Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Mo Yi tilted his head in thought, then suddenly stepped forward and carefully looked the photo up and down.

After looking at it for a while, his brows slowly furrowed. He stretched out his hand and gently touched the photo frame. 

The quality of the photo frame was quite poor. The rough edges pricked Mo Yi’s fingertips, bringing about a dull pain. However, what Mo Yi noticed was that on the rough surface of the photo frame, there were small dot like protrusions.

He applied a bit more force, and those small dot-like protrusions broke off into bits and pieces and fell onto the hollows of his palms.

It was reddish brown in colour.

Mo Yi raised his palm, leaned closer to smell it, and couldn’t help being stunned. 

These … should be dried up congealed bloodstains.

According to the pattern of the congealed blood, it should have been sprayed from high pressured arteries.

Mo Yi took a few steps back and carefully examined the wall on which the photo frame was hung.

There were no wallpapers pasted on the walls. The bare walls were somewhat yellow, the corners blotched with dark water stains and filthy mold. The entire room didn’t have the slightest trace of bloodstains and there no indication of it having been repainted.

Mo Yi’s train of thoughts stirred, and he dragged an overturned stool from the corner and raised his leg to step on it.

He reached out and held both sides of the photo frame, and with slight effort, removed it from the wall.

The instant he turned his head, Mo Yi was startled by Song Qi who had silently appeared behind him.

Song Qi slightly raised his head and held out his hand to brace the back of the chair which was rickety because it was on the verge of falling apart. Then, he used one hand to help him hold up the bottom of the heavy photo frame, face leaned to the side, and turned his eyes to look at him. “Your hand is still injured. I’ll help you, ba?” 

Mo Yi nodded. “Many thanks.”

After speaking, he held Song Qi’s outstretched hand for support, jumped off the chair, and walked straight out of the Dean’s Room.

Song Qi easily picked up the heavy photo frame with one hand, keeping pace with Mo Yi.

The walls of the whole room outside the Dean’s Room were covered in layers upon layers of dried bloodstains, either having been sprayed or splashed, so much so that the dirty dripping brown bloodstains on the walls were a ghastly sight, causing one to almost be unable to look directly at it. 

Starting from near the dean’s room, Mo Yi walked slowly along the wall while carefully observing the direction of blood stains on the wall.

Finally, he stopped in the middle of the room.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Mo Yi took a deep breath, a faint light flickering within his eyes, and turned his head to look at Song Qi who was following him.

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In order to point out the bloodstain, Mo Yi moved closer to Song Qi. Both of their cheeks were close to one another. Song Qi could almost feel Mo Yi’s warm breath gently fanning the side of his face, making his whole body involuntarily tense up.

Mo Yi didn’t notice anything, still immersed in his own world. His pitch-black eyes brightened, and the speed of his talking became faster and faster, “Look, the trail of blood suddenly stopped abruptly above, and then resumed a short distance away.”

“There must have been something on the wall here.” Mo Yi concluded with certainty. He then reached out and held Song Qi’s shoulder, turning to look at him. The distance between the two suddenly became extremely close, almost appearing as if Mo Yi was half embracing him. 

Mo Yi continued, unaware, “Move the photo frame up here ….”

His words suddenly stopped, and he looked at Song Qi with a slightly odd look. “What happened? Are you feeling ill? Why is your face so red?”

After that, Mo Yi stretched out his hand, intending to touch Song Qi’s forehead.

The temperature of Song Qi’s face couldn’t help but increase. He hurriedly intercepted Mo Yi’s hand in mid-air, making an effort to appear calm and shook his head, replying, “I’m fine.” 

Mo Yi only then noticed that the two were standing too close and hurried to increase the distance a bit. He smiled a little apologetically. “Sorry. I was too excited just now and forgot my manners.”

However, what Mo Yi didn’t see was that after he moved a little further away, a shallow trace of loss momentarily flashed within his eyes.

The atmosphere in the air was suddenly a little awkward.

Mo Yi paused, then stopped again, wanting to talk once more, but then hesitated. After glancing at Song Qi, he finally couldn’t help but say, “That … how long are you going to hold my hand?” 

Song Qi pursed his lips, gently caressed the hollows of Mo Yi’s palms with his thumb without him noticing, and then with a calm face, solemnly said, “Sorry, forgot.”

But the tips of his ears which were dripping red with blood exposed his not at all calm emotions.

Mo Yi glanced at him suspiciously, and then carried on with the topic from a moment ago, saying, “Well, you stand on the bed with the photo frame and try to make it overlap with the blank space above.”

Song Qi nodded, unperturbed, and stood up according to Mo Yi’s instructions and placed the photo frame on the wall. 

The corners of the photo frame and the edges of the bloodstains seamlessly overlapped.

— Even the dusty, barely visible faint impressions on the wall perfectly matched.

Mo Yi’s breathing was hurried and short. He asked Song Qi to come down from the small bed, and then stretched out his hand to encircle the photo frame. He nimbly felt about the back of the photo frame with his non injured hand, and then made a gentle deft move.

He heard a soft “kacha”, and the back panel of the photo frame was removed in its entirety by him. 

Dust swirled in the air, and the photo frame broke apart in an instant. Mo Yi quickly caught the free-falling photo, yet unexpectedly, from within the corner of the back panel of the photo frame, a torn sheet slid down.

Mo Yi paused, placed the scattered parts of the photo frame in Song Qi’s hand who was next to him, then knelt down and picked up the torn sheet.

Naturally, it was a corner of a yellowed photo with obvious tear marks on the top. On the remaining half of the paper’s corner, there appeared to be a row of several blurry shoes.

Mo Yi’s eyes sank, head raised as he held up the torn sheet to show Song Qi and said, “I suspect … that the Dean who was executed by hanging was framed.” 

Song Qi’s eyelids slightly rose, face and voice remaining composed and asked, “How so?”

Mo Yi’s eyes slightly flickered, finger raised towards the bloodstains sprayed on the wall and reasoned, “This photo frame should have originally hung here, which is likely why it was stained with blood. Moreover, the original photo within this photo frame was not of this woman, but was switched afterwards. Only, their movements were too rushed, and a corner of the original photo was torn off and left in the photo frame.”

He paused, picked up the yellowed portrait of the woman, and continued, “That’s why she was hung in the most conspicuous place in the Dean’s Room. This way, she could be framed as being the orphanage’s mastermind.”

When Mo Yi analyzed and interpreted, in one’s eyes, his entire face practically shone with liveliness. Those pairs of deep black eyes were full of an intimate passion. That kind of almost effortless charm made it almost impossible for one to shift away their eyes. 

Song Qi attentively gazed at the smooth contours of the side of Mo Yi’s face. His light-coloured eyes darkened a little.

“I now suspect that the real mastermind behind the scenes, after sending the scapegoat to be executed by hanging …”

Mo Yi’s brows knitted and continued, forehead appearing to be shrouded by dark clouds, seeming to be a little deeply worried and sick at heart, “In order to cover up the evidence of their crimes, I’m afraid that they would be willing to perhaps do anything.”

Mo Yi lifted his eyes and looked around at the bloodstains everywhere in the whole room. It was as if something was weighing heavily in his heart, making him somewhat unable to breathe. He subconsciously licked his lips and said in a low voice, “And in the entire orphanage, the biggest proof of their crime … was that there were nearly three hundred children in this basement.” 

Every bloodstain, every life.

… A one-sided massacre to cover up incriminating evidence.

At this moment, a familiar mechanical female voice rang, speaking with a cold, detached, and straightforward voice, “Dang dang dang dang! Congratulations to player No. 08, Mo Yi, for unlocking the Escape Game’s hidden plot!

Side missions are now open. Completing side missions will reward rich points. Players, please continue to work hard!” 

Mo Yi was taken aback.

A side mission was opened?

Immediately, a lot of complex feelings swelled in his heart, intermingled with all sorts of emotions, and he was unable to say what it felt like.

He glanced at Song Qi, then lowered his eyelashes to cover the expression in his eyes. 

Just then, Mo Yi seemed to recall something. He lowered his head and glanced at his watch: 8:30.

The lights would be turned off soon.

In addition, the degree of difficulty of this copy will increase soon, and it may be extremely dangerous to stay underground.

Mo Yi turned his head and said to Song Qi, “Let’s go, ba. We should go upstairs.” 

One following after another, the two climbed up the stairs and covered the iron trap door of the underground entrance.

They headed out along the dimly lit corridor, and when they reached the hall, they abruptly ran into unexpected guests.

Zhao Yicheng and Sun Xiaoyan.

The two stood in the middle of the hall with gloomy faces, casting hostile looks at Mo Yi. 

Sun Xiaoyan took a step forward and aggressively looked at Mo Yi. “Do you not have any idea of what you did?”

Mo Yi was taken aback. Before he could say anything, he could only listen as Sun Xiaoyan continued to sharply say, “You opened the hidden mission! The difficulty of the entire copy will increase. You’re going to make us drop dead!”

Mo Yi slowly lowered his head as if repenting, his facial features gradually disappearing in the darkness.

It seemed that Zhao Yicheng raised a hand and pressed it on Sun Xiaoyan’s shoulder, stopping her next words. 

Then, anxiously, he walked forwards and looked at Mo Yi with a face suffering from pent up frustrations, wanting to speak, only to stop and sigh, and once again opened his mouth and said, “You … really caused a big problem this time.”

However, unexpectedly, Mo Yi lowered his head and let out a short gentle chuckle.

He took a step forward.

Facial features exposed under the slightly dim light, black, emotionless eyes stared straight at Zhao Yicheng as if they could see through people’s hearts, making one feel cold and fearful. 

Mo Yi smiled and said, “You finally couldn’t hold back.”

Translator’s Note:
Last week, I posted on Discord that I would post a bonus chapter to make up for updating late. I admittedly procrastinated. The bonus chapter will be posted no later than Sunday EST this week.