I Have Yet to Become a Doll Today

When Su Man led Bai Youwei and the others to the third floor, the man in the torture chamber was also regaining consciousness.

Upon seeing a group of women in front of him, he didn’t seem surprised and introduced himself as the mansion’s gardener.

The gardener, due to his handsome appearance, was imprisoned by the Duke here. Whenever the Duke wanted to test a new bride, he would let him out, and if the bride had even the slightest contact with the gardener, it would provoke the Duke’s anger.

After hearing this, everyone understood that this man was likely a NPC from within the game.

However, it was quite rare for an NPC with its own plot to appear in the game…

Since they were all presumably oppressed by the Duke, and all shared the same tragically unfortunate circumstances, the gardener had a friendly attitude towards them and told them:

“The Duke only executes brides that make mistakes. As long as you don’t make any, there is no danger.”

“How can we avoid making mistakes?” Zhu Shu asked, “He killed one of our companions during dinner last night.”

The gardener replied: “You cannot remove the wedding dresses that symbolize your identities, you cannot refuse to dine with the Duke, you cannot speak to any men other than the Duke… As long as you do not anger the Duke, he will not harm you.”

“But we have already disobeyed his orders…” Cheng Xi trembled as she spoke, “We entered the locked room… We… We also talked to a man other than the Duke…”

As she spoke, she looked at the torture instruments inside the room, her heart chilled. She instinctively stepped back but unexpectedly hit a witch’s chair and pricked her hand back, scaring her into screaming.

The witch’s chair, an ancient tool of torture, had nails on its back and armrests. Sitting on it, the nails would continuously puncture the body. During the Middle Ages, countless innocent women had been executed as witches on this chair.

Cheng Xi’s hand was only slightly pricked, but her mind was perilously close to breaking down!

She covered her hand, shouting in terror, “I don’t want to stay here! I want to go back to my room!”

“It’s just a small prick! It’s not like your hand got chopped off! Can’t you calm down?!” Hu Ya berated her, “Keep this up, you’ll alarm Bluebeard!”

Cheng Xi’s eyes widened, as though she was terrified. She curled up, glancing left and right fearfully, as if she feared Bluebeard would suddenly pop out from a corner.

Su Man had always disliked this girl who was always flaunting herself in front of Li Li, but she really didn’t feel good looking at her unraveled state now.

After examining all the torture instruments in the torture chamber, Bai Youwei asked the gardener, “Do you know how to leave this place?”

The gardener paused a bit before answering, “To leave this place, you must find the key.”

“Key?” Bai Youwei narrowed her eyes slightly, “The Inspector told us that to leave, we must become the last bride. He did not mention needing to find a key.”

The gardener shook his head upon hearing this, “I don’t what the last bride means. I only know that if you want to leave this place, you need the door key to the mansion. The Duke has hidden that key somewhere in this mansion.”

Bai Youwei frowned and silently scrutinized him.

The Inspector wanted them to become the last bride, while the NPC told them to find a key. Was it the Inspector playing a word game, or was an NPC lying?

Zhu Shu whispered beside her, “The NPC might have limited information, so it’s normal if he doesn’t know the Inspector’s clue. I think we can look for the key.”

After some thought, Bai Youwei tested him, “Isn’t it that we have to kill the Duke to leave this place?”

“Kill the Duke?” The gardener’s voice suddenly got higher, “That’s impossible! No matter how severely injured the Duke is, he heals very quickly. No one can hurt him! You should find the key as soon as possible! If you wait until sunset, it will be too late!”