dear archimedes

Chapter 56 The Adventures of Candy House (3)
Everyone said one sentence to another, and the atmosphere was harmonious and joyful.Turning the corner to the restaurant, the dishes are fragrant on the rectangular dining table.

With just one glance, the normally smiling person instantly opened his eyes wide and looked forward in horror, as if he had seen something too horrifying to bear.

Eleven people are standing behind the two rows of chairs at the rectangular table.

Models, actors, kindergarten teachers, Zhen Ai, Yan Su, lawyers, doctors, boxers, authors, hosts, and even racing drivers who didn't come.

Posing in different poses, wearing the same clothes as real people——

11 lifelike wax figures with empty eyes and expressionless faces.

Thunder and lightning flashed outside the castle, and the castle was brightly lit.

The butler stood between the two rows of wax figures and nodded politely: "Dear guests, this is a greeting gift prepared by my master for everyone. I hope you like it."

On a stormy night, in a weird castle, there is a wax figure exactly like myself, which is not an honor.Although everyone thinks it is weird, they have seen the world anyway.In a few seconds, everyone thanked the housekeeper.

The dinner was sumptuous, and the room was full of warmth. The guests gradually relaxed and chatted enthusiastically.

The lawyer said excitedly: "It's great to develop this place into a tourist destination. The castle looks eerie from the outside, like a place where demons live. The more terrifying it is, the more attractive it is."

The writer frowned, and said cautiously: "But I saw that the castle wall is green, like a wolf's eyes; oh no, it's red, like jam, like human blood..."

The model snorted: "Your eyesight is not good, the castle is obviously black."

The host also laughed: "The writer's imagination is too rich."

Zhen Ai frowned slightly, staring at the writer, did he see it too?
Passing by the sea at noon, she vaguely saw a city floating on the blue sea, which was exactly the same as this black castle, except it was colorful.Gone in the blink of an eye, like a mirage, more like...a candy house.

Zhen Ai's heart skipped a beat, and she slowly raised her eyes.

A long table for 13 people, milk, coffee, wine, buttered baguettes, grilled meat, cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables; then take a look at the surrounding environment, golden crystal lamps, warm orange wallpapers and classical candlesticks, soft Persian carpets, light and comfortable The incense...

Like Hansel and Gretel in the candy house, attracted by the pretty food, then fattened up by the witch and eaten.

Yan Shu handed a small plate of salad to her, Zhen Ai unconsciously smiled, blaming herself for thinking too much.Yan Suzai, how could something happen to her?
Faced with everyone's teasing, the writer blushed anxiously: "I'm serious."

The butler at the end of the table was expressionless when he heard the words: "Mr. Writer saw the truth. The magic of the castle is that it is colorful when it is dry, and it will turn black when it is wet by rain. It is like a beautiful and gorgeous castle in the sun." The candy house in the house will turn into a dark and gloomy haunted house in the rainy and foggy environment.”

Naturally, the others would not be frightened by the fairy tale, they all listened to it with gusto, and became more and more curious about the castle.

The always indifferent doctor also asked: "Mr. Steward, can you tell us the story of the new owner of this castle?"

Others expressed interest in hearing.

The butler sullenly said, "This is an evil story, I'd better not tell it."

Everyone became more and more curious, and all asked questions; even the shy maid lady helped.

The butler couldn't hold back everyone, and said thoughtfully: "I shouldn't have talked about the master's affairs, but considering the current new master's nature is free and easy, and he doesn't care about trivial matters. I think I won't cause dissatisfaction when I tell his legendary stories, and it doesn't count Overreaching and disrespectful."

Everyone nodded.

"The new owner is a young and handsome chemist. He got a windfall five years ago and bought the island and the castle. He drove the boat from the Arctic Ocean alone, like a legendary adventurer. There are Countless huge cowhide boxes, but he didn’t allow anyone to touch them, and he didn’t allow anyone to look at them. He lived in the castle with the boxes and didn’t allow anyone to disturb him. A month later, he sailed away again. When he left, the boat was empty.”

A wolf-like light flashed in everyone's eyes: The news is indeed correct, the 10 billion is on this island.

But no one dared to ask questions first, which was undoubtedly revealing their identities.

But the kindergarten teacher was fascinated: "Is there a treasure in the box?"

The housekeeper pushed his glasses: "I don't know, but during that time, it was said that the central bank's electronic account and treasury were stolen at the same time, and 10 billion was lost. But he only appeared one month after the bank was stolen."

Everyone was overjoyed again, this was the time when he suddenly disappeared after using their power to avoid the limelight.

Zhen Ai wondered, is this the story of Alex, brother's subordinate and Yan Su's friend?Isn't he dead?

"Have you seen him since?"

The butler shook his head: "Sir, he only communicates with me through telegrams from the tower, and occasionally asks about the situation of the castle."

Everyone was suspicious, and some people thought: I heard that he died, did he fake his death?Someone thought: I heard that he died, so who is pretending to be him now?
Yan Su ate slowly and unaffected.

He probably knew how these people got together, it wasn't LJ's guess that they couldn't find the treasure and came to discuss, but they were drawn here.

The biggest possibility is that Alex stole 10 billion and used the power of these people to get through the limelight (he probably bribed and instigated lower-ranking minions in the organization).A month after the incident, he hid the money alone.The group didn't get a cut of the spoils and have been looking for the money ever since.

Organizations are also looking.During this process, members of the central group discovered that Alex had the help of a traitor when he escaped successfully.The organization will never allow traitors to exist, so they use the whereabouts of the 10 billion treasure as bait to spread the news around them, and then attract them all.

Looked at this way, this place is really an evil candy house.In fairy tales, witches rely on the phantom of delicious food to attract children to eat, but in reality, organizations rely on news of treasures to attract traitors to kill.

In addition to a group of unnumbered members with lower status, there was at least one important member with higher status who was responsible for clearing the field.

He could have a strong premonition of the upcoming killing feast.In what way?
Mr. Arthur likes games, so he probably wouldn't use low-tech moves like shooting guns.And the executioner who came to clear the scene should have received Arthur's order and would not do anything to Zhen Ai.

He doesn't have to worry about her safety for the time being.

But even though he didn't know the group of people talking and laughing at Yanyan in front of him, he didn't want to watch them die in front of him.

The writer asked: "Did you only see the owner of the castle once in the past 5 years?"

The butler nodded: "People say that this castle is cursed. After the master heard about it, he probably regretted buying this place and never came again."

The actor frowned: "Does anyone still believe in curses?"

The model felt that the butler was talking big, and thought that he would really play tricks in order to develop this place into a tourist attraction. She asked arrogantly, "What curse is there on the castle?"

The butler didn't answer directly, but asked, "You should all have heard of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in Celtic mythology, but perhaps you haven't heard of the legend of Silverland. It is said that the knight Lancelot who betrayed King Arthur back then lost his silver sword. In this sea area, it has become a steep island and reef. The king's magician Merlin once cast a black curse on his sword: kill the traitor. Therefore, everyone who comes to this castle must go through a test..."

Zhen Ai couldn't help but clenched her knife and fork tightly. When she heard the word "arthur" again, even though she knew that it wasn't the Arthur she knew, her heart skipped a beat.

The last time I saw him was in the underground corridor of the Maple Street Bank, his face was handsome and pale, and he closed his eyes and fell into the ruins.She quickly called the police, but he managed to escape.She should know that no one can catch him.

Zhen Aiqiang kept her composure, thinking that it was just a myth familiar to the West, and there was nothing to make a fuss about, but what the housekeeper said next made her heart drop into the ice cellar.

"Every traitor like a knight of Lancelot must be eradicated."

Everyone turned pale, except Yan Su.

He glanced at Zhen Ai lightly, seeing her staring at the plate in a daze, seemed uneasy, and then realized that the words might imply something he didn't know, which was related to the organization.

The maid who had been sitting quietly said "Ah" and patted her head shyly: "I almost forgot, the master ordered to invite guests to appreciate the patterns on the teacup holder."

Everyone followed suit, but it was not a pattern, but a line of letters.

NQQDNZHWWTDWLTQWC
Yan Su narrowed his eyes slightly, obviously it was the password.

It is estimated that all members of the organization have keys, so the meaning can be seen quickly.

Although he didn't have the key, he also analyzed the prototype through the efficient frequency of the brain in a few seconds, but reversed the original cipher table on the basis of the Caesar cipher.The password translation is——

KILL ONE OR BE KILLED Kill someone, or be killed.

He narrowed his eyes and became angry silently.

This is the way to organize a clearing?Let the people present suspect each other and kill each other through instructions and intimidation?

If that was the case, Zhen Ai would not be safe anymore.

Everyone was pretending to appreciate it but was actually seriously analyzing the password, and they all kept smiling skillfully and nervously.

With a crisp sound of "bang", the actor's teacup fell into the plate. She froze for a moment, and immediately concealed the panic on her face. Shi Shiran stood up with a smile: "I'm not feeling well, where is my room? I want to go first..."

Before the words fell, there was a sudden thunder and lightning outside the window, and the rumbling thunder resounded through the sky.The people present were shocked, and at the same time, the wires in the house caught fire and plunged into darkness.

In an instant, the white lightning pierced the dark restaurant like a sharp blade, shining and then suddenly black.

The screams started.

At that moment, Zhen Ai saw everyone, all the wax figures, under the gloomy white light and lightning, with the same expression, as if they had become the same face, horrified and distorted.

She also understood the password, her whole body was cold, and before she had time to react, someone grabbed her wrist violently, and she slammed into that familiar and warm embrace all at once.

Instant peace of mind.

In the darkness, people around were screaming and cursing, only he quietly held her in his arms, wrapped her head around her head, and pressed a kiss on her temple.

He held her tightly in his arms, and that kiss was worried about her safety, afraid of losing her.From now on, at any moment, he will not let her out of his sight, absolutely not.

She hugged his waist tightly, buried her head in his neck, and closed her eyes gently.His pulse in her ears was steady and strong, and she suddenly felt so sad that she wanted to cry: she shouldn't have come, she shouldn't have been involved in this crisis.

The story of King Arthur told by the master through the mouth of the butler, and the key to the string of Caesar ciphers...

Some of the people present may have come to hunt for treasure, but she was sure that at least one person here knew her true identity.

Su Yan must be dangerous, what should I do?
The butler ignited the lighter with a whoosh.The flames danced in the darkness, reflecting his cold face like a ferocious ghost.

The maid's voice changed: "Mr. Housekeeper, you are so scary."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The butler dumbly moved the lighter away from his face, and the distorted and sinister face suddenly returned to its original rigidity.

The maid brought candles and lit them one by one.

Butler: "I'm sorry, I turned on all the lights today to welcome guests. The wires are probably too old. Just go and turn off a few areas."

The people around were terrified, and they always felt that the power outage just now was very strange.

The normally indifferent female model looked as pale as a ghost.

The actor scoffed: "Stopping the electricity also scares you like this?"

"The wax figure!" The model tried her best to smile, which was uglier than crying, "The wax figure is wrong."

On the dining table, the candlelight was flickering, and more than [-] figures were reflected on the red walls on both sides.Only then did everyone turn around to look at the wax figure, as if a dark wind was blowing...

The empty and expressionless wax figures still stood motionless, and their three-dimensional faces were even more eerie under the influence of candlelight and shadows.

The preschool teacher hugged herself and cried: "Racing driver, his wax figure is gone."

Everyone glanced over, there were originally 11, but only 10 remained.Everyone stared at the wax figure, and never felt that art would be as scary as it is now.Everyone's bodies were cold, as if they were confronting a group of strange corpses.

"No," the writer trembled, "it's not just a wax figure, but also, there is one person missing."

Only 11 of the 10 wax figures remain, each in the same lifeless pose as before.After the blackout, the wax figure of the race car driver that was supposed to stand between the actors and writers was gone.

The candlelight cast a huge shadow on the wall, only the torn hole was particularly obvious.

The boxer sat across from the racer, and immediately realized something was wrong. He touched his head and asked, "Who took the wax figure of the racer?"

No one answered.

Under the flickering candlesticks, the delicacies on the table were without light, looking ugly and dirty, like decayed animal and plant corpses.

There was another lightning flash outside the window, and the writer's face was extremely distorted under the white light: "Not only is the wax figure missing, but also, one person is missing."

Everyone's heart skipped a beat, and they hurriedly counted their heads.But there are so many people, I can't figure it out for a while.

The writer almost cried: "Doctor, the doctor is gone!"

Zhen Ai raised her head from Yan Su's arms, the doctor was clearly standing beside the kindergarten teacher.

The lawyer on the opposite side also said: "You are stupid, the doctor is standing there!"

The writer grabbed his hair, pointed at the opposite figure and shouted: "No, the doctor is dead!"

The room was dimly lit and dimly lit. The doctor stood with a pale face, a stiff posture, empty and terrified eyes, and opened his mouth as if to say something.A tiny knife was stuck in his chest, and the clothes near his heart were dripping with blood.

The preschool teacher backed away screaming and bumped into Zhen Ai; Zhen Ai supported her steadily, picked up the candlestick on the table and walked over.

The boxer on the other side nudged the doctor: "Hey, you're fine..." Before he finished speaking, the doctor fell straight backward like a stiff door.With a bang, his head hit the wall, his toes caught on the chair, his body straightened, forming a perfect triangle with the ground and wall.

Not a doctor, but a wax figure.

Everyone simply didn't know whether to be happy or terrified.

Holding the candlestick, Zhen Ai walked up to the wax figure, touched the "blood" and "knife" on its chest, and turned around: "The blood is ketchup, and the knife is a western knife."

After a few seconds of silence, the host threw the tablecloth on the table: "Who plays this kind of prank? Boring!"

"A prank?" The model glanced at him and sneered, "Where is the doctor?"

In the empty restaurant, everyone was silent.

The butler put the candlestick on the table: "Everyone has only one set of cutlery. Whose knife is on the doctor's wax figure's chest?"

Everyone checked one after another: "It's not mine."

Only the boxer stared at his plate and asked in a daze, "Where did my knife go?"

The actor sneered: "How old are you, still playing pranks?"

Boxer was in a hurry, and his voice was rich: "It's not me!"

The lawyer quickly smoothed things over: "Now is not the time to argue about this issue! Where did the doctor go?"

The host had a whim: "Maybe he is hiding with a wax figure of a racing driver?"

The kindergarten teacher suggested: "Should I go to him?"

"No need." Yan Su, who was always silent, said coldly, "He's in this room."

Everyone listened and looked around, but apart from the weird wax figure and themselves, there was no doctor.On the contrary, the dark shadow was reflected on the wall, and it was scary every time I looked back.

Zhen Ai hugged the candlestick and walked back to stand beside Yan Su,

Yan Su: "The windows of the restaurant are all locked, and there is only one door. There is a bell on the door. If he has gone out, the bell will ring. But except for the maid lady who went out to adjust the power just now, the bell never rang."

The actor smiled and tilted his head: "Mr. Logician is still smart."

Speechless, this kind of thing that can be figured out with toes is also worthy of praise?He looked at the men and almost ordered: "Pull the big dining table away."

The men raised the table with their hands together, and the long tablecloth slid across the carpet, revealing two straight figures.

On the carpet of blooming flowers, wax figures of racing drivers and real doctors lay flat and motionless.

Zhen Ai took a step forward, and the candlelight lit up two miserable faces.

The real doctor on the ground was the same as the wax figure just now, with a pale complexion, hesitant to speak, with a small knife stuck in his chest, which was smeared with a large amount of blood.

Boxer went over with a bad temper: "Don't scare people." He squatted down and shook the knife on the doctor's chest, "It really looks like it. How did it stick to it? You can't even pull it off..."

With a scream, he fell to the ground and stepped back again and again: "Really! Real knife, real blood."

(End of this chapter)