143: The Secret Room
For the children at Christian Orphanage, today was definitely a day worth commemorating.
Of course, by "worth commemorating," they weren't referring to Victor's matter being exposed. After all, for the young children who knew nothing and understood nothing, the orphanage had simply changed directors. That was far less important than going out to play and watching movies.
Ever since they returned from outside, they had been sitting in the orphanage's spacious front yard watching two movies in a row. Throughout, snacks like popcorn and wafer cookies had been continuously supplied. You had to know, they didn't even get this kind of treatment during New Year's!
Therefore, every little one at Christian Orphanage had played to their heart's content today. When it was time to sleep, they fell asleep shortly after lying in bed, a rare occurrence. The life teachers in charge of managing them couldn't help but remark:
Youth is great. You can fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.
After the children had all gone to sleep, the Church's practitioners also gradually prepared to leave. The two Watchers, Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze, also left with the Church's vehicle at this time.
As for our Miss Evelia... she had been smilingly dragged away by Amya to "bond" as soon as the movie ended.
After all, our Miss Angel always kept her word. Since she had already said tonight she would give Evelia some "color" to see, there was no way she would go back on her word!
Time passed in the blink of an eye. By late night, even the life teachers' bedrooms had long gone quiet. The first half of today's show had ended here. But in that case... the second half of today's show was also time to... raise the curtain.
Pure white moonlight spilled onto the spire of the orphanage's clock tower. A pitch-black figure stood silently there. After confirming that the entire orphanage had completely fallen into slumber, that figure slowly pulled down the cloak covering her head, revealing the beautiful face hidden beneath.
White long hair, pale golden eyes, a face as tender as a child's... This person was unmistakably Lina.
"...At this hour, the Church people have all left. That Jasmine... she probably won't come to cause trouble again, right?"
Lina whispered to herself. She put the cloak back on her head and leaned her body slightly forward. In the next instant, she leaped down from the spire of the clock tower.
As her figure nimbly twisted and turned in the air, she soon arrived once again before the Director's Office window.
She reached out and tried to push the window. It was open.
Lina pushed open the window and slipped in like an agile cat. This time, she didn't aimlessly rummage through the Director's Office like before. Instead, she went directly to the bookshelf where she had hidden earlier.
She gently crouched down and opened the bookshelf before her. This was exactly where she had hidden when facing Jasmine's sudden attack not long ago.
Her purpose in returning this time was to confirm a certain suspicion.
Lina stuck half her body into the bookshelf and felt around inside. About two or three minutes passed. Finally, her hand touched a spot that felt noticeably different from the surroundings. It was loose. With just a little force, it could be pressed inward.
The corner of Lina's mouth slowly curved into a smile. Her hand applied just a slight amount of force, and suddenly the sound of some mechanism latch being activated rang out from inside the cabinet.
"Click!"
A crisp "click" sound suddenly came from above the bookshelf. Lina slowly stood up. A not-too-large, not-too-small opening had appeared in what was originally a seamlessly fitted bookshelf. In the center of the opening was a pitch-black keyhole.
Actually, Lina had felt something was off about the wall behind the cabinet back when she was hiding inside it earlier. But because Jasmine kept talking and talking outside, she never had a chance to properly examine the cabinet.
After Jasmine left, Lina had been completely thrown off by her final words before departing. She couldn't work up any energy for a while and could only helplessly go to the snack street to buy two candied hawthorns to eat while clearing her mind. She planned to come back and check the cabinet after all the Church people had left.
Now it seemed... her suspicion was correct. There really was something hidden behind this bookshelf.
"Sigh... Father, let me see what exactly you left behind."
Lina took a deep breath. She took out the key she had found among Howard's belongings from her cloak and slowly inserted it into the keyhole in the bookshelf opening.
"Click!"
Since the style matched, the key easily inserted into the dark hole. Then, as Lina turned the key, the secret room that had been sealed for many years was opened.
"Rumble rumble rumble!"
With the sound of gears turning, the wall before Lina moved to both sides, revealing a hidden room of about ten square meters.
There were no electric lights in this secret room. There was only trigger-type light magic designed to meet basic lighting needs, which lit up the moment Lina opened the secret room.
Clearly, this secret room wasn't connected to electricity. Even the opening method was the most ancient gear mechanism.
The intent behind this wasn't hard to guess. The creator of this secret room definitely didn't want others to discover its existence.
The layout of the secret room was very simple. Apart from a most basic bed, there was only a bookshelf, a desk, and... ancient texts that filled more than half the room.
Lina slowly entered the secret room. The dampness and dust that hit her face made her uncomfortable. But to investigate the truth, she still patiently walked to the bedside of the secret room and reached out to gently touch the gray blanket.
"...So much dust."
With just this light touch, Lina's fingertips were covered with a thick layer of dust. It seemed this secret room genuinely hadn't been used for a very long time.
Next, Lina checked the other furnishings in the secret room one by one. Without exception, they were all covered with heavy dust and spider webs. Even those piles of ancient texts had almost completely become unusable due to long-term lack of maintenance.
Lina randomly picked up a notebook from the desk, wanting to identify the writing on it. But unfortunately, even these notebooks on the desk had long become completely unreadable due to moisture and insect damage.
"...Troublesome."
Facing this secret room that had clearly been sealed for many years, Lina could only helplessly rub her forehead. She had originally wanted to use the clues hidden inside to deduce the truth behind Howard's death back then. But now it seemed... there were no preserved clues left inside.
"Hm?"
But just then, Lina's peripheral vision inadvertently caught sight of something displayed on the desk. She made a light sound of curiosity and subconsciously reached her hand toward it.
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