Chapter 53: Can You Stop Hugging Me?

"..."

Su Meng immediately sensed something and looked down in disbelief.

The next moment.

Her scalp tingled, and she jumped away directly from Shen Huai's embrace.

Shen Huai also pushed her away immediately, turned off the flashlight, and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Shen Huai suddenly regretted suggesting playing an escape room.

It had only just begun, and Su Meng had already scared herself like this.

For the next hour and a half, wouldn't she be hanging onto him? It was purely asking for trouble for himself.

"What's wrong? Why did you suddenly turn off the flashlight?" Chu Tiantian asked in the dark, sounding a bit scared.

"... It's nothing."

The two of them tacitly chose silence.

Shen Huai, having suppressed his restless fire, then turned the flashlight back on and quickly looked around.

As the light gathered in the corner, Shen Huai immediately discovered half a coffin.

Before them was what appeared to be a completely abandoned grave.

Combined with that narration from just now.

It should be a plot where heavy rain washed a grave out into the open, and then it was accidentally found by the players, leading to them being plagued by bad luck from then on.

Sure enough.

Shen Huai found a piece of parchment inside the coffin.

On it was recorded a complete set of sacrificial procedures.

Shen Huai aimed the light source at the parchment to examine it carefully and soon understood.

"Look here," Shen Huai called out, and everyone immediately crowded over.

Pointing at the missing information on the parchment, Shen Huai stated his hypothesis: "The key information missing from this paper should be the target we need to find this time."

"It says here that as long as we gather all the items and successfully complete the sacrificial procedure, we can remove the bad luck."

Shen Huai summarized concisely.

"I see." Fu Hai nodded and looked around, "So what do we need to do first now?"

Shen Huai raised the flashlight and shone it around.

This bedroom was not large; besides the half-coffin, there was only a bed and a vanity.

"Let's find a way to get out of here first."

Shen Huai put away the Sacrificial Chart and looked at Fu Hai: "Shall we split up to search?"

"Okay." Fu Hai grabbed Chu Tiantian's hand without hesitation, "Tian Tian, will you come with me?"

"... Mm."

Chu Tiantian lowered her head shyly and gripped Fu Hai's hot hand tightly in return.

Shen Huai then turned back to look at Su Meng.

On one side was the eerie darkness accompanied by sound effects of rain, and on the other was an ex-boyfriend with 800 schemes in his head.

Su Meng hesitated in a dilemma for a moment.

In the end, she reluctantly moved a few small steps toward Shen Huai's side.

The teams were set.

Fu Hai chose to search the vanity area, while Shen Huai took Su Meng toward the wooden bed.

Shen Huai cautiously approached the head of the bed.

Based on his experience, in places like this, it was very likely that an NPC would suddenly attack.

He slowly reached toward the edge of the bed, looking at a slightly arched object under the quilt.

Bending down, he pinched the corner of the quilt and gave it a fierce yank—

He saw two rectangular pillows placed together, lying quietly on the bed.

"... Playing tricks." Shen Huai felt slightly disappointed.

The next second.

He realized that Su Meng had already quietly gripped the corner of Shen Huai's clothes at some point.

Feeling the scorching breath pressing tighter and tighter against his back.

Shen Huai suddenly felt that the room was not only not cold, but actually quite hot.

"Don't be nervous."

Shen Huai said in a low voice, speaking slowly with his back to Su Meng: "If you're really scared, just close your eyes."

"You... don't turn around." Su Meng's voice was as soft as a mosquito's.

"Okay, I won't turn around."

Shen Huai replied, bending down to grope for something on the bed.

Soon, he felt a Jade Pendant and a piece of the Incomplete Puzzle under the pillows.

This Incomplete Puzzle looked like a riddle.

Shen Huai had seen earlier that the door lock was a four-digit code.

It seemed that once the puzzle was gathered and the answer to the puzzle was solved, they should be able to walk out of the room.

"This Jade Pendant should be a token; you hold it for me first."

Shen Huai turned around and handed the Jade Pendant into Su Meng's hands, wanting to look for other puzzle pieces elsewhere. "... Okay."

Su Meng took the Jade Pendant nervously and held it in her arms.

The next second, however.

A slender arm suddenly reached out from under the bed and grabbed Su Meng's ankle with a fierce grip! "Ahhhhhhh!!! Someone! Someone is grabbing me!!!"

Su Meng's scalp went numb, her brain instantly crashed, and she jumped up in terror!

This exclamation startled Chu Tiantian so much that she dove straight into Fu Hai's arms.

Shen Huai turned his head back and frowned, asking, "Where?"

"... It's, it's underneath..." Su Meng pointed tremblingly toward the bottom of the bed.

Shen Huai's eyes lit up.

The NPC was indeed hiding there.

He immediately crouched halfway down, turned on his flashlight, and looked toward the bottom of the bed.

It was completely empty inside, not even a shadow to be seen.

"I suspect this bed has a secret passage; the person must have run away," Shen Huai said calmly, rising to offer comfort.

Su Meng's soul was practically scared out of her body at this moment, and she had yet to recover her senses.

Hearing Shen Huai's words, she only nodded in a dazed, mechanical fashion.

The next moment, however.

A green light suddenly lit up in the corner of the wall by the bed.

Under the green light, a sinister ghost face was shockingly revealed! "...!!!"

Su Meng was so scared she lost her voice; before Shen Huai could react, she grabbed him in terror and hugged him tightly! The light was dim.

Shen Huai had been standing right at the edge of the bed.

With Su Meng's sudden pounce, Shen Huai lost his footing, and the two of them fell straight onto the bed.

"Click—"

A dull sound of mechanical rotation was heard.

The bed board actually began to flip.

The two of them, still hugging each other, fell into a soft underground space.

"... Where did those two go?"

"... It seems, it seems they fell down..."

Fu Hai and Chu Tiantian rushed to the side of the bed in a panic.

Only to find that the spot where Shen Huai and Su Meng had been was now empty, and the two were nowhere to be found.

The height of this space was actually not very high, only about one meter.

Plus, there was a thick layer of soft sandbags underneath.

Aside from the thrill of the fall, the body would not suffer any harm.

After a wave of dizziness in his brain, Shen Huai realized.

Su Meng had her entire head buried in his chest, hugging his waist tightly like a koala.

"Are... are you okay?" Shen Huai asked cautiously.

"... I'm fine."

Su Meng squeezed out a reply from her nose, but her hands, which were hugging his waist, did not let go.

"Could you, please get up for a moment," Shen Huai said through gritted teeth in a low voice.

"... I'm scared."

Su Meng had become completely docile, and her mouth was no longer stubborn.

Helpless.

Shen Huai could only slowly shift his body and hook the flashlight that had fallen to the side.

"Are you two okay?" Fu Hai's anxious voice came from above.

"We're fine, we seem to have triggered a mechanism."

Shen Huai briefly reported that they were safe and could only let Su Meng continue to hug him while he picked up the flashlight to quickly scan the surroundings. "This place looks like a coffin."

As Shen Huai spoke, he quickly discovered several other maps in the corner.

Adding the one he found above, only one more was missing.

"Did you find a puzzle piece?" Shen Huai asked.

"A puzzle piece? Yes, but there is only one," Fu Hai immediately replied.

"I have the other pieces here; why don't you pass it to me through the crack in the bed board?"

Upon hearing this, Fu Hai folded the puzzle piece without hesitation and pushed it through: "Here!"

After Shen Huai quickly gathered them all.

A question suddenly appeared before his eyes.

【The funeral trumpet is heard only twice in one's life.】

【Red robes fluttering, forever together with you; white robes at the head, isolated from the world.】

【Candles in the bridal chamber, dancing in pieces; by the Bridge of Helplessness, shadows of candles behind curtains.】

(End of chapter)