Chapter 118.2
translator: baumkuchen editor: glitterypanda
Meng Qian knew that he wasn’t good at this kind of thing . With a glimmer of hope of finding another path to survival, he gathered up his courage and stuck his head into the deep ditch to take a look inside, wanting to see if he would be able to hide in there to escape from the flames when the fire started .
But the moment his head entered the ditch, the charred corpses of the puppets, sensing a living being, began to stir . Some even raised their heads, instantly startling Meng Qian into drawing back .
He understood now: there was a partition between the inside and outside of the ditch . If a living person were to enter, even if it was just a foot or a head, the wooden puppets would instantly rise and divvy up the person hiding among them and devour them until there was nothing left .
With no other options, he could only return to the glass panel, choose the simplest-looking line, A, and bite the bullet and begin to derive the answer .
Just as he was about to start, Chi Xiaochi, standing next to him, turned and announced concisely yet comprehensively, “R, I, and F are mine, split the rest among yourselves . ”
Xu Jiayi was currently busy finding the corresponding letter for E . He just nodded, not answering .
Then, Chi Xiaochi picked up the unconscious Gan Tang, and walked into the passage for “R” .
Meng Qian started . “Hey, what are you doing?”
Chi Xiaochi didn’t have that American time to pay attention to him . He walked straight up to the cabinet, and entered the letter U .
He placed the unconscious Gan Tang inside, straightening out her body, even helping her neaten up her hair and collar . After making sure there were air vents at the top of the cabinet, only then did he close the cabinet door from the outside .
After that, he walked back over to the glass panel, and began to find the corresponding letter to “F” .
Meng Qian couldn’t keep himself from saying, “You’re so confident? What if you’re wrong, you’ll have killed a person . ”
Chi Xiaochi didn’t even spare him a glance .
Meng Qian, not getting any interesting response from him, could only continue to study his letter “A” .
After a lot of effort, Meng Qian had gotten about halfway down the chain for A . Who knew that just as he reached that point, he would hear Yuan Benshan next to him say, “Xiaochi, I found the corresponding letter for A, but compared to what you found…… it doesn’t seem to be the same . ”
Chi Xiaochi had yet to respond when Meng Qian blew up first, “You were doing A? Why didn’t you fucking say so earlier?”
For a moment, Yuan Benshan couldn’t reply .
Song Chunyang had given him the answer in advance . In his happiness, he had subconsciously felt that A belonged to him, and in concentrating on checking it, had completely forgotten that he needed to settle that with the rest first .
But this was a matter of life and death . Now wasn’t the time to act all kindhearted, gracious and gentle .
So he shot back coldly, “Did you ask?”
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Meng Qian was hopping mad, but he was unwilling to turn his gaze away from those tangled chains, and wanted to get ahead of Yuan Benshan by finding the answer as soon as possible and snatch his path to survival .
In response to Yuan Benshan’s doubt, Chi Xiaochi’s face was extremely calm .
“Do it again,” he said, “Mine is right . ”
Yuan Benshan felt rather helpless, but for the sake of safety, he decided to start from the beginning all over again .
This undoubtedly gave Meng Qian his chance . Full of joy and expectations, he finished sorting out the chain he had yet to derive the end to, and found that the corresponding letter was “B” .
A rush of excitement arose in his heart, and he immediately began to check the path once more .
In order to get it done as soon as possible, he basically followed the path he’d gotten from the first time and, sure enough, ended a step ahead of Yuan Benshan .
When Yuan Benshan was just reaching the top, Meng Qian’s second check succeeded . The answer was B .
A——B!
Lf vgbqqfv tlr tfjv, qlmxfv eq tlr ifur jcv gjc, qjrrlcu atgbeut atja bcf wjc klvf qjat, rqglcalcu jmgbrr atf mtjggfv qeqqfa mbgqrfr, jcv vlgfmais fcafgfv atf ifaafg D lcab atf qjrrkbgv qjcfi bo mjylcfa C .
Zfcu Hljc qlmxfv eq tlr tffir jcv gjc boo ilxf j ibjmt, wjxlcu Tejc Dfcrtjc, ktb tjv pera yffc jybea ab olclrt, jiwbra nbwla yibbv lc jcufg . “Tbe——”
But when he saw the letter Meng Qian entered into the keypad, he instantly calmed . He turned around and sorted out the last few entangled chains for the letter A .
Just as Chi Xiaochi had said, A, sure enough, corresponded to M .
The sound of the door for cabinet A closing rang out through the room .
Chi Xiaochi’s eyes were locked onto the glass panel . He didn’t have the time to get distracted, so he didn’t know what had happened behind him .
Yuan Benshan swapped to the letter C, and continued to work on it .
At this time, the countdown showed 8 minutes and 43 seconds left .
26 thin brass chains, looking exactly alike, with no distinguishing characteristics .
Such 26 chains were tangled together in an utter mess, making for an almost torturous test of people’s eyesight, concentration, and ability to withstand pressure .
The electric screen of the countdown just above the glass panel cast a brilliant blood red on everything, exerting an unseen, fretful pressure on their retinas .
For a normal person to figure out even one, it would take up a huge amount of effort .
……And Chi Xiaochi was faced with doing three .
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When there were still 5 minutes and 45 seconds left, Chi Xiaochi moved .
He sprinted over to Gan Yu’s side, picking up his sweat-soaked body once again .
Gan Yu’s face was feverishly flushed, and his lips were so dry they were peeling . Fortunately, his consciousness was clearer than it had been before .
He lay still in Chi Xiaochi’s arms, letting him carry him to cabinet F .
In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Have you found one for yourself yet?”
Chi Xiaochi’s walking was a little strained and crooked, as golden sparks exploded before his eyes .
……This was the aftereffect of extreme eye strain .
He casually replied, “I did . ”
Gan Yu reached out a hand and straightened his collar . His tone a little helpless, he said, “Liar . ”
Because of the continuous intense concentration he’d had to do, Chi Xiaochi had already developed a headache and dizziness . By the time he put Gan Yu down in front of cabinet F, his fingers had already begun to shake, and he even almost pressed the wrong letter .
Chi Xiaochi let out a deep sigh . Unexpectedly, he simply shamelessly admitted it . “En . I lied . ”
After calming himself, he reached out with his finger, and pressed T into the keypad of cabinet F .
Gan Yu didn’t continue to pester him and waste time unnecessarily . As he let himself be placed into the cabinet, he said in a soft voice, “You need to live . ”
Chi Xiaochi asked, “Doctor Gan, do you trust me . ”
Gan Yu nodded unhesitatingly .
“If you believe me, just stay here,” Chi Xiaochi said, “Wait for me on the other side . ”
Then, he slammed the door shut, and sprinted back to the glass panel .
Still gasping for breath, he began to find a path to survival for himself .
While he’d been settling Gan Yu in place, Xu Jiayi had already left, pressing in the corresponding letter D into cabinet E .
And Yuan Benshan had also already checked his answer three times . Only after confirming that he hadn’t made any errors, did he turn to look at Chi Xiaochi .
Chi Xiaochi was staring intently at the puzzle, his teeth clenched, his thumbs rubbing against his palms repeatedly, and his shoulders shaking uncontrollably .
Looking at the timer which showed only 4 minutes and 10 seconds left, Yuan Benshan felt both pained and panicked .
……But what could he do? What, give his already confirmed answer to someone else?
The moment he thought of himself being burnt to death, the muscles on Yuan Benshan’s face began to twitch uncontrollably .
In the end, he only dropped a “Chunyang, hurry,” before running off to cabinet C, entering in the passcode Q .
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When the door opened, he ducked inside .
In the blink of an eye, only Chi Xiaochi was left standing before the glass panel .
The excessive tension made him feel like there was a whistle stuffed into his brain, his ears filled with ghostly sobbing or shrill howls . His body temperature was dropping sharply, making him feel cold to the bones .
The red flickers of the timer counting down flashed in his eyes .
And there was nothing he could do, except look for that final answer .
What did I correspond to?
What exactly did it correspond to?
When there were still 2 minutes and 10 seconds left, he found the answer .
Immediately, his heart froze .
It was…… U?
How could it be U?
Didn’t U correspond to cabinet R, that Gan Tang was in?
Chi Xiaochi momentarily panicked . He instantly dropped his head, starting to find the corresponding letter to I from the beginning once more .
But he couldn’t help but think: Was the answer that he’d found this time wrong? Or was it that the answer he’d found for Gan Tang, was wrong from the very beginning?
His heart was as if it was tangled up into a tremendous muddle . Cold sweat poured down his body . Even his vision was beginning to blur .
Sensing that he was in the wrong frame of mind, he immediately raised his hand and slapped himself across the face, forcing his mind, which had become increasingly scattered due to the excessive tension, back .
Stay calm!
He absolutely had to stay calm!
He placed a trembling finger against the glass panel, and starting from I, began to follow I’s path all the way up .
His heart pounded in his chest, beating against his ribs, making deafeningly loud thumps .
……60 seconds left .
The countdown began beeping .
……40 seconds left .
Chi Xiaochi even heard the clown’s evil laughter, and the low hum of the spray guns preparing to turn on .
When there were 20 seconds left, without a word, Chi Xiaochi began to rush headlong towards the I cabinet .
He’d gotten it wrong initially and wasted time, so he didn’t even have the time to check his answer .
However, he didn’t have any time left .
He practically threw himself at cabinet I, pressing the V key, and rolled into the cabinet the moment the door sprung open .
As the cabinet door clicked shut, he clearly heard the spray gun nearest to him spurt out a tongue of flame, straight towards his face .
For the next several seconds, it was as if all oxygen was sucked out of the air, and his surroundings became a complete vacuum, making it impossible to even breathe .
Chi Xiaochi’s body was tense, waiting for the final judgement .
Just as the cabinet began to become hot, with a click, the door behind him suddenly opened, and cool air poured in .
Chi Xiaochi didn’t have time to think . He didn’t even have a moment of dazedness of hesitation before he staggered out, and pulled Gan Tang, who was closest to him, out of her cabinet .
Gan Yu was conscious, so he had already left his cabinet on his own .
Other than the three of them, Yuan Benshan and Xu Jiayi survived .
Endless screams and howls of pain sounded from cabinet A, like cries from the depths of hell, and from beginning to end, the door to cabinet A remained tightly shut, with no signs that it was going to open whatsoever .
Not long after, there were no more sounds coming from cabinet A .
Chi Xiaochi half-fell, half sat down on the ground . Only after gasping for a few moments, did he gather himself enough to look around .
This time, they’d entered a room that was so normal it was almost heartwarming .
There were no lights in the room, but was as bright as if it was daytime . Countless beautiful hydrogen balloons emblazoned with the clown’s image floated around the room . There were even a few soft sofas with teddy bears lying atop them, as well as their belongings .
And the clown was not among them .
……It seemed, this place was the gift room the clown had spoken of .
They had successfully passed the test of the three rooms with 10 minutes still remaining until the end of the task .
They only needed to wait in this “safehouse”, and after getting through a mere 10 minutes, they would be able to officially finish the tenth task, and return to the world of normal people .