Players, Please Board the Train

”What a pair of lunatics.” After the Ma couple left, the Baby-Faced Man came over to Xu Huo and whispered.

Xu Huo calmly finished his breakfast without any change in expression, said ”Excuse me,” and left the dining room.

He wasn’t in a hurry to wander around outside, but instead stayed in the corridor looking at the portrait of the castle’s master, He Pu.

Although the person in the portrait wore European-style clothing, his features were close to Asian. The castle’s butler and servants were also all Asian, and the decorations in the castle also showed traces of Chinese feng shui.

The butler passed silently behind him, and Xu Huo stopped him, ”How long has Mr. He lived here?”

He had only asked casually, but unexpectedly, the butler gave an unexpected answer: ”Five years.”

Xu Huo turned around and seriously examined this completely expressionless butler, then asked, ”Is Mr. He free to see me today?”

”That I don’t know.” The butler showed no intention of talking further with him and quickly left. Xu Huo originally wanted to ask him to introduce the plants in the castle but was refused, being told that another maid would be arranged to guide him instead.

The other players had already begun searching inside and outside the castle. Xu Huo walked through the spacious corridor straight to the third floor, but unexpectedly, he was thwarted right at the first room door after stepping onto the stairs. A woman with a stern face came out of the neighboring room, holding a laundry basket and looking at him severely, ”The master doesn’t like outsiders entering the rooms on the third floor. Guests can only move around on the first and second floors. Please leave the third floor immediately.”

”I said this to all guests yesterday.”Xu Huo’s expression remained calm, ”I arrived at midnight. You forgot to tell me about this.”

The maid’s face darkened, still very displeased, pressing aggressively, ”Even if no one reminded you, is it reasonable for a guest to casually enter the host’s rooms?”

”Didn’t you say we could visit freely?” Xu Huo said, ”Besides, this room uses low-quality paint on the door, so it probably doesn’t contain anything too valuable, right? Is there a problem with looking?”

”Not on the third floor!” The woman stepped closer to the door, smelled the scent, and her long face fell, ”Mr. Dong bought the wrong paint again? The castle receives many freeloading guests every month, do we still need to save money on this? He’s a butler, doesn’t he care about the master’s face at all?”

Though she said this, she watched Xu Huo go downstairs before hurriedly going to find the butler, Mr. Dong.

After Xu Huo went down to the second floor, he went to the study at the end. When he arrived, someone was just coming out—it was the Baby-Faced Man and the Dark-Faced Man.

The Baby-Faced Man was talking to the Dark-Faced Man, ”...Looks quite rich, but doesn’t even clean the study. Spiders are everywhere in the corners, disgusting things!”

The three met face to face. The Baby-Faced Man didn’t look pleased, while the Dark-Faced Man nodded at him.

Passing by each other, Xu Huo entered the study.

The study’s collection of books rivaled a small library. The entire oval-shaped wall was fully embedded with bookshelves, with several rows of freestanding cabinets in the middle, all filled with books sorted by catalog, some of which had already been messed up.

Probably to allow guests to browse, books related to the castle were all placed on the low cabinet by the entrance. Besides mentioning the castle’s construction background and architectural style, there were also the names of previous owners. The castle’s current owner was named He Pu, who purchased this estate fifteen years ago and was also granted the title of baron.

Xu Huo’s finger paused on the ”fifteen years,” then he put down the book and found a photo album from the cabinet.

Besides landscape photos and some photos with celebrities, there was a group photo of He Pu and the butler Mr. Dong standing in front of the castle at the beginning of each year, continuing until five years ago.

Five years ago also happened to be when Rose Castle stopped being open to the public.

”Knock knock.” The study door was knocked.

”Come in.” Xu Huo put down the photo album, picked up a history book, and walked to the window, looking up just in time to see Mr. Dong directing servants to trim the flower walls of the garden maze.

A young maid brought black tea and desserts. Seeing him looking at the maze, she said, ”Sir, are you also interested in the garden maze? Why not go down and take a walk? But it’s best to look from the outside. Just now, several guests went in and had to be led out by Mr. Dong.”

Xu Huo took a sip of black tea, ”Can’t we enter the maze?”

”That’s not it, it’s just that the maze is too big. Once a worker got injured and fainted inside, and it took two days to find him, almost causing an accident. After that, Mr. Dong only lets people trim the outer walls.” The maid said, ”If you want to go in and look, I need to tell Mr. Dong in advance. Only Mr. Dong knows the way inside.”

Xu Huo nodded and asked again, ”Why are there so many spiders in the castle? Is there some special reason?”

The maid smiled slightly, ”The spiders in the castle were all raised by the master before. After the master got sick, he didn’t like to fiddle with them anymore and didn’t take care of them much, but they don’t hurt people, and where there are spiders, there are fewer other bugs. We’re all used to it.”

”I see that female butler doesn’t seem to like them.” Xu Huo said.

”Female butler?” The maid was surprised, then suddenly understood, ”You mean Hu Shan.”

”Rose Castle only has one butler, and that’s Mr. Dong. Hu Shan is Mr. He’s personal maid. Since the master got sick, she has been taking care of his daily life, so she... is quite strict.” The young maid seemed somewhat embarrassed.

”So that’s how it is.” Xu Huo sighed with emotion, ”Then she’s practically a female butler.”

After saying this, he sighed again while looking at the garden maze outside, ”Such a beautiful castle must have had many visitors in previous years.”

The young maid wore an expression of shared pride, taking out a photo album from a drawer, ”These are photos taken in previous years. Many political celebrities and movie stars came. But I came late and didn’t see that grand spectacle.”

Xu Huo had already looked at the photo album earlier. He took it, flipped through a couple of pages, casually asked a few more questions, then sent her away.

One trip to the study yielded quite a few scattered pieces of information, with the more crucial one being the time node of five years ago.

Five years ago, the castle’s master, He Pu, fell ill, faded from public view, and closed the castle.

Also five years ago, the castle likely changed a batch of servants. At least, most of the servants he saw in the photos entertaining flower-viewing guests were not seen in the castle.

Additionally, He Pu and Mr. Dong stopped taking group photos five years ago, and Mr. Dong didn’t avoid mentioning this point. It was unclear whether this was meant to mislead or hint at something.

One of the game tasks, ”The Vanished Guests,” could refer to guests who disappeared before, or it could refer to players in this dungeon who haven’t disappeared yet. As for the second task, the truth probably doesn’t just mean pointing out the culprit who made the guests disappear—otherwise, the answer would be too simple.

The key to the task should still lie in the castle’s secret.

After brief consideration, Xu Huo left the study and went downstairs.

At this time, apart from the Ma couple resting in their bedroom, the remaining nine people were gathered in the first-floor hall.

The servants had been sent away. After confirming no one was eavesdropping nearby, the Dark-Faced Man said to the others, ”I know there are Player-Eaters participating in this task. I’ll be brief. Regardless of what kind of player, if you fail to clear the dungeon, you won’t get the train ticket or return ticket. So we’re all in the same boat now. Only by cooperating can we complete the task within the allotted time.”

”Cooperation is no problem,” the tall, thin man opposite said, ”But this game doesn’t clearly specify whether it’s cooperative or individual task submission. I think the possibility of individual task submission is higher. In that case, the worst outcome is that everyone has to find one ’vanished guest.’ Even if the first task can be submitted repeatedly, how do we ensure sharing answers?”