Chapter 34.2
“No one asked you to.” The outspoken women gave Xiao Tangqiu a sarcastic look, removed the scrunchie she used to tie her hair, pulled out the wire inside and squatted down in front of the bra.s.s lock. “Although there is a more convenient and quick way, that is to break the lock, right now, we don’t want to be discovered, so it can only be done in this less violent manner.”
Xiao Tangqiu looked at her, completely stunned to see her fiddle with the keyhole a few times. A moment later, the bra.s.s padlock was opened.
“f.u.c.k! You can actually do that?!”
Tang Mianmian somehow remembered that they were supposed to be sneaking around and doing bad things. So, instead of yelling, he just lowered his voice to say, “That’s so d.a.m.n bada.s.s!”
“What are you making a fuss for?” the woman side eyed Tang Mianmian and tied up her hair again. “Shen Ge, should we go in?”
Shen Yuan nodded, and was the first to enter the attic.
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian fell behind. When they entered the attic, they found that it was dark and there wasn’t even a candle.
Xiao Tangqiu quickly pulled out his flashlight and turned it on. Windbreaker Man laughed at him, “Alright then, it looks like you can be in charge of lighting.”
Xiao Tangqiu, “…..Um ……Thanks?”
Under the light from his flashlight, they finally saw the complete state of the attic. It seemed like it had been abandoned and was filled with old, broken furniture as well as wooden planks scattered in a mess, which appeared to be leftover materials.
Dust had acc.u.mulated everywhere and had enveloped the surface of the furniture in a thick layer. There were cobwebs in the corners and crevices. Just a slight inhale and they would breathe in enough dust to choke them.
Xiao Tangqiu frowned and pinched his nose. He followed the others and searched the attic but it was merely an abandoned attic with nothing aside from some old and broken furniture.
But why would such an ordinary attic be subject to taboo amongst the inhabitants of this ancient castle?
“There’s a cupboard here.” The indifferent woman seemed to have found something. She turned around to look at Shen Yuan and said, “On top of the cupboard, there are some……..”
Shen Yuan walked over and took down a book.
When his elegant, slender fingers turned over the cover, Xiao Tangqiu leaned over curiously, only to find a string of English letters – “Alice.”
“Alice? Who is she?” The indifferent woman frowned slightly. “Is it one of Lippin.o.bert’s wives?”
“I don’t think so.” Xiao Tangqiu thought of the musical box and solemnly added, “Lippin.o.bert’s second wife was called Maria. We don’t know anything about the third wife yet. But Alice……. should be his daughter.”
“How do you know that?” The indifferent woman had some doubts.
Before Xiao Tangqiu could open his mouth to explain, Shen Yuan interrupted faintly, “This looks like a child’s writing.”
“That man actually has a daughter? Where’s his daughter then?” The outspoken woman raised her eyebrows. “There aren’t any children in this G.o.d forsaken place.”
Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Shen Yuan from the corner of his eye and casually replied, “I don’t know, but we found a room on the first floor, which looks like Alice’s room.”
“Oh? What did you find?” She smiled, “Of course, we can exchange information. You tell me something and I’ll share something as well.”
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t bother about any of this. He just casually mentioned what they had seen and heard, including information about Maria’s room.
“Alright,” the woman shrugged. “Since you’re being so generous with the information you got, I’ll tell you about what we found. Except for Lippin.o.bert, the housekeeper and the servants’ rooms, we’ve searched almost all the others and found nothing special…… But we discovered that the castle has a cellar.”
“I’m not surprised,” Xiao Tangqiu smiled. “Can a castle without a secret cellar still be called a castle?”
“There is one more important thing,” the woman raised an eyebrow. “In this castle, it seems that aside from us players, only Lippin.o.bert is alive.”
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly and was about to say something when Tang Mianmian, who stood not too far away, suddenly cried out, “Oh my G.o.d! Come here! I just found a picture! “
Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment and subconsciously looked towards Shen Yuan just at the moment he closed the book.
“What is it?” The indifferent woman asked Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan replied impa.s.sively, “Alice in Wonderland.”
Xiao Tangqiu looked puzzled, “Alice again…….”
Shen Yuan put it back into the cupboard and walked towards Tang Mianmian.
Tang Mianmian struggled to push a huge wooden wardrobe aside. Behind the wardrobe, the corner of a picture frame was revealed.
Xiao Tangqiu immediately stepped forward to help Tang Mianmian. However, both of their strengths combined wasn’t enough to move the wardrobe.
“……Why is this wardrobe so heavy! Is there a body hidden inside?” Xiao Tangqiu wondered out loud as he used all his strength.
“Pei, pei, pei! Don’t you dare set up a Flag!” Tang Mianmian glared at Xiao Tangqiu.
Windbreaker Man snickered at the two of them, then glanced at Shen Yuan’s dark eyes and shrugged. With a helpless expression, he went over to help the two weak-as-a-kitten geeks to move the wardrobe.
The wardrobe was finally moved aside, revealing the picture behind.
This was a cla.s.sical oil painting of a strong, handsome naked man and a beast with the head of a young girl. The both of them looked at each other as their bodies were entangled together. From some angles, they appeared to be lovers; from other angles, they looked like enemies. The painting had a weird, mysterious air, which made it seem like it had the power to draw anyone who looked at it into a deep trance.
“What is this?” Tang Mianmian was dumbstruck. “b.e.s.t.i.a.lity? This is a bit too much for me to handle!”
Xiao Tangqiu, “That’s not what your expression says. You’re obviously very excited.”
Tang Mianmian snickered, “This is me appreciating art! Do you know the name of this painting?”
Xiao Tangqiu paused to think, “…….This is Oedipus and the Sphinx.”
“Oedipus and the Sphinx…….”
Although Tang Mianmian hadn’t seen the painting before, he had heard the story and suddenly realized something. “Is it the story of Oedipus the King?”
“Yes, one of the three great tragedies of ancient Greece; Sophocles’ Oedipus The King.” Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Shen Yuan, who also happened to look up. Halfway through, their gazes intertwined. He paused for a moment before continuing, “It’s a story of a man who killed his father and married his mother.”
“Killed his father and married his mother?” Windbreaker Man raised an eyebrow. At first, he wasn’t very much interested in the story, but as soon as he heard those words, he suddenly seemed engrossed.
Xiao Tangqiu nodded, “The story comes from Greek mythology. After Oedipus was born, his father had learned from a prophecy that Oedipus would kill him and marry his mother when he grew up. In order to prevent this fate, he exiled Oedipus. When Oedipus grew up, he accidentally killed his father without knowing it and also defeated the evil sphinx. After that, he was made king by the people and married the former queen – his mother.”
“Oh? That’s quite interesting,” Windbreaker Man played with his scalpel and looked somewhat fascinated. “Wanting to prevent fate from playing out ended up urging fate in that direction instead?”
“That’s exactly what it means,” Xiao Tangqiu smiled. “Later on, people used Oedipus complex to describe s.e.xual desire for the mother, which is opposite to Electra complex – that is, s.e.xual desire for the father.”
“You do know a lot,” Windbreaker man raised his eyebrows. “Did you major in psychology?”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head. “I didn’t attend any university, but I like watching movies…… That’s how I found out.” After Meng Xinghe’s accident, he stayed at home every day and his only hobbies were watching movies and playing video games.
“You’re quite interesting.” Windbreaker Man suddenly turned to look at Shen Yuan, smiling as he said, “I suddenly feel that the rookie you invited into our team isn’t that annoying.”
Shen Yuan glanced at the Windbreaker Man but Windbreaker Man merely shrugged. “Alright then, let’s keep looking for clues! Since Lippin.o.bert won’t let us enter the attic, there must be some important clues hidden in this place. There should be more than just this painting, right?”
Shen Yuan stared at the painting and suddenly said, “There’s something behind it.”
“Behind the painting?” Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment, then got a little excited, “Could it be a secret chamber?” As a fan of horror games, he naturally had a special interest in secret chambers.
“It must be a secret chamber!” Tang Mianmian instantly burst out and quickly tried to move the picture away. Xiao Tangqiu also shuffled over to help him.
The picture was very large and the frame was rather heavy. It took the two men a great deal of effort to remove it. However, there wasn’t a secret room behind the frame, only a solid wall.
Just when the two were feeling disappointed, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly discovered something off. “The color of this part of the wall seems to be different from the other parts…….”
He rapped his knuckles and was pleasantly surprised. “The back of the wall is empty!”
“Could it really be a secret chamber?” Tang Mianmian attached his ear to the wall. “……I can’t hear anything, but this wall doesn’t seem to be the same as others. What can we use to break the wall?”
“There’ll be a lot of noise if we break down the wall. What if the others hear it?” Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly. “We should find out if there’s any hidden mechanism or a tunnel to enter the secret chamber.”
“Mechanism? Yes! This sort of secret room must have a hidden mechanism!” Tang Mianmian’s eyes shone brightly, “It should be a vase or some sort of decoration! Let’s quickly look for it!”
However, they searched the entire attic and found nothing that resembled a mechanism, only some leftover wood pieces. So Xiao Tangqiu took another look at the painting and wondered, “…….Is this painting the key? Could it be that we moved the painting in the wrong direction? Maybe if we move the painting in the right way, the secret chamber behind the painting will automatically be revealed?”
Tang Mianmian’s eyes flashed with excitement. “That does make sense. Should we hang the painting back?”
At that moment, the indifferent woman suddenly opened her eyes and said coldly, “No, I’ve just checked. This secret chamber has no secret pa.s.sages or entrances or exits. It’s a totally enclosed s.p.a.ce.”
“Check? How did you check?” Tang Mianmian widened his eyes in surprise.
She gave Tang Mianmian a cold look. “This is my ability. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
Tang Mianmian realized that they were only temporary teammates and their teammates had really little confidence in the two of them, so he closed his mouth and kept quiet.
Xiao Tangqiu was also silent for a while before he asked, “Totally enclosed s.p.a.ce? Then, do we have to physically break into it?”
Windbreaker Man smiled and said, “Of course there are other ways…… but it depends on what the captain wants. What do you think, Captain?”
Shen Yuan stared at the wall and nodded expressionlessly.
Windbreaker Man grinned and took out his scalpel and brushed it over the wall.
Xiao Tangqiu watched as Windbreaker Man drew the shape of a door on the wall with his scalpel. In the next second, a doorway big enough to allow one person to pa.s.s through actually appeared on the wall!
Xiao Tangqiu was dumbfounded. “How….. how did you do that?”
Windbreaker Man put his finger to his lips and grinned, “It’s a personal ability. Confidential information.”
“……”