She can't hear anyone speaking.
The wind howled, and in the distance, a light appeared, a faint glow dancing in the air—beautiful fireflies.
The sky now has a moon and scattered stars.
Though the light was faint, it gave us direction.
She heard someone call out, "Sister, sister."
She heard someone ask, "Sister, will you remember me in the future?"
"Sister, can we really escape?"
"Don't cry, sister, I won't cry either."
"..."
The voice sounded familiar, and she instinctively reached out to grab something.
But gradually, even that sound disappeared, replaced by a cacophony of noise.
There were too many different voices, too many people talking, and she simply didn't know who to listen to.
I don't even know where I am.
The light ahead vanished, and she was once again surrounded by an endless deep sea, the icy waters threatening to engulf her.
Even his last vestiges of consciousness were fading.
"Liang Shi!" That clear, cold voice, tinged with tension, instantly brought her scattered consciousness back to its senses.
Then a dazzling white light appeared before my eyes.
Liang Shi finally opened her eyes, and what she saw was bright light. Xu Qingzhu was squatting in front of her, looking anxious.
The other players stood not far away, watching her with trepidation.
Behind Xu Qingzhu was a group of people who looked like the person in charge of the escape room, and they were also trembling with fear.
Immersive escape rooms are primarily for young players who seek thrills. People with heart disease, coronary heart disease, or other stress-related conditions are not suitable for these activities, and the stores will not allow them in. In addition, they all signed an agreement before entering to confirm that they do not have these types of conditions.
Unexpectedly, Liang Shi fainted because of a solo mission, which terrified the people in charge.
Including the NPCs in the single-player instance just now, the red-clad woman whose wig was pulled off by Liang Shi, the NPCs lying on the ground pulling Liang Shi's feet, and the fluorescent white-clad NPCs, all stood there in a row, looking worried, as if afraid that something might happen to Liang Shi.
I had already called 120, but I didn't expect Liang Shi to wake up.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that she was awake.
After scanning the crowd, Liang Shi looked at Xu Qingzhu and subconsciously smiled at her.
She only slightly twitched the corners of her mouth; her overall condition was not good.
Xu Qingzhu suddenly hugged her and whispered, "You scared me to death."
Liang Shi was caught off guard by the hug. After a moment, he hugged her back and gently patted her back, saying, "It's alright now."
//
This escape room game was full of twists and turns.
Liang Shi only found out after he left that Xu Qingzhu had single-handedly solved the sixth level, which even many escape room adventure bloggers had failed to do, and that she had used a top-tier solution.
The first solution is indeed collaborative: after finding the communication tool, the people in the two spaces exchange clues and work together to solve the problem.
The second solution is to start a new instance solo, which is equivalent to exchanging three side quests for clues about Liang Shi's instance, and is more complicated.
However, there is another solution: skip the original logical steps and directly bypass those three side quests to obtain clues, which will allow you to rescue your teammates trapped in the dungeon mission.
Xu Qingzhu is the master of solving the puzzle, and she is even ten minutes faster than the well-known escape room blogger who visited their place before and is known as the "Decryption Boss" on the internet.
...
As Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu were leaving, the manager of the escape room not only apologized to Liang Shi, but also asked Xu Qingzhu if she was interested in taking on a job to create a new dungeon for their shop, with the price negotiable.
Xu Qingzhu politely declined.
Liang Shi didn't expect to faint during a single-player escape room game; it was a bit embarrassing.
When she came out, she was still complaining to Xu Qingzhu, "Dream Castle, not dreamy at all, it should be called Nightmare Castle instead."
Actually, what she experienced in the secret room made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.
The frustrating part is that I have no idea what to do.
Those chaotic memories came rushing in all at once, like several scattered threads, and no matter which one you pulled out, it was painful.
But she didn't want Xu Qingzhu to be sad with her, nor did she want to convey her low mood, so she tried her best to act indifferent.
To hide his low spirits, he even became more talkative than usual.
However, Xu Qingzhu did not give her the opportunity to speak eloquently.
It was already evening when we came out of the escape room. Time flew by while we were playing the games, and six or seven hours had passed before we knew it.
As dusk settled, the streetlights on both sides of the road came on. It was already late autumn, and only a few stubborn yellow leaves remained on the trees on both sides, swaying precariously on the verge of falling.
Xu Qingzhu remained quiet after leaving the secret room shop. Liang Shi teased her a few times, and she smiled politely, but the smile didn't reach her eyes; she still maintained a cold and aloof demeanor.
It felt like we were back to when they first met.
No, it was when Liang Shi had just transmigrated that Xu Qingzhu looked at her with particular indifference.
But there was a subtle difference compared to before; Xu Qingzhu's body was still instinctively moving closer to her.
When the autumn wind blows, Xu Qingzhu will walk beside her, very close to her.
But once the gust of wind passes, Xu Qingzhu will keep a slight distance from her again.
They didn't walk very far; they just walked from the escape room to the shopping mall across the street because the distance was short, and it was faster to walk than to drive around in a big circle.
During this short journey, Liang Shi's mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.
Just as they were about to reach the mall entrance, Liang Shi suddenly reached out and grabbed Xu Qingzhu's wrist, his cool fingertips gently caressing her wrist.
Xu Qingzhu tilted her head slightly, her eyes cold and clear. "What's wrong?"
"What shall we eat?" Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingzhu shook her head: "I don't know."
The tone of his answer to the question was also very cold.
But Liang Shi didn't know what he had done to offend her.
Liang Shi was not feeling well. When those memories came back, it was as if she had been thrown into the same scene again and experienced it all over again. She was still afraid of the things she used to be afraid of. Even if she comforted herself psychologically, her body would remember them.
She was just deliberately suppressing it, unwilling to let those emotions show.
But they didn't know what was going on with Xu Qingzhu.
After Liang Shi woke up there, and she hugged him in fear, Xu Qingzhu became very cold.
When Xu Qingzhu left the store, she was even more indifferent to the shop assistants, to the point of being cold.
After a moment of silence, Liang Shi still asked, "Are you angry?"
"No," Xu Qingzhu said.
"Really?" Liang Shi pursed his lips and said in a deep voice, "But you don't seem to be without anger right now."
The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.
People were coming and going all around them, and occasionally a passerby would glance at them, but they would just brush past them.
The two stood not far from the mall entrance, their eyes meeting.
After a long silence, Xu Qingzhu softened her voice and said, "I'm angry."
Liang Shi: "..."
Liang Shi had no experience in handling such matters and didn't know what Xu Qingzhu was angry about.
She simply couldn't stand the cold, awkward atmosphere, so she took the initiative to ask.
But what happens after you ask?
She herself didn't know.
Silence spread again, but the area around the mall was noisy, with pedestrians constantly walking by, cars and people on the road not far away, the sound of tires rolling over the ground, and even advertisements playing on a loop at the top of the mall.
The advertisement features Yang Shuyan's face, and she is endorsing a skincare product line.
Yang Shuyan's face alone is a powerful advertisement.
The noise from the outside world made the silence between them seem deathly; neither of them spoke.
Liang Shi felt a strange tension, and his fingertips unconsciously rubbed Xu Qingzhu's wrist, circling it again and again.
After Yang Shuyan's advertisement on the LED screen above the mall ended, it turned into a music video of a popular star.
The restless prelude began before Xu Qingzhu finally spoke, "Why didn't you ask me what I'm angry about?"
Liang Shi: "..."
Liang Shi's thoughts were in turmoil, and at this moment he simply followed Xu Qingzhu.
"Then what are you angry about?" Liang Shi asked.
Xu Qingzhu pulled her hand away, looking even angrier.
Liang Shi was somewhat bewildered and suddenly became inarticulate.
Xu Qingzhu sniffed, and after a moment of silence, asked her, "Do you have any mission you absolutely have to complete?"
Liang Shi: "?"
In that instant, her pupils contracted, and just as she was about to deny it, Xu Qingzhu said, "From initially refusing to divorce me, to then wanting to come to the secret room with me, what exactly drove you to do this?"
Liang Shi paused.
Xu Qingzhu's voice grew increasingly calm, "This is your business. If you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask, but you..."
Her voice choked as she spoke, and her eyes glistened with tears that shone brightly in the cold sunlight.
Liang Shi suddenly felt very sad.
It felt like biting into an unripe hawthorn, both sour and astringent.