It was late in the day, and the night was quiet. Common sense would have it that she was either staying in the house to cook, or fiddling with her toys by lamplight. This was what I had observed over the past few days, but today was suddenly different, which surprised me and the girls.

Like me, they all had the same idea, that is, Yingchun might still be in the house, but she went to bed early tonight, or she had a cold or something and forgot to turn on the lights. After all, for now, this is the most plausible idea, and it is also what we can accept for the time being.

So the three of us carried kerosene lamps and headed towards the city gate. When we got there, I looked near the city gate and saw that it was tightly closed and tied with a wooden bolt. I felt a little relieved. This meant that Yingchun was not abducted by something outside, otherwise it would be impossible to tie the city gate outside the city. From this, I inferred that she was either still in the house or in a certain area of ​​the castle. This also relieved my biggest worry.

But we can't be happy too soon. There is still a symbol on the city gate, which is the three vertical and one horizontal scratch mark. This symbol has been seen near the underground river where water is drawn from underground, and on the stone statue in the bison area. But it has been more than half a month since the last time I saw it. Seeing it again now, it really feels a bit weird.

I also saw that the wood chips on the city gate were still fresh under the scratches, which proved that it might have happened not long ago.

Could it be that the reason why Song Yingchun doesn't light any lamps or fires at night is related to this?

After understanding a little more about the situation, we went to Yingchun's room again and knocked on the door for a long time, but she didn't open it. When I knocked again, the door was opened directly. It was not locked at all. It was just ajar. I pushed the door open. Everyone had a bad feeling. After entering the room, we found that there was no trace of Yingchun. Not only that, there were her shoes left beside her bed, the table in the room collapsed, and the room was in a mess. It was obvious that there had been a fight.

"Is there anyone else in this castle?" Bai Lu asked.

"No, if there was, Zhou Bo and I should have discovered it a long time ago, but we never noticed or realized that there were other people living here." Yunwen said.

"People say there are ghosts in the castle. Could it be that some ghosts, vampires, werewolves or the like come out to attack people? Oh, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have been angry with Yingchun. Now I don't know if this girl has encountered something." Bai Lu said a little anxiously, and then she coughed and stood up, and it seemed that her body was affected again.

I can't do the same as the girls and make preconceived assumptions about the results, which is of no help to the truth. Therefore, I did not participate in their discussion, but continued to look at all the clues left at the scene. I specifically looked at the damaged table, which had obvious scratches, and the reason for the collapse was that the legs of the table were affected and broke under the pressure of heavy objects. It can be seen that the weight of the person who came may be heavy.

Yingchun usually stays with her little follower, the wooden man. The wooden man was the mermaid before. Speaking of its outstretched hands, catching a fish is no problem. If it knew mixed martial arts, it could last me for several rounds with its reaction speed. We are evenly matched. So I tentatively speculate that the opponent might have been counterattacked when wrestling with the wooden man, breaking the table, and got scratches because of panic.

But there was one thing. With my hearing ability, it was impossible for me not to notice such a loud noise. I mostly cook potatoes and help the girls clean up the house during the day. There were a lot of noise outside, and Yingchun would definitely call for help. The decibels of the noise must be high enough for me to hear it. But why didn't I notice it?

At this moment, I suddenly understood. It was because Yunwen was playing the piano. At that time, we cleaned up the entire castle house. It was almost evening. I remember there was still sunlight at that time, but it was already setting. I was wondering if the light would affect Yunwen's performance. But Yunwen's memory is particularly good. Even without light, I guess she could finish the song. After all, she would not forget all the gestures and movements.

So I listened to the piano piece in its entirety, and was so engrossed in it that I ignored any movement outside. Perhaps it was because of that time that I was so distracted that I didn't hear Yingchun's cry for help, nor did I listen to any unusual movements. After all, the city gate was some distance away from the castle, and it would be easy to overlook it if I didn't pay attention.

Afterwards, I checked the charcoal in the fireplace again. It had obviously become a little cold, but it still had some residual heat. Judging from the time, it was about the same as I expected.

By this calculation, it should have been missing for about three or four hours, which is basically consistent with the freshness of the scratches on the city gate.

"He has been missing for three or four hours, but the city gate has not been opened, the people are nowhere to be found, and the wooden man is also missing. The city wall is at least four or five meters high. If he wanted to climb up to this height and carry Yingchun, his claws would have to be embedded in his shoulders to ensure that he did not fall. But there is no blood on the ground near the city wall, so he definitely could not have taken that route. But it is impossible for a bird to leave such scratches, and it did not fly away, so it definitely did not walk near the city wall." I muttered.

"Brother Zhou Bo, do you think some monsters will appear and drag her away, or some evil mountain spirits will eat her directly? Otherwise, how could she disappear out of thin air? The city gates are still closed, but the house is empty. After all, there are all kinds of dirty things on this island." Bai Lu said.

Bai Lu's lips turned pale, and it was obvious that she was quite resistant to this result. She was very anxious now.

At this time, Yunwen squatted down, picked up a handful of brown fur at my feet, and said, "Sister Bailu, don't worry too much, take care of yourself. Look, this is probably something left by the perpetrator. It doesn't look like those extremely yin and ethereal things, but more like the fur of some wild animals. If a wild animal injured someone, there would definitely be blood at the scene, but you see, there is no blood."

"Beast? Could it be the kind of huge beast that can swallow a person in one bite?" Bai Lu asked.

I shook my head. If it was that big, I said, "If it was really that big, the width of its mouth would be at least 37 or 38 centimeters. After all, Yingchun looks about 1.65 meters tall. First of all, it has to be wider than her shoulders, and the height of the mouth has to be more than 1.65 meters. Otherwise, if it bites other places, it will leave blood. And the proportions of this mouth are abnormal. Even if it really exists, the head must be larger than the mouth, and the body must be larger than the head. According to the certain proportions of biological organisms, it would be impossible for its body to get in."

Bai Lu heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that what I said was well-founded, and she was no longer so flustered. She said, "Yes, Brother Zhou Bo's analysis is thorough. So what do you think the situation will be like?"

I took the tuft of hair from Yunwen's hand, rubbed it back and forth, sniffed it, and said, "The hair is hard, a bit similar to the shed hair of hyenas I picked up when I was on a mission in Africa before. It should be some kind of canine, but it's a little different. Its hair doesn't smell like rotten meat, which means it doesn't eat rotten meat often. The smell of blood is also light. It may be like those gorillas, and it has become a little smarter."

"Hyena?" Bai Lu muttered.

At this moment, I remembered that when Yunwen and I were fetching water one time, we saw a fish that was bitten in half near the underground river. At that time, I judged that it was bitten by some kind of dog's teeth. The signs of canine teeth were obvious. Later, I saw the claw marks with three vertical and one horizontal lines nearby. In this way, I connected the clues.

"Yes, hyena, and I also know where Yingchun went. Maybe I can go look for her. The situation is urgent now. Yunwen, you and Bailu go to the house and wait for me. I will go look for her." I said.

"I'll go with you. Sister Bailu can take care of herself now, so she can stay and take care of herself. You are not allowed to refuse this time, otherwise I will never talk to you again." Yunwen said nervously.

Seeing Yunwen saying this, I glanced at Bailu, and she said, "Then I'll ask you to help find her. I can take care of myself."