"Village Chief." Nora Scott, listening to their conversation, suddenly had a thought and called out to the village chief, asking, "Wasn’t Loulanel Village built over a hundred years ago? Why was it built forty years ago?"
What Nora Scott saw were very few records of Loulanel Village.
When she ca this ti, she made a special trip to the library to look it up.
Her mory has always been good when reading, so she shouldn’t have rembered incorrectly.
As soon as she spoke, everyone’s eyes fell on her.
"The girl knows a lot," the village chief chuckled, "Indeed, it existed over a hundred years ago, but back then it was built haphazardly. Because of the scale, it only looked like a Maze, but forty years ago, an architect renovated it, making Maze Village take shape."
"Oh."
Nora Scott was deep in thought.
Like her, there are a few others who know about the Loulanel project.
As for the inspection team, they continued as usual, whispering privately:
"Just loves to show off."
"Mr. Barros didn’t say anything, yet she couldn’t hold it in."
"A hundred years ago, forty years ago, what’s the difference? She just has to ntion it."
...
Nora Scott was entirely focused on chanism City, not paying attention to the inspection team.
Annabelle Pinto asked, "Why create Maze Village?"
"That we don’t know," the village chief waved his hand, "It seems to be the architect’s idea, sprouted from seeing the village’s architecture. But we don’t know the specifics. When the renovations happened, we all left and didn’t co back for several years."
Annabelle Pinto pursued, "Do you rember who the architect was?"
"How could I rember? Back then, I was just around ten years old."
Stella Durant frowned, "Do any of the older people in the village know?"
"Not clear." The village chief thought for a mont and finally shook his head, "If you’re interested, you can ask yourselves."
Those harboring ulterior motives all had a thought.
*
To prevent guests from getting lost, the village chief arranged for the inspection team and the sisters’ group to stay together. Since the young people of the village had all gone far away, there were many vacant rooms. The houses with residents had one or two rooms available, each room accommodating one or two people, making staying there quite convenient.
When assigning rooms, April Thomason and Jared Oliveira were allocated to a household with two rooms, but they weren’t spacious.
"Wait a minute."
April Thomason suddenly raised her hand.
Everyone looked at her.
April pointed at Nora Scott, raising her eyebrows, "No need to allocate a room for Nora Scott, I’ll share one with her."
The inspection team: "..." Could this assistant missy have a peculiar taste?
anwhile, Annabelle Pinto and the Durant Sisters were shocked, secretly worrying: could Nora Scott be secretly colluding with April Thomason?
There’s no reason not to suspect.
In recent days, Nora Scott interacted less with Jared Oliveira but more with April Thomason.
They knew April Thomason was Jared Oliveira’s new assistant and didn’t take her seriously, while April’s preferences were written all over her face - she likes beauties, the Nora type. So, along the way, they never tried to win her over.
Felipe Clark frowned, repeating his question to April Thomason, "Are you sure?"
"I’m sure." April Thomason nodded.
Felipe Clark, although he didn’t like it, still respected April’s decision and asked Nora Scott, "How about you?"
Nora Scott said indifferently, "No objection."
Felipe Clark then wrote their nas together.
After the allocation was done, April Thomason and Nora Scott didn’t leave. They waited until everyone was settled and the numbers and positions confird. Then, they looked at each other in agreent, picked up their luggage, and headed to their assigned room.
...
The old adobe house, although it had the effect of keeping warm in winter and cool in sumr, was indeed dilapidated. Even after a ticulous cleanup, there was still a stale, decaying odor in the air, and though the window was opened, the air circulation was poor.
There was no electricity here, they used kerosene lamps.
April Thomason entered the room, scanned the area by the moonlight, and turned to ask Nora Scott, "Do you have a lighter?"
Nora Scott pulled out a lighter from her pocket and handed it to her.
She reached out and caught it accurately, then walked to the kerosene lamp, pressed the lighter, and a fla burst forth. It touched the wick and quickly ignited, casting a dim light in the room. The fla flickered in the wind, casting shadows around the room that stretched and shrank, changing constantly.
The floor was uneven, with signs of indentations, but not too obvious.
The bedding was old and made of cotton, but the covers were washed fairly clean, and it’s unclear how long the quilts had been around. However, they ca prepared with travel gear, had tents ready, and certainly didn’t lack sleeping bags, so they didn’t plan to use the residents’ bedding.
The environnt was diocre, but they ca with a purpose, lacking reason to be picky.
"Paper and pen."
April Thomason reached out to Nora Scott.
Nora Scott gave her a questioning look, then took out paper and pen from her backpack and handed them to her. She watched as April Thomason moved to the table with the kerosene lamp, pulled over a stool, sat down, and started writing and drawing on the paper.
Nora Scott walked over, stood behind her, and looked down at what she was doing, discovering she was recording the accommodation positions of everyone in the inspection team and sisters’ group.
Moreover—
She didn’t understand any of the marks April Thomason made.
—Nora Scott analyzed it through the map she drew.
"What do they an?" Nora Scott asked, puzzled.
"Internal codes, cannot be disclosed." April Thomason quickly finished drawing, folded the paper, "You probably won’t forget, I’m afraid I will, so I’m preparing in advance."
Nora Scott nodded, "Oh" she said, not asking about the codes.
It’s said so places have their own special codes for internal use, only known by officially selected mbers. Such internal secrets definitely can’t be exposed.
"About finding entrances and such," April Thomason paused, stood up, and asked Nora Scott, "How do you plan to do it?"
"I’ll ask around first." Nora Scott said calmly, "Then we’ll talk."
"Okay." April Thomason nodded, "The Durant Sisters and Annabelle Pinto will probably share information with Jared Oliveira, then I’ll pass it to you."
Nora Scott smiled, "You don’t need to put too much effort, if they could really find clues, they wouldn’t go to great lengths to force out ’Master Sliver’ or find the ’Living Map’."
April Thomason: "..."
She likes confident won.
"It’s too late, let’s sleep first." Nora Scott walked to the window, and closed it, "Do you sleep soundly?"
"..."
This, you’ve hit the point.
April Thomason patted the dust off her coat with confidence, "Don’t worry!"
Nora Scott glanced at her, truly relieved.
However—
Two hours later, in her dreams, Nora Scott faintly sensed a murderous aura. Her brain hadn’t awoken, but her body reacted first, dodging an attack. She thought soone had launched a night raid, puzzled as to why the intruder had snuck in unnoticed by both her and April Thomason, but when she opened her eyes, she found April attempting to choke her.
!
Was the junior trying to murder her?!
—The junior’s students are indeed just like her.
Nora Scott reacted quickly, freeing her hands from the sleeping bag and engaged in a few moves with April Thomason. When she was about to get rough with April, by the faint moonlight, she realized—
April hadn’t even opened her eyes.
Nora Scott: "..."
Dang!
This was April Thomason’s "don’t worry"?!
With a hiss, Nora Scott ground her teeth, released April, and did not wake her. After a while, Nora Scott always felt April was a ticking ti bomb, unable to sleep, so she might as well crawl out of the sleeping bag, get off the earthen bed, wear high-top shoes, and put on a coat before going out.
She took her phone with her.
After leaving the room, Nora Scott closed the door, glanced up at the lone cold moon overhead, and paused. She didn’t go far, but stayed under the eaves, slightly tilting her head to gaze at the vast sky.
For a long ti.
She pulled out her phone to see Pedro Langley had sent two ssages— the notification was an hour ago.
She dialed him.
Pedro Langley answered quickly, "Not asleep yet?"
"Just woke up."
"Couldn’t sleep well?"
"Um."
Nora Scott replied vaguely.
"Do you want free chat service?" Pedro Langley lowly chuckled and asked.
"... No."
Pedro Langley: ?
Nora Scott squeezed the phone to her ear, while her other hand unconsciously touched the dirt on the adobe wall, the dirt falling down noisily, yet she seed unaware, frowning as she pondered for a mont, saying, "Pedro Langley, I have sothing to tell you, but don’t panic."
"Fallen for soone else?" Pedro Langley reflexively asked.
"..."
If this jerk was in front of her, she’d hamr him to death on the spot.
Pedro Langley calmly said, "Go ahead."
"I’ve thought about it a lot. I figured—" Nora Scott said halfway, when suddenly she noticed a shadow passing outside the door, she paused slightly and said quietly, "I’ll tell you later, I have sothing now."
Pedro Langley: ???
Was that deliberate?!
Before Pedro Langley could ask questions, Nora Scott ended the call.
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