Players, Please Board the Train

Madame Butterfly was not surprised by this answer, she simply said, ”You’re all weird people.”

The two had already reached downstairs, where Duke Tal was drinking tea in the parlor. Seeing Xu Huo, he said, ”Don’t keep those spiders anymore. Who knows if they’re poisonous? I couldn’t sleep well all last night. Young people inheriting things from their elders don’t have to inherit strange hobbies along with them.”

”Those were my uncle’s beloved things, I can’t dispose of them arbitrarily. However, I don’t really like spiders either, so I plan to build a butterfly pavilion in the ancient castle, specifically for raising butterflies,” Xu Huo replied.

Duke Tal put down his teacup. ”That’s a good idea. Do you know how to raise them?”

”I know a little.”

”That’s perfect then. I also want to build a butterfly pavilion. Don’t bother with yours, come and help me with mine instead,” Duke Tal said, turning his face to ask Madame Butterfly, ”What do you think of my idea, Madam?”

”Great. Can I see it today?” Madame Butterfly smiled covertly.

”Yes!” Duke Tal immediately replied, ”They raise a lot over at the nature park. I’ll have someone catch some.”

”Putting them in bottles isn’t interesting. Why don’t we go see them instead?” Madame Butterfly said, ”It just so happens I’d also like to visit Duke’s home.”

The smile that had just appeared on Duke Tal’s face froze. ”My home is undergoing renovations right now, I’m afraid it can’t receive guests.””What should we do then?” Madame Butterfly said, ”I’ve already checked out of my hotel room, and I don’t want to stay in a hotel anymore either. There are too many people there, the air isn’t good.”

”How about going to my lakeside villa? The scenery there is excellent.”

Madame Butterfly looked at him with a half-smile. ”As a guest, I cannot visit the Duke’s home, but instead stay at your recreational villa. That doesn’t seem right, does it?”

Her words carried a special kind of pressure.

”It is inappropriate,” Duke Tal finally remembered she was also a player and changed his tune, ”Then, where would Madam prefer? I’ll have someone make arrangements.”

”This place is quite nice.” Madame Butterfly’s gaze swept towards Xu Huo, ”The new heir is so warm and hospitable, even coming to bring me an umbrella in the middle of the night. I like it here very much and plan to stay for a few days.”

Duke Tal stared at Xu Huo with an unfriendly look.

Xu Huo pretended not to understand, exchanged a few polite words, and invited them both to stay, for as long as they liked.

Duke Tal certainly wanted to, but then several phone calls came in. After dawdling for a while, he still left. Before departing, he instructed Xu Huo to take care of Madame Butterfly, limited to care in public places.

”He’s overthinking it. Not everyone likes an old cow eating tender grass,” Xu Huo said after seeing the man off, then turned back to look at the woman standing not far away. ”You were friends with He Pu, so your age probably isn’t small either.”

These words did not anger Madame Butterfly. She played with her fan, ”Don’t be nervous. I don’t want to kill you right now. I still need to stay here for a few days, killing you would be inconvenient. Butler Dong.”

Mr. Dong silently walked over.

”Please prepare a few cushions for me. I want to go read in the study on the third floor,” she said.

Mr. Dong replied, ”The third floor is the master’s private area. It does not receive guests.”

Madame Butterfly smiled, ”You can’t stop me even if I want to go.”

”You need to obtain the master’s permission,” Mr. Dong stated thus.

Madame Butterfly looked at Xu Huo, ”Tender grass, is it okay or not?”

Five minutes later, the two were already standing in the study on the third floor. Madame Butterfly casually flipped through some potion record notes that Xu Huo had taken out, ”These notes are all old.”

”The man has been dead for five years,” Xu Huo followed behind her, watching her stroll to the bookshelf, pull out a hardcover copy of ”Complete Collection of Fairy Tales,” flip to a certain page, and gently touch the place where the words ”key” were written. A brass key then appeared in her hand.

Xu Huo had searched this study more than once. He Pu’s death and the appearance of the fake He Pu were both strange. The most likely place in this ancient castle to hide secrets was the study, but he hadn’t expected them to be hidden in this way.

Madame Butterfly shook the key at him, ”Do you know where the other thing is?”

With a key, of course you need to find a lock.

Xu Huo walked to the middle of the bookshelf and pulled out a book titled ”Lock.”

”There are many books with the word ’lock’ in them. How did you know it was this one?” Madame Butterfly asked.

”Intuition,” Xu Huo answered perfunctorily.

Madame Butterfly didn’t mind. She placed the key on it, and a keyhole appeared on the originally intact book cover. As it turned, a ”click” sound came from somewhere in the study.

The two walked out from between the bookshelves to look, and a door had appeared in the floor behind the adjacent bookshelf.

”Mr. Dong’s ancient castle can hide many things. It counts as a container item, but the interior is very large. People can easily get lost walking inside. Follow me.”

Xu Huo glanced at her with slight surprise but didn’t say much.

Madame Butterfly crouched down to pull open the door, and the two walked down the descending stairs.

Behind the door was pitch black. Nothing solid could be touched on either side, only the path underfoot was real. After walking in the dark for a while, Madame Butterfly took out a glass floral lantern and propped it up to move forward.

It was unclear what markers she was using to navigate. After about ten minutes, a lit area appeared in the darkness ahead. There was a desk placed there, with a chair, a bookshelf, and a toy rocking horse beside it.

On the desk, there was only a desk lamp and a square box carved with an eye pattern.

Madame Butterfly touched the rocking horse’s head, then walked to the desk. She raised her hand to press on the square box, ”Don’t you want it?”

”This is clearly not meant for me,” Xu Huo said. Although he had inherited the ancient castle, what he inherited was vague. Madame Butterfly knew about this place, and when the door opened, Mr. Dong hadn’t appeared to stop her, tacitly approving her actions.

If he tried to snatch it, he might not be able to defeat this woman.

Madame Butterfly picked up the square box, her eyes fixed intently on the pattern on it. Xu Huo only looked at it twice before withdrawing his gaze and consciously walking to the side of the bookshelf.

The small bookshelf only held one thick photo album. He opened it to look and found it was full of news clippings about attacks on the Game Government and some video records of fires and explosions. Beside them were very detailed record sheets, noting the location, time, and casualties of each explosion attack.

Most of the attacks targeted Game Government offices or places closely related to the Game Government. The more Xu Huo watched these videos, the more familiar they seemed, until a capital letter ”V” appeared in the flames of a later burning video.

”V. Fanxiao, an arsonist maniac.” This sentence appeared with high frequency in the news clippings, especially as the later arson incidents all bore a special ”V” mark.

”V. Fanxiao.” Xu Huo pressed down on the photo album. This name was not unfamiliar to him.

His lighter was V. Fanxiao’s Tool of Crime. The item description mentioned that after his last crime, he completely vanished without a trace, leaving the arson tool at the crime scene. The Game Government never managed to uncover V. Fanxiao’s true identity. Unexpectedly, this photo album recorded everything in such detail, even including cases before the ”V” characteristic appeared.

Was He Pu actually V. Fanxiao?