The Creatures That We Are

“Little Gao, do you know...this beautiful lady?” Lin Dajian’s limbs went stiff, his eyes glued to Vermilion Bird. He almost couldn’t control his tongue to speak properly.

The woman checked all the boxes for his dream girl. She was so perfect to him that she might as well have been a manifestation of his imagination.

At that moment, Lin Dajian, in his nineteenth year in life, finally understood what love at first sight was.

Without waiting for Gao Yang to answer, Vermilion Bird said, “We played two escape rooms together and added each other as friends.”

She turned to Can, pretending to not know her. “Are you all Gao Yang’s schoolmates?”

“Yeah, we’re Little Gao’s roommates,” Lin Dajian said in an earnest tone. “The two girls are sophomores. We go to the same college.”

“Hello, Sister Xia. I’m Orange.” Can put on an act.

“Hello.” Vermilion Bird smiled. Lin Dajian started introducing the others for her without being asked to. “I’m Lin Dajian, the room leader of Little Gao’s dorm room. Just call me Dajian, haha. This is Qiu Qiu. He’s Mi Shi. And she’s Zhou Jing.”

Just when Lin Dajian finished the introduction, the couple in the corner sofa came up to them.

Vermilion Bird looked over, reaching a conclusion quickly with her keen observation. She thought with surprise, Ha, that’s quite an age gap for a couple.

“Greetings, I’m Edmond,” the older gentleman with blond hair and blue eyes said with a graceful smile, his voice velvety smooth.

He glanced at the young girl beside him. “This is my friend, Miss Ke Yo.”

“Hello.” The girl, Ke Yo, smiled with her lips pursed. She could be feeling bashful, or she could be putting on a smile she didn’t feel. It was difficult to read her expression.

Gao Yang thought, The girl may look and feel average, but her name is unusual

“Ladies and gentlemen.” The moderator, a young man, came over then. “In three minutes, we’re going to enter the escape room and have an adventure. Please hand in your phones and your personal belongings. Pick two people to hold the walkie-talkies. If you encounter any problem, you may contact me with the walkie-talkies, but bear in mind that it’s best to explore on your own to enjoy the escape room to the fullest...”

They handed in their personal belongings. Vermilion Bird and Edmond each took a walkie-talkie.

Soon, they followed the moderator to a rusty metal door. In red paint, the words ‘No.9 Hospital’ were written, under which was the runtime of the game: 60 minutes.

“The nine of you are a group of paranormal fanatics. You arrived at a hospital that has been closed down for three years. It’s said that the place is haunted.”

The moderator introduced the background story of the game concisely. “As soon as you entered the hospital, you realized that you were locked inside. You must try your best to escape and find the truth about the haunting.”

“Are there ghosts inside?” Vermilion Bird’s eyes glinted as she held onto the walkie-talkie, looking equal parts excited and scared.

The moderator didn’t give her a direct answer. “I’ll refrain from giving you spoilers.”

Vermilion Bird got even more excited and scared.

Creak.

The moderator opened the metal gate. It was dark inside.

“Please, this way.”

“Whoa, it’s scary!” Zhou Jing acted timid on purpose.

“Don’t be scared, Jing Jing. I’m here. I’ll protect you!” Qiu Qiu took Zhou Jing’s hand and headed in first.

Edmond and Ke Yo entered the room shoulder-to-shoulder, looking at ease but not terribly intimate. Following them were Lin Dajian and Mi Shi.

As soon as Gao Yang took his step, he was suddenly sandwiched by Can and Vermilion Bird. Both looked stiff and nervous, seemingly having conjured countless horror films in their heads and were ready to hold onto Gao Yang and scream.

Wait, it’s not even started, Gao Yang thought, exasperated. Can acting like this is one thing, but Vermilion Bird, you’re an Elder. Don’t you care about your image as a leader?

Once all nine of them entered the escape room, the metal door slammed shut with a bang, and they suddenly found themselves shrouded in pure darkness.

“Ahhhh!”

The girls screamed.

Gao Yang lost his elbows to the two women on his side.

Pzzt.

Two seconds later, the light above their heads turned on, and the four hands holding onto Gao Yang’s two elbows let go.

Holding the walkie-talkie, Vermilion Bird pretended to be looking elsewhere, while Can averted her gaze and played with her bang like nothing had happened.

Gao Yang would rather not go into it. He started looking around.

The light bulb was a low voltage one, and thus the room was only dimly lit with flickering light, creating an oppressive and creepy atmosphere.

The room that was half as big as an average classroom was an operating theater. Behind the bloodied light blue curtains, the surgical bed had a big patch of dried blood on it. Next to it was a small cart with surgical instruments for child delivery.

Clearly, it was a delivery room. The mother had just received C-section and ended up losing excessive blood.

Bam, bam bam.

Qiu Qiu was bold. He went up to the other door and found a passlock. It must be the door leading to the next room.

“We need a passcode,” Zhou Jing stated the obvious, following Qiu Qiu closely.

“There’s a movement puzzle on the door lintel,” Edmond said in his rich voice.

They looked up at the puzzle. It was about the size of a desktop screen, and the pictures of the puzzle were mixed up.

“Let me try!” Lin Dajian didn’t miss the chance to make himself look good. He noticed that the beautiful lady named Sister Xia was quite a scaredy cat, and that she had been sticking close to Gao Yang.

That must be because Sister Xia only knew Gao Yang here. Lin Dajian believed that he would be able to win her goodwill by showing how brave, smart, dependable, and reliable he was. Then she would be clinging to him instead.

With his wealth of experience in solving puzzles in console games, Lin Dajian quickly solved the puzzle on the door.

It was a childish doodle of a man, a woman, and a little girl having turkey together. At the bottom was a name and a date: Anna, 11.25.

“The passcode is four digits,” Vermilion Bird voiced her finding. “This can’t be the passcode, can it?”

Of course not, Gao Yang thought. The suggested runtime is 1 hour. We’ll be kept here for a while.

Lin Dajian quickly tried 1125. It was the wrong passcode.

“In reverse, maybe?” Can suggested.

Lin Dajian tried as she said, but again, it was the wrong passcode.

“Then it must be a misdirection,” said Mi Shi. “We should look around the room. There must be other clues.”

The others agreed, and they split up to look for clues.

Although there were many props in the room, to lower the difficulty, they had all been made in a way to make it obvious what were valuable clues and what were only there to set up the scene.

For example, there was a cabinet with many patient dossiers, but they were all fake; the folders couldn’t even be opened.

“I...I think I found it!” Can called out excitedly.

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