Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 12

Mo Yi frowned and looked at these misty photos, but his train of thought seemed to be shrouded in these dense mists, so he couldn’t think of an explanation..

Just then, Yu Li’s confused voice came from behind, “Eh? That’s strange. These photos just now weren’t like this ah.”

.

Mo Yi’s heart tightened, and he turned to look at her. “What were they like?”

His eyes were very dark. When he unwaveringly stared at someone, it would always give people the illusion of directly facing a knifes edge.

It seemed that Mo Yi was not at ease. Yu Li subconsciously averted her eyes, tilted her head for a moment, and then replied with some uncertainty, “It seemed to be … a corridor and things like that, maybe?”

Mo Yi was taken aback, and he turned to Jiang Yuanbai. “Do you have a watch?”

Jiang Yuanbai was a little confused and he nodded. “En, ah, what’s the matter?”

“You do the calculations, is it still after class?” Mo Yi said.? Each word was accurate and clear.

“Yes.” Shen Lei on the side suddenly opened his mouth and looked at Mo Yi thoughtfully.

Mo Yi nodded and looked at Yu Li again. “You said that when you first saw these photos, they didn’t change … right? Then when was the last time you saw it in your memory?”

Yu Li frowned and thought for a moment, then replied, “Probably before those photos started to move? I’m not sure.”

Mo Yi’s eyes were very bright. “The photos were disturbed because Jiang Yuanbai and I came in, so the photos began to move after we arrived: so, before we entered the illusion, the pictures in these photos were still stairs?”

“It should be like this.” Yu Li nodded.

Mo Yi continued, “And Jiang Yuanbai and I happened to enter the illusion when the class dismissal bell rang, and outside of the illusion, after the school bell rings …”

“… There will be mist!” Jiang Yuanbai was stunned, and he seemed to have figured out something, and he couldn’t help but loudly interject.

Shen Lei couldn’t help but step forward and looked at Mo Yi with piercing eyes. “You mean, these photos will become a … window after it drags people inside? In other words, the scenery in these photos is actually what it looks like outside the illusion.”

Mo Yi nodded, then hesitated and shook his head. “The clues are too few. It’s just my guess.”

“But….” He continued, “If my guess is correct, the good news is that the passage of time in the illusion is the same as that outside the illusion. If you stay here for five hours, you can also clear customs.”

As if seeing the hope of living, everyone couldn’t help but brighten up.

Shen Lei suddenly said, “What’s the bad news?”

Just now, the relaxed atmosphere abruptly became serious, and several people cast their eyes to Mo Yi.

The cold and venomous eyes of the previous photo that had its arm cut off flashed through his mind. Mo Yi hesitated for a moment and then replied, “After killing, the photo becomes a window to communicate between illusion and reality, so … where did the people in the photo go?”

Although his voice was not loud, what he said made people feel like they fell into an ice cellar, and their whole body went ice cold.

Yes, where did they go? Did they just disappear?

No one could persuade themselves to calmly accept this inference without any resistance. After all, in the world of escape games, no matter how ordinary things appeared, they could be fatal, let alone this photo, which at first glance, was already extremely mysterious.

Everyone was lost in thought.

— Mo Yi was the same

Only, he was thinking about something else.

Mo Yi unconsciously stroked the notebook and folder in his hand, and his fingers slowly tightened. Their cold edges and corners pressed against his palm, and the rough and hard texture was almost impossible to ignore.

Since … in this illusion, they could stay in this blind spot which had no photos, and as long as they survived within the remaining time, they could clear customs.

So, was it necessary for him to continue exploring?

All of a sudden, Jiang Yuanbai’s joyous voice rang in his ear, “Look!”

Mo Yi reigned in his thoughts, raised his head, and looked towards the direction Jiang Yuanbai was pointing to. He saw that the scene in the photos hanging in the air were slowly changing. The white mist quickly dissipated in a few seconds, revealing a brand-new stairwell.

Shen Lei looked at him, and he didn’t know whether his tone was relieved or complicated, “… It seems that your guess is right. These photos have indeed become windows to communicate between illusion and reality. It looks like we are saved.”

The atmosphere, after a long time, finally lightened.

Mo Yi looked at them and smiled, made up his mind, and then lowered his head to open the folder.

He was not destined to be a pure optimist.

Because he never believed in luck or coincidences.

— Or in waiting.

His fingers rubbed the rough surface of the folder. The files in the folder exuded a damp smell of not having seen the sun all year round, and the pages were surprisingly white as new, as if they had been exempt from the passing of time.

Mo Yi sat down cross legged and buried himself in the thin pages of the files. He had already read most of the content. He simply browsed through it and made sure that nothing was missed. Then, he turned back to the spot he had read last time.

Unexpectedly, only the last page was left.

There was only a single line on the blank paper:

“November 14, 1995. The archive was sealed.”

Mo Yi’s eyebrows slowly furrowed. He had roughly calculated that 204 days before the college entrance exam in 1996 was approximately November 14, 1995: so, the day when the archive was sealed happened to be the time when the classroom came to a standstill.

So, what did it mean to seal the archive? Was Zhao Qiulan dead?

— Wait.

Mo Yi realized that something was wrong and turned back a page in a hurry.

There was no difference between this page and the one he had read last time. The whole page was densely packed with small scarlet letters, and at the bottom was the large and bolded first level disciplinary action on September 1, 1994.

The bottom of this page had September 1994, but the next page jumped directly to November 1995! And in that whole year, there was nothing in the file!

Even if there was no disciplinary action records, there should be information on achievements and so on.

He turned to the next page again. The pads of his fingers slowly brushed across the space between the two pages, and an uneven sensation was transmitted to his fingertips. There should have been a few pages there, but they were taken away.

No wonder he thought this folder was surprisingly thin, it was because it was originally an incomplete file!

993, footless swallow, 712, and the unnamed mist.

In the prompt, there was still the hint, “footless swallow,” which had no clues. Then, did it have anything to do with the missing files?

Mo Yi’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and his dark eyes were clouded over.

Suddenly, a hand gently patted Mo Yi’s shoulder. Shen Lei’s voice sounded in his ear, “What are you looking at?”

Mo Yi was pulled away from his thoughts and looked at Shen Lei, who had approached him, and replied, “Before, I was looking at the files I got on the second floor. I think it may help us.”

Shen Lei looked down at the page in his hand, stretched out his hand and took out the last page. He looked at it for a while and frowned. “Maybe.”

Then, he put the page back into the folder in Mo Yi’s hand, and gently touched the folder with the fingertips of his right hand, and said in a deep voice, “However, out primary goal now is to stay here for the full time and escape. Besides, didn’t you say that the people in the photos are a threat? Instead of studying this, it’s better to be vigilant.”

Mo Yi’s eyes unconsciously fell on his knuckles.

Shen Lei’s fingers were slender and well defined. However, it was obvious that because of years of smoking, his index finger and middle finger were yellowed by tobacco.

He looked away without a trace, then closed the folder and looked up at Shen Lei and sincerely said, “You’re right. It’s really not the time to do this. It’s because I’m too nitpicky“.

After a pause, he continued, “What’s more, Sister Yu Li is still badly injured. How about this … you go take care of her first. Jiang Yuanbai and I will be on guard. We’ll change later.”

Shen Lei hesitated for a while and finally nodded and walked towards Yu Li.

Watching as Shen Lei went to Yu Li, Mo Yi tried to stand up, but he failed several times. Frustrated, he turned to look at Jiang Yuanbai and held out his hands to him. “You lend me a hand. My legs are a little numb.”

His palms were hanging in the air. His fingers were long and slender, and his thin skin was wrapped around his slim wrists, which looked as if it would snap off if he bent them.

Jiang Yuanbai smiled helplessly, and then obediently walked over and forcefully pulled him up.

The instant their shoulders crossed paths, he heard Mo Yi’s deliberately lowered voice floating into his ears, “— Be careful. Shen Lei is a fake.”