Chapter 27.1
Editor: Jodi
“Gulp.”
—Mu Nan heard the sound of himself swallowing hard clearly.
He didn’t know why he reacted like this—maybe it was because Cheng Han’s lips looked really nice.
Cheng Han obviously heard it too, because he couldn’t help chuckling.
“Hungry? Didn’t you just eat?” Cheng Han’s face lit up with a teasing smile.
“I’m not hungry!” Mu Nan shot back, trying to sound confident. “You’re the little fool, I’m not a fool at all!”
This time, Cheng Han didn’t just chuckle—he burst out laughing, tears nearly spilling from his eyes. “Alright, alright, you’re not a fool. Not even a little bit.”
However the moment they were back in their rooms, Mu Nan jumped as he slapped his thigh.
He’d meant to ask Cheng Han how he’d managed to get rid of Bai Wenyin, but somehow, after all that nonsense, he’d completely forgotten the most important question.
“Am I actually just a total idiot?” He fell into a deep spiral of self-doubt.
*
A few days later, the official guest list for the country’s first large-scale live-action horror reality show, “Absolute Terror”, was announced.
There were six guests in total. At the center of the poster were Mu Nan and Cheng Han. Next to them were two female guests: Du Ling, who had just wrapped up her role in “The Intern Lawyer”, and Ai Qianqian, an actress known for her sweet and gentle “girl-next-door” image—basically a first-tier rising star.
On the far edges were two others: a girl named Duan Shi, a rookie idol singer who debuted last year, and a guy named Cui Zhixing, a multi-talented entertainer who sang, acted, and hosted.
This reality show was produced by the country’s biggest streaming platform. With deep pockets and abundant resources, they spared no expense—whether it was the guests’ paychecks or the set design, everything screamed, We’re rich, deal with it.
Mu Nan’s fans had been worried about his career stagnating, but suddenly, here he was on a high-profile variety show.
[“I just checked the calendar, and it’s not April Fool’s day. Mu Nan’s on a horror show? I still can’t believe it.”]
[“If I hadn’t seen the official announcement, I would’ve thought this was just fanbait. Everyone knows Mu Nan is terrified of ghosts.”]
[“Cub, don’t go! Mom will pick trash to raise you, you don’t need to suffer like this!”]
But when their eyes landed on another face in the lineup, they were all stunned:
[“Cheng… Cheng Han? Am I seeing things?”]
[“These two on a horror show together? Isn’t this just going to be a massive teammate sabotage fest?”]
[“I have solid evidence to believe that the production team is giving them a stage for public revenge.”]
Even Mu Nan himself couldn’t believe that he’d somehow ended up on a horror show in his lifetime.
Now, his Weibo comments and DMs were flooded with warnings to be wary of Cheng Han. Some fans even wanted to send him self-defense gadgets, worried Cheng Han might sabotage him. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
To be honest, part of the reason he agreed to join the show was because Cheng Han was going too. At least being with someone familiar gave him a bit of a sense of security—even if that “familiar” person was more like a reverse ally. It was still better than nothing.
Two hours after the poster was revealed, the official account released the first live-action preview.
The production team spent a fortune renting a massive haunted house as the filming location and even renovated it.
This haunted house used to be a school from the Republic of C Country era, but after years of war and decay, it had long been abandoned and ruined. And the moment it was transformed into a haunted attraction, it earned the title of the scariest haunted house in the country.
The peeling walls of the classrooms, overturned desks and chairs, and dusty books scattered everywhere exuded an eerie vibe under the dim, grayish lighting.
The whimpering sound of the wind, curtains fluttering with the breeze, and occasional fleeting shadows made the setting unnervingly real—and terrifying.
Mu Nan was in his old apartment, packing up his belongings into a suitcase.
But the moment he clicked on the video and finished watching it, he immediately tore everything out of his suitcase like a panicked rabbit digging a hole.
“I’m not going, I’m not going. I’m going to cancel the contract.” Just watching the video had him so scared he felt like he needed to pee every five minutes. If he wet himself on the show, wouldn’t he go down in history as the first celebrity to publicly pee his pants?
He couldn’t afford that kind of humiliation.
Just then, the doorbell rang. The production team had arrived.
To promote the show, they had started a livestream right after the official announcement, showing the preparations of each guest at home before departure.
Mu Nan was the first guest featured, and many viewers had been waiting in the livestream room for a while, so when they saw the host ring his doorbell, they got so excited that they were practically rubbing their hands together.
“Coming!” Mu Nan poked his fluffy little head out from behind the door. He was wearing a casual, loose T-shirt with a chibi-style cartoon of his pets, Papaya and Hua, drawn by his fans.
[“Wow! Nan Nan’s skin is so good—even without makeup, it’s so smooth!”]
[“So cute! He’s even wearing his two babies on his shirt.”]
The host immediately noticed his shirt. “Eyy, where are your precious pets? They’re not home today?”
“I left them with a friend for a couple of days. They need someone to take care of them.”
The camera followed Mu Nan into his home, only to reveal luggage scattered all over the floor. The mess nearly covered the entire space, leaving no room for the crew to step.
“You’re… just starting to pack?”
Mu Nan hadn’t expected their timing to be this perfect. Embarrassed, he started stuffing clothes into his suitcase. “Almost… almost done.”
[“Host lady, help Nan Nan out!”]
[“Don’t help him! He’s grown up now, so it’s time for him to learn some independence.”]
[“It doesn’t matter how old he is—he’ll always be our cub. So of course we should spoil him.”]
The host, keeping an eye on the live chat, found the fans’ comments hilarious. “Your fans are asking me to help you pack.”
“There’s no need, thanks.” Mu Nan kept his head down, folding clothes neatly to line the bottom of the suitcase while carefully packing his bottles and jars into a toiletry bag.
Suddenly, his eyes landed on a small, square blue bottle.
And his scalp tingling, a cold sweat broke out across his back in an instant.
This was a high-end skincare product line endorsed by Cheng Han, and somehow, when he had been packing up to leave the villa, he had accidentally grabbed Cheng Han’s face cream.
What made Mu Nan panic was, first, the competitive clause in his contract, which prohibited him from using rival brands in public. Second, the design of that blue bottle was so distinctive that anyone could instantly tell which brand it belonged to.
His hands moved faster than they ever had in his life, shoving the bottle into the very bottom layer of his clothes with lightning speed.
But even so, some people still noticed.
[“Did Mu Nan just hide something just now?”]
[“I saw it too—it looked like a small blue thing.”]
[“I’m grinning wickedly. Could it be something he doesn’t want us to see?”]
[“I tried my best to screenshot it, but all I got was a blur. Still, it kinda looked like E’s luxury face cream?”]
[“You must be imagining things. That’s Cheng Han’s endorsed product. Mu Nan using Cheng Han’s brand would be like Sima Yi holding Zhuge Liang’s feather fan—get it?”]
The host glanced at the comments. Since she wasn’t restricted by the camera’s angle, she clearly saw what Mu Nan had hidden. But she decided to help him out by ignoring the topic entirely.
“Oh, you even brought Lao Gan Ma with you?” the host asked, pointing at a jar.
“Ah! Yes…”
Out of the camera’s view, Mu Nan shot the host a grateful glance.