Chapter 172 The Mysterious Book.
The next day, King and Queen Midan signed the contract with Hyya, who was overjoyed, beaming from ear to ear. I pulled King and Queen Midan aside to a secluded spot. "I've heard that your Western Palace has a treasure vault that only the king and queen can enter. Inside is a precious book that records many strange things. Is that true?"
King and Queen Midian looked at me with great interest. “There is a treasure vault, which only the king and queen can enter. I’ve heard of that book, but I’m not sure if it records many strange things.”
"Is there a way to get me in?" I asked bluntly.
"Don't you know that only the king and queen are allowed to enter?"
I lowered my voice: "Perhaps, there could be an exception?"
Queen Midian smiled strangely: "That depends on how much profit there is."
I didn't have many good items on hand, so after thinking it over, I said, "How about I pay you back for now?"
I thought she would refuse outright, but to my surprise, after a few seconds of thought, she replied, "Yes, but I'm not sure if you can go in."
"Just give it a try."
That very day I accompanied King and Queen Midian to the Western Palace. I placed Beatrice under house arrest in her room, with Hya and Letea keeping watch over her.
Hya will not let Beatrice out; if she does, she will take his life.
Letea is even less likely to release her; she now hates us to the core, and if she comes out, she will side with King Midian, which would be detrimental to him.
Standing beneath the pillars of the Western Palace, my long skirt billowing in the fierce wind, I recalled my first visit to this place, which resembled the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Holding an umbrella for Princess Yani, my group of maids carefully made our way through the rain and mud to the palace, which reeked of blood.
"This way," Queen Midian called to me, leading me into the corridor on the left.
It was late at night, and we had returned in secret. The corridor was deserted, with only King and Queen Midian and myself.
About twenty minutes later, we took an underground "elevator" through a hidden entrance in the garden. The elevator swayed for a long time before finally arriving deep underground.
This is a huge underground palace with corridors, columns, rooms, gardens and ponds. I was amazed by the grand scale of the West Frontier.
“Every king of the Westerlands is terrified of death, and this is what they use for refuge,” Queen Midian said slowly as she walked. “It took many years to build.”
We stood before a treasure vault, its entrance unremarkable, gray-black, short, and stained with many marks.
Queen Midian closed her eyes slightly and muttered something. After she finished, she opened her eyes, took off her pearl earring, and pierced the sharp point of the thorn into her ring finger. Blood gushed out. She pressed her ring finger against a protrusion on the door, and the next second, the door opened.
A chilling aura swept over, making one feel cold.
King and Queen Midian stepped in, and I hesitated to go in, but I followed them anyway.
As I took one step, two steps, three steps, my heart pounded in my chest.
Step four, step five, step six, and I actually followed along step by step.
When I successfully entered the treasure vault, Queen Midian looked at me in astonishment, "You were actually able to get in?"
I looked at her in surprise, "I didn't expect that either."
The treasure trove was filled with glittering gems: crystals, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, cat's-eye stones, as well as jade, diamonds, and other gems whose names were unknown. All of them shone brightly, making the torches in the hands of King and Queen Midian pale in comparison.
Our gazes simultaneously fell upon a dusty book on a gleaming chair in the center of the treasure vault.
My breathing became rapid.
This book is the least remarkable thing in the entire treasure trove, yet it is the most precious to me.
I stepped forward, carefully picking up the book. The thick dust made me and Queen Midian behind me cough repeatedly.
The first page is blank, the second page is also blank, and the third page is still blank.
I was stunned, and so were King and Queen Midian.
I flipped through more than a dozen pages, all blank. I turned the pages again, still blank. It was a blank book. But how could a blank book be here, in the middle of the treasure vault, on a beautiful, gleaming chair?
A chair? My gaze fell on the chair again.
Holding the book, I plopped down on the chair. Before I could even react, the chair suddenly shone brightly, the light extremely dazzling.
Just then, a line of text suddenly appeared on the book cover: "The mystery of life lies in its cycles; the enigma of time also lies in its cycles. Cycle upon cycle, rolling out layer upon layer of mysterious space. To cross space, one must understand the mysteries of matter."
As soon as I finished reading, the light began to dim, and the words started to disappear. I panicked, opened my eyes wide, and read it again, afraid of missing a single word. The words became even dimmer until they disappeared completely. I hurriedly turned the pages, hoping to read something, but the pages remained blank. Undeterred, I continued turning the pages, but they were still blank.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I instinctively reached out to touch it, and a hot, bloody liquid seeped out from between my fingers.
A gleaming, sharp dagger is stuck in my neck.
The hilt of the dagger was in the hands of King and Queen Midian.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pressing her point further, “you command a large army, control the independent capital, have the Western Kingdom of Letea serving you, have the Grand Chancellor of the North as your husband, and have a daughter whose father is the Elven King. What if one day you decide to attack the Western Kingdom?”
I gripped the sharp blade tightly with both hands, but I couldn't stop her from stabbing me again.
"Only when you are dead can I be at ease." She stabbed again suddenly.
Blood spurted out again, this time splashing onto the book on my lap, staining the once blank page with a bright red hue.
An excruciating pain shot through me. Just as she was about to stab me again, the pages of the book suddenly emitted a dazzling red light, instantly enveloping me. The red light grew brighter and brighter until we couldn't open our eyes. I heard the sound of the dagger falling to the ground, and then I knew nothing more...
———
Two months later, in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
A torrential downpour, accompanied by lightning and thunder, left the streets nearly deserted.
Thunder rumbled intermittently, as if the sky were collapsing and the earth were splitting apart; in such weather, people were still running in the streets.
She wore a bright red raincoat, and in the rain, she was like a red shadow that was impossible to ignore.
Standing at the window of my fifth-floor apartment, I had noticed her long ago, ever since she appeared on the street corner.
Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. I opened the door, and she appeared in the doorway, wearing a red raincoat and soaking wet.
"Why didn't you call a car? Why did you run all the way here?" I helped her take off her raincoat, and she took out a pair of clean slippers from the shoe cabinet, cursing in English, "That damn Mexican driver, he should have dropped me off at the door, but he complained that the rain was too heavy and he couldn't see the road, so he refused to go any further. I had to get out of the car and run all the way here. Luckily, I had a raincoat in my bag."
I said "oh" and made her a cup of coffee from the automatic coffee machine. The hot coffee calmed her down quite a bit.
"This place is nice. How much is the monthly rent?" She asked, holding her coffee and looking around.
"1300 US dollars."
"Not expensive."
It's a very simple little apartment with a desk, a bed, a wardrobe, a small kitchen, and a small bathroom. The furnishings are basic, and the location is a bit out of the way, but the neighborhood is fairly safe. The landlord rented it to me cheaply because it was only for a few months.
I am currently studying at a nearby community college on a student visa, which means I cannot work part-time while studying. I can only earn some money when I do an internship later.
"I'm moving again in a few months, and the landlord isn't going to rent to me anymore. I'm wondering if there are any cheaper options." I made myself a cup of coffee and yawned.
"Did you stay up late last night?" she asked, smiling at me.
"Yes, I stayed up all night writing the paper, and it's due in two days."
"Instead of staying up all night at community college, you might as well stay up all night at Yale, since you're staying up all night anyway."
"Not everyone can get into Yale like you."
The person speaking to me was the castle's little maid, who is now pursuing her master's degree at Yale.
The little maid in the castle smiled and said, "I've always felt that you and I are the same. If I can pass the exam, you can pass it too."
"You're talking about climbing the Ivy League ladder," I said slowly, sipping my coffee. "So many elite families raise their children from a young age just to get them into Ivy League schools. I'm just a halfway through my education, how could I possibly climb that ladder?"
“My parents didn’t care about me when I was little. I got into university entirely on my own,” the castle maid retorted.
“Okay, you’re naturally intelligent, I can’t compare,” I said.
She then fell silent, but I gave a faint smile. Just as healthy people always think that being healthy is something that can be achieved without effort, academically excellent people always think that excellence is a common thing.
I have nothing to say to those who have won the genetic lottery.
The rain was pouring down outside the window, and we suddenly fell silent, the room enveloped in an eerie stillness.
"Can you tell me how you got back?" the castle maid asked again.
“I was hit on the head by a food delivery guy and remained unconscious until a few months ago when I finally woke up.” I stroked the warm coffee cup. “The doctor said my condition was strange. Although I had a head injury, there was bleeding inside my neck before I woke up. This is usually caused by damage or disease to internal organs. They panicked and gave me a full body check, but they didn’t find anything unusual. After the bleeding stopped, my neck returned to normal. Then I woke up.”
The castle maid, sipping her coffee, asked, "Did you hurt your neck before you left?"
“Yes,” I said, taking a sip of coffee, “I was stabbed in the neck.”
The castle maid looked at me and kept breathing heavily. "Thank goodness you didn't die."
"Luckily, I'm a superpowered woman," I breathed a sigh of relief, "and I was holding a mysterious book in my hand, so I was instantly back in my own world."
The rain outside the window intensified, so I closed the window tighter. "You can sleep here tonight. I have many stories to tell."
The castle maid raised her eyebrows and smiled broadly, "That's exactly what I was waiting for you to say."
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A note from the author: I post as soon as I finish writing; I don't have any drafts saved or edited. Please forgive any typos.
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