Chapter 23: Lose a Round and Be the Other Person’s Servant for a Day…

【Ji Jingchuan really made me cry. He was so scared himself, yet he came back to save Shang Que.】

【But he’s also the one who locked Shang Que inside, hahaha.】

【Why do I feel like Shang Que didn’t need saving? She didn’t seem like she wanted to run at all.】

“Wait, Ji Jingchuan.” Shang Que quickly tried to stop him, but Ji Jingchuan acted like he didn’t hear her, focused entirely on dragging her to escape.

Before leaving the room, Shang Que turned her head, sensing something. The ghost bride in the wedding dress didn’t chase them; instead, she stood where Shang Que had just been, tilting her head stiffly as if puzzled about why they were running.

*

They ran frantically all the way to the village entrance. Only after seeing the others did Ji Jingchuan finally stop. After making sure there was no danger, his nervous expression disappeared. He stood tall and proud, smugly claiming credit while also subtly dissing the others: “So, Shang Que, aren’t you moved now? They all ran off when things got dangerous, but only this genius didn’t abandon you—I brought you out.”

“…I’m moved.” After being forced to run all this way, Shang Que could finally speak. “But why were we running? Aren’t we Xiaoman’s friends?”

In that creepy, eerie environment, a ghostly woman with a twisted body suddenly appeared—anyone’s first reaction would be to run. But now that everyone had calmed down, their minds started working again, and they slowly realized the ghost must’ve been Xiaoman.

Jiang Yizhe had an epiphany: “Oh yeah!”

“Oh yeah, what?” Ji Jingchuan objected. “Didn’t she turn into a vengeful ghost? What if she doesn’t remember us anymore?”

Shang Que suddenly turned to ask him, “Then what about you? If you became a vengeful ghost, would you hurt me?”

Ji Jingchuan responded without even thinking, “No way!”

“Even if you forgot me?”

“Of course! Even if I forgot you, I’d never hurt you.” He said firmly, then frowned, clearly unhappy with Shang Que’s question. “Wait, what kind of question is that?”

Jiang Yizhe followed up, “See? Even if you became a ghost, you wouldn’t hurt us. So Xiaoman definitely wouldn’t either.”

“Says who? I only said I wouldn’t hurt Shang Que.” Ji Jingchuan glared and threatened, “If I turned into a ghost, the first person I’d come for is you.”

Shang Que exposed him, “At most, you’d turn into a childish ghost.”

“Or maybe a cowardly ghost.” Ning Sheng said with a smirk.

Lu Zhixu joined in with advice for Jiang Yizhe, “If he comes looking for you, just put a mirror in your room. He’ll scare himself to death.”

Lin Jinyi asked curiously, “Can a ghost even die again?”

“No way,” Ji Jingchuan snorted, “Who would be scared by such a handsome face in the mirror?”

【Got it, he’s a narcissistic ghost.】

【Hahaha, suddenly not scared anymore.】

In the end, everyone decided to go back and look for Xiaoman, and even Ji Jingchuan didn’t object. But when they returned to the hall with the coffin, the ghost was gone.

Lin Jinyi asked, confused, “She’s not here… where else could she have gone?”

“There’s one more place,” Shang Que said—that house that couldn’t even be called a home.

With her reminder, they arrived at the damp, low shack. The old wooden door was indeed open. After going inside, they quickly found Xiaoman in her parents’ bedroom.

“Xiaoman,” Ning Sheng called her name, but Xiaoman remained crouched in front of a box, not even turning her head.

She seemed to be searching for something, completely ignoring their presence. There was nothing in the box, nothing in the wardrobe—Xiaoman’s aura grew visibly more agitated.

Shang Que thought for a moment and took out the shredded admission letter. “Xiaoman, is this what you’re looking for?”

Hearing this, Xiaoman slowly stood up. Her hands and legs, still in the state they were in when she died, bent at unnatural angles. She turned stiffly, and when she saw what Shang Que was holding, she suddenly lunged at her.

Ji Jingchuan instinctively tried to pull Shang Que away, but Xiaoman didn’t do anything to attack. She stopped just a step away, reached out her bloodstained hands, and carefully took the admission letter. Like it was the most precious treasure, she stared at it blankly for a long time, then sat down heavily, clutching it tightly to her chest.

Shang Que crouched down too, gently touched her messy, brittle hair, and said sincerely, “Xiaoman, you’ve already been so brave. If there’s a next life, I hope you’ll have freedom and real love.”

Her voice was incredibly gentle, yet powerful. Xiaoman suddenly looked up. Her face was completely covered by her long hair, hiding any expression or emotion. But then, slowly, she raised her arms and made a movement not programmed into the scenario—a hug.

Shang Que hugged her back.

【Wuwuwuwuwu, my eyes are watering.】

【Xiao Man came back here to look for her enrollment book. I suddenly remembered that she wrote “I don’t want to get married, I want to study” many times on the wall. She really wanted to go to school. [Crying] Those people really deserve to die.】

【I hope that in the next life, Xiao Man will get her wish, have freedom, and receive lots and lots of sincere love!】

After the escape room ended, as they left the village, it suddenly started to rain lightly. The red full moon also disappeared, and faint morning light appeared in the distance. Shang Que looked back and saw that the withered tree at the village entrance had somehow sprouted a touch of green.

Vines have an incredibly strong vitality. When they sense sunlight and absorb water, they grow wildly.

*

This mission felt somewhat oppressive. After returning from the escape room, everyone wasn’t in the best condition, so the production team ended the live broadcast early and let them return to their rooms to rest.

But that night, Ji Jingchuan tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep until midnight. Maybe it was the shock from earlier that day, plus remembering what Shang Que said about his room having bad feng shui and being prone to attracting ghosts. Now he felt like there were invisible things in the room.

At this moment, the light fixture he had designed according to his preferences revealed a huge flaw. Two dim lights intertwined, making the room look like a nightclub in the underworld.

Ji Jingchuan was scared by his own thoughts and couldn’t help but ask, “System, you don’t really mean there’s something invisible in my room, right?”

【Invisible things?】 The system replied, 【Aren’t I one of them?】

Wait a minute. If even something as unscientific as the system exists, then the possibility of ghosts existing in the world must be pretty high, right?

“!!!” Ji Jingchuan suddenly jumped out of bed, rolling and scrambling out of the room. “Shang Que, help!”

He ran to the room not far away and knocked on the door hard. “Shang Que, are you asleep?”

No one responded. Ji Jingchuan turned around to look at his own room. The door was completely dark, and it seemed like something was hiding inside, waiting for him to go in so it could swallow him whole.

Ji Jingchuan felt a chill run down his back, and he knocked desperately on the door. “Help, Shang Que!”

With a swoosh, the door to the room opened from the inside. Ji Jingchuan’s hand didn’t stop in time due to inertia, and he was about to smack the person in front of him when a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Shang Que, extremely irritated, asked, “What is it?”

Ji Jingchuan looked at her face, which was clearly showing signs of waking up, and awkwardly laughed, “You haven’t slept, either, Shang Que—ouch, ow ow ow!”

Shang Que expressionlessly yanked his wrist away and took a step back to close the door. However, Ji Jingchuan reacted quickly and squeezed through the gap in the door, clinging to the nearby coat rack to prevent being thrown out.

Seeing Shang Que frown, he quickly shut his eyes and shouted, “Shang Que, since you can’t sleep either, how about we play cards?”

“Sure.”

“If you don’t want to play cards, we can—wait,” he opened his eyes in disbelief, thinking he might be hearing things, and asked, “What did you say?”

Shang Que crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “What card game?”

Ji Jingchuan’s peach blossom eyes immediately widened, and he hurriedly said, “Dou Di Zhu!”

“You two can’t play Dou Di Zhu.” Shang Que took out a deck of cards from the drawer. “Let me teach you a new game.”

The game was called Pinochle. After removing the two jokers from a deck of cards, players took turns drawing cards until the deck was exhausted. Then, one person would place a card face down and declare what card it was (they could lie). The next player had three choices: believe and match the same card (they could also lie), believe but not match the card, and the lead returned to the previous player with the card placed in the discard pile. If they didn’t believe, they could flip the card to reveal whether the other person lied. If the other person lied, they took the card back, and the lead passed to them; if the other person did not lie, the card was taken by the second player.

The winner was the person who played all of their cards first. The rules seemed complex, but Ji Jingchuan quickly understood after playing two rounds.

“Got it?” Shang Que asked as she shuffled the cards. “How about a wager?”

Ji Jingchuan wasn’t completely lost in the moment and cautiously said, “That’s unfair, I’m a beginner.”

“But this game doesn’t really test skill; it’s mostly about luck,” Shang Que paused. “And you’re pretty lucky, aren’t you?”

Ji Jingchuan thought about it and agreed. “What’s the bet?”

“Whoever loses a round will be a servant for a day.”

“Is it that simple?” Ji Jingchuan became cocky. “How about this? At the end of a round, whoever has the most cards left will be the servant for that many days.”

“Fine.” Shang Que placed the shuffled cards in the center. “You go first.”

The first round was Ji Jingchuan’s turn. He threw down a 3. “One 3.”

Shang Que: “I’ll match one.”

Ji Jingchuan: “I’ll match two.”

Shang Que: “I’ll match one more.”

Ji Jingchuan counted. “Wait, that’s five in total! Does your deck have five 3s?”

“You can check if you want,” Shang Que said with an indifferent expression.

Ji Jingchuan hesitated for a moment. If it was a 3, he would end up with five more cards. He thought for a second, then pulled out a 7 and placed it on top. “I’ll also match a 3.”

Shang Que didn’t call him out and continued by playing another “3.” Ji Jingchuan breathed a sigh of relief, growing bolder, and started tossing out other cards, calling every one of them a “3.”

This game is all about psychological warfare. After more than a dozen rounds, there were already over twenty “3” cards on the table. Seeing Shang Que play yet another one, Ji Jingchuan immediately let out a “Ha!” and said, “Flip it!”

“You sure?” Shang Que remained calm and unhurried, but Ji Jingchuan was no longer going to be fooled.

“There are already more than twenty 3s played and you’re still putting one down? Shang Que, you’re way too greedy. Just take these cards back.” Ji Jingchuan looked smug and confident as he suddenly flipped the card open. “Let me see what you played—”

His words cut off. The card really was a 3.

“You’re cheating.” Ji Jingchuan, in disbelief, flipped over the other cards. Except for the few 3s he had played honestly from the start, Shang Que hadn’t played a single one.

She was relying purely on boldness.

“Just take these cards back,” Shang Que mimicked his tone.

“Fine, I’ll take them.” Ji Jingchuan stuffed the cards back into his hand angrily. “You just got lucky once, no way you’ll keep—”

Second time.
Third time.
Fourth time…

They played through the entire night. In the end, after tallying everything up, Ji Jingchuan owed her 1,236 days of servitude.

When he heard the number, Ji Jingchuan was so angry that he became energized. He didn’t sleep at all. After being kicked out by Shang Que, he stomped downstairs.

As soon as he appeared in the living room, the show’s staff suddenly called him in for a solo interview.

In a small, empty room, the director sat across from him and asked, “If there were a chance to switch partners, who would you want to switch with?”

Ji Jingchuan frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Because there was a little accident during the first episode, the three ‘good friend’ pairs were assigned by the production team instead of being chosen by you all, so there have been some frictions between the groups. To make up for that, we’ve decided to give everyone a chance to choose new partners.” After explaining, the director asked again, “Other than Shang Que, who would you most like to be friends with?”

“You,” Ji Jingchuan replied.

The director was stunned for a moment before laughing awkwardly. “I’d be happy to, but it has to be someone among the other guests.”

Ji Jingchuan said impatiently, “Why switch? Are you prettier than Shang Que? Smarter than her? More capable than her?”

He suddenly stood up and declared, word by word, “I—will—not—switch—partners!”

The director was startled by his shout and shrank back. Seeing Ji Jingchuan about to leave, he quickly called out, “But it also depends on whether Shang Que wants to switch. As long as one party wants to, the switch can happen.”

“Forget it. Shang Que would never—”

“I want to. How do we switch?” At the dining table, Shang Que asked seriously after hearing what he said, “Can I partner with Ning Sheng? Lu Zhixu is fine too. He’s smarter.”

Ji Jingchuan asked back, “I’m not smart?”

Shang Que didn’t answer. The answer was obvious.

Ji Jingchuan immediately panicked and slammed the table. “You’re not allowed to switch!”

“That depends on your performance.”

“What do you mean ‘depends on my performance’? Not switching means not switching!”

“You’re so noisy.” Shang Que pulled out a piece of paper and marked an X on it.

“What’s that?”

“A scoring sheet the production team gave me.” Shang Que turned it around to show him. “They said I can rate you with checks or Xs based on your performance, as a reference for whether to switch partners.”

The sheet had over a dozen categories: reaction, attitude, coordination… Shang Que had just marked an X under “attitude.”

Ji Jingchuan immediately protested, “What’s wrong with my attitude?”

Shang Que didn’t explain. “I’m hungry.”

“Stay hungry,” Ji Jingchuan said angrily. “I’m not your servant.”

The next second, Shang Que marked an X under “reaction.”

Ji Jingchuan saw that and instantly did a complete 180, grabbing the pen she was about to use for another X. “Wait! You’re hungry? Didn’t I already make you breakfast before?”

“Your Majesty, what would you like to eat? Your humble servant will bring it right away.”

“Noodles.”

“Alright.” Before leaving, Ji Jingchuan nervously took the pen from her hand. Not long after, he came back from the kitchen with a bowl of noodles and loudly declared with flair, “Your Majesty, your meal is served. Your Majesty is twenty-five, twenty-five, twenty-five years old!”