Chapter 37 – Invitation to Break the Rules

Is it your turn to beg me now?

--

He really hadn't expected this. He actually got a special role in the very first episode.

Fang Juexia glanced at the camera in front of him.

It couldn't be that the directors had issued their role cards based on their performance just now? But giving this kind of role to a completely new player in the very first episode, were they really not afraid of screwing up the whole show?

He glanced in front of him, only to see that Pei Tingsong seemed to have finished checking his role as well. He stuffed his cellphone back into his pocket and looked up at him.

"Why do you have a face filled with woe?" The corners of Pei Tingsong's mouth drew up as he guessed, "Did you draw the killer?"

Fang Juexia raised his eyebrows. This way of bluffing him into revealing his identity totally wouldn't work on him. "Yes ah, you're with the killer in the very first game. How do you feel about that?"

Pei Tingsong, who was handcuffed, leaned forward across the table. With both of his eyes pinned on Fang Juexia, he put on a pitiful and innocent expression. "I'm especially scared."

However, as soon as he finished saying that, he began to laugh.

This appearance of his really makes him look like a crazy killer—thought Fang Juexia.

It couldn't be that Pei Tingsong was the killer?

That thought flashed through his mind. If it was really two newbies taking the special role cards together, then the program group may really be crazy.

On second thought though, he remembered that his senior brother had also been a newcomer when appearing on the first episode of the first season—a completely blank slate. However, the first role he drew was that of the killer, which showed that the program team didn't seem to consider too much when distributing role cards. The only possible consideration they had should be on how well the killer matched with the script.

Even so, he still couldn't rule out the possibility that Pei Tingsong had gotten the killer role card.

The table was positioned just right for him to block the movements of his hands. Fang Juexia clicked on the role card on the screen, chose his camp, and pretended to stick his head down as he stuffed his cellphone into his pocket. Then he expressionlessly raised his hands and continued to bite at the knot with his teeth.

He was sure that there was a tool to cut the rope present in some corner of the room, but he didn't feel like spending the effort to find it. Anyway, as long as the goal was achieved, there was no difference between good and bad when going through the process to reach it.

"If you continue like this, you count as doing a brute force attack ba." Pei Tingsong scoffed, "The program group should have given the rope to me and the handcuffs to you, just to be on the safe side." As he said this, he suddenly noticed that his handcuffs had the letter B printed on them; its color was very light, making it not easily detectable.

If something was marked, then there must be a puzzle accompanying it.

The space Pei Tingsong had available to move around was very limited; he could only check if there were any other clues on or around the table. Now that his hood had been removed, he could see that the block he had just pressed into the table had a capital letter 'A' written on it.

Intuition told him that this 'A' was related to some kind of puzzle.

Looking up at Fang Juexia, Pei Tingsong wanted to tell him about the letters he had found, but unexpectedly discovered a very small card hanging on the rope that bound Fang Juexia's arm. This card was currently shaking due to his movements.

"Stop moving for now."

Upon hearing Pei Tingsong's words, Fang Juexia stopped and looked at him. "What's the matter?"

"There's a card hanging from your left arm."

After listening to his words, Fang Juexia looked to his side and saw that it was a small wooden card with the letter α written on it. Pei Tingsong also managed to finally see it clearly.

A and α.

"So it's not English letters." Pei Tingsong smiled, not expecting to find the corresponding letter so quickly.

"What English letters?" Fang Juexia asked.

"The letter on the card on your arm corresponds to the one on the block of metal I just pressed into the table." Pei Tingsong took out the block and showed the side printed with the letter to Fang Juexia, explaining, "They are all Greek letters, one in the uppercase and its corresponding one in lowercase."

Now Fang Juexia understood; this was probably the tool designated by the program group to untie the rope, but how would a block cut the rope?

Pei Tingsong held the block in both of his hands, trying to knock on it and twist it, but no change took place from any of those actions.

It couldn't be that it was broken?

Only after he looked at it closer did he discover that near the edge of the cube was an almost indiscernible strip, just like a small drawer hidden in the cube. Pei Tingsong tried to push at it with his fingers, but that strip was too narrow for his fingers to push open.

Fang Juexia felt that doing all this was hopeless. Even if Pei Tingsong found a way, it was very unlikely that he would just give it to him. He might as well solve the problem by himself; maybe he could just bite the knot open.

"I see now." Pei Tingsong soon thought of a new way. With his handcuffed hands, he took off the nameplate on his shirt. It was a thin rectangular piece of metal with the words "Doctor Tian" written on it.

Sure enough, his character was that of a doctor?

Pei Tingsong connected a corner of the metal nameplate to that metal cube marked with an A, and pushed it into that small strip. Sure enough, a square piece of the cube popped out with that push, just like pulling out a flat block from a drawer!

The end of the square facing him was the strip attached to the cube just now, and its front end, that emerged from the middle of the cube, was as thin as a blade.

"Here, found it." Pei Tingsong held the square "blade" in his hand and waved it at Fang Juexia.

Fang Juexia wasn't very happy inside, because based on his past experiences, he knew what was going to happen next. He could only hope that because they were filming, Pei Tingsong wouldn't say….

"Beg me, and I'll give it to you." Pei Tingsong clearly didn't bother to pretend even a little.

Sure enough, he still said it… Fang Juexia sighed in his heart.

"No need." He still chose to try and bite open the knot on his own.

Upon looking at him lowering his head and biting at the rope, Pei Tingsong glanced at the handcuffs on his own hands.

He really couldn't be teased.

"It's a joke ma." After watching Fang Juexia use his teeth like that, even Pei Tingsong had to wince. "I know your teeth are good, but the program group arranged everything carefully to make us cooperate in order to escape. You should also let me perform."

"Here," he said, pressing the blade on the table and pushing it over to the opposite side where Fang Juexia was seated. "The greatness of mankind lies in the use of tools."

Fang Juexia glanced at the blade that had been pushed over.

Pei Tingsong being so cooperative today made him suspicious. Fang Juexia speculated internally—it couldn't be that he wanted to play nice and get him to vote for him.

Forget it. Anyway, since the blade had already been found, if it wasn't used, it'd be a waste.

Just as he reached out with his hands, he saw Pei Tingsong put his elbows on the table as he propped his cheek against his two handcuffed hands, with one hand covered in a glove and the other bare. His face literally had the words 'lonely and pitiful' written on it, and he even let out a long sigh as he reminisced, "Oh, I'm missing my Lily."

Fang Juexia had to force himself internally into keeping calm.

He had known that Pei Tingsong would never let him down.

"You can bring her to China."

Pei Tingsong shook his head. "Should just forget it, can't afford two doggies."

Being faced with such insinuations from Pei Tingsong, Fang Juexia tried very hard to keep his emotions calm. He could almost imagine the scene after the program was broadcast; the fans would definitely spam the barrage and ask if they had a little dog in the dorms.

He shouldn't have replied to this little devil at all from the beginning.

In order to move freely, Fang Juexia still picked up the "blade". Although it didn't have the sharpness of a real blade, it was sharp enough to cut the rope. He tried moving it back and forth several times, and sure enough, the rope was being cut.

Suddenly, the narrator's voice sounded again as he announced, "Players, please note that the double-faced knight has made their choice. For a period of time, the black or white face of the knight will be kept hidden, but it is only temporary. As the players continue to solve plot clues, we will select an appropriate time and announce the knight's chosen camp in the form of a formal announcement."

Pei Tingsong sprawled comfortably across the couch, lazily slacking off, and commented, "They really can play."

This period, where they didn't state whether the knight was good or bad, was the most suitable time for fishing in troubled waters. Every player only possessed a small amount of information, and although no one trusted each other, they still had to communicate and cooperate with each other in order to piece together the whole plot. Depending on what was said during this entirely dark period, the direction of the whole game could be affected.

After hearing this announcement, Fang Juexia started to secretly rejoice. He had initially been worried that his camp would be exposed soon after he had picked it, but it seemed that the program group wanted to keep the players and audience in suspense for a longer period of time. In spite of the tempestuous storm brewing in his heart, Fang Juexia's expression didn't allow even the slightest tremor to be shown, as if all of his attention was still focused on the knot around his wrists.

As a knight, this particular period of time was his prime opportunity, and he had to escape this room as soon as possible to collect more information and thus control the rhythm of the game.

After seeing Fang Juexia work so hard in order to break free, Pei Tingsong didn't stay idle either. Although it was his first time playing this game, the logic was clear: in the case where two people were tied up in designated places at the very beginning, the tools for them to break themselves free must be hidden nearby.

And what was closest to him was this table.

His gaze hastily swept across the table, but there wasn't much there. In front of him was a blank notebook with a pen beside it. Next to that was a desk lamp with a round lampshade, and there was another desk lamp in front of Fang Juexia on the other side.

"Why is it that only the light at your end has been turned on…" Pei Tingsong muttered to himself. There had to be something meaningful about having only one of the two lights on. He stretched out both of his handcuffed hands and tried hard to get close to the lamp placed at the upper left corner of the table. Just then, he unexpectedly noticed a letter that was engraved on the base of the lamp.

It was β.

Found it.

Pei Tingsong used all his strength to get to the switch, and when he finally touched it, the light suddenly turned on.

Only after spending a long time cutting the rope did it finally break. Fang Juexia rubbed his chafed red wrists, then gathered up the rope and put it on the table. That was when he saw Pei Tingsong examining something closely in the light of the lamp, so he stood up and walked to him.

A faint shape had appeared on the lampshade.

It was the shape of a key.

Just as Pei Tingsong was about to pull off the lampshade, Fang Juexia, who was more agile at the moment, grabbed this opportunity. After stripping off the lampshade, it could be seen that the lamp had only one isolated bulb, and that a small key was hidden within that transparent bulb.

"You really throw things away when you're done with them ah." Pei Tingsong, who had lost the initiative, still laughed. "Am I your handyman?"

Fang Juexia smashed the light bulb and picked up the small key from the debris. The metal key was very small, and he was afraid it couldn't be used to open anything besides the handcuffs. He held it in his hand and played with it for a while. Then he leaned against the table and faced Pei Tingsong with a calm expression. "Isn't this the way this kind of game progresses? Everyone is suspicious of each other, but we all have to make use of each other."

The eyes beneath these glasses were tranquil. Under the dark rules of the game, Fang Juexia uttered these kind of 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 with a cynical smile on his face.

In his eyes, the Fang Juexia of this very moment still carried red rope marks left on his wrists and neck, while the collar of his shirt was spread open, and he had a pair of refined glasses on his face. This was a more fragile and scholarly look than that of the usual Fang Juexia, and this look also brought with it an inviolable sense of taboo. Even when he said such threatening words, with that face and just that amount of coldness seeping from his bones, he didn't really sound like much of a deterrent.

Instead, it seemed as if he was teasing him.

It was like Fang Juexia was inviting him to break the rules.

Therefore, the more threatening Fang Juexia tried to be as he stood against him in confrontation, the more excited Pei Tingsong felt.

This was a really abnormal feeling, but the adrenaline rushing through his body right now wasn't a lie. Maybe he was just born with some slightly mutated genes in his bones.

Pei Tingsong curled up on the sofa and smiled at him. As soon as the fierceness in the corner of his eyes and eyebrows disappeared, his face actually gave off a completely youthful feel.

"Juexia Ge," his voice was obedient, and right now, in front of the camera, he really seemed like the youngest in a family. "You're not going to not help me ba?"

"If I help you, what can I get?" Fang Juexia held the key in his hand and expressionlessly scratched out a mark out with it on the table, upon which the table let out a plaintive whine.

"If you're the killer, or the black knight, what will I do then?"

He looked really cute when he asked 'what will I do then.' Pei Tingsong couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from rising. "How's this ba, as long as you help me unlock the handcuffs and the foot cuffs, I promise you that I'll agree to an alliance with you."

Fang Juexia glanced at him, but his eyes didn't meet Pei Tingsong's. Pei Tingsong looked completely at ease, as if he completely wasn't the one at a disadvantage currently.

In his heart, he calculated the sincerity of Pei Tingsong's alliance offer.

If Pei Tingsong was an ordinary player, an alliance with him would be harmless and result in all gains. If he was the killer, that option still seemed to be alright. In any case, for the double-faced knight, it was beneficial to gain the trust of any player.

But this guy he was facing was someone with no bottom line; what he would do or say next was completely unpredictable, and these premises and assumptions would be totally meaningless. Even if they formed an alliance right now, if in the next moment Pei Tingsong voted to have him executed, Fang Juexia wouldn't be surprised. Getting into an alliance with a bomb, one would always be able to predict the tragic ending in advance.

However….

In this kind of game of fishing in troubled waters, people without bottom lines were more likely to win.

Fang Juexia pulled at Pei Tingsong's hands and looked down at the keyhole in his handcuffs. "What counts as an alliance?"

Pei Tingsong sat up, drew closer to him, and said in a sincere voice, "In the first round, I will unconditionally vote with you and try my very best to take you out of this room with me." His tone was suggestive as he continued, "You will always have a time when you need me."

Fang Juexia had no words and so quietly opened the handcuffs for him.

"Too uncomfortable." Pei Tingsong's hands could finally move nimbly, and he stretched to his fullest extent, rolling his wrists around. He then lowered his head to look at the foot cuffs below. These two foot cuffs didn't have any keyholes, instead, they had a four digit passcode lock, and there was also a character on the code lock – δ.

The next step—he should find the corresponding capital Greek letter.

At this time, Fang Juexia was scrutinizing the entire room. Their table was in the center of the room, and on the right was a five-story bookshelf, propped up against the wall. It was stuffed full with books, most of which were related to psychology, but occasionally, some humanities and social science books could be seen mixed in there, and there were even some popular science books on subjects such as astronomy and mathematics as well. There were a few ornaments hanging on the wall, and there was only one painting in the room, positioned right next to the door. Its width was about the width of the door frame, but it was much shorter in height.

The only door in the whole room faced their table. Fang Juexia approached it, and was surprised to find that the door had neither a keyhole nor a passcode lock; there was only a display screen embedded into the door panel. He tried touching it, and sure enough, the display lit up, and an electronically synthesized tone was then emitted—

[Please do not leave until the end of your appointment.]

"Appointment?" Fang Juexia was puzzled.

It couldn't be that this building was actually a psychologist's clinic, and he was a patient who had come to see a doctor?

After the alert concluded, the screen went dark, and a white γ appeared in the middle.

The third Greek letter had appeared, but what did it correspond to?

Just when he wasn't sure, a man's voice suddenly sounded out from the stereo in the room—

[Now, next please, I will hypnotize you:]

"Hypnotize?" Pei Tingsong felt that this was strange. "What did you move just now?"

Fang Juexia pulled back and pointed to the screen on the door panel. "This."

Pei Tingsong saw the letter on the display screen; it didn't match the δ printed on his foot cuffs, and it was in lowercase, but his intuition told him that it would have some special meaning as the game progressed.

"Juexia Ge, help me find out if there is anything printed or marked with a triangle symbol or the letter Δ in the room. It may be a clue to the code to unlock the cuffs on my feet."

"En."

The man's voice, coming from the stereo, continued non-stop, his voice was slow and peaceful, as if he were really hypnotizing someone.

[Your muscles on your body, relax them all. Then empty the thoughts in your mind and enter into the void. Let the top of your mind stretch out into its deepest reaches. The outside shelf of the world that created these emotions is where they return to…]

Fang Juexia went with what Pei Tingsong had told him to do and looked for things marked with the letter Δ.

If he considered things from the game designer's point of view, he must consider the worst possibility— that of the two people locked in the same escape room deciding not to cooperate with each other. If that happened, Pei Tingsong, whose hands and feet were both tied up, would be isolated and helpless. The clue that could let him restore his own freedom therefore must definitely be in a place he could reach through his own efforts.

Hypnotic words reverberated throughout the room, carrying the faint power capable of soothing emotions and calming down any anxiety.

[Now think of a world where depression and resentment never interfere with you. Then feel the splendid palace built by your consciousness. Climb the bookcase-like steps and go to the deepest place. There is the home of the soul in all its tranquility….]

Something within reach.

Fang Juexia's eyes locked onto the table. Pei Tingsong was bent over it, writing something down, and there were only a few things on the table. The lamp? No, it had already been used. Pen and paper, Pei Tingsong was using them right now, and he should have already checked them. There was nothing else there.

According to conventional thinking, if there was nothing on the table...

Underneath the table.

Fang Juexia immediately crouched down and shifted to look under that big table. However, even this movement of his didn't manage to distract Pei Tingsong from his task.

The space under the table was very small. Fang Juexia simply knelt down and tilted his head back, as far as possible, to look at the bottom of the table. Sure enough, there was a convex triangle there. It couldn't be pressed, so it didn't seem to be a button.

He changed his plans and tried to grasp the triangular block and pull it out.

Sure enough, the wooden block moved as he pulled at it, and a wooden triangular prism, with a piece of paper stuffed in it, was finally pulled out. Fang Juexia took it out and spread it on the floor.

This paper was very similar to the game of Sudoku that he usually played, but there were no numbers in the grid. It was more like an ordinary scratch paper, and in the middle of the paper was a line of numbers: 258, 321456987, 12369, 12369874.

What is the meaning of this? Fang Juexia knelt on the ground, lost in thought.

The "hypnotic monologue" resounding in the room continued on—

[Look, the blue sea in the middle of this pure land. Now a book this is not, don't be afraid, the rustling chilly wind will never blow here. Stretch yourself open and spread out in the warm sunshine to your heart's content…]

The voice was so loud that he almost couldn't think.

[Now then, it is time to slowly open the door of your subconscious mind. To open up your memory and your true self.]

Fang Juexia held the piece of paper tightly and scanned every number with his eyes, trying to find any patterns. It couldn't be that the number that was next in this sequence was a four-digit number that could be entered into Pei Tingsong's cuffs?

But, however he looked, he couldn't see any pattern to these numbers.

Just then, Pei Tingsong suddenly slapped the table, startling Fang Juexia into twitching a bit as he lay underneath the table.

"Juexia, quickly go to the bookcase over there. The blue book on the top shelf! Bring it over here."

What?

Fang Juexia's face was covered with a completely confused expression. Holding the numbered paper in his hand, he crawled forward and came to the edge of the table. He even supported himself up using the knee in front of him and looked up at Pei Tingsong as he asked, "The bookcase?"

It was only at this time that the two players, who had been engrossed in deciphering their respective puzzles, finally discovered how ambiguous and embarrassing the pose the two of them had ended up in was. Fang Juexia had pretty much tunneled his body in between Pei Tingsong's knees, and was even looking up at him with a very pure expression at this moment.

Fortunately, his knitted vest was tightly wrapped around his shirt, otherwise, from this angle, Pei Tingsong would have been able to take in everything with just a glance. All of a sudden, he found himself a little tongue tied. "You-you get out first, go to the bookshelf to see if there are any blue books on the top shelf."

Fang Juexia let out an "oh", and quickly escaped the confines of the table like an angry little gray mouse. He placed the paper with the numbers on the table for the time being, and rubbed his burning ears. Unbeknownst to him, his knees had grown numb from kneeling, and suddenly, he found himself unable to support his body while standing upright, so he had to lean against the table, and only after he recovered a bit did he quickly walk over to the bookcase.

Although he really didn't know how Pei Tingsong had gotten this clue, based on his tone just now, it didn't seem like he was trying to trick him.

Fortunately, the bookshelf wasn't too tall, and Fang Juexia's height of 1.8m easily helped him in reaching the books on the top shelf. It was only at this time that he discovered a small ukulele on the top shelf.

So many books, with all five shelves stuffed to the brim— if there was no clue given, they may have had to spend the whole day here. Fang Juexia looked carefully from left to right, his eyes sweeping across each book, before finally finding the one required.

"The program group is too insidious. The spine of the book is white, but the front and back covers are blue."

Pei Tingsong, who had successfully cracked the clue, was very excited. "Show me."

"En." Fang Juexia pulled the book out and opened it. Inside it was a piece of paper with a few big words on its top— Appointment Registration Form.

There were some names at the bottom of this form.

"Teacher Yan, Zaozao…"

Just as he was reading the names aloud and walking in Pei Tingsong's direction, a loud sound came from behind him.

He also heard Pei Tingsong's incredulous voice—

"What the heck…"

Fang Juexia turned around and witnessed the bookcase behind him slowly move along the left wall with his own eyes, and the white wall that was revealed unexpectedly had a door in it!

[Congratulations, successfully unlocked.]

This sound wasn't coming from their room, but was a cue from the room next door.

The next second, the door that had suddenly appeared opened, and a long and narrow shadow appeared one step before its owner. When Fang Juexia saw this familiar face, he had to admit that goosebumps broke out all over his body at this moment.

"Yi? There are two little friends in this room ah." The person who entered was wearing a high school uniform, which consisted of a white shirt and black trousers, and he had a school badge and a name tag pinned to his chest. He laughed and joked, "I'm sorry, being patronized with a handsome little guy, I even forgot to introduce myself."

He took a step forward, smoothly entering their escape room territory.

"Hello ya, I'm Xia Xiqing."