After Joining the Same Variety Show as My Arch-Nemesis - Chapter 16

Owen was the first to recover. He raised a hand and pressed his temples.

“As expected, in this kind of situation, we still have to rely on Teacher Jian.”

“Teacher Jian, what else is inside?” Fang Zixu asked.

“Wait while I look for the switch,” Jian Lan said, then turned and entered the room again.

The three who had originally run away slowly gathered back as well. Luo Wentao could not help sighing. “The courage of all of us combined might still not be as much as Sister Jian’s.”

“I think you can remove the ‘might,’” Gu Jingxi replied.

Just then, the lights inside the room flickered and finally came on.

“Long live Jian Shen!” everyone cheered.

As soon as they entered, they saw the room filled with a messy pile of things. There was also a strange rotating disk on the wall. A table stood in the room, with a sheet of paper spread out on top of it.

“What is this?” Everyone gathered around to look.

Gu Jingxi leaned closer and glanced at it, only to discover that the things on the paper seemed to be connected to the strange rotating disk on the wall.

“This… It looks like we have to use this diagram to solve whatever is on that disk.”

“Let me see. This seems to be radicals, characters, and strokes. They’re all traditional Chinese characters too. What does this mean? Are they asking us to piece together a sentence?” Owen could not help frowning.

Suddenly, the phone in Jian Lan’s hand vibrated. She picked it up and saw that a new message had arrived.

“I think we have a new clue,” Jian Lan said, handing the phone to Owen.

Owen took it and opened the message. Sure enough, it was from Mysterious Person M.

“When the midnight bell rings at twelve, the betrayed one sings a mournful song. She wants to know why the betrayers betrayed her. The ancient rotating disk hides an unknown secret, as well as the secrets of the betrayers.”

“Looks like we really have to find a way to solve the mystery of this thing.” Lu Bin blinked and looked toward the strange disk.

“And the diagram.” Gu Jingxi carefully observed the paper.

“They wouldn’t put a diagram here for no reason.”

“Let’s study it.” Jian Lan pushed up her glasses, her expression serious and focused as she studied the diagram. The others also began examining it, even starting to piece things together character by character.

Fang Zixu and Lu Bin simply started turning the disk by hand, trying to combine several characters.

“There are so many. How are we supposed to guess?” Luo Wentao looked around and started feeling dizzy.

“There should be some kind of pattern,” Owen said.

“A pattern?”

Jian Lan suddenly furrowed her brows. Gu Jingxi happened to turn her head and catch this small movement, so she could not help asking.

“What’s wrong, Teacher Jian? Did you think of something?”

“Teacher Owen, didn’t the text mention the betrayed one and the betrayers?” Jian Lan suddenly asked.

“Yes.” Owen nodded.

“Then that’s right. ‘When the midnight bell rings at twelve, the betrayed one sings a mournful song. She wants to know why the betrayers betrayed her.’ This is our clue. Then we might as well make a bold assumption,” Jian Lan said.

For some reason, Gu Jingxi instantly thought of the deceased upstairs, then said, “You mean, assuming the woman in the red qipao is the betrayed one, then what we need to find is who betrayed her, right?”

“Correct.” Jian Lan’s gaze held approval.

“Hey, why are we saying the deceased in the red qipao is the betrayed one?” Luo Wentao suddenly leaned over and asked.

“Because aside from the deceased, who would be singing a mournful song at midnight?” Gu Jingxi asked back.

Luo Wentao blinked, looking shocked. “Is… is that how it is?”

“Xiao Luo, thank goodness this is a show. If this were really a horror story, what would you do?” Lu Bin sighed.

“If this were really a horror story, I would’ve turned around and gone home the moment I saw this house,” Luo Wentao said with extreme honesty.

Everyone laughed.

“If that’s the case, then Xiao Wen can be ruled out first. What remains is to search among the three men and one woman,” Lu Bin said.

“Mm. If we’re talking about betrayers, Teacher Jian, didn’t you say earlier that when we first arrived, the gramophone was playing a section from the Peking opera Consort Mei?” Gu Jingxi looked at Jian Lan.

Jian Lan nodded slightly. “That’s right.”

“And the love letter found in Brother Fang’s room also contained lines from Consort Mei, right?” Gu Jingxi looked at Fang Zixu again.

Fang Zixu nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.”

When Owen heard Gu Jingxi ask this, he instantly understood what she meant.

“I see. Xiao Gu, so that’s what you mean.” Owen smiled.

Gu Jingxi smiled too. Lu Bin blinked blankly and said, “What, what? What are you talking about?”

“Let Xiao Gu explain it to you,” Owen said with a smile.

Gu Jingxi froze, then subconsciously looked toward Jian Lan. Jian Lan nodded at her and smiled encouragingly.

Seeing the remaining three people turn their gazes toward her, Gu Jingxi immediately took a deep breath and said, “Actually, everyone should know that the Peking opera Consort Mei tells the story of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and his beloved consort, Consort Mei. At first, Emperor Xuanzong favored Consort Mei greatly—even to the point that all his affection seemed to be gathered on her alone. But later, Emperor Xuanzong met Yang Guifei, and Yang Guifei’s arrival gradually replaced Consort Mei’s position in his heart. In the end, Consort Mei died in sorrow. So, if we connect this to Consort Mei, then from Consort Mei’s perspective, Emperor Xuanzong was undoubtedly the betrayer.”

“I understand!” Lu Bin clapped his hands. “According to this logic, the person who betrayed this woman in the red qipao should be Master Xu. From the photo, her position is very close to Master Xu, and on her other side, there’s another woman who is also sitting very close to Master Xu. If we assume that the woman in the red qipao is ‘Consort Mei,’ then we can define the woman in the white qipao as ‘Yang Guifei’?”

Gu Jingxi nodded and smiled. “Yes.”

“Brother Fang.” Lu Bin excitedly turned back to look at Fang Zixu.

“I know.” Fang Zixu had already begun turning the disk, combining radicals and characters one by one.

But very quickly, he discovered a problem.

The first character, Xu, was quickly pieced together. But for the second character, no matter what, he could not form the character lao.

Seeing Fang Zixu continuously turn the disk, the others could not help gathering around to search with him.

“Strange. We can’t find it.” Everyone looked around for a while but still could not find the radical for lao. This left all of them confused.

Jian Lan immediately turned back to look at the diagram on the table.

“Did we miss something?” Lu Bin asked with a frown.

Luo Wentao thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands. “I know!”

At this shout, everyone immediately looked at him.

“What do you think, Xiao Luo?” Owen asked.

“Teacher Owen, open the message,” Luo Wentao said excitedly.

Owen did as he said and opened it. Luo Wentao immediately pointed at the text and said, “Look, it says ‘betrayers.’ In other words, the betrayer isn’t just one person. Also, about the wounds on the deceased—do you remember the two wounds on her body?”

At this reminder, Fang Zixu clapped his hands. “Aside from the abdominal wound, there was also a strangulation mark on the deceased’s neck!”

Luo Wentao nodded rapidly, then said, “That proves that there wasn’t only one murderer. So using ‘betrayers’ here makes sense.”

“But doesn’t that mean two people’s names?” Lu Bin muttered.

“I understand!” Jian Lan suddenly turned her head and looked at Gu Jingxi. “It’s the Xu family.”

“The Xu family?” Several people exclaimed.

After Gu Jingxi froze for a moment, she reacted quickly, then began turning the disk.

Before long, the disk was completed. With a click, the disk suddenly opened from one side, revealing a hidden compartment before everyone’s eyes.

“It really is!” Lu Bin exclaimed.

Gu Jingxi reached out and took the only item from the hidden compartment.

A white rose.

“This… is the clue?” For a moment, everyone had nothing to say.

Jian Lan reached out and took it, falling silent for a moment.

Luo Wentao scratched his head. “So we got scared for ages and searched for ages just to find this flower?”

Clearly, even Owen had not expected that the so-called “secrets of the betrayers” would be nothing more than a white rose.

Seeing Jian Lan staring at the white rose, Gu Jingxi could not help asking, “Teacher Jian, do you have any thoughts?”

Jian Lan shook her head slightly. “No.”

“Ai, forget it.” Luo Wentao sighed dejectedly. “I thought we had found some important clue, but now, sigh…”

“No, this is undoubtedly a very important clue.” Owen patted his shoulder.

“Alright, everyone is tired too. This morning was full of fright after fright, and this afternoon was the same. It’s still early, so let’s go upstairs and rest for a bit. Don’t forget, Jian Shen is cooking for us tonight,” Owen said with a smile.

“Captain Ou, am I some little trick you use to boost morale?” Jian Lan said helplessly.

Owen spread his hands. “At present, this is the most morale-boosting thing. Don’t you think so, Xiao Gu?”

“Eh?!” Gu Jingxi froze, clearly not expecting Owen to suddenly call her name.

“Yes… yes.” Gu Jingxi hurriedly replied. “Teacher Jian’s cooking really is something to look forward to.”

Mm. She swore that sentence came from the heart. After all, after their brief time together, Jian Lan did not seem so “bad” as to be beyond saving. At least, she had still taken very good care of her.

Gu Jingxi had never been a petty person in the first place. Although she could not completely let go of her grudge against Jian Lan, at least on the show, she would not be that hostile.

They were all adults. One issue was dignity, and the other was narrow-mindedness.

On the show, neither of those things could be allowed to go wrong.

If they did, she might be the one in big trouble.

And… mm… to be honest, she had never eaten Jian Lan’s cooking before, so… she really was curious.

Right. Just curious, that was all!

She absolutely was not saying that eating Jian Lan’s food meant she wanted to make up with her. Absolutely not!

Thinking this, she could not help looking at Jian Lan, only to see that when Jian Lan heard her words, she looked at her and smiled helplessly, yet with what seemed like a hint of indulgence.

“Alright,” she heard Jian Lan answer.

Gu Jingxi could not help blinking.

An illusion, right? How could she possibly see indulgence toward herself in that Jian Lan’s eyes?!

It was definitely an illusion!