There was a constant spicy smell wafting through the pizza shop. When I inhaled it into my nose, my entire respiratory tract felt burning, a subtle but noticeable pain.
Brother Xiong looked at Luca and said nonchalantly, "Don't say this in front of the guests. The castle is a good place. It has a history of more than 300 years, which is older than our grandfather's grandfather."
He made a joke, but no one took it seriously.
Luca muttered, "Anyway, I feel uncomfortable when I get close to that place." He looked at the guests he had picked up and discussed with a playful smile, "I still have work to do in the afternoon. Uncle, the people have been picked up in Bana, which is only a few kilometers away from the castle. Look..."
He rubbed the area under his nose until it turned red. "There are just two of us. Maybe we can take a ride?"
"That's nothing, but Luka," Brother Xiong said seriously, "Don't forget that your grandmother's nursing home is cheap, and it was Sal who paid half of the fee for you."
Luca was embarrassed for a moment.
The confrontation between the two attracted the attention of others.
Among the newcomers, the blonde woman was the most outspoken and shouted out, "You seem to be talking about something we don't know. Castle? Is it Winter Castle?"
Brother Xiong gave Luca a stern look.
Luca tried to hide his mistake, and hesitantly explained: "Yes, well... the castle is built on a cliff, and my fear of heights makes me... feel oppressed."
The blonde was skeptical.
"Your pizza." The boss held the pizza in one hand and the chicken noodles in the other, "Your noodles."
The blonde woman picked up a piece of pizza and asked, "Italian pizza? Italian?"
The boss shrugged: "French."
“Do you know Winter Castle?” The blonde woman glanced at Luca deliberately.
The young man really became uneasy.
The boss's answer was casual: "Who doesn't know about Winter Castle in Bana?"
"Have you ever been to that place?"
The boss said, "I'm not interested in it. Do you want to order something else?"
"Two glasses of lemonade, please."
The boss brought out a jug of ice water and told them to help themselves.
The blonde woman took the initiative to talk to Jian Jing: "It seems you are going to the castle too?"
Kang Mucheng said: "Let's come to the wedding."
"Oh, so are you Melanie's friend, or Sal's?" she asked.
"Sal is my classmate."
"Really? What do you think of him?" The blonde woman lifted her hair and pretended to be investigating. "She's Melanie's sister. To be honest, I don't know the man she's going to marry at all."
She complained to the men she met: "Honey, this is really terrible."
"Melanie has the right to choose her own husband," her husband said. "Well, let's enjoy this wedding."
The blonde woman looked unhappy, but did not object and lowered her head to eat her lunch.
Jian Jing stirred the ice in the cup with a straw. She felt that she was a bit impulsive. She asked a question and forgot it before waiting for the answer. Her thoughts were in a mess.
But she said nothing, just snatched the last piece of pizza from Si Yingjie.
Lunch is over.
Brother Xiong discussed with Luca for a few words, and finally agreed to take his sister and brother-in-law to the Winter Castle together.
On the way, everyone introduced themselves to each other.
The blonde woman was called Kimberly and the bride was called Melanie, they were cousins. The man in the same outfit was obviously her husband, and they had been married for only a year.
Jian Jing asked, "Where are the bride's parents?"
"Poor Mela, her parents died shortly after she was born." Cousin Jin said, "She has lived with us since she was a little girl. We are like real sisters, but she has never seen her husband."
She pronounced the word "never" with great concern.
Kang Mucheng had to speak for his friend: "Leo is a good man, he is kind and responsible. I believe they will be a very happy couple."
Cousin Jin blinked, looking skeptical.
Her husband said: "Anyway, he owns a castle, money can solve a lot of problems, this marriage will definitely not be too bad."
The road to Winter Castle is not long. Leave the town and turn onto the small road up the mountain. After driving for about ten minutes, you can see the gray castle standing on the cliff.
Jian Jing couldn't help but exclaimed: "Go!"
This is so spectacular!
On the cliff in the distance, there is an amazing Gothic castle with white-gray walls, typical high spires, straight and majestic lines, and intricate and exquisite decorations. Just a stone's throw away is the boundless sea.
However, this alone is not enough to be amazing.
As the temperature dropped, water vapor from the sea continued to condense on the surface of the castle, freezing it into clusters of crystal-like shells.
A large number of irregular and sharp ice blocks covered the castle and the cliffs, like a cluster of huge white crystals, but because of the overlapping layers of opaque ice, light could not penetrate it, and the blurred shadows overlapped on it, like twisted and stagnant black shadows.
It's beautiful, spectacular, and weird.
No wonder Luca said he felt uncomfortable, he wasn't lying.
The car went around the road and slowly left the strange scenery. Gradually, the front of the castle appeared in front of everyone.
It became mundane.
The exterior wall is old. Although the style is still gorgeous, the reliefs have become dim and the colors of the columns have faded. It is no longer as luxurious as it used to be. All that remains is the thickness of history.
In short, it's not as stunning and bizarre as the back.
Xiong George drove the car to the door, pressed the doorbell, and the iron gate slowly opened to let them in.
Jian Jing was used to observing her surroundings closely. In winter, the grass and trees withered, and there was thick snow on both sides of the road, piled up like a white towel cake.
There were some black dead branches and bird claw marks left on the snow.
A young girl pushed the door open and said, "Uncle George, are there guests?"
"Little Mary." Bear George pushed open the thick wooden door with his hand. "Is Leo home?"
"In the study, as usual, and no one is allowed to disturb us," Mary answered. "But he told me that if any visitors came, I should show them to my room, where everything is clean."
George: "That's great, bet the guests are exhausted."
He said to the five guests, "This is Mary. Leo hired her to help in the castle. She is a capable girl. You can go to her if you need anything."
Mary, a pretty girl with red hair and slightly freckled cheeks, announced dryly, "There's a lot to do at the castle and not enough people - I hope you won't call the maid away."
After taking off her coat, her cousin Jin was about to hand it to her but withdrew her hand awkwardly.
Mary looked at Kang Mucheng and asked uncertainly, "Are you Leo's friend Kang?" Her pronunciation was not standard. "Are they your friends?"
Kang Mucheng nodded.
"Your room is on the third floor," she said. "Follow me."
After saying that, he turned and went upstairs, leaving Kimberly and her husband hanging there.
Si Yingjie commented in Chinese: "There is something."
Jian Jing couldn't help laughing.
"Watch your step." Miss Mary said in a cold but responsible manner, "The staircase is over a hundred years old. It's best not to trust it too much."
The stairs are steep, but the handrails and walls are covered with beautiful reliefs. Under the dim wall lamps, the statues appear white and dark, adding a unique beauty.
When we reached the third floor, the view became slightly brighter. There was a stained glass window at the end of the corridor in front. The stained glass window had a typical Chinese pattern. The red, green, yellow and blue light and shadows fell on the ground, which was gorgeous and colorful.
"This is the third guest room." Mary stopped, took a bunch of keys from her waist, and opened them one by one. "You are welcome to use any of them. The bedding is all new."
"Thank you very much." Kang Mucheng thanked him.
Mary's demeanor softened a little, she nodded, and hurried downstairs to meet the other two.
Si Yingjie opened the doors one by one and took a quick look around the rooms: "They are all about the same, just stay here quietly."
Jian Jing was not polite: "Okay."
The room is not particularly large, about 30 square meters. In addition to the typical European four-poster bed, there is also a wardrobe, a chair, a desk, and a very typical and practical fireplace.
A real fireplace, with a fire rack lined with split oak logs and a masonry flue above, and a set of fire tongs, a shovel, and a small broom in the corner.
A beautifully crafted fire ring is placed against the wall, ready for use at any time.
Jian Jing struggled to resist the urge to light it and give it a try.
There was an arched window on the wall beside the bed, tightly closed, with an icy cliff outside. From this angle, the gray-white ice blocks intertwined, like the sharp teeth of a sea monster.
She took off her coat—although the castle was old, it was equipped with modern heaters, and the warm air blew down from the hidden corners, so it was not too cold—opened the suitcase, and simply packed some clothes.
Then go to the toilet.
Beautiful women also need to go to the toilet. Do people use the toilet on airplanes? !
The bathroom in the guest room is not big, and the tiles still retain the style of a hundred years ago. Fortunately, the bathroom facilities are modern, and the flush toilet and bathtub are brand new.
I took out my cell phone and, good, there was internet.
Kang Mucheng posted a new message in the three-person group: [Rest, dinner starts at 7 o'clock]
Si Yingjie posted an emoticon of a person soundly sleeping.
Jian Jing, same as above.
The chat records of their group basically follow this pattern.
Kang Mucheng was too lazy to correct them.
The long journey of more than ten hours was too much for even the strongest person to endure. The three of them were so tired that they went to bed at the same time.
The bed was unexpectedly soft. I sank into it and felt comfortable. But after a while, the overly soft mattress began to torment my spine.
Jian Jing didn't sleep well, always feeling uncomfortable. She couldn't stand the torture anymore, so she just sat up and wanted to change the mattress.
But at this time, the watch showed 17:23.
She slept for more than three hours, but it seemed like she had stayed up all night.
"Oh, it's so annoying!" She sat on the bed for a while angrily, then got out of bed and washed up unwillingly.
The water was very hot, so she washed her face, put on a facial mask, and put on a light layer of makeup. She changed out of the comfortable and loose sportswear on the plane and into a more formal gray woolen dress, paired with a pair of short boots.
The hair was randomly gathered up and made into a fluffy bun.
Put on the bunny ear clips and you're done.
She was worried that Si Yingjie and Kang Mucheng were still asleep, so she didn't knock on the door to call them and went straight downstairs.
Mary and George were not seen downstairs, nor were cousin Jin and brother-in-law Jin. There was only a man in a black suit sitting in the side hall smoking a cigar.
The two men met each other.
Jian Jing stood there, thinking: What was the name of the male protagonist in that vampire movie? The guy with skin so pale that it looked bloodless.
"Japanese people?" he asked.
Jian Jing: "Chinese."
"Sorry." He shrugged and changed his tone to a stiff neutral, "I can't tell the difference."
Jian Jing said: "You can speak English."
He immediately switched languages and it was much smoother: "You sound like a Japanese female singer." Then he hummed a part of "Riding on the Back of a Silver Dragon".
Jian Jing: “…”
People often say that she sounds like Akina Nakamori, but this is Miyuki Nakajima's song.
She really suspected that this person was face-blind.