Chapter 272 Tu You
Chapter 272 Tu You
"Angelica dahurica."
"Ok?"
"Have you ever thought about a question?" Ning Zhe buttoned up Bai Zhi's shirt, pressed the furry bear head on her head, and said, "As a player of the strange story, when we solve the mystery of the strange story and advance this game to 'clear the level', what will happen next?"
Bai Zhi opened her eyes wide and shook her head: "I haven't thought about it."
To outsiders, Bai Zhi's personality is very cold. She is friendly to everyone and doesn't want to say a word, like a crabapple flower without fragrance. But people who know her will know that Bai Zhi's coldness is just the beauty of distance. Because of intermittent amnesia since childhood, this girl often has blackouts in her brain. She is a little silly and timid, and seems to be easy to bully.
Bai Zhi is 19 years old this year. From her first nightmare at the age of 14 to now, she has never had the thing called "subjective initiative" in the past 5 years. Every time she curls up in a corner and hides herself, quietly waiting for the dream to end by itself. Her main idea is that if she does nothing, she will not make mistakes.
She had never thought of actively solving puzzles as a player, nor had she ever had the experience of exploring around in a dream like today. To be honest, it was a bit novel.
"Since you've never tried it before, why not give it a try?" Ning Zhe put on the bearskin coat for her, turned around and walked to the bed covered with a velvet carpet, opened the drawers of the bedside table one by one, and finally found the hand-drawn manuscript paper tied together with ropes at the bottom layer. It was the first version of the design drawing of Vanessa Castle.
"Let's go." Ning Zhe hung the corpse oil lamp around his waist, put the map on the bed, knelt on one knee, held the sword in one hand, and lifted the felt carpet beside the bed with the other hand.
The carpet blocked the dust, and the floor underneath the felt was obviously cleaner than other areas in the bedroom, but the grain of each wooden board was very complete, without any breaks, and there was no sign of anything strange.
Ning Zhe thrust his sword into the gap between the wooden boards and pried them with force. The thick fir board flipped up immediately, and the originally integrated wood grain broke neatly. When the lid was opened, a square entrance to a secret passage appeared in front of the two men.
"This is the secret escape passage that Grand Duchess Vanessa built for herself. It leads directly to the stable on the west side of the bell tower, so that she can just ride a horse and run away if she encounters any problems." Ning Zhe said simply.
Bai Zhi picked up the castle design on the bed and looked at it, feeling a little puzzled: "But this secret passage is not marked on the structural diagram... How did you find it here?"
"Of course, this secret passage was not included in the old design drawings drawn by Grand Duke Vanessa herself. She even killed the craftsmen who built this secret passage. After all, absolute confidentiality means absolute safety." Ning Zhe said nonchalantly, "But she lived hundreds of years ago after all. This castle was renovated later. The engineering team of the European government rediscovered this secret passage while repairing the castle and added it to their engineering drawings."
This secret passage was not marked in the old version of the design and can only be seen in the new version of the drawing.
"That is to say, if someone else was dragged into Vanessa Castle, even if he finally entered the castle lord's bedroom with great effort and found the initial design of the castle, it would be difficult for him to find this secret passage hidden under the floor..."
Bai Zhi folded the manuscript paper in her hand neatly again and said softly, "Unless they have seen the new version of the blueprint before coming in, or have extremely sharp reconnaissance ability and can forcibly find the entrance to the secret passage without the hint of the blueprint."
"The former is almost impossible." Ning Zhe shook his head.
The third major renovation of Fort Vanessa was a government project. The construction progress and specific project plans were not disclosed to the public. Although it was not top secret, ordinary people had no way of obtaining this information except for the internal staff of the construction company.
If it weren't for the background and connections of Marquis Van Dyke, even Ning Zhe would have found it difficult to obtain detailed information about Vanessa Castle.
Ning Zhe hung the sword on his waist, lit the corpse oil lamp, and walked down from the dark entrance. Below the secret passage was a steep staircase that went straight down. It was very narrow and could only allow one person to pass smoothly. Bai Zhi took the map, closed the lid, and followed Ning Zhe into the deep and narrow secret passage.
There was no light in the small space, and the air was filled with the smell of long-accumulated dust. In the dark environment, Bai Zhi always felt that something was following her. When she looked up, she saw Ning Zhe's not-so-tall back.
"Ning Zhe..."
"Ok?"
"Where are we now?" Bai Zhi asked in a low voice, "We came up from the second floor before. The banquet hall and guest rooms in the bell tower are so spacious, where is the space to hide such a long secret passage?"
Ning Zhe handed a small flashlight to Bai Zhi: "Take a look at the design drawings of the third floor of the clock tower. Do you find anything?"
Bai Zhi turned on the flashlight and followed Ning Zhe to carefully read the manuscript in her hand. She replied, "The walls of the bell tower are thick and thin. The thickest load-bearing wall is 3 meters thick, forming a "earth"-shaped structure, which constitutes the main frame of the entire bell tower. All the rooms on the third floor are distributed along this "earth"-shaped frame."
"Yes." Ning Zhe walked in front without looking back, and continued: "The thick ones are load-bearing walls, and the thin ones are isolation walls. Now take a look at the drawings of the first and second floors, and compare them with the drawings of the third floor. Do you find anything?"
Bai Zhi followed the instructions and soon discovered the trick: "The load-bearing structure of the first floor is in the shape of a Chinese character '由', which has more than one extra load-bearing wall compared to the Chinese character '土' on the third floor!"
"Yes." Ning Zhe nodded slightly, and then continued: "The city lord's bedroom is located in the upper right corner of the Chinese character '土'. According to the standard of north at the top and south at the bottom, we have been walking towards the bottom of the Chinese character '土' after coming down from the bedroom. According to this coordinate system, where are we now in the Chinese character '由'?"
Bai Zhi looked down and suddenly realized: "We are inside that extra load-bearing wall..."
Calculating the height, the two should be on the second floor now.
The doubts in her heart were resolved, and Bai Zhi felt as if the clouds had parted and the moon was shining. She turned off the flashlight, put the drawings in her arms, wrapped her bearskin coat tightly around her, and touched the wall next to her.
The stone bricks on the wall were slightly hot. It should be the banquet hall on the second floor that was set on fire by Ning Zhe. No one knew what it looked like now.
Thinking that there was a fire scene raging outside the wall, Bai Zhi only felt that the narrow and dark corridor in front of her was so quiet. Ning Zhe walked in front with a lamp, his steps were even and clear, as if nothing could stop him. He would only move forward, and move forward by any means necessary.
Suddenly, Bai Zhi staggered and almost fell on Ning Zhe's back.
"What's wrong?" Ning Zhe turned around quickly.
Bai Zhi grabbed Ning Zhe's hand, her face pale: "Yes, someone is pulling me from behind..."
(End of this chapter)