Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 361: Holding Hands

The internet buzzed with excitement, while the abandoned building remained eerily silent.

Yu Xia and Xie Qingci continued down the hallway, stepping from sunlight into the gloom once more.

All they could hear was the sound of their deliberately quiet footsteps. The hallway ended with a slight turn, obscuring the view, making the scene eerily reminiscent of a haunted house exploration.

Yu Xia held her breath, stepped around Xie Qingci, and took a step forward at the bend. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Nothing unusual, just a wall.

She turned back and said, "Everything looks normal."

However, Xie Qingci had stopped, placing a finger on his lips, signaling her to look at the door on the left.

The door was open.

On the dim hallway floor, a glimmer of light could be seen coming from inside the door.

She gestured with her chin, silently asking: Should we go in and have a look?

Xie Qingci nodded, first peeking through the crack, then slowly pushing the door open.

The old door creaked loudly, instinctively making Yu Xia tense for a moment as she followed him in to look.

The room was bare, just an unfinished space with bits of construction debris, a pile of dust, a few planks, and a white outlet cover.

Xie Qingci stepped out onto the small balcony to look below, examining carefully but seeing no one suspicious or anything unusual.

She crossed her arms, paced around twice in the center: "Is this room useless? Or might there be information hidden in that pile of trash, or on the wall?"

Thinking along those lines, she continued, "If all the empty rooms in this building are useless, could they be intended as our accommodation? After all, we might have gone through a whole day without opening a single room.

Alternatively, there may be clues here, possibly related to the first site. The showrunners wouldn’t let us get stuck too long at the first location, so they’d let everyone find clues in the empty room today, and then provide survival packages."

Xie Qingci came back from the balcony and agreed more with the second idea.

"We don’t have food; it’s likely we’ll have to rely on the survival pack."

Yu Xia looked towards the pile of trash in the corner: "Then we have to sift through the trash, let’s go."

She tied up her hair, but Xie Qingci squatted in front of the garbage pile, preventing her from doing it herself.

"It’s dirty and messy, I’ll do it. Let me find anything that might be hiding clues; you just keep an eye out."

He pulled out the white outlet cover and placed it in front of her.

"Take a look at this."

She had to step back a bit, crouch down, and poke at the cover, flipping it over for a closer inspection.

Having checked out the white cover and a few planks, aside from a few black vertical lines, there was nothing else.

Xie Qingci planned to continue sifting through the stones and dust, but she quickly stopped him.

"Use the plank. Aren’t you afraid you’ll pull out something strange?"

Xie Qingci grinned at her, taking the plank.

Amidst the dust were chipped off red bricks, which he picked out and let roll away on the floor.

"There’s something in here."

"What?" Yu Xia leaned over, pointing at the object with a bit protruding, "A photo frame?"

It was indeed a photo frame, and inside it was a photograph.

Coincidentally, it was a polished stage photo of Song Xi, wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, smiling elegantly at the camera, the quintessential cultured bad boy type.

Xie Qingci didn’t let her touch the frame. His veins bulged for a moment as he violently dismantled the frame, pulling out the photo and flipping it over for a look.

"There’s a string of numbers."

Yu Xia focused her attention, contemplating, "This suggests it’s very possible that each empty room on each floor has at least one person’s photo; in this room, it happens to be Song Xi’s photo."

"It’s possible. The numbers on the back might also be the same. But this sequence is long; how do we extract the useful ones?" he asked.

Yu Xia leaned in closer, pulling down the drone to capture the numbers so the audience in the live stream could see more clearly.

"They’re indeed long, and we don’t know if this clue is related to the room number at the first site, or to some room... some room’s combination lock."

There was a pause in her words, but she quickly covered it up.

Xie Qingci, behind the camera, took hold of her hand.

Sometimes his courage was astonishing, puzzling what was driving him to provoke her at such a moment.

She gently shook off his hand, wanting him to let go. Who knew he not only didn’t release but also bit down on her hand gently.

Yu Xia glared at him, quickly pulling back her hand, her tone somewhat through gritted teeth: "But regardless of which, we need to figure it out first. How do you think we should extract the useful numbers?"

Xie Qingci’s tone remained unchanged: "There might be something that can help us find them. Or maybe this photo has a secret, using fire to burn or water to soak might reveal the true clue?"

"...Then you better get a lighter and a basin of water." Watching too many dramas, probably.

Unable to come up with a solution for the moment, they decided to bring the photo along and check the other side.

Returning along the familiar path to the entrance of the staircase, they suddenly heard a scream.

A sharp, ear-piercing sound that pierced through the floors effortlessly.

If there had been glass windows, they probably would have shattered.

Yu Xia flinched, trying to discern which floor the sound came from.

Apart from the screaming, there were also panicked shouts, hurried footsteps, sounding as though someone had seen a ghost and got frightened.

"Seems like it’s not far from us, who do you think it is?" she asked Xie Qingci.

"Can’t tell." To him, besides Yu Xia’s voice, other female voices sounded the same.

But the sound was getting closer; obviously, someone was approaching the third floor. He listened carefully, then pulled Yu Xia to run back into the empty room they had found earlier.

"The pursuers must have been released; we have to hide in that room!"

There was nowhere to hide in this abandoned building, and all the rooms were locked. If they were caught by a pursuer in the hallway, escape was nearly impossible.

The only place to hide now was the room they had just found.

They quickly ran back, closing the door behind them, and Xie Qingci leaned against it, searching for a way to lock it.

Meanwhile, chaotic footsteps echoed in the hallway, accompanied by someone’s rapid breathing.

Yu Xia also leaned against the door to add some resistance.

Neither of them dared to breathe loudly, silently waiting for the footsteps to fade.

As they couldn’t be sure if the people outside were lying in wait, even when the sounds vanished, they dared not open the door recklessly.

Not knowing how long they waited, Yu Xia’s legs were growing numb. Just as she was about to suggest opening a crack to peek outside, another scream erupted in the hallway.

The sudden, terror-stricken sound straightened her up instantly.

Then the building echoed with a creepy official announcement voice.

"Lan Hui has been caught, initiating a one-minute redemption countdown. After one minute, redemption with points will be unavailable. Fifty-nine, fifty-eight... Lan Hui successfully redeemed, will re-enter the game after a three-minute cooldown!"