Chapter 3 3 Charlie's Castle Frozen in Summer Dusk 3
2204 Words
Zoe Miller held the diary in her hands as if a wave of cool air had leapt to the sky.
She took a deep breath and calmed down.
Charlie had said that a number of strangers had come here, probably all intruders like me, all of whom were currently unaccounted for, so it seemed likely that these two sentences had been left by previous intruders.
What the hell had they encountered and what had Charlie done to them.
Zoe Miller bit her finger anxiously, her eyes falling back to the cowl book.
Charlie had clearly written in his diary that he had let Tang Wuqing go. His feelings in his diary seemed so sincere, Zoe Miller preferred that what he wrote in his diary was true. Then why did he treat and do something very different to Tang Wuqing than he did to the others?
Of course, it's likely that Tang Wuqing was the only one who was first and special so he could leave safely, but after letting him go Charlie regretted it, and for the others who came next he was reluctant to let them go.
Can't just sit back and wait Zoe Miller , she said to herself, all she can do now is try to find clues in the castle, maybe there will be traces of other intruders. The sister seemed strange too, so she would have to try her again.
With that in mind, Zoe Miller stepped out of her room and asked the maid in the aisle for the information that Elizabeth usually stayed in the back garden.
She walked down the long corridor, asking questions and making turns, and finally found Elizabeth.
It had to be said that this castle was a bit too big for poor college students with little knowledge.
At the moment Elizabeth was sitting on a small patio in the back garden, in front of a small, elegant, white and gold-rimmed round table with a three-tiered refreshment stand and a set of cutlery.
Zoe Miller walked up, pulled out a chair and sat down, greeting Elizabeth, "Hi, are you the only one here?"
Elizabeth looks at her and doesn't answer.
Zoe Miller noticed that the plate in front of her was empty and there were no food scraps, so it was obvious that she hadn't eaten any of the treats.
"These treats look good, aren't you going to eat them?" Zoe Miller asked.
Elizabeth shook her head slightly.
There was a reaction.Zoe Miller cheered up.
"I came to ask, have you seen the man called Tang Wuqing?"
Instead of answering, Elizabeth reached for a piece of pastry and placed it on a plate, which was then pushed in front of Zoe Miller, along with the cutlery.
What was the meaning of this? You want me to eat the pastry?
Zoe Miller had never touched any food since she came to this world. Luckily, daytime and nighttime hunger were linked, she was quite hungry last night, then after eating during the day, she came back in this time, and her hunger disappeared with it. On the strength of not being hungry, she hadn't touched breakfast today either.
Zoe Miller, a little hesitant at the moment, simply asked directly, "Is the pastry poisonous?"
Elizabeth shook her head, indicating that it was not.
"Then is there anything in the pastry that shouldn't be there?"
Elizabeth finally spoke, her voice was psychic and beautiful, just not much emotion.
She said, "It's just a normal pastry."
Zoe Miller : "I eat this pastry and you can answer my question?"
Elizabeth nods.
Well, there is no other way, Zoe Miller casually picks up the pastry and eats it.
Elizabeth saw her finish it and finally agreed to answer her question, "I haven't met him, I've only heard of him."
"Heard?"
"Yes, heard... Charlie said."
Zoe Miller noticed that subtle pause in the middle.
"Who else have you heard about him besides Charlie?"
"And Charlie."
Well, that's not the same as not saying anything at all.
A strange feeling swept over Zoe Miller. A vague thought flashed through her mind, but it passed too quickly for her to catch it.
Zoe Miller asked, "And have you seen any other strange guests?"
"Seen."
"Do you know where they went after that?"
"Some of them were locked up by Charlie and locked up and disappeared."
"What about the others?"
Elizabeth said, "Two just came in the other day. There's another one in the basement right now."
The basement.Zoe Miller immediately set her sights on the next target to visit.
"Thanks a lot." Zoe Miller got the hint and was ready to leave, before she left she asked in passing, "One last question, why do you want me to eat the pastries before you will answer my questions?"
Elizabeth replied softly, "The last person who sat here and ate a pastry, died."
What! Zoe Miller was just about to get up when her form seemed to freeze.
Elizabeth's small face was looking up at her, "I wanted someone else to eat pastries with me, that's the answer. Are you done asking already?"
Zoe Miller said with difficulty, "I'm sorry, but I have new doubts. Who was the man who died? Did he die because of the pastries?"
Elisabeth's eyes fell on the cutlery in front of her, "The pastries were not poisoned, he didn't die from eating them. The man who died was my father."
"I should go," Elizabeth stood up, "Good luck."
With that she turned and left, her white dress fluttering lightly past Zoe Miller's eyes as she walked, and Zoe Miller seemed to see inconspicuous red marks on the white dress, as if it had been splattered with blood.
After Elizabeth left, Zoe Miller was left alone in the small courtyard. After a moment's hesitation, she reached for the table knife and hid it in her sleeve.
--
Zoe Miller went first to the first floor of the castle, where she vaguely remembered a study. Fittingly, she soon found a room with an open door, through which she could vaguely see the bookcases inside.
I hope Charlie isn't in there, she thought as she gently pushed the door open.
There was no Charlie inside, but there was a maid cleaning the tall bookshelves.
The maid saw her push the door in and asked, "Honoured guest, are you here to see His Majesty?"
"No, I just wanted to come in."
Zoe Miller had come here to find information about Elizabeth's father, and with that pastry acting as a blatant death flag, she could only put finding information about her father's death at the top of her priority list.
As luck would have it, there were portraits of people hanging in the study, and Zoe Miller stepped forward to examine them all. Each portrait must have been that of a former owner of the castle, with their era marked underneath.
Zoe Miller looks at them and finds that the most recent one dates from 1595-1612.
Zoe Miller asked the maid in the study, "Excuse me, what year is it now?"
Without thinking, the maid said, "It's 1685."
That's a long way off.
Zoe Miller continued, "Were there any other portraits here between 1612 and 1685?"
The maid replied respectfully, "There would have been a portrait of the last king, but his majesty ordered it taken down."
"And were there any books or notes left by him?"
"No, everything left by the old king has been cleared away."
Zoe Miller was a little undeterred, "Do you know how the old king died?"
The maid replied, "Rumour has it that he died of a sudden illness while sharing afternoon tea with the Queen and the royal sons."
Rumour has it that a sudden illness . . it was as if Zoe Miller had imagined the scene. The king and his family were enjoying the gentle sunshine and the scent of flowers in the courtyard, enjoying a delicious tea, and perhaps chatting comfortably about something.
And suddenly, something terrible happened, and the king died on the spot, while Elizabeth's white dress was splattered with blood.
After that, the royal family blocked the news, saying to the public that the king had a sudden malady, and then Charlie became the new king.
Zoe Miller couldn't help biting her thumb again, but there was no way of knowing what had happened, and how it might be connected to what had happened to Tang Wuqing.
Zoe Miller couldn't rummage around for clues because the maid was still there, so she just skimmed through the room and headed out.
Just as she stepped out into the corridor, Zoe Miller had a sudden feeling of dizziness. Having had this experience three days before, she immediately realised that it was an omen that she was about to return to the real world. With no time to think, she quickly pulled out the knife and carved charles into her arm.
She had just carved the second letter h when her eyes went black and she lost consciousness.
Her entire body disappeared into the corridor out of nowhere.
--
Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. The following morning, Zoe Miller awoke to a wave of pain.
She looked to her right arm, which had a messy few cuts on it that looked like they had been made by a knife. The cuts weren't very deep and were already scabbed over with blood.
The fact that there were cuts on her hand, but she had no recollection of them, meant something, maybe someone had broken into her home during the night, or maybe she was sleepwalking through something.
Zoe Miller immediately got up and checked the windows and the door, then the whole room. After going through the room three times, there was no sign of any intruder. There was no sign of an intruder. The room was exactly as she had seen it yesterday before she went to bed.
Then it was only possible that she had been sleepwalking. If it wasn't in the room, then where exactly did she injure herself? Zoe Miller was full of questions, but it was too late to think about it, it was time for her to go to her morning class.
After a full day of classes on Tuesday, Zoe Miller went to the mall near the school.
She went to buy a cheap security camera with simple instructions and easy to use instructions to view the video on her mobile phone. What's more, as long as the camera was connected to the usb port, it worked all the time. Unfortunately the picture quality of the video was a little worse.
I went home, set up the camera and pointed it at my bed. Zoe Miller then called a girl in her class called Emma, who was in the same department and year, and they had done group work together in a class last year, and Zoe Miller had taken her to do the work, and she had scored quite highly in the end. The two had been on pretty good terms since then, and this year they had also met up to take the same class at the same time slot, which was every Wednesday morning, which was tomorrow.
"Hello Emma, it's me."
Emma's crisp voice came through the phone, "What's up~"
"It's like this, tomorrow morning we're not going to be in class together, I'm afraid I won't be able to get up, can you call me in the morning to wake me up?"
"No way, no way," Emma said on the other side of the phone, "even our college bully can't get up one day?"
Zoe Miller laughed and said, "I'm serious, why don't you come see me first tomorrow? We can go eat a little ravioli from Northgate together before going to class."
"Sure, sure, I miss that little ravioli too. Then I won't see you tomorrow morning at 7:30 under your house."
The appointment was for Emma to meet her downstairs at 7:30 tomorrow morning, and if anything went wrong and Zoe Miller couldn't answer the phone, then Emma would be surprised and come to the door to see what was going on, and she might just be rescued.
Zoe Miller was on her own, so she could only take this kind of self-help approach, and she was too embarrassed to ask Uncle Yeung to knock on her door early tomorrow morning to check her situation.
Then Zoe Miller closed the window again and locked the door behind her. She had thought of keeping a knife by her side for protection, but for the time being, considering the possibility that she might have hurt herself while sleepwalking, she did not take a knife.
After washing up, Zoe Miller sat down on her bed and picked up a professional book to read. That's right, she wasn't going to sleep for a while tonight first.
The clock slowly turned to 2:00 a.m. Zoe Miller could only feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, it was time to go wash her face. It's time to wash my face, she thought vaguely.
The book in her hand slipped silently and she didn't even notice. She was asleep.
- Writer
