In the ancient and mysterious castle, Kimberley woke up in the middle of the night to find a skeleton suddenly appearing by her bedside... Thrilling.
It was too thrilling.
Jian Jing fully understood Kimberley's fright. If it was someone else, the result would have been similar. She kindly said, "Drink some hot water to calm your shock."
But Kimberley didn't hear her at all. She kept screaming, "Did you see that? My God! What is this? It's so scary. Dear, I can't believe my eyes."
Carl had to hold her hand tightly and pleaded her to calm down.
At this time, Mary also came upstairs. She brought a very experienced glass of brandy, "You need this."
"Oh yes, I need it." Kimberley's hands trembled as she took it and drank a big sip. Her chest undulations gradually calmed down.
Jian Jing: Why do foreigners drink alcohol when they get a shock?
"What is this?" Mary stared at the skeleton with puzzlement on her face.
"Bones." Si Yingjie kindly answered, "But not necessarily real."
Jian Jing walked over, squatted down and observed for a while. She refuted him very positively, "No, they are real. The cranial wall is thin and smooth, the glabella is small, the supraorbital arch is not obvious, and the zygomatic bone is low...it's female."
After thinking for a while, "The nasal bone is high and narrow, the nasal spine is developed." She seemed unsure, so she opened the measurement app on her phone and measured the nasal width and height, calculated a nasal index. The number was small.
She then measured the jaw-forehead index, orbital index, alpha index, all of which were greater than the critical point.
So she happily announced, "It's the Caucasoid race."
Others: "..."
"What about the age?" Horan asked.
Jian Jing casually checked the conditions of the ribs, tibia and other bones, and estimated an approximate age range: "20-30 years old."
"Who is this?" Mary asked. "Why did it appear here?"
Leo, standing at the door, answered with a pale face, "I don't know."
Carl said, "Whoever it was doesn't matter. The person has been dead for so long. The question is who put it in here and wanted to scare my wife?"
Jian Jing had wandered around the guest room, "Did you lock the door?"
Kimberley said loudly, "Of course!"
"It was you who opened the door for us?"
"No, the door was open." Carl said. "When I came over, I saw the door wide open."
Jian Jing walked to the side wall and pointed to the opened small door, "Did you come in from this side? Your room is next door?"
Carl nodded.
Jian Jing felt puzzled.
She had noticed earlier that the guest rooms were connected to each other. In addition to the main door facing the hallway, there was also a small side door that could lead to the adjacent room.
Of course, the side doors could be bolted on both sides.
She asked Kimberley again, "Did you lock the side door?"
Kimberley shook her head.
"That's weird." She thought, "I was the second one to arrive, and the door was already open at that time. Who opened the door to the hallway?"
Kimberley's voice suddenly rose, "Of course it was the person who put the skeleton there!"
"That’s impossible." Mary said, "I gave you guys the keys to the rooms, and each room only has one."
Jian Jing looked at the small round table by the window. There was indeed a mobile phone and a key on it.
But the door lock was intact.
Jian Jing had wanted to ask Kimberley about the story, but seeing her trembling all over, she swallowed the words back, "Then let's deal with this skeleton first."
"Let me do it." Bear George readily took the bony frame and said, "Leo, how about putting it in the basement?"
Leo said, "Too far, put it in..." He pointed to the room at the end of the corridor, "there."
Bear George was surprised, "The library?"
Leo nodded without explaining, "Kimberley, are you okay? Do you need to change to another room?"
Kimberley said excitedly, "Of course, I don't want to sleep in this ghost place at all."
"There seems to be an empty room on the third floor, but it only has a small dressing room." Leo said apologetically, "Please bear with it first, and we’ll deal with it tomorrow, okay?"
Kimberley hurriedly nodded, and asked in horror and anger, "To be honest, I still don't understand... was it a ghost? Or a person?"
"It was an overdone prank." Leo said gently, "Don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this. Rest well, please. Mary?"
"Follow me." Mary walked ahead.
At this point, Kimberley could not ask any more questions. She mumbled a few words and was led away by her husband.
Leo looked at Kang Mu Cheng and smiled wryly, "This is really a terrible night."
"If you have encountered any troubles, it is best not to choose to conceal it." Kang Mu Cheng frowned. "Although it looks like a prank now, I don't think this is the end of it."
Leo was silent.
Jian Jing fully agreed, "It looks like just putting a skeleton to scare people, but who knows if it will be murder next time."
"I don't think so." Leo reassured her, "You don't have to be afraid."
"Why, do you know who did it?"
Leo hesitated, "Jian, this is not a suitable topic for a girl."
"Don't underestimate her, Lei Ao." Unexpectedly, Kang Mu Cheng spoke up before her and said seriously, "She is a brave girl."
Jian Jing had never imagined that she would receive such an evaluation from him. She was very surprised.
Leo looked at him, then looked at her, and smiled, "Okay, in fact, strange things like this often happen in Winterfell Castle. This is not the first time."
English is not her native language. Jian Jing had to confirm, "Wait, you mean 'often'?"
"Yes." His gaze was cast into the boundless distance, slowly saying in that rolling torrent of history, "For 300 years, strange unexplainable things have been happening here, but no outsiders have ever lost their lives."
Jian Jing: "Outsiders?"
"Please don't take it personally," Leo said, "It is a tradition in our family to spend the last moments of our lives in the castle."
"I see." She nodded her head, and then asked in confusion again, "What kind of unexplainable strange things are you referring to?"
"Strange noises in the middle of the night, a room door suddenly opening, paintings on the stairs mysteriously changing positions, finding bugs in cakes... My childhood was full of such strange things."
Jian Jing frowned, "Didn't you ever suspect anything?"
"Jian, sometimes it's better to turn a blind eye than get to the bottom of it." Leo gently said, "I know very well that there are no ghosts in this world, just that people occasionally do... actions that go against their intentions."
This was echoing Mary's statement that the townspeople deliberately targeted the Sahl family? Jian Jing wondered to herself.
"Kang Mu Cheng, take your little friend back, it's getting late." Leo wearily pressed his temples. The shadows of the corridor lights swallowed half of his body, instantly pulling him into an ancient Gothic movie.
The cold wind was piercing, blowing over the legs exposed outside the silk nightgown.
Jian Jing thought for a while and didn't say any more, "Good night, Leo."
"Good night."
Back under the warm quilt, Jian Jing lost her sleepiness. Regardless of who played the midnight prank, since he could appear in Kimberley's room, he could also appear at her bedside.
That was a bit scary.
She turned over and reassured herself that if any life-threatening accident really happened, the system would definitely pop up the task first thing in her dream.
Jian Jing: Feeling sleepy now.
That night, Jian Jing slept very soundly. The fatigue from the long journey erupted and she slept a full twelve hours.
But today was still a terrible snowy day. When she woke up, the room was still pitch black, making people mistakenly think it was only 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning.
She loafed in bed for a while, playing on her phone.
The signal was so-so. Videos wouldn't load, she could only check WeChat.
In her friend groups, Ji Yunyun was showing off her test scores on Moments, complaining about the miserable life of high school seniors; Zuo Xin pulled an all-nighter preparing lessons, complaining about how much students nowadays understand; Liang Yi cracked another case and was having hot pot with colleagues to celebrate.
Ordinary people's lives, full of human touch.
In the other ylq group: Xu Scriptwriter was satirizing a certain TV series, implying plagiarized script; Director Huang was doing hype for his upcoming movie, and helping a friend spread word about his new film; Director Mei was talking about scheduling issues, thanking friends for their support; Zheng Keyan was promoting her new drama, she wasn't the lead this time but the producer...
Just, very glamorous, very busy.
In private messages, the graduate student group was discussing downloading materials. The teacher shared a paid account to allow them to download some materials and papers.
A few students replied:
She also replied with one.
Jiang BaiYan sent her a short video, it was Pudding weighing herself and reporting the good news:
She couldn't help but reply:
Jiang BaiYan:
Chiu Feng brushed past, he was just a dead man on social media, occasionally rising from the grave.
After doing all this, waking up halfway, Jian Jing thought for a moment and went online to search for "Castle Winterfell".
No results.
Then she searched for "Salzburg Lucerne", not knowing the original text since it was a transliteration, so naturally there were no clues either.
Finally, with a negligible mindset, she randomly searched for "Augustus Horlen".
A social media page popped up.
Out of curiosity she clicked in to browse, and saw a lot of familiar faces - here she had to thank Morning Star's marketing events, repeatedly explaining the major royal families of Europe in this world to onlooking melon-eaters.
That's right, some of the faces were well-known figures from a certain European royal family.
One of the old men, also surnamed Horlen, had just been exposed in a nasty sexual assault scandal last month. Jian Jing searched her memory for news reports, and finally unearthed the origin of the surname "Horlen".
Her hunch was right. Horlen was not a complete surname. However, the once ancient and glorious noble family had lost its original brilliance along with the decline of the royal family.
The Horlen family today still had close ties with the various European royal families, but that was the extent of it.
Unlike his relatives, Augustus Horlen had not been involved in any unsightly scandals, but looking at the photos on his social media account, it was clear he was also a playboy.
But this was not the point.
The main thing was that in a group photo from six months ago, she saw Melanie's face.
In the crowd of women with high noses and deep eyes, her simple black dress stood out, still exuding an aura of mysterious bleakness, in stark contrast to the other intoxicated and wealthy ladies.
Jian Jing saved this photo, and couldn't help but wonder - were the people who poisoned Melanie targeting the Salzburg family, or her personally?
She clicked open a message from Kang Mu Cheng:
Her:
Kang Mu Cheng:
Jian Jing was already aching all over:
Kang Mu Cheng:
Jian Jing was very shocked:
But he said:
:
