The car fell silent, and everyone’s expressions turned strange.
Lucy laughed awkwardly twice, while Andre gave a cold snort. Clearly, neither of them believed the driver.
The driver burst into loud laughter. “Just kidding. How could we possibly eat merfolk? It’s only a local specialty fish.”
He drove smoothly and steadily to a stop in front of a building. “We’re here. The Wax Museum. Get out.”
After everyone got out of the car, the driver added, “Go on in and look around. When evening comes, call me, and I’ll pick you up for the mermaid-catching event.”
With that, he drove away.
Bai Liu stepped out and surveyed his surroundings.
Before him stood a building so tall that he had to tilt his head almost parallel to the ground just to see the top. On the roof, several cursive English letters spelled out its name:
[Siren Wax Museum]
[System Notification: Scene Unlocked—Siren Wax Museum]
The wax museum’s overall style was as dark and deep as the sea. Several thick granite columns supported the roof, and from where Bai Liu stood at the entrance, he could make out the indistinct silhouettes of numerous merman wax statues displayed inside.
The interior decoration of the Siren Wax Museum looked very new, but the exterior walls were somewhat dilapidated, built from layers of stacked red brick.
Those walls were plastered with old newspapers carrying missing person notices. A gust of wind blew one loose, sending it straight onto Bai Liu’s face.
Bai Liu peeled the old newspaper away.
The first thing he saw was a line of bold black text.
[Police Notice: Twelve people have gone missing in Siren Town this month. Anyone who has seen the missing persons shown in the photos below should report to the police immediately. Visitors traveling in Siren Town must pay attention to their safety, avoid playing with large fish, and beware of falling into the water.]
Below the notice were twelve black-and-white photographs. Everyone in them wore the bright, cheerful smiles of people who had just arrived in Siren Town for a vacation.
Yet to Bai Liu, those smiles on the yellowed old newspaper felt indescribably eerie.
After carefully reading the whole notice, Bai Liu folded the newspaper and prepared to put it into his bag. But after folding it twice, he suddenly noticed something wrong with the texture.
It was too hard.
For a newspaper, even one dried brittle by the sea breeze, it should not feel this stiff. It felt as though it was not only a single sheet of paper.
Bai Liu examined the newspaper from the side.
The cross-section was indeed thick, but there were no visible traces of separate pages. Most likely, the newspaper had been blown and pressed so tightly together by the wind that even if there were multiple layers, they could not be easily distinguished.
Bai Liu tucked the newspaper into his shirt, deciding to find some warm water after entering the wax museum and soak it to see whether the layers could be separated.
[Side Quest Triggered: Find a basin of hot water in the wax museum and separate the stuck newspaper. Reward: 10 points.]
The caretaker of the Siren Wax Museum was an old man with cataracts. His eyes were clouded a milky white, but strangely, he did not seem to have any difficulty seeing people.
The moment Bai Liu and the others walked in, the old man quickly tilted his head and looked over. His gaze was vacant, yet his wrinkled face wore a polite, standardized smile. The speed at which he moved toward them made Lucy let out a small gasp.
The caretaker’s expression was peculiar, tinged with a faint sigh.
“It has been a long time since anyone came here... Ever since people started disappearing last month, no tourists have visited the Siren Wax Museum. It has also been a long time since any new merman wax statues entered the museum.”
Hearing this, Bai Liu asked, “Why has it been so long since a new merman wax statue entered the museum? Does that have something to do with tourists not coming?”
“Of course it does.” The caretaker’s tone became excited, and he even waved his stiff old arms and legs. “If no tourists come, we rarely hold the merman-catching event. It is a large-scale activity that consumes both time and manpower. If no merfolk are caught, then we have no way to make...”
He stopped abruptly.
After that, no matter how they questioned him on the subject, he refused to speak.
“Does the Siren Wax Museum regularly receive new merman wax statues?” Bai Liu immediately changed the question. “The museum must have limited space, right? If you keep bringing in new wax statues, sooner or later there won’t be room.”
“No!” The caretaker’s mouth curled into a strange smile. His cloudy white eyeballs rolled in their sockets and fixed on Bai Liu. His tone turned mysterious. “For every new wax statue that enters this museum, an old wax statue leaves.”
“The Siren Wax Museum can never be filled.”
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly and continued, “Then where do the merman wax statues go after they leave the museum? Are they thrown back into the sea?”
The caretaker closed his mouth, seeming to realize he had said something he should not have.
But Bai Liu keenly pressed on. “What happens after the tourists arrive?”
“Nothing happens,” the caretaker muttered. “You will spend a pleasant holiday in Siren Town, and then you will leave this place.”
When Bai ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Liu tried asking again, the caretaker refused to say another word.
After confirming where the hot water room was, Bai Liu gave up on coaxing more information from him. He took the tickets, led the group behind him, and walked into the Siren Wax Museum.
As soon as he entered, Bai Liu saw a majestic gold-painted wax statue of a middle-aged man standing at the entrance.
It was a humanoid wax statue in a suit and hat, completely different from the merman wax statues Bai Liu had seen before. It had no fish tail. Its entire body was painted gold, and it wore an official smile while waving at the tourists entering the museum.
The lights inside the wax museum were very dim. The light falling from the ceiling cast blurred shadows across the statue’s face, distorting its polite smile.
A brief introduction to the statue was engraved on the black stone pedestal beneath it.
Bai Liu leaned closer to read it. This was a wax statue of the Mayor of Siren Town, erected when the Siren Wax Museum first opened.
The pedestal praised Mayor Harris’s contributions to Siren Town in exaggerated terms: how he vigorously developed the tourism industry after salvaging merman remains, how he supported the construction of the highly ornamental Siren Wax Museum, and how he transformed the once-backward seaside town into a prosperous destination.
The pedestal also bore an inscription:
[Mayor Harris possesses unconditional and profound love for every villager in Siren Town, just as he does for his own children.]
As Bai Liu read seriously, Jeff, who had been silent the whole way, suddenly approached him and asked in a low voice, “Do you believe merfolk exist? Do you think everything written here about Siren Town is true?”
Naturally, Bai Liu would not believe all of it.
Something displayed in a curiosity-driven wax museum built specifically to promote tourism might appear serious, but if even thirty percent of it was true, that would already be impressive. Most of it was probably fabricated local lore used as a gimmick to attract tourists.
But this was a horror game.
Bai Liu said, “I think it’s true.”
Andre gave a heavy, mocking snort, clearly ridiculing the gullible Jeff and Bai Liu, but he said nothing and simply followed Jeff deeper into the museum.
Bai Liu and Lucy had originally planned to walk together, but since Bai Liu needed to find the hot water room to separate the damp newspaper, he let Lucy explore on her own first.
Lucy expressed some regret, then said she would wait for Bai Liu in the exhibition hall before wandering off alone.
Bai Liu headed toward the hot water room the caretaker had mentioned.
