After Entering a Romance Reality Show Disguised as a Man to Win Over All the Female Leads - Chapter 24.1

Rong Yu relaxed her tense mood, but the livestream viewers were laughing loudly.

[Qingqing sister died on the spot. I’m dying.]

[For my wife, I can go try dying once.]

[Hahahahaha, this plot! Don’t be too ridiculous, hey!]

The woman on the other end of the phone readily agreed when she heard this.

“Then all right. Please make a trip to Hanyu Community before six this afternoon. I’m a staff member from the residents’ service center, and I’m at the front desk right now.”

Rong Yu immediately agreed.

After hanging up, she thanked the old woman at the front desk and turned to leave the inn.

As soon as she walked out, a taxi stopped by the roadside. Clearly, just like the time she went to the research institute the day before yesterday, this was a car the program team had arranged in advance.

Only, after Rong Yu opened the door and got in, she did not see the gentle woman in the bluish-green qipao from last time.

The driver this time was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. He cheerfully asked Rong Yu for her destination, then immediately started the car.

Rong Yu looked around the taxi interior and, as expected, saw a miniature camera pasted beside the left rear door handle, as well as a fingertip-sized Heartbeat Moment logo.

After confirming this was a program-team car, Rong Yu relaxed and leaned back against the seat, turning her head to look outside the window.

Hanyu Community was more than twenty kilometers away from her current location. A round trip would take more than an hour. Bored, Rong Yu simply put on her earphones and began listening to music.

She closed her eyes to listen, while the viewers in the livestream began discussing with one another.

Seeing that the driver had changed, everyone felt somewhat disappointed.

[Ah, why isn’t it that sister from last time?]

[Where’s Host Zhang Yong’an?! Hurry and bring back that sister from last time. Damn it.]

[I want to see the qipao beauty!!! I thought she was a new female guest, but she just left like that. Wuwuwuwu.]

Rong Yu did not read the livestream comments. She was still lowering her head and choosing a playlist on the music app when a familiar, nostalgic vinyl-record melody suddenly came into her ears.

It was the classic song “Unchained Melody,” with its familiar opening line, “Oh, my love, my darling,” followed by lyrics of longing, loneliness, slow time, and the yearning for love.

The song was melodious and winding. Its repeated classic tune sounded like one call after another. The drumbeats and bass responded gently. The prelude was deep and powerful, while the ending notes turned soft and clear, like moonlit waves stirred into ripples by a heavy stone, carrying sorrow and deep feeling.

This song was far too classic. It was only too old, so in her real world, almost no one her age had not heard it.

Rong Yu froze. Hearing the song, she raised her head and looked at the speaker player on the driver’s dashboard.

The driver was clearly even more surprised than she was. He raised his hand and patted the speaker.

“Eh? Wasn’t this speaker broken? Why did it suddenly start playing?”

He tried adjusting the volume, only to discover that no matter how he adjusted it, the sound it played remained the same. He could not turn it off or skip the song either.

The driver looked baffled. Unable to figure out whether it was broken or not, he kept looking at the dashboard.

Rong Yu was truly afraid it would be unsafe for him to check the speaker while driving, so she quickly said, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it for now. This song is quite nice.”

Rong Yu actually had a special feeling toward this song.

This song, Unchained Melody, had been chosen as the theme song for the film Ghost. It was one of her mother’s favorite songs when she was young. On wedding anniversaries, Rong Yu’s mother often played it.

The sorrowful and affectionate melody was like a river carrying a boat, letting those who listened rise and fall within it.

Rong Yu had listened to it so much as a child that she could even recite the lyrics and understand the general meaning.

However, young people nowadays did not seem to like old songs much anymore. This was the first time Rong Yu had heard this song outside.

Since Rong Yu said this, the driver stopped dwelling on it. He drove all the way onto the elevated road and reached the destination in less than thirty minutes.

When Rong Yu tried to pay, the driver indeed found another excuse not to accept the fare.

She closed the door and got out, looking at the four clear characters on the community gate before her—

Hanyu Community.

The strange sound from the phone call earlier suddenly flashed through her mind.

Rong Yu took a deep breath and walked toward the residents’ service center beside the gate.

It was 12:45 p.m.

When Rong Yu pushed the door open and entered, there was only one middle-aged woman in professional attire in the hall.

Seeing her enter, the woman immediately stood with a smile. She looked Rong Yu up and down, her face slightly surprised.

“Sorry. From Miss Mu’s description, I thought you were a girl. But you really are beautiful. This is the first time I’ve seen such a handsome young man.”

For a moment, Rong Yu did not know how to respond. She could only raise her hand and scratch her head.

“…Thank you.”

The comments were full of regret too.

[Ahhhhh, I want to say it too. Why isn’t Little Brother Rongrong a little sister? Wuwuwu. Not trying to be a buzzkill, little brother is also very good. I just feel like being a little sister would suit him even more, and women’s clothing looks even better on him than men’s clothing, ww.]

[Although, but, I think so too.]

The woman curled her lips in a light smile and moved a square package, about half a meter long and wide, from under the counter.

“This is something Miss Mu left temporarily with us before, but before she had time to fill in the address, she… I saw that only your name and contact information were written on it, so I guessed it should be for you. That’s why I called you.”

She pushed the package toward Rong Yu, then took out a red sheet of paper printed with a form.

The paper had recipient information printed on it, with Rong Yu’s name and phone number written down. Apart from the color being far too bright red, it was no different from an ordinary receipt form.

The woman pointed to the signature line on the red paper and said to Rong Yu, “Mr. Rong, sign here.”

Rong Yu nodded, walked over, and wrote her name on the red paper. Then she raised her hands and picked up the package.

The package looked large, but it was not heavy at all, weighing less than three books.

It had been wrapped very well. The pure-black outer box was square and flat, without the slightest flaw. When held in her arms, the contents inside did not shake back and forth either. There must have been many layers of padding inside.

At the very center of the box was also a pure-white bow. The black-and-white color scheme was noble and elegant. The surface of the box was covered in faint water-and-wood patterns, making it look especially high-class. It was impossible to guess what was inside.

Seeing Rong Yu carefully hold the package in her arms, the woman spoke at the right time, continuing to fill in the script’s character setting.

“Miss Mu was a kindhearted girl. She had been helping us do community service all these years. Not many young people have that kind of heart anymore.”

As she spoke, tears gradually appeared in her eyes, but there was still a smile on her lips.

“Miss Mu said before that she and you had been schoolmates for many years. There were some things she had never had time to tell you when you were in school. This gift was something she originally planned to give you on her birthday. Inside are the things she wanted to say to you. At the time, I even encouraged her to give it to you earlier. I didn’t expect that on the morning of her nineteenth birthday, she would get into a car accident… She really was such a good child.”

As the woman spoke, she finally could not hold back and cried.

She clearly wanted to suppress the sound of crying, raising her hand to firmly cover her mouth, but sobs still leaked from between her fingers.

These extras invited by the program team had better acting skills than veteran actors on television. A few ordinary lines of script, spoken through the woman’s choked voice, made more than half the livestream viewers’ eyes wet.

Even Rong Yu became somewhat sorrowful, to the point where she almost felt the illusion that Mu Shuiqing had really died.

She raised her hand and lightly patted the woman’s shoulder to comfort her, speaking in a low voice.

“Thank you for giving these to me. I’ll treasure these things properly.”

The woman nodded. After exchanging a few more simple words with Rong Yu, she finally saw her out of the service center with reddened eyes.

It was only one in the afternoon.

The sunlight overhead was blazing, the scorching heat roasting the skin Rong Yu had exposed outside her clothes. Only the square box in her hands was icy cold, practically like an ice cube at room temperature. It had its own cooling effect and felt very comfortable.

Rong Yu could not help holding the square box tighter and hailed another taxi by the roadside, preparing to go back.

After getting in, she discovered that this taxi was the same one she had taken here. Even the driver was the same.

The driver greeted her. Without waiting for Rong Yu to speak, he familiarly drove toward the inn where she was staying.

Rong Yu also softly responded and exchanged a few words with him.

As the driver spoke, he looked at the cars behind them through the rearview mirror. His gaze slid over the square box in Rong Yu’s arms, and he seemed startled.

The steering wheel was turned half a circle too far, causing the entire car to turn sharply. Fortunately, there were no cars around. The driver quickly steadied the car, apologized, and only then carefully continued forward.

“That thing in your arms…” the driver spoke softly.

Rong Yu lowered her head and looked at the box in her arms. “My friend sent it to me.”

She blinked. “Is there a problem?”

The driver looked at her through the rearview mirror, his expression a little strange.

“Can you check if there’s any mark underneath the box?”

Rong Yu carefully turned the box over.

At the bottom right corner of the square box, she saw a silver leaf printed there. The veins on the leaf were clearly visible and lifelike.

Rong Yu said, “There’s a leaf printed on it.”

The driver immediately let out a long breath of relief.

“Oh, then it’s fine.”

Clearly, he had had doubts just now. At this moment, after hearing Rong Yu’s words, his whole body relaxed, and even his tone became much lighter.

“Not to be dramatic, but your box looks way too similar to the packaging funeral homes use to deliver urns. I’ve driven a few passengers coming back from crematoriums before and have seen boxes like the one in your arms several times.”

Rong Yu curled the corners of her lips and laughed softly.

“That really is quite a coincidence.”

She lowered her head and carefully examined the object in her arms. Suddenly, she understood a little what this script was.

But while Rong Yu was so calm, the viewers in the livestream were scared out of their wits.

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. An urn???]

[Why do I feel like… what the driver said might be true? Although the logo is different and it’s a leaf, the urn packaging where I live is also like this…]

[Damn! Sister upstairs, don’t scare me, ahhhhh!]

[So what kind of script is this one?]

[Replying upstairs: Based on the song that played in the taxi earlier, I’m guessing it’s a Ghost setting.]

[+11111111]

The return trip still took nearly half an hour.

After Rong Yu returned to the inn room, she placed the square box on the TV cabinet facing the foot of the bed, then picked up her phone and began ordering takeout.

From waking up until now, she had eaten nothing. Her stomach was already empty.

While she was ordering takeout, the livestream viewers noticed a problem.

[? Why can we still see? Didn’t this room not have cameras before??]

[!! Right. Could there be something big in the room??]

Everyone discussed back and forth. Rong Yu could not see their comments.

She had just chosen what to eat for lunch, put away her phone, and looked again at the black-and-white square box lying quietly on the TV cabinet.

The box was clean and pretty, carrying a low-key elegance. It looked completely out of place among the ordinary, old-fashioned decor of the inn.

Rong Yu stared at the box for a while, then got up and walked over to open it.

When she lifted the lid and saw what was inside, even Rong Yu, who was not afraid of ghosts, could not help freezing for a moment.

The livestream viewers widened their eyes along with her.

[!?!]

[This… this is…?]

Rong Yu frowned and reached into the box, taking out a thick stack of… photographs.

All of them were photos of her.

There were photos of her eating, sleeping, attending class, studying… and walking alone on the road.

Rong Yu had no idea when Mu Shuiqing had taken these.

Moreover, the person who took them had clearly deliberately found the right lighting and angles. Every photo was especially beautiful, carrying a hazy glow.

Rong Yu carefully flipped through each one, as if reviewing her high school years.

In the photos, she still had long hair and wore a school uniform while sitting in the classroom. She looked exactly the same as when she had gone through He Huaiting’s script.

But Rong Yu felt it resembled her real high school days even more, when she and Lian Langsheng had gone to school together.

She continued flipping backward.

There were too many photos in her hand. While flipping through them, her hand accidentally slipped, and one photo fell out of her arms onto the ground.

Rong Yu picked it up and looked at it, discovering that it was a photo of her standing at the entrance of the research institute from He Jiao’s script.

Starting from this photo, the images afterward became stranger and stranger.

There were photos of Rong Yu kissing He Jiao through the glass in the laboratory, photos of Rong Yu carrying a violin case alone to the bank at five in the morning, photos of Rong Yu being pressed against the safe by Lin Mengxing…

Some were not even from the livestream camera angle. They were more like close-up shots taken from nearby.

Rong Yu raised her brows as she looked at them, but the livestream viewers were shivering in fear.

[Holy crap, my Qingqing sister didn’t really turn into a ghost, did she? She can even photograph this???]

[Although, but, luckily it’s only a script. Otherwise this would be a little too stalker-ish. Kind of illegal, ahhhhh!!!]

The viewers behind the camera shouted in the comments, while Rong Yu before the camera slowly flipped to the last photo.

This photo was turned over.

Rong Yu carefully flipped it around and discovered that it was a picture of herself lowering her head to look at the photos.

Judging by the camera angle, the person who had photographed her was right at her left side.

At a camera distance so close that even every one of her eyelashes could be photographed clearly.

Rong Yu blinked, then turned her head sideways to look.

Comments:

[Ahhhhh, don’t look! Bullet screen protection, quick, bullet screen protection!!!]

[Is this a supernatural script?! I’m so scared.]

But Rong Yu saw nothing.

Inside the empty hotel room, there was still only her.

Only, she did not know if it was her imagination, but a faint breeze seemed to have stirred inside the room.

That wind was very weak, but the air it brought was especially cold, making Rong Yu instinctively rub her arms.

After looking through all the photos, Rong Yu organized them again and was about to put them back in the box when she discovered that there was actually a red sheet of paper at the bottom.

The red paper was folded neatly in half.

Rong Yu placed the photos aside, picked up the folded red paper, and opened it between her fingers.

The familiar frosted texture of the red paper instantly reminded Rong Yu of the red receipt form she had signed at the Hanyu Community residents’ service center an hour ago.

When she fully opened the red paper, she saw two large characters written clearly in dark-black ink on the inside—

Marriage Contract.

Below was a long passage of auspicious wedding blessings.

“Rejoicing today as two surnames join in marriage and form a covenant before one hall… The red cord is fixed, and this good match is eternally bound… May they grow old together forever, fragrant as osmanthus and orchid… Mandarin ducks return in spirit, delight of fish and water… Let this serve as proof!”

Among these lines, apart from the last phrase, “Mandarin ducks return in spirit,” which sounded a little strange, the rest was a standard ancient-style marriage contract.

On the far right side of the marriage contract were also Rong Yu and Mu Shuiqing’s names.

In particular, Rong Yu’s name was clearly the name she had signed earlier on the receipt form. The handwriting was exactly the same, even the turns of each stroke identical.

With a plop, something fell from the folded seam of the marriage contract onto her leg.

Rong Yu lowered her head and picked it up.

It was a slender, bright red cord, deep red like blood.

The moment she picked up the red cord, the surrounding space abruptly seemed to fall into an ice cellar.

The bone-deep chill made her whole body tremble. She silently put on the bathrobe beside her.

A damp, moldy smell seeped into the air, mixed with the fresh fragrance of grass and trees.

Looking at the marriage contract in her hand, Rong Yu suddenly thought of something. She took out her phone, searched for Hanyu Community’s service number, and immediately called it.

But this time, the person who answered was a young man.

His voice sounded twenty-something at most. “Hello, who are you looking for?”

Rong Yu was silent for two seconds, then asked, “Among your staff, is there a woman who looks about forty or fifty years old?”

The young man answered without hesitation. “No. There aren’t many people in the community. I’ve worked here for two years and know everyone. There’s no such person at all.”

Before asking, Rong Yu had already vaguely sensed this in her heart. Hearing the young man’s answer now, she was not particularly surprised.

But just as she was about to hang up, she suddenly remembered something.

“Do you know when Miss Mu from the community passed away?”

The moment she said this, the young man’s voice became tense.

“Aiya, today is the seventh day since Miss Mu’s accident! Don’t ask around about her. Miss Mu had just turned nineteen when she died. It’s taboo.”

This time, Rong Yu understood.