I Struggle to Survive in a Girl Group [Transmigration] - Chapter 37

On the third morning in the dreamy town,

The sky remained overcast, giving off a horror movie vibe.

On the way to the post office, An Qing walked beside Yu Tingbai, bouncing along lightly while humming a cheerful tune.

Shen Siqi curiously leaned in and asked, “An Qing, why do I feel like you’re especially happy today?”

With such smooth progress in her relationship, how could she not be happy?

Just thinking about yesterday’s kiss brought an unfamiliar, sweet sensation bubbling up in her heart, enveloping her completely. The world through her eyes seemed filtered, everything gentle and just right.

An Qing suppressed the urge to smile and looked up at the sky with feigned seriousness, saying, “Shen Siqi, do you know what love feels like?”

Shen Siqi replied, “Huh? How would I know?”

An Qing said, “Even though it’s cloudy now, there’s a sun in my heart.”

“Eww…” Shen Siqi shot her a disgusted look, then scurried over to Wen Ling’s side, whispering to her, “Captain, I think An Qing has lost her mind.”

The lobby of the post office remained exactly as they had left it the day before, with a faint layer of dust seemingly floating in the air and the scent of printer ink filling the room.

Yu Tingbai tossed her backpack onto a bench and stood in front of the bookshelf stacked with newspapers, calling out to the other teammates, “Everyone, help me find all the newspapers from March this year’s, previous years’, as many as you can find.”

Yi Zhuo couldn’t help but ask, “Why March?”

At the same time, her hands were already busy, swiftly stacking heavy piles of newspapers onto the table and pushing them toward Wen Ling.

Yu Tingbai explained, “Yesterday at Rosa’s house, she mentioned that her wedding anniversary with Arthur is in March. Rosa comes from a wealthy family, so their wedding must have been grand. Plus, there’s a significant disparity between her and her husband, which makes it newsworthy. The newspapers here are full of gossip, so I think there should be coverage of their wedding, and maybe even other information about them.”

Because of that sudden kiss last night, An Qing hadn’t slept well at all. Her mind was foggy, and she couldn’t process the explanation right away. “So what? What if it’s reported?”

“Did you forget?”

Wen Ling gave her a puzzled look, probably wondering why An Qing’s performance was so inconsistent.

But she patiently explained, “If we don’t even understand the background stories of the NPCs, how can we talk about finding the deceased? The stories Shirley told yesterday ‘Rosa and Arthur’ and ‘Christine and Beth’ still need to be verified. The newspaper clue came from ‘Christine’s Aid,’ which is guaranteed to be reliable, so we have to investigate it thoroughly.”

“So, if the newspapers have gossip or news about these two families, we can.”

Yu Tingbai picked up the thread but found her gaze involuntarily drifting toward An Qing.

She was still full of energy, her blue eyes clear and bright, especially when she looked at Yu Tingbai.

Suddenly, the young girl blinked and gave her a sweet, uninhibited smile.

Yu Tingbai: “Huh? What was I saying?”

Wen Ling said, “You said, we can what?”

Yu Tingbai averted her gaze, hiding her smile in her eyes, and continued, “We can uncover the truth and, by comparing the details, identify any inconsistencies. This will help us delve deeper into the reasons behind Shirley’s lies and clarify the relationships between the characters.”

After saying this, she let out a long sigh, and her rapidly accelerating heartbeat gradually calmed down.

It was just, unbearably adorable.

Shen Siqi, completely unaware of anything amiss, clapped her hands excitedly. “Wow, Tingbai and the captain are so in sync, no wonder ‘White Wind Chime’ has always been so popular!”

In an instant, An Qing’s smile froze at the corners of her lips.

She suddenly recalled the tone of the “White Wind Chime” CP fan community “High mountains and flowing waters, a rare soulmate” and felt a pang of sadness.

For some reason, she noticed that Yi Zhuo nearby didn’t seem too happy either. When their eyes met, she couldn’t help but feel a mistaken sense of shared misery.

An Qing found it strange. The “White Wind Chime” pairing hadn’t just appeared overnight, so why had she never felt anything off about it before?

Forget it, no use overthinking.

An Qing flipped through the dates on the newspaper, trying hard to push the chaotic thoughts from her mind.

Wen Ling was still analyzing seriously. “I think the storyline in the newspaper.”

Clang! A loud noise interrupted Wen Ling’s words.

Then came Yi Zhuo’s voice, “Holy crap, there’s a hidden compartment here?”

Everyone quickly looked up. Yi Zhuo stood before a partially collapsed bookshelf not far away, staring in astonishment as she pulled a newspaper from a gap between the wooden panels.

Yi Zhuo had noticed an inconspicuous protrusion on the bookshelf earlier and had tentatively touched it, never expecting it to be a hidden mechanism.

She quickly scanned the contents and said, “It’s from March two years ago. Talk about a lucky find.”

As she spoke, Yi Zhuo walked over, placed the newspaper in the middle of the table, and pointed to a line of text “A Wedding of the Century, Witnessing a Love That Transcends Time.”

This must be about Arthur and Rosa!

However, the next moment, everyone’s expressions froze for a second.

Because the body of the article beneath the headline had been cut out by someone. Next to it, there was also a small hollowed-out section, seemingly from another report, but not even its title remained.

They had flipped through so many newspapers earlier, yet none had shown such damage. There had to be something significant about this. The missing sections were likely the key clues.

But all their leads seemed to have hit a dead end, leaving them momentarily unsure how to proceed.

Just then, a soft creak sounded at the door, and the hall’s entrance was pushed open.

Seven figures entered one after another the same seven NPCs they had encountered earlier.

Christine stood at the front, a bright smile on her face.

She said, “Looking for something? We can help.”

In fact, according to the original plan of the program team, the guests weren’t supposed to reach this stage until the third day.

The rewards for tasks were set up to be extremely strict, forcing the guests to scramble for gold coins early on just to eat and stay clothed, leaving them no time to focus on subtle clues like “Rosa’s anniversary is in March.”

Who would have thought that this group would start by choosing a large bag of bread an option almost no one ever picked, then proceed to haggle with NPCs and eat near-expired food in empty rooms, completely avoiding the harsh realities of survival.

Moreover, that day, Wen Ling, knowing that rashly asking about the town’s situation would cost health points, still dared to ask directly from the start and exchanged a quarter of her health for Christine’s assistance, which greatly accelerated their progress and unlocked the post office location.

And last night, An Qing actually spent 90 health points to obtain clues about the accident. This all-or-nothing courage truly astonished the NPCs.

They’ll probably clear the game soon.

Christine observed the people before her, thinking indifferently.

Yu Tingbai also smiled, “So then, what game are we playing?”

With their reasoning at a standstill and the NPCs appearing right then, they were clearly there to provide clues. But clues wouldn’t be given for free usually through some competitive game format.

Christine showed no surprise at her sharp deduction and replied, “Codenames. You all know how to play, right?”

Wen Ling nodded, “We all know it.”

“Codenames” was a board game they often played during their trainee days. It sounded fancy but was essentially a word-guessing game that tested team coordination.

There were two teams, red and blue, each selecting a captain while the others served as team members.

Twenty-five random words would be arranged in a 5×5 grid on the table, including 7 neutral words and 1 assassin word. If the red team guessed first, there would be 9 red words and 8 blue words. If blue guessed first, it would be the opposite.

The two captains knew which category each word belonged to. After the captain gave a clue, team members had to identify their team’s words based on the hint. The first team to find all their words would win.

What made “Codenames” particularly interesting was that when the captain gave clues, the format had to be one word plus a number. For example: “Apple, 4.”

This clue meant: there were 4 words related to “apple” on their team.

The clue word couldn’t contain any characters already present on the table.

If team members correctly identified their team’s words, they could continue guessing until they reached the number specified by the captain. For instance, if the captain said 4, they could guess up to 4 words.

If a team member selected a neutral word, their turn would end, and the other team would take over. If they guessed the assassin word, their team would lose immediately. If they chose the opponent’s word, it would count as helping the other team identify one of their words.

In short, it was a game that heavily tested imagination, associative thinking, and team coordination.

Although Princess hadn’t been a group for long, they had known each other since their audition days and had been living together since debut, making them quite familiar with one another. Meanwhile, Christine’s side consisted of regular actors from this variety show who had collaborated multiple times. Both sides were evenly matched.

“I know what you want. We’ll decide it in one game if you win, you’ll get what you’re looking for,” Christine said. “But if you lose, your team will lose 40 health points. You can decide among yourselves who gets deducted.”

Currently, Wen Ling had the highest health points on the team at 75. Yu Tingbai and Yi Zhuo had 30, Shen Siqi had 25, and An Qing only had 10 left.

This meant only Wen Ling could afford the 40-point deduction without being eliminated. If anyone else took the hit, they would end up with negative points.

Wen Ling immediately said, “It’s fine. If we lose, just deduct my points. Everyone, just perform as usual.”

Yu Tingbai asked her, “Would you still like to be the team leader?”

Wen Ling was steady and intelligent, she would surely give appropriate hints. Besides, Wen Ling was already the team leader. If they changed leaders now, it would definitely upset some fans.

Wen Ling replied, “Alright, don’t worry.”

Yu Tingbai smiled. “Of course.”

An Qing stood to the side, suddenly feeling a bit unsettled.

Why did Yu Tingbai and Wen Ling, with just a few simple words, exude such an undeniable sense of tacit understanding?

At that moment, Wen Ling was already confirming the competition details with Christine calm and confident, appearing very reliable.

Well, with such an outstanding team leader, who wouldn’t like her?

Unlike herself noisy and always being teased and led around by Yu Tingbai.

An Qing lowered her head, her expression somewhat gloomy.

She knew it was wrong to think this way, but ever since Yu Tingbai kissed her yesterday, her feelings toward her seemed to have subtly changed. Was it possessiveness or something else?

Just then, a hand reached over and gently pinched her cheek.

Then came the familiar voice: “What are you spacing out for?”

An Qing didn’t want to respond and turned her face away.

Instead of getting annoyed, the person moved even closer.

“Could it be you’re jealous?”

Having her unacknowledged thoughts exposed, An Qing instantly felt flustered and quickly denied in a low voice, “I am not!”

“Good that you’re not.”

Yu Tingbai chuckled softly, hooked her fingers around An Qing’s palm, and whispered in a volume only the two of them could hear, “Qingqing, you’re different from everyone else.”