Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 662: More Guilty Than Death (1)

Dugu Chen saw that his wife was very certain, and he couldn’t help but become curious. He really wanted to hear her insights, "Then tell me, how would you open it?"

"Well, listen carefully, I’ll only say it once." Seeing him stop in his tracks and watch her intently, she proudly said, "Even if the switches on the main gate keep changing, the knob to turn the switch won’t change because you always touch it. So the place for the switch must be different from other places. Therefore, once you press it down..."

"Once you press it down, you die." Dugu Chen shook his head, finding it quite amusing in his heart. However, there was a possibility for such a mechanism, but it wasn’t suited for this place.

Feng Xuxu was pulled forward a few steps by him before she recovered, "How is it not right?"

"Perhaps in a rich man’s house, you could try it like that, but in the Imperial Palace, things are not so simple. Each time the stone door closes, all the switches change once."

"You... you mean to say that all the little things protruding from the stone door outside could be switches?"

"Yes, otherwise why would you think the Royal Family’s secrets could be so easily discovered?"

Feng Xuxu pouted, unimpressed.

Having passed through the Nine Palaces Grid and walked into the stone room, they saw... doors, yes, doors all around, and all of them open. Feng Xuxu stretched her neck to look inside, noticing the bright lights, then turned to look at him, "This won’t be another trap, will it?"

"Yes, this is called the Haunted House. If you walk through the wrong door, you’ll get trapped. As long as you can find your way out within an hour, then you have a chance to survive." He extended his hand and embraced his wife, walking casually into one of the doors.

Dugu Chen led Feng Xuxu through a maze of turns, from one door to another, all looking the same, impossible to distinguish one door from another. Sometimes he even felt that he had already passed the door in front of him, giving him the impression of going in circles.

Looking at the doors until her head spun, she eventually simply closed her eyes and let him lead her. In no time, they were out of the Haunted House, and Feng Xuxu finally exhaled a breath of relief.

"The Haunted House we just passed through was disorienting. No matter how I looked, it seemed like we were walking through the same door."

"Right, if you can’t get out within an hour, you will end up trapped inside, your senses confused. The more anxious you become, the more likely you are to go wrong, and then you can only wait inside, until you die of thirst or hunger."

Feng Xuxu had an epiphany, "So such a maze is called the Haunted House, huh? Mhm, quite fitting."

Dugu Chen smiled and led her into an unremarkable room, which was no different from an ordinary house, with bedrooms, side halls, and a study.

On the study’s desk lay a model. Dugu Chen gently picked up the model, seeing the light shining in her eyes, he knew he had done the right thing, "Take a look, isn’t it like this?"

"Yes, it does indeed resemble it, only it’s better than what I had imagined." Looking at the small model, it had all the features, including the water gates and reservoir.

Feng Xuxu pointed at the large water gate between the river and the reservoir, "Do you know what this thing is for?"

Dugu Chen looked at the river and what his wife referred to as the reservoir, and after a moment’s thought said, "It seems to be something that blocks water."

Feng Xuxu nodded slightly, "There are several kinds of water gates, and as of now, what we have here is called an inlet gate because this reservoir was built to prevent drought, so there is no design for discharging floods."

She paused, opened a gate on one side, and pointed to the gap, "This is the inlet gate. Because the reservoir’s position has to be lower than the river, the river flow can come in better. Once the reservoir is full, lower this gate to block the water outside. And then, create an opening on the other side of the reservoir, leading to the fields. When it’s time to irrigate the crops, open the gate, water the fields, and then close it. When the reservoir is low on water, open the gate again. Thus, by repeating this process, the reservoir will always stay full. Even during a drought, the crops won’t have to worry about drying up due to lack of water."