会议室里抓内鬼的荒诞时刻

What does “内鬼” (nèiguǐ) mean in Chinese?

内鬼 (nèiguǐ) literally means “inner ghost” — 内 (nèi) is “inside” and 鬼 (guǐ) is “ghost” or “demon.” In practice it means a mole, spy, or rat: someone inside an organisation who leaks information or secretly betrays the group. The word feels vivid because 鬼 carries connotations of hidden, shadowy wrongdoing. You hear it in workplace dramas, spy thrillers, and increasingly as a tongue-in-cheek game term when friends play social deduction games.

The clip is a workplace comedy sketch in which a meeting room is locked down after a bid document is leaked to a competitor: 在没刷到内鬼之前，任何人都不能离开这间会议室 (“before we find the 内鬼, nobody can leave this meeting room”). The escalating paranoia mirrors the Among Us / Werewolf game dynamic that has made 内鬼 a widely used meme in Chinese internet culture. The word 抓内鬼 (zhuā nèiguǐ, “catch the mole”) has become a standalone phrase in office settings whenever there’s a suspected leak. Related: 卧底 (wòdì, undercover agent) is a more formal, film-genre term, while 内鬼 has a grittier, betrayal-from-within flavour.