Chapter Text
Wang Ye felt that signing up for an escape room at 10 at night was not a good idea. Firstly, he was painfully tired—way past his bed time! Second, his boyfriend was being too clingy and acting scared by the obviously fake critters on the floor. Third, his friends were incredibly stupid and stuck on the side with all the good clues.
“Bilian! Listen to me! Place the magnet against the bottom corner of the wall where I’m knocking!” Somehow Chulan had accidentally also picked one of the hardest rooms in the entire place—a prison escape. Wang Ye was pretty sure they were never going to escape by the time the large timer on the wall hit zero.
When they had been first been escorted in the room, they were excited; a little nervous. Zhuge Qing was eagerly peeking around to see the clues, his eye’s barely catching anything in the dim lighting, but A for effort. They had been given the rules and then locked away in two separate rooms that were only a wall apart. (Not really locked because they could just tap a reachable button to let them out in case of an emergency)
The first thing that Wang Ye noticed was a large wooden bed chained to the wall, a fake toilet and sink, with a locked mirror compact, and a strange laundry basket that held socks with balls in them. Lastly, there was a huge maze with a tiny metal ball inside of the wall facing them. When the buzzer went off, Wang Ye immediately went over to the bed and unhooked it to let the bed come down.
Wang Ye slightly regretted that he was put in a room with Zhuge Qing and Feng Baobao. She had started climbing on the prison bed trying to look up at the ceiling. Someone from the outside told her to get off and be careful with the furniture—a great start. While Chulan, Lingyu, and the Lu cousins were already arguing about what to do.
Wang Ye just blocked them out as he quietly searched the room, finding only a strange journal under the pillow of the bed. He handed Zhuge Qing the journal and then pointed out a strange poster of chores that was once hidden behind the mounted bed.
“Lao Wang, there’s a page missing from this journal.”
“Let’s look for that later or ask if—”
“I found a key!” Baobao held up a key all of a sudden, which made Wang Ye look over and see a small wooden box laying on the floor; well that works too.
“Okay good, I think that unlocks this thing here—” He pointed to the locked mirror compartment attached over the sink. When that lock popped off easily, they all breathed out in relief and opened it up to see a weird metallic knob?
“What is it?? What did you guys find!!” They could hear Chulan’s loud voice echoing over the brick walls, making Wang Ye chuckle before shouting back.
“Focus on your side until I call for you!”
“Mean…” Chulan mumbled before going back to searching his own room and seeing a long chain attached to their prison door.
“Lao Wang! There’s a chain here! I think it connects to the cart on the outside!” Wang Ye was weighing the small knob in his hands, suddenly getting an idea when he saw that there was a metal ball inside the maze. He hurriedly ran over and pressed it against the clear plastic, intending to guide it through, but it didn’t budge.
“Shit, I think it needs to be used on their side…”
Oh the cart.
Zhuge Qing seemed to already be a step ahead since he had lingered behind and was eyeing the strange sock covered balls. He could peer out into the open space and see another laundry basket near the cart—perfect.
He picked up the ball, drawing Wang Ye’s attention, watching the man slip his arms through the large prison bars—throwing the ball… and missing. Zhuge Qing chuckled nervously before picking up another and finally making the shot. A loud click rang throughout the room, a scream from Chulan alerting them of, hopefully, good news.
“The cart is free now! I’m pulling it in!”
“When you do that, push it towards us, we have a magnet for you to use on the walls!”
“Yes, Boss!”
This was how Wang Ye got here now, nearly screaming his lungs out to instruct Chulan on how to get through the maze—which was completely invisible to them.
“Give it to me!” Linglong grabbed the magnet and shushed the rest of the men in the room, listening to Wang Ye shout out directions of where she should drag the magnet. When they had succeeded in getting it to the end of the maze, a loud click sounded and the prison gate on Wang Ye’s side swung open, the trio rushed out and pressing the red button to let the rest of their team out as well.
The rest of the escape room went decently well, mostly with Wang Ye leading and the rest doing as he said—his college degree was no joke when it came to cracking number codes. Of course, Wang Ye could only do so much, not ashamed with how often they pressed the hint button when time got tight. Unfortunately towards the end, they accidentally lost a clue because one of the mechanisms didn’t work; one of the staff had to come in and receive it for them.
Even with that, they managed to escape with 5 minutes left! It was truly a successful night. Afterwards, Linglong suggested getting drinks at a nearby bar, everyone agreeing, even Wang Ye; who didn’t want to sour the mood and say no. He held Zhuge Qing’s hand while they all chattered and walked in the beautiful scenery of the city lights, little speckles of colors dancing around them.
Wang Ye only had to take one shot of alcohol before growing red and clinging to Zhuge Qing while the gang all made fun of him. Zhuge Qing smiled knowingly, secretly enjoying putting his arm around the other’s waist and snuggling up to him in the booth. Baobao drank the bar nearly dry, Chulan already drunk himself, meanwhile the Lu cousins were the most sober out of them all.
Zhuge Qing mumbled quietly into Wang Ye’s blushing ears, his foxy face rosy as well.
“Lao Wang, you would make a good leader... Taking charge back there, you were hot~”
Wang Ye had to push the man away from his face, their breaths mingling and smelling like beer; making him nauseous.
“Go away, leave me be… damn bastard,” the man grumbled under his breath before feeling bad seeing the hurt look on his boyfriend’s face. He shut him up with a soft kiss, ignoring the roaming hands on his back, almost ticklish. Chulan gagged seeing the two of them kiss, covering his eye’s long enough to escape to the bathroom to throw up.