Su Yan raised an eyebrow, “Then should my title have ‘Aladdin’ added to it? Otherwise, it won’t show off my smarts enough. I’ve decided! I’ll be Aladdin Sherlock Su Yan.”
He Yuxin waved her hand grandly, “This princess bestows upon you the surname Zhuge! Zhuge Holmes Su Yan!”
It was clear that Su Yan and He Yuxin were trying to lighten the mood, and Feng Di gradually relaxed a bit, laughing, “You two are enough!”
Su Yan glanced at her, and said with an air of noble disdain, “You shut up, there’s no place for a bear to speak here.”
Seeing Feng Di about to pounce, He Yuxin immediately stepped in, “Ahem, let’s quickly look for clues, you two stop fooling around.”
Feng Di looked at her in disbelief, “Was I fooling around?”
Su Yan and He Yuxin naturally ignored her, strolling to the table to open the drawers.
The top drawer had a small jigsaw puzzle.
Su Yan tried to pull the drawer, but it didn’t open.
It seemed they needed to complete the puzzle to open it.
Completing the puzzle was easy.
Su Yan and the two others chatted as they quickly put the puzzle back together.
It was a picture of a small wooden horse.
After completing the puzzle, Su Yan pulled the drawer again, and this time it opened.
Inside, there was only a slip of paper with the number “3” on it.
The second numerical password was also confirmed as “3”.
The bottom drawer also had a small display screen with densely packed small squares.
Su Yan found it a bit familiar at first glance, “What is this?”
Feng Di shook her head and casually tapped a square with her finger.
The next second, that square and many surrounding ones disappeared, and numbers like 1, 2, etc., appeared around the remaining squares.
Su Yan suddenly realized, “Oh! It’s Minesweeper!”
She wondered why it looked familiar; it was a very common small game that almost every computer came with.
Feng Di, of course, also recognized it.
She sat down eagerly at the table and started playing Minesweeper, “I’m telling you, I’m really good at this. Watch me clear it in minutes.”
He Yuxin laughed from the side, “You’re so impressive! You finally found something you’re good at.”
Su Yan frowned, thinking about something.
Feng Di wasn’t lying; she was really good at Minesweeper.
Soon, she had cleared all the mines, and the game was completed!
As soon as the game ended, Feng Di eagerly opened the drawer.
The last number was surprisingly still “3”.
Feng Di and He Yuxin looked at each other.
Feng Di wailed, “No way? Is the password 333? We don’t even need to arrange the order?”
He Yuxin also had an amused expression, “I should have known; we might as well have just tried our luck. A password like 333 is too perfunctory; it feels like they’re deliberately playing with us!”
“Alright, hurry up and unlock it. I don’t want to stay in this room for another second.”
Feng Di said, running to the combination lock to open it.
Su Yan didn’t move, her brows furrowed, muttering to herself, “No… too smooth…”
Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she looked up, “Wait! Don’t open the lock!”
She finally knew what felt wrong when she first saw that lock.
“Click!”
Feng Di looked at her with a bewildered expression, laughing awkwardly, “You’re too late, I’ve already opened the lock.”
Su Yan stomped her foot in frustration, “Why didn’t I think of it earlier?”
He Yuxin, seeing her like this, asked cautiously, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem somewhere?”
Su Yan said helplessly, “I finally understand what the unicorn’s reminder was saying.”
Feng Di walked over and asked in confusion, “You mean this lock is a useless clue? It was pointless for us to open it?”
Su Yan nodded, leading them both to the combination lock, “What do you see this lock locking?”
Feng Di said, puzzled, “Isn’t it locking the central axis pillar and the foundation below?”
“Exactly, but have you ever thought about what’s the point of locking those two things?”
Su Yan pressed her temple, “When the carousel rotates, the foundation and the pillar don’t move anyway? Why would they lock them up?”
As soon as she said that, the two of them naturally understood, “Oh! So that’s it! Then this really is a useless clue. Aren’t they just messing with us?”
Feng Di said indignantly, feeling like she had wasted brain cells for nothing.
Here’s the translated text:
He Yuxin, as usual, played the peacemaker, “It’s fine, it’s fine. Even though it was a wasted effort, it didn’t take much time.”
Su Yan shook her head with a serious expression, “No, if it were just that, I wouldn’t say anything. But have you ever thought, since the purpose was to stall for time, why did they only use such simple mini-games to delay us?”
The hiding places for these three passwords were arguably very obvious, one in a conspicuously placed pillow, and the other two in drawers.
And to open the drawers, all you had to do was play these very simple puzzle mini-games, which completely didn’t fit the style of the entire room!
Seeing that the other two were still looking bewildered, Su Yan sighed and continued, “Think about the other clues we’ve found. Which one could even you two easily figure out? Why were these two password clues so easy for you to get?”
“Wow! Who are you looking down on?!”
Feng Di laughed and pounced forward, trying to cover Su Yan’s mouth.
Of course, Su Yan wasn’t afraid of this short-legged attack.
She held her hand to Feng Di’s forehead and said seriously, “Stop fooling around, we’re talking business!”
Only after Feng Di calmed down did she continue, “If the purpose of setting up this lock was just to stall for time, they could have made much harder mini-games. Now, the feeling I’m getting is…”
Su Yan said in a deep voice, “They really want us to open this lock.”
Although she explained it very clearly, He Yuxin understood, but she still didn’t get why it was worth mentioning, “So? What’s the point of them wanting us to open this lock?”
“You can’t teach a child who can’t be taught!”
Su Yan helplessly put a hand to her forehead, “Don’t say I’m your dad when we get out.”
Before He Yuxin could hit her, Su Yan quickly blurted out the answer, “So, something bad will happen if we open the lock.”
“Something bad?”
Hearing this, He Yuxin, who had originally wanted to teach her who the real dad was, stopped and looked around a bit fearfully, “Don’t say it like that, what bad thing could happen? I haven’t seen any movement for so long!”
Feng Di said with a look of regret, “Oh no, officer! I knew I shouldn’t have been so quick! I just can’t be patient!”
Su Yan sighed, “I don’t know what will happen, this is just a guess. A guess infinitely close to the truth.”
Saying that, she patted the wooden horse, “This wooden horse still can’t move, which means we still haven’t found some clues. Hurry, hurry, I have a premonition that this should be the last stage. Once this clue is found, all the monsters and ghosts should come out.”
Feng Di and the other didn’t catch the deeper meaning in her words and continued to rummage around.
Su Yan walked to the middle of the carousel and looked around.
She lowered her head and suddenly saw a unicorn head pattern on the base of the carousel.
Why did this pattern look so familiar?
Su Yan frowned, unable to remember where she had seen this thing for a moment.
“Come and see, where have you seen this head before?”
Since it was a unicorn’s head, she must have seen it in this room, and she guessed one of them should remember.
Sure enough, as soon as she walked over, Feng Di said cheerfully, “Oh, isn’t this the unicorn’s head from the puzzle we just played?”
At her reminder, Su Yan finally remembered. Indeed, the unicorn in that puzzle pattern had a head that looked exactly like this.
It even had that familiar wink.
Wait?
Her eyes suddenly lit up, and she ran off the base, scanning the entire room’s layout.
The base of this carousel was precisely at the back of the room, with ample space.
So…
Su Yan suddenly shouted, “Quickly move these ocean balls to the corner, let me see what’s on the ground!”
Although Feng Di and the other didn’t understand the purpose, they knew that trusting Su Yan would lead to success.
So the two of them quickly moved the ocean balls aside, revealing the puzzle foam boards underneath.
Beneath these ocean balls was actually a puzzle!
Seeing the puzzle, Feng Di exclaimed in surprise, “Isn’t this the puzzle we just put together? It’s just a magnified version!”
Su Yan nodded, “Let’s put these puzzles together, and then we should have the answer.”
This time, because the head was already fixed, the puzzle was easier.
Soon, Su Yan and the other two restored all the foam boards to their original positions.
“We’re done, but where are the clues?”
He Yuxin asked, looking at the giant unicorn, puzzled.
Su Yan thought for a moment, walked to a spot, lifted a board, and flipped it over.
“This is…”
He Yuxin’s eyes widened in surprise.
Su Yan nodded, “That’s right, the real clues are on the back of these boards. We put them together just so that the clues on the back could successfully form a sentence.”
On the back of that board were several Chinese characters.
So, the group flipped over the boards they had just put together one by one, and a short sentence appeared before everyone’s eyes:
“One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.”
The three fell into confusion again. Feng Di scratched her head and said in frustration, “What does this sentence mean now? Can you stop speaking in riddles?!”
She slumped to the ground, slapping the floor with her hand, looking like a rogue, “I’m a bear, isn’t it enough that I admit I’m a bear? Can you give a bear a way out? Respect a bear’s way of life? We don’t need brains!”
Su Yan, whose tense mood had been made exasperated by her, said with a half-smile, “Bears’ reputation is being damaged, they have brains, okay? Calling you a bear before was actually a compliment.”