Fang Juexia knew the rooms were connected, and after leaving one room, they could enter the next at any time, or someone might burst into their secret room. But he never imagined that the first unknown player they encountered would be Xia Xiqing, the top player from the previous season of Escape from Heaven.
It’s not that Xia Xiqing’s intelligence ranking was necessarily the highest, but his playing style was unique and highly deceptive, with a particular expertise in psychological warfare. No matter what character card he drew, he played it like a villain.
“Hello,” Fang Juexia bowed respectfully, “I’m Fang Juexia.” He thought of his younger brother, who couldn’t stand up to greet them, so he spoke on his behalf, “This is Pei Tingsong. His feet are shackled, so he can’t stand up for now. We’re all members of Kaleido, new players this season.”
“That’s fine.” Xia Xiqing nodded in satisfaction. “All the new players this season are handsome young men.”
Since Fang Juexia had already spoken for him, the rebellious Pei Tingsong could only raise his hand and greet Xia Xiqing at the door.
“Why are you being so formal? I love it when people are formal,” Xia Xiqing laughed, pulling Fang Juexia into his arms. “I’m not some senior artist; I’m just a painter. Don’t make it so formal.” After saying that, he patted Fang Juexia’s chest.
Fang Juexia rarely had such close contact with strangers, even though he had seen Xia Xiqing on TV more than once, but he still wasn’t used to it.
His eyes caught sight of the name tag on Xia Xiqing’s chest, which read [Zaozao], and he couldn’t help but grip the appointment slip in his hand.
“And I’ve known you for a long time.” Xia Xiqing looked into his eyes.
Fang Juexia was puzzled and asked directly, “Why?”
“Why else?” Xia Xiqing laughed at his question. “Because you’re good-looking. I noticed you the first time you trended on social media. Oh, and the behind-the-scenes video of the two of you in the magazine—your aesthetic sense is top-notch. Has no one told you? The birthmark at the corner of your eye is the perfect finishing touch. I’ve been wanting to paint you. Do you prefer watercolor or oil painting? How about I paint you a large one and frame it?”
“Hmm…” Fang Juexia was about to respond when he heard a deliberately cleared throat nearby, diverting his attention from this big shot.
“Guys, don’t just chat,” Pei Tingsong said with a kind smile, his eyes fixed on Fang Juexia, pointing to his leg, “Brother, I’m still tied up.”
“Oh, right.” Fang Juexia suddenly remembered he still had an unsolved math problem, “I still have one clue left to figure out.” He hurried toward the previous table, with Xia Xiqing following slowly behind him. “Don’t rush. Even if you can move around, you’re still tired.” His gaze quickly swept over the room, taking in the furnishings, as well as Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong’s outfits.
“It seems that Pei Tingsong’s player setting is a psychologist?” Xia Xiqing smiled, “A 19-year-old psychologist…”
Pei Tingsong raised an eyebrow, “Around the same time we made our relationship public.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Juexia glared at him, and Pei Tingsong could only twirl his pen to divert his gaze. But as soon as Fang Juexia approached, he complained to his older brother in a tone that was almost like a complaint but also a little like a whine, “My legs are going numb.”
Fang Juexia didn’t even look at him, silently lowering his head to unfold the paper again and stare at the numbers on it.
Xia Xiqing also walked over, standing beside Fang Juexia, their arms touching. He also lowered his head and asked, “Need help?”
“This sequence should be a clue to unlocking the password lock on Xiao Pei’s shackles,” Fang Juexia explained simply.
“Sequence,” Xia Xiqing smiled as he looked at the paper. “Do you study mathematics? It’s so instinctive… A few numbers put together don’t necessarily form a sequence.”
Upon hearing this, Fang Juexia was taken aback for a moment.
“The brilliance of this show lies in the fact that the screenwriter did his homework. He would research your profession, hobbies, or even your experiences, then design the questions from your perspective, leveraging your habitual way of thinking.” Xia Xiqing deliberately tried to scare them, “It’s terrifying.”
Indeed, he had fallen into his own habitual way of thinking.
Fang Juexia looked at the series of numbers, examining them one by one, and surprisingly discovered a certain pattern—many were arranged in sequence like 123, 456, or 321.
So this wasn’t a sequence; it was an implied order.
No wonder they used a 9×9 grid paper similar to Sudoku. Fang Juexia couldn’t help but marvel at the screenwriter’s attention to detail. He must have researched and discovered his love for Sudoku, using this paper both as a hint and possibly to confuse him.
“Give me the pen.” Fang Juexia didn’t even look up, reaching out his hand toward Pei Tingsong across from him. As soon as he finished speaking, a fountain pen rolled across the table. Fang Juexia picked up the pen and filled in the numbers on the nine-square grid paper.
123
456
789
Seeing that he was about to start solving the puzzle, Xia Xiqing, an experienced player, hinted, “Little serious guy, you’d better explain your entire solution process. Otherwise, the audience might not be able to follow your train of thought during the broadcast. The production team will have a hard time editing it, and they’ll have to add subtitles for you.”
Upon hearing his words, Fang Juexia looked up at him, his face still bearing that adorable expression of sudden realization, “Right.”
He didn’t talk much, and had forgotten that.
Pei Tingsong’s eyes darted back and forth between the two people across from him, feeling quite unhappy. He had gone to great lengths to persuade Fang Juexia to ally with him, but just as they had started working together, a third party had barged in and, with just a few words, had lured him away. What kind of logic was that?
Unfortunately, one of the parties involved was too engrossed in solving the puzzle to notice anyone else’s feelings.
Fang Juexia held the pen, solving the puzzle while explaining, “The first clue on the paper is 258. In this nine-grid, start with 2, connect the three numbers 258, and finally draw a vertical line from top to bottom, which actually represents 1.”
He drew a second 9-grid on the paper, “The second clue is 321456987. Follow the same procedure to draw the trajectory, and you get 5.”
Using the same method, he quickly drew the remaining two numbers, “Same as above, you get 7 and 0.”
Upon hearing the words “same as above,” Pei Tingsong laughed out loud, and Fang Juexia raised his head to glance at him.
Xia Xi Qing stood beside them from a third-party perspective, glancing at Pei Tingsong and then at Fang Juexia, his lips curving into an ambiguous smile.
“That’s the answer.” Xia Xiqing glanced at the paper, “1570, right?”
“Let him bend down and try it himself. Isn’t it uncomfortable for someone so tall to crawl inside?” But before Xia Xiqing could finish speaking, Fang Juexia had already crawled inside.
He was quite direct.
He scanned the desk and noticed the appointment form Fang Juexia had casually placed on the table earlier. It seemed to be a new clue they had found. He thought to himself that this was indeed a new player. He wondered how dirty everyone played this game, just tossing clues around without any hesitation.
Xia Xiqing looked at the form and casually asked, “Where did you find this appointment form?” He was just testing the waters, thinking no one would answer him so easily.
Surprisingly, even though Fang Juexia had crawled under the table, he didn’t forget to answer his senior’s question, honestly admitting, “From the books in the bookshelf.”
“The bookshelf?” Xia Xiqing looked up at the impressive collection of books on the shelf. “Hmm, this twisted production team… you didn’t really go through each book one by one, did you?”
Pei Tingsong tapped the table with his knuckles, causing Xia Xiqing to turn and look at him.
He pointed to the speaker on the ceiling.
The hypnotic voice continued, having already played twice, and it seemed like it would loop endlessly.
When he entered, Xia Xiqing had wanted to ask, but then he forgot about it while talking. He stood there quietly listening, feeling that something was wrong. “Is this a word puzzle?”
“That’s right.” Pei Tingsong pushed the notebook in front of him toward Xia Xiqing. The notebook contained a complete sentence, neatly arranged. It looked as if Pei Tingsong had deliberately written it so neatly.
“The handwriting is quite nice.”
[Below, I will hypnotize you:
Now try to relax all the muscles in your body.
First, empty your mind to the void.
Let your thoughts expand to the deepest depths you can reach.
Return your emotions to the external world that created them.
Imagine that depression and resentment have never disturbed you.
Feel the magnificent palace built by consciousness.
Step onto the layers of stairs to reach the deepest part.
The tranquility there is the sanctuary of the soul.
You see the blue sea in this pure land.
Do not fear the chilling wind; it can never reach you.
Stretch out freely under the warm sunlight.
Slowly open the door to your subconscious.
Wait for the memories and your true self to emerge.
“I’m impressed that you managed to write down this narration so quickly. Neatly arranged word puzzles like this usually hide the beginning or the end…” Xia Xiqing tried to follow this pattern but found it didn’t work. “No hidden heads or tails? Are you supposed to search one by one from the back?”
What’s wrong with this guy?
He bent down to look and saw Fang Juexia sitting cross-legged on the floor, hunched over, staring at the paper on his lap, as if lost in thought.
Finding it strange, Pei Tingsong reached out and ruffled his hair, “Hey, what are you doing? You’ve found the answer, so hurry up and enter it. Don’t you want to let me out?”
“What’s wrong?” Pei Tingsong asked, puzzled. “Is the answer wrong?”
Hearing their conversation, Xia Xiqing also squatted down. “That shouldn’t be the case. This kind of numerical pictogram question is obviously solved this way. Your answer should be correct. Did you enter it incorrectly? Should we try again?”
The logic made sense, but it was indeed wrong.
In front of them, Fang Juexia entered the four digits 1570 that he had previously obtained, but the lock did not open. No matter how he shook it, it remained as immovable as before.
“It really is wrong,” Xia Xiqing found it somewhat unbelievable.
Fang Juexia pondered why this was the case. The puzzle was already very clear, yet the answer was incorrect.
“Your room is much harder than mine. At least I had some freedom of movement when I initialized it. It seems I finally didn’t get the hellish version this time.” Xia Xiqing stood up, shaking the notebook in his hand that contained the hypnotic phrases. “Xiao Pei, you haven’t finished yet. I just skimmed through it. It’s the third character. Why?”
Pretty impressive. Pei Tingsong briefly explained the previous situation to him, “Many clues in this room are marked with Greek letters. The first clue hints at the tool to untie Jue Xia’s ropes, with a wooden tag labeled ‘α’ attached to it. The second clue hints at the location of my handcuff key, which is ‘β’.”
“Hmm.” Xia Xiqing nodded.
“Before the hypnotic voice appeared, there was a Greek letter γ on the display screen on the door. You should know that in the Greek alphabet, γ is the third letter in order. It actually hints that the so-called acrostic poem doesn’t hide the first letter, but the third letter.”
Fang Juexia, who was sitting under the table, heard Pei Tingsong’s explanation and suddenly realized something. He picked up the triangular prism that had been left on the ground earlier, turned it upside down, and stared at the Greek letter Δ.
“I see. So the third word from top to bottom is… please open the blue book on the first shelf of the bookcase.” Xia Xiqing couldn’t help but feel a little admiration for these two new idols who had just joined the group. No wonder Jiang Yin had searched so long to find these new guests.
They weren’t here to eat vegetables.
He looked at the objects in the room marked with letters. “There are no such markings in my room. Greek letters… It must be because they know one of you studies philosophy and the other studies mathematics, so you’re naturally sensitive to Greek letters. Otherwise, wouldn’t English letters and Arabic numerals be more convenient?”
He was right. Since the screenwriter used Greek letters, they must have researched their identities and knew that this symbol naturally contained some information.
The information of Δ…
A flash of insight crossed Fang Juexia’s mind.
That’s right!
It’s definitely not 1570; this is just an unprocessed initial result.
After quickly calculating it in his mind, Fang Juexia leaned over to Pei Tingsong’s left leg again, crouching down to try entering the new answer.
5, 9, 1, 4
Correct!
Finally cracked. Fang Juexia happily tugged at Pei Tingsong’s pant leg, peeking out half his head like a child waiting for praise, “It’s open.”
Originally still talking to Xia Xiqing, Pei Tingsong, whose pant leg was being tugged, looked down at him. Fang Juexia crouched on the ground, pointed at the unlocked shackles, and said again, “I unlocked it.”
Pei Tingsong looked surprised. He had just said the answer was wrong, yet he had unlocked it so quickly. He sat back in his chair and reached out his hand to Fang Juexia, “You come out first.”
“That was fast,” Xia Xingqing said curiously. “What was the answer?”
Fang Juexia took Pei Tingsong’s hand and crawled out from under the table, sighing with relief. “What you two said just now reminded me.”
“What we said?” Xia Xingqing looked at Pei Tingsong. “What did we just say?”
“The meaning of the letters. The question stem of this problem is actually incomplete. Besides the hint given on this paper, there’s actually a hidden condition, which is the Greek letter Δ.” As he spoke, he looked at Xia Xiqing, “Xiqing, what do you think Δ represents for someone who studies mathematics?”
Xia Xiqing looked puzzled for a moment, his eyes darting around, but then he suddenly smiled and said two words, “Increment.”
“That’s right.” Fang Juexia knew he would react immediately. “Δ represents the increment. So the four numbers we solved are not the actual answers, but the original answers, without the increment included.”
Xia Xiqing asked again, “But we only know there’s an increment; it doesn’t specify how much the increment is.”
“Actually, it does.” Fang Juexia looked at Pei Tingsong, “As Pei mentioned earlier, these Greek letters have serial numbers, and Δ is the fourth one, so the increment is 4.”
Pei Tingsong stood up and stretched, “So 1570 is the original number. Add the increment of 4 to it… wait, subtracting 4 works too.”
“You’re right,” Fang Juexia said, his eyes sparkling as he explained the solution. “I’ve always found this strange. There are clearly two shackles here, but only one clue was given, which doesn’t make sense. If the passwords for both shackles were the same, it would be a waste. The Escape from Heaven program team wouldn’t do something so unnecessary.”
“Later, I realized that the increment can be added or subtracted. So, on one side, add 4 to each of the four digits of 1570, without carrying over, and take the units digit to get 5914. On the right side, subtract 4 from each of the original four digits, taking the absolute value, to get 3134. These are the two passwords on the shackles.”
Pei Tingsong enjoyed watching Fang Juexia’s expression after solving the puzzle successfully. It was as if someone had praised him for his outstanding performance on stage. He would smile happily, brightly and sincerely, completely different from his usual cold demeanor. The outer shell melted away, revealing a clean and confident inner self.
Every time this happened, Pei Tingsong wanted to praise him, to let him know he was shining brightly.
Unfortunately, this time someone beat him to it.
“That’s impressive, even stronger than I imagined.” Xia Xiqing walked around the table to Fang Juexia’s side, lowering his voice deliberately. “Want to team up with me? I’ll lead you, and the two of us will definitely win in the end.”
Team up?
Before Fang Juexia could speak, Pei Tingsong, who was stretching his limbs nearby, immediately pulled him over to his side, wrapped his arm around his shoulder, and gave Xia Xiqing a crooked smile. “Sorry, this guy’s already teamed up with me.”
“Allied?” Xia Xiqing laughed aloud, tossing the notebook he had been holding onto the table. “Little brother, the alliances in Escape from Heaven are as fragile as paper.” He then looked at Fang Juexia with a mischievous expression, “Kick him and join me.”
Kick?
What kind of word is that?
Although Pei Tingsong was angry, he still had a little confidence in the friendship he had just established with Fang Juexia. He tightened his grip on his shoulder. “Give up, Jue Xia…”
“What are the conditions?” Fang Juexia suddenly spoke up, interrupting and ignoring Pei Tingsong’s words.
Conditions???
Pei Tingsong reached out and pinched Fang Juexia’s face, forcing him to turn and face him. But instead of giving him a reasonable explanation, Fang Juexia frowned and pushed him away, adjusting his glasses on his nose before turning back to Xia Xiqing.
“You’re right. To discuss cooperation, there have to be conditions.” Xia Xiqing leaned against the table, seeming to be in a very conflicted state. “Hmm…”
“No way, Fang Juexia. You’re not really going to believe him, are you?” Pei Tingsong couldn’t believe he was actually considering it seriously. “Don’t you know how reckless he was before?”
With a slap, Xia Xiqing slammed his hand on the table. “Alright, the condition is that I lay my cards on the table.” He looked at Fang Juexia with an expression of utmost sincerity. “I am a double agent.”
Fang Juexia stared into his eyes. Or rather, they locked eyes.
Tension triggers the release of adrenaline, and coincidentally, excitement does the same.
He was well aware that Xia Xiqing was trying to bluff him about his identity.
Having watched many episodes of the show, Fang Juexia understood the gaming style and intelligence of the person in front of him. If he now openly expressed trust and allied with Xia Xiqing, it would be seen as a sign of weakness in the other’s eyes. However, due to the unexpected number puzzle, Xia Xiqing had already understood his capabilities. At this point, pretending to be a novice who only follows the crowd would be too fake.
If he were to ask questions now, showing too obvious doubt, it might make Xia Xiqing suspect he was a player with a hidden identity, otherwise he wouldn’t have so much confidence. The balance here was hard to control, a dilemma.
“What do you think?” Seeing that he didn’t respond immediately, Xia Xiqing threw out another condition, coaxing him with a smile, “How about this? You team up with me, and I’ll tell you my faction.”
Fang Juexia’s expression remained unchanged. “To be honest, I don’t really believe what you’re saying.”
“Even self-destructing players have self-destructed, and you still don’t believe me?” Xia Xiqing raised an eyebrow.
Fang Juexia nodded. “I only believe in logic. You can try to convince me.”
Xia Xiqing shook his head with a smile. “You’re really cute, really. Of course, I can convince you. Anyway, I am indeed a knight. I can tell you whatever kind of story you want to hear.”
Just as Fang Juexia secretly breathed a sigh of relief, at least he was on the right track with his evasive tactics. But before he could relax for long, he heard another voice.
“What a coincidence,” Pei Tingsong stretched lazily, “I’m also a knight. How embarrassing.”
Fang Juexia turned to look at him, trying to maintain the puzzled expression of an ordinary player.
The most embarrassing one should be him, the real knight.
But he didn’t even dare to feel embarrassed now.
“Is that so?” Xia Xiqing stood up straight with a smile, looking at Pei Tingsong, raising an eyebrow, his face clearly skeptical. “Following me while wearing a Knight outfit makes your credibility seem a bit low.”
Fang Juexia couldn’t figure out Pei Tingsong’s intentions for stepping forward. He hadn’t expected this guy to reveal his knight identity. Although Pei Tingsong’s style of action was always bold and unpredictable, he was smart enough, with strong logic, and his ability to confuse others was no less than Xia Xiqing’s.
This was also a tactical move.
Could it be a ruse to deceive him and Xia Xiqing’s identities?
In any case, Fang Juexia had already chosen to lie in wait. From the perspective of an ordinary player, he should now feel confused and curious.
“Which faction did you choose?” Fang Juexia looked at Pei Tingsong.
To his surprise, Pei Tingsong tilted his head and smiled, “Which faction I choose doesn’t matter. As long as our alliance hasn’t been dissolved, I’m your knight.”
Author’s Note: Fang Juexia: Two fake knights are jumping around in front of a real knight. I’m done for. [Who will save me? .jpg]
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