There was no mistake. Even though the coupling marks on the joints of these two puppets were obvious, their facial expressions as stiff as dolls, and their limbs segmented, she could still tell that these two puppets were the 'wife' and 'daughter' from the photograph.
Having lost the control of the silk threads, their bodies had lost all luster and vitality, becoming like mere mannequin props.
"It's the puppeteer Yorick," Xu Xiaoyou immediately judged. "There's no doubt about it; he was here a few days ago!"
Her previous suspicion was correct. Neither this woman nor the daughter had any actual relation to the man. It was highly likely they were just poor souls he manipulated with silk threads to satisfy his own perverted desires. They each had their own families and lives until one day the man suddenly appeared and shattered everything.
Thinking deeper only made one's skin crawl. Just how twisted must a person's personality be to have the leisure, while on the run, to play out such a malicious game of house, even going so far as to arrange a marriage with the woman and carefully select and build the setting for this performance...
Every action and criminal motive left a trail. In criminal psychology, the more one lacks something in childhood, the more they crave to obtain it upon growing up.
In her mind, an initial impression of that puppeteer began to form. The individual must have lacked family affection as a child and grown up in a harsh environment. Perhaps the happiness of the families around him had planted a deformed seed in his young heart.
"Should... should we go back and tell them about what's here first?" Tang Xin asked in a lowered voice. "It's getting late."
"No rush," Xu Xiaoyou said.
She looked out the window. The sky had already turned completely dark, so pitch-black that one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face.
The two returned to the first floor. Xu Xiaoyou added firewood to the hearth, and after lighting it with a flame, they sat down beside the fire.
The dry wood burned quietly in the hearth, making occasional popping sounds as sparks danced out, silently painting a quiet atmosphere.
Tang Xin sat before the sofa, exhaling softly. Wrapped in a thick wool blanket like a tight cocoon, she stretched her hands out toward the hearth to warm them, the firelight dancing in her blue eyes.
The shadows from the fireplace were similarly reflected on Xu Xiaoyou's face. She held a piece of wood and tossed it into the hearth with a calm gaze. Outside, the cold wind howled by, but inside it was warm and cozy. The flames burning in the hearth transmitted heat to them, and their bodies, which had been somewhat stiff from the cold, gradually warmed up.
"How long are we going to stay here?" Tang Xin asked.
Xu Xiaoyou gave a soft smile. "You can sleep for a bit first. I have a plan."
Tang Xin held her teacup, her delicate thoughts seemingly merging into the pale green tea within, rippling and gradually spreading.
As steam rose from the tea, Tang Xin turned her head amidst the misty vapor, her eyes looking as if she were quietly pondering something. After a long time, she finally spoke:
"By the way, did I ever tell you that you shouldn't keep certain things hidden from me too much?"
Xu Xiaoyou was taken tonight. The girl's words didn't sound like an interrogation, just a simple question.
She thought back to two days ago, at the final moment before the girl's memory was about to be cleared. The girl seemed to have said something similar then. At that time, her expression had been very calm, showing no resistance or fear of the unknown.
She was as calm as water, with only a faint sadness drifting over the surface of her inner heart.
Xu Xiaoyou shook her head. "No."
"No? I feel like I have some impression of it."
"But you did tell me that it's normal for friends to have secrets between them," Xu Xiaoyou said casually.
"That's different. One person's secret is a secret. If a secret between two people is kept locked away by only one of them... that's called being selfish," Tang Xin said.
Listening to the girl's words, Xu Xiaoyou fell silent. She didn't say anything, merely adding another piece of wood to the hearth.
She knew that with the girl's delicate intuition, she must have guessed some clues through various details in her memory, even if she hadn't explicitly exposed it.
"Why think so much? Sleep for a bit; we have to get up later," Xu Xiaoyou said with a chuckle.
Tang Xin stared into Xu Xiaoyou's eyes for a moment, and the latter blinked back at her, looking as if she wouldn't feel guilty even if she had done something wrong.
In the end, Tang Xin didn't ask the doubts in her heart. She sighed softly and leaned her head against the girl's shoulder, gradually falling asleep.
The night grew deep, and someone had to keep watch.
Xu Xiaoyou also leaned gently against the girl's messy head, fiddling with the wooden branch in her hand. Her eyelids lowered slightly, firelight flickering in her eyes until her thoughts slowly drifted away.
The two girls leaned on each other through the long night. In the winter cabin, the hearth light flickered unsteadily.
By the time Tang Xin woke up, the horizon was already turning a misty gray. The fire had gone out at some point, and gusts of cold wind blew into the house, making her body shiver instinctively. She looked up and found that Xu Xiaoyou had already put on her tactical vest and was sitting on the sofa checking her sniper rifle, her face showing a rare touch of seriousness.
Seeing the girl wake up, Xu Xiaoyou spoke. "It's about five in the morning. Time to go back."
"When they ask later, just insist that you got separated from me and only managed to find the way back with great difficulty."
Tang Xin nodded in agreement.
When they returned to the vicinity of the campfire camp, they found that the other three hadn't slept either. Their faces were all filled with incredibly solemn expressions. Upon seeing the girls return, Chen San exchanged a glance with Xu Xiaoyou. After a nearly imperceptible nod, he immediately stood up and questioned them loudly:
"Where did you two go?"
"We just got lost outside. What's the big fuss?" Xu Xiaoyou said nonchalantly.
"Lost? Are you joking with me?" Chen San looked furious. "Leaving without a word like that and only coming back in the middle of the night... This capture operation is on a tight schedule with heavy tasks. If the entire team's movement is dragged down because of you, leading to the failure of the capture, who will take responsibility!?"
Lin Xing and Lin Sheng were both caught off guard by the sudden atmosphere of confrontation. Tang Xin, standing behind Xu Xiaoyou, had her expression change several times before she finally fell silent.
"So loud. Aren't you afraid of drawing the beasts of the snow plains? Don't forget, you're the only one among us who might actually be in danger because of those beasts, grade 1 commander," Xu Xiaoyou said, intentionally drawing out her tone.
"You!" Chen San was left speechless.
The two of them seemed to have been at odds from the very beginning, or at least that was how it appeared to others.
Lin Xing stood up to mediate the team's atmosphere as he had before. Lin Sheng also seemed to have noticed something, his gaze falling directly on the figure in front of him—his younger brother, whom he was all too familiar with. He suppressed the thoughts in his heart, his eyes narrowing.
The sky brightened as the three radiant stars on the horizon streaked past the distant mountains.
After the brief eruption of conflict, everyone boarded the off-road vehicle and continued their journey across the vast snow plains.
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