Chapter 2

The few viewers who rushed into Shi Jian’s livestream had originally come to admire a pretty young lady up close, but unexpectedly unlocked a different side of the newbie streamer: “I’m not scared, I’m just pretending.”

The viewers in the stream were momentarily stunned, then quickly began calling their friends over.

There have always been good-looking streamers, but ones this beautiful were rare — and this was the first time they’d seen someone so pretty yet able to shake her legs like crimped instant noodles!

Someone even tipped Shi Jian a 【Lollipop】— the first gift she’d received since arriving here, and also the very first tip given in the entire instance.

The sweet 【Lollipop】 was gifted for her face-switching and leg-shaking skills.

The viewer count in Shi Jian’s personal stream also began to slowly increase.

Shi Jian was still completely unaware. If she had known, she’d rather not receive any tips at all. While relieved she hadn’t been exposed, she was also secretly giving herself a pep talk.

There’s a livestream — even at a time like this, she must maintain a perfect image. She could do it!

……

“Should we go ahead and assign rooms? Since we can’t leave the castle now, we’ll have to stay here,” Zhang Dong suggested after looking around the first floor.

Shi Jian and the others had remained on the first floor. After scaring everyone, the butler Tang had left them behind under the pretense of preparing dinner.

Zhang Dong and a few others had just discovered that there were several guest rooms on the first floor that could be used.

“Alright.”

“Sounds good.”

No one objected. After learning Zhang Dong was a veteran streamer and their newbie guide, everyone naturally developed a sense of dependence on him. After all, he had survived several of these life-threatening instances — clinging to his leg might be the key to survival.

The guest rooms were all twin rooms, so naturally it was two people per room. Quite a few even wanted to room with Zhang Dong, and two men nearly got into a fight over him.

Watching the scene of Zhang Dong being caught between men on both sides, Shi Jian suddenly wanted to laugh — almost breaking free from the grip of fear.

In the end, Zhang Dong’s lucky roommate was decided with a game of rock-paper-scissors.

Shi Jian was assigned a stylish urban woman as her temporary roommate.

Shi Jian nodded politely and greeted her, but didn’t engage in much small talk. The woman also didn’t seem inclined to chat, which allowed Shi Jian to breathe a sigh of relief.

She was afraid that saying too much might give herself away — she didn’t even know if she could keep her voice from trembling.

But the fear still hadn’t faded. This damn Rose Castle constantly pushed the limits of Shi Jian’s fraying nerves.

After they finished assigning rooms, the butler Tang appeared once again without a sound — as if he had been monitoring their progress all along.

With a smile that mixed politeness with malice, Tang said, “A sumptuous dinner has been prepared. Everyone, please follow me to the dining room. After your meal, you can also enjoy a relaxing hot spring.”

After saying this, he took the lead and began guiding everyone to the dining room. Shi Jian was filled with a huge, capital-lettered question:

Can they really eat the meal he prepared?

Although the butler Tang looked no different from an ordinary person, Shi Jian didn’t believe for a second that he was still human.

Regardless, she followed along — who knew what might happen if she didn’t? For now, the task was to head to the dining room.

The dining room was luxuriously decorated. A crystal chandelier lit up the shining silver cutlery. The long dining table could easily seat over twenty people, and in front of each place setting sat a freshly blooming rose.No eyeballs — the normal kind.

There was also the sound of a gentle violin playing in the room. Everything appeared incredibly warm and cozy.

But Shi Jian caught a faint whiff of rot. She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination.

It was soon proven that it wasn’t.

Shi Jian lagged a few steps behind. The main group had already arrived. Someone was indeed hungry and had relaxed a little in this environment. He cautiously lifted the food cover — then screamed and flung it away in panic.

“F**k, a dead rat?!”

It wasn’t just a dead rat. The charred lumps of meat were sloppily prepared. Shi Jian even saw toads, earthworms... probably even some decaying flesh. Once the covers were off, the stench exploded, filling the entire room.

Shi Jian: “……”

Butler Tang cheerfully urged them on, “Guests, aren’t you going to eat?”

Of course they weren’t. How could anyone eat this?

Everyone’s faces turned grim. Seeing that no one was making a move, Butler Tang regretfully began removing the dishes one by one.

After that dining scene, Shi Jian knew the hot springs wouldn’t be any better. Sure enough—

Shi Jian frowned. “…This looks like boiling water?”

She and the others stood beside the so-called hot spring pool, watching the steam rise and bubbles gurgle. She was increasingly convinced this entire “instance” had no intention of going easy on them.

Soaking in boiling water? A live cooking session?

……

“It’s already quite late. Guests, please return to your rooms and rest. A reminder — the master enjoys quiet. Do not leave your rooms after midnight.”

With that, Butler Tang disappeared again.

Shi Jian felt like there was a hidden meaning in his words. The warning was clearly important. Zhang Dong confirmed this, repeating it several times.

“Absolutely do not leave your room after midnight. Bad things could happen if you do.”

Back in the room, the temporary roommate — the urban woman — asked Shi Jian, “Are you going to take a shower?”

“I want to, but I take a while… and it’s almost midnight…”

Her unspoken message was clear: she hoped Shi Jian would hurry up or better yet not shower at all — the selfish type.

Normally, Shi Jian might have argued with her, but tonight she was mentally and physically drained. In this kind of survival setting, she didn’t have the energy to waste on that.

So she shook her head. “No, I already showered earlier. I’ll just wash my hands.”

Shi Jian had already bathed at the hotel and was wearing a bathrobe when she came here, so a quick hand wash before bed was enough.

The one silver lining was that each guest room had a private bathroom. This probably made the “don’t leave the room after midnight” rule feasible. Otherwise, if someone had to urgently pee, it could get ugly.

The urban woman smiled in satisfaction. “Go ahead then.”

Shi Jian only planned to wash her hands — but something suddenly changed.

【Streamer, danger!】【There’s something in the mirror, I don’t even dare look anymore.】

【I just started getting attached to this streamer, and now she’s about to be done for? Her luck is really bad. Everyone else is fine. QWQ】

Shi Jian kept her head down, washing her hands. The mirror hanging above the sink had looked completely normal at first, reflecting her and the surroundings — until it suddenly morphed into a long-haired, faceless mirror ghost.

The mirror ghost fed on fear. The more terrified the target, the stronger she became, making it easier to seize their body.

She had already set her sights on Shi Jian — so pretty, and such a coward. Wasn’t this the perfect offering prepared just for her?

Shi Jian’s leg-shaking had not only been seen by a few viewers in the livestream — the mirror ghost saw it too.

The mirror ghost enjoyed sizing Shi Jian up, her body swaying with excitement. She already saw Shi Jian’s body as hers for the taking.

She struck a pose, preparing to welcome a blood-curdling scream. The livestream viewers were on edge, convinced Shi Jian was doomed.

Shi Jian looked up.

She met the gaping, faceless mirror ghost eye to eye.

Shi Jian turned around and left. As she walked away, she rubbed her arms and muttered in disgust, “The merchandise around here is so ugly.”

When could she go back already?

No scream. No fear.

“Ugly merchandise” mirror ghost: ???

The chat exploded in a frenzy.

【Hahahahahaha, what just happened?!】

【Did I just see confusion on a face with no face?!】

【The newbie streamer apparently didn’t even realize what the mirror ghost was, just thought it was some ugly castle decor. Pfft.】

Shi Jian truly hadn’t realized the seriousness of the situation — she didn’t see the thing in the mirror as a dangerous monster at all.

After seeing roses with eyeballs, a rotten meat banquet, and boiling “hot springs,” her nerves had gone numb. She figured this was just another weird prop that dropped her sanity a little.

…

Having evaded the mirror ghost, Shi Jian lay down on her bed to sleep, trying to clear her mind and fall asleep quickly.

It was already really late by her standards. Unless she had to stay up late for work, Shi Jian always went to bed early — a routine that many fans jokingly called her “good kid” schedule, totally out of place among the night-owl crowd of young people.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like playing on her phone or going out — but staying up late meant acne, puffiness, dark circles…

Sleep was the best skincare.

Before heading into the bathroom, the urban woman noticed Shi Jian settling in to sleep. She scoffed to herself, not believing anyone could actually fall asleep right now.

At first, Shi Jian was indeed a bit restless and couldn’t sleep, but she reminded herself of the consequences of staying up late and forced herself to sleep.

At midnight, the castle’s bell tolled. Two eyeballs glowing with a ghostly red light squeezed in through the crack beneath the door. They bounced and rolled across the floor like marbles, making crisp clacking noises that echoed eerily in the dead silence of night.

Shi Jian lay motionless in bed.

The two eyeballs floated up and drifted toward her face, their glow illuminating it completely.Shi Jian lay in bed, her breathing steady, sleeping peacefully.

The two eyeballs waited for a while, but seeing no sign of Shi Jian waking up, slinked away dejectedly in search of another target.

The next morning, the moment Shi Jian opened her eyes, she saw the urban woman looking exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes. Shi Jian was surprised. “What’s wrong? You didn’t sleep?”

You’d have to stay up all night to end up like that, right?

The urban woman was even more shocked. “You slept?”

Shi Jian nodded. What else?

“Then you don’t know there were two giant eyeballs patrolling the room last night? The room was drafty and leaking too…”

In fact, after seeing how refreshed and clear-headed Shi Jian looked, the urban woman had already confirmed that Shi Jian had actually, ridiculously, slept — and slept well at that.

The urban woman hadn’t slept a wink all night and was holding it in miserably.

She had never endured such a torturous night. First, she noticed the bouncing eyeballs. Her instincts told her that being caught awake by them would not end well, so she kept her eyes shut and waited for them to leave. Later, the room actually started leaking wind and rain.

She had originally thought Shi Jian was just pretending to sleep like her — but clearly, Shi Jian had no idea what happened.

Shi Jian got up. She really didn’t know.

But she did notice some leftover water stains on the floor, and when she pinched her blanket, it was a little damp too.

Shi Jian solved the mystery and murmured, “No wonder I felt a bit cold last night.” In her groggy state, she had thought she was on a filming set.

Shi Jian had high standards for quality of life, but she wasn’t afraid of hardship. During shoots, if there was any downtime, sleeping in rough conditions was normal for her.

Urban woman: “……”

The conversation didn’t continue because noisy commotion suddenly erupted outside the door. Shi Jian’s heart started racing.

Something had happened.