ordinary visitor. Carina wondered if this was normal in China. Did people pay attention to their
colleagues? She didn’t know.
Carl nodded with satisfaction, and walked away. Mr Persytherin turned back to the wall,
and selected a huge brush from his toolbox. Carina and her mother watched distinctly as Mr
Persytherin brushed the dust away from the uneven cracks in the wall. “Look! This wall has
recently been opened!” he blurted out excitedly.
“We need to contact Cheng-Wang!” Mrs Persytherin said with delight.
“I know where her office is! Follow me!” Before Mr Persytherin even finished his sentence, his
little legs had carried him off towards the end of the corridor.
Carina pushed past a crowd of tourists who had been watching Mr Persytherin work, and
followed her father. They had only been here for at the most two hours, but Mr Persytherin
seemed to know every single corridor and didn’t hesitate when there were turns or crossroads.
After several minutes, Carina spotted Cheng-Wang and someone walking hurriedly down one
of the corridors. But what surprised Carina the most was that the person striding beside Cheng-
Wang. It was Carl!
It was normal for colleagues to talk to each other, but what they were saying most
interested Carina.
“They’ve almost found it!” Carl said, sounding quite frustrated. Cheng-Wang, with a black
handbag swung hastily across her shoulder, spoke in her weird accent. “It’s okay, Carl. They don’t
know about it yet. Everything will be fine!”
“But, they already suspect that there’s something behind the wall! I’ve been watching that
Persytherin man for a while, and you yourself have seen him hammering on that wall. They
know, Cheng-Wang!” Carl protested. He sounded like he was suffering.
“My grandfather would kill me if he was here!” He continued, a sour expression on his
face. Carina had no idea what Carl and Cheng-Wang were talking about. Something behind the
wall and Carl’s grandfather? But Carina was absolutely certain about one thing. Carl had said
‘Persytherin’. Now Carina started suspecting Carl was hiding something from her family.
Carl and Cheng-Wang kept walking without noticing that the Persytherin family is after
them, Cheng-Wang’s high heels clanking loudly against the uneven stone ground, Carl’s tailcoat
flapping against the back of his thigh.
“The Persytherins’ aren’t intelligent enough to figure out that your grandfather is a general in
the Eight Alliances. They won’t know, Carl.” Cheng-Wang reassured him, patting his shoulder. Her
strange voice made ‘Carl’ sound like ‘Cars’.
Carina trotted silently, dodging pillars and slipping behind statues to keep up with Carl and
Cheng-Wang. Carina’s parents followed her, also determined to find the answer to this puzzle.
Carina’s mind was ringing an alarm, telling her to stop investigating this right now. But she
simply wanted to know the answer, and the true reason why Carl stopped her dad from examining
the hollow stonewall. Carina wondered what was behind the wall, and why Carl didn’t want them
to find out.
Carina was just about to keep following them when her mother leapt out of nowhere. She
raised her hand, and Carina glimpsed to see it. But when she did, a gasp slipped out of her mouth.
It was her mother’s phone, with the recording of Carl and Cheng-Wang’s conversation! Leave it to
her intelligent mother to figure out how to catch them red-handed.
“What is this?!” Cheng-Wang demanded. She had noticed the Persytherins’. But she sounded
