Hearing Beatrice's words, Flandre's head was filled with question marks. But fortunately, she had other friends in Lungmen. She went to the Lee's Detective Agency and explained why she had come. Hearing her words, Waai Fu showed an interested but regretful expression.
"Uh, I'm afraid I can't... Exams are coming up soon, and I've been cramming every day lately!"
Hearing her words, Flandre looked disappointed. Although she could have fun going by herself, it was more interesting with friends. Just then, the office door not far away opened, and a greasy carp head poked out.
"No, Waai Fu, I think it's quite the opposite. You've been too tense because of the exams lately; you can go there and play for a day. It happens to be the weekend. We'll go together this afternoon and come back tomorrow evening. It won't delay your classes or rest, and it'll help you relax. It might even be better for your exams."
"Really?" Waai Fu asked in surprise.
"Of course, you have to trust the experience of the older generation!" Lee said with a smile. At this moment, Flandre felt that Lee's face didn't look so unpleasant anymore.
"Then I'll let Sister Ch'en and the others know, and we'll set off together this afternoon!" Flandre said with her eyes shining.
"No problem. Do you want to stay for lunch at noon?" Lee asked. Flandre thought for a moment and then shook her head. "Forget it, I have to go back and pack some clothes." After saying that, she ran off excitedly.
"Remember to gather here at two in the afternoon!" Seeing Flandre running downstairs in a rush, Lee shouted to her from the window.
"Okay!" Flandre waved as she ran away.
On the way, she called Beatrice and Ch'en Huijie to tell them about going to Flower Village with Lee and the others.
"The Lee's Detective Agency?" Ch'en Huijie nodded. As someone from a detective agency, it was inevitable to deal with the Lungmen Guard Department, so she was relatively familiar with them. In Ch'en Huijie's memory, the owner of the agency, Lee, was a very shrewd person with unique and sharp insight. She didn't quite remember when he had gotten involved with Flandre, but it was clear now that the two sides had a good relationship.
She then asked Beatrice. Sure enough, she learned from Beatrice that there was a girl in the agency who was still in school; she had interacted with Flandre and seemed to be on good terms. Since that was the case, she felt relieved.
Back at the villa, Flandre went to her walk-in closet to pick out clothes. Since she was only going for a day, she didn't need to bring much. One outfit would be enough. As for what to wear, she made a decision after walking around the room. She chose a purple Western-style dress with a matching purple coat-style jacket. Then she swapped the cap on her head for a Cossack-style purple hat. Friends who knew might have noticed that the outfit she chose was modeled after a girl in her memory named Illyasviel von Einzbern, who looked about the same age as her, when she was in the castle. Except for her hair being gold instead of silver, she looked almost no different from the girl in her memory.
Then she prepared to set off with a small backpack. In the backpack were special pastries prepared for her by the two maids, plus a book titled The Secret of the Soul. This book was to keep her from getting bored on the way. As for other things, it was just a stack of Lungmen dollars, which Beatrice had told the two maids to pack for Flandre. After all, going out to play always costs money. Although she was with others this time, she couldn't use other people's money for everything.
As for why Flandre didn't use a bank card... Please, this is Terra. Mobile payments might not be a problem in large cities, but they certainly wouldn't exist in a tourist spot like this. Fortunately, Flower Village was within the jurisdiction of Lungmen, so using Lungmen dollars directly was no problem at all. After packing her things, Flandre excitedly said goodbye to the two maids and skipped out of the house.
Meanwhile, in Gensokyo...
"I'm saying, can you stop staring at this broken TV every day? We could have finished long ago, but you've been dawdling until now." Seeing Remilia sneak in again to spy on her sister's life, Fujiwara no Mokou felt like she was about to explode.
"Hehe, my sister is so pretty!" Remilia looked at Flandre on the TV, who was happily hopping along and greeting people, and showed a satisfied smile.
"Sigh, forget it, she's gone senile!" Marisa shook her head and led Fujiwara no Mokou out.
When Flandre arrived at Lee's place, they were almost ready. Lee had everyone wait for a while while he went out to rent an off-road vehicle, then he drove them out of Lungmen. Not long after leaving the city, Waai Fu pointed to the high mountains in the north and shouted, "Look, what beautiful snow!"
Everyone looked out the window; the distant mountains were covered in white snow, which was very beautiful. Although Flandre was already used to seeing snow in Ursus, she also liked the scenery in the distance.
Towards evening, the group finally arrived at Flower Village. After entering, Lee discovered an embarrassing thing. Since they had come here on a whim, they hadn't booked a room in advance. He had originally thought that Flower Village wouldn't be a popular tourist spot in winter, so booking on the spot wouldn't be a problem. But he forgot that it was the weekend. With the rare Wintersweet forest and the Schwire Family's promotion efforts in Lungmen, the number of people in Flower Village had increased rather than decreased.
So after arriving, they found that several hotels with good reputations and prime locations were already full. Other hotels had more or less some problems, whether it was location, service, or price. Of course, this wasn't much of a problem for them. They were only staying for one night anyway. As long as the accommodation environment wasn't too bad, it was fine.
At this moment, Flandre indicated that it was time for her to show her skills. She took out her phone and called Beatrice. Hearing this, the Little Tiger on the other end of the phone directly gave a hotel and room number.
"I prepared it for you long ago. You guys just go there directly."
Flandre turned to look at the four of them: Waai Fu, Lee, Aak, and Hung. "Done!"
Lee said with a sudden realization, "Oh, how could I forget? This is a major project invested in by the Schwire Family. With that friend of yours, Flandre, wouldn't it be easy to get a place here?"
Hearing his words, a somewhat decadent-looking young man nearby clicked his tongue. "Who knows if you did this on purpose." In his view, with Lee's experience, it was impossible for today's situation to occur. He most likely intended to freeload from the start, which is why he deliberately didn't book a place.
"Aak, what's with that look?" Noticing the young man's gaze, Lee gave him a kind smile.
"Nothing!" Knowing he'd get beaten if he said more, Aak decisively turned his head and yawned. He hadn't wanted to come at all. But he couldn't resist Lee and Hung flanking him. He couldn't beat these two, so he could only be dragged out of his laboratory.
The group quickly found the hotel. Flandre saw that it was the same room she had stayed in during the summer. Two floors, with a large platform on top. Don't be fooled by it being just one "room"—it actually had three bedrooms. Plus the sofa in the living room, a dozen people could easily stay there.
After entering, they divided up: Flandre and Waai Fu stayed in one room, Lee and Hung in another, and Aak stayed in one by himself. As for why Aak got a room to himself, it was mainly because Lee and Hung both disliked how restless Aak was when he slept... So even though he was a junior, he got to enjoy a bedroom all to himself.
After sorting out the sleeping arrangements, the group wandered around the place. Waai Fu, hearing there was a large balcony upstairs, ran up excitedly, but shrank back within two minutes.
"Uh, it's indeed a very large balcony, and the view is very open. It should be very comfortable in summer. Looking at the distant hills and the endless sea of flowers from here must be very pleasing to the eye. But now it's winter... there's no shelter at all, and the wind blows from all directions. It's freezing."
After Waai Fu finished speaking, everyone burst out laughing. Fortunately, even if the weather wasn't suitable for drinking the cold wind on the top floor, the living room was spacious enough. The only regret was that in winter, all the flowers had faded, and the distant mountains were bare, making the scenery here somewhat lacking. But fortunately, they were planning to enjoy the Wintersweet tomorrow, so they didn't mind this flaw.
While the others were sitting there watching TV, Flandre opened her backpack and took out her book to read for a while.
"Flandre, what book are you reading? Is The Secret of the Soul a fantasy novel?" Not far away, Waai Fu noticed Flandre's movements and leaned over to look at the book's cover.
"No, it's a reference book!" Flandre said.
"A reference book? There's a reference book with a name like that?" Waai Fu looked doubtfully at the page Flandre was turning. In her opinion, a reference book should be titled something like "Five Years of Gaokao, Three Years of Mock Exams," or at the very least "Mechanical Design." A name like The Secret of the Soul didn't look like a reference book no matter how you looked at it. But as she looked over, she found she couldn't understand the writing in the book at all.
"This isn't Great Yan script?" Hearing Waai Fu's voice, the others also looked over curiously. Although the cover was written in the Common Language, only Aak and Lee recognized some of the content inside besides Flandre.
"This is Leithanien language, mixed with some Sarkaz Incantations. It's something only those specializing in this field would study. Flandre, you can understand this?" Lee, being well-traveled, asked in surprise after just a few glances.
"It's alright; it's not very difficult to understand." Flandre wasn't lying; the book wasn't hard for her to understand. And she had chosen this book because she wanted to learn more about the soul, so that if she encountered an enemy like the Immortal Black Snake again, she wouldn't be completely in the dark.