After Joining the Same Variety Show as My Arch-Nemesis - Chapter 15

The area beneath the secret room was especially dim. Looking at the scene before her, Gu Jingxi followed Luo Wentao ahead of her with extreme caution.

In front of them, only the phone in Fang Zixu’s hand gave off a faint light. Inside the passage, there was an indescribable smell.

“Wow, how long is this passage? Brother Fang, can you see clearly?” Luo Wentao asked.

“I can’t,” Fang Zixu replied.

“Don’t you guys feel like it’s kind of chilly?” Lu Bin suddenly said.

“Wuah, Xiao Lu, stop talking,” Gu Jingxi could not help saying.

“Wu…”

Suddenly, a mournful crying sound drifted over. Everyone instantly fell into chaos. The entire passage flickered between light and dark, and at the far end of the passage, a ghostly woman with disheveled hair and a long robe appeared before them.

“Ah!”

This time, everyone was completely terrified.

Gu Jingxi faced the image of the female ghost head-on. She immediately screamed, turned around, and threw herself into Jian Lan’s arms, hugging her tightly as she trembled.

Even Jian Lan was stunned by this sudden turn of events. But seeing Gu Jingxi pounce into her arms without hesitation, her thin body trembling nonstop from fear, clutching Jian Lan’s T-shirt tightly as if she would rather die than raise her head, Jian Lan could only hold her and gently pat her back to comfort her.

The boys’ side was also in complete chaos. Even Fang Zixu had been frightened. Several of them huddled together for warmth.

For a while, the entire passage was filled with all kinds of screams, along with that extremely sorrowful sobbing.

The sound was so loud that everyone in the equipment van could not help covering their ears.

“Good heavens, I thought the one screaming the loudest would be Xixi,” Fu Hang said emotionally.

Fu Wen glanced at him. “Just wait for Xixi to come out and settle accounts with you.”

“Don’t, Sister. You have to help me,” Fu Hang immediately said.

Fu Wen ignored him and continued watching the scene on the screen.

The lights in the passage flickered for a while before becoming a dim glow that illuminated the entire corridor. The shrill crying also faded away. The surroundings returned to calm, and the entire passage became so quiet that only breathing could be heard.

“Alright, it’s fine now.” Jian Lan swept her gaze around, then gently patted Gu Jingxi in her arms.

Gu Jingxi hesitated for a moment and carefully turned her head to look. After confirming that the figure was indeed gone, she let out a long breath of relief.

Belatedly realizing that she was still in Jian Lan’s arms, her cheeks instantly burned hot. She hurriedly backed out and stammered, “Um… sorry, Teacher Jian.”

“It’s alright.” Jian Lan smiled as she spoke. The men beside them also stood up, still shaken. Apart from Owen, who still managed to preserve a trace of proper dignity, the remaining three had all been crouching on the ground, hugging each other.

“Mother of god, when it suddenly came out like that, it really was scary,” Lu Bin said as he stood up shakily.

“Tell me about it.” Fang Zixu awkwardly rubbed his head.

Luo Wentao wanted to cry but had no tears. “There’s really no need to make it this scary. When this show airs, it won’t actually scare the audience, right?”

“Are you sure the audience won’t go crazy laughing after seeing us like this?” Lu Bin complained.

“I… can’t refute that,” Luo Wentao held it in for a moment before saying.

Gu Jingxi still looked shaken. Then she said, “So, that person just now—was she the deceased from upstairs?”

“If there isn’t another deceased person,” Jian Lan said.

“We could directly turn this into a horror movie,” Lu Bin could not help saying.

Owen coughed lightly and straightened the hem of his clothes, which had been tugged into some disorder during the chaos. “I saw a turn at the end of the passage ahead. Shall we go take a look?”

Everyone looked at one another, then all looked at Owen.

Owen choked, then said, “Fine. I’ll go first.”

Then he walked toward the intersection. But after taking two steps, he felt that something was off. He suddenly turned back, and when he saw the others, he was speechless.

Fang Zixu, Luo Wentao, and Lu Bin were pressed together, nervously staring at him. As for Gu Jingxi…

He even saw Gu Jingxi move closer to Jian Lan.

Expressionless, Owen said, “Are you not coming?”

“Cough.” The three men embarrassedly cleared their throats before pushing and shoving one another forward.

Jian Lan patted Gu Jingxi. Seeing that she still looked very afraid, she simply held her wrist and said, “Don’t worry. I’m here.”

Gu Jingxi blinked and could not help looking at her.

Jian Lan merely smiled and said nothing more, only pulling her toward Owen.

Seeing that everyone had moved, Owen finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, even for him, in this kind of environment, there was still an inexplicable fear.

The group lined up in a row and nearly wriggled their way toward the corner. Owen approached first. After mentally preparing himself, he turned his head. The corridor on the other side was empty. There was nothing there.

He immediately breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the four people behind him, who were like little quails. “Alright, it’s fine. There’s nothing there.”

Only then did everyone poke their heads out and look. After discovering that there was indeed nothing, just as Owen said, they finally let out a breath of relief.

“So what exactly did that ghostly figure just now mean?” Lu Bin could not help asking.

“There should be some clue related to that ghostly figure on this side. Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t suddenly show us something irrelevant. It can’t be that they deliberately scared us… right…” By the end, Gu Jingxi herself was not certain.

If it were someone else, she could still comfort herself. But if it were Fu Hang…

She had reason to suspect that Fu Hang had done it on purpose! Specifically to scare them!

“Hey! There seems to be a hidden door here!” Luo Wentao suddenly discovered something and pointed as he called out.

Everyone looked over. Sure enough, in the shadows, there was a section of stone wall that looked out of place compared with the surrounding area.

“Let’s go take a look,” Owen immediately decided.

Hearing the captain say this, the others simply steeled themselves and went over. Fang Zixu pushed hard, but the stone wall did not move at all.

“We need to find the mechanism,” Fang Zixu said.

Gu Jingxi looked around, then pressed somewhere. With a click, the stone door slowly opened, startling everyone who was still searching for clues. Lu Bin even jumped far away at once, nervously staring at the stone door.

After the stone door opened, there was no extra movement. They looked at one another, then all their gazes landed on Gu Jingxi, who had opened the door.

Everyone: “…”

Gu Jingxi: “…”

Well. Awkward.

“S-Sister Gu, next… next time, say something first,” Lu Bin said, still frightened.

Gu Jingxi quickly pressed her palms together and apologized to everyone. “Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to try it. I didn’t expect it to open.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Xiao Gu, don’t be so nervous,” Owen smiled and comforted her.

“Right, right, it’s fine, Sister Gu. I was just startled for a moment. It’s okay,” Lu Bin quickly said.

“Exactly. In this kind of environment, even the slightest movement can scare people. Don’t worry, Sister Gu,” Luo Wentao said with a grin.

Seeing this, Gu Jingxi breathed a sigh of relief. But very quickly, everyone was troubled again.

The reason was simple. It was pitch-black inside the door, and nothing could be seen.

“What now?” Everyone looked at one another.

Then their gazes unanimously landed on Jian Lan, who had remained particularly calm from beginning to end.

Jian Lan looked back at them calmly. Being looked at by her like this, the others felt somewhat embarrassed. Fang Zixu cleared his throat and said, “Forget it. I’ll go.”

As he spoke, he took the phone Owen handed him, turned on the flashlight, and walked in first.

The room was pitch-black, and even the visibility from the phone’s flashlight was especially low.

“How is it, Brother Fang?” Luo Wentao asked from outside.

“It’s very messy inside. There’s a table and a few chairs,” Fang Zixu’s voice came from within.

“Brother Fang, look around and see if there’s a power switch,” Owen said from outside.

“Okay.” Fang Zixu answered and began searching along the wall.

He searched very carefully, not missing a single corner. Then, in a corner of the wall, he saw a head of messy long hair. Almost instantly, he let out a howl and shouted, then turned around and ran out.

Seeing this, the group watched as Fang Zixu ran out. In that instant, Gu Jingxi almost instinctively pressed the mechanism again, and the stone door immediately closed in front of them.

Because of Fang Zixu’s howl, everyone had moved away from the door.

Then they looked at one another.

“So, Brother Fang, what did you see?” Owen asked.

“Hair… hair…” Fang Zixu gasped. “Hair exactly like that ghostly figure earlier.”

The moment his words fell, Gu Jingxi, Luo Wentao, and Lu Bin immediately retreated far away. If leaving outright had not seemed like abandoning their teammate, those three would have loved to retreat all the way back upstairs.

Of course, if there were any movement from inside the door, everyone believed they would actually do it.

Of the remaining three, Owen quietly took a step back. Fang Zixu also followed and took a step back. From beginning to end, only Jian Lan had not moved from her spot.

Even Jian Lan was somewhat speechless at this moment.

Finally, she stepped forward and looked at Fang Zixu. “Brother Fang, give me the phone.”

Fang Zixu paused, handed her the phone, then hesitated and said, “Teacher Jian, be careful.”

“Okay.” Jian Lan answered, then pressed the mechanism to open the stone door and walked inside.

Not far away, Gu Jingxi froze when she saw this scene. Then she heard Luo Wentao say, “Mother of god. As expected of Jian Shen. Brother Fang and Teacher Owen were both scared, but she’s still this calm.”

Gu Jingxi tugged at the corners of her lips and thought to herself that Jian Lan had always been very brave.

“Teacher Jian, how is it inside?” Owen tried calling out.

“Wait a moment.” Jian Lan’s tone did not even fluctuate.

Seeing this, Owen and Fang Zixu moved curiously toward the doorway.

Then they saw a mass of messy long hair appear in front of them. The two of them were instantly so frightened that they shouted and backed away. Not far away, Gu Jingxi and the other two were scared into directly closing their eyes.

“It’s just a wig,” Jian Lan’s helpless yet amused voice came from inside.

Everyone stiffened. Those who had closed their eyes and those who were preparing to run all looked toward Jian Lan.

And at the wig in Jian Lan’s hand, which had scared them twice.

Everyone: “…”

Fine. Once this episode aired, they could completely forget about preserving their images.