Chapter 353
Chapter 353
“Then how did the building end up getting finished?” Mu Xin asked.
The female ghost in red smiled. “After Qi Xu died, his friends stepped forward. By then, the problems had all been resolved, so construction continued. What no one knew, of course, was that his friends had deliberately engineered the whole thing to swallow up his assets. After his death, his obsession kept him lingering around the building, and somehow he discovered the truth. Once he knew, he turned into a vengeful ghost and dragged those friends of his down into a demonic abyss.”
It was not so different from the story at the hospital.
Then why had they been put through all this?
Without Mu Xin having to ask, the female ghost in red gave them the answer. “Qi Xu is a little tired of the world. He’s a powerful vengeful ghost, but nothing interests him, so he spends most of his time asleep. Occasionally, he wakes up and sees people working overtime. It reminds him of his own past, working himself to death only for someone else to reap the rewards. So he cuts the power to the whole office building to stop everyone from working.”
Mu Xin: “…”
She would never have guessed that was the reason.
By this point, the female ghost in red had led the three of them to a room.
It was the security office.
“Wait out here. I’ll get the key for you,” she said.
Naturally, none of them objected.
After she went inside, the three exchanged glances, at a loss for what to say.
The female ghost in red returned very quickly.
She could not touch solid objects, so the ring of keys hovered loosely around her finger.
With a light movement of her fingertip, the keys dropped straight into Mu Xin’s palm.
“Young lady, leave this place as quickly as you can. Qi Xu won’t kill anyone, but the other ghosts aren’t so kind.”
“What about you, Big Sister?” Mu Xin blurted out.
The female ghost in red laughed. “Me? Do you know how I became the second-strongest ghost in this building?”
“By killing.” As she spoke, she suddenly turned her head around.
Her body did not move, but her head rotated a full 180 degrees, presenting the back of her head to the three of them.
She reached up and parted her hair.
All three were watching her. When they saw the back of her head, they froze on the spot.
Some were shocked. Others, like Mu Xin, were simply terrified.
The back of the female ghost in red’s head was covered in hideous ghost faces. Worse still, those faces were struggling to crawl out, trying to pierce her skin.
They could not break free, but they made lumps bulge out from the back of her head.
“These are all ghosts I’ve eaten.” She lowered her hands, letting her hair conceal the sight, and turned her head back around.
Her own face was deathly pale and certainly frightening, but compared with the back of her head, it was an enormous improvement.
“All right. You should go,” she said.
Without wasting more words on Mu Xin, she floated away. Before long, she was nowhere to be seen.
Once again, Mu Xin and the other two looked at one another, not knowing what to say.
“Let’s get out of here,” Qin Nan finally said.
Mu Xin and Jian Fan nodded, and the three headed for the main door.
There was no fixed filming time for the variety show. Once they solved the scenario, the episode was over.
This time, they had been far too quick. Their Popularity had risen, but not by very much. And at the end of the second episode, whoever had the highest Popularity would be allowed to recruit another Player. Although they were far ahead of the other three shows, no one could guarantee that they would not be overtaken.
But now that they had the key, they could hardly just throw it away.
Before leaving, then, they needed to create a little more entertainment and squeeze out one last increase in Popularity.
For instance, just before they reached the main door, Mu Xin suddenly went pale. Nervously, she asked Qin Nan and Jian Fan, “Um… can you hear something?”
“Hear what?” Qin Nan played along.
“Women laughing. And crying…” Mu Xin said cautiously.
Qin Nan shook his head, then looked at Jian Fan. “What about you?”
Jian Fan shook his head too.
“Seriously? Then what am I hearing?” Looking terrified, Mu Xin caught Qin Nan’s sleeve.
Qin Nan seemed to be growing frightened too.
“Don’t scare me.”
“I don’t want to scare you! But they keep laughing, then crying. Ah, now they’re talking. They’re saying…” Mu Xin suddenly leaned close to him, lowering her voice and drawing out the words. “Qin… Nan… I… died… such… a… horrible… death!”
Qin Nan: “…”
Mu Xin was already running away, laughing loudly.
“Mu Xin!” Qin Nan pretended to have been frightened and glared at her in anger.
Mu Xin ran ahead, laughing.
It actually did earn them a little Popularity.
Then, as she ran, Mu Xin stopped again, her expression stiffening.
“Oh no. This time it’s real.” She turned and ran straight back toward Qin Nan.
He did not believe her. “You think I’m falling for that again?”
Just as he finished speaking, two ghostly figures floated past in front of him.
Qin Nan: “…”
He went numb.
They really did not have to be so obliging about helping them make entertaining television.
Unlike the ghost they had encountered earlier, these two had little offensive power. They went straight to the elevator and stood waiting for it. Bored, they began to chat.
Qin Nan listened for a moment and discovered that these two ghosts were discussing an idol drama as well.
A male ghost clutched his heart. “So sweet! So handsome! I want to marry him! I want to have his babies!”
Qin Nan: “…”
His eyes had been sullied. His ears had been sullied. He would never be clean again.
The elevator soon arrived.
The two ghosts got in, talking and laughing.
Once they had gone, Qin Nan and Mu Xin immediately put on looks of relief.
“We should hurry up and leave,” Mu Xin suggested.
Qin Nan nodded at once.
The three headed for the main door again.
This time, they did not get up to any more antics.
Their Popularity ought to be fairly good. Judging by the previous world, Xia Zeqin and the others would not catch up. Their position was relatively secure.
Mu Xin unlocked the office building’s main door. The moment they stepped outside, filming for this episode of Escape Room came to an end.
The five of them left the variety show and returned to the lounge.
They could not communicate freely during the show, but in this room, they could.
They would remain here until all the variety shows had finished filming.
Once the shows ended, the panda robot would issue a series of reminders, then very quickly send them into the next round of filming.
This was the window they had to exchange information.
“That book Yang Zhen redeemed earlier.” As soon as she returned, Mu Xin dug out Qi Xu’s autobiography.
The book had happened to be in her hands before. Because they had been sent into the show so abruptly, she had never returned it to Yang Zhen.
After turning a few pages, Mu Xin said, “The autobiography has updated.”