Chapter 98: Now that things have come to this, let’s go to sleep. That guy’s passion for musical instruments…
"Is this... ashes?"
The teddy bear's voice sounded in his ears, and the little guy poked his head out and looked at the powder in the box.
Ashes?
Cremation was rarely practiced in her world, so this was the first time she had seen it.
Cecilia closed the box and opened another one.
Not surprisingly, each small box in the wooden box contained ashes, and the corresponding name was engraved on the bottom of the box.
"So, when she said she gave Lili a box, she wanted to turn Lili into ashes?"
Realizing the implication of the other party's words, the teddy bear clenched his fists in anger and stared viciously at Ms. Wen who was wandering around the room.
"…Why! Why do you all treat me like this! If it weren't for me, you would all be unwanted children. I took you back…I have given so much for you, why don't you understand!"
Having received no response, Ms. Wen became more and more crazy. There was almost no intact furniture in the room. Everything was chopped into pieces by her.
It would be bad if this condition affects tomorrow's performance.
Cecilia quietly went around behind Ms. Wen and knocked her out with a knife, leaving her lying on the cold floor.
Without Ms. Wen's interference, the man and the bear searched the messy bedroom and finally found the surviving ticket under a book.
"Xia, how are you going to cure her? There's basically no cure for her condition..."
Looking at the unconscious Ms. Wen, Teddy Bear asked worriedly, "If you can't fulfill your promise to Lili, she will be disappointed, right?"
"It's simple, just complete the task."
She yawned and thoughtfully helped Ms. Wen turn off the light. "Lili is the NPC in this room. As long as we leave, everything will return to normal."
“Until the next player triggers the plot, she will always maintain the image of a gentle and kind mother.”
"But our mission progress is still 0..."
The teddy bear hung his head in frustration and huddled his body into his pocket. "Now we only have four chances left, and we haven't been able to get anyone to the party yet. Not a single person."
"Originally, the most promising candidate was Ms. Wen, but she...she has turned into this state again. This mission leaves her with absolutely no chance of survival!"
Taking the teddy bear back to her room, Cecilia rubbed the little guy's head and fell on the soft bed.
"This is not something you should worry about."
She said softly, closing her eyes peacefully, "Now that things have come to this, let's go to sleep."
The next day.
Thanks to the help of the teddy bear alarm clock, Cecia finally woke up before the show started.
"It's one o'clock! Thea, hurry up! Bring the tickets!"
The teddy bear moved its body and pulled her finger hard, "Hurry up and go to Mr. Bo's house, it's too late!"
…
"This is... you really got the ticket!"
Mr. Bo was extremely surprised when he took the thin piece of paper. He held it high above his head, letting the sunlight penetrate the ticket and feel the texture of art.
"Can you really give me such a valuable ticket?"
For the first time, a cautious expression appeared on his face, as if he was treating a one-of-a-kind treasure.
"certainly."
Cecilia still had a polite smile on her face, and the bruise on her face did not affect her performance.
"This is meant for you. Only you deserve to see such a wonderful performance."
Hearing this, Mr. Bo solemnly put away the ticket. Without even inviting Cecilia in, he began to prepare his clothes for going out.
"Thank you so much, it's a pity there's only one ticket, otherwise I really want to go and experience Ms. Wen's performance with you."
He adjusted the collar of his suit and even applied some hairspray to his hair. "I'm sorry I can't entertain you properly. There's not much time left before the show starts. I have to rush to the venue."
"Next time, next time you come over, I will definitely set aside a whole day!"
As he spoke, he hurriedly turned around in front of the mirror, confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his outfit, and quickly disappeared into the white mist...
Isn’t this too hasty?
Looking at the wide-open door in front of her, Cecilia felt helpless. She helped the man close the door and pretended to leave. Then she secretly went around to the back of the villa and walked in through the glass door.
She went up to the second floor with ease, took out the key she had just taken from the other person, and opened the door to the collection room.
The familiar bad smell became stronger, seemingly getting worse with each passing moment.
Without hesitation, she walked to the suona display cabinet according to the scene recorded by her eyes.
Holding both sides with her hands, she took off the transparent display cover easily without much effort.
To the naked eye, the suona looks almost the same as any other musical instrument. If it weren't for the video recording, no one would have thought that this was where the mechanism was.
When the copper loudspeaker at the front was broken open, the floor emitted a low vibration sound.
Just like in the video, the floor in the middle slowly moved away, and the other musical instruments in the display cabinet were also wrapped in cloth and slid into the strange passage.
Looking down from above, the ladder leads to bottomless darkness. But according to the time when Mr. Bo climbed down, the passage should not be very deep.
"Got it."
Cecia instructed the teddy bear and climbed down the ladder.
The passage was indeed not deep. She walked down for less than five minutes before reaching the end. She fumbled for the switch on the wall, which slowly closed the passageway at the top, and the originally dark underground became brightly lit.
Weird.
This was her first feeling after regaining her sight.
The underground is very spacious, with a total area that should be three to four times that of the collection room. All the musical instruments seen in the collection room are now in this space.
As a hidden room, there is no other entrance except the ladder.
The musical instruments are still covered by transparent display cases, but they are not simply placed in the display cases, but together with human wax figures.
There are wax figures with different expressions in each display cabinet, including men, women, young and old, and relevant introductions are posted in front of the display cabinet.
The musical instrument is held in the wax figure's hands, and the movement is exactly the standard posture when playing the instrument.
Cecia glanced at it and found that the names in the introduction matched what Mr. Bo had told her. It seemed that the wax figures were made one-to-one according to the original owners of the instruments.
I have to say, that guy's love for musical instruments is simply abnormal...
"It seems that he was obsessed with going to see Ms. Wen's performances in order to make the wax figure."
She walked past the display case and saw that there were at least hundreds of wax figures in this underground space. Only the display case at the end was empty, with Ms. Wen's name on the introduction board.
And after they came down, the disgusting smell filled her nostrils.
"This must be the smell of the material used to make wax figures. No wonder I can always smell it in the collection room."
She waved it in front of her nose in disgust, but the smell had already filled the underground space and was unavoidable once she was there.
"No, it's not a wax figure."
The teddy bear lay on the glass cover and looked at it for a long time, then denied her judgment with a serious expression, "Look carefully, it's impossible for a wax figure to produce such delicate skin."
"And the raw material of wax figures is paraffin, which usually doesn't have any special smell. I didn't feel it very keenly when I was working on it, but now I'm almost certain that this should be the smell of a mixture of various chemicals."
"It is to keep the body from decaying."
"A body?"
Cecia frowned and couldn't help but take a closer look. "So is he collecting musical instruments, or is he collecting people who play musical instruments?"
The hundreds of "wax figures" here indicate that he killed at least hundreds of performers.
"Bad guy!"
The teddy bear kicked the display case in anger. "He asked you for Ms. Wen's ticket, definitely not to admire her, but to find an opportunity to take her."
“…Forget it, let’s just let those two bad guys fight each other!”
Thinking of what Ms. Wen had done, the little guy curled his lips and stopped talking to her.
Now, things are clear.
The veils of the five neighbors were all lifted, revealing the bloody truth.
He was clearly a murderer, but he warned her that there was a murderer here; he had clearly killed and abused dozens of children, but he said that others were dangerous people; he was clearly a bully who vented his anger on the weak, but he said that everyone here was abnormal...
She finally understood.
Everyone here is a murderer.
It's ridiculous that they all justify and rationalize their own behavior, but think that others are wrong and cruel.
"Let's go, that guy will be back soon."
Cecia said coldly, picking up the teddy bear.
The truth of the matter has been uncovered, and there's nothing good about staying in this crappy place.
Perhaps because she thought no one could discover her secret, the switch underground was located in a very conspicuous place. After she pressed it, the instrument rose again and returned to the collection room from the wax figure's hand.
When she climbed up the ladder, the floor closed automatically and everything returned to its original state.
"What a disgusting guy..."
Looking at the densely packed musical instruments in the collection room, the teddy bear shuddered. The wax figures were still staring at it in his memory.
Cecilia restored the suona, put the glass cover back on, and after making sure nothing was missing, she left Mr. Bo's house.
Before the performance was over, she turned and entered Ms. Wen's door.
This time, she did not knock on the door, but sneaked in through the window like she did at night. She also deliberately avoided surveillance and tried to move in blind spots.
Swish.
It is now class time, the children are sitting neatly in the classroom, and on the podium is still the "puppet teacher" we have seen before.
They stared at the empty blackboard intently, occasionally lowering their heads to take notes, as if they were performing a silent performance.
And her eyes were precisely fixed on the well-behaved Lili.
There were many bandage marks on the child's body, which should be because Ms. Wen treated the wounds after she woke up the next day. But after last night's ordeal, Lili was still very weak, with a frighteningly pale face, and it felt like a gust of wind could blow her down.
Even so, Lili survived tenaciously and abided by the agreement between the two.
Therefore, she could not delay her action any longer.
"I hope Ms. Wen can behave herself in the next two days."
Looking at Lili who was writing hard, Cecia whispered softly, "Otherwise, I don't mind letting... it come earlier."
"Bring forward what?"
The teddy bear didn't hear clearly, so he looked up and asked her, but he only got a very perfunctory "caress" in return.
To avoid being caught by surveillance cameras, Cecia did not bother Lili. Before Ms. Wen came back, she took the bear back to her room and did not invite other neighbors.
As expected, the fourth party ended in failure and no one showed up.
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