Doll Castle (16)

"Wh-what rose...?"

Pan Lulu's hand froze as she wiped her tears.

The other players turned to look at Pan Lulu in confusion, too.

Although Zhao Wen Shan didn't understand why Bo Yi had suddenly asked that, she backed him up. "The one you got from the master of the castle..."

"The one Bo Yi and I saw in the hallway earlier. The master gave you a red rose."

"Oh, oh, that one..." Pan Lulu wiped the tears from her face and said in a small voice, "I threw it away..."

"Threw it away?" Zhao Wen Shan's voice rose sharply.

Pan Lulu nodded timidly. "B-because I was scared..."

"You were scared?" Zhao Wen Shan looked skeptical.

She'd had the nerve to cozy up to an NPC for protection, yet she was scared of a flower?

Tears began welling in Pan Lulu's eyes again. "Because the color of that flower... the longer I looked at it, the scarier it got..."

Zhao Wen Shan understood. Pan Lulu had probably cozied up to the master on impulse. Once that burst of courage wore off, the blood-red rose had frightened her more and more, until she hurriedly threw it away.

The guess was a little far-fetched, but considering how Pan Lulu had behaved since entering the instance... it really did seem like something she would do!

"All right..." She was about to move on when Bo Yi suddenly spoke:

"Where did you throw it?"

Pan Lulu's expression stiffened, and she stammered, "I just... just tossed it somewhere in the garden..."

Bo Yi stood up. "Then take me there."

Seeing Bo Yi suddenly refuse to let the matter drop, the other players exchanged silent glances, realizing something was up.

"Then let's all go take a look..." Zhao Yi stood as well. Seeing this, the other players set down their knives and forks.

Pan Lulu opened and closed her mouth a few times, but in the end, she said nothing and silently stood up too.

Everyone headed into the castle's garden.

A damp, rotten smell hung over the desolate garden. Shriveled branches swayed in the wind, rustling softly. The group walked over a thick layer of dead leaves and branches, turning their heads to survey the garden.

"Where did you throw it?" Zhao Yi asked.

"I... I forgot... I just tossed it without thinking..." Pan Lulu's voice grew quieter and quieter.

Zhao Yi pinched his brow in irritation. "Looks like we'll have to find it ourselves."

Although Zhao Wen Shan had said Pan Lulu's flower was red, the weeds in the garden were so tall that everyone still had to bend down and part them to search.

Bo Yi picked a corner to search as well. A number of collapsed wrought-iron plant stands were piled there, blocking his way. He had to lift them and move them aside first.

One, two... Bo Yi soon cleared a path for himself. As fewer and fewer plant stands remained on the ground, he advanced deeper into the corner, a little at a time.

"Hm?" Just as he lifted another plant stand, the toe of Bo Yi's shoe struck something hard.

He looked down. A small mound of earth bulged from the ground.

Bo Yi stared at the pointed little mound for two seconds, then raised the iron stand in his hands and scraped at it.

Soil crumbled away, revealing what lay beneath-a pointed wooden corner.

"What's this?" Zhao Wen Shan had slipped over at some point and was peering around from behind Bo Yi.

Bo Yi stepped back to make room, then handed her the iron stand. "A picture frame."

"A picture frame? Like the ones in the gallery?" Zhao Wen Shan took the iron stand and tilted her head, studying it for a moment. "Now that you mention it... it really does look like a picture frame."

"But what's it doing here?" It was even buried deep in the garden, blocked by these collapsed wrought-iron plant stands. If Bo Yi hadn't lifted them away to clear a path, she would simply have walked around them without thinking and never discovered this clue.

"They hid this clue way too well!" Zhao Wen Shan marveled as she helped dig the picture frames out of the soil.

Soon, picture frames lay all over the ground.

Bo Yi counted them. The number matched exactly how many were missing from the third-floor hallway.

The framed paintings were portraits of a woman, but every face had been scratched up with something sharp, leaving the features unrecognizable. Judging by the figures, however, they clearly all depicted the same person.

In one of the portraits, Bo Yi even spotted the dress that had briefly appeared on Pan Lulu earlier.

"Huh?"

Zhao Wen Shan, who was bent over examining the paintings, also made a puzzled sound. "These dresses..."

"I feel like I've seen them somewhere..." She frowned at the portraits for a moment, then suddenly slapped her forehead. "I remember!"

"I saw them in a room on the third floor!"

"Yes, yes! That's where!" Zhao Wen Shan walked around the portraits and nodded firmly. "These dresses were in that room's wardrobe!" She didn't seem to realize that the room was the master bedroom.

Understanding dawned on Bo Yi as well.

No wonder the dress that had suddenly appeared on Pan Lulu earlier had looked familiar...

"Did you find it?"

The others had finished searching their assigned areas. Seeing Bo Yi and Zhao Wen Shan together, they gathered around as well. "I didn't find anything over there... Huh? What's this?"

"Where did these paintings come from?"

Zhao Wen Shan pointed at the hole she had dug. "There. We dug them out of that spot..."

Bo Yi looked at the group. "Did you find it?" He meant Pan Lulu's rose.

The other players all shook their heads. "No."

Bo Yi turned his gaze to Pan Lulu. She immediately began shaking her head. "I... I really don't know... sob... I just tossed it away... sob..."

She cautiously glanced up at Bo Yi and said quietly, "M-maybe the flower disappeared on its own..."

Perhaps because Pan Lulu looked too frightened of Bo Yi to speak, Zheng Rong stepped in to smooth things over. "Well, Bo Yi, if we really can't find it, let's just leave it..."

"We don't know whether what that NPC gave her was a real flower in the first place. What if it's just like the girl said, and that 'flower' automatically disappears when its time is up...?"

"After all, it came from an NPC. Anything's possible... don't you think?"

Pan Lulu cautiously hid behind Zheng Rong, nodding frantically along with his words.

She did look quite pitiful and endearing.

Zheng Rong was still trying to ease the tension within the team. "Now that we've found a new clue, why don't we just..."

Before he could finish, Bo Yi suddenly gave a soft chuckle.

"I know..."

"What?" Zheng Rong looked baffled.

"I know whether it was a real flower..."

He took a pure white rose from his pocket and displayed it in his palm for everyone to see.

"Who said flowers disappear on their own?"

Looking at Pan Lulu's strained expression, he said softly, "Look..."

"Mine's still here, isn't it?"