AD Chapter 26

After cleaning up, Shen Du took a new tissue, wrapped the used one inside, and casually stuffed it into his pocket. Qin Yi paused for a moment, then adjusted his slightly crooked glasses.

He then twisted open the water bottle and took a sip.

“You rest for a bit, I’ll go look for clues.”

Shen Du began pacing around the room. There was only one door open now, leading to the room he had just come from.

He glanced around the room and finally walked up to the bookshelf.

Logically speaking, the first door shouldn’t be too difficult, or else the plot wouldn’t progress. Shen Du himself had found the password by following the clues in the bookshelf, so maybe this time would be the same.

He flipped through the books inside, but didn’t find anything particularly special.

Could he have been wrong?

Shen Du put the book back in its original spot and was about to search elsewhere when he noticed something was off out of the corner of his eye.

He reached out and touched the bookshelf.

The bookshelf had three rows, and the books were neatly arranged in each row, except for the last one, where the books on the edge were crooked.

“Hey, Boss Qin, come take a look.” Shen Du waved at him, “Do you think there was a book here originally?”

Qin Yi strode over, his gaze falling on him.

“I got it. This book is the clue. Once we find it, we can crack the password.”

Qin Yi looked away and nodded, “It should be.”

Shen Du rested his chin on his hand, thinking, “So, where would it be?”

Qin Yi answered directly, “I don’t know.”

“…”

Shen Du turned his head suspiciously, “You really don’t know?”

It shouldn’t be like this. Given the other person’s intelligence, even if he was scared of “ghosts,” he shouldn’t be dragging his feet like this, with no ideas at all.

It didn’t make sense. This wasn’t the usual Qin Yi.

Qin Yi didn’t speak, clearly not wanting to explain, his expression indifferent.

Seeing him like this, Shen Du started doubting himself again.

Yeah, why would he lie to him? He couldn’t possibly want to stay in this crappy place any longer.

“Let’s keep looking. Maybe this is part of a series of clues, and we need to solve this before we can find the book.” Shen Du left the bookshelf and wandered around, “Let’s see if there’s anything else.”

But the room was small, and they searched everywhere. They even took the paintings off the walls, but still didn’t find any clues.

“Aren’t you into art?” Shen Du, at his wit’s end, started desperately grasping at straws. “Can you interpret these paintings? Maybe you can find something?”

“I’ve looked,” Qin Yi said, “Nothing special.”

“I don’t believe it,” Shen Du said. “There must be something you missed. You didn’t see it.”

Could the first puzzle really be this hard?

“Go ahead, tell me everything you know about these paintings—the background, any symbolism… whatever it is.” He gestured at the paintings.

Qin Yi raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Shen Du nodded. “Sure.”

At first, Shen Du didn’t understand the expression on Qin Yi’s face, but as soon as he started talking about the author’s birth year and the background of the works, Shen Du felt like he was back in his middle school history class. The words just drilled into his ears, but none of it stuck in his brain.

But there was one difference.

Qin Yi’s voice was much more pleasant than his history teacher’s.

When Qin Yi started talking about an oil painting that Shen Du didn’t really recognize, he finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop—”

Qin Yi immediately stopped talking and looked at him.

“You sure know a lot,” Shen Du rubbed his temples, frowning. “Can you say something useful?”

“What’s something useful?”

“Just…” Shen Du hesitated for a long time, but nothing came out. Seeing how torn he was, Qin Yi walked over and gently persuaded him, “Don’t worry, we’ll get out. We’re not going to stay here forever. Have some water and rest a bit.”

Shen Du’s instinct told him that Qin Yi’s sudden kindness must have an ulterior motive, but after being bombarded with so much information, his head was spinning, and he didn’t have the energy to think too much. He simply accepted the water and took a sip. “How long has it been?”

Qin Yi stared at his lips, still wet from the water, and said softly, “Almost twenty minutes.”

Shen Du almost choked on the water. “That long?!”

They hadn’t even gotten past the first door???

Qin Yi calculated the time in his head and confidently said, “Yes.”

“Oh my god.” Shen Du was stunned. When had he ever been so slow at an escape room?

“This isn’t going to work.” Shen Du suddenly felt a sense of urgency, twisted the cap back on, and started moving again. “I have to find it, or else when Lin Yanjin and the others come, they’ll laugh to death.”

Just as he said that, the sound of a lock turning came from the tightly closed door. Shen Du’s face turned pale with fear.

Beep beep beep, the password was entered correctly.

The door opened.

Lin Yanjin, holding Xiao Pang with his left hand and Xiao Jia with his right, appeared at the door. Several pairs of eyes met at the same time—

“We found it! They’re really here!”

“Shen Du, brother! Didn’t we agree you’d come find me? Why haven’t you made any progress here?”

Xiao Pang let go of Lin Yanjin’s hand and rushed over to find him, crying with a runny nose, “Do you know how scared I was just now?!”

Seeing everyone together, Shen Du asked, “Did you all finish already?”

“Yeah, we were just waiting for you guys,” Sisi’s girlfriend said. “Xiao Pang risked his life to bring in the NPCs and ask them for info. That’s how we found out you were still stuck here.”

“It shouldn’t be like this, Shen Du. How come you guys are still stuck in the first room?”

They had all played escape rooms before, and Shen Du was good at logic and reasoning. He and Lin Yanjin were the big shots who led everyone through the puzzles. How could they still be stuck in the first room?

“Yeah, is it really that hard here?” Xiao Pang actually understood why Shen Du had gone to find his friend first. After all, he only knew Shen Du here.

Shen Du replied irritably, “If it’s hard or not, you can try it for yourself.”

So everyone searched the room again.

And again.

And again.

Great, they still didn’t find anything.

Lin Yanjin had actually noticed the oddity with the bookshelf a while ago, but he too couldn’t find the missing book.

Until—

“Hey, come look, is this the book you guys were looking for?”

Xiao Pang was a bit taller than the others, and with his height advantage, he could see a spot that Lin Yanjin and Shen Du couldn’t.

He took the book down.

Lin Yanjin took it, flipped through it, and said, “This is the book. Just solve the riddle on this page.”

Shen Du stepped forward. “Let me see.”

Lin Yanjin handed the book over. Shen Du took it, placed it on the shelf, and found that it fit perfectly.

He turned to Xiao Pang. “How did you know where this book was?”

“I don’t know,” Xiao Pang scratched his head, looking confused. “I saw you and the branch manager searching so hard, but I didn’t think I could help, so I was just wandering around. When I looked up, I saw this.”

Shen Du turned his head and saw Qin Yi standing outside the group. He was tall, his presence striking, and when standing with Xiao Pang, Sisi, and the others, he didn’t look like he belonged with them.

He realized he might have been wrong earlier when he said Qin Yi was young.

A person like him, full of schemes, his eyes alone were different from everyone else’s.

Shen Du belatedly realized he might have been tricked.

Sisi huddled with her girlfriend for warmth. “We found it, let’s go quickly before the NPC catches up.”

“Okay, let’s head out.” Lin Yanjin nodded and led the group out to solve the puzzle in the main hall.

A group of people rushed out, and the once lively room immediately became quiet.

Shen Du and Qin Yi stayed behind.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Qin Yi asked from behind him.

Shen Du turned around, staring at him, as if there was something he wanted to say.

Qin Yi met his gaze without any sign of guilt.

Shen Du squinted, not asking anything, just saying, “Not scared? Stay close.”

After leaving the escape room, Xiao Pang felt like he had been pardoned. He wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. “Finally out, I thought I was going to suffocate! That faceless man nearly scared me to death, damn!”

He was the first to rush out, then waited by the door to help the exhausted Sisi and Xiao Jia. When it was Shen Du’s turn, he pushed Xiao Pang’s hand away.

“Hey, where did you get this water from? I want a sip.”

Shen Du then remembered that the bottle in his hand was from the NPC, the one he had used to clean Qin Yi’s nosebleed earlier.

And Qin Yi had even drunk from it earlier.

As soon as Qin Yi exited the escape room, a staff member approached him and mentioned that his phone had been ringing continuously, so he stepped aside to take the call.

Shen Du’s expression became complicated.

“Where did you buy this? Let me have a sip,” Xiao Pang kept pestering him.

Shen Du slapped his hand away and said, “You’re drinking what I’ve already drunk? You’re really thirsty.”

Xiao Pang wanted to argue, but just then, a staff member came over to show them the photos they had taken, so everyone eagerly went to look at them.

Xiao Jia saw Shen Du still standing there and came over to ask, “Brother Shen, aren’t you going to take a look?”

Shen Du, lost in thought, waved his hand absentmindedly. “You guys go ahead. I’ll wait for my friend.”

Xiao Jia glanced at him, then at the man on the phone, and said, “Alright, but don’t forget to come over later.”

Shen Du nodded and leaned against the wall, zoning out.

He had already used up a lot of water while cleaning the bloodstains, so there was only a little left in the bottle. This meant that he had unknowingly drunk quite a few sips while in the escape room.

But this was the water Qin Yi had drunk…

Shen Du rubbed his face, trying to stop himself from overthinking.

It was just a bottle of water, no need to think too much about it. Qin Yi didn’t say anything, so why was he making such a big deal out of it? If he kept worrying, it would only make him seem guilty.

When Qin Yi finished his call and came back, he saw Shen Du looking like he was questioning his entire life, and he knew that Shen Du had figured it out.

He smiled slightly, walked over to him.

“Zheng Qing and the others need me, I have to go. What about you? Are you staying with your friends?”

Shen Du wanted to say, “If you’re leaving, then leave. Why do you care whether I stay or not?” But instead, he said, “Go ahead, I took the day off, I’m not done playing yet.”

In truth, after everything that had happened, he wasn’t in the mood to play anymore. But there was no way he was leaving with Qin Yi now.

Qin Yi had been acting strange since the beginning. He had clearly sensed something was off, but still followed along, and before he knew it, he was dragged into this situation.

Shen Du thought carefully about everything that had happened this afternoon, and the more he thought, the more wrong it seemed.

He wasn’t afraid of NPCs, so why would Qin Yi be? And that book, was it really just sitting on the bookshelf from the start?

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice their current positions.

It wasn’t until his vision suddenly went black that he realized, “?”

He hadn’t noticed when, but Qin Yi was already standing right in front of him, one arm against the wall, his head lowered, in a half-embrace position, looking at him.

Shen Du instinctively tried to step back, but the wall was behind him, and he had nowhere to go. “Why are you so close to me?”

He reached out to push him away.

But Qin Yi easily grabbed his hand, his eyes lowered as he softly called his name, “Shen Du, do you really not know, or are you pretending?”

Shen Du tried to pull his hand back, frowning and asking, “What should I know?”

“What have I been doing all day? Didn’t you notice?”

They were very close, their gazes intertwining.

“So?”

Qin Yi looked at him without any guilt, his eyes clear and innocent, making Shen Du feel like he had been figured out.

So calculating.

“Forget it, this isn’t the time for that.” Qin Yi released his hand, tilted his head, took off his glasses, and placed them on Shen Du’s face.

The world around him became narrower, but everything was still clear. Qin Yi’s hand brushed against his face, cold to the touch.

Shen Du’s first reaction wasn’t to move away, but to notice—

Qin Yi’s glasses didn’t have a prescription.

“They look good on you.” Without his glasses, Qin Yi seemed to return to his usual confident self, his features sharp and defined.

Qin Yi stared at him for a moment, then smirked, “I’m giving them to you.”

By the time Qin Yi left, Shen Du was still standing there, forgetting to take the glasses off.

At that moment, a staff member approached him, breaking his thoughts. It sounded like the same one who had escorted him into the room earlier.

“Hello, we’ve taken some photos for you. Would you like to take a look?”

Shen Du was about to decline, but before he could speak, he looked down and saw the photos on the iPad.

It was a picture of him and Qin Yi hugging in the escape room.

“……”

The staff member had a knowing smile on their face. “Would you like to buy them?”

Shen Du: “.”

He casually asked, “How much?”

The staff member smiled professionally. “Two high-definition photos for 50 RMB, sir.”

Shen Du: Heh.

Of course, it was a money trap.