MRFD Chapter 41
by VolareChen Ke Yao, standing in front of him, asked, “What daughter?”
“…He said his daughter suddenly got sick and can’t come,” Rong Yi said, looking at him in a daze.
After a brief moment of surprise, Chen Ke Yao chuckled.
“What a pity,” he said, shaking his head with a smile, “You dressed up so nicely, not only will no one appreciate it today, but even your escape route is cut off.”
Rong Yi immediately glared at him.
But in fact, he wasn’t too disappointed at the moment. Yu Wenluo was married with a child, so he had no chance, and neither did Chen Ke Yao. They were in the same boat, which surprisingly made him feel relieved.
“So now…”
Before Chen Ke Yao could finish his question, Rong Yi’s phone vibrated twice.
Yu Wenluo sent the redemption code for the e-tickets, followed by a sentence.
“You can redeem three, feel free to do whatever you want with the extra one. Have fun.”
Rong Yi hesitated for a moment and turned the phone screen to show Chen Ke Yao. Chen Ke Yao glanced at it and nodded: “We’re already here, can’t waste them, right?”
So, inexplicably, it turned into just him and Chen Ke Yao playing the escape room game together.
After collecting the tickets and being guided by the staff to read the visitor instructions, they entered the entrance. The entire space was left with only the two of them.
The passageway at the entrance was narrow and dimly lit, probably to create a gloomy atmosphere.
But Rong Yi couldn’t get into the mood at all, because the person behind him was talking way too much nonsense.
“I feel like this is kind of like a date,” Chen Ke Yao said.
Rong Yi ignored him.
“Dim lighting, cramped space,” Chen Ke Yao continued, “this place is probably designed for couples.”
Rong Yi ignored him.
Chen Ke Yao didn’t give up: “Are you scared? If you are, I can lend you my hand.”
Rong Yi ignored him.
“So scared you can’t speak?” Chen Ke Yao asked.
“You’re so annoying!” Rong Yi finally couldn’t help but turn around and glare at him.
Chen Ke Yao immediately pursed his lips, and at the same time, he raised the corners of his mouth. The light was indeed bad, but Rong Yi could still see him squinting and smiling at him.
He was in no mood to be scared.
His heart was currently busy pounding wildly with another kind of emotion.
Rong Yi turned back and quickened his pace forward: “Behave yourself and don’t hold me back.”
At the end of the corridor was a door.
Rong Yi was still flustered and didn’t hesitate to turn the doorknob. After opening the door, he finally began to feel a little nervous.
The room was dark, with only a faint light shining in from the corridor, making it almost impossible to see anything.
Seeing this, Chen Ke Yao took out his phone from his pocket and turned on the flashlight mode to shine inside. Immediately after, the two of them gasped simultaneously. Rong Yi even took a step back, his back bumping into Chen Ke Yao’s chest.
In the center of the room, on a sectional sofa, lay a person. Their face was pale, motionless, and surrounded by bloodstains.
Rong Yi wasn’t a particularly timid person, but he was instantly frightened. He raised his finger and pointed at the person: “Th-th-th-that…”
Then, the other hand still hanging by his side was grasped by Chen Ke Yao.
“I told you, if you’re scared, you can borrow my hand.”
“…”
Rong Yi didn’t reply, but he gripped his hand tightly.
Just as he was hesitating whether to approach the sofa for a closer look, he saw Chen Ke Yao turning the beam of the flashlight to shine on the wall next to it. Soon, they found the light switch.
After turning it on, the entire space immediately became bright. With some mental preparation, looking at the sofa again wasn’t so scary anymore. Rong Yi pulled Chen Ke Yao and cautiously took two steps towards the person, then made a surprising discovery.
This “corpse” was actually an employee pretending to be dead.
…And this employee was kind of handsome.
Rong Yi was no longer afraid. He secretly swallowed and then squatted down beside the employee, carefully examining them.
Chen Ke Yao stood behind him and pulled him: “What are you doing?”
“Looking for clues!” Rong Yi said.
Chen Ke Yao tried to pull him up: “What clues can you find by staring at their face?”
“Look at the direction they’re facing,” Rong Yi said, making it up as he went along, “Hmm… there’s a bookshelf there. Go see if there’s anything worth noting on it.”
“…What about you?”
“I’ll keep looking for clues on their body,” Rong Yi said.
Then he was dragged up by Chen Ke Yao: “Let’s go together.”
Seemingly to prevent unnecessary misunderstandings for the visitors, the furnishings in this room were very simple. Besides the sectional sofa in the center, there was only a bookshelf, a TV cabinet with a TV on it, an empty coffee table in the middle, and an oil painting on the wall.
Every place looked particularly suspicious.
The two rummaged through everything, finding a lot of miscellaneous items, but they didn’t know which ones would be useful.
After sitting on the sofa and racking his brains for a while, Rong Yi suggested: “I think the key item might still be on this person.”
“…What do you want to do?” Chen Ke Yao frowned.
Rong Yi stood up: “Let me search their pockets.”
“Wait,” Chen Ke Yao stopped him, “Let me do it.”
“…What do you want to do?” Rong Yi frowned.
“I’ll see if they have any key props on them,” Chen Ke Yao said, turning to walk towards the person.
Rong Yi grabbed him: “Why can’t I do it but you have to? Are you…”
“I’m afraid you’ll lose control and take advantage of them, causing both of us to get kicked out,” Chen Ke Yao said.
Rong Yi’s face turned red: “What nonsense are you talking about! I… it’s clearly because you think they’re handsome that you’re getting ideas!”
“Ha, so you think they’re handsome too,” Chen Ke Yao said.
As they spoke, they simultaneously leaned towards the person’s lying position, and then the employee, who had been diligently playing the corpse, visibly twitched.
And their foundation-covered face seemed to be even paler.
“…Look, you scared them!” Rong Yi shouted.
“You’re the one who’s been staring at them creepily, okay?” Chen Ke Yao said, looking displeased, “You’re also the one who said you wanted to search them.”
Rong Yi was angry and wanted to pull the corpse up to reason with them.
“How about this, you watch me while I search their pockets,” Chen Ke Yao said, “If you think there’s anything wrong with my movements, point it out immediately, okay?”
Rong Yi hesitated for a moment and nodded.
The person was wearing a shirt and a waistcoat. The waistcoat had a pocket on the chest. The location was indeed a bit awkward. Chen Ke Yao moved extremely carefully under Rong Yi’s gaze, only extending two fingers to feel inside.
“Any discoveries?”
“Yes,” Chen Ke Yao nodded, “This person is warm.”
“…”
Rong Yi felt like it wasn’t his imagination, the corpse had moved again just now.
Chen Ke Yao took his hand back: “Empty, nothing there.”
The two looked at each other and then simultaneously turned to look at the person’s dress pants pockets.
“…Maybe you should do it this time,” Chen Ke Yao made a “please” gesture.
Rong Yi swallowed and, imitating Chen Ke Yao, extended two fingers and cautiously reached inside.
“Anything there?”
“I don’t think so,” Rong Yi said, “It’s actually quite warm. Let me search further…”
At that moment, the corpse, who had been enduring until now, finally couldn’t hold back and said softly, “I don’t have anything on me.”
Although he always knew it was a living person, hearing them speak suddenly was a bit scary. Rong Yi quickly retracted his hand and leaned closer to Chen Ke Yao.
The corpse closed their eyes, their voice filled with pain: “The unlock code is on top of the bookshelf.”
Finally successfully entering the next room, both of them felt very awkward.
“I think the design here needs some improvement,” Chen Ke Yao said softly, “Since that corpse doesn’t have anything on them, they shouldn’t be wearing clothes with pockets.”
Rong Yi nodded in agreement.
But Chen Ke Yao immediately added: “But that way you would definitely want to move them to take a look.”
“…” Rong Yi denied softly, “I wouldn’t.”
As they spoke, they carefully searched the walls for clues. According to the hint on the note found in the previous room, this seemingly empty room had hidden depths. After careful observation, they did find gaps in the walls, but they couldn’t push them open no matter how hard they tried, probably because their method was wrong.
“Could there be some kind of mechanism?” Rong Yi thought, “Like a vase or a lamp, turn it and it opens.”
“But there aren’t any of those things in this room?” Chen Ke Yao looked around.
“Use your imagination,” Rong Yi said, searching the room, “You’re a writer.”
“…What does that have to do with being a writer?”
“Oh right,” Rong Yi suddenly remembered something, and while looking around, he pretended to be casual, “What’s your pen name? You haven’t told me yet.”
“Can you focus on searching?” Chen Ke Yao said.
He was obviously trying to change the subject, but Rong Yi was unmoved and continued, “There’s an author I really like, I don’t know if you know them.”
“…Who?”
“Called, Lan Shan You Meng.” Rong Yi quickly glanced at Chen Ke Yao while speaking.
The other party’s expression changed instantly.
“You know them?” Rong Yi asked.
“I don’t know them,” Chen Ke Yao said.
Too fake. His bookshelf had a copy of “Seeking Dragon” on it, no one would believe that. This reaction was extremely suspicious.
Rong Yi was wondering if he should say something more to test him when he suddenly stepped on something. Immediately after, the wall that had been motionless earlier made a soft clicking sound.
He looked down and saw a small, rectangular protrusion on the floor.
Just as Chen Ke Yao walked towards the wall and tried to push it again, Rong Yi squatted down and carefully examined the protruding floor tile. After seeing the pattern drawn on it, he realized something was wrong and immediately jumped up, pouncing on Chen Ke Yao.
“Don’t look inside!” He hugged Chen Ke Yao, who had already pushed the wall open, from behind, and covered his eyes while saying it.
The author has something to say:
Corpse: I have no name, I plan to resign, I still want starfish.