Chapter 191 Naught Vivian 05

Chapter 191 Naught Vivian 05

Bluebeard's Villa.

Qin Fei still wore a maid's dress, standing straight beside the tall horse, making him appear particularly slender and frail.

He stared at the text on the invitation, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

In the hints of "Naughty Vivian," three fairy tales were mentioned.

Several beautiful princesses knocked on the palace gates in the rain;

This corresponds to "The Princess and the Pea."

A cruise ship capsized in the vast ocean;

This is likely "The Little Mermaid."

The noble Duke Bluebeard, with his beautiful wife, boarded a carriage racing through the rain;

This one was even more obvious, directly mentioning the story's name in the hint.

Qin Fei was one hundred percent sure that before entering the strange tale, he had seen Lu Cheng being sucked into it first after touching the girl's magic wand.

And NPC Brown had almost held the little girl in his arms; he couldn't have escaped this fate either.

Three players corresponded to the three parts of the fairy tale book, each assigned one part to complete before they could leave.

Qin Fei had always believed this to be true.

Now, could it be otherwise?

A strange expression flashed across Qin Fei's eyes. He suddenly became a bit worried, thinking he couldn't possibly be so unlucky that the first strange tale he got involved in could count as three...

The grass in the fairy tale world was lush and green, with colorful mushrooms growing among the greenery. The wind carried the scent of flowers.

The chestnut-colored horse snorted impatiently. The maid mounted the horse and nudged its sides with her legs.

"Go—"

Her wide skirt fluttered in the wind as the figure of the rider and horse gradually disappeared into the distance.

...

Riding from Pea Castle to Bluebeard's Villa took three and a half hours.

Qin Fei had some experience with equestrianism in real life, but his skills were not proficient, merely for fun, allowing him to walk a few laps around the riding arena.

But now, he was in a fairy tale world.

As a princess who couldn't sleep due to a tiny pea, Qin Fei inexplicably mastered horse-riding skills and used them skillfully.

The closer he got to his destination, the gloomier the weather became, and the thicker the fog grew along the road.

In the distance, the outline of a house appeared vaguely in the thick fog.

Qin Fei dismounted, holding the reins, and slowed down as he approached.

From a certain moment on, the beautiful world of birds and flowers along the way had completely changed. An unsettling heaviness hung in the air, and the gray fog was so dense it seemed to drip with moisture.

Qin Fei's skirt became heavy, so he had to wrap it up above his knees to walk more easily.

On both sides of the road leading to Bluebeard's Villa, many tall pines were planted, their branches bare without a single leaf, yet many crows perched on them.

The crows stared intently at the maid's back, their obsidian-like eyes glowing eerily.

They opened their orange-red beaks and sang:

"Do not knock on that door!"

"Do not look into that mirror!"

"Duke Bluebeard watches you in the dark, oh, watches you!"

"If you must enter that house, please knock."

"On odd-numbered days, knock three times, oh, three times!"

"On even-numbered days, knock four times!"

"Once it's the weekend, stay away immediately!"

After finishing their song, the crows flapped their wings and flew off the branches, their black eyes flashing with a malicious red light. They stared fixedly at the person below and began singing another song:

"No one can escape! No one can escape!"

"Oh! Bluebeard, and his wives!"

"Capture them all, rip out their hearts and livers! Chop off their heads! Boil them into a pot of soup—"

"Cackle, cackle, cackle—"

After singing all their songs, the crows laughed maliciously.

Qin Fei: "?"

"Why can crows talk?" The maid blinked and hesitated, looking up.

There was no trace of fear on her pretty face. She stared at the nearest crow for a while and muttered to herself, "Did I get it wrong? Is this actually a myna bird?"

The audience in the live stream: "…"

"Are the crows looking a bit unhappy…?"

"My wife is really brave; oh my god, I'm starting to get scared. The crows won't fly down in anger and peck his brains out, will they?!"

"Hilarious. If the crows could change their expressions, their faces would probably be green by now."

"Crow (grabbing and shaking shoulders): Listen to me! Listen to me, ah! Respect me a little?!"

"Hahaha, shaking shoulders doesn't work either. My beautiful wife is fearless and unafraid of anything!"

Princess Feifei was indeed fearless.

A few crows trying to create an eerie atmosphere were not worth worrying about.

However, the crows' songs were not entirely worthless. At the end of the first song, the crows sang, "Knock three times on odd-numbered days, four times on even-numbered days."

Qin Fei had already led the horse through the dense pine forest and stood in front of the villa's gate.

Up close, this villa looked more like a prison than Pea Castle. The walls were entirely black, and the gate was made of thick steel plates. Qin Fei tried pushing it but couldn't budge it at all.

The windows were also welded shut and sealed with steel bars from the inside, allowing no light to enter the villa.

Today was Friday, an odd-numbered day.

Qin Fei raised his hand and calmly knocked three times on the gate.

What would happen next—?

Creak.

An ear-grating sound echoed.

Under the tense gaze of the live stream audience, the steel gate slowly opened a crack.

A bright red eye suddenly appeared in the gap!

"Holy shit!!"

The system used its old trick again, shocking the audience with a sudden close-up.

Some spirits cheered excitedly, while others cursed loudly.

Amidst the chaos, only the player in the center of the screen remained calm.

The sudden appearance of the red eye in the gloomy door crack could easily leave a psychological scar, but Qin Fei neither fled nor attacked.

He stared at the eye for a moment, then opened his mouth and shouted a name that surprised everyone.

"…Brown?"

The eye behind the door quickly retreated and then suddenly approached again. Brown's excessive excitement caused him to lose control, and he slammed into the door, creating a deafening noise.

"Lyle!! Mr. Lyle—Miss Lyle!!"

Brown pushed the door open wider, squeezed out, and tightly grasped Qin Fei's hand.

This was the name Qin Fei had given to hide his identity in the haunted hotel.

When Qin Fei first wore this outfit to the pre-game gathering, he had casually made up this name to fool Butterfly, and continued using it after the scenario began.

Seeing Brown in Bluebeard's villa was undoubtedly good news for Qin Fei, indicating that he didn't have to face three complete ghost stories alone.

The moment he saw Brown's appearance, Qin Fei understood the role Brown played in the ghost story.

Brown himself was a thin, short-haired young man, but now he sported an exaggerated head of curly blonde hair. His layered evening gown was so voluminous that he couldn't get within half a meter of Qin Fei.

Unlike Qin Fei, although Brown was also pale and slim, he bore no resemblance to a woman. The elaborate dress did nothing to enhance his appearance, instead making him look somewhat comical.

"A cross-dressing master." Qin Fei crossed his arms, smiling slightly as he observed him. "Duke Bluebeard sure has good luck with women."

"Stop teasing me," Brown sighed bitterly. "This damned ghost story is driving me crazy!"

The pitiful NPC helplessly tugged at his hair.

"Is Bluebeard in the villa?" Qin Fei asked the most pressing question.

"No, I'm the only one here," Brown shook his head. "I've been in the ghost story for two days and haven't seen Bluebeard. He left a note on the dining table saying he'd return on the weekend."

Qin Fei nodded.

Bluebeard's absence meant that the villa should be relatively safe until midnight tonight.

"Did you come from somewhere else? Have you cleared one ghost story already?" Brown led Qin Fei into the villa.

The villa's gate slowly closed behind them, blocking out all light.

The lights inside the villa were off, with only a row of wall lamps hanging on the walls. These lamps were small and emitted very weak light, barely illuminating the path.

Brown explained, "I found a clue in the villa's electrical room that said, 'They hate bright lights,' so I turned off the main lights."

Before turning off the main lights, Brown felt a constant sense of being watched whenever he walked around the villa, as if something was silently following and observing him. But when he turned around, he found nothing.

After turning off the lights, the feeling of being watched disappeared. Although the villa felt eerie and haunted, it strangely provided some comfort.

Brown led Qin Fei to the kitchen, poured him a glass of water, and handed it to him. "At the beginning of the ghost story, I heard a prompt to fill in the details of a fairy tale."

The story of Bluebeard was, of course, one that Brown had heard before.

Coincidentally, when the eerie tale began, a hardcover book lay on the sofa beside Brown. It contained the very story of Bluebeard.

Brown immediately opened the book and began to read aloud.

A wealthy nobleman lived in a remote mansion. He had married many beautiful wives, but they all died young.

He took another new wife.

Not long after their marriage, Bluebeard had to go on a distant journey. Before leaving, he handed his wife a set of keys.

"There are ninety-nine rooms in this villa, and these keys can open all the doors. You will find silverware, jewelry, books, beautiful clothes and shoes, stunning scenery... you can find everything you want in the rooms of the villa."

"Except for this key," Bluebeard pointed to the smallest and most unremarkable key on the large keyring. "You absolutely, absolutely must not use this key to open any door."

After giving these instructions, Duke Bluebeard left.

At first, the new wife lived happily alone in the villa, but as time passed, she could no longer contain her growing curiosity.

The woman discovered that the keyring Bluebeard had given her had not just ninety-nine keys, but one hundred.

The hundredth key—the one her husband had repeatedly warned her never to use—corresponded to a room located in the attic of the villa.

One day, two days passed, and the woman finally approached the attic.

She used the small key to open the attic door. The moment the door swung open, she saw a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.

"The story in the book ends here," Brown said, leading Qin Fei back to the hall and showing him the storybook.

"After I finished reading the story, nothing happened. I suspected it might be because the story had no ending, so I added one myself."

There are several versions of the ending of "Bluebeard." The most common version is that the woman, in the small room, saw the dismembered bodies of her husband's dozen or so previous wives.

In her panic, she accidentally dropped the key on the floor, which got stained with blood that she couldn't remove no matter what she did.

"I recounted all the possible endings I could think of: she was discovered by her husband and killed, or she killed Bluebeard, or she died directly in the small room in the attic..."

None of them worked.

The eerie tale continued.

"What happened next?" Qin Fei asked.

Brown replied, "Then, I started searching for clues in this castle."

He found a note left by Bluebeard on the dining table, informing Brown that the "newlywed wife" Duke had business to attend to and would return only on the weekend.

"Beside the note was a keyring, exactly as described in the story, with a total of one hundred keys."

Brown held out his palm, revealing the keyring in his hand.

The large keyring filled his entire palm, all the keys were brand new and shiny silver, except for one, which was smaller than the others and made of rusty black iron.

"And," Brown added, "besides the return time and the keys, there was another sentence written on the back of the note."

"Dear Madam, I need your help with something. Please find my favorite painting in the villa and make sure it is there when I return on the weekend."

Brown felt overwhelmed: "Who knows which painting is his favorite?"

"I opened all ninety-nine rooms in the house."

Brown's face was full of despair.

"Oh God, why are there so many paintings in this house!!"

Bluebeard's house was large, with no locked rooms on the first floor. In the center of the hall was a spiral staircase, and the two of them walked up one after the other.

"There are thirty-three rooms on the second floor," Brown explained. "Thirty-three identical bedrooms."

He matched the numbers on the keys and opened the first bedroom.

The room was lavishly decorated, even more so than Pea Castle. Thick carpets covered the floor, the wallpaper had intricate patterns, and the bed was neatly made.

The curtains in the room were vintage dark green. Qin Fei pulled them aside and, as expected, saw windows barred with steel bars.

Something in this house hated light.

But Bluebeard was not at home.

So, who could hate light?