Superstar Ch.35

Chapter 35: Progress

“Is this a password box?”

As soon as something appeared, Ai Qingyuan immediately forgot about the scare he had just experienced.

Not far away, Yun Pan hesitated for a moment.

Xie Xizhao looked up and called him, “Panpan, come over here too.”

So, he immediately ran over.

The three of them gathered around a small password box. Xie Xizhao tried turning the lock and found that it wasn’t just a prop—the combination lock was real, and each digit could be rotated.

At the moment, all four digits were set to zero.

Ai Qingyuan twitched the corner of his mouth. “Four digits? How are we supposed to guess this?”

“It’s definitely not about guessing,” Yun Pan whispered. “We probably have to find clues in the inn.”

Xie Xizhao didn’t say anything.

He stared at the combination lock for a moment, thought for a while, and then tried entering a four-digit code.

The gears turned, making a crisp sound.

Ai Qingyuan was momentarily stunned. Then, excitement and disbelief flashed in his eyes. “You guessed it?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Xizhao finished turning all four digits.

The lock didn’t budge.

Only then did he speak. “No.”

“Just testing it out,” he explained. “Might as well try our luck. You never know.”

Ai Qingyuan: “…”

He was a little disappointed.

Then, a chill ran down his spine.

At some point, he had started to think of Xie Xizhao as someone who could do anything.

…That realization was scarier than this eerie inn.

Xie Xizhao had no idea that the person beside him was once again lost in wild thoughts. He was fully focused on cracking the code.

The first code he entered was the show’s premiere date. But the lock didn’t react. He thought for a moment, then tried another set of numbers—this time, the date of the first recording.

Still nothing.

A third time. A fourth time.

At first, Ai Qingyuan was uninterested, but as he watched, he gradually became shocked. “What kind of dates are these? I don’t remember any of them!”

“The director’s birthday,” Xie Xizhao calmly entered another set of numbers.

Ai Qingyuan: ???

Beside him, Yun Pan’s mouth formed an “O” shape again.

“No way,” Ai Qingyuan snapped out of his daze. “You even remember that? Are you secretly in love with the director?”

Xie Xizhao: “…”

“Don’t say such horrifying things,” he commented.

Then, he explained, “I just overheard someone mention it once.”

He hadn’t specifically memorized it for this situation—he simply had a habit of collecting and noting down information. Of course, having a good memory was also one of his strengths. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made it into a top university to study mathematics.

Unfortunately, his hope of taking a shortcut and clocking out early was shattered.

This set of numbers still didn’t work.

After trying a few more combinations, he put the password box back down.

It was pointless.

If the password was related to the show, it was unlikely to be obscure. He had already tested all the dates he could think of, and none of them worked. That could only mean one thing—the code needed to be solved using clues found on-site.

He said, “Panpan is probably right.”

Then, he paused. “Did you two find anything earlier?”

At that, Ai Qingyuan averted his gaze guiltily.

He had always been timid, and the horror elements of this inn were so well-executed that he didn’t dare to rummage through anything too thoroughly. He had been half-heartedly slacking off the whole time.

Just as he was trying to think of an excuse, Yun Pan unexpectedly raised his hand.

“I found this,” he said.

He handed a letter to Xie Xizhao.

—

While Xie Xizhao and the others were inside trying to crack the password box, the outside of the inn was eerily silent.

Today’s on-site director was Lu Yan.

Before arriving, the production team of the spin-off show had briefed her on the content of this episode.

Compared to previous ones, this episode was designed to be a bit more challenging.

The spin-off was a great way to maintain the main show’s popularity, and horror elements often led to iconic moments—like the fake severed head earlier. At the same time, they had decided to incorporate puzzle-solving elements into the episode.

It wasn’t aimed at any particular contestant, just a way to break up the monotony of purely entertainment-focused episodes. Too much of the same thing could tire the audience out, so they needed some variety.

Still, no one had expected that even in a game like this, Xie Xizhao would be the one performing the best.

To monitor their progress, the production team had installed a good number of surveillance cameras inside. Xie Xizhao’s attempt at cracking the password had been clearly seen by everyone watching.

As an old colleague, Lu Yan was also well aware of Ma Hongping’s birthday.

To everyone’s surprise, she wasn’t shocked. Instead, she chuckled, shaking her head. “That kid.”

“He’s really sharp,” she sighed.

“Sister Yan, should we go in and give them a hint?” a staff member beside her asked.

In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed. The other teams had already received hints to keep the recording on schedule. Xie Xizhao’s group was progressing the fastest, but given the increasing difficulty ahead, the production team was still a bit concerned.

“Let’s wait a little longer,” Lu Yan said.

Then she thought for a moment. “Did Old Ma meet with Xie Xizhao’s manager today? Is the meeting over?”

“I think it just ended,” a staff member replied.

“I’ll give him a call,” Lu Yan said. “Keep an eye on things here. Let me know if anything comes up.”

The others quickly nodded in response.

Lu Yan glanced at the monitor one more time before stepping away from the inn’s entrance.

Meanwhile, inside the room, progress had been made.

—

Yun Pan had found the letter inside a drawer, but getting to it wasn’t easy.

The drawer was locked. The key was hidden in a vase on top of the cabinet. The vase, in turn, was covered with a layer of “blood”—actually just a sponge. The kid bravely lifted the sponge and retrieved the key.

Since it had been so difficult to obtain, the clue inside was relatively straightforward.

The letter itself wasn’t important, but it contained a single number: 5.

Xie Xizhao didn’t immediately plug the number into the password box. Instead, he led the other two around the room again. That was when they found another letter, tucked into the corner of a nearby wine table.

This one was from a “foreign friend”—at least, according to the signature at the bottom.

From this letter, they obtained a single letter: A.

At this point, they had checked every part of the room that was under surveillance.

Xie Xizhao stared at the two clues for a moment before shifting his gaze to the only remaining unchecked location—the short cabinet behind the counter.

There was also a surveillance camera near the bookshelf.

As a science student, he was highly sensitive to numbers.

The letter alone couldn’t be input into the combination lock, but a letter + number could serve as coordinates to indicate a location.

After thinking for a moment, he walked over to the short cabinet and pulled out the fifth book from the first shelf.

It was an unusual book.

Unlike the other prop books, this one only had a thin outer cover. Upon opening it, he found that only four pages were removable, each depicting a traditional Chinese painting.

Xie Xizhao lowered his eyes slightly, examining the artwork.

“What’s this now?” Ai Qingyuan leaned over. “What are these paintings? They all look like girls. Not to be rude, but there’s not a single word in here. How is this supposed to be a clue?”

Xie Xizhao paused and asked, “Are you a humanities or science student?”

“Humanities,” Ai Qingyuan replied.

Xie Xizhao gave no response to that and instead turned to Yun Pan. “Panpan, what about you?”

Yun Pan hesitated, looking a bit embarrassed. “…I didn’t go to high school.”

Xie Xizhao froze for a moment.

In the entertainment industry, highly educated artists were the exception rather than the rule, but it was still rare for someone to have only completed compulsory education. His earlier question had been an attempt to draw the reserved Yun Pan into the conversation, not expecting the kid to be so honest—nor did he expect that he had only finished middle school.

Since the words had already been spoken, he couldn’t take them back.

With a silent sigh, he swiftly changed the topic. “No worries.”

“This is actually a bit of historical trivia,” he explained. “These four paintings themselves are already a hint.”

He paused for a moment. “Do you see the fish in the river in the first painting?”

Yun Pan blinked. “I see it. It looks like it can’t swim.”

The fish in the painting was sinking to the very bottom of the river—it really did look a little odd.

Xie Xizhao was amused by his cute description and then explained, “It’s not that it can’t swim. It’s because the girl washing silk on the riverbank is so beautiful that the fish in the water got too mesmerized watching her and forgot to swim, so it sank to the bottom.”

Yun Pan’s eyes widened.

Meanwhile, Ai Qingyuan had already made the connection. “The Four Great Beauties of ancient China?”

“Exactly,” Xie Xizhao said. “Sinking fish, falling geese, eclipsing the moon, and shaming flowers. If I’m right, each phrase corresponds to one clue, and each clue leads to one digit of the password. Once we find all four numbers, we can get out of here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the tension in the air noticeably eased.

—

It wasn’t just Ai Qingyuan and Yun Pan—Xie Xizhao also felt uncomfortable staying in this place.

It wasn’t fear, just a stifling feeling. He preferred bright, dry environments and wasn’t a fan of horror-themed games.

At the same time, he had to admit that the production team had put real effort into designing the clues.

Using the Four Great Beauties as the main theme was a smart choice. On one hand, while not everyone knew the story in detail, most people had at least heard of it. On the other hand, these four figures offered a lot of creative ways to build puzzle elements.

Half an hour later, the three of them had found two clues on the first floor.

One was related to Sinking Fish.

In the inn’s backyard, there was a well—the only water-related location in the entire building.

Hanging beside the well was a pole with a row of dried fish hanging from it.

There were seven of them.

Xie Xizhao took out a pen and jotted down the number. Meanwhile, Ai Qingyuan eyed the dried fish. “Well, now it’s not just stunned—it’s completely asleep.”

Yun Pan shivered slightly from the cold joke.

The second clue was Shaming Flowers.

Under the staircase leading to the second floor, a decorative indoor plant was hidden. It had exactly six flower buds.

With that, they had gathered two out of the four digits needed for the combination lock.

At this point, they had only been locked in the escape room for just over fifty minutes.

Xie Xizhao and the others let out a breath of relief.

—

Meanwhile, outside the room, the production team was in absolute shock.

As the puzzle designers, they had tested these clues beforehand. The difficulty wasn’t extreme, but it wasn’t that easy either. The key lay in associative thinking.

But what they hadn’t expected was that the hardest challenge seemed to pose zero difficulty for Xie Xizhao.

His mind worked too fast.

He knew a lot, and he dared to make bold connections.

From deciphering “A5” as a coordinate to linking the four poetic metaphors, everything rolled off his tongue effortlessly—so smoothly it was like an advertisement for a certain chocolate brand. Meanwhile, the production team had nearly burned through their brain cells designing this puzzle.

If this were not the first time the production crew had encountered Xie Xizhao, they might have suspected that someone had leaked the answers to him.

The director stared at the monitor, looking utterly defeated, all sense of accomplishment drained from his face.

—

Inside the room, Xie Xizhao turned his gaze toward the staircase.

With a calm, matter-of-fact tone, he stated, “The metaphors for ‘Falling Geese’ and ‘Eclipsing the Moon’ both relate to the sky, so I’d guess the clues are upstairs. Let’s go take a look.”

The moment he finished speaking, the two people behind him took an involuntary step backward—in perfect sync.

Xie Xizhao: …

For a brief moment, the air froze.

A moment later, Xie Xizhao spoke first. “Then I’ll go.”

Ai Qingyuan: “……”

That was what he had been thinking, but hearing Xie Xizhao say it out loud made him feel incredibly cowardly.

Cowardly to the extreme.

Seeing Xie Xizhao about to head upstairs, he gritted his teeth.

“I’ll go with you.”

Yun Pan followed silently behind him.

Xie Xizhao paused mid-step. “Are you sure?”

He hesitated, then calmly stated his reasoning. “There might be a live NPC.”

Ai Qingyuan: “……”

His foot, which had just stepped forward, was now itching to retreat.

“It’s fine.” Xie Xizhao sighed. “No need to force yourselves. I can handle it alone. You two can wait for me downstairs.”

Since Xie Xizhao put it that way, Ai Qingyuan didn’t insist any further.

“Good luck,” he said. “If anything happens, call us right away. We’ll be waiting at the staircase.”

That was the best balance he could manage between loyalty and fear.

Xie Xizhao chuckled.

Yun Pan still seemed a little hesitant, but Ai Qingyuan quickly talked him out of it. “Better not go. If your legs go weak, Xie Xizhao will have to drag both of us back down. No need to be a burden.”

That remark was so self-aware that Xie Xizhao was quite satisfied as he continued upstairs.

When he reached the second floor, he stopped for two seconds.

A woman in a red dress with long black hair stood right in front of him, only ten centimeters away. Their eyes met.

A moment later, blood-red tears began to stream from her eerie, hollow eyes. Beneath the crimson streaks, her lips curled into an exaggerated, unsettling grin.

Downstairs, Ai Qingyuan’s voice rang out. “What’s wrong?”

He was on edge, so he instantly noticed Xie Xizhao’s hesitation.

Xie Xizhao stared at the “ghost” before him, pondered for two seconds, and replied, “Nothing.”

Then, with a thoughtful expression, he added, “I just suddenly feel like… you two really should treat me to a meal after this.”

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