Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 5
by Little PandaVolume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village
Rules of Strange Tales
【Side Quest Received in Instance】
At 9 AM the next morning, Ning Lan, who had a habit of waking up early, was the first to rise. After freshening up, she went down to the bar on the lower floor and sat on the leather sofa, deep in thought.
The other three followed shortly after, and the bar NPC had already vanished.
Xie Wu, seeing the three women’s silence, was the first to break the quiet: “We should think about how to deal with going outside. That ghost seems to be everywhere.”
Watanabe Keiko spoke up: “That ghost can mimic. We should establish a secret signal. If someone fails to respond with the correct signal, run immediately.”
The ghost in the tong lau had taken on Kim Hyo-rin’s appearance to kill Chen Feng – the “ghost” could transform into people’s appearances, which was why Watanabe Keiko suggested this idea.
Shen Qingyou wasn’t listening; she was applying lipstick using a small mirror from her shoulder bag.
Ning Lan remained silent as well, thinking it unnecessary – that “ghost” shouldn’t be foolish enough to use the same trick twice.
Ning Lan had reservations about Watanabe Keiko’s suggestion, while Xie Wu privately established a secret signal with Watanabe Keiko, indicating they were now on the same battle line (meaning allied or working together).
Shen Qingyou rose disdainfully and left Pawnshop No. 8 with her shoulder bag.
Was she always this mysterious, acting alone?
After resting for two full hours and preparing their gear, they set out for Dingxiang Street. Ning Lan opened her phone’s navigation app and found it was still working.
Ning Lan typed in 88 Dingxiang Street, and the navigation route immediately appeared.
Following the game’s navigation, they found the dessert soup shop, which had quite a retro design style.
The wrinkled poster listed their signature dessert soups: “Double-Skin Milk” (a traditional Cantonese milk custard), “Grass Jelly” (a cooling herbal jelly dessert), “Brown Sugar Water” (traditional sweet drink), “Mung Bean Soup” (traditional cooling dessert), and others.
The black wooden board in the dessert shop displayed interesting rules of notice:
【1. All service staff wear uniforms. If you see them wearing black clothes, please leave the dessert shop immediately.】
【2. Please do not order strawberry Double-Skin Milk before 2 PM. If any staff recommends it, please refuse immediately.】
【3. If you feel uncomfortable with the temperature in the dessert shop, please call the service staff to adjust the air conditioning at any time.】
【4. There is no air conditioning here. Please manually adjust the ceiling fan switch above your table.】
【5. If you encounter someone wearing a mask, do not speak to them. Move away immediately.】
Xie Wu dismissively glanced at the rules and said: “A dessert shop with this nonsense? What’s all this about? We’re customers here.”
“I think the game system is telling us some rules,” Watanabe Keiko added.
Ning Lan unhurriedly took out her notebook from her backpack and recorded all five rules, her 4B pencil moving swiftly across the page.
Shen Qingyou had arrived early, standing in front of the dessert shop in her qipao, but had stopped in her tracks.
Shen Qingyou seemed to have also noticed the rules on the blackboard; she didn’t dare to act alone.
The ice block face actually showed fear for once – a rare sight.
Ning Lan spoke up: “What’s written above should be Rules of Strange Tales.”
In Rules of Strange Tales, one must find inconsistencies or test for errors – it seems the game’s setup is about escaping through these supernatural rules.
Ning Lan put a question mark between rules three and four in her notebook – they contradicted each other, suggesting one of them must be false.
The Death Watch vibrated again with a prompt:
【Find the story character Xiao Ming in the dessert shop and talk to him.】
They not only had to follow the Rules of Strange Tales but also needed to find this Xiao Ming for the story quest.
Ning Lan pushed open the glass door, and the aproned staff member at the counter gave them a sideways glance with rigid eyes.
To Ning Lan’s surprise, all the service staff wore masks showing only their eyes, yet rule five told them not to speak to masked individuals.
How were they supposed to order?
Ning Lan made a “shush” gesture telling them to stay quiet. She found a corner to sit down, where there was a QR code on the table for ordering through a mini-program (refers to lightweight apps that run within another app, commonly used in China).
The current time was 12:15 PM.
Ning Lan tore a page from her notebook and wrote a message for them to see: Avoid the strawberry Double-Skin Milk.
Shen Qingyou took the lead and ordered Grass Jelly, while Ning Lan cautiously ordered Mung Bean Soup.
Xie Wu avoided “strawberry” and ordered Blueberry Double-Skin Milk, while Watanabe Keiko ordered Brown Sugar Water.
Watanabe Keiko didn’t look well – still not recovered from last night’s bloody water incident, she ordered Brown Sugar Water to calm her nerves (a traditional Chinese concept of drinking something sweet to calm down after a shock).
Ning Lan scanned the dessert shop but didn’t see Xiao Ming. Apart from the masked service staff, other customers were just ordinary people enjoying their desserts.
The movie plot was set in summer, and despite their light clothing, they felt unusually hot.
Ning Lan looked up and noticed central air conditioning installed, and they also had ceiling fans above – one of the rules must be trying to deceive them?
Xie Wu, extremely thirsty, wanted to ask the staff to turn on the air conditioning.
Combining rules three and five suggested they were being baited into speaking with the service staff, which meant rule four must be the correct one.
The central air conditioning was likely either decorative or broken – they should have been using the ceiling fan switch instead.
Ning Lan wanted to stop him, but it was too late.
Xie Wu addressed the service staff: “Hello, we need to turn on the air conditioning.”
Xie Wu had violated rule five.
The staff member let out a “jie jie jie…” laugh, and removed their mask to reveal a zombie face crawling with maggots!
The zombie lunged at Xie Wu, and Ning Lan grabbed her backpack and ran toward the shop’s exit.
The plot twist was completely unexpected!
If they didn’t escape, they would be bitten to death by the zombie servers!
The moment Ning Lan stepped out of the dessert shop, everything inside returned to normal.
Still shaken, the group stood outside catching their breath. Watanabe Keiko said, “We didn’t even get to taste our desserts.”
Xie Wu had been bitten by the zombie but claimed he was fine while clutching his shoulder.
Watanabe Keiko instinctively moved away from Xie Wu, not wanting to be infected by the zombie virus.
At this moment, the Death Watch vibrated again with a message:
【Mission Failed. Re-enter the cycle to find Xiao Ming in the dessert shop.】
The Death Watch’s reminder indicated they had entered a loop – they must find the key story character, Xiao Ming, while following the rules.
Ning Lan pushed open the glass door for the second time, with masked zombie staff members patrolling.
The rule about not speaking to them – could it be that zombies could detect human scent?
Ning Lan avoided them while holding her breath, returning to their previous position.
The four ordered their desserts methodically. This time, Ning Lan activated the ceiling fan switch – the fan began to wobble and rotate without incident.
Xie Wu endured the pain in his shoulder, not daring to make a sound, while Ning Lan checked each table of customers, searching for Xiao Ming.
The Death Watch vibrated again:
【Successfully entered dessert shop and decoded rules – reward obtained】
【Clue hint: Xiao Ming wears a blue and white striped shirt with bell-bottom pants】
Following this clue, Ning Lan finally found Xiao Ming at table 26 on the west side of the shop, happily enjoying his Grass Jelly.
Ning Lan said to him: “You’re Xiao Ming! Found you!”
Xiao Ming, wearing black glasses, looked up and spoke in Hong Kong accent: “How awesome!” (“hou sai lei” – Cantonese slang expressing amazement), “Who are you?”
Ning Lan spoke softly: “This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go somewhere else.”
The dessert shop was filled with rules and zombies everywhere.
Having successfully found Xiao Ming, the Death Watch vibrated once more.
【Successfully found key story character】
【Story Progress: 20%】
Ning Lan pulled Xiao Ming outside the dessert shop. After hearing about their Pen Fairy game, Xiao Ming said: “You folks are really something – you must have summoned her!”
Xiao Ming, pale-faced, superstitiously kowtowed to the sky saying: “Haven’t you let go after all these years? Please don’t come…”
“Corpse oil? Was it corpse oil that drew her here?” Ning Lan asked.
She remembered the corpse oil clue that was interwoven in the movie. Xiao Ming fearfully asked: “Did you go to that building… the 18th floor?”
Watanabe Keiko nodded: “That’s right, I remember it was the 18th floor, with a grandmother’s memorial portrait.”
Xiao Ming kowtowed and said: “18th floor – Ah B lived on that floor. It must be that Ah B fellow who went to Yellow Mountain Village insisting on investigating. When he came back, both his grandmother and he died!”
Ning Lan sorted through the logic.
Ah B? That was the male protagonist in the original movie – it seems the game’s plot had completely changed direction.
This Ah B that Xiao Ming mentioned had the yin yang eyes, and was the first to see that “ghost.” In the current plot, he had already visited Yellow Mountain Village and returned only to die in a state of madness.
What did Ah B see in Yellow Mountain Village?
To learn the truth, they would have to go to Yellow Mountain Village.
The usually indifferent Shen Qingyou said: “Stop wasting time, take us there.”
Xiao Ming shook his head repeatedly: “I dare not go – Yellow Mountain Village is seeping into people!” (meaning extremely frightening)
Xiao Ming repeatedly refused to go to Yellow Mountain Village.
Yellow Mountain Village was his nightmare, one he could never recover from in his lifetime.
Xie Wu, being a trained fighter, wasn’t afraid of him. He grabbed Xiao Ming’s collar and threatened: “You old fellow, if you don’t take us there, I’ll throw you back in to feed those zombies!”
Xiao Ming waved his hands and said: “I’ll take you there on one condition – you need to get something for me from Ah B’s home in that building.”
After showing fear and reluctance, Xiao Ming finally agreed. Ning Lan asked: “What is it? Tell us.”
Xiao Ming continued: “In Ah B’s home, there’s a family heirloom – a consecrated bronze mirror (a mirror that has been blessed through religious ritual). Ghosts fear that thing. Get it for me, and I’ll take you to Yellow Mountain Village!”
Watanabe Keiko immediately refused: “That building is haunted, should we really go?”
After careful consideration, Ning Lan could only agree to Xiao Ming’s request: “We’ll find that mirror. Where can we find you afterward?”
Xiao Ming pointed to number 188 across the street and said: “I live in the paper offering shop” (a traditional shop that sells paper offerings for ancestral worship).
Xiao Ming hurriedly ran toward that street. Xie Wu remarked: “This old fellow is slick-tongued. Is he thinking ghost thoughts?” (meaning to have ulterior motives)
“We have no choice but to go,” Ning Lan pointed at the Death Watch as another mission notification appeared:
【Side Quest Received】
【Retrieve the bronze mirror from Ah B’s home on the 18th floor of the tong lau】
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