Chapter 63: Before Dawn (2)

Chapter 63: Before Dawn (2)

Tang Cuo traded a chocolate bean for a xiao di [xiao di], lit. translated as little brother. In this context, it actually means something like an underling, someone whom you could boss around. Keeping it as xiao di seems to preserve the most meaning, so Ill stick with this., so this deal was definitely not a loss.

As for why the Character panel didnt show any Poisoned status after swallowing the pill, the big boss said that it was delayed onset poison. Whats there to argue?

Where did you get the key to open the door?

Downstairs, in the butlers room.

The xiao di was called Qi Hui. He landed in the butlers room when he entered the dungeon and successfully got the key on the hook behind the door. The key was hung inside a steel wire bent into a circle, together with many other keys that would make a loud ding ding sound wherever he went. Qi Hui used three to open the attic door, so two keys werent used yet, but he had no idea where they would fit into.

Yu Mansion was a two-storey building with an attic. Based on the mission settings, the owners family lived on the second floor and the servants lived on the first floor. Tang Cuo walked down the stairs, the sound of his footsteps vaguely echoing in the empty house.

This was undoubtedly a magnificent mansion, having both Chinese-style aura and Western-style luxury. The wooden floor of the corridor was covered with carpets and chandeliers were hanging from the ceiling. Every few meters, there would be a painting.

It was just that the rooms on both sides of the corridor were locked. Tang Cuo tried the remaining two keys, but it was fruitless.

From the second floor to the first floor, almost all the rooms were locked, except for the kitchen, utility room, butlers room and maids room. In addition, there was a common area that looked like a living room on the first floor.

There was an open-air balcony on the second floor, but the door to the balcony was blocked by the system. And it was not only that the system forbade them to pass through, but the owners family also installed iron bars to seal it tightly. There were also iron bars outside all windows, which were beautifully made and engraved with intricate patterns, but this wouldnt change the fact that they were iron bars.

The whole mansion was like a cage.

The front door on the first floor and the back door in the kitchen were also locked. Tang Cuo made one round around the house and roughly studied the circumstance. He stood in the kitchen and fell into a short moment of deep thoughts.

[Before Dawn] was an Escape Room dungeon, but it was different from an ordinary escape room. Generally speaking, an Escape Room game was about unlocking one room to another before finally unlocking the entire map to escape. But for this mansion they were in right now, its lay inside a glitch of space and time dimensions.

Just then, the telephone rang with a shrieking sound.

Qi Hui was taken aback and was about to say that some poltergeists were playing on them, but Tang Cuo had already rushed out of the kitchen. Qi Hui quickly followed to see that the man had accurately located the source of the sound the telephone next to the flower rack in the living room.

Tang Cuo calmly picked up the phone: Hello?

Jin Chengs smiling voice came: Hearing this voice, is it Mr. Tang Cuo?

Tang Cuo: Go straight to business.

Jin Cheng: Im looking for you, isnt it business?

Tang Cuo: Im hanging up.

Jin Cheng: No, Ive finally managed to get through this call. If you hang up on me, we really will become Niulang and Zhinu that could only meet once a year on the Magpies bridgeAs briefly explained in a previous chapter, this is a reference to the famous Chinese folk lore The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, a story about two lovers who are separated and could only meet one a year on a bridge formed by a flock of magpies..

Tang Cuo was speechless.

Jin Cheng finally straightened his face: Im at the Yu Mansion in the year 1926, at 7 PM Beijing time. My initial observations show that the magnetic field here is very unstable, with electric lights flashing, ghosts crying and lots of wind gusts. More importantly theres only one player here.

As he said this, Jin Cheng was looking up at a middle-aged female ghost poking her head from the ceiling. One person and one ghost looked at each other, then Jin Cheng leisurely leaned on the flower rack while the ghost clung to the chandelier and stared at him.

The lights flashed and the shaking metal frames made a crunching sound that would send chill down anyones spine. Four of the nine chandelier holders had broken, and the remaining five were illuminating the once-magnificent hall with a gloomy light. Looking around, there were dust and cobwebs everywhere on the sofa and the stairs.

On the phone, Tang Cuo asked: How did you call here?

Jin Cheng: I found a phone book next to the flower rack. Now that were scattered, it proves that there exist multiple time and space dimensions. But this wasnt a dungeon that a single player could clear. Were now teammates, and different time and space dimensions must communicate with each other. Ive looked around but it seems that theres only this phone.

So, Jin Cheng did something that seemed to go against logic he called the mansion using the mansions phone.

He tried for ten minutes but there was only the sizzling electric noise on the phone, and it couldnt go through at all. In the end, the signal finally stabilised and Tang Cuos voice came.

Remember this well: The number is 1446. Saying that, he asked again: When is it on your side?

My time should be before you, that is, between 1923 and 1926. The mansion is still well preserved. Theres nothing unusual for the time being. Therere two players including me, and therere no ghosts.

That is to say, therere other dimensions.

At least one more.

Is there anything I can help?

Since they could talk between different time and space dimensions, the clues each of them needed might be in the other persons hands. They had to help each other. Tang Cuo hadnt found anything that needed help yet, but there was one thing he had to bring up.

The time is wrong. Here, its 10 oclock in the evening.

10 oclock? Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows.

Yes, my sunrise will be three hours earlier than yours. As Tang Cuo said this, Jin Cheng understood immediately.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

The mission required them to escape from the mansion before dawn. If the time of dawn was different in each dimension, by the time Jin Cheng saw his dawn, Tang Cuo would have already met his end. The clues from Tang Cuos dimension would then be cut off and there was a high probability that Jin Cheng would also die.

Thinking of this, Jin Cheng said: But it doesnt match the information we got. From the three players that got out, the longest clearance time is about 24 hours. There are two possibilities: the time can be adjusted, or the players can travel between dimensions.

Tang Cuo basically agreed with this inference, and at this point, a sizzling noise came on the phone. He frowned and was about to speak when Jin Cheng interrupted him: I have to hang up, theres a female ghost here who wants to dance with me.

Yu Mansion, Yu Wangnian.

This Yu Wangnian was either the master or the young master of the mansion. The only Jia Yin year around this period was 1914. Knowing the date 6th June, 1914, Tang Cuo carefully recalled the historical events that took place that year, then he compared the lunar calendar with the solar calendar and deduced that the solar calendar date that should match 6th June of the lunar calendar should be 28th July.Lunar calendar and solar calendar are two different systems of time, respectively following the moon cycles and the sun cycles. In simplest terms, the lunar calendar is usually 1 to 1.5 months behind the solar calendar.

Historically, China used to follow the lunar calendar, and since this is in Republican Era, 6th June here is actually a lunar calendar date. By recalling the lunar calendar and solar calendar date of a certain big event that took place in 1914 and using them as a benchmark, Tang Cuo can perform some simple mental addition or subtraction to deduce which date of the solar calendar that the lunar-calendar 6th June falls on.

On the first day when the butler entered the mansion, the owner gave him a book. He also put this only book on his bedside, which showed that this day must be important to him.

Tang Cuo immediately used 0728 on the lock, and with a click, it opened right on the first attempt.

Holy shit. This scene deeply shook Qi Hui. Even when he played an Escape Room game in the real world, he rarely saw anyone cracking a lock in one try.

Tang Cuo ignored him and checked the contents of the box. There were five medicine packs and a key.

Seeing Qi Hui approaching, Tang Cuo threw the key over and asked him to try it on the maids room door, while he tore open the medicine packs for inspection. The five packs of medicine were all the same, containing ginseng, astragalus and a few common ingredients. As for the others, Tang Cuo couldnt recognise them.

At this moment, Qi Hui shouted from outside: Tang ge, come, the door is open!

The maids room was similar in size and layout to the butlers room, but it was a lot more stuffy and full of miscellaneous items. After Qi Hui entered the dungeon, the only thing he had been doing was searching for things. Thinking that there might be more rooms to look through in the lower floor, he suddenly felt that this dungeon was way different from what he had imagined.

But when he was about to search, Tang Cuo suddenly stopped him: You go to decoct the medicine.

Qi Hui was stunned: Decoct the medicine? What is it for?

Tang Cuo: I ask you to decoct medicine, just decoct medicine.

Qi Hui was completely confused. They were here to clear the dungeon, so why would they suddenly start decocting medicine for an NPC? However, his life was in the hands of Tang Cuo and he didnt dare to resist, so he had to take the medicine packs and head to the kitchen.

Within the next ten minutes, Tang Cuo turned the maids room upside down. To save time, he used the crudest and most trouble-free method, which was: throwing everything out until the room was empty.

After searching like this, he found a small blue floral bag in the depths of the closet. This was actually a handkerchief with several things wrapped in it a silver Chinese hairpin, three silver coins, a pearl, an old gemstone necklace and a golden pocket watch.

These things didnt look like something a maid should own, nor did they look like rewards from the owner.

Tang Cuo carefully checked the hairpin and the gemstone necklace but found no clues, then he picked up the pocket watch. The pocket watch could still be considered 80% new, and it felt heavy in his hand. The material should be pure gold and the face was lined with precious stones, which showed that it must be very valuable.

But the watch no longer worked and its face was smashed, its chain faintly stained with dark red blood. This blood stain likely had been wiped away, leaving only a little trace behind, but it was noticeable enough.

This was the first blood stain that Tang Cuo saw in this mansion, or more precisely, in this mansion before 1926.

In Jin Chengs dimension, Yu Mansion of 1926 had become a residence of ghosts. But the Yu Mansion right now was still intact, so what happened in those two or three years?

Tang Cuo looked at the pocket watch again and found two small characters engraved on the back, near the bottom WY.

Were they someones initials?

Without further clues, Tang Cuo temporarily put away the pocket watch and turned around to scavenge through the other items. However, it turned out that this room had many items, but very few proved useful. After a long while, Tang Cuo found nothing except for the fact that her name was Wenjuan.

Qi Hui took this time to decoct the medicine. He was incredibly puzzled and was still trying to guess if there was any NPC inside the ladys room. What if this medicine was decocted to prevent her from becoming a game boss and going berserk on them?

But what the big boss did next was even more shocking than he had guessed.

You, why do you drink it yourself?! Qi Hui was so startled that his eyes almost wanted to drop out.

Tang Cuo calmly put down the medicine bowl, wiped off the residues from his lips and opened the Character panel to check the results.

[Character]

No. K27216: Tang Cuo

Character points: 0

Strength: 72

Intelligence: 34

Charm: 8

Rating: A

HP: 99

Yu Wangnians Hatred: Additional weakening, all attributes -10.

[Survival is not easy, please never stop trying.]

The mystery was solved. This wasnt a cure at all, but a weakening poison that wasnt fatal.

Someone was locked in the attic, the windows were blocked by iron bars, the lady was sick and the maid stole things. What secrets were hidden in this magnificent mansion?

Suddenly, the phone rang again.