Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 124

Jiang Yuanrou was stumped for a moment. “What?”

Mo Yi turned to look at her, his dark eyes slightly narrowed, shimmering like amber under the light of the flashlight.

“In this instance, the most symbolic symbol is the butterfly, which would appear on the wall after the player breaks an illusion, such as the butterfly in the room on -2F, and this one.”

He pointed to the wall beside him.

Jiang Yuanrou followed the direction of his finger and her eyes fell on the ugly blood-stained butterfly lying quietly on the wall. She nodded slightly. “Yes.”

Mo Yi glanced at the drawing of the butterfly on the medical record and said in a deep voice.

“All butterflies appear at the end of the illusion, and they are all drawn with blood, except for one place—”

He returned his gaze to Jiang Yuanrou, his pale fingers gesturing at the handwriting at the bottom of the medical record, then continued in the same deep voice.

“Besides, I saw the same words there.”

Jiang Yuanrou was still slightly stumped. She subconsciously took the thin dusty medical folder from Mo Yi.

Mo Yi relaxed his hand, and pulled open the door of the room instead. He said in a low voice, “Let’s go.”

The two walked out of the room one after the other. The only light in the corridor was not far away, and its flickering both illuminated the grim walls and dirty floors while drawing out creepy undulating shadows.

On the floor was the half-coagulated pool of blood shed by the man who was nailed to the wall, along with the same thick smell of dust and blood spreading throughout this cramped space.

Mo Yi hurriedly stepped over the scattered papers and broken furniture on the ground, and strode forward.

Next, he stopped under the pale and cold tube light, which was making a soft hissing sound overhead as it illuminated this section of the corridor—as well as the half-open door of the dark room on the side of the corridor.

Mo Yi stood still in front of that door, only shining his flashlight into the room.

The room was as dark and cold as he remembered. The beam of light swept across it, lighting up the objects inside one after another.

The iron bed on which he woke up was lying crookedly in the depths of the ward, with the restraint belt broken by Mo Yi splayed out across it, the cold leather imprinted with deep marks of his earlier struggle.

Before the iron bed was the dirty sign, with blurred writing shrouded by the darkness.

Mo Yi walked into the room with a frowning Jiang Yuanrou following.

He stopped in front of the iron bed, and the light of his flashlight fell on the wall opposite of the bed—

Jiang Yuanrou’s gaze followed the direction of the light beam, and she froze with a grimace when she noticed the pattern on the wall.

Under the pale light, she could see the dark brown bloodstains covering the entire wall. The semi-dried bloodstains casted deep shadows, and together with the messy graffiti, formed a huge butterfly which was lying spread out quietly on the wall, staring at her with the familiar pattern of lifeless eyes on its wings.

Jiang Yuanrou stared at it closely, but it was not until she took a step forward that she finally discovered the difference between this butterfly and the others.

The other butterflies were painted on the walls with blood, but this butterfly… seemed to have been scratched out on the wall with fingernails.

Embedded deep within the uneven undulating lines were half-coagulated blood residue and bits of flesh, as well as remnants of nails. Just looking at this sight alone was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

Jiang Yuanrou’s eyes fell on the words made with blood on the corner of the wall.

“STOP”

She subconsciously turned her head to look at Mo Yi, and was about to ask something, but saw him move abruptly without warning.

Jiang Yuanrou’s unspoken words were stuck in her throat, leaving her to blankly watch Mo Yi fumbling around in the room in a daze. It took her a while to snap back to attention, and she lowered her voice to ask.

“What are you looking for?”

Mo Yi took the time to turn his head to look at Jiang Yuanrou, then quickly averted his gaze and continued to flip through the items in the room.

“Tools for suicide.”

Jiang Yuanrou was taken aback. “What…?”

Along with her single gaps came the creak of the iron bed, followed by a series of sparks as the metal feet of the iron bed were dragged across the rough concrete floor.

Mo Yi seemed to have realised the ambiguity in his words. He stopped pulling the iron bed, straightened up, and looked at Jiang Yuanrou to explain.

“It is not exactly suicide either.”

He paused to organise his words before continuing.

“The process of breaking out of the cocoon and becoming a butterfly is a death for the larvae of the butterfly, and this should also be an aim pursued by Edwin’s evil personality. He believes that human existence in itself is nothing more than an ugly caterpillar, and only death can bring it a new life, just like a butterfly.”

Jiang Yuanrou narrowed his eyes slowly, and murmured in a low voice.

“To die is to live…?”

Mo Yi nodded hastily, and continued with some excitement. “According to this particular Edwin’s obsession with the butterfly, the key to leaving his spiritual world should be in this room.”

Jiang Yuanrou took over the flow of the conversation. “So simply put, right now, we have found the door, but we still lack the key, right?”

Mo Yi nodded, and continued.

“According to the hint given in this instance, we are now trapped in Edwin’s spiritual world. In other words, we are like larvae trapped in a cocoon. To get out of this cocoon, we must ‘die’ once.”

Mo Yi frowned in distress, paused, and then said in a deep voice.

“However, ordinary death will not only not allow us to leave, but will also cause us to truly die… That’s why I said, we have to find tools for committing suicide.”

Jiang Yuanrou nodded in understanding, then rolled up her sleeves and walked forward, showing a small smile at Mo Yi.

“I understand now. You can leave this to me, otherwise it will take forever before you finish moving the bed.”

Mo Yi, “…”

He retreated a few steps rationally to make way for Jiang Yuanrou, then stood behind her and watched her easily drag the iron bed out of its original place—

Just at this moment, Mo Yi’s back happened to lean against the cold wall. He was slightly startled by the uneven wall and subconsciously turned to look at the ugly and twisted butterfly on the wall behind him.

His eyes narrowed slightly, staring intently at the wall, as if he was deep in thought…

Even when Jiang Yuanrou called him from behind, he didn’t hear it.

Mo Yi stretched out his fingers slowly, plunging his fingertips into the depressions on the wall, then slowly slid and stroked along the direction of the undulating and extending lines.

When his fingertips touched the eye-like pattern on one of the wings, a tingling pain hit him.

Mo Yi couldn’t help letting out a sharp hiss as he withdrew his fingers from the wall as if he had been scalded.

A drop of bright red blood oozed from his wound and slowly slid down his pale fingertips.

Mo Yi looked at the wall and noticed a few drops of blood left on the place he touched just now. Before he could do anything, he saw a red light flashing on the place stained with blood. The blood was instantly absorbed by the wall.

His eyes lit up.

It seemed that these instances for the membership test had something in common with each other!

Jiang Yuanrou’s gaze was also attracted by the blood-stained area on the wall, and she froze in surprise. A short moment later, she stepped forward.

“Blood…?”

Mo Yi’s eyes glinted, and he nodded. “Should be.”

After finishing speaking, he pressed his finger back onto the place just now, and the pain came instantly. Mo Yi frowned slightly, feeling his blood being sucked out of his body quickly by something.

Jiang Yuanrou was about to do the same, but Mo Yi stopped her.

“You should wait a little.”

Jiang Yuanrou was stumped. “Why?”

Mo Yi answered her indirectly with another question. “Do you know where we will go after we leave Edwin’s spiritual world?”

Jiang Yuanrou frowned, but did not answer.

Mo Yi stared directly into her eyes, and continued.

“You can think of it this way, this instance has two layers, the inner and the outer. After leaving here, it is by no means the end, but we will enter the outer portion, and after arriving there, it will be your stage to shine.”

Jiang Yuanrou stared at Mo Yi, her brows still pulled into a frown. “How are you so sure?”

Mo Yi’s complexion turned paler. He pursed his pale lips.

“Take it as… a reminder from a friend .”

The hard candy was pressing against him from his pocket.

If this instance was a closed underground space, then it was impossible for Wen Chen to come in.

However, since this candy appeared, its appearance itself was a reminder that they were not really underground, but were more likely to be in a parallel space.

If so, then after leaving here, they should come to the outer world of this instance—which meant that they would come face to face with Edwin himself.

Mo Yi looked at Jiang Yuanrou seriously, and spoke.

“I’ll be counting on you after we get out.”

The main aim of this instance was for the membership test for Jiang Yuanrou’s existence. Therefore, it was crucial for Jiang Yuanrou to preserve her strength until they left the spiritual world, because it was only after this that she could display her potential to the game.

Jiang Yuanrou nodded solemnly.

However, the entirety of this one butterfly couldn’t possibly be fed by only one person’s blood, so when Mo Yi couldn’t hold it anymore, Jiang Yuanrou also placed her palm on the wall.

The speed at which the butterfly turned red instantly doubled.

Mo Yi’s eyes became slightly blurred. The cold feeling spread from his fingertips to his whole body. He could hardly feel his fingers anymore. He could only feel the cold and heavy drowsiness pulling him down, numbing his senses to the point where he could no longer feel pain, or other existence beside him.

There was only a frigid, freezing cold.

He had no idea how much time had passed. Maybe it had been a minute, or perhaps a century.

Then suddenly, there was a light click by Mo Yi’s ear, as if an eggshell was broken, that pierced the fog shrouding his senses.

The wall he was bracing himself on seemingly vanished all of a sudden.

Mo Yi instantly lost his balance, staggered and fell forward. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the incoming impact against the cold ground.

Only to be caught by something in the very next second.

Mo Yi’s chest was pressed against the other person’s, and strong arms circled around his body, hugging him tightly.

He buried his face in the other man’s neck. A familiar scent instantly surrounded him, densely invading his senses—

It was the smell of mist in the pine forest after rain.