"That guy actually has a daughter? Where's his daughter?" The more outgoing girl raised an eyebrow. "There are no children in this damn place."
Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Shen Yuan flipping through the book and replied nonchalantly, "I don't know, but we found a room on the first floor. That should be Alice's room."
"Oh? What did you find?" The girl smiled slightly. "Of course, we can exchange information. You tell me one thing, and I'll tell you one."
Xiao Tangqiu didn't care about these things and casually told them what they saw and heard, including Maria's room.
"Okay," the girl shrugged. "Since you're so generous, I'll tell you about our discoveries. Aside from Lepnobet's, the housekeeper's, and the servants' rooms, we've explored almost all the guest rooms and found nothing special... but we did discover that this castle seems to have a basement."
"I'm not surprised at all," Xiao Tangqiu smiled. "Can an ancient castle without secret passages, attics, and basements still be called an ancient castle?"
"There's one more important thing," the girl raised her eyebrows, "In this castle, besides us players, it seems that Lepnobet is the only living person."
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly and was about to say something when Tang Mianmian, who was not far away, suddenly shouted, "Fuck! Come here! I found a painting!"
He was stunned for a moment and subconsciously glanced at Shen Yuan, who had just closed the book.
"What book is it?" the cold girl asked Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan said calmly, "Alice in Wonderland."
Xiao Tangqiu paused: "Alice again..."
Shen Yuan put the book back on the bookcase, then turned and walked towards Tang Mianmian.
Tang Mianmian pushed a huge wooden wardrobe with difficulty, and sure enough, a corner of a picture frame was revealed behind the wardrobe.
Xiao Tangqiu hurried forward to help Tang Mianmian, but even with their combined strength, they couldn't push the wardrobe.
"...Why is this wardrobe so heavy? Is there a corpse hidden inside?" Xiao Tangqiu wondered as he pushed it.
"Pooh, pooh, pooh! Don't set flags randomly!" Tang Mianmian glared at Xiao Tangqiu.
The man in the windbreaker looked at the two of them with a half-smile, then met Shen Yuan's dark eyes. He shrugged his shoulders, stepped forward helplessly, and helped the two weak otakus push the cabinet.
The cabinet was finally pushed open, revealing the painting behind it.
This is a classical oil painting. In the painting, there is a handsome and strong naked man and a girl with a human head and a beast body. The two look at each other and are entangled with each other. They look like lovers and enemies at the same time. The whole painting is full of mysterious and strange atmosphere, which makes people feel trance and confused.
"What is this?" Tang Mianmian was stunned. "Beastiality? This is a bit too much! I can't accept it!"
Xiao Tangqiu: "Your expression doesn't say that. You're obviously very excited."
Tang Mianmian chuckled, "I call this appreciating art! By the way, do you know the name of this painting?"
Xiao Tangqiu paused: "...This is 'Oedipus and the Sphinx'."
"Oedipus and the Sphinx..."
Although Tang Mianmian had never seen this painting, he had heard of this story. He suddenly realized: "Is this the story of Oedipus Rex?"
"Yes, it's one of the three great tragedies of ancient Greece, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Shen Yuan, who happened to be looking over at him. Their eyes intertwined in mid-air. He paused before continuing, "...it's a story about killing one's father and marrying one's mother."
"Kill your father and marry your mother?" The man in the windbreaker raised his eyebrows. He originally looked uninterested, but when he heard these four words, he seemed to suddenly become interested.
Xiao Tangqiu nodded. "The story comes from Greek mythology. After Oedipus was born, his father foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother when he grew up. To prevent this fate, he exiled Oedipus. Later, when Oedipus grew up, he accidentally killed his father without knowing it and defeated the Sphinx, a female demon with a human face and a lion's body. As a result, he was hailed as king by the people and married the former queen—his mother.
"Oh? That's interesting," the man in the windbreaker said, fiddling with the scalpel with a look of great interest. "You wanted to prevent fate from happening, but ended up promoting it?"
"That's about it," Xiao Tangqiu smiled. "Later, people used the term Oedipus complex to describe the love complex for one's mother. The opposite of that is the Eractra complex, or the love complex for one's father."
"You know a lot," the man in the windbreaker raised his eyebrows. "Are you studying psychology?"
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head: "I didn't go to school much, I just liked watching movies... and then I knew." After Meng Xinghe had a car accident, he locked himself at home every day, and his only hobbies were watching movies and playing games.
"Interesting," the man in the windbreaker suddenly turned his head to look at Shen Yuan and said with a grin, "I suddenly feel that the rookie you invited to join the team isn't such an eyesore after all."
Shen Yuan glanced at the man in the windbreaker indifferently, and he immediately shrugged. "Okay, let's keep looking for clues! Since Lepnobet won't let us go up to the attic, there must be some important clue hidden there. It can't be just this painting, right?"
Shen Yuan stared at the painting and suddenly said, "There seems to be something behind the painting."
"Behind the painting?" Xiao Tangqiu paused, suddenly a little excited, "Is it a secret passage or secret room?" As a horror game enthusiast, he naturally has a complex about secret passages and secret rooms.
"It must be a secret room!" Tang Mianmian became excited instantly and hurried forward to move the picture frame. Xiao Tangqiu also came over to help.
The painting was very large and the frame was quite heavy. It took the two men a lot of effort to move the frame. However, there was no secret room behind the frame, only a wall.
Just when the two were feeling somewhat disappointed, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly noticed something was wrong: "The color of this wall seems to be different from the one next to it..."
He knocked on it and exclaimed in surprise, "There's nothing behind this wall!"
"Is it really a secret room?" Tang Mianmian pressed her ear to the wall. "...I can't hear any sound, but this wall does seem different from the others. Should we find something to break it open?"
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