This gathering with the four of them had a completely different feel than the previous gathering with just the three of them. There was no more of Peng Zige harping about Rong Si’s absence every few minutes, and Li Erqin was not spacing out every so often as her mind wandered to thoughts of Rong Si.
The foursome were at a newly opened restaurant having their meal, and they seemed to have resumed their usual rhythm, that of Peng Zige in his element, holding a one man conversation.
Li Erqin was in such a happy mood that she happily listened to whatever they were chatting about. After eating, she was holding a cup of hot chocolate when suddenly she felt something gently bump into the side of her legs.
She turned to look at Rong Si who was sitting next to her.
Rong Si was touching his chin as he looked towards an eloquent Peng Zige. The corners of his eyes drooped in an obvious sign of weariness.
He was out with them the next day after his return, he must have felt rather obligated to turn up?
But about this feeling of being bumped….
Li Erqin put her hand underneath the table.
Maybe she was mistaken, but somehow she felt a little itchy there (by the side of her leg). Maybe it was because she was sitting by Rong Si?
Her fingertips had almost reached the side of her leg.
(Minodayz: OHHHHH myyyyyy … touchy feely … what gives RS! Grab her hands???)
Suddenly, the palm of her hand was stuffed with a cold object.
Moreover, Rong Si’s much cooler hands had covered the back of her hand, and his long, slender fingers had reached over to push the something into the palm of her hands.
Unlike the cool touch, Li Erqin’s heart felt scalded and hot and was beating rapidly.
(Minodayz: oooooooo just hold her hands!!!! )
She turned once again to look at Rong Si.
Rong Si slightly tilted his head over and winked at her.
Li Erqin had spent the entire meal working to regain some measure of composure, but now she was thrown into disarray again.
— Wait, wait, wait, what does Rong Si mean by this?
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“Li Erqin.” Peng Zige interrupted his own conversation to suddenly ask her, “Why are you blushing?”
Li Erqin looked towards Peng Zige with her cool remote eyes, “Am I red?”
Peng Zige nodded. “Yes.”
Li Erqin pointed to the overhead lights, indicating for Peng Zige to observe them.
Peng Zige’s eyes followed where she was pointing and noted the warm red lights. “So you’re telling me that it’s because of those lights?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
Su Zi snickered and laughed, “STUPID!”
The topic as such was diverted, and Peng Zige and Su Zi faced off each other in animated banter.
This allowed Li Erqin some time to secretly look at the object that she had held onto tightly in the palm of her hand.
She had grasped the object with so much force that when she opened her hand, there was a faint imprint on her palm.
It was a crystal music box, and all the intricate parts could be seen through the transparent glass.
Li Erqin was so intrigued that she wanted to look at it again when her phone started to vibrate on the table.
She swiped her phone to look. It was a text from Rong Si: [It’s a gift for you, look at it when you go back.]
There was no way to describe what she was feeling. Li Erqin had never experienced the eagerness of wanting to share with the world her immense joy. This happiness that she wasn’t able to contain had overflowed the boundaries of her heart and could hardly be suppressed.
Even Su Zi picked up on her strange vibes. “Erqin, what’s happening with you?”
Li Erqin said, “Huh?”
“Why does it feel like you have heart bubbles emanating from you?”
(T/N :冒红心泡泡 maohongxinpaopao – to describe emission of heart bubbles. Like those animes that have sparkling dazzling hearts)
Li Erqin was startled.
Peng Zige shouted, “Look! Her face is red again!”
Rong Si couldn’t resist smiling. He started to remove some packages from his bag and placed them on the table. “Here are some gifts I’ve brought back for all of you.”
Peng Zige’s attention was once again diverted. “Which one of these is mine?”
“The biggest one.”
Peng Zige got excited and asked, “What is it?”
Rong Si reluctantly laughed. “Look at it yourself.”
Then he handed another gift wrapped in pink to Su Zi.
Su Zi’s face became redder than Li Erqin. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
There was one present left on the table. It was wrapped in a light blue paper that had cute dolphins printed on it.
Li Erqin looked at Rong Si, baffled.
Rong Si laughed.
Another gift?
Li Erqin couldn’t believe it.
Rong Si gently tapped the gift box with his finger. “Why aren’t you taking it?”
So it really was for her? Li Erqin asked hesitantly, “Can I open it now?”
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On the other side, Peng Zige had begun to attack his gift like some ‘wild beast’, ripping open a side. From just seeing that one corner, Peng Zige excitedly bellowed, “Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! Ah Si!!!”
Su Zi covered her ears. “Excuse me, we are in a public place so please lower your voice.”
It took Peng Zige a huge effort to lower his voice and return to his earlier demeanor. He very carefully extracted the model (figurine). “Is this *an original?”
(T/N: i.e. not a bootlegged or fake version.)
“Yup.”
“You went specifically to buy it??”
Rong Si lightly said, “Yes.”
Peng Zige carefully took the figurine out of the packaging and admired it appreciatively before carefully putting it back. “Ah Si, how about I marry you?”
Rong Si was speechless.
Li Erqin and Su Zi both looked at him in disdain, too lazy to even roll their eyes at him.
Su Zi’s gift was a uniquely decorated tiny cake that was dusted with little tiny dewdrops. Inside the cake box was another small box that held a fork with intricate designs of flowers carved on the handle. The cake looked very delicious too and Su Zi was reluctant to eat it. However, after thinking for a moment, she decided to share it with the others. “Let’s all have a try.”
Peng Zige glanced at her gift and asked, “Are you willing?”
Su Zi glared at him. “You don’t get a share!”
Peng Zige disgruntledly asked, “What have you got against me?”
“Then why can’t you just be grateful and just eat rather than spout nonsense?” Su Zi pouted. She was already reluctant to eat her cake and didn’t need someone else adding to her reluctance.
Li Erqin nodded in agreement with Su Zi. She opened her gift as well and discovered a metal container of sweets/lollies. The metal container was of a deep red colour and rectangle shaped. On the cover was a European-style design that was detailed and exquisite. The drawing was so detailed that you could tell the direction of every grass and tree. Opening the box revealed sweets of every colour (the colours of the rainbow), individually wrapped in transparent paper that reflected like jewels under the lights.
Li Erqin turned to look at Rong Si.
Rong Si brushed his nose. “This is from a shop with quite a long history of making sweets. Their sweets are rather unique, so why don’t you (Erqin) give them out to the others to try.”
Li Erqin obediently gave out the sweets.
Peng Zige shared a look with Su Zi who had her small fork in her mouth. Their mutual conclusion was clearly written in their eyes – Only with Rong Si did Li Erqin always listen, like a good little lamb.
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＊＊＊
After their meal, they decided to go to an Escape room to play. However, their numbers weren’t enough so they had to call two other boys from their class who lived nearby to join them.
The group arrived at the newly opened Escape Room. The management had splurged on the construction and prior to its opening had had massive advertising. The place was indeed huge and impressive.
Li Erqin’s group selected the theme called * <Return to Ravenhearst>. The game was based on the Big Fish Games concept of looking for hidden treasures, and the setting was almost faithfully re-created as per the game.
(T/N: Return to Ravenhearst is a PC/AVG game by Big Fish Games aka Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst. This is the 5th in the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Case_Files:_Return_to_Ravenhearst )
They followed a staff member into their area and saw before them an old rusted and corroded gate that led into the manor. The manor surroundings were overgrown with weeds and undergrowth, and all around was littered with cobwebs and rubbish. This gave the place the appearance of being an abandoned manor.
The staff member briefly introduced the game, the rules and regulations before leaving.
Each of them had a com-watch on their wrists for team communication. There was a red button on the side of the dial that when pressed would allow the player to pass on messages and clues to the others, regardless of where they were located. Furthermore, each player was allowed to request one hint from the front desk.
Without any inclination of where to start, they stood there in silence, taking in the quiet and realism of the setting before them. Rong Si suggested, “Let’s go look around for some clues.”
The group broke up and began to randomly look around.
Li Erqin had a suspicion that the bottom right corner of the metal gate was a little unusual. There was a sign that was crossed out saying “*There are no 300 silver taels buried here”. As she was thinking, she started walking towards the gate, and after taking a couple of steps, she realised that Rong Si was following behind her.
(T/N : tael is a unit of measurement, around 500 grams. This is an idiom about a clumsy lie giving away the truth.)
She turned around. “You also think there’s something here.”
Rong Si laughed. “Yah, I’ll go check to see.”
When he swept his hand past a second time, Rong Si seemed to have encountered something. He extracted it out and realised that it was a wrench.
Li Erqin was so excited that she yelled, “Found it!”
The rest of them gathered round to see.
“A wrench? What’s it for?” one of the boys asked.
“To pry open the metal gate?” Peng Zige hazarded a guess.
Rong Si said, “…… I don’t think so.”
Once again the group split up to look for clues. Su Zi noticed a signboard on the left side of the main door and guessed it to be a number clue. She quietly repeated it out to help memorize it, “8, 16, 18, 36, 38, a red heart, and then 78.” She turned back to look at the others. “Do we calculate it following the sequence?”
Just as she finished, Rong Si muttered in a low voice, “76.”
One of the boys asked, “What?”
Rong Si explained. “The number in the red heart is 76.”
One of them was not convinced so he walked over to confirm the number sequence. Expressing his surprise, he exclaimed, “Wow, it is 76.”
(T/N : the sound expressed was an 咦 yi – so I’ve used our wow expression of surprise.)
Peng Zige chuckled, “Were you just trying to question the intellect of our scholar?”
(T/N : 学霸 xueba is a slang for bookworm, top student or scholar.)
Su Zi laughed along too.
The boy felt a little embarrassed and was about to say more when a ‘bang’ was heard from behind him.
Looking back, they saw that Li Erqin was holding onto the wrench and had stripped the cover off the wall of a speaker that was below the sign. Four wires that were disconnected dangled out from the wall.
Peng Zige was momentarily at a loss for words, “Erqin, you……”
Rong Si silently evaluated before walking over to reconnect all the wires back into position. Then he pressed on a red button that was on the bottom and to the side. A small compartment popped out from the cover board revealing a rusted key.
Li Erqin couldn’t resist feeling a sense of admiration. “Rong Si, you’re just too smart.”
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When they had entered the manor, the setting was just as dilapidated as the outside, and various rooms were scattered about throughout the manor. They knew there ought to be quite a few clues to be found amongst the rooms, and while they started out searching collectively, it wasn’t long before the group started to disperse. Occasionally someone would call out and the group would gather to look at the new clue.
Li Erqin was so engrossed in the search that she didn’t realise at which point she had separated from the rest of the group. She decided to stay at an abandoned warehouse which had heaps of stuff. All the searching had made her tired, so she leaned on a prop car to rest as she scanned about her surroundings.
When she had taken a seat, her mind seemed to wander in a thousand directions.
— Are they trying to tire someone to death by making the game setting so huge?
— Since the game would not be completed in an afternoon, shouldn’t the staff push a lunch cart in to sell some food?
— I’m really thirsty, it’d be so good if I could have a glass of watermelon juice….
“Li Erqin.” Rong Si’s voice called out from behind her.
Li Erqin looked back. She couldn’t figure out why it was that since meeting Rong Si today, her whole body seemed to have gone numb, and her heart would race.
Minodayz: Ahhhhhh….racing heart & alone with RS, how can we end here???? I’ve not tried out the Escape Room game but dear me, translating has been a challenge! Lol but I couldn’t get over LEQ ripping the cover out from the wall! OMG – she is priceless!!! Since translating this, my company of travellers were tempted to try out the escape room in Queenstown but all that driving had left me ½ dead, so I pulled the plug and became the spoilt sport! Lol – well, this chapter will have to do til for the weekend. Take care and happy weekend.