Chapter 76: Hiding Part 1

Xu Yinian’s cheeks were still burning beneath her blindfold by the time she was led into the hospital ward cubicle. Her heart refused to settle.

Shen Ruoshuang had left her with nothing but that airy, cryptic sentence, purposefully leaving her to drown in unanswered questions. If Shen Ruoshuang didn’t truly know the secret of why she had fled back then, Yinian wouldn’t have believed a word of it.

But saying she did it because she was worried about me… that has to be a joke, right?

In Yinian’s shallow, limited understanding of the high school version of Shen Ruoshuang, it made no sense. Why would an aloof, Unreachable Beauty ever cast her gaze toward someone as insignificant and ordinary as her?

More importantly, Yinian was certain of one thing: Shen Ruoshuang hadn’t liked her back then.

Shortly after Shen Ruoshuang had transferred to Yuanwu, an incident occurred. Yinian had served as a guide for a strange woman who claimed to be a friend of Shen Ruoshuang’s mother, leading her straight to the classroom door.

When the woman guiltily called out the name “Shuangshuang,” everyone sensed the shift in the atmosphere. Every look of admiration, envy, or jealousy instantly transformed into a silent, frenzied carnival of excitement. People are always eager to build a perfect god, yet they are equally obsessed with tearing away that glittering facade piece by piece, hoping to find a weakness as wretched as their own.

When Shen Ruoshuang’s gaze moved from the woman to Yinian’s face, it was sharper than anything Yinian had ever seen. Even though winter was setting in, Yinian’s back was instantly drenched in a cold sweat.

The youthful, brave smile Yinian had forced onto her face froze at the corners of her mouth. Standing helplessly amidst the crushing weight of the class’s collective stares, her head spun. She realized, far too late, that she shouldn’t have brought that woman here. Certainly not in front of so many people.

Predictably, the rumors spread like wildfire. They said the woman was likely Shen Ruoshuang’s father’s mistress and that her parents had just divorced. The elite, intellectual family everyone had envied turned out to be nothing more than a pile of moral decay on the inside.

No wonder a darling of fortune ended up in a small town like this.

Even the most flawless piece of jade had flaws deep enough to drag it down into the dust of the mundane world.

Yinian hadn’t started the rumors, but she knew perfectly well that she was the one who had brought this trouble to Shen Ruoshuang’s doorstep. Her natural instinct to avoid conflict made her hide from Shen Ruoshuang even more, and her guilty conscience made her feel like the other girl’s gaze was always strange.

She must hate me. That was what Yinian had always believed.

Looking back, that incident was merely a harbinger. She had always been the one bringing trouble to Shen Ruoshuang. Even if she was unintentional, being “unintentional” often made it more hateful.

So, when Shen Ruoshuang said those words to her just now, Yinian wasn’t foolish enough to think it was genuine flirting. Yet, the tiny seed of having been noticed and cared for began to sprout in her heart. Whether it was a mere guess or a genuine flutter of emotion, she felt like a small boat with no control over its own course, being driven toward the shore by silent, rising tides.

It wasn’t until the person who had led her into the room left—followed by the distinct click of a door locking—that Yinian snapped out of her daze and realized she was trapped in the escape room.

To heighten the horror, a television in front of her was turned on. The static screen flickered with a faint electronic hum, casting a dim, unsettling light. Thanks to this uncomfortable light source, Yinian could see her surroundings.

A long-lost sense of dread washed over her, finally smothering the burning thoughts sparked by Ruoshuang’s words. She actually felt a small sense of relief for the distraction.

The room was intentionally messy, littered with blood-stained gauze. Even the spot where Yinian was sitting wasn’t spared. She scrambled up, terrified of touching even a drop of the fake blood.

But as she turned around, she let out a sharp scream.

Caught off guard, she saw a dark figure lying on the hospital bed to her right!

Yinian’s scream was so loud that almost every player on the floor heard it. Panic began to spread as the others wondered if the game was already this terrifying right at the start.

Shen Ruoshuang, who had been brought in just after Yinian, was on the same floor. She instantly recognized the familiar voice. Although she knew Yinian was afraid of ghosts, the scream still made her heart skip a beat and her brow furrow. Her movements to find clues and the key in her own room became significantly faster.

Regardless of whether Yinian was in real danger, she had to get out and find her.

Back in Room 613, Yinian clutched her mouth, terrified of alerting the outside world and causing another round of public embarrassment. She shuffled her feet, cautiously inching closer.

Only then did she see it clearly: it was a humanoid figure wrapped entirely in bandages, also covered in blood. It was motionless, seemingly just a mannequin. However, in such an environment, the human mind tends to wander. She wondered if it was an employee pretending to be dead.

Yinian didn’t dare get too close. She focused on finding a way out. Even if the hallway was a battle royale, it was better than being stuck in here with that thing.

The locker was protected by a Sudoku puzzle. This was no challenge for Yinian, and she quickly retrieved a flashlight and a walkie-talkie from inside. The walkie-talkie had “613” taped to it, matching the room number. Since she didn’t have anyone else’s frequency, she couldn’t contact her friends yet.

The room number “13” gave her another bad omen, given its reputation in Western culture. Combined with the eerie “Bandage Man,” Yinian trembled and looked away. She gave the figure a wide berth as she searched the room with her flashlight.

There was no sign of a key. She knew that the most abnormal thing in the room—the Bandage Man—was precisely where the key was most likely hidden.

While Yinian hesitated, the Class Organizers were in the control room with the staff, watching the monitors.

A staff member’s eyes fixed on one screen, and they hissed in surprise. “How is the lock for Room 605 already open?! To get that key, you have to decode multiple layers of Morse code. Did she cheat with a phone?”

In reality, the TV in each room provided a hint every thirty minutes. Before the hint, Room 605 was nearly impossible to crack, let alone this quickly.

“Oh, it’s Goddess Shuang. That’s not surprising,” the Chemistry Class Organizer said with a look of worship. “She’s a peak human—the kind of genius who comes with a photographic memory.”

However, after Shen Ruoshuang stepped out, she didn’t move on to the next objective. Instead, she went straight to the room next door and knocked.

The people in the control room looked at each other, confused.

Inside that room, the player thought a ghost had come knocking and didn’t dare make a sound.

Finally, Shen Ruoshuang spoke: “Xu Yinian?”

Seeing there was no response, she immediately moved to the next door.

“Who is Xu Yinian? She’s not in our class, is she? Did she join the mixer too?”

“Is she the one Shen Ruoshuang sat next to earlier? A friend? To be honest, I’ve never seen Shen Ruoshuang get close to anyone before.”

Shen Ruoshuang’s personality was ice-cold, radiating an aura that kept people at a distance. No one had ever seen her take the initiative like this. It was no wonder the gossip was already starting.

While others didn’t know who Xu Yinian was, Jiang Qian, the Class Organizer for the Chinese major, knew perfectly well. She had just witnessed Yinian’s fright on the monitor; it was obvious the girl was deathly afraid of ghosts.

No way… did she break out that fast just to go room-to-room searching for Yinian?