When everyone arrived at the second-floor lobby, Guo Lixia was trying to persuade Shi Zhendong: "Anyway, what we need to do now is find the signature as soon as possible, and then escape from this painting. Maybe those people can still be saved."
Shi Zhendong smiled bitterly, unable to say anything. Seeing everyone coming downstairs, he didn't wait for their persuasion and stood up: "Let's go downstairs to eat. We still have work to do after we eat."
Wei Dong pushed open his bedroom door, looked inside, then closed the door and came out.
"Is Ye Ningchen's body missing?" Qin Ci asked.
Wei Dong nodded, sighing, "When we first met Xiao Ye, we thought she was a really good girl, so warm and sensible. Who knew she'd end up getting caught up in the painting..."
Miao Zipei asked, "Where are Ye Ningchen and He Yu's bodies?"
"They're probably clearing the painting out," Zhu Haowen replied. "Perhaps to the boss, those whose colors have been tainted are the most meaningless." "
Who cares about meaning? At least Xiao Ye didn't suffer so much when she died." Wei Dong thought of Xin Beibei, headless and soaking in blue liquid, and felt Ye Ningchen was much luckier.
Everyone returned to the lobby on the first floor for a quick breakfast and then divided the work. After some discussion, they decided that one person would stay in each room to continue working: Wei Dong 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 wasn't really interested in continuing the search, so he volunteered to stay and work.
The number of people dwindled until only five remained to search for signatures.
The five of them first found paper and pens in the drawers of the hall, then went to the fourth-floor window to draw the maze from above. Due to the angle, a 90-degree view was impossible, so the northern half of the maze wasn't drawn clearly;
only a rough outline was possible. "Xin Beibei mentioned several times that she wanted to go to the maze. If she was really bewitched by the drawing, what was her purpose in going there?" Mi Wei analyzed as they went. "After all, she couldn't have done anything under everyone's watchful eyes."
"When she stained Ye Ningchen's dress with the blue berries, there were other people around," Zhu Haowen said.
Mi Wei frowned and didn't say anything more.
When they arrived outside the castle, they went to the pool first.
As if sensing someone's presence, the pool suddenly spouted crystal-clear water, making the coins at the bottom glitter.
The group approached the pool and carefully examined the coins. Each person found their own coin first, except for Ke Xun, who first looked for the familiar scroll pattern before finding his own wave pattern.
The small floral pattern belonging to Ye Ningchen had vanished, and Xin Beibei's diamond pattern had also disappeared without a trace.
The statue in the center of the pool remained the same black stone object with indistinct outlines, like a huge, materialized shadow.
"I have a few thoughts about the shadow," said Mi Wei.
The others gestured for her to continue.
"Since Xin Beibei was dragged away by her own shadow last night, can we interpret that her shadow betrayed her first?" Mi Wei's gaze deepened. "Scientifically speaking, shadows are inexplicable, but since we are now in a painting unrelated to science, perhaps the shadow has been given another meaning."
"You mean, Xin Beibei wasn't entirely bewitched by herself, but more by her shadow?" Zhu Haowen asked.
Mi Wei nodded: "Since this painting we've entered is called 'Shadow,' then the shadow must play a very important role in it."
The shadow statue in the center of the pool seemed to have discovered some secret, spraying out even more and higher water droplets in an attempt to conceal it.
Mi Wei continued, "But what I don't understand is that the shadow can actually move Xin Beibei's body, which shows that the shadow's power is very strong. But what is the big hand that Brother Ke mentioned choking Xin Beibei's neck? Whose hand is it? It can't be Xin Beibei's own."
This was also the question that Mu Yiran had been pondering.
Mi Wei continued, "If there really is an invisible person holding Xin Beibei hostage, then is the person controlling the shadow the same person as this invisible person? If the shadow alone can hold the main body hostage, why bother to suffocate her? Just to prevent her from calling for help?"
Miao Zipei, who had been silent for a long time, also offered his analysis: "When a person is being dragged, it's difficult for the person choking her to exert any force."
"There must be something even more powerful that controls everything. When the night is completely dark, that's when that thing appears." Ke Xun looked at the black sculpture in the pool and felt somewhat uncomfortable, as if a black sac was encasing many people, and those people were struggling to break free.
"Let's go to the maze." Mu Yiran unfolded the blueprints in his hand and took the lead towards the maze.
The maze was about half the size of a football field. The walls of the maze were made of dense shrubs, and the velvety green plants were neatly trimmed, giving it a fairytale effect that Xin Beibei had described.
The five people standing outside the maze were: Mu Yiran, Ke Xun, Zhu Haowen, Miao Zipei, and Mi Wei.
"It would be best if two people went in and the other three stayed outside to keep watch," Zhu Haowen suggested, glancing at Ke Xun as if he had a premonition that this person would bravely rush forward.
This time, Ke Xun decided to ask Mu Yiran's opinion first: "Mi Wei is a girl and not suitable for going into the maze. Miao Zipei is too bookish and thin, so he's not suitable either. Of the remaining three, the most suitable one to stay behind is you." Zhu
Haowen: I guessed wrong. It turns out this guy not only volunteered but also dragged me along. Before
Mu Yiran could speak, Zhu Haowen offered Ke Xun a way out: "Then let's go in together."
Mu Yiran didn't say anything more and handed over two rope ends: "Be very careful, keep the rope taut, and pull it if there's any danger."
"Don't worry." Ke Xun's words seemed to weigh a ton as he bent down and tightly tied the rope around his waist.
Zhu Haowen also tied his rope, still holding the blueprint in his hand.
As the two of them entered the maze with the ropes, Ke Xun felt like he had released two good dogs...
Following the blueprint, the two slowly ventured into the inner circle of the maze, relying not only on the blueprint and ropes but also marking the paths they had taken.
But real experience is different from theory, and the two of them eventually got lost.
When they entered the first dead end, they were surprised to find a door that was not easily noticed at the end of the dead end.
It was indeed a door, a door made of plants.
Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen exchanged a glance: Did every dead end have a door like this?
"I'll go, the door's green," Zhu Haowen said, still firmly remembering his own color—green.
Ke Xun chuckled, rubbing his forehead: Haowen'er was too serious.
Zhu Haowen pushed open the green plant door. Inside was a small space with some ropes and repair tools. Most striking was an entrance on the floor.
"This leads underground," Zhu Haowen said to Ke Xun, standing in the doorway.
"We don't have time to explore underground right now, let's figure out how to get out of the maze first." Ke Xun felt the rope around his waist tightening and couldn't help but shout, "We're fine, we just took the wrong path!"
The rope loosened slightly, as if to indicate that it had heard him.
The three people outside were all quite reserved, and none of them shouted back.
Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen continued to advance while looking at the map, stopping to check every time they went astray. Sure enough, each dead end concealed a door made of plants. Zhu Haowen opened only two of them and found that the structures inside were all similar, with an entrance leading underground in the floor.
The two gradually reached the center of the maze. Since they had entered from the northwest corner, according to the overhead view, the exit was located in the southeast corner.
"It's a pity there's no sun in this world, otherwise we could use the sun to determine direction." Zhu Haowen looked at the map in his hand. The north indicated on it was just the north that everyone imagined—according to Chinese custom, buildings usually face south, so everyone marked the direction of the castle as north.
"If the exit is in the southeast corner, then that's exactly where I saw it last night…" Ke Xun suddenly fell silent, exchanging a silent glance with Zhu Haowen, whose eyes also showed caution.
If the green plants in the maze could be called walls, then the current situation could be described as: someone is behind the wall.
It was a soft sound of footsteps walking across the path behind the wall.
Although it was broad daylight, it still felt eerie.
When did this person appear in the maze? When everyone looked down at the maze from above, they didn't see anything unusual.
The footsteps made a distinctive sound as they stepped on the grass, and the sound gradually faded into the distance.
"Is this person just passing by, or has he been following us?" Zhu Haowen asked softly.
Ke Xun could only rely on his intuition to judge: "I think this person suddenly appeared just now, maybe he was just passing by, or maybe he lives in the maze."
There were some things Ke Xun didn't say: there was another possibility, this person had followed us.
The two talked as they slowly walked forward, only to find that the rope was getting tighter and tighter, it seemed that it wasn't long enough.
Miwei's voice finally rang out from outside the maze: "Get out! We're running out of rope! Get out! Don't take risks!"
No one dared to take risks at a time like this, so the two retraced their steps. When they reached the center of the maze again, they both stopped.
The center of the maze was easy to spot; from an overhead view, a small circular space could be seen at its center.
On the wall of this circular space, a large door was vaguely visible.
Zhu Haowen stepped forward and gently pushed the door open.
Inside was a simple living room, but what attracted their attention even more was a glass bottle against the wall, filled with pure red liquid.
The bottle wasn't large, less than a meter tall.
The two squinted for a long time, but the red liquid was too thick to see anything inside.
"Let's go back," Zhu Haowen said, glancing at the large entrance on the floor, seemingly having thought of something.
Ke Xun also thought of something. Neither of them spoke of it explicitly, but instead retraced their steps. Guided by the rope, they quickly returned to the maze entrance.
The three people waiting at the entrance all had expressions of concern on their faces.
Ke Xun's voice was low: "The maze and the castle are probably connected underground."