Mystery: The Return of the Stars

Hastur felt tired, but not sleepy, and quietly thought about how to solve this matter tonight.

If you plug your ears, can you resist the weird ringing sound?

How should you save yourself when you are in danger?

How can I formulate a rule that can ensure the safety of the three of them leaving the workhouse...

Lecturer Foulun, who was sitting on the other side of the bed, was not sleepy either, but he did not have the big heart like Xio, nor the calmness of Hasta. Sometimes he stood up, sometimes looked at the door, and sometimes took out his pocket watch to check the time. .

Time ticked by, and soon it was two o'clock sharp.

Lecturer Foulun hurriedly came to Hasta's side, stretched out his hand to shake him awake, and lowered his voice: "It's already two o'clock!"

Hastur opened his eyes and glanced at Xio on the table. She also woke up.

"Take the weapons you have at your disposal!"

As Xio spoke, he took out a black three-edged thorn from behind his waist and tried to swing it a few times, making a whistling sound.

Hastur asked curiously: "How do you hide such a three-edged thorn behind your waist?"

"It's a secret." Xio smiled and raised his eyebrows.

It must be because I am too short, my hands are not long enough, and it would be too difficult to fight with a big man, so I always keep a three-edged thorn to make up for my innate shortcomings, right?

Hastur had a guess in his mind, but he was not stupid enough to say it directly.

Lecturer Foulun glanced at the three-edged thorn in Xio's hand, then at Hastur waving a heavy cane, and then at every corner of the house.

There is no suitable weapon for self-defense.

He whispered: "I will be responsible for lighting the lamp later."

"Okay." Xio nodded.

Ten minutes passed quickly, and while Hastur and the other three were on alert, the same bell as last night finally rang outside the door.

Jingle Bell!

"Now, let's go!"

As soon as the first bell rang, Xio opened the door and rushed out, followed by Hastur and Lecturer Foren.

Jingle Bell!

The second bell rang, and Xio had already located the general location of the source of the bell.

It is indeed located in the area where the children live!

When the three people rushed along the corridor to the iron door, the third bell had finished ringing.

The iron gate that separated the living area between the workhouse staff and the children was very strong, and Xio couldn't kick it open even with all his strength.

Seeing this, Hastur raised his cane and knocked on the iron door, making a dull sound in the silent night sky.

Xio saw Hastur's intention and raised the three-edged thorn in his hand to knock on the iron door.

The two irons intersected, making a clanging sound that resounded throughout the night sky.

Soon, people who were awakened and attracted by the sound came near the Hastur trio.

"What happened?" a police officer in his thirties asked calmly.

"Just now we heard a strange sound of bells coming from over there. When we came out to check, we found a suspicious figure there shaking the bell in his hand."

"We don't have the key and can't pass through the iron gate. We can only watch the figure disappear."

"In order to remind you as soon as possible, we have adopted such a simple and direct method."

Xio's words were half-truths and half-false, and her tone was sincere and urgent. It was obvious that she was very used to this kind of scene.

The police officer looked solemn and immediately sent someone to get the iron door key.

Vice-President Bader was also awakened by this late-night incident and came over wearing a black coat and carrying a kerosene lamp.

"I have the key here."

Vice President Bader reached out and groped around on his body a few times, took out a bunch of keys, compared them under the dim light, and took out one of the oily keys to open the iron door.

Xio let the two police officers who arrived walk in front and followed behind. Hastur, Lecturer Foran, and Vice Dean Bard walked at the back, while the others stayed where they were.

After passing through the iron gate, in order to prevent unrelated people from sneaking into the place where the children lived, Vice Dean Bader locked the iron gate again. After confirming that it was correct, he followed Hastur and others to leave.

The group of people came to the source of the bell that Xio had focused on. They didn't see any human figures, but they saw a pair of vague footprints on the ground.

Xiu knelt down, stretched out his hand to measure the size of the footprints, frowned slightly and said, "It's a child."

"Well, we have very strict management here. Children must go to bed when the time comes and are absolutely not allowed to stay or play outside.

And we will have dedicated management personnel to lock the door from the outside. They cannot open the door from the inside. "Vice Dean Bader's face showed surprise and embarrassment.

"The footprints are still very new. The child just left not long ago." Xio gave his professional judgment.

Lecturer Fulun also squatted down and looked at the footprints while holding a kerosene lamp. Why couldn't he tell whether the footprints were old or new?

"We are looking around, maybe he is hiding not far away."

Xio's petite body gradually took over the right to speak, giving orders to the two police officers.

Is this the passive talent of the Arbiter?

Hastur was surprised to see the two police officers consciously obeying Xio's arrangements.

The group of people was divided into two teams, with three people in each team. Xio and the two police officers were responsible for searching everywhere to find people. Hasta, Lecturer Foren, and Vice Dean Bader were responsible for checking whether the door locks of each dormitory were locked.

"Oh, why are they always disobedient? Fortunately, Dean Dahn is not here now, otherwise they would have been punished." Vice Dean Bader sighed while leading the way.

Hasta asked: "Dean Bader, do you mean being locked up in the basement?"

"Being locked up in the basement is the most severe punishment. Generally, only those children who are very troublesome and have bad behavior will be treated like that."

Seeing that Hasta was interested in these things, Vice Dean Bader popularized relevant knowledge to Hasta and the others.

In this workhouse, the punishment for children is generally divided into three levels.

For those with relatively minor circumstances, they only need to stand outside and be slapped on the palms.

For those with more serious circumstances, they are not allowed to eat and can only watch others eat at the table with an empty stomach.

Only when facing those who refuse to change after repeated education will there be the most severe punishment.

"What if they are locked up in the basement and still refuse to admit their mistakes and repent?" Lecturer Foren raised his question.

Vice Dean Bader was silent and did not answer this question.

"Isn't this too cruel?"

Lecturer Foren has realized from his silence that the body in the basement should be like this, right?

Even if the child finally admitted his mistakes and repented, in the dark and deserted environment, no one heard or cared about his shouts, and he could only wait to die silently!

Starving to death is too cruel!

That child must not be the first person to die in the basement!

The other bodies were just cleaned up in advance!

No wonder Dean Dahn didn't even think about staying to explain anything, but ran away directly. He knew that as long as he went to court, he could no longer hide the crimes he committed.

Vice Dean Bader sighed: "Alas, Dean Dahn did a bad job in some places, but he is very good at raising charity funds, and most obedient children live well here."

The three of them chatted while checking the door locks of each room.

From beginning to end, the inspection of the second and third floors was easy. They only needed to check whether the iron doors on both sides of the passage were closed.

They didn't have a lawn as a buffer here. If those naughty children dared to jump directly from the second floor, they would basically fall half crippled.

Before the three of them finished their inspection, they heard Hugh's voice coming from not far away.

They found the child who shook the bell!

"No hurry, let's check everything first before going over." Hasta said with a smile.

He thought it would be better to check everything thoroughly before he could rest assured. Maybe there was more than one child who sneaked out tonight?

Vice Dean Bader also thought it was better, and patiently led Hasta and Lecturer Foren to check everything.

Indeed, there was no sign that the door lock was opened, and the iron doors on both sides of the passage were also tightly locked.

After confirming that everything was correct, the three of them went to the place where Xio and others found the child.

It was a bathroom on the far right of the first floor, and the child was hiding inside.

"Little Amy, how did you sneak out?"

After seeing the child's appearance clearly, Vice Dean Bader exclaimed. Obviously, he knew this child who did not follow the rules of the workhouse.

Hasta was also looking at the little boy named Amy in front of him. He was about eight years old, 1.2 meters tall, with short chestnut hair, wearing a thin white monk's robe, bare feet, and at this moment, he lowered his head and stood by the sink, his hands nervously pinching the corners of his clothes.

"B, Dean Bader, I, I didn't mean to not go back to the dormitory to rest. I just came back too late and was locked out, and I didn't dare to disturb Aunt Lisa..."

Amy raised her head slightly, her eyes were red, tears were hanging in the corners of her eyes, about to fall, and her voice was sobbing and choking, which matched her young face that had not yet grown up, making her very lovable.

Xiu lowered his voice and said softly: "We are not here to arrest you, we just want to know where you got this string of bells?"

Amy replied timidly: "I picked it up on the road, I thought it sounded nice, so I kept it with me."

"Then why did you shake the bell in the middle of the night? Aren't you afraid that the bell will wake up others?"

"I, I'm afraid to be alone..." Amy lowered her head again.

"Then why did you also shake the bell last night?"

"It wasn't me. My bell was taken away by Simon last night. He said he wanted to scare Aunt Lisa."

"Simon?"

Xiu raised his eyebrows, and Vice Dean Bader explained: "Simon lives in the same dormitory with little Amy. He has a strong personality and often steals other people's toys."

"Can we meet this Simon?"

"Of course, this is a necessary question."

Vice Dean Bader said, and went with a police officer to find Aunt Lisa to get the key to open the dormitory door.

Hasta, who had been silent all the time, secretly rubbed his middle finger and thumb three times to open his spiritual vision.

It is easy to attract other people's attention if you snap your fingers, which is not secretive enough.

Hasta looked at the bell that Xio was holding in his hand. It was one-third the size of a palm and the whole color was dark yellow.

The bell had no fluctuations. This was just a string of ordinary bells without any extraordinary power.

The sound it made was also slightly different from the sound of the bell last night.

It should not be the same string of bells.