With the source of the noise silenced, Lin Ye resumed his quest. He now had three rabbits and needed two more. The timer showed about an hour and a half remaining.
But he seemed to have hit another dead end. He had already turned this room upside down.
He re-examined the entire room, his gaze finally settling on the massive full-length mirror. From the very beginning, this mirror had exuded an inexplicable strangeness.
He walked up to it, looking at his reflection. The man in the mirror looked back at him.
"Hey, buddy," Lin Ye spoke. "Could you give me a hand? Where's the fourth rabbit?"
Naturally, the reflection did not reply.
Lin Ye sighed and leaned closer, studying the mirror's surface. He noticed a tiny discrepancy between the reflected room and the real one.
In reality, the cabinet he had opened and re-locked—the one hiding the "sixth rabbit"—was closed. But in the mirror, that same cabinet door was slightly ajar!
This was a critical detail.
Lin Ye immediately returned to the cabinet and unlocked it again. He ignored the tempting fake rabbit and began to inspect the cabinet's interior meticulously.
He knocked on the back panel. It was solid. He felt the top and bottom, but there were no hidden mechanisms.
"No, I must have missed something."
He looked at the mirror again. In the reflection, his own image was pointing at the side of the cabinet.
An idea sparked in Lin Ye's mind. He began tapping on the cabinet's side panels.
Knock, knock, knock...
When he tapped a spot near the inner wall, the sound was distinctly different—it was hollow!
He pressed firmly on that spot. The wooden panel gave way, revealing a hidden compartment.
Inside the compartment, the fourth red cloth rabbit lay waiting.
"Nice!" Lin Ye pumped his fist in excitement and took the rabbit.
The moment he had the fourth rabbit in his hand, the entire room began to shake violently. The light overhead flickered wildly, buzzing with electricity.
"Is this place coming down?" Lin Ye grabbed the wall to steady himself.
The candy-gagged mouth on the wall was now twisting with glee, as if to say, "See? I told you you'd never find it, and even if you did, it's useless!"
The tremors lasted for about ten seconds before stopping. The room fell silent again, but the atmosphere had grown even more oppressive.
Lin Ye checked the timer. One hour and ten minutes left.
"Just one more to go," he said, taking a deep breath. "The fifth rabbit... where could it be?"
He had searched every conceivable place in this room. The bookshelf, the cabinets, the toy box, the air vent... he had even lifted the carpet. Nothing.
Could the clue be in another room? But the door was closed, and there was no handle.
He walked back to the mirror one last time. It had provided him with too many clues; he had a feeling the final secret was connected to it as well.
He looked at his reflection, who also had four rabbits in his pocket.
Lin Ye fell deep into thought.
Rule 1, high-five the reflection. A friendly interaction.
The reflection had hinted at the hidden compartment. Another friendly interaction.
This meant that, at least when abiding by the rules, his reflection was an ally.
So, could the fifth rabbit be... inside the mirror?
The thought startled even him.
He reached out and tried to touch the mirror's surface. It was cold and hard—unmistakably a solid mirror. His hand couldn't pass through.
"A dead end."
He didn't give up. Instead, he began to think about all the rules of the instance. He was convinced they were all interconnected.
Rule 1: The Mirror.
Rule 2: The Candy and The Hand.
Rule 3: The Name.
Rule 4: The Rabbits.
Rule 5: Turning off the light.
Rule 6: The Mouth.
He had already used the logic of Rule 2 to get a reward—the second rabbit. He had used the mirror's clues to find the fourth.
"The candy can be given to the hand on the wall for a reward..." Lin Ye's eyes brightened. "So... can I give something to my reflection?"
It was a bold hypothesis. But what could he give?
He checked his pockets. Besides the four rabbits and his phone, he had nothing.
He couldn't give away the rabbits; they were quest items. The phone was also out of the question; it was his only source of light and a link to sanity.
He looked around the room, and then it hit him.
The torn page from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—the one with the drawing of the hand!
He took out the page.
"Hey, me in the mirror," Lin Ye said, holding up the page. "I know you can see this. How about a trade? I'll give you this 'candy-eating hand,' and you give me the fifth rabbit."
The reflection showed no reaction.
Lin Ye wasn't discouraged. He knew he needed a "medium." Just like the candy had to be placed on the drawing.
He carefully pressed the page against the mirror, with the drawing of the hand facing inward.
Then, he waited.
One second, two seconds, ten seconds...
Nothing happened.
"Did I guess wrong?" Lin Ye frowned.
Just as he was about to give up, something happened.
The page stuck to the mirror began to sink into the glass, just like the candy had sunk into the paper. It slowly submerged and then vanished completely.
A moment later, the "Lin Ye" in the mirror broke into a gentle smile. He reached into his own pocket and, from thin air, produced a red cloth rabbit.
Then, he gently placed the rabbit against the mirror's surface.
An incredible scene unfolded. The rabbit passed through the mirror, "squeezing" its way out from the reflection into reality, and dropped at Lin Ye's feet.
Lin Ye picked up the rabbit, his heart pounding.
The fifth one! He had finally collected all five!
He excitedly pulled out all five rabbits, checking each one. They were all the old, safe-looking cloth type.
[Ding—Mission complete. The exit is now open.]
The cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind once more.
On the far side of the room, a door that hadn't been there before materialized with a creak. It slowly swung inward, revealing a soft, white light.
The exit!
Lin Ye let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as if all his strength had been drained. He glanced at the timer. Forty minutes left.
"Finally, I can get the hell out of here," he said, stuffing the rabbits back into his pocket and preparing to leave.
But just as he took a step, he suddenly remembered the last rule.
[Rule 5]: Remember, the last person to leave must turn off the light.
He had been alone in this room the entire time. That made him the "last person to leave."
He looked up, searching for a light switch.
He scanned the entire room but found nothing. The only source of light was the single, flickering bulb overhead, bare and without even a pull cord.
"How do I turn it off without a switch?" Lin Ye was stumped.
He walked to the exit and peered into the white light. It felt warm and safe, beckoning him to leave quickly.
But he didn't dare.
He knew he couldn't violate a single one of these rules. The consequence was being "permanently trapped inside."
He forced himself to calm down and think.
If the rule required him to turn off the light, there had to be a way.
He surveyed the room again. The mirror, the cabinets, the bookshelf, the wall... His gaze finally landed on the mouth, still gagged with candy and writhing in frustration.
A ridiculous idea came to him.
He walked over to the mouth and crouched down, meeting it at eye level.
"I know you can understand me," Lin Ye began slowly. "You know where the switch is, don't you? Tell me, and I'll get that candy out for you."
The mouth immediately stopped wriggling. Its lips curled upward in what looked like a sneer. Its expression (if it had one) was full of mockery, as if to say, "Begging me now? Too late!"
Lin Ye sighed. "Looks like communication is pointless. Rule 6 said you're a blabbermouth, which must mean you're also a liar and a troublemaker. I shouldn't have used candy. I should've used duct tape."
He stood up and ignored the mouth.
If a normal switch was nowhere to be found, could it be... an abnormal "switch"?
His eyes swept across the room one last time, finally locking onto the one thing he had been afraid to look at directly—the cabinet that held the sixth rabbit.
"Your eyes deceive you..."
"The sixth rabbit is a trap..."
"But the rule only said 'do not touch the sixth one.' It didn't say I couldn't use things related to it."
Lin Ye's mind was working faster than ever before.
He walked to the cabinet, took a deep breath, and unlocked the door.
The "perfect" red rabbit still lay inside, emanating an ominous aura.
Lin Ye didn't touch it. Instead, he examined the entire cabinet again. This time, he noticed a detail he had overlooked before.
On the top panel of the cabinet, a tiny, almost invisible symbol of a light bulb had been carved.
"This is it!"
He reached out and pressed firmly on the symbol.
Click.
With a soft sound, the flickering light overhead went out.
The room was instantly swallowed by absolute darkness.
Lin Ye stood in the dark, waiting. He knew this was the correct way to turn off the light.
In the blackness, the mouth on the wall seemed to let out a muffled, frustrated whimper. From the cabinet holding the sixth rabbit, a faint cracking sound could be heard, as if something inside was breaking apart.
Lin Ye ignored it all. He turned and, relying on memory, walked step by step toward the only source of light—the exit.
He stepped one foot into the white light, a wave of warmth washing over him. Just before he left the room completely, he paused, turned back to face the endless darkness, and grinned.
"Great service, but a bit of a brain-teaser. Five-star review. Won't be coming back."
With that, he walked into the white light without looking back.
When Lin Ye opened his eyes again, he was lying on his own sofa. The sun was shining brightly outside, birds were chirping, and the clock on the wall read nine in the morning.
Everything was as it had always been, as if the three-hour ordeal had been nothing more than a bizarre, vivid dream.
"A dream?" Lin Ye sat up, rubbing his eyes.
He subconsciously reached into his pocket.
His fingertips touched something soft and furry.
He pulled it out. An old, red cloth rabbit with one ear missing lay quietly in the palm of his hand.
Lin Ye stared at the rabbit for a long moment, then let out a long, slow breath, a resigned yet relieved smile spreading across his face.
"Well," he thought. "Guess I shouldn't go around clicking on those 'hyper-realistic experience' ads online anymore."
He placed the rabbit on the coffee table and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. The sunlight streamed over him, casting a sharp, complete shadow on the floor.
Everything was fine.