Chapter 267

Carrying the lit corpse-oil lamp, passing through the side door of the first-floor hall with the illumination of the lamp light, what followed was Bai Zhi's eyes full of gray-white, seemingly endless long stone steps.

The long stone steps curved upward, presenting a huge 'u'-shaped turn, connecting from the ground to the second floor.

There was one such long arc-shaped staircase on both the left and right sides of the clock tower, contrasting with each other. Looking down from top to bottom, one would see two huge 'u'-shaped corridors guarding both sides of the clock tower's main body, jointly constituting the core main structure of this building. This structure was marked as 'large corridor' in Grand Duchess Vanessa's developer drawings.

Bai Zhi hadn't seen the developer drawings. She stood in front of the first step and looked back at the door behind her. The door she had just entered had returned to normal because it lost the illumination of the lamp light, turning back into the appearance of a wall.

If Ning Zhe were here, he would only need one look to see the principle—in the third major repair of Vanessa Castle, the side door of the clock tower was built with stone bricks and permanently closed. If one wanted to enter the large corridor, they had to pass through another archway on the outside of the clock tower.

And the door Bai Zhi illuminated with the oil lamp was one that only existed before the third major repair, a structure that only the old Vanessa Castle had.

Unfortunately, she didn't know this point now. Bai Zhi stood at the starting point of the large corridor, looking at the wall she came from with worry, hesitating. Although she had already witnessed Ning Zhe die under the siege of the group of ghosts with her own eyes, Bai Zhi still had some unrealistic expectations in her heart, hoping to see Ning Zhe survive like a miracle, come out from behind that door, and follow along lightly like before.

The next moment, her expectation came true, but not completely.

An ancient wooden door carved with a ram quietly emerged on the wall, but when the wooden door opened, what walked out from behind the door was not Ning Zhe, but a withered, thin, pale, hunched human shadow. The skin-and-bone appearance was like a dehydrated mummy in a glass cabinet. The withered, thin hand like a bamboo joint held a dim candle flame, slowly drifting towards the direction of the large corridor.

Bai Zhi's face suddenly turned pale. She hurriedly pulled down the covering skin to completely cover the oil lamp in her hand, carried the lamp, and climbed the steps without looking back, hurriedly running upstairs.

Perhaps it was the flickering lamp light that broke the colored windows on the wall, and the cold air outside poured into the empty large corridor. The cool wind blew past the girl's thin shoulders, making Bai Zhi shiver. She looked back at the candle flame wandering below the steps, wrapped her clothes tightly, and continued to climb to the second floor.

Perhaps at the same time, perhaps not, a pair of rough palms pushed open the back door of the clock tower, and two figures, one tall and one short, entered the building one after another.

The visitors were exactly Geza holding the cross iron spear, and his wife Aurora.

As the central core building of Vanessa Castle, this clock tower had a quite spacious floor area. Its first floor was composed of an arched hall, a back kitchen, a storeroom, and many other parts. Each part had its own independent entrance and exit to avoid distinguished guests from straying into the back kitchen or storeroom and bumping into servants who were working, which was regarded as indecorous.

The place Ning Zhe entered with Bai Zhi through the hole in the wall was the reception hall covered with red carpet. What he entered now with Geza was the back kitchen located at the rear of the clock tower.

The lighting in the kitchen was not good, and the environment was gloomy and quiet. The nobles who built the castle ignored ventilation and lighting for the sake of safety, making the interior of the building never see the sun all year round, dampness accumulated, cramped and dark. This was a common problem of ancient European castles.

Geza turned on a flashlight and walked in front. Ning Zhe followed behind him. With the help of the halo of light, he could glimpse that the sacks piled in the corner were filled with potatoes, which had already grown green seedlings.

The kitchen utensils piled together and the dusty ovens all looked like they hadn't been used for a long time. If he could light a corpse-oil lamp here, perhaps he could see something different, but neither Geza nor Aurora had a lamp in their hands.

The only ones who came with a corpse-oil lamp as a novice benefit were Spencer, Cynthia, Katya, and the group of university students who strayed here.

"I heard my grandmother say before that in the peaceful days before the war, every autumn, the master of the Missret family would invite celebrities from all walks of life to come to this forest under the Liuxian Mountain to hunt. They would hunt the fattest deer and the most wild mountain chickens back to Vanessa Castle, and the servants would cook various fresh and expensive ingredients into a table of big meals, open endless fine wine, and party all night in the banquet hall on the second floor of the castle..."

Geza walked in front with a flashlight, passed through the silent back kitchen, and said, "After the prey was transported back to Vanessa Castle, the chef of the Missret family cooked it into dishes here, and then sent it to the second floor."

The magnificent large corridor was used to show off the style of the castle and the financial resources of the Missret family. Only those guests from the upper class and noble masters could walk on the second floor's banquet hall along the beautiful arc-shaped staircase. The lowly servants were not qualified to walk that road; they could only serve dishes quietly from places that couldn't be seen, so as not to stain the masters' eyes.

In other words, apart from the large corridor, there must be a place similar to an employee passage in the back kitchen that could go up to the second floor. Ning Zhe followed Geza silently without saying a word, and together they passed through the dark and cramped back kitchen.

In the memories of the couple, the large corridor connecting the first and second floors of the clock tower seemed to be a very dangerous place. They knew several players who disappeared after walking on the large corridor and never came down again.

There were also people who tried to go up to find people, but they all had the same fate.

"Walking the employee passage of the back kitchen, you can bypass the large corridor and go directly to the second floor. The idea is nothing wrong, it's just..." Ning Zhe thought for a moment and asked, "Before us, did no one else think of this road?"

"...... Maybe there were?" Geza shook his head. "I'm not very sure, it seems everyone else walked the large corridor."

To put it bluntly, he himself wasn't sure whether the road he chose was right.

But Ning Zhe knew that the road Geza walked was probably right, because he died in the library on the third floor later.

The two wandered around the back kitchen a few times and found the 'employee passage' leading to the second floor.

It was not quite the same as the secret passage in imagination. This employee passage was a vertical shaft. In the vertical shaft, a circular hanging basket with a diameter of about 2-3 meters was hung with iron chains. The end of the iron chain was wound around a circular shaft device shaped like a ship's rudder, which was connected to a hand-cranked lever.

Turning the circular shaft and tightening the iron chain, the hanging basket would be pulled upward through the pulley set at the top. Turning in the opposite direction would loosen the iron chain and lower the hanging basket.

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This was a device used to transport dishes, not an elevator for people to sit in.

"The European masters were even more detached from the masses than I imagined, even serving dishes in the back kitchen could only be pulled up by a hanging basket, and they were not allowed to set foot in the banquet hall." Ning Zhe looked at the vertical shaft in front of him and suddenly laughed.

Geza handed the cross iron spear to Ning Zhe and said, "Dear, this device needs someone to turn the lever below to operate, but you probably can't pull me, so I think I should let you go up from here first, and I will find another way."

"Alright." Ning Zhe took the cross iron spear, without the slightest refusal, and sat on the hanging basket for transporting dishes generously.

"Then, we'll see each other upstairs." Geza walked to the circular shaft device and pushed the lever. The circular shaft turned slowly, the hanging basket began to rise, and Ning Zhe, who was sitting in the hanging basket, also continued to rise along the vertical shaft.

"May God protect us."

"May God protect us." Ning Zhe smiled beautifully.

Seeing his wife's smile, Geza felt full of strength all over his body. He pushed the lever winding the iron chain with all his might. The circular shaft turned slowly, the hanging basket began to rise, and Ning Zhe, who was sitting in the hanging basket, also continued to rise along the vertical shaft.

Kela... Kela...

The rusty iron chains and gears rubbed against each other. Ning Zhe sat in the hanging basket holding the weapon, looking at the gray-white stone bricks constantly going down on the wall of the vertical shaft, his shoulders suddenly trembled for no reason.

"Hiss... a bit cold." Ning Zhe curled up his body, his expression thoughtful.