Chapter 65: The Bizarre Appearance

Beibei raised a hand to press against her throbbing temple, and said with strained patience:
"I'm not short of that little money, but this isn't the time to talk about it. Someone is trapped in a room and might already be in trouble. Where are your keys?"
"Huh? What keys?"
The person on the other end of the intercom seemed completely unaware of the specific locations of the props in the shop, and perhaps didn't even know the procedures of the escape room.
Beibei rolled her eyes and continued:
"The keys to the room where two people are locked... Never mind, I'll just smash this glass. Saving people is the priority, I'll check on her condition later."
Without a moment's hesitation, Beibei grabbed a nearby stick and fiercely struck the glass case containing the keys.
"Crack."
The glass cabinet shattered.
Beibei successfully retrieved the keys.
Just then, static crackled from the intercom, and the terrified voice of the clerk she had been speaking to stuttered out:
"Under... maintenance... Die... Don't..."
The intercom was completely dead.
"...Why is even the intercom broken? Is this place even run properly?"
Beibei couldn't suppress the urge to complain.
First the surveillance cameras, and now the intercom—did this shop even conduct regular inspections and maintenance?
Shaking her head and hesitating no longer, Beibei walked toward the room where Baihe was trapped.
Hearing Beibei approach Baihe's side of the room, Huanxiao tapped the mirror and said:
"Beibei, let me out first. I'm scared being by myself."
"Alright, coming."
Hearing this, Beibei changed direction without a second thought.
She happened to not want to face Baihe alone anyway, and having Huanxiao around made her much less afraid.
Yet, while unlocking the door, she still teased:
"Weren't you quite bold, Xiaoxiao? I didn't expect you to ever be afraid. That's a rare sight!"
"The room is full of mirrors, and watching so many reflections of me moving around—how could I not be scared? I'm an ordinary person too, you know."
As she spoke, Huanxiao thoughtfully observed the surrounding mirrors.
She felt that the figures inside the mirrors weren't quite right. Sometimes, when she raised her hand, her reflection delayed by half a second before raising its own, as if it were thinking and reacting.
Was this a design issue with the mirrors, or was there something wrong with this escape room?
With a "click."
The mirror in front of Huanxiao swung open, and Beibei appeared before her.
After letting Huanxiao out, Beibei impatiently dragged her toward the entrance of Baihe's room. Unlocking the door, she said:
"Baihe, you'd better actually have a reason for this, or I will never forgive you for messing with me like this!"
"——Beibei, you're holding the key upside down."
Huanxiao murmured quietly from behind Beibei.

"Huh? Oh, no wonder it wouldn't turn. This keyhole is different from yours; it's upside down."
Beibei flipped the key over and resumed unlocking the door.
"Click."
The door opened.
Baihe was safely inside, but she was sitting on the floor, fast asleep.
Beibei: "..."
"BAIHE!!!"
"——What is it?"
Baihe opened her eyes with a sleepy expression, rubbing them with her left hand.
"What is it? I stood outside yelling for you for ages, and you were in here sleeping?!"
Beibei was furious. She had thought Baihe was just unreliable, but she never imagined it could be this bad—intentionally staying silent to worry them, and actually falling asleep? Simply outrageous!
Baihe ignored this entirely and said:
"Can we go now? Let's go home together, I'm so tired."
"You can leave if you want, but remember to pay the shop for the glass cabinet. I smashed it to save you."
Though Beibei didn't care about the money, she refused to foot the bill for Baihe.
Baihe disagreed, saying:
"You're the one who smashed it, why should I pay? You pay for it yourself."
With that, Baihe beckoned to Beibei and Huanxiao, saying:
"Give me a hand, I can't get up."
"Just prop yourself up against the wall, nobody's going to help you."
Standing next to Huanxiao, Beibei had no intention of entertaining Baihe. She said to Huanxiao:
"Xiaoxiao, let's go home! I'm definitely leaving a terrible review for this garbage shop once we get out."
Huanxiao nodded and followed Beibei away, subtly deflecting a wisp of black Qi lunging toward Beibei.
In her rush to leave, Beibei failed to notice the sudden appearance of bloodstains on the floor and mirrors behind Baihe as she stood up.
Even around Baihe's wrists and neck, faint lines of blood had emerged.
"Crack."
As soon as they stepped out, the two mirrored walls flanking them cracked open.
Walking ahead of Beibei, Huanxiao stopped in her tracks, looking helplessly at Huanxiao as she said:
"X-Xiaoxiao, whose prank is this?"
At that moment, Baihe cried out in astonishment from behind them:
"Oh god, words are appearing on this mirror!"
Beibei grabbed Huanxiao and hurried back to Baihe's side.
Sure enough, on one of the mirrors in the room that had previously trapped Huanxiao, a line of red, blood-like writing had materialized.
Meanwhile, the door to the room that had held Baihe closed once more.

'Find my corpse.'
'They are in four places: the water vat, the cart, the wooden chest, and under the bed. Once you find them, piece my corpse back together.'
Seeing this, Beibei cursed aloud:
"Are they out of their minds?! I already said we're done playing, who wants to keep playing their stupid game? Who even triggered this switch?!"
At that moment, Baihe chimed in at the right time:
"Let's just keep playing. Once we find the four body parts, the game will probably end."
Beibei looked at Baihe, who was currently taking out a piece of paper to write down the names of the four locations.
Incredulous, Beibei asked:
"No way, do you actually want to play?"
"Let's play, it's quite interesting. Let's look for them together."
Baihe's lazy tone slightly dampened the anger burning in Beibei's heart.
Frowning, Beibei asked:
"Baihe, have you lost your mind from sleeping? The surveillance cameras are all broken, who's going to take responsibility if something happens to us?"
"We're just looking for four body parts, Beibei. Don't tell me you're scared?"
Baihe raised an eyebrow at Beibei in a provocative manner.
Beibei was instantly riled up and retorted:
"Who's scared? We'll go look right now."
Huanxiao asked with surprise:
"Aren't we leaving? It's really dangerous here now."
"It's fine, we'll just walk carefully. Besides, we came out to have fun anyway, it's a waste not to play," Beibei said dismissively.
Seeing this, Huanxiao had no choice but to nod:
"Fine, we just need to piece together the corpse parts we find, right?"
"Of course, and then we should be able to see the female ghost (NPC)," Beibei said.
Huanxiao continued to probe:
"Beibei, aren't you scared now? Maybe we should still leave and go find professionals to handle this."
"No need, the shop has already called people over, we won't be in the way."
Seeing that Beibei had changed her mind based on a few words from Baihe, Huanxiao knew that saying any more would be futile.
She couldn't very well tell Beibei that there were actual ghosts here, as Huanxiao had no intention of exposing her own special abilities.
For now, she had no choice but to accompany them in searching for the corpse parts.
Besides, they had come to the escape room for thrills anyway—playing with a fake ghost was no different from playing with a real one.