CH 80

Chapter 80: Castle Cry (VI)

Nan Lu once again burst into tears, her eyes red and swollen, and Qi Leren looked at Dr. Lu for help. In response, he was scared and waved his hand to imply that he, as a single dog, had no experience in comforting girls. The two looked at the girl crying at a loss, and after a long time, they said dryly: “Don’t cry…”

Nan Lu, who cried for ten minutes, wiped her face with her sleeve and asked faintly, “Am I really inferior to Luo Xueyi? Why does everyone like her and not me? What’s wrong with me?”

Dr. Lu gave a dry cough: “No, Nan Lu, you’re fine. Xiao Hong is blind. But what happened?”

Nan Lu sniffed and looked at her toes in frustration. After a long time, she opened her mouth: “…After we separated from you, Xiao Hong and I went back. Soon after the bell rang, we went back to this burnt castle. Xiao Hong said that he seemed to hear Luo Xueyi’s voice. He wanted to go to the second floor, but I refused… We had a fight. In fact, after so long, I know that he’s interested in Luo Xueyi. In this respect, women’s intuition is very keen, not to mention that he’s shown himself clearly. I think Luo Xueyi also knows, she’s always been like this. She explicitly flirted with other people’s boyfriends and seduced these people, hehe…”

“Well, after your fight? Did you go find Luo Xueyi?” Qi Leren interrupted the direction Nan Lu was going in, and Dr. Lu, who listened to the emotional gossip of men and women with relish, gave him a resentful look, regretting that the gossip was interrupted.

“We fought, and when we compromised… I promised to find Luo Xueyi. As a result, I saw Luo Xueyi running down the stairs. There was a… a skeleton… chasing her. She kept screaming and asked us for help. Xiao Hong ran to save her. I don’t know why, but the skeleton chased me. I was scared and fell down the stairs. When I looked up, I saw him pulling Luo Xueyi. He left me here and ran away… I saw Luo Xueyi look back at me, that look… Ha, she did it on purpose, she wasn’t scared at all!” As she spoke, Nan Lu’s voice became distorted. She couldn’t tell whether she was sad or resentful, or if the pain was one that would never go away. She hatefully said: “If I see that bitch…”

Dr. Lu comforted Nan Lu by saying, “Go back and turn your boyfriend into an ex-boyfriend, and then settle accounts with them. You don’t deserve the kind of man who hooks up with someone when he has a girlfriend, right Qi Leren?”

Nan Lu wiped her tears and said enviously, “You have a good relationship with Qi Leren…”

Qi Leren and Dr. Lu made a face of stepping in shit.

“What about the skeleton that came after you?” Dr. Lu asked curiously.

Nan Lu held out her hand that was scratched and red and murmured, “I broke off the stair railing and killed it.”

Dr. Lu looked at her in horror and whispered in Qi Leren’s ear: “Does losing love make women have incredible fighting power? Xue Yingying was the same!”

The corners of Qi Leren’s mouth twitched. The skeletons here really had no fighting power, and only Dr. Lu, an amateur, couldn’t beat it.

After talking, Nan Lu’s mood stabilized a lot, and she finally remembered that she was still in a dangerous place: “What should we do now?”

Qi Leren briefly talked about the matter, and then said: “It’s 2:40, and we’ll be sent back to the world before the fire in 20 minutes. I think this kind of switching between the outside and the inside has some purpose. There must be some clues that can only be found in the two different worlds, such as keys.”

Dr. Lu took out the brass key and shook it. “I found this key on the first floor. I would guess that the key on the second floor can also be found in the outer world, and then taken it to the inner world to open the door on the second floor of the inner world. This is probably the logic.”

Qi Leren nodded: “There’s still Nina - the place where we separated before. We opened the door and saw an N… ghost.”

Qi Leren almost said the word NPC, and swallowed it when he caught his slip: “She should only haunt the inner world. You see, the monsters we met in the outer world have either rotted into skeletons, or are dogs burned beyond recognition, while the monsters in the inner world are walking armor, or simply ghosts, and there are some differences.”

Nan Lu waited for a while and nodded: “Having said so much, what are we going to do?”

“Er… The ultimate goal is to leave the castle,” Qi Leren said.

Nan Lu has a face of “You’re talking nonsense”.

“If you want to leave the castle, you have to solve the mystery of the fire. According to the current clues, it should have something to do with the crazy mistress. Maybe we need to get rid of this crazy mistress… Speaking of this, Nina said something about when she was crazy. Where was she locked up?” Qi Leren asked Dr. Lu.

Dr. Lu shook his head: “She didn’t say it, just that she had escaped from the castle, so all the windows were barred.”

“Let’s ask Nina when we get back to that world. I also want to ask her something… I hope that armor isn’t there, otherwise we have to deal with it first.” Qi Leren had a little headache. “There are also those doors that can’t be opened. It’ll take 20 minutes to enter the world. Let’s find a way to find the key first.”

“I’ve searched almost everywhere on the first floor. Shall we go to the second floor?” Dr. Lu suggested.

Qi Leren hesitated and reminded: “There is a hound that burned to death on the second floor. It’s very powerful. Be careful.”

Dr. Lu patted him on the shoulder: “The European Emperor* never cares about this problem, take care of yourself.”

{*E/N: Slang for lucky, full explanation below}

Qi Leren: “…”

Nan Lu: “???”

After some discussion, the three men went to the second floor and walked on the decaying curved staircase. Qi Leren subconsciously looked at the portrait, and the portrait in this world had already been burned, leaving only the copper frame hanging on the wall. Qi Leren looked for a while, but he still insisted that it was not his illusion that he had seen blood on the portrait in the other world before.

"What are you looking at? It’s gone,” Dr. Lu urged.

Qi Leren looked at the picture frame and asked, “Do you think she is really crazy?”

Dr. Lu touched his chin. “I can’t be sure about this, but Nina’s statement doesn’t sound like a big problem at present. Let’s consider her crazy. Normal people wouldn’t do something like burning the castle and killing a family. ”

The ghostly image in the studio once again appeared in his mind. At that time, she looked so happy that Qi Leren whispered, “Is it really her who burned the castle?”

“What? What are you suspecting? ” Dr. Lu was confused.

“Nothing, it’s just that when it comes to things like demon worship, I get a little nervous.” Qi Leren smiled and turned to keep up with their footsteps.

Nan Lu, standing at the top of the stairs, was immersed in the dark. She asked faintly, “Have you ever heard of the opera Don Giovanni? ‘If I can find the villain and he will not come back to me, I will make a horrible example of him. I will tear out his heart!’ Wouldn’t it make sense if she was betrayed by her lover and destroyed everything in despair?”

Dr. Lu gave a quick laugh and tried to send an alarm to Qi Leren with his eyes, which made his eyes cramp: No, this girl is going to get dark!

At this time, how should one comfort a girl who is emotionally unstable after falling out of love? Qi Leren was very worried. He really didn’t have this experience. When he falls out of love… Er, well, he is also very distraught.

“Forget it, why are we talking about this? Let’s go.” Nan Lu smiled wryly and continued walking up the stairs.

Qi Leren and Dr. Lu looked at each other, and they both saw helplessness on each other’s faces.

The second floor of the outer world was more dilapidated than the inner world. Qi Leren had been here once, and he was worried about the elusive hound in the piano room, so he asked Dr. Lu: “With your intuition, do you think the dog is still there?”

Dr. Lu turned his eyes: “What intuition does this need? According to the rules of horror games, this kind of wandering little boss will basically not stay in the same place. It must be where it’s unlucky to go. You follow me now and go forward with confidence.”

Qi Leren, who was speechless, felt a peace of mind. It was probably that under the European Emperor’s light, even the air of the Africans was temporarily dispersed.*

{*E/N: “…under the light of the lucky star, even the ill fortune was temporarily dispersed.” Full explanation below.}

The three people came to the piano room, and Qi Leren took the lead going in. He had already made psychological preparations before entering. If he saw this horrible hound again, he would definitely not hesitate to jump into the hole he had broken before and go back to the studio, even at the risk of breaking his leg. Fortunately, this time the hound was really gone.

There was still heavy rain outside the window, and lightning flashed and thundered. Dr. Lu and Nan Lu searched in the piano room. Qi Leren was in charge of watching the door. Soon Dr. Lu called out in a low voice: “Look, a bunch of keys!”

Nan Lu, who was rummaging through the drawer, looked up and hit her arm on the phonograph in the cupboard. She let out a cry of pain and covered her hurt arm. Qi Leren walked up to her and asked, “Is everything all right?”

Nan Lu bit her lip and shook his head. Qi Leren suddenly felt pain like acupuncture coming from the back of his neck, and the seed of slaughter seemed to stir up. He looked around with vigilance, but everything was normal.

What’s happening? Qi Leren glanced at the phonograph on the cupboard. This ancient device had been broken in the fire, and only the horn made of metal was still intact. He looked at it for a while, and some intuition suggested that it was unusual.

“What’s going on?” Lu doctor also walked over, with his flashlight landing to the phonograph, one hand still swinging the ring of keys he’d just found.

“Let me see.” Qi Leren picked up the heavy phonograph and checked it, and soon found a dark box at the bottom. After he tried to open the dark box, the system prompt appeared again: “Obtained 2/6 of the devil’s sacrifice”.

It was again the same iron box, and the rusted lines were full of religious meaning, but they gave off an impression of evil.

Dr. Lu put on gloves and opened the box, which contained a tooth.

“It seems to be the same thing, but I don’t know what it is,” Dr. Lu murmured. Because Nan Lu was present, and he didn’t say much. “Let me hang on to it?”

“All right.” Qi Leren couldn’t make more contact with this demon item, which would affect the seed of slaughter.

Dr. Lu stuffed the things into his inventory and glanced at Nan Lu. She didn’t have any special reaction to the sudden disappearance of the iron box. He didn’t know whether it was because of her settings as an NPC or if it was for some other reason. She just asked with disgust: “What is this? Why are you keeping this thing?”

“I found one before, but I don’t know what it is,” Qi Leren said casually, not willing to reveal too much.

Suddenly there was a sweet piano sound behind him, and the three people who were talking froze in order. The fastest reaction of Qi Leren was a phantom!

Sure enough, there was a faint light around the piano. Just like in the studio, the lady sitting on the edge of the piano played expressionlessly. Gradually, the music became faster and faster, and it became more and more intense. Finally, it seemed crazy. Her whole hand hit the piano, making a sharp noise, which overlapped with a thunderclap rolling outside the window.

She laughed. At first, it was just a strange giggle, then it became more and more crazy and harsh. The hysterical laughter accompanied her heartbroken cough and finally turned into crying. She was lying on the piano, crying bitterly. Compared with the crazy laughter, her crying was so melancholic and depressing, like the sound of collapsing after trying hard to endure, and it gradually faded into the thunderstorm before finally disappearing with her phantom.

“She’s crazy…” Nan Lu said in a dreamy way.

She really does seem crazy, Qi Leren said in his heart.

There was thunder outside the window, and lightning lit up the piano room. In the harsh light, Qi Leren saw the collar of the hound on the piano, and the flashlight he had put down to pick up the collar with the dagger in his hand. It laid quietly on the piano, just like an ordinary object, and disappeared in the dark until it was illuminated by the lightning.

At this time, Qi Leren suddenly remembered…

The flashlight should have been on when he fell into the studio