Although Zhan Qingyue was so irritated by Ning Qiuxiu’s unique way of thinking that he wanted to tease her, he held back.

Ning Qiuxiu had been filming non-stop for five episodes in a row, and during this time, she was busy buying a house through WeChat.

In the end, she was the one affected, so Zhan Qingyue managed to control his frustration.

He said, “It’s cold outside, remember to use some hand warmers.”

Ning Qiuxiu almost forgot about the hand warmers and quickly found a few in her suitcase.

Before sticking them on, she made sure to call Zhan Qingyue.

Zhan Qingyue: “……”

He wasn’t really interested in watching.

Out of sight, out of mind. He’d look at them later when they were more presentable.

He hoped that she’d show them to him once they were properly arranged.

Zhan Qingyue felt like he had been exposed to too many annoying things lately, and his mind was starting to feel cluttered.

After sticking on the hand warmers, Ning Qiuxiu went outside and was almost driven back by the cold wind.

It was fine indoors with the heating, but outside in the chilly wind, it felt like being frozen.

Why did they choose to film a show in the winter?

Since it was a last-minute task, everyone wasn’t dressed as neatly as they were during the day.

The older actor, Xiao He, was especially obvious.

He was wrapped up as much as he could be to avoid the cold.

An Chiyuan, who came from Taiwan, was also shivering and had wrapped himself up like a ball, ignoring his idol image.

They were chatting.

“Surprise attacks in this freezing weather, I’ve already washed my feet and gone to bed. Oh my gosh, it’s so cold,” Xiao He said, rubbing his hands together.

“Hey? Don’t you take a bath?” An Chiyuan asked, finding some humor in the situation.

“In this cold weather, you bathe every day?” Xiao He responded.

An Chiyuan, with his Taiwanese accent, scratched his head and said, “But we bathe every day too.”

He looked at the other people arriving, hoping to find some common ground.

Everyone: “……”

Come on, this is a show, can we just save face?

Ning Qiuxiu said, “Don’t look at us. We three little fairies need to bathe in magical dew every day to sleep.”

“And we need to add some rose petals and use dry ice to create smoke,” Pei Yue, who had a background in sports, joked.

The men: “……”

Compared to the bundled-up men, the women were dressed more lightly.

The most shocking was Zheng Lingshan.

Her outfit could only be described as thin, while everyone else was hunched over and shivering.

She stood upright, as if the cold wind didn’t affect her at all.

Everyone couldn’t help but admire her: truly, soldiers are different.

“Don’t you feel cold?” An Chiyuan glanced between the women and himself, feeling his masculine pride challenged.

Ning Qiuxiu smiled, “Not cold, I have heating pads.”

Everyone: “……”

Actually, everyone had brought heating pads, but since it was so warm inside the building and everyone was hurrying out, they didn’t think to use them.

Ning Qiuxiu took out a bag with several more heating pads: “I have a few extras here, who needs them?”

“I do, I do.”

“Give me two.”

“Don’t fight over them.”

The heating pads were quickly distributed.

Ning Qiuxiu noticed Zheng Lingshan watching them silently and respected her even more.

Zheng Lingshan seemed to sense what Ning Qiuxiu was thinking and said seriously, “Don’t think of me as too saintly. I also have heating pads.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “……”

After some idle chatter, they began checking the rooms, and discovered a problem: six students were missing, one of whom was a girl.

“I can understand the boys being missing; usually, they’re out playing games or browsing the internet. But the girls…” Xiao He looked at the three women present, “Where could they have gone?”

Pei Yue: “Dating?”

An Chiyuan: “Should we check all the nearby hotels? That would be a lot of work.”

Pei Yue glared at him: “They’re high school students. How can you think of such inappropriate things?”

An Chiyuan: “……”

Isn’t this a normal reaction?

Ning Qiuxiu said, “If we assume they’re sneaking out to date, they’re probably in a small wooded area or somewhere around the school.”

This suggestion seemed more reasonable and was agreed upon by everyone.

“In this freezing weather, going out to date,” Xiao He said, stamping his feet, “What’s the point?”

“That’s why you’re still single at your age.” Pei Yue hit the nail on the head.

Xiao He: “……”

“Attention, gardeners,” the broadcast sounded again, from Shen Yin who wasn’t on site, “It’s now 10:50 PM. Please find all the missing students before 11:20 PM to avoid affecting rest and delaying tomorrow’s classes.”

Everyone, who had been calm, instantly became anxious.

They had only half an hour to find all the missing students.

Otherwise, it would delay the classes and probably affect their final exam scores.

The five people discussed and decided to split into two groups: one group would check the internet cafes, and the other would search the small woods on campus.

Originally, two of the men were supposed to check the internet cafes, but Pei Yue was also interested in the internet cafes and insisted on going.

So, Ning Qiuxiu and Zheng Lingshan were left to check the small woods.

With flashlights in hand, the two of them patrolled the campus.

The campus lights were old and dim, and since the campus was usually used for filming and had little foot traffic, it was eerily quiet with only the cold night wind howling. It felt like being in a horror movie.

Ning Qiuxiu felt a bit uneasy: “I’m suddenly not so sure. Is this really a good place for a date?”

She’d never dare to come here with Zhan Qingyue; that guy would definitely scare her to death.

Zheng Lingshan said: “Love makes people irrational.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “……”

That’s quite a sarcastic comment.

The campus wasn’t very big, and they had finished checking it in 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, they found nothing.

“The production team wouldn’t be so shameless as to make them play hide and seek with us,” Ning Qiuxiu thought, given the national TV station’s lack of shame—they even made her enter the men’s bathroom to catch smoking students!

Zheng Lingshan said: “They’re probably not on campus.”

If they weren’t on campus, the area for the date would be much larger.

Ning Qiuxiu thought this half-hour task didn’t seem like it would have such a difficult level, which didn’t fit the story.

She thought for a moment and said: “But the campus gates are locked at night to prevent students from coming and going. If they wanted to leave, they’d have to climb the wall, which is pretty difficult in this cold weather, especially for a girl dressed like a ball.”

Zheng Lingshan decisively said: “Then let’s search one more time. The area is so small; I don’t believe they could hide underground.”

Something didn’t feel right to Ning Qiuxiu.

She had a sense that she was missing some detail.

“Records,” Ning Qiuxiu suddenly thought, “we haven’t checked the records of the missing girl.”

Zheng Lingshan understood and quickly went to the office.

The production team had records of each student, and they searched through the pile of documents.

The missing girl was named Xu Keyu.

To their surprise, her record said: “Loves studying, excellent grades, usually introverted, with few friends.”

The two looked at each other.

This person didn’t seem like someone who would be involved in a romantic relationship.

She also didn’t seem like someone who would just disappear.

“It feels like we’re in a mystery drama now,” Ning Qiuxiu thought with a shiver. “The production team wouldn’t really create such a ridiculous kidnapping plot, would they?”

“Not likely,” Zheng Lingshan still had confidence in the national TV station’s standards. “Let’s think simply: there might be a conflict in the dormitory. The record says she’s introverted, so it’s very possible she was excluded by her dorm mates.”

Ning Qiuxiu glanced at the time and saw that 4 minutes had passed.

She said, “Hurry, let’s check the dormitory.”

The two of them went to the dormitory where Ning Qiuxiu was staying.

Since everyone wasn’t a real high school student and didn’t need to pretend to be studious, after the room check was done, they relaxed and started using their phones.

Ning Qiuxiu and Zheng Lingshan suddenly burst in, scaring everyone so much that they didn’t even have time to hide their phones.

Seeing the frightened looks on their faces, Ning Qiuxiu quickly waved and smiled, “We’re just here to ask you a few questions about Xu Keyu. Don’t worry, we’re not taking your phones.”

The girls sighed in relief, and Zheng Lingshan asked, “Have you had any recent conflicts with Xu Keyu?”

“No.”

“We have a good relationship in our dorm.”

“We’re like sisters.”

“Like a loving family.”

“Building a harmonious and beautiful homeland together.”

Ning Qiuxiu and Zheng Lingshan: “……”

Are you all comedians sent by monkeys?

Despite their theatrical behavior, the students couldn’t lie, so if they said there were no issues, then there were none.

With only 10 minutes left, the people sent to check the internet café reported that they had found all the boys—five of them in total—and no one had gone on a date.

“These people must still be in the school; we must have overlooked something,” Ning Qiuxiu said. “Let’s keep looking while discussing.”

Zheng Lingshan didn’t move.

Instead, she walked straight up to a girl who was eating snacks and watching a drama on TV.

Ning Qiuxiu thought she had discovered something and stopped to watch.

“Teacher, eating snacks isn’t illegal, right?” The girl asked weakly.

Zheng Lingshan was tall with a serious face, which was quite intimidating.

“It’s not illegal,” Zheng Lingshan said seriously. “I just wanted to remind you to brush your teeth and be careful of cavities.”

“……” The girls were stunned for a second, then burst into laughter.

Ning Qiuxiu quickly pulled Zheng Lingshan away, worried that she might say something inappropriate.

Unexpectedly, despite Zheng Lingshan being young, she had the personality of an old bureaucrat.

With only 9 minutes left, if they didn’t find the missing students, they would lose all the points they had earned for dealing with the theatrical students during the day.

The two of them reached the door, where a short student was standing.

Ning Qiuxiu noticed she seemed hesitant to speak and instinctively felt she might have a clue.

She stopped and asked, “Do you know anything?”

“Our school’s dormitory lights out at 10:30. Xu Keyu likes to study, so sometimes she goes out to find a place with lights to read a bit longer.”

Ning Qiuxiu and Zheng Lingshan exchanged a glance.

They had been searching for hidden places, not bright ones.

They quickly went downstairs and started searching for well-lit areas in the school. With the time crunch, they finished searching the entire school in 6 minutes.

But they still didn’t find anyone.

With just 3 minutes left, the annoying announcement came on: “There are 3 minutes remaining to complete the task. Please hurry.”

“There must be a place with lights that we subconsciously ignored,” Ning Qiuxiu felt like her brain was about to be drained. “Ling Shan, if you were Xu Ke Yu, where would you review?”

“……I’d buy a flashlight and read under the covers in the dorm.”

Ning Qiuxiu: “……You’re kidding, right? Hiding under the covers?”

If that were the case, it would be incredibly frustrating.

She would definitely give the production team a hard time for making them search aimlessly in the cold wind.

“No,” Zheng Lingshan said firmly. “I’ve observed the area.”

So where could it be?

Ning Qiuxiu racked her brain, thinking of all the places top students might hide to study.

Suddenly, she thought of a place.

“Let’s go. There’s one place we haven’t checked.”

Ning Qiuxiu pulled Zheng Lingshan to run quickly, but by the time they got there, Zheng Lingshan was dragging her.

Ning Qiuxiu, despite having a strength talisman, found it no help for sprinting.

By the time they arrived, she was out of breath and could only push Zheng Lingshan, who was still catching her breath, to check.

The place they arrived at was… the public restroom.