Xie Jixing froze noticeably in front of the camera.

The guests and audience in the observation room were also stunned.

“Poison?” Meng Zezhou repeated, looking at Wu Hongyuan. “This isn’t acting, right?”

Wu Hongyuan didn’t expect this either. His face turned pale, and he quickly distanced himself. “I don’t know what’s happening either.”

“Maybe we should contact the production team,” Yin Li whispered.

“Yes, contact the team.” Wu Hongyuan knew he couldn’t handle this.

Meanwhile, Meng Zezhou had his assistant hand him a phone.

Wu Hongyuan blinked. “What are you doing?”

“Calling the police,” Meng Zezhou began dialing.

“Is that really necessary?” Yin Li tried to smooth things over.

“I think it’s very necessary,” Meng Zezhou said firmly as he connected the call.

【Is Meng Zezhou crazy? Why call the police?】

【It’s just a show, isn’t this wasting police resources?】

【Do celebrities get special privileges?】

【I’m amazed at these idiots up top—poisoning and attempting murder, and now they don’t call the cops?】

After Ji Jin revealed how he had poisoned Xie Jixing on Orange TV, Xie Jixing began executing his next step.

“Sister Yue, move!”

Black hair, smelling of blood, shot into Ji Jin’s mouth and yanked sharply downward. Ji Jin’s jaw dislocated from the force.

The livestream viewers saw Ji Jin screaming violently, trying to kill someone, but suddenly unable to speak properly from overexertion.

His uncontrolled shouting, combined with the stick swings, appeared even more aggressive.

Once the production team received the alert, the escape room challenge was immediately stopped, and all the mansion lights turned on. But the live cameras kept running.

The comments were chaotic:

【So scary, production team hurry up! I’m afraid Ji Jin will hurt this NPC!】

【Fans said Xie Jixing was bullying Ji Jin, but look at him—he’s the real bully. I feel bullied just watching!】

【Big eye trending—this is idol-level acting?!】

【Poison, murder—peak acting debut!】

【Looking back at what happened before, maybe Ji Jin is actually law-abiding.】

“Eh?” Ran Shi, still trembling, saw the lights turn on. It ruined the atmosphere.

Should he still be scared? The mansion, now brightly lit, made him look like a clown. “What happened? Did we pass?”

Even though he was annoyed at Ji Jin, it seemed like the most reasonable guess.

Huai Xinhou was monitoring the comments, saw words like ‘poison, murder,’ frowned. “Something’s happening, go check.”

A few rushed forward and ran into the production staff, whose serious expressions confirmed something was wrong.

Inside the backyard room, though the lights were bright, Ji Jin’s madness wasn’t diminished—he just switched tactics, appearing conscious but not fully alert.

“Bu Siwu… Wu ba wants answer…” he swung his stick at Xie Jixing. “Kong Ji Pu Zhu…”

Xie Jixing sidestepped, backing up, a look of fear on his face. “Calm down! I’m just an NPC in the haunted house! If you keep this up, I’ll have to defend myself!”

In his mind, he rolled his eyes and sent a message to Yue Qinyao.

【Sister Yue, get ready! He almost hit me just now.】

Yue Qinyao, hanging upside down, rolled her eyes, letting more black hair tangle around Ji Jin.

Ji Jin swung, missed. Raised again, missed again—like a mentally challenged hemiplegic.

Xie Jixing dodged lazily for a moment, then received the unlucky ghost’s signal.

【Are people coming?】

He focused. “Sister Yue, hold tight!”

Xie Jixing fully retreated to the bed, legs hitting the edge—no more room to move.

“Calm down, Ji Jin, lights are on, the escape room is over, I’m really just a game NPC!” He advised while dodging.

His dodges were deliberately half a beat slow. Ji Jin’s stick hit, but Yue Qinyao had already absorbed the force. To viewers, it looked like Xie Jixing got hit hard.

Comments soared:

【Why hasn’t the crew arrived? Just letting him hit someone?!】

【Xie Jixing, run! Stop messing with him.】

【Small room, armed crazy guy, blocking the exit—how to escape?】

【Counterattack maybe? It’s nerve-wracking to watch.】

Just as the comment posted, Xie Jixing grabbed Ji Jin’s wrist and twisted it the other way.

‘Crack.’ Wrist bones dislocated. Ji Jin’s right hand went limp.

Still aggressive, he tried swinging his left hand, kicking with alternating legs.

Xie Jixing’s lips curved into a subtle smile. He struck the stick at Ji Jin’s left wrist, then elbow, shoulder, knee, ankle—only targeting joints. Reasonable, precise, perfect self-defense. To the camera, the movements looked light—but Ji Jin knew the pain.

The previously shouting Ji Jin could no longer scream, collapsed on his knees, feeling his knees were shattered.

From the camera, it looked like Xie Jixing dodged attacks; the contact and confrontation were forced.

No one saw him lean close to Ji Jin’s ear and whisper, “It hurts, doesn’t it? You love dancing. I broke all your joints—think you can dance again?”

It was Xie Jixing’s revenge plan: from the moment Ji Jin entered the mansion, he used the unlucky ghost and Sister Yue to keep reminding him of the poisoning incident, heightening fear, and making him subconsciously believe Xie Jixing was a ghost.

Once Ji Jin’s nerves snapped, revealing the prior poisoning, Yue Qinyao dislocated his jaw, controlling him like a puppet to attack Xie Jixing.

Result: Xie Jixing shattered all his joints—giving the unlucky ghost a small measure of justice.

“But you’re lucky—you still have one life. Keep your dog-life for prison reflection.”

Everything happened so fast, Xie Jixing leapt back to a safe distance with the stick.

Yue Qinyao withdrew the black hair; Ji Jin collapsed like a deconstructed puppet, limbs splayed, slumped to the floor.

Ning Yan was the first to rush in. “Xingxing, are you okay?”

Xie Jixing clenched the wooden stick against his chest, his brows tightly furrowed. His face still bore traces of fake blood, and to match the role, a few bruises were painted on. In the dim light, they were hardly noticeable, but under the bright lighting now, it looked exactly like he had been violently beaten.

A layer of moisture clouded his eyes, as if he was on the verge of tears. Anyone looking at him would immediately feel that he had been terribly frightened.

“Did he hit you?” the assistant director asked through gritted teeth.

Xie Jixing glanced faintly at Ji Jin in the room, sniffed, and spoke in a tone both pitiful and helpless: “I… I don’t even know what happened. I didn’t do anything extreme. I didn’t even get close to him. I just appeared at the well according to the script, then went into the room to deliver a line, and suddenly he went berserk and attacked me…”

“Why does he hate me so much? During the live broadcast on Orange TV, he gave me a bottle of water backstage. After drinking it, my throat went hoarse. Now I can’t sing anymore, and I can only be an NPC extra. I never expected the water was poisoned, and he even tried to kill me… We were supposed to be teammates…”

Xie Jixing’s pitiful, nearly shattered appearance immediately won the sympathy of everyone present.

Quan You’er, also a singer, instantly empathized. She had previously been frightened to the point of collapse, but now maternal instincts surged. Pushing through the crowd, she squeezed forward and even kicked Ji Jin in passing.

She pulled Xie Jixing behind her protectively and glared at Ji Jin. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Ji Jin’s jaw was dislocated. He couldn’t speak clearly, so he could only glare at Xie Jixing and sputter, “Abba abba abba…”

Don’t believe him! He nearly beat me to death!