In that moment, Huo Ren felt like his body was electrified.
“Yun-ge,” he placed two fingers on the gun’s muzzle, pushing it slightly to the side, and finally managed to turn around. In the dim light, he looked into Xie Lianyun’s eyes.
“Would you mind letting me play with the bubble gun for a moment?”
They locked eyes for three seconds.
Xie Lianyun frowned slightly, not fully trusting his instincts at the moment.
“Today, you were the first to enter the studio and the last to come out,” he refused to let go and continued to analyze, “I intentionally went to argue with Bo Jue at the barbecue stall, and you were helping them catch up with progress the whole time.”
Huo Ren blinked and said, “We’ve just started playing. Yun-ge, you’re being too hasty.”
“Or,” he let go of his grip and moved his throat an inch forward, “you can try firing the gun?”
Xie Lianyun looked at him with a complicated expression, suddenly feeling like he wasn’t being a good brother. “I didn’t mean that, just trying to bluff you.”
“Huo Huo, are you really not the spy?”
Huo Ren smiled at him and said, “If Yun-ge thinks I am, just go ahead and shoot.”
“I won’t dodge.”
Just as Mei Shengyao was about to rejoin them, he noticed the gun.
“Yun-ge! We agreed to exchange water balloon pouches and play around with them! You’re breaking your promise!”
“…”
There were four rooms in the escape room, all related to classical elements of the steam era.
Huo Ren, relieved to have avoided a crisis, continued to play it cool. He didn’t immediately break his slacking-off facade, fearing that a sudden change might arouse suspicion.
Xie Lianyun went through self-denial, affirmation, and then denial again, eventually deciding to focus on the game.
They successfully cleared the room in fifty minutes and walked out just as Long Jia and the others were enjoying shaved ice.
“Sorry for making you wait,” Xiao Chi waved at them. “I just made this, would you like half a bowl?”
Xie Lianyun nodded eagerly, not missing any opportunity to have a snack.
As he sat down, Xiao Chi passed a spoon to him, looking genuinely pleased. “It’s pear and mango flavor. You used to like this flavor a lot.”
Before he could respond, Long Jia and Bo Jue simultaneously grabbed Xie Lianyun’s shoulders. Xiao Chi quickly reached out and removed the black ribbon from his wrist.
“Boom.”
“Xie Lianyun—eliminated!”
“Yun-ge,” Huo Ren said with a complex expression, “you just openly defected.”
Xie Lianyun let out a long sigh. “We’ve just started playing!! Director!!”
The director remained calm and said, “You’re already eliminated. Lie down properly and don’t talk.”
Xie Lianyun: !!!
Meanwhile, the red team in the adjacent room hadn’t even finished their three bowls of shaved ice. They quickly grabbed their belongings and rushed out. “Goodbye!”
“The blue team members who want to revive themselves need to draw lots and accept a punishment,” the production team gestured towards the prepared dressing room. “Please choose any costume. After changing, your task will be to walk around the mall without being recognized by any visitors.”
Mei Shengyao’s eyes lit up. “I’m ready to do some makeup! Xie-ge, let me do it!”
Huo Ren, back in his element, pushed Xie Lianyun into the dressing room to change into a wig and costume.
The production team had a wicked sense of humor and didn’t give them any face-covering options.
Mei Shengyao picked a gold shoulder-length curly wig and paired it with knee-high boots and a wide trench coat. Huo Ren handed him a makeup kit. “Should I do your makeup?”
Xie Lianyun, after years of maintaining his tough image, was now wearing SpongeBob SquarePants underwear, a small skirt, and knee-high boots in front of the camera. He took a deep breath and repeatedly muttered to himself, “I deserve this.”
Then, as expected, he got stuck in the knee-high boots.
His two teammates surrounded him, trying to figure out how to put on women’s boots. “Can you wiggle your legs in?”
“I can’t move,” he said with difficulty. “I’m in deep trouble.”
Since the facial features couldn’t be covered, the makeup had to modify them as much as possible.
Huo Ren changed his slightly raised phoenix eyes into almond-shaped eyes, and the lip gloss he chose was a vivid maple red.
With the shoulder-length curly wig, black leather skirt, knee-high boots, and trench coat, the effect was surprisingly good.
Xie Lianyun refused to look in the mirror and stumbled out.
Though it wasn’t the weekend, there were still college students shopping in the mall.
A certain blond beauty walked quickly, trying to cover his face with his hair.
This is too embarrassing; my parents will definitely laugh when they see this on the show.
“Huh?” A girl passed by him, thinking she must have been mistaken.
Xie Lianyun instinctively wanted to speak but forcefully held his tongue. He shook his head and continued walking.
He looked utterly disheveled, and as he turned a corner, he almost collided with a male student who was holding an ice cream cone.
“Are you okay, miss?” The male student said instinctively. “Can I help you find a place to sit for a moment?”
Xie Lianyun instinctively wanted to speak but forcefully held his tongue, shaking his head slightly.
Struggling to walk in his five-inch-high knee-high boots, he continued towards the finish line. The male student continued asking from a distance, “Miss, can I get your WeChat?”
“If you don’t have WeChat, how about QQ? You look so beautiful~”
Xie Lianyun took a deep breath to control himself from using his deep, masculine voice to respond, and he quickly rushed back into the store as if fleeing.
Mei Shengyao swiftly helped him take off the golden wig, and while removing the props, he couldn’t help but make a joke. “How about adding WeChat?”
Xie Lianyun, with a deadpan expression, replied, “I won’t eat shaved ice for the rest of my life. If I eat it again, I’m a dog.”
Huo Ren laughed while helping him remove the eyebrow powder and eyeshadow. He said in a leisurely manner, “Yun-ge, you kind of seem like a spy acting this way.”
Mei Shengyao’s alarm bells immediately went off. “Brother, are you doing this on purpose?”
Xie Lianyun’s face said it all: “I’m in too deep.”
After completing various challenges and rounds, it was already dark when they entered the final hunting stage.
The red team had dominated throughout the competition and managed to exchange their points for several bags of eggs.
The blue team, however, lost valuable time in the middle due to reviving their teammate and could only afford three bubble guns with their points.
Huo Ren hadn’t expected his role as the spy to progress so smoothly, and he felt a bit lost as he held the bubble gun.
He didn’t need to personally eliminate his teammates; he just had to find a place to hide and delay their progress during the hunting phase.
The first hunting ground of this season was set in the City Theatre, a suspended maze divided by red velvet and white conch shells. It challenged the contestants’ sense of direction and spatial orientation.
Spiral glass staircases led upwards, and various side stairs resembling seaweed crisscrossed and connected different spaces.
A floating river flowed down from the glass dome, shimmering with golden light in the night.
The six participants rolled dice to determine their departure times. Huo Ren, Long Jia, and Mei Shengyao were the first to depart, taking control of the hunting ground. Chi Ji rolled a six, needing to wait for fifteen minutes before starting.
Xie Lianyun and Bo Jue rolled simultaneously and had to wait eight minutes before departing together from the second floor.
Suddenly, Huo Ren remembered their past, how they used to be at odds with each other for years, and he stopped on the third floor.
The others seemed to have the same thought; they wanted to see what would happen.
“Five.”
“Four.”
Xie Lianyun’s eyebrows twitched, ready to run as soon as the countdown ended, his bubble gun already in hand.
“Three.”
“Two—”
“One!!”
Bo Jue, clutching a bag of colored eggs, threw them directly at his wrist, but missed so badly that they flew into the pool.
“Stop right there!!”
Xie Lianyun, without looking back, kept running wildly, braking sharply now and then to forcefully change direction.
“You’re—so—bad!”
“Shut up!! Someone who can’t even get the tones right in a simple card game has no right to speak!!”
“Then why are you chasing me? Meet in the instrument room downstairs?”
“Bang—Boom!!”
Mei Shengyao stood on the fourth floor, with Long Jia and Huo Ren on the opposite side of the third floor.
Chi Ji, with a blueberry lollipop in his mouth, waited at the starting point, humming a tune carelessly.
They all tacitly chose not to intervene, first watching to see what would happen in this solo showdown between these two with lesser stamina.
Xie Lianyun and Bo Jue had much better physical endurance than average college students, but still, they couldn’t match the top-tier stamina and explosive power of Long Jia and Mei Shengyao.
After three laps, which included running stairs, charging up slopes, high-knee lifts, dodging projectiles, and bubbles, the two lost their tiger-like fierceness and were gasping for air, leaning on their knees beside three sculptures.
“You, come here, come and hit me!” Xie Lianyun, sensing a chance to turn the tables, taunted first: “That’s just a few laps!”
Bo Jue, having tied his hair into a half-bun, half-loose high ponytail, was also panting against the railing.
“You—wait for it!!”
Both started the fourth lap, their speed resembling the final lap of an 800-meter run, with even their foot lifting and striding at double speed.
Huo Ren thought to himself that they had overindulged during the New Year; such poor stamina wouldn’t suffice for a concert, and they needed extra training when they got back.
Both knew the other couldn’t run anymore. They would run a bit, rest a bit, taunting and bantering, then one would suddenly burst forward for a symbolic hundred meters chase, and the cycle would repeat.
Bo Jue swung his arm in a full circle, aiming for his face, but the last colored egg deviated by five meters and hit the camera.
The cameraman, his face covered in gold powder, coughed violently, tears almost spilling out.
Xie Lianyun reflexively helped him wipe his face and eyes, and after making sure he was okay, grabbed a bubble gun and charged forward.
After missing with eight colored eggs, only someone as bad as ‘Long Hair Freak’ could make it look so easy!
Long Jia, from upstairs, airdropped a new bag of colored eggs to Bo Jue.
“Continue.”
Bo Jue initially wanted to run, but upon catching the colored eggs, he suddenly had a change of heart, his smile turning sinister in a second.
“Thanks—”
Xie Lianyun immediately braked sharply and turned back. Both of them started throwing colored eggs and bubbles in a frenzied manner, neither hitting the other.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah!!”
“Prepare to meet your doom!!!”
Huo Ren, watching them, couldn’t help but chuckle. Distracted, he only then noticed Chi Ji sauntering over.
He softened his expression and waved his hand, taking a sip of water, preparing to reveal his identity.
“Ren-ge.” Chi Ji spoke softly, “I twisted my ankle and can’t run.”
“Don’t chase me, okay?”
“Is it serious?” Huo Ren asked, walking over to help him, and placing a bottle of mineral water on the nearby railing.
The moment he grasped Chi Ji’s wrist, the latter’s smile deepened, and with a swift move, he pressed the colored egg against Huo Ren, using the momentum to gain complete control over him.
Huo Ren’s pupils dilated as he was pinned down by Chi Ji with one hand on his throat, instinctively saying, “Xiao Chi!”
He didn’t even realize he was being pushed against the wall, grasping Chi Ji’s wrist and hissing, “Why are you attacking me? I’m a spy.”
We’re on the same team, you fool…
“Ren-ge.” Chi Ji pinned him between himself and the wall, lowering his head and slowly smearing the gold powder on his choker.
His fair fingertips were tinted with a dazzling light.
“I’m a spy too.”
Lmao, omg this chapter is a roller coaster! Xie/Bo low stamina fighting reminds me of that viral video of two fat cats hitting each other while refusing to move. And Xiao Ji being the sexy spy! It’s also interesting how someone as competitive as Huo Rent had difficulty competing because he had to “betray” his teammates. This kid is truly too pure for his own good.