Neverland

Yan Cen's answer was to hold Xu Muzhou's hand tightly.

Xu Muzhou was already suffering from a low fever, but now he was even more top-heavy when he jumped into the air. He was dizzy, too lazy to argue, subconsciously found a comfortable position, and leaned on Yan Cen's shoulder.

Xu Muzhou half-closed his eyes, frowned in discomfort, and asked, "By the way, where are the hydrangeas?"

Yan Cen weighed his whole body up, stretched the hand holding his wrist a little forward, and said, "This is it."

Xu Muzhou stretched out his hand to touch it. He was very used to the touch of hydrangeas. He could tell when he touched it that the progress bar on this flower was still at zero percent.

"Where are you going now?" Yan Cen asked his opinion.

"Let's start from the basement." Xu Muzhou said, "Since Toya said to walk around at will, it would be a disadvantage not to wander around."

Xu Muzhou actually doesn't have a clue now, Toya seems to be a bit watertight, at least Xu Muzhou didn't see that he was dissatisfied with the status quo, so he could only hope to look around to see if he could find out. Some new clues are coming.

Of course, this may be because he is very deep in the city and hides his thoughts well, but after all, he is young and far away from the crowd, so the chance of trying to hide it from him and Yan Cen at the same time is still too small.

Yan Cen was noncommittal about his decision, hugged Xu Muzhou tightly, turned and walked towards the stairs.

During the period when Xu Muzhou was asleep, Yan Cen had probably come out and walked around, and he was very familiar with the structure of the castle.

Xu Muzhou was held in Yan Cen's arms, and the kerosene lamp and key chain in his right hand collided with Yan Cen's walking movements, making clear and regular knocking sounds.

This sound was like a hypnotic sound. Xu Muzhou became a little drowsy under the dim light. He leaned on Yan Cen's shoulder and yawned lazily.

Yan Cen has a nice smell of tobacco. The smell of shredded tobacco is completely different from that of e-liquid. The latter is blazing but not unpleasant, with a burning herbal aroma.Everyone in Neverland has the habit of smoking, but it seems that only Yan Cen has this kind of smell.

Xu Muzhou doesn't smoke much, but he doesn't dislike the smell, and even likes it a little.

The stairs leading to the basement were very long, and the long walkway was only illuminated by a little bean-sized lamp, and a thin halo spread from the sides of the two of them layer by layer.Xu Muzhou nestled in Yan Cen's arms like a tired cat, his left cheek was pressed with a few light red marks by Yan Cen's rough clothes.

Yan Cen glanced down at him, then lightened his steps.

But Xu Muzhou hadn't fully fallen asleep yet, and was still struggling to chat with Yan Cen about the work, and his dedication was comparable to that of a model worker in Neverland.

"Brother Yan, what do you think is Toya's obsession?" Xu Muzhou asked.

"Anything is possible." Yan Cen said: "Based on normal circumstances, he may want to leave here, or he may want to get rid of the curse on his body...or a combination of both."

"If you say it, you don't say it." Xu Muzhou yawned again, his eyelids twitching: "Tuoya is obviously a very special person. You said that there is a problem with the flow of time here, so it means that he has a secret. Maybe he, like Ji Yun, is a person who doesn't even know where his obsession is."

Yan Cen kept humming and said, "Maybe."

Xu Muzhou heard the perfunctory in his tone, and muttered with some dissatisfaction: "...you are really becoming more and more unprofessional, be careful that Zhong Lu will deduct your salary when you go back."

Yan Cen paused.

After Xu Muzhou complained in a daze, he finally couldn't stand the double hypnosis of the environment and the background sound, and fell asleep on Yan Cen's shoulder.

Yan Cen stood in the dark corridor in silence for a moment. There was no end to the black passage in front of him. He hugged Xu Muzhou and shrank in this small corner guarded by the lights, like an isolated island floating on the sea.

If Xu Muzhou was awake, he would find Yan Cen's expression was very lonely, half-hidden and half-present in the lights, his beautiful amber eyes were half-down, slightly darker.

"...Why are you in such a hurry." Yan Cen sighed softly.

His sound was too soft, even the sound of the kerosene lamp hitting the keys was louder than his own, not to mention Xu Muzhou who was already asleep, even he could hardly hear it clearly.

Xu Muzhou didn't notice anything, he nestled comfortably in Yan Cen's arms, sleeping soundly.

Yan Cen stared at him for a while, then sighed again, stretched out his hand awkwardly to take the kerosene lamp that was about to fall from his hand, and put the bunch of keys on his wrist behind his back, before walking away. Step, go to the basement.

This castle was built on an island. The ramp to the basement was very gentle, and the overall depth was probably less than ten meters. However, the trail was very long and crooked. It took Yan Cen about [-] minutes to reach the door of the basement. .

When Yan Cen arrived at the basement, Xu Muzhou happened to wake up from a nap. He had just fallen into a deep sleep briefly, rested well, and looked much more energetic than before.

"Here?" Xu Muzhou asked.

Yan Cen agreed, he looked at the lock hanging on the door, and touched one by one in the bunch of keys, picked out a long and narrow copper key from it, and was about to open the door.

The door of the basement is under the last step, Yan Cen was about to bend over due to his height, and it was even more awkward to hold Xu Muzhou in his arms. Seeing this, Xu Muzhou quickly pushed Yan Cen's shoulder, Jumped out of his arms.

"I'm much better, let's go by myself." Xu Muzhou quickly tightened his coat to prevent the heat from dissipating, and urged, "Open the door."

Yan Cen's arms were suddenly empty, and he was still a little uncomfortable. He took another look at Xu Muzhou, and then bent down to pick up the lock.

The outer shell of this lock is a bit rusty, but the inner core is very smooth. It seems that someone often opens this door.

Yan Cen unlocked the door with a kerosene lamp, hung the chain on the door to a nail on the wall, and pushed the door open.

A smell of stale old wood spread over the surface. The basement was damp and dark. It hadn't seen light for many years, and the air quality was very unsatisfactory.

Xu Muzhou frowned and coughed a few times, followed Yan Cen into the basement.

It is said to be a basement, but it is actually more like a large storage space. It looks a little larger than the hall. There are several wooden shelves, large and small, on the surrounding walls, but they are not nailed firmly. Some were dangling, looking like they might fall at any moment.

The slats on a few of the shelves were pretty much rotten, and most of the stuff was piled up on the floor.

There were several huge wooden boxes in the two rows closest to the door. Xu Muzhou opened them one by one, and found that what was inside was a very hard black bread.The bread was so dark that its true colors could not be seen, Xu Muzhou took a look and thought there were a bunch of lead weights in the box.

The rest of the boxes contained fresh water packed in cowhide bags, which was probably Toya's rations for the past two months.

The black bread was extremely hard, and some of them were already moldy due to the water.The water bag was also covered with stains, Xu Muzhou pulled out a stopper casually, only to smell a pungent musty smell of leather, it was disgusting to smell, let alone drink.

Judging from these things, the people in that "kingdom" really didn't seem to care much about Toya, as long as he had a bite to eat and could barely survive.

Except for the necessary food and water, the other things here are not helpful to "improve the quality of life". The ground is littered with thin layers of animal skins, which seem to be mixed with mud.

In addition to the first time, there are still some scraps and tools left over from the construction of the castle, but most of the large pieces have been taken away, leaving only some palm-sized saws and mallets, and the iron pieces on the saws have also been removed I took it away, probably because I was afraid that Toya would use these things to escape.

But no one may have thought that Toya not only did not try to escape, but also stayed here very well.

"Could it be Stockholm Syndrome?" Xu Muzhou rummaged through the sundries and said, "If you can't save yourself in pain, just convince yourself in pain?"

"Impossible." Yan Cen seemed to have no intention of doing anything, so he leaned against the door and waited for him, and said, "Stockholm syndrome must always have a sustenance, and this sustenance is usually someone who can control his pain, life and death. It is reasonable to say that the bishop has this innate condition, but he has not been here for so many years, so he does not have the possibility of this transformation. Without actual personnel sustenance, this is unlikely to happen."

Xu Muzhou himself just said it casually, and didn't expect to get any clues when he came up.

He turned the box in front of him upside down, and only found some old sundries, nothing useful.

Xu Muzhou squatted on the ground and bit the corner of his lips facing the big boxes in front of him, feeling a little unwilling to give up.

This kind of castle is isolated from the outside world, even if it is waste, it is difficult to clean it out. Toya herself cannot leave the castle, and it is impossible to clean it into the sea. Moreover, based on Xu Muzhou's guess about the outside world, the person who sent the supplies is probably just sending Things just go, probably not kindly stay to help Toya tidy up the castle.

Toya started living here at the age of nine, and now it has been a full ten years. All the discarded items produced by the castle during these ten years are most likely to be stored in the basement.This is also one of the reasons why Xu Muzhou started from here, logically speaking, he would not get nothing.

Xu Muzhou pondered for a while, then rolled his eyes, and focused on Yan Cen.

"Ouhuang." Xu Muzhou smiled and waved at him: "Come here and do me a favor."

Yan Cen raised his eyebrows vigilantly.

"This place is too big." Xu Muzhou said in a good voice, "I can't find it by myself. Do me a favor and look through it. After looking through it, go back to sleep. I'm so sleepy."

Yan Cen: "..."

——The little fox can act like a baby now.

On non-principle issues, Yan Cen has always been very indulgent to Xu Muzhou, so he straightened up, walked to the other corner diagonal to Xu Muzhou, stood in front of a crumbling wooden shelf and looked at it for a while, then He reached out and rummaged through a cardboard box in the second row.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Muzhou watched helplessly as Yan Cen took out a notebook with a tattered skin and curled and yellowed edges from the cardboard box.

Xu Muzhou: "..."