Tang Zhen raised his brow slightly: “Is there more?”
Yan Chuan struggled with his thoughts, hesitating: “He will ask for good morning and good night kisses.”
Shan Qi suddenly interjected: “Does he want you to take the initiative?”
Yan Chuan paused for a moment before nodding.
“Uh,” his voice was as soft as a whisper: “Just a kiss on the forehead…”
A brief connection, just like that.
While he spoke words of self-comfort, Yan Chuan had already tightly clenched the hem of his clothes, his fingertips turning a little pale.
It was as if he were being portrayed as an undignified person.
Yan Chuan lowered his eyelashes, his dark lashes fluttering anxiously, his tightly pressed lips revealing his nervousness.
His face, initially somewhat pale, now flushed with a rosy hue, pinkish and softening the whiteness of his cheeks.
He looked quite pitiful.
However, the two other men in the room showed no intention of letting him off easy; they moved in closer without a hint of restraint, as if trying to see any signs of deceit in his glossy eyes.
“So what do you call him, husband?”
Someone leaned in to ask, their hot breath brushing against Yan Chuan’s delicate earlobe, causing him to sink a little deeper into the sofa.
With such a movement, Yan Chuan found himself completely trapped by Shan Qi and Tang Zhen, appearing to be firmly bound in the middle by their arms.
A noticeably warm body drew nearer, a pale hand gripping his wrist, and a second hand of a slightly darker skin tone rested on his arm.
The heat from their bodies transmitted through the touch, prompting Yan Chuan to move his wrist, trying to pull his hand back.
“Isn’t it?”
However, with the strength of Shan Qi and Tang Zhen combined, he couldn’t break free and could only nod awkwardly.
With his wrist held and his thigh pressed against, Yan Chuan felt a wave of panic, slowly realizing that he couldn’t move at all.
“Can you let me go first…” After a flurry of struggling, Yan Chuan felt a bit of sweat on his back: “It’s just playing a role; not doing this makes it hard to maintain the character.”
“In any case,” the beautiful wife, riddled with guilt, reassured himself: “It’s not sincere.”
Not sincere?
Did he really think that way every time he proactively offered good morning and good night kisses recently?
Shan Qi and Tang Zhen both unconsciously contemplated this question.
Such a beautiful and delicate wife would give sweet kisses when her husband came home, displaying affection. Yet, in his heart, he believed all of it was fake, that every gesture he made was to deceive.
His rosy, soft lips would part to speak sweet words.
He could even say in front of other men that he wasn’t sincere.
“Alright!” Yan Chuan finally couldn’t bear the atmosphere any longer; he raised his voice slightly: “To get back on track, I have suspected the relationship between ‘husband’ and that monster, but I can’t be sure, nor do I know their relation to the script we received.”
His husband treated him well, and he had yet to discover the two lovers outside, so the crucial plots should occur after his husband “angrily exposes his wife’s lies.”
However, how did his husband discover it? What would be his reaction, and what about his lovers? Yan Chuan could not know.
There were also his unfinished Task Two: “Who is the person beside the pillow?”
This question sounded easy to answer, but how should “the person beside the pillow” be defined? Was it simply someone he had been intimate with?
According to his character in the script, his husband, Shan Qi, and Tang Zhen could all be considered.
Would an escape variety show pose such a simple question?
Or did he have other “lovers” in the Thirteenth Apartment?
Yan Chuan naturally did not know, which was why he had consistently avoided answering the question.
Now that Shan Qi and Tang Zhen were both present, in order to ease the awkward atmosphere and gather more clues, he decided to voice his task.
As expected, Shan Qi and Tang Zhen’s expressions subtly shifted.
“Are you saying…” Tang Zhen asked: “You suspect that there are other lovers in this script?”
“Yes,” Yan Chuan nodded, somewhat conflicted as he reiterated his guess: “The escape variety show shouldn’t pose such a simple question, right?”
Shan Qi affirmed: “It wouldn’t.”
Yan Chuan seemed to have found a sense of reassurance, nodding eagerly: “So I’ve been thinking, I somewhat suspect that monster’s identity.”
The monster he had only seen once acted so strangely… It truly raised suspicion.
“That possibility cannot be ruled out,” Tang Zhen concluded: “That monster is indeed very suspicious.”
“Of course,” Shan Qi added: “You also need to be wary of your ‘husband’; his request for a kiss definitely doesn’t imply anything good.”
Yan Chuan nodded.
His husband was indeed very suspicious… but that last statement carried a hint of something else, didn’t it?
***
Evening came.
The contestants rarely gathered together anymore; most were grouped in threes and twos, collaborating and sharing clues primarily.
However, at night, everyone still had to return to their apartments.
Yan Chuan waited for his “husband” in the living room.
Yet after a whole day’s time, his mood had subtly changed.
At the appointed hour, the door opened on time.
His husband still wore a sharp suit, exuding a cold atmosphere, with a hint of gloom in his eyes.
Yan Chuan stood up, just as he was about to speak, when a strong odor of rusty iron suddenly filled his nostrils.
It was blood, and the scent was quite strong.
Yan Chuan’s eyes widened in alarm as he smelt it.
When had his “husband” been injured?
Whose blood was it?
A horrifying guess began to take shape in Yan Chuan’s mind as he bit down on his lower lip and quickly approached.
“What’s wrong?” He pulled at his husband’s sleeve anxiously: “Are you hurt?”