I never expected this. He actually got a special role in the first episode.
Fang Juexia glanced at the camera set up in front of him.
Could it be that the director decided to give out the trump cards based on everyone’s performance just now? But giving a newcomer such a role in the first episode, aren’t they afraid of ruining the whole show?
He glanced across at Pei Tingsong, who seemed to have finished checking and had already put his phone back in his pocket, lifting his head to look at him.
“Why the long face?” Pei Tingsong raised an eyebrow. “Did you draw the killer?”
Fang Juexia raised an eyebrow. This method of bluffing about one’s identity was useless to him. “Yes, I’m paired with the killer in the first round. What do you think?”
Pei Tingsong, with his hands cuffed, leaned forward, half-reclining on the table, his eyes fixed on Fang Juexia, adopting a pitiful and innocent expression. “I’m really scared.”
But as soon as he finished speaking, he burst into laughter.
This really does make him look like a psychotic murderer, Fang Juexia thought.
Could Pei Tingsong be the killer?
The thought flashed through his mind. If two newcomers were assigned the same role card, the production team might have lost their minds.
He thought about it again and remembered that when his senior participated in the first episode of the first season, he was also a newcomer, a blank slate, but the first role he drew was the killer. This showed that the production team didn’t consider much when distributing the cards. The only thing they might have considered was the correspondence between the killer and the script.
But even so, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that Pei Tingsong had drawn the killer card.
The table conveniently blocked his hand movements. Fang Juexia clicked on the card on the screen, selected the faction he would serve, then pretended to look down at his phone. He raised his hand expressionlessly and continued to bite through the rope knot with his teeth.
He was certain that there must be a tool to cut the rope hidden somewhere in the corner, but he was too lazy to bother looking for it. As long as the goal was achieved, the process didn’t matter.
“That’s considered brute force, isn’t it?” Pei Tingsong teased. “The production team should have given me the rope and you the handcuffs. That way, it would be foolproof.” As he spoke, he suddenly noticed that his handcuffs had a faintly colored letter “B” printed on them.
Anything marked must be problematic.
Pei Tingsong’s space was limited, so he could only look around the table for other clues. Now that the hood was off, he noticed the square he had embedded into the table earlier, which bore a capital letter A.
His intuition told him that this A was definitely problematic.
Looking up at Fang Juexia, Pei Tingsong wanted to tell him about the letter he had discovered, but he unexpectedly noticed that the rope wrapped around Fang Juexia’s upper arm seemed to be holding a small tag, which kept swaying with his movements.
“Don’t move yet.”
Hearing Pei Tingsong’s words, Fang Juexia stopped moving and looked at him, “What’s wrong?”
A and α.
“So it’s not an English letter after all.” Pei Tingsong smiled, surprised that he had found the corresponding letter so quickly.
“What English letter?” Fang Juexia asked.
“The sign on your arm corresponds to the metal block I just embedded into the table.” “ Pei Tingsong took out the block and showed Fang Juexia the side with the letters printed on it, ”They’re both Greek letters, one uppercase and one lowercase.”
Fang Juexia understood. This was probably the tool the program crew used to cut the rope, but how could a block cut through a rope?
Pei Tingsong held the block with both hands, trying to tap and twist it, but nothing changed. Pei Tingsong tried to push it with his fingers, but the slot was too narrow for his fingers to fit.
Fang Juexia thought it was hopeless. Even if Pei Tingsong found a way, he wouldn’t share it with him, so it was better to solve it himself. Maybe he could bite it open.
“I know,” Pei Tingsong quickly came up with a new idea. He used his cuffed hand to remove the name tag from his shirt, a thin rectangular metal plate engraved with the words [Dr. Tian].
Was his role really that of a doctor?
Pei Tingsong pressed one corner of the metal name tag against the metal square marked with an “A” from earlier, then pushed the small rectangular piece inside. Sure enough, he managed to push the square piece out, just like a building block being pulled out!
“Here it is,” Pei Tingsong said, holding the square “blade” and waving it at Fang Juexia.
Fang Juexia wasn’t particularly happy, as past experience had taught him what was about to happen. He could only hope that Pei Tingsong wouldn’t say it on camera…
“If you beg me, I’ll give it to you.” Pei Tingsong didn’t bother to pretend at all.
Sure enough, he said it… Fang Juexia sighed inwardly.
“No need.” He still chose to bite it open himself.
Watching him bite down on the rope, Pei Tingsong glanced at the gloves he was wearing.
He really couldn’t be bothered.
“It’s just a joke.” Looking at Fang Juexia’s teeth, Pei Tingsong felt a little nervous. “I know you have good teeth, but the production team carefully arranged this so that the two of us could work together to escape. Let me show off a little too.”
“Here,” he pressed the blade onto the table and pushed it toward Fang Juexia, all the way to the other side, “The greatness of humanity lies in the use of tools.”
Fang Juexia glanced at the knife blade that had been pushed over.
Pei Tingsong’s level of cooperation today was so high that it made him suspicious. Fang Juexia speculated in his heart, could it be that he was trying to curry favor and get his votes?
Never mind, since he had already found the knife blade, he might as well use it.
Just as he reached out his hand, he saw Pei Tingsong leaning his elbows on the table, both hands cuffed, holding his face. One hand was gloved, the other bare, his face written with loneliness and sorrow, and he sighed deeply, “Ah, I miss my Lily.”
Fang Juexia forced himself to calm down.
He knew Pei Tingsong would never disappoint him.
“You could bring her to China.”
Pei Tingsong shook his head. “Better not. I can’t afford to keep two dogs.”
Facing Pei Tingsong’s subtle insinuation, Fang Juexia struggled to calm himself. He could almost imagine the fans flooding the comments after the show aired, asking if they were keeping a puppy in the dorm.
He shouldn’t have engaged with this little devil from the start.
To regain his freedom, Fang Juexia picked up the “blade.” Though it had no real edge, it was sharp enough to cut through the rope. He tried it a few times, and the rope finally snapped.
Suddenly, the narrator’s voice sounded again, “Attention all players, the Double-Faced Knight has made his choice. During this period, the Knight’s black and white sides will be temporarily hidden. As the plot clues continue to unfold, we will select a time to announce the Knight’s faction via an official announcement.”
Pei Tingsong leaned back comfortably on the sofa, lazily slacking off, “He sure knows how to play.”
During this period when the Knight’s allegiance was unknown, it was the perfect time to take advantage of the confusion. Everyone had only limited information, and while they didn’t trust each other, they had to communicate and cooperate to piece together the complete storyline. In this situation where everyone was in the dark, every word spoken could potentially influence the direction of the entire game.
Upon hearing the narration, Fang Juexia secretly felt relieved. He had previously worried that his faction choice would be exposed immediately, but it seemed the production team wanted to give players and viewers more suspense. Though his mind was in turmoil, Fang Juexia’s expression remained calm as he focused on the knot on his wrist.
This was his golden opportunity as a knight; he had to escape quickly, gather information, and control the pace.
Seeing Fang Juexia striving so hard to escape, Pei Tingsong wasn’t idle either. Although it was his first time playing, he had a clear logic. Since both of them were initially trapped in designated positions, the decoding tool must be hidden nearby.
The closest one was this table.
He quickly scanned the table surface, which had few items on it. In front of him was a blank notebook with a fountain pen on top. There was a desk lamp on his side, with an oval-shaped lampshade, and another one in front of Fang Juexia on the opposite side.
“Why is only your lamp on…” Pei Tingsong muttered to himself. With only one of the two lamps on, something must be wrong. He stretched his hands, which were shackled, toward the desk lamp in the upper left corner of the table. At that moment, he unexpectedly discovered that there was a letter printed on the base of the lamp.
It was β.
Found it.
Pei Tingsong exerted all his strength to finally reach the switch and flipped it on with a click.
After struggling for a long time, the rope finally snapped. Fang Juexia touched his reddened wrist, rolled the rope into a ball, and placed it on the table. He saw Pei Tingsong examining something under the light of the desk lamp, so he stood up and walked over to him.
A shape was faintly visible on the lampshade.
It was the shape of a key.
Pei Tingsong was about to remove the lampshade, but Fang Juexia, who was more agile, beat him to it. After removing the lampshade, the desk lamp was left with only a lone light bulb, and the small key was hidden inside the transparent bulb.
“You really do use things and then throw them away,” Pei Tingsong said with a smile, having lost the initiative. “Am I your tool?”
Fang Juexia smashed the bulb and retrieved the tiny key from the shards. The metal key was small, probably only capable of unlocking handcuffs. He played with it in his hand, then leaned against the table, facing Pei Tingsong with a calm expression. “Isn’t that how this game works? Everyone distrusts each other, yet they must still rely on one another.”
His eyes remained calm beneath his glasses. Under the dark rules of the game, Fang Juexia spoke these words to someone for the first time in his life.
“Is it your turn to beg me now?”
Pei Tingsong leaned back on the sofa chair, his cynical smile unchanged.
In his eyes, Fang Juexia’s wrists and neck still bore the red marks left by the restraints, his shirt collar was open, and he wore a pair of scholarly-looking glasses. This made him appear more fragile and bookish than usual, yet also carried an air of untouchable taboo. Even when he spoke threatening words, paired with that face and the faintly cold demeanor that seemed to emanate from his very core, they lacked much of a threatening edge.
Instead, they came across as provocative.
It was like an invitation to break the rules.
So the more Fang Juexia tried to coerce him, the more he stood on the opposite side to resist, the more excited Pei Tingsong felt.
This was very abnormal, but adrenaline doesn’t lie. Maybe he had a little bit of a perverted gene in his bones.
Pei Tingsong curled up on the sofa and smiled at him. Without the harshness in his eyes and brows, his face still looked youthful.
“What do I get out of helping you?” Fang Juexia held the key in his hand, drawing lines on the table with a blank expression, causing the table to emit a soft groan.
“What if you’re a killer, or a black knight? What should I do?”
The way he asked what he should do was adorable, and Pei Tingsong couldn’t help but curve his lips upward. “Alright, if you help me unlock the handcuffs and shackles, I promise to ally with you.”
Fang Juexia glanced at him, their eyes meeting. Pei Tingsong remained calm and composed, as if he were not the one at a disadvantage at that moment.
He calculated in his mind whether Pei Tingsong’s alliance was sincere.
If Pei Tingsong was an ordinary player, an alliance would be beneficial with no drawbacks. If he was the killer, there seemed to be no harm in it either. After all, for a double-dealer, gaining anyone’s trust is advantageous.
But he was facing a man with no bottom line, whose actions and words were entirely unpredictable. Under these circumstances, all assumptions and premises were meaningless. Even if they allied now, Fang Juexia wouldn’t be surprised if Pei Tingsong voted to execute him the next moment. Allying with a bomb always meant anticipating a tragic outcome.
However…
In this game of muddying the waters, those without boundaries have a better chance of winning.
Fang Juexia took his hand, lowering her eyes to examine the keyhole on his handcuffs. “What constitutes an alliance?”
Pei Tingsong sat up, moved closer to him, and spoke sincerely, “In the first round, I’ll follow your vote unconditionally and do my best to help you escape this room.” His tone carried a hint of implication, “You’ll eventually need me.”
Fang Juexia remained silent as he quietly unlocked the handcuffs.
“This is unbearable.” Pei Tingsong’s hands could finally move freely. He stretched his arms wide and flexed his wrist joints. He looked down to check the shackles on his feet. These shackles didn’t have keys; instead, they had four-digit combination locks, and there was also a character above the locks—δ
. The next step was to find the corresponding uppercase Greek letter.
Fang Juexia was observing the room as a whole. Their desk was at the center of the room, with a five-tier bookshelf along the right wall, filled with books, mostly related to psychology, with some humanities and social science books mixed in, and even a few popular science books on astronomy and mathematics. There were few decorations on the walls, just a painting placed next to the door, roughly the same width as the doorframe but much shorter.
The only door in the room faced their desk. Fang Juexia approached it and was surprised to find that the door had neither a keyhole nor a password lock, only a display screen embedded in the door panel. He tried touching it, and the screen lit up, emitting an electronic beep.
[Your appointment time has not yet ended; please do not leave.]
“Appointment?” Fang Juexia was puzzled.
Could it be that this house was actually a psychiatrist’s office, and he was a patient who had come for an appointment?
After the beep ended, the screen went black, and a white-glowing letter “γ” appeared in the middle.
The third Greek letter had appeared, but what did it correspond to?
Just as he was puzzled, a man’s voice suddenly came from the speakers in the room.
[I will now hypnotize you:]
“Hypnosis?” Pei Tingsong felt strange. “Where did you just touch?”
Fang Juexia stepped aside and pointed to the display screen on the door panel. “Here.”
Pei Tingsong saw the letter on the display screen, which didn’t match the printed δ on his ankle cuffs, and it was lowercase, but his intuition told him that the words below must have a deeper meaning.
“Hmm.”
The male voice in the room continued, slow and calm, as if he were really performing hypnosis on someone.
[Now, try to relax all the muscles in your body. Try to empty your mind into a void. Let your thoughts expand to the deepest depths they can reach. Return your emotions to the outside world that created them…]
Fang Juexia followed Pei Tingsong’s instructions and searched for items marked with the letter Δ.
If following the game designer’s logic, he must consider the worst-case scenario where the two people in the same locked room fail to cooperate. In that case, Pei Tingsong, whose hands and feet are bound, would be left alone and helpless. The clue that could restore his freedom must be something he can reach through his own efforts.
The hypnotic words echoed throughout the room, carrying a subtle power to soothe emotions and calm anxiety.
[Imagine that sadness and resentment have never disturbed you. Feel the magnificent palace built by consciousness. Climb the steps to reach the deepest part. The tranquility there is the sanctuary of the soul…]
Items within reach.
Fang Juexia’s gaze locked on the table. Pei Tingsong was bent over the table writing something. There were very few items on the table. A lamp? No, it had already been used. A pen and paper, which Pei Tingsong was using. He must have already checked those. There was nothing else.
According to conventional thinking, if there was nothing on the table… Sure enough, there was another protruding triangle on top, but it couldn’t be pressed, so it didn’t seem to be a button.
He changed his approach and tried to grab the triangular piece of wood and pull it out.
Sure enough, he was able to pull the piece of wood out, revealing a wooden triangular prism with a piece of paper inside. Fang Juexia took it out and laid it on the floor.
The paper resembled the Sudoku sheets he usually played with, but the grid contained no numbers, making it more like a plain scrap of paper. In the center, a row of numbers was hastily scribbled: 258, 321456987, 12369, 12369874.
What did this mean? Fang Juexia knelt on the floor, lost in thought.
The “hypnotic voice” in the room continued.
[Look, the blue sea in this pure land. Don’t be afraid; the chilling wind will never reach you. Relax under the warm sunlight…]
The voice was too loud, making it difficult for him to think.
[Slowly open the door to your subconscious, waiting to unlock your memories and true self.]
But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see any pattern in the numbers.
What?
Fang Juexia looked puzzled, holding the math paper in her hand as she crawled forward to the edge of the desk, leaning on Pei Tingsong’s knees and looking up at him from below, “The bookshelf?”
By this point, the two players obsessed with solving the puzzle finally realized how ambiguous and awkward their posture was. Fang Juexia had almost crawled between Pei Tingsong’s knees and was looking up at him with an extremely innocent expression.
Fortunately, the knitted vest covered the shirt, otherwise Pei Tingsong’s view would have been even more unobstructed. He suddenly stumbled over his words, “You… you go out first and check the first shelf of the bookcase for any blue books.”
Fang Juexia murmured in response, scurrying out from under the desk like a disheveled little mouse. She temporarily set the paper with the numbers on it on the desk and touched her burning ears. His knees had gone numb from kneeling for so long, and when he suddenly stood up, he couldn’t steady himself, so he had to hold onto the desk. After regaining his balance, he quickly walked toward the bookshelf.
Although he really didn’t know how Pei Tingsong had gotten the clue, from the tone of his voice just now, it didn’t seem like he was lying.
Fortunately, the bookshelf wasn’t very tall, and Fang Juexia, who was 1.8 meters tall, could easily reach the books on the first shelf. At that moment, he noticed a small ukulele on the top shelf.
There were so many books, filling all five shelves. Without a clue, they would probably have to spend the whole day here. Fang Juexia carefully examined each book from left to right, pulling them out one by one, until he finally found the one.
“The production team is so cunning. The spine of this book is white, but the cover and back cover are blue.”
Having successfully deciphered the clue, Pei Tingsong was quite excited. “Let me see it.”
“Sure.” Fang Juexia pulled out the book and opened it. Inside was a piece of paper with several large characters written at the top—Reservation Registration Form.
The form had some names filled in below.
“Yan Teacher, Zaozao…”
Just as he was reading the names aloud while walking toward Pei Tingsong, a loud noise suddenly came from behind him.
He also heard Pei Tingsong’s disbelieving voice.
“Oh my god…”
Fang Juexia turned around and watched as the bookshelf behind him slowly slid along the wall to the left, revealing a door on the blank wall!
[Congratulations, you have unlocked it successfully.]
This wasn’t the sound from their room, but a prompt from the neighboring room.
The next second, the suddenly appearing door opened, and a narrow, elongated shadow fell to the ground, appearing before its owner. Fang Juexia saw a familiar face and couldn’t help but admit that at that moment, goosebumps broke out all over his body.
“Hey? There are two kids in this room.” The person was wearing a high school uniform—a white shirt and black pants—with a school badge and ID card pinned to his chest. He smiled, his tone teasing, “Sorry, I was too busy admiring the handsome guy to introduce myself.”
He took a step forward, entering their private space.
“Hello, I’m Xia Xiqing.”
Author’s Note: First, let me explain that Xia Xiqing is the main character from the previous book (with a romantic partner). There’s no need to catch up on the story; he only appears in the reality show segment as a guest.
【I understand everyone’s feelings, but please stop flooding the screen, as it may affect readers who are only reading the paradox. Please focus on the plot, focus on the plot, thank you.】
I’m afraid everyone might get dizzy looking at Greek letters, so I’ve listed the ones that appear here:
Α α: Alpha
Β β: Beta
Γ γ: Gamma Gamma
Δ δ: Delta Delta
In Escape Room 2, I will focus more on recreating the gradual sense of realism of a real escape room, giving everyone a stronger feeling of playing the game.
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