[The novel is complete. Thank you to all the sweet readers for supporting the official release!]
[My next novel, You Guys Have It Way Too Easy in Showbiz, is now underway. See the blurb at the end. If you're interested, visit my author page to bookmark it.]
Shen Qingxiao transmigrated into a novel about escape-room variety shows. As an actor barely known beyond the eighteenth tier, he took part in the couples' escape-room show True Love Escape alongside his wealthy husband, whom he had married in a contractual arrangement.
In the original novel, the thrilling atmosphere of the escape rooms created a suspension-bridge effect, acting as a catalyst for love.
It brought an ex-couple back together, made rivals fall in love over time, and made the leading couple, a real-life pair, sweeter and sweeter!
Unfortunately, Shen Qingxiao was a disposable side character.
He was the foolish, pitiful foil to the protagonist shou.
And Chu Li, the wealthy husband he'd married by contract, was aloof and arrogant, with no affection for him at all.
During filming, Chu Li found Shen Qingxiao too annoying and quit halfway through. The next day, he asked for a divorce, leaving Shen Qingxiao to be mocked across the internet...
Shen Qingxiao had once owned a chain of escape rooms across the country. When he learned that he couldn't actively change the plot, he decided:
He'd treat it as a chance to learn how to design large-scale escape rooms. He was here already, after all!
So...
In front of his husband, Shen Qingxiao played the meek, pitiful type: "The skeleton's so scary, boohoo."
As soon as Chu Li turned around, he excitedly rubbed the skull: The prop detail is top-notch. Maybe I should recommend this supplier to the production team?
Chased by an NPC dressed as a ghost, Shen Qingxiao shrieked miserably: "Honey, wait for me!"
Once Chu Li left him behind, he cheerfully chased after the NPC instead. "Hey, buddy, how much do you get paid for a day's work? I'll offer you double. Interested?"
Of course, he didn't forget to play the foil and shower the protagonist shou with praise: "You're so close! You can definitely do it!"
...Unfortunately, the protagonist shou really couldn't crack the code, so Shen Qingxiao secretly slipped him the answer to help him maintain his genius-student image.
Shen Qingxiao thought he'd followed the plot perfectly.
But then more and more things started to feel off.
--The comments in the livestream were strange:
[When the skeleton appeared just now, I think Shen Qingxiao smiled...]
[I can confirm! He looked pitifully scared, but his lips were smiling. What a gorgeous psycho!]
--His bad-tempered husband, Chu Li, was acting strange:
After leaving him behind, Chu Li actually turned back to look for him. The man who was usually as cold as an iceberg was frantic with worry. He pressed Shen Qingxiao's shoulder blades hard against the damp wall with his knuckles and snapped angrily:
"Shen Qingxiao, if you're scared, behave and stay close to me!"
--The protagonist shou was acting strange too:
During a side mission, the protagonist shou actually abandoned the protagonist gong and insisted on sticking with Shen Qingxiao's team!
Shen Qingxiao treated the protagonist shou like one of the girls, but the other man pressed close to him and whispered sweetly in his ear:
"I've wanted to be the one on top for ages. Teacher Shen, won't you give me a chance?"
Shen Qingxiao: Huh?
If I hadn't read the original novel, I might actually believe you!
*
Before the show aired, viewers: "I'm looking forward to everyone except Shen Qingxiao and his fake-marriage partner."
After episode one, viewers: "Shen Qingxiao and his husband are really going all out..."
After episode two, viewers: "Shen Qingxiao, the undisputed god of escape-room games!"
After episode three, viewers: "Why is there a love-triangle showdown on a marriage show?! What a scandalous moment! I love it, give us more!"
By the final episode, viewers: "Can they really air this...? Whatever you do, don't tell Mr. Chu that we can still see everything after the lights go out, ahhh!"
Notes:
1. A prickly, tsundere kitten (shou) x a seemingly chaste, aloof man who actually has an overwhelming urge to dominate (gong)
2. The escape rooms aren't mind-bending or scary (probably). The tone is lighthearted. The protagonist lie flat through the first escape room as the plot progresses, then starts shining and carrying the whole team from the second one onward.
3. Current progress:
Escape Room One: Matchmaking Under a Fated Sky [Complete] Difficulty: One star
Escape Room Two: The Spinning Restaurant in the Clouds [Complete] Difficulty: Two stars
Escape Room Three: Polar Express HJ1223 [Complete] Difficulty: Three stars
Escape Room Four: Starlight Cruise: Waltz [Complete] Difficulty: Two stars
Blurb for the upcoming novel You Guys Have It Way Too Easy in Showbiz. Visit my author page to bookmark it if you're interested:
Blurb:
Lu Lanting was an unremarkable recent graduate, except for his pretty face.
As for his grades, he was only slightly above average in both his marketing major and his Spanish minor.
As for his credentials, like most college students, he had basic certificates such as CET-6 and the National Computer Rank Examination Level 2.
As for his work experience, he had spent three months doing odd jobs in the marketing department of a private company and organized a few club activities...
In short, he was so unremarkable that his resume disappeared into the crowd of applicants during autumn recruitment, and he couldn't hold a candle to the top students and superstars.
After transmigrating into a book, Lu Lanting became a pretty face in showbiz, an actor known as a silly beauty.
In the original novel, he was jealous of the protagonist shou, but his attempts to harm others backfired, and he was blacklisted across the internet.
But the transmigrated Lu Lanting had no interest in scheming. Instead, he went around advising the original novel's antagonists to cherish their time in showbiz and make plenty of money!
After all, being a fool isn't considered a virtue just anywhere!
*
However, Lu Lanting gradually discovered that...
He wasn't even that foolish in showbiz?
According to the book's plot, he and four other guests took part in an overseas travel-reality show.
--Why did a super-simple PowerPoint presentation about travel plans earn him admiring looks from all the other guests?
--Why did a brief chat in Spanish with the locals land him on the trending topic #LuLantingSpeaksSpanishSoFluently, and even get him an endorsement deal with a Spanish fashion brand?
--Why did casually coming up with a couple of promotional slogans for a money-making stall earn him the labels #CopywritingGenius and #MarketingWhiz from online viewers?
These are all things any unremarkable college student should know how to do!
You guys have it way too easy in showbiz!
Even more ridiculous, why did organizing a bonfire concert get him described by an influencer as:
[If I were as talented as Lu Lanting, would I ever have trouble finding a job?]
Lu Lanting smiled. Of course not. Not a chance!
*
Before going on the travel show, award-winning actor Ren Shuyu thought it would just be a relaxing vacation between two projects.
He didn't expect his attention to be captured from the very first day by a silly beauty.
He also didn't expect that this beauty, who seemed so pitiful as he begged Ren Shuyu to teach him acting and claimed to have no strengths and no place in showbiz,
would actually be capable of anything, fluent in four languages, a marketing expert, and an exceptionally organized event planner.
He was nothing like the scheming people in showbiz.
Of course, what Ren Shuyu didn't expect most of all was that after the vacation, he would successfully bring this dazzling, multitalented beauty home to be his wife.
From then on, the aloof award-winning actor became a devoted husband, cuddling his wife every day and saying, "My wife's amazing! My wife's incredible!"
He had no idea his wife was thinking proudly and coolly to himself:
"I'm just an unremarkable college student!"
*
Theme: Move forward bravely and fear no hardship.
A God Descends and Becomes the Strongest Wage Earner
I Got Promoted and a Raise by Using the Opposite Words System to Hook a CEO
The Pitiful Landlord Gets Bullied by Tenants Again
The Beauty Player Gets Rich in an Infinite Game
Locked-Room Dating Show: The Power Players Fight to Protect Me
The Bewildered Beauty Caught the Wrong Killer [Reborn]
I Became Famous Around the World by Livestreaming My Sleep
The Domineering CEO Becomes a College Student
After a College Student Transmigrates Into a Vase in Showbiz
You little lovers are really
It's really good. The author is really great. He can write so many secret room plots. It's so good. It's so good. It's so good.
Can the author update now? Don't save the manuscript. I have read both articles. The new article is set and click me. I'm anxious.
What a fresh setting. It's a pity that there are only four secret rooms. I can't get enough of it.
Ah? I thought that the cognitive implantation in the brain in the previous article was a foreshadowing... But it was not mentioned at all later. I feel that this setting is not necessary
I come from Luo Weiqing. The writing style really appeals to me. I finished it in one go. I will read the anti-involution college student novel next time. Hahahaha, come on Dada!!!
The end of "Spreading Flowers"? Oh my god, I love to read and write more~
Very good looking, looking forward to the next one
It looks good, and it ends with flowers.
Does the fact that C can pass the certification mean that in fact Xiao Shen has said this in both the secret room plot and reality, although it was forced hiahiahia?