"You came back late, is there any big clue?" Ai Yu's group had already sat in the restaurant for half of the meal, and Xu Qingran and the three of them were late, Lin Mo noticed that the clothes on Xu Qingran and Shen Junyao had changed, which was different from the one they went out in the morning, they should have just gone back to the room to change, "Your clothes...... What happened? ”

"It's a long story, let's eat first, and I'll talk about it in more detail later." Xu Qingran waved his hand, looking weak, chose a nearby position and sat down, picked up a knife and fork and began to cut the steak quickly, he should be hungry.

Xu Qingran, Shen Junyao and Chen Yang had already sat down, and Ai Yu reacted that something was wrong, as if there was one person missing.

"You ...... What about Jiang Xian? Ai Yu said with some hesitation, it couldn't be that he met the ethereal spirit, and then Jiang Xian died, right? However, the system will prompt when the dream traveler is reduced, not to mention the dream traveler's death prompt at present, since the beginning of the mission, they have not heard the system's prompt, this is their task progress is normal or even abnormal, so the system will let them fend for themselves?

As soon as the words fell, the door of the restaurant was suddenly pushed open, Jiang Xian hurriedly ran in, still holding a few pieces of paper that looked like leaflets, she said sorry in her mouth, and reached out to pull the empty chair beside Jun Yao and sat down.

"Ha, I was scared to death, I was almost discovered." Jiang Xian gulped down the fruit wine in the glass, patted her chest, and breathed a long sigh of relief, "I just went to the notice board in Jiexin Park, this point is estimated to be the point where the residents take a walk after eating, and there are still many people sitting and chatting in the park." It took a lot of effort for me to secretly tear the notice off. ”

"What are you tearing that for?" Yin Weiyu had already finished eating, and as the first person to put down the tableware at the table, she naturally became the one who answered Jiang Xian's words.

"Ah...... It's a long story, but when I eat something first, I'll talk about it slowly. ”

Okay, you're all talking a long story, you're all hungry, but it's too much to sell off your appetite like this, right?

"Then let's talk about it first." Xu Qingran saw that everyone had put down their knives and forks, and it seemed that they had finished their meal, so he spoke, "First of all, we are sure that the puppet and the child's disappearance are inseparable, at least Lily and Alex both stopped sleepwalking after having a new puppet, and disappeared after that. Here can be temporarily summarized a rule, in addition to the puppet as an intervening factor, children will stop sleepwalking symptoms before disappearing, so far we have not heard of a new child missing, but then you can stop by to ask which child has not sleepwalked, then he is the breakthrough. Secondly, regarding the fact that Lily and Alex met to disappear, it can be judged that they were going out to meet a woman somewhere that day, and Alex prepared an amethyst brooch for her as a gift. Although they still don't know their destination, at least the core elements of this event have come out. Alex's stepmother said she didn't know the identity of the woman who had received Alex's gift, but she had a rough description of what the amethyst brooch looked like, and that we should keep an eye out for anyone with this look when we go out later. ”

"Furthermore, about what Lin Mo heard about hide and seek at night, we also asked Alex's stepmother, and she said that Alex and Lily have a very good relationship, and the two of them like to play hide and seek the most. Finally, about rules, the lady said that rules have been circulated for so long that some things can no longer be called simply rules, but more accurately called habits. All she could recall was that in addition to having to go back to the house before sunset, the forest next to the town was a forbidden place not to enter. As for what Weiyu had learned from the mayor's assistant Linda, that the bell tower could not be approached, her answer was too vague to judge. ”

Jun Yao looked like she wanted to say something, Xu Qingran glanced at her, so he threw the stubble to her, "Jun Yao has anything to add?" ”

"Actually, I think what that lady said is also mixed with some falsehoods." Jun Yao seemed to be recalling what she had just heard, "I think this Alex's stepmother is too cooperative with us. She knew everything we asked, which should have been a very happy thing, but she gave me the impression that it was only a superficial cooperation, but inside she didn't want us to know certain things. Alex lied to us about what she said, going to her friend's treasure house to buy an amethyst brooch that matched her preferences. ”

"You're saying that Alex didn't buy an amethyst brooch as a gift, but something else?" Ai Yu asked with some confusion, Jun Yao shook her head, and continued, "No, she described the amethyst brooch at that time as a bit general, with a few key points, but she couldn't completely restore this item for a while, which is in line with the logic she heard as a third person, that is, Alex did go to buy an amethyst brooch, and her friend told her what this brooch looked like." ”

"Since the amethyst brooch does have such a thing, then where did you say she lied on this point?"

"This lady should have known from the beginning that Alex was not giving the gift to herself, or she didn't know it at first, but she changed the point in time when she knew that the owner of the gift was not hers. She said at the time that she didn't know she was being amorous until the day before Alex's disappearance, after her birthday, and the next morning when she saw Alex carrying a gift bag, but I think she knew that earlier. ”

"How did you deduce that?" Ai Yu felt that Jun Yao was selling Guanzi, and she frowned, as if she wanted to know the answer to this question quickly.

In both respects, when the lady said that she found out that this gift was not for herself, her words and actions seemed contrived, her identity was embarrassing, and when she recalled this scene, she would also be slightly ashamed because of the embarrassment she had had, she might sigh, but she would never be so exaggerated and pretentious. In addition, I paid attention to the furnishings of the house, and the dress of the lady, and she said that my friend recommended the ornaments according to her preferences, but I did not have any purple elements in this house, at least as far as I could see. And the outfit she wore to us at home today didn't have a hint of purple. Although a person will not use his favorite color in the dress up every day, but the living room is a communication center of the home, which can show the owner's personality and preferences, so the purple that this lady likes will at least appear in the living room, right? However, in fact, all the furniture in the living room, from the sofa cabinet to the teacup vase decoration, did not appear in purple. The lady had a beautiful courtyard with beautiful hyacinths of many colors, but no purple. As far as I know, purple hyacinth has a mysterious and noble meaning in it, and is even called 'Western narcissus', for a variety with such a reputation and her favorite color, will she choose not to plant it in the garden? So I concluded that purple was not the color that the lady liked, and that she hated it so much. ”

So what is the purpose of her lying on this point? Did she know who Alex and Lily were going to meet? ”

"I think she really doesn't know who the person who received the gift is, but this lack of knowledge should not be passive, but active." Jun Yao continued, "Her identity is really special...... The stepmother, although she showed extreme care and concern, didn't really care so much about Alex as a child in her tone. So, she didn't care at all who Alex was going with, who she was going with, where he was going, who he was going to meet, and I saw something on the table in the living room, called folic acid. If I'm not mistaken, this should be something that pregnant women need more, and the bottle hasn't been opened yet, so it seems that it was just bought. ”

"That way, it makes sense. This lady will soon have a child of her own, so she is not so concerned about the child left by the former mistress of the family. Ai Yu nodded in agreement with Jun Yao's words.

"Also, I think it's weird about the rules she said." Jun Yao continued.

"Do you think she's like the lady of Lily's house, saying rules that confuse us?" Xu Qingran said with some puzzlement, he didn't see anything abnormal when he looked at the lady's performance, he felt that something was wrong with the timing of what Jun Yao said, although he didn't analyze it completely, but he was aware of it. But in terms of the rules she is talking about now, Xu Qingran really doesn't think there is any problem.

"No, the rules she said are correct so far, I just care a lot about what she says."

"Which one?"

"When we confirmed the rules of the bell tower, she said that this taboo young people don't know much about it. Her exact words at the time should have been, 'The person who told you this rule must have been in this town for a long time'. ”

"Hmm...... Is there anything strange about this? ”

"Weiyu, when you called to confirm this rule, it was Linda, the assistant to the mayor, who answered the call, right?" Jun Yao asked.

"Yes."

"So, do you think Assistant Linda is young? Does it look a few years older than us? ”

"Hmm...... It looks very young, and it is estimated that he is in his twenties, twenty-five and twenty-six? Anyway, it's not even thirty years old. ”

Xu Qingran suddenly understood the meaning of Jun Yao's series of questions, "Do you think that lady said that the person who knows the taboo of the bell tower should have been in the town for a long time, but the assistant Linda is also in her twenties, even younger than that lady, according to that lady, she shouldn't know this." However, the assistant Linda knew about this taboo and kindly reminded us. ”

"But...... Are you stuck in a play on words again? Jiang Xian spoke at the right time, "That lady just said that people who know this rule have been in this town for a long time, but having been in this town for a long time and being very old are two different concepts. ”

Jun Yao and Xu Qingran were stunned, and then smiled slightly, as if they had entered such a low-level word game and couldn't get out, and sure enough, sometimes they couldn't think too much.

"Let me tell you what I found. We met the lady of Lily's family on the way to Alex's house, she was watering the flowers in the garden, and when you asked her about Lily yesterday, didn't you finally ask to see the puppet? Then the lady went up to the second floor, and something strange happened, and you didn't stay any longer. When we saw the lady today, she said that she wanted us to hand over something, so she brought a puppet, and we thought the puppet was very weird, so Jun Yao found that the puppet looked very similar to the lady. That lady looked very weird at that time, and Chen Yang also found that the doll had moved, so we naturally didn't dare to stay longer, so we fled in a hurry. Later, when Xu Qingran and Jun Yao went to Alex's house to inquire about the situation, the lady of Lily's family had been very concerned, so I stepped forward to help her, but to be precise, it was a bad way for her to leave her house. ”

"It's something I found at her house." Jiang Xian took out something from her coat pocket, it was a somewhat wrinkled photo, it should have been taken away in a hurry and put into her coat pocket, Jiang Xian reached out and displayed the photo, and then pushed it to the center of the table for everyone to view.

The photo shows a mother and daughter, a woman with long curly orange hair wearing a green dress, a pair of white lace gloves on her slender hands, and a flower basket with small white daisies in her hands. There was also a little girl beside her, dressed in a pale yellow floral dress, grinning and her eyes curled into a crescent moon.

"The girl in this picture is Lily, exactly like the puppet in the lady's hand."