Chapter 15

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Chapter Fifteen

The director felt that this man was deliberately arguing with him.

To restore the frightening atmosphere, he could only hurry on to the next segment: taking everyone on a tour of the rooms.

There were two rooms on the first floor—the maid’s room and the elderly couple’s room. According to the story, on the day of the tragedy, the wealthy family had wanted to enjoy some quality time together, so they had given their maid the day off, allowing her to escape the disaster.

The director led everyone into the elderly couple’s room and pointed toward the large bed, which was neither new nor old. In a gloomy voice, he began, “Back then, the family happily moved into this villa, filled with anticipation for the leisurely days ahead. They were enjoying a warm and harmonious evening together, never realizing that, in the darkness, a pair of murky eyes was silently watching them.

“After everyone had fallen into a deep sleep, the owner of those eyes began to act. First, he slipped into the kitchen and took a cleaver. Then he climbed through the window into the elderly couple’s room, crept up beside the old woman, covered her mouth, and then…”

He made a cutting motion across his neck, his voice suddenly rising as his expression turned ferocious.

“One slash across the throat!”

Whoosh!

A fierce gust of wind suddenly swept in from outside, sending the curtains billowing through the air, as if some invisible thing had truly drifted in through the window.

“Ahhh!”

Xie Yuhua screamed in terror and threw herself into Qiao Yuanzhong’s arms. Jiang Mingshuang hid behind Xue Tinghe, clutching one of his arms, while Sun Zhanyuan rushed over and grabbed the other.

Hu Lijing hid behind them, hugging herself as she trembled.

Only Gu Yunshuang remained expressionless as always. He stood ramrod straight, unmoved by the disturbance, as though declaring, “Don’t even think this childish game can frighten me.”

Qi Yue, however, suddenly stepped forward and embraced him, gently patting his back as he soothed him in a soft voice. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. I’m here! Besides, there are no ghosts in this world. The director is just using tricks to fool everyone. The curtains flew up because someone outside is operating a fan. Really—I saw it myself.”

The terrifying atmosphere the director had painstakingly created was once again destroyed without a trace.

The director glared furiously at Qi Yue, but Qi Yue turned around and reproached him instead. “Director, that’s going too far. You know perfectly well that our Yunshuang is timid and can’t take a scare, yet you deliberately frightened him.”

The director was speechless.

What surprised him even more was seeing Gu Yunshuang’s eyes suddenly redden. It seemed as though tears were shimmering within them. His long, jade-like fingers clutched Qi Yue’s clothes so tightly that his knuckles had gone white, and his hands trembled uncontrollably. He looked deeply aggrieved.

When he noticed the director watching him, Gu Yunshuang immediately buried his face against Qi Yue’s chest, refusing to let anyone see his expression. But he looked unmistakably frightened, which only made him seem even more pitiful.

Compared with him, Jiang Mingshuang and Xie Yuhua, who had also been frightened, suddenly appeared somewhat fake.

It was not only the director—even the viewers in the livestream were stunned.

[Holy crap! Is this really the Gu Yunshuang I know? Gu Yunshuang, if you’ve been possessed, blink twice.]

[So July was right all along. Gu Yunshuang is actually extremely timid and adorably dull. It isn’t that he’s aloof and cold, standing firm against everything—he just freezes up whenever he’s nervous or scared, turning completely stiff and expressionless. Why do I suddenly find this version of Gu Yunshuang so adorable?]

[Ahhh! The cold and distant Yunshuang is gone, but this Yunshuang gets so frightened that he turns expressionless, and only acts all aggrieved and asks July for a hug. He’s so cute! I want to pat him!]

[He’s pretending so convincingly. This has to be another part of Gu Yunshuang’s reputation-repair campaign.]

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[Tsk. You were the ones saying Shuangshuang’s acting was bad, and now you’re the ones saying his acting is so good it looks real. So, in the end, our Shuangshuang has Schrodinger’s acting skills!]

The director could not help wavering. Could they really have misjudged Gu Yunshuang all this time? Could he truly be a timid, adorably simple person who became stiff as a board whenever he was frightened or nervous, rather than someone arrogant and indifferent?

He quickly shook the thought from his mind. No matter what Gu Yunshuang’s true personality was like, he could not forget the real purpose of this variety show. The Jiang family was a colossal force, far beyond anything he could afford to offend.

With that in mind, the director hardened his heart and continued according to plan, leading the guests to inspect the other rooms while vividly describing what had happened when the murders took place and doing his best to create a terrifying atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Qi Yue was determined to give him no face at all and kept dismantling everything he said.

The director said, “Look at this bloody handprint. It was left behind when the lady of the house struggled to escape.”

Qi Yue replied, “Fake. It’s obviously fresh. The director must have had someone put it there just now.”

The director said, “Look at these knife marks on the wardrobe. When the master of the house fought with the murderer, he dodged just in time, and the murderer’s blade hacked into the wardrobe instead.”

Qi Yue replied, “Fake. Those marks were clearly made by an axe, not a knife. Didn’t you say the murderer used a cleaver? How did it suddenly become an axe?”

The director: “Blah, blah, blah…”

Qi Yue: “Fake. Blah, blah, blah…”

What should have been a perfectly good paranormal variety show had, thanks to Qi Yue’s interference, turned into a ridiculous debunking program.

The director was so furious that his face turned the color of pig liver, yet Qi Yue continued making sarcastic remarks. “Director, I’m telling you, your props are far too careless. There are so many mistakes that I don’t even have the energy to complain about them all.”

The director and the staff thought, If you don’t have the energy to complain, then please stop complaining!

The audience was delighted.

[Hahahahahaha, brother, please stop. The director’s desire to stab you to death is practically written all over his face.]

[Honestly, this is the most absurd and hilarious paranormal variety show I’ve ever watched.]

[July is going way too far, constantly causing trouble and disrupting the livestream. Does he think this will make him more interesting? Master Xue can obviously tell whether the haunting is real or fake. He just hasn’t said anything because he doesn’t want to interfere with filming. July alone thinks he’s clever, leaping around like a ridiculous clown. He’s so annoying.]

[You’re the one being unreasonable. Shouldn’t you blame the production crew for making such careless props that the guests can point out so many flaws? Didn’t you hear how obvious the problems Qi Yue found were? They’re practically treating both the audience and the guests like fools. The person who only blames those who point out the problems instead of those who created them is the one with the problem.]

[July isn’t pointing out all those flaws to attract attention. He’s obviously doing it to ruin the scary atmosphere so Shuangshuang won’t be frightened. He really is too devoted!]

The director was exhausted and stopped wasting his efforts. He went straight to assigning rooms.

There were six rooms available for the guests, three of which were rooms where murders had taken place.

The director said, “You can discuss the arrangements among yourselves. You may have one person per room. Considering that some of you are more timid and might be frightened into falling ill, two people may share a room. However, the master bedroom, the children’s room, and the elderly couple’s room—the three haunted rooms—must all be occupied. Of course, if none of you is willing to stay in a murder room, you may draw lots.”

Qi Yue knew, however, that allowing two people to share a room was merely a convenient arrangement for Jiang Mingshuang and Xue Tinghe. It would make it easier for them to develop feelings while also giving the show material for pairing them together.

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Unexpectedly, Gu Yunshuang was the first to speak. Pointing toward the largest and most spacious room, the master bedroom, he said, “I’ll take the master bedroom.”

According to the director, the master bedroom was the room with the most violent haunting.

Everyone else froze. Judging from Gu Yunshuang’s earlier reaction, they had begun to believe that he really was a timid and adorably simple person. Even if it was all an act, he should have been even more afraid at a moment like this, refusing to stay in a haunted room in order to maintain the image.

The director secretly rejoiced. Gu Yunshuang was indeed putting on an act. He had not expected the truth to be exposed so quickly.

Qi Yue also could not understand why Gu Yunshuang had suddenly volunteered for the master bedroom. Frowning, he objected, “No. You’re so timid. Even if the so-called murders were completely made up by the director, you’ll definitely be frightened into having nightmares if you stay here at night.”

Gu Yunshuang looked at him expectantly. “It’s all right. Didn’t the director say that two people can share a room? If you stay with me, I won’t be afraid even if this really is a haunted house. You used to take me exploring haunted houses, and we watched horror movies together at night. With you there, I wasn’t frightened, was I?”

Qi Yue fell silent.

Those were all things he had loved doing back when he was young and foolish. Because Shuangshuang was soft as a little bun and somewhat tsundere, Qi Yue had always felt compelled to tease him. More than that, he had wanted to see little Shuangshuang turn pale with fright, cling tightly to him, and call him “big brother.” So he had often taken Gu Yunshuang to haunted houses or brought him to watch horror movies, and he had told him ghost stories to scare him.

At first, little Yunshuang had indeed curled up in his arms, trembling with fear. But later, he did not even blink. If Qi Yue had not accidentally discovered that, whenever he was out of sight, little Yunshuang could still be frightened pale and stiff by a curtain lifted by the wind or even a passing shadow, he would have thought that all those experiences had trained the fear out of him.

Gu Yunshuang’s meaning was perfectly clear now: he wanted to sleep with Qi Yue.

Qi Yue smiled bitterly inwardly. Shuangshuang must have keenly sensed his avoidance and estrangement, and was deliberately forcing him into a corner here.

Qi Yue wanted to agree. He wanted to give Gu Yunshuang a greater sense of security. But the question was not whether he wanted to—it was whether he could.

During brief periods of contact, he could still guarantee that he would keep his ghostly aura under control. But he could not be certain he would manage it over a longer period.

Besides, he had been an exorcist when he was alive, and he understood better than anyone that humans and ghosts belonged to different realms. A ghost remaining around a human for too long was harmful to the living. He did not want to hurt Gu Yunshuang.

But Shuangshuang knew nothing of this. He merely wanted to cling to him as he had in the past. What had he done wrong?

Whether he rejected him or agreed, he would hurt Shuangshuang. Caught between two impossible choices, Qi Yue could not bring himself to speak.

His prolonged silence made the atmosphere grow heavy. The others stopped talking and watched them with expressions ranging from amusement to schadenfreude.

From his long silence, Gu Yunshuang sensed that something was wrong. Hesitantly, he asked, “Big brother… you don’t want to stay with me?”

Qi Yue guiltily looked away. “We’re both grown up now. We should have some personal space. Cough—no, that’s not what I mean. I mean, we’ve both grown taller and bigger, and this bed is so small that there’s no way the two of us could fit. We’d better stay in separate rooms!”

Gu Yunshuang’s eyes suddenly widened as he stared at him in disbelief, as though he had never imagined that Qi Yue would refuse him. His face was filled with hurt.

He looked like a little kitten that had just discovered its owner had abandoned it. Anyone who saw him would feel heartbroken and want to pull him into their arms and rub him vigorously.

Qi Yue’s heart ached. He almost relented, but although his lips parted, he still forced himself to hold back. He did not dare say anything else, afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, he would give in. All he could do was remain silent.