The variety show had only been airing for a day and a half, yet its online popularity continued to soar higher and higher. The undercover game segment was also screen-recorded and shared across major platforms. Le Zhiyi’s public reputation completely reversed, and even that wicked smile of his was turned into a meme.
[Mud is barking like a dog]: Le Zhiyi’s evil smile.JPG
[My father never provoked you]: So cute, so cute, damn it, I have a new favorite baby.
[Homework raised me white and plump]: I will pretend I didn’t see Le Zhiyi’s previous stupid actions, please watch your words and actions from now on!!
[Hong Shixian’s alt account]: I still cannot accept Le Zhiyi, stay away from Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu.
On the way back in the car, everyone was catching up on sleep.
As for Le Zhiyi, the system was vividly recounting the bullet comments, shifting between a deep bass voice and shrill screeches, making Le Zhiyi cover his face with one hand and turn red as he desperately held back his laughter.
“Tsk tsk, Le Zhiyi, you really have turned things around,” the system sighed.
Its tone carried a mix of lingering emotion and sentimentality.
Le Zhiyi let out an affirmative hum and drawled leisurely, “Listening to you talk like that, I almost thought you were the novel’s supporting character, Le Zhiyi.”
With those words, a few seconds of silence followed before the system shrieked aloud, “What are you talking about!! Let’s go, let’s go, favorability increased, fast-forward count plus one.”
After shouting that, it hurried away, leaving Le Zhiyi to continue holding back his laughter. This system harbored a deep resentment toward anyone who had harmed the original supporting character. He guessed it must have been a friend of that character.
Sitting diagonally behind Le Zhiyi, Jiang Yinnian stared fixedly at him while mentally reviewing the undercover game in his mind.
When Su Anlin, that troublemaker, was stirring up chaos, he should have issued a direct denial first, logically and reasonably clarifying that it was impossible for him to expose himself right at the start, and then shifted the target onto Le Zhiyi instead.
That way, he wouldn’t have been eliminated by a unanimous vote, and at least he could have survived.
Yes, exactly.
Jiang Yinnian turned the thought over in his head a few more times until the pent-up frustration in his chest finally dissipated. Satisfied, he closed his eyes to rest.
Upon returning to the two-story villa, they pushed open the front door to find three giant boxes placed right in the center of the room, containing a chair and a box of cosmetics.
The director picked up his megaphone and announced the game rules: “The second round of games is about to begin. It’s a small game to test your tacit understanding.”
“Six people will draw numbers to determine room assignments, paired in groups of two. Then you’ll play rock-paper-scissors, and the losers will be the ones getting made up. The player applying makeup must be blindfolded and directed by the person receiving the makeup. You have a thirty-minute time limit, after which our show’s professional makeup artist will score you.”
Since all six were in the entertainment industry, they all knew a thing or two about makeup, but applying it blindfolded tested not only technique but also pure tactile intuition.
[Ooh, this definitely has to pair Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu together.]
[Hahahahaha I’m already ready to screenshot the ugly photos.]
[Doing makeup blindfolded definitely requires touching faces, my OTP is locked ahhhh!!]
The group drew numbers and announced them one by one from left to right. The first was Jiang Siyu, who gently turned his number toward the camera: “I drew a 2.”
Le Zhiyi: “?”
What?
Startled, he stared wide-eyed at the number 2 in his hand, feeling as though the world had gone dark.
Seeing that his turn was fast approaching, Le Zhiyi struck upon a brilliant idea, poked Shen Qing, and pitifully whispered a soft plea, “Qingqing, can the two of us swap, please?”
Shen Qing agreed without the slightest hesitation, “Okay.”
Gratefully pressing his arm against Shen Qing, Le Zhiyi snatched the number from Shen Qing’s hand, which had a 1 written on it.
Phew, thank goodness. He almost got cursed out again.
Yet the very next second, Jiang Yinnian’s uniquely cold and crisp voice rang out: “I am 1.”
Le Zhiyi:
Damn you.
It was Shen Qing’s turn next. Shen Qing shook his number 2 and said, “Teacher Siyu, please take good care of me later.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” Jiang Siyu smiled.
The last one was Le Zhiyi. Even without saying it, everyone present already knew what he had. Le Zhiyi sighed, blinked at Jiang Yinnian, and said with a smile, “Little Brother A-Nian, let me win at rock-paper-scissors later, won’t you?”
Jiang Yinnian:
Being three years younger than Le Zhiyi, he loathed being called “little brother” by this person more than anything else. So unlucky.
[I saw it!! Le Zhiyi actively took the initiative to swap numbers with Shen Qing!!]
[If he hadn’t swapped, Le Zhiyi would have been paired with Jiang Siyu. Why would he swap? Doesn’t he like Jiang Siyu?]
[It’s complicated. My feelings toward Le Zhiyi are very complicated right now. He actually proactively let my OTP interact.]
[I’ve attained enlightenment. Could it be that he doesn’t like Jiang Siyu anymore, but likes Jiang Yinnian instead? Did they bicker their way into developing feelings?]
[The person above makes sense. If the two of them form a ship, their fandom name should be the Opposition-Lane Couple, hahahahaha.]
The six people automatically divided into pairs and began playing rock-paper-scissors to decide the winner in a single round.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
Le Zhiyi and Jiang Yinnian threw out their hands at the same time. Le Zhiyi chose scissors, while Jiang Yinnian chose rock.
Jiang Yinnian curved the corners of his lips in amusement. The next second, a ding-dong sound rang out.
The sound of “Rock, paper, scissors” rang out once more.
Jiang Yinnian:
This time, Le Zhiyi chose paper, while Jiang Yinnian chose scissors.
Jiang Yinnian curved the corners of his lips in amusement for a second time.
Ding-dong.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
Le Zhiyi chose rock, while Jiang Yinnian chose paper.
Jiang Yinnian curved the corners of his lips in amusement for a third time. Such a noob.
Le Zhiyi was losing his mind. “Use my last fast-forward to trade for a rewind, please ahhhh!!!”
“You got it, Host. The fourth fast-forward traded for a rewind has been credited.”
Ding-dong.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
The two of them threw out their hands simultaneously for the fourth time. Le Zhiyi chose scissors, and Jiang Yinnian chose rock.
Le Zhiyi:
The system:
“Host, you’re so bad at this. You couldn’t win even with four tries, you might as well pack your bags and go home to farm.”
Le Zhiyi: “Heh.”
Jiang Yinnian curled both corners of his mouth upward and said in high spirits, “Director Le, practice more if you’re bad at it.”
Le Zhiyi: “Hehe.”
The other two groups also decided their winners. Su Anlin and Shen Qing were blindfolded to do makeup, while Qi Li sat in her chair looking utterly lifeless, issuing repeated warnings to Su Anlin: “Avoid bright colors, keep it mostly neutral.”
Su Anlin nodded with absolute confidence. “Leave it to me, rest assured.”
Jiang Siyu didn’t say much, only offering, “A-Qing, I trust you.”
Words that were both gentle and full of strength gave Shen Qing a huge boost of encouragement, and he nodded happily.
Listening to the conversation between the other groups, Le Zhiyi wanted to give some instructions too, but before he could speak, he was cut off by Jiang Yinnian.
Jiang Yinnian said with overflowing malice, “Older brother? Shut up.”
Le Zhiyi:
We’re done for.
[Older brother and younger brother, so great to ship.]
[You two go ahead and hurt each other first, I’m starting to ship this.]
[The shipping super-topic for Jiang Yinnian and Le Zhiyi has already passed review, it’s called Opposition-Lane Little Couple, everyone is welcome to come hang out!!]
With blindfolds put on, the game officially began.
The cosmetics prepared by the production team were extremely comprehensive, including primers, sunscreens, and everything else, but the group tacitly reached for the liquid foundation right away.
“A-Nian, the liquid foundation is on the left. Yes, further left, further forward. No, that’s lip gloss you’re holding.” At first, Le Zhiyi tried to maintain his persona by patiently guiding Jiang Yinnian.
When Jiang Yinnian picked up the lip gloss for the second time, Le Zhiyi clicked his tongue, reached out himself, and directly placed the bottle of foundation into Jiang Yinnian’s hand.
Yet Jiang Yinnian put it back down, disapprovingly stating, “Foul.”
Le Zhiyi:
Damn you.
Gritting his teeth, he put away all the foundation bottles, leaving out only the one that matched his skin tone, and left Jiang Yinnian to fumble around blindly.
When Jiang Yinnian finally managed to touch it.
Le Zhiyi spoke in a sarcastic, mocking tone, “Wow, A-Nian is so great.”
“Shut up,” Jiang Yinnian pressed his lips together.
Finding the makeup sponge easily, he picked it up, squeezed three full pumps of foundation directly onto it, and began groping around for Le Zhiyi’s face.
Terrified, Le Zhiyi retreated backward. “Please, anyone watching would think you were applying foundation to my butt. Did you really need to use this much?”
“No, scrape some of it off.”
“It’s too much, A-Nian, it won’t blend out.”
“A-Nian…” Le Zhiyi protested while dodging, when suddenly his chin was pinched, the grip tightening even further. His body instinctively trembled, and he instantly fell silent.
Jiang Yinnian paused for a moment and increased the firmness of his tone: “Shut up, don’t move.”
With that, he began patting foundation onto Le Zhiyi’s face with the sponge, his hand never releasing its grip on the other’s chin.
Le Zhiyi actually stopped moving, only letting out a spoiled whimper whenever a pat stung a bit: “It hurts, be lighter, what’s the rush, did you borrow those hands from someone else?”
“I’m not using force,” Jiang Yinnian retorted.
It’s just that you’re too delicate.
Le Zhiyi grumbled in dissatisfaction.
He narrowed his eyes to look at Jiang Yinnian before him. Once those aloof eyes were covered by the blindfold, his bangs hung obediently across his forehead, and his pale pink lips were slightly pressed together, making him look somewhat easier to approach.
Oh, there’s even a mole right there on his throat, I want to pick at it.
Just as Le Zhiyi was sizing Jiang Yinnian up from top to bottom, the makeup sponge suddenly came straight for his eye, causing him to instinctively squeeze his eyes shut.
Le Zhiyi:
Although it wasn’t intentional, he still wanted to curse him out—Jiang Yinnian, you bastard.
The viewers couldn’t see what the makeup application looked like, but they could hear the audio, leaving them scratching their ears in burning suspense.
[I’m so scared Qi Li and Su Anlin are going to start fighting hahahahaha, they’re so noisy.]
[Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu’s side is so quiet, you can occasionally hear their soft whispers, sobbing.]
[Hahahahahahaha Le Zhiyi, what are you even saying? Why did you suddenly bring up butts? That’s way too bold!!]
[Le Zhiyi’s whining sounds so spoiled, ugh, artificial limb acting stiff.]
[To the person above, you’re pretty bold too.]
With great difficulty, they finally finished applying the foundation and dusting setting powder. Le Zhiyi didn’t even have the energy left to whine, simply leaving his chin in Jiang Yinnian’s grasp as he allowed him to smear and paint across his face.
No matter how it turned out, his face was still right here.
It could definitely pull it off.
Le Zhiyi thought with supreme confidence.
On the other side, Su Anlin had already been scolded to tears, sobbing softly as he applied blush.
“Why are you using so much strength? Gentler,” Qi Li complained.
Su Anlin wiped away a tear, filled with grievance yet daring not to speak up, “Oh.”
He was furious. Qi Li was simply too outrageous. Good thing he hadn’t accepted Qi Li’s confession, otherwise he wouldn’t have any peaceful days left.
“What are you thinking about? Stop painting, draw my eyeliner.”
Su Anlin almost let out a howling cry, nodding with a spirit of enduring humiliation, only to get yelled at again while drawing the eyeliner.
Su Anlin:
Aroo.
Meanwhile, Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu were getting along harmoniously, occasionally stealing little hand-holding physical contact.
Caressing the other’s face, Jiang Siyu asked softly, “I’m going to apply blush for you now. Tell me if it hurts, okay?”
Shen Qing flushed red and nodded, “Okay.”
Half an hour later, the director blew the whistle. “Time’s up, everyone come out together.”
[Looking forward to it, rubbing my hands together.]
[So nervous, feels just like the first date before.]
The staff on site and the viewers in the live stream eagerly stared at the three doors.
At the exact same moment, all three doors slowly pushed open, and the people inside walked out. The moment they caught a single glimpse, both the staff and the audience were left dumbfounded.
Staff member: Pfft.
[????????]
[Which opera troupe did these people escape from??]
[I give up, hahahahahahahahaha.]