The sun was setting in the west as evening fell in Hengshan Village.
Less than half an hour later, the sky went completely dark.
With Bao Ruanruan away, there was not a single light on in the sunroom.
The house was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Only a single dim street lamp on the field path outside cast a faint yellow glow onto the road below.
Lu Wenhao opened the door and took a moment to adjust before letting his female PD go in first.
After all, this sunroom belonged to Bao Ruanruan, and she was a girl. It wouldn't be appropriate for him, a grown man, to just barge in.
But what choice did he have?
There was nothing he could do!
He had waited all afternoon and watched an entire performance by the NFIE dance troupe.
He had even finished all the videos he had downloaded onto his phone and was about to watch them again, yet Bao Ruanruan still hadn't come to find him!
She didn't want to come.
So he had to be the one to find her!
But what about his pride?
If he had just marched over in broad daylight, knocked on her door, and said—
—Hey, do you want me to help you put that glass roof on?
—Yeah, I'm that guy who used to curse at you on Weibo every day.
—Yeah, I'm shameless. And now I'm here to help you.
His face would burn with embarrassment!
Lu Wenhao could never bring himself to do that.
"Can I come in now?"
The female PD quickly scanned the place and saw that the front living room was completely empty.
Probably because the roof was missing, Bao Ruanruan barely used this room.
"Come in, Teacher Lu. There's nothing in here."
Lu Wenhao breathed a sigh of relief, stepped inside, and took out the electronic measuring tool prepared by the production team.
Instinctively, he turned on the light and looked up.
Then he climbed up the ladder and, with some difficulty, measured the roof.
Then, he left as quickly as he could.
He strode back to his study and flopped down on the sofa.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Finally done!
"Tomorrow, I'll get someone to install the glass roof. Don't tell her it was me who helped."
Once again, Lu Wenhao anxiously guarded his pride.
Meanwhile, the livestream chat exploded with laughter, filling the screen with 23333🔗.
[Good luck, bro.]
[Hehe, let me spend your future happiness in advance. I'll laugh first!]
[Don't worry, bro. No one will tell Bao Ruanruan… because she'll find out on her own! Hahahaha!]
[This is killing me. Let's sum it up with an idiom!]
[Again? Catching a turtle in a jar1.]
[Doomed to suffer an inescapable disaster!]
[Case in focus!]
[Hahaha, the ones above are geniuses!]
After dinner.
"Alright, hurry up and give me my reward!" Lu Wenhao waved at the PD. "Help me fill up half of the bookshelf."
However, the female PD didn't move for a long time, as if she were carefully choosing her words.
"I'm afraid that's not possible."
"...?"
"Teacher Lu, I have just received word that Ms Bao Ruanyuan will be on her way to find you within five minutes. She is expected to arrive in about fifteen minutes." The PD glanced at her phone and spoke with a heavy tone. "As for your reward... you can ask her yourself."
Lu Wenhao: "???"
What kind of nonsense are you talking about?
[AHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
[Whoa, fifteen minutes? That fast?]
[Oh my God, it's already nighttime, and I'm so excited that I can't sleep!]
[This whole episode is pure entertainment... Yes, I fully admit that my happiness is built on my boy Lu's suffering.]
[Xiao Lu, run! Hide in Bro Cheng's recording studio!]
[Detective Bao is arriving at the scene in 15 minutes. Lu, destroy the evidence!]
[Incoming chaos!]
The 'fifteen minutes' was just an estimate by the production team.
After all, both Lu Wenhao and Bao Ruanruan were constantly observed by their respective PDs, with cameramen following their every move.
Everything they did was visible to the show's director in the control room.
As soon as Lu Wenhao's PD finished speaking, the livestream camera immediately switched angles.
The camera panned to Bao Ruanruan, who was on her way back to the sunroom.
She had just finished dinner and taken a stroll with the grandparents next door. After chatting with them briefly, she parted ways at the village entrance and headed home alone, accompanied by her programme PD and the cameraman.
She seemed to be in a great mood, even humming a song to herself:
"On Sunday, I strolled around, following the PD. Don't get lost~ If you do get lost, don't cry. Look for Old Zheng on the camera, and the director will find you, quick, quick, quick!"
"..."
Her female PD almost stumbled.
[HAHAHAHA!]
[What even is this song? It's magical—I can't help but smile every time I see Bao Ruanruan!]
[This sounds like the safety song my kid learned in kindergarten!]
[???]
[ Kindergarten?]
[The original goes like this: 'Follow your parents. Don't get separated. If you do get lost, don't cry—look for a security guard in the mall.']
[?? HAHAHA I'm dying!]
[PD = Mom and Dad, Director = Security Guard.]
[Lao Zheng (Director): What did I ever do to deserve this?]
[hhh why do I always die laughing when the camera cuts to her? Can someone warn me next time? I'm drinking water!]
Bao Ruanruan was clearly in an excellent mood tonight.
She walked in the moonlight with her hands clasped behind her back, smiling.
She had nailed her perfect day: eating three meals a day, reading, drinking tea, and completing her 10,000-step health plan.
Humming to herself, she strolled to the sunroom door, still beaming.
But in an instant, her expression changed.
The smile vanished from her fair little face, replaced by vigilance in her clear, watery eyes.
[? She noticed it!]
[No way, she's still five or six metres from the door!]
[It's too early—she shouldn't have figured it out yet!]
The cameraman in front of her was filming her while moving backwards toward the sunroom door.
But suddenly, she reached out and grabbed the camera's lens with her small hand!
"Wait."
In the dim light, Bao Ruanruan's soft pink lips moved slightly. Her voice was barely a whisper, carried only by breath and mouth movement.
"Someone here."
[!!!]
[How did she notice?!]
[It's so dark, and she's five metres away. How can she see the strand of hair on the door?]
The accompanying PD was just as curious and was about to ask when Bao Ruanruan gently covered her mouth with her soft, pale hand.
She raised a finger to her lips, signalling for silence. Her wide eyes were full of alertness and tension.
"We should call the police," she whispered.
Saying this, she pulled out her mobile phone.
[!]
[D*mn, that safety awareness!]
[Help, Brother Lu!]
But just as she pulled out her phone, her PD, caught between amusement and frustration, gently stopped her.
"Teacher Bao, let's observe a bit longer."
"Observe? Life waits for no one, child."
"...!"
[HAHAHAHA!]
[The PD is panicking!]
[Not gonna lie; this is the right thing to do. But from the audience's perspective, it's hilarious!]
In the end, Bao Ruanruan still took out her phone, but the moment she did, she let out a soft, disappointed sound.
The camera panned over to show that her phone had no signal.
Her face was visibly crumpled.
"Outrageous."
[Hehehe!]
[Phew, Bro Lu dodged a bullet this time.]
Without being able to call for help, she calculated the distance to the director's room.
It was too far.
The nearest house was 700 metres away; if she walked quietly to avoid making noise, it would take at least ten minutes.
And if a bad guy was still lurking nearby...
"Big Brother, PD, you guys watch the back for me. I'll go check it out."
"?!"
"??"
[? Check what?!]
Bao Ruanruan's eyes flashed.
The female PD had no self-defence skills and couldn't handle a fight.
The cameraman, burdened with his large equipment, was too conspicuous.
Bao Ruanruan sighed.
She had no choice but to handle it herself.
She gestured to them after ensuring the cameraman and the PD stayed in place.
"Don't move."
As quiet as a cat, she moved slowly down the path towards the sunroom door.
She leaned her body halfway to the left side of the path.
[??]
[What is she doing?]
[Leaning left to get past the blind spot of the window, right? If someone were inside, they wouldn't see her.]
[!!]
[This is so funny, but why am I so nervous?]
The tension was palpable.
Bao Ruanruan's whole body was hunched over, her abdomen tight, and her breathing tense.
Her muscles were on high alert.
She was ready to flee at any moment.
Step by careful step, she tiptoed forward. After two steps, she crouched down.
She glanced at the ground and slowly exhaled in relief.
Her voice grew slightly louder.
"Someone came."
"But they've already left."
[!]
[!!!]
[???]
[Cameraman, shoot the ground!]
The camera, as if understanding the request from the chat, immediately panned down to the ground.
Under the dim light of the street lamp, a faint and chaotic set of overlapping footprints could be seen in the mud.
Yet they were difficult to distinguish.
Nevertheless, there were two sets of footprints—one coming and one going.
Bao Ruanruan crouched down and poked the grass on the path twice with her pale, delicate finger.
"These footprints are about 27 to 29 centimetres long, likely made by men. Two individuals. One probably weighs over 75 kilos, while the other is slimmer, about 50 kilos."
"And one more set... probably a girl."
"Three people."
She turned on her phone's flashlight, bent down to avoid the footprints, and observed them all the way to the sunroom door.
"They just entered my sunroom~!"
Her last two words wavered with trembling fear, her voice cracking.
"Help~!"
[! D*mn!]
[Are you seriously scared, or is this just an act? Isn't your sunroom just an empty space? This is wild!]
[That tiny step back, was it for real? Bao Ruanruan, you're clearly the hunter here!]
[I'm starting to think you're an undercover cop. If you are, blink twice!]
[Wait, is this scripted? Someone tell me! How can she even read footprints?]
[Wake up, people—this is a live broadcast!]
[Right, there's no script. Lu Wenhao showed up at the sunroom at this hour because Bao Ruanruan wasn't cooperating with the tasks. This isn't scripted; she completely deviated from the director's plan.]
[Stop analysing; look at how shaky the camera is! Cameraman, we get it. You're shocked, but stop trembling!]
[Wait, is this for real?!]
"Teacher Bao, stop joking around. What footprints? You're just messing with us, right?" The PD's voice wavered at the end, clearly spooked. "Who would come to an empty sunroom in the middle of the night?"
This PD genuinely didn't know what was going on.
Whatever Lu Wenhao had done on his side, the team with Bao Ruanruan was entirely in the dark.
But even so, the PD had a point.
During filming, the house was equipped with at least six to nine programme cameras, making it almost impossible for any actual intruder to sneak in unnoticed.
Still, Bao Ruanruan wasn't the least bit convinced.
"Here's a ghost story for you: Where's my hair?"
She stretched out with her pale fingers and pointed at the gap in the door.
The PD: "!"
The cameraman: "!!"
With a serious and heavy expression, Bao Ruanruan crouched down and picked up three strands of hair from the ground.
"One is 10 cm, one is 12 cm, and one is 15 cm. It's them!"
[My goodness, even the lengths are special!]
[Bao Ruanruan: Don't think you can fool me with three random strands of hair!]
Holding the strands of hair, she looked as if she were facing a grave threat. "The door was opened. They fell to the ground."
"It seems we've already been targeted by criminals."
The PD: "!"
The cameraman: "!!"
"So they came to scout out the sunroom first. Their next step would be my living quarters, right?"
Bao Ruanruan sighed. The world was indeed a dangerous place.
But her eyes flickered slightly as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
She patted her chest to steady her nerves.
"There is some good news, though."
"These three are either very careless, visually impaired, or not-so-bright criminals. We still have a chance of survival."
The camera shook slightly.
[hhh, Lu Wenhao → careless, visually impaired, or not-so-bright. Pick one!]
[Is the cameraman laughing or trembling with fear?]
[Pffft! Cameraman, stay strong!]
[Oh my God, my stomach hurts! I'm laughing so hard that I'm cramping! Bao Ruanruan, how will you compensate me?]
[Since you're so smart, Ruanruan, why don't you analyse who those three people are? Hong hong huo huo!]
"It's okay."
Bao Ruanruan held the female PD's slightly cold hand and gave it a little shake.
"Fortunately, we read the latest case study articles written by our comrades in law enforcement."
"We were prepared."
[!]
[Pfffft!]
[No way! I thought she was joking about reading that article, but she actually used it!]
[And she used it right away (dog emoji)!]
On the screen, Bao Ruanruan solemnly picked up her phone.
With solemn seriousness, her slender fingers tapped on the pet camera app she had installed.
"The net of justice is wide and tight," she chanted.
Her expression was both reverent and full of anticipation.
"Under the gaze of high technology, the criminals... will have nowhere to hide!"
With a tap of her delicate finger, she opened the past videos on the pet camera.
She intently reviewed every snapshot of the recorded video.
Suddenly, she saw two faintly visible figures!
Her face lit up, but a flicker of surprise quickly followed.
"Huh??"
"Why does that silhouette look familiar..."
[Pfft... I can't hold it in anymore! It's so hard not to laugh~]
[I want to know what Brother Lu is doing right now!]
[Hahaha, Brother Lu, have you escaped yet? Lord Bao is really coming to get you this time!]
[Ladies and gentlemen, I've already placed my order. Just letting you know in advance—only about 2000 of these cameras are left on Taobao.]
[??? What? Do you all have to be so ruthless? Wait for me!]
[I'm on it! D*mn, I must have that camera by the end of the day! Don't fight me for it!]
[Already ordered. This camera is amazing!]
[Live alone? Security levels up! Thanks, Bao Ruanruan! I've noted down all the steps she used today.]
[What brand is it, though? I didn't catch it clearly—anyone, help a sister out!]
The bullet chat was a frenzy—some rushing to buy, some enjoying themselves, others taking notes.
But most of all, they were gleefully watching the drama unfold.
Soon, the camera followed Bao Ruanruan all the way to the door of Lu Wenhao's study room.
"On this dark and windy night, Lu Wenhao, why did you go to my sunroom?"
"! "
Footnotes Full List
- This idiom means capturing someone or something with ease, as there is no way for them to escape.
きつね's Musing
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