Doll Castle (11)

Feeling an ice-cold chest press against his back, Bo Yi slowly turned his head.

The master of the castle had silently appeared in the storeroom at some point and was now embracing Bo Yi from behind. One arm circled Bo Yi's waist, his fingers gently stroking it, while his other hand rested lightly over Bo Yi's hand on the doorknob. His cold, utterly warmthless fingers slid suggestively between Bo Yi's, brushing along the back of his hand.

Their shadows on the floor were already intimately entwined. The master's face nearly touched Bo Yi's ear, his icy breath brushing against it. "Hmm?"

Bo Yi calmly slipped his hand out from beneath the other man's. "Nothing..." With a deft movement, he freed himself from the embrace and straightened his clothes. "I just saw a room here and got curious."

The master did not insist. He merely chuckled, releasing Bo Yi as he pulled away and even taking two polite steps back.

"Come to think of it..." Having straightened his clothes, Bo Yi raised his eyes and gave the master a cool glance. "You never said any part of the castle was off-limits, did you?"

The master smiled. "Of course." He spread his arms. "Our honored guests may, naturally... go wherever they please..."

"However..." Changing tack, he lowered his arms and held a finger to his lips, his tone laden with meaning. "This room... cannot be entered right now."

As though performing a magic trick, he drew a white rose from his breast pocket. He offered the flower, still beaded with water, to Bo Yi. "Once night falls, you may bring this rose to me..."

A suggestive smile curved his lips. "Then, I shall be sure to give you a very, very thorough tour of this place..."

Bo Yi looked down at the pure white rose for several seconds, then reached out and accepted it.

The master's smile immediately widened.

"Then I shall trouble you no further..." Smiling, he gave Bo Yi a gentlemanly bow, then turned and left the storeroom.

Bo Yi thoughtfully toyed with the rose for a while.

The master was probably telling the truth. When Bo Yi had pressed down on the handle, he had clearly felt that the door was locked. Since the master had said it could not be opened for now, he stopped dwelling on it.

He slipped the rose into his pocket and left the storeroom as well.

He spent the next stretch of time exploring the castle thoroughly. Strangely, though, he never found the master's room.

Bo Yi stood alone before a corridor window, gazing at the gray sky as he quietly pondered the issue.

"Oh? Bo Yi, have you finished exploring already?"

Zhao Wen Shan approached from the other end of the corridor. In a rare turn of events, Zhao Yi, who was usually inseparable from her, was not at her side.

Bo Yi nodded.

Zhao Wen Shan walked up beside him with easy familiarity and peered curiously out the window. "What are you looking at?"

Before Bo Yi could answer, however, Zhao Wen Shan let out an "Oh?" and pressed herself against the window. "Is that..." Tilting her head, she strained to look to one side. "...Pan Lulu?"

Bo Yi came out of his thoughts and followed Zhao Wen Shan's gaze.

The window overlooked the castle's garden. It seemed to have been untended for a long time and had an air of bleak desolation: withered branches and leaves littered the ground, covering the paths; the tall trees had been reduced to bare limbs, their bark riddled with dry cracks; amid the overgrown weeds, several rusty wrought-iron flower stands could just be made out, lying crookedly on the ground.

Beyond the center of the garden, two people stood facing one another behind the shadow of a tree. The petite girl was nestled meekly and obediently in the tall man's arms. Had their window not happened to look directly onto the pair's hiding place, they could easily have missed them.

Craning her neck to watch, Zhao Wen Shan clicked her tongue. "Pan Lulu's been crying ever since she entered the game. I thought she was a real coward... but looking at what she's doing, she's pretty bold after all..."

"It's been ages since I last saw a newbie trying to get something out of an NPC. Tsk, tsk..."

"Come on, she doesn't really think that just because these NPCs are being a little nice, they're as easy to talk to as real people and will fall for a pretty face, does she...?"

"Still so naive... The last player I met who tried to get special treatment through an NPC probably has grass growing sixteen feet high over their grave by now..."

Bo Yi clearly had no interest in this sort of "romantic scandal." He looked away, bored, and was about to leave when Zhao Wen Shan gave another excited exclamation. "Oh! This master has plenty of little tricks up his sleeve. He can even do magic..."

Bo Yi stopped in his tracks. As though something had occurred to him, he turned to look out the window again.

In the garden, the tightly embracing pair had separated. The master was pinning a lush red rose to Pan Lulu's dress.

The blood-red rose added a splash of color to Pan Lulu's sumptuous aristocratic gown.

Bo Yi slowly furrowed his brows.

"Her clothes..."

"What about her clothes?" Thoroughly absorbed in the spectacle, Zhao Wen Shan turned to give Bo Yi a puzzled look.

"Didn't you notice? Her dress has chang-" But before he could finish, Bo Yi saw that Pan Lulu's sumptuous gown had vanished, replaced once more by the dress she had been wearing all along.

Was I imagining it? Besides, Bo Yi could not shake the feeling that the dress he had briefly glimpsed on Pan Lulu looked familiar...

The question lingered until dinner.

When Pan Lulu appeared at the dining table, the red rose was no longer on her dress. She still wore that timid, on-the-verge-of-tears expression. Had Bo Yi not personally seen her talking to and embracing the master alone in the back garden, he would never have connected the girl in the garden with the Pan Lulu before him.

Only eight players appeared at dinner; Wang Xing was absent. None of those present had much attention to spare for him, however. As though enduring torture, they forced down a few token bites of the unpalatable dinner, then hastily bade the master farewell and left the dining room.

The cavernous castle was even more sinister at night. The other players did not dare wander around, planning instead to return to their rooms first and then find people in private to exchange clues.

Before returning to their rooms, however, they had to pass through that eerie gallery again. Especially now that they knew the things in the paintings could actually kill them, they dared not look up. One after another, they hurried through with their heads lowered.

Only Bo Yi trailed at the very back of the group, strolling along with his usual calm expression. But when he caught sight of the portraits out of the corner of his eye, his steps gradually came to a halt.

Bo Yi turned his head and studied the painting before him.

Why did it seem... as though the eyes in the portrait weren't as bright as before?