After Joining the Same Variety Show as My Arch-Nemesis - Chapter 14

In an equipment van outside the filming site.

Fu Wen looked at the footage being transmitted in real time on the recording screens and fell into silence.

Falling into silence with her was Fu Hang.

Together, they stared at the monitor labeled “Study” and sank into deep thought.

“Assistant Director, nothing happened between Xixi and Teacher Jian, right?” Fu Hang looked at his assistant with worry.

“Ah?” The assistant director looked blank, then said, “Teacher Gu and Teacher Jian haven’t had any problems during the entire shoot.”

“Really?” Fu Hang was somewhat surprised.

The assistant director nodded. In that instant, Fu Hang became confused.

Equally confused was Fu Wen.

She knew Gu Jingxi’s donkey-like temper far too well. Outside, if Fu Wen, the Gu parents, and the Jian parents were not holding her down, every sentence Gu Jingxi said to Jian Lan would be full of thorns. If she did not speak sharply, she would feel uncomfortable.

Back then, Fu Wen had only one feeling: Jian Lan was truly an unlucky soul. Of all the people she could like, why did she have to like this little ancestor? And her feelings had not changed from childhood to adulthood.

There was something a little… well, particular about that.

So when Fu Hang said the two of them were on the same variety show, she had rushed over without stopping.

She was afraid this little ancestor would do something that made her heart and lungs stop on the spot.

Even if the two families had a good private relationship, Jian Lan’s status was right there. If Gu Jingxi really showed Jian Lan attitude on the show, she would be flamed into cyberbullying territory.

At that time, even if she and Jian Lan personally stepped in to clean up the mess, Gu Jingxi would probably still be finished.

But now, seeing the two of them working together to find clues on the monitor, aside from the unreal sense of relief, Fu Wen, for the first time, felt like—

The child had finally grown up and become sensible.

Even so, Fu Wen still threw her younger brother a sharp look.

Fu Hang immediately shrank his neck. “Sister, look, isn’t everything fine?”

“Heh. If something happens, you can castrate yourself,” Fu Wen sneered.

Fu Hang: “???”

“No, Sister, whose real sister are you exactly?” Fu Hang wailed. “I’m the last hope of carrying on our family line!”

“The last hope?” Fu Wen looked at him suspiciously.

Fu Hang blurted out, “Mom and Dad think you’re planning to spend the rest of your life with your career.”

Blue veins immediately bulged on Fu Wen’s forehead. If not for the fact that this was still Fu Hang’s production team, she would have picked up a prop beside her and beaten Fu Hang right then and there.

Fu Hang clearly noticed his sister’s intention too and silently moved closer to the assistant director.

Fu Wen glared at him. She was just about to speak when a loud scream came from the audio speaker not far away. Startled, she quickly looked at the monitor, afraid something had happened to Gu Jingxi and the others.

Fortunately, nothing had happened on Gu Jingxi’s side. Or rather, she and Jian Lan seemed to have heard the scream as well and looked toward the outside of the study at the same time.

“It came from the storage room,” the assistant director said.

Only then did everyone’s eyes shift to the storage room screen.

…

“Ah!”

When the scream rang out, Gu Jingxi nearly threw the file box in her hand away. Startled, she immediately looked toward the door.

“Let’s go take a look.” Jian Lan, who was searching the bookshelf beside her, immediately stuffed the prop book in her hand back onto the shelf and walked out.

Gu Jingxi quickly followed.

The moment they stepped out, they ran into Owen and Luo Wentao, who had also come out. The four of them exchanged a glance and ran toward the storage room together. Before they even arrived, they heard Fang Zixu laughing inside.

The storage room door was open. When they leaned in, they saw Lu Bin leaning against a shelf, staring wide-eyed at a prop rat in front of him. Fang Zixu was both comforting him and laughing at the same time.

When Lu Bin finally recovered, he turned his head and saw everyone looking at him with complicated expressions.

Lu Bin: “…”

Very good. A large-scale social death scene.

“Brother Lu, what happened here?” Luo Wentao was the first to ask.

Lu Bin covered his forehead with one hand and did not want to speak.

Fang Zixu, standing beside him, very “kindly” pointed at the fake rat and said, “We were searching for things. This suddenly darted out and hit Xiao Lu’s shoulder. It was rather dark at the time, so Xiao Lu got scared.”

The scene fell into silence. Gu Jingxi looked at the pitch-black rat prop and said, “Good thing I wasn’t the one beside Brother Fang.”

Luo Wentao nodded wildly beside her. “Exactly. If it were us, we might have to switch people now.”

The two imagined that scene and simultaneously took a step back.

Lu Bin: “?”

Are you two polite at all?!

“Wait.” Jian Lan suddenly stepped forward. In front of everyone, she picked up the pitch-black rat prop. When she flipped it over, they saw a zipper on the rat’s belly.

Everyone froze.

“Whoa.” Fang Zixu sighed, then said, “Teacher Jian, how did you notice that?”

“I can only say that the production team wouldn’t place useless props,” Jian Lan said calmly while pulling open the zipper.

“After all, this was deliberately meant for you to discover.”

Hearing this, everyone gathered closer and watched as Jian Lan pulled a key out of the prop’s belly.

“It really is!” Even Owen could not help exclaiming.

“This looks like a door key. Did any of you find any doors?” Jian Lan asked.

Hearing this, everyone shook their heads.

“Not yet.”

“Then continue searching. Pay attention to it.” Jian Lan put the key away.

“Mm.” Everyone nodded, then each left.

Before leaving, Luo Wentao meaningfully patted Lu Bin on the shoulder, then followed Owen away.

Lu Bin, who understood what he meant: “…”

Thanks. He no longer wanted to talk.

Fang Zixu smiled beside him, then said, “Xiao Lu, let’s continue.”

“Okay, Brother Fang,” Lu Bin said dispiritedly.

…

After Gu Jingxi and Jian Lan returned to the study, Gu Jingxi saw Jian Lan knocking here and touching there around the bookshelf.

“What’s wrong, Teacher Jian? What are you looking for?” Seeing this, Gu Jingxi could not help asking.

“A hidden door,” Jian Lan replied. “This key doesn’t look like an ordinary door key. It looks more like it belongs to some hidden door.”

Gu Jingxi blinked in a daze. She had originally been flipping through files by the desk, but now she subconsciously walked toward Jian Lan. When she passed over the carpet in the sofa area, Jian Lan suddenly turned back sharply, her gaze growing stern as she called in a low voice, “Don’t move.”

Gu Jingxi was startled and froze in place on the spot.

Then she saw Jian Lan stride over and step hard on the carpet. A muffled sound came from beneath it.

“Xixi, help me,” Jian Lan said without raising her head.

Gu Jingxi instantly understood what Jian Lan meant. Together with Jian Lan, she moved the sofa and coffee table aside, then rolled up the carpet.

The entire mansion’s floor was covered in wooden boards, neat and orderly. But beneath the carpet, some of the wooden planks were arranged irregularly, forming the shape of a square.

The two looked at each other. Gu Jingxi reached out and tried to move one of the planks. Discovering that it could be removed, the two immediately got to work and moved aside that section of wooden flooring. As expected, a locked trapdoor was revealed.

Gu Jingxi paused, then took out the key found inside the rat prop in the storage room. She found the keyhole, aligned the key, inserted it, and turned it. With a click, the door opened.

Gu Jingxi immediately stood up and ran to the study door, shouting, “Teacher Owen, Xiao Luo, Brother Fang, Xiao Lu, come over for a moment. Teacher Jian found something here.”

“Mm? What?” Xiao Luo poked his head out of a nearby room, with Owen following closely behind.

“Coming, coming. What did you find?” Lu Bin and Fang Zixu also walked over from the storage room.

“Teacher Jian found a passage in the study. The key to the passage door was the one found in the storage room,” Gu Jingxi explained concisely.

This stunned everyone for a moment. Lu Bin instinctively complained, “Good heavens. The key to the hidden passage in the study was hidden in the storage room? Does that make sense?”

“Alright, stop joking around. Let’s go take a look,” Fang Zixu said helplessly.

The group arrived at the study and saw Jian Lan searching for something in the desk. The hidden door was open, revealing only a pitch-black space beneath.

Gu Jingxi did not pay attention to the passage. Instead, she looked at Jian Lan and asked, “Teacher Jian, what are you looking for?”

Jian Lan said helplessly, “I’m looking for some kind of lighting tool. After all, it’s too dark down there.”

Everyone looked at the pitch-black passage, then prepared to start searching too.

“Ahem!” Owen suddenly cleared his throat. Holding up his captain’s phone, he shook it. “We can use this for lighting.”

“But will the battery last?” Luo Wentao asked instinctively.

Owen looked helplessly at Luo Wentao. “Xiao Luo, although this is an escape room game, some of its prompts come through this phone. The production team prepared a power bank for me a long time ago. Otherwise, for two days and one night, even the best phone would have trouble lasting.”

Luo Wentao held it in for a moment before finally saying, “That makes sense.”

Everyone could not help laughing.

Gu Jingxi looked at the pitch-black passage and felt her scalp go numb. But seeing everyone else eager to try, she could not say anything.

“I’ll go first,” Fang Zixu said.

“That works.” Everyone nodded.

Fang Zixu took the phone from Owen, turned on the flashlight, and felt his way down. Lu Bin took a deep breath and followed close behind. Owen also followed.

“Teacher Owen, wait for me.” Seeing this, Luo Wentao quickly followed too.

Gu Jingxi hesitated for a moment and looked at Jian Lan. Seeing this, Jian Lan smiled and said, “You go first. I’ll follow behind you and bring up the rear.”

Since Jian Lan had said that, Gu Jingxi paused, then quietly said, “Thank you, Teacher Jian.”

After saying this, Gu Jingxi followed them down.

Jian Lan froze for an instant. Then a faint smile curved her lips, and she followed in what seemed to be an extremely good mood.

…

In the equipment van outside the manor, Fu Wen looked at everything on the monitor with a complicated expression.

“I don’t know why, but I have this old-mother-like sense of gratification,” Fu Wen said emotionally.

“Same here.” Fu Hang nodded heavily from beside her. Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he pulled over one of the post-production editors and said, “Remember that scene. No matter what, you have to edit it into the variety show and air it.”

The editor: “Oh… okay…”

Although his face was full of confusion, agreeing was the right choice!