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  • Falling In Love in an Escape Game

    Chapter 23: Jealousy

    The item was dropped at the corner of the stairs on the second floor. Needless to say, the entrance was set up there.

    “Do you really want to go in there?” Zhang Man asked again.

    Xia Nuo nodded without hesitation. Zhang Man could only sigh in response. “I’ll tell you this now so you don’t blame me later. You’ll be trapped inside forever if you don’t find the exit. Despite that, aren’t you afraid?”

    The determined look on the young man’s face told him the answer.

    Zhang Man thought that he’s probably too old now to understand a young person’s line of thought. 

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    Despite such sentiments, Zhang Man still guided the young man to the entrance of the ‘mirror space’.

    “Here it is.”

    Xia Nuo slowly stretched out his hand forward. Sure enough, he was able to touch a transparent mirror floating mid-air. He took a step towards it and the mirror rippled like water, sucking his entire body inside.

    The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

    Hbydt Yyd pvsse cu yde oyvnble vbl pnldl pkzldvzu. Tl alynble kdvs bkp rsnjlv yde rwzzle swv y nktyalvvl. Tl zkv kv wr yde rwqqle qsa psxl vkxl, bkp lmralppksd bkeeld kd vbl pxsjl.

    “Wsatlv kv.” Gqvla vyjkdt y rwqq, Hbydt Yyd pyke vs bkxplzq, “R oyp alyeu vs nzlyd wr yqvla y assjkl’p xlpp obld R vssj vbkp fsc. Sltyaezlpp sq obyv bl pyke, R esd’v vbkdj xu nsdpnkldnl nyd bydezl kv kq R fwpv zlv bkx cl.”

    Rd qynv, bl eked’v zkl obld bl vsze Dky Lws vbyv bl jdlo dsvbkdt ycswv vbl oblalycswvp sq vbl lmkv. Tl eked’v alyzzu jdso oblal kv oyp, cwv bl jdlo vbl awzlp sq vbl ‘xkaasa prynl’. Rv oswzed’v cl ekqqknwzv qsa bkx vs qkde vbl lmkv.

    Tl sdzu oydvle vs pnyal sqq Dky Lws ps bl nswze ekprlz bkp vbswtbvp. Tl vsze bkx vbl tayhkvu sq vbl pkvwyvksd yde ulv vbl uswdt xyd oyp dsv okzzkdt vs cynj esod.

    Lso vbyv Dky Lws byp ldvlale vbl xkaasa prynl, bl nlavykdzu osd’v zlv bkx cl vayrrle kdpkel kv.&dcpr;

    Tl oyp pwnb y rwal yde nwvl nbkze. Tl rascyczu bypd’v lmrlakldnle ydu plvcynjp. Tkp lulp olal caktbv, ps bl oyp rascyczu aykple cu y hlau zshkdt qyxkzu. Rq psxlvbkdt byrrldp vs vbkx, bso oswze vbyv zshkdt qyxkzu sq bkp alynv?

    Hbydt Yyd bkxplzq byp dlhla bye pwnb y vbkdt, cwv bl eked’v oydv psxlvbkdt ps clywvkqwz vs cl elpvasule aktbv kd qasdv sq bkp lulp.

    “Iyd Ubld, oyp kv? R bsrl bl nswze zkhl wr vs Ubydt Gd’p blyav.”

    Zhang Man stomped on the cigarette and strode into the mirror space.

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    ***

    Xia Nuo entered the mirror space.

    Though he was still at the top of the staircase on the second floor, he was keenly aware of the distortion of his surroundings.

    He cautiously took a step forward. As if a switch had been pressed, his quiet surroundings suddenly became noisy.

    A melodious music flowed out from under a violinist’s bow. The whole banquet hall was extremely lively as the sound of laughter and music intertwined.

    Xia Nuo stood in the long corridor on the second floor and looked down. Two waiters serving champagne passed by him, turning a blind eye to him as if he was transparent.

    Xia Nuo heard someone talk in a whisper, “I heard that the Master had caught the young lady and locked her up in the main mansion. Is it true?”

    “You’re way too outdated! I’ve already heard that a few months ago. At that time, the young lady was brought back together with her child with the horsekeeper!”

    The two men sighed. “The Master must have been really disappointed. He didn’t even let her out to show up for his 70th birthday banquet.”

    “Actually, I think the Master is too unreasonable.” The other man, who knew more information, sighed. “No matter who the father is of the young lady’s child, he’s still the Master’s grandson, right? But he refused to accept this. He even confined such a young child in the attic.”

    He shook his head with a look of disapproval on his face.

    “Hey. We, as servants, don’t have the right to judge what our Master does.” The waiter said, ending their conversation.

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    The two quickly walked away, leaving Xia Nuo standing there as he thought about what he heard.

    He opened the game panel and tried to exchange his points for eyesight in case of emergency but the panel slowly refreshed and showed him a few line of words:

    Warning:

    The player’s location is detected to be on July 15, 1986. Special hints are hidden within this space. Please explore by yourself.

    1986? Did he go back in time to ten years ago?

    Xia Nuo thought of the child the two waiters were talking about and considered it as a hint.

    If he guessed it correctly, the child they were talking about is probably Little Luo’er. 

    A child born from the union of a young lady and a housekeeper, and who is also not accepted by the manor owner…

    Wait… Manor owner?!

    He suddenly found a problem: Who’s the owner of the manor in this time and space?

    From the information he got, the current manor owner was at least 70 years old. He’ll be in his nineties in 2005. But Xia Nuo hasn’t seen an old man in the manor.

    It would be reasonable to speculate that the reason why the game world is called ‘Raven Manor House’ is because ravens play an important role. It could even refer to the final boss of the game.

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    Nana once said that the ravens are the incarnation of Kan Chen.

    Xia Nuo recalled the puppet’s strange voice when it tempted to tell him information about the owner of the manor.

    Is Kan Chen… the new owner of the manor?

    Once this idea appeared, it had suddenly become comparable to a tree that had taken root as countless clues emerged to confirm this idea.

    Then he remembered that Kan Chen was a mixed-race and that his father was Russian. A bold guess arose in Xia Nuo’s mind.

    Could Little Luo’er be Kan Chen?

    If they were the same person, as the grandson of the manor owner, it would make sense for Kan Chen to inherit the manor and become its new owner.

    He couldn’t help but regret a little. If only he saw what Kan Chen looked like. If he saw it with his own two eyes, he’d be able to check if the two were the same person.

    However, it would be easy to verify this conjecture now. All he has to do is to look for a way to know the name of the current manor owner.

    When a guest passed by him, Xia Nuo called out to her tentatively and asked, “Hello, can I ask you something?”

    After being ignored by the waiter, he had been prepared for a failed attempt to strike up a conversation. Yet, the female guest wearing a red dress turned her head.

    She seemed startled by the sudden voice. Her face looked quite peeved but when she saw that the voice came from a cute young man, her expression calmed down.

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    “Yes?”

    Xia Nuo smiled bashfully, looking unspeakably attractive. “I came just now to the banquet. I heard the young lady has returned to the manor. Why didn’t she show up at the party?”

    “You mean Kan Sha? Don’t you know that she eloped and got caught?” The female guest obviously knew the story. She shrugged. “Well, they tell people that she’s sick in bed. But I think Mr. Kan has no plans releasing the daughter who’s disgraced him.”

    The guest couldn’t help but express her disapproval in her heart. It looks like this teenager is another one of Kan Sha’s admirers.

    Xia Nuo was clueless about her misunderstanding and froze when he heard the familiar surname she mentioned.

    So Kan Chen really was Little Luo’er, the grandson of the former manor owner!

    He recalled the words the waiter had mentioned a while ago and immediately paused—the young version of Kan Chen is locked up in the attic!

    He thanked the female guest and quickly walked away—he needed to go to the attic now!

    Xia Nuo remembered the  first day he came to the manor. Kan Chen took him to a room that reeked of danger. Even the game map had a special marker for that location.

    He opened his map and saw a red, eye-catching ‘X’ on the place where the word ‘ATTIC’ was written.

    ***

    Zhang Man walked down a long corridor. It was very dim. A brownish-red wooden doors glowed with an unsettling sheen against the light.

    He wasn’t surprised that he would appear in such a completely strange scene. This was normal in mirror space. It will produce a fake reality scene according to the strength of the person entering, making it difficult to distinguish what is what…

    As he pondered about this, a strong wind came behind him. Zhang Man had no time to dodge. He was slapped into the wall by this huge force.

    “Cough—” Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth as he coughed and touched his abdomen. Fortunately, there was no serious damage to his internal organs. As for his ribs, he probably broke a few.

    He looked up and saw a pair of dark blue eyes that looked almost black. The final big boss, who unleashed his killing intent on him not long ago, was now looking down on him.

    “What’s your relationship with Xia Nuo?”

    “Xia Nuo?” Zhang Man was puzzled for a moment before he asked, “You mean… Chang An?”

    The man’s eyes increasingly appeared darker, “Chang An?”

    “Well… What do you think? You heard us, right?” Zhang Man laughed with a provocative face. “What about your relationship with Chang An? What right do you have to question me?”

    Right?

    It was as if Kan Chen had been hit hard on the head by a heavy hammer. He’d been in a confused state ever since he heard about Xia Nuo’s boyfriend.

    He didn’t know why he was so angry when he heard that this man was Xia Nuo’s boyfriend. A fire burned in his chest, steaming out hot air that made his mind dizzy. His mind was filled with confusing thoughts.

    Xia Nuo left him to look for this person? Didn’t he say he’d wait for me to come back? In Xia Nuo’s heart, is this person more important than me?

    Zhang Man saw the undisguised jealousy in the man’s eyes. His heart tensed up. Could it be…

    To confirm his guess, he deliberately said, “By the way, I heard you took care of Chang An when we got separated. Thanks for that.”

    A loud ‘bang’ was heard. Less than a centimeter away from Zhang Man’s face was a web of huge cracks on the wall.

    The man withdrew his hand and stared at him hard, “You better keep your mouth shut or else…”

    …he wouldn’t know what he’d do to him.

    ***

    Miraculously, Xia Nuo’s journey was unhindered. He found that as long as he didn’t talk to anyone, he would remain unnoticed as if he didn’t exist.

    He reached the attic without facing any problem. He wasn’t surprised to see the iron lock on the door.

    Without a key, the iron lock looked heavy and solid. It didn’t look like it could be broken by an external force.

    Xia Nuo pondered for a moment then put his hand on the iron lock. As he expected, the iron lock fell to the ground with a thud.

    The heavy door creaked as a young child’s voice asked, “Who are you?”


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