Chapter 378: Chapter 325: Wardrobe
Tong Han turned around and saw Mi Shu leaning on Liu Haiping’s shoulder, sniffing incessantly with his nose.
"Where?" Liu Haiping was somewhat puzzled, "How come I didn’t smell anything?"
Seeing this, Tong Han also walked over and mimicked Mi Shu’s action, pressing his face against Liu Haiping’s shoulder. After carefully sniffing for a while, he indeed detected a stench, but it was so faint that it almost immediately disappeared. Tong Han reached out and touched, finding a small damp area near Liu Haiping’s right shoulder.
"Did you touch water?" Mi Shu asked, looking up.
Liu Haiping was taken aback, "No, I have been with you all the time, and today... today I hardly drank any water."
It seemed that he had thought of something, Tong Han suddenly looked up, checking the ceiling, but there was no sign of dripping water, nor were there any damp spots on the ground beneath their feet.
Calming his spirits, he simply told himself that he was scaring himself. Coming to the Nightmare World, Tong Han had to be on guard. Suddenly, he remembered a scene in the prayer hall earlier and immediately said, "When the Du family leader’s daughter hugged you earlier, was her head about in this position?"
After Tong Han reminded her, Liu Haiping remembered and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, it was pretty much here. She was crying and screaming at the time, I thought she was going to kill me, it scared me to death."
Mi Shu immediately understood Tong Han’s implication, and his brow furrowed involuntarily, "So this patch was wetted by the Du family leader’s daughter’s tears?"
"Not tears, saliva." Tong Han corrected, "The Du family leader’s daughter wasn’t crying at all, she seemed very excited."
Indeed, a person’s saliva can have a foul smell, but after carefully recalling the scent he smelled earlier, Tong Han still felt something was off.
Leaning in again, he sniffed, but this time the peculiar stench had completely vanished. Closing his eyes, the scenes from the prayer hall replayed in Tong Han’s mind. Suddenly, he remembered that the housekeeper lady had stuffed some herbal medicine into the Du family leader’s daughter’s mouth.
"Creak—"
The door was suddenly pushed open, startling the trio. Perhaps because they were previously too focused on thinking about the matter at hand, none of them heard any approaching footsteps. The housekeeper lady walked in holding a red garment, which seemed to be the wedding dress for the night.
Under the housekeeper lady’s direction, the two helped Liu Haiping put on the big red wedding dress, then she sat down to have makeup applied at the dressing table.
Noticing that Tong Han Mi Shu wasn’t very adept at using the rouge and face powder, the housekeeper lady took the initiative to do it herself. Mi Shu volunteered to assist at her side while sending Tong Han away with a rather disdainful attitude, "You don’t understand makeup, so just stop getting in the way. Can you stay back a bit?"
Seeing that the housekeeper lady had no reaction, Tong Han voluntarily stepped back, keeping a greater distance from the dressing table. In the instant their gazes crossed, he understood the other’s intention. Mi Shu was there to hold the housekeeper’s attention while Tong Han took the opportunity to leave and look for clues nearby.
Just as Tong Han was about to step out of the room, he was suddenly called back. The housekeeper’s cold voice was even somewhat piercing, "Where do you think you’re going?"
"I’m just going outside for some fresh air," Tong Han replied calmly.
"No, once you enter the gates of our Du family, you must abide by our rules here. This is not your small household where you can do as you please!"
After being rebuked by the housekeeper, Tong Han could only stay in the room. As the housekeeper bowed her head again to apply the makeup, Tong Han’s gaze searched around the room. Aside from some odd decorations, it was a neat and tidy maiden’s chamber, complete with everything that should be there.
The meticulously carved wooden bed, chairs, tables, an exquisite dressing table, vases, flower racks, and calligraphy and paintings decorated the room. To one side, a screen leaned at an angle, bearing four paintings, each representing the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Both the composition and the themes of the paintings were of the highest selection.
Tong Han’s gaze pulled away as she felt something was increasingly amiss. It seemed like there was an item missing in this boudoir. She quickly surveyed the room, hoping to pinpoint the overlooked detail, and finally, it dawned on her — there was an essential item conspicuously absent from the boudoir.
A wardrobe.
There was no wardrobe in the room!
This made no sense at all. The next second, Tong Han’s attention fixed on the screen in the room. It was large and skewed to one side; the only blind spot in the room was behind the screen. If there were a wardrobe, it would undoubtedly be concealed there.
At the same time, Tong Han also noticed that the placement of the screen itself was peculiar. Generally, a boudoir is the private sanctuary of an unwed girl and it was not customary for visitors—or even family members—to casually enter or get too close, especially in a wealthy family. To ensure privacy, a screen would be placed behind the door of the boudoir so that even when the door was opened or closed, one could only see the screen from outside.
Tong Han had some understanding of Feng Shui as well and knew that screens should be placed upright rather than at an angle. Yet, the screen in this room was tilted to one side, covering a corner. The two walls and the screen formed what was known in Feng Shui as "dead space," associated with accumulating evil Qi and attracting unwanted entities over time.
Seeing that Liu Haiping was almost finished with her makeup, Tong Han knew she had little time left. Feigning a casual stroll, she walked toward the screen.
About two meters from the screen, there was a window that was currently shut, sealed with a white character for "double happiness" which was perfectly affixed over the crack, blocking the window completely.
Coming to the window, Tong Han caught a glimpse through the gap between the wall and the screen. There stood a large wardrobe behind the screen.
The wardrobe was entirely black, tall enough to accommodate a person standing inside and quite wide. Tong Han’s first impression was that it didn’t look like a wardrobe at all, but rather like a coffin.
And in the middle of the wardrobe, there hung a sturdy-looking copper lock.
The wardrobe was locked.
"What are you looking at?"
Suddenly, a chilling voice exploded through the room. The housekeeper—an elderly woman—did not turn around. Her resentful eyes glared at Tong Han through the reflection in the mirror.
"I’m talking to you—what are you looking at?!" The housekeeper’s voice grew higher and increasingly shrill.
"The room feels stuffy. I came over to the window to get some air," Tong Han replied without a hint of weakness, even making eye contact with the housekeeper through the mirror. "Furthermore, let me remind you. Although we have taken refuge here, we are guests invited in by the Du Family Patriarch and the Clan Leader’s Wife. You as a servant, is this how you speak to guests?"
"We are helping all the people of your village, saving your lives, saving the life of your young lady. If you do not welcome us, then call for Patriarch Du or the Clan Leader’s Wife to send us away. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut."
Tong Han left no face for the housekeeper with her words. They made Mi Shu and Liu Haiping so tense that they didn’t even dare to breathe out loud. Liu Haiping felt it even more directly as she noticed the housekeeper trembling with anger beside her, her head shaking at an odd frequency.
For some reason, Liu Haiping suddenly felt a strange premonition in the pit of her stomach, as if at any second, the housekeeper’s head might just fall off her neck.
