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nMoments later, they arrived in front of the door to the secret chamber which was left locked yesterday. They finally encountered today’s first challenge – this locked door. No matter how Xiao Tangqiu turned and twisted the door handle, the door handle still wouldn’t budge.

nXiao Tangqiu let Tang Mianmian, who was stronger than him, give it a try, but the result was still the same.

n“It won’t open.”

nDuan Hongzhen arched an eyebrow. “Let me do it.”

nXiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian quickly stepped aside and saw Duan Hongzhen move towards the door. His back was facing the two of them so they couldn’t see what Duan Hongzhen did. Anyway, in the next second, the door was opened.

nXiao Tangqiu had already seen Duan Hongzhen’s lock picking skills before, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. Shen Yuan and the others didn’t even blink an eye. They had obviously grown accustomed to it. Tang Mianmian originally wanted to scream and make a big fuss about it, but when he saw the players’ calm reaction, he couldn’t appear too surprised and could only silently suppress his amazement.

nDuan Hongzhen pushed the door and the others followed.

nWhen Xiao Tangqiu clearly saw the appearance of the secret chamber, he was immediately shocked. The underground chamber was filled with mirrors! From the four walls to the floor, from the floor to the ceiling; every inch of the whole room was filled with mirrors of different sizes!

nMirrors of different materials and sizes reflected their image into numerous people. At first glance, there seemed to be tens of thousands of them standing in the room. When Xiao Tangqiu looked at the Xiao Tangqiu in the mirror, the reflection in the mirror also looked at him.

nXiao Tangqiu instantly felt a chill crawling up his spine. Tang Mianmian felt his hair stand on end as well. “Fuck! I think I’m going to have agoraphobia! “

n“No wonder there aren’t any mirrors in this castle,” Xiao Tangqiu laughed dryly. “It turns out that Lippinobert has placed all the mirrors in this underground chamber.”

nTang Mianmian, “…Does this guy have some sort of weird hobby of collecting mirrors?! Every time he comes to this secret room and sees so many mirrors and so many reflections of himself, doesn’t he feel creeped out?!”

nXiao Tangqiu looked at his reflection in the mirrors and suddenly thought of something. He turned to Tang Mianmian and asked, “Do you remember what I said about narcissism earlier?”

nTang Mianmian blinked. “I do, why?”

nXiao Tangqiu looked at his reflection in the mirror and frowned slightly. “Narcissus was a beautiful young man in Greek mythology who fell in love with himself and died after chasing after his own reflection in the water. After his death, he turned into a daffodil…”

n“In short, he died because of his narcissism!” Tang Mianmian interrupted him and asked incredulously, “But what does this have to do with Lippinobert? But then again, for that guy to have so many mirrors, he is definitely a big narcissist! “

nXiao Tangqiu hesitated for a moment before asking Tang Mianmian, “If a person hasn’t seen a mirror from birth, when he looks in the mirror for the first time after he’s grown up, would he think that the person in the mirror is another person?”

nTang Mianmian blurted out subconsciously, “How is that possible? Even if that person hasn’t seen a mirror since young, how can he not know that the person in the mirror is himself?”

nXiao Tangqiu laughed bitterly. “How would he know that the person in the mirror is himself? No one has ever told him about it, no one has ever taught him so. Do you think if a six-month-old baby or an isolated primitive man were allowed to look into a mirror, they would think that the person in the mirror was themselves?”

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nTang Mianmian was shocked by that notion. He paused for a moment, then went on to say, “But even if that person has never looked into a mirror, he has seen his reflection in other things, hasn’t he? Like his reflection in the water…”

nXiao Tangqiu shook his head. “According to the mirror stage theory, children between 6 and 10 months old have no way to recognize their own images in the mirror. They will think that the person in the mirror is someone else. At this time, he hasn’t yet formed an understanding of the self. Later, with the intervention of his parents and family, he is taught to recognize his reflection in the mirror. Only then can he gradually separate himself from the many others and finally form an understanding of the self…”

n“But what I was thinking just now is, if there is no such intervention and guide from this stage onwards, would there be such a situation where that person cannot successfully complete the transformation from ‘others’ to ‘self,’ thus always treating the person in the mirror as another person?”

nTang Mianmian listened and froze from the realization, while Duan Hongzhen raised his eyebrows. “It’s a bit interesting, so do you think this is the case with Lippinobert?”

n“It’s hard to say,” Xiao Tangqiu looked at the countless reflections in the mirrors. “At least so far, we haven’t found any material evidence related to Lily Marlene… Does Lily Marlene really exist?”

nTang Mianmian was confused by the implications made by Xiao Tangqiu words. “Why is it that I seem to understand less and less about what you are saying? Why haven’t we found any clues about Lilly Marlene? Yesterday in the town of Daemon, didn’t you say Lily Marlene might have died due to the ignorance of the town’s residents? You also said that there might have been a plague in Daemon town, so they burned Lily Marlene alive for being a witch who brought disaster… “

nXiao Tangqiu grinned. “I did say so. I didn’t say that Lily Marlene never existed. She could’ve existed and indeed suffered from her ill fortune. But the witch hunting era happened hundreds of years ago. Unless Lily Marlene was really a witch, she couldn’t have lived to this day, right? So how did Lippinobert know her?”

nTang Mianmian finally got his point. “I see what you mean. Do you mean it’s possible Lily Marlene exists, but the ‘Lily Marlene’ married to Lippinobert never existed?”

nXiao Tangqiu nodded, “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

nLily Marlene may really exist, but the poor woman was burned alive by the ignorant residents of Daemon town as a witch who spread the plague… Who was the “Lily Marlene” married to Lippinobert?

n“We found the pocket watches and photos of Laura, Maria and Veronika, as well as Alice. These things can at least prove that they really existed, but we have never found anything related to Lily Marlene…”

nXiao Tangqiu had wondered before why they couldn’t find Lily Marlene’s pocket watch.

nNow the answer to this question was before them.

nBecause this castle never had Lily’s Marlene pocket watch to begin with.

nThis poor woman was dead for hundreds of years, and everything about her had already turned to dust with the passage of time.

n“What about the paintings in the castle?”

nTang Mianmian looked incredulous. “There are portraits of Lily Marlene everywhere in this castle, and I even have to be stared at by her when I go to the toilet… But now you’re telling me that this Lily Marlene may not even exist at all?”

nJust then, a voice suddenly rang out, “I found it! There’s another door! “

nXiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian turned around and saw the aloof woman take down one of the mirrors on the wall. Behind the mirror was a door!

n“There’s a door!” Xiao Tangqiu was immediately excited. “There’s actually a third underground chamber!”

nDuan Hongzhen flipped his knife and walked towards the door: “This room is so hidden. It seems that it’s almost time for the truth to be revealed…”

n“Older sister, you’re amazing! How did you find this door? There are so many mirrors here!” Tang Mianmian excitedly asked the aloof woman.

nShe merely gave Tang Mianmian a cold look. Obviously, she intended to ignore Tang Mianmian. She returned to Shen Yuan’s side. “Older brother, I just looked at it. There should be only three underground secret rooms in total. This should be the last one.”

nShen Yuan nodded and said lightly, “Be careful.”

nThis last door was obviously a little difficult to open, Duan Hongzhen stood in front of the door for a long time. Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian also nervously waited for quite some time before a clear and crisp noise sounded from the lock.

nClick

nThe door opened.

nDuan Hongzhen smiled and said, “Well, then it’s time to find out the truth-“

nAs soon as he said that, he resolutely pushed the door and entered.

nWhen Xiao Tangqiu stepped into the last secret chamber, he was immediately stunned by the scene before him. Even if he had already done a good job in mentally preparing himself, he couldn’t help feeling stunned.

nThis room wasn’t big, but it was filled to the brim. Half of it was a bedroom, full of all kinds of furniture such as bedding and wardrobes, while the other half was a studio with easel frames and all kinds of paintbrushes, paints, as well as many paintings that hadn’t been framed yet.

nThe bedroom on the right side obviously belonged to a woman. The furniture all had a woman’s touch. There were all kinds of dressing mirrors and jewelry boxes. There were also many puppet dolls at the head of the bed. The open wardrobe was full of all kinds of dresses. The studio on the left was much more messy, with picture frames and paintings all over the floor. A large mirror was also placed in front of the easel.

nXiao Tangqiu walked to the front of the easel and took a look. On the easel was an unfinished portrait of Lily Marlene. The portrait was only partially completed, while on the floor were all the completed portraits of her. The clothes and posture of Lily Marlene in these paintings were different, but the dresses they were wearing were clearly the same as those in the wardrobe in the bedroom on the right!

nTang Mianmian couldn’t wait to turn out the bedroom. Soon, he dug out a female wig from a delicate, small box!

n“Fuck!”

nXiao Tangqiu quickly walked towards Tang Mianmian. “What’s the matter?”

n“Fucking hell! It’s a wig! This… this… this… You take a look yourself!” Tang Mianmian couldn’t close his mouth properly.

nIn addition to the wig, he also dug out a lot of things from that delicate, little box, all of which were used for cross-dressing!

nXiao Tangqiu searched through the jewelry pile and found a pocket watch. He immediately picked it up.

nThe front of the pocket watch was engraved with the name “Lippinobert.”

nXiao Tangqiu opened the pocket watch and saw that there was also an old photo behind the lid. The photo clearly showed Lippinobert as a teenager. The handsome young man looked squarely at the camera. He was holding an ugly puppet in his arms. The puppet was the dwarf puppet they had seen before.

nJust then, he suddenly found that there was something behind the photo. He flipped it over and underneath it was a photo of Lily Marlene.

nDifferent from the other portraits, the “Lily Marlene” in this photo looked very young, and was also holding the ugly dwarf puppet in her arms.

nXiao Tangqiu instantly understood what that meant. He turned the pocket watch over, and sure enough, there was a name engraved on the back of the pocket watch.

nLily Marlene.

nLippinobert —Lilly Marlene.

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