CH 11

WRS Arc 2 – Chapter 11

The plot of the second half-season of “Dormancy” was still under revision, and the shooting of “How was the Brocade Letter Sent” had ended.

Taking advantage of the leisure time they had together, there was a local well-known variety show that took a fancy to the trending topic of two of them sharing the same frame, and wanted to invite them to take part in the shooting of the new season.

The name of this variety show was “Signs of Danger Everywhere”. As the name implied, it was a suspenseful brain-burning type of variety show.

It was a combination of mystery rooms, reasoning, survival and other such elements. Each season would invite the most trending and popular guests at present. Through this programme, the audience would be able to have a clearer understanding of their idols’ real face in private, so as to satisfy their curiosity about the stars. It was a variety show with extremely high ratings.

In the previous season’s shooting, some stars, due to their high EQ and IQ performance, attracted countless more fans; there were also some stars who were hated due to a collapse in character, and they still have not recovered from this setback.

It could only be said that if one did not have enough confidence, it was still better not to participate in this kind of reality show where one would be directly exposed to the audience’s eyes. But neither Shen Jiayan nor Su You had any concerns about this, so the both of them accepted the invitation of this reality show without hesitation.

It was only when they reached the program’s recording venue that they realised that participating with them, there were also two old acquaintances, Mo Ming and Wang Yuxin.

When Mo Ming saw Shen Jiayan, he naturally felt somewhat embarrassed. He originally thought that the previous matter would be enough to kill Ji Luoge, which was why he posted that Weibo without any reservations. But he didn’t expect Ji Luoge to be able change his fate, and Film Emperor Su even admitted it without hesitation. Now, the two of them drew even more attention than before.

But Mo Ming adjusted quickly and smiled warmly at Shen Jiayan, “Luoge, the wording of the Weibo I posted before may have been a little inappropriate, so let me first apologise to you. Fortunately, everyone didn’t misunderstand you because of me.”

Shen Jiayan looked at Mo Ming and asked with puzzlement, “En? What Weibo did you post?”

Shen Jiayan really doesn’t remember. At that time, he didn’t read Mo Ming’s Weibo at all, so how could he know its content? But this sentence, in Mo Ming’s ears, sounded as if Ji Luoge didn’t want to give him a way out, and in doing so, humiliating him.

Mo Ming faced Su You and smiled with difficulty, his lips trembling a little. He looked very aggrieved: “Brother Su, it seems that Luoge has some misunderstandings towards me. Can you help me explain?”

In Mo Ming’s opinion, Su You had secretly taken good care of him before, so Su You must be interested in him. Later on, as he was unable to obtain what he wanted, Su You retreated and settled for the second choice of Ji Luoge. As long as he were to show a little love for Su You now, Su You would definitely abandon Ji Luoge and choose to be with him.

But it was a pity, he was destined to be disappointed.

Su You had his whole heart focused on Shen Jiayan, where would he have the heart to bother about what he actually said? Su You’s only thought at that moment was: that woman is pestering my family’s Luoge again, so annoying! If I had known she was coming as well, I would not have brought Luoge here.

Just then, a staff member came over: “The live broadcast officially has officially begun. Now, may we invite everyone to step into the secret room one by one to understand your identity.”

The first phase was set in a sealed-off villa with a circular roof. The villa had a total of three floors, and each floor had nine rooms. Everyone would be randomly assigned to different rooms. Before the recording starts, everyone would need to get their individual identity.

According to their different identities, they would stay in different rooms. If you can’t decode your room code, you won’t be able to come out of the room. If you can’t leave the room within an hour, you will die by default.

And even if you manage to exit the room, you have to look for clues related to food and escape in the rest of the rooms. If you are unlucky and meet a staff dressed as a ghost, you will also die by default.

At the beginning of the recording, Shen Jiayan was lucky. The moment it began, the identity he obtained was the owner of the villa.

“Because you are the owner of the villa, you are given a privilege. You can open any three doors in the villa except your room. These are the keys.”

Shen Jiayan received the keys and began to look for clues in the room.

The room was very spacious, and should be a study room. There was nothing aside from a bookshelf and a few books on it. On the wall, there was a calligraphy painting of a plum blossom tree, along with the words: “Withering and falling to earth to become earth, only the fragrance endures.” 《 Bu Suan Zi: Ode to Plum Blossom 》

(This is actually the last line of Ode to Plum Blossom by Lu You, a famous Song Dynasty poet. “Bu Suan Zi” is the tune to which the poem is composed. Here, it’s the flower petals that fall to the earth, unless you want to look into symbolism and poetry analysis.)

Shen Jiayan stood by the bookshelf and flipped through a book. Certain pages of the book were marked out. For example, on page 13, the word “water” was circled; on page 26, the word that was circled was “knife”; on page 27, there was another word “fire”…

Shen Jiayan didn’t understand the meaning of these characters, but he subconsciously felt that they were important. And as it happened, there was a pen and paper in the study, so he casually wrote down all the clues found in the book.

“System, have you figured out what the password is?” Shen Jiayan rested his cheek on his palm and pretended to think, when in fact, he was secretly asking his foreign aid.

Please read this translation at foxaholic.blog, thanks!

The black cat proudly shook its fur: “Saw it from the staff member’s notebook, it’s 0325.”

Shen Jiayan noted down these numbers. Now the question was how to come up with a reasonable explanation on how he found these numbers.

It happened that the word “ zero ” in “ withering and falling to earth” was the first number. In the painting, there were only three plum blossoms that had “become earth”, so it’s 3. As for “fragrance endures”, there were two “fragrant” plum blossoms in the tree, thus obtaining 2. As for the final “ enduring ”, adding the plum blossoms in the earth to those on the branches, happened to be 5.

(“零”, one word with two meanings: “withering”, as in the poem, and “zero”, the number.)

(“故”, which can mean “old” or “former”, so rather than “enduring”, the phrase used “如故” could also be translated to “as before”, hence all plum blossoms involved were counted.)

It was actually this easy to work backwards. Shen Jiayan didn’t need to use any effort to open the door.

(“吹灰之力”, literally “the effort needed to blow away dust”)

The staff were also stunned by Ji Luoge’s speed. Although there were indeed fewer misleading clues in the study, but to solve it in less than ten minutes, this speed is still heaven-defying!

Then they watched as Ji Luoge knocked away room by room, knocking while asking, “A’You, are you in there?”

Passing by Pei Yuan, Emperor Pei’s Room No.3 on the first floor, there was no rescue; passing by Mo Ming’s Room No. 5 on the first floor, there was no rescue; passing by Wang Yuxin’s Room No. 6 on the second floor, he shouted a single “jiayou”, but there was also no rescue. It was only until he found Su You’s room on the second floor, that he knocked on the door and asked, “A’You, I have the key. Do you want me to free you?”

Su You’s eyes were filled with amusement. He knocked on the door with his index finger to reply: “No need, I’m about to decipher it.”

Within the time span of about thirty minutes, Su You and Shen Jiayan were both released.

Shen Jiayan placed the keys into Su You’s hand: “A’You, these three keys can open any door in this villa. Where do you think we should go first?”

“Find the kitchen first. Since this is a survival game, if you aren’t able to obtain food, you will definitely be judged as dead, so let’s go and find some food first.” Su You held the keys with one hand and Shen Jiayan’s hand with the other. “Later on, when we open the door, I’ll enter first. If there are ghosts in the room, you should quickly run away.”

Staff members: “……” How did they guess it? I feel like my IQ has been crushed.

Su You held Shen Jiayan’s hand as he said, “My room is 2nd Floor No. 7. There were firecrackers in it. Generally speaking, the design of this type of villa is systematic. If the second floor has utility rooms, the kitchen should be on the first floor, while the third floor should have bedrooms. Go to the first floor first.”

On the first floor, aside for No. 3 and 5, and study room No. 7 which was where Shen Jiayan had been in, there were still six rooms left. With a probability of one-sixth, Su You winked at Shen Jiayan, “Which room do you want to open first?”

“The second one.”

The moment Shen Jiayan finished speaking, Su You used the key to open the door without hesitation. The room was neatly packed with ingredients and pots and pans.

“Really lucky.” Su You kissed Shen Jiayan’s forehead, “Hungry? Shall I make you something delicious?”

The staff members were close to tears. If the two of you keep going on like this, the segments they designed would not have a single use, okay? Moreover, before the second task has even been issued, completing it ahead of time, is that really okay?

Fifty-five minutes passed. Although Mo Ming, Wang Yuxin and Pei Yuan spent a lot of effort, they have all managed to come out.

Following the smell of food to the first floor, they saw Shen Jiayan and Su You holding bowls and eating with great appetite! Three dishes and one soup, full of colour, fragrance, and taste. They were working so hard in their rooms to solve the password, but downstairs these two were already having a meal. Comparing themselves to them, it was really infuriating.

At this time, the staff members began to release the second task while nursing grievances, “Having been trapped overnight, everyone is hungry. If you still can’t find any food at this time, you will starve to death.”

Su you pointed in the direction of the kitchen, “The door is not closed, go in and make some yourself.”

After the meal, it was time to return to their individual rooms and have a rest. Everyone had ten minutes to rest, but rather than resting, Shen Jiayan flipped open a diary from his study room. Now, he finally understood what those numbers and Chinese characters meant.

During the mandatory rest period, Pei Yuan was the first to die. His room was a shower room, and his life-size model was drowned in the bathtub.

During the second mandatory rest period, Su You was worried about Shen Jiayan, so he made him stay in the same room as himself. This time, it was Wang Yuxin who died. She was in the weapon room, and after her death, a dagger was stabbed into the chest of her life-size model.

After this, only Mo Ming, Su You and Ji Luoge were still alive. No one knew who the third person to die would be. The only thing they could do was to search for clues.

The third death was Mo Ming, who was hanged by a rope.

At this time, Su You used a key to open one of the bedroom doors on the third floor, which happened to be the bedroom of the villa’s owner. The entire room was covered in dried blood and the bedside cabinet was locked. He opened it with a key, and there was a document inside it, with the words, “After my death, the inheritance is to be divided into five parts for my five children.”

Su You suddenly understood that everything was just a trap.

At this time, Shen Jiayan strolled in through the door, “You found out?”