Chapter 7
The fourth checkpoint was located in a bathroom .
The bathroom was linked to the dressing room, its interior extremely spacious . On the left was an enormous bathtub, half-covered by a dirty shower curtain . A chaise longue, sideboard, carved low table, as well as a full-length mirror were placed inside .
There were silver objects all over the floor, sideboard, and table .
Cao Ji Xian had completely disregarded the story’s setting so that he could disturb Feng Ping Lan’s search, using every kind of silver he could find— including silver cups, silverware, silver candlesticks, silver coins, and jewellery he had probably gotten from a few unlucky students .
Kaido walked over to the bathtub, pulling the shower curtain back . The bathtub was filled to the brim with a dark liquid, making it impossible to see the bottom .
“Uahhhhh!”
A figure suddenly sat up in the bathtub, a knife held in each of his hands, swinging them as he let out a terrible howl .
Kaido reflexively threw a punch at him, but Tan Hua was quicker than him, putting herself between the two with a sudden big stride forward, using her longsword to block his knives . With an upward thrust, the two knives fell to the corner .
Kaido took this opportunity to press him back into the bathtub .
“I didn’t need your help!” Kaido glared at Tan Hua, “I will settle this myself . ”
“My apologies . ” Tan Hua lowered her head with deference .
The male student had swallowed quite a lot of dirty water after being pushed back into the bathtub, coughing incessantly .
“Where’s the key? Hand it over!” Kaido interrogated furiously .
“I don’t know . ” A brazen smile rose on the boy’s face, “You can’t treat me roughly, or threaten me to tell you the answers . Otherwise, you’re disqualified!”
Kaido furrowed his eyebrows, momentarily not knowing what to do .
“Leave this to me!” Ivan volunteered, walking to the side of the bathtub . “Help me hold him in place . ”
Kaido complied, pressing down the male student firmly .
The male student looked at Ivan, saying uneasily, “What are you doing! You’re prohibited from using spells here!”
“What will you do with the dirty water after this?”
“The wastewater will be thrown away . ” The student did not know what Ivan had up his sleeve, and warned anxiously, “If you’re trying to inflict water torture on me, it’s still an act of violating the rules!”
“I’m not that uncivilized!” Ivan took out a thermos from his bag, “Since all this wastewater is going to be discarded anyway, it won’t be considered damaging the scene if I make it even dirtier, right?”
“What are you going to do?! Could the thermos be filled with the president’s—
Ivan twisted the bottle cap, a smile rising on his face, “Why don’t I put something else to the bathtub, don’t you think it’ll add a much better flavor when you soak in it?”
“No——!” The boy struggled, but Kaido had him pressed tightly against the bathtub, not letting him have a chance of escaping . “It’s here! The key’s in the water!”
He frantically groped around in the pool of blood, and as the thermos approached him little by little, his movements became increasingly frantic .
“You’re not lying to me, are you, just so you can stall for time?” Ivan questioned .
“No! Wait! Give me some time!” His frenetic hands bumped into something hard, and he hurriedly grabbed onto it, raising it into the air, “Here it is—”
“Whoops, my hand slipped . ” The thermos in Ivan’s hand tilted .
The thick liquid in the bottle spilled in the direction of the boy’s head, warm fluid pouring down upon him .
“Ahhhhhhh—” The boy let out a blood-curdling scream .
“It’s just sesame paste, why are you making such a fuss?” Ivan held out the thermos to pour himself a cup . Sipping it, he let out a satisfied groan .
But the boy had already passed out, unable to hear him .
Ivan took the key in the male student’s hand, shaking the dirty water off before handing it over to Feng Ping Lan, “Here . ”
“Ivan, you’re really mean!”
“Really? I learned it from you!” Feng Ping Lan had vomited all over Gerard during the Trials, but all he had done was pour some sesame paste on him— it was much more courteous than what he had done!
The fifth checkpoint, the toilets .
Pushing the door open, there were several cubicles built against the wall .
Their group walked in one after another, pushing the cubicle doors open to inspect them . Each toilet was filled with silver objects .
“It smells…” Ivan grumbled, “Like something rotted in here . ”
“Did Cao Ji Xian vomit in this place?”
“That guy is practically a moving pollutant…”
After making a quick circle around the room, Feng Ping Lan walked into the smelliest cubicle, then rolled up his sleeves to stick his hands into the toilet bowl .
“What are you doing! Are you mad?!”
“That’s nasty!”
Dongya sucked in a deep breath, “Ping Lan, I didn’t know you had such a habit… You can leave washing the teacups to me in the future, no need for your help . ”
“Calm down!” As Feng Ping Lan dug and searched, he said, “If there was really feces in here, the members of the Supernatural Research wouldn’t be so worried about us hiding vomit around the set . ”
“Then, where is the smell coming from?”
“It’s probably methionine, it smells a little like a gas leak— Ah, found it!” Feng Ping Lan drew out his hand, which was covered in a brown substance . “With how Cao Ji Xian is, he’ll definitely hide it in the dirtiest, smelliest toilet, thinking we wouldn’t put our hands in there . ”
Feng Ping Lan handed the key to his friends, but everyone took a step back .
“Aiyo, I told you guys it was clean, there’s no filth here!” Feng Ping Lan sniffed his arm, “It’s just chocolate! You can have a lick if you don’t believe me, here, Kaido—”
“Get lost! Stay away from me!”
Although they knew it wasn’t anything dirty, as they were influenced by the sight of the toilets, everyone wanted to stay far away from it . This was a toilet, but the fake sinks were unable to provide them with water . Everyone kept a two-meter distance with Feng Ping Lan, and it was only until Su Li Wan took out some wet tissues to wipe off the brown stuff on Feng Ping Lan’s hands that everything went back to normal .
The last checkpoint was the dining room .
There ought to be many silver objects in the dining room, and logically, it should be the hardest key to find . But as Cao Ji Xian had transported most of the silverware to the other checkpoints to disturb their search, he was momentarily unable to return them to their original spot, so they managed to find the key using the metal detector within two minutes .
They had searched all the rooms in the entire manor, but only six of the keys had been found .
“We’re missing one key, did we miss a room?”
“We went into all of them, this is the last room . ”
“Could one of the rooms have hidden two keys, so we missed it?”
“Each checkpoint will have only one key . ” Feng Ping Lan said certainly .
“How do you know that?” Conglong was curious .
“People have shared their experiences on Zephaniah’s school festival discussion forum . ” He had searched it up last night, and found out that the keys were made of silver, which was why he had thought of bringing a metal detector . “Besides, Supernatural Research has been spamming the forums with advertisements, which briefly mentioned a few of the game rules . The number of rooms and that each of them contained one key were written in their posts . ”
In truth, from what he had read from the forums, he knew that Cao Ji Xian had omitted much of the particulars and rules of the game . By right, the butler should have given them a detailed account of the manor’s tale, which had many hints hidden as clues for the players to search for the keys .
But Cao Ji Xian had interrupted the butler’s explanation, merely telling them there were seven keys .
The reason why he hadn’t brought it up was because he hadn’t wanted Cao Ji Xian to know they had done some research beforehand, or else he would have prevented them from participating or upped the difficulty level of the game .
“Did the forums tell you where the keys are hidden?”
“No, not many managed to find the keys, and most of them returned empty-handed . Besides, while the keys are hidden in the rooms, their locations can change and won’t be hidden in the same spots . ”
They exchanged glances . At last, they decided to return to the previous rooms and start the search from the beginning .
However, they still hadn’t found anything .
Byriel thought of finding someone to ask them a few questions, but they seemed to have anticipated him trying that, so no one appeared during their second search through the manor .
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There were eleven minutes left before the game ended .
There was still a key missing .
Where had they hidden the key?
As they went through the servant’s quarters a second time, Feng Ping Lan sat contemplated on a bed .
Had they missed a clue?
Feng Ping Lan thought for a moment, then took out all the keys they had collected, arranging them on the bed .
“Huh?”
“What did you find!” Hearing Feng Ping Lan make a noise, a glimmer of hope rose in their expressions .
“The color of the gems embedded in the keys are different!” Blue, yellow, violet, red, orange, indigo… “These are all colors of the rainbow . The color of the key’s gems must be matched with the rainbow, we haven’t found the key with a green gem!”
“So what!” Ivan said exasperatedly, “This doesn’t help with our search at all…”
Feng Ping Lan didn’t think so .
If there was no meaning in it, they could have just crafted each key to look exactly the same . Since they had deliberately color-coded each key, this meant there was some sort of meaning to the colors, a sort of hint for them…
What exactly did it mean?
Closing his eyes, he started replaying the memories in his head .
The dining room, toilets, maidservants’ quarters, warehouse, and study . Was it the staircase? No, the incident at the staircase was just something they had done to stall for time .
From the last checkpoint to the last, was there anything he had missed?
Wait a minute, the first checkpoint was the study?
At the time, the butler had immediately pressed the timer after finishing his tale . If they started the timer before they had left the hall, hadn’t he pressed it a little too quickly?
“You’ll find the first trial down that hallway, now get out of my sight!”
They were challengers, but Cao Ji Xian wouldn’t give directions out of his own goodness, telling them the right direction and place to go .
Now that he thought about it, that didn’t seem like a well-intentioned reminder, but a wish for them to quickly leave the hall .
Feng Ping Lan scratched his head .
But the hall was completely empty, there weren’t many places to hide the key—
Suddenly a pair of melancholic emerald-green eyes surfaced in his mind .
“Ah!”
“What is it this time? Did you find that knocking each of the keys gives you a different pitch?”
“Not that!” Feng Ping Lan picked up the keys, “I know where it is!”
Their group headed towards the hall .
There were three minutes remaining .
Cao Ji Xian had his arms crossed, waiting for them at the center of the hall, before the portrait .
“What, have you given up?” He gave them a scoundrelly smile, “You guys haven’t collected all the keys, have you? I’m not surprised, since this is an extremely difficult test of intelligence . To you guys, perhaps you haven’t evolved enough to possess such a thing as intellect . ”
“Can’t you shut up for once?!”
“Let me tell you, we recorded every single thing you did during the game . ” Cao Ji Xian burst out laughing, “Alright, just give up! If you’re willing to apologize to me, confessing your own ignorance and rudeness, I’ll consider not spreading the video online . ”
“So what if you post the video? The humiliated one will be you . After all, we haven’t done anything disreputable . ” Liu Yi Chen paused a little, “Except for the part where our captain puts his hands in the toilet bowl . ”
“Aiyo! I told you that was just chocolate!” Feng Ping Lan pleaded innocence, then took out the keys as he walked over to Cao Ji Xian, “These are the keys we found . ”
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“Mmhm . ” Cao Ji Xian raised his eyebrows, “What about the missing key?”
Feng Ping Lan smiled, then he suddenly reached out a hand to slam on the wall by Cao Ji Xian’s neck .
“Ugh…” Simo let out a nauseated groan, “That’s not the kind of kabedon I want to see…”
Cao Ji Xian widened his eyes, “Whwhat are doing!”
Feng Ping Lan smiled .
“The last key is over here . ”
His hand slid over the portrait, reaching the ear of the woman in the portrait . The texture near the hairpiece was a little different to the other areas . He followed the slightly protruding surface, digging outward, and a long object fell into his palm .
Feng Ping Lan scrutinized it . The last key was covered in paint, and on the painting, there was an emerald embedded at the end of the key that acted as the gem on the hairpiece .
“Here . ” He handed the key over to Cao Ji Xian .
Dong! Dong!
The timer rang out just then, concluding the game .
Cao Ji Xian gripped the keys tightly, a vein protruding on his hand .
“Aiya, too bad, your game has been beaten by us low-intelligence creatures . ” Liu Yi Chen sneered .
“Fine, you win…”
“Yay, where’s the prize?”
Cao Ji Xian reluctantly turned his head, commanding the butler, looking like every word caused him excruciating pain, “Take out the prize…”
After a moment, the butler came back with a glass cabinet in his arms, containing an exquisite and gorgeous female statue .
“Thanks~” Liu Yi Chen looked at Feng Ping Lan, “You won it, you take it . ”
“No, everyone worked together—”
“Hurry up . ”
When Feng Ping Lan bashfully went to take the prize, the glare Cao Ji Xian gave him looked like he was about to spit fire .
Liu Yi Chen took out her camera, taking a photo as evidence in case Cao Ji Xian acted dumb and accused them of stealing it later on .
“Just this?” Liu Yi Chen wasn’t satisfied yet .
“What else do you want?!”
“Right, I remember the announcement on the forums mentioning something about giving a prize to each member of the participating team, am I right?”
Cao Ji Xian’s face turned unsightly . He turned to order the butler to take out the participation souvenirs .
All eleven of them received a souvenir .
“Are you satisfied now?” Cao Ji Xian asked with gritted teeth .
“The numbers are not right . ”
“All of you have received a prize! What else do you want!”
“Who says?” Liu Yi Chen clapped her hands, “Alright guys, come out to receive your prizes . ”
Suddenly, several figures of people emerged in the hall . They were all students of Shadow 1A .
“When did you guys arrive?!”
“They were here from the start . ” Liu Yi Chen explained smugly, “There was an invisibility spell on them . They entered with us and remained in the hall, waiting to meet up after the treasure hunt . ”
“You’ve broken the rules!”
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“We did pay the participation fees like honest people,” Feng Ping Lan spoke, “And your rules state that all spells are forbidden once we enter the house; we cast the invisible spell before entering . ”
“But it’s illegal as long as the spell is operating!”
“By that logic, it would mean that all the bangles identifying a student and spells calculating their level are illegal . ” Liu Yi Chen refuted, “The spell-casters are sitting in the staffroom, feel free to denounce them . ”
Cao Ji Xian felt as if the floor beneath his feet had suddenly vanished, and he was falling down to an endless black hole…
“We don’t have that many prizes,” Cao Ji Xian spoke weakly, his voice sounding like he had aged a few years . “I’ll refund your money…”
“The participation fees qualify us as challengers, the prizes are our rewards for winning . Both are very different things . ”
“Just what do you want?”
“You can let us take anything valuable in your stall as compensation,” Liu Yi Chen suggested with a smile, “Or I’ll report you for making illegal profit, swindling your customers . ”
Cao Ji Xian took a deep breath, and said, with all the grief and indignation the ruler of a vanquished nation would have, “Do whatever you want…”
The students of Shadow 1A picked out a few decorative items and stationery in the manor, as well as the seven keys, returning fully laden with riches .
Their vendor stall closed ahead of time at three o’clock, in order to prepare for tonight’s performance .
After two consecutive days of challenging, no one managed to beat the game . From the amount of food eaten and how fast they had eaten, the winner was a team of four students from Narumi Garden Academy, the second and third place were obtained by Zephaniah and Eli respectively .
Every participant was incredibly satisfied by the prizes they received .
Dusk turned into night .
In the plaza before the Christmas Tree, there was an open stage set up, which was where the performances would take place .
Shadow 1A was the fourth team performing . As the previous team performing a Hamlet play had spent some time withdrawing from the stage, Shadow 1A entered the backstage to prepare a few minutes late . Fortunately everyone had been fitted into their costumes before they entered . All they had to do was to find their positions .
“Next is Shadow 1A, who will be performing a revised version of Andersen’s tale— the Mermaid Prince!” The emcee announced their next item .
Hearing this, the audience beneath the stage tittered derisively .
“The Mermaid Prince? How childish . ”
“They probably spent all their energy on their vendor stall, so their performance was sloppily made . ”
The taunting laugher instantly vanished like the sudden rise of a curtain .
On the stage was the picture of an ocean, where a group of gorgeous mermaids swam about . In the depths of the ocean, there sat a castle made of reef rock and shells .
“They did quite a good job on the set . ”
The narrator spoke .
“In a kingdom under the azure sea, there was a realm established by the mermaids…”
Simo and Tan Hua, who were performing as mermaids, entered the stage .
Thunderous applause rang out from the male students underneath .
“The king had six offsprings in total . ”
Morris, Conglong and Igor emerged .
The girls let out awestruck giggles of admiration .
“—Among them, the youngest prince Byriel was the most favored, most adored of them all…”
Byriel entered the stage .
In an instant, the plaza was flooded with ear-piercing screams .
The story began .