Chapter 84: Transmigrated as a Fraudulent Male Streamer (8)
The four of them stood in the courtyard. Although He Yongning hadn’t discussed the topic with the other three, he was no fool and caught Cen Yu’s meaning instantly.
—The shampoo that Pei Hengyun had been completely unable to find had mysteriously surfaced inside the bathroom.
Yet there were only the four of them in the courtyard right now. Cen Yu had been inside taking a shower and hadn’t left.
Pei Hengyun was searching for the shampoo and had gone to find Jiang Tuan, while He Yongning himself had been on the phone the entire time…
Every single one of them had an alibi… He Yongning looked at Cen Yu, weighing his words before asking, “Was the shampoo something you brought over earlier?”
“Are you joking?” Cen Yu replied, his brow furrowing.
He stood behind the wooden door. It was nearly seven o’clock now, and as darkness gradually fell, the low temperature in the mountains made him feel chilled to the bone in his minimal clothing. He didn’t avoid the others’ gazes; perhaps he genuinely had been shaken by the bizarre occurrence just now.
Wiping the water droplets off his skin under everyone’s watchful eyes, he slipped into a clean T-shirt and boxers before stepping out of the bathroom in his sandals.
“When I was inside the bathroom just now, I heard someone knocking on the door,” he said immediately upon exiting, pointing back at the wooden door. “I thought it was Pei Hengyun.”
He paused, catching the deathly pale look that instantly washed over Pei Hengyun’s face.
The guy was clearly frightened half to death by this sudden turn of events.
He hadn’t stepped into the courtyard at all, so how could someone have knocked on the door to Cen Yu’s bathroom?
“I called out his name, and he responded too.” At this point, Cen Yu draped a towel over his head, still feeling a lingering sense of unease.
He cast his eyes over the three men in front of him, noting the shocked expressions on each of their faces.
Pei Hengyun was pale with fright, He Yongning frowned as if suspecting Cen Yu was spouting nonsense, and Jiang Tuan looked utterly baffled.
Cen Yu couldn’t care less; he simply pushed on.
“I was taking a shower at the time. With the rushing water and the wooden door between us, I couldn’t hear it very clearly.” He gestured toward the wooden door. “Thinking back now, that voice really didn’t sound quite like Pei Hengyun’s.”
He Yongning turned to Cen Yu. “When was this?”
“Three or four minutes ago,” Cen Yu replied, facing He Yongning. “While you were out in the courtyard.”
“But I didn’t see anyone else in the courtyard,” He Yongning blurted out instinctively.
He realized then that Cen Yu really wasn’t lying… Otherwise, the man wouldn’t have pulled open the bathroom door right away to demand who else had stepped into the courtyard.
Pondering for a brief moment, He Yongning asked immediately, “What else did you see inside the bathroom?”
The moment those words left He Yongning’s mouth, Pei Hengyun looked as though he were about to faint from fright. He frantically grabbed Cen Yu’s arm. “Little Yu… you saw something else?!”
Busybody, Cen Yu cursed He Yongning in his mind for being a meddling busybody.
The reason he hadn’t mentioned the other occurrence in the bathroom was precisely because he saw how terrified Pei Hengyun was; continuing further might actually scare the man into passing out cold.
He patted Pei Hengyun’s shoulder. “How about you cover your ears first?”
Jiang Tuan also realized things were taking a strange turn. He cast a glance toward his own bathroom. “…But I shower in there every single day.”
Logically speaking, if something spooky were actually going on, he should have been the first to notice.
Pei Hengyun hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose not to cover his ears. “Little Yu, just tell us directly.” He snuggled close to Cen Yu’s side. “I’m not scared.”
“Don’t regret it.”
With that, Cen Yu recounted his earlier encounter in a completely calm, matter-of-fact tone under everyone’s gazes.
“When I had my eyes closed washing my hair, I felt someone stroke my calf.”
He pointed down at his calf.
“Just caressing it up and down like this.” Seeing how severely frightened Pei Hengyun was beside him, he simply reached out and covered the man’s ears before continuing.
“When I opened my eyes, there was nothing there.” He looked toward He Yongning. “That’s when I opened the door to ask if you had seen anything just now.”
He Yongning remained silent. Jiang Tuan’s face didn’t look pleasant either; although he wasn’t as deathly afraid as Pei Hengyun, anyone would feel deeply uncomfortable hearing that such a creepy incident had occurred in the very place they used daily.
As for Pei Hengyun, he had already buried his face completely into Cen Yu’s chest, seemingly terrified beyond the point of speech.
“What do you think it was?” Aside from Cen Yu, He Yongning was the most composed person present. He turned his gaze to Cen Yu. “What do you plan to do?”
What do I think it was? Cen Yu naturally remembered his character setup for this round.
He wanted to offer a scientific explanation, but it simply made no sense here.
Unless he himself had directed and acted out this entire scene—having hidden the shampoo in his clean change of clothes beforehand and bringing it into the bathroom—there was no logical way to explain why the shampoo would suddenly vanish, only to abruptly reappear.
—Then again, this novel wasn’t written from the perspective of a cannon-fodder extra like him.
Perhaps from the perspectives of Pei Hengyun and He Yongning, it was far more likely that Cen Yu had staged the whole thing himself… Either way, Cen Yu’s character persona was a fraudulent streamer. With that thought, Cen Yu said to He Yongning, “Whatever you think it is, that’s what it is.”
He deliberately put on a mystifying, obscure attitude.
Then, seeing how thoroughly rattled Pei Hengyun was, he immediately prepared to take him back to their room to rest.
Pei Hengyun offered weakly to Cen Yu, “…I was just a little too scared.”
If you’re this terrified already, how are you going to handle the plotline later?
Cen Yu clicked his tongue inwardly. After all, starting from the class reunion tomorrow, a string of bizarre occurrences was set to unfold.
He led Pei Hengyun back to their room. Perhaps because the mountain air was quite cool, no heat could be felt inside the room even with only an electric fan running… A bamboo-woven cooling mat was spread over the double bed. After helping Pei Hengyun sit down on the bed, Cen Yu turned to leave.
“Little Yu.”
Pei Hengyun looked up at Cen Yu.
Cen Yu turned his head back, catching the persistent, unyielding paleness on Pei Hengyun’s face. As Cen Yu’s gaze fell upon him, he forced a somewhat strained smile.
“Can you stay here and keep me company?”
“I… I really am a bit scared,” Pei Hengyun murmured.
Cen Yu thought to himself that since his character setup for this round was a fraudulent streamer who loved faking things for theatrical effect, he might as well reassure Pei Hengyun by stating point-blank—
“Everything just now was fake. Just a stunt for the stream.”
“…A stunt for the stream?” Pei Hengyun seemed somewhat unable to grasp his meaning.
“Yeah,” Cen Yu lied with his eyes wide open. “Since I’ll be livestreaming over the next few days anyway, I wanted to lay some groundwork for rumors that this place might be haunted.”
Fake my ass, Cen Yu thought. This place is genuinely haunted.
“I was the one who brought that shampoo over,” Cen Yu patted Pei Hengyun’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s completely normal that you couldn’t find it.”
“…Fake?” A curious expression crossed Pei Hengyun’s face.
He seemed almost unable to believe that it was actually fake.
“What else?” Cen Yu continued lying through his teeth. “Do you really think there are ghosts in this world?”
Pei Hengyun appeared to be persuaded by Cen Yu’s words. His expression visibly eased, and his complexion no longer looked as ghastly as before.
Seeing that he had thoroughly comforted Pei Hengyun, Cen Yu turned and walked out of the room.
To his surprise, the moment he stepped outside, he bumped right into He Yongning standing by the door, holding the forgotten bottles of shampoo and conditioner from the bathroom in his hands.
He Yongning had clearly overheard what Cen Yu had just said to Pei Hengyun.
He cast a inscrutable glance at Cen Yu, ultimately letting out a low, mocking scoff. “As expected of a fraud.”
