Could it be a projection?

He watched the puppet wink at him again before walking over to his side.

Liu Jinjian was thrilled. Sure enough, this was the puppet that was different!

Once the lights came on and the violin started playing, he could hardly wait to shout, "I found it!"

Chen Zhuo quietly asked Su Li, "He actually found it? Is he right?"

Su Li's gaze was unreadable. "Who knows?"

[He found it that quickly? That's Mr. Liu for you.]

[Don't praise him yet. We don't even know if he's right.]

"Oh? You've found it, sir?" The masked man lowered his violin, looking very surprised.

"Yes!" Liu Jinjian lifted his chin smugly.

"Then please point it out."

Liu Jinjian haughtily turned to point it out, only to discover there was no puppet beside him at all!

Impossible. It had clearly been right here just now. He couldn't believe it. Where had the puppet gone?

Seeing that he wasn't speaking, Cheng Sirong said, "Hey, can you stop wasting our time? Point out which one it is."

"It was right here just now. Why is it gone?" Liu Jinjian began to panic.

An Hui spoke coldly. "Mr. Liu, please stop wasting our time. We've already been here for an hour."

[Did he find it or not?]

[What's he making such a fuss for? Who's he trying to impress?]

[Actually... when the lights were off, there did seem to be a puppet beside him.]

[So I wasn't the only one who saw it? Then why is it gone now?]

[Holy shit, could there really be a ghost??]

[I think this Liu Jinjian just wants to make himself stand out.]

The masked man said slowly, "Please point out the one you found within one minute."

Liu Jinjian gritted his teeth. Left with no choice, he randomly pointed at one of the puppets nearest to him.

"Sorry, you chose the wrong one." With that, the masked man resumed playing his violin.

"Some people can't see properly themselves, yet they say others are attention seekers who couldn't find it in a whole day. In the end, they've made quite a fool of themselves."

Chen Zhuo seemed to be speaking quietly to Su Li and the others, but he hadn't muted his microphone, so both the viewers and Liu Jinjian heard him.

[I'm sold on this ship. He's standing up for Li Bao!]

[Chen Zhuo: Nobody gets to bully Su Li!]

[Chen Zhuo's words are so infuriating, hahaha.]

[Chen Zhuo isn't wrong, though. Liu Jinjian really can't see properly.]

[Zhuo Bao looks so cute when he's being sarcastic!]

Liu Jinjian was both furious and afraid now. He was furious at the others' attitude toward him, and afraid because he had clearly seen that puppet standing beside him, only for it to vanish in the blink of an eye.

He couldn't make sense of it, no matter how hard he thought. Could he have been hallucinating?

Meanwhile, Su Li went back to that puppet, pretending to examine it carefully.

Seeing Su Li come looking for him again, the puppet couldn't help shifting backward a little.

Su Li chuckled. "Don't be scared. Go scare him again in a bit. The more terrifying, the better."

The emotional energy he had gained in the past hour was even greater than what he had gained the day before yesterday.

Then he patted the puppet's shoulder and left.

The music stopped. The guests were already prepared.

Once the lights dimmed, Liu Jinjian saw that same puppet again.

He watched helplessly as the puppet slowly approached him again.

Wasn't this the puppet from earlier? Where had he come from?

But this time, the puppet didn't just wink. He actually began to smile slowly!

The stiff, bloodstained puppet face wore an extremely eerie smile.

This... was technology really this advanced now? Even prop puppets could smile?

Liu Jinjian reassured himself with that thought, but he was so nervous that he couldn't help swallowing.

But what happened next made it impossible for him to keep fooling himself!

The corners of the puppet's mouth stretched wider and wider, and numerous cracks actually appeared across his face. The insides were bright red, and more and more blood flowed out.

With a clatter, the puppet's entire face shattered! Even his eyeballs fell out, dangling from strands of tissue!

Then even the puppet's body began slowly falling apart, turning into countless chunks of flesh, with organs and blood spilling all over the floor.

Forced to watch the puppet fall apart from beginning to end, Liu Jinjian found the sight far too overwhelming. His eyes widened, filled with terror.

How could a puppet bleed? How could he even have internal organs?? Wasn't this a machine??

"Aah!!" He couldn't help screaming and stumbling several steps backward, only to bump into another puppet. He instinctively turned his head and saw the swollen face of another prop puppet.

The fear that had been building up became too much for him at that moment, and he collapsed to the floor.

The lights came on.

All the guests looked toward Liu Jinjian.

He was sitting on the floor, his face pale, his eyes shut as he pointed ahead. "A... a ghost!"

Everyone looked where he was pointing. There was nothing there except a puppet that looked no different from the others.

"What ghost is he talking about? Isn't that just a puppet?" Su Li asked An Hui and the others, looking thoroughly confused.

"Listen, great author, this puppet is a little scary, but surely not enough to mistake it for a ghost? Just how nervous are you?"

Cheng Sirong mocked him mercilessly.

"It was a ghost! I saw him fall apart all over the floor with my own eyes!! A prop couldn't do that!!" Liu Jinjian shouted.

A crew member asked the director, "Director, can our props fall apart to scare people?"

"No. They're all electronically operated and can only make simple movements. How could they fall apart?" Wang Xiang had another headache. Could this Liu Jinjian have mental health issues too?

[They invited someone mentally ill last episode, and now another one this episode?]

[Why are there so many bizarre guests this episode?]

[He just got scared and is deliberately calling it a ghost.]

[Wasn't he all high and mighty at the start? How did a puppet scare him this badly?]

[His expression doesn't look fake to me. Could there really be something there?]

"Open your eyes and look. There are so many of us here, and none of us saw anything. Do you have delusions or something?" Chen Zhuo felt that Liu Jinjian was just making trouble for no reason.

Liu Jinjian slowly opened his eyes and found an intact puppet in front of him. It didn't even look like the one from earlier.

"This... how is this possible? I saw it perfectly clearly! Could the production team be using some kind of projection to scare the guests?" His terror turned to anger.

"Is your production team deliberately messing with me?? First you deliberately made a puppet wink at me. I thought you were giving me a clue on purpose, but then it disappeared. And then you sent another one to fall apart and scare me?"

[If it were a projection, the other guests and all of us should have been able to see it too.]

[Can Wang Xiang please pick his guests properly and stop inviting people who cause this much trouble?]

[I think he's just too scared to admit it and is shifting the blame onto the production team.]

[This episode is really wild. One unexpected incident after another.]

[If this weren't live, I'd think it was staged.]

He yelled at the masked man onstage.

The actor playing the masked man onstage was bewildered. What was going on? What was he supposed to do?

Su Li suddenly spoke, his tone concerned. "Mr. Liu, it probably wasn't a projection. None of us saw it. Could you be..." Before he could finish, Liu Jinjian roared.

"Shut up!!" He glared at Su Li. "You jinx! This is all because of you!!" His bad luck had only started after meeting him!

[What kind of way is that to talk to someone?]

[Not a shred of decency, and he calls himself a writer?]

[He has the nerve to call other people uncultured and ill-mannered?]

[Li Bao was kindly showing concern for him. Why is he insulting him?]

[I don't particularly like Su Li, but this Liu Jinjian has a real character problem.]

[Why did Director Wang invite just anyone this episode?]

For a while, the barrage of comments was filled with condemnation of Liu Jinjian. Even the comments under his Feibo posts were full of insults.

The viewers who had been watching the livestream all along knew perfectly well that he had been the one making trouble from start to finish, and had even insulted someone for no reason.