We returned to the hall one by one, exchanging our glances. The air was filled with anxiety and depression, as if everyone had sensed that something was wrong.
"The plants in the greenhouse were moving," Lin Qiao was the first to speak, her voice was low but clear.
There were red marks on the back of her hands, likely from being scratched by the vines, and her sleeve was stained with green fluid.
"It felt like… they were deliberately moving toward me," she said, eyes lowered. "I tried to keep watering, but their 'teeth' almost touched my hand."
"One of them opened its petals and there were thorns inside," she added, her voice even lower. "And… there were traces of blood in the soil, as if something had been dragged through it."
Jiang Che stood stiffly, his left arm wrapped in thick bandages.
"That horse… it wasn't even alive," he said. "Its flesh was already rotten, but it still pounced on and bit me."
"Its teeth… too sharp. Not what a herbivore should have."
We turned to Song Yao next. The blood on her apron hadn't fully dried. She stood stiffly, eyes fixed on the floor.
Song Yao's voice was quiet. "I cut my finger while chopping vegetables in the kitchen…"
She paused, a trace of uneasiness flashing across her eyes. "When the head chef saw the blood, he suddenly became a different person. His eyes turned red, and he grabbed the kitchen knife and charged at me."
"I... couldn't react in time, so I had to take action first." She said, staring at her fingers, "I lost control of the force of that blow and stabbed him in the abdomen."
Her voice dropped even lower. "When he collapsed, Butler Adrian appeared behind me. No footsteps, no words… nothing."
"He just looked at me, gave a slight bow… and called in the servants to drag the body away."
The hall fell into stunned silence.
"Something was off at the training grounds too," Ji Ran said next. His tone was even, but there was caution in his eyes.
"The colleague who was at the training grounds… something's off about him."
"He said the place hadn't been used in years. Then he quickly corrected himself and said it was due to 'budget constraints'."
I looked at Gu Wenqiang and asked, "Did you find any clues about the family members related to this castle in the archive room?"
"Still no family registry in the archive room," Gu Wenqiang replied. "But I think… we need to go back there again."
I nodded. "We'll go again tonight."
I added, "In any case, we can't overlook anything left behind by the family. There might be details in the archive room we missed before."
At this moment, a heavy silence fell over the room. Lin Qiao rubbed her arms and murmured in a low voice, "This place… it doesn't feel like it was ever meant to let us leave alive."
Jiang Che kept his head down, cold sweat still on his forehead, his fists clenched tightly.
Ji Ran looked around and said suddenly, "We need to start documenting everything we encounter in our group chat. Or someone might disappear, and no one will even realise it."
Song Yao said nothing but just sat there quietly. The kitchen knife now set aside, but her gaze remained fixed on the direction of the bloodstains on the ground.
Neither Qin Yan nor I mentioned the basement. It was too complicated, too fragmented. We hadn't yet decided whether to speak of it or who we could even tell.