Day Two began with a mechanical screech loud enough to wake the dead.
At precisely 5:45 a.m., the contestants were roused by the voice of the host—this time distorted through what sounded like a megaphone wrapped in aluminum foil.
"RISE AND GRIND, WARRIORS. TODAY IS JUDGMENT DAY."
Yuyan screamed into her pillow.
The idol girl whimpered, "It's still dark."
In the corner, Lin Xie stood fully dressed in tactical black, calmly brushing her teeth with a military-grade travel kit.
The lights flickered violently.
"Meet in the courtyard in ten minutes," the speaker crackled. "Anyone late will be blindfolded and led to the challenge with earplugs and a fake chicken companion. Don't test me."
Lin Xie: "Understood."
Yuyan, sitting up with mascara on only one eye: "Did he say chicken?"
The courtyard had been transformed overnight into a grotesque obstacle course from someone's fever dream.
Half of it was a multi-level jungle gym made of ropes, ladders, and unmarked slippery platforms. The other half resembled a post-apocalyptic marketplace—complete with barrels, fog machines, and mannequins dressed like zombie merchants.
At the very center was a massive tower labeled in flaming letters:
"TRUTH OR TRAP"
The host bounced in wearing tactical goggles and a glittery scarf.
"Welcome to your next challenge!" he boomed. "You'll each pair up. Your goal? Climb the Tower of Truth using only verbal clues given by your partner—who will be completely blindfolded."
Groans.
Whimpers.
A muffled "I'm too pretty for this."
"Oh," the host added cheerfully. "And if you answer the Truth cards wrong on each level, a penalty drops. Spaghetti slime, flour storms, water balloons, mild electrocution—fun things!"
Lin Xie blinked. "Define mild."
The host laughed. "Spicy surprise."
Yuyan swayed. "I—I want to go home."
Pairs were randomly drawn. Yuyan's partner? The idol girl who panicked when forced to pick between soy milk and almond milk at breakfast.
Lin Xie's partner? An ex-professional e-sports gamer who clearly hadn't touched grass in four years but looked relieved not to be paired with anyone loud.
As the blindfolds went on, chaos ignited.
Screams echoed from the lower levels as contestants slipped off platforms, triggering buckets of cold spaghetti to dump from above.
"I SMELL TOMATO SAUCE!" someone wailed.
"THAT'S MINE!" shouted another.
Yuyan was already in crisis mode by level two.
"Go left—no right—WAIT LEFT—WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE—OH MY GOD—IT'S FLOUR IT'S IN MY LIPGLOSS—"
Meanwhile, Lin Xie stood calmly on the platform three stories up, speaking in her usual deadpan tone into the mic connected to her partner's earpiece.
"Four steps forward. Pause. Lean 23 degrees left. Grip second rope."
Her partner obeyed like a soldier and dodged a swinging foam axe.
"How did you—?"
"Angle of shadow. Sway pattern. Average trajectory."
"You scare me."
"I hear that often."
Down below, another contestant got hit with a confetti-filled balloon that exploded into pink powder and shame.
"WHY DOES THIS SMELL LIKE STRAWBERRIES AND DEFEAT?!"
The host laughed hysterically from his podium.
"Team Spicy Watermelon is now leading with zero penalties! Everyone else? Disaster!"
By the time the final platform was reached, Lin Xie's partner—drenched in sweat but miraculously unstained—stood triumphant atop the tower, holding the final flag.
The penalty wheel spun for other teams.
Yuyan got "Glitter Facial + Bubble Gun Backblast."
Her screams could be heard from the trees.
The idol girl just laid on the ground and whispered, "Take me."
Lin Xie, however, merely observed.
And sipped juice through a metal straw someone still doesn't know where she got.
Back inside the house, the contestants looked like they'd survived a war. Yuyan, now wrapped in a glitter towel, staggered into the common area and dropped onto the couch.
"You're not human," she mumbled to Lin Xie.
"Technically correct."
"I didn't mean that literally."
"You didn't say not to."
Yuyan just blinked at her.
Meanwhile, the show's production crew behind the scenes panicked as millions of viewers poured into the livestream comments.
[Chaos4Breakfast]: SHE'S SO COOL I CAN'T BREATHE
[YuyanSupremacy]: Let my girl breathe she's not built for this jungle
[XieCult]: Lin Xie didn't even flinch. She's not playing to win. She's playing to restructure society.
[BlindfoldedGuyFanClub]: SHE LED HIM THROUGH A DEATH TOWER LIKE A WAR GENERAL I'M SHAKING
[YuyanTearsTastesLikeGold]: I will fight Lin Xie in the mud pit for my queen
[LetHerDrinkJuice]: Where did she get the straw. WHERE.
[TowerOfTRUTH]: The Tower is scared of HER
[LinXieIsSkynet]: We do not deserve her
In his penthouse in the capital, Shen Rui watched the livestream with a cup of tea and absolutely no surprise.
He texted her once.
Shen Rui: You glared at a rope and it untangled itself.
Lin Xie: I calculated its weakness.
Shen Rui: You also scared a grown man into respecting authority.
Lin Xie: Wasn't difficult.
He smiled.
She was doing perfectly.
The others? Less so.
Tomorrow's challenge was rumored to involve truth serum, fake secrets, and a crocodile floatie tied to emotional sabotage.
And Lin Xie?
Was already recalibrating her internal chaos detectors.
Day Two: passed.
Barely.