The Ex-Wife of the Scumbag A Who Abandoned the Female Lead - Chapter 37

The director felt they couldn’t let the guests continue like this and quickly signaled the host to announce the start of the activity.

Half an hour later, all eight couples gathered in front of the haunted house.

Shi Nuocen gently hooked Ru Xi Cheng’s palm and whispered, “Are you scared?”

Ru Xi Cheng initially wanted to say she wasn’t really afraid, but then it occurred to her that the haunted house was a perfect opportunity to bring the two of them closer. So, she replied in a soft, timid voice, “A little.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” Shi Nuocen said, stepping forward and striking a protective pose.

Just then, the host remembered something and suddenly added, “A reminder, everyone this is both an activity and a competition. And since all the couples are in the same scenario, I’m sure you all understand what that means!”

“No way!” The guests, catching on, let out a collective groan. This meant they not only had to face the scares from the haunted house actors but also watch out for sneak attacks from the other guests.

Within just a few minutes, the guests who usually got along well unanimously decided to team up.

Naturally, Shi Nuocen and her group teamed up with Actor Zong and his partner, agreeing to share and taste the menu together later.

Once the guests had formed their alliances in private, they entered the haunted house scene.

Seeing the long River of Forgetfulness and the Naihe Bridge ahead, Shi Nuocen couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief and murmur softly, “Thank goodness it’s not a ghost wedding.”

In fact, quite a few guests had suspected it might be a ghost wedding scene. Honestly, if it had been, it would have been genuinely unsettling, and some guests would definitely have cursed the production team for being inhumane!

The surroundings of the River of Forgetfulness were actually quite beautiful upon closer inspection. Vast fields of amaranth flowers stretched as far as the eye could see, their vibrant colors almost dazzling to the eyes.

A few guests couldn’t resist taking photos to commemorate the moment. Caught up in the atmosphere, some even held their partners’ hands and recited lines from the classic poem “Shang Xie.”

As they walked hand in hand across the Naihe Bridge, no haunted house actors disturbed them, as if intentionally allowing the guests to experience the feeling of crossing life and death with their loved ones.

In such a setting, the couples instinctively held each other’s hands tighter.

Shi Nuocen and her ex-wife slowly intertwined their fingers. She thought to herself that if souls truly existed after death, meeting her ex-wife in the underworld wouldn’t be so bad.

But peaceful moments are always fleeting. As soon as the group reached the Ghost Gate, a long-tongued ghost suddenly dropped upside down from the city wall. While everyone screamed in shock, Shi Nuocen stepped forward and yanked its long tongue.

The tongue was actually a high-quality parchment paper, likely soaked in water for a more realistic effect, making it feel slippery to the touch. After being pulled, the tongue stuck to the actor’s face, causing the actor to cough uncontrollably.

Witnessing this, the other guests swallowed hard and gave Shi Nuocen a thumbs-up, their astonished expressions seeming to say, “Wow, you’re so fierce!”

Shi Nuocen just smiled faintly in response, but for some reason, the other guests all shivered simultaneously.

A little further ahead, they encountered a ghost general riding in a sedan chair. White silk cloth fluttered around the sedan in the wind, while small ghosts with wide, dead-fish eyes and long, waving nails lunged at them. Combined with the eerie, chilling music, the scene was truly spine-tingling.

Before the crowd could even gasp in shock, Shi Nuocen took three steps in two, directly stepped onto the sedan chair, shoved aside the ghost general holding a spear, and spun around to sit on it herself.

The guests: “…”

The ghosts: “…”

Shi Nuocen: “Why are you all staring at me? I just wanted to see how comfortable this sedan chair is.”

Ru Xi Cheng couldn’t hold back and turned her head to laugh. Still chuckling, she asked, “So, is it comfortable?”

“It’s alright. Do you want to come up and try it?” Shi Nuocen extended a hand to her.

Under the astonished gazes of everyone, Ru Xi Cheng took that hand and was immediately pulled onto the sedan chair, sitting beside her.

However, the seat was originally designed for one person. Though both of them were slender, sitting side by side was still too cramped. Shi Nuocen patted her thigh, signaling for Ru Xi Cheng to sit there.

But Ru Xi Cheng glanced around and shook her head slightly.

Unexpectedly, Shi Nuocen wrapped her arms around Ru Xi Cheng’s slender waist and pulled her directly into her lap. After a moment, she asked nonchalantly, “Comfortable?”

Ru Xi Cheng shot her a shy glance but didn’t answer.

The one who asked, however, wasn’t about to let it go. Leaning in from behind, her breath brushed against Ru Xi Cheng’s sensitive ear as she whispered, “I bet it’s pretty comfortable, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t it?” Taking advantage of the silk curtains blocking the view, the person behind her stealthily pinched her soft waist, as if determined to continue until she got an answer.

Ru Xi Cheng had no choice but to hook Shi Nuocen’s palm and replied, half-embarrassed, half-annoyed, “Yes, alright?”

Shi Nuocen stared at her intently, suddenly fond of how tolerant she was being. She gently touched the ends of Ru Xi Cheng’s hair before finally letting it go.

Whenever the eight couples moved together and haunted house actors appeared, Shi Nuocen would resolve the situation in seconds, which drove the director in the control room frantic!

The director quickly commanded, “We can’t let them stay together anymore, or how are we supposed to rank them?”

So, after the guests entered the ghost city’s palace, they received a temporary notice from the production team: whichever couple could obtain the Ghost King’s treasure would earn an extra meal, a seafood feast.

Motivated by the prospect of extra food, the guests stopped moving as a group and began exploring the various rooms in the palace separately.

As soon as one couple stepped into a room, the door slammed shut behind them with a bang. A dull click followed, and then came the distorted, terrified screams of “Ahhhh!”

The cries were so piercing that the other couples, who hadn’t entered yet, shuddered all over. But suddenly, a strong force pushed them from behind, causing them to stumble and be forced into several rooms.

By then, Shi Nuocen and Ru Xi Cheng had already entered one of the rooms. The first thing they saw was a massive coffin. Just like the previous couple, as soon as they stepped inside, the door closed behind them. Shi Nuocen tried pushing it, but as expected, it wouldn’t budge.

In other words, they were now in a locked room. Exchanging a glance, the two decided to explore the rest of the room first. They discovered that there was actually human food on the table, though it had been left for so long that it was covered in a layer of dust. Near the window stood a dressing table, on which lay rouge, a comb with a long strand of hair still tangled in it, and a letter.

Upon opening the letter, they found it contained a love poem with no signature nothing else.

“Well, the only place left unexplored is…” Shi Nuocen said, circling the coffin twice as she spoke.

Ru Xi Cheng, however, was staring at the food and suddenly remarked, “I think I might know what the treasure we’re looking for is.”

“What is it?” Shi Nuocen asked with interest.

Ru Xi Cheng blinked. “It’s a secret.”

“Fine, keep it to yourself then.” It’s not like I’m that desperate for a seafood feast anyway. Having hit a wall with her ex-wife, Shi Nuocen walked back to the coffin and, with a forceful push, lifted the lid.

Peering inside, she found it empty, but where the pillow should have been, there was a hidden passage!

“I thought there’d be an actor hiding in the coffin, ready to scare us!” Shi Nuocen said, a bit disappointed.

Unbeknownst to her, there had indeed been an actor there originally, but Shi Nuocen had been so fierce earlier that the haunted house actor decided it wasn’t worth the effort to jump out and scare them, opting to save their energy for other visitors.

Before jumping into the coffin, Shi Nuocen said to Ru Xi Cheng, “I’ll go first and hold your hand. Make sure to stay close.”

Ru Xi Cheng nodded and followed her into the passage.

The passage wasn’t very long, but under the eerie green light, the soft, moving walls were rather unsettling.

Shi Nuocen tapped the walls a couple of times and realized they were just airbags. No one was hiding behind them to play ghost.

Finally, the two reached a small door. Pushing it open, they were surprised to see blue sky outside! Stepping through the door would mean exiting the haunted house.

Outside the door stood a long-haired staff member in a haunted house uniform, smiling at them. “Would you two like to come out?”

Shi Nuocen studied her for a moment before asking, “What’s our current ranking in our group?”

The staff member glanced at a monitor. “If you choose to exit the haunted house now, you’ll be in fifth place.”

Shi Nuocen nodded and discussed with Ru Xi Cheng, “In that case, let’s head back the way we came. We still don’t know what the treasure is, after all.”

Ru Xi Cheng glanced at the staff member. “Alright.”

After closing the small door, they indeed retraced their steps, even revisiting the River of Forgetfulness and the Naihe Bridge, before leisurely exiting the main door of the haunted house.

As expected, they ranked first!

Although Actor Zong and his group had been thoroughly frightened, they persevered until the end and managed to secure second place. Still visibly shaken, they approached the two and congratulated them, saying, “You two are amazing! It’s just a shame we still don’t know what the treasure is. If I had to guess, maybe it’s something like the Ghost King’s Seal. Do you think I’m close?”

Ru Xi Cheng, however, replied, “Actually, the treasure is the lover who remains in the human world.”

“Huh? How do you know that?” Actor Zong asked, utterly astonished.

Shi Nuocen pondered for a moment before immediately realizing: “You mean the food! And the secret passage, the small door!” As the most powerful entity in the ghost city, the Ghost King was willing to go to great lengths to procure human-world meals for someone. This alone showed genuine sincerity. Moreover, the secret passage they followed led outside the haunted house, which meant it connected to the human world. This implied that the person, with the Ghost King’s permission, could travel between the two realms. If this wasn’t love, what was?

“Could you two explain it more clearly?” Actor Zong scratched his head anxiously.

Shi Nuocen then explained the series of discoveries to him, and as he listened, he suddenly understood!

Ru Xi Cheng thought for a moment and added, “If we take it a step further, the haunted house employee back then was likely playing the role of the Ghost King’s lover.”

“You’re amazing!” Shi Nuocen couldn’t help but affectionately nudge her arm.

Ru Xi Cheng blushed slightly and added, “Besides, I remember that person’s appearance and her employee ID number. Even if the production team asks for details, I won’t be caught off guard.”

At this point, even Actor Zong felt compelled to applaud her. Truly meticulous!

With such thorough preparation, Shi Nuocen’s group not only secured the luxurious menu but also naturally received the seafood bonus, which they shared with Actor Zong’s group.

After this dating show activity concluded, the production team decided to edit it into a standalone episode due to its high entertainment value. To soothe the nerves of the guests who had been frightened, they were given two to three days of rest.

As for the girl group, the next episode required them to perform the group’s variety show songs and dances by class, with some adaptations allowed. However, since the original choreography was already fast-paced, even with slight adjustments, most contestants except for those with strong dance skills struggled to perform smoothly. This was especially true for classes C, D, E, and F, which had relatively lower overall skill levels.

“This won’t do! The performance will be by class, and right now, even solo singing and dancing are challenging for us. The second elimination round is in two weeks, we all need to step up!” the acting class leader clapped her hands at the front, addressing everyone.

“I think we shouldn’t always practice together as a whole. Each of us should take turns performing individually. We can pair those who are stronger in singing or dancing with those who are struggling to form support groups. What does everyone think?” someone raised their hand to suggest.

“I think that’s a good idea!” The contestants exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

With that, everyone began to take action. Shi Nuocen, of course, fell into the category of someone who had no issues with solo dancing but struggled with solo singing. A girl next to her remarked enviously, “Your solo singing only goes off-key in a few parts, just practice more and you’ll be fine. The rest of your singing is great, and…” She lowered her voice, “In the second elimination round, each person only gets one line in a song, and most of it is group singing. A slight off-key note probably won’t be noticeable.”

Shi Nuocen, however, wasn’t optimistic: “For others, it might be as you say, but not for me. In the previous elimination round, the mentors specifically pointed out my pitch issues. There’s no guarantee someone won’t be listening closely this time.”

Hearing this, the girl immediately cast a sympathetic glance at her and said, “Then you really need to muster every ounce of your energy.”