Neverland

As a lover of logical reasoning games, Xu Muzhou can memorize this nursery rhyme with his eyes closed.

This extremely dark ballad has appeared in countless mystery novels and mystery games, and its usage patterns are more diverse than the moral of this nursery rhyme itself.

In this nursery rhyme, the sparrow is the murderer of the robin, but at the same time, there are flies watching, the fish taking the robin's blood, and a crowd of onlookers crying and mourning for the robin.

Holding the piece of paper, Xu Muzhou didn't quite understand why Catherine left two inexplicable puzzles, "Moonlight" and "Mockingbird".

If Catherine wants to compare herself to the poor robin who was killed, is the sparrow to be judged the murder of her own Robert himself?

If so, then who are the flies watching and the fish trampling the dead bodies?What role did the innocent composer and novelist play when they were invited to the center of the storm, and why did the belated police inspector receive an invitation from Catherine.

There were more and more questions, but Xu Muzhou felt that he had finally grasped the context of the mission. He was relieved in his heart, but he didn't have that sense of anxiety without a clue.

——Is it to avenge the robin, Xu Muzhou thought.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously turned his head to look for Yan Cen's trace.

The first dance song on the dance floor came to an end, and the young girls and the handsome noble youths let go of their hands at the same time, and saluted each other politely.On the dance floor, there are rich clothes and gorgeous dresses layered on top of each other. The girls wear hard waists and gorgeous veils. At first glance, they seem to see a group of large expressionless dolls.

Earl Robert had limited mobility, and it was impossible to appear near the dance floor. He was sitting in another corner of the banquet hall in the noble area, far away from Xu Muzhou.

There were a few minutes of interval between the two dance songs to rest and change partners, and the nobles temporarily dispersed from the dance floor in twos and threes, allowing Xu Muzhou to see Yan Cen's appearance clearly.

Yan Cen sat in the front seat, surrounded by several older noble men.His cane is still on the right side of the wheelchair. He seldom participates in conversations. Most of the time he just listens, and only casually responds with one or two syllables when someone talks to him.

He was too far away from Xu Muzhou, Xu Muzhou couldn't hear what they were chatting, but could only see Yan Cen's impatient expression and small movements.

Yan Cen has been stroking the cane in his hand, and his eyes will glance across the dance floor from time to time.Xu Muzhou could see clearly that every time Yan Cen looked at the dance floor, his expression would instantly become very gloomy, and he was extremely disgusted with those people who were dancing lightly.

——In these details, he is a bit too much like Count Robert, Xu Muzhou thought.

The inexplicable feeling when he first entered the manor came again. Now the ballroom is brightly lit, but the sense of confusion of not being able to distinguish between Robert and Yan Cen spread again. Xu Muzhou frowned and looked at Yan Cen carefully. Cen.

Yan Cen seemed to be like this in the last mission world, he seemed to be able to blend into the environment immediately.He is very familiar with the professional knowledge of doctors, without showing any timidity, and conscientiously played the role of "Doctor Yan", and did not make people around him suspicious at all.

It's the same this time.

The last mission world was a year that Xu Muzhou was very familiar with, so during that time, Xu Muzhou didn't feel how incomprehensible it was to have a "sense of integration".

But now that he himself is in a completely unfamiliar era, he realizes how difficult it is.Xu Muzhou not only has to carefully observe other people's behaviors and habits and imitate them, but also ensure that he does not reveal flaws that do not conform to the background of the times in the process.

It is so difficult for him to play an outsider who does not exist in the world line, but Yan Cen plays the important protagonist Robert in the world line.A real human being who needs to be socialized and faces subordinates and servants every day.

Maybe Yan Cen has come to this kind of timeline to perform missions more than once, or maybe he has acquired the ability to play other people through mission experience.

But... would anyone be so similar when playing another person, Xu Muzhou thought.

The second dance music sounded, and the empty dance floor was filled with people again. Xu Muzhou was thoughtful, but didn't look away for a moment.

"Master Russell." Dean followed his gaze, only seeing a group of young men and women dancing, he couldn't help asking, "What are you looking at?"

"Ah, it's nothing." Xu Muzhou came back to his senses, he stood up and handed the invitation back to Gail, then greeted them slightly.

"I don't know anything about art, so I don't bother the two of you looking for inspiration." Xu Muzhou said, "I still have something to do, so excuse me."

Gail took the invitation, then turned aside to let him out of the way, and said, "Young master, please do your own thing."

Xu Muzhou got a new clue, but he didn't want to go to Yan Cen.He still had a question and didn't want to understand it, so he stepped on the dance music, shuttled through the crowd, and left the banquet hall without a sound.

The waiter who had changed the plate bowed to him at the door, Xu Muzhou nodded hastily, and passed by the waiter.

The tall and straight waiter walked steadily through the middle of the banquet hall with a tray. He passed the dance floor and the leisure area, and the wine on the tray was also decreasing one by one.When he walked near the small stairs in the innermost corner of the banquet hall, the last two glasses of wine were taken away together.

"Oh, thank you very much." Inspector Smith handed one of the glasses of wine to his assistant, took off his hat in a drunken way, and thanked the handrail of the stairs with a dangling look.

The assistant turned him around silently, grabbed his shoulders, and said to him, "I really doubt that the count will throw you out of the manor tomorrow."

"Oh, God bless, but please don't." Inspector Smith hiccupped and said with a smile: "After all, the wine in the Earl's Manor is really great."

The assistant didn't want to talk to him at all.

"Police officers shouldn't keep their eyes on their colleagues." Detective Smith shook his assistant's shoulder to signal him to look into the banquet hall, and said dissatisfiedly, "You should look at other people more to get clues to solve the case."

"What clue?" The assistant gave him a blank look: "You better sober up and stop talking nonsense in front of the nobles."

"You don't understand." Detective Smith smiled inscrutablely, and said, "Your eyes must be very bright so as not to miss any clues. Under the light, it is precisely the place where darkness breeds the most."

The assistant was slightly taken aback, and was taken aback by his nagging, and was about to ask again, when Smith drank the rest of the wine in the glass, then patted the handrail of the stairs with a smile, and asked, "Did you hear that?" .”

assistant:"……"

He really shouldn't have had any hope in Smith.

The conductor of the band beside the dance floor waved his baton proudly, the new dance music was extremely soothing, and the violins had a strong sense of presence in it.

Xu Muzhou left the castle through the main entrance, the sound of the music was artificially left behind by him, and gradually became quieter.

Since most of the guests were attending the ball, the maid who was originally following orders in the back garden was temporarily called to help in the castle. The manor was quiet, except for a gardener in the garden who was dozing off in the gatehouse.

Xu Muzhou had already been here once, he found it familiarly and walked to the area near the rose bushes, just in time for Song Yan to come out from the path of taking care of the flowers.

Her sideburns were slightly disheveled, she had taken off her gloves and put them in her pockets, and was wiping the dirt off her hands with a handkerchief.

"Why are you here?" Song Yan said strangely: "Didn't you go to the ball with Yan Cen?"

"I found a clue." Xu Muzhou said, "Brother Yan was busy entertaining with the nobles, so I came out first."

"Indeed, after all, it must be rare for Robert to show up." Song Yan nodded and said, "It's human nature to be held back by the nobles."

"Sister Song Yan——" Xu Muzhou paused, and said hesitantly, "How did the employees of Neverland act as applicants?"

Song Yan paused, folded the dirty side of the handkerchief inward as if nothing had happened, put it in her pocket, put on the gloves slowly, and said, "I don't know much about cleaning tasks, what's wrong?"

"It's okay." After Xu Muzhou asked, he regretted it, so he said vaguely, "I just feel that Brother Yan is very talented in acting."

"The cleaning system depends on this." Song Yan said with a smile: "If he hasn't developed this ability, then there is no need to do the cleaning task."

"It's just that why didn't you choose to keep your identity." Xu Muzhou said, "Isn't there a higher fault tolerance rate?"

Song Yan looked at Xu Muzhou, and carefully studied whether he was asking casually or trying to find out something.

"For Yan Cen, it's not difficult to play someone else." Song Yan shrugged and said casually: "So it's more convenient to be an identity in the mission line... Otherwise, how could you see Robert on the first day?" Where is the earl's diary?"

Xu Muzhou thought so, and didn't bother with this topic anymore.

"That's right." Xu Muzhou looked behind Song Yan and asked, "Did you find any clues?"

"Barely found it." Song Yan said.

Song Yan took out a small cloth bag from her pocket and handed it to Xu Muzhou. The cloth bag was tightly wrapped by another silk handkerchief. Xu Muzhou took it and asked Song Yan with his eyes.

"Open it and have a look." Song Yan said.

Xu Muzhou opened the cloth bag layer by layer according to his words, and found that what was inside was a small hard lump of invisible material, covered with a layer of dusty dust.Xu Muzhou took a closer look and found that there was an inexplicable bitter taste on the thing.

"This thing was found in the flowers, and it was buried very shallow." Song Yan said: "... There are many more inside, but they are too broken to be spliced ​​into a set."

Xu Muzhou looked at it for a long time but didn't see a trick, so he asked, "What the hell is this?"

"Bones." Song Yan said, "Human bones."