Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 65: Forming an Alliance, Sister?

This is the modern area, with a swimming pool, pavilion, and lush gardens.

Yu Xia found a spot behind the flower bed and squatted down.

Behind her were palm trees, and in front were neatly trimmed evergreens, making it hard for anyone outside to notice her easily.

She peered through the gaps in the evergreens, watching the path leading to the pavilion, waiting for that group of brothers to walk over.

Huh? Xie Qingci wasn’t in there.

She pondered for a moment and listened closely.

"So what roles are we playing exactly? And how do we carry out the killing? I’m still confused."

"Judging by the clothes, roughly... you’re some kind of prince, he’s the emperor, and there’s a commoner?"

"Can we tell who is supposed to kill who based on identities? Is it possible that each character has a story that connects to others, and that person is either supposed to kill or will be killed? Haven’t there been games like this on variety shows before?"

"No idea, we looked in several places but didn’t find any cards or anything like that."

"I think elimination will start in twenty minutes. For elimination, someone has to have found the method to kill others, right? That would be a clue too."

The voices got closer, so she held her breath and didn’t move. When they passed by, she finally moved her foot slightly.

Her ears were too close, causing her to accidentally graze the small leaves of the evergreen, which made her itch. She reached out to scratch but ended up elbowing the person behind her.

Startled, she turned around to see who it was.

Xie Qingci looked down at her, and with a gentle demeanor, called to her, "Yu..."

"Shh!"

Yu Xia pulled him down, pressing him to crouch on the ground with her.

"Keep your voice down, they haven’t gone far."

Xie Qingci followed her lead, speaking softly, "What are you listening to here?"

"Listening for clues."

She glanced around and then scanned the filming crew following them.

What had seemed like a good spot for eavesdropping now felt cramped and hidden.

It gave the feeling that two people were doing something sneaky in the bushes.

She coughed, trying to appear serious and stern, returning to the main topic.

"Did you find any clues?"

Xie Qingci, unfazed by her mentor status, asked instead, "Does Yu Xia want to form an alliance with me? Sharing information requires an alliance."

"You really found clues?" She was skeptical, "You’re not just tricking me, are you? Like those fortune tellers in the square."

"No, and anyway, you don’t seem to have found any clues. No matter how you look at it, I seem to be at a disadvantage."

"..." She replied irritably, "Fine, fine! Although I don’t have clues, I do have a smart brain. Don’t worry, I contribute intelligence."

Xie Qingci chuckled, "Alright then."

He took out a roll of brownish-yellow paper from his sleeve and spread it out for her to see.

"There’s a low stone slab in the center of the garden, and this was placed on top. I think it might be useful."

It was a poem, one that everyone knew, "Immortal Spring - Snow."

She recited it from start to finish:

"Northern land beauty, a thousand miles sealed in ice, ten thousand miles of flying snow.

Gazing inside and outside the Great Wall, all is desolate; gazing upriver and downriver, the torrents suddenly ceased.

Mountains dance like silver snakes, plains charge like wax elephants, competing against Heaven in height.

Waiting for a sunny day, adorned in red and white, extraordinarily enchanting.

Such magnificent landscapes attract countless heroes to bow.

Sadly, Qin Emperor and Han Martial, slightly lacking in poetry; Tang Ancestor and Song Patriarch, slightly lacking in style.

A celestial hero, Genghis Khan, only known for bending bows and shooting eagles.

All gone, count the heroes, look at today."

Xie Qingci: "So, what do you think? Is there anything useful?"

Yu Xia pondered, but then a flicker in her eyes, she said to him, "I can’t figure it out. With this poem, could it be linked to a literary giant? Or is the focus on ’snow,’ symbolizing something else? A murder weapon?"

Xie Qingci narrowed his eyes, his gaze sliding over her innocently wide eyes:

"I see, maybe we need to find more items to make it clearer."

"Right," Yu Xia stood up, returned the paper to him, shook her silver-purple dress hem, and fanned herself with a fan, "We should keep looking. Twenty minutes will be up soon."

She took a few steps forward but then stepped back, with Xie Qingci also retreating.

"Although we’re allied, it’s best not to let others know, so we should act separately. What do you think?"

Xie Qingci appeared to think seriously for a moment, then shook his head, "I don’t think that’s a good idea. This alliance is too fragile, Yu Xia, you might walk out and forget me at a moment’s notice, forming alliances with others."

This method is quite effective for tricking the naïve younger brothers into sharing their clues.

She did plan to do that, mainly to ditch this annoying younger brother.

But now it’s not going to work.

Yu Xia awkwardly replied, "No way. Alright, alright, let’s go together. It’s better to find two more people to form an alliance so that when elimination starts, we can shield each other."

"Yes, makes sense, so let’s go out, look for clues, and find people to form alliances with."

He reached out to brush aside the sharp leaves of the palm trees, stepping out first and holding the leaves down for her to exit.

The leaves couldn’t even scratch a bit of her fabric.

Yu Xia pretended to be leisurely, lifting her dress hem, walked onto the path and looked around, thinking of quickly getting two people to join them.

Before long, Xie Qingci did find three more brothers to join, but that clue wasn’t shared.

They checked the small garden thoroughly but didn’t find any more clues.

While resting at the pavilion, Yu Xia looked up and noticed that many words were written on the ceiling of the pavilion.

Like graffiti left by elementary students, "I toured here," the fonts are hard to recognize, the five of them looking up until their necks were sore.

From outside, it looked like five zombies praying for rain, making the scene quite awkward. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Fortunately, they gained a bit of a clue.

"878-884 AD, Huang Chao’s Rebellion... Teacher, don’t make me memorize anymore, history is too hard, boohoo... What kind of academic slacker’s message is this?"

"Also this, still remember an old man drew a circle by the South China Sea."

"Here’s a couplet of poetry, ’Lingering under the courtyard tree, hanging upon the Southeast branch...’ Eh, that’s the only line I remember from that essay."

"Which academic slacker wrote this? Their handwriting is as bad as mine."

Yu Xia rubbed her neck in thought, chatting with them, "How did this get written up here? It’s so high."

A brother replied cheerfully, "Although slackers don’t know how to study, they know everything else."

... Makes a lot of sense.

Only then did Xie Qingci look down, rubbing his neck along with them, asking her, "Did you figure anything out, Yu Xia?"

"Still..."

Just as she spoke, an electronic announcement rang from overhead in the field.

"Yinyan has been killed, out of the game!"

Yu Xia confusedly uttered, "Huh?" The entire pavilion of people turned their heads to look at the previously cheerful person in the center.

"How are you gone?"

Yinyan was utterly bewildered: "I have no idea either!"

——

ps: It is said that during Huang Chao’s Rebellion at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao was known as a butcher, massacring twelve million black people in Guangdong, and later during the rebellion due to food shortages, resorted to cannibalism.

(Friends, latest notice, PK will have one final push on Saturday, December 25th, and barring any surprises, it will be launched at midnight on December 28th /drums.gif)