Finally, light appeared ahead, and Lu Mingfei and Nono leaped out together.
“Is this… breaking into someone’s house by mistake?” Lu Mingfei looked around in disbelief.
He had expected to see a grand and magnificent palace—ancient Greek-style pillars or traditional Chinese dragon columns, and perhaps a towering dome adorned with bronze dragon heads. Maybe even a high platform with a throne on top, surrounded by snake-headed statues. If the palace were also filled with mercury, bronze-crafted mountains, and lit by oil lamps fueled by dozens of jars of mermaid oil, it would have matched what a Dragon King’s chamber should look like.
But now, they found themselves inside a small room—a bronze-cast ancient dwelling that looked just like the Chinese residences depicted in history books, aside from the material.
There were even windows, although outside was just dark metal walls.
Illumination came from a small lamp made of bronze, styled like a kneeling palace maid holding the lamp in one hand while covering the top with her other sleeve.
“A Changxin Palace Lamp!” Lu Mingfei exclaimed, recognizing it from history class. This kind of lamp had been excavated from the tomb of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan.
“It’s a Han-style lamp. A perfect design. Oil enters from below, and smoke exits through the sleeve,” Nono said, observing the lamp. “But it’s even better designed than the Changxin Palace Lamp. It must have a large oil reservoir, with a mechanism to pump oil into the lamp. It’s been working for thousands of years without running dry.”
“So this is the Dragon King’s chamber?” Lu Mingfei muttered. “The Dragon King really lives a simple life, huh? And it doesn’t seem like he’s that big either.”
He felt relieved. There was nothing strange here—no dragon, no massive egg—just a cozy room.
“The communication line was severed during the descent.” Nono touched the broken black cord still attached to her belt. “But it’s okay. Later, we’ll use your blood to open the entrance again, and once we’re out, we can reconnect the line.”
“Oh!” Lu Mingfei suddenly remembered and quickly put his finger in his mouth.
“Is it really that painful?” Nono gave him a sideways glance. “Just borrowed a little blood. It’s a good thing I brought you along—you’re a better blood sample than the ‘key,’ and you can swim too.”
“It wasn’t pain; I was disinfecting it!” Lu Mingfei mumbled with his finger in his mouth. “That water had rotting corpses, who knows how many bacteria are in there? Saliva can disinfect.”
“Those corpses have been there for thousands of years, and it’s sealed off here—no living things at all. Even if there were bacteria, they’d be long dead,” Nono replied. “And knowing the water had corpses, you still put your finger in your mouth?”
Lu Mingfei’s stomach churned violently; he hiccuped several times, quickly took his finger out, and spat out several times, but he still couldn’t get rid of the strange taste in his mouth.
Nono ignored him, touched the bronze wall, and slowly walked further inside. They were below the water, and since it was sealed tightly, there wasn’t even a speck of dust after thousands of years. The house was simply furnished; of the three rooms, two were bedrooms. The beds were made of rattan and still sturdy. Hanging on the walls were scrolls that didn’t fare as well—Lu Mingfei touched one lightly, and the silk disintegrated, leaving a bare wooden rod that rolled away on the floor. There were ceramic vases on low tables, with flowers that had long withered, their blackened stems resembling iron wires. Two white robes hung on the wall, giving the impression of a tall and short person standing against it. In the main room, a stack of yellowed coarse paper lay on a low table, with clear, neatly written Han dynasty characters. Lu Mingfei glanced at them—it was an incomplete sentence: “In the twelfth year of the Dragon’s Rise… divination… unclear…”
This room gave him a very peculiar feeling, as if time had frozen for thousands of years and traces of those who lived here still lingered.
Nono was unusually quiet, examining each object attentively. Lu Mingfei didn’t dare disturb her and followed her closely, eventually sitting down beside her at the small table.
“Sit across from me,” Nono said.
“Oh.” Lu Mingfei moved to sit opposite her.
He watched Nono and noticed her gaze was distant and unfocused.
“Stay quiet. I’m thinking.” Nono waved at him, her eyes still vacant.
On the small table, besides the stack of coarse paper, there were also fine porcelain cups, a teapot, and bowls. Slowly, Nono reached out, picking up the pot in one hand and a small cup in the other, mimicking the motion of pouring water. The pot was empty, and no water came out, but Nono’s actions were so lifelike that it gave an illusion of her actually seeing the cup being filled. She then placed the small cup in front of Lu Mingfei, speaking in a gentle, sisterly tone, “Thirsty? Have some water?”
“Sister, don’t scare me… If you’re going to go crazy, wait till we’re back first!” Lu Mingfei said, alarmed.
“You’re the one going crazy! Your whole family’s crazy!” Nono shot him an angry look. “I told you to keep quiet!”
“Oh.” Lu Mingfei sighed in relief. He still didn’t know what Nono was doing, but her fierce tone restored a bit of the usual Nono.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Nono’s gaze became unfocused again.
Lu Mingfei wanted to say, “Sister, if you want to put on a drama, let’s wait until we get back. I’ll play any role you want—you want to be Mu Guiying, I’ll be Yang Zongbao; you want to be Tang Monk, I’ll be Sun Wukong; if you want to play Zhu Bajie stealing melons, I’ll be the bailiff.” But right now, shouldn’t they just plant the bomb and leave?
Instead, what Nono said was strange, almost as if it slipped out unconsciously, “I’m a bit tired.” It sounded like someone who had just returned home.
He recalled the two white robes hanging on the wall and understood what Nono was doing. This room wasn’t meant for one person—it had housed two people. Nono was reenacting a scene where those two had sat here and talked.
Dragon King Norton—it was two people! No wonder after dealing with that dragon at the college, he was assigned to this secret mission. There was another Norton!
Could it be that, many years ago, the two Dragon King Nortons sat like this in this simple “bedroom,” talking to each other?
Two bedrooms, two white robes, two people. One was sitting there writing, while the other poured water, watching over him.