Su Yan gave her a gentle, amused nudge, “I’m still here, and you’re already openly selling out your teammates?”
He Yuxin said self-righteously, “This is called preparing for a rainy day, plus being pragmatic.”
Influenced by her, Su Yan turned to look at the unicorn pillow again, then clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and mimicked He Yuxin’s chanting, “It wasn’t my will to dismember you; this trashy escape room game forced me. If you have grievances, complain; if you have enemies, seek revenge. Don’t come looking for me!”
After speaking, she opened her eyes, ready to turn back and continue looking for clues.
Suddenly, a flash of red caught Su Yan’s eye.
Her gaze sharpened, and she couldn’t help but walk over to investigate.
Meanwhile, Feng Di and the other girl, because of Su Yan and He Yuxin’s antics, were in a much better mood, chattering together about the meaning of that sentence, neither noticing Su Yan’s actions.
Su Yan walked to the pillow, squatted down, and pulled out the cotton inside.
Indeed, she hadn’t seen wrong; the cotton inside this pillow was red!
She clearly remembered that she had initially seen the cotton inside the pillow as white, but now, she didn’t know when, it had turned red.
How bizarre?
Su Yan didn’t think she had misseen it.
Red is a very striking color, after all.
If the cotton she had pulled out then had been this color, she couldn’t possibly have forgotten it, let alone remembered it as white.
Connecting this to the earlier words spoken from the unicorn pillow’s perspective, Su Yan couldn’t help but think that the cotton turning red was stained by the unicorn’s blood.
Thinking of this, her hand trembled, and she couldn’t help but throw the cotton back onto the ground.
What was going on?
How did a puzzle-solving escape room suddenly become so supernatural?
Was there any way for cotton to change color imperceptibly without human intervention?
Su Yan frowned deeply, sensing that something was seriously wrong.
“What are you doing? Are you standing in the corner thinking about your mistakes?”
Wu Xiaoxiao noticed Su Yan, who hadn’t spoken for a while.
She looked up and found her isolating herself in a corner, asking with a hint of amusement.
Su Yan secretly took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and smiled as if nothing was wrong, “Nothing, I’m thinking about clues. Have you found anything?” She didn’t retort as she usually would.
Wu Xiaoxiao didn’t notice her abnormality and replied, “We think the meaning of that sentence is that there are invalid clues in this room, and we need to distinguish them carefully.”
He Yuxin added, “And I think, if they’re just invalid clues, they won’t really affect us. What we’re afraid of is that these invalid clues might take a long time and waste our time.”
Su Yan nodded, “Excellent analysis, that should be it. However, I think that besides wasting time, these invalid clues might also have an adverse effect on our escape room experience.”
The others were unconvinced. Feng Di smiled and said, “I think you’re just too cautious. Clues at most just have no effect on our progress. How could they have an adverse effect?”
“Hmm… perhaps, let’s keep looking for clues first.”
Seeing that the others didn’t agree with her point of view, Su Yan didn’t say anything.
After all, she had only stated a possibility; whether it would be useful remained to be seen.
Moreover, she now had more important things to do…
Seeing everyone’s gaze move away from her, Su Yan subtly walked to the table and picked up the communicator.
She went to a corner, pretending to search for clues, but actually whispered into the microphone, “Hello? Is anyone there? I need help!”
After a while, there was no answer.
Su Yan’s tone became firmer, “Is anyone there? If you don’t answer, I’m going to complain when I get out!”
Still no answer.
Su Yan’s heart sank.
She had spoken like that, and still no one answered from the other end of the microphone.
This could only mean that the microphone was no longer working.
A deeper meaning was…
Su Yan looked gravely at the fairytale-like room; they might be about to experience some supernatural events.
She silently put the communicator back, her eyes a little lost.
The moving wooden horse eyes, the cotton turning from white to red, the disconnected communicator…
This series of phenomena confirmed to Su Yan that she and her three goofy roommates had entered a game that was not quite right.
This was definitely not a game that humans could create.
She was more inclined to believe that the four of them might have encountered a ghost.
***
However, Su Yan didn’t make a sound.
Announcing her discovery now would definitely not be a good idea.
She knew her roommates well.
He Yuxin was very timid; if she knew they might have encountered a ghost, she’d probably build a grave for herself with the ocean balls on the spot and bury herself.
Feng Di was impatient and prone to chattering when nervous.
If she knew the truth, Su Yan’s ears wouldn’t get any peace.
As for Wu Xiaoxiao, she was a staunch supporter of materialism.
She definitely wouldn’t believe in ghosts and would probably lecture Su Yan about Marxist philosophy.
Regardless of the strange phenomena just now, she was the first witness.
And she had no evidence to prove that she had truly seen those bizarre and supernatural sights.
So, saying anything now would only cause panic and trouble for herself, accomplishing nothing.
With this thought, Su Yan sighed deeply and pulled herself together to solve the puzzle.
No matter what, as long as they could find the exit of this escape room, their predicament would change.
At this moment, Feng Di shouted loudly, “Come quick! The bottom of this pillar is broken!”
Su Yan looked up at her words; Feng Di was standing in the middle of the carousel, pointing below and shouting.
The few of them gathered around and indeed found an opening at the bottom of the carousel’s central main shaft, revealing exposed wires inside.
There were five wires in total, each divided into upper and lower ends.
The tip of the upper end had a clip, which looked like it was meant to connect to the lower half of the wire.
Ten half-wires, ten colors.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, gray, white, black. Colorful and very messy.
“It seems we need to connect these wires according to their corresponding colors to successfully activate this carousel. But luckily, there are clips, so they didn’t make it difficult for us in terms of wiring technique.”
Wu Xiaoxiao looked up at Su Yan.
Su Yan narrowed her eyes, then suddenly squatted down and wiped away the dust around the electrical box.
A line of small characters carved into the pillar appeared:
“If three connections fail, the wires will be scrapped.”
“Hiss!”
He Yuxin couldn’t help but complain, “This is too subtle! Are clues hidden so perversely? I was originally thinking that since we had plenty of time, we could just try connecting them one by one until we got the right result.”
Feng Di also patted her chest and said with lingering fear, “I was thinking the same thing! Good thing Yan Yan was sharp-eyed and noticed this small text. Otherwise, we would have failed immediately.”
Although no one knew what the consequences would be if the carousel couldn’t turn, considering its large size, it was definitely not a useless prop.
Su Yan raised an eyebrow and said proudly, “From now on, please call me Sherlock Yan.”
He Yuxin saw her triumphant look, smiled, and elegantly extended her hand, “Then I can condescend to be your Princess Watson.”
“Hiss!”
Su Yan hesitated for a moment, then said decisively, “Then, Princess Watson, do you know where ‘that woman’ is?”
They all enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes series, so they naturally knew what Su Yan was referring to.
“That woman” was Irene Adler, the woman Holmes admired.
He always referred to this very charming lady as “that woman” in the text.
However, Su Yan bringing her up now, in front of her “Princess Watson” with whom she had a “bromance,” was clearly looking for trouble.
Wu Xiaoxiao rarely rolled her eyes, “That’s enough, you two. We’re solving a puzzle right now. Do you think we’re role-playing here?”
She walked around the carousel, “Look, don’t the colors of these wooden horses correspond exactly to the colors of the wires above?”
Su Yan looked, and indeed, the five carousel horses corresponded to the colors of those five wires.
So the wires below corresponded to…
Their gazes simultaneously turned to the surrounding walls, where colorful wooden horses were also painted. Feng Di said excitedly, “There are exactly five wooden horses on this wall too, each corresponding to a real wooden horse. I’m so smart!”
Wu Xiaoxiao quickly walked back to the center of the carousel, squatted beside the electrical box, and connected the corresponding colors, “Red wooden horse to orange mural wooden horse, blue wooden horse to purple mural wooden horse…”
Su Yan frowned on the side.
She always felt that this clue was too easy, almost obvious.
It made no sense for them to be given a free pass.
Although she had some doubts, Su Yan didn’t speak up to stop them.
She had no direct evidence that this wiring method was wrong, nor did she have any other inspiration.
In this situation, even if she voiced her concerns, the three of them would likely still connect the wires as they intended.
At that point, if she was wrong, she would be embarrassed and laughed at for being overly anxious.
If she was right, the three of them would be very embarrassed, which would spoil their mood.
All in all, voicing her concerns would do more harm than good, so it was simply unnecessary.
It was better to wait calmly for the result.
Finally, Wu Xiaoxiao connected the last clip, “Gray to green… complete! Ah!”
The moment the last clip was connected, the electrical box suddenly erupted with a current.
Wu Xiaoxiao, whose hand was directly touching the electrical box, screamed.
Her entire body trembled uncontrollably from the electric shock, her expression contorted, looking absolutely terrifying.
Feng Di and He Yuxin were petrified, standing rooted to the spot.
Although Su Yan was also startled, her reaction was much faster.
“Don’t just stand there! Quickly find an insulator to save her!” she shouted loudly while searching for an insulator.
To rescue someone who has been electrocuted, you need to quickly separate them from the power source.
Directly touching them is definitely not an option, as it would lead to both getting electrocuted due to the body’s conductivity.
So the best way was to find an insulator and pry the person away.
Su Yan anxiously scanned the surroundings.
Where in this place was there an insulator?
Didn’t you find some balls earlier? Use those to knock her away from the source.