Although it was the final task, the heartless program team provided no hints at all.

The six of them discussed and could only resort to the most traditional method – turning everything upside down, searching every nook and cranny.

It was now 4:08 in the morning, with less than an hour until dawn, and the task deadline approaching. But fortunately, the meeting room wasn’t too big, and with six people searching together, there was still some hope.

Xie Wanxing grumbled about the bugs in the program while searching, “I don’t understand, why would Luo Xiaoxing, a young female student, hide the envelope she left for her lover in the meeting room? Wasn’t she afraid of being seen by the principal and publicly punished?”

There were scattered chuckles in the meeting room, indicating agreement.

Fortunately, they found a clue in less than half an hour, hidden behind a painting in the meeting room.

The layout of this meeting room was extremely simple, but there hung a huge ink painting on the wall. Xie Wanxing hadn’t paid attention at first, but after passing by several times, he stared at the wall thoughtfully.

He casually grabbed Fu Wenshan beside him and asked, “Is this painting of apricot blossoms?”

Fu Wenshan also stopped in his tracks, examined it for a moment, and affirmed Xie Wanxing’s answer, “Yes, it’s apricot blossoms, in the spring rain.”

Apricot blossoms, Luo Xiaoxing.

The two exchanged a glance, surprisingly having some tacit understanding, and together they moved to lift the frame of the painting. The painting was quite heavy, Xie Wanxing grabbed the bottom, feeling a bit strenuous, but soon most of the weight was lifted by Fu Wenshan.

Indeed, behind this painting frame was a hollowed-out cabinet, inside of which was a wooden box, small in size, resembling a jewelry box that a girl might have.

As Fu Wenshan took out the box for inspection, he regretfully announced, “we found a box, and it should contain the letter, but there’s no key.”

This was where they needed to find the hidden key.

Several people couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

They glanced at their watches again, it was already four-thirty, getting closer to morning, and despite being just a step away from victory, they still hadn’t found the final clue, making everyone a bit anxious.

Wu Ran rubbed his temples and complained, “I don’t even know if this task should be called a ghost school adventure or a treasure hunt.”

Zhou Ying was also exhausted, sitting on the conference table, and his eyes fell on the small cake on the table. Suddenly, his stomach grumbled.

As soon as they entered the conference room, they had noticed the cakes on the table.

The team actually prepared tea and snacks, but due to their distrust of this “haunted school,” no one dared to touch them.

But now, feeling tired and hungry, their eyes lit up at the sight of these few small cakes, filled with longing.

“Do you think… we can eat these cakes?” Zhou Ying held the tiny cake in his hand, asking eagerly.

Xie Wanxing thought for a moment and felt it was best not to touch something of unknown origin.

But before he could speak, he heard Wu Ran say, “Go ahead, it’s fine. Each of us has huge insurance coverage. The production team wouldn’t dare to poison them.”

Xie Wanxing: …that’s not wrong.

Zhou Ying was waiting for this statement. He immediately ate the small cake, then looked at the remaining ones, feeling it would be a waste to leave them, so he picked up a second one.

As he took a bite, he suddenly grimaced.

“What’s wrong?” The others became nervous. Could it be that the production team was audacious enough to tamper with them?

With a pained expression, Zhou Ying reached into his mouth and pulled out a delicate golden key from the uneaten portion of the cake.

“My tooth almost came out.” Zhou Ying said with tears.

Silence filled the room.

They never expected that the final clue would be pulled out of the guest’s mouth.

Quietly, Zhou Ying found a tissue, wiped the key clean, and then smiled shyly, “Who’s going to open the box?”

Others: “Of course, you do it yourself!”

Zhou Ying didn’t mind opening the box, but he firmly pulled his buddy Wu Ran with him, just in case something suddenly jumped out of the box.

But perhaps because time was running out, the production team didn’t play any more tricks this time. After the box was opened, inside was indeed an elegantly colored envelope.

“Should we open it?” Zhou Ying asked.

“Go ahead, we need to see if it’s really from Luo Xiaoxing.” Fu Wenshan said.

Zhou Ying opened the pale pink envelope, and inside was a folded letter paper. The production team had deliberately aged the paper, making it fragile, so they had to carefully unfold it.

This letter was indeed left by Luo Xiaoxing.

It was written to her lover.

As the guests opened the envelope, the director team gave a command, and in the empty conference room, gentle and clean singing emanated from somewhere.

It was the voice of a young girl, with no lyrics, like a random springtime melody hummed casually. Yet the melody was tender and melodious enough, like the unresolved thoughts of a young girl, only finding solace in this soft melody.

The first half of the letter was just some girlish whispers, but the latter half of the letter suddenly became heart-wrenching—

“In the coming spring, I’ve always wanted to ask you, if I’m willing to give up my human identity, to give up the life of a human, would you be willing to take me away?

You always tell me that I am human, while you are just a wandering soul in the wilderness, that we are incompatible.

But Mingchun, I have no family, no friends. When I met you, I was thinking of ending my own life, dying under a peach blossom tree. Doesn’t that sound romantic? But it was on that day that I met you. That’s why I’ve managed to survive.

So, take me away.

I don’t care if you are human or not.

I just want to see you.”

At the end of the envelope, the phrase “I want to see you” was blurred, as if someone was crying while writing this. Finally, the tears smudged it.

After reading the letter, the man in the green robe put the letter into his sleeve. He looked at the guests in front of him and bowed solemnly, “Mediums, thank you for letting me know Xiaoxing’s last wish. As a token of gratitude, I will keep my promise to leave this place, dispersing the haunting of this ghostly school.”

After he finished speaking, white mist emerged from various corners of the room again, blocking everyone’s vision.

Xie Wanxing heard a faint sigh in the air, the voice of the man in the green robe.

When the mist dispersed, they found that the dim conference room had become bright again, although they couldn’t figure out where the production team controlled the switches.

And where the man in the green shirt disappeared, a photo was left behind.

In the photo was a peach blossom tree. A girl in a white shirt and blue skirt stood under the tree with a man in a green robe. The spring breeze lifted the corner of the girl’s skirt, and she looked up at the man in front of her, smiling brightly, without any haze.

Xie Wanxing picked up the photo, feeling quite sentimental. Then he heard Fu Wenshan say beside him.

“Why does this production team have bugs everywhere? Isn’t that man supposed to be a ghost? How could a ghost be in a photo?”

Xie Wanxing’s emotions were instantly choked back.

However, regardless, the tasks arranged by the production team were successfully completed.

Summer days always dawned earlier. When six walked down from the fifth floor, the broken windows of the school had already let in a lot of bright and warm sunlight, dispelling quite a bit of the gloominess in this abandoned haunted school.

At first, Xie Wanxing was still on guard, afraid that a ghost would suddenly appear to scare them again.

But all the way until they reached the lobby on the first floor of the school, the path remained silent.

Those “ghosts” had disappeared.

The school was still in ruins, with weeds everywhere and crumbling walls.

But the resentful spirits that had been confined here had vanished along with the departure of the mountain god.

When they left the school, the sunlight outside poured onto the six of them without any obstruction. Having been trapped in the haunted school for several hours and now standing under the sunlight again, they even felt a bit like they had crossed into another world.

“Congratulations to the six mediums for completing this task!” Han Jiujin and the production team were waiting for them outside, all applauding them.

Although the guests had been too unpredictable, causing the production team to be frustrated at times, the production team still sincerely said, “You’ve all worked hard.”

The guests waved their hands together. After being frightened all night, they had accumulated a lot of foul language in their hearts, but out of civilized harmony, they couldn’t say it on television.

Xie Wanxing was almost collapsing to the ground. After enduring the most tense few hours, he was extremely tired now. He asked in a sleepy voice, “Director, when can we go back to sleep?”

Han Jiujin smiled and said, “You can go back soon, but before you go back, our production team has prepared red envelopes as a token of appreciation for each of you.”

As he spoke, he took out six red envelopes from his pocket and handed them to the guests.

Xiao Jia looked at the red envelope in her hand with caution, “Can we open it? Is it not another task for tomorrow?”

“Of course not,” Han Jiujin exclaimed innocently, “It’s really just money inside. You’ve all been scared all night, so take the red envelope to lift your spirits.”

The six of them looked skeptical, then unanimously began opening the red envelopes right then and there.

Turns out, this time Han Jiujin wasn’t lying, there was really money inside.

Hmm, twenty-dollar bills for each person.

Well, that’s the least the production team could do.

After Fu Wenshan checked what was inside his red envelope, he casually stuffed it into Xie Wanxing’s arms.

Xie Wanxing looked bewildered, “Why are you giving this to me?”

Fu Wenshan still had that indifferent look on his face, his voice lazy as he spoke, “Because you were the most scared today, you need a double portion of red envelope to make up for it.”

As Fu Wenshan spoke, he glanced at Xie Wanxing sideways. In the morning light, his deep-set face was outlined by the sunshine, giving him an extra charming aura. Although a sleepless night had left him looking a bit weary, it added a touch of lazy charm.

Caught off guard by the dazzle, Xie Wanxing wanted to retort but ended up saying nothing, silently accepting the two red envelopes.

But as he stuffed both envelopes into his pocket, his hand touched something cold. Taking it out, he saw it was a prop they had found separately with Zhou Ying on the fourth floor—a pink hairpin clearly belonging to a girl.

Initially, they thought it might be a special prop, but it turned out to be unused until the end.

Taking out the hairpin, he said to Han Jiujin, “Host, there’s still one prop left here. What’s its purpose? Or did you forget about it?”

Han Jiujin looked puzzled as he saw the hairpin in Xie Wanxing’s hand, a pink butterfly-shaped ornament.

He scratched his chin, “We didn’t have this prop, right, director? There were only six props?”

The director nodded from behind the camera, confirming.

“That’s impossible,” Zhou Ying also stepped forward, “Xie ge and I found it on the fourth floor, in the piano classroom. It was placed in a clean little basket.”

That’s why they thought it was a prop, not something accidentally left behind.

“But… we really didn’t have this prop,” a staff member weakly said, “I was the last one to check, and I didn’t see this on the fourth floor.”

A breeze of morning wind passed by, and suddenly everyone felt a chill.