Chapter 39.1 – You know… that we’re running short of time, right?

Proofreader: Lore

After Xia Rong came out of the dressing room and asked his friends what role they pulled, Gao Junming was the first to respond, “I got the Young Hunter…”

Su Chi said, “Young Wizard.”

Ye Mang said, “Young King.”

Kang Yifan was slightly proud and said, “I’m the Young Prince!”

Everyone answered very generously and straightforwardly, and the remaining two who were acting relatively coyer, aside from Xia Rong, was Zhang Xin. Under Kang Yifan’s constant urging, Zhang Xin’s complexion turned livid, then he finally answered, “I pulled the Young… Young Princess.”

Everyone burst into laughter, except Xia Rong一 when he first came out after choosing the card, he could tell from Zhang Xin’s expression that the other was probably in a more miserable state than himself.

Now that Zhang Xin was being ridiculed by the group, Xia Rong also had the feeling of being a fox grieving over a rabbit’s death¹Raw: 兔死狐悲 [tù sǐ hú bēi] figuratively, it means ‘to have sympathy for a person whom you share like-minded, mutual distress’. In this case, Xia Rong and Zhang Xin are in similar situations.. After dragging it out for a while, he too got coaxed by the crowd and worriedly told them his character card, “Mine is the Young Red Riding Hood.”

“Hahaha haha!! I’m really curious how Young Princess and Young Red Riding Hood would look after changing into the costumes in a bit…” Kang Yifan gloated at the other two’s misfortune.

“But, why does everyone’s character card have the word ‘young’ in front of it?” Ye Mang raised the question.

Su Chi surmised, “Perhaps it’s because they’re the childhood version of the characters from the fairy tales? Could it be they’ll grow up through the completion of tasks?”

Ye Mang nodded and said, “That’s possible…” He paused somewhat and again started teasing Zhang Xin and Xia Rong. “Then is the Little Princess going to become a ‘Big Princess²The standard typical where ‘da’ can be interpreted as big/old/older/etc, while ‘xiao’ can be interpreted as young/small/little/etc. So just keep in mind that ‘Little Princess’ and ‘Young Princess’ in this case would both use ‘xiao’, I might also use them interchangeably.’? And the Little Red Riding Hood would become a ‘Big Red Riding Hood’?”

Zhang Xin and Xia Rong both complained at the same time, “…You guys, enough!”

The group of friends hadn’t been able to joke around for too long before the on-scene director began to send them to change into costume in their respective dressing rooms. Everyone’s changing room was independent. Xia Rong held his heart as he shook out his ‘equipment’, inspecting it in and out before feeling slightly more relieved. Although the overall color scheme was on the brighter, catchier side, the style was still relatively heroic and crisp: leather armor, leather gloves, and high boots that were narrow and form-fitting and didn’t look feminine at all. Then adding on the long red hooded cloak that was a necessity for ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, with the hood down and a flap of the cloak, he practically had the illusion that he was a young general, ready and waiting for the upcoming journey.

Unexpectedly, after he finished changing and left the changing room, before Xia Rong could even show off this outfit to his other little friends, he was directly brought to a secret room by a ‘black-clothed man’ sent by the program crew.

As soon as he entered the secret room, he shuddered, and the reason was none other than一 The secret room was just too cold, it was truly, downright cold. In the middle of the room was a large iron cage filled with many ice blocks half the height of a person, which was continuously releasing coldness into the air.

Xia Rong noticed that there was a thermometer at the door, indicating that it was now -1 degrees celsius. No wonder that his allotted ‘equipment’ was so heat preserving, turns out it was all premeditated.

He looked around the room. Along the walls of this ‘secret chamber’, a number of fluorescent lights had been installed, but none of them were on and were instead rather dusty with no light switch visible to the eye. At two opposite corners of the room, there was respectively a small black box with props beside them, including a blank poster board and what seemed to be a board game box. Xia Rong had just walked over to the corner with the poster board when suddenly an announcement from the program team sounded above his head.

With how sudden the amplified broadcast rang out inside the secret room, not only did it spook Xia Rong into a small jump, but even the fluorescent lights seemed to have flickered in response.

“Dear little children of Fairy Tale Kingdom, welcome to the Super Witch’s Castle. As everyone hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of candy, you guys had been lured by the witch into her castle. If everyone can’t escape from the castle by the end of the day, the witch will turn everyone into dolls before dawn.”

Xia Rong: …Who couldn’t withstand the temptation of candy! Can the screenwriter not throw the blame onto the players!

At the same time as he was complaining, he knew that the game of this round should be to escape from this chamber within the allotted time, and as to how to escape一

“Three keys are needed to escape from the secret chamber. The keys have been magically sealed inside the ice that is in the middle of the room by the witch. The two code-locked boxes in the corners of the room respectively contain the key to the cage and the tool needed to break the ice. Only after you have collected all three keys can you open the door out of the secret room. When, at the same time, you will also get the information about your companions with whom you will be traveling this journey. Keep it up and carry on! With your companions, escape from the castle and escape from this piece of the forest! There are still 30 minutes before dawn. The countdown begins in five, four, three…”

Only half an hour left before dawn? If it had been Kang Yifan, at this time, the other would definitely start complaining about how the program team was making such irresponsible remarks. However, Xia Rong didn’t care much about this aspect一 Either way, they were recording in a studio, if the crew says it’s about to be dawn, then he’ll just take it as it’s about to be dawn.

What Xia Rong was paying more attention to, was sorting out the rules of the game that were revealed during the announcement. That is, one must escape from the secret room first before they would know who their teammates were, then they can continue on together? Moreover, not only did they have to escape from the castle, but they also have to escape from this area of the forest?

Xia Rong shivered from the cold again. After the broadcast ended, he quickly went over to the corners with the boxes, taking a look at both. One of them had a marble labyrinth game, which should imply that as long as he gets the marble to the exit of the maze, the passcode would come out. As for the other one, it was only after Xia Rong arrived next to it that he found there was actually a pen recorder beside the blank poster board. After he pressed on the pen’s play button, a robotic voice began to slowly recite:

“First question: There are chickens and rabbits in the same cage. Looking at them from above, there are 49 heads; from the below, there are 100 legs. We would like to ask, how many chickens are there? How many rabbits?”

“Second question: 100 monks are eating 100 steamed buns. A ‘big’ monk eats three steamed buns and three ‘little’ monks eat one steamed bun. We would like to ask, how many big monks are there and how many little monks are there?”

“Third question: …”

Why don’t you just have these monks eat the chickens and rabbits and call it a day!!

However, although Xia Rong’s math was a little poor, these problems the program team had proposed weren’t difficult. They were all very classic two-variables linear equations, junior high level in difficulty. As long as one calms down and correctly sets up the equations, it’s not like he can’t do it…

But according to this recorded speed, who knows how many questions there are? Xia Rong pressed the fast-forward button and jumped all the way to the end, where he was told to now: “Subtract the two answers of the first question, divide the two answers of the second question then round to the nearest integer, the answers to the third question… question 10… Finally, add all of them together, multiply the resulting number by 100 digits, and you’ll get the passcode…”

Who came up with such a demented question! There’s still a math problem after solving ten two-variables linear equations!!

Xia Rong surmised that this problem was designed by the program team to consume time. He placed the recorder aside and chose to solve the marble labyrinth first, deciding he would listen and do the mental arithmetic as he solves the maze, which could potentially save a bit of time.

The result: by the time he got the key from the maze game, the recorder had only leisurely read up to the fifth question. Xia Rong was already so dizzy, as if his head was swollen, from the recitation that he wished he could pick up the screenwriter by their collar and fervently shake them一 “Do you guys deliberately want to freeze us, children, to death!?”

The key from the maze game helped him open the passcode box beside it, and inside was an ice pick, which seemed to be the auxiliary tool that was supposed to help him get the final key out from the ice.

The math problems on the recording were simply too much of a headache, so while holding the ice pick in hand, Xia Rong tried to break the ice from between the bars of the cage. The result: this attempt at being opportunistic failed. Even until his palm had become reddened from all the bumping into and rubbing against the freezing bars, he still failed to reach the center where the key was hidden.

Could it be that his only choice is to waste all that time doing the math problems? Depressed, Xia Rong ruthlessly wanted to jab the caged ice a few more times with the ice pick, but he accidentally stabbed against a bar instead, causing even his mouth to become numb from the recoil. Meanwhile, the pick flew off to quite a distance away from the impact. Fortunately, it didn’t end up stabbing Xia Rong.

But Xia Rong didn’t have the time or attention to feel lucky by this because at that moment he had looked up, and he noticed that when the ice pick landed and rolled with a ‘clank’, the lights on the wall had again flickered.

YinYue has something to say:

Guys~ I’m looking for an editor to join my team for this novel. :joy: If you’re interested, please find me through our discord. Links are around or otherwise, just go through the recruitment at the top of the site. Thank you~

So until then, Lore will still be proofreading for me and we’re still meeting every six days. <3

• 1
  Raw: 兔死狐悲 [tù sǐ hú bēi] figuratively, it means ‘to have sympathy for a person whom you share like-minded, mutual distress’. In this case, Xia Rong and Zhang Xin are in similar situations. ↩︎
• 2
  The standard typical where ‘da’ can be interpreted as big/old/older/etc, while ‘xiao’ can be interpreted as young/small/little/etc. So just keep in mind that ‘Little Princess’ and ‘Young Princess’ in this case would both use ‘xiao’, I might also use them interchangeably. ↩︎