Xiao Tangqiu couldn't help but look up at Shen Yuan who was not far away, but he saw that Shen Yuan's eyebrows were cold and his expression was indifferent, with neither waves nor ripples in his eyes, which made his heart sink again.
Aside from Shen Yuan, everyone else seemed equally indifferent to Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian's plight. Instead, the man in the windbreaker, who looked the most cynical, glanced at them and asked with a half-smile, "...How are you? Are you all right?"
“…I’m fine.”
Xiao Tangqiu lowered his eyes to hide the emotions in his eyes. Just as he lowered his head, he suddenly found that there was something extra in his hand.
This is a brass flip-top pocket watch, which is somewhat similar to Maria's pocket watch that Tang Mianmian picked up, but this pocket watch is obviously older than Maria's pocket watch, and it is obviously much older... He was stunned for a moment before he remembered that this pocket watch was accidentally pulled off the monster's neck when he was wrestling with the monster just now.
"I'm fine! It's just that the wound hurts a little!" The frightened Tang Mianmian saw what Xiao Tangqiu was holding and immediately put everything else aside, coming over curiously. "What is this? Another pocket watch? Did you drop it when you were fighting the monster just now? Open it and take a look!"
Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment before opening the flap of the pocket watch. The hands of the pocket watch would not move, as if it was broken. There was also a small black and white photo on the back of the flap, which seemed to be a mother and son.
The composition of the photo is a bit like Raphael's "Madonna with Child". The mother holds the child tightly in her arms, and at the same time puts her face tightly against the child's face. Her facial features are soft and her face is full of love. She exudes the radiance of motherhood from head to toe, and her deep love for her child is visible to the naked eye.
This was originally a very ordinary photo of a mother and her son. However, when Xiao Tangqiu carefully looked at the facial features of the woman in the photo, he suddenly found something wrong... The facial features of this woman were extremely similar to Lili Marlene's, and the eyebrows and eyes were almost exactly the same!
He was utterly shocked, and he examined the photo again. The more he looked, the more he felt that the woman in the photo bore a striking resemblance to Lili Marlene. However, what he had seen before was only a portrait of Lili Marlene. Even if a portrait was realistic, it was still just a portrait, and there were still some differences between it and the photo...
"Isn't this Lili Marlene?" Tang Mianmian stared at the woman in the photo for a while, then blurted out, "This is obviously Lili Marlene! This woman looks more like Lili Marlene than Maria. She must be Lili Marlene herself!"
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly and said, "But I got this pocket watch from that monster. It must belong to that monster. Do you think that monster is Lili Marlene?" If that monster was Lili Marlene, how could Lepnobert lock up his beloved woman in the attic while plastering her portraits all over the house? Isn't this behavior quite contradictory?
Tang Mianmian stroked her chin, her imagination running wild. "Maybe he really did love Lili Marlene at the beginning, but then her white moonlight turned into rice grains and her cinnabar mole turned into mosquito blood. He fell out of love with Lili Marlene after the seven-year itch, so he locked her up in the attic, but to the outside world, he portrayed himself as a lovestruck man?"
Xiao Tangqiu thought about Tang Mianmian's words and actually felt that they made a lot of sense: "...Then who is this child? The child that Lilimaren gave birth to by Lepnobet? Where did that child go?"
Tang Mianmian continued to speculate: "Maybe the child isn't Lepnobet's at all, but the neighbor Lao Wang's. That's why Lepnobet locked Lilimarlene up in the attic in a rage!"
"That's a bit ridiculous. If Lili Marlene really cheated on him, would he still hang her portraits everywhere? Is he a cuckold?"
Just as Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian were racking their brains, Shen Yuan, who had been silent all the time, suddenly turned around and walked towards a wall. He stretched out a finger and slowly wiped it on the wall, then rubbed his fingers gently.
"What's wrong? Is there something behind the wall?" the man in the windbreaker asked him.
Shen Yuan shook his head. He paused for a moment before saying, "There should have been something hanging on this wall."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Tangqiu hurried over. He picked up the flashlight and shone it around. Sure enough, he found several marks of varying depths on the wall. The marks were not very obvious. He searched for a long time with the flashlight, but he didn't know how Shen Yuan saw them.
"It should be something like a photo..."
"Photos? Where did they go?" Tang Mianmian also came over. "Did someone tear them down? Why did they tear them down? Is there some unspeakable secret?"
"But this secret room should be the most hidden and secure place in the entire castle. Where else can that person hide the photo after tearing it off?" Xiao Tangqiu couldn't figure it out, but Shen Yuan suddenly turned his head and looked at him.
Xiao Tangqiu's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason, but she heard Shen Yuan repeat softly, "A more secluded place..."
Xiao Tangqiu swallowed subconsciously: "Could it be that Lepnobet took the photo? Could he have hidden it in his room? Should we go to his room and look for it?"
——Wait a minute! Here comes the problem!
They had no idea where Lepnobet's room was!
Xiao Tangqiu suddenly realized that they had no idea where Lepnobet's room was from the beginning to the end, because every time they went to the hall, Lepnobet was already there. They had no idea where Lepnobet came from.
"...Do you know where Lepnobert's room is?"
The man in the trench coat shrugged with a smile, "I don't know. When we were exploring the castle just now, we didn't see Lepnobert's room at all, and of course we didn't see the butler or the servants either."
"Do they all live in the basement?" Xiao Tangqiu couldn't help but wonder, "...or do they disappear automatically at night?" So they don't need rooms at all?
The man in the windbreaker shook his head and curled his lips: "We don't know what the butler and the servant are yet, but Lepnobet should be a living person."
Xiao Tangqiu then remembered their earlier assertion that "Lepnobet was the only living person in the castle," and his confusion deepened. Lepnobet looked eerie no matter how he looked at him. How could he be alive? Weren't the butler and servants puppets? Could they be anything else besides puppets?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
