The moment Pei Tingsong asked the question, the AI locks on both the white door and the black door responded simultaneously, “No.”
Pei Tingsong took a step back and pointed at the white door toward Fang Juexia, “Then this must be the real exit.”
Ah, I see. Fang Juexia understood. By having them respond to each other’s answers, the AI that only tells the truth would say a lie, and the AI that only tells lies would inevitably also lie. Their answers would remain consistent and always opposite to the truth. A positive response means it’s the fake exit, and a negative response means it’s the real exit. This way, asking just one question could find the true door.
“Congratulations, you answered correctly.” With a click, the white door automatically opened outward. “Please leave the examination room.”
Xia Xiqing stretched lazily. “Let me see who escaped.”
Fang Juexia followed him out. Outside was a modestly sized reception room, elegantly furnished. To the left was an open room door, and to the right was a display wall with paintings and medals. Directly opposite their examination room was the reception room’s door, marked with the final exit sign.
It seemed that once they left here, the game would end.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw a tall figure—it was Zhou Ziheng, whom he had encountered by chance on the P University campus earlier. Standing beside him was their senior classmate Shang Siru. The two seemed to be observing something.
Upon hearing Xia Xiqing’s voice, Zhou Ziheng turned his head and smiled at him, “You’re out.”
Shang Sirui first noticed Xia Xiqing walking ahead, “Xiqing!” He then spotted Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia following behind Xia Xiqing, “So it was the three of you locked up together.”
Fang Juexia nodded, but accidentally caught sight of Zhou Ziheng adjusting Xia Xiqing’s microphone. Taking advantage of Shang Siru blocking the camera, he casually wrapped his arm around Xia Xiqing’s waist. He blinked rapidly several times, quickly turned his face away, and hurriedly sat down on the sofa, like a rusty little robot.
Noticing his odd behavior, Pei Tingsong, who was following behind him, spoke up, “Hey, what are you doing?”
Fang Juexia shook his head, “Nothing.”
Pei Tingsong had already seen him glance over there earlier, so he also took a quick look and immediately understood, laughing out loud without hesitation before sitting down as well.
“Who are you laughing at?” Fang Juexia asked him.
“Who else could I be laughing at besides you?” Pei Tingsong found him even more amusing for being so clueless. “You’re not going to tell me you don’t know their relationship, are you?”
“I know,” Fang Juexia said with a look that said, “I totally get it.” “Weren’t they… a couple last season?”
“CP? How long have you been offline?” Pei Tingsong laughed so hard his stomach hurt, suddenly leaning against Fang Juexia’s shoulder. Fang Juexia felt confused, trying to push him away but was instead grabbed by the wrist by Pei Tingsong, pulled up to his shoulder, his palm forced to cover Pei Tingsong’s mouth and his own reddening ears.
“They’re really in a relationship.”
Love, love?
After saying that, Pei Tingsong let go of Fang Juexia’s hand, leaned back on the sofa, and smiled at him with his head tilted to the side. Fang Juexia was shocked and couldn’t believe it. He turned his head and stared at Pei Tingsong with wide eyes, which made Pei Tingsong find it even more amusing.
“Are you serious?”
Pei Tingsong raised three fingers toward the sky.
Fang Juexia exhaled, unconsciously touching his neck, feeling incredulous. “Then… does everyone know?”
“Not necessarily before,” Pei Tingsong suppressed a smile. “Now, the whole world probably knows.”
He was teasing him for being the last to know.
Fang Juexia furrowed his brows slightly, “That’s because I haven’t been online in a long time.”
“I know,” Pei Tingsong shrugged, “I mentioned earlier that Xi Qing had publicly announced his relationship recently, but you didn’t pay attention.”
“I noticed, but I thought it was someone else. I didn’t expect it to be your senior…” Fang Juexia couldn’t help but turn his head again to look at them. But as soon as he turned, he saw Xia Xingqing hugging his shoulders from behind the sofa, “Little prude, why are your ears so red?”
Fang Juexia jumped up from the sofa in a hurry, said nothing, and looked up at Zhou Ziheng’s expression.
To his surprise, Zhou Ziheng was also amused, but he maintained his upright image, walked over, and pulled Xia Xingqing away, “Enough, stop teasing him.”
Shang Sui felt something was off. The two on the sofa, the two beside him—he was the only one alone. “Didn’t they say there were six people in this lineup? Where are my teammates?”
“You don’t have any teammates,” Pei Tingsong teased, “Single-player SSR.”
The two of them started teasing each other, and Fang Juexia, feeling a bit flustered, started pacing around, trying to ease the excitement he felt after eating the sugar candy.
As he paced, he found himself alone in front of the last door. This door was also unlocked, with only a screen embedded in it. Just as he was about to turn on the screen, a hand reached out first. He turned around to see Xia Xiqing.
“This kind of door can usually only be opened after all the clues and plot points have been sorted out.”
Fang Juexia nodded. The screen displayed a 6×6 chessboard with 36 small squares of different colors, similar to the painting they had seen in the examination room earlier, except that each square here was of normal size.
Xia Xiqing read the question aloud, “Please select a button in the grid below. Note that if you make a wrong choice, you must wait one hour before making a second selection.”
“Here we go again,” he said impatiently, raising his eyebrows. “The answer must be hidden somewhere; they wouldn’t let us just guess randomly.”
Fang Juexia noticed a gray X in the bottom right corner of the screen, which was barely noticeable under the bright white light.
Zhou Ziheng seemed to have joined the camp teasing Shang Siru, even suggesting that he bring members of his own team next time, like Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia, so at least he’d have teammates to vote for him.
Shang Siru was facing off against Zhou Ziheng and Pei Tingsong alone, but he seemed to be enjoying it. “I won’t. I want to maintain my solo persona. I don’t have any partners. I’m the entertainment industry’s top golden bachelor.”
Pei Tingsong slapped his palm on Shang Sui Rui’s head: “Solo bet x2.”
Pei Tingsong released his hand from Shang Sui Rui’s head.
Zhou Zi Heng also furrowed his brows, “Is there another door here?”
Just as everyone was feeling confused, the display wall suddenly made a noise, and a door-shaped section of the wall was pushed open.
“So this is an invisible door!” Shang Siru whistled a few times, “The props team is really talented, they must be rich.”
“Hello, I’m Zhai Ying.” She bowed slightly, then raised her head. “It seems I’m the last player.”
Zhai Ying nodded.
Pei Tingsong instinctively looked at Fang Juexia, but noticed that he didn’t seem to react. Fang Juexia also noticed that Pei Tingsong was looking at him and understood what he wanted to ask, so he shook his head directly, indicating that he didn’t know her.
Before leaving Astar, Fang Juexia had little interaction with the girl group trainees, but he roughly knew who they were. This Zhai Ying was indeed someone he didn’t recognize; perhaps she joined Astar after he left, or maybe she was a last-minute addition.
He just found it interesting that Liang Ruo had gone to great lengths to secure resources but failed, yet her junior from the same company ended up getting them. Judging from this, Zhai Ying probably wasn’t afraid of the difficulty of the script at all.
“Since everyone is here, let’s sit down and go over the plot.” Xia Xiqing walked to the sofa first and sat down, taking out his medical records and placing them on the large coffee table. “The three of us have already had a brief discussion. To save time, I’ll go over it with everyone, and Juexia will fill in any gaps.”
“My room is probably a waiting room. I just asked Si Rui and Zi Heng, and the layout of our three rooms is the same, just with some minor differences. Plus, their rooms are connected. Anyway, I think they’re all waiting rooms. Juexia and Xiao Pei’s initial rooms are examination rooms. Xiao Pei is playing the role of a psychologist, and Juexia is the first patient to be examined.”
Juexia nodded and followed his words, taking out the appointment slip to show everyone. “This is the clue we found in the examination room. If there are no surprises, everyone’s character names should be on it.”
[Appointment Slip:
Yan Teacher
Zaozao
Zoe
Xiao Xi]
Shang Sirui glanced at it. “It really has my name on it. My role is a band lead singer named Zoe. In the room I was initialized in, there was a guitar case with flyers for our band’s performance inside. “ He took out the flyer and placed it on the coffee table. Pei Tingsong picked it up and looked at it. It was clearly in the style of an underground band: ”FactorX Bar, 8 PM, Together Band’s Spring Debut Performance Special Invitation.”
Shang Sirui flipped to another booklet, “Oh, right, this is my medical record.”
His medical records were similar to Xia Xiqing’s, also detailing his condition, though the symptoms differed, primarily characterized by manic anxiety, memory decline, and a certain degree of anorexia.
Seeing him pull out his medical records, Xia Xiqing also took out his own medical records and his earlier suicide note, briefly explaining them. After finishing, he glanced at Zhou Ziheng, “What about yours?”
Zhou Ziheng picked up a backpack from the armrest of the sofa, “This is the backpack I keep in my room. Inside are some university physics and astronomy textbooks, along with a note someone wrote to me, inviting me to study together tonight.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Tingsong burst into laughter, followed by Shang Sirui, who also started to suppress her laughter and high-fived Pei Tingsong. Fang Juexia didn’t get it at first, but then he remembered that Zhou Ziheng and Xia Xiqing’s CP name was “Self-Study.”
Zhou Ziheng cleared his throat and took out the note. There was indeed a sentence written on it.
[Xiao Xi, let’s go to the second classroom for self-study tonight, same place as usual.]
“This is my medical record. My problem seems to be quite serious, neurasthenia and delusional disorder.”
Shang Sirui interjected, “Quantum mechanics.”
Zhou Ziheng replied sternly, “That’s not true.”
Shang Sirui pointed to the thesis on top of the textbook, “Oh right, it’s this. Look at what he’s been reading all day—parallel universes, multiple universes. That’s definitely how he ended up with delusions.”
Fang Juexia pondered, “So one of you is Xixi, and the other is Zoe, but we still have one more…” He looked at Zhai Ying, who had been the last to escape from the initialization room.
Zhai Ying spoke calmly, “When Xi Qing first mentioned it, I wanted to speak up, but I thought I’d wait until you finished talking first.” She pointed to her room door, “My room isn’t just a waiting room. If you want to see it, you can go inside. As for my role…” She glanced at the appointment list, “I’m not a scheduled patient either.”
Fang Juexia looked at the open hidden door, which seemed to be very dark inside. He had originally thought that the roles in this script were clear—a psychologist and his patient—but now it seemed that it wasn’t that simple. The production team must have made this door hidden to hint at the special nature of Zhai Ying’s role.
Zhai Ying took out a letter and placed it on the coffee table. “This is a clue I obtained after decrypting a message in my own room. It’s an anonymous letter.”
Xia Xiqing unfolded the letter and read it aloud: “Dear Detective, the matter I wish to entrust to you is the search for a fugitive. He is deeply guilty of his crimes and highly skilled at concealing his identity. The last place I know he was seen was at the most famous private psychiatric clinic in the city. Please find him at all costs. Sincerely.”
Reading the letter almost overturned all their previous assumptions.
Shang Siru exclaimed, “Wow, a female detective. That’s so cool.”
“So there is actually a criminal after all,” said Pei Tingsong.
Upon hearing him point this out, Shang Sui clapped his hands. “I knew it! The production team had always associated the killer with murder and criminals, but so far it’s been all about doctors and patients. I was wondering how we could catch the killer. Now it makes sense.”
Zhou Ziheng said, “This letter points to the fugitive being in this clinic, so doesn’t that mean one of us is the fugitive?”
“That’s why Zhai Ying’s room was broken into.” Pei Tingsong glanced at her and said, “I think we need to go back to her room to figure out what’s going on.”
Zhai Ying raised her hand decisively, “I agree. Anyway, my room is the most unusual one right now.”
So everyone decided to go to the detective’s room first to look for clues. Fang Juexia deliberately slowed down his pace. If the room was really poorly lit, he needed someone to walk in front of him to ensure there were no mistakes.
As they approached the door step by step, Fang Juexia confirmed his earlier suspicion: the room was indeed very dim. There seemed to be a faint light source at the far end, but for Fang Juexia, it was almost completely indistinguishable.
He heard Shang Sui’s voice, “It’s so dark in here, it’s a bit scary. How could they put a girl in such a room?”
Zhai Ying said calmly, “I’m not afraid.”
He also heard Zhou Ziheng’s voice, very soft, “Are you okay? Just take a look around and come out. I’ll tell you what’s going on when you come out.”
“No need. The door is open,” Xia Xiqing replied.
Fang Juexia stood at the door, holding onto the doorframe, taking a deep breath. Just as he was about to step inside, his shoulder was grabbed.
“Don’t stand at the door,”
It was Pei Tingsong’s voice.
He could feel Pei Tingsong slowing his steps. His predictive ability allowed him to sense the air currents as Pei Tingsong reached out, and his heightened senses in the darkness made him clearly feel the force with which Pei Tingsong gripped his shoulder, as if he were holding his breath.
His anxious heart suddenly calmed down, each heartbeat moving in sync with the ticking of the clock, clearly audible in the darkness.
“I was initialized at this table.” Zhai Ying led the others inside, toward the dimly lit lamp.
Shang Sui was curious, “What kind of mechanism is in your room?”
“A Morse code-based password lock,” Zhai Ying opened the drawer, which also contained a safe. “This safe has mechanical mechanisms and two passwords. You need to collect puzzle pieces from the room. Once opened, there’s a book inside.” She opened the safe’s door, took out a book, and placed it on the table. “The room’s key is hidden inside the book.”
Shang Sirui couldn’t help but exclaim, “This mechanism looks so difficult!”
Xia Xiqing’s attention was drawn to the wall above the table, which was covered with sticky notes bearing the names of the other players’ characters, with arrows and connecting lines in between.
Under Pei Tingsong’s guidance, Fang Juexia also approached the table, gripping the edge and using the light to examine the character relationship diagram on the wall.
Shang Siru teased the two of them, “You two are practically glued together. Little Pei has changed.”
“Is that so?” Pei Tingsong smiled.
“When you two appear together in the group, you’re not this clingy, but when you’re alone, you’re inseparable. And you say there’s nothing going on.”
“That’s because…” Pei Tingsong thought for a moment and said, “In the group, we’re one-sixth of the whole, but when we’re out on our own, we’re one-half, so of course we have to look out for each other.” Pei Tingsong squeezed Fang Juexia’s shoulder. “Right, one-half.”
In the darkness, Fang Juexia nodded. “That’s right.”
After some banter, they focused their attention on the relationship diagram left by the detective.
“Yan Teacher, high school math teacher,” Xia Xiqing followed the connection downward, “was Zaozao’s subject teacher.”
Zaozao’s haircut wasn’t the only one; another arrow pointed to Zoe, with the words “fan” written above it, indicating her relationship with the band’s lead singer.
“So Zao Zao is Zoe’s fan?” Shang Sui Rui, who was playing Zoe, smiled and poked Xia Xiqing, “Little fan.”
Xia Xiqing smiled and looked at the diagram again, “The astronomy major is Zao Zao’s neighbor; he introduced Zao Zao to Dr. Tian.”
Fang Juexia stared at the lines, which converged most heavily on Zaozao and Dr. Tian. This high school girl had become a key figure linking these characters, and they were all Dr. Tian’s patients.
“This diagram was left by the detective,” Zhou Ziheng analyzed. “When we treat this character relationship diagram as one of the clues, we are unconsciously acknowledging the detective’s positive image. This is related, but whether the detective character is reliable is still uncertain.”
His words reminded everyone. Shang Sirui nodded immediately, “That’s right, the production team often had such plot twists before, where someone who seemed like a good person turned out to be the big boss in the end.”
Pei Tingsong smiled and placed his hand on his shoulder, teasing, “Isn’t that you, senior?”
Shang Sirui was about to hit him, but noticed the gloves on his hands. This reminded him of when Pei Tingsong also wore gloves at a charity gala in Shanghai, so he curiously asked, “Why have you been wearing gloves all these days? Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable?”
Upon hearing this, Fang Juexia’s attention shifted away from the clue diagram on the wall. He couldn’t help but listen in, fearing that the truth about his drunkenness might be exposed, even though he knew it wouldn’t happen—at least Pei Tingsong wouldn’t expose him on camera.
“Ah, this.” “ Pei Tingsong said casually, ”My little pet accidentally scratched me, breaking the skin on the back of my hand. It’s a bit troublesome for the stylist to film me like this, so they gave me gloves to wear.”
Fang Juexia listened with one ear, his head unconsciously lowering, his hands gripping the edge of the table.
“Is that so? Then you should go to the hospital for a shot.” “ Shang Sirui reached out to remove the glove, ”Let me see how bad it is?”
“It’s not serious, just a small scratch. I’ve already applied some medicine.”
Shang Sirui patted his shoulder, “Ah, that’s how it is with pets. My friend has a cat, and his hands are all scratched from when his cat takes a bath. It’s so fierce and doesn’t listen at all.”
“Really?” Pei Tingsong chuckled, “My little master is pretty well-behaved.”
Author’s Note: Just to clarify, Zhou Ziheng, who appears in this chapter, is the main character from the previous book and Xia Xiqing’s love interest. You don’t need to read the previous book to follow along, no need to catch up on the story, no need to catch up on the story.
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