Chapter 54: In the Escape Room Puzzle

This setting… is a bit simple.

The warehouse exterior is a bit small, but it’s fully equipped inside.

It’s not quite what I had imagined, but thinking about it, for an escape room shop in such a small town to have so many scenarios and even have a place like this to investigate and act in is actually pretty good.

The spotted lampshade above sways gently, casting a warm orange glow in this small space.

The walls block out the cold wind from outside, and the ventilation holes are so small they’re almost invisible, making the room feel a bit stuffy after staying inside for a while.

Gu Fan got into the mood quickly—he started searching for clues as soon as we entered the room, first finding the background introduction sheet placed on the table.

Using the excuse of reading the background together, I leaned close to Gu Fan, carefully sniffing the unique scent he carried, paying little attention to the story behind the escape room.

“Zhi Nian, any ideas?” Gu Fan asked, pinching the edge of the paper.

Suddenly snapped out of my daze by his question, I hurriedly glanced at the content of the sheet.

“Uh, since we were accidentally locked in the warehouse, I guess we need to find the spare key?”

The background was actually quite brief. Before entering the room, the staff had explained the general plot and gameplay:

no chase scenes or horror elements like other escape rooms, just a pure puzzle-solving game of mutual help between a couple.

When choosing the scenario, I hesitated for a long time.

My rational mind kept telling me to pick the brother-themed room, so I wouldn’t take advantage of Gu Fan.

But some hidden little thoughts in my heart suddenly started to act up, and before I knew it, I had used the excuse that the couple scenario didn’t have any horror elements to bring Gu Fan along.

Ahem… I really have no shame, huh…

Shaking my head to toss away the distracting thoughts, Gu Fan, after asking his question, started searching for other clues in the escape room.

I didn’t want to be a burden, so I forced myself to move and wander around the room.

The escape room was small, but the clues were really not that easy to find.

I walked around the walls once but didn’t find anything at all.

Helpless, I had no choice but to trail behind Gu Fan and pretend to be flipping through things seriously, acting as if I was genuinely searching for clues.

Then I saw Gu Fan pull out a clue from a spot I had already checked earlier…

What the heck…

Was this a hint that my observation skills were shockingly poor?

I felt a bit annoyed.

No matter how I ignored it, the map in Gu Fan’s hand, clearly marked with red dots, was right in front of my eyes, as if it had grown a mouth and was loudly mocking me —

“I’m right here in front of you, your hand even touched me, how could you not see me?”

In response to this “accusation” from the map, I could only answer bitterly in my heart —

I was just daydreaming and thinking, okay?!

After all, something had just happened between Gu Fan and me, so I couldn’t fully immerse myself in the escape room atmosphere and ignore how he was feeling at the moment, which made me inevitably distracted while looking for clues.

Gu Fan was very considerate.

I felt like he could solve this puzzle alone, yet he still insisted on dragging me in, not letting me stand alone and absent-minded.

Though I wasn’t too bothered by this — as long as Gu Fan wasn’t happily chatting with other women about the puzzles.

Silently admiring Gu Fan’s serious expression while reasoning and his small habit of fiddling with things, I felt extremely satisfied.

The escape room’s puzzles weren’t particularly difficult.

After I gave some small suggestions, Gu Fan was able to analyze the locations of the red dots on the map accordingly.

But I always felt Gu Fan had probably already figured it out and was just waiting for me to say it out loud.

I don’t know if others would get embarrassed and angry because of that, but I personally felt very warm inside.

When Gu Fan gets serious, he takes care of every detail for me.

I could even entrust my whole self to him, feeling so secure that I could stop thinking entirely.

The progress afterward went quite smoothly. Gu Fan efficiently found the clues, and we steadily communicated with each other to piece together the logical chain, then found a key. But it was just the key to a locked small room inside the warehouse — the key to the main door was still missing.

Gu Fan handed me the key, and I inserted it into the lock, twisting it a few times before it clicked open.

“Shall we go in?”

“Yeah.”

Gu Fan stepped in ahead of me, turned on the lights, and only then did I see that this was a storage room.

All sorts of items were piled up, but probably to consider customer experience, there wasn’t much dust, and things were neatly arranged, making it easier to search for clues.

The storage room was considerably smaller than the warehouse.

If Gu Fan and I both went in together, it would feel very cramped.

I was planning to step back and let him look for clues alone, but unexpectedly, the door closed by itself — I vaguely noticed some kind of mechanism controlling it.

I knew this escape room wouldn’t let us pass so simply…

I rested my forehead against the door, feeling the warmth of Gu Fan’s body behind me very clearly.

What should I do…

I don’t dare to look back.

I finally understood why they designed an extra storage room — it was for this purpose…

“This is weird. Why did the door close?”

Gu Fan, standing behind me, reached over my shoulder and pressed on the door, but it didn’t move.

Looking at his well-defined muscular arm, I couldn’t help but imagine that if Gu Fan had room to maneuver, this seemingly fragile wooden door would probably be in trouble.

But then again, breaking things would cost money.

“No idea. Maybe we need to find something to reopen this door,”

I shrank myself smaller and whispered back to Gu Fan.

This storage room was way too cramped.

I really shouldn’t have come in with a ‘just for fun’ mindset.

Now I could only stay this close to Gu Fan.

And besides… with our current positions, if I turned around, wouldn’t that be a classic kabedon?!

The realization made my face instantly flush bright red.

Tch! What a filthy-minded woman I am.

I silently scolded myself, firmly resolved to face the wall in repentance and no matter what happened, I wouldn’t turn around.

“Um… Zhi Nian?”

I didn’t move, but Gu Fan took the initiative to provoke me.

His hand gently pressed on my shoulder. Gu Fan’s body leaned in close, nearly brushing my cat ears as he spoke.

The breath he exhaled made my cat ears tingle so much I almost couldn’t catch what he said.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Uh… it’s a bit cramped here. I want to check if the board next to you has anything written on it.”

I didn’t turn around, but I could hear hesitation in Gu Fan’s voice.

Seems like he also noticed how narrow this storage room was — with his build, even turning around would be tricky.

If I kept shrinking near the door and didn’t cooperate, Gu Fan’s progress in finding clues would definitely slow down — after all, moving around was inconvenient.

Looks like…

I have to face Gu Fan.

After some hesitation, I mustered up the courage and turned around — only to bump straight into Gu Fan’s chest.

“Ugh…”

That actually hurt a little…