Beyond the entrance was a small, cozy living room, with a photo of a family of three hanging on the wall.
Kara's eyes immediately welled with tears.
The little girl in the photo was missing a front tooth, but her smile was bright and full of happiness.
Things were more or less as Geralt had guessed.
Kara was the little girl in the photo.
The room beside it belonged to Shi Yanyan. Several tables were covered with all sorts of bottles and jars, filled with liquids of various colors. Some even contained lizards, geckos, venomous snakes, spiders, centipedes, and more.
The last room was the bedroom. A bluish-purple corpse lay on the bed.
"Dad!" Kara rushed forward.
Then Geralt yanked her back.
"What are you doing?!" Kara roared.
She had lost her mind.
A chop to the back of Kara's neck knocked her out cold.
He walked over to the bed.
The corpse was the father of the family of three. He looked far older than he had in the photograph.
His hair was gray-white.
His face was bluish-purple.
His chest was wrapped in bandages, black medicinal fluid seeping through them.
Geralt used his dagger to lift the bandages.
There was a wound across his chest, running from his left armpit to his right chest.
The wound was deep. It had been crudely stitched up and smeared with herbs.
Yet he had still died.
He might have died from excessive blood loss, poisoning, or complications caused by an infection.
—The exact cause of death required further investigation.
Geralt found a diary by the bedside.
Written on the title page were these words:
[There are no strangers in this world, only friends we have yet to meet.
—Pamela, for her beloved Kaecilius.]
Kaecilius.
Pamela.
—Kara's parents' names.
The name "Kara" came