Holding Stars
"Hey, did you guys see?"
"See what?"
"That guy in the brown coat! There's definitely something wrong with him!"
"You mean... the one the young master just brought back? Isn't he Miss Su's friend?"
"Hmph, I don't know about friends, but I only smelled the scent of blood on him. And it's very strong. He must have just killed someone recently... and more than one."
The night was deep. In the dim, unlit main hall of the museum, figures swayed within the embroidery frames. If one looked closely, they would find that the figures on the numerous embroidery diagrams seemed to have come to life and were whispering something to each other.
Fine silk threads seemed to possess a life of their own, controlling the opening and closing of their lips. Although no sound was produced, they could sense each other's conversations.
"Kill, kill, kill... kill someone?!" A lifelike piglet in a rural embroidery diagram turned pale with fright!
"What enemies... When has our master ever made enemies with anyone?"
"There is." On a river woven from needle and thread, a fisherman rowing a boat thought carefully for a moment. "Previously, at the old museum, that young man surnamed Li next door kept wanting to steal us to sell for money. After the master scolded him, he still held a grudge and used a firecracker to blow up the master's shoes drying at the door... I've wanted to beat him up for a long time."
"...Such a petty grudge shouldn't be enough for him to hire a killer for revenge, right?"
"One thing at a time. The space in the old museum was indeed too small, not even enough to display us... Many younger brothers and sisters could only be pressed at the bottom of the box, suffocating to death." In the central embroidery diagram, a young man resting his head on his hand under a willow tree said.
"It's still better here. Big and quiet. We can all gather together every day, and no one will come to disturb us."
"Yeah, the only one we need to guard against here is the young master... The leather ball he kicks has no eyes. Last time he almost shattered me with a kick."
"The young master is already in college, how can he still be so childish!"
"So what if he's in college? Doesn't he still blush like a monkey's butt when he sees Miss Su? Just like when he was a kid."
"Don't say that. I think the young master has improved a lot this time. The degree of his blushing can't be considered a monkey's butt; at most, it's... hmm... an apple?"
"Is there a difference?!"
In the dead silent main hall of the museum, dozens of embroidery diagrams were chatting enthusiastically. Some were old men carrying hoes on the riverbank, some were sparrows standing on branches, and some were young maidens draped in light gauze...
Their only commonality was that in the upper right corner of the embroidery diagrams, they all bore the same signature:
— Xiao Chunping.
Just as they were chatting obliviously, an invisible embroidery thread drifted through the void, flashing across all the embroidery diagrams in the blink of an eye.
Those figures and animals that had been chattering away a second ago instantly had their mouths sewn shut by the invisible embroidery threads. They froze in place, as if they had reverted back to ordinary embroidery diagrams.
About four or five seconds later, a figure silently walked through the side corridor and approached the main hall.
'The feeling of being spied on seems to have disappeared...'
The brown trench coat swayed lightly in the dead silent museum. Chen Ling walked through the darkness, deep in thought. 'Could it have just been my imagination? That shouldn't be... but why couldn't I find the problem even after using Vermilion Countenance's eyes?'
[Audience Expectation Value +3]
The moment this prompt drifted up, Chen Ling's brows furrowed instinctively...
'No... something must have gone wrong somewhere.' The increase in the Audience Expectation Value made Chen Ling even more certain of the judgment in his heart. He stood still in the center of the museum, constantly recalling all the details in his mind.
'First, rule out Nie Yu. If he really was spying on me in secret, he should have acted the first moment I noticed... There's no need to wait until I am fully alert to refrain from acting. Furthermore, he shouldn't be able to find this place so quickly.
'Su Zhiwei and Yang Xiao are also impossible. Thinking carefully, the feeling of being spied upon only appeared after arriving at the museum... Could it be...'
Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze lightly swept across the surroundings.
In the late-night museum, only a dazzling array of embroidery diagrams hung on the walls, quiet and empty.
Chen Ling paused in place for a long time before eventually crossing the main hall and walking out of the exhibition area through the side door. As he pushed open a glass door, an artificially constructed rockery and stream entered his line of sight.
This was the museum's rest area. Although its footprint wasn't as large as Su Zhiwei's house, it had all the vital elements—small yet exquisite.
After coming outdoors from the exhibition area, Chen Ling's perpetually tense body finally relaxed slightly.
"Hmm?" As soon as Chen Ling walked in, he saw a figure standing on the stone bridge a few dozen meters away, head bowed, staring at the fragmented reflection of the moonlight in the stream, lost in thought.
It was none other than Su Zhiwei.
At the same time, Su Zhiwei also turned to look over, speaking with some surprise, "Director Chen, why haven't you slept yet?"
Chen Ling hesitated for a moment but decided against voicing the mystery of the museum and his deductions. He shook his head and replied, "I can't sleep. What about you?"
"Me too." Su Zhiwei's gaze returned to the stream, her eyes somewhat complex. "Their performance... is getting noisier and noisier."
"String?"
"...Yeah."
"Where exactly are they?"
"They are everywhere."
Su Zhiwei raised her hand and gently scooped up the fragmented starlight on the surface of the stream. The starlight reflection seemed to come alive, slowly rising from the water's surface and swaying in the air, like a splash of stellar wine scooped from a tea cup.
She held a pool of starlight in her hands.
This scene left Chen Ling stunned. Before he could recover his senses, Su Zhiwei's hands gently closed together. The starlight flowing in the void began to vibrate at an extremely high frequency, constantly collapsing, compressing, and solidifying in the void...
Chen Ling could clearly sense an oppressive feeling beginning to ripple out from that sphere. A wind originating from nothingness began to sweep with Su Zhiwei as the center, rustling the surrounding leaves.
Under Su Zhiwei's "direction," this mass of starlight, which should have been illusory and non-existent, was transforming into some unknown form of energy. Even Chen Ling felt a dangerous aura from this energy.
However, just as that starlight was condensed to the size of a fist, Su Zhiwei suddenly let out a muffled groan, her hands trembling slightly.
In the next moment, the condensed starlight dissipated and collapsed in the air, annihilated into nothingness in the blink of an eye, as if it had never existed... The rustling sound filling the garden also came to an abrupt halt.
Su Zhiwei panted heavily, as if she had just finished intense exercise, her face turning somewhat pale.
Chen Ling, who had witnessed all of this with his own eyes, stood dumbfounded for a long time before asking in shock, "You... have already begun to master the power of 'String'?"