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墨書 Inktalez
The note read: "The Secrets Behind Empress Dowager Cixi." Marlon scratched his head and asked, "What does this mean? What secrets could Empress Dowager Cixi have?" I remembered having read many books about her, such as "The Record of the Weeping Platform," "Empress Dowager Cixi Biography," and "Late Qing Chronicles." I had a deep understanding of her as a figure; she had many secrets, but I had no clue what specific secrets were being referred to.
I shook my head, indicating that I didn’t understand. Marlon said, "Empress Dowager Cixi is right in the first room. If she has any secrets, we’ll find out just by taking a look." With that, he returned to the first room. Everyone followed him back, and he shone his flashlight on the portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi, then swiftly pulled the portrait aside.
Behind it was indeed a hole that had been concealed by the portrait. If it hadn’t been torn away, we would never have found it. It seemed everyone had their own value in existence. Marlon might be simple-minded, but there were aspects of him from which I could learn. Because of his simplicity, he had lived a happy life so far. Many things become clearer when approached in a straightforward manner—like money or relationships. If it weren’t for him, I would have likely overthought things here and ended up lost.
Reaching into the hole, I pulled out an imperial edict that looked just like the ones on television and was of decent quality. The edict had some text and a seal on it; the four edges of the seal were arranged with uppercase numbers, reading: "Guangxu First Year." The characters for "First" and "Year" had a small red line extending outwards, pointing to a number beside them. The words "Light" and "Year" did not have lines. This edict was incomplete; I needed to find other clues to fully decipher it.
The clues that couldn’t be continued were set aside for now. The only clue available was a picture hanging on the wall with many buttons on it. It was a relatively simple number game—moving from one point to another by taking several steps up, down, left, or right—to obtain a five-digit code. This five-digit code would undoubtedly unlock that small door since the codes on the desk were all four digits.
After opening the small door but before entering, we heard a hissing sound from inside that startled Xiao He and Xiaoyuan into screams. At that moment, the eerie music also suddenly grew much louder. After the hissing subsided, silence returned. We still didn’t enter; instead, thick smoke began pouring out from the small door. The earlier noise must have been from a smoke machine. Only stage smoke machines could fill a room with smoke in just seconds, and their sound matched what we heard.
The door was small; one had to crouch to get through it. Seeing me standing at the entrance without moving, Marlon crouched down first and reached his hand toward the small door. Just as he was about to enter, there was a loud bang—his head collided directly with the door frame. Judging by the sound's volume, it was quite a hard hit.
A bump like that wasn’t too concerning; however, it was clear that this collision wasn’t intentional. He could have crouched down further to pass through easily, but just as his head hadn’t dipped below the door frame yet, he suddenly seemed to be pulled inside as if by an unseen force. This was very strange; even a pig knows whether it can squeeze through gaps in its pen—if not, it wouldn’t charge forward recklessly. Though Marlon might be simple-minded, he was certainly smarter than a pig.
At the moment Marlon hit the door frame, he let out a pained shout; however, that wasn’t the end of it—he didn’t stop but was instead pulled in by some force. From his twisted expression, it was clear he hadn’t gone willingly. The game settings surely wouldn’t include such dangerous elements; something bizarre happening at this moment could only be attributed to the Spirit God participating in our game. I had thought it harmless; clearly, I was mistaken.
Realizing this, I quickly crouched down and followed him inside. Once inside, I was taken aback—the place was filled with smoke and visibility was low. There was no air conditioning in this room, so it felt quite warm; this heightened my sensitivity to Yin Qi within the smoke-filled space. Marlon’s groans echoed nearby, but I couldn’t see him clearly at all—in such a small room of about twenty square meters, this situation felt unbelievable; even thick smoke from a machine shouldn’t create such effects.
“Long Ge, are you okay?” Xiao He asked worriedly from outside as I entered; after asking, she followed me in as well. Long Ge rubbed his head while saying, “There’s someone in this room; I just got pulled in.” I wanted to say something but instantly fell silent upon hearing a voice nearby: “Oops! Wrong person.”
Hearing those words left me feeling uneasy—both angry and relieved at once. What do you mean “wrong person”? You intended to pull me in when I hadn’t offended you at all! Why should you drag me? Frustrated, I shone my flashlight around but couldn’t clearly illuminate much; vaguely visible near the door was a bookshelf filled with various props and books.
Xiaohua and Xiaoyuan both entered the room, and Marlon turned on his flashlight. They made their way over to Marlon, expressing their concern for him verbally. I chose not to join them but instead walked a few steps deeper into the room, following the wall with my flashlight. The walls of this room were no longer black; they were covered in red wallpaper. In one corner, there was a patch of black that stood out sharply against the red, easily catching one's eye. I approached the dark spot with my flashlight, and as the smoke had cleared somewhat, visibility improved slightly. When I was still over a meter away from the dark shape, I vaguely saw a figure dressed in black with a hat. I thought it might be the Spirit God and took a couple of steps closer, hoping to reach out and grab it.
Just as my hand touched the figure, I realized it was not the Spirit God. Although I felt fabric, there was something hard underneath. When I shone my flashlight on the figure's face, I could see clearly that it was a skeleton wearing a Zombie Outfit. It looked just like the image below, except this one was illuminated while the other had been shrouded in darkness and thick smoke.
At that moment when I recognized it as a skeleton, a voice whispered in my ear: "You took off its clothes."
Upon hearing this voice, I saw the skirt of the Zombie Outfit suddenly swish several times. There was no wind in the room; this movement undoubtedly came from it.
The smoke produced by the fog machine dissipated quickly. Within minutes, most of it had cleared away, revealing more of the room's layout. As the smoke gradually lifted, the three of them were startled to see me next to the skeleton in a Zombie Outfit. I shook my head helplessly; it was just a prop. If they knew there was something real in this room, I wondered if they would scream.
I said, "Don't be afraid; it's just props. There's no one here. Marlon, didn't you say someone pulled you? Why don't you tell us where that person is?" To shut him up, I brought up this question first and even took off the skeleton's hat, saying, "Look, this is the only thing that looks human in this room—just a fake skeleton."
Marlon scratched his head and said, "Could it be that I'm hallucinating?" I quickly replied, "Yes, that's right! You're definitely hallucinating; there's no one else here. Stop thinking about it and look for clues; time is running out. If we can't escape this escape room, it'll be embarrassing." He hurriedly got up and said, "Right! I'm so smart; this is easy for me."
This comment seemed directed at Xiaohua, but I knew she didn't agree with him. Not only did Xiaohua disagree, but everyone here felt the same way—even the Spirit God.
I heard another voice say thank you beside me; I had grown accustomed to it and didn't want to respond. I knew what it was thanking me for, but since we were playing a game now, I didn't want to dampen everyone's spirits over something trivial. If it had any requests, it would have said so directly to me; since it hadn't said anything at all, I certainly wouldn't rush to address it—especially since I had nothing with me.
We each split up to search for clues. Near the exit door stood an Ancient Bell that was also locked; however, it had a simple wheel lock instead of a combination lock. On the side of a bookshelf lay two severed legs that looked very realistic like those severed hands nearby. On top of the bookshelf was a book-shaped box that looked like any other book at first glance but revealed a small combination lock on its side upon closer inspection. The back of the book bore an inscription: "I died so tragically—torn apart by horses—it's too gruesome to behold. As you walk along your path, have you seen my head, hands, or feet?"
This message clearly hinted at something related to the box. Everyone read it several times without understanding its meaning until Xiaohua suddenly said that since there were only three digits in the combination and considering heads and limbs were mentioned—could it refer to their quantities?
Upon hearing Xiaohua's suggestion, Marlon slapped his forehead and exclaimed: "Yes! That's definitely it! You're so clever, Xiaohua!" His piggish demeanor almost made him lean in to kiss her several times. I thought to myself: Has he really lost his mind? How did he suddenly become so brazen?
"Xiaoyuan said, 'The second room has one head and six hands, while this room has two feet. The password is 162.'"
Marlon immediately entered the code 162, but it was incorrect. Xiao He shook her head and said, "It’s not this hint. What else could it be?"
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