บท 12: Chapter 12: The Hidden Truth
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"Tsk, is that little girl really so scared that she locked the door on me from the inside?"
At the villa's main entrance, Xu Shuo irritably pressed the doorknob several times. Even with the spare key, he couldn't open it, which simply meant the door had been locked from the inside.
This type of anti-theft lock did not have a keyhole and could only be opened from the inside.
He had just seen Zhan Qian leave the house, and suddenly he wanted to see this woman's composed facade crumble, so he stealthily appeared to give her a scare, and sure enough, she turned and ran away in terror.
But now she had actually gone and locked the door!
With a huff of annoyance, Xu Shuo tapped the doorknob to vent his frustration, then turned and headed to the back of the villa, where he located his room's window and inserted his tools through a gap.
All the first-floor windows had burglar bars installed, so it was impossible to climb in, but he managed to scale up the wall using the window ledge.
After mocking others for being Spider-Man, it wasn't long before Xu Shuo himself was clinging to the wall, agilely climbing sideways, and using hooks and ropes to reach the second-floor room on the left.
Xu Shuo tried to pull on the window, and, lo and behold, the thieves who had gone in hadn't bothered to lock it, which made it convenient for him to climb through.
Although the master bedroom had been searched, it appeared unchanged; the antique vases on the cabinet were all still intact, undamaged.
After climbing through the window, Xu Shuo walked straight to the door without glancing to the side, opened it, and then walked out nonchalantly.
The light in the adjacent study was still on, and the door was slightly ajar. As Xu Shuo passed by, he took a casual look inside, where two people were whispering to each other, backs to the door, engrossed in a conversation that seemed to last an eternity.
He turned and made his way lightly down the stairs, heading back to his own room.
Xu Shuo changed out of the skirt and wig, and packed all the equipment he had used back into the box, though the lock on the box had already been smashed by him earlier and now it could only be closed.
After wiping his fingerprints clean and tidying up any evidence in the room, he picked up the metal box and left again.
In the silent and oppressive darkness, the young man moved unhindered through the night until he arrived at a door.
Xu Shuo used the spare key to open the door, slipped in like a breeze, then smoothly closed and locked the door behind him, the whole act quieter than the rain outside.
This was a servant's room.
The knockout smoke he had slipped in through the window before had taken effect, and the girl on the bed was sleeping soundly. Xu Shuo glanced at her to make sure he had the right person before shoving the metal box deep under her bed, adding some camouflage on the outside.
He did not deliberately create any obvious flaws; if the searchers didn't find it later, no harm done.
If they did find it, though…
That was none of his business!
While he could've easily destroyed all traces of his actions, providing some semblance of clues was a better arrangement than leaving them with nothing to find at all.
Someone had to take the fall after all, and after planting enough evidence, it was time to muddle everyone's vision.
It was because he had another main task that could not be exposed.
Xu Shuo swiped up the task panel to check it, and despite all he had done tonight, the progress bar under the Character Card advanced only a little bit.
After all, for this character, the essence of his obsession was to bring the truth to light. The chef's choice to make his move during tonight's dinner was probably because he had his eye on the guests seeking shelter.
Only a stranger would not care about this manor.
And now, as a traveler entering the script, he has even more motivation to investigate everything.
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The truth behind the entire script had to be deduced from their hands.
...
The drizzling rain outside had stopped, and the manor under the cover of nightfall had completely fallen into silence; it lay dormant deep in the mountains, like a beast quietly awaiting its prey.
Xu Shuo had left after putting away his belongings, but this time as he swaggered through the hall, he suddenly paused, lifting his head as if sensing something.
Then, he saw a figure standing silently at the end of the hallway turning to the left—second corridor; the person's face, illuminated by the candlelight, seemed somewhat surprised. However, the angle of the candlelight also cast terrifying shadows across her face.
For a moment, both were silent.
Zhan Qian had merely glanced downstairs casually on her way back to her room, after all, her room door was close to the passage, which faced the pitch-black lobby.
She truly was just idly looking!
Then, all of a sudden, she saw a vague figure, and the next moment, the person she was staring at also looked up immediately.
At that instant, Zhan Qian was so frightened her heart skipped a beat—all she could think was "I've been discovered"!
But then she realized there was nothing to worry about. Hadn't she just been caught by the butler? What was more important was that she wasn't doing anything guilty!
She was a guest invited by the host family, after all!
So Zhan Qian regained her composure, her expression returning to one of calm elegance as she looked at the shadowy figure in the darkness. But, after a short while, the person averted their gaze, as if they had not seen her, and turned to leave.
Zhan Qian was perplexed and muttered to herself, "What was that about? So arrogant?"
Prowling outside in the dead of night, and acting as if nothing was wrong upon being discovered. Zhan Qian didn't intend to delve further into it at first—after all, she wasn't the only one on a mission. But now she was extremely curious about who that person was.
Unfortunately, there was no light on them, nothing could be made out clearly, and in complete darkness, how were they even navigating outside?
Zhan Qian shook her head bemusedly, turned, and went back to her room, making sure to lock the door behind her.
Having gained some information from the butler in the study just now, Zhan Qian sat on the bed and began to analyze, pulling out a notebook.
What the butler said couldn't be taken at face value, of course, but some inferences could still be made.
For instance, suppose Madame Guo hadn't committed suicide due to depression, but due to some accident, which is why her restless spirit turned into a ghost wandering the manor.
And if that was all true, and Mr. Guo's source of depression was witnessing his own mother's suicide, perhaps this led to him harboring hatred towards his father, resulting in a façade of fatherly love and filial piety.
Wait a minute... As Zhan Qian's thoughts reached this point, they suddenly halted.
If Mr. Guo's mother was the reason for his depression, what was the reason for her depression?
Could it be that a misunderstanding had arisen between two people in love?
Zhan Qian frowned in deep thought, unsure whether the secrets within the manor were related to Madame Guo's suicide. In the end, she still needed to restore the truth of the entire script.
She had coincidentally completed the first mission, but why was this second mission proving to be so troublesome?
Thinking of that white shadow which the system deemed as completing the mission, Zhan Qian sneaked another peek outside the window. However, at this time, she saw nothing in the pitch-black courtyard.
The thunder and lightning outside had also ceased at some unknown point, and after midnight, it was the darkest time of the night. From afar, the manor seemed as if it was completely swallowed by the boundless darkness.
Anyway, she wasn't going to dare to sleep tonight.
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