Secret Room
The secret room was pitch black, with only the rapid breathing of the six people rising and falling.
"Don't panic!" Shen Zheyu's voice was calm and powerful, exceptionally clear in the darkness. "Let's first look for a light source."
They scattered and began rubbing against the surrounding walls. Lin Wanxing found a switch and pressed it, causing the lights in the mourning hall to snap back on, casting a pale, cold light on everyone's faces. Lin Wanxing patted her chest and immediately got to work: "Alright, stop standing around, let's find clues!"
Soon, they found Zhao Tian's eulogy and the marriage certificate for a ghost marriage in the drawer of the offering table.
“My son Zhao Tian has been intelligent since childhood, but he is frail and sickly, and has been bedridden for many years…” Zhou Xiaoxiao read softly, her brows furrowing slightly. “How can the village chief’s son, who is in such poor health, still get married?”
Cheng Zixuan interjected, "Maybe it's a way to bring good luck in marriage, isn't that how it was done in ancient times?"
"Fortunately, a fortune teller advised us to find a woman whose birth chart was compatible with ours to perform a 'lucky marriage' to avert disaster. However, on the wedding day, my son, despite his illness, forced himself to complete the ceremony, only to vomit blood and die in the bridal chamber. The poor bride, Hongxiu, was overcome with grief upon seeing her husband's sudden death and followed him in death that very night..."
"That's terrible..."
"In other words," Lin Wanxing concluded, "the original plan was to bring good luck through a marriage of convenience, but it ended up being a ghost marriage?"
Chu Yiran frowned slightly as he flipped through the old red-background paper: "The ghost marriage ceremony must be completed at midnight. The bride must wear a wedding dress and be buried in the same coffin as her deceased husband..."
"Wait, in the same coffin?" Zhao Lingyi pointed at the coffin. "The sound just now came from here, didn't it?"
Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze fell upon the coffin in the center of the room. Chu Yiran walked over and tried to push the coffin lid, but it didn't budge.
"Can't open it?" Lin Wanxing leaned closer. "The production team must have set a trap."
Shen Zheyu inspected the coffin and found five strangely shaped grooves under the lid.
"This looks a bit like... a keyhole?" Cheng Zixuan stroked his chin. "Do you have to insert something into it?"
Shen Zheyu suggested, "Let's look around and see if there are any other clues."
They searched the small room again. The production team had put a lot of effort into the setup; the wooden tables and chairs were all in a worn state, with a layer of cobwebs and dust on them.
Cheng Zixuan, who is a germaphobe, found a white cloth in the corner to put on his hands and rummaged through the drawers with a disgusted expression on his face; Lin Wanxing rummaged around carelessly, while Zhao Lingyi followed behind her, teasing her while reaching out to help her up the chair she had pushed over; and the timid Zhou Xiaoxiao tried to follow Shen Zheyu for protection, but after a few words, the other party barely paid any attention to her.
Suddenly, Lin Wanxing accidentally kicked over a three-legged candlestick, and a compass-shaped piece of wood rolled out of the old lantern.
She picked up the piece of wood: "Can this be inserted into the groove?"
“There’s one here too.” Cheng Zixuan covered his nose and pinched another spiral-shaped piece of wood that he had taken out of the lantern with a white cloth.
Then they took out pieces of wood of various shapes from the other three candlesticks, which looked somewhat familiar to Chu Yiran.
“Exactly five,” Zhou Xiaoxiao clapped her hands. “Then we can just stick them in!”
They inserted the pieces of wood into the grooves according to the appropriate shape, but the coffin lid remained firmly in place.
Lin Wanxing frowned: "What's going on?"
"Does it have to be turned like unlocking a lock?" Zhao Lingyi said, stepping forward to turn the nearest piece of wood.
The gears started turning, and the coffin lid made a sound, but stopped after a few seconds. The piece of wood that Zhao Lingyi had just twisted also returned to its original position.
“This should require combining traditional woodworking mortise and tenon techniques with specific rules for rotation. I remember reading about it in the *Kaogongji* when I was a child, but I don’t remember it very well…” Chu Yiran frowned. “There should be hidden clues as well—”
Before he finished speaking, Shen Zheyu handed him a worn-out book: "Is this it?"
He had just found it behind the painting on the wall, and Chu Yiran's eyes lit up: "This is it."
At this moment, the comments were still scrolling by non-stop—
"Are you kidding me? Who would read such a niche book as the 'Kaogongji' for no reason?"
"Chu Yiran is such a show-off... Is the production team planning to promote him?"
"You upstairs are uncultured, so you won't let others read? Nobody reads books, but my dad does!"
...
Chu Yiran looked through them for a while, then led the five people to stand in their respective positions with the wooden blocks, while Zhou Xiaoxiao stood aside to watch over them.
"According to the principle of 'circles conform to the compass and squares conform to the square' recorded in the 'Kaogongji', turn the ruler key 90° clockwise, Teacher Shen, you do it. Then turn the compass key (west) counterclockwise 45°, Sister Xing, you do it. Next, turn the rope key 30° to the left and right, Ling Yi, you do it. Keep the level key horizontal and still, Teacher Cheng, you just insert it..." Chu Yiran instructed while looking at the book, "Finally, press the weight down."
Chu Yiran pressed down, and a sound of a mechanism turning rang out. Then the coffin lid began to slide.
"Click—" The coffin lid slowly slid open.
Zhou Xiaoxiao, who was standing in the middle, jumped up and grabbed Cheng Zixuan, who was closest to her, her nails almost digging into his arm.
"Aaaaaah—the coffin moved!!" she screamed with her eyes closed.
The screen was instantly flooded with comments—
"Zhou Xiaoxiao's voice is so loud, it's blasting my headphones!"
"Help! She looks like a screaming chicken whose tail has been stepped on!"
"Hilarious! Cheng Zixuan's face turned pale from being pinched by her, hahaha!"
Cheng Zixuan stumbled as she pulled him: "Let go! You're pinching my flesh!!"
His hand loosened slightly as Zhou Xiaoxiao pulled, and the coffin lid, which had been sliding open, immediately began to close. Chu Yiran quickly stopped him, saying, "Don't move! All five of us need to hold down the mechanism, otherwise the coffin lid will close again."
Cheng Zixuan glared at Zhou Xiaoxiao and forcefully pushed her away with his knee.
Zhao Lingyi glanced sideways at the person standing next to him and said coolly, "Why don't you two just quit the show? So you don't drag the show down."
Zhou Xiaoxiao glared at Zhao Lingyi, then stood up straight and kept quiet.
When the coffin was opened, everyone peered inside and were stunned.
This is a double coffin, but there is only a male lifelike doll in the coffin, dressed in a groom's outfit, with a pale face. There is an empty space next to him, and there is no female corpse at all.
"What the hell?" Cheng Zixuan's eyes widened. "There was definitely a woman crying just now!"
Shen Zheyu lowered his head and noticed that there were words faintly engraved on the back of the coffin lid, but they were obscured by shadows and could not be seen clearly.
“One person needs to lie down inside to see it,” he frowned. “The remaining five people need to keep holding down the mechanism, otherwise it will reset.”
"Lie down there?!" Zhou Xiaoxiao, the only one who was free, took a step back in fright. "No way!"
"Xiaoxiao, come here and hold down the switch, I'll go." Shen Zheyu had just taken a step when Lin Wanxing grabbed him, "Are you sure you can do it? Don't you have claustrophobia?"
Shen Zheyu was taken aback: "How did you know?"
“Last time we were filming, you turned pale in that enclosed prop box, and the director even changed the script.” Lin Wanxing rolled her eyes. “Don’t push yourself.”
"Xiaoxiao, come here to me, I'll go."
After Zhou Xiaoxiao arrived, Chu Yiran stepped directly into the coffin. The others tried to persuade him, but he just waved his hand and said it was nothing.
The coffin was colder than Chu Yiran had imagined.
The production team put a lot of thought into it; the coffin was lined with plain white silk. He lay down next to the doll and suddenly wondered if Su Jing would prepare a coffin for him.
It seems unlikely. He is a traitor and a rebel, someone Su Jing must answer to the world—to the Northern Qi, with whom he has just signed a peace treaty, to those old ministers who spout empty words of benevolence and righteousness, and to the loyal prime minister who has served Su Jing since childhood…
"Teacher Chu, what's written on the back of the coffin?"
Chu Yiran's thoughts were brought back by Shen Zheyu. He touched the uneven engravings on the inner wall of the coffin and could barely make out the crooked characters in the dim light: "Hongxiu... Gengwu year... forced..." The characters were of varying depths, and some looked as if they had been repeatedly scratched by fingernails.
"What does this mean? Is Hongxiu forced into this marriage?"
After Chu Yiran finished reading, everyone fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, a soft "thump" came from the bottom of the coffin. The next second, the bottom of the coffin flipped over, and Chu Yiran fell in.
"Teacher Chu—!"
Shen Zheyu rushed over, but it was too late.
——
The sudden feeling of falling made Chu Yiran instinctively tense up, preparing to meet the impact—but the next second, he was enveloped in a soft touch. He was stunned for a moment, then propped himself up and found himself lying on a spacious bed.
"The production team is really something..." He scoffed, about to get up, when he caught a glimpse of a figure in the corner of the room.
The man sat upright in a chair, his hands tightly bound to his chest with specially made metal clasps, and his feet were also separated and locked to the chair legs.
—It's Su Jing.
Chu Yiran froze, his pupils contracting slightly.
The loudspeakers in both rooms blared, their cheerful electronic voices echoing throughout: [Congratulations to the team of "On the Escape"! Now, please continue your adventure!]
At the same time, the live stream suddenly switched, splitting the screen in two, with the new camera clearly focused on Su Jing's face.
The live chat exploded instantly—
"Holy crap?! Su Jing?!"
"The production team is amazing! They managed to get this person on the show?!"
"Ahhh, Su Jing!! Why is he participating in a variety show??"
"Su Jing hasn't participated in variety shows for several years. How did the production team persuade him to participate?"
...
Chu Yiran stared at Su Jing, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he didn't utter a single word.
Su Jing looked up, met his gaze calmly, and smiled politely: "Hello, I didn't greet you properly last time. I'm Su Jing."
His voice was very calm, as if he were simply giving an ordinary self-introduction.
Chu Yiran remained motionless, his eyes filled with an unreadable emotion.
Su Jing waited for two seconds, and seeing that he did not react, she had no choice but to lift her locked wrist, and the metal chain rattled softly.
“Anyway,” he said with a hint of helplessness, “it seems you need to unlock it for me first.”
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