Doll Castle (24)

Bo Yi hid quietly behind the dress.

The sounds outside seemed to have died away.

He carefully pulled the dress off his head. He had not even realized that the cover he had grabbed at random was the very dress he had briefly glimpsed on Pan Lulu earlier.

And now, it seemed that this dress had saved his life in that moment of crisis.

He just did not know what had happened to Pan Lulu outside... Bo Yi had heard it clearly from inside the wardrobe: the screams coming from the corridor earlier had plainly belonged to Pan Lulu, whose scheme had backfired on her.

He gently moved the dress aside and waited quietly in the wardrobe for quite a while longer. Only after confirming that no more sounds came from outside did he shift slightly, preparing to take a look.

But the moment he moved, the doll in his pocket suddenly fell out with a clatter, landing inside the wardrobe.

Why did it fall out again?

Bo Yi had no choice but to reach for the doll first. "Hm?"

The spot where the doll lay seemed slightly higher than the surrounding surface. Bo Yi gave the doll a long look as it lay motionless with its back to him. He picked it up and returned it to his pocket, then felt around the four corners of the raised section.

A faint click of a mechanism sounded, and the raised section opened like a lid. In the square compartment beneath it lay a doll. It wore a familiar butler's outfit, seemingly matching those in the display cabinet. The only difference was that this Butler Doll had no eyes in its sockets.

Bo Yi searched the hidden compartment carefully once more. After confirming there was nothing else inside, he closed the lid and casually slipped the Butler Doll into his pocket-

"Huh?"

Feeling something obstruct him, he looked down in confusion. Although his pocket already held quite a few things and a doll, there should still have been enough room to squeeze in another doll. But once he saw what was happening inside his pocket, Bo Yi fell silent.

The red-eyed doll lay in his pocket with an innocent expression. In stark contrast to that harmless face, however, it had spread all four limbs wide, brazenly taking up the entire pocket-a vivid illustration of "no entry."

Bo Yi gave the doll a meaningful look, but abandoned the question of whether the Butler Doll could go into the pocket rather than argue with it. He held the Butler Doll in one hand and carefully pushed aside the clothes hangers in front of him with the other.

There had long since been no sound from either the room or the corridor outside. The master of the house should have left by now, so Bo Yi boldly pushed the hangers apart-just a crack.

But unlike what he had expected, what he saw through the gap was not a room empty of the master, but a piece of clothing.

Clothing? Where did that come from?

Bo Yi was puzzled. Had something fallen and happened to land on the two hangers he had parted? Yet no matter how he looked at it, the garment before him did not resemble... a dress.

That isn't clothing from the wardrobe! Which means...

He slowly raised his head and met a pair of smiling eyes-

The master stood silently in front of the wardrobe, looking down at him.

There was no telling how long he had been standing there. A small pool of blood had even collected on the floor in front of the wardrobe.

Bo Yi froze for only a second before decisively snatching up the dress inside the wardrobe and flinging it over the master's head and face. Then he shot out of the wardrobe like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The master leisurely tore away the dress blocking his vision. But his unhurried composure lasted only a few seconds. When he saw the Butler Doll that Bo Yi had kept clutched in his hand even as he fled, his expression changed instantly.

"Stop!"

By then, Bo Yi had already charged into the corridor without looking back.

The corridor had changed completely: blood spattered both walls, and faint flecks were even visible on the ceiling. The blood-soaked carpet squelched stickily underfoot, with a few bloodied pebbles scattered across it.

Behind him, the master had also abandoned his leisurely game of cat and mouse. As he accelerated, the distance between them steadily shrank.

Strange... Even while racing along the stairs, Bo Yi somehow had time to wonder why the master's attitude had suddenly changed.

He lowered his gaze to the Butler Doll in his hand.

Could it be because of this?

As he was thinking, "Ow!" Zheng Rong, who had heard the commotion and come out to investigate, collided squarely with him. Bo Yi barely kept his balance, swerved, and ran around Zheng Rong without stopping.

Still, he was kind enough to look back and warn Zheng Rong, "Run..."

"The master's coming..."

Before Zheng Rong could react, the master appeared in his line of sight, chasing them with a knife in hand. With the only exit blocked by the master, he could only grit his teeth, turn, and run after Bo Yi.

It'll be fine... Zheng Rong reassured himself. The master is clearly chasing Bo Yi. As long as Bo Yi is here, as long as I run faster than him, I'll be fine...

But how could a middle-aged man's stamina compare with that of Bo Yi, who was in his prime? Besides, Zheng Rong had already been injured. Before long, the gap between him and the master had visibly narrowed.

This can't go on...

As he watched Bo Yi running ahead, the things Pan Lulu had told him earlier echoed in his ears at the worst possible moment. His wound, which had already stopped bleeding, began to hurt again.

You forced me into this... Zheng Rong thought. I didn't want to do this either... but you were the ones who wronged me first... So now, he was merely paying them back in kind!

Gritting his teeth, he used the last of his strength to surge forward.

Closer...

Just a little more...

Now-

He drew the dagger he had kept hidden on him and swiftly thrust it at Bo Yi's back!

Sorry, Bo Yi! A vicious glint flashed in Zheng Rong's eyes. I don't really want to hurt you! I just want to slow you down this way. After all, when you're being chased, you only have to outrun the person ahead of you to escape danger!

The blade cut through the air, leaving a silver afterimage. Sensing an unusual movement behind him, Bo Yi turned his head slightly.

"!"

He swiftly adjusted his posture and pushed hard against the wall beside him, using the force to change direction. Almost at the very instant the blade reached his body, he slipped past its edge and dodged the attack.

Thud. His momentum carried him into the opposite wall, and the Butler Doll in his hand fell to the floor during his evasive maneuver.

The culprit behind all this did not linger after his strike missed. He had already charged into the darkness ahead without looking back.

Before Bo Yi could pick up the Butler Doll, the master caught up.

Bo Yi leaned against the wall, panting. As he watched the master approach slowly, he discreetly reached into his pocket-his scalpel was inside.

But while feeling for the scalpel, he touched two round objects first.

These are...

Bo Yi froze.

Images surfaced in his mind: the nine Butler Dolls and Maid Dolls with eyes, the space deliberately left behind the Girl Doll, the master's abruptly changed expression when he saw the Butler Doll...

He had assumed that the master had pursued him so fiercely because he had taken the Butler Doll. But watching the master before him, who seemed to have resumed his game of cat and mouse, a sudden realization flashed through his mind-

Could the master have changed like that because the doll and the eyes-both of them-were on me at the same time!?

He looked at the master, who was now only a short distance away, and gritted his teeth.

Give it a try!

As he dodged the long knife swinging down at him, he swiftly scooped up the Butler Doll from the floor. Then, as fast as his hands could move, he took the two eyes belonging to the master out of the specimen bag-and pressed them into the doll's sockets.

As soon as an eyeball approached a socket, it automatically shrank to the right size to fit inside.

But at the same time, the raised blade was once again poised over Bo Yi's head.

At the very instant it plunged viciously downward, Bo Yi finally fitted the second eyeball into its socket. "It worked!"

The blade stopped just short of his forehead.

The next second, the long knife fell to the floor with a clang.

There was no one in front of Bo Yi.

-The master had vanished before his eyes.