Chapter 66 Exploring the Manor Late at Night
Xie Liang was about to swallow the wine, his mouth full of the fragrance of wine, when someone in the team sneezed loudly. Xie Liang reacted immediately and clenched his palms to hold the wine steady.
Fortunately, not long after, the female gardener distributed the wine and gave the bottle to the bald gardener. Under the gaze of the man in the suit, she led Xie Liang and his team to the north.
When passing by the rose bed, Xie Liang took the opportunity to spit the wine on the roses.
Xie Liang felt much better after vomiting. He rubbed his throat which was about to cramp. The fragrance still lingered in his mouth, and he couldn't help but spit a few more times.
"Brother He? Why didn't you vomit along the way?" Xie Liang asked Xu He in confusion.
Upon hearing this, Xu He stretched out his palm in front of him and poured the small amount of liquid in his palm into the soil of the flower bed. The liquid quickly seeped into the soil, leaving only a pool of red mark.
Xie Liang admired Xu He's speed in his heart - he was right next to him and didn't even know when he spit the wine into his hand.
The female gardener led them through flower beds of all sizes, rockery and flowing ponds, and finally stopped in front of a three-story dormitory building covered with moss at the innermost part of the manor.
She said, "This is where you live. You all live on the third floor."
Then she pointed to a room on the right at the end of the third-floor corridor and said, "There are tool buckets and collection bottles in that room. When the morning bell rings, you go out to collect morning dew and loosen the soil for the roses. When the return bell rings, come back and you can exchange a bottle of morning dew for a sip of the magic wine."
After saying this, she turned around and left like a ghost, ignoring everyone's questions. Xie Liang didn't even realize when she left.
"Brother He, let's go up and take a look." Xie Liang and Xu He walked up the damp stairs to the third floor.
Seeing them walking in front, other descenders followed one after another.
The doors of every room on the first and second floors were closed, while the doors of the rooms on the third floor were all open.
Xie Liang and Xu He picked a room at random and walked in.
The room was very humid and had nothing but a thick wooden bed.
Xie Liang stretched out his hand and waved away the humid air, saying to Xu He, "The entire dormitory building has no windows. No! The entire building in the manor has no windows."
"Well, the humidity in the room is very high."
Xu He walked a few steps in the room: "The right temperature, the right humidity, like a greenhouse, could it be..."
He lowered his head and pondered for a while, then turned around and walked out quickly.
There was no one in the corridor. It seemed that everyone had chosen a room to rest.
Xie Liang, who was following Xu He, was confused and asked, "Brother He? What's wrong?"
"Go in and take a look."
Xu He knocked on the closed door of the next door, but there was no response after knocking several times.
"Strange, I remember there was someone in this room. Could he have fallen asleep?" Xie Liang said.
"You'll know after you see it. Xiaoliang, move aside." Xu He pulled Xie Liang away from the rusty iron gate and kicked it.
In the room, Liu Boyuan and Zhao Nanyang were sleeping soundly and snoring.
"What's wrong with these two people..." Xie Liang suddenly realized something was wrong and hurried over to shake them.
However, the two of them seemed to be deaf and continued to sleep soundly, with smiling faces, as if they were having a beautiful dream.
At this time, Xu He turned Liu Boyuan, who was sleeping on the outside, over.
Only then did Xie Liang see that many long white roots had grown on Liu Boyuan's back, and those roots were entwined and extended on the wooden bed under Liu Boyuan.
"Brother He...what is this?"
"The wine contains rose seeds, and this wood is the breeding ground for the seeds."
"Then aren't the others also..."
Xie Liang strode out of the room and quickly knocked on the door on the third floor, but no one opened it.
He randomly knocked open two rooms, and the people inside were also sleeping soundly, with white roots growing on their backs.
Xie Liang sighed and walked back. Xu He, who was leaning against the corridor, was looking at him.
Xie Liang met Xu He's gaze.
Under the moonlight, Xu He's facial features are three-dimensional and his figure is tall and smooth, just like the strong and beautiful green pine on Cangshan Mountain.
Xie Liang discovered that Xu He looked even better tonight than usual, with a kind of handsomeness that transcended the ordinary.
As he approached, Xie Liang felt Xu He still staring at him, and broke the silence: "The people inside are the same as Liu Boyuan."
Xu He stood up straight: "Let's go."
The two men walked downstairs with flashlights.
After passing through many flower beds, they finally arrived at the main building, the tallest building in the entire manor.
The door downstairs was open, as if someone had been in.
Entering the building, there is an empty hall with a hollow spiral staircase in the center. Looking up, you can see that there are three floors in total, and the height of each floor is very high, at least three times the height of an ordinary floor.
Going up the wooden stairs, there are two rows of irregular rooms on both sides of the second floor, and the doors of some rooms are open.
The two of them walked into one of the open rooms. The structure of the room was the same as what the gardener Xie Liang had kidnapped before had described.
In the beam of the flashlight, you can see small stone tables arranged in rows around the room.
On each stone table was placed the dark brown corpse of a child. These weak corpses were covered with dense white or green filaments, with an umbrella-shaped structure growing on the top of the filaments, making them look like mature dandelions.
There was no rotten smell in the room, but it was filled with the scent of a forest after rain, and the air was filled with the smell of mushrooms emerging from the ground.
"It looks like some kind of fungus?" Xie Liang whispered.
“Yes, it’s a fungus.”
"These children are actually being used as incubators..."
Xie Liang couldn't bear to watch any longer and pulled Xu He out.
They entered several rooms in succession, all of which were full of fungus.
Next to the stairs on the third floor was a unique room that looked large, with the door locked from the inside.
Xie Liang took out a universal wire from his bag, twisted it a few times tentatively, and the door actually opened.
A damp smell hit their noses, and the two of them looked around the empty room with flashlights.
There was a large wooden bed in the room, occupying two-thirds of the room. Roots as thick as arms were entwined on the bed, wriggling slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Xie Liang shone the flashlight beam onto the bed, trying to see the source of the roots.
After seeing the scene clearly, Xie Liang took a breath.
Those tangled roots actually grew from a human head hanging in the air!
The head looked exactly like the man in the suit in the daytime.
At this moment, the head actually opened its eyes!
A thick root quickly attacked the flashlight in Xie Liang's hand. Before Xie Liang could react, the flashlight was knocked down by it and fell to the ground with a "bang". The light emitted was blocked by the spreading root.
"Brother He! Run!" Xie Liang hurriedly turned around and ran towards the door, but before he had taken a few steps, another thick root wrapped around his waist.
In the darkness, Xu He quickly drew out the black sword and cut off the roots wrapped around his waist.
It was pitch black all around and nothing could be seen clearly. Xie Liang hurriedly pulled Xu He and ran downstairs according to his memory.
After running out of the downstairs door, the two hid behind the flower bed on the side of the door.
After a while, several people walked out of the building - the four gardeners and the man in the suit.
The man in the suit at this moment looked completely different from before. He had the appearance of a human being again and looked gentle and polite.
After they came out to investigate, they went back in and locked the door.
"It seems that the third floor is where they live." Xie Liang murmured.
Next to the main building was a shorter, two-story bungalow. The two men walked towards it with flashlights.
The bungalows are arranged in rows, one next to the other.
The two of them checked a few rooms and found nothing special. There were only big wooden barrels in the rooms.
Then they walked into another room, where there were still those big round wooden barrels.
Xie Liang couldn't help but ask, "What kind of wine is in the barrel? Why can't I smell any fragrance?"
Before he finished speaking, footsteps were suddenly heard from behind a row of wine barrels on one side.
"Mr. Xu, you are too slow, aren't you?" Long Qingye's unique lazy voice came.
It turned out to be Long Qingye and Hong Guo.
Xie Liang breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Discovery? Those gardeners are not human, does that count as a discovery?" Long Qingye chuckled at Xie Liang.
"We just witnessed this. I'm afraid that no one in this manor is human anymore," said Xie Liang.
Hong Guo laughed after hearing this: "The NPCs in the manor are not human, but we are still human."
Xie Liang smiled awkwardly: "Uh... Miss Hongguo is right."
After the four of them checked all the rooms, they started chatting by the flower bed in front of the bungalow.
"I have no idea at all. Xie Liang, tell me where to start." Hong Guo said dejectedly.
Xie Liang was also confused: "I don't know, it seems to be related to the wine."
Hong Guo looked at Xie Liang speechlessly. It seemed as if she had said this, but it also seemed as if she hadn't said it...
Not long after they chatted, Liu Hao and Zhang Minghui came over.
According to Liu Hao, they were assigned the task of collecting rose petals, which they only had to do from the flower beds inside the manor, and they didn't have to leave the manor during the day. They also said that Dai Tian had left the dormitory with a few others, but no one knew where they went.
After a discussion, everyone decided to do the same as before, working in pairs and splitting into three groups to explore the manor first.
Then, the three groups began to walk in different directions towards the manor.
The moonlight was like water and there was silence all around.
Xie Liang and Xu He searched several places but found nothing, so they returned to the main building where the man in the suit lived.
"If there is something important, I think it is in this building." Xie Liang said.
Xu He nodded after hearing this, and the two of them looked at each other and walked towards the door downstairs at the same time.
The two large copper doors were locked, and a complex root system was entwined on them. The only way to open them was by force.
Xie Liang thought about it and decided to take a risk.
"Can it be cut open?" Xie Liang asked, pointing to the brown rhizome between the two doors.
"Um."
Xu He gestured to Xie Liang to stand aside, drew out the black sword behind him, and slashed at the middle of the gate. The roots that were cut by the black sword shrank back to both sides of the door as if in pain.
The roots on the door had almost all shrunk away. Xu He took two steps back, then suddenly stepped forward and kicked sideways towards the middle of the two doors.
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