“Only the smell of mothballs...”
Li Ang surveyed the size of the wardrobe, taking out two stacks of clothes from within.
These two stacks of clothes belonged to a boy and a girl respectively, and were quite normal. They included both summer and winter clothing, and there were no signs of damage or bloodstains from domestic violence.
“The problem isn't with the clothes, then it's with the wardrobe itself?”
Li Ang pondered, picked up the flashlight, and climbed into the wardrobe, knocking on the wooden panels everywhere, but found no hidden doors or mechanisms.
“Hmm... why do I feel like I'm always climbing into wardrobes? There was that time in the Philippines with [Foolish Man in Perilous Building], that time with the alchemist, and now this time.
Even though I never buy clothes from Hailan Home—their staff never let me take them for free, even though they advertise it as a man's wardrobe.”
Li Ang muttered to himself, examining every detail of the wardrobe.
He even said spells like “Open Sesame” and “Alohomora” to the wardrobe, but nothing changed.
Time passed by little by little. Li Ang's fingers traced the scratch marks inside the wardrobe door, and his eyes narrowed. “The Chronicles of Narnia, could it be...”
He hesitated, stood inside the wardrobe, grabbed the doors on both sides, and slowly closed them.
In the enclosed space, the light from the flashlight was bright and dazzling.
Li Ang listened to his own breathing, his gaze focused on the crack in the wardrobe door.
The two doors of the wardrobe closed tightly, leaving no gap in the middle, so he couldn't see anything outside through the crack.
Suddenly, rustling sounds rang out from outside, passing through the wooden panels of the wardrobe door and into Li Ang's ears.
“Robin, are you asleep?”
A little girl's voice sounded, seemingly deliberately lowered.
“No, Lynn, we shouldn't be talking.”
The person who answered was a little boy, and the direction of the voice suggested it came from the two children's beds on the left and right sides of the room.
Could this wardrobe travel through time? Or could it simply hear conversations that happened in the house at some point in the past?
Li Ang's mind raced. While aiming the flashlight at the wardrobe door, ready to defend against potential enemies at any time, he listened carefully, not missing any sound.
“I know, but...”
The little girl paused for a moment. “Is Hope okay with you?”
“She's okay, but she looks a little scared. Do you want to hold her?”
The sound of the blanket being lifted,
The sound of slippers stepping on the ground,
A soft meow.
It sounded like the two children in this family had brought a cat into the children's bedroom at night.
The boy is called Robin, the girl is called Lynn,
And the black cat is female, named Hope?
“Good girl, Hope, good girl.”
A soft meow, the little girl's voice comforting the cat.
“Today... I was also scared.”
Robin took a deep breath and said softly, “When you and Dad were outside fixing the lawn, I was sitting on the sofa watching TV.
Mom suddenly came down from the upstairs room, holding the doll toys she collects, and talking to the TV in the living room, saying a lot of things.
Like we shouldn't have been born, everything was a mistake, she should set the house on fire, and something about Dad taking Grandpa and Grandma away from her...
I sat on the sofa, afraid to speak, until Dad came back and took Mom back upstairs.
Last night, I heard Grandpa and Grandma discussing with Dad about sending Mom to a very, very far place, but Dad didn't agree.”
“Mom will get better.”
Lynn said, “She's the best mom in the world...”
Dolls? Shouldn't have been born? Set the house on fire?
Hiding in the wardrobe, Li Ang subconsciously raised his eyebrows, without saying a word.
Click.
The sound of the doorknob turning rang out from outside, not the wardrobe door, but the main door of the children's bedroom.
“Robin, Lynn, are you asleep?”
A woman's voice, sounding calm and normal.
“Quick, Mom's coming, quick hide Hope!”
Lynn lowered her voice, sounding somewhat frightened.
A series of footsteps sounded, quickly approaching, arriving in front of the wardrobe door.
“Hmm?”
Li Ang frowned. Just as he was about to pick up the flashlight, he heard the sound of the wardrobe door opening and closing, as well as a few soft meows,
But the wardrobe itself didn't change at all.
“What I'm hearing is just the sound from a certain point in the past?”
Li Ang's heart stirred. He didn't rush to open the wardrobe door, but continued to listen.
Judging from the direction of the footsteps, Robin hid the black cat named Hope in the wardrobe, then quickly ran back to his own bed, covering himself with the blanket and pretending to sleep.
Immediately afterwards, along with the door opening, a heavier footstep came in.
A woman, wearing hard-soled cotton slippers, of medium weight.
“Robin? Lynn? Are you asleep...”
The woman called “Mom” didn't turn on the lights. She walked in slowly, approached Lynn's bed, sat down gently by the bed, and murmured softly, “Lynn, my daughter, you look so much like me.
Big eyes, small mouth, blue eyes.
I really want to watch you grow up, watch you wear all kinds of dresses, watch you go to middle school, attend prom, get into college, find someone you love...”
As she spoke, she suddenly stopped, and a whimper like a machine jamming came from her throat. She said in a low and hoarse voice, “But all this is wrong, none of this should have happened. I'm going to die, Lynn, Robin, can you come and keep me company?
Lynn?
Lynn?
Lynn?”
She kept repeating her daughter's name, and her voice became increasingly manic and turbid,
But Lynn and Robin didn't scream or resist—it seemed they had gotten used to this sudden situation.
“Meow!”
A clear meow sounded inexplicably from inside the wardrobe.
The woman's manic cries suddenly stopped, and she returned to the relaxed and cheerful tone she had before, “Ah, Hope.
Did you bring her into the room?
Naughty, Mommy has told you so many times, you can't bring Hope into the bedroom, she'll feel uncomfortable.
Hmm, let me see, where is she hiding~”
The woman stood up from Lynn's bed, stepped on her slippers and walked towards the wardrobe.
With a click, it sounded like she stepped on some toy, staggered and almost fell, her hand grabbing the edge of the children's desk.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
The woman shouted furiously, “Robin! Why don't you put your toys away! Ah?! How many times have I told you! Put your toys in the box!!”
She hammered the desk hard, causing the pencils and erasers on the desk to jump up and down.
Lynn and Robin, who were pretending to be asleep, seemed to be frightened and didn't dare to speak.
And the cat hidden in the wardrobe at some point in the past also became restless and anxious because of the noise, and began to scratch at the door frantically.
Tear, tear.
Listening to the scratching sound coming from the space next to him, Li Ang was thoughtful. The scratch marks inside the wardrobe door were left by that black cat.
The woman's roar continued for a while.
Then she stomped heavily on the ground and rushed towards the wardrobe.
Just as Li Ang became fully alert, preparing to use a strobe flash to illuminate outside the wardrobe,
Urgent footsteps rang out from the outside again.
“Honey?”
A man's voice sounded from the doorway. Lynn and Robin shouted, “Dad!”
Are all four family members here?
Li Ang said silently, “If my previous guess is correct, then I am playing the role of the father in the family. If I open the wardrobe door now, maybe I'll see another version of myself?
No, that's unlikely.
This wardrobe isn't that powerful, it doesn't have the function of time travel.”
He thought, and continued to listen.
“Ah, Steven, you're here.”
The woman's voice returned to calm again, as if it wasn't her who was suddenly manic before. “I got up and saw you weren't there,
So I came to see how the children were sleeping.”
“I was looking for the key to the study downstairs just now.”
The male owner, called Steven, walked over quickly, hugged his wife, and said gently, “Remember to knock before entering the children's room next time, got it?”
“I don't like knocking.”
The woman said coquettishly, like a teenage girl, “It's too troublesome.”
“I know, I know.”
The male owner hugged his wife and comforted her for a while, then walked towards the children's bed.
The two children seemed frightened and jumped off the bed to hug their father.
The male owner comforted the children for a while, let the children lie back on the bed and continue sleeping, while he took his calmed-down wife and walked out of the children's bedroom.
After a while, the male owner returned again, came to the wardrobe, opened the wardrobe door, took out the cat from inside, and breathed a sigh of relief, “Phew, Hope is okay too.”
Lynn said timidly, “Dad?”
Steven said gently, “Hmm? What's wrong?”
“I'm so scared of Mom.”
“...Phew.”
Steven exhaled a heavy breath, sat down by the children's bed, and said gently to the two children, “It's okay, your mom is sick, and we're trying to find a way to cure her.
When she gets better, we can live happily like we used to, you know?
Okay, be good, go to sleep, children.
Oh right, Robin, the key to the study is lost, can you turn on the bedside lamp, I'll look for the spare key.”
“Okay, Dad.”
The sound of the light being turned on, the sound of slippers being taken off, the sound of feet stepping on the bed, the creaking sound of metal rubbing.
“Okay.”
Steven breathed a sigh of relief, jumped off the bed, comforted the children one last time, and left the room with the sound of the door closing.
After the sound subsided for a while,
Li Ang stayed in the wardrobe for a while longer, confirming that there were no subsequent sounds, before pushing open the wardrobe door.
Outside the door, the scene was as it had been before.
There was no one in the children's bed.
“So, the wardrobe just let me listen to a recording?”
Li Ang muttered, “To summarize the information, there are four family members, the father is called Steven, the son is called Robin, and the daughter is called Lynn.
The mother's name is unknown, but it's obvious that her mental state isn't good.
The lithium salt found in the bathroom cabinet downstairs is a sedative used to treat mania.
Lamotrigine, or Lamictal, can significantly prolong the time interval between mood events,
Carbamazepine, quetiapine, are also mental drugs.
The wife said that the children shouldn't have been born, everything was a mistake, she should set the house on fire, and something about the husband taking her parents away...
But judging from the way the couple interacts, the husband is gentle and patient,
It doesn't seem like a story about imprisoning a young girl and forcing her to have children—the wife's personal freedom isn't severely restricted, and the husband's parents have also visited the house.
So it's just a simple story of the wife suffering from mental illness, manic depression, and the husband trying to maintain the family?”
His feet stepped on the floor of the bedroom, and he looked around, frowning. “If it's just like this, it's not enough to generate such a script mission.
Little master, there is more to this chapter, please click on the next page to continue reading, the following is more exciting!
Something must have happened later, some key plot point.
For example, the wife killed the husband, or the husband killed the wife, etc.”
He pondered and walked out of the children's bedroom, arriving in front of the study.
The door lock of the study was a single-slot type, and the size was a circle smaller than the A key of the padlock before.
“The study and the master bedroom are two places that need to be explored.
There are no clues for the password lock of the master bedroom for the time being.
As for the study,
The male owner, Steven, told his son before that the key to the study was lost, and asked his son to turn on the bedside lamp to look for the spare key.
The house is so big, it's a bit difficult to find the original key, and it's not certain that the original key is still in the room,
So the spare key...”
Li Ang turned around, returned to the children's bedroom, and looked at the set of chandeliers in the shape of a solar system model above Robin's bed.
The chandelier is composed of eight planet models of different sizes and colors.
From inside to outside, they are the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Each planet is on its own orbit, and the orbits can slide against each other.
Of all the planets, only the sun is a real electric light. It will light up after you toggle the button.
“If the key is hidden elsewhere in the children's bedroom, then Steven didn't need to take off his shoes and step on Robin's bed—there's nothing in the space above the bed.
That is to say, the study key must be related to this solar system model.”
Li Ang toggled the light button for a while, but nothing changed, so he turned off the light, took off his shoes, stood on the children's bed, and reached out to pick the star spheres through the pillowcase.
“I can't take it off, the wires are as strong as the ones downstairs.
There's also nothing like a key on the outside or above the sphere.”
He pondered, let go of the sphere in his hand, and continued to observe.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, that's right.
Each planet is different in color and size. Jupiter has big eyes, Saturn also has Saturn's rings. All the stars are arranged according to the position of the standard solar system model.
“Is there some kind of mechanism? Like the hidden box inside the Chevrolet SUV, do I need to adjust the solar system's orbit to a certain fixed angle?
So that all the planets are in the right place,
To make the key appear?”
A possibility emerged in Li Ang's mind, but he immediately rejected it. “No. It's unlikely.
Unless it's a computer or a professional astronomer, it's impossible to draw the position of every planet in the solar system at a certain moment from memory, let alone I don't even know when that moment is.
The house doesn't give any corresponding clues.
If I had an expensive watch with a real-time solar system model, it might be possible, but there are no corresponding items in the room...”
Li Ang looked at the chandelier model, pondering silently. Suddenly, his gaze swept over the astronomy popular science book printed with Copernicus's picture on the ground, and stopped.