Hogetsu

The vast Scottish Highlands are sparsely populated. After two days of trekking, Yu Wenzhou came across a small town, which was the last resting place for his destination.

The carriage stopped at the entrance of the hotel, and the handyman boy with sharp eyes and quick hands had already unloaded the luggage from the back of the carriage.While leading the way, the boy chatted with Yu Wenzhou, suggesting that he go to the pub opposite to have a glass of the best ale in Scotland.Yu Wenzhou was also happy to joke with him, and asked about the situation in Nottingburg calmly.

"Notdinburg has collapsed long ago! Only the main building is left."

"Has anyone bought it recently and rebuilt it?"

The boy vowed: "It is absolutely impossible. It is not easy to transport goods on such a steep mountain to maintain the daily life of the castle. If someone buys Notting Castle, I must take a leave of absence to see what kind of fool has taken a fancy to it."

Yu Wenzhou smiled and threw a penny to the boy: "You are absolutely right."

Looking out of the window at the main building of Nottingburg standing like a sword on the hill, that was his destination.Nottingburg has been in ruins for a long time. Yu Wenzhou knows it. His friend and patron Huang Shaotian is a lover of Gothic architecture. He has inspected most of the Gothic castles in the UK, and Nottingburg is naturally on the list.However, he received dozens of letters from readers from Nottingburg.

In the past two years, the castle, which was supposed to be empty, has steadily sent letters to comment on the contents of the magazine, especially the current plot of the serial novel "The Castle of Oran".

Huang Shaotian thought it was one of countless pranks.

It has long been common for the editorial department to imitate the protagonist of the novel in the reader's letter.The reader claims that she is the daughter of so-and-so. She lived in her aunt's castle for several years when she was a child. During this period, her aunt died of a strange illness. Looking back on it now, there are many doubts. I am glad that my father brought me home after the aunt's funeral. Doubts about the real death.Or the illegitimate son of the earl living in the monastery. He suspected that the dean had been bribed by the countess and was planning to murder him. He heard that the dean helped many noble ladies to do similar things.There are so many such letters, and the contents are so strange, how can one not be allowed to write the mailing address as an abandoned castle?After all, in the best-selling novel "Prince of the Vatican", the cursed son of Joan spent 400 years alone in the dilapidated monastery burned by the Vikings before coming out to tell how his clever and loyal Pope mother was tortured. What a cruel persecution.

However, the comments on the novel in the letters are mainly divided into two categories: correcting the customs of the time where the story takes place and questioning supernatural existence such as devils, witches, and ghosts.Yu Wenzhou does not think that a person who treats the known rigorously in his writing will fabricate his own residence because he is addicted to novels and cannot distinguish reality from fantasy; nor does he think that a person who is passionate about proving the unknown will treat supernatural events as as a gimmick.

So he went all the way north from London, across most of the UK, to verify whether someone lived in Nottingburg, which should have been empty, and whether he was the sender signed on the envelope.

Wang Jiexi.