After hearing Xia Xiqing's words, Zhou Ziheng was stunned. Although he still didn't speak, his accelerated heartbeat could not deceive anyone.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Xia Xiqing who was still looking straight at him. After a moment of silence, he asked again: "Is your mouth sealed? That doesn't matter. Just help me take this piece of cloth off."
Xia Xiqing's tone was so firm that it was almost impossible to refuse. Zhou Ziheng turned his neck and thought in silence for a while.
To be honest, he didn't want to pay any attention to this person.
But... the situation remained deadlocked, and neither of them could leave. Besides, this was a TV show, and they couldn't make things difficult for the production crew.
After struggling for a while, Zhou Ziheng had no choice but to give up watching the show.
He propped himself up on the ground with his feet and turned the swivel chair he was sitting on, so that his body was facing the long table. A white porcelain vase with a bouquet of white chrysanthemums was placed very close to it. Zhou Ziheng stretched out his bound hands and struggled to reach the vase. Finally, his fingers grasped the neck of the bottle, and with a bang, he decisively smashed the vase on the edge of the table.
Zhou Ziheng raised his leg, put the sole of his boot on the edge of the table, pushed hard, and slid to Xia Xiqing's side with the chair.
"I can remove the blindfold for you, in exchange, you have to untie the rope for me."
After all, he had been following Zhou Ziheng's lead for more than two years. Xia Xiqing recognized Zhou Ziheng's voice in an instant, which was exactly what he had expected. He smiled and said, "No problem."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Ziheng reached his two bound hands behind his head, removed the cloth that blocked his vision, and threw it aside.
His vision went from being briefly blurred to being clear. Xia Xiqing turned his head and realized that the two people were very close to each other. He could almost smell the light scent of Zhou Ziheng's aftershave.
Xia Xiqing half-closed his eyes that had regained their sight, and the expression on his face changed from confusion to surprise, smoothly and without any flaws.
"Ziheng? So I'm trapped with you." Xia Xiqing smiled sweetly. The mole on the tip of his nose made him look even more innocent. "It feels like a dream. I feel a little dizzy now."
This guy is so good at pretending that even a professional actor like him has to admire him. Zhou Ziheng couldn't figure out why this kind of smile could be so natural on this person. If they hadn't seen his true face, I'm afraid few people would not be deceived by him.
This secret room was full of cameras, and every corner could be captured clearly. Not wanting to be accused of being cold to fans, Zhou Ziheng could only respond with a smile that seemed warm enough, and even softened his voice, "My eyes were also covered with an eye patch, and I was quite surprised when I took it off."
Zhou Ziheng had no choice but to be patient with him because of his self-esteem as an actor and Jiang Yin's advice, even though he really disliked this kind of people. He handed the sharp porcelain pieces in his hand to Xia Xiqing, "Thank you for your help."
"It's no trouble. I've liked you for a long time. I've watched every movie you've starred in." Xia Xiqing took the broken porcelain pieces awkwardly with his handcuffed hands, half bent down to grind off the rope for Zhou Ziheng.
Zhou Ziheng smiled emotionlessly, "Thank you."
Two people who are good at disguising themselves were engaging in a hypocritical exchange of words.
The rope was not easy to cut, so Xia Xiqing started to work while slowly speaking, "Hey, did you only explain the rules once? I'm still a little confused."
Zhou Ziheng finally came out of his memories. He didn't hear what Xia Xiqing said. In order to ease the embarrassment, he had to speak up and change the subject: "By the way, how did you know someone would take off your blindfold just now?"
Xia Xiqing guessed that he would ask this question. Now there were only the two of them here, and Zhou Ziheng fully understood his true colors. If he was not honest, he would lose more trust and cause trouble for the subsequent games.
It would be better to be frank.
The hands that were used to draw were cutting the rope vigorously. Xia Xiqing stared at the gradually breaking rope and explained softly, "Although this is my first time on the show, I often played escape rooms with my friends before, so I have some experience."
"When you come to a place like this, you can't have too much sense of substitution. You have to think from the perspective of those planners all the time."
He cut one of the ropes and pulled it out with his hands. "They locked me up here hoping I could escape, not because they really wanted to trap me here for a whole episode. If I were the only one in this room, with my hands and feet trapped and unable to see, the possibility of escaping on my own would be almost zero. There would only be two possibilities. First, I would wait for someone else to escape from their room and come to my room to save me or kill me. Second, there is another person in this room, and we need to help each other. From the perspective of the show's watchability..."
Having said that, Xia Xiqing raised his head slightly and his eyes met Zhou Ziheng's.
Without saying anything, she just looked at him in silence for three seconds.
Then he suddenly smiled.
For a moment, Zhou Ziheng had a strange illusion, as if he could hear what he hadn't finished saying.
They had clearly only known each other for a few days and there was no such thing as tacit understanding between them. However, from this look, he completely understood the underlying meaning of Xia Xiqing's words.
[From the perspective of the show's watchability, only when you and I are together can we have the highest popularity.]
"I just wanted to try the second possibility, but I didn't expect to be so lucky and win in one try."
Lying again.
At some point, Xia Xiqing had untied Zhou Ziheng's hands.
"alright."
"Thank you." Zhou Ziheng was still a little dazed. He thought he was a smart man, but his extremely bad first impression made him lose his judgment of the person in front of him. If he wanted to win this game, he had to get rid of his prejudice.
When Zhou Ziheng reacted, he found that Xia Xiqing had actually bent down and used his handcuffed hands to untie the ropes on his ankles.
His hands are now free, and he can completely untie the knot by himself. He doesn't need to use violent methods such as breaking porcelain pieces, nor does he need help from others.
"I will do it myself… "
Before he could finish his words, he saw Xia Xiqing, who was still bent over, raise his head. There was some confusion in his eyes, and his slightly red lips were holding the broken porcelain piece that had just cut the rope. His protruding collarbone was exposed in the oversized collar of his white shirt.
The eyes that broke free from the black cloth, the slightly long hair tied up, the angle of leaning over, the posture close to Zhou Ziheng's knees.
Handcuffs, a mole on the tip of the nose, sharp fragments, beautiful but ruthless lip lines, and the tip of the teeth gently biting the porcelain piece.
The weird atmosphere makes these broken elements look like a strange painting, very strange, and accidentally stained with some ambiguous paint.
Zhou Ziheng didn't understand why he suddenly felt embarrassed. This feeling was something he had never experienced before. He hurriedly bent down and reached out to untie his legs.
People always subconsciously fear the unknown.
Xia Xiqing didn't care. He just took the porcelain piece he was holding with his fingers and handed it to Zhou Ziheng, "It seems like there are a few knots. Try this?" But the other party just shook his head and untied a knot with a little difficulty.
Seeing that he didn't appreciate it, Xia Xiqing had no choice but to stand up and throw the broken porcelain pieces to a corner of the room neatly, like throwing a dart.
Zhou Ziheng, who had untied his hands and feet, regained his most basic freedom, at least leaving this damn swivel chair. The scene just now made him feel uncomfortable all over, and he had to attribute this feeling to the sequelae of being restrained. He turned his neck and clenched his fists to make a cracking sound, so that he could relax a little. Xia Xiqing's hands were still handcuffed, and he couldn't untie the restraints on his legs by himself.
Unfortunately, he only exchanged for one condition, which was to remove the black cloth. Now Zhou Ziheng had done his best and could have allowed him to become a victim of the game here, not to mention that he hated himself so much.
Xia Xiqing was thinking about countermeasures in his mind. This was a TV program. Logically speaking, abandoning one's companions would attract too much negative attention. Most celebrities would not choose such behavior. However, this program had the particularity of psychological warfare. The hidden killer role would cause people to naturally doubt each other, and they could not be called companions at all.
Therefore, it would be completely logical for Zhou Ziheng to leave him here at this moment.
In fact, Zhou Ziheng was also thinking about it. To be honest, his moral values prevented him from abandoning a person like this, even if this was just a survival simulation game. But he really didn't like Xia Xiqing. He was a nuisance and a time bomb. If he saved him now, he might betray him at some point.
Smiling like an angel and pushing him into the abyss, this is Xia Xiqing.
For a brief moment, both of them were struggling and weighing the options.
"Although you are my fan, this is in the game. I can't be sure whether the production team will do something to lower my vigilance." Just as Xia Xiqing thought, Zhou Ziheng found an excuse that would be least likely to be criticized by the audience after abandoning him. However, even if the audience was really dissatisfied with this, it didn't matter, because he really didn't want to be tied to Xia Xiqing. "If you are a killer, then I am an accomplice to the tiger."
What if you are? Xia Xiqing originally wanted to ask him this, but he took it back before he opened his mouth, because such words were too direct and conflicted with his harmless personality.
There is really no way.
Having prepared himself mentally, Zhou Ziheng turned around calmly, but the moment he took a step, his calf was hooked by a foot.
"Don't go."
Turning back, Xia Xiqing, who was sitting on the chair, looked into his eyes. Zhou Ziheng felt very strange, clearly belonging to such a cunning body, why could these eyes always make the most innocent and most heartbreaking expression.
"Ziheng, make an alliance with me, and I will help you win unconditionally." Xia Xiqing smiled, and the expression on his face was so confident that he didn't look like a person who was asking for help. Instead, he looked like a negotiation expert who held the best bargaining chip.
"Really? But in this kind of game..." Zhou Ziheng raised his eyebrows at him, "The rule to win is not to trust anyone."
Quite clever, Xia Xiqing laughed.
"I didn't ask you to trust me." His pupils, as black as the abyss, revealed a sweet and seductive light, "I asked you to use me."