Master Yi had been trapped in a magical artifact for twenty years, enduring the torment of backlash every day, dreaming of finding Liang Little Bao.
Finally free, he naturally wasted no time in completing the ritual from years ago.
However, he overlooked the most crucial point-twenty years had passed, and Liang Little Bao had long since grown into an adult, no longer possessing the purity and spiritual essence of a virgin boy.
As it turned out, Liang Little Bao was indeed no longer a virgin.
His blood not only failed to cleanse Master Yi’s sins but instead turned into a malevolent force, accelerating the backlash.
Realizing this, Master Yi was filled with terror and tried to stop it, but it was too late.
“Ah-“
A turbid, agonized scream echoed through the chamber, causing everyone’s eardrums to throb.
A sinister wind howled, making it nearly impossible for them to keep their eyes open.
Shi Pengpeng raised two yellow talismans, shielding everyone in front of her.
Master Yi’s body disintegrated like rotten tofu, crumbling at a visible speed.
With a “crack,” his tombstone shattered and collapsed, then was swept up by the sinister wind, turning into dust.
In just a few minutes, Master Yi completely vanished, and the chamber returned to calm.
However, everyone present except Shi Pengpeng remained unsettled for a long time, staring at each other in a daze, unsure of what to do.
They had been on edge, expecting a fierce battle as they watched Master Yi complete the final step of the ritual.
Never did they imagine it would end so abruptly.
The suddenness of it all left them feeling strangely empty…
After a while, Xiao Lingshu was the first to snap out of it, exclaiming, “Wow, Senior Sister, you’re amazing! You calculated everything perfectly. But how did you know this guy wasn’t a virgin anymore?”
In such dark arts, a “virgin boy” typically refers to a man who has never been with a woman, regardless of age.
Although Du Xiangyang was already an adult, he was still young, so it wasn’t certain he wasn’t a virgin.
Yet Shi Pengpeng had confidently let Master Yi proceed, clearly certain of the outcome.
This was puzzling how could she know such private details about Du Xiangyang, whom she had never met before?
Hearing this, the others also turned to her with curiosity.
Shi Pengpeng replied nonchalantly, “Of course, I could tell just by looking.”
“That strong? You could tell just by looking?!” Xiao Lingshu was shocked.
Their training did include some knowledge of physiognomy, but it wasn’t their specialty.
Besides, he didn’t think physiognomy could reveal such specific details.
Or was it that Senior Sister’s talent had reached such an extraordinary level, even surpassing theory?!
Yan Jing’s expression also shifted slightly, and he turned his face away, avoiding her gaze, as if casually asking, “Can you really tell that from someone’s face?”
“What?!” Shi Pengpeng laughed helplessly. “I meant I saw it from an online review…”
Although she had only skimmed the review, she remembered one line mentioning that the boss had married young.
A married man, of course, couldn’t be a virgin.
The others: “…”
The most sophisticated answers often come from the simplest judgments.
“Oh, okay, that’s a relief,” Xiao Lingshu patted his chest.
“I thought your physiognomy skills were that advanced too! You scared me!” Yan Jing’s expression relaxed slightly, and he coughed lightly, muttering in annoyance, “You always make such dramatic pauses.”
Shi Pengpeng giggled, innocently spreading her hands. “I didn’t expect you all to believe it so easily.”
Yan Jing: “I knew she did it on purpose!”
“Cough, cough—” Du Xiangyang suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood-stained saliva from his throat, slowly regaining consciousness.
“Little Bao-” Du Pingsi called out, wanting to step forward but hesitating, stopping in his tracks, just staring at him in a daze.
“You… you are…” Du Xiangyang’s gaze was momentarily confused, but he quickly snapped back to reality, his eyes widening in disbelief, “Mom!”
Those dream-like memories from many years ago finally took on concrete images at this moment.
He remembered wearing a red shoe back then, wandering aimlessly in a graveyard.
The night was deep, and he was so scared that he cried out loud, but no matter what, he couldn’t find his way out.
Eventually, he somehow fell into a dazed sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in his mother’s arms.
She was holding him with one hand and leading Liang Dabao with the other, stumbling as they ran out of the graveyard.
At that time, the eerie wind howled, and ghostly shadows loomed.
It was his mother who covered his eyes and ears with her clothes and arms, step by step, leading him away from that land of life and death.
But his mother never made it out with him.
Du Xiangyang had never truly forgotten.
So, in this large escape room, he secretly buried an Easter egg.
The name on the divination slip should have been Liang Little Bao, but he replaced it with Du Pingsi’s information.
Twenty years ago, his mother searched for him everywhere, high and low.
Twenty years later, in this recreated story, it was his turn to search for his mother.
He just never expected that he would actually wait for someone who could lead him to his mother.
Du Xiangyang and Du Pingsi had much to talk about, so they first invited Shi Pengpeng and the others to his office.
After leaving the escape room, they checked the time-it was only 4 PM, and the sunlight outside was just right.
Returning to the world of the living, they felt a warmth enveloping their bodies, a stark contrast to the atmosphere inside the escape room, and it took them a moment to adjust.
Cao Fanzhen, in particular, looked dazed, still immersed in the new worldview, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
After a while, she finally calmed down and slowly turned to Shi Pengpeng, speaking somewhat shyly, “Pengpeng, can I add you on WeChat?”
“Sure,” Shi Pengpeng agreed readily, but her phone was still with the staff, so she added, “Later, I’ll have Yan Jing send you my contact info.”
“Uh…” Cao Fanzhen chuckled awkwardly, “But I haven’t added Mr. Yan yet either.”
“Huh?” Shi Pengpeng was surprised.
Although she had sensed along the way that the two of them didn’t seem very close, this was beyond her expectations.
“Haha, we just met at noon,” Cao Fanzhen explained, “It was a blind date arranged by our families.”
“?” Shi Pengpeng was even more surprised, slowly turning to look at Yan Jing, “So that’s how it is…”
Given Yan Jing’s temperament, if they had just met at noon and were already out together in the afternoon, it must have gone well.
Yan Jing, seeing her expression, knew she had misunderstood and couldn’t help but feel a pang of anxiety, “It’s not what you think…”
“Mr. Yan didn’t know about it,” Cao Fanzhen quickly chimed in to explain, briefly outlining the situation, “He just pulled me in last minute because he was worried you wouldn’t have enough people.”
She concluded with a sigh, “I never expected Mr. Yan to be so into escape rooms.”
Yan Jing:”….”
There’s no need to emphasize that.
Shi Pengpeng:”…..”
Something was off.
This wasn’t the Yan Da Shao (Young Master Yan) she knew.
In the end, Shi Pengpeng and Cao Fanzhen still added each other as friends.
Cao Fanzhen was clearly very curious about Shi Pengpeng, bombarding her with questions and enthusiastically inviting her to hang out together in the future.
Yan Jing watched from the side with mixed feelings, feeling like Shi Pengpeng was more like Cao Fanzhen’s blind date.
Du Xiangyang learned the whole truth from Du Pingsi and was very grateful to Shi Pengpeng.
Afterward, he spent a considerable amount of money to hire her to perform a memorial service for Du Pingsi.
Although he was reluctant to part with Du Pingsi, he also knew that the realms of the living and the dead were separate, and he couldn’t force his mother to stay in the mortal world.
Du Pingsi, who had been trapped in a shoe for twenty years, finally found peace and was able to rest in the afterlife.
When Xiao Lingshu heard the news, she was so eager that she strongly requested to assist Shi Pengpeng in the memorial service.
At the same time, she became even more determined to find a way to stay in the big city.
Not long after, a hot post appeared in the Xiluo Escape Room discussion group:
Title: “Funeral” has updated its storyline!!
OP: [As the title says, “Funeral” is the top escape room in Xiluo in my heart. I went through it eight times with friends and unlocked all the endings. I was feeling a bit empty afterward. But then, two days ago, I saw their announcement that the owner had updated the storyline. I immediately made plans with friends to go again, and we ended up walking out in tears!]
IL: [Huh? Are you talking about the one in Nancun New City? Didn’t that already have four routes? Can it still expand?]
2L: [I went through it too. To be precise, it’s not a new route but a continuation of one of the endings.]
3L: [5555 I never expected that Mom never really left… Boss Du really knows how to tug at the heartstrings.]
4L: [I heard the new ending has even better reviews than the previous ones. Some people even came from out of town to play it, and it caught the attention of the Nancun cultural tourism department…]
5L: [That’s normal. The foot traffic on that commercial street has increased recently.]
6L: [Am I the only one who thinks the new ending is a kind of comfort? When I played the first version, I was really heartbroken that Mom just disappeared without a trace. At least now we know she found peace. And that snake-hearted couple, Liang Renxin, got the punishment they deserved!]
7L: [Wow, after hearing all this, I’m so curious! But I’m scared of ghosts_(:3] <)_]
8L: [Am I the only one who finds the new ending a bit funny? The way Master Yi died was full of dark humor.]
9L: [Boss Du is quite humorous too, bragging that this was based on his personal experience.]
10L: [ That’s just standard practice for horror escape rooms. You gotta make up some urban legends to attract attention.]
The car stopped in front of a film set.
Wei Chi turned to Shi Pengpeng in the back seat and said, “Miss Shi, we’re here.”
“Alright, I’ll get off now,” Shi Pengpeng said as she opened the car door and waved to Yan Jing beside her.
“Brother, thank you!”
The collaboration between Cat Paw and Nianguang Group officially began.
Nianguang was about to shoot a series of product advertisements, and to mark the occasion, they held a special opening ceremony.
Although Nianguang was a foreign company, they followed local customs and always invited a master to perform a ritual for good luck on such occasions.
Since Xue Chengyin, the head of Nianguang Greater China, had previously received Shi Pengpeng’s help during the “Heart Demon” incident, he invited her to preside over the opening ritual this time.
As the head of Cat Paw, Yan Jing also received an invitation.
Considering that the set of Nianguang Group was quite far from Shi Pengpeng’s place, he asked Wei Chi to pick her up and bring her along.
However, Yan Jing had other work to discuss, so he had to let Shi Pengpeng go to the set by herself first.
“No need to thank me,” Yan Jing said with his usual aloofness, “It was on the way.”
Wei Chi:”….”
If he hadn’t been the one driving, he might have actually believed it was on the way.
To pick up Shi Pengpeng, they had to take a detour that added a significant distance, forcing them to leave half an hour earlier.
Yan Jing was a man with a strong sense of time and hated having his plans disrupted.
Once, a company director had asked him for a ride after a dinner party, and he had coldly refused.
After a pause, Yan Jing added, “The roads here are a bit complicated. If you can’t find the place, just call me, and I’ll have Wei Chi come to guide you.”
Wei Chi:”…..”
Wei Chi glanced at Yan Jing through the rearview mirror and suddenly felt like a chauffeur in one of those CEO novels: “After all these years, this is the first time I’ve seen the boss change his schedule for a woman.”
Wei Chi couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased.
His workaholic boss was finally showing some signs of humanity.
Wasn’t this a blessing for his subordinates?
It’s just that Yan Jing’s demeanor was still too reserved, making it frustrating to watch.
As the car started, Wei Chi teased, “Boss, you’re being too subtle. Want me to give you some tips? I’m more experienced in this area.”
Yan Jing was puzzled, “What are you talking about?”
Wei Chi: “Aren’t you pursuing Miss Shi?”
“……” Yan Jing was confused, “What gave you that idea?”
Wei Chi: “Well, I noticed you’ve been so nice to her……”
“Tch,” Yan Jing snorted coldly, “That’s just because I have a connection with her family, so I’m looking out for her a bit more when we’re outside.”
Wei Chi: “…Oh.”
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