Chapter 11: Rose Manor |
On the stone walls of the old castle's interior, large water stains oozed like open sores. The withered vines seemed to have grown slightly, carving deeper fissures into the weathered, crumbling stone.
Qi Si descended the stairs to the ground floor, but there was no sign of Miss Anna, nor of the butler.
Most of the time, the two NPCs seemed to have vanished into the castle's ether, only appearing when absolutely necessary. Perhaps this was a kindness, allowing the players ample room to explore freely. Or perhaps they understood a fundamental truth—that fear is born from the unknown—and were merely hiding in the shadows, building a false sense of dread.
Qi Si pushed open the heavy main doors of the castle, and his gaze fell upon a vast sea of roses.
The bruised purple of the overcast sky washed over the vibrant red roses, coating them in a leaden gloom. Beneath the tangled canopy of branches and leaves lay patches of deep black, sparking an instinctual feeling that secrets and terrors lay buried within.
Qi Si followed the small path outward and, looking up, saw Zou Yan standing amidst a cluster of rose bushes not far away, watching him.
Their eyes met, and Zou Yan gave a slight nod in greeting before lowering her head, bending over, and beginning to toy with the roses before her.
With the warning "Beware of the roses" etched into the system interface, anyone with an average constitution would never dare to touch the garden's flowers.
Qi Si strode over to her and, echoing her action, pushed aside a thicket of roses to clear a small space for himself.
The towering structure stood in desolate isolation, shrouded in a gloomy, eerie light whose source could not be found. Ancient, gnarled vines crisscrossed the outer walls, climbing ever upward, long since having become one with the castle itself under layers of accumulated time and dust.
He was standing in the exact spot where Miss Anna had stood the night before. His gaze was fixed on the second-floor guest room windows, but through the weathered glass, he could only make out the deep, tomb-like gloom of the vaulted ceiling within.
What, exactly, had Miss Anna been looking at last night?
Qi Si took a few steps back, widening his view to take in the entire castle.
The castle's outer walls were faded in many places, covered in countless tiny fungi and patches of mold. The massive stones were split and gaping, like torn flesh, with dead vines sprouting from the fissures. For a fleeting instant, he felt the castle was like a person—someone bound, layer by layer, in chains.
Zou Yan, beside him, suddenly asked, "Qi Si, what are your thoughts on Miss Anna?"
Qi Si turned his head to look her directly in the eye. "In what respect?" he inquired.
Zou Yan smiled. "Anything at all. It's just a casual chat."
Two images flashed through Qi Si's mind. The first was of the woman at the dinner table, chewing on bloody flesh. The second was of a mournful, sorrowful shadow standing in the sea of roses at night...
The human image lingered in his mind for barely two seconds before it was automatically deconstructed into skin, flesh, and bone. They rearranged themselves into various configurations, plans for dissection, for specimen preparation—what techniques to use, what kind of specimen to create...
A gentle smile touched the corners of his lips. "From a purely biological standpoint, Miss Anna has a healthy appetite. And perhaps a touch of insomnia."
"..."
Noticing Zou Yan's peculiar expression, Qi Si lowered his gaze slightly and added a more conventional answer. "Of course, she is very beautiful. If she weren't... supernatural, she's definitely the type to make hearts flutter."
Zou Yan latched onto his words. "And what about you? If she were alive, would she make your heart flutter?"
If she were a corpse, I might be interested in adding her to my collection.
The smile on Qi Si's face was perfectly sincere. "To me, once any living thing dies, it's nothing more than a skeleton stripped of its flesh."
"And what if her hands were stained with blood?" Zou Yan's gaze fixed on Qi Si, her brown eyes seeming to soften and bleed at the edges like watercolor, as if trying to draw his very soul into their vortex. "Someone who shares your sins... who could understand your interests, your hobbies, your past. Even a beast that walks alone... must feel lonely in the endless night..."
This time, Qi Si didn't answer. Instead, he countered with a question of his own. "And how do you see Miss Anna? You seem quite concerned about her."
Zou Yan considered for a moment. "I suppose she's a pitiable person," she said. "I don't know much more than that. After all, I've never exchanged a single word with her."
"Indeed. I've only spoken three sentences to her myself," Qi Si remarked, then turned and walked deeper into the sea of roses. This had been a test; Zou Yan had hoped to coax more clues out of him without revealing what she already knew, even resorting to psychological manipulation.
But she had failed.
Growing up, Qi Si had undergone no fewer than two hundred psychological evaluations. He knew the therapists' rhetorical tricks so well he could recite them backward. Eventually, he became so adept that he ended up curing the mental illnesses of six of his own doctors.
He was long past the point of being swayed by leading questions, suggestion, or hypnosis. He was lucid even in his dreams...
"Still, I suppose we've entered the phase of trying to trick information out of each other?" Qi Si mused, stroking his chin with interest as his gaze fell upon Chang Xu on the other side of the garden.
...
The gardens of Rose Manor were vast and sprawling, but thankfully, they were planted with only one type of flower. The tallest rose bushes reached only to a man's waist, offering little in the way of cover. A single sweeping glance was enough to take in the movements of everyone present.
Chang Xu was digging with a shovel beneath the withered vines at the base of the castle wall, looking as though he had unearthed a significant clue.
Yezi, on the other hand, was bent over, rummaging through the rose bushes. She seemed aimless and distracted, as if she were only wandering the gardens because she couldn't bear to stay inside the castle.
Qi Si followed a path sparsely littered with petals, meandering away from the castle. In the distance, he saw a rust-spotted iron gate looming heavily at the end of the way.
A heavy, clumsy-looking iron lock hung on the gate, rusted completely shut. It was clear that no player would be able to open it by force.
Qi Si noticed a small, bare patch of ground to one side of the gate. There was no grass, no plants, no roses—only a rectangular stone slab set into the earth. On its surface, several lines of text were engraved in English.
He remembered the butler mentioning he lived underground, yet the castle had no basement...
The clue was obvious. Qi Si crouched in front of the stone slab and rapped his knuckle against it twice.
The sound of rushing wind rose behind him, accompanied by a suspicious rustle.
Qi Si rose to his feet and turned. The butler, clad in his black uniform, was standing right behind him, having appeared from nowhere.
An exaggerated smile was plastered on his plastic-like face. "Honored guest, you cannot leave the manor just yet. Miss Anna would be most displeased."
Qi Si met the butler's gaze, his tone earnest. "I have no intention of leaving. I only came to ask... where is Miss Anna?"
"The young lady is, naturally, wherever she wishes to be," the butler replied.
"Is that so? What a shame." Qi Si lowered his gaze and sighed. "It seems Miss Anna is always avoiding us. Outside of mealtimes, we never know where we might find her. Could it be... that she dislikes her guests?"
He kept his voice exceptionally low and steady, as if he were genuinely saddened by Miss Anna's attitude, yet a subtle threat shimmered just beneath the surface of his words.
A flicker of panic crossed the butler's eyes, and he shook his head vigorously. "No, she does not dislike you. Miss Anna likes her guests."
—The third rule: *Miss Anna likes her guests and bears them no ill will.*
Just as he thought. The rules constrained not only the players, but the instance's NPCs as well. True fairness was impossible to find, but keeping up appearances was easy enough.
The corner of Qi Si's mouth lifted into a smile. "In that case," he asked, "would it be possible for me to meet with her in the garden now?"
Seeing the butler's hesitant expression, he added gently, "I won't keep her long."
Having been backed into a corner, the butler could only give Qi Si a reluctant bow. "I shall go and ask Miss Anna to join you immediately."