In the dark corridor, rustling sounds emerged, like the rubbing of clothes.
“Go slower, don’t push me, your dad, I’m scared too, okay?”
Su Yan complained in a low voice.
It was clearly the three of them who insisted on coming to play the escape room, but in the end, they pushed her, the poor little thing, to go first.
Feng Di, who was carefully crouching behind her, stuck out her tongue and said in an extremely annoying tone, “I’m not listening, I’m not listening, I’m not listening!”
“Not listening my foot!”
Su Yan gave a fake smile.
“Let me dedicate ‘Father’ to you, hoping to move you, this unfilial child.”
Feng Di chuckled, “Aren’t you the bravest? Don’t think we don’t know, you’re the woman who dares to write horror novels!”
Su Yan, “That’s no reason for you to mess with me. Later, if you don’t each treat me to bubble tea, I’ll let you see that I’m not just a woman who dares to write horror novels, I’m also a woman who dares to murder her roommates.”
Though she said that, Su Yan still braved the darkness, strode through the corridor, and opened the small door at the end.
The room inside was brightly lit.
With the light, the few people behind immediately became less scared, pushing and shoving Su Yan, noisily squeezing in.
The escape room they went to had a carousel theme, and the entire room was decorated very childishly.
Pink wallpaper, and scattered ball pit balls on the floor.
On the wall, there was a mirror decorated with a wreath, and the light pink wallpaper also had many unicorn patterns.
Besides that, there were many photos of children playing on carousels, a scene of joy and harmony.
To the left of the door was a small table, and a unicorn pillow was placed in the corner, very cute.
Of course, the most eye-catching feature was the carousel in the back part of the room.
This carousel had five horse seats and wasn’t too small.
There was a circle of twinkling colorful light bulbs on it, looking exceptionally beautiful.
It truly lived up to its carousel-themed escape room, very fitting.
“So pretty! It really is the gentlest escape room, I chose well, didn’t I?”
Feng Di said proudly.
Su Yan gave a thumbs up, “That’s affirmation from a benevolent father.”
Freed from the shackles of fear, Feng Di showed no mercy and directly came over to grab her hair.
“I’ll give you one more chance.”
“…That was quite sudden.”
A man would rather die than yield, she angrily retorted, “Let go of my hair! You beautiful girl!”
After a while of fooling around, Feng Di finally let go of Su Yan.
In this kind of room, everyone lost their feeling of fear.
The one who was just now urging Su Yan to go first instantly rushed to the carousel.
“Eh? Why isn’t this carousel moving? Is it out of power or does it just not move?”
Feng Di walked around the carousel once, asking in confusion.
Su Yan shook her head, “It definitely isn’t out of power, didn’t you see the light bulbs still lit?”
After saying this, she began to carefully observe the room.
This was an escape room, not a real amusement park.
Even if it was very gentle, it definitely wasn’t just for them to play.
Observing the environment upon entering was a basic quality for a novel writer.
Wu Xiaoxiao, who came in later, looked around with no expression.
“Our mission is to escape the carousel room. Everyone, look around for hidden doors or something. Let’s find the door first so we can leave.”
She was the last to enter.
After she came in, that small door “swished” shut, perfectly sealed, adding a sense of urgency to this relaxed escape room.
He Yuxin, being the most timid of the four girls, was originally very scared.
But in this environment, her tense mood had already relaxed.
She smiled, “Why go out? No need to look for clues, I think I can stay here forever!”
Saying that, she placed the communicator, used to contact staff, on a nearby table.
Then she walked over and sat on one of the wooden horses, saying dreamily, “Sitting on this horse, I feel like a Disney princess awaiting her prince.”
Feng Di walked next to her and patted the horse’s head.
“It’s a pity this horse can’t move, otherwise I think I could stay here for two hours just riding the carousel.”
Su Yan was about to say something when her gaze was suddenly drawn to the wooden horse.
Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed at the horse, saying uncertainly, “This horse’s eyes… are they moving?”
Su Yan had clearly seen the white wooden horse’s eyes staring at Feng Di with a strange arc just now, but the next second she noticed it, it returned to its original state.
***
Hearing this, Feng Di was startled and immediately retracted her hand.
He Yuxin also quickly jumped off the horse’s back, nervously watching the wooden horse’s eyes.
After waiting for a while, there was no movement.
The wooden horse’s eyes stared straight ahead, looking like an ordinary wooden horse.
Feng Di and He Yuxin breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Su Yan had been tricking them.
Feng Di walked over to Su Yan and said with a scolding laugh, “Well, Su Yan! You’ve learned bad things, you’re starting to trick me now!”
Su Yan knew she hadn’t lied just now, but there was indeed nothing unusual at the moment.
Maybe she had seen it wrong, she frowned slightly, then exaggeratedly clutched her chest, “Wasn’t I afraid you’d be too nervous? My good intentions were wasted on you!”
After laughing and joking with Feng Di for a while, they began their formal search.
But Su Yan still felt that the wooden horse was a bit eerie, occasionally glancing at it.
Since the goal was to escape the room, finding an exit was essential.
Everyone felt around the walls but couldn’t find a single opening.
“This is unscientific!”
He Yuxin said in confusion.
“This room doesn’t have a second door at all. Are we supposed to go back the way we came?”
Su Yan shook her head, “Not necessarily. If the exit isn’t a door, it could be an underground passage or something. Going back the same way is unlikely; look at that door, it doesn’t even have a keyhole.”
At her words, they all noticed this point. Indeed, the door they entered through was bare, not to mention a keyhole, it didn’t even have a doorknob.
Wu Xiaoxiao, contrary to her name, rarely smiled.
She seriously squatted beside a giant unicorn pillow, “Come take a look, is there something wrong with this pillow?”
Su Yan quickly walked over and observed with her.
This unicorn pillow was soft and squishy, and felt like it was made of good quality fabric.
However, the horn on its head was hard, she didn’t know what it was made of.
Su Yan looked at Wu Xiaoxiao and asked, “Why do you think it’s problematic?”
Wu Xiaoxiao pushed up her glasses and said in a deep voice, “I think, for such a pillow to appear abruptly in this room, it should be useful. But…”
Even if she didn’t say it, Su Yan knew what she meant: after looking for a long time, they still hadn’t found anything tricky about the pillow!
Su Yan used force to tear open the pillow, “If we can’t find it, then let’s break it by force! If it’s not on the outside, it’s on the inside. Anyway, the staff said we don’t have to pay for damaging props.”
He Yuxin, watching from the side, said with a pained expression, “Oh, tear it gently, just a small tear is enough! Don’t ruin the whole pillow, can you bear to ruin such a cute unicorn?”
Su Yan smiled and stopped, “Come on, little unicorn, give her a bow to thank her for saving your life.”
He Yuxin picked up an ocean ball and threw it at her, “Su Yan you’re so annoying!”
Su Yan chuckled, put her hand into the small tear she made, and rummaged inside the pillow.
After a few tries, she raised an eyebrow and, as expected, pulled out a red paper, bringing out some white cotton with it.
Seeing that they had indeed found something, the four heads immediately huddled together.
There was only a simple number on the slip of paper—”3″.
What did this number mean?
The four looked at each other.
Su Yan thought for a moment and suddenly said, “Everyone, go through the ocean balls and see if there’s anything underneath.”
If clues could be hidden inside the pillow, then it was highly possible that there would be clues inside or under the ocean balls.
However, there were too many ocean balls here.
If clues were hidden inside the ocean balls, they wouldn’t be able to go through them all in two hours.
So, it was more likely that clues were hidden underneath the ocean balls.
Sure enough, after a while, He Yuxin exclaimed in surprise, “I found a number combination lock here!”
Thinking of the number “3” they had just seen, Su Yan raised an eyebrow and walked over.
This number lock was connected to the bottom of the carousel, locking the central axis of the carousel to its foundation.
After seeing what the lock looked like, a hint of doubt flashed in Su Yan’s eyes.
She didn’t know why, but she always felt that this lock was strange.
But she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange about it.
Ignoring the strange feeling in her heart, Su Yan squatted down for a look.
It was a silver combination lock with a four-digit password.
“Presumably 3 should be one of the digits in the password. Our next task is to find the other numbers and then confirm the order,” Wu Xiaoxiao pushed her glasses up her nose and analyzed seriously.
He Yuxin nodded, “I guess once we find the password for this lock, the carousel will be able to move. There should be new clues then.”
Su Yan stood up, stretched, and walked to the mirror, saying thoughtfully, “Don’t you think this painting looks a little out of place here?”
Wu Xiaoxiao walked over, “Are you saying there’s something wrong with this painting? How come I don’t see it?”
Su Yan shrugged, “Just a guess.”
The painting in front of Su Yan looked ordinary, a little girl in a blue dress holding a teddy bear, with a bright smile on her face.
Su Yan pointed to the other paintings on the wall and explained, “Haven’t you noticed? There’s a wooden horse in all the other paintings. Whether it’s a carousel or a rocking horse, the children inside are all playing with horse-themed toys.”
At her words, Wu Xiaoxiao realized this point.
Indeed, only this little girl was holding a teddy bear.
Although there was nothing wrong with the painting itself, it seemed a bit out of place compared to the other paintings.
“Yan Yan, you’re amazing! You can even spot this? So meticulous! I’ve been thinking for ages and couldn’t figure it out!”
He Yuxin praised, listening to their conversation.
Su Yan shook her head, smiled, and raised an eyebrow, putting an arm around He Yuxin’s shoulder, “If you can’t figure it out, don’t think about it. Your hair doesn’t allow you to overthink.”
To be honest, these were all tricks she had already used when writing novels.
A bunch of picture frames placed here?
It’d be weird if there wasn’t a problem!
They’re all old foxes; why are they trying to play “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio” with her here?