YMBLTY

Chapter 62: Live Up to the Name

"Jiang Xun has gone off the rails too," said Crew Member 3. "Qian Yining and Bei Ke are the only ones sticking to the plan. I have to say… I think Director Zhang is screwed this time."

The recording continued. Gu Wei and Shi Xinyan made their way deeper into the palace grounds, discussing the details of their mission as they walked.

"Those ghosts started chasing me as soon as I got here," Shi Xinyan complained. "Honestly, if I wasn't dressed up like this, I would have thought I'd gone to a marathon! But when I was running around, I did pick something up."

Shi Xinyan opened his hand and showed Gu Wei a cloth sachet he'd picked up. The sachet was very finely made; it was obvious the showrunners had put some genuine effort into the props for this installment.

"What's your backstory?" Gu Wei asked. "Did you get any prompts?"

"Just that I'm a court eunuch, and that I'm a bit of a coward. Supposedly, I suddenly got up in the middle of the night to take a walk and escort someone out of the palace," Shi Xinyan said. "What about you?"

Gu Wei recounted the way he'd walked around the palace walls three times before finding the entrance. Then he added, "The background actors said I need to take 'her' away, and that sachet you found looks like it probably belongs to a woman. I bet today's plot circles around 'her', whoever she is."

The two of them both abruptly fell silent, because from not far away, the sound of singing rang out. The voices started and stopped intermittently in an eerie, ominous way that gave them both goosebumps.

Shi Xinyan patted the alpaca on the head. "Director Zhang, we're so scared, can you give us more money?"

"If you don't have more money, more clues would be good too," Gu Wei said. "We're not picky."

Director Zhang's voice sounded through both their earpieces: "Don't even think about it. Now get in there! Right now! Go, go, go!"

Gu Wei spread his hands out and shrugged, helpless. "Forget it, ignore him. Let's play our own way."

The building where the singing came from was right in front of Gu Wei and Shi Xinyan. Two guards were stationed outside the front gates, but neither Gu Wei nor Shi Xinyan had any intention of going in through the front.

"Would you believe," Shi Xinyan started, "that we'll be completely screwed if we go in through that door."

"Totally believe it," Gu Wei confirmed, still holding onto the alpaca that had accompanied them all this way. "Let's go over the wall."

Their cameramen silently exchanged some hesitant looks with one another.

"You can't…" Director Zhang's voice started up again, but Gu Wei took off his earpiece right away. Shi Xinyan followed suit.

In the surveillance room, Director Zhang slumped down in his seat in defeat. "Why? Why won't my adorable guests listen to me?"

The crew members all looked on sympathetically.

"And!" Director Zhang huffed. "What the hell is this? Jiang Xun just took out his earpiece, and now Gu Wei has taken his out as well? Are they really not colluding behind the scenes? Last time, they were practically reading each other's minds, but at least they were facing each other during that game of charades. I can see how they might have managed to pull that off. But this time? They haven't even seen each other! Are they literally psychic? Is this ESP?"

"Director," one of the crew members called out. "Who was it who said we shouldn't have a script?"

At the base of a wall, the two people preparing to climb over were giddy with anticipation.