The Scorching Sun - 31

 Fang Zhuo crawled through the passage for a while longer before finally climbing out through a cabinet at the end.

The door to this room stood half-open.

Following the sound of Yan Lie's voice, she turned a couple of times to get her bearings, only to promptly lose all sense of direction.

Perhaps sensing her presence, Yan Lie suddenly went quiet.

Fang Zhuo concentrated, listening for a moment, but lost his trail again. Instead, she heard Shen Musi and the others screaming and running somewhere beyond the walls.

And he had called it fate?

Completely lost, Fang Zhuo gave up and wandered around like a headless fly. After turning a corner, she nearly walked straight into Yan Lie, who was hiding in a corner holding his breath.

Both of them froze.

Fang Zhuo immediately reflected on her performance.

Sure, she was wearing an oversized bloodstained robe, but she possessed absolutely none of the professionalism expected of a haunted-house employee.

She should have charged at him right away, bared her teeth at Yan Lie, and chased him all the way to the end of the escape room.

Not stand here conducting a self-evaluation.

Fortunately, Yan Lie's imagination was doing most of the work for her.

The moment he saw her, he nearly scared himself into turning around.

Fang Zhuo waited for him to leave on his own.

For some reason, though, he stopped, and stood in place, staring in her direction.

She thought he was rather pitiable. Back in the countryside, even a dark shadow had traumatized him. Who knew how much torment he’d suffered inside this chamber.

Deciding not to make things harder for him, she prepared to identify herself.

Before she could speak, the person opposite her moved first, rushing over at top speed.

Fang Zhuo instinctively tried to dodge. Unfortunately, she was no match for Yan Lie's explosive force. She had only taken a single step back when Yan Lie wrapped both arms around her.

The sheer momentum nearly sent her toppling backward, but she was steadied by his tight grip.

Yan Lie pressed his head against the curve of her neck, squeezing her so hard she could barely breathe. His warm breath fanned against her ear, and the heat of his body against hers felt scorching.

He must have been terrified.

Fang Zhuo was not very good at handling this sort of thing. Her mind went blank for a moment.

Like a lagging online game that made you think you'd already left the map, only to refresh and reveal that you were still standing exactly where you started.

She briefly assessed whether Yan Lie had recognized her, then immediately realized it didn’t truly matter. 

Whenever Yan Lie acted pitiful toward her, her tolerance seemed capable of expanding without limit.

That would not do.

She silently counted, deciding she would push him away once she reached ten.

But after reaching six, the numbers started falling apart.

An embrace, in her memory bank, was simply not a frequent occurrence.

To be precise, she always thought it was the first need humans learned to abandon in the process of growing up.

If she had to trace it back, it was probably when she was very small that her grandmother had once offered her comfort like this.

Yet the old woman’s tenderness was always fleeting. As if she feared Fang Zhuo might become addicted to it if it continued for too long.

Lying in her grandmother's arms, Fang Zhuo had never once counted past the number “six.” Her moment of weakness never won out.

Yet those few brief seconds had remained lodged in her memory ever since.

Impossible to forget.

Fang Zhuo hadn't measured the exact time. But she felt the duration of Yan Lie’s embrace was already long enough for her to count six many times over.

Perhaps far more.

This kind of attachment wasn't normal.

From the perspective of solving a problem, it should probably be discarded.

Just as she started to raise her hand, Yan Lie seemed to sense it and released her first.

Without giving her a chance to speak, he turned and ran away.

Beyond the wall, the others were still being chased around by NPCs.

Wei Xi tried to grab Zhao Jiayou. Among everyone present, he looked like the second bravest person after Fang Zhuo.

Unfortunately, he and Shen Musi had already latched onto each other in terror. The two cowards clung together, their facial features nearly flying off their faces from fear.

When Wei Xi approached, they actually linked arms and ran away from her.

At that moment, Wei Xi's fear completely vanished.

What ghost in this world could possibly be more terrifying than straight boys? And she was surrounded by several of them now.

Expressionless, she pulled out the walkie-talkie. "Hello? Boss? Where are my friends? Never mind the two who ran off. We left one behind in the room earlier, and another person went looking for her. Have they come back yet?"

In his panic, Yan Lie had grabbed Zhao Jiayou and fled. Halfway through, he realized he’d pulled along the wrong person. His face went stark white, and he'd turned around to search for Fang Zhuo.

Neither of them had returned since.

The signal connected, and the owner's lazy voice came through. "I'm keeping an eye on them for you."

"We don't need you keeping an eye on them! Give them back!" Wei Xi exploded. "They’re the only two bold people in our group! Without them, we can’t finish this chamber!”

The walkie-talkie fell silent for a moment, then the owner's infuriating voice replied:

"That might be difficult."

All the girls protested at once. "What's so difficult about it?! Are you running an escape room or a human trafficking ring? Give them back!”

“If you’re going to kidnap someone, can you pick a different target? We'll trade you those other two idiots!"

The owner remained unmoved. "No."

In the end, they failed the challenge completely.

The whole experience was a disaster from start to finish.

Whether they were incredibly unlucky or the staff were simply too dedicated, NPCs seemed to appear no matter where they went.

At first they still reacted with proper fear.

By the end, they were practically numb to it.

Two hours passed quickly. Since there were no customers scheduled afterward, the owner took pity on them and gave them an extra half hour free of charge so they could bond with the NPCs inside.

Eventually, after realizing they had absolutely no chance of finding the correct clues, the staff finally escorted them through the entire mechanism route and led them out.

The group returned to the front desk looking thoroughly defeated.

Shen Musi drooped his head and let out a long sigh. The birthday girl was even more miserable. She hadn’t received a shred of the treatment a fairy princess deserved.

Yan Lie was sitting leisurely by a table, playing on his phone. Seeing them come out, he raised a hand in greeting.

Wei Xi said in surprise, “Yan Lie, what are you doing here?”

Yan Lie smiled but didn’t answer.

Wei Xi asked, “Then where’s Fang Zhuo?”

At that moment, Fang Zhuo emerged from the back.

She dusted off her clothes and removed her outer, draping it over one arm.

Her roommates immediately surrounded her."Where did you go? We searched the entire map and couldn't find you!"

"I couldn't beat them," Fang Zhuo said. "So I joined them."

The owner lifted his phone and waved it. "Hardworking employee. I've already transferred the money to the same account."

Fang Zhuo nodded.

Wei Xi spent two seconds processing that information before suddenly realizing. "Wait. The NPC who kept chasing me was you? How did you infiltrate the enemy ranks?"

Fang Zhuo asked, "Was it fun?"

Shen Musi stiffened and answered, "It was fun!"

Wei Xi sneered. "There won't be a next time."

***

Everyone was exhausted after the outing.

They went to the restaurant Wei Xi had booked for a meal, and afterward Fang Zhuo and Yan Lie headed back to school.

Sitting side by side on the bus, one looked out the window while the other watched the television mounted at the front.

Neither spoke for more than ten minutes.

This time they hadn't managed to get good seats. Sunlight from outside illuminated one side of Yan Lie's face.

Even though they weren't sitting particularly close together, Fang Zhuo could almost hear his heartbeat.

Even after leaving that hidden corridor, some of the sensation still lingered there.

This silence wasn't normal.

When the same advertisement played for the third time, Fang Zhuo finally moved.

Sliding a hand into her jacket pocket, she said, "The money. I'll pay you back later."

At last, Yan Lie emerged from his statue-like state. He turned his head and said first, “Am I not allowed to spend money on you?”

Then he added, “I told you it was my treat. After all, I was the one who invited you."

Immediately after, he tagged on: “Last time, you treated me to a meal.”

Fang Zhuo, for a moment, didn’t know which of his statements she should respond to.

“I only bought you a bowl of noodles.”

"I still haven't given you a birthday present," Yan Lie said. One justification after another surfaced in his head and came tumbling out, whether they logically connected or not. "You only had two hundred yuan and still spent twenty of it buying me lunch. I just treated you to a game, and you even earned half of it back yourself. Honestly, I think you're the one who got the worse deal."

Once again, Fang Zhuo found herself unable to answer him.

She scratched lightly at the end of her eyebrow and turned her attention back to the television.

During the silence that followed, Yan Lie realized he was going to be the one compromising again.

"My birthday is July sixteenth," he said. "And don't ask me what I want. I'm not picking out my own gift."

"Okay," said Fang Zhuo.

The cold female voice of the bus announcement sounded overhead.

"Next stop, A High School."

Fang Zhuo checked her belongings and prepared to stand up.

Yan Lie placed one hand on the back of the seat in front of him and suddenly sighed with feeling, "When is the college entrance exam going to get here?"

Fang Zhuo turned back to look at him.

His gaze was drifting somewhere far away, the corners of his lips pressed downward. In a quiet voice that sounded almost like a complaint, he said, "Suddenly, I don’t really want to go back to this place anymore.”

Fang Zhuo calculated it for him and said, “197 days left.”

---

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