Overprotected By My Tsundere CEO

Chapter 987 - 672: Loulanel Village [08] Mechanism Box

Under the blazing sun, above the desert.

Nora Scott sat cross-legged on the dirty sleeping bag, leisurely gnawing on an apple while listening to April Thomason make noises more unpleasant than hers with a bamboo flute.

"..."

She suddenly could somewhat understand the troubles of Julian Linfield, Pedro Langley, Marcus Shaw... and the vast crowd she had tormented before.

That music could send anyone to heaven at any moment.

It wasn’t clear how long had passed, but April finally took a break.

"Did you bring everything you needed?" April suddenly leaned in and asked.

"Hmm?"

Nora didn’t react immediately.

"It’s the gadgets your husband gave you, and some documents or something."

"No," Nora replied, "they’re all in the box."

When she left, she just carried a backpack and didn’t bring much. After all, only a fool would wander around carrying so much equipment.

"If both of us are not here, and Jared is a half-baked newbie, what if someone invades our room?" April finally had a moment of clarity and started brainstorming.

"..." Nora paused, "Do you remember what I’m best at?"

"Acting?" April reflexively answered.

"..."

It sounded very much like mockery.

With a clap of hands, April remembered, "Oh, comics! By the way, can you sign a special copy of ’Little White Dove’ for me?"

"..."

Nora was speechless.

"Seriously, what use are acting and comics?" April offered her negative intelligence sincerely.

Sighing, Nora said word by word, "Mechanical Techniques."

"..."

April raised her hand to touch her forehead.

It seemed that Nora had so many labels that it made April forget this important factor.

"How do you apply it?" April asked a quite practical question.

Nora said, "The box has traps, and I have tampered with the door and windows."

April asked, "What if they take the box directly?"

"..." Nora smirked, "You’ll find out when the time comes."

*

Stella Durant raced back to Maze Village.

As soon as the car stopped at the village entrance, she eagerly got out and quickly walked into the Maze Village.

She was familiar with the way into the village, just a few turns to memorize and she could easily navigate.

However—

This time entering Maze Village, she vaguely felt something was off.

After taking several turns, an unfamiliar scene appeared, she thought she had remembered wrong, so she turned back. Somehow, she stumbled upon a familiar house, which eased her worries, and she didn’t think much of it, heading straight to the residence of Nora, April, and Jared.

Entering the courtyard.

"Mr. Oliveira?" Stella called out loudly.

She called twice.

No response.

When Stella arrived here today, she ran into Annabelle Pinto, and the two understood without exchanging words. However, Frank Ford was chatting with Jared Oliveira, and they were deep in conversation. Stella and Annabelle stood by for a long time, with no intention from Frank to leave, they thought they would chat forever, so they left.

Unexpectedly, Jared was not there.

What Stella’s shouting brought out was actually an aunt who originally lived there.

The aunt did not speak Mandarin, and Stella did not understand the local dialect, so they talked at cross purposes for a while, then Stella left.

She did not really leave, she observed at the door for a while, confirmed the aunt returned inside, and then quietly sneaked in, heading silently to April and Nora’s room.

The door creaked open.

A rope fell from overhead, only half was left, with the middle section cut by a knife, looking at the ground, a rock was pulling half the rope.

"..."

Damn.

Stella’s first thought was: good that the trap was tampered with; followed by the second thought: the trap was actually tampered with?

The next moment, she peered inside cautiously and then saw the answer—

Annabelle lay beside the earth bed, her face pale and her body stiff. If her eyes couldn’t still move, Stella would have thought she was gone.

The two stared at each other.

A moment later, Stella decided to go all in and walked inside, shut the door, glanced at Annabelle and frowned, "What’s wrong with you?"

She noticed there was also a box placed next to Annabelle.

— The purpose should align with hers.

Annabelle’s lips moved slightly as she squeezed out three words through her teeth: "Poisoned."

"..."

Stella was stunned for a moment, feeling like she was in a martial arts novel.

These days, poisoned?

Food poisoning maybe.

Taking a breath, Annabelle said slowly, "She booby-trapped the suitcase."

The voice was resentful, she seemed to be gnashing her teeth at Nora.

Stella walked over, glanced at the box with one side of the password lock opened, and asked, "How did you open it?"

"..."

Annabelle remained silent.

Knowing she had concerns, Stella straightforwardly said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, moreover we both broke this, now we are grasshoppers on the same rope. If there is intelligence, we can share together."

"..."

"If Nora and April come back, with you like this, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it."

"..."

"I can take you away."

"..."

"Nora is Master Sliver, holding several Mechanism City blueprints, stolen from your hands although there’s no proof, but it surely relates to her." Stella asked slowly and deliberately, "Don’t you want to know what secret Nora holds?"

Each sentence hit home.

The originally stubborn and firm Annabelle, gradually compromised. She said hoarsely, "I can pick locks."

Stella frowned slightly.

"This box, only I can open it." Annabelle said, "If you want to take the box, you must take me with it."