Chapter 272

"Bai Zhi."

"Hm?"

"Have you ever thought about one question?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe fastened the last button on her coat, pressing the fluffy bear head against her scalp. "As a Haunt player, when we solve the mystery and push the game to 'clear,' what happens next?"

Bai Zhi widened her eyes and shook her head. "I never thought about it."

To outsiders, Bai Zhi seemed cold and aloof, polite but unwilling to say more than necessary, like a scentless crabapple blossom. But those who knew her understood her coldness was merely distance creating beauty; due to intermittent amnesia since childhood, her mind often blanked out, making her slightly dim-witted, timid, and easy to take advantage of.

At nineteen, Bai Zhi had spent five years since her first nightmare at fourteen without ever exhibiting any subjective initiative. Each time, she curled into a corner, hiding herself, silently waiting for the dream to end on its own—her motto: do nothing, and you won't make a mistake.

She had never considered actively solving puzzles as a player, nor had she ever experienced exploring freely within a dream like today—truthfully, it felt strange.

"Since you've never tried, why not now?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe helped her into her bear-fur coat, turned, and walked to the velvet-covered bed. He pulled open the drawer layer by layer until, at the bottom, he found a bundle of hand-drawn sheets tied with rope—clearly the original design blueprint of Vanessa Castle.

"Let's go." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe hung the corpse-oil lamp at his waist, placed the map on the bed, knelt on one knee, gripped his sword in one hand, and lifted the fur rug beside the bed.

The rug had kept out dust; the floor beneath was noticeably cleaner than the rest of the bedroom, yet every plank's grain remained intact, unbroken, showing no trace of anomaly.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe drove his sword into the gap between the planks and pried upward. The thick cedar boards flipped open, their grain cleanly severed, revealing a square, hidden passage before them.

"This was a secret escape tunnel built by Duchess Vanessa for herself, leading directly to the stables west of the Zhong Lou, so she could mount a horse and flee at a moment's notice," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said simply.

Bai Zhi picked up the castle blueprint and studied it, puzzled. "But this tunnel isn't marked on the design… how did you find it here?"

"Of course the original blueprint drawn by Duchess Vanessa herself didn't include this tunnel—even the craftsmen who built it were killed by her. Absolute secrecy means absolute safety," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said indifferently. "But she's been dead for centuries. The castle underwent major renovations later, and when the European government's engineering team restored it, they rediscovered this tunnel and added it to their revised blueprints."

The original blueprint didn't mark this tunnel; only the newer version did.

"Which means, if anyone else were trapped in Vanessa Castle—even if they painstakingly reached the lord's bedroom and found the original blueprint—they'd still struggle to find this hidden passage beneath the floor…"

Bai Zhi refolded the blueprint neatly and whispered, "Unless they'd seen the newer blueprint before entering, or possessed extraordinary observational skills to locate the entrance without any blueprint clues."

"The former is nearly impossible," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe shook his head.

The third major renovation of Vanessa Castle was a government project; construction progress and detailed plans were never made public. Though not top secret, ordinary people had no access to this information except through insiders of the construction company.

Without leveraging Baron Fan Daike's connections and influence, even Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe would have struggled to obtain detailed intelligence on Vanessa Castle.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe sheathed his sword, lit the corpse-oil lamp, and descended into the dark entrance. Below lay a steep, narrow staircase descending straight down—barely wide enough for one person to pass. Bai Zhi picked up the map, closed the hatch, and followed Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe into the deep, confined passage.

The cramped space had no light; the air reeked of ancient dust. In the gloom, Bai Zhi constantly felt something following her from behind—until she looked up and saw Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's modest silhouette ahead.

"Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe…"

"Hm?"

"Where are we now?" Bai Zhi whispered. "We came up from the second floor. The banquet hall and guest rooms in the Zhong Lou were so spacious—where could such a long tunnel possibly be hidden?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe handed Bai Zhi a small flashlight. "Look at the third-floor blueprint. Notice anything?"

Bai Zhi switched on the flashlight and, trailing behind Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, studied the blueprint carefully. "The walls of the Zhong Lou vary in thickness. The thickest load-bearing walls are three meters thick, forming a ' Tu ' shape—the main structural frame. All rooms on the third floor are arranged around this ' Tu ' frame."

"Mm." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe walked ahead without turning. "Thick walls are load-bearing. Thin ones are partitions. Now look at the first- and second-floor blueprints. Compare them to the third floor. Notice anything?"

Bai Zhi followed his instruction and quickly spotted the anomaly: "The load-bearing structure on the first floor is a ' You ' shape—it has far more additional load-bearing walls than the ' Tu ' shape on the third floor!"

"Mm." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe nodded slightly. "The lord's bedroom sits in the upper-right corner of the ' Tu ' shape. Following standard north-up, south-down orientation, after descending from the bedroom, we've been moving downward along the ' Tu ' structure. Based on this coordinate system, where are we now in relation to the ' You ' shape?"

Bai Zhi looked down and suddenly understood: "We're inside that extra load-bearing wall…"

>

Calculating the height, they were likely on the second floor now.

Her doubts cleared, Bai Zhi felt as if the clouds had parted to reveal the moon. She turned off the flashlight, tucked the blueprint into her coat, pulled her bear-fur coat tighter, and touched the wall beside her.

The stone bricks were slightly warm—outside must be the second-floor banquet hall, set ablaze by Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe. She didn't know what state it was in now.

Thinking of the demonic inferno just beyond the wall, the narrow, dark corridor felt eerily peaceful. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe walked ahead, lantern in hand, his steps steady and clear—as if nothing could make him pause. He only moved forward, relentlessly, by any means necessary.

Suddenly, Bai Zhi stumbled violently, nearly falling onto Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's back.

"What's wrong?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe spun around instantly.

Bai Zhi gripped Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's hand, her face pale. "Someone… someone just pulled me from behind…"

(End of Chapter)