In my fury, I glared at him. However, he ignored me and left without sparing another glance at me.
The only ones in the room were Spencer and me. When the man turned to look at me, he smiled. “Ms. Stovall, your room’s on the fourth floor. You…”
“Take me to the third floor,” I interrupted. Then, I walked out of the room. Armond’s villa was massive to the point one would take minutes just to go from one end to the other end of a floor. Spencer frowned, seemingly hesitant about leading me there.
Hence, I said, “Take me there. Since he wants to keep me here, he can’t possibly stop me from going anywhere.”
Spencer was taken aback by my words for a moment. A beat later, he nodded.
The layout of the third floor differed from the second floor; the third was locked by a steel door. At the sight of that, I grimaced. “Where are my friends? Have you locked them all in there?”
Spencer smiled before answering, “Of course not. Your friends are all on the fourth floor, Ms. Stovall. This floor is where he keeps his pets. They used to come out from there and scare the rest, so he locked them all in here.”
I nodded. “Are they all snakes? Does he keep anything else?”
The smile remained on Spencer’s face as he replied, “Mr. Murphy likes to collect rare animals, so he almost has all kinds of creatures. He has had them for years now. Ms. Stovall, would you like to take a look?”
As I could not see anything from behind the steel door, I dared not answer him immediately. It would be fine if the creatures were locked up as the animals in the zoo, but it would be dangerous for me to enter if they were free to roam anywhere they pleased.
After brief contemplation, I replied, “No need. Spencer, please take me to the fourth floor instead.”
He nodded before leading me to the floor above ours. The villa was huge, and the structure of it was reminiscent of a noble castle of ancient times. It was grand but empty.
The stairs looked complicated. I did not know whether it was built that way to display the designer’s capability.
The moment I entered, I saw a lavish living room decorated with statues of Venus and saints. I was startled when I realized there was even a statue where one of the saints was breastfeeding a baby.
Perhaps it was because I knew not how to appreciate art, so I felt nothing when I looked at the statues.
There was a couch and a table in the living room. Holden was by the window, staring outside. For a moment, I wondered what he was thinking about.
However, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him. It seemed like Armond had not done anything to him. When he heard my footsteps, he turned to look at me. “Armond’s house is built weird.”
“Huh?” I froze in my spot for a moment. “Like how?”
“Do you see that greenery there? Don’t you find it odd?” He raised his arm to point at the green patch downstairs, but no matter how long I looked at it, I found nothing odd about it.
Thus, I looked at him, perplexed, and asked, “What’s odd about it? It looks fine to me. Is it some kind of Fengshui setting? When have you learned that?”
He gave me a look before replying, “Nope. It’s the growth of the plants. Can’t you see any problems with them?”
I looked back at the spot, but still, I could not see anything strange about it. It was winter then, and most of the plants had wilted. The only ones that did not wilt were the pines, which thrived in all seasons.
He sighed. “The growth of the pines is all different from each other. Don’t you see it?”
His words made me look closer again. He was right, there were dozens of pines in the courtyard, but the ones in the middle had wilted. Meanwhile, the ones planted by the sides were still fine.
“Is it because the soil isn’t as healthy in the middle?” I asked.
He shook his head. “The soil here is all the same. The courtyard is enormous, and it’s far from the villa. It’s unlikely that the villa has blocked the sunlight from reaching the plant. In other words, either there isn’t enough soil in the middle, or something is buried there.”
“A cellar?” The villa had no underground parking lot, so the only thing I could think of was a cellar.
He turned to stare at me in silence for a moment. “I don’t think a villa like this needs a cellar. It should be a warehouse, meant to store something.”
When I thought about Abe and Armond’s relationship in Venria, I could not help but say, “For example, kyanine? Armond was quite close to Abe back in Venria. However, K City has strict rules about kyanine. How is he planning to sell them?”
Holden rubbed his nose, seemingly speechless for a moment. “What in the world is in that skull of yours? A huge villa like this usually has basements built for refuge from disasters. Even normal villas have them; they’re just converted into underground parking lots.”
After Holden tapped my head, I frowned. “You were so serious about your observation, so that’s why I thought about kyanine instead. What else did you think I was going to think about when I saw that solemn look of yours?”
