Chapter 449 – Palpitations from That World – The Dare Round (16)
Wei Wen hadn’t expected the bottle to land on her. If only it had picked her one turn later—then she could have chosen Truth.
Whether she liked it or not, the game had to continue. Maybe it wouldn’t be too dangerous… After all, nothing bad had happened so far, right? She comforted herself inwardly, glanced at Wei Xing, and said, “I choose Dare.”
The moment her words fell, her upright body suddenly went limp and collapsed onto Wei Xing. Startled, Wei Xing cried out. The two puppet judges cast her puzzled looks, seemingly unable to understand why she was shouting—after all, it wasn’t her turn yet. What was she so worked up about?
Bai Tang adjusted his position in Wen Junnan’s arms and whispered softly, “What’s wrong with her? Isn’t it a Dare? The player hasn’t even been given a task yet.” In his understanding, dares didn’t work like this. And Wei Wen didn’t seem like someone timid—she had been quite bold when arguing with him earlier.
“It’s already started,” Wen Junnan said, looking at the unconscious Wei Wen as if he had seen through everything.
When the other players met Wen Junnan’s gaze, for some reason they all lowered their heads, not daring to look him in the eye. The feeling of having one’s hidden thoughts seen through was simply too unpleasant.
Bai Tang didn’t quite understand, but considering that the enemy was hidden while they were exposed—and the situation was still unclear—he chose not to reveal too much. So he didn’t ask Wen Junnan how he knew.
In fact, the Dare had already begun.
Wei Wen’s consciousness was dragged into a different dimension. In this space, she was a member of a mountaineering team. She had a boyfriend who loved her deeply, but on the first day of the climb, she came down with a fever. Forcing herself to continue climbing in such a condition would only drag the team down.
So she was left behind at the foot of the mountain. Her boyfriend said to her, “Wenwen, just wait here for us. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Wei Wen loved her boyfriend very much. Although she sensed that something felt off, she attributed it to the other team members not liking her. After all, she had joined the mountaineering team through her boyfriend’s connections, and the others were not familiar with her.
The sky was dim, and the surroundings felt eerily desolate. Wei Wen didn’t want to be separated from her boyfriend, so she tried to persuade him, “I’m not feeling very well… Can you stay with me? I’m a little scared being here alone.”
Her delicate, coquettish tone did stir something in him. But no matter how tempted he was, faced with the teasing and mocking looks from his teammates, he hardened his heart and pulled his hand away from hers. “Wenwen, be good. We’re all adults—I believe you can handle unexpected situations.”
Suddenly being lectured by her boyfriend, combined with her physical discomfort, made Wei Wen’s head throb. She snapped angrily, “So what if we’re adults? Does being an adult mean we can handle everything perfectly? I’m your girlfriend—the person who’s supposed to spend your life with you. Where do I rank in your heart?”
Here she went again. The teammates watched their argument with helplessness and ridicule. This was exactly why they disliked Wei Wen—she was unreasonable and petty.
Her boyfriend grew irritated, and with the constant urging from his teammates, his tone turned cold. “You were the one who insisted on coming. Now you’re saying you can’t handle it. No one forced you to climb. If you can’t do it, then go home.”
With that, he turned and followed the team up the mountain.
Wei Wen stared blankly at her now-empty hand. The sense of unease grew stronger. Watching the team’s retreating figures, she thought she saw a mass of dark energy looming over their heads.
A gust of wind blew past, and she shivered, pulling her coat tighter around herself.
She wanted to storm off in anger and head back, but unfortunately, the car keys were with one of the team members. There was no way she could return to the city alone, so she could only set up camp and wait for the team to come back.
This wasn’t the first time she and her boyfriend had argued. Every time before, he had been the one to give in first. When he came back this time, if she was still upset, she could always apologize.
She waited… and waited. By the time night fell, snow began to drift down from the sky.
Watching the white flakes fall and feeling the sudden drop in temperature, a faint sense of dread began to rise in her heart.
She looked up at the mountain. Its peak was covered in snow all year round. Countless people had climbed this mountain before, and she had never heard of any accidents happening—so they shouldn’t be that unlucky… right?
But what you fear is often what comes true. In the middle of the night, Wei Wen was jolted awake by a thunderous rumble. She rushed out of the tent and saw the snow from the mountain collapsing in a roaring avalanche. It was a spectacular sight—one most people would never witness in their lifetime—but to her, it was a devastating disaster.
“No—!”
Wei Wen tried to make an emergency call, but whether due to magnetic interference or something else, none of the calls went through—neither to friends and family nor to emergency services.
All she could do was pack her things, find a safer place, and silently pray that they would return safely.
The first day passed. They didn’t come back.
The second day passed. They still didn’t return…
…
Outside the dream.
The players saw that the unconscious Wei Wen was frowning deeply, anxiety evident on her face, as if she were trapped in some kind of predicament.
The straightforward Li Tefeng quietly tugged at Ning Sitong’s hand. “Is she having a nightmare?”
Familiar with the bandaged man’s methods, Ning Sitong nodded. Wei Wen had been dragged into a dream. If she couldn’t break free, there was only one outcome—she would be scared to death within the dream.
At that moment, Wei Wen’s expression suddenly changed. Starting from her neck, her skin turned bluish. Her hands clawed wildly at the air. Wei Xing, who was supporting her, was caught off guard and got scratched several times. A few bloody marks appeared on her pretty face, looking especially terrifying under the flickering candlelight.
Girls cared about their appearance. After getting her face scratched, Wei Xing’s concern for her sister vanished instantly, replaced by resentment toward Wei Wen, who was still flailing her hands in the air.
She picked up a mirror to look at her face, then glared angrily at Wei Wen. Wei Wen had kept long nails for the sake of beauty, and those scratches were deep—there was even blood visible beneath her nails. It was Wei Xing’s blood.
“Don’t… don’t…”
Suddenly, Wei Wen’s eyes flew open. Her hands and feet jerked violently a few times. Then her head tilted to one side—and her heart stopped.
Even though Wei Xing had begun to resent her, she had never wished for her sister’s death.
Wei Wen’s death was a heavy blow to all the players present. So this was the Dare—risking one’s life inside a dream, with no clues on how to break free. The players who went later had no advantage at all.
Li Pai’s heart sank further. Another dead end.
Wen Junnan gently set Bai Tang down and patted his hand, signaling him not to worry. Then he stood up and walked over to Wei Wen.
Wei Xing sobbed, but didn’t dare throw herself onto Wei Wen’s body to cry. The reason was simple—her corpse looked too horrifying.
Wei Wen’s eyes were bloodshot, her eyeballs bulging. Her face had turned bluish, and there was a dark ligature mark around her neck.
Wen Junnan activated his spiritual power and, through Wei Wen’s pupils, saw the final scene before her death.
Several days passed, yet there was still no news from the mountaineering team. Wei Wen was burning with anxiety, but she couldn’t leave. On the seventh day, the team finally returned. Overjoyed, she ran to greet them—only to find that everyone had come back except her boyfriend.
The team members told her that on the very first day of the climb, they had encountered an avalanche. Her boyfriend had died trying to save everyone.
Those words seemed to trigger something, awakening Wei Wen’s memories. She realized that this wasn’t her life at all, and that man wasn’t really her boyfriend. This was the very story she had told during the storytelling round.
Once the floodgates of memory opened, Wei Wen understood that this was no ordinary place. An uncontrollable fear rose within her.
Perhaps the fear on her face was too obvious. When she looked up again, the teammates’ facial features had blurred, yet they continued speaking words of concern—exactly the same as those she had once described:
“He loved you the most. He’ll definitely come back to find you tonight.”
“Yeah, yeah. Since we couldn’t find him on the mountain, why not just wait for him to come to you?”
Wei Wen’s story had been an open-ended one, with no true conclusion. Because of that, she couldn’t tell who was real and who was fake.
Realizing that this was an unsolvable dead end, she was filled with regret. Why had she told such a story? Meanwhile, the teammates closed in on her step by step, making her breathing grow rapid.
“No… don’t come any closer. Don’t come near me. Get away—get away from me!”
They had tried to comfort her kindly, yet she lashed out at them with harsh words. Human patience had its limits. Besides, her “dead” boyfriend was no longer there to protect her.
The teammates exchanged glances and smiled, tearing off their masks of pretense. “You asked for this the hard way…”
Wei Wen didn’t make it to the night—didn’t live long enough for her boyfriend to return. She died at the hands of her teammates.
Her story seemed like a dead end, but in truth, a way out had been given from the very beginning. If she had pretended that nothing was wrong and endured until nightfall—waiting until her boyfriend returned and asked that final question—the story would have ended. Once it ended, she would naturally have escaped the dream. Unfortunately, she lost her composure.
Partly it was her own lack of ability, and partly because Wen Junnan had taken away her good fortune—so how could she not die in the dream?
Wen Junnan withdrew his gaze. He already knew the method to break the situation.
Among all the players present, only Wen Junnan had the nerve to look directly at Wei Wen. Even Wei Xing could only wail from the side, not daring to touch even the sleeve of Wei Wen’s clothes.
Bai Tang blinked his round eyes and looked at Wen Junnan. The latter smiled at him, then shifted his gaze to the other players and said loudly, “Pay attention to the stories you tell—they will become your nightmares.”
Since Tang tang had immunity this round and wasn’t involved, Wen Junnan didn’t mind helping these ignorant players—so long as it didn’t threaten Tang tang’s safety.
Ning Sitong grew increasingly interested in Wen Junnan’s abilities; her eyes even lit up as she looked at him.
Alarm bells rang loudly in both Bai Tang’s and Li Tefeng’s minds—under no circumstances could they let Ning Sitong / Wen Junnan steal away their partner.
Li Tefeng grabbed Ning Sitong’s hand and said worriedly, “I chose Truth. The Dare is too dangerous—and the story you told is pretty intense too.”
Ning Sitong wasn’t afraid. The stories she had told were all things she had personally experienced, so she already had a good idea of how to deal with them. Still, she was happy that Li Tefeng cared about her.
Seeing her attention return to him, Li Tefeng finally felt a bit more at ease. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his brother—it was just that he knew how attractive his brother was.
Bai Tang collapsed onto the sofa with a pained cry. The others only felt a gust of wind pass by, and in the next instant, Wen Junnan was already at the sofa’s side.