Chapter 37 Labyrinth 19 He is not so absolutely cold, An...
Baichuan tilted his head to look at Anrao, his expression was as cold as ever. Under the light blue light, he looked like a piece of exquisite blue ice.
"Hello, Doctor Lin." The feather swayed slightly with Baichuan's movements, adding a touch of softness to the figure that was as sharp as a black iron blade.
He is not so absolutely cold, An Rao suddenly thought distractedly.
"one person?"
"Um."
"You press it?" An Rao raised his chin towards the slot machine.
"It will be all right."
An Rao hesitated for a second, then suddenly looked up and asked, "Have you ever been dragged into a boring game of hide-and-seek while pressing the slot machine?"
"No, good luck." There wasn't even any joy in Baichuan's voice, as if pressing the "luck" button was a very common thing.
Damn it, An Rao cursed inwardly, finally knowing who had taken away those seven lucky moments.
"We pressed the button to play a hide-and-seek game. We were chased by ghosts all the way. The rules of death are to stay away from water or places that can produce smoke, and not to hide alone and not to move after hiding," An Rao tried his best to briefly explain the experience he had summarized to Bai Chuan. "The game lasts ten minutes."
"Hide and seek?" Bai Chuan's cool face finally showed some expression. He looked at An Rao with some confusion and asked, "What is hide and seek?"
An Rao: “…”
No, hide and seek! Hide and seek!
"You...have never played hide-and-seek?" An Rao asked tentatively. That's impossible!
"No? How to play hide and seek? What is hide and seek?" Baichuan was very frank in his ignorance.
No, is the reason why you guys are so aloof because you have lived in the uninhabited Arctic since childhood?
"So what did you play as a kid?" Faced with life and death, An Rao even felt that Baichuan's childhood was more terrifying than an amusement park.
"I don't remember," Baichuan shook his head, "I don't remember anything, so I have to find the person named An Rao."
An Rao: ...again, I really don’t know you, I really don’t know anything!
An Rao stared at Bai Chuan's sharp brows, and could even imagine that if Bai Chuan knew that she was An Rao, but she knew nothing about him, he would definitely kill her without hesitation and without changing his expression!
Even scarier than an amusement park!
An Rao hesitated for a few seconds, which was rare. Thinking of the game that obviously didn't produce any results, he had to carefully explain the rules of the hide-and-seek game to Baichuan.
"I understand," Baichuan nodded, "very evil."
An Rao: ? That’s not the case, it depends on where you play.
"So let me do it. It looks like your luck isn't very good." Boss Baichuan rarely expressed his disdain directly, and then his big, bony hand directly pressed the button of the slot machine.
"Ding Dong, let's try our luck!" The cheerful electronic music sounded again, seeming unusually abrupt in the empty room. The obviously synthesized fake child's voice pinched its nose and pretended to be innocent as it announced.
An Rao stared at the dazzling display screen of the slot machine and felt unusually nervous. Now there were only him and Baichuan in the room. If they were really dragged into a game of hide-and-seek, they would be facing Dongdong and six cardboard players who had become accomplices. It would be a hunt without suspense.
An Rao took off his glasses and rubbed his dry eyes.
"Isn't the symbol of the game of hide and seek a little boy in a pointy hat?" asked Kashiwa.
An Rao opened his eyes immediately, and a little boy wearing a crown appeared on the screen as expected.
"Yes, it seems that you can make up for the shortcomings of your childhood today." An Rao smiled helplessly as he looked at the little boy icon that slowly stopped on the screen.
The second one.
The third one.
An Rao resigned himself to his fate and faced another round of dizziness.
The villa became empty; the sofas, coffee tables, cabinets and even curtains had all disappeared. The huge living room seemed like a newly built reinforced concrete shell that had not yet been occupied. Only the oil paintings hanging on the wall were left, staring coldly at the only two living people standing in the living room.
Six paper figures were sitting side by side on the only remaining sofa, their facial features drawn with colored pencils staring at the red birthday cake in front of them with frozen expressions of fear.
"It seems that they are not going to give us a chance to hide." Baichuan said after looking around the layout of the first floor of the villa.
"This villa should have three floors." An Rao held out a glimmer of hope.
Baichuan shook his head and pointed at the sofa and said, "There are two empty seats on the sofa. Who do you think they are for?"
An Rao: ...
"Aha! You two are the only ones left! Hide well! If we find you this time, we'll really have to blow out the candles!" Dongdong pointed at the clock that had disappeared, "Start singing the birthday song at 5:30!"
"I'm going to start the countdown!" said the faceless kid Dongdong, and six cardboard people slowly stood up from the sofa with a teeth-grinding sound of bones scraping, as if they had been sitting for a very long time. Their joints were as stiff as rusty. After a rustling sound of paper shells rubbing against the ground, the six cardboard people all turned to face An Rao and Baichuan. In their blackened eyes, malice surged with fear and unwillingness.
"Ten." The paper men took a step towards An Rao and Bai Chuan.
There was no place to hide on the first floor. Baichuan and Anrao looked at each other and ran straight to the second floor tacitly.
"eight."
An Rao and Bai Chuan ran to the second floor, but found that all the rooms in the corridor had disappeared. Even the originally semi-enclosed storage room was left with only a bare semi-circular wall, which could no longer be used to hide.
"five."
"Separately look for a hiding place, and shout when you find one." Baichuan's voice was as steady as ever, but the corners of his sharp mouth tightened. He was also nervous.
"Okay." An Rao agreed, then headed towards the third floor without looking back.
There was only a small attic on the third floor. An Rao turned the doorknob and through the dim light from the attic skylight, he could see several large cabinets placed in a mess in the attic. He immediately turned around and went out and shouted downstairs: "Baichuan, go to the third floor, there is a place to hide!"
What responded to An Rao was endless silence.
What's going on? An Rao frowned, and his grip on the stair railing suddenly tightened.
"three."
In the silence without a response, the countdown began with the rustling sound of cardboard rubbing against the ground. In the blink of an eye, six cardboard men stood quietly on the stairs in front of An Rao, blocking An Rao's way to the second floor.
"Crack, crack, crack..." After a series of teeth-grinding sounds of bones being forcibly broken, the six paper figures all looked up at An Rao. The expressions of fear fixed on their stick-drawn facial features disappeared, replaced by smiles. The mouths drawn with bright red watercolor pens grinned to their ears, as if they were joyfully inviting An Rao to join.
"one."
There was still no movement from Baichuan on the second floor. An Rao slapped the railing hard, turned around, opened the attic door, and hid inside.
"Click." The moment the door lock was closed, the skylight on the sloping roof of the attic disappeared instantly, and the room fell into silent darkness. His hearing, vision, and smell were deprived at the same time, and An Rao felt like he was falling into endless nothingness.
Fear was like a surging tide that completely submerged An Rao. An Rao stretched out his hand and stumbled in the darkness, trying to find the large cabinet he had seen before to hide himself in, but he could not find it no matter what. The cabinet, furniture and the skylight had all disappeared!
His heart began to beat wildly uncontrollably. In the enclosed space without a trace of light or sound, the cold sweat that suddenly broke out soaked his shirt again. He even felt that the oxygen was rapidly disappearing and he could not breathe!
In the dizziness of lack of oxygen, he returned to the day when Dongdong was ten years old. At Dongdong's birthday party, everyone played hide-and-seek. In the end, Dongdong and several other classmates locked themselves in an empty warehouse. There was no light, no sound, and no objects to save themselves. He shouted for help but no one came to save him. He spent two whole days without being able to hear, see, touch, or smell. He was not rescued until he was on the verge of death because a thief who came to steal accidentally opened the warehouse.
Later he found out that after locking him up, everyone went to cut the cake to celebrate. After the birthday party, no one remembered that he was locked up in the warehouse. The next day, Dongdong went out on vacation with his family. If it weren't for the thief who accidentally had the intention to steal, he might have died long ago.
After an endless and fruitless search, An Rao fell to the ground and curled up in a corner, like a wet fish thrown ashore. His heart was pounding, his whole body was shaking, and he was struggling to breathe in the thin oxygen.
It was not until this time that An Rao truly understood the meaning of the maze. It deliberately took him back to the heavy rain when he was ten years old, locking him in the darkness that would trap him forever. When he was only one step away from the exit of the maze, he was locked in a nightmare that he could never escape from.
The maze is playing tricks on him, or rather, the amusement park is playing tricks on him. An Rao is no longer worried about Bai Chuan's safety. All the paper men are quietly guarding outside the door. Bai Chuan is not the target. The real prey has always been him, An Rao.
His mind began to uncontrollably dissipate. He now wanted to shout and scream, to rush out desperately, to break the non-existent window and jump out, to die, to end it all, to use any means to destroy himself. As long as he could end this empty and painful confinement, he would do anything!
No! An Rao shook his head vigorously, suppressing those ghostly thoughts that tempted him to self-destruct. He was no longer that helpless little boy, was he? !
An Rao struggled to move his fingers and used all his strength to touch the screen of the wristband, but there was no response and no light on the wristband. This enclosed space was deliberately depriving him of his senses, even the wristband that came with the amusement park was not spared.
An Rao, who was teetering on the edge of collapse, suddenly realized that the wristband of the amusement park could not be broken in the game. Now the wristband had no light, which meant that it was intentional sensory deprivation, but in fact the wristband was not broken! An Rao, who had seen through the intention, forced himself to calm down, closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, recalling the steps of turning out the dagger pattern and the navigation diary pattern from the wristband in the hotel, and controlling his hands as much as possible to replicate it.
"Clang." A sound finally appeared in the absolutely silent space, and the golden dagger given by the Duchess of Newcastle fell out of the wristband.
An Rao stretched out his trembling hand, groped for the dagger on the ground in the absolute darkness, grasped it in his hand, and used force to cut the sharp blade into his palm.
Severe pain came from the palm of his hand, and he smelled the unique metallic sweet smell of blood. An Rao threw away the dagger and tightly grasped his palm which was bleeding. He was shaking with pain, and cold sweat was wetting and wetting. His trembling palm felt slightly numb and itchy, and blood was flowing from his palm to his forearm.
Pain is good. Pain can keep people awake and prevent them from going crazy.
But why, why doesn't Dongdong come to find someone? !
An Rao tried hard to use the pain to keep himself awake, but it was not enough, far from enough. When he realized that his will was beginning to become chaotic again, An Rao picked up the dagger on the ground before his senses disappeared again, fumbled for the wound on his palm, and cut it hard again.
"Ouch...!" The wound that had been slowly healing was cut open again and deepened. The air was once again filled with the unique sweet smell of blood. This time the pain was even more intense. An Rao fell to the ground, curled up, and gasped for breath.
It hurts so much and it’s so cold.
In the trance of pain, he finally heard bursts of banging sounds. Something was hitting the wall hard. Could it be Dongdong?
Am I finally going to become a cardboard figure? Going to that birthday party that I ultimately couldn't attend?
But I’m so cold and sleepy. I really want to take a nap…
"Crash!" The wall was knocked open, and his eyes, which had been blind for a long time, squinted due to the stimulation of the flames in the sky. Six paper-shell people struggled and twisted in the fire, screaming silently. He saw a tall and beautiful figure walking towards him.
It seemed like a long, long time ago, perhaps several centuries ago, there seemed to be such a person who walked towards me in the same way when I was on the verge of death and despair. He was full of golden light like a god, and then he stretched out his warm and clean hand to me and asked, "Are you okay?"
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