After Entering a Romance Reality Show Disguised as a Man to Win Over All the Female Leads - Chapter 4

Rong Yu hesitated but decided to try again. She tucked the tissue she’d used to wipe Mu Shuiqing’s face into her pocket, took Mu Shuiqing by the wrist, and led her through the ten-meter-long corridor.

Under the flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder, the dark, deep corridor seemed even more elongated. In the corners, twisted skeletons, zombies, and floating female ghosts bared their fangs and brandished their claws at them. Rong Yu appreciated the ghosts’ dedicated performances as she pulled Mu Shuiqing toward the end of the gallery, stopping before the painting of the middle-aged woman.

The light had been too dim before, but standing here now, Rong Yu realized that both sides at the end of the corridor were passable, though they led in completely opposite directions. Rong Yu privately guessed that because this horror castle was so large, there might be a maze-like setting inside. If they chose the wrong path, they might end up wasting a lot of time in the haunted house.

As she looked down in thought, a faint, ethereal hum suddenly drifted from the painting of the middle-aged woman beside her. The voice sounded as if it came from afar, carrying a piercing chill like mountain snow that made one’s ears tingle.

Rong Yu endured it for a moment before finally saying politely, “Hello, could you please stop singing?” It really wasn’t pleasant to the ear.

Bullet Chat:

【66666】

【Pfft, dying of laughter】

【Are we really here to brave a haunted house????】

The audience in the live stream roared with laughter. Before Rong Yu, the woman in the painting shrieked with a distorted face, her red lips peeling back as maggots crawled and writhed under her pale skin. Countless disgusting, fat worm-shapes bulged under her grey-toned flesh. When she opened her mouth wide, a steady stream of beetles, rats, and ants gushed out along with a surge of blood. Screaming, the woman reached out a skeletal hand from the painting, her ten-centimeter-long crimson nails aimed straight at Rong Yu’s face.

That hand looked like a flower stem deprived of nutrients, with wrinkled skin sagging loosely against the bone. It was filled with the aura of rot and death, carrying a heavy, nauseating stench. For a moment, Rong Yu felt as if she were in a graveyard where zombies were crawling out of their tombs. While marveling at how exquisitely the haunted house was made, she felt waves of nausea in her stomach. The discomfort in her abdomen slowed her movements. Just before the woman in the painting could scratch her cheek, a slender, long hand reached out from the side, grabbed Rong Yu’s arm, and pulled her behind.

The shriveled arm didn’t touch Rong Yu but slammed straight into the wall outside the painting. As the arm passed through the wall surface, Rong Yu realized with awe that it was also a holographic projection.

So impressive.

Lian Langsheng really knows how to dream.

Rong Yu couldn’t help but praise her inwardly.

Even though she realized the scene was just a projection, Rong Yu still couldn’t help but thank Mu Shuiqing. She glanced at the girl in front of her, her words filled with sincerity: “Thank you. Luckily I had you, Shuiqing.”

The girl in front of her didn’t look back, nor did she even respond, but she kept hold of Rong Yu’s hand and led her down the right fork in the path.

She seemed to have no reaction, but only the viewers in the live stream could clearly see Mu Shuiqing’s racing heart:

【Shuiqing baby, stop it! If your heart beats any faster, you’re going to hit 141 and beat Seven Hhhhh】

【Dying of laughter. Don’t let her expressionless face fool you; her heart is about to jump out (not really)】

【It’s over, Brother Rong Yu is going to be dragged down by his teammate. That 44 heart rate would have definitely been first place hhhhh】

Rong Yu didn’t know Mu Shuiqing’s heart rate data. Seeing she got no response, she looked up at the back of Mu Shuiqing’s head. She felt more and more that this stoic demeanor was somewhat similar to Lian Langsheng when she first met her.

Aside from not being afraid of ghosts, Mu Shuiqing really resembled the childhood Lian Langsheng.

Rong Yu mused to herself, silently reconstructing the image of Lian Langsheng as a child.

Lian Langsheng and Rong Yu had been neighbors and childhood friends. However, Lian Langsheng’s family background was better—she was a third-generation “official’s child,” much wealthier than Rong Yu’s family. But the relationship between the two families had always been good. When Lian Langsheng was fourteen, her parents died on the spot in a car accident. Since she had no other close relatives or friends, Rong Yu’s mother stepped in to adopt her. From then on, the two were inseparable, growing up together.

Due to the loss of her family, the young Lian Langsheng was silent and somewhat gloomy. But only Rong Yu knew that she was actually very easy to talk to; she just didn’t like to speak, which gave others the false impression that she was cold and distant.

Mu Shuiqing didn’t speak, so Rong Yu didn’t say anything either. She followed quietly behind her as Mu Shuiqing expertly navigated the twists and turns, accurately choosing the correct forks and avoiding one bloody, violent NPC after another chasing the players with weapons. There was even a scripted scene where blood would spray from above; Mu Shuiqing was actually able to predict it, pulling Rong Yu to press against the wall under the eaves two seconds in advance.

If it weren’t for Lin Mengxing’s reaction to compare it to, Rong Yu would have suspected that Mu Shuiqing had also read the original novel beforehand.

Mu Shuiqing’s pale, delicate face appeared even more translucent like white jade in the dark space, making her crimson eyes look like flowing red wine. She spoke softly, her clear voice seeming to carry a hint of wine fragrance: “If the signs are ill-omened in the south and east, and the West is ruled by the Tiger and Dragon, it portends great disaster. Divide the North and East and there will be scattering; on the day of the Rabbit, one must not travel Northwest. We entered the haunted house at the third quarter of the Hour of the Snake, so going South is the safest choice.”

Having finished, as if afraid Rong Yu would be suspicious—or perhaps mindful of the program’s cameras behind them—Mu Shuiqing went silent for two seconds before adding: “I read this in the I Ching before. I’m not sure if it’s correct.”

Rong Yu: “…Okay.” She blinked, nodded at Mu Shuiqing, and followed her without any objection, sticking to the route that chose the southern forks.

The live stream viewers were all dumbfounded:

【Holy crap, this works?? That’s too much!】

【The ghosts change, but the structure of the haunted house doesn’t. I can confirm, you really are supposed to go this way. This maze is amazing; it has a slight curve. You think you’re going due South, but as you walk, you’ll actually curve toward the West exit. If you try to go straight West, it’s all dead ends.】

【666, she’s actually got some real skills.】

【Proof that you shouldn’t mess with a top student… not only is her brain sharp, she can put it into practice instantly…】

The viewers marveled at how the “overachiever” knew a bit of everything, but Rong Yu remembered that the orientation methods Mu Shuiqing mentioned were not from the I Ching.

As for how Rong Yu knew this?

It was because she had made up those few lines herself after browsing various Taoist literature for her own writing.

Chinese culture is profound, and metaphysical books contain infinite mysteries. When Rong Yu was writing a metaphysical novel, she had specifically studied various domestic divination methods like the Six Lines (Liuyao), Plum Blossom Divination, etc. Because the workload was too great, she couldn’t fully understand it and eventually had to give up on deep exploration. But through this, she managed to grasp some basic orientation methods. She had adapted those mnemonics herself, resulting in the content Mu Shuiqing just recited.

So, she remembered the mnemonic Mu Shuiqing had just said better than anyone; she certainly couldn’t have misremembered it.

It was content she had personally authored.

She had set those specific mnemonics specifically for the female lead in her metaphysical novel.

Why would Mu Shuiqing use them?

Rong Yu looked at the straight-backed girl walking quietly in front of her, and a secret, incredible guess suddenly formed in her heart.

Could it be that Lian Langsheng didn’t just use the setting of this dating show novel, but also incorporated elements from other novels I’ve written? Mu Shuiqing’s character had indeed changed, but not because it was “broken”—it had been changed into the female lead of a different novel, a metaphysical master from a supernatural story?

If Mu Shuiqing’s character was altered this way, then the strangeness of the other female guests… could they also have had their personas changed according to other novels?

Then how do I determine who is the true consciousness of Lian Langsheng?

While Rong Yu was still thinking, a faint white light appeared at the end of the path ahead. They had reached the West exit of the haunted house.

They had made it out!

Rong Yu squinted at the path ahead.

Mu Shuiqing quickened her pace, leading her toward the gate.

The inside of the haunted house was too dark, making the white light from outside the door seem even more intense and bright. Rong Yu couldn’t even see the scene outside clearly as she followed Mu Shuiqing in pushing open the wooden door and stepping into the white light.

The audience in the chat also breathed a sigh of relief:

【Wow wow wow, they got out so fast!】

【The other groups haven’t come out yet! Brother Rong Yu is so fast】

【Wait, it looks like they haven’t actually come out…?】

Rong Yu looked at the dazzling white room around her, and her smile slowly faded before it could even form.

They had been tricked.

This wasn’t an exit at all. It was a pure white room covered in white velvet floor tiles. A milky white fluorescent light shone through the gaps between the tiles; it looked like a sealed secret chamber. The walls were soft and fluffy, especially the wall directly facing them, which was even heaving up and down, like an animal breathing.

It had a kind of eerie calm, like the lull before a storm.

Mu Shuiqing immediately tried to pull her back the way they came, but before the two could step out of the room, the path they had just used to enter the white room suddenly began to flash red. A piercing alarm followed. Accompanied by wailing like cold blades and the sound of swallowing saliva, a horde of zombies in tattered clothes and rotting flesh staggered onto the path they had just come from. There were no fewer than a hundred zombies, their limbs twisted as they shuffled forward, their bulging eyeballs glaring at the two inside the room. With rotting mouths hanging open and teeth dripping with saliva, they surged toward the white room in an anti-human posture that no normal human could ever achieve.

The shadows of the zombies were projected onto the walls by the red light, like twisted, sinister ghosts, or bizarrely warped tree branches. A biting cold wind stabbed into the white room like a knife; the wailing wind was accompanied by the screeching of women. The zombies’ bones clattered against the floor, bursting with foul-smelling, dark green pus.

The audience was terrified:

【Holy crap?!】

【AHHHH, the other groups didn’t have this AHHH】

【Why does Rong Yu’s group always encounter such terrifying things?】

【Is it because they went the right way? Usually, for clever players like this, the haunted house designers will purposely place more horror points on the correct route to ensure players experience greater sensory stimulation in a shorter time…】

【I don’t know if it’s stimulating for Shuiqing and the others, but I’m about to die of fright!】

【Help, damn, help me, the immersion is too strong, I want to bang my head against the wall】

Mu Shuiqing frowned as she looked at the zombie horde at the end of the path.

These zombies moved extremely slowly. At their current speed, it would take about a minute to reach them. But they had no other escape route; the entire white room had only one exit—the way they came. And now the path was filled with zombies…

Mu Shuiqing looked down and calculated the Bagua directions, a trace of confusion on her face: “The positioning is correct.” Then why is there no exit here?

The girl, whose delicate features resembled a wooden doll, rarely showed doubt in her crimson eyes. The paper doll in her arms was restless, about to crawl out of her pocket, when Rong Yu suddenly spoke beside her: “It’s okay, I’ll take you out.”

Rong Yu glanced at the cameraman following closely beside them, stepped a few paces closer to the lens, and smiled with curled lips at the camera.

In a mysterious pure white room, the human eye magnifies everything within it. Rong Yu’s slight expression was also infinitely magnified in the eyes of the live stream audience.

For some reason, if one were to judge solely by features, Rong Yu’s looks were definitely more “aggressive.” Her exquisite, gender-neutral appearance was so beautiful it made one’s mind go blank. However, when Mu Shuiqing was expressionless, it made people’s skin crawl. But when Rong Yu smiled in such an eerie scene—in a pure white space with a writhing horde of zombies behind her—it somehow made people forget their fear.

The screaming bullet chat in the sub-stream immediately stopped. Netizens couldn’t help but lean closer to their screens to look at the girl on the screen up close.

Those blue-crystal eyes seemed to meet theirs at this moment. Rong Yu pressed her hands together and made a face at the camera. “If we can get out successfully, could the sisters in the audience who are of age vote for us? Just one vote per person, please, please.”

This was blatant vote-soliciting, and at such a critical moment, too.

But her expression was too sincere, and she solicited votes so righteously that for a moment, no one in the chat objected. Not even the trolls or “keyboard warriors” attacked.

Someone sent a message first:

【Okay!】

A screen full of affirmative responses followed.

【Of course, no problem!】

【This ‘Big Sister’ can handle sending one little flower gift (chest puffed out)】

【Wooo, I didn’t want to vote, but he called me ‘Sister’ AHHH (biting handkerchief) (twisting and crawling) Rong Yu called me Sister (screaming like crazy)】

Someone even sent a Super Chat worth 100 RMB, posting a colorful, prominent message at the top of the stream for one minute:

【Damn, you underestimate me? Only one vote?? Sister has money. As long as you guys are the first to clear the mission, I’ll give you ten thousand votes!】

Currently in the middle of the mission, Rong Yu couldn’t see the chat. After speaking, she turned back to Mu Shuiqing’s side and looked up with her at the white wall directly facing the door—the one that seemed to be breathing.

Mu Shuiqing looked at her profile and then glanced at the camera: “Do you really want to get first place?”

Rong Yu shook her head: “I just want to hold the top spot in this environment.” To hold the top spot in Lian Langsheng’s heart.

Rong Yu placed her hand on the wall, gently stroking the wall tiles wrapped in velvet.

Her hands were beautiful, her fingers long and her palms thin. Her pinkish fingertips were like flower buds about to bloom. As her fingertips brushed the velvet, they left a long, thin indentation in the fabric.

Beside her, Mu Shuiqing’s face inexplicably felt hot.

The heart rate display in the live stream jumped another three points.

But this time, the viewers didn’t notice her heart rate anomaly; everyone was watching with bated breath to see how Rong Yu would lead Mu Shuiqing out of the room.

Rong Yu searched quietly, touching every inch of the velvet-covered wall. Suddenly, her movement stopped. She then slowly slid her hand into the velvet; the wall, which originally had no cracks, actually allowed her hand to enter. When Rong Yu withdrew her hand, her fair, translucent index finger was hooked around a milky white pull ring.

With a slight tug, a golden key was suddenly spat out from the middle of the bottom of the wall. The key popped out, bounced twice on the velvet floor, and lay quietly at Rong Yu’s feet. Rong Yu squatted down to pick it up and began feeling the wall again. When she touched another indentation where her hand could fit, Rong Yu inserted the key.

A click sounded.

The “breathing” velvet wall in front of them suddenly stopped its rhythm. A cheerful celebratory chime, like sparks jumping out, echoed back and forth in the empty pure white room. The white wall slowly rose from the bottom up, revealing the scorching warm spring sun, the host standing outside, and a few staff members.

This time, they had truly walked out of the haunted house.

The horde of zombies in the passage had disappeared at some point. Host Zhang Yongan’s eyes widened in disbelief: “You actually came out of this door?! Although this is the West exit, because the difficulty is too high, it was set as a hidden tunnel.”

Zhang Yongan looked at the location on his phone screen: “I thought no guests would come out of this door, so I told everyone else to wait at the other exits. Please wait a moment; once the other guests are out and we’ve gathered, we’ll start the next stage.”

Rong Yu had no objection. She led Mu Shuiqing across the tiles of the white room and out of the haunted house.

Mu Shuiqing looked back at the pure white room and followed her out, but after emerging, she looked at Rong Yu without saying a word, her crimson eyes filled with blatant confusion.

“You want to know how I cracked the secret room?” Rong Yu raised an eyebrow at her.

Mu Shuiqing stared straight at her and gave a slow nod. Both her expression and movements were exactly like the childhood Lian Langsheng.

Rong Yu’s heart felt itchy with affection, and she spoke her mind frankly. Words she hadn’t dared to say before were hiddenly revealed in her best friend’s sleeping dream: “The tiles on that wall are like coordinates. There are 26 blocks horizontally and vertically.”

Mu Shuiqing, being a top student, reacted almost instantly: “The 26 letters of the English alphabet?”

Rong Yu nodded. “As long as you figure out the password and find the corresponding positions, you can open that wall.”

Mu Shuiqing’s dull expression changed. Her brow furrowed slightly as she began to carefully recall which wall tiles Rong Yu had touched earlier.

But that wall was white everywhere; she really couldn’t remember the specific locations.

Suddenly, someone gave her chest pocket a shove. Mu Shuiqing lowered her head with a blank face and saw the pure white small paper doll in her pocket hiding from the camera, gesturing the coordinates of those three wall tiles to her.

【23, 15】、【1, 9】、【14, 9】

【W, O】、【A, I】、【N, I】

Mu Shuiqing read aloud woodenly: “Wo… Ai… Ni? (I… Love… You?)”

Rong Yu snapped her head up to look at her, her fingertips trembling suddenly. Just before the pulse oximeter could change its value, she immediately took it off, took a deep breath, and slowly revealed a smile: “We’ve only known each other for half an hour. Isn’t it a bit too early to confess now?”

Mu Shuiqing looked at her blankly, the small paper doll in her pocket also freezing. She traced Rong Yu’s expression with her eyes, her lips pursed, saying nothing.

In the next moment, a sharp alarm pierced the air.

A staff member immediately rushed over to check the pulse oximeter on her wrist.

Mu Shuiqing took off the device, which had soared to a heart rate of 152, and expressionlessly withdrew her gaze from Rong Yu.