"I hate this kind of long and endless corridor." Lin Huai held up the candlestick and illuminated the depths of the corridor, "Every time I see it, I think of rustling in the dark..."
Chu Tianshu: "A ghost?"
Lin Huaixu narrowed his eyes and said, "No, cockroach."
The corridor was covered with carpets with complicated patterns. Lin Huai took a step and felt that something was wrong with the people around him. He turned his head and saw that Chu Tianshu was looking at him with his hands on his head and beards.
Lin Huai:?
Chu Tianshu: "Swish, swish."
... Lin Huai slapped Chu Tianshu, who was grinning badly, against the wall. Chu Tianshu was chirping behind him, while Lin Huai looked at the depths of the corridor without emotion, and said with a click: "What time is it, and we still have to play hide-and-seek..."
"That's right, it's a game of peek-a-boo."
Light laughter sounded overhead. Lin Huai turned around, and a blood-red figure ran past with a chuckle.
"Chu Tianshu, did you see just now—"
Before Lin Huai finished speaking, his eyes were fixed in place motionlessly.
The man standing behind him...
Disappeared!
Instead, a piece of yellowed paper slowly fell from the air. Lin Huai stretched out his right hand and let the piece of paper fall on his palm.
The font on the piece of paper was slender and lonely, resembling the long legs of an ant, writing strange words.
"In order to become the most beautiful woman in the world, she decided to find the most beautiful dress for herself."
"The queen promised the whole country that whoever brings the most beautiful clothes to her will receive a supreme reward."
"She'll get everything she wants—even, to inherit her throne."
"But where is the most beautiful dress?"
"—A little tip about the fastest way to clear the level."
"What's this?" Lin Huai looked at the piece of paper strangely, "Game tips? Cheats for express clearance? And..."
Chu Tianshu, where did he go
"Is this separating us again? Or do you think I'm easy to bully, and leave me alone to bully?" Lin Huaixu pondered, "Well... this intermediate player is really weak, pitiful and helpless."
He was not worried about Chu Tianshu's safety at the moment, he just felt displeased at being despised.
until…
A pair of sticky and cold hands climbed onto his shoulders from behind—
And blindfolded his eyes.
Lin Huai didn't look back.
"Who are you?" he said.
"Congratulations on reaching the end of the mirror maze, this is the last level." A little girl's voice sounded behind him, thin and weak, "Shall we play a game?"
Unlike Chu Tianshu, Lin Huai respects the old and loves the young very much. He thought for a while about the possibility of throwing the opponent directly over his shoulder, and finally decided to be kind, and said, "What game?"
"Hide and seek."
"Why should I hide and seek with you?"
"Because the key you want is here with me." The little girl giggled, with an ominous tone in her tone, "Want to come and play?"
Strange noises gradually sounded in the originally silent corridor, as if they came from every room. In different rooms, there seemed to be different sounds of living, sitting and sleeping. At this time, the girl with a weird voice said in his ear: "I will hide in this corridor—maybe in a certain room, maybe in a certain corner. And you need to close your eyes. Find me in a corridor."
"You can't open your eyes or tell me to stop until you find me. You can knock on every door and ask the owner to see if I'm hiding in the room; Every corner until you find me, and yet—"
The girl's voice suddenly became eerie and strange, with a deep meaning.
"In any case, at any time, as long as you open your eyes before you catch me - the game will fail. Unless..."
"unless?"
"Did you see that note?" The girl smiled inexplicably, "Unless..."
"You can find, written on the note, the most beautiful clothes in the world."
Cold, sticky hands slipped from his shoulders. Before the countdown was about to start, Lin Huai's voice sounded flatly: "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?"
little girl:
"Since you said that as long as you catch you, you can get the key, is the key in your possession now?" Lin Huai said, "If that's the case..."
little girl:…
Lin Huai: "I'll catch you now, knock you out, and take the key away, so I don't have to play this boring game anymore?"
little girl:… ! !
"I'm just kidding," Lin Huai shrugged his shoulders in the perceivable speechlessness from the other party, and tilted the corner of his mouth, "I am a person who abides by traditional virtues, especially like to respect the old and love the young..."
He selectively forgot the facts about the few old ghosts he had beaten violently, and spread his hands and said, "It's boring to be idle anyway, why don't you come and play with you, but I still have a question to ask you—"
"—the other person who came with me, where did he go?"
"He's in the other mirror." The little girl's voice said, "If you say what he's doing now... Well, he should be playing with you..."
Lin Huai: "The same game?"
little girl:?
Lin Huai: "You guys are too lacking in service spirit. Do you even sell games wholesale?"
"Three, two, one, the game—start." The little girl twitched the corners of her mouth, "You can start—search."
…
Xia Xingye frowned as the ball of wool in his hand felt strange.
The gray clothes were still walking in front of him, talking carelessly, looking around. Xia Xingye glanced at him, but did not tell him about the change he felt just now.
—what was at the other end, tugging at the yarn in the path
Thinking of this, he closed his eyes, and the earrings on his earlobes gleamed scarlet.
A thick bloody smell spread from his side, and a blood-red figure stood quietly behind him.
——That was the boy in red who was taken in by him.
The gray clothes in front were still chattering, as if they were completely unaware of the changes behind them. Xia Xingye looked at his back gloomily, then turned his eyes to the mirror beside him.
—In the mirror, he and the boy in red were reflected.
However, the gray-clothed man who was walking in front of them was constantly talking...
There is no shadow!
Xia Xingye narrowed his eyes.
"Old Xia? Old Xia?" Seeing that there was no response behind him, the man in gray turned around, "What's wrong with you? Why don't you speak? Did you find something..."
What he met was a smiling face.
"I did find something interesting just now," Xia Xingye said softly, "Would you like to take a look?"
"come and see?"
Gray clothes seemed to be unsuspecting and walked towards him, looking in the direction he was pointing: "What's there? Why didn't I see anything..."
"I found out that you are a fake!"
A flash of scarlet blood flashed, and the gray-clothed man standing there was instantly crushed by this violent blow—without even having time to let out a scream.
The next moment, the boy in red retreated behind Xia Xingye, and the two quietly looked at the direction where the man in gray was standing.
— There were no corpses, no figures, no shattered mirrors.
nothing.
"It seems that we walked into the mirror unknowingly." Xia Xingye looked around and said softly to himself, "When exactly did we walk in? —Let's go."
He looked down at the ball of wool in his hand: "The Witch of Envy, Snow White, the red apple... let's go, let's go back to the place pointed by the red apple."
…
"Snapped!"
There was the sound of doors closing in the hallway.
The cold and sticky feeling completely disappeared, Lin Huai closed his eyes, feeling the breath of the breeze on his face.
"Hide and seek..." Lin Huai twitched the corners of his mouth, "Sigh, I never imagined that I would become so childlike at this moment without a childhood?"
He complained a few words, not aware of the fact that he is now in the form of a little girl, and did not realize at all how young, helpless and pitiful he looks now, who is blind and short.
At this moment, he can't see with both eyes, and what he can perceive is only the sense of touch of his ears and limbs. Lin Huai groped for a while, and finally hit the wall. He turned his head and heard a slight noise from a nearby room.
He tried to take two steps, but found that walking with his eyes closed was really inconvenient.
"Since Chu Tianshu is also clearing the customs, although I really want to sit down and wait for him to get the key back..." Lin Huai muttered, "But forget it."
—And the riddle on that note, the most beautiful dress...what the hell is it
He groped for the wall and took two steps forward. After a period of ups and downs, the tactile sensation under his hand suddenly changed—from a wall to a wooden door.
He seemed to be at a door.
Thinking of the sound of the door being closed that he heard before, Lin Huai paused and put his ear on the door.
The sound of sewing machines and a woman coughing could be heard faintly from the door. The pedal of the sewing machine beeped dully and repeatedly. After thinking for a while, Lin Huai knocked lightly on the door with his fingers.
"Knock knock."
The sound of the pedals of the sewing machine stopped, replaced by a woman's footsteps and an old man's inquiry.
"Who...is...outside...inside?"
"Excuse me, I'm playing a little game of hide and seek." Lin Huai closed his eyes, he couldn't see the woman, he could only hear that she didn't open the door, "Have you ever seen a little girl?"
The voice inside the door was silent for a long time.
"No... yes..." the voice in the door was numb, "only... saw... you."
"Oh, excuse me." Lin Huai replied kindly. When he heard that the woman hadn't opened the door, he added another question, "What's going on inside?"
"Here... here... is... the queen's... tailoring room..." The old woman's voice was still dull, "I am tailoring... for... the queen..."
"Oh good." Lin Huai said empathetically, "Keep busy."
The most gorgeous clothes in the world...the most gorgeous fabrics...this thing, there is nothing good to hear.
not to mention…
Just now when he got close to the door, Lin Huai smelled a very strange smell of blood.
—The smell of blood from the tailoring room.
He was about to leave the room when he heard a woman's voice coming from the room again.
"Come... all... come...," the woman said slowly, "won't you come in and have a look...?"