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Chapter 90: Tracking

When everyone arrived at the lobby on the second floor, they found Guo Lixia trying to console Shi Zhendong. “Anyway, what we have to do now is to find the signature quickly, and then quickly escape the painting. Maybe those people can still be saved.”

Shi Zhendong smiled bitterly and didn’t say anything. Seeing that everyone had come downstairs, he didn’t wait for them to try to console him. He stood up and said, “Let’s go to the first floor and eat, and then we can start work afterward.”

Wei Dong pushed open the door of his bedroom, looked inside, closed the door again, and came out.

“Is Yening Chenyi’s body still missing?” Qin Ci asked.

Wei Dong nodded, sighing. “The first time we saw Xiao Ye, we felt that she was a particularly good girl, warm and sensible. Who knew that she would submit to the painting in the end…”

Miao Zipei asked, “Where could Yening Chengyi and He Yu’s body have gone?”

“Probably the painting cleared them from the scene,” Zhu Haowen answered. “Perhaps for the boss, those who are contaminated with other colors are the most meaningless existence.”

“Regardless, at least Xiao Ye didn’t feel any pain when she left.” Wei Dong thought of Xin Beibei, who had lost her head in the blue liquid, and felt that Yening Chengyi was much luckier.

Everyone went back to the lobby on the first floor, had a simple breakfast, and then divided the labor. After some discussions, one person was left in each room to continue working: Wei Ding in the purple room, Guo Lixia in the blue room, Qin Ci in the yellow room, and Shi Zhendong in the green room.

Shi Zhendong had no intentions to continue searching, so he volunteered to stay and work.

There were fewer and fewer people now, leaving only five people responsible for finding the signature.

The five people first found paper and pen in the drawer of the hall, and then they went to the fourth floor window to look down and drew the maze. Because of the angle, it was impossible to look down at exactly 90 degrees. Therefore, the northern half of the maze wasn’t clearly drawn and only a rough idea was sketched out.

“Xin Beibei mentioned several times that she wanted to enter the maze. If she was really bewitched by the painting, what was her purpose in going to the maze?” Mi Wei analyzed along the way. “After all, in full view of everyone, it would be impossible for her to do anything.”

“When her skirt was contaminated by Yening Chenyi’s blueberries, there was no one beside her,” Zhu Haowen said.

Mi Wei frowned and said nothing.

Once they were outside the castle, they headed toward the pool to take a look.

The pool seemed to sense that someone was coming to look at it. It suddenly spewed crystal clear spring water, making the coins at the bottom of the pool shine brilliantly.

They approached the pool and carefully observed the coins inside. Almost everyone looked for their own patterns first. Ke Xun was the only one who searched for the familiar curly grass pattern first before looking for his own wave pattern.

The little flower pattern belonging to Yening Chenyi had disappeared, and Xin Beibei’s diamond pattern had also disappeared.

The statue in the center of the pool was carved out of black stone, giving it an indistinguishable outline, almost like a physical shadow.

“About the shadow, I have a few thoughts.” It was Mi Wei who spoke.

The crowd motioned for her to continue.

“Since Xin Beibei was dragged away by her own shadow last night, can we understand it as her shadow betraying her first?” Mi Wei’s gaze gradually deepened. “Scientifically, this explanation doesn’t make sense, but we’re now in a painting, which has nothing to do with science. So, in this respect, a shadow can take on a different meaning.”

“You mean, Xin Beibei wasn’t completely bewitched and it was her shadow at fault?” Zhu Haowen said.

Mi Wei nodded. “Since the painting we entered is called ‘Shadow’, then shadows must play a very important role in the painting.”

The shadow statue in the center of the pool seemed to have felt that its secrets were being spied upon, and it sprayed out more and more water to try to cover it up.

Mi Wei continued, “But what puzzles me is that, since the shadow could overpower Xin Beibei’s body, it is clear that the power of the shadow is greater. But what about the big hands that Brother Ke said were wrapped around Xin Beibei’s neck? Whose hands were those? It couldn’t have belonged to Xin Beibei.”

That was exactly what Mu Yiran had been thinking about.

Mi Wei continued, “If there was indeed an invisible person holding Xin Beibei’s neck, was the person controlling the shadow this invisible person? If the shadow alone can hold the body, why bother to choke her? To prevent her from calling for help?”

Miao Zipei, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, also gave his own analysis. “If she was being dragged away, it would be difficult for that same person to also be strangling her.”

“There must be something more powerful that dominates everything. When the night is completely dark, that thing will appear.” Ke Xun looked at the black statue in the pool, feeling a little uncomfortable. It felt as if there were many people wrapped up under that black layer of skin, struggling to break free.

“Let’s head over to the maze.” Mu Yiran unfolded the map in his hands and walked toward the maze first.

The maze was about half the size of a football field. The walls of the maze were made of dense shrubs, and the fluffy green plants were trimmed neatly. It really looked like something right out of a fairy tale, as Xin Beibei had said.

There were five people standing outside the maze: Mu Yiran, Ke Xun, Zhu Haowen, Miao Zipei, and Mi Wei.

“It’s best for two people to go in, while three guards the outside,” Zhu Haowen suggested, looking at Ke Xun, fearing that this person would bravely rush forth.

This time, Ke Xun intended to seek out big shot Mu’s opinions first. “Mi Wei is female and isn’t suitable for charging through the maze. Miao Zipei is bookish, thin and weak, and is also not suitable. Among the remaining three people, the most suitable person to lead them is just you.”

Zhu Haowen: I guessed wrong. It turns out that this guy not only volunteered himself, but me as well.

Before Mu Yiran could speak, Zhu Haowen directly gave in to Ke Xun. “Then we’ll both enter.”

Mu Yiran didn’t say anything more and directly handed over the rope. “Be extremely careful. The rope will become stretched out, so if there’s any danger, pull on the rope.”

“Don’t worry.” Ke Xun’s two words were said with great gravity. He lowered his head and tied the rope tightly around his waist.

Zhu Haowen also tied the rope around himself while holding the drawn map in one hand.

As they walked into the maze, tied with a rope, Ke Xun felt as if they were two good dogs being released….

They slowly walked into the inner circle of the maze according to the map. They not only depended on the drawings and the rope, but also made marks along the path.

But the reality was different from what was drawn on paper. In the end, they still found themselves on the wrong path.

When they walked onto their first dead end, they suddenly discovered that there was a barely perceptible door on that end.

It was indeed a door, a door made out of plants.

.

Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen looked at each other: Does every dead end have such a door?

“Let me do it, since the door is green.” Zhu Haowen still firmly remembered what color group he belonged to—green.

Ke Xun smiled: Haowen’er was too serious.

Zhu Haowen opened the door of green plants. Inside was a small space that housed some ropes and yard maintenance tools. The most eye-catching thing was the entrance on the floor.

“This heads underground,” Zhu Haowen said to Ke Xun, who was standing at the door.

“We don’t have time to explore underground right now. We should try to get out of the maze first.” Ke Xun felt the rope around his waist straining, and couldn’t help shouting, “We’re all right, we just went the wrong way!”

The end of the rope loosened, indicating that he’d been heard.

The three people outside were reserved, and so they didn’t respond loudly.

Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen continued to look at the drawn map and move forward. They had to stop and take a look every time they passed a wrong path. Sure enough, there was a door made of plants hiddened at every dead end. Zhu Haowen only opened two of them to see what was inside. Both structures were similar, with an underground entrance on the floor.

They gradually reached the center of the maze. Since they entered from the northwest corner of the maze, according to the top view, the exit should be located at the southeast corner.

“It’s a pity that there’s no sun in this world, otherwise we can distinguish the direction based on the sun.” Zhu Haowen looked at the drawn map in his hand. The north mentioned above was just the north in everyone’s imagination—according to Chinese customs, buildings usually faced northsouth, so everyone marked the direction of the castle as north.

“If the exit is in the southeast corner, it happens to be that same place I saw last night…” Ke Xun suddenly fell silent. He looked at Zhu Haowen, who instantly became cautious.

If the green plants in the maze could be called walls, then the current situation could be called: there was someone in the wall.

There was the sound of light footsteps, walking past the path along the partition wall.

Although it was in broad daylight, it was still terrifying.

When had this person appeared in the maze? When they were all looking down at the maze from above, they didn’t see anything unusual inside.

The sound of footsteps on grass gradually disappeared into the distance.

“Is this person just passing by, or has it been following us?” Zhu Haowen asked quietly.

Ke Xun could only judge by intuition. “I think this person suddenly appeared just now. Maybe he passed by here, because maybe he lives in the maze.”

There were some words that Ke Xun did not say: It was also possible that this person had been following us.

As they walked, they slowly and quietly edged forward, only to find that the rope was getting more and more taut. It seemed that the length wasn’t enough.

Mi Wei’s shout suddenly came from outside the maze. “Come out first! The rope isn’t long enough! Come out! Don’t take risks!”

At this time, no one dared to take risks easily, so they walked back, retracing the path they came. When they passed the center of the maze once, they both couldn’t help but stop.

The center of the maze was easy to identify. From the top view, one could see that there was a small circular space in the center of the maze.

On the wall of this circular space was the vague outline of a door.

Zhu Haowen stepped forward and tentatively opened the door.

Inside was a simple living room, but what attracted their attention more was the glass jar placed against the wall, filled with pure red liquid.

This glass jar wasn’t big and was less than one meter tall.

The two of them squinted their eyes for a long time, but the red liquid was too thick, and they couldn’t make out what was inside.

“Let’s go back first.” Zhu Haowen looked at the big entrance on the floor of the room, as if thinking of something.

Ke Xun also thought of it. Both of them no longer spoke, but walked back along the way they came. Because there was a rope guiding them, they quickly returned to the entrance of the maze.

The three people waiting at the entrance were full of concerns.

Ke Xun’s voice was low. “The maze and the castle are probably connected by an underground passageway.”