Quentin sat expressionless on the boy’s lap.
Just half a minute ago, he had circled the room once, confirming that Room 205 had no second chair and, besides the two of them, no third person existed, before finally sitting down with no other option.
The moment he sat down, the boy behind him stiffened violently, as if a malicious ghost had pressed close to his face. The muscles in his thighs tensed, his hands hanging by the sides of the chair clenched into tight fists, and his breathing grew much heavier.
Quentin didn’t understand why the other party was reacting so strongly. Could it be that he was mistaken for a ghost NPC?
He even suspected that if he didn’t speak up soon to explain who he was, a fist might come swinging at him.
But a mistake would cost 5 points…… And the current situation wasn’t urgent enough to require an explanation yet.
So Quentin pretended not to notice the boy’s cowardly stress response and adjusted his sitting posture nonchalantly.
The assistant director had mentioned earlier that four trainees were participating in this game. The other two were probably like him and would push the door open soon.
As expected, less than two minutes after Quentin sat down, a sharp, piercing “creak” of the door rang out behind them.
Like nails scraping a blackboard, it startled the boy on the chair into another shudder, making the rocking chair vibrate along.
Quentin didn’t look back. He heard the suppressed breathing of the boy behind him and the sound of footsteps growing closer.
The footsteps stopped diagonally behind them, paused for about two seconds, then hesitantly drew nearer.
Quentin imagined the scene the new trainee would see.
Two dark figures motionlessly stacked on the chair….Well, anyone would find it absurd and confusing.
“Tap, tap, tap.”
Fang Xu, who had just entered Room 205, moved slowly and cautiously along the wall. Only after he had passed the chair occupied by two people did he finally relax a little.
Although he didn’t quite understand the program team’s setup, as long as the people on the chair didn’t “play dead and spring to life” it was fine.
He had been to haunted houses with friends before and knew these seemingly still human forms were the scariest. Maintaining a motionless, harmless appearance was meant to lull players into letting their guard down and then scaring them!
Fang Xu held his breath, calmly surveyed his surroundings, and his gaze locked onto the cabinet against the wall.
His task was to remain silent the entire time, find the food inside the cabinet, sort and place the food into a nine-square-grid box, and then feed the food to the second trainee who entered Room 205.
It was important to note that throughout the entire game, the food could only pass through his hands and was not supposed to be touched by any other player.
The task sounded quite simple. Fang Xu guessed he was probably the first one in. He just needed to use this time to arrange the food and then quietly wait for the next trainee to open the door.
He carefully moved to the front of the cabinet. Using the red light in the corner, he carefully examined the reddish-brown wooden cabinet before him, his inner vigilance reaching its peak.
“Creak”
“Bang!!”
“Clatter!!!”
Quentin watched as the tall, slender figure pulled open the cabinet door and was attacked in the face by an unidentified object that suddenly flew out.
The person immediately jumped back two steps in shock, flung his hand and violently slammed the cabinet door shut, the force of the slam making the entire cabinet shake several times.
Quentin thought: “So loud.”
Fortunately, he was sitting far from the cabinet, so the impact wasn’t significant.
Fang Xu swallowed the shout stuck in his throat, his face gloomy as he took off the spider doll hanging around his neck. He then took a deep breath, and gently placed the plush spider back into the cabinet.
He deftly rummaged through the cabinet, found a box of food, and also found a square nine-square-grid box with a side length of about 20cm at the bottom of the cabinet.
Calculating it, the size of each small compartment wasn’t even as big as a palm.
And the food in the box, such as apples, peaches, and oranges, needed to be broken apart to be sorted and stuffed into the compartments. Additionally, there were bagged snacks like chips, Crispy Corn Snacks, and chocolate, which required opening the packaging first before placing them in one by one.
No wonder the program team asked him to wash his hands before entering; these things were going to be fed to someone later.
His mysophobia acting up, Fang Xu turned the box over and over and inspected it, his mind tangled for a moment, unsure if this thing was clean or not.
Amidst a series of rustling sounds, Fang Xu finally finished dividing and packing all the food.
Fortunately, this task fell into the hands of Fang Xu, who was a very organized person, so it was completed quickly and well. If it were anyone else, they would have been flustered and busy for quite a while.
Just as he closed the cabinet, the next trainee pushed the door open.
Fang Xu looked up at the sound, but due to the backlighting, he couldn’t see the newcomer’s face clearly, only recognizing that the other party was wearing a white top and red pants. Probably a classmate from Class A.
After entering, the person seemed entirely unaffected by the darkness, walking unhurriedly and directly towards the center of the room.
The position where he stopped was subtle, right at the midpoint of the line connecting the chair where Quentin and Xue Mingzhu were and the spot where Fang Xu was squatting in front of the cabinet.
A few seconds later, he asked in a low voice, “Which one of you is the second person to come in?”
Wait, this voice…
“F*ck!”
Xue Mingzhu, who had been sitting rigidly on the chair, suddenly let out a curse: “Yan Qiao? How is it you?!”
Yan Qiao: “… I wanted to ask the same thing.”
That being said, upon hearing the familiar voice, Xue Mingzhu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The boy shook his stiff and numb hands hanging by the sides of the chair slightly, and said in a muffled voice, “Don’t just stand there, come help me get this guy off me.”
While rubbing his wrists, he muttered quietly to Quentin, “I say, brother, you’re way too dedicated. Who are you on the program team, you dare to mess with me like this? I didn’t even dare open my eyes but you pried my eyelids open, and then deliberately sat on me to press me down……But you’re quite light, wait, are you male or female?”
Yan Qiao, who was standing to the side, raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and said with a sneer, “Didn’t even dare open your eyes, huh……”
Xue Mingzhu retorted impatiently: “Tsk, what’s wrong with being a closed-eye player? Being afraid of ghosts is very normal, okay! If you’re not scared, why are you just standing there motionless? Come over here if you have the guts.”
Yan Qiao narrowed his eyes slightly, looking over the other two who had remained silent all along: “I actually think the person on you isn’t an NPC arranged by the program team.”
He shrugged, his tone lazy: “Just now at the door, Director Wang said I was the last one missing, so I should be the final player. Now there are four people in the room including me, which corresponds to four players. My task is to paint the nails of the second player who entered. Xue Mingzhu, what’s your task?”
“Paint nails? So trendy?” Xue Mingzhu clicked his tongue, “My task is simple. They told me to stay in 205 and wait to answer the broadcast’s questions.”
He scratched the back of his head in confusion: “But I’ve been waiting for over ten minutes, and the broadcast hasn’t made a sound.”
Yan Qiao nodded and repeated, “So, which one is the second player who entered?”
The scene fell into silence.
Xue Mingzhu made a sound of disdain and poked the straight back of the person sitting in his lap: “Friend, whether you’re a trainee or staff, you can talk now, right? If you’re a trainee, then Yan Qiao needs to paint your nails. If you’re not, then the friend squatting in front of the cabinet is the second player.”
Yan Qiao played with the glass bottle in his hand thoughtfully, “You two haven’t spoken at all. Is it because of task requirements?”
At this point, Fang Xu, who had already stood up holding the box, silently tapped the wooden box in his hand, using the clear sound to indicate a response.
But Quentin, who was sitting on Xue Mingzhu’s lap, still showed no reaction.
Yan Qiao understood and walked towards the chair: “Alright, stop making it difficult for the person sitting on you. I guess his task is related to this chair. A rocking chair inexplicably placed in the center of the room obviously has a problem.”
“Now he’s neither speaking nor moving. Perhaps his task is to sit on this chair and act as a wooden dummy.”
Xue Mingzhu was surprised, feeling inexplicably guilty: “…Uh, is that so?”
Yan Qiao knelt on one knee beside the chair, feeling around with his hand while politely reminding: “Excuse me, I need to do a manicure on your hands. My skills aren’t great, so it might be a bit ugly. Please don’t move around, okay?”
His words were quite polite, but combined with his lazy tone, they carried a roguish air.
“Okay, I’ll take your silence as consent. Don’t worry, the nail polish is black, it’ll definitely suit you well.”
Yan Qiao felt along the chair in the darkness, found Quentin’s pant leg, then moved up to find Quentin’s hand resting on his knee, lifting the boy’s fingers as if performing a Western hand-kissing gesture.
He habitually teased: “Classmate, your fingers are very beautiful, so slender and long…and your nails are trimmed very neatly.”
As he spoke, he unscrewed the glass bottle with one hand, placed it on the floor, pinched the small brush between two fingers, and brought his face very close, trying to see clearly in the dark what kind of job he was doing.
Yan Qiao was actually quite good at complimenting people, usually he was just too lazy to speak.
But now, taking advantage of the other party’s task requirement to act as a “wooden dummy” and remain motionless, he unscrupulously “kicked the person when they’re down” by painting their nails.
Although he didn’t see any problem with painting nails, most boys in reality probably wouldn’t be very accepting of it.
To make this trainee, who had his seat taken by Xue Mingzhu and was now being forced to have his nails painted, feel a bit better, Yan Qiao worked quickly and lightly.
Unfortunately, he lacked experience and often painted outside the lines, so he had to repeatedly wipe it off with wet wipes and start over.
He held the hand, kneading and pinching it, his mind entirely focused on the act of applying nail polish, while his mouth kept praising inappropriately: “Your hand is quite soft, why is it like it has no bones? So light, like a child’s hand.”
Xue Mingzhu complained with a look of disgust: “Ew, can you not talk like that?”
Yan Qiao ignored him.
Holding the nine-square-grid box, Fang Xu silently approached. Like Yan Qiao, he placed the box on the floor, then bent down, picked up a piece of apple with his hand, looked at the dark, blurry figure before him, and silently apologized in his heart.
Calculating the height, his right hand holding the apple piece hesitated and gestured a few times in the air, somewhat worried he might feed the apple into the other party’s nose.
Yan Qiao, who was squatting on the other side, noticed this scene and quickly realized that this boy’s task was also related to the “second player.”
He couldn’t help but think: “Who exactly is the second player? To be targeted by the program team like this…”
This kind of “targeting,” even in variety show recording, could be considered a form of special favor.
But Yan Qiao found it hard to imagine how the current situation would appear when presented through the lens.
He tried to put himself in the second player’s perspective, and the more he thought about it, the more bizarre it seemed.
So weird. Once broadcast, it would definitely be clipped by viewers into compilations of absurd variety show games for laughs.
Fortunately, the one receiving special favor wasn’t him.
Meanwhile, Fang Xu hesitated for nearly ten seconds before finally making up his mind. He raised his empty left hand, reached forward, and, amidst Xue Mingzhu’s exclamations of surprise, groped to find Quentin’s face.
He didn’t know who the second player was, and due to task restrictions, he couldn’t explain verbally. He could only forcibly use the space between his thumb and index finger to lift the other party’s chin, his middle finger almost pressing into the jawbone, while his index finger and thumb pinched both cheeks.
The touch was very soft, like soft tofu, as if applying a bit more force would leave red finger marks.
But Fang Xu didn’t think much of it, focusing on estimating the distance from the lips to the chin.
Then, gripping the apple piece, he mustered his courage and stuffed it towards the other person’s mouth.
Surprisingly, the boy whose chin he was holding was very cooperative, as if anticipating what he intended to do, and opened his mouth before the apple piece even got close.
Before Fang Xu could continue probing, the other party proactively stretched his neck forward and used his teeth to bite the food, his lips seemingly giving a slight suck, before then using his tongue to bring the sweet and sour apple into his mouth, chewing a few times and swallowing it whole.
The crunching sound was particularly noticeable in the dark environment.
Fang Xu unconsciously rubbed his fingers a couple of times, his mood somewhat complicated.
This person…was just too obedient.
Just after Quentin swallowed the first piece of apple, the broadcast suddenly rang out.
“Classmate Xue Mingzhu, please answer the first question: What was the food he just ate?”
Xue Mingzhu, who was suddenly named, looked up in bewilderment: “Huh?”
He widened his eyes: “Wait, it wasn’t me who ate it, how should I know?!”
The broadcast voice was gentle yet merciless: “You have 20 seconds to think of an answer. 20, 19, 18…”
“Wait wait wait wait….” Xue Mingzhu felt a headache coming on. “Yan Qiao, do you know what he just ate?”
Yan Qiao was concentrating intently on painting the nails and didn’t even look up: “I don’t know. It sounded like fruit. Just take a random guess.”
Xue Mingzhu then looked at Fang Xu: “Hey, friend, let me take a look at your box.”
Fang Xu silently tapped the box twice.
“Damn it, not even that??”
Xue Mingzhu felt a breath stuck in his chest: “The director is too cunning!”
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
“Time’s up, Classmate Xue Mingzhu. Your answer is?”
Xue Mingzhu had no choice but to take a random guess: “Then… apple.”
Broadcast: “Congratulations, your answer is…. correct!”
“That worked?!”
The boy’s tone was astonished, and he muttered quietly: “It seems my luck isn’t bad today.”
Meanwhile, Fang Xu had already silently picked up the next type of food.
With sharp eyes, Xue Mingzhu noticed the faint movement in the darkness and immediately spoke to stop it: “Wait, brother, slow down. Let me have a bite first, okay……Ah, no, I get it. You can only feed the guy on me, right?”
He scratched his hair in distress, then suddenly had an idea. He stretched his neck, leaning his head over to one side of Quentin’s shoulder: “Then how about this: I won’t eat it, just let me smell it, is that okay?”
“Slow down your movements, and you, eat slower too, chew a few more times, then exhale so I can identify it.”
Yan Qiao offered an objective evaluation: “A bit perverted.”
“You shut up and go paint your nails!” The boy hammered the armrest of the chair hard. “How else am I supposed to guess? Just listening to the sound is too difficult!”
Fang Xu silently tapped the box once, indicating he was about to start.
Xue Mingzhu stared intently at the slowly approaching hand in the dim darkness, squinting his eyes and trying to make out the shape of the food held in Fang Xu’s hand.
But it was clearly impossible to see.
So he tilted his head, his nose almost touching Quentin’s cheek, and tried hard to inhale like a rescue dog, attempting to sniff out all the components in the air.
“Huh? This scent…”
Xue Mingzhu paused, somewhat bewildered: “Why does it feel somewhat familiar.…”
It didn’t smell like food, more like some faint fragrance.
Perfume? Probably not.
Then what could it be……The more he smelled it, the more familiar it felt. It must be a scent he had been in frequent contact with recently……
Suddenly, the boy realized something belatedly. His eyes gradually widened, and his breathing unconsciously stopped.
He stared blankly at the profile of the face so close to his in the darkness and swallowed hard, his eyeballs almost popping out.
No way!
Isn’t this the scent from Quentin?!
