Chapter 10 The Inexplicable Situation (Part 2)

"So... this must be their mom's bedroom," Feng Bujue speculated after watching the CG. "That kind of dialogue sounds like a dying wish. And that kid, Arthur's, reaction shows that he was pretty much a dark character even in his youth..." He mused, "But... why? Because he was adopted, so he resented his brother? Or is it because the so-called Xing race is inherently evil? Or... did something happen that changed his personality?"

With these questions in mind, Feng Bujue began to rummage through the room. There were many places to search, so it took him quite a while. The bedside table drawers were empty, and he checked every angle, finding no carvings. The two wardrobes were not only empty, but also emitted a strong musty odor when opened, enough to choke him even with the mask on. Nevertheless, Feng Bujue climbed to the top, squeezed behind the wardrobes, and looked at them from every direction, inside and out.

Ten minutes later, he had even searched under the bed and finally confirmed that there was nothing in this room except the trigger for the CG.

Feng Bujue was clearly the type of gamer with an exploration compulsion. The symptoms of this condition are: obsessively exploring the entire map, finding all the items, investigating every corner, talking to every NPC, finding every hidden element, completing all the achievements, and preferably discovering a few bugs to brag about after beating the game.

He remembered that when he used to play The Elder Scrolls, or rather, when he was doing research for his writing, he often had this problem. Now, in this single-player script, he didn't have to consider his teammates' feelings, nor was there a time limit, so he naturally relapsed...

After finishing the first bedroom, he headed for the next one.

The exploration process in the next room was similar to the first: first, he used the iron bar to test the way, and then he entered. This second room was also a bedroom, but the furnishings were different from the previous one, and the environment was completely different. The room was covered in dust, and there was nothing in it except a bed and a wardrobe. However, Feng Bujue was able to deduce the existence of several pieces of furniture that had once been in the room by observing the marks on the floor, including a desk and a piano.

"With wooden floors, as long as a piece of furniture is placed in the same spot for a year, the marks will never disappear..." he said, touching the floor with his hand. "These marks... were left by furniture that had been in place for at least ten years. The color of the floor where it was pressed is clearly different from the surrounding area." Feng Bujue squatted on the ground and looked at it for five minutes. "But judging from the amount of dust, these things were moved away some time ago, probably chopped into firewood and burned..."

As mentioned earlier, the emptier the room, the easier it is to search. Feng Bujue lifted the dirty bedspread and glanced at it, finding nothing, then turned and opened the large wardrobe against the wall.

"Hmph... good taste." He smiled as he looked at the clothes hanging in the wardrobe.

In front of him, the wardrobe contained only two types of clothing: white shirts and overalls. The shirts were all hung on hangers, and the overalls were even simpler, with the straps hung directly on the horizontal bar in the wardrobe.

Each of these garments was very dirty, covered with various stains, mainly bloodstains, which even for a relatively slovenly person like Feng Bujue, had exceeded the limit of tolerance. "What's the mentality of putting unwashed dirty clothes in the wardrobe? Every time you open it, you take off the wet, sticky clothes and hang them up, and then take out the least disgusting one from the wardrobe and put it on?" he wondered. "After these two brothers lost their mother, did they fall into a situation where no one would wash their clothes? If this script is based on that, then it's really terrifying..."

While Feng Bujue was thinking wildly, he squatted down, his hands hovering over the drawers in the lower half of the wardrobe. "If these drawers are full of unwashed underwear, and there's one of the yellow-white keys hidden inside, how should I complain..."

With the sound of wood rubbing, Feng Bujue pulled open the drawer. Fortunately, it was empty.

"Phew... I feel a little relieved for some reason." He sighed, closed the drawer, took a shirt and a pair of pants from the wardrobe, estimated the size, and thought, "The little guy in the opening scene... is probably a little over 1.6 meters tall, these clothes are obviously too big for him. So... this bedroom must be Andrew's?"

Feng Bujue threw the clothes on the bed and started a carpet search again, starting from one corner of the room. Because he hadn't found any plot items or triggered any memory fragments in this room, he searched even more carefully than in the previous room, observing and tapping almost every inch. Finally, when he came to the position under the windowsill, after pausing for a few seconds, another CG image was triggered.

...

Golden sunlight poured into the room from the window, and a desk was placed under the windowsill. A boy of about ten years old was sitting at the desk, fiddling with a small piece of wood with a carving knife in his hand.

The boy's hair reflected a golden light in the sunlight, and his eyes were focused on the wood in his hand. His movements were cautious, as if he were making a very precise and difficult work of art.

On the other side of the room, a brown-haired boy was sitting at the piano, playing a simple tune with a contented expression. His technique was a bit rusty, so the melody was intermittent, but he didn't care, because the only listener in the room was his younger brother.

This rather warm scene lasted for more than ten seconds, then Andrew suddenly threw the piece of wood and the carving knife on the table, and sighed dejectedly, "Ah~ I failed again."

"Then just do it again," Arthur said, turning his head from the piano keys.

"Ah... no, no... this is already the fifth one. The handicraft assignment is due tomorrow, there's definitely not enough time to redo it now." At this point, Andrew turned his head and smiled sheepishly. "If it were you, Brother... you could do this kind of thing in a~ snap! After all, you're a genius!"

"Yeah," Arthur replied blandly.

"Uh..." Andrew squinted. "You just admitted it like that..."

"You've already praised me as a genius, why should I be modest?" Arthur got off the piano stool and walked to Andrew's side in a few steps. "Alright, alright, just give it to me, I can't do anything with you."

"Haha, thanks, Brother!" Andrew smiled brightly.

Arthur immediately picked up the half-finished handicraft assignment that his brother had been working on and examined it for a few seconds, with a hint of disdain in his eyes. For him, making this kind of thing, not to mention five times, was impossible to fail even once.

Unfortunately, Arthur didn't have the opportunity to do these things. Once the identity of a member of the Xing race was discovered, not only him, but also the person who took him in could be sentenced to death. Therefore, his mother didn't let him go to school like other children. In fact, apart from his brother, Arthur didn't even have a single friend. His life was limited to the ranch. Apart from occasionally saying a few words to the nearby farmers, the only people he could interact with were his mother and Andrew.

"Um... in that case... like this, and like this..." After observing for a while, Arthur already had an idea. He casually picked up a pen and began to draw a Liancheng array (alchemy array) on a piece of paper.

He finished drawing a simple Liancheng array (alchemy array) in just one minute, and then placed the piece of damaged wood in his hand on the array.

Arthur then pressed his hands on both sides of the paper, muttering a series of words, as if he was clarifying his thoughts. Seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes, and the piece of wood on the Liancheng array (alchemy array) was also transformed into a luminous body at this moment, its shape changing drastically.

When the light dissipated, the piece of wood had been transformed into a small wooden comb.

"Oh! Amazing!" Andrew exclaimed.

"Shh... don't let Mom hear, she doesn't like me using alchemy." Arthur put his index finger in front of his mouth, signaling his brother to be quiet.

Andrew picked up the comb with shining eyes and observed it in his hand: "You're so amazing, Brother! Our teacher said that anyone who can complete actual alchemy work before the age of twelve is an absolute genius! They'll definitely be able to enter the Royal Artificer Corps in the future!"

"Is that so..." Arthur didn't react much to these words, because in his opinion, the Liancheng (alchemy) just now was completely trivial. He could already do more complex Liancheng (alchemy). As for the Royal Artificer Corps... how could a member of the Xing race have the opportunity to study there.

Looking at his excited brother, Arthur appeared very calm. He reminded him: "Andrew, don't mention anything about your brother outside, you should understand that, right..."

Andrew nodded, "I know, Mom has said it many times." As he answered, he picked up the carving knife again and began to carve something on the comb.

"Hey... I already made it for you, what are you doing again? If you break it, you won't be able to hand in your assignment," Arthur said, but he didn't stop his brother.

Andrew quickly finished carving what he wanted to carve, held the comb in front of his brother, and said with a smile, "I'm not handing it in, this is the first thing Brother made for me with Liancheng (alchemy), I'm going to keep it safe."

Looking at the letters A.A. on the comb, Arthur shrugged indifferently and touched his brother's head: "You silly brother of mine..."

...

After watching the image, Feng Bujue couldn't help but complain: "Are you Sasuke's brother?"

From the perspective of watching the CG, it was naturally impossible to know the psychological activities of Arthur and Andrew, and Feng Bujue could only roughly guess by observing their expressions.

"Okay... it seems that the images in each room are not played in chronological order. But... these two kids seemed to have a pretty good relationship when they were ten or so..." Feng Bujue thought, "Although the possibility of personality changes during growth cannot be ruled out, I always feel that... the key trigger for developing into the current situation is still the so-called 'Xing race' bloodline."