That eye was too eerie. Xiao Cheng thought to himself, "Damn it!" He picked up a small pebble and was about to throw it into the bushes.
"Wait! Don't throw it! It's me!" A rustling sound came from there, and then Player 5 hurriedly crawled out, nervously rubbing his hands together. "It's me, I didn't mean anything by it."
"Why are you hiding there?" Xiao Cheng threw away the pebble and asked with a puzzled look. "You didn't seem to be going this way, did you?"
"I...I am..." Player No. 5 glanced at the woman in green beside him and stammered, "I know you got points, so I wanted to ask how you did it?"
Xiao Cheng frowned, looking him up and down, feeling something was off: "You didn't find anything?"
"Found it, found a sugar painting stall, but he said I need points." Player 5 scratched his head and smiled a little sheepishly. "I don't have any points, so I thought I'd try my luck with you guys. Maybe you could lend me one point?"
"Sorry, we've run out of points." Fang He spoke up suddenly, before Xiao Cheng could. "What a pity. If you had come a few minutes earlier, we might have been able to lend you some."
Player 5's smile froze slightly, then he revealed a perfectly timed look of disappointment: "That's a real shame. I'll try looking for someone else."
"Good luck." Fang He nodded to him.
Watching Player 5's departing figure, Xiao Cheng asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with him?"
"I don't know." Fang He shook his head honestly. "But it's better to stay away from him. What if he has conjunctivitis? You don't want to get infected, do you?"
Xiao Cheng: "..." Why does this sound so sarcastic?
"Never mind him, let's get back to our business. Where's the map?" Fang He changed the subject.
Xiao Cheng pulled out a small map from his pocket and said angrily, "I suspect we've been scammed."
“No doubt about it, isn’t this obvious?” Fang He took the map, compared it with the starting point, and began to identify the direction. “This is the route we just took. The visitor center is here, and it goes all the way to the fountain square from here.”
He drew a simple route on the map.
"The next attraction is... the Mirror Maze?" Xiao Cheng leaned closer to look at the markings on the map. The handwriting was too small and blurred together, making it almost impossible to read.
This map only covers this area, which just goes to show that you get what you pay for. This map is probably only a fraction of the full version.
"Let's go, from this way." Fang He finished writing down the general route and handed the map back to Xiao Cheng.
"That's not right, we were definitely coming from that direction just now." Xiao Cheng looked back and forth, making sure she hadn't gone the wrong way. "You want to take a shortcut?"
"No," Fang He replied matter-of-factly, "I just wanted to see what sugar painting is all about, that's all."
Player #5 wasn't lying to them; they hadn't walked far along the road when they saw a simple sugar painting stall.
The stall owner was a burly man with his face painted with colorful greasepaint. Next to him, a large pot of syrup was bubbling away. On a stack of straw stood five or six finished sugar paintings, so poorly done that they were completely unrecognizable.
"Dear visitors, welcome! What can I do for you? I can draw anything!" The stall owner patted his chest and assured them, pointing to each sugar painting and introducing them one by one, "Look, this is a rabbit, this is a tiger, this is a clown. Don't they look just like them?"
Xiao Cheng maintained an awkward yet impolite smile: "It has a highly abstract aesthetic."
The stall owner was so moved that he grabbed Xiao Cheng's hand with tears in his eyes, his gaze as fervent as if he were seeing a second parent: "You are the first person to appreciate art!"
Xiao Cheng grasped his hand in return, pressing her advantage: "Then give us a sugar painting, I'll admire it when I get back!"
“That won’t do.” The stall owner instantly and ruthlessly withdrew his hand, keeping his distance from her. “Let’s stick to the facts. Art is art, and business is business. It’s a fixed price of one point, not a penny less.”
Xiao Cheng sighed helplessly.
"Well, there's nothing I can do then, boss." She pulled out her tourist guide, flipped through it to a blank page, and handed it to the stall owner. "Excuse me, could you please take a picture?"
The stall owner looked at the tour group's logo, his lips twitched slightly, and then he showed the same helpless expression as the darts stall owner.
He stirred the syrup with a spoon, scooped a stamp from the bottom of the pot, and then pressed it heavily directly under the turntable's stamp.
It's a picture of a strangely shaped spoon.
Another round of enthusiastic applause came over the loudspeaker, and then the receptionist announced in a gentle voice: "Congratulations to passenger number 1 for successfully completing the D-level sugar painting activity and earning 3 park points."
"Should we go to the mirror maze next?" Xiao Cheng asked happily, clutching the visitor guide. She was already feeling the joy of collecting cards.
Before Fang He could answer, the announcement came on again: "Congratulations to passenger number 2 for successfully completing the C-level obstacle course, the log bridge, and earning 5 park points."
“A Class C project has emerged,” Xiao Cheng said.
“Let’s continue. Come on, to the mirror maze.” Fang He led Xiao Cheng down a path.
The mirror maze was smaller than they had imagined, just a small room of about twenty or thirty square meters, with faded wallpaper covering the outside. The owner was a slightly plump woman, lying in a rocking chair, lazily basking in the sun with her eyes closed.
Hearing the two approaching, she didn't even open her eyes, but pointed to the notice behind her.
Mirror Maze, 2 points per run, 2 people per run.
"Big sister, we're not going to play in the maze, we just want to check in. Could you please stamp our photos?" Xiao Cheng opened the visitor guide and deliberately put the tour group's logo at the very front.
"Stamp?" The woman's eyelids twitched, and she glanced at her with a half-smile. "The stamp is in the maze. Go and stamp it yourself."
It seems I have no choice but to spend these two points.
Xiao Cheng and Fang He exchanged a glance, then Xiao Cheng said to the woman again, "In that case, let's play a maze game together."
The maze was pitch black, with eerie wails blaring from the speakers. Xiao Cheng couldn't see the way at all, and felt his way in along the walls, muttering to himself, "Wouldn't this atmosphere be better as a haunted house?"
She didn't hear Fang He's response and instinctively felt something was wrong. She stopped and tugged at the red string on her wrist.
It didn't budge; the other end of the red rope seemed to be holding something heavy, so it couldn't possibly be Fang He.
Xiao Cheng's heart skipped a beat, and she tentatively asked, "Fang He?"
There has still been no response.
She frowned and carefully reached up along the red rope.
It felt icy cold to the touch, with a sticky feel on my fingertips. The next second, the sound stopped abruptly, and all was silent.
With a snap, the bright white lights suddenly turned on. Xiao Cheng closed her eyes slightly, feeling a little uncomfortable. When she turned her head again, she saw that all around her were large mirrors, but the reflections in the mirrors were not of herself.
Instead, it was Fang He with a red string wrapped around his wrist.
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