Chapter 139: The Alter Ego Says He Loves Me (28)
Normally speaking, the mistress’s orders could not be casually violated.
If going to watch the play was mandatory, then the time left for the group to do other things was too limited.
Xiao Ji and the other two hadn’t originally planned to bring Su Wan along.
But Su Wan didn’t treat them as strangers at all. After sharing a room for a night, she clearly considered herself a companion to Xiao Ji’s group.
Given that the key clues were indeed provided by Su Wan, Xiao Ji and the others weren’t the type to “kill the donkey once the grinding is done,” so they could only reluctantly let Su Wan join for the time being.
After a quick discussion, the four decided to skip breakfast and use this time to do something else meaningful.
And this time, having learned from yesterday’s lesson and just having been rebuffed by Xiao Ji, Chang-ge had also gained some wisdom. He similarly skipped breakfast and sat personally under the large scholar tree in the courtyard, staring at Xiao Ji and his group.
“What’s our plan now?” Su Wan asked.
Xiao Ji said, “Look for the whereabouts of the old gentleman of this family.”
“Where do we look?” Lin Chuan had no ideas at all.
Xiao Yinnian looked at the courtyard. Currently, all the mission-takers lived on the second floor. The first floor should be where the mistress and the children lived, but no one had ever stepped foot on the third floor.
“Let’s go take a look upstairs.”
“That guy surnamed Chang is watching us from downstairs,” Lin Chuan glanced at Chang-ge and said to Xiao Ji.
“It doesn’t matter. None of them are fools; they’ll go to the third floor to look for clues sooner or later.”
Xiao Ji said this, but he still gave an eye signal to the shrike standing on the treetop.
The shrike flapped its wings, flew up from the branch, circled over Chang-ge’s head, and dropped a large turd.
The bird droppings landed on the tip of Chang-ge’s nose. Chang-ge cursed loudly and had to go wash his face.
Taking advantage of the gap while Chang-ge was cursing and leaving, the four went up to the third floor.
To prevent accidentally triggering a death condition, Lin Chuan took the initiative to handle the door-opening task.
There were only two rooms on the third floor.
The first door was half-open. Lin Chuan pushed the door open and saw it was filled with theater costumes, head ornaments, and some dust-covered props, huqin, and gongs and drums.
Xiao Ji went in and wandered around but didn’t find any particularly special items.
“Without surprise, the owner of the Red Plum Theater—if it isn’t the old gentleman in the photo, it must be the dead male head of the house,” Lin Chuan said, leaning against the doorframe.
Xiao Ji came out of the room and looked at the sky; it seemed like it was going to rain.
“Next room, hurry up.”
The four walked to the second door, only to see a heavy large iron lock hanging on the latch.
Just as Lin Chuan was about to crouch down to study the iron lock, a childish voice suddenly came from behind them:
“What are you doing?”
Xiao Yinnian’s heart shivered. He turned his head and saw the little boy he had met yesterday.
Xiao Ji patted the back of Xiao Yinnian’s hand and prepared to walk toward the little boy.
Xiao Yinnian gave him a pull. “This is the third floor. If you make him cry again today, we won’t be able to escape easily.”
Hearing this, Xiao Ji hesitated for a moment and then said to Su Wan:
“Do you know how to coax kids?”
Su Wan walked straight forward, picked the little boy up, and asked him:
“Little ghost, do you know what’s inside this locked room?”
The little boy shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Su Wan asked again, “Then in your family now, besides you and your mother, is there anyone else?”
The little boy thought for a moment. “There’s Auntie and Elder Sister.”
Xiao Ji and the other three looked at each other. Lin Chuan asked another question:
“What about your father and grandfather?”
The little boy said, “Father and Grandfather aren’t at home.”
Xiao Ji looked at the little boy. “Do you know where the key to this room is kept?”
The little boy remained silent.
Su Wan held him and bounced him a bit. “Tell Auntie where the key is, and Auntie will buy you candy.”
The little boy looked into Su Wan’s eyes. “Really? Mother said you shouldn’t lie.”
Clearly, a death condition had appeared.
Su Wan immediately changed her tune. “It’s a lie. But if you don’t tell Auntie where the key is, Auntie will throw you down from the balcony.”
As soon as she said this, the little boy opened his large mouth.
Before his crying sound could ring out, Su Wan grabbed and covered the little boy’s mouth, threatening:
“If you dare to cry out, I’ll throw you down right now.”
Sure enough, the little boy shut his mouth again.
“Speak. Where is the key?”
Su Wan let go of the hand covering the child’s mouth and asked once more.
The little boy looked into Su Wan’s eyes and said dully:
“In Mother’s bedroom.”
Xiao Yinnian looked at Su Wan’s actions and couldn’t help but be speechless.
Having asked for the desired information, Su Wan was about to put the child down when she was stopped by Xiao Ji:
“Go downstairs first. In case he cries again, it won’t be easy to run from here.”
Su Wan looked at the kid, felt that Xiao Ji had a point, and once again covered the kid’s mouth.
The four hurried downstairs. Just as they reached the bottom, they ran into Chang-ge, who had returned from washing his face and was staring at them.
Su Wan and Xiao Ji’s group looked at each other. Before Chang-ge could make any reaction, she suddenly stuffed the child into Chang-ge’s arms.
Simultaneously, the four bolted again.
In the next second, the little boy’s crying exploded from behind them.
No one looked back.
They didn’t even go to the dining room but ran out of the manor’s main gate in one breath.
“Holy sh*t, sister, you’re really wicked.”
Lin Chuan was astonished.
Su Wan glared at Lin Chuan. “His people wanted to kill me last night; why didn’t you say he was wicked?”
Lin Chuan clicked his tongue. “He’s a beast; you can’t describe him with ‘wicked’ or not.”
Twice in a row—Xiao Yinnian caught his breath:
“What do we do now?”
Xiao Ji looked around. “Let’s ask around for information about this household.”
Xiao Yinnian frowned, looking at the surrounding desolation. “There isn’t a f*cking ghost of a shadow here; where are we going to find people?”
Xiao Ji didn’t speak. He led the three to the wooden building where he had seen that hunched figure yesterday before saying:
“I saw someone living here yesterday.”
Lin Chuan looked at the dilapidated wooden building and the weeds in front of the door. A gust of eerie wind blew past, making him shiver.
“Brother, are you sure it’s a person living here? This looks pretty terrifying no matter how you view it…”
Xiao Ji looked at Lin Chuan. “Aren’t you also not a person? What are you afraid of?”
Lin Chuan opened his mouth, then grabbed Xiao Yinnian’s arm:
“Yin-ge, look at him! That’s not what he said yesterday!”
Xiao Yinnian patted the back of his hand:
“What he said yesterday was that when it’s not a necessary moment, you should see yourself as a person. This moment is clearly a time when you need to be clear about your own position.”
Lin Chuan let go of Xiao Yinnian’s arm:
“The two of you really are birds of a feather. If I had known earlier, I should have stood by and sang songs while you two were kissing last night instead of pretending I didn’t know.”
Hearing this, Xiao Yinnian’s cheeks turned red, and he gave the back of Lin Chuan’s neck a slap.
“You useless thing! You eavesdrop on everything!”
Xiao Ji wasn’t surprised by Lin Chuan’s words. He had a thick skin and just acted like he didn’t hear. He walked to the wooden building, stepped onto the stairs, and lightly knocked on the door panel.
After a short while, the door creaked open a small crack.
A pair of cloudy eyes appeared in the door crack, staring at Xiao Ji for a while before letting out a raspy voice:
“Who are you looking for?”
Translator’s Note: “Birds of a feather” (一丘之貉) literally means “raccoon dogs from the same hill,” an idiom for people who are equally bad.
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