Chapter 32.1
Xiao Tangqiu only felt a chill crawl up his spine. He tried to calmly pick up the flashlight and shone it at the painting. But all his mental preparation was for nothing; he didn’t find anything at all.
“......What are you talking about ah?”
“Fuck! She was clearly looking at you!” Tang Mianmian turned around and found that the painting was back to normal again. He was dumbstruck, “......It changed back again, I’m not lying! I’m really not lying! What would I do that? She really was looking at you just now! She was looking at you like this!”
“Ok, ok, I got it. You don’t have to imitate the painting to show me......” Xiao Tangqiu patted Tang Mianmian’s face aside, “Isn’t this very normal? If nothing strange happens, wouldn’t this old castle be embarrassed to face all the other old castles?”
Tang Mianmian couldn’t help wondering, “......This castle is called Demon’s Castle, is there really a demon?”
“There are ghosts. Isn’t it normal for there to be demons?” Xiao Tangqiu disagreed.
“But....... I’ve always felt that demons are much more powerful than ghosts!” Tang Mianmian trembled, “And isn’t this an S-level mission? An S-level mission is certainly much more difficult than a D-level mission, am I right? Can’t we get those old players to form a team with us? According to Su Manluo, that Shen Yuan is very powerful ah!”
Xiao Tangqiu was paused for a moment, then smiled helplessly, “He’s a great god while we are just dumb rookies. Why would he take us along and help us for no reason?”
“You’re right.” Tang Mianmianmian sighed, “Even if it was the real world, no one would. What’s more, a place like this with danger lurking in every corner. It’s good enough if he can keep his own life......”
Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “Let’s rest now and go out to explore after dinner.”
Tang Mianmian rubbed his chin, “When should we go to the attic?”
Xiao Tangqiu’s gaze deepened, “Shen Yuan and his team may take action tonight. If they go to the attic, we’ll follow them.”
This decision was quite risky because the attic was most likely very dangerous, but if they wanted to find clues, they would just have to walk into the lion’s den. The two of them were dumb rookies and had little means to protect themselves. They could only follow Shen Yuan and those old players. But they had already warned them in advance that they wouldn’t save them, even if their lives were in danger...... Xiao Tangqiu didn’t expect them to anyways. He wasn’t naive. He just wanted to find more people to reduce the risk. In case there was a really fierce ghost, if there were a few more people, wouldn’t that lower the chances of him and Tang Mianmian being chased?
After a while, someone knocked on the door.
Xiao Tangqiu opened it and found a woman dressed as a manservant. He couldn’t help but feel a little surprised.
This was clearly a young girl in her twenties, but she was wearing an ash grey footman outfit. She smiled at Xiao Tangqiu, “Guest, it’s time for dinner.”
Xiao Tangqiu stared puzzedly for a few seconds, then suddenly remembered the housekeeper who wore a butler’s suit...... Was this a personal preference of the Master of the castle?
“Yes, thank you.” Xiao Tangqiu nodded at the maid and called Tang Mianmian out.
He immediately turned to look at the candle at their door, which was still burning.
Xiao Tangqiu looked at the candles at the door of the other rooms again, and then found that the candles of the rooms in front of and beside their room had been extinguished....... In this corridor, only the candles at the door of several rooms were not extinguished, and those doors were partially open. He noticed that aside from the players who were exiting these room, there was also a maid dressed as a footman in front of those doors.
That was when he realized that all the candles in front of vacant rooms had been extinguished while the candles in front of the rooms that were occupied by players were still burning.
The other players soon noticed this too. After all, the dimly lighted corridor had become even darker after so many candles had gone out. The middle-aged man complained discontentedly to the maid, “Why did you put out so many candles? It’s too dark! “
The middle-aged woman with the child also complained, “A few candles are not worth much. What if we fall down in the dark?”
The maid merely smiled, “Guest, it’s time for dinner.”
“I know it’s dinner time, I’m asking you to light up the candles...... or are there lights around here? Even if there aren’t, you have oil lamps, don’t you?” the middle-aged man puffed out haughtily.
The maid smiled, “Guest, it’s time for dinner.”
The middle-aged man’s expression turned ugly, “Is that all you can say?”
The maid smiled, “Guest, it’s time for dinner.”
Under the dim flickering candlelight, the maid’s smile seemed dull and wooden. The middle-aged man was a little scared inside and closed his mouth in embarrassment.
Xiao Tangqiu took out his flashlight and planned to illuminate the way for everyone. But when the corridor brightened up slightly, the crowd fell into a dead silence. The maids were not only wearing the same footman outfit, but also had the same appearance, the same facial features and the same dull, wooden expressions.
This strange sight made them too afraid to have any more opinions about the “hotel” with the extremely poor check-in experience. Tang Mianmian also shrank behind Xiao Tangqiu, “This ...... is this a multiple birth? Mitosis? Parthenogenesis?”
Xiao Tangqiu silently took out his flashlight and shone it at the maid’s lower body...... Of course, it wasn’t for any obscene purposes; he just wanted to see if these maids had feet or shadows. However, when he shone the flashlight at the maid’s knee, they saw the joints on the maid’s knee....... move.
Yes, the maid clearly had the kind of movable joints that puppets had.
He silently took another look at the maid’s elbow – it was also a movable joint.
The crowd turned pale with fear, especially the girls. Tang Mianmian was so scared that he hid behind Xiao Tangqiu, “Fuck! That scared this baby to death!”
Xiao Tangqiu raised an eyebrow and said, “Is it very scary? Haven’t you seen ghosts?”
Tang Mianmian shivered with fear, “It’s super duper scary, ok?! How can a ghost compare to this! Don’t you know the Uncanny Valley Theory........ Then again, why aren’t you afraid? “
Xiao Tangqiu said faintly, “You can think of it like this...... These are just large-scale helping hands of the Master of the castle.”
Tang Mianmian stopped to imagine, then, he couldn’t help but show a wretched smile, “Hehe, it’s really exciting to contort these bodies into different shapes with a move of his hands.”
Xiao Tangqiu pretended not to understand what he meant.
It was impossible to say that he wasn’t afraid of such a terrifying “maid” in such a horrible and gloomy castle, but he knew that Tang Mianmian was as timid as a mouse, and this was only the beginning of the mission. If he couldn’t hold it together now, the two of them could only hug each other and wait for death when danger struck.
However, after making a few gags with Tang Mianmian, he really didn’t feel afraid anymore, and even had the nerve to use his flashlight to check whether there were puppet strings on the maid’s head or behind her.
The result was, not only were they free of any puppet strings on their heads, even their faces didn’t have the texture of a puppet. Apart from their dull and wooden expressions, they looked almost the same as normal people. On top of their lifelike facial features, even their skin looked very natural. If the joints on their arms and knees hadn’t been exposed, Xiao Tangqiu simply couldn’t tell that these maids were not people.
The newbies stood ashen-faced and trembling with fear.
The maids didn’t seem to notice the guests’ slip-ups. They simply turned around and led the way with a standard yet stiff smile. The players looked at each other. No one dared to move. Finally, they saw that Shen Yuan’s team had left with the maids and followed behind reluctantly.
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian were the last in line. Tang Mianmian kept staring at the backs and necks of the maids, as if looking for a switch or a coil spring. Xiao Tangqiu fixed his gaze on Shen Yuan who was walking in the front.
Even amidst danger, Shen Yuan still looked calm and composed. His eyes were very tranquil, to the point of indifference, as if there was nothing in the world that could attract his attention...... including Xiao Tangqiu.
Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t imagine Meng Xinghe like this. Meng Xinghe in his memory was a young man with a bright smile – an obedient son in front of his mother and an outstanding, good student in front of his teachers. But like most boys, he occasionally skipped classes and went to Internet cafes, and sometimes made mischief and played pranks......
He grew up with Meng Xinghe. He had seen the many different sides of Meng Xinghe, but he had never seen him like this.
Such indifference that seemed to indicate a lack of interest in everything, and a detachment that constantly put a distance between him and everyone else wasn’t the Meng Xinghe that he knew.
Xiao Tangqiu remembered that Meng Xinghe could spend a long time just studying the migration of ants with relish, even breaking off some breadcrumbs and throwing them to the ants that had no food...... It was a stark contrast with the imposing, aloof Shen Yuan that was before of him.
The two men, apart from their looks, clearly had no similarities.
He sighed softly inside.
Moments later, they reached the dining hall on the first floor.
The dining hall didn’t have lights or windows either; only the candles on the dining table emitted a faint light.
The dining table was a long wooden table with ten stools on each side. A candle and a plate of food had been placed in front of each seat.
The Master of the castle was already seated at the head of the table. A candle and a plate of food had also been placed in front of him. When he saw them coming, he looked up at them with inquiring eyes, as if he was sizing them up, one by one.
The Castle Master’s eyes were a little discomfiting, just like he was deciding which item he wanted. Xiao Tangqiu noticed that when he looked at the girls, his gaze seemed to linger for a second or two.
..........Was this Castle Master actually a lecherous sex pervert?
Just as Xiao Tangqiu was silently criticizing him, he found that the Castle Master’s line of sight had fallen on him. He immediately felt like a prey in front of a predator and felt his hair raise on end. Fuck! This asshole had actually stared at him for a few seconds longer than those girls!
Although Xiao Tangqiu wasn’t a narcissist, he still couldn’t help but wonder if he was too handsome. Did the Castle Master bend at the first sight of him?
........Since the Castle Master had married three wives, and had so many maids, he should be straight, shouldn’t he?
Fortunately, the Castle Master quickly withdrew his gaze and said, “Welcome to my castle. Please sit down.”
He obviously had some kind of illness and started coughing after only speaking that sentence.
They looked at each other and decided it was alright to sit down. Anyways, they had been hungry for a while now. If there was food provided, they would still have to fill their bellies. The newbies were all afraid to sit next to the Castle Master so they scrambled to sit in the middle and at the end. Finally, Shen Yuan’s team ended up taking the first four seats closest to the Castle Master.
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian sat next to the four of them. After everyone was seated, the Castle Master, who had been coughing for a long time, cleared his throat and barked at the housekeeper who was standing aside in a hoarse voice, “......Rosetta, please invite the Madame over.”
Madame?
Weren’t all his wives dead?
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