Artifact Report

Chapter 227 Mai Minghe: No One Opens the Door

The hurried footsteps and voices coming down the stairs woke Mai Minghe up in an instant.

With this shock, the long lily petals that were bending like fingers and expanding in the air finally slipped away from her mind, allowing her to break free from the darkness at the core of the flower - her heart seemed to want to break out of her throat and ears at the same time, and the sound of blood hitting the wall made Mai Minghe unable to hear anything for a moment.

Hurry up.

There was a staircase behind her and lilies floating in the air in front of her. For a moment, she could only stagger back a few steps, and with a light "bang", she hit the stair railing.

It was not until this moment that she realized that the person downstairs seemed to have called out several times.

Perhaps because Mai Minghe hadn't replied, the man stopped yelling at her to identify herself and instead shouted downstairs, "Come on, some people, get up to the third floor! Let Tianxi know!"

Less than ten seconds had passed since the glass bottle shattered on the ground, and there were already several more footsteps on the stairs; among the footsteps, there was another unmistakable sound of metal collision, which jumped crisply in the air one after another.

Mai Minghe had never shot a gun, but she had seen movies; she knew that was the sound of a gun's safety lock being unlocked.

So they all carry guns when they're at home, ready to pull them out at any moment?
No wonder there are no guards in the mansion - why would there be guards in a place where everyone is a member of a fighting group?
Now is not the time to lament.

Mai Minghe walked around Lily, turned around and rushed back to the central living room on the third floor, and took the time to look back.

The huge lilies in the sky seemed to suddenly remember at this moment that they were just a bunch of flowers. Their petals narrowed and they were pulled straight down from mid-air to the ground with a "click" sound.

The broken glass bottles, the gradually seeping water, and a few soft lilies on the ground seemed to be pointing the way to the people downstairs.

……what is going on?

Is it an artifact of what is used for warning?
But why just drop the vase? Why not take more thorough measures—like, sound an alarm throughout the house? Or even report her location immediately?

The footsteps were getting closer. The visitor only needed to turn one more corner and go up the last staircase to see Mai Minghe in the open living room; but for a moment, her head was buzzing and she didn't know where to go.

She had just walked around the third floor and she knew very well that there was no place to hide anyone on the third floor.

The first floor of the Kai family's house is a public open area including a kitchen and a dining room. It is an activity venue for the family's hunters. There are many rooms and they are not locked, so people can come and go almost freely. There are important people and supplies on the second floor, and certain permissions are required to open some of the doors.

But the third floor is different.

The third floor was obviously renovated later, with several walls and doors removed in order to connect half of the floor and create an open, transparent and well-lit atmosphere - this means that only a few people are needed to fully view the entire third floor.

Mai Minghe no longer has the luxury of thinking.

When several people strode up to the third floor and stopped in front of a pile of broken glass bottles, she had already rushed into a corridor next to the living room. On one side of the corridor was a semi-circular observation deck. The sunlight illuminated half of the floor, making Mai Minghe feel that she had nowhere to hide.

A few meters away, someone exclaimed, "Huh?"

"Is there a vase here? Where did the flowers come from?"

"I remember these are the flowers on the first floor," a female voice said hesitantly. It was Shaxue.

Don’t they know what the lilies are about?

"Forget the vase, there's definitely someone here," another voice said in a deep voice. "Spread out and look. He should still be on the third floor. Sayuki, block the stairs."

Now, the only exit from the third floor was blocked.

In fact, most of the houses built at the same time as the Kai family mansion had back stairs reserved for servants to use, so that they could go back and forth to work without entering the master's field of vision.

But Mai Minghe had just discovered that after more than a hundred years of renovations, the back staircase had long since become a freight elevator—without an access card, the elevator door couldn't be opened. Which way to go?
Mai Minghe endured the pain in her foot, not daring to make any loud noise or slow down; but even if she tried her best to move forward, she knew that sooner or later she would be blocked by the other party's scattered men - this corridor surrounded the entire third floor, and she could even hear footsteps coming towards her from the other end.

She glanced at the hallway window.

Is the only way to get out through the window?
She had just looked out, and when she opened the window, she was in the air more than ten meters high; the outer wall dropped straight down, and there was no place to stand, not even anything to hold on to.

Not to mention how long she could hang in the air with just her hands, the hunter from the Kai family was not that blind - the window was half open, and there was a row of fingers clinging to the windowsill, couldn't he see it at a glance?

If it weren't for that inexplicable bottle of lilies, she would have escaped from the Kai family mansion by now; how on earth did she suddenly end up like this?

How to do?
Mai Minghe was so anxious that he almost wanted to climb the wall - the footsteps in front and behind him were getting closer and closer; and there was only one room in this corridor, and the door was closed.

When she passed by it just now, she just took a picture of it but didn't try to push it.

Because anyone who takes a look at the password lock keypad next to the door will know that it is unnecessary; a door that automatically locks when closed cannot be pushed open.

"Who's there?"

A strange female voice came from the corner of the hallway. She sounded not only non-hostile but even gentle, almost conversational, as she said, "I know. You're in the hallway. I can already see you."

Mai Minghe shuddered and glanced quickly at the ground - was he bluffing?

She quickly shrank her body and pressed her back against the wall beside the door. She felt a blood vessel on her temple throbbing as if it was about to burst.

If she walked out in surrender, what would the Kai family do to her?
No matter what, you will never get the lipstick back, right?
"Are you hoping to take advantage of our short manpower and defenses to come in and get some money?" The woman's voice was still gentle. "Unfortunately, you've come to the wrong place. Put down your weapons and don't resist. I guarantee that your firepower is far inferior to ours."

She was stalling for time—because from the other end of the aisle, someone was approaching with very light footsteps.

How come I'm stuck at a dead end?
Do you want to... surrender?
There was a "click" sound, as if someone had gently touched the door panel with a finger; the sound was so slight that it almost slipped away from her attention.

Mai Minghe followed the faint sound and turned his head towards the door.

The first thing she saw was the small green light that suddenly lit up on the password pad.

For a moment, she couldn't even understand what the light meant - but the next moment, she saw it.

The door slid open a crack.

Mai Minghe did not see with his own eyes the scene where the Kai family hunters rushed out of the aisle, rushed in, and blocked the aisle.

But she could imagine the confusion and surprise when they raised their guns and shouted "Don't move" and cast their eyes into the aisle.

There was no one in the hallway; when the voices poured into the hallway, she was standing in the room, having already closed the door quietly.

Mai Minghe stood in front of the door, her back to the room. Aside from a fleeting glance as she slipped in, she hadn't turned back to take a closer look at the room behind her. She only knew that when the door slid open, there was no one behind it.

She couldn't think about who opened the door for her.

She had only one thought in her mind at the moment, and her whole body was frozen by it.

Across the room, that motionless humanoid black hole, seemingly staring at her...what on earth was it?
　I didn’t get any rest on Saturday. After a busy day with insufficient sleep, I realized that I forgot to write the thank-you chapter!
　　I'm really sorry everyone, I'll make up for it next Saturday

　　
　
(End of this chapter)