The night was deep and quiet, the antique wall lamps emanating a soft halo, the heater working hard blowing warm air.
Jian Jing curled up in the armchair, her wet hair already dried by the hot air, wisps of it hanging down at the temples, she hadn't dyed her hair for a long time, occasionally a few strands of black would emerge from the gray, but it wasn't glaring, on the contrary it was more casual and unrestrained than before.
After the Wang Shiyi case, something in her had permanently changed.
What was it? Kang Mu Cheng occasionally asked himself this, but could never grasp the idea.
In the flowing silence, Jian Jing was the first to regain her composure, asking about another thing on her mind: "Mr. Kang, did Lei Ao ever mention their family curse to you?"
Kang Mu Cheng immediately drew back his thoughts and nodded gently.
She was curious: "What did Lei Ao say about it?"
Kang Mu Cheng sighed, "Unhappy marriages without love."
Unlike George's scientific theory of mental illness, Lei Ao believed the tragedy stemmed from their marriage itself, which was a mistake from the beginning.
The Sal family was extremely loyal to the Royal Family, and every generation of kings was keen to arrange marriages for them. But no one knew if it was just terrible luck, or there really was some other reason, the marriages were never happy.
Whether it was a hot-tempered princess, or a duchess who loved another, or the illegitimate daughters of kings from other countries, or even a king's famous mistress.
Yet, the so-called wives who died unnatural deaths were mostly from childbirth complications, with only a small portion being unnatural deaths.
Like being strangled was political intrigue, the one who was poisoned to death was the mistress, the king resented his father for doting on his mistress which led to the death of the Queen Mother, so when he ascended to the throne he secretly ordered the Earl Sal to kill his wife. The fire was an accidental electrical malfunction when they first installed the wiring.
The residents of Barna Town didn't know the reasons, there were often rumors spreading, forcing connections after a long time, even normal deaths had bizarre made up causes, and it became a "curse".
Lei Ao looked through his ancestors' memoirs and concluded: marriages without love only need a small external force to easily fall apart.
So he swore he must marry a woman he truly loved.
"If he didn't love Melanie, he would not have married her," Kang Mu Cheng summarized.
Jian Jing nodded, feeling this explanation fit the reality better, but Lei Ao's actions were still inexplicable.
There must be some secret still hidden in Castle Winterfell.
"Mr. Kang, what do you think that song is?" she asked.
Kang Mu Cheng thought for a moment, "It must be the wind, the castle is old and dilapidated with many cracks, so it sounds high and low like a song."
She said, "...I see, that's an explanation."
He asked, "You don't think so?"
"I've seen foreign historical dramas, the master rings a bell when he wakes up and the servants can hear it," she said. "There must be spaces between the rooms for the bell ropes, right?"
Kang Mu Cheng was surprised, "Are you suspecting..."
Jian Jing slowly said, "Perhaps there are still strangers in the castle that I haven't seen."
It was too much of a coincidence for it to be wind, appearing at critical moments every time, it should be someone's voice, transmitted through the spaces or vents to every corner of the castle.
The problem was, what was this person's relationship to Lei Ao.
If it turned out to be a mad ex-wife hidden in the attic... tsk tsk, that would be hilarious.
"This person is very important," she said. "Finding her is the only way I can figure out Lei Ao's issues."
"Jian Jing, we are guests in Lei Ao's home," Kang Mu Cheng had to remind her. "Everyone has secrets they don't want outsiders to know."
Jian Jing paused briefly, and soon compromised, "Alright, I promise I won't use any extreme methods."
He asked, "What if Lei Ao doesn't want us to know?"
"Try persuading him," she suggested. "We still don't know the killer's motives yet. If they just wanted to ruin the wedding, and failed killing Melanie this time, it might not be her next time."
Kang Mu Cheng was baffled, "Why would anyone want to ruin the wedding? They're already married."
Jian Jing: "Money, revenge, love."
He immediately fell silent.
After a long time, he nodded, "I'll go talk to Lei Ao, he's not someone who finds it easy to open up."
"Okay." Jian Jing stood up, glanced at her watch, it was past midnight already, so she gave up on looking for Brother YingJie, "I'll ask Brother YingJie again tomorrow, good night."
"Wait," Kang Mu Cheng called out to stop her.
She responded, "Hmm?"
He crouched down and pulled down her pant leg that was rolled up halfway, straightening it neatly, "There, good night."
Jian Jing: "Oh...okay."
Si Yingjie slept until midnight, feeling like someone was watching him.
It was completely impossible, but his body still reacted with alarm, startling him awake from his dream.
His heart was racing erratically, as he opened his eyes to pitch black darkness, faint snow light seeping in through the curtains, and he seemed to vaguely make out a shadow flash by.
"What the f***!" Si Yingjie bolted upright, "Who's there?"
He turned on the light, bright light immediately flooded the room, hurting his eyes slightly, he squinted to leave just a crack open.
There was no one.
"Brother Yingjie?" someone knocked on the door next door.
Si Yingjie was falsely alarmed, and sheepishly said, "It's nothing, I had a nightmare."
"Open the door," she said.
Si Yingjie scratched his head, put on a robe, and opened the side bolt.
Jian Jing immediately squeezed in, vigilantly looked all around, "What happened?"
"Nothing, just a nightmare," Si Yingjie waved his hand dismissively, pretending to be casual, "Go back, it's the middle of the night, don't sleep and your skin will suffer."
Jian Jing: "Liar."
Si Yingjie: "......"
"See a ghost?" she wildly guessed.
Si Yingjie's heart lurched, and he collapsed into the chair, unable to resist, "When I was sleeping, I felt like someone was watching me, but when I turned on the light there was nothing."
Jian Jing let out a soft "eh".
"It must have been an illusion," he reassured himself. "The curtains were blown by the wind, so there were shadows on the wall, I saw it wrong."
Jian Jing kindly didn't poke holes in his story, "It seems that's the case, the window wasn't shut tight." She deliberately went to the window and pretended to tug at the casement, "There, that should do it."
"Yeah, go back now. If Kang Mu Cheng knows you came to my room in the middle of the night, he'll scold us." Si Yingjie opened the side door to usher her out.
However... "Scold you for what?" Kang Mu Cheng was standing in Jian Jing's room, confused as he asked.
Si Yingjie instinctively clarified, "It's not what you think!"
After saying that, he realized it was wrong, and his expression became awkward.
Having been good friends for many years, Kang Mu Cheng immediately saw through his implied meaning, and pressed on his temple, "It's not what you think."
Only Jian Jing was completely oblivious, and laughed heartily, "Brother Yingjie had a nightmare, Mr. Kang, keep him company tonight, good night."
She yawned and shut the two men into the next room.
Bolted the door.
"I know you're here," she said. "Come out, let's talk."
No response.
"Alright, this can't be called an extreme method."
Jian Jing turned on the x-ray device.
She could only use this black tech on missions.
The complex jumbled building outlines appeared, presenting different visual effects, but this time she had guessed wrong, there were no obvious spaces in her room.
She pondered for a bit, tore out a page from her notebook, scribbled two words and threw it on the bed, then took her phone and went outside.
The hallway lights outside were already off, thick darkness spreading in every corner.
Jian Jing strode straight to the right, passing through the top of the stairs, until the end of the corridor. This was directly above the second floor library, it was a beautiful mirror room she had toured yesterday.
It was said this used to be a dressing room for a Countess, installed with three large mirrors, she changed more than ten outfits every day, presenting her most beautiful self at all times.
To avoid the mirrors interfering with her vision, Jian Jing didn't turn on the lights and directly felt her way inside.
Under the x-ray device, she saw many strange grooves embedded above the walls, and many irregular protrusions above the mirrors, all of which were hidden behind the walls and couldn't be seen from the outside at all.
Mechanisms.
She moved the mirrors, and found that as the different surfaces slid along the tracks, the concealed magnets behind would attract out different bronze ornaments, like a specially made oversized key.
And it wasn't just one mirror, the other two had the same design.
In other words, a specific sequence of movements, and specific mirror arrangements were needed, in order to open the passage.
How do you spell the Sal family name in English?
Or use winter?
No, no, letters or numbers would be very difficult to convert into the mechanical structure of the mirror.
Jian Jing simply turned on the light and searched for clues in the mirrored room.
After so many years, the magnificent robes in the mirrored room were nowhere to be seen. Only the portrait of this countess still hung on the wall.
She faced the audience from the left side, her hands resting on the dressing table. The mirror on the table reflected her appearance. She wore a white court dress, adorned with lace, pearls, gems, and feathers.
Jian Jing stood still and carefully observed every detail of the portrait.
Soon, the intermediate observation card gave her a pleasant surprise.
In the reflection of the dress in the dressing table mirror, there were a few more gems than in reality - long, short, medium, long, medium. And the gems were parallel to the middle of the wall.
She adjusted the length of the three mirrors in sequence according to the order.
A chill wind crept in.
The bottom of the wardrobe had somehow moved the wooden boards at some point, revealing a hole inside the cabinet.
She turned on her flashlight and crouched through the hole.
Her figure faded away as she descended the stairs.
The mechanism closed up, and the mirrors silently slid back into place.
The next day, Jian Jing did not appear.
Large fluffy snowflakes drifted down from the sky. The road to town was completely blocked, making it very difficult even for snowmobiles to get through. There were also some problems with the power supply, and the heating never seemed to come on properly.
The ancient fireplace became useful once again.
Firewood was stacked and ignited in the furnace, crimson flames bursting forth, raising the temperature and dispelling some of the gloom.
For some reason, the guests seemed to be avoiding each other, no longer gathering together to chat, preferring to stay alone in their rooms.
Kang Mu Cheng found Lei Ao in his bedroom with Melanie, and said, "Can we talk?"
Lei Ao looked at Melanie inquiringly. She nodded, "I'm fine, go ahead."
Only then did he leave the room. Before Kang Mu Cheng could ask anything, he said, "I hope you didn't come to me about Jian Jing's request, to probe for information."
However, Kang Mu Cheng didn't mention a word of it. He simply told the truth: "Last night, my friend said someone was watching him."
Lei Ao was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Did he get scared? Does he need Mary to give him a sedative?"
"He's fine, he thought he was seeing things," Kang Mu Cheng said. "Lei Ao, you know my personality, I'm not interested in others, but Jian Jing - she asked me, what if the other party's purpose is not only Melanie, but also you, what should be done?"
He asked, "Can you assure me that the secrets you're hiding won't endanger your life?"
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