Chapter 51

     After Shi Xi suggested to visit the strange house, Director Song nodded: “That’s a solution.”

     Lu Xiu looked around and pushed the frame of his glasses: “Everything looks normal now, but it’s just the calm before the storm. Everyone must pay attention to safety when looking for clues. If you encounter danger, please call for help. If you see useful clues, please call for everyone to study together.”

     Under the encouragement of the three drama fans, the others also tried to get into character.

     According to the player script given by the program team, the other three guests are also actors. Ji Mingxu plays the male protagonist of “House”, Liu Ziyu and Qiao Qing play the supporting roles of “House”, and the NPC Atong who lives with them plays the driver and assistant.

     Ji Mingxu positioned himself as a true actor, and his state was not much different from before. He took out a coin from somewhere and turned it quickly on his fingertips: “Then let’s look for it separately, starting from the lobby.”

     Everyone nodded, Shi Xi chose a direction, turned around and looked for clues.

     The interior of this strange house is the same as the outside, full of traces of time. It can be seen that it has been carefully cleaned. Many dirty traces are actually added later, such as the dark old bloodstains on the wall.

     There is a photography teacher hiding behind the screen in the living room. Shi Xi completely ignores his existence. She walks and observes the environment, flipping things from time to time.

     When she came near the screen, Shi Xi noticed a bloody mark on the locker, which looked like a slender finger print.

     She squatted down and looked at the locker.

     The photography teacher gave a close-up of the bloody fingerprint. In his experience, after discovering such a clue with obvious danger, the player tends to call their companions to face it together. This little girl looks gentle and should not be very courageous. She will probably choose to call her companions.

     The photography teacher was ready to follow Shi Xi to move the camera, and then he saw Shi Xi open the locker, and a scary puppet fell out!

     The moment it touched the ground, the puppet’s head separated from its body and rolled in front of the screen. The photographer looked down and saw the lifelike puppet staring at him with two dark eyes. His heart jumped to his throat and the camera shook! After calming down, he saw the gentle girl calmly walk to the screen, pick up the puppet’s head with blood on its face, and gently stroke the puppet’s cheek with her slender white fingers, as if she was playing with a toy. Shi Xi put the doll’s head back into its body, checked it again, and after confirming that there were no clues on it, she casually placed it on the counter and commented: “It’s cute.” 

     Photography teacher: “???” You call this thing cute?

     At this time, a scream suddenly sounded from the other side.

     Shi Xi looked back and saw Liu Ziyu clinging to the wall with a pale face. There was a white body positioning line on the ground in front of him, and there were many knife marks on it.

     Lu Xiu stood near Liu Ziyu, holding a carpet with blood on the back in his hand.

     Shi Xi understood that Lu Xiu probably lifted the carpet to check, and Liu Ziyu was frightened by the clues that were suddenly exposed.

     The photography teacher hiding behind the screen looked at the tall and strong Liu Ziyu with mixed feelings. The personalities of these guests were completely different from what he imagined!

     Noticing everyone’s gaze, Liu Ziyu’s pale face turned red again. In order to make himself less embarrassed, he raised his voice and said, “We found an important clue. Come and have a look!”

     Lu Xiu glanced at Liu Ziyu and said bluntly, “No need to come over. There is a body positioning line under the carpet, which means that there was a bloody case in this wooden building, but it only revealed this information. There is nothing worth studying.”

     Liu Ziyu’s face turned redder and he scratched the wall in embarrassment.

      Shi Xi retracted her gaze and continued to investigate the locker. After a while, she found a small blackboard hidden very secretly.

     Shi Xi quickly read the information on it, turned to the back, and saw a line of key words. She felt it necessary to let other players come and see.

     Shi Xi blinked and called out, “I found a clue, come and see it.”

     Liu Ziyu looked at Shi Xi’s back and remembered what hid agent had said to him before recording the show. Strange Experience House intended to keep one of the flying guests in this episode as a permanent guest in the next season.

     Thinking of the gap between Shi Xi and their acting skills, she was undoubtedly the most threatening competitor.

     He clenched his fingers and suddenly said, “Xiao Shi, if it’s not an important clue, there’s no need to let everyone go. Just summarize it.”

     “Anything works, it’s up to you.” Shi Xi was already immersed in the investigation clues and didn’t care what he said at all.

     Shi Xi noticed that there was a hook on the wall not far away. It should be the original position of the small blackboard. Someone deliberately hid it deep in the locker.

     Shi Xi hung the small blackboard back to its original position. Other players scanned the title on the blackboard from a distance and took the initiative to walk towards her. Only Liu Ziyu was still standing there.

     Liu Ziyu froze for a moment, thinking, even the line locating the body is not an important clue, I want to see what you found that is worth everyone going over.

     He walked behind the crowd and stretched his neck to look at the content on the small blackboard. He saw the four big words “shooting plan” written on it. He quickly scanned the information on it and laughed lightly: “Xiao Shi, is this the important clue you found? It’s just the shooting plan of “House”. There is no important information.”

     Shi Xi pointed at the blackboard: “Look at the actor column, there are not only our names, but also Director Song’s name.”

     Liu Ziyu spread his hands: “What does this mean?”

     Lu Xiu’s thoughts turned quickly, his expression solemn: “In our script, Director Song has no role, which means this is not our shooting plan.”

     Liu Ziyu still didn’t understand: “It’s just a mistake, or it’s just a prop used by the program team to mislead us.”

     When Liu Ziyu mentioned the program team, Ji Mingxu laughed.

     Although Ji Mingxu didn’t say it explicitly, Liu Ziyu understood the meaning of this laughter – your acting is pretty good, why are you out of the play?

     Liu Ziyu pretended not to hear it and forced herself back into the play: “This little detail doesn’t mean anything, even if it’s not our shooting plan, so what.”

     “You’re too anxious,” Shi Xi slowly turned the blackboard over, holding a half-broken chalk, and circled a sentence on the blackboard: “The details in the actor column don’t mean anything, but it’s different when combined with this sentence.”

     Lu Xiu read out the words she circled, his expression changed slightly: “If either of the two movies is completed, this cycle will end – this is the condition, or one of the conditions, to escape the cycle!”

     “Two movies?” Director Song raised the script in her hand and said in an orderly manner: “The “House” in my hand is one of them, directed by me, and the “House” on the blackboard is the other one, directed by someone else?”

     Liu Ziyu couldn’t keep up with their thoughts and was confused by them.

     Although Ji Mingxu’s acting skills are average, his mind works very fast. He showed an exaggerated expression and looked around nervously: “Let me summarize. Is there someone hiding in the dark of the small wooden building to shoot us? We have become characters in the movie directed by others without knowing it?”

     Lu Xiu: “That’s right.”

     Shi Xi added: “And to top it all off, there’s no pay, the director is definitely not human.”

     The tingling feeling on his scalp disappeared instantly. Ji Mingxu raised his eyebrows and said angrily: “Without pay, this director is really not a human being!”

     Everyone: “…” Logical genius.

     Ji Mingxu pointed to a pile of messy debris on the ground and said to Shi Xi with relief: “Xiao Shi, it’s a good thing that you are good at dismantling the house, so you found such a key clue.”

     Shi Xi: “Are you praising me?”

     Ji Mingxu nodded seriously: “Of course, our team needs talents like you.”

     Liu Ziyu couldn’t listen to what they were saying. All he could think about was that Shi Xi actually found the key clue, which made him look like a waste.

     Once a person falls into the comparison with others, he will be very obsessed. He is very excited now and is determined to beat Shi Xi once.

     “Back to the topic,” Lu Xiu tapped the small blackboard with his fingers: “According to this prompt, there are two ways to end the cycle. One is the completion of our movie, and the other is the completion of the movie of the Ghost Team. For the convenience of distinction, we call the movie shot by the Ghost Team “No Survivors House”, because all of us died last time.”

     Shi Xi: “Then our movie is called “Back to the House”, because we are back again.”

     Lu Xiu: “…Where do you get so many jokes? It’s very promising to switch to being a screenwriter.”

     Shi Xi was silent for a while, and said: “If I can escape the cycle, I will consider .”

     Lu Xiu’s eyes were firm: “We can definitely escape this time.”

     Ji Mingxu found a hidden camera and joked, “Friends, for me, this place is like “Another Out-of-Character House” because I’m constantly breaking character. Before I go back to the high-level player game, I want to complain: this episode’s theme is like a Russian nesting doll. We’re making a movie within a variety show, and there’s  ghosts secretly filming us… Ah, this room is so cold, it’s kind of creepy talking about ghosts here.'”

     When Qiaoqing heard Ji Mingxu’s words, she was tempted to say, “You’re actually a huge distraction, keeping me from fully immersing myself in this role!” She’s seriously considering just giving up now.

    Lu Xiu ignored his mumbling and brought everyone back to the point again: “In order to prevent us from escaping the cycle, the ghosts in this room will definitely prevent us from finishing the film.”

     Shi Xi said: “I’m afraid we have to prevent the vengeful spirits from finishing their movies.”

     Liu Ziyu wanted to interrupt their conversation, but he thought for a long time and only managed to say: “Why, didn’t Brother Lu just say that the cycle of the ghosts’ movie finishing can also end.”

     Shi Xi looked at him, with a clean smile on her face, but her eyes were as cold as ice: “Don’t you understand yet? We are in an opposing relationship with the ghosts. The completion of their movie means that we will have no survivors again, and the cycle will of course end.”

     “Because we will enter a new cycle again.” Lu Xiu also looked at Liu Ziyu and said the final conclusion in a cold voice.

     Liu Ziyu was stunned by their eyes. He felt that he was forcibly dragged into another real world by two hands. He truly thought that he was facing a life-and-death test, and the fear that arose spontaneously gripped his heart.

     When he came to his senses, the two men had already shifted their gaze to look at the script in Director Song’s hand.