Chapter 18: Strange Diary (Part 2)

  The dark brown wood fell into his hands and sank deeply into the wall, revealing a small square hole.

  "Is this for real?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but be stunned. He composed himself, condensed the air around his hand into a protective sleeve, and directly reached into the hole to feel around.

  "Got it!" The small hole was quite long, and Zhang Fan had almost inserted his hand completely before he reached the bottom. Finally, his hand touched a hard object, which felt like a book.

  "A diary?" As he opened the small, plum-colored leather cover and saw the elegant script on the cover, Zhang Fan was already stunned - that the female count would read books was surprising enough, but to think she'd actually keep a diary!

  But since it's a diary, it must have recorded some key points. And the fact that this diary is hidden so secretly makes Zhang Fan feel that the truth is about to be revealed.

  Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Zhang Fan chose a more comfortable posture to sit down, opened his diary and started reading with his head buried.

  (The following is the content of the female earl's diary, of course, in order to make the story not appear so tedious, many irrelevant contents are omitted)

  The first day

  "I don't know when, but this luxurious life can no longer satisfy me. Instead, a sense of confusion and helplessness often surges in my heart. Who am I? Why am I here? Where did my wealth come from? Although my rational mind tells me that I am the noble Countess, a descendant of Queen Catherine, why does a voice in my heart keep shouting that this is not my true identity?" ("What?" was Zhang Fan's initial reaction after reading this passage.)

  I must be crazy. If I'm not the Countess, then who am I? My trustee deposits a sum of money into my account every month, no matter how I spend it, this amount is always replenished, making me feel that no matter how extravagant I am, it doesn't matter. This kind of life, if I weren't the descendant of Catherine the Great, not the noble Countess, how could I have such a large sum of money? ("Trustee? Is the Countess's trustee also someone from that mysterious organization?" In Zhang Fan's impression, this Countess who only knew how to enjoy herself really didn't have any profitable industries to support such a luxurious life.)

  But if I really am the Countess, why do I have no memories of anything before becoming the Countess? As for my childhood and girlhood, every time I try to recall them, they only leave a faint shadow that is so vague that when I think I've grasped it, it immediately disappears.

  This problem has been bothering me for a long time, and recently it has even affected my sleep. If this continues, I'm afraid I'll have wrinkles on the corners of my eyes soon. Today, Viscount Andrey told me that writing a diary is a good way to deal with worries that you don't want to tell others about. Now it seems that this method is quite effective - at least I feel much more relaxed now and can go to bed with peace of mind.

  The next day

  "Viscount Andreev's advice really works, I had a good dream yesterday, the only time in so many days that I didn't feel tired when I got up. It seems that from now on I will develop the habit of keeping a diary. Today I met Mr. Troubetzkoy, this powerful general is indeed a very charming person, we spent more than three wonderful hours together."

  The third day

  ……

  The fourth day

  ……

  The fifth day

  ……

  These days' diary entries are all about the trivial matters of General Truro and the Countess's interactions. It is clear that the Countess was enchanted by him, as the words between the lines exude a sense of joy and excitement. Moreover, the Countess does not seem to be someone who can keep a long-term relationship going, so after writing for several days in a row, she stopped abruptly. - Presumably at that time, she was completely enthralled by General Truro's charm. When Zhang Fan turned to the next page, it had already been over a month later.

  "Last night, I had another nightmare and the little girl in my dream was asking that boring question again. Good grief, must I be haunted by this question every time that Truel leaves? And what's more, Truel is such an unfeeling person, he just left without any hesitation! But it's probably for the best, after all this time, I need to find some new excitement too!"

  As expected, in the following days, the Countess got along with a prince from a small country. Moreover, the freshness brought by the young man soon faded away the regret caused by General Truel's departure. This kind of thing didn't need to be detailed, Zhang Fan quickly browsed through it, and his page-turning movements also sped up a lot.

  "Tsk, tsk, the socialite is indeed a socialite. I thought my experiences were rich enough, but compared to this countess, it's like the difference between a novice and a grandmaster! Looking at the diary, Zhang Fan was amazed by the constant appearance of new male leads. This countess can truly be said to have lived up to a joke: 'I've slept with more men than you've seen in your life!'"

  This diary can be said to be a picture of the lives of the upper class, Countess Yekaterina is a typical "socialite", and most of her guests are celebrities. Zhang Fan saw Bogie's name in it as expected. However, he was clearly not very welcome by Countess Yekaterina, only mentioned briefly on one page of the diary, along with his arch-nemesis - that thief who had been entangled with Bogie for over a decade: "Bogie is really boring! As soon as he enters the room, he wants to get into bed, and his skills are terrible, far worse than Dunston!" Dunston was the name of the super-thief.

  At this point, Zhang Fan couldn't help but laugh secretly. If Bogie knew that he had such a status in the female count's heart, I wonder if she would be furious to death.

  Although these things were interesting, Zhang Fan didn't have the slightest interest. However, two pages still made his eyes light up: on these two pages, he saw two familiar names - Muhammad and Xiya Da! Undoubtedly, the countess had a high appreciation for them, and this appreciation was purely from a woman's admiration for men. So when she parted ways with the two of them, the countess's words were still filled with reluctance and attachment.

  "This is a bit strange!" Zhang Fan furrowed his brow, according to the diary, the female count really liked both of them, there was no reason to put them to death at all!

  Among this stack of useless diaries, Zhang Fan still found two suspicious places: First, after each of the female count's romantic encounters ended, a strange voice in her heart would come out and make trouble, but when the female count started a new romance, it would disappear without a trace, as if it had a great relationship with the female count's mood.

  The second point is that the Countess's famous mountain confinement ball, which was supposed to be a sensation in high society, never actually took place! This diary has been written since three years ago, and that winter, the Countess held a confinement ball in this ancient castle in the Alps, which was quite successful and caused a great stir in high society. According to Catherine's personality, such an event would have made her proud for a long time, but when Zhang Fan flipped to that time, he found that the Countess didn't even write a diary during that period! If this diary only recorded personal private life, then the celebrities that the Countess hooked up with at the confinement ball wouldn't be few, and these were written in detail in the previous content.

  "Let's see it through before saying anything!" Zhang Fan suppressed the doubts in his heart and continued flipping through the diary.

  "I've found that my mind has been very unstable lately, and even being intimate with a man can't give me any sense of security. What's going on? That little thing that used to often appear in my dreams and cause trouble hasn't shown up in a long time, but the situation now is even worse! And what's even more frustrating is that I have no idea why I'm feeling so anxious!"

  In the last dozen or so days of the diary, Zhang Fan suddenly saw this passage. And after this passage, the subsequent diary entries became more and more incoherent, with increasingly sloppy handwriting, until finally, Zhang Fan could hardly make out what the Countess had written at all! - chaotic sentences, inexplicable vocabulary, handwriting that was sloppy to the extreme, all of which seemed quite inconsistent with the previous diary entries.

  In the previous content, although it was not written with much literary talent, it was at least fluent and the handwriting was quite elegant. In some places, there were even long sentences with a noble and luxurious style that seemed to be from ancient times, showing that the countess had received good education. However, in this last part of the content, what Zhang Fan saw was simply like a primary school student writing sentences - and it was not even a student who could write well!

  "What's going on?" Zhang Fan scratched his hair. It seemed that from that day on, the countess became very strange, and the diary stopped abruptly half a year ago, leaving only a stack of blank paper behind, and this time there was no clue at all!

  Just as he was at a loss and about to give up, a sudden sense of foreboding flashed through his mind. He swiftly hid himself and then slowly extended his sensing waves outward.

  Then, he clearly sensed that in the corridor, a small figure was feeling its way over here! And from what he sensed of the situation, this small figure's skills were actually quite good.