It was late at night, and the north wind was howling outside the window. One day has passed since the three-day mission.
Yu Tangzhi has harvested many clues today, but these are just fragments. There is still a key rope missing to connect these fragments to form a complete story chain.
So she couldn't waste tonight. The girl was lying on the bed, layers of soft goose down quilts surrounding her. The lingering floral fragrance seemed to penetrate her skin.
The hands of the ancient clock tick slowly towards midnight.
However, Yu Tangzhi felt that his mind, which was clear a second ago, was now surrounded by a strong sense of sleepiness.
After waking up from another nap, she realized that there might be something wrong with the scent of the flowers.
The ticking clock has reached 12 o'clock at midnight.
The girl pinched her palms to keep herself awake. There was a bad feeling in her heart, and cold sweat broke out on her back.
Arrive at midnight.
Salz Castle seemed to have fallen into another void, quiet and silent, with bottomless thick fog outside the window.
Yu Tangzhi had a ridiculous feeling at this moment, as if she was the only living person in this castle.
This thought didn't matter, it scared me into a cold sweat, and made me more awake.
At this moment, she heard a slight creaking sound from somewhere in the room, as if the door was being pushed open.
She looked towards the door quietly.
The door remains closed.
But she was also convinced that what had happened just now was clearly not an illusion.
She calmly continued to scan around the dim room with the corner of her eye, and suddenly her sight was fixed on the southwest corner of the room.
There was a huge wardrobe there, and a gap suddenly appeared in the originally closed wardrobe door.
Someone opened the door from inside the closet!
Yu Tangzhi held his breath and pretended to be sleeping. She was right. The weak air flow from the closet door made the candle flames in the sconces on the wall sway.
At this moment, a pair of pale hands came out, and the person in the closet came out. He has a thin build and looks like a teenager.
After he quietly walked out of the closet, he gently closed the closet door with his backhand.
However, the moment he turned his head, Yu Tangzhi was stunned.
Because she saw a familiar face, that was Duke Adams!
No, to be precise, it was the face of young Duke Adams.
They still have some subtle differences. But it's obvious the two are brothers.
In a flash, she immediately remembered the diary she had obtained in the study during the day.
The key rope has appeared to connect the fragmented fragments together. It seems that Duke Adams does have a brother, and his brother wanders in the secret passages in the castle all day long, unknown to outsiders.
While she was thinking, the mysterious man kept approaching, and finally stood beside her bed.
Yu Tangzhi adjusted his breathing rate, breathing slowly and deeply, showing that the girl on the bed had fallen into a deep sleep.
The boy beside the bed made no next move. The atmosphere fell into a stalemate for a while.
As time passed, Yu Tangzhi discovered a problem. Although her breathing was slow, she couldn't control her heartbeat, and the violent heartbeat seemed to burst out of her heart.
After a long silence, Yu Tangzhi began to panic.
At this moment, the mysterious man suddenly spoke.
"Now that you're awake, why don't you look at me?"
This time it was like a thunderclap. Yu Tangzhi's nerves tensed up instantly, and he almost screamed. His heart was filled with panic and doubts. When did he realize that he was pretending to sleep?
Just when her breathing was about to lose rhythm, she suddenly felt something was wrong.
wrong!
There was no way he would notice that she was pretending to sleep. This was a skill she had practiced since she was a child, the kind that could fool the visiting doctor.
He's cheating on her!
So Yu Tangzhi continued to breathe long and heavy.
Sure enough, the mysterious man waited for her for a while, and then gave up and left when she still didn't respond.
It wasn't until the closet door was closed again that Yu Tangzhi breathed heavily uncontrollably.
She rolled out of bed and swept the petals under the mattress together with a sullen face. Some flower branches have been crushed. The red flower juice flows out and exudes a rich fragrance.
Yu Tangzhi mixed these petals under the roses blooming in the room. Although it is impossible to avoid these roses in the room, it is still refreshing after sweeping away the rose petals near the bed.
The next day, early morning.
After breakfast, Yu Tangzhi walked outside the castle and said that he accidentally left an earring in the garden yesterday. He used the excuse of looking for the earring to continue exploring the secrets under the strangely blooming roses in the cold winter.
When the gardener saw her approaching the flowers, his expression was still ugly.
But Yu Tangzhi said that the lost earring was a relic of her grandmother. It was the only pair in the world and was very precious. If she can't find it, she will be in a bad mood. If she is in a bad mood, the wedding may not be held as scheduled. The gardener cannot bear this kind of responsibility, so he can only let her go and look at the roses closely.
Sure enough, what I saw yesterday was not an illusion. The girl's thin white fingers peeled open the layers of flowers that looked like blood and a few dark green leaves. Looking down along the flower branches, there are bulges on the soil, as big as a human heart.
Yu Tangzhi was horrified as she looked more and more like it. She kicked one of the bulges with her feet, and was surprised to find that the bulge was actually alive and squirming, just like a real heart growing on the ground.
She had an outrageous guess in her mind. If she kicked it harder, would bright red blood flow out from inside?
Just when she was about to make a move, the lingering gardener appeared next to her again, urging him respectfully and indifferently:
"Miss Yu, have you found your earrings? The Duke doesn't like others to come near these flowers. I'm afraid I will be punished if you continue to waste time like this."
Yu Tangzhi looked back at him. The gardener's withered face was as cold and empty as ever, but now he was a little more anxious.
He didn't believe her excuse and was now waiting to see how she would end up seizing her opportunity to report to the Duke.
However, to his surprise, the girl under the sun smiled brightly,
"Hey, it's here!"
She bent down and picked up something from the depths of a flower branch on the side. She spread her palm and stretched it out in front of him and said, "It turns out that I really found it here. Thank you, Mr. Gardener."
Now the gardener was speechless.
Back in the room, Yu Tangzhi sat on a chair and recalled the mysterious man who appeared last night. She remembered that he was pale and thin, and that he was wearing a white shirt, but there were stains of blood and light yellow tissue fluid on the clothes.
