Chapter 33.3 (2/2)

“There isn’t a picture of Maria in the castle either,” Tang Mianmian disagreed. “Maybe he never even cared for Maria. Aside from Lily Marlene, no other woman matters to him.”

Lu Si’er paused for moment, and had to admit that Tang Mianmian might be right. Lippinobert married three wives in total, but the castle was only filled with pictures of Lily Marlene and there wasn’t a single portrait of the other two women.

Xiao Tangqiu pointed to the cupboard in the corner. “It looks like there are some children’s toys over there, which is why I figured this is a kids’ room…… But this room should have been vacant for a long time, just like Maria’s”

Tang Mianmian climbed out from under the bed and casually lifted the pillow and quilt but he found nothing. He was feeling disappointed but got excited by what Xiao Tangqiu just said, “Leave it to me! I’ll look at it!”

“There’s nothing in the bedside drawers,” Lu Si’er said, turning over the other furniture in the room. “This room is so empty. No wonder they didn’t find anything.”

Tang Mianmian moved a stool over and reached for the items on top of the cupboard. He brought them down to take a look but found that they weren’t of any importance. There was a teddy bear, an old musical box, a faded haircomb and some dried flowers.

“These look worthless, no wonder nothing wasn’t stolen,” Tang Mianmian muttered. “A pile of junk…… but for a child, these may be precious treasures.”

Xiao Tangqiu stared at the teddy bear and suddenly said, “I have a bold idea.”

Tang Mianmian understood what he meant immediately. “The Hello Kitty Murder case of hiding the body? Do you tear open this stuffed toy?”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded, “But…….”

“But this stuffed toy could also be considered as a doll or a puppet.” Tang Mianmian raised an eyebrow, “What if it’s also part of the puppets that Lippinobert said we can’t damage?”

“Yeah,” Xiao Tangqiu sighed. “I just thought about it too.”

Tang Mianmian picked up the stuffed toy, shook it and patted it. “But this teddy bear is quite small and doesn’t look like it can hide anything.”

Xiao Tangqiu turned his attention to the musical box. He opened it and looked inside. “It seems to be broken.”

The lid of the musical box was covered in dust. There was a little girl in red leather shoes inside but the music didn’t play and the little girl didn’t dance.

It suddenly occurred to him that Meng Xinghe had also sent him a musical box a long time ago. When it was opened, it would play “Für Elise” and a little girl in a ballet dress would twirl around slowly.

At that time, he had particularly disliked this gift, thinking that a musical box was a gift for girls.

Tang Mianmian picked it up shook it. “This thing doesn’t look like it can hide anything…….”

“It seems that this room is really empty,” Xiao Tangqiu said with a helpless smile on his face. “Forget it. It’s almost midnight. Let’s go back to our rooms.”

Tang Mianmian was about to say something, but Xiao Tangqiu quietly blinked at him. He immediately caught on and nodded slightly.

“It’s late now, so let’s go back and get some rest. We’ll continue looking tomorrow.” Xiao Tangqiu turned to Lu Si’er. “Go to bed early and don’t come out if you hear anything.”

Lu Si’er nodded at once.

Seeing that they were about to leave, Short and Skinny immediately struggled to get up, but he was beaten so badly that he couldn’t stand at all. He could only move forward bit by bit, wriggling on the floor as he whimpered, as if begging them to take him with them.

Xiao Tangqiu hesitated for a moment. He wasn’t a kind or good person, but he couldn’t bear to watch this man die here. “We can take you to the second floor, but I don’t think they’ll let you into their room. I don’t trust you either, so you can only stay in a room by yourself.”

It was better to stay alone than die in this strange room. Short and Skinny nodded desperately. Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian helped him out of the room.

Lu Si’er frowned faintly and seemed to disapprove of Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian’s actions. However, she didn’t say anything until all four of them left the room. Suddenly, her expression turned ugly. “The puppet…… it moved again!”

Xiao Tangqiu turned to look, and sure enough, the puppet had turned to face in their direction. Its axe was pointed to the door where they were.

Lu Si’er immediately backed off from them. “You shouldn’t have taken him away. The housekeeper said that whoever damages the puppet will be punished!”

Xiao Tangqiu flattened his lips. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll go back to my room first,” Lu Si’er said, shaking her head. She couldn’t understand why Xiao Tangqiu Tang Mianmian was helping a thief. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and nodded. They were holding up Short and Skinny and were about to walk away when the door behind them suddenly slammed shut.

Xiao Tangqiu froze. The next second, a faint melody suddenly sounded from the room behind him.

That was a melody he was familiar with.

It was Für Elise

The mellow, ethereal melody of the musical box softly echoed throughout the silent and gloomy castle.