Transmigrated As a Villain, I Rely on Sand Sculpture to Survive

 

Su Huanyi was standing with the rest to watch the decryption when Su Chi came right behind him. He didn’t care at first until the latter put one hand on his shoulder.

This action looked very ambiguous, but it might have looked like a brotherly gesture to outsiders.

Su Huanyi instinctively felt a sense of danger. The people in front of him were still engrossed in their studies of the turntable on the stove, paying no attention to their side at the time.

He was about to turn his head and use his eyes to deter Su Chi when the hand resting on his shoulder gave his earlobe a gentle squeeze.

The roughness of the fingers brushed against the sensitive softness, and a surge of electricity shot up from his tailbone, making Su Huanyi shudder immediately.

Su Huanyi was shocked! Su Chi dared to lay his hands on his ear in broad daylight! Did the law under the sky still exist?

He brushed his head to the side, his gaze burning like a torch.

Su Chi looked at him with downcast eyes that reflected the bright light of the candle flame next to him, looking ambiguous and provocative.

Su Huanyi’s momentum slightly weakened and his heart trembled. The heat was just spreading along his earlobe when Su Jianchen suddenly straightened up in front of him, “Done!”

His heart jumped, and he hurriedly withdrew his gaze. He turned back to the front and exclaimed with guilt, “Wow…!”

The hand resting on his shoulder then retracted from behind him.

The discs were rearranged according to the hints on the back of the dustpans. There was a soft click from the door behind them the moment the three discs clicked together.

Liu Qinling looked up, “It’s open?”

“I’ll go check.” Su Yu was the closest, and he stepped forward with a twist of the red hem. He clasped the doorknob and said, “It can be pulled open.”

Liu Qinling, “Wow! Is that all it took to unlock it? ”

Su Huanyi’s strands of hair twitched. He had a feeling that it shouldn’t be that simple: there were clues on the cabinet he and his elder brother had seen, and the heavenly stems on the right wall hadn’t come in handy. So how could the door just get unlocked that easily?

He subconsciously looked at Su Chi, who also turned to him, “What’s wrong?”

“Big brother, I don’t think it’s that…..”

“Huh?” Su Yu’s exclamation drew the attention of the crowd. He pulled the door knob open and found that the door did not lead to the next room. “It’s a hidden compartment with a wooden box inside.”

“Isn’t it the next level?” Liu Qinling asked, “I thought it was unlocked… but, this is the only door in this room. So, where’s the exit? ”

Su Huanyi then pointed out, “We discovered that the cabinet over there is movable. The exit is probably behind it. ”

The wooden box was opened with a clatter, and Su Yu raised an eyebrow, “Oh, it looks like the clue to unlocking the cabinet is in here.”

There were dozens of wooden cards inside, and each was found to have half a number written on it when they turned them over, looking like a puzzle.

Su Huanyi hurriedly punched the air, “I’m good at this!”

The wide hem of his sleeve slid with his movement, revealing his smooth arm. Su Chi stretched out his hand to pull it down for him, “Are you a living ETC?”

Su Huanyi accidentally said what was in his heart, “That is you.”

Su Chi: “…”

Su Yu next to him rounded off, “Uh, what’s the point of arguing about that?” An outer etc, an inner etc, no one loses to anyone.

Liu Qinlin repaid Su Huanyi’s grievances with virtue, she pulled back the topic, “Is brother Huanyi good at puzzles?”

Su Huanyi said shyly, “Not really. I’m just good at things that don’t require me to use my head. ”

The crowd: “…”

It took five or six minutes for the wooden cards to be spread out on the floor and connected into a series of numbers. Su Huanyi remembered the numbering on the bottom of the porcelain bowl and bottle, and he looked up at Su Chi for confirmation, “Big brother, was it arranged in this order?”

Su Chi leaned down and picked him up, “Yes.”

Su Huanyi sighed, “I’m so smart.”

Su Chi was noncommittal.

After sorting out the numbers, the others went to the other end to adjust the order according to this discovery, and Su Huanyi took the opportunity to whisper to Su Chi, “Big brother, did I become smarter because I’m with you?”

“….”

“Yes.” For the first time, Su Chi went against his conscience.

“Wuhu!”

The bowls and bottles were rearranged according to the wooden cards. There was a click from behind the cabinet when the last bowl was put back in place. Su Jianchen pulled up his sleeves and pushed one side of the cabinet, exposing the wall behind it.

There was no door, only a wall with three numbers written on it.

The air inside the room stagnated for a moment.

There was no exit even there. So where could the exit be?

Liu Qinling pulled at her hair in a very ungraceful manner, “We’ve found all the clues we are supposed to get, right? So, what are these numbers for? ”

The rest of the group fell into collective contemplation. Su Huanyi turned to Su Chi and pointed into the void with a flourish of his sleeve, “Big brother, do you see it?”

Su Chi felt the slight twitch of his eyebrow peak, “What?”

“The flag you set.”

“….”

Su Chi stared at him for two seconds and suddenly turned his back on the people by the cabinet. He stood in front of Su Huanyi and lowered his voice, “I’ve indulged you too much. Now you ridicule me?”

Su Huanyi “One must learn from barbarians to control the barbarians.”

***A famous proposition put forward by Wei Yuan, a famous thinker in the Qing dynasty. The complete interpretation is to learn the advanced technology of the West as a way to resist the invasion of the Western powers.***

Su Chi: “What are you going to do if you’re wrong?”

Su Huanyi snorted inwardly, “I can make apologize.”

Su Chi chuckled, and he suddenly became a little wary.

“…and make amends.” With that, Su Chi walked past him and went to the stove. He stretched out his hand and began to turn the three discs.

Liu Qinling noticed the movement and ran over with a few steps, “What’s wrong? Haven’t we already turned this disc? ”

“Secondary utilization.”

As the discs were reordered, the stove in front of them suddenly made a “clang” as Su Chi withdrew his hand!

The seemingly seamless stove top suddenly fell through a gap and a light came out from inside.

Su Chi said calmly, “It’s cleared.”

The crowd: “….”

The crowd: “??”

Su Huanyi was directly dumbfounded. He even suspected that Su Chi had deliberately not said anything before, just waiting for him to jump into the pit!

Su Jianchen studied the broken disc wheel in a spirit of inquisitiveness, “Big brother, where did this clue come from?”

“The three numbers correspond to three disc wheels. There were hints on the wall indicating the numbers corresponding to the heavenly stems. The rearrangement was the answer. ” Su Chi raised an eyebrow, “Didn’t the instruction manual say that certain props are reusable?”

“….” The crowd, “Ohh!”

Su Huanyi: So his big brother really took note of everything!

Liu Qinling finished his “Oh” and turned to Su Yu next to her, “I think we could have figured it out eventually. But your big brother solved it so fast that it seems a little stupid, as if we know nothing. ”

Su Yu’s eyes fell on the handful of stupid hairs that had been shocked stiff and felt a hint of comfort. “Fortunately, there is a younger brother.”

Liu Qinling, “….” What was up with the strange food chain that seemed to exist within the Su family.

In the gap under the stove was a secret passage with a long ladder of about three metres going down from the exit.

Su Chi held his robe back and went over the edge of the platform. “I’ll go down first.” He then turned to look at Su Huanyi, who was still doubting his life, “You follow after me.”

Su Chi’s actions were smooth, and he descended the stairs to the ground as if he were on an escalator. Su Huanyi waited for him to take a few steps back before carefully climbing down.

He looked at Su Chi below as he tentatively stepped onto the ladder and said, “Big brother, this ancient costume is so obtrusive.”

Su Chi came a little closer in case he stepped on it and fell off. “That was what you chose after careful deliberation.”

“Didn’t you agree with me then?”

He had just reached half a metre above the ground when he said this, and then simply jumped down—the light outer robe fluttering behind him and revealing a tightly cinched waist underneath.

Su Chi subconsciously reached out to catch him.

Black and white intertwined for a moment, the materials rubbing against each other as he embraced Su Huanyi in his arms.

A strong arm clasped the back of Su Huanyi’s waist and held him steady. Su Chi’s voice was low as he asked, “Who do you think you owe it to?”

He spoke, and a subtle vibration came from where they were pressed together, and Su Huanyi’s heart started pounding. Big brother is too sultry; even his taunting words sound so beautiful.

At the entrance above, Su Yu’s face was expressionless as he spread his arms above his head, looking like a butterfly. He used his weak wings to shield himself from the brotherly love beneath.

He hated that his discerning eyes had penetrated too much; he was really some kind of sceptre.

The two below embraced for only a moment before parting. Su Chi calmly withdrew his hand and looked at Su Yu above him, “Come down, third.”

Su Yu: “….” heh.

He suspected that his elder brother was not afraid of letting him know their little secret, just so he could use him as a cover.

He could even exploit his brother-how scheming!

Su Huanyi stood beside Su Chi, watching the people above descend one by one. The last one down was Liu Qinling. Su Huanyi even kindly stepped forward to try and help her but was rejected outright.

“No need! This ladder is nothing more than that.”

Su Huanyi was worried, “Don’t say that. Are you *unafraid of the wind flashing your tongue.”

***Referring to someone talking big, or not talking in line with the facts. ***

Liu Qinling almost missed a step.

Su Huanyi was frightened, “You see!”

“….”

She landed smoothly and then looked at Su Huanyi meaningfully for a long time.

Su Chi patted his head in education.

The secret passage was lit on both sides, and the place was much brighter than in the previous room. The group walked along the tunnel, their footsteps echoing in the empty passage.

Su Huanyi looked around, “Are we just going to follow this secret passage to the next room? Why is it so uneventful?”

He then let out an unrestrained thought, “If it were me, I would have set up a mechanism here to take the crowd by surprise when they let their guard down …… Huh, why aren’t any of you talking?”

The rest of the group looked at him with complicated eyes.

Su Chi slightly bent down with the attitude of a life coach, “Have you ever read *”Huarong’s Moral Interpretation of Cao Cao?”

***This is a well-known story and a key chapter in the novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. As Cao Cao fled with his generals after being defeated in battle, he kept laughing at his enemy’s incompetence in not even setting up an army to ambush them at a critical point. Before the words were finished, a canon rang out, and they were surrounded by five hundred swordsmen. More here ***

Su Huanyi: “….”

At this point, all the people in the group kept their mouths shut and continued walking toward the front without a word. With the flag Su Huanyi had set, they were all on their guard.

The secret passage soon came to an end, and a ladder led up the wall. There was a door made of wooden planks embedded in the ceiling.

Su Jianchen climbed up the ladder and found that it was locked. “I can’t open it, so we’ll have to find out if there are any other clues.” He then looked down at Su Huanyi, who was at the bottom, and said, “It’s now eventful.”

“….” Su Huanyi was shocked by his ability to set flags!

He slumped against the wall next to him in dismay…

Bang! The wall suddenly turned away without warning.

“What the hell!” Su Huanyi stumbled sideways and was falling in.

The situation happened so suddenly that not only he, but everyone else had not yet reacted to what was happening.

Behind him was darkness, and the wall was rapidly closing in front of him. The moment the beam of light contracted, a figure broke through the division between light and darkness and rushed in.

There were several shouts of alarm that came from outside.

“Big brother?!”

“Brother Huanyi!”

Just before he fell, an arm caught the side of his waist.

Through the gap that had not yet fully closed, the anxious eyes of several people outside could still be seen.

Su Chi had his back to the light and pressed him into his arms.

Bang! At that moment, the crack in the wall closed completely.