Green green vine skirt reminds you: Please collect after reading for easier access later.
What happened was very sudden and bizarre.
At that time, Jian Jing was not at the scene of the incident, but was struggling with her handicraft class in her own room, the reason will be explained later. Suddenly, all the lights went out completely.
Relying on her experience with power outages many times, she grabbed her phone first to light up her surroundings with the screen light.
The next moment, the eerie singing sounded again, intermittent, crawling out of the cracks in the ceiling, walls and floor, like an omnipresent cold wind, creeping into the eardrums.
She didn't want to hear it, but couldn't stop it.
Jian Jing opened the door and decided to follow the singing to find out.
However, she then heard many chaotic footsteps, as if someone was talking.
"Melanie?"
"Damn...singing?"
"Who...phone...can't see..."
Jian Jing was shocked, and hurried towards the source of the sound.
At this point, the downside of such a large house became apparent, with winding corridors in the castle, and poor visibility in the dark, it was easy to take a wrong turn, she moved relatively slowly. Fortunately, not long after, light ignited downstairs, and several figures gathered there.
"Are you guys okay?" She jogged down, shining her phone over the people present.
Kang Mu Cheng was greatly relieved. Si Yingjie was not in a good state. Holen and Mary were both staring at the person on the ground. Carl was coming from the other end of the corridor, also holding a phone in his hand.
And Lei Ao hurried down the stairs, his face extremely ugly: "Melanie?"
He called anxiously.
"Lei Ao." Melanie stumbled and sat on the stairs, her hand pressing her ankle, showing pain. But she didn't care about herself, and anxiously said: "Check Jin Mi, she fell."
Jin Mi lay motionless on the ground in a big red dress.
Mary put the candlestick on the floor, touched her carotid artery, her expression changed drastically: "No heartbeat."
"What?" Everyone was genuinely shocked.
Mary immediately started CPR without saying anything, vigorously compressing her chest, and was about to perform artificial respiration. But Jian Jing stopped her: "Do you smell it?"
"What?"
"She smells of bitter almonds." Jian Jing had an acute sense of smell and flipped her arms along the scent.
On her exposed shoulder, a needle was inserted, and the tip emitted a warm, brass-like hue.
Melanie screamed: "Jin Mi!" Her voice trembled, "No, no way..."
"Save her!" Carl grabbed Mary anxiously and said, "What do we do now?"
"This is cyanide poisoning," Jian Jing said. "It acts very quickly and cannot be saved."
Carl gasped, "Damn! What happened? My god, Jin Mi?!"
"Melanie!" Lei Ao supported the limp Melanie, she was stiff, breathing with difficulty, seeming to have another panic attack.
Mary swore and said, "Get her back to the room quickly, and give her another sedative."
Lei Ao carried Melanie up the stairs.
Mary followed.
Carl was a little agitated and asked loudly, "What about Jin Mi? You're not going to do anything?"
"She's dead." Jian Jing squatted down and carefully examined Kimberley's corpse, and suddenly asked, "Wait, isn't this Melanie's necklace? Did she try Coco Chanel's costume?"
Kang Mu Cheng now had a kind of - how should I put it - something that could be called enlightenment - nodded and answered first: "She was indeed wearing this necklace before, and showed it to each of us. Is there a problem?"
"I'm not too sure..." Jian Jing said, "Could you turn off the phones?"
Carl was stunned and turned off his phone.
Jian Jing turned off hers too.
In the ancient castle, almost no light could penetrate, and vision sank into thick darkness.
Under such circumstances, even the faintest light was extremely easy to discern.
For example, the faint glow on Kimberley’s chest.
Jian Jing grabbed the string of pearls, turned on her flashlight, and examined it carefully: "It's coated with phosphorescent material."
"Damn!" Si Yingjie blurted out, "So the real target was Melanie?"
Holen's face was ashen: "Who would do this?"
Carl looked even more ugly: "Are you saying... Jin Mi she...she was killed instead of Melanie?"
"I didn't say anything." Jian Jing glared at Si Yingjie and said, "Carl, please take Kimberley back to her room first. Holen, please tell Lei Ao and Mary that we will all meet in the study later to get to the bottom of this."
When encountering a case, she exuded an aura of intimidation, and people present, regardless of their age or status, unconsciously did as she said.
"What's the situation with the lights?" Jian Jing asked methodically, "Has anyone checked the fuse box yet? Where is Qiao Zhi?"
Kang Mu Cheng said, "I'll go take a look with you."
Si Yingjie couldn't help but interject: "Wait, there's one thing - did only I hear the singing? None of you heard it? Just when the power went out?"
The air suddenly stagnated.
Him: "?"
"Brother Yingjie." Jian Jing grabbed his arm expressionlessly and said, "You should come with me."
The fuse box was in a corner of the castle. They didn't find the right spot, but ran into Qiao Zhi who was looking for a tool box. He took the three to the power distribution room, opened the fuse box, and started cursing directly: "Damn it, who did this?"
There was a small remote control device added inside the fuse box.
The structure was not complicated. As long as the remote control was activated, the mechanism would start, the water in the interlayer would flow down to contaminate the wires, causing a short circuit and a large-scale blackout.
Fortunately it wasn't difficult to repair. Qiao Zhi cursed and replaced the old wires, dried the fuse box, reconnected the wire ends, and pulled down the switch again, and the lights came back on.
Jian Jing breathed a sigh of relief. Blackouts could lead to either minor or major issues in a place like this.
As long as it could be fixed, things were fine.
She called Qiao Zhi along to the study as well.
Except for Melanie, the others gradually arrived and asked, "Jian, what do you want to say?"
"Kimberley was wearing Melanie’s necklace, and the necklace was coated with phosphorescent material. There was a remote control device in the fuse box, which can be determined to have caused the blackout just now intentionally." Jian Jing calmly reported her findings.
Lei Ao's face could no longer be described as ugly, it was rigid and terrible: "She was wearing Melanie's necklace?"
"I think there's no mistake." Kang Mu Cheng said, "We all saw the necklace before, such pearls are rare, it shouldn't be wrong."
Jian Jing was surprised: "It was the real necklace?"
The others nodded together.
She frowned, and started to recall the circumstances leading up to tonight's dress rehearsal.
The day before yesterday afternoon, Lei Ao said he wanted to make up for Melanie's fright, and spontaneously decided to hold a masquerade ball.
He specifically ordered a batch of masquerade costumes, requiring delivery to Barna the next day.
The shop was not far from here, and was very generous with the shipping fee, patting their chest and saying they would definitely deliver on time. However, heavy snow fell the next day. The highway was still passable, but when they reached Barna, due to the complex terrain, large amounts of snow had accumulated, and the car could not get in.
Qiao Zhi had no choice but to go and pick up the goods himself. The snow was too heavy, the car couldn't start at all, and they even had to use the snowmobile in the garage. It took three hours before successfully bringing everything back to the castle.
Next was setting up the venue.
Kimberley completely shook off her previous frightened haggardness, and was in high spirits. She kept coming up with ideas, one moment saying Melanie liked costume balls "like a high school graduate", another moment complaining that the blizzard wouldn't stop, they really could hold a Versailles-style ball, which was also "exciting".
Melanie felt guilty about her sister's fright, and was very indulgent of her, always agreeing with "That's good Jin Mi" "This is a good idea" "I think we could try it".
The others didn't want to argue with the ladies, so Kimberley had the final say, acting as commander.
It had to be said, although she was a little chatty, her skills were not bad. After rearranging the antique tables, chairs, pianos, vases and other objects in the castle, the entire dance hall was like it had traveled back to before the French Revolution, full of charm.
Lei Ao was not stingy with praise: "This is really surprising."
"I'm fascinated by the history of France, I love my country." Kimberley flicked her golden hair smugly, "France is the best."
Jian Jing: "Hmm."
Si Yingjie: "Hmm."
Kimberley didn't understand, she couldn't even tell the difference between China, Japan and Korea. She deliberately asked, "Mr. Holen, what do you think?"
"If there was a guillotine, I think it would be more historically accurate." Holen sneered.
Kimberley snapped back: "Then perhaps I should prepare a set of Nazi uniforms for you."
"Jin Mi," Melanie's condition had improved considerably. She sat on the sofa watching them talk, and had to speak up and stop it when she heard this. "That's not an appropriate topic."
"What did I say wrong? Mela, even if you aren't..." Kimberley still wanted to argue reasonably, but Melanie was quicker, cutting her off before she could touch on a more sensitive topic: "Jin Mi, I'm feeling stuffy. Let's go out for some air."
Kimberley rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Oh, alright, alright," she reluctantly stopped talking. "Let's go out for some air."
Melanie took her sister's arm gently and said: "The clothes have arrived. Jin Mi, who do you want to dress up as?"
"Oh darling, you're the bride. You pick first," said Kimberley.
Melanie was hesitant. "I haven't decided yet. What do you think?"
Note: As of this afternoon, Melanie still hadn't decided who she wanted to dress up as.
Something big happened in the evening.
The snow was so heavy that the internet went down.
Everyone knew the shoddy infrastructure of this foreign country, so no one was surprised. They'd have to entertain themselves.
Kimberley - yes, she was the one - took the initiative to suggest trying on the outfits as a wedding rehearsal.
Lei Ao readily agreed: "Good idea, Mary. Please ask Uncle Qiao Zhi to join us too. I hope you can participate as well."
Mary said: "That's not appropriate."
"No, there's nothing inappropriate about it," Lei Ao laughed. "You're all my friends."
Since he put it that way, Mary wasn't one to be pretentious, so she nodded in agreement.
The clothes were piled together. The men graciously let the ladies pick first. It was in a large bedroom on the second floor, with an extra spacious walk-in closet.
While picking out clothes, Kimberley kept glancing at Mary, looking at her in an almost aggressive way.
Mary didn't back down one bit: "Yes?"
Kimberley lifted her chin combatively: "Watch yourself."
Mary laughed coldly.
"Jin Mi, just do it for me," Melanie pleaded with a sigh.
Only then did Kimberley withdraw her gaze and start selecting outfits: "Druid? Oh no, it doesn't match your hair color."
Melanie picked up a green wig: "There are wigs."
"What's this? Madam de Barthory, dear, you should try this one," Kimberley giggled while holding up a red court dress. "You're a countess too."
As she spoke, she looked provocatively at Mary again.
Mary didn't even want to bother with her. She directly took Florence Nightingale's outfit and walked out without looking back.
Jian Jing asked: "You seem to really dislike Mary?"
"I think she's the one who did it," Kimberley repeated her reasoning again.
But Melanie said: "Lei Ao said it was just a prank that has been resolved. Jin Mi, let's not talk about this anymore."
Her brows furrowed slightly, already growing tired of the topic.
Kimberley stopped in time: "Alright."
Jian Jing tactfully took a flashy pirate costume, leaving the more elaborate choices for them, and went back to her room to change.
It was a female pirate outfit, with a flamboyant style and many ruffles, resembling a Caribbean pirate. It even came with a fake saber.
Melanie said: "That looks too fake. There's a real one in the collection room. Let me get it for you."
She thoughtfully brought over the real sword and helped her put it on, praising: "It looks great on you."
Jian Jing happily thanked her and sauntered into the lounge: "How is it? Does it suit me?"
Lei Ao was very polite: "Jian is indeed very unique."
Kang Mu Cheng looked her up and down for a long time, hesitant to speak.
Holen suggested: "Why not try an Eastern role? King Ida might suit you."
Carl agreed.
The most insulting was Si Yingjie, who directly guffawed: "Hahahaha are those really shoulder pads?"
Qiao Zhi was very sympathetic: "You're still just a child."
Huh? Jian Jing took a deep breath and internally cued the system: "How's my physical condition?"
Listen to this, this is the truth.
However, the costumes at these masquerade parties tend to exaggerate features and add sexy elements. The skirts are short, the necklines low. They look good on buxom white girls, all curvy front and back.
But she didn't look bad in it either.
The leafy low neckline wasn't ugly. It was precisely because of its mediocre curves that it avoided disharmony, which further highlighted the pirate's heroic spirit.
Jian Jing drew the saber at her waist and gestured with it: "This is a real sword Melanie lent me, seems to be part of Lei Ao's collection."
She smiled. "What were you guys saying just now?"
