Chapter 214
Chapter 214
“Jian Fan, stop keeping us in suspense,” Qin Nan said.
His own mind was full of questions.
Jian Fan looked at him. “From beginning to end, Little Princess never told us she lived inside a card-collection game.”
“But the cards we drew–”
Qin Nan had barely begun when Jian Fan interrupted. “We drew cards. That much is true. It doesn’t mean Little Princess exists inside a game.”
“Little Princess loved those games. She was innocent and fond of fantasies, and the five supposed male leads exploited that.”
“What are you talking about?” Lu Jing looked completely lost.
Qin Nan glared at him. “Let Jian Fan finish.”
“Little Princess’s parents ran a major corporation. What if someone wanted to seize it? Little Princess was naive, which made her an excellent point of attack.”
Jian Fan didn’t want to deliver a lengthy explanation. He offered only that possibility, but it was enough for some of them to connect everything.
“Those five so-called male leads never liked Little Princess at all. They approached and exploited her so their families could swallow her family’s company?” Lin Junruo exclaimed.
Jian Fan nodded. “That should be it.”
“Holy shit,” Lin Junruo blurted.
In a romance game, multiple exceptional men surrounded the female lead because of love. In reality, if several exceptional men devoted themselves to one woman and didn’t mind one another, perhaps they were partners conspiring to seize her family’s assets.
Lin Junruo had just witnessed the cruelty of reality.
“That does explain it.” Mu Xin followed Jian Fan’s reasoning forward. Her brows knitted, but her voice remained calm as she described what might have happened next. “Little Princess was immersed in romance games and never considered the possibility of a conspiracy. Knowing nothing, she sincerely loved the five male leads who stayed by her side.”
“Later, those five men took over her family’s company. Her parents saw no way out and killed themselves, and Little Princess grew up overnight. She cast aside every fantasy and became a powerful career woman. Naturally, she no longer loved those five men. As for why she continued spending time with them…”
“Revenge,” Jian Fan said softly.
Little Princess had learned the full truth: her parents’ tragic deaths and the collapse of the company. She could only hate the five men now. If she chose to continue associating with them, revenge was the sole plausible reason.
As for the amusement park and villa, as they had said earlier, this was not Little Princess’s world. She might control everything here, and the locations might exist only to provide clues. Not every detail could withstand literal scrutiny.
But…
“According to your theory, the fantasy-loving Little Princess and the powerful career woman belong to different periods of her life. Yet traces of both coexist inside the villa,” Qin Nan said with a frown.
Jian Fan shook his head. “As I said, we can’t treat every detail literally.”
The world was shaped by Little Princess’s will. It could have been altered from reality.
Lacking the earlier context, Yang Zhen muttered, “That’s awfully subjective. When something contradicts your theory, you dismiss it with your logic. When it supports your theory but contradicts established reality, you claim reality was altered.”
Jian Fan: “…”
Everyone heard her. They agreed with Jian Fan, but if one ignored all the earlier reasoning, Yang Zhen’s criticism did sound… rather convincing.
“Think whatever you like,” Jian Fan said, looking up at her. His tone remained calm.
Yang Zhen said nothing.
She barely possessed any information herself.
“Jian Fan, keep going,” Qin Nan said.
Jian Fan looked at him. “I’ve finished.”
Qin Nan: “?”
That was it?
“More precisely, everything before us represents Little Princess’s psychological state,” Jian Fan added at Qin Nan’s expression.
After he said it, an idea seemed to flash through his mind, but he failed to seize it.
Qin Nan, meanwhile–
He laughed. “Her psychological state? Half fantasy-loving girl and half powerful career woman? Little Princess isn’t treating mental illness–she has a dual personality herself.”
The phrase *dual personality* instantly cleared the fog in Jian Fan’s mind.
“Little Princess has a dual personality!” he said with absolute certainty.
Everyone froze.
Qin Weiyi was the first to react.
“A dual personality. Little Princess has two people with entirely different temperaments living deep within her. That’s why the traces of her life in the villa include both an innocent, fantasy-loving Little Princess and a later personality who is serious, calm, and devoted to work. Two completely different ways of life became interwoven.”
Qin Weiyi smiled.
Who would have thought this was the answer?
Little Princess’s profession and the patient files she left behind now had meaning as well.
They weren’t merely meant to tell the group that she worked in psychiatry. They had subtly planted the seed of multiple personality disorder, making it easier to connect that concept to Little Princess herself.
Yang Zhen watched them discuss the matter with delight and revelation written across their faces. She remained utterly confused.
Her gaze swept over the group, then finally settled on Shi Chen.
Good.
At least she wasn’t the only one who understood nothing.
Shi Chen lacked the earlier context and was just as lost.
“We’ve basically reconstructed most of the backstory now, haven’t we? So how do we clear this?” Yellow Hair asked, steering them toward the most important question.
“It still isn’t enough. We haven’t determined where we actually are,” Jian Fan said.
If Little Princess did not live inside a game, then under the rules of reality she couldn’t create an independent space and trap all of them through her own power.
There had to be a rational explanation.
In the previous Escape Room, for example, Zhao Yingguo had been a ghost with supernatural abilities who created a virtual space. Alternatively, the Realm of Death could capture their consciousness and insert it into a game world.
What method had Little Princess used to trap them here?
Had she died like Zhao Yingguo?
Or had she used a method like the Realm of Death’s?
Jian Fan considered both possibilities and quickly rejected them.
Spatial overlap, illusions, and a ghost would make this world far too similar to the last one. That wasn’t the Realm of Death’s style. Similar worlds gave Players enough experience to uncover the truth more easily, and the Realm of Death was not so kind.
As for the second possibility, Little Princess had no reason to drag innocent people into such a game. Besides, she worked in psychiatry.
The secret should still lie in the mind.
But what could it be?