rookie himself. However, these newbies seemed to think that he was hiding something and looked at him suspiciously. They turned around and plundered the rest of the jewelry.
The newbies stared at Xiao Tangqiu and looked like they wanted to steal it from him, but feared Xiao Tangqiuâs status as an âold player.â
Xiao Tangqiu felt powerless and sulked on the inside. He began to understand Shen Yuanâs habit of rejecting the newbiesâ¦
So he stopped paying attention to them, grabbed Tang Mianmian and left the room. Just then, Tang Mianmian suddenly cried out, âWait a minute, I donât see a portrait of Lily Marlene in this room!â
Xiao Tangqiu froze and turned back. Indeed, there wasnât a portrait of Lily Marlene in this room, but there was obviously a mark with a different shade on the wall that indicated a painting had been hung there before. ââ¦Someone must have taken it.â
Tang Mianmian rubbed his chin. âThat should be the case⦠Maybe the painting is removed once the person inside the room dies?â
âPerhaps. Letâs go and look for the two remaining people.â Xiao Tangqiu mused, âIf I remember correctly, the other two are the mother and sonâ¦â Because there were so many players in this instance, he wasnât able to memorize everyoneâs faces yet, but the impact the mother and son left on him yesterday was quite profound.
âI think so. I remember that their room isâ¦â Tang Mianmian brought Xiao Tangqiu to the front of another room, and sure enough, the candle at the door was still burning. The two men knocked on the door, but even after a while, there wasnât any movement inside the room.
âAre they dead?â Someone asked in horror.
âBut the candle at the door didnât go outâ¦â
âThe candles may not necessarily be related to our lives! Maybe the candle at that guyâs door was blown out by the wind!â
As the group of newbies began to speculate, Shen Yuan and his team finally made their move. Windbreaker Man walked to the door, smiling as he kicked it open.
Behind the door, the middle-aged woman looked like she was preparing to move something to block the door. When she saw the door being kicked in, she was immediately frightened. But she soon reacted, dropped her hands to her hips and yelled, âWhat are you doing? Are you trying to bully a widow and a fatherless child? Iâm no vegetarian, let me tell you that!â
âBully you? We just want to confirm youâre still alive.â Windbreaker Man laughed scornfully, âSince youâre not dead, why didnât you open the door?â
The middle-aged woman shouted angrily, âWhy should I open the door for you? G.o.d knows who you are? What if youâre all bad people? Iâm just a widow with my childâ¦.â
âOlder sister, calm down! Weâre all in the same situation. If you have something to say, we can all sit down and talk nicely.â The middle-aged man approached her with a smile, âThe more people we have, the better our chances of surviving. If we put our heads together, we can always think of a way outâ¦â
The middle-aged woman rolled her eyes at him at him, laughing coldly before she slammed the door shut.
The middle-aged man immediately got angry from the embarra.s.sment of being turned away. He shouted, âWhat a fool! She canât even tell good from evil.â
Xiao Tangqiu slightly narrowed his eyes. Now, they could confirm that the mother and child were safe and sound. But in the short period when the door was ajar, he clearly saw that the middle-aged woman had tied her son to the bed with towels from the bathroom. Although she covered the child with a quilt, he still noticed the telltale lumps under the quilt. No wonder the middle-aged woman had refused to open the door and hastily closed it after it was kicked in by Windbreaker Manâ¦
He and Tang Mianmian exchanged a look but before they had the time to go over the details, the female college student, Lu Siâer, suddenly suggested, âShould we go to the room with the puppet from yesterday?â
âNo! Itâs too dangerous!â
âIs there anywhere that isnât dangerous in this G.o.dd.a.m.n place? In my opinion, we should go and have a look! â
âYesterday, that guy stole a toy axe and was killed. Just in case weâ¦â
âThen make sure to keep your hands to yourself and youâll be fine!â
After some discussion, the newbies finally decided to go and take a look.
Xiao Tangqiu wanted to pull Tang Mianmian away from the group to go their separate ways, but when he heard that they were going back to the puppetâs room, he changed his mind and decided to go with them.
Shen Yuan and his team also followed. The large group of people finally reached the puppetâs room on the first floor.
Outside the room, no one dared to go in. The newbies looked at each other, waiting for someone to take the lead.
Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Shen Yuan and saw that he still had the same look of indifference on his face.
He sighed and stepped forwards to push the door open. The room was as eerie and strange as it was before, but it seemed to be slightly different today. The crowd first turned to the puppet on the cabinet. The way the puppet held the axe had changed again. Before they left the room yesterday, it held the axe high above its head. Now, it seemed to have returned to the original posture, holding the axe with its hands drooping down naturally again.
This posture looked less terrifying, but in reality, they felt even more frightened because this time, not only were the cute little shoes of the puppet stained with blood, its beautiful little dress was also dyed a bright red. The blood stained its clothes and shoes in a spatter pattern, which made it easy to imagine how it got there.
Xiao Tangqiu frowned and looked up. He found that the blood didnât look like a stain at all, but rather, the spatter pattern was completely integrated with the skirt, as if it was part of the design of the dress from the very start.
Right when everyone felt a s.h.i.+ver down their spines, Tang Mianmian suddenly cried out, âf.u.c.k! Look at the wall!â
They all looked up at the same time and were surprised to find two paintings of Lily Marlene hanging on the wall of this room.
Xiao Tangqiu tried his best to recall the scene from yesterday and was sure that there was only one portrait of Lily Marlene in this room last night. Furthermore, there was only one portrait in all of the rooms, but now, there were two in this roomâ¦
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P.S. I just got home and rushed to finish the chapter, so let me know if you see any mistakes â¤