Neverland

Whether it is in the diary found by Xu Muzhou or in Toya's narrative, Joseph is "just like them" who was accidentally sent to the island by a shipwreck without any reason.

But the scene in front of him is obviously not the case.

Joseph fastened the boat, and then moved the wooden boxes from the boat to the shore one by one, stacked them high, then bent down, and lifted the boxes together with all his strength.

Those wooden boxes were not light, and the top box alone was filled with twenty or thirty bottles of fresh water, not to mention the boxes below.

But Joseph carried the boxes without any wobble, stepping on the wet sea all the way up, walking steadily.

"It can be regarded as a talent." Xu Muzhou said with emotion: "No wonder I can come here to deliver."

At the same time, from the corner of Xu Muzhou's eyes, he saw Toya's original sculpture-like standard sitting posture slightly moved. He raised his eyes and looked out nervously.

Although in "Illusion", the gate of the castle is wide open, but Xu Muzhou knows that in reality, the gate will only be opened when Joseph arrives at the castle.

In other words, if this is the "past", it is impossible for Toya in the castle to see Joseph outside.

——How did Toya find out that there were people outside, Xu Muzhou thought.

Immediately afterwards, he suddenly remembered the abrupt accordion sound that came from the sea earlier. Xu Muzhou had been wondering just now that this sea was not very peaceful, and this ship was even more rudimentary. There is not even a guardrail for protection.Joseph is just sitting on the bow of the boat playing the violin, isn't his heart too big?

——But what if it was a "signal", a unique communication signal between Joseph and Toya.

This conjecture made Xu Muzhou involuntarily get goosebumps all over his body, and he always felt that such a thing of relying on the sound of the piano to communicate should not happen to two elders.

No matter how I listen to it, I feel... a bit too greasy.

Xu Muzhou was thinking about it, Joseph had already carried the wooden boxes up the slope and walked to the gate of the castle.

Joseph put down the things in his hands, and then took out an inner pocket that was tightly sewn on all sides from the right pocket of the trousers, and then tore off the stitches on it with one hand, and took out a handful of foot pockets from the inside. Has a palm-length brass key.

Probably because it was always floating around in the sea, the key was slightly stained by the sea water. Joseph took the key and rubbed it on the hem of his clothes to wipe off the white crystals on it, before opening the castle gate with great care. lock.

Although from Xu Muzhou's point of view, Joseph was just fighting wits with the air, but it is not difficult to see how meticulous Joseph's movements are. He untied the chain round by round, and then put it on the top. On the first wooden box, he finally put the key back into his pocket properly, and patted his trouser pocket again to make sure the key was there, before reaching out and pushing the door open.

Xu Muzhou and Yan Cen exchanged glances, turned their heads and walked into the castle.

Joseph inside the door unloaded several large wooden boxes in his hand by the wall, then touched the sweat on his forehead, grinned, opened his hand to Toya, and said with a big smile: "Toya, I'm here .”

Toya raised her head in surprise. He stood up from the ground with the crystal ball in his arms, walked a few steps, and seemed to want to accept the hug, but changed his mind for some reason, stopped in front of Joseph, and lowered himself a little shyly. head.

If you look closely, it seems that Toya's ears and the back of her fair neck are covered with a thin layer of pink.

Xu Muzhou: "..."

——Sure enough, normal people don’t know how to express love with piano music!Xu Muzhou thought.

"Oh, dear Toya." Joseph said exaggeratedly with his hands still open, "Don't you miss me?"

"Of course not." Toya said quickly, "I miss you very much."

"Then why don't you give me a hug." Joseph said: "You know, even the most discordant crew members will show their friendship by hugging after reunion. Is it possible that your feelings for me are still there?" Worse than those bastards?"

"Of course not!" Toya held the crystal ball, he looked like he raised his hand to hug Joseph, but for some reason, he always couldn't take this step, so he could only pretend to be relaxed With the ball in his hand, he said, "It's just...you don't want to touch this, do you."

Joseph quickly took a small step back, he smiled heartily, then patted Toya on the shoulder, and said with lingering fear: "Ah, yes, of course... this thing scared me last time."

Xu Muzhou felt a little strange, the "Joseph" in front of him was completely different from the nagging crew member he had imagined earlier.

The person in front of him was bright, generous and sunny, with a tall figure, strong muscles, and a lot of strength. He looked masculine all over his body.

But the "Joseph" in the diary is timid and sensitive, extremely emotional, and often has self-doubt.

——At first glance, they seem to be two completely opposite people.

With the completely mirrored version of the castle in front of him, Xu Muzhou is extremely sensitive to this apparent contradiction.

"It is known that, one, Toya will lie about Joseph, and two, Joseph is not a shipwrecked crew member, and Toya knows him...even acquainted." Xu Muzhou elbowed Abducting Yan Cen, he said in a subtle gossip tone, "What conclusion do you draw?"

Yan Cen pinched the back of the little fox's neck and said, "You want to say that the two of them had an affair?"

"It's so ugly." Xu Muzhou rolled his eyes at him, cleared his throat solemnly, and said, "You see, Toya has lived alone for so many years, and she doesn't know much about the outside world, so it's easy to empathize with her. The only one of the same kind that I can see. Of course, this feeling is not necessarily love... No, to be precise, I tend to think that most of them may not be love."

"What do you think?" Yan Cen asked.

Xu Muzhou frowned and thought for a while, as if he was thinking about how to say this sentence.

"It's more like a kind of instinctive closeness to the same kind." Xu Muzhou said: "Staying in a single and lonely place for a long time, people will inevitably have doubts about themselves. If another similar kind appears at this time, there will be an instinctive closeness Feelings are also normal...and this feeling of intimacy and 'like' can easily be confused with a certain kind of special emotion, and it is all caused by hormones in the final analysis."

"Really?" Yan Cen raised his eyebrows: "So, you are also the only object of hormone stimulation caused by special circumstances to me?"

Xu Muzhou didn't know what kind of coquettish he was here, rolled his eyes angrily, and said, "I'm really sorry, my hormone-producing body is still on the bus."

Yan Cen received a half-truthful rebuke, but his mood improved a lot. He pinched the back of Xu Muzhou's neck again with a smile, and stopped talking.

While the two of them were joking around, Joseph in the castle had already held Toya's hand and walked deeper into the castle.

The castle gate closed behind him, Yan Cen glanced back and found that Joseph didn't lock the gate at all.

——Does he not want to lock it, or does he believe that Toya will not take the opportunity to escape, or Joseph is simply creating opportunities for Toya to escape.

All three scenarios seem likely, judging from the friendly nature of the two of them.

But neither of the circumstances can explain why Joseph died in Toya's attic in the end-judging from the way the two of them got along, they should have known each other for a long time, and it can even be said that they were familiar with each other. Getting along was what happened that would lead to Joseph's death.

Was it an accident... Xu Muzhou thought.

This seemed to be the most likely answer, but Xu Muzhou always felt that something was wrong.

As Xu Muzhou walked into the depths of the castle, he glanced up in his heart. Only then did he realize that the suspended ceiling in this castle is completely hollow, that is to say, without the attic baffle in his and Yan Cen's impressions, each The floors rise in a spiral shape, and the rooms are distributed along the corridor side.

The place where the "attic" should have been placed is now empty.

Joseph and Toya parted ways in the castle hall, and Toya smiled at him shyly, then walked up the stairs to the second floor with the crystal ball in her arms.

Xu Muzhou noticed that Joseph stood there smiling and watched him go up the stairs, and then turned into a very familiar room on the first floor.

——It was the room where he and Yan Cen lived.

This "slide show" seemed to end when the doors of the two rooms closed one after the other. Then, the clock in the castle suddenly chimed the hour. Surprisingly, the flow of time above started to slow down.

"It's been switched." Xu Muzhou said, "Maybe we have to change."

Yan Cen hummed, pulled Xu Muzhou back to the door, and stood with him on the left and right under the shadow of the dial.

They had already escaped from this blindfold before, and they were not affected by the illusion at this time, watching the castle in front of them being turned upside down with a subtle twist.

Immediately afterwards, the door of Toya's room opened, and the long brown-haired girl they had seen before came out empty-handed.

——It is not necessarily true that her hands are empty, because the sleeve of her right hand is bulging, and it is obvious that something is stuffed inside.

Xu Muzhou just suffered a loss more than ten minutes ago, and now following the blurred outline, she can tell that she has a sharp dagger in her sleeve.

The girl was wearing a snow-white silk dress and walked down the stairs step by step.Her footsteps were as silent as a cat's, she stared straight at the door, her eyes were the same as when she was looking at Xu Muzhou before.

Xu Muzhou: "..."

"Brother Yan." Xu Muzhou said.

"Huh?" Yan Cen said.

"I have an ominous premonition." Xu Muzhou clicked his tongue and said, "Brother Yan, tell me..."

"I think you're right." Yan Cen said calmly.