A man and a woman sat on the grand chairs, dressed lavishly. Their faces were unclear, but their demeanor was composed and dignified, somewhat resembling the master and madam of an old manor in a historical drama.

The Madam spoke: “Our daughter is sixteen now; it’s time for her to marry. Have you found a suitable family for her?”

The Master stroked his beard: “Young Master Zhang is seventeen, a talented young man, worthy of our daughter.”

The Madam nodded: “Then the wedding preparations should begin. I hear a highly skilled embroiderer has recently arrived in the city, though her prices are high. I shall invite her to make our daughter’s wedding dress.”

The scene darkened, then brightened again, and the second act began.

At the front of the room, the Madam was seated, and several gray figures knelt on the floor.

The Madam said angrily, “I thought you were all good people, but now, seeing me busy with the wedding preparations and unable to oversee everything, you dared to steal the family’s treasures for a full half a year! Simply outrageous!”

The grey figures kowtowed fiercely: “We are wronged, Madam! We are wronged! We are old servants of the household; how could we possibly steal from the family?”

Madam: “How do you explain the items found in your rooms? And why were you seen at the pawn shop a few days ago? Now, with witnesses and evidence, you still dare to quibble! Give them a beating and throw them out!”

The figures were dragged away, crying and wailing, and the second act ended.

In the third act, the Master was seated, and a figure resembling a shopkeeper stood before him, bowing and reporting matters to the Master.

“We now owe the Qian family five hundred taels, the Zhou family eight hundred taels, and the Sihai Trading Company twelve hundred taels…”

The Master exclaimed, “How could we owe so much silver?”

The shopkeeper said, “Master, our family’s business has been declining for half a year now, and the situation is getting worse. The only solution now is to sell the shop on West Street…”

The Master remained stunned for a long time, then nodded with difficulty, sighing, “Go ahead and handle it.”

The scene slowly darkened.

The seven waited a while longer, and when they saw the scene begin to play from the first act again, they gathered to analyze the plot.

Old Fourth: “Judging by this, it means this family was doing well, then their fortunes declined?”

Chang Xu: “But what does this have to do with the wedding dress? It can’t be that they spent all their money just to embroider a wedding dress, right?”

Zhou Tong thought, “Both the second and third acts mention time—half a year. It seems that since the engagement was arranged, the Li family’s luck has only worsened.”

She spread her hands. “There’s not enough information right now; we can’t figure out the truth yet.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the red candle on the main table floated up again, flying to the left wall.

The wall rumbled and fell, revealing an upward staircase behind it.

The boys clapped their hands. “This mechanism is great, so grand!”

Everyone followed the red candle upstairs.

Upstairs, there were two rooms, one on the left and one on the right.

The hallway in the middle had the stairs at one end and a wall at the other.

They first opened the room on the left, which served as a study. A desk with writing brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone was directly opposite the door.

Behind it was a small bookshelf holding some storybooks and small trinkets like dolls and clay figurines, essentially functioning as a display cabinet.

It was clear that the room’s owner didn’t particularly enjoy reading.

Besides that, the room was filled with paintings—some scattered on the floor, some collected in painting jars, some haphazardly stuffed into corners.

All were signed by the same person, with delicate and lovely handwriting.

Someone commented, “These must all be painted by Miss Li. She’s only sixteen, so painting like this is very impressive.”

Zhou Tong nodded in agreement and took a seat at the desk.

On the opposite wall hung a painting of a young girl in a pomegranate-red dress, her eyes sparkling and her smile radiant. It was a self-portrait of Miss Li.

She couldn’t help but smile at the portrait and opened a hidden compartment in the desk. Inside was a diary. Calling the others over, Zhou Tong opened the diary.

The first page: “No one came to play with me today either… Rou’er and Fen’er haven’t contacted me since they began preparing for their marriages. Is marriage some kind of dragon’s den? Why do they go and never return?”

The second page: “Mother said today that I should also marry, but I don’t want to marry! I don’t want to leave home, I don’t want to leave Father and Mother!”

The third page: “The new embroiderer Mother hired is really skilled. If I can wear the wedding dress she embroiders, then getting married might be okay! She embroidered a butterfly handkerchief for me, and I put it with the gifts Rou’er and Fen’er gave me!”

The diary only had three pages; the ones after were blank pages splattered with ink.

Zhou Tong pulled the pages apart and saw, “The rest were torn out.”

They had no choice but to examine the previous content.

Chang Xu said, “Rou’er and Fen’er must be Miss Li’s close friends. What does ‘no longer contact’ mean?”

Old Fourth suddenly thought. “Does it mean that these girls also disappeared while preparing for their marriages, just like Miss Li?”

Zhou Tong quickly scanned the diary again. “Let’s find this butterfly handkerchief first. Is it in the study?”

The others shook their heads. “We’ve searched everywhere, it’s not here.”

They were all engrossed in the story now, eager to know the truth. Confirming it wasn’t here, they immediately went to the room opposite.

Opposite was Miss Li’s boudoir, featuring a dressing table near the window and a canopy bed beside it.

The seven split into groups to search and eventually found a small wooden box beneath the canopy bed. When they opened it, they discovered a butterfly handkerchief, a butterfly hairpin, and a pair of butterfly earrings.

Old Fourth: “Why are they all butterflies? Is it some kind of hint?”

Everyone else shook their heads, but Zhou Tong flipped the box over and discovered a hidden compartment at the bottom, which held a diary page.

The fourth page: “There’s something downstairs… It’s too terrifying! No wonder Father and Mother… I’m going to hide the wedding dress so they can’t find me! Hide it where only I can go!”

One of the boys hugged his arms tightly. “Here it comes! The unknown horror is here!”

Chang Xu frowned tightly. “Why would hiding the wedding dress make it so they can’t find her? Also, where is this place only she can go?”

Zhou Tong slowly pondered, “She’s a young lady from a good family, she rarely goes out, so it must be hidden within the mansion. And since she lives in the embroidered building, the probability of it being hidden here is highest.”

Inspired by her, Chang Xu said, “A place only she can go… the boudoir and the study. Very few people can enter here, but she’s not the only one. Her mother and the serving maids could definitely enter.”

Zhou Tong: “Currently, the traits Miss Li has shown are that she likes to keep a diary, has a simple personality, doesn’t like to read, and likes to paint.”

Chang Xu and she made eye contact, and both realized simultaneously: “In the painting!”

With that, they both ran out.

The others exchanged glances. “Is our Little Six that smart?”

Old Fourth: “Love makes one excellent…”

In the study, Zhou Tong ran to the self-portrait and found that the expression of the person in it had changed.

The formerly radiant little girl now looked on the verge of tears.

Zhou Tong couldn’t help but whisper, “Don’t worry, we’ll help you.”

As she spoke, she reached her hand into the painting.

Sure enough, the painting was also a projection.

After reaching in, she felt a slight coolness. Is it dry ice? Zhou Tong thought distractedly, her hand continuing to grope, feeling the sensation of fabric, and immediately grabbing it.

She pulled her hand back, extracting an extremely luxurious wedding dress from the painting.

Old Fourth and the others rushed in and saw this scene, immediately starting to clap again. “This is the first time I’ve seen a mechanism hidden in a painting! Fengdu is awesome!”

Zhou Tong was also a little excited; she was completely absorbed in the game. “Let’s hurry downstairs.”

However, when they reached the first floor, they found the door was still locked. Not only that, but the first floor was also much darker than before.

The red candle still floated around them, providing the only light.

Old Fourth huddled with a few of his brothers, muttering, “I always feel like the real horror is coming… Although Zhang Lei was a wimp and annoying, he wasn’t timid. Those earlier scares wouldn’t have affected him.”

Little did they know, Zhang Lei’s experience was a completely different game from theirs.

Someone chimed in, “So, we’re about to be scared witless, are we…?”

Zhou Tong heard Zhang Lei’s name, frowning in distaste, then said, “The fourth diary entry said ‘downstairs.’ Could it be underground?”

Chang Xu: “You mean there’s a secret room underneath? Good point! Let’s look for it!”

Soon, someone shouted, “There’s a pull ring here!” He pulled it up, revealing a dark, gaping tunnel below.

The red candle flew into the opening, and the candles along both sides of the tunnel lit up one by one from the entrance inwards.

A boy exclaimed, “These effects are amazing!”

They jumped down one by one and walked along the tunnel, soon discovering two prop skeletons. Seeing the clothes on the skeletons, they were startled. “These are Master Li and Madam Li! They died under the embroidered building? Did Miss Li know?”

They all sighed, feeling that, whether she knew it or not, it was pretty cruel…

Continuing further, there were more and more skeletons, all servants and managers of the Li family.

Old Fourth couldn’t help but say, “What kind of deep hatred is this? An entire family annihilated!”

Chang Xu was still recording with his phone, only filming and not daring to look at himself. “It must be some kind of non-human creature. Think about it, when people eat chicken, do they consider if they’re eating a family of chickens? There’s even a dish called ‘Mother and Child Reunion’!”

Old Fourth grinned as he stepped over a skeleton. “Thanks, brother. I don’t feel like eating chicken for a while.”

At the end of the tunnel was a stone chamber. A prop stone door had fallen at the entrance, and something had broken a hole through it.

“It seems the Li family discovered this thing and tried to seal it in the stone chamber with the stone door, but it escaped. This must be where the boss fight is,” Zhou Tong said.

The others agreed, but they wondered, “Where’s the boss? How do we make it come out?”

As they were thinking, one of the boys suddenly screamed, “Something grabbed my waist!” He yelled as he was rapidly dragged toward the wall!

Zhou Tong shouted, “Say the password quickly!”

The boy paused, then reacted. “Soldiers! Soldiers… what what what… what advance…”

He kept repeating “what what what” as he was dragged into the wall.

Zhou Tong rubbed her forehead. “Doesn’t he know the Nine-Character Mantra?”

His dorm mates: “…”

At the same time, another boy also yelled, “Holy crap, I got grabbed too! I don’t know the password!”

This time it was even faster; he was pulled away in a flash.

The remaining five: “…”

Zhou Tong said weakly, “Please, everyone, memorize the password.”

The four boys paused for a moment, then all at once pulled out their cards and started to recite.