Besides, speaking of snacks, wasn"t Sherlock the one who ate the most at dinner? Everyone had no appet.i.te while he ate the best. The Xie family"s eldest son felt the whole thing was more and more baffling and didn"t know what to say. He struggled for a while before deciding to start with the painting itself. "Painting?"
The young man"s gaze was fixed on the painting and he seemed to want to borrow it and directly examine it. He believed that there would never be anyone who would go out in the middle of the night to draw an ordinary painting. This painting must have another mystery.
Xiao Li asked, "Do you want to see it?"
Xie Lingshi nodded hesitantly.
"Say please."
Xie Lingshi, "…"
"Forget it." The teenager opposite him generously handed over the canvas.
The brown-haired youth held it and unfolded the canvas.
Frankly speaking, before seeing the painting, Xie Lingshi thought he would see a beautiful piece of art—a landscape, person or object. He even thought he wouldn"t be surprised if he saw a ghost or animal. However, everything he imagined in his mind was thrown out when he saw the canvas.
It was a person… right? He could faintly discern the hair and eyes. As for the other strange "facial features", only a benevolent and wise person could see it. The young man stared at the painting for a long time before squeezing out an awkward smile that didn"t lose its politeness. "…This painting is quite special."
It was quite special. It was especially ugly. Apart from being ugly, it had no other features. Was this really an ordinary painting that this person drew because of an itch? It was just that the painting was ugly but the colour matching was a bit familiar… as if he had seen it before. Xie Lingshi searched his mind but couldn"t remember it.
Xiao Li took back the pairing and raised his eyelids to sweep a gaze over the other person. He wanted to leave when he suddenly faced the window on the other side. Xie Lingshi was startled and subconsciously followed the gaze.
It was unknown when the rain started outside but the rain was sweeping through the window. Xiao Li walked over and closed the window. The raindrops. .h.i.t his cuffs and wet his shirt, like thick blood.
The storm rolled up furiously, smashing the suspension bridge connecting the manor to the outside world. The narrow suspension bridge was like a lonely boat drifting in a storm. It was torn apart in an instant and fell into the sea. The whistling sound that followed was like the roar of a deep sea animal that was cut off by the window.
Xie Lingshi witnessed all of this. "…Hah, this is really a blizzard mountain."
The doll in Xiao Li"s pocket shifted positions but he didn"t say anything. He just held the plate in his hand and walked back to his room.
Xie Lingshi looked at his back and thought of the painting incident after dinner. The man had also left like this. Then the colours of the ghost painting returned to his mind. Wasn"t the beautiful woman in the painting blonde?! In addition, she had stared at this person!
In an instant, many things flashed in Xie Lingshi"s heart, from "the female ghost hooked the soul" to "the overbearing female ghost fell in love with me."
In the end, he shook his head. How could there be an infatuated ghost in the instance world? The evil spirits here fed on flesh and blood, enjoying the fear and screams of humans. Being targeted by the evil spirit of the castle would only lead to sorrow. Of course, he couldn"t rule out that this person had some secrets that would allow him to withstand evil spirits. Who didn"t have secrets?
The young man ranked 98th on the reincarnators list slyly touched his heart and smiled.
The next day.
The wind and rain still hadn"t stopped. The heavy rain slammed against the window like hail and the dark clouds were gloomy. The news that the bridge broke last night had been told to everyone by the housekeeper and they looked distraught. As reincarnators, they were unable to escape the manor themselves but the news still cast a shadow in the hearts of the people.
A man died last night. Would that continue today?
At lunchtime, the couple took their umbrella and rushed into the dining room from outside. He Wei"s hair was full of water and his expression was very bad as he placed his arm around his girlfriend. "We went to the manor"s gate to look. The bridge is indeed broken."
Wu Tian had eaten very little last night and at this time, he was desperately stuffing his mouth. He spoke vaguely, "Do you still need to look at this? Didn"t Ronnie tell us?"
He Yi trembled with her head lowered and she looked frightened.
Xie Lingshi"s mind moved and his tone was gentle. "What else did you see?"
The moment he spoke, He Yi panicked from within her boyfriend"s arms. He Wei gulped and said, "The angels" expression has changed."
Feng Fengqing frowned and asked, "What?"
"The statues at the gate of the two estates." He Wei recalled the scene at the time. "They were smiling when we first arrived. However, I just went to check and when I came back, I found that their expressions have changed to… crying."
He Wei"s words echoed around the dining table and Feng Fengqing"s fork made a shrill sound across the plate.
"Big Brother Xie…" Wu Tian looked at the leader Xie Lingshi. The young man put down his knife and fork, grabbed an umbrella from the old housekeeper and went to the manor gate to see the two statues.
During their arrival yesterday, the lips of the two statues were raised and they looked amiable. Now the lips of the two angels were lowered, exposing teeth like canine teeth and they looked extraordinarily sinister.
The old housekeeper following them came forward and spoke loudly, "Evil spirit, this must be an evil spirit!"
Ronnie"s voice was completely covered by the heavy rain and the deafening rain washed away everything. The rain was heard while Xiao Li stood at the end of the crowd, looking at the entire castle. It was more like a cage.
After returning from the manor gate, almost everyone was wet. The umbrella couldn"t withstand the wind and rain. They each returned to their rooms, took a shower and changed clothes.
Xiao Li had placed the doll, little yellow book, phone and other things in the pocket inside the vest so that they wouldn"t get wet easily. Now that he returned to his room, he took them out and placed them on the table.
The doll lay in place, looking awkward. Xiao Li didn"t know if it was his illusion but she seemed to be very repressed in this manor. Previously in the orphanage or in reality, the doll often walked around on her own but here it was motionless and spent every day in his pocket.
It was the same for Zhou Ying. The child also refused to go out and spent every day in the mobile phone playing stand-alone games. Xiao Li had specifically downloaded an e-book to teach him how to write poems.
Only the little yellow book was as normal. It greeted him every day and the tone was light. 【 When will you consider completing hidden task 3? 】
【 I want you to complete it all the time. Your usual lips look like rose petals. I want to kiss you whenever you lie down. I want to kiss the sauce off your lips when you eat. Even when you are as wet as you are now, I want to lick your lips red. 】
Xiao Li, "???"
He wrote weakly, "…Can you stop being so shameless?"
The little yellow book was very puzzled. 【 What is shameless about revealing my true feelings? 】
Xiao Li"s hand used a bit of strength. He didn"t have a second pen so he didn"t break his pen. Instead, he drew a few horizontal lines on the big paragraph that the little yellow book wrote and erased it. The teenager saw that nothing else happened so he stood up and removed his wet clothes, walking into the bathroom where water had filled the tub.
Meanwhile, Wu Tian was changing clothes in another room of the castle. He was putting on his shirt while feeling worried about the angel statues and afraid of the evil spirit lingering in the castle. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Wu Tian"s heart tensed and he gulped. "Who is it?"
There was no response. He immediately jumped back, picked up his original clothes and pulled out three sheets of paper and two pills from them. The knocking on the door continued but the person behind it was silent, no matter how much Wu Tian called out. Wu Tian held the item in his hand and put the pill in his mouth, ready to swallow it at any time.
After three rounds of knocking, the creature outside the door seemed tired and stopped knocking. Even so, Wu Tian didn"t relax. He watched the door warily and directly swallowed a See Ghosts Pill. There were no signs of a ghost from the door.
He settled down a bit and the sweat on his hands went the Expel Ghosts character. Time pa.s.sed and just as the time for the end of the See Ghosts Pill was arriving, Wu Tian move his eyes away from the door and saw a face at the window.
The Expel Ghosts charm in his harm burned up at a very fast speed. Before he could react, the paper had completely disappeared. He could only watch the ghost walk in and approach him. In the last second of his life, he saw something and used all his strength to write something on the ground. Unfortunately, he couldn"t finish it.
Four hours later at dinner time, the door was knocked on again and broken. This was the second victim. Wu Tian"s death was tragic. His throat was severely cut and a circle of white chalk was drawn around where he died.
Feng Fengqing pretended to check him before turning back to the old housekeeper and shaking her head.
The old housekeeper was pale as he stood at the door, the wrinkles of his skin even deeper, showing his old age. "There is another death. This must be the curse of the evil spirit. A telegram can"t be sent out and the road is cut off. We are going to die here…"
Xie Lingshi made the sign of a cross over his chest, spoke a prayer and then glanced at the housekeeper. "Mr Ronnie, the situation is serious and you can no longer hide it. Why do you say that it is the curse of an evil spirit?"
Ronnie gasped and the old housekeeper"s voice was hoa.r.s.e. "When the duke first purchased the castle, he called a court teacher here. The teacher came and said that the resentment here was extremely heavy. This ominous land is a place for evil spirits. It was just that the duke was bent on keeping this place… from the moment I saw the two statues, I knew this was the evil spirit."
"Did the teacher have anything else to say about the evil spirit?" Feng Fengqing asked eagerly.
"No, he directly communicated with the duke," the old housekeeper spoke sadly. "I don"t know anything and the duke didn"t tell me anything."
Xiao Li crouched down next to Wu Tian"s body. He touched the white powder on the carpet with his hand and compared it to another place. In the end, he carefully looked around and saw the character that Wu Tian wrote: Pro.
Pro? Pro—
Standing behind him, the brown-haired man narrowed his eyes. At this moment, a lightning bolt connected everything. He quickly relaxed again before saying to Xiao Li, "Mr Detective, what are the clues?"
Xiao Li turned back quietly. He patted the other person"s shoulder and spoke with deep meaning. "Who killed the robin?"
Xie Lingshi looked into the depths of his heart and replied in a low voice. "…Himself."
Author"s Note: Who killed the robin is from the nursery rhyme Who Killed c.o.c.k Robin:
Who killed c.o.c.k Robin?
I, said the Sparrow,
with my bow and arrow,
I killed c.o.c.k Robin.
Who saw him die?
I, said the Fly,
with my little eye,
I saw him die.