Chapter 35.1

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but look at Shen Yuan, who was standing not too far away. But when he saw Shen Yuan’s cold and indifferent gaze, with neither waves nor billows, his heart sank again.

The others were equally as indifferent with regards to Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian’s life and death encounter. Instead, Windbreaker Man, who had been the most cynical all this time, looked at them and asked with a fleeting smile, “…….How are you? Are you alright?”

“………I’m fine.”

Xiao Tangqiu lowered his eyes and hid his gaze but just as he was doing that, he found that he was holding something in his hand.

It was a brass pocket watch, similar to Maria’s pocket watch which Tang Mianmian had found. But this was obviously much older than Maria’s. Much older…….. he paused and suddenly recalled that this pocket watch had accidentally been torn off the monster’s neck by him during their struggle.

“I’m fine as well! My wounds just hurt a little, that’s all.” Tang Mianmian, who had received quite a bit of a shock, noticed there was something in Xiao Tangqiu’s hand and immediately put everything else aside. He leaned in curiously, “What is this? Another pocket watch? Did it drop when you were fighting the monster just now? Quickly open it!”

Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment before opening the cover of the pocket watch. The clock hands in the pocket watch weren’t moving and appeared to be broken. Behind the cover was a small black-and-white photo of a mother and son.

The content of the photo was a bit like Raphael’s “The Madonna and Child.” The mother was holding a child tightly in her arms, and attached her face to the child’s at the same time. Her facial features were soft and her expression was loving. Her entire being radiated the glow of motherhood, and her deep love for her child was visible to the naked eye.

This was originally a very common picture of a mother and son. But when Xiao Tangqiu carefully looked at the woman’s facial features in the picture, he suddenly found something wrong…….. The woman’s facial features were very similar to Lily Marlene, and her eyebrow were exactly the same!

He was so shocked he took a good look at the picture carefully again. But the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the woman in the picture looked like Lily Marlene. However, what he had seen before was just a portrait of Lily Marlene. Even if the portrait was lifelike, it was still just a portrait. It would still be somewhat different from a photo……..

“Isn’t this Lily Marlene?” Tang Mianmian stared at the woman in the photo for a moment, then blurted out, “This is clearly Lily Marlene! This woman looks more like Lily Marlene than Maria. It must be Lily Marlene herself!”

Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly and said: “But I got this pocket watch from that monster. This should belong to it. Do you think that monster is Lily Marlene?” If that monster was Lilly Marlene, how could Lippinobert bear to keep his beloved woman in the attic while plastering her portrait all over the house? Wasn’t this behavior somewhat contradictory?

Tang Mianmian rubbed his chin and let his imagination run wild again. “Maybe he really loved Lily Marlene at first, but then his white moonlight became rice grains and his red cinnabar became mosquito blood. After the seven-year itch, he stopped loving Lily Marlene and locked her up in the attic. But on the surface, he made himself look like an infatuated man with deep emotions?”

Xiao Tangqiu thought about what Tang Mianmian had said and felt that it was quite reasonable. “……Who is this child then? Lily Marlene and Lippinobert’s? Then where is the child now?”

Tang Mianmian continued to spit out ideas. “Maybe the child isn’t Lippinobert’s at all, but the neighbor’s next door. Lippinobert was furious and locked Lily Marlene up in the attic!”

“This doesn’t make sense. If Lily Marlene really made him wear a green hat, then why would he hang her portrait everywhere? Does he have a green hat fetish?”

As Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian continued to blindly speculate, Shen Yuan, who had been silent all along, suddenly turned and walked towards a wall. He slowly brushed the wall with one finger, then gently rubbed his fingers together.

“What’s the matter? Is there something behind the wall?” Windbreaker Man asked him.

Shen Yuan shook his head. He paused before saying, “There was something hanging on this wall originally.”

Xiao Tangqiu quickly walked over. He took out his flashlight and shone it at the wall. Indeed, as expected, he found some parts with different shades on the wall but it wasn’t very obvious. Even with a flashlight, it had taken him a while to notice it, God knows how Shen Yuan managed it.

“It should’ve been some photos or something of the kind…….”

“Photos? Then where are they?” Tang Mianmian also leaned in. “Did someone tear them off? Why would someone do that though? Could there be a hidden secret?”

“This secret chamber should be the most hidden and safest place in the entire castle. Can the man actually find somewhere even more hidden to hide those photos?” Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t quite figure it out but all of a sudden, Shen Yuan turned to look at him.

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart jumped inexplicably. Then, he heard Shen Yuan repeat softly, “Somewhere that’s even more hidden…..”

Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously gulped. “Could Lippinobert have taken the photo? Could he have hidden the photo in his room? Should we take a look at his room? “

Wait a minute! There was another problem!

They didn’t even know where Lippinobert’s room was!

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly realized this. From start till now, they didn’t know where Lippinobert’s room was because every time they went to the hall, Lippinobert was already there, and they didn’t know where Lippinobert came from.

“……Do you know where Lippinobert’s room is?”

Windbreaker Man smiled and shrugged, “Nope. When we were exploring the castle earlier, we didn’t see Lippinobert’s room at all. Of course, we didn’t see the housekeeper’s or the maids’ rooms either.”

“Do they all live in the basement?” Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help wondering, “…….Or will they automatically disappear at night?” Maybe that’s why they don’t need a room at all?

Windbreaker Man shook his head and then curved his lips. “We still don’t know what the housekeeper and maids are, but Lippinobert is definitely a living person.”

Xiao Tangqiu remembered that they had said before that Lippinobert was the only living being in the castle. He couldn’t help but wonder more. This Lippinobert looked so creepy from every angle, how could he be alive? Aren’t the housekeeper and maids puppets? What else could they be besides puppets?

Right then, Shen Yuan suddenly said, “No, let’s look here.”

Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment and immediately turned to look at Shen Yuan.

On the other hand, Shen Yuan merely looked straight into his eyes and repeated faintly, “This…… should be the most hidden place. Start looking.”

Xiao Tangqiu hadn’t responded yet but Shen Yuan’s companions had already started searching the room. No one had bothered asking why. They were obviously very used to him giving orders.

Shen Yuan also began rummaging through the messy workbench.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and joined in the search.

The secret chamber wasn’t very big and all four corners could be seen at a glance. Apart from the workbench, there were a bunch of other completed and unfinished puppets all over the floor.

Xiao Tangqiu looked at the puppet on the ground and suddenly paused. Wait a minute…… Puppet?

He casually picked up a puppet, studied it, then put down the puppet and picked up another one.

Xiao Tangqiu examined several puppets in succession and found nothing special. However, he didn’t give up and went on searching. Finally, when he turned to the umpteenth puppet, he suddenly found something in the puppet’s dress.

He dug his hand inside and pulled out a small fragment of a photograph. He was immediately delighted and cried out, “I’ve found something.”

“What did you find?” Tang Mianmian was the first to go over. Soon, the others also gathered around him.

“Photo fragments?” Windbreaker Man arched an eyebrow and showed an interested look. “Where did you find it?”

Xiao Tangqiu honestly admitted. “I found it in this puppet’s dress.”

“In its dress?” Tang Mianmian immediately widened his eyes as if he had suffered a blow. “I didn’t know you were this sort of person! I was wrong about you! That’s just a doll! You won’t even let off a doll!”

Xiao Tangqiu rolled his eyes, “……Get the hell out of here now.”

They immediately studied the photo fragment. Obviously, there was something in the photo, but because the fragment was too small, it was impossible to piece together the truth.

Shen Yuan said solemnly, “The other fragments should also be hidden within these puppets. Let’s continue looking.”

At his command, everyone turned around and continued the search, but this time they had a goal in mind. Instead of blindly searching, they aimed for the puppets.

Soon, they found another fragment in one of the other puppets. Tang Mianmian and Xiao Tangqiu ended up finding several other pieces. When they were sure that there were no more fragments to be found, they put the fragments together like a jigsaw puzzle.

There were many tiny pieces that made out three photos. But in the end, there seemed to be one fragment missing.

“Why is this photo missing a piece…..” Tang Mianmian said, pointing to the empty spot in one of the photos.

One of the women coldly said, “We couldn’t find any other fragments.”

“That’s strange. Could it be on that monster?” Tang Mianmian wondered.

Xiao Tangqiu stared at the empty spot for a moment, then suddenly realized, “This should be it!”

He quickly flipped open the cover of the pocket watch and put the photo from the cover into the empty spot, which was an exact match!

“Fucking hell! There’s even such a thing! You’re too damn smart!” Tang Mianmian excitedly cried, “Ok! It’s whole photo now! Perfect!”

They looked down at the three photos. Xiao Tangqiu was unwilling to move backwards so he stayed in place and carefully studied the photo. These three photos were of two people. In the first photo, a young woman was carrying a small child. In fact, that was basically the theme of all three photos. The only addition to the photo in the pocket watch was the background.

Upon closer look, Xiao Tangqiu found that the backgrounds of the three photos were actually the same. They were in front of the gates of this strange castle and the castle in the three photos looked exactly the same, without any change whatsoever.

In the second photo, the same woman was still holding a delicate-looking little boy’s hands. The boy was about five or six years old and looked at the camera coldly.

In the third photo, it was still the same woman but she was much older, and the person standing beside her had turned into a teenager of 16 or 17. The teenager was really good-looking. Even though the photo was old and yellow, he could still see his red lips and white teeth. He was very beautiful and his facial features were even more delicate than a doll’s.

Xiao Tangqiu stared at the young man for a moment. He didn’t know why but he was suddenly reminded of the beautiful young man, Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection, chased after his reflection in the water and drowned to death…….. Narcissus should’ve been at least this beautiful, right?