A Scummy Alpha and An Award-Winning Omega Actress Fell in Love After an Arranged Marriage - Chapter 48.1

The silver armor was seamless, making it impossible to identify from appearance alone.

The pheromones were flawless too, as if there truly was a little rose standing quietly there, waiting to be plucked.

Sheng Lan stood before her but didn’t look at her, her attention fixed on the alcohol instead.

She picked up the bottle of tequila from the table, gave it a light sniff, then poured it directly over the May rose on the table.

The rich, overpowering aroma of the tequila seemed more like a product of pheromones, thoroughly drenching the delicate fragrance of the May rose, leaving only the scent of alcohol to disperse.

The liquor trickled down the rose petals, winding along the stem before silently pooling at the bottom of the vase, diluted by the water inside.

The most misleading pheromones on the surface had now faded.

Sheng Lan recognized it as pheromone perfume and tapped her earpiece with a single finger. “Director Cheng is generous.”

Pheromone perfume was a new luxury item, costing at least ten times more than high-end perfumes of the same volume.

Using it to spray flowers was a bit of a waste.

She stepped away from the long table and went to open the doors of the rooms on the first floor.

She moved quickly, her high-powered flashlight illuminating the interiors as bright as day.

Whether locking eyes with an NPC under the bed or coming face-to-face with one in the wardrobe, she showed no hesitation, turning away immediately.

Wherever she passed, if the oil paintings hadn’t been replaced with mirrors, she manually swapped them out, then repeated the motion, shattering every mirror she encountered.

Yan Bing had already gone to the second floor, where the NPCs were howling incessantly clearly, they were seriously searching for someone.

In contrast, Sheng Lan’s actions made it seem like she was there to wreck the place.

Even without a phone to see the scrolling comments, she still wanted to interact with her fans.

“This mirror scared me. What’s wrong with smashing it?”

The audience in the comments pointed fingers at her: [Do you even look scared?!]

Sheng Lan couldn’t see them.

Eliminating appearance and pheromones, the only way left to find Lu Xueyin was by intuition.

Fortunately, Lu Xueyin carried an aura that was hard for outsiders to imitate not just her posture or her natural aloofness, but a fragile yet unyielding beauty.

It harmonized with her appearance: a striking, voluptuous face, yet with a strong sense of icy fragility.

Like a wild rose that still blooms fiercely after weathering storms.

The production team was generous. Beyond the pheromone perfume, the NPC extras they hired all had excellent figures and postures, making them look quite similar at first glance.

Too bad Sheng Lan had her own unique way of identifying her.

After quickly clearing the first floor, reaching the second floor required either solving puzzles or brute force to progress.

This was an obvious trap, impossible to guard against.

Just a little mischief for the sake of the livestream’s entertainment value, lingering in each room for a short while, and the time taken to find the target would stretch accordingly.

After ten rooms, the accumulated delay would become significant.

Yet the difficulty of each room was deliberately low, easily lulling people into lowering their guard. Only upon reflection afterward would the manipulation become obvious.

After reaching the second floor, Sheng Lan didn’t rush to clear the rooms. Instead, she stood by the railing, sweeping her flashlight beam downward.

The downside of the high-powered flashlight became apparent now, the shards of glass littering the floor reflected the light harshly, glaringly bright.

The dozen or so NPCs by the long table, including the woman in silver armor, had all vanished.

The chandelier overhead and the small red lights along the ceiling seams cast an eerie crimson glow.

Sheng Lan swung her flashlight around, deliberately avoiding the corner cameras to prevent blinding the audience.

Meanwhile, the viewers were frantically urging her to look behind her, to look outside.

Behind Sheng Lan, an NPC was quietly approaching, trying to startle her by surprise.

Two NPCs worked together, one standing, one crawling.

The carpet muffled their movements, and the faint rustling sounds were further masked by other NPCs and the eerie background music in the mansion.

The effect was predictable.

First, she would turn around and be startled by the standing NPC, instinctively trying to flee, only to be frightened again by the crawling one.

In short, they were determined to give her a hard time.

As for why she was looking outside, it was because the production team had created a time and information gap.

Lu Xueyin and Tang Yingyue had only just entered the main mansion grounds.

Following the previous sequence and the usual blind spots in thinking, most people would easily assume the targets were already inside the haunted house.

Based on the usual tropes and the corresponding obstacles, they were most likely hiding in a room on the top floor.

If they were playing a psychological game and hiding in plain sight on the first or second floor, that was also possible.

The one thing no one considered was that they might arrive late and hide outside the mansion.

Yan Bing had already unmasked one NPC.

The further they progressed, the better the NPCs’ disguises became.

Dressed in gowns, only their faces were concealed by masks.

Her approach to finding people matched Sheng Lan’s focusing on physique, posture, pheromones, and intuition.

Yan Bing had worked with Tang Yingyue on a film project before, so they were familiar with each other.

Earlier, she had been speeding through the challenges, but when she reached that particular NPC, she locked eyes with her and sensed the girl was suppressing fear. The pleading look in her eyes reminded her of Tang Yingyue.

The dim red lighting compensated for the slight differences in eye shape. After a brief hesitation, Yan Bing fell for it.

Now she was in a cooldown period punished with a “date with the female ghost.”

For Sheng Lan, this meant the second floor suddenly fell silent.

Her flashlight beam finally settled on a full-length mirror. “Do you think that mirror is trying to tell me something?”

“After all, the phrase ‘just one step away’ doesn’t seem to refer to the second or third floor.”

With no partner or teammate by her side, her words sounded like she was talking to herself.

Still, she added, “What do you think?”

Instead of startling her, the NPCs were the ones who got scared.

Hearing their reactions, Sheng Lan burst into laughter. “Your acting skills need work.”

She tapped her earpiece. “I scared the NPCs, do I get a reward card?”

Director Cheng gave her two room numbers, indicating that Lu Xueyin wasn’t in either of them.

It was practically an open invitation for her to scare NPCs to clear the level.

But Sheng Lan wasn’t about to fall for such an obvious trap. Clearing the second and third floors would take longer than just moving forward.

As Sheng Lan turned to open another door on the second floor and resume her search, outside the mansion, Lu Xueyin and Tang Yingyue arrived at their designated spot.

It was the fountain directly facing the main gate, roughly two meters in diameter. The sculpture on the central platform had been replaced with two living people.

Their outfits were black and white assigned by a draw, unchangeable.

Tang Yingyue couldn’t let it go. “I don’t look good in black.”

Her face was round, and the dress was in an aristocratic European style layers of black tulle and lace, ornate and luxurious.

Paired with a “dark transformation” makeup look, the heavy cosmetics clashed with her natural features.

The moon was hidden behind thick clouds, and the red glow from the mansion enveloped them.

Perhaps because of her thoughts, Lu Xueyin found Tang Yingyue’s face oddly eerie.

She couldn’t show obvious fear.

Lu Xueyin lowered her gaze only to see their reflections staring back at her from the water’s surface.

Standing was physically draining, and Lu Xueyin couldn’t guarantee she’d last until Sheng Lan found her.

She tilted her head slightly, slowly crouched down, and sat on the high platform.

Originally, she wanted to dangle her legs over the edge, but the background actors in the venue had already begun entering the water, making moves as if to grab them.

Lu Xueyin subtly withdrew her legs again.

Tang Yingyue said to her, “They won’t touch us. This isn’t a horror show.”

Everyone said the same thing, leaving Lu Xueyin with no way to argue.

Her fear felt out of place in this environment.

Fortunately, she was naturally quiet, so short responses were enough.

The cameras had been rolling since they arrived.

In the live broadcast, Tang Yingyue wanted to grab a bit more attention sitting here doing nothing would look silly and awkward.

She struck up a conversation, asking Lu Xueyin, “I thought Sheng Lan would be the one hiding while you searched for her. Didn’t she say she’s afraid of ghosts?”

Lu Xueyin shook her head. “She doesn’t seem scared at all.”

In the dressing room, they had been shown footage of their partners’ performances on a tablet.

At the time, they had wondered why Director Cheng wasn’t worried they might reverse the roles once inside the house. Now they realized they couldn’t even get in.

From the moment they left the dressing room, they couldn’t see what was happening inside.

Tang Yingyue mentioned that she and Yan Bing had originally planned it differently. “She was supposed to hide, and I’d search. Because she’s cold and quiet she can’t fake fear well, and she’s not as interactive with the audience as Sheng Lan. If I went in, I’d probably get genuinely scared, which would make for better content.”

But after seeing Sheng Lan and Lu Xueyin’s choice, Tang Yingyue and Yan Bing opted for a more conventional approach less buzz, but more stable for their personas.

Support