Chapter 440: The Fall of Usher (2)
The Ushers' mansion was indeed a fortress.
Whereas Tochka was a natural fortress created by the natural environment, Usher's mansion was a man-made fortress filled with all sorts of bizarre traps.
Frames of books and paintings that sometimes collapsed, curtains that fluttered even when there was no wind, the cogs of a slow-moving clock, statues that suddenly burst into laughter, plants that withered and died in pots, stuffed animals, brick walls that were stacked on top of each other, chandeliers that were overly grandiose, and so on... were all traps filled with malice toward intruders.
But Bianca, who was born the owner of the mansion and has lived in it all her life, was able to tear through them all and get inside.
"The only time it's safe to walk through the halls is when the bookshelves collapse and the books on them fall, but only for ghost stories, not for other genres. Only when books titled 'The Masque of the Red Death,' 'The Black Cat,' 'The Cask of Amontillado,' 'The Jumping Frog, or Eight Orangutans in Chains,' 'The Heart of Treachery,' and 'The Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym' fall to the floor."
"Whenever the curtains flutter even a little, you must get low to the floor. It doesn't matter if the wind is blowing or not."
"When the bell rings, the secret door between the hallways opens. Of course, you can't go in right away. You have to wait exactly five minutes before opening it, otherwise you might end up in a door that leads to a completely different place."
"When that statue laughs, you have to be careful around the whole area, because while it doesn't trigger any traps... it likes to think that an intruder is about to die a miserable death."
"If you see a plant in a pot and it's shriveled up and dead, don't walk past it. We don't grow any plants in our family."
"Stuffed animals are okay to walk past. But some of them have moving eyeballs, and if I see one of those, always cover your ears and run fast."
"If you see a red brick wall, make sure you never touch it, but if you do, run away from it immediately, and don't turn around if someone calls your name from behind."