In short, every single item in the Candy House was related to sweet food.

“Could we need to think in reverse?” the comic-panel man said. “We’ve all been searching for something that isn’t candy, but could that item itself actually also be candy?”

“If it’s also candy, there’d be no way to distinguish whether it belongs to the Candy House or not,” the grey-robed elder said in its hoarse voice.

The comic-panel man let his imagination run free: “Candy brought in from outside?”

The puppeteer cackled with a creaking laugh: “Is the candy wearing a label telling us it snuck in from outside? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha……”

The puppeteer’s marionette shook with laughter: “Jack, that joke of yours is hilarious! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

The puppeteer: “Jamie, I wasn’t joking. The things that don’t belong to the Candy House — isn’t that just us?”

The marionette kicked its little legs happily and sang out: “Oh! Jack, you’re a genius! Let’s get out of here right away!”

The puppeteer: “Why the rush? The candy here is so delicious — don’t you want to give it a try, Jamie?”

The marionette immediately flopped to the ground, its wooden lower jaw opening and closing to mimic an “eating” motion.

Of course it couldn’t really eat anything, so in the end it just got sugar powder smeared all over its face.

Everyone was long since accustomed to the puppeteer’s self-entertaining behavior. After watching for a moment, they each scattered again to continue searching for the “item that does not belong to the Candy House.”

Bai Youwei quietly pondered to herself — she actually thought the puppeteer had a point.

They, as Inspectors, truly did not belong to the Candy House. According to the puppeteer’s interpretation of the rules, perhaps they really could walk straight out and win.

But if they were wrong, they’d have to endure a strike of a hundred thousand thunderbolts……

It seemed nobody wanted to be the first to walk out of the Candy House.

The sound of hasty footsteps came from outside the door.

With a tremendous crash, the door was rudely smashed open, and a stocky girl — about two meters tall, in a frilly pink dress — appeared in the doorway!

Bai Youwei thought the only difference between this girl-child and a hulking brute was the absence of leg hair.

The girl-child stood in the doorway for only a second before charging into the Candy House like an excited hippopotamus, lunging straight for the sofa! She chomped cushion after cushion! Wolfing them down ravenously!

The cushions were stuffed with premium marshmallow, light and fluffy — after just a few bites they were torn to pieces.

The chocolate coffee table didn’t escape either. She grabbed a table leg and gnawed at it, instantly devouring half of it. Her mouth and body were smeared all over with sugar syrup and chocolate sauce — an absolutely slovenly sight.

After eating for less than five minutes, Tangtang’s mother came chasing after her — an even stockier, even more enormous character!

She furiously bore down on Tangtang, grabbed the table leg from her mouth and yanked it out by force! Then delivered two slaps in return!

Smack! Smack!

Tangtang was struck into a howling wail!

While crying, she frantically stuffed every sweet thing within reach into her mouth. One mouthful was already so overfull nothing more could fit, yet she stubbornly kept trying to cram more in, until at last even her cries were muffled by the sweets.

Her mother erupted in a furious roar, smacked her again two more times, knocking out quite a lot of what was in her mouth, then seized her ear and dragged her forcibly out of the Candy House!

The figures of mother and daughter finally disappeared in the doorway, leaving behind a scene of complete devastation inside the Candy House.

The room had originally been neatly arranged, but now the sofa, coffee table, floor tiles, cushions — everything that had been touched by saliva — was melting.

The floor had turned sticky, and the coffee table was completely unrecognizable.

From a corner, the will-o’-wisp murmured: “Could the item…… possibly be hidden inside one of these pieces of furniture? Which is why we couldn’t find it?”

—