Lu Zibing skimmed through the synopsis, getting a rough idea of the story. But…

“What a weird tag. Horror and thriller?” He raised an eyebrow.

As shadows of swaying flowers filled the screen, Rouge Comb began its first episode.

From the opening alone, there wasn’t a single sign of anything ominous. It was the Qingming Festival, and the third young lady of the Gao family, Gao Xiaoyun, was out on a spring outing with a group of noblewomen. The girls stepped down from their carriages, giggling behind their fans and embroidered handkerchiefs.

Spring was in full bloom. The scenery was breathtaking—lush green grass, and flowers in full splendor. The girls’ vibrant silk skirts fluttered like butterflies, their gold-threaded embroidery catching the sunlight, dazzlingly beautiful.

【The costume design is incredible! Why do I feel like it’s even prettier than that hit time-travel drama Royal Sweetheart?】

【Wait, a newbie from the Exile Star System is already this good??】

【This screams romance. No way this turns scary.】

As the girls chatted, the heroine’s backstory gradually unfolded.

Lu Zibing smirked. “Ah, there it is! The classic inner-court drama setup!”

【So many noble ladies, but every single one of them has a more ‘main character’ kind of name than our actual heroine.】

【Poor girl, she’s got the tragic, helpless damsel script written all over her.】

【Any chance this has romance? Might be worth sticking around.】

Then came the flashback—

“On Qingming, meet me beneath the pagoda tree in the western part of the city. I have a gift for you. Don’t let your family find out, or it’ll ruin everything.”

“As for what the gift is… hmm, when the time comes, you’ll know.”

The memory of her lover’s words echoed in her ears, and Gao Xiaoyun found herself lost in thought.

As the other girls drank and laughed, she used the excuse of a spilled drink on her dress to slip away.

Lu Zibing had seen enough dramas to know where this was going. A noble lady who rarely left home, wandering alone? She was bound to run into trouble. The question was, what kind of trouble? Thieves? A criminal on the loose?

Didn’t matter. What did matter was that this setup practically guaranteed a dramatic damsel-in-distress moment where the male lead swooped in to save her.

Sure enough, Gao Xiaoyun got lost.

But what no one expected… was that she wandered straight into an abandoned graveyard.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the sky was darkening, and rain began to fall.

Not a soul was in sight. A dense fog rolled in from nowhere, shrouding everything. No matter how fearless you were, walking through a place like this would make anyone uneasy.

Lu Zibing swallowed, suddenly wondering if he had underestimated this.

Some of the graves looked like they had been dug up by scavenging animals—exposed bones lay scattered. Gao Xiaoyun tripped and fell—face-first—right in front of a skull.

A skull with eerie, greenish-blue flames flickering in its eye sockets.

Her face drained of color, and she let out a terrified scream.

【Holy crap! That actually made me jump.】

【I know it’s just phosphorus in the bones, but still…】

【Imagine being an ancient noblewoman with no scientific knowledge—she must be scared out of her mind.】

From somewhere distant, a beast howled, almost like a fox answering her scream. Scavenger birds, startled by her voice, took flight, their wings flapping loudly, the sound echoing in the silence.

The rain grew heavier. Gao Xiaoyun picked up her pace, but the scenery around her remained unchanged—she kept passing the same skull over and over again.

She was on the verge of panic.

And then—she saw it.

A tree.

A pagoda tree.

Lu Zibing’s nerves were on edge. “Hold on. This is the same spot as the skull. There was no tree there before.”

Gao Xiaoyun sensed something was wrong, too. But at that moment, it was the only familiar landmark she had. It was her only hope. Without thinking, she rushed toward it.

What else could she do? Stay trapped in a graveyard?

The pagoda tree was massive, unnaturally so. Though it wasn’t flowering season, it was covered in pure white blossoms, swarming with bees seeking shelter from the rain, their presence proof of the tree’s irresistible fragrance.

But there was no sign of her lover beneath it.

Instead, there was a dilapidated nunnery.

With no other option, Gao Xiaoyun hiked up her skirt and stepped inside.

As the camera panned to the side, a comment flashed across the screen—

【Wait. That bee… does it have a skull pattern on its back?!】

The nunnery was in ruins. It looked like it had been abandoned for years. Moth-eaten white curtains swayed in the draft, their ghostly silhouettes shifting with the wind. A low, eerie wuuu sound echoed as the wind passed through the broken structure.

The floor was coated in thick dust, undisturbed for ages. In the corners, neglected hair had clumped together, forming eerie tangles.

【Disgusting. My inner clean freak is screaming.】

【This set design is too realistic. There’s no way I’d step into a place like this at night.】

【Damn, I turned on full immersion mode and actually inhaled the dust.】

Lu Zibing frowned. Something felt off. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

To steady her nerves, Gao Xiaoyun whispered her lover’s name, as if calling out to him would somehow bring him to her.

“Gu Lang… Gu Lang… Where is this gift you mentioned?”

Just as she stepped over the threshold—

Something dropped from the rafters above.

Thud.

Gao Xiaoyun froze, as tense as a startled deer.

She waited, gathering her courage, before finally taking a hesitant step forward.

The camera followed her line of sight.

Lying at her feet…

Was a comb.

The nunnery was pitch-black, the only light filtering in through the cracks, casting eerie shadows across the floor.

It was a beautiful comb—dark, polished wood, smooth as jade. Gilded filigree and mother-of-pearl inlays shimmered faintly in the dim light.

And somehow… it carried a faint, rouge-tinted stain.

The moment Lu Zibing saw it, an image popped into his mind—a classic beauty from ancient times. She would have long, flowing black hair like heavy clouds, skin as fair as snow, and delicate fingers painted with balsam-red dye. Only someone like her would be worthy of such a comb.

Gao Xiaoyun froze. The comb was wrapped in a piece of silk, with a few characters written in cinnabar: “A gift for…” The rest was smudged beyond recognition.

[The comb… So this ties in with the title. Is this the token Gu Lang was talking about?]

[“Fate will bring it to you when the time is right.” So this is what you meant by fate, male lead?!]

[The way this ‘gift’ was delivered… why is it so creepy?]

The rouge comb was stunning, completely out of place in the desolate, crumbling nunnery. Gao Xiaoyun hesitated before finally picking it up, murmuring, “Gu Lang?”

Of course, no one answered.

Clutching the comb tightly, she stepped cautiously inside. Her soaked skirts dragged across the floor, leaving clear trails of water. Shivering, she wrung out the rain from her sleeves, her face pale with cold. She muttered, “Fire… is there any fire here?”

Using the occasional flashes of lightning as light, she lifted her skirts and mustered the courage to search the abandoned temple.

Lu Zibing had been on edge the entire time, completely drawn in by the eerie atmosphere of the show. Trying to calm himself, he cleared his throat and said, “See? This isn’t that scary. This is the worst it gets. No way I’d ever get scared to the point of—”

His words cut off abruptly.

His gaze had landed on a corner of the nunnery in the scene, and in an instant, he realized what had been bothering him all along. A chill crawled up his spine.

Wait. This is a nunnery. The nuns here should all be bald.

So why… is there so much long hair scattered all over the floor?

—

V059.

[You truly have a talent for collecting Heartbeat Points.]

X71 watched the numbers skyrocket ever since Rouge Comb aired, speaking in a wistful tone.

Shang Jingyan mused, [Interstellar folks really have no tolerance for horror.]

Traditional Chinese horror had a vast array of elements to draw from. The first episode of Rouge Comb used a Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio-style setup: the protagonist loses their way in a graveyard on the outskirts, gets trapped in a supernatural maze, and is forced to take shelter in a long-abandoned temple, where they encounter lingering spirits and other eerie entities.

Apparently, this world had no equivalent of Strange Tales. Interstellar civilization had lost a staggering amount of its cultural heritage, with the official explanation citing the last cosmic war as the cause.

Ancient-themed productions were currently trending in entertainment, but 99% of them were a complete mess—historically inaccurate, and visually inconsistent. And since the general audience lacked the cultural knowledge to discern right from wrong, they just accepted whatever they were given.

But for Shang Jingyan, all of this was second nature.

As for Rouge Comb‘s overarching plot? It followed one of horror cinema’s most classic themes—the cursed object.

The object could be anything—a mirror, a clown doll, a music box, a porcelain figurine. The usual setup: a family unwittingly brings the cursed item home, and from that moment on, strange and terrifying events unfold.

X71: [……]

Recalling how effortlessly Shang Jingyan had crafted this narrative, X71 could only bow in silent admiration.

Feeling utterly useless, X71 wiped its metaphorical tears and quietly typed: [Host, I think you should take on this mission.]

A pop-up window appeared: [Make 10 viewers shed tears of emotion for your work. Reward: Heartbeat Points collected in the next 24 hours will be multiplied by 1.5.]

Shang Jingyan: [?]

She was making a horror series. How was she supposed to make people cry out of emotion?

[You don’t get it,] the system said in a world-weary tone. [I have 100% confidence that you’ll succeed in this task.]

If not from emotion, then definitely from sheer terror. Same result, right?

—

In the livestream.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. The hair is probably just a glitch.” Lu Zibing muttered to himself, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

Still, he had to admit—Rouge Comb was very compelling.

Outside the nunnery, thunder rumbled. Inside, Gao Xiaoyun lifted a curtain, just as a bolt of lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the space behind it—

Right in front of the altar, kneeling on a prayer mat, sat a motionless, shadowy figure.

“AHHH!”

Gao Xiaoyun let out a blood-curdling scream. Lu Zibing, caught completely off guard, felt his heart nearly leap out of his chest. A split-second later, he almost blurted out a loud “Holy sh—”.

Another bolt of lightning flashed, throwing the figure into sharp relief.

It was a woman. Her face was deathly pale, and deeply wrinkled. Her eye sockets were hollow, her teeth protruding unnaturally. Her bony fingers stretched stiffly forward, as if reaching for something… or someone.

Panicked, Gao Xiaoyun stumbled backward, getting tangled in the curtain and collapsing onto the floor. The woman’s head tipped forward—

And with a sickening thud, her entire body fell apart, splitting into separate pieces!

[WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!]

[I SCREAMED SO LOUD MY MOM THOUGHT I GOT ELECTROCUTED IN VR!]

The livestream chat exploded with terrified reactions.

Lu Zibing, his brain firing on all cylinders in survival mode, yelled, “D-Don’t panic, everyone! That’s not a real person! It’s just… just a clay statue of a nun!”

As it turned out, the eerie figure was merely a temple statue—though why anyone would carve it to look that horrifying was beyond him.

Gao Xiaoyun, still shaking, finally managed to catch her breath. Realizing what it was, she exhaled sharply and muttered, “Honestly… this is just…!”

“—This Dreamweaver has terrible taste!”

Lu Zibing finished her sentence for her. He blinked rapidly, his eyes stinging with unshed tears, resisting the urge to swear out loud.

Gao Xiaoyun steadied herself and continued searching for candles.

Meanwhile, Lu Zibing slumped back in his chair, trying to sound casual as he addressed the chat: “See? Told you I have nerves of steel. Back in the day, I—”

But neither he nor Gao Xiaoyun noticed that the camera had zoomed in on the fallen statue’s severed head.

The chat exploded once more:

[Wait. Stop talking for a second. LOOK BEHIND HER—]