[Suxia]
The day Suxia went to the city to find Li Chengyuan, she felt her hard times were finally over.
From childhood, everyone in the village who saw this girl would sigh at her misfortune. Her father was a mentally unstable madman who had been shot for murder; her mother had cried until she went blind and drowned herself in the river to the west.
The village chief, surnamed Li, was a kind man who took Suxia into his home, letting her help with chores and providing her with food.
That’s how Suxia fell in love with Li Chengyuan.
Chengyuan was the village chief’s son. He wasn’t tall or strong, but unlike the other troublemakers in the village, he wasn’t a vagrant. Chengyuan was refined; after dinner, he would always sit quietly at the table reading.
The candlelight illuminated Chengyuan’s face, making his features seem golden. Suxia, washing clothes nearby, secretly watched, mesmerized.
Li Chengyuan noticed and assumed Suxia was interested in the book in her hand: “Would you like to read it?”
Suxia became embarrassed, her face turning bright red: “I… I can’t read.”
She had never been to school; the village was poor, and even the village chief’s family wasn’t well-off, having to borrow money from relatives in the county to support Li Chengyuan’s high school education. She wasn’t their biological daughter; how could she let them support her education as well?
“I’ll teach you,” Li Chengyuan beckoned to her.
Suxia blushed even more, though thankfully the candlelight made it less noticeable. She sat beside Li Chengyuan, watching him write on the paper.
His hands were so beautiful—beautiful fingers, beautiful palms, even the thin calluses were beautiful. He was so intelligent, knowing things she didn’t.
That night, Suxia had a dream; in her dream, she married Li Chengyuan.
She knew she wasn’t good enough for him, but even a dream was beautiful.
Unfortunately, Suxia’s beautiful dream didn’t last long; Li Chengyuan went to university in the city.
Those years passed quickly. The village chief and his wife were unlucky, passing away one after another before their son graduated. Before he died, the village chief said he would arrange a marriage for Suxia, but Suxia bit her lip and said she wouldn’t marry anyone.
She actually only wanted to marry Li Chengyuan, but she would never say it.
Li Chengyuan returned to pay respects to his parents. As he left from their graves on the back hill, he gave her a box of pastries, saying he brought them back from the city.
The pastries smelled wonderfully sweet. Suxia couldn’t bear to eat them, leaving them for two months before finally breaking one open and taking a bite.
They had spoiled and tasted strangely bitter. Suxia shed a few tears, unsure whether it was because she had wasted such good things or for something else.
Li Chengyuan never returned. With his parents gone, he had no reason to come back.
Suxia felt that was probably the last time she would see him.
However, that summer, she saw Li Chengyuan again.
Li Chengyuan returned, having drunk an unknown amount of alcohol. It was the first time Suxia had seen him so drunk, and as she helped him to bed, he suddenly embraced her.
It was a summer night with cicadas chirping loudly, and Suxia experienced her first time.
The next day, Li Chengyuan disappeared.
He returned on the third day, saying, “Suxia, pack your things; we’re going to the city to get married.”
Carrying large bags and bundles on the day they entered the city, Suxia was overjoyed.
There were pastries for sale on the street, smelling very sweet.
Suxia didn’t buy any, but she wasn’t sad either.
She felt that the days to come would be even sweeter than the pastries.
[Chengyuan]
When Li Chengyuan and Suxia got married, he was in a daze.
He had imagined his own wedding, but not with Suxia.
Li Chengyuan had a first love—a deeply, madly passionate first love who was the daughter of his college advisor.
No matter how well the two of them could talk, they argued just as fiercely.
During their final big argument, the first love resolutely demanded a breakup, and Li Chengyuan actually agreed to it.
Days of heartbreak were agonizing. He drank heavily every day, inexplicably bought a ticket home, and by the time he returned, he had already agreed to marry Suxia.
Li Chengyuan knew Suxia liked him.
It couldn’t even be called just liking; she treated him like the sun in her world, willing to give everything as long as he could shine for her.
Li Chengyuan felt sorry for Suxia. He thought, since they were already married, they would just settle down and live a good life together.
In the first few years of their marriage, life was ordinary yet happy.
Li Chengyuan was among the first batch of college graduates to enter the factory, and Suxia also became a female worker at the factory.
When did things start to get weird?
Probably that day.
That day, Li Chengyuan received a call from a classmate saying his advisor had passed away.
He went to mourn and ran into his first love again.
His first love cried pitifully, saying she had nothing left, and that asking to break up with Li Chengyuan back then was just something she said out of anger.
Weeping, she asked Li Chengyuan if he could stay with her through the night to keep vigil. Li Chengyuan thought of Suxia waiting for him at home, but seeing his first love’s tear-reddened eyes, his heart softened.
When Li Chengyuan returned home, Suxia was sitting by the table.
A table full of dishes—all his favorites—had been reheated over and over again.
Li Chengyuan wanted to say something, but Suxia just gestured for him to eat.
He ate a few bites absentmindedly, wanting to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.
When he went to work, he heard Aunt Liu downstairs gossiping with a few other women:
“Wu Suxia’s man isn’t honest, and it’s all because she can’t lay an egg.”
“She was burning incense and praying just to be able to marry Li Chengyuan, and she can’t even give birth to a son. If I were Li Chengyuan, I’d look for a woman outside, too.”
The moment Aunt Liu and the others turned their heads and saw Li Chengyuan, they laughed awkwardly and scattered.
Returning home that night, Li Chengyuan noticed the smell of traditional Chinese medicine lingering in the air.
Suxia began frequently brewing and drinking herbal medicine.
She told Li Chengyuan the medicine was to nourish her body, but Li Chengyuan knew it was so she could have a child.
He said to Suxia, “Children… there’s no rush.”
Suxia just smiled.
Li Chengyuan realized she no longer trusted him.
A month later, the first love came to the factory to find Li Chengyuan. She was a pretty, eye-catching city girl, and many workers gathered around to watch the commotion.
Worried they would run to Suxia and spout nonsense, Li Chengyuan lost his temper with his first love for the first time and drove her away.
Crying, she ran off. Li Chengyuan rushed to find Suxia.
He found her, but Suxia was in the hospital.
Someone had still told her the news of Li Chengyuan meeting with his first love, likely with plenty of exaggerated, twisted details added in.
Distraught while working, Suxia had an accident.
She survived, but she lost her eyesight.
After losing her sight, Suxia’s nerves began to unspool.
She would always wake up in a sudden panic, convinced Li Chengyuan had gone off to see other women.
Yet she never came to ask Li Chengyuan about it; she only grew increasingly desperate to have a child.
When Li Chengyuan went to buy medicine for Suxia, he heard Aunt Liu and her group gossiping again downstairs:
“I bet Li Chengyuan is going to ask for a divorce any day now.”
“Oh my, with Little Li having such good prospects, it’s just terrible luck for him to be saddled with a barren wasteland like her, and now he even has to wait on her hand and foot.”
“Who knows…”
Rating: 3 Stars
Description: This method has the lowest clearance difficulty, but it requires a great deal of luck.
As you have likely realized, the core difficulty of this dungeon lies in getting through to the emergency call; however, making the call will inevitably alert the man-eater.
If another player goes to make the call, you can consistently adopt a hiding strategy. As long as you make no sound, the man-eater will not discover you—she will only attack the companion who makes the call.
As long as you possess a certain level of calmness and judgment, continue to hide when the fake police officer knocks, and hold out until the real police arrive, you can clear the dungeon.
This method belongs to the “coasting-by-luck” strategy, so any precious items given by key characters will naturally pass you by!
Description: Rather unscrupulous, but greatly beneficial to your survival.
This plan requires you to have good judgment, emotional intelligence, and eloquence. You need to gather your teammates and use your silver tongue to dupe them into going to their deaths.
The man-eater will only attack the person making the loudest noise at any given time, so do everything you can to make your teammates shoulder the responsibility of calling the police and drawing her away. Don’t worry about whether it will work—there are always more gullible fools in this world than you think.
Of course, with this method, you shouldn’t expect to get any precious items; you can’t have all the good things come to you, right?
Description: The method adopted by Shao Lan; highest risk, highest reward.
This plan requires the highest number of loops, meaning its error tolerance is the lowest.
You must fully and correctly decode all the clues in this dungeon and then deduce the truth.
After completing all deductions, you must risk using one more loop chance, because the only possibility of reversal lies strictly within the very first two minutes.
If you miss these two minutes, the window of survival vanishes instantly, and you and your companions will be forced to resort to Strategy 1 or 2 above, clearing the dungeon at the cost of someone having to die.
Although this is the only plan where everyone can survive, and the only chance to obtain precious items, we strongly do not recommend it.
After all, your life is what matters most; it’s not worth taking such a huge risk, don’t you think?