Chapter 85: Swift Resolution The Duke suddenly felt no more excitement.

That night, the guests did not sleep as deeply as the night before.

Perhaps because they only touched a few bites of the banquet’s food, or perhaps because they learned what had once happened in the ancient castle.

They already felt this place was eerie and unsettling, and now they became even more uneasy.

Sensitive as Zhou Qi was, he mentioned smelling a foul odor again, stronger than before.

Zhao Jiatong searched under the bed and in the cabinets, even checking the pillows and quilts, feeling along every edge and corner, but simply couldn’t find the source.

Just before bedtime, Zhou Qi suddenly leaned against the wall by the door, pressing his nose close to the stone for a moment, and said, “Sister Tong… it seems like it’s coming from inside the wall.”

With that one sentence, Zhao Jiatong’s hairs stood on end.

But when she leaned closer, she couldn’t smell a thing.

“Xiao Zhou, be honest, what did you used to do for a living?” Zhao Jiatong teased her, trying to lighten the mood.

Zhou Qi waved her hand dismissively. “No, really, I’m not some kind of mystic. I just have a nose like a hound’s.”

She pulled her own jacket over herself as a blanket, lay down on the carpet, and stared up at the chandelier overhead for a moment before saying, “But I was never this sensitive before. Maybe this exam is just… special.”

Zhao Jiatong lay down beside her, thinking to herself: It really is special.

So special… it felt as if there was something in this exam hall, something silently sending Zhou Qi a warning all along.

With her eyes closed, Zhao Jiatong contemplated this quietly while carefully listening for any movement next door.

Given the outrageous things that A and 001 have done together, she’d be furious even if she were the Duke—it’d be strange if she didn’t settle the score with them. Once the Duke came to make trouble, she planned to secretly follow behind and observe.

However, when there was actually movement outside, she couldn’t carry out the plan as intended.

Because Zhou Qi was running a fever again.

The girl was burning with fever and had fallen into a nightmare.

She frowned with effort, mumbling indistinctly in her sleep, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake herself awake.

Zhao Jiatong leaned in and barely heard her say, “…I want… Why won’t they let me see…”

Then there was nothing but muffled sobbing.

A high fever for two nights in a row was just too odd.

Zhao Jiatong couldn’t help but recall Qin Jiu’s words… This illness seemed to be deliberately pinning Zhou Qi down, stopping her from venturing out late at night.

Is it that I don’t want her to encounter something?

Or is it that I don’t want her to see someone?

* * *

The corridor at midnight was dimly lit by wall torches, the servants that had filled the castle in the evening were nowhere to be seen, and the doorways of each room stood empty, as if they had never existed.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the stairway.

Several male servants turned onto the third floor, the one leading them holding an oil lamp while the others lined up in a row behind him.

Their faces were half illuminated, half shadowed by the flickering light, their features taut and their expressions rigid and indifferent, exuding an air of lifelessness.

Poor butler Douglas has been turned into a pig and is temporarily unable to help His Lordship with his worries, so the task of capturing people now falls on their shoulders.

“Just up ahead,” the leading footman whispered quietly.

He pointed toward the door not far away and instructed another footman, “Go knock, the others surround the room.”

“What about the other one?” The footman about to knock raised his hand, then hesitated and asked, “Didn’t the master tell us to capture two?”

The leader said, “Right next door. After this one, we’ll invite the next. We have strength in numbers, no rush.”

“Oh, alright.”

The companions formed a semicircle as the servant knocked on the wooden door.

Thump—

Just as the first knock fell, the door swung open.

Footman: “?”

You Huo held onto the door, looking at him without any ripples in his expression.

The footman stood with his mouth agape, forgetting his lines for a second, then mechanically said, “Good evening, sir. You… didn’t sleep?”

“What do you think.” You Huo was taller than this servant, looking down at him from above. A glance like that from him was enough to make even the dead feel chilled.

The servant faltered again, unable to respond for a long moment.

The one holding the lantern eventually added, “It’s just as well you’re awake. The Duke wishes to invite you over for a conversation.”

As he was speaking, a certain manservant at his side clenched an iron rod tightly in his hand, hidden behind his back.

In memory, guests who received an invitation would always panic, trying to scream.

The butler Douglas always carried a few tools on him, and this iron rod was his frequent companion.

The footman was ready—as soon as the guest cried out, he would swing it.

Little did he expect the other to say, “Oh.”

The footman’s momentum nearly sent the rod crashing into the leader’s face.

Their ghastly pale faces slowly twisted into an awkward expression, and the one holding the lantern took a step back to make way for You Huo.

Unexpectedly, the guest took a step before pausing, then turned his head toward the bedroom and said, “Let’s go, hurry up.”

The male servant was taken aback and asked, “What, is the Madam also awake?”

Upon hearing the word “Madam,” You Huo shot him a glance.

The manservant straightened his expression and said, “The Duke is only requesting you by name at the moment, sir—”

He wanted to say, “Madam, we can talk about this later.”

Instead, You Huo pulled the door open a bit wider, revealing the man standing behind him who was just a little taller than himself.

Maid: “?”

He couldn’t utter the word “husband.”

He stared at Qin Jiu’s lower face, his brain freezing for a second. He took a step back to check the room number before calmly asking, “The duke said couples share a room. It’s the dead of night—why are you here, sir?”

“What do you think?” Qin Jiu replied.

The servant: “…”

He thought it over for a moment, then said expressionlessly, “The duke dislikes disloyalty. We were already looking for you anyway. In that case, both of you, please come with me.”

Qin Jiu didn’t mind at all and stepped out with complete composure.

Then, he turned his head to look inside the room.

Inside, the third voice yawned, mumbling, “Hey, wait for me to put on my shoes.”

The servant: “???”

Gao Qi hopped out while pulling on his boots, his unshaven face coming nose to nose with the manservant.

“……”

The servant’s pallid face flickered with indecipherable emotions, and after a moment, he waved his hand: “Take them all away!”

Just kidding, three men..

How could such a mess be allowed in the castle!

Just for that, the master will surely scare them to tears.

* * *

The corridor remained dim, with identical oil paintings hanging high on the stone walls. The figures in the paintings were half-hidden in the darkness, as if peering down at them through masks from above

Behind Qin Jiu followed three male servants, surrounding him in a semi-encircling formation, walking at the very front.

Behind You Huo were also surrounded by three male servants, trailing them by seven or eight meters.

A couple of steps further back were Gao Qi and the remaining servants.

The oil lamps in the male servants’ hands creaked softly, their light like an unsteady pool of water, flickering on and off, casting long, wavering shadows behind Qin Jiu.

You Huo withdrew his gaze from the oil painting, and this was the scene that greeted him.

It suddenly struck him that he seemed to have witnessed this scene many times before…

The same long corridor, the same lingering sense of being watched.

Qin Jiu was always followed by a group of people, and behind him, there was also a similar crowd. Occasionally, he could even hear Gao Qi’s long, drawn-out yawns.

Sometimes they came face to face, sometimes they walked one in front of the other, just like now.

No matter the situation, there was always a distance that was neither too long nor too short between them.

For some unknown reason…

He always had the feeling that Qin Jiu would suddenly stop walking, holding a document or something else, chatting lazily with the crowd gathered around him.

And he, leading Gao Qi and the others… kept walking without pause.

When brushing past each other, Qin Jiu would glance over amidst conversation, fleeting the moment their eyes met.

……

“You’re walking faster and faster, aren’t you? Taking advantage of those long legs, huh?” Gao Qi’s voice rang out.

You Huo suddenly snapped back to reality, only to realize he had unconsciously quickened his pace, now just a few steps away from the people ahead.

Qin Jiu paused at the turn of the corridor, his gaze sweeping past three servants to land on You Huo.

This time, his glance didn’t flicker away. Instead, he blinked at You Huo and said, “Hurry up, don’t keep the duke waiting.”

As they descended to the first floor and drew nearer to the bedroom at the base of the west tower, stirrings could be heard from the other rooms of the ancient castle.

If the manservants had walked a bit slower, they would have heard the incessant ringing of phone alarms through the many wooden doors.

Soon, a door quietly opened on the third floor.

A head poked out, glanced around left and right, then turned to someone inside the room and said, “They should have gone down. I just heard some movement a moment ago.”

Immediately after, another door in the distance swung open.

The second head popped out, still waving towards this direction.

Then came the third, the fourth..

In the blink of an eye, the majority of the examinees had emerged from the room.

This was their prior agreement.

Since killing the duke would break the curse, now was the time to act—why wait any longer?

The sooner the exam ends, the sooner they can rest.

They lowered their voices, quietly signaling with gestures as they made their way down to the first floor.

* * *

The huge bedroom on the first floor of the West Tower was eerily quiet.

The Duke was draped in a long cape, its silk hem sweeping the floor.

He was placing candles around a large Douglas.

His face was alarmingly pale, as if the blood had stopped flowing, and the curve of his mouth suggested his mood was extremely foul. He was furious—both at the pig lying dead in front of him and at the guest who was about to arrive.

He straightened up after arranging the candles, wiping the cleaver carefully with a cloth.

Squinting his eyes and licking his lips, he said, “Douglas, this oversight of yours has made me a little worried. Without you, holding down both of them will cost me some effort and time.”

“Of course, that bit of effort and time is insignificant.”

After all, most of the time, the guests are in a state of shock and fainting.

“I hope those stupid servants dragged the two gentlemen over face-up. I instructed them to, but it’s hard to say if they’ll remember, after all… after all, they’re really too stupid, still not quite on the level of the living.”

He ran his fingers over the blade and muttered, “But even when they were alive, I never saw them display much intelligence. I still remember—one time, Eliza just caught a slight chill, and those fools managed to make her condition worse and worse. It took a whole month for her to recover.”

The duke paused, glanced under the bed, and said, “My Eliza… ah… once I’ve dealt with these two gentlemen, I’ll go find their wives for you. Just wait a little longer, just a little longer…” He whispered playfully, “Let’s first make our butler look a bit more human.”

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

The Duke hummed a cheerful tune, tucked his knife behind his back, and stood before the grand door, ready to welcome his unfortunate guest.

The door swung open, and the manservant lowered his gaze respectfully as he ushered three people inside.

Three men..

Three men taller than the duke and stronger than the duke.

“……”

The Duke instantly withdrew his smile.

The tallest of the perfect gentlemen glanced at the pig and the candle, smiling as he said, “Well, look at that—everything’s all prepared?”

As he spoke, he pulled out two pairs of white gentleman’s gloves from his pocket, patted them, and passed them to the side.

The other cold, perfect gentleman took them, slipped them on, then pulled out a knife and said, “Quick and clean—let’s make this efficient.”