Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 54: The Key Escaped

The commotion was too sudden, and even Comrade Zuoshan Diao couldn’t control it for a moment.

Those left at the scene were in a panicked disarray, hugging their heads and screaming, tears streaming as they scattered wildly.

In the classroom, the sounds of collisions with tables, chairs, and benches echoed constantly, along with the sounds of people bumping into each other, as if they were running for their lives.

"Aaaaah! Don’t touch me!"

"Ah! Who did I bump into?! Who bumped into me?!"

"Help! There’s something here!"

"Who?! Who’s pulling my clothes, trying to strangle me!"

"My shoe! Ow! That’s not an arm, it’s a belt!"

Song Xi and Yu Kuang huddled closely together, extending the light tube to shine on them.

Yu Xia closed her eyes, curled up under the desk, holding Shu Ran tightly.

Not far away, Wei Yaoyao jumped onto a desk, left with only one shoe, standing there with her neck tucked in, trembling.

A few others were in the middle of the aisle, some standing, some fallen, all looking shaken.

"...Are you okay?"

Wei Yaoyao tearfully said, "What do you think?"

Song Xi desperately wanted to laugh but knew he would get hit if he laughed now, so he held it back, shone the light around, and reassured them:

"There’s nothing there, you’re safe now."

Only then did Yu Xia open her eyes.

Shu Ran was in her arms, she held her with one hand, freeing the other to push away the chair that had fallen in front of the desk.

"Can someone help us out? We can’t get out."

The two were a bit squeezed, they had crawled in somehow, but now they were stuck and couldn’t get out.

Song Xi took the light tube, and Wei Yaoyao lifted the desk upwards, her arm muscles contrasting starkly with her sweet and cute curly wool hair.

"Is this okay?" he asked.

Yu Xia tugged at her clothes: "Stop, stop, my clothes are caught, and so is Shu Ran’s hair."

Wei Yaoyao maintained that posture, holding up the desk without moving, while Pei Lu rushed ahead of the others and directly grabbed Yu Xia’s clothes.

Yu Kuang gave a blank stare, hesitated, glanced at Yu Xia, and then turned to help Shu Ran disentangle her hair.

Only then was the desk moved, and the two stood up, surrounded by a group of boys.

Yu Xia politely thanked Pei Lu, her gaze sweeping coolly over his leg, noticing it had just stumbled.

"What happened to your leg?"

Pei Lu shook his head warmly, "It’s nothing."

Nothing would be best, as long as it’s not blamed on her.

Back to the main topic.

Song Xi raised the light tube high, so everyone could see the surroundings.

"Something really did come out just now," Shu Ran said, still haunted by the memory.

Wei Yaoyao nodded fiercely: "I saw it too!"

"Where’s the key, shine a light to look for it." Yu Xia looked up at the ceiling.

The flashing key had risen to the highest point, pressed against the wall, where there were some mottled red paint marks, when scrutinized, it seemed to read "For the rise of China, study hard."

Above the slogan, the line tied with the key extended above their heads, splitting into several lines fixed on the left and right walls at a distance.

"This is a mechanism made of strings."

They approached the mechanism on the left and looked at it; it was a base for launching something.

Yu Xia let out a breath of relief: "It seems that whatever came out was launched from here."

"There’s only eleven minutes left on the countdown, we need to hurry up and take down that key," Song Xi said.

"Actually, this level isn’t that difficult; the key is ready, just a bit scary."

Wei Yaoyao scratched her curly wool hair and picked up Comrade Zuoshan Diao again, who was still singing the national anthem from the desk.

"What? Did everyone hear? Wei Yaoyao said this level isn’t difficult for him, and he’ll handle the next three levels too."

Yu Xia said with a radiant smile: "I personally agree."

Song Xi immediately chimed in: "I agree too."

Wei Yaoyao: "..."

She dutifully held Comrade Zuoshan Diao, singing the national anthem as a physical method to protect everyone.

The others moved desks, dragged chairs; among the brothers, Song Xi, being the tallest, naturally stepped onto a chair to stand on a desk.

Unexpectedly, Pei Lu also intended to be the one to retrieve the key, and their feet directly landed on the same spot.

Shu Ran glanced at Pei Lu and said: "Song Xi is taller, let Song Xi do it."

Before Song Xi could say anything, Pei Lu gave an awkward smile, silently withdrew his foot, and stood behind them.

Yu Xia pretended not to notice, helping to steady the desk so Song Xi could stand firmly and reach for the key.

The desk wobbled steadily, and she didn’t dare let go, pressing it firmly, trying to see the distance. When she looked up, she met Song Xi’s tight thighs and hips strained with effort.

"..."

Ah, youth is truly an asset.

She quietly looked up again, focusing on the ceiling.

"Just a little more, just a little more, Song Xi, stretch and reach."

Song Xi held his breath and stretched his arm, still missing by a hair.

Everyone let out a simultaneous sigh of "Aye".

"If only your fingers were twenty centimeters longer."

Song Xi: "Then I’d have to go play basketball. I’ll try again, if it doesn’t work, we’ll bring a chair."

This time he chose to leap slightly upward, the desk clattered, and after three jumps, his hand finally grazed the key; it seemed he could pull it down, but to his dismay, as soon as he touched it, the key flew off with a swish.

This time it zipped along the line to the front of the classroom,

hovering just ahead of the countdown. The green dot flashed eerily amidst the scarlet heat ray.

The group let out a collective groan of frustration.

Shu Ran: "Does it not want us to get the key?"

"With just a touch, it flies away, how are we supposed to grab it?" He Mingjie was also exasperated.

The countdown wouldn’t wait, so they continued moving desks to try and catch the key.

Bringing one desk and chair at a time, they changed locations thrice, but still couldn’t catch it, leaving them exhausted and anxious.

And scared. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Yu Xia led the search with Wei Yaoyao carrying Comrade Zuoshan Diao for something usable under the desk, eventually discarding the broom and setting their sights on the light tube.

"What do you all think, is this mechanism controlled manually by the program team, or is there a sensing device that operates automatically?"

She asked thoughtfully.

Song Xi: "It shouldn’t be manual, there’s no line extending outside. Besides, it ran away with just a touch earlier, manual detection wouldn’t be that precise."

"Then the sensing device should be that flashing thing, stuck to the key. It changes position via the line. We can use the light tube to wrap it around the string, pull it tight, if the line is held, the key can’t go anywhere."

Putting words into action, it was again Song Xi who took the initiative, standing on the desk, swaying, he quickly wrapped the line twice with the light tube.

The key indeed tried to flee, but this time it couldn’t, and Song Xi gave a hard yank, the line snapped, and the key fell to the floor.

Yu Xia, quick-eyed and nimble-fingered, picked it up.

Wei Yaoyao, holding Comrade Zuoshan Diao, shouted: "Only one minute left!"

Yu Xia grabbed the key and rushed to the back door, stumbling over a desk in the dark as the light hadn’t caught up yet, nearly falling.

Song Xi shouted "Watch out," and a group of them hurried over, focusing the light on the keyhole, Yu Xia deftly inserted and twisted the key—

Damn, the key broke inside!