The Fake Heiress's Guide to Self-Rescue - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Unworldly Variety Show [1]

“Daoist Priest Li is a disciple of the Mount Shu sect and has extensive experience in metaphysics. He has handled many supernatural events.” The director was introducing Li Weizhao. Zhao Wen, who had just returned to the villa’s living room, scoffed at the introduction. He didn’t believe there were any ghosts in this broken villa. It was all in the script. All he had to do was pretend to be scared by a ghost in the middle of the night, cover his head, run around, and then squat in a corner and cry miserably in a pathetic posture. The post-production team would make him look like a person who was six feet tall but would hide under a table at the sight of a ghost.

Jiang Qianqian watched Li Weizhao with great interest, a smile on her face. This Li Weizhao was an old acquaintance. Their two families would have dinner together a few times a year, but he was a bit of a loner. After dinner, he would sit on the side and read. The two of them had probably said no more than ten sentences to each other.

“If you can’t get in touch with Daoist Priest Li, you can contact his assistant, Daoist Priest Song.” Song Zhe, who was standing behind Li Weizhao, waved and greeted the guests when he heard his name.

Jiang Qianqian: He’s a bit of a show-off.

There was still some time before the filming started, so the guests gathered to chat. Jiang Qianqian couldn’t join their conversation, so she sat back on the sofa and closed her eyes to rest. Li Weizhao, as the consultant, observed Jiang Qianqian as she rested. When he saw her, he knew that he had come to the right place. He and Song Zhe had noticed the green spiritual energy on Jiang Qianqian right away. The energy was calm but powerful, like a layer of silk covering her body.

The Jiang and Song families had a bit of a relationship. They would get together twice a year. Song Zhe whispered to Li Weizhao, “When I saw her at the beginning of the year, she didn’t have this spiritual energy.”

What could have allowed a normal person to gain such immense power in just six months? Li Weizhao frowned slightly. Recently, various sects had been losing their magical artifacts. Maybe one of the sects’ artifacts had the ability to allow people to gain a lot of inner power in a short period of time.

…

Filming Begins

The large screen in the center of the first floor of the villa lit up. It read “Filming Rules.” All the guests stopped talking and gathered in front of the screen. Jiang Qianqian also walked over and found a suitable corner to watch what kind of tricks the variety show would pull.

“Welcome to Haunted Villa No. 004, I am your mission announcer, Xiao Ling.”

“Legend has it that Villa No. 004 was once home to a young millionaire. She and her husband loved each other very much. Unfortunately, her husband, who was greedy for her money, poisoned her. He dismembered her body and fled with a large amount of money.”

“Now, he has disguised himself as one of you and has secretly returned to this place. You must complete the tasks randomly assigned by the system at 10 AM and 5 PM every day to get clues and find out who the real murderer is.”

“Note: If you really see the deceased millionaire, please remain calm and ask her for clues about the time of her death. However, you must not show fear or anger her.”

The production team told the guests that they would be placing cameras in the living room, hallway, kitchen, dining room, and other non-private areas to record all the guests’ first reactions. To ensure everyone’s safety, no one was allowed to enter or exit other guests’ rooms without permission.

The director stood behind the camera with a megaphone and announced the filming rules: “Every day, we will give you two missions on the big screen and assign guests to complete them.”

While the director was talking, the staff behind him began to pack up their things. Jiang Qianqian was a little confused and leaned closer to Zhang Man, whispering, “Aren’t we supposed to be filming a variety show? Why are they packing up their stuff?”

Zhang Man gave her a strange look and then patiently explained, “To make the show scarier, the production team decided to use fixed cameras to record our reactions. After the show starts, there will only be us left in the entire villa.” Then she asked, “Didn’t you read the script? It’s all written there.”

Jiang Qianqian gently shook her head. When she was brought in to save the day, she didn’t know anything except that Liu Jin told her there were no real ghosts on the show. “As an amateur celebrity, you just have to make sure you don’t say anything wrong,” Liu Jin said, waving his hand and drinking his coffee, telling her to relax.

“Everyone has a character card with their name on the back. They are behind the big screen. If you have any questions, you can contact the production team through the big screen. Once the filming starts, we will move to the bottom of the mountain and monitor your every move through the cameras.” After the director finished his last sentence, he put down the megaphone, took a sip of water from the assistant, and waved his hand, signaling the remaining staff to quickly move the equipment out.

After all the rules were announced, the production team left the villa one by one. The seven of them looked at each other, surprised that the production team left so quickly.

“Let’s go and get our character cards first,” Lu Yige said, temporarily acting as the show’s producer and cueing the show’s next step.

Zhao Wen and Li Sheng, as veteran players of the show, were already very familiar with the production team’s tricks. The two of them looked at each other, smiled knowingly, and walked towards the TV stand. They quickly found a sealed envelope in a hidden compartment.

“Found it,” Zhao Wen said, shaking the envelope and winking mischievously. “The production team’s hiding tricks have been the same for ten years.”

Li Sheng skillfully opened the envelope and handed out the character cards to the guests one by one. “Come on, everyone, get your cards and see what ‘wonderful’ characters the production team has given us this time.”

Zhang Man was the first to hold up her card. “Wow, I’m a down-and-out painter… This is too tragic, isn’t it?”

“What a coincidence,” Zhao Wen said, shaking the card in his hand with a wry smile. “I’m a musician with big ambitions—notice it says ‘ambitions,’ not ‘successful.'”

Li Sheng squinted and held his card farther away. “Mine is even worse—a writer who can’t sell his works. It seems the theme this time is ‘unappreciated talent.'”

“I’m a dancer who broke her leg,” Jiang Qianqian said, pouting and making an exaggerated sad face. “This background story is too heartbreaking.”

Lu Yige carefully held his card, then suddenly gasped. “Oh my god! I’m an actor with a disfigured face!” He subconsciously touched his handsome face. “I can’t imagine how sad I would be if this face was disfigured.”

The five of them looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“Is the production team obsessed with ‘Les Misérables’ this time?” Zhang Man said, flipping through her card.

“It seems like the millionaire’s husband’s life didn’t go so well after he left her,” Jiang Qianqian thought. She couldn’t help but feel a little schadenfreude. This person was so interesting. He couldn’t just live a good life. He had to kill his wife. Who knew that things wouldn’t go his way? The murderer didn’t live the rich life he imagined. Instead, he ended up so miserable.

Beep, beep—

The big screen made a sound again. All the guests were drawn to it. The screen showed Director Li’s big face. He smiled and began to announce the rules. “Attention, guests. You will spend three days and two nights in this villa. All the rooms have clues hidden in them, but be warned—some clues may bring ‘danger.'” There was a meaningful chuckle from the broadcast. “You can choose to reveal or hide the clues you find. The person who correctly deduces and finds the real murderer based on the clues will receive a one-million-yuan prize.”

After the brief introduction, the guests and the consultant discussed and divided the rooms. Jiang Qianqian, Zhang Man, Lu Yige, and Li Weizhao were on the second floor. Li Sheng, Zhao Wen, and Song Zhe were on the third.

The first floor of the villa had a living room, a bar, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a storage room in the far west corner. Inside the storage room, there was a door to the basement, but the door was locked from the inside and couldn’t be opened. The third floor had the guests’ rooms and a balcony where they could admire the beautiful view of the garden. All the rooms had cards and props hidden in them, which were clues about the original function of the villa’s rooms. These were the clues they could find in the first round of searching.

Jiang Qianqian carried her suitcase and slowly walked towards the second floor. Her room was on the right side of the second floor. A yellowed label was attached to the door, with the words “Audio-Visual Room” written in faded ink. The moment she pushed the door open, a smell of mold mixed with perfume rushed out.

“What did you find?” Lu Yige poked his head in, just in time to see Jiang Qianqian taking a CD with lipstick marks from the bottom of the closet. The CD reflected a strange light under the lamp. A few blurry words were scrawled on it with a black marker. Jiang Qianqian tried to decipher it for a while but couldn’t figure it out.

After everyone had moved their luggage to their rooms, they gathered in the living room on the first floor to vote for a guest to be in charge of cooking for the next three days. Jiang Qianqian rarely cooked at home. Among the guests, Lu Yige was on a strict diet and ate meals prepared by his nutritionist, so he naturally couldn’t cook. Zhao Wen also didn’t know how to cook. To solve the problem of eating, he hired a housekeeper to cook his three meals a day.

“Uh, I cook often at home. I can be in charge of everyone’s meals,” Li Sheng said, looking at the others and volunteering to be the chef.

“I, I can also cook. When I was a struggling actor renting a place, I would often cook for myself. I can help Teacher Li,” Zhang Man said.

The others who couldn’t cook found other things to do. Lu Yige and Zhao Wen found a dusty chessboard from the storage room, and he started playing in the living room.

At the same time, Jiang Qianqian and Song Zhe were sitting on a single sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window. It had started to rain outside. The raindrops traced strange patterns on the glass.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Jiang Qianqian said, crossing her legs and lightly tapping the armrest of the sofa with her fingertips. She deliberately controlled her speed, making it sound like she was just asking a casual question. But Song Zhe noticed that her nails had become slightly red from her unconscious use of force.

Song Zhe pushed up his glasses, and the light reflecting off them hid the doubt in his eyes. “A friend forced me to come here as an assistant.” He paused, his gaze scanning the faint green lines on Jiang Qianqian’s wrist. “His parents weren’t comfortable with him attending… this kind of show alone.”

An awkward silence fell between them. From the kitchen, the sound of a cleaver chopping on a cutting board could be heard, accompanied by Li Sheng’s strange humming. The tune was intermittent, like an ancient soul-summoning song.

Jiang Qianqian suddenly shivered. She felt something cold slowly crawling up her back, but when she turned her head, she only saw a crooked portrait on the wall. The woman’s eyes in the painting seemed to have moved.

“Speaking of which…” Song Zhe began, pretending to be casual, but stopped abruptly when he saw Jiang Qianqian’s indifferent expression.

…It’s better not to alert the enemy.

At exactly 10 o’clock, the villa’s old clock suddenly rang ten times, startling everyone. The lights in the living room flickered eerily, and the director’s voice crackled from the broadcast:

“Guests, it’s time to announce the mission.”

Everyone’s phones vibrated at the same time. A bl00d-red mission alert popped up on the screens. Zhao Wen swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “My mission is—to jump rope one hundred times?”

Is it really that simple? Jiang Qianqian looked at the mission on her screen and was stunned.

Lu Yige quickly walked to the entrance. His slippers made a tapping sound on the marble floor. When he bent down to pick up the dark red jump rope that was lying on the ground, he said, “Huh?” “This rope… smells like rust.”

Zhao Wen braced himself and began to jump. As the jump rope hit the ground, a faint sobbing sound came from somewhere on the second floor. When the counter reached 99, all the lights in the villa suddenly went out.

“Mission complete,” a robotic female voice said from the broadcast. “Now, releasing clues.”

In the darkness, the projector turned on automatically, projecting a distorted text on the wall:

“The millionaire’s favorite room was on the second floor.”

“A memento from her first encounter with her husband is hidden there.”

“Find it and verify it with Xiao Ling.”

“Note: You only have two chances.”

“If correct, you will get a new clue at 5 PM.”

“If incorrect…”

The last few words were blurred by a bl00d-like stain. When the lights came back on, everyone noticed that there was a faint red scratch on the back of their hands.

“What, what kind of clue is this?” Zhang Man’s voice trembled as she rubbed the back of her hand.

Li Sheng squinted. “The rules say we can’t enter other people’s rooms without permission. We have to supervise each other’s search.”

Since the rules stated that no one was allowed to enter or exit other guests’ rooms without permission, everyone waited on the second floor for the guests in those rooms to go in and search. This way, during the first search, no one would hide the clues they found from everyone else, and they would all have more clues to work with.

Half an hour later, the four guests came out of their rooms. Jiang Qianqian brought out a CD with lipstick on it. She had found it in her room that morning. The back of the CD said it was the millionaire’s favorite movie, but the blurry words were still unreadable. Zhang Man brought out a book with a love letter tucked inside. Lu Yige found a music score with “Moonlight Sonata” written on it. Li Weizhao was the last to come out. He found an unsigned divorce agreement. The millionaire’s name, Zhang Qiang, was already written on the agreement.

The results were obvious. The divorce agreement could be eliminated first. The fact that there was a divorce agreement meant that the millionaire was already married to her husband at that time.

So, among the remaining three clues, which one was more likely to be an item from their first encounter? Li Sheng took out the love letter. The wax seal was a heart, and it had clearly been opened and read.

“My unforgettable beauty:

Since we exchanged contact information after the performance, I have been unable to sleep. I think of you, of your smiling face when you sat next to me. I think of you, of your beautiful voice. I think of you all the time. I look forward to when I can meet you again.

A poor soul struggling with longing.”

From this letter, it was clear that Zhang Qiang had already met her husband. This was probably a letter her husband wrote to her after they exchanged contact information. Two incorrect options had been eliminated. Now everyone took the remaining CD and music score to the TV in the living room.

“We choose to verify this music score,” Lu Yige said, holding up the music score and speaking to Xiao Ling on the screen.

“Congratulations, you guessed correctly. The millionaire and her husband met at a piano performance.”

The robotic, cold voice rang out. The guests in front of the TV cheered. They didn’t expect to be able to deduce the clue so easily.

“The next mission will be released at 5 PM. Please wait patiently.”

It was almost 12 o’clock. Li Sheng and Zhang Man decided to go back to the kitchen to finish cooking the remaining food. Jiang Qianqian saw this and decided to walk around the villa.

The villa’s area was very large. Each floor was five to six hundred square meters, and the functions were very complete. Besides the garage, there was only a garden outside the villa. The garden was full of lisianthus. It was in full bloom in the summer, and the large expanse of white flowers was a feast for the eyes.

She walked around the garden and found nothing unusual. But there was a three-meter-high patch of grass right below the balcony, preventing anyone from moving forward. This garden had been abandoned for a long time. It was only recently that the production team had rented it from a real estate agent and temporarily renovated it. These lisianthus were not transplanted recently, which meant that the villa’s owner had planted them. The grass in the garden had just been trimmed, and you could see traces of weed killer.

Jiang Qianqian didn’t believe that the production team would ignore this area. It must have been designed with a purpose. So, she bravely walked towards the patch of grass. But after only a few steps, the token in her pocket moved twice.

“There’s a spirit ahead. Don’t go any further,” Jiang Huai’s voice came again. A spiritual energy lay horizontally in front of Jiang Qianqian, stopping her from taking another step.

It’s not a production team’s design. Is it a real ghost?

Jiang Qianqian suddenly felt a chill down her spine. She didn’t want to experience her soul leaving her body again. She had been carrying the talismans that Jiang Jing had given her, and she reached into her pocket, ready to throw them out at any time.

“So, Sister Jiang Huai, will this ghost hurt me?” she thought to herself. If it was a super-powerful evil ghost, she would turn around and run immediately.

“No, she’s waiting for a karmic retribution. It has nothing to do with you.”

After getting a positive answer from Jiang Huai, Jiang Qianqian let out a sigh of relief and immediately walked back to the villa. Although she couldn’t see ghosts, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Unbeknownst to her, after she left, the patch of grass gradually seeped out bloodstains and gave off a faint smell of decay. The female ghost, with knife marks all over her body, stood in the garden, watching the girl open the villa’s door. But as she closed the door, she left a small gap. A leaf was stuck in the door lock, leaving a green mark.

“You should go and get your karmic retribution yourself.”

A cold voice came from a distance. The female ghost blinked, and a little bloody red liquid faintly flowed from her empty eye sockets. She lifted her foot and walked into the villa.

The door… finally closed.