The next morning, when Xu Xinghe went downstairs to the restaurant for a buffet breakfast, he always felt that his colleagues around him became a little strange.

I walked to the self-service drink area and wanted to have a cup of iced American coffee to refresh myself, but an older colleague kindly asked him to drink less beverages containing sex, and it is better to have a cup of hot milk or hot soy milk.

Others came to ask him how he was doing today, and whether he could still climb the snow-capped mountains together.

Even Team Leader Conrad looked at him more kindly than ever.

Xu Xinghe originally thought that when Conrad woke up this morning and saw them discussing the all-night poker conversation in the group chat last night, he would probably be angry. until when.

As a result, not only was the other party not angry, but he looked at him a little bit more... kind? ?

Yes, it is kindness.

It made Xu Xinghe very inexplicable.

After breakfast, on his way back to the house to pack his luggage, he grabbed the well-informed A Jia while no one was around, and asked, "What's the situation? Did you arrange me in private again?"

"Hey, team leader, first of all, this is not called choreography." Ajia sneered and ducked a little, "Secondly, I think everyone mainly wants to express their concern for you, and there is no malicious intent."

Xu Xinghe heard the words and raised his long eyebrows slightly: "Well, why did you suddenly start caring about me?"

Ajia tilted her head and looked at him: "Leader, let me ask first, did Marshal Ling have a video with you last night?"

Xu Xinghe: "..."

He pretended to cough twice, then looked away: "What's the matter? I'm out, and the cats at home will miss me, so I need to make a video every night."

A Jia had a "You lied to a ghost" expression.

Xu Xinghe was seen to be a little irritable, and simply admitted: "What if you made a video with him? It's just a video, what have you started to spread?"

"Actually it's nothing, it's just some old-fashioned content-" A Jia said, shrinking back again, and whispering: "Some people say that you are preparing for pregnancy, and some people say that you may already be pregnant."

Xu Xinghe: "???"

He suddenly became angry and gritted his teeth and said, "It's outrageous, how do you connect these two things? Besides, didn't you just have a snowball fight with me yesterday afternoon? Do you think I'm not playing hard enough, and want to continue to experience what it's like to be taught to be a human being?"

After a pause, I remembered one more thing, and I was so angry that I could not laugh or cry: "Besides, why is even Team Leader Conrad looking at me like that, as if I'm already pregnant... He believes this too... ??"

"He shouldn't believe that you are pregnant, and we don't believe it either. We just think that since you are already preparing for pregnancy, you can always..."

Xu Xinghe interrupted her with gritted teeth: "Who said I'm preparing for pregnancy??"

"Then why did you suddenly quit drinking?" A Jia asked.

"..." A trace of embarrassment flashed in Xu Xinghe's black eyes, but he still said stubbornly: "It's not safe to drink too much alcohol when you go out. Besides, I can quit if I want, so why is there so much?"

Ajia blinked: "But the team leader, take a step back and say, even if you are not preparing for pregnancy, you are indeed in a period where you may become pregnant at any time... Don't look at me like that, everything is always in case. You We have been married to Marshal Ling for almost three months, and they are so well matched with each other, what if one day I suddenly become a prospective father?"

Xu Xinghe said word by word: "No, yes, ten thousand, one!"

Ajia asked curiously, "Why are you so sure? I remember before you got married..."

Speaking of this, he paused slightly, and then carefully considered: "Team leader, before you got married, it wasn't that you didn't think about having children, right?"

Xu Xinghe was stunned.

The reason why he was sure that he would not get pregnant was because he knew that he and Ling Changfeng had never had sex at all, and naturally it was impossible for him to succeed.

But Ajia reminded him a little that she had really thought about the child.

Because in his original cognition, once a and o go through the estrus period after marriage, they will naturally combine, and it is possible to give birth to a new life after that.

Therefore, being matched by the mastermind, he had to consider the possibility of this aspect and make plans for it early.

Fortunately, during the first marriage, his estrus period did not come, so Mu Qingyun never touched him, and there was no way to talk about creating a human being.

But this time was different. Not only did he go through the estrus period, he was even given a temporary mark by Ling Changfeng...

Recalling his mood swings and his instinctive attachment to the seafood pheromone during the marking period, Xu Xinghe's face warmed slightly.

He lowered his eyes silently, and an uncontrollable thought suddenly flashed in his mind.

If the same thing happens again...

If the temporary markers are stacked, the effect will become stronger and the reaction will become larger and larger.

So whether he or Ling Changfeng, can he really spend this year in peace?

Really...wouldn't there be that kind of "what if"?

"Team leader? Team leader??"

A Jia's little hand waving left and right flashed before his eyes, and Xu Xinghe suddenly came back to his senses.

He looked at Ajia's head and slightly worried eyes, and suddenly laughed.

Why have you become nervous?

Those small-probability events that currently only exist in the pantry of the Ark, don't need to start worrying about it so early. Let's take a step by step...

He reached out and patted Ajia's head: "Let's go, go back to the room and pack up, let's go climb Nanga Snow Mountain."

At eight o'clock in the morning, the sun in the extreme north had not yet risen, and the city was still snowing heavily.

The sky showed a dim, foggy gray-blue, and everyone from the Science and Technology Department got on the hotel shuttle bus and set off for the foot of Nanjia Mountain.

The reason why Nanga City is named "Nanjia" is also because there is a Nanga Snow Mountain in the south.

Whenever the sun rises and sets, the gilded sunlight passes through the clouds and shines on the top of the snow-capped mountains.

This is the scene of the local famous "Rizhao Jinshan".

Everyone came to the foot of the snow mountain, carrying their own big backpacks, talking and laughing up the mountain.

In the first half of the road, everyone climbed on foot. When we walked all the way to the middle of the mountain, finally some people could not walk and chose to take the cable car up.

Xu Xinghe originally wanted to be lazy, but he saw the caring eyes of his colleagues, so he joined the team on foot to the top without looking back.

While annoyed that he was busy working overtime and lacking exercise during this time, he had to bite the bullet and move on.

Fortunately, the scenery along the way did not disappoint everyone's hard work.

The sun rises in the east, and the rays of the sun are shining.

A group of people walking and walking, all the way is a good scenery.

Time passed by in such a fast way that everyone was swimming in the mountains and water for three days.

The fourth day is free time.

Xu Xinghe slept in the hotel and woke up naturally. When he woke up, he moved his limbs and found that the muscles all over his body were still aching.

He decided to go back and have a good workout with Ling Changfeng. As for today, let's have a good rest in the hotel.

Just thinking about it, the smartphone on my wrist suddenly rang.

Xu Xinghe glanced at Ryan's call and clicked to answer.

"Team leader, what are your plans for today?"

"There is no arrangement." Although Team Leader Xu was already awake, he was not in a hurry to get out of bed. He got up and leaned against the bedside, and skillfully ordered an intelligent robot for door-to-door meal delivery service.

"Do you want to play room escape?" Ryan said excitedly on the phone, "James came to me just now and said that he wanted to play the horror room, eight-person book, moderate horror, and there are still three people left."

Horror Room?

Xu Xinghe moved his sore limbs and refused: "I will agree if this is the reasoning behind the secret room."

"What's the matter, team leader?" The voice on the other end of the phone paused and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you afraid?"

Xu Xinghe: "..."

He pretended to be relaxed and said: "Of course not afraid, but why do you want to come to Nanga to escape the room? Wouldn't it be better to go back to the floating city?"

"It's not the same, that secret room is said to have a good reputation! It's a large-scale real-life escape room. There are very few secret rooms in a place like Xingfu City, and the price is cheap!"

"..."

"Come on, it's the last day, we're going back to Xingfu City tomorrow, let's play together at the end, we can't waste our vacation!"

"Okay." Xu Xinghe thought for a while, but didn't refuse anymore, "I'm going to wash up and change my clothes. What time do you have an appointment?"

When Xu Xinghe and the others gathered in the hall, they discovered that Gu Nai was actually there.

Ryan leaned over, lowered his voice and said in his ear, "Sorry, team leader, I didn't know he would come too."

After the forum turmoil, he could feel that the two were avoiding suspicion, intentionally or unintentionally. Even when he went to climb the snowy mountain the day before yesterday, Gu Nai excused himself that he was not feeling well, so he didn't go with them.

As a result, the secret room didn't communicate well this time, and it was just like this.

"It's alright." Xu Xinghe himself was very calm, shook his head and said, "Everyone is a colleague, and you can't see each other when you look up and not look down. You can't just stay away from each other just because of a few rumors."

"Well, it's fine if you're not embarrassed." Ryan breathed a sigh of relief, his tone revived: "This secret room is said to be very scary and exciting! There will be a lot of NPCs pretending to be ghosts to chase you!"

Xu Xinghe: "???"

He looked at Ryan with a haunted look on his face: "Didn't you say it's 'moderate' horror?"

"Ah?" Ryan blinked and said innocently, "Team leader, I said 'severe terror' on the phone."

Xu Xinghe: "..."

day! Is it too late for him to quit now? ?

Just as he was struggling, another colleague came towards him. When he saw Xu Xinghe, he was stunned: "Why did you call Team Leader Xu here too?"

Ryan asked back: "What's the matter? Our team leader can't come?"

"It's not impossible, it's inappropriate... Didn't you say that the secret room was scary? Team Leader Xu has to take good care of it now!"

Xu Xinghe: "..."

He looked at his colleague who wanted to help him directly back to the room, and smiled stiffly: "Thank you for your concern, I'm in good health, and I don't have anything to support. I'm going to the secret room myself."

Looking at Xu Xinghe's expression, Ruian approached him and asked in a low voice, "Team leader, you're not really afraid of ghosts, are you?"

Xu Xinghe was speechless. He refused to admit that he was afraid of ghosts in front of Ling Changfeng, let alone in front of his own team members.

"How is that possible?" Team Leader Xu tried his best to make his voice look contemptuous, "I'm afraid I'm almost the same!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Nai, who was chatting with a colleague in front of him, suddenly turned his head and glanced at him, and smiled lightly.

Xu Xinghe: "..." This person is so annoying!

After all eight people arrived, everyone set off in the direction of the horror secret room.

The car sped for a while, and finally stopped in front of a three-story building in the north of the city.

After getting off the bus, Xu Xinghe asked casually, "This place seems to be out of the way?"

"Because it's big," James explained. "The rent is so expensive for such a big back room in the city center."

Xu Xinghe nodded and looked up at the store on the third floor in front of him.

Different from the kind of secret rooms in commercial office buildings that are common in Xingfu City, this secret room has its own special building, and the event venue is very large, which is quite exciting.

A clerk with a friendly smile came over, led the group into the room, explained the general rules of the secret room to them, and then asked everyone to draw their own character cards. Finally, he reminded: "Electronic smart phones cannot be brought into the secret room. Please pick them up and hand them over to me for safekeeping. After the end, they will be returned to everyone."

Xu Xinghe took off the smart phone on his left wrist and watched the staff lock them in the safe, but suddenly thought of something: "Well, if someone calls me later..." Xu Xinghe struggled, "Let it be Just go, don't hang up for me, and don't answer directly."

The staff smiled and said, "Don't worry, we won't touch your personal belongings."

The background of this horror secret room takes place in the Middle Ages and revolves around the evil spirits and wronged souls in the castle, as well as the sacrificed boys and girls.

The interior of the secret room is exquisite, and the horror atmosphere is well rendered. Dim and flickering lights, blood on the walls, cobwebs everywhere, and spooky music playing every now and then.

As soon as Xu Xinghe stepped into this place, he subconsciously followed Ryan and Ethan and reassured them: "Don't be afraid, there are no ghosts in this world."

"Huh?" Ryan raised a flashlight in one hand and flipped through the key clues on the table in the other. Wen Yan and Ethan looked at each other, and both saw the inexplicable look in each other's eyes, "Team leader, we are not afraid."

As soon as the voice fell, the table was icy cold.

The next moment, screams resounded throughout the room.

"Ahhhh what the hell!"

"The team leader is picking me up!!"

After a short riot, everyone finally cracked the code to leave the room from the book and entered the next room.

The light in this room was even darker, the music stopped, and the surroundings were silent.

In the darkness, someone asked, "What do you want us to do in this room?"

Suddenly, the bell rang.

Then without warning, a few pale-faced evil spirits suddenly crawled out from all directions, crawling towards the crowd.

The scene suddenly turned into a pot of porridge.

Xu Xinghe grabbed Ethan's arm tightly and ran with his eyes closed.

If the lights in the room could be brighter, everyone could probably find that Team Leader Xu's face was not much better than a ghost at the moment.

If he was given another chance to choose, Xu Xinghe thought, he would rather be rumored to be pregnant again than come to this damn secret room!

It's a pity that he has already entered the wolf's den, and it is impossible to quit halfway.

After a great escape chased by a group of ghosts, a ghost NPC who claimed to want to help them appeared and told everyone that they should start in pairs to complete their respective side quests.

The content of the task depends on the character card that each person draws, and the teammates are also determined in the script.

Xu Xinghe was still immersed in the last thrilling escape, and his heart was beating non-stop.

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice ask: "Who is 'Richard' in the game?"

He raised his hand subconsciously: "I me me!"

Gu Nai pushed his glasses and smiled softly across from him: "We're a group, let's go to the basement."

Xu Xinghe: "..."

For a while, he couldn't care about the embarrassment or embarrassment, and asked in a low voice, "Can you not do this side quest?"

He didn't want to go to the basement or something!

"Also." Gu Nai nodded, unexpectedly speaking, "We only need to complete three of the four side missions, get three keys, and finally the gate of the castle will open. In other words, as long as the other three We can just stay where we are and enjoy the success of the team.”

"But..." Gu Nai kindly reminded him, "Even if we stay where we are, there will still be ghosts coming out to scare us. Also, have you seen that big pendulum clock? Every time the minute hand reaches a quarter, there will be one in the castle. A parade of ghosts like just now. So the task is not only to be completed, but also to be done as soon as possible.”

Xu Xinghe struggled for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth: "Then let's go."

Anyway, you will be scared if you go or not, it is better to do the task, finish early and leave this ghost place!

On the way to the basement, Xu Xinghe asked Gu Nai, "How dare you?"

Gu Nai smiled a little bit flatly: "Do I have the guts, maybe I didn't grow up as Xu Group, but I'm not afraid of ghosts."

Xu Xinghe: "..."

"How do you know that ghosts will come out for a parade every moment? That npc just now said nothing except for us to complete the side quests."

"Before I came, I checked the evaluation of this secret room on the Internet, and I accidentally saw that netizens had spoiled it."

"..."

The hallway was dark, and the lights flickered.

Xu Xinghe was afraid that something terrifying would suddenly appear in a corner, so he followed closely behind Gu Nai and walked lightly down the corridor.

"Before I came to Nanga, I went back to Capital University." Gu Nai didn't know if he could see his nervousness and started chatting with him casually.

"Huh? Why did you go back?" Xu Xinghe raised his head when he heard the name of his alma mater, and immediately responded: "By the way, you haven't graduated as a graduate student, and you still have to continue your studies. When will you be an intern at Ark?"

Gu Nai looked forward intently, her voice seemed to be lighter than before: "I'll be leaving soon."

After a pause, he said in a very soft voice, "So I'll go back and have a look at the end."

Xu Xinghe didn't hear his muttering, and just asked, "What do you want to do after graduation? Are you considering working at Ark?"

Gu Nai turned to look at him, smiled and said, "I don't think about it."

When Xu Xinghe saw him like this, he couldn't help but have some embarrassing associations.

After thinking about it, he still said, "Well, in fact, you don't have to avoid me specially."

With such a beginning, Xu Xinghe simply said, "None of us need to pay for some rumors. As long as we have a clear conscience, there is no need to avoid them."

Gu Nai smiled: "I'm not avoiding you. The day you went to climb the snow mountain, I really had something to do, so I asked for leave."

Hearing what he said, Xu Xinghe breathed a sigh of relief and asked casually, "Apart from traveling, what else is there to do besides play?"

Gu Nai smiled but didn't answer.

The two walked to the basement while talking.

Pushing open the rusted door, smoke filled the inside, and the sound of the music box echoed in the empty room.

"Why is there still smoke in the basement?" Xu Xinghe asked quietly.

"It may be that the convenience ghost suddenly rushed out to scare people." Gu Nai smiled, "The fog is a good shield. You know, most of the fear comes from the unknown. If you know the ghost's next move, you won't be afraid anymore. ."

Xu Xinghe: "..."

fuck! Saying that, feel even more nervous.

He silently moved closer to Gu Nai.

Gu Nai noticed this move, smiled and reassured him and said, "I'm joking, there are no ghosts here, it's not scary."

Xu Xinghe expressed ten thousand unbelief.

However, he was still concerned about his own side quests, and asked with trembling teeth, "How are we going to get the key? It doesn't seem like there is much to solve the mystery."

Gu Nai was silent for a while, then slowly said, "We don't need to take the key."

Xu Xinghe was taken aback: "Huh?"

"Our mission is different from others. Remember what it said in the script? We are the assistants of Lord Earl. When you go to the next room, you will find that we are actually a group of evil spirits in the castle."

Xu Xinghe was stunned, and blinked at the strange music from the music box.

"So, our task is to find the lock from the basement, then go through the secret room first, and put the lock on the castle gate. In this way, the remaining six people can be sacrificed and locked in this castle forever."

Xu Xinghe nodded and gradually accepted the setting: "It's quite complicated. That is to say, our role has changed from prey to hunter?"

"Ok."

"If you think about it like this, you don't seem to be afraid." Xu Xinghe said, "I hope the ghosts in the castle can distinguish the enemy from me, and stop suddenly rushing out to scare their own people."

Gu Nai smiled: "The hunters also have things to worry about, such as what to do if the prey runs away."

Xu Xinghe asked, "Is this what you saw on the Internet?"

Gu Nai shook his head: "No, the online review wouldn't be written in such detail, otherwise the spoiler would be a little immoral."

"I also think, how do you know the follow-up plot?"

Gu Nai smiled: "Because this place was introduced by me."

Xu Xinghe found a box and sat down: "Why, do you have relatives working here?"

"Roughly the same."

"No, is it true?"

"Fake."

"..."

Xu Xinghe felt that something was wrong with Gu Nai.But before he could ask, he suddenly felt a little weak.

The music box stopped, and the surrounding smoke gradually dissipated.

"You..." Xu Xinghe wanted to get up, suddenly his feet softened, and he fell straight back.

Before he fell, he saw Gu Nai standing opposite him, looking down at him condescendingly.

Under the dim and flickering lights in the basement, the black eyes behind the lenses were indifferent.

The scene in front of him gradually darkened, Xu Xinghe slanted and fell into a coma...