The next day.
The production crew called all the guests downstairs first thing in the morning, assigning each of them a camera operator.
The first-floor lobby and the other areas looked completely different from yesterday, with lots of strange furniture and decorations added.
The director held up a megaphone and shouted, "Everyone, welcome to the third installment of Brave Challenge! We're live!"
Viewers instantly flooded the livestream.
[It's starting, it's starting! These past few days of waiting have been killing me!]
[Here for award-winning actor An Hui!]
[Yuhao, I'm here!]
[Zhuo Bao!!!]
[Awww, Siruo and Chichi are both so pretty!]
[Is that ridiculously good-looking guy Su Li?]
[Our Haoyu is the most handsome. Who does this guy think he is?]
[Mom, I'm in love!!]
[Seriously? The stream just started and there are already paid shills?]
[Just a pretty face. Hope he doesn't get scared into crying later.]
"Just like in the last two installments, please return to your rooms now and hand over electronic devices such as phones and computers to the crew. You can't use your phones during the livestream. You'll get them back once the livestream tasks are over!"
The guests headed upstairs to their rooms, their camera operators following close behind. Each of them now had a separate livestream channel.
The young camera operator followed Su Li to his room. When they reached the door, he suddenly felt the temperature drop, as though something were watching him.
Su Li had already opened the door, and the camera operator hurriedly asked, "C-can I film inside? It's a requirement from the crew."
"Of course."
Su Li's channel had quite a few viewers now, though they were either there for his looks or waiting to find fault.
[Awww, he's so gentle and accommodating.]
[Oh, please. The crew required it. Would a nobody like him dare refuse?]
[Mindless haters, get out!]
Once inside, the camera operator discovered that Su Li's room felt surprisingly homey. He could tell at a glance that it had been carefully arranged.
The curtains had been replaced with beige ones, a rug covered the floor, and even the table had a tablecloth. On it sat a patterned candle that looked like a scented candle, and there was even a mini fridge in the corner!
Where had that fridge come from??? Had it been there all along?? The camera operator couldn't figure it out.
Still, Su Li must really love life. Unlike other celebrities, he didn't have an assistant, so he must have spent a long time arranging everything himself.
To the camera operator's surprise, there were actually two dolls on the neatly made bed, one male and one female. They looked delicate and adorable.
[Su Li likes BJDs too??]
[Seriously? Looking girly wasn't enough, he has to play with dolls like a girl too??]
[I could smell the sour grapes from that commenter eight hundred miles away.]
[Judging by how those two dolls look, they must be really expensive.]
[Such cute dolls!!]
[Cute? Am I the only one who finds them a little creepy?]
Once they were downstairs, the crew called all the guests over to a large round table covered with all kinds of breakfast dishes.
[What a spread.]
[I haven't had breakfast yet. This is making me hungry.]
"Everyone, sit down and have breakfast. You'll be given a task in a bit."
Everyone sat down. Zhao Yuhao was feeling very frustrated. He had arranged everything to give Su Li trouble over his meals, but to his surprise, only one meal had been delivered before two members of the logistics team ended up in the hospital that afternoon.
Seeing how well Su Li looked today only made him loathe him more.
Watching the gray emotions around the man grow denser and denser, Su Li took a cheerful sip of milk.
Just then, the award-winning actor An Hui asked, "How did everyone sleep yesterday? I feel like this installment is going to be pretty difficult."
Everyone else said they had slept fine. Only Meng Chichi said she had vaguely heard strange noises during the night.
She was staying in the second room on the left.
[What? It started yesterday?]
[It was probably the crew. I think they set up the scenes the afternoon and evening before.]
The other guests also thought it had been the sound of the crew setting up the scenes, and Meng Chichi nodded.
Cheng Siruo, the queen of song, looked at Su Li. "How are you finding it? If you're missing anything, tell me when we get back." She really liked this good-looking, well-behaved young man.
[Why is Sister Cheng so nice to Su Li??]
[Our Sister Cheng is beautiful and kind. That's totally normal.]
"Thank you, Sister Cheng," Su Li said. "I really like the surroundings here, and the lunch the crew provided was delicious too."
Zhao Yuhao's expression suddenly soured.
Did he know? Surely that was impossible.
Su Li took a bite of toast with jam in the middle, his mood growing even brighter.
"Brother Su, Brother Su, I brought loads of snacks! If you want any, you can come find me!" Chen Zhuo suddenly told him.
[Awww, Zhuo Bao is like a little puppy. So cute.]
[Zhuo Bao won't even share his snacks with his teammates. He's so protective of his food, but he's actually offering some to Su Li??]
[Good looks are justice!!]
"Sure. Thank you~"
A little more pink emotion appeared around Chen Zhuo.
"Master, I put plenty of food and milk tea in the witchcraft space for you. There's no need to go to him."
"Yuan is still the most thoughtful~" Su Li coaxed him.
A middle-aged man in a suit vest suddenly walked toward them.
"Hello, guests. I'm this estate's butler. My surname is Li. If you have any questions in the future, you can come to me. But right now, may I ask you all for a small favor?"
[Here we go, here we go.]
[This must be the NPC who hands out quests.]
This must be the task assignment, the guests thought.
"Because of certain things that happened here in the past, many parts of this Manor have remained unused. Even the servants here and I have never been to them.
"Now the mistress of our Manor wishes to surprise her child with a toy he once loved most. But the lock to the toy room has been divided into three pieces and hidden in those places, and the mistress previously forbade us from entering those three areas.
"You're outsiders, so you should be able to go there. Could I ask you to retrieve those three key fragments for me?"
Although the story was full of holes, this was a task from the crew, so they just had to do it.
"All right. Where are the key fragments?" An Hui asked.
"Once you've split into teams, I'll give you the locations and a picture of the key."
The director held up his megaphone. "We happen to need teams of two, so let's go by your seats. An Hui and Zhao Yuhao will be one team, Cheng Sirong and Chen Zhuo another, and Su Li and Meng Chichi the third."
[The award-winning actor and Haoyu are on the same team. Won't this task be a breeze?]
[Su Li and Meng Chichi? Each looks more delicate than the other. Can they finish the task?]
[Our Chichi will definitely be fine. No idea what this Su Li is like.]
[Su Li, don't hold Chichi back.]
The butler gave them cards with their task locations and pictures of the key fragments. The complete key was a circle with a design on it, divided into three equal pieces.
Su Li was assigned the café on the third floor, Chen Zhuo's team the third-floor piano room, and An Hui's team the second-floor storage room.
Something stirred in Su Li's mind. The storage room? Didn't the hanged ghost mention there was a box ghost there? The crew actually set things up there too.
He could sense the energy of quite a few ghosts on the third floor as well.
This Manor was truly fascinating.
But Su Li was in no hurry. Sooner or later, every ghost in this Manor would be his. Any that dared resist would be refined into little candies.
Before you continue