DCTMOAS Chapter 55

In the end, Lu Yan bought two sets of casual wear from the store, and Chu Cheng also found a suitable jacket.

The group left the brand store with some time to kill before dinner.

Chu Cheng originally planned to catch a movie, but when they got to the cinema, he realized there wasn’t anything good showing at the moment.

“How about that one? Looks pretty intense.” Lu Yan tilted his head back, looking up at the huge promotional banner on the top floor.

A horror-themed escape room?

Chu Cheng read the title on the poster and tilted his chin in Yu Siting’s direction. “With a suggestion that bold, you think he would agree?”

“He would.” Lu Yan looked like he’d already seen it coming and urged him on, “As long as you want to play.”

Yu Siting, hands tucked into his trench coat pockets, looked at the two plotting in front of him with cold amusement.

Objectively speaking, Lu Yan’s assessment was spot-on.

If it were just him and his uncle going out, an activity like this wouldn’t even be on the table. But with Mr. Chu tagging along, getting three tickets was a piece of cake.

The escape room venue offered a variety of themed experiences. After a moment of hesitation, Lu Yan finally chose one that could be tackled by three people: Ghost Marriage.

“The challenge lasts a maximum of two hours. Phones are not allowed inside. For any special situations, please use the intercom. We wish you a thrilling exploration~” The staff member finished their intro, and the heavy door to the escape room closed behind them.

“So dark…”

“Horror level: five stars. Translation? Visibility: also five stars—zero.”

Like most real-life haunted house setups, the escape room’s initial setting was pitch black to enhance the creepy atmosphere.

Chu Cheng had slight night blindness, and the tiny bit of light from the flashlight barely helped. It completely ruined the experience for him. As for Yu Siting, he wasn’t remotely interested in this kind of thing.

So the one carrying the entire early game… was Lu Yan.

Fortunately, the first stage—the mechanical escape room—was just some simple number puzzles. With a flurry of brainpower and a bit of brute-force trial and error, Lu Yan led the team to a successful escape.

They arrived at the second stage. According to the rules, the three-person team had to split into two groups—one person would solve puzzles alone, while the other two would fend off the [Evil Spirit Pursuit].

Lu Yan, being the only one in the group with a working brain, naturally volunteered for the puzzle-solving role so they could get out on time. Chu Cheng and Yu Siting teamed up and entered another dark corridor.

The two groped their way forward, occasionally startled by NPCs who popped out to create a spooky atmosphere.

The props they had to collect were fittingly eerie—like a blood-red skirt hem, damp strands of hair, and flickering paper lanterns—bringing that full-on Chinese horror vibe.

As they kept walking, Chu Cheng realized that, without Lu Yan by his side, he had somehow become the one leading the way.

He looked back, squinting, and vaguely saw a figure trailing leisurely behind him. He asked, “Hey? Why are you walking behind me? Who puts the damage dealing character in front to tank damage?”

Yu Siting countered, “What, you expected me to go in front? Before we came in, you were too busy keeping the kid happy—you never asked if I was afraid of ghosts.”

Chu Cheng laughed. “Aren’t you a math teacher? Shouldn’t you be all about logic and rationality? Probably an atheist, right?”

“What does one have to do with the other?” Yu Siting snorted, still walking with his usual lazy, unbothered steps.

He sounded a bit sour—almost like he was jealous of how pampered Lu Yan always seemed to be.

“The kid just wanted to have fun. Next time, I’ll go with whatever you say,” Chu Cheng found this petty side of Teacher Yu amusing, and he patted his shoulder, pushing him to the front.

The two of them leaned in together, using the faint light from the flashlight to read the mission rules for this round.

The objective was to avoid the Evil Spirit’s pursuit—that is, not to be found by the NPC. Looking around the scene, it seemed the only hiding places were coffins and wooden wardrobes.

Chu Cheng and Yu Siting hesitated. Neither of them wanted to lie inside a coffin, so they decided to squeeze into the same wardrobe instead.

They had just managed to awkwardly close the wardrobe doors when they heard chaotic footsteps outside. The NPCs^[1] began acting out the horror scenario, occasionally letting out eerie, spine-chilling laughs.

Since the wardrobe was only designed for one person, space was tight. The two tall men were pressed very close together.

Yu Siting smelled clean—just a faint scent of pinewood, calming and fresh.

Chu Cheng, pressed tightly against him, could clearly hear the thumping heartbeat in the dead silence.

“Are you really scared?” The question slipped out before he could stop it—but as soon as he said it, Chu Cheng wanted to take it back.

How could that be? It was all just smoke and mirrors. Still, the guy’s heart really was beating fast and hard.

Yu Siting opened his mouth: “Yeah, I’m scared. What should I do?”

Chu Cheng heard the voice from above his head and knew the guy wasn’t being honest. His tone had that calm, teasing lilt to it. Unfortunately, Chu Cheng couldn’t even move his neck right now, so he couldn’t look up to see what kind of smug expression he was wearing.

Bang—

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed outside, probably the NPC smashing something against the wardrobe door.

Chu Cheng hadn’t been mentally prepared and flinched hard, instinctively clutching the sleeve next to him.

The next second, he felt a strong arm wrap around him.

Chu Cheng found himself leaning against the other’s chest, dazed, listening to both of their hearts pounding like drums, their breathing quickened. That peculiar mix of fear and thrill—it was a sensation he had never felt before.

That feeling… was clearly not fear.

Yu Siting seemed to notice the change in the person beside him as well. He chuckled lightly and teased, “So you’re ‘scared’ too, huh?”

Chu Cheng had no response.

After the continuous banging and shaking, the pounding on the door finally stopped. The “evil spirit” played by the NPC disappeared, and the red lights in the scene went out—signaling that the threat had passed.

The two stepped out of the cramped, sweltering wardrobe, and only then did Chu Cheng’s heartbeat begin to settle. Maybe the space had just been too small, with not enough air, but he was genuinely feeling short of breath.

Zzzzt—

With a soft electric buzz, a small door opened at the end of the corridor. The two walked through it and entered a new scene.

This area was much more brightly lit, and Chu Cheng could finally get a good look at their surroundings. But—Lu Yan, who was supposed to be solving puzzles here, was nowhere to be seen.

Chu Cheng frowned, planning to look around, but Yu Siting stopped him. Following the direction of Yu Siting’s gaze, he finally noticed something odd.

In this eerie Chinese ghost wedding hall, a “bride” NPC sat solemnly at the center, her head veiled in red. But underneath her wedding dress, the hem revealed something unmistakable—familiar-looking jeans.

Just let him sit there.
Yu Siting gave Chu Cheng a look. Chu Cheng responded with a silent, amused smile.

Lu Yan had planned to prank them. He’d waited a long time, but no one came to lift the bridal veil. And now the place had gone dead quiet.

These two are really that clueless? Can’t even tell the ghost bride is the puzzle’s key?
He grumbled inwardly. After another two minutes of waiting and no one showing up, he couldn’t take it anymore and lifted the veil himself.

At that exact moment—two ghostly faces, painted in the black-and-white masks of Heibai Wuchang (the underworld’s messengers), appeared right next to him, far too close.

“Holy sh—!”
Caught completely off guard, Lu Yan cursed and leapt off the redwood chair in shock.

Yu Siting removed his mask and promptly gave him a smack on the head. “Watch your mouth.”

“Well, you two scared me on purpose!” Lu Yan clutched his chest and took deep breaths to calm himself.

Dressed as Black Wuchang, Chu Cheng came over and ruffled the kid’s hair. Behind his mask, his face was lit up with a grin. “Just petting your fur—clearly, you weren’t scared.”

“Who started the prank first? Can’t handle it when the tables turn?” Yu Siting gave him a side glance, voice full of mockery.

“I’m not playing with you two anymore!” The kid huffed, tossed the red veil aside, and stomped off to the next stage.

Thanks to being sharp-eyed, brave, and occasionally upping the difficulty just for fun, the three high-level players cleared the entire escape room—meant to take two hours—in just 40 minutes.

When they finally exited the room, the staff invited them to sign their names on the leaderboard for escape records.

Lu Yan took care of it all himself, leaving names for “Chinese teacher,” “Math teacher,” and “Physics teacher’s Luminous Component.”

Because of those names, Chu Cheng laughed for several minutes without being able to stop.

As a little “appetizer” activity, the three of them had dinner out, then strolled through a bookstore to help digest.

The bookstore had a big poster promoting a book giveaway event. Chu Cheng was quite interested, but when he got to the cashier, he was told it was only for members with points.

“Why do all businesses pull this kind of trick now?” Chu Cheng muttered discontentedly.

Yu Siting stepped forward and said, “Use Lu Yan’s card. He used to buy books here a lot.”

Lu Yan handed over his card. As the clerk entered the membership number, the computer screen also showed the corresponding recent book purchase history.

Chu Cheng glanced over casually—and spotted the same set of The Collected Works of Chu Lining that Yu Siting had been reading at home. The purchase had been made quite a while ago.

All nine volumes had been bought in three batches, the first point-earning purchase dating back to last October…

Chu Cheng looked at Yu Siting in surprise.

That was much earlier than he had expected.

After spending most of the day out, the three of them finally returned to Fantian Jingyuan. All were content yet tired, ready to head to their respective rooms for rest.

Chu Cheng walked into the living room and casually tidied up the dried fruit tray from lunch. As he reached toward the hanging chair to grab his suspense novel, he noticed a biography sitting on the coffee table.

He bent down and picked it up, holding it carefully in his hands. Judging from the creased pages and the spine’s wear, the book had clearly been read cover to cover.

“What is it?” Yu Siting was just about to head back to his room when he saw Chu Cheng standing still for a long time and asked curiously.

Chu Cheng turned to him and held out the book. “Nothing, really. I just got curious after seeing the membership records earlier. Why’d you buy my dad’s entire autobiography?”

Yu Siting smiled, calm and composed. “I thought Mr. Chu’s writing was quite interesting.”

“So you read the whole thing?”

“Pretty much.”

Chu Cheng fell silent.

That old man’s early-life memoirs spanned nine volumes. Even as his son, he hadn’t read them all. Yet Teacher Yu had spent the time to do so?

“And you still listened to me tell so many childhood stories?” Chu Cheng suddenly remembered how, during New Year’s at their house in Beijing, the two of them had eaten baked pears while chatting about silly things from his childhood, late into the night.

If Yu Siting had read all nine volumes, that meant he already knew about all of it—Grandpa choosing his name, Shao Ji’s pranks, the locust tree in the courtyard, the neighborhood kids’ psychological warfare, the ruler engraved with the character Chu…

Chu Cheng said, “Even if I’ve seen a movie before, I get bored listening to someone else repeat it word for word.”

Let alone those petty childhood embarrassments.

“I didn’t feel that way,” Yu Siting said calmly, looking at him with eyes that were both gentle and inexplicably intense.

“I don’t want to rely solely on words in a book or someone else’s perspective to understand a living, breathing person standing right in front of me. Even if it’s the same content, I’d still rather hear you say it in your own voice—it feels more like being a part of it. More real, more human.”

Chu Cheng didn’t respond.

But in that moment, he truly felt the sensitivity hiding beneath Yu Siting’s cool exterior.

“I did read a lot about Teacher Chu’s childhood. And afterward, it became kind of addictive—I wanted to know even more firsthand. Because what drew me in first was the person standing in front of me,” Yu Siting continued. “If you think it’s unfair, I’d be happy to tell you about myself too. If I ever get the chance.”

If he ever gets the chance.

Chu Cheng turned those few words over in his mind, and it felt like something in his chest had been stirred up, then started restlessly fluttering about.

Yu Siting, watching the stunned and flustered look on Chu Cheng’s face, knew the other wouldn’t give a real response.

He wasn’t in a rush at all. He simply smiled warmly. “Can I have the book back? I still want to read it tonight.”

Chu Cheng’s cheeks grew warm. He froze for a second, then bashfully and obediently lifted the book and handed it back.

Yu Siting, as usual, said goodnight and went upstairs to rest.

Chu Cheng, however, puffed out his cheeks and let out a slow breath. Then he opened the fridge, grabbed a cold bottle of mineral water, and walked back to his room while tilting his head back to take a couple of big gulps.

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Author’s note:

Chu Cheng (who’s figured it out): He just wants to GAY me.