1+2x3-4+5-6+7-8+9＝10
Because the door was opened too suddenly, even though the room was empty, the Duchess's angry voice could still be heard from inside the house.
"Salina, why is it so noisy outside? I told you not to disturb me while I'm resting—rest—"
Because the room was so empty, the Duchess's voice even echoed.
Silence spread in the room. Chen Qiting silently took a step back and closed the door considerately, locking the whole room full of awkwardness.
"Sorry to bother you."
The stairs behind him still failed to grow. I don’t know whether the ghost’s brain was stuck like the model of the door, or he had given up struggling. Faced with the mountains of bugs, he no longer had the idea of repairing them and chose to completely give up.
——What does it matter if it is repaired? Since it can run, let’s just keep running.
Chen Qiting jumped lightly, like a little bird, across the huge gap in the stairwell, landed silently, and returned to Lin Yuan lightly.
"Let's go." She said nonchalantly, "There's nothing up there."
Lin Yuan, who had no idea what happened on the third floor, asked curiously, "According to the test paper, the Duchess's room should be the BOSS point, right?"
"Yes." Shen Qiting nodded: "It's a pity that the BOSS has not been modeled yet."
Lin Yuan: “???”
Shen Qiting sighed: "I suspect that before we fight the boss, this barrier will be tormented by us to the point where it can no longer be maintained."
Lin Yuan, the second expert in tossing things around, said sheepishly: "I will try my best not to destroy this place."
Chen Qiting waved his hand: "It's not your problem. Mingya and I...well, actually the three of us are not important. The important one is Bai Luo."
Lin Yuan: "That makes sense! So what should we do next?"
"Just follow the plot." Chen Qiting said, "Walk as much as you can. If you don't have time to finish the test, see if you can apply to save a file with the ghost and see if you can come back tomorrow to continue running."
Lin Yuan: “…”
Actually, he felt that everyone in their class was a little crazy.
...
Fortunately, the dinner did not keep Shen Qiting and the other three waiting for too long. Just when the four of them were strolling around the castle for the third time like an old man or old woman, the elusive head maid finally appeared beside them and took them from all over the castle to the banquet hall.
The long banquet table was filled with food, and the tempting aroma wafted out from it, tempting the four people's appetite.
The beautiful woman in a gorgeous long dress sat in the main seat, smiling gracefully and politely: "I was not feeling well this afternoon and was unable to entertain you. I apologize for this."
"Madam, you are too kind." Bai Luo responded, but his eyes were fixed on the direction of the dishes - probably because he heard his complaints before, the dishes that were originally just stickers were now all replaced with exquisite models, which looked extremely tempting. Unfortunately, the models were just models after all, and they could not be eaten at all.
A light golden light flashed in Bai Luo's eyes, and the roast chicken, steak, and puff pastry soup in front of him instantly turned into three handfuls of yellow earth.
Bai Luo couldn't help but let out a heart-wrenching sigh.
This regretful expression did not escape the Duchess's eyes. The smile on her lips seemed to deepen a little, and then instantly switched to sincere concern: "Why are you sighing, Mr. Bai? Is it because the dishes prepared today are not to your liking?"
Without waiting for Bai Luo to answer, the Duchess tilted her head slightly and signaled to the head maid beside her: "Give Mr. Bai a piece of the lamb chop."
"Yes." The head maid skillfully used tongs to take a piece of lamb chop and placed it on Bai Luo's plate. She even considerately scooped a spoonful of yellow mustard sauce for him to go with it.
In Bai Luo's left eye, on the polished white porcelain plate in front of him, the lamb chops were carefully arranged with the skin slightly charred, and obvious particles of black pepper, cumin and rosemary could be seen, the fragrance went straight to the top of his head through his nasal cavity.
But in the right eye, this plate of tempting food turned into a piece of white paper and a ball of mud that seemed to be mixed with water.
The Duchess looked at him expectantly: "Mr. Bai, try it. This is our chef's specialty."
Bai Luo: “…”
This must be intentional!
He seriously suspected that the vengeful spirit was using this method to retaliate against him!
"That's right, ma'am." Bai Luo put down his knife and fork, his expression solemn: "Rather than these appetites, I think we should focus on discussing your commission first."
Compared to letting Bai Luo eat, the commission is indeed more important. The Duchess had to nod reluctantly with a bit of disappointment: "Okay."
Bai Luo: “…”
Why are you still so reluctant? Weren't you the one who "invited" us to investigate?
The Duchess took a sip of the red wine in the glass, wiped her lips with a handkerchief, and then said, "You four should have seen the oil painting in the living room. It was a painting my husband painted for me."
"Your husband must love you very much." Su Mingya said with a smile.
"Yes." The Duchess was very emotional: "We were indeed very much in love, but unfortunately he died early, and the only thing he left me was this painting and this castle."
Bai Luo: "...that's it?"
Lin Yuan: "Showing off your wealth."
Su Mingya: "Maids, servants, money and antiques don't count?"
Shen Qiting: "Don't interrupt me, you three!"
The Duchess's nostalgic expression froze for a moment, and she continued dryly after a while, "But a few days ago, when I was sorting out my husband's belongings, I found a letter that he had secretly hidden. This was a little prank he played on me. In the letter, he wrote: He actually prepared a gift for me, and the clue is hidden in the painting. I invited the four of you here this time because I hope you can help me find this gift."
Bai Luo moved closer to Su Mingya, lowered his voice and said excitedly: "Look at what I said? It must be based on Conan's Blue Castle case!"
Without waiting for Su Mingya to reply, he stood up suddenly and said in a heroic and confident manner: "Madam, you have finally found the right person. The four of us have nothing but wisdom. Please wait here, we will be back soon. Maybe when we come back with your husband's gift, the dish will still be hot."
Duchess: “…”
After saying that, he cast a look at Lin Yuan and the other two, motioning them to follow him out of the restaurant.
Perhaps because Bai Luo was too confident, the Duchess did not try to persuade them to stay. Instead, she continued to sit on the bench, watching their departing backs and waiting for their return.
There was a faint sound like insects crawling in the air.
Bai Luo and the other three did not pay much attention to it until they returned to the study. Bai Luo then pointed at the painting and said, "I have figured out where the gift is hidden!"
"So soon?" Lin Yuan and Shen Qiting thought that Bai Luo just wanted to escape the dinner and said these words to the Duchess, but they didn't expect that Bai Luo had "solved" the mystery. They were immediately surprised: "Where is the gift?"
"Haven't you watched Conan?" Bai Luo asked back, "The Blue Castle Case is one of the most classic cases in Conan, and it is exactly the same as this Duchess. The master of the Blue Castle left a message before he died: As long as you can solve the secret of the castle, you can get his most precious treasure."
"I seem to have seen this story. There seemed to be an ugly old lady in a wheelchair." Lin Yuan recalled his childhood memories and said uncertainly.
Bai Luo nodded: "This person is the murderer! She is the maid of the eldest lady in the castle. In order to obtain the treasure, she did not hesitate to kill the eldest lady, disguised herself as her, and pretended that she was too old to walk normally. If my reasoning is correct, this Duchess may have been 'stolen' by the maid around her. When we find the treasure for her, she will kill us immediately!"
Although it was clearly a strange line of reasoning, Bai Luo became more and more excited as he spoke.
"But you are just forcing the two stories together, right?" Shen Qiting held a different view: "To prove this reasoning, we must first have enough evidence. And I remember that in the Blue Castle case, they relied on the chess in the garden to deduce clues. We can't even go out of the castle, and there is nothing when we look out the window. How can we deduce clues from the chess?"
"We still have enough time, so let's give it a try. At worst, we can just treat it as trial and error." Bai Luo said, "I saw a lot of old-fashioned wall clocks in the castle. I remember that in Conan, the hands were turned to reveal a secret passage hidden in the castle. Didn't the last question of the test ask us to find a way to escape? I think the way might be hidden in the secret passage."
After sharing his guesses and information with his companions, Bai Luo was eager to go to each clock and try them out one by one. Lin Yuan was not good at reasoning and had no other clues to support him. Seeing that there were a lot of clocks, he simply helped Bai Luo to try and make mistakes.
Shen Qiting and Su Mingya, who felt that Bai Luo's reasoning was a little unreliable, planned to take advantage of this time to investigate elsewhere and look for new clues.
Before leaving, Shen Qiting deliberately left magic marks on Lin Yuan, Bai Luo and Su Mingya, and used his mental power to create a local area network that only the four of them could communicate in, so they could stay in touch at any time.
After finishing all this, Shen Qiting looked at Su Mingya and asked, "Mingya, where are you going to see?"
Su Mingya hummed, "I always feel like there's something strange, but I can't really put my finger on it. Let's continue walking around the first floor."
"Then I'll go to the third floor again." Su Mingya said.
After exchanging information with Bai Luo and knowing that the room modeling on the third floor was not loaded most likely because the vengeful spirit placed most of the magic in the living room where Bai Luo was at the time, Shen Qiting wanted to go back to the third floor to take another look.
In order to prevent the vengeful spirit from creating various plots to block her progress and waste time for investigation, Shen Qiting once again turned his magic power and activated the space magic. In the blink of an eye, he appeared at the door of the bedroom on the third floor.
The rustling sounds of insects crawling around my ears suddenly became more frequent.
Shen Qiting took a deep breath and opened the Duchess' bedroom door again.
This time, the house was no longer empty. A gorgeous aristocratic bedroom full of life appeared in Shen Qiting's sight.
Shen Qiting breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly scanned the bedroom. He soon found the most important information in the bedroom - an oil painting that was exactly the same as the one in the living room, hanging directly opposite the big bed.
As there are only three short-answer questions, the "test paper" is not only an important clue, but also a bait that leads them into danger.
If Shen Qiting and his three companions were not time travelers with magical powers, but ordinary students, then according to a normal game design idea, when they found the key clues in the painting, they would definitely face a thrilling battle with the BOSS.
However, the vengeful spirits had never expected that the four of them had simply "turned on cheats", with the ability to teleport, pass through walls, become invincible...everything.
The various horror meal packages carefully prepared by the vengeful spirits became skits to create an atmosphere in front of them.
But then again, even if the Duchess missed her husband so much that she copied one of his paintings and placed it next to her bed so that she could sleep facing him, looking at it day and night, wouldn't she be afraid of getting scared when she wakes up in the middle of the night?
Maybe the painting in the bedroom is the original, and the one in the living room is the real fake.
After all, these are valuable items left by my husband. If I leave them randomly in the living room, it would be troublesome if someone accidentally breaks them.
But since they are two identical paintings, why does the "test paper" specifically ask them what is painted on the paintings?
Shen Qiting walked closer to the painting, half-closed his eyes, and recalled the content of the oil painting he saw in the living room while comparing it with the oil painting in front of him.
There doesn't seem to be anything different...wait!
Shen Qiting's eyes were stern, and he looked at the hands of the "Duchess" in the painting with red nail polish.
If I remember correctly, the "Duchess" in the painting in the living room did not have red nails.
Shen Qiting leaned his head towards the painting, his nose twitching.
A very faint smell of blood wafted out of the painting.
Magic power condensed into a wind blade at Shen Qiting's fingertips. She carefully brought her fingertips close to the oil painting and scraped off the red paint on the surface of her nails bit by bit.
Soon, a hint of dark red appeared in Shen Qiting's sight - it looked like blood that had been dried for a long time.
Is this the answer to the question? The painting contains the blood of an important person... Could it be the Duke? Could it be that someone replaced the original Duchess as Bai Luo guessed?
Just at this time, Su Mingya's voice rang in Shen Qiting's ears.
"Tingting, I found an important piece of information!"
Su Mingya's voice was full of excitement: "I found a photo of the Duchess and the Duke in the study on the first floor, but she is left-handed in the photo!"
Chen Qiting was stunned: "But the Duchess in the painting is clearly holding a teacup in her right hand?"
"Do you think it could be a mirror image?" Su Mingya guessed: "I think the Duke deliberately painted this painting in a mirror image to remind us that this is not the real "reality". Do you remember which hand the Duchess used to hold the wine glass during dinner just now? "
"...right hand." Chen Qiting was surprised: "Bai Luo really guessed it right!"
"I think this secret must be related to the mirror! Now let's go find the mirror in the castle, maybe we can find the secret!"
Su Mingya was very excited as she experienced the "escape room" with her friends for the first time and found an important clue. However, just as they were about to act, there was a sudden violent vibration under their feet, and the entire castle seemed to tremble twice and was on the verge of collapse.
Shen Qiting: "..."
She suddenly had a strong premonition that some "deeply sinful" person had once again done something earth-shattering, completely disrupting the progress of the investigation.
As if to confirm her guess, a hysterical cry came from downstairs: "How dare you do this to me - now that you know my secret - I will kill you -"
"Hey, calm down, big sister!" Bai Luo's voice followed without surprise: "I just wanted to see if your face was imported. Who knows if you really have a layer of human skin! Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan - don't stand there like an idiot! Come and save Lin Yuan!"
Lin Yuan: “…”
I'm tired and don't want to move.
Let him do whatever he wants. It has nothing to do with him if the barrier is destroyed.
Chen Qiting sighed and said to Su Mingya calmly: "Look what I said before?"
Su Mingya: "......"
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