Before Le Zhiyi could even head downstairs, someone knocked on his door. Upon opening it, he was greeted by the staff member’s face.
The staff member handed over a piece of paper and a pen. “Before the first segment begins, you need to write down your impressions of the other five guests. After recording ends, this will be released as an Easter egg bonus.”
Le Zhiyi acknowledged the instruction, took the paper and pen, and furiously scribbled away using his elementary school handwriting.
He wrote about five people in one breath, but when he reached Jiang Yinnian, his fingertips paused.
Pushing aside his disgust for Jiang Yinnian, he began carefully recalling the man’s merits.
Tall with long legs, alluring.
High and straight nasal bridge, big.
Fingertips tinged with red, ruthless.
Tsk, his thoughts had drifted off track.
In the end, Le Zhiyi left Jiang Yinnian’s name completely blank, merely drawing a period next to it.
On the other side, when Jiang Yinnian was writing, he completely ignored Le Zhiyi.
[Good grief, you two truly deserve to be sworn enemies.]
[How is this not a kind of tacit understanding unique to mortal enemies?]
[I already searched online to find out why they hate each other so much hahaha.]
Once downstairs, the staff members blindfolded the guests and helped them walk outside. Unanimously gripped by a bad premonition, none of them spoke for a while.
After all, the director of this variety show was named Liu Zi, an old fox director who lived up to his name with countless mischievous tricks that always caught people off guard.
Sure enough, the moment they stopped, the director’s cheeky voice rang out from behind them. “Good afternoon everyone, did you smell it? It is the scent of the ocean breeze, simply refreshing and delightful.”
The six people instinctively turned around, but the director had already grabbed a megaphone and run off, speaking from right beside them:
“Right at the start, we are going to play big. There are balloons tied all around you, and everyone will wear blindfolds to pinch them until they pop. You have a three-minute time limit, and the number of popped balloons will determine where you sleep tonight, as there are only five rooms available.”
The six people:
[That means two people will have to share a room!]
[That is definitely Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu, since they are a real couple after all.]
[Director Liu Zi is still as stable as ever in his performance, too wicked hahaha.]
A whistle sounded, and the staff members supporting the six individuals quickly withdrew, leaving the bewildered group standing in place.
After a few seconds, they began groping their way forward. As Shen Qing walked along, he collided straight into Jiang Siyu, who instinctively grabbed the arm of the person in front of him.
“A-Qing?”
“It is me, did I bump into you hard?” Shen Qing asked with concern.
Jiang Siyu said, “I am fine. Let us walk together and split the balloons.”
Shen Qing thought for a moment and agreed, “Alright.”
[Agh, real couples are just so great to ship.]
[Heavens, they are holding on so tightly.]
[Ahhhhh shipping fans are celebrating the New Year!]
Su Anlin and Qi Li had already found balloons and started pressing to pop them, but balloons were difficult to crush because they would fly away. When Qi Li stumbled while trying to grab a flying balloon, he accidentally gave Su Anlin a slap across the face.
Su Anlin clutched his arm and roared, “Ali Baba, no wait, Ashibe!”
Qi Li: “?”
She silently turned around and bolted, running extremely fast.
[You can tell he was really angry hahaha.]
[Hahahahahahaha I feel like these two have CP chemistry too.]
[Is this really not a dating show? This is killing me.]
[Quick, look at Le Zhiyi and Jiang Yinnian hahahahahahaha.]
To make the male lead and his shou lose so they would end up sharing a room, Le Zhiyi listened to the system’s directional guidance and focused entirely on popping balloons. Walking and popping as he went, he exerted himself greatly.
Suddenly, his confident stride met an obstruction. Moving too boldly to catch his balance in time, he tripped and tumbled over.
Two muffled grunts sounded simultaneously.
Jiang Yinnian knelt and sprawled miserably on the ground, nearly having the wind knocked out of him. He gritted his teeth. “Le Zhiyi? Who let you out of your pen?”
Le Zhiyi, sprawled across Jiang Yinnian’s back:
Refusing to show weakness, he gritted his teeth right back. “Jiang Yinnian, are you a dog? Why are you squatting by my feet? I certainly did not bring any bones.”
Unsatisfied after speaking, he reached out and twisted Jiang Yinnian’s back.
Jiang Yinnian: “?”
Feeling the pain radiating from his back, he hissed and shook Le Zhiyi right off.
Caught off guard, Le Zhiyi tumbled onto the ground and let out a soft groan. Enduring the pain, he climbed back up and slapped Jiang Yinnian right across the body.
Smack.
The slap landed with a soft, slightly springy feel.
It felt as though…
Before the words “his butt” could form in his mind, Jiang Yinnian interrupted angrily, “Le Zhiyi?”
Le Zhiyi:
He hurriedly and disgustedly raised his hand to wipe it against Jiang Yinnian’s clothes. “Damn it, my hand is going to grow sores.”
While saying this out loud, inside his mind he frantically yelled at the system to rewind.
Jiang Yinnian was about to give Le Zhiyi a kick when a ding dong sound suddenly rang out. Then he climbed back up and squatted down on the ground again, still clutching a balloon in his hand.
A mouthful of breath stuck in his throat, neither going up nor down.
Jiang Yinnian:
Hah.
The balloon in his hand was crushed with ferocious force.
Le Zhiyi squatted disconsolately in a corner shaking his hand. Aside from touching his own rear end, where else had he ever touched someone else’s, let alone Jiang Yinnian’s? It was unclean, completely unclean.
The system was rolling on the floor laughing. “You two are truly tit for tat, look at you now. Thank goodness for the rewind function. If Jiang Yinnian knew you touched his butt, given his vengeful personality, he would torment you to death.”
Tsk.
“Such a hateful personality, yet his butt is actually quite soft,” Le Zhiyi argued stubbornly out loud.
The system: “?”
“Host, you are so perverted,” it said, lost for words.
Too lazy to bother with the system anymore, Le Zhiyi vented his anger back into popping balloons, and Jiang Yinnian did the same.
By the end of the session, Jiang Yinnian and Le Zhiyi had gone completely berserk, frantically popping balloons like a string of firecrackers going off with loud bangs.
[Terrifying, is this the competitive spirit of mortal enemies?]
[Balloons: Who will speak up for me?]
[Balloons want to go home.]
The whistle blew, signaling the end of the match. The group removed their blindfolds and waited for the director to announce the results.
Not forgetting to maintain his delicate and frail persona, Le Zhiyi casually flashed his reddened fingertips toward the camera before lowering his head to blow on them.
Seeing this from nearby, Jiang Siyu asked with concern, “Are you alright, Zhiyi?”
Le Zhiyi hurriedly hushed him, shaking his head obediently to signal to Jiang Siyu that he was fine.
Male lead’s gong, back off, back off!
Helplessly nodding, Jiang Siyu said nothing more.
Jiang Yinnian saw it all clearly. He lowered his head and let out a scoff.
[Le Zhiyi is so sweet. If it were any other celebrity, they would probably try hard to stir up hype by pretending to work hard at the game.]
[Truly worthy of being Jiang Siyu, so attentive.]
[Too spoiled and delicate, feels like he is deliberately trying to catch Jiang Siyu’s attention.]
The director strolled out with a megaphone to announce the results, starting right off with, “Was that New Year’s already? The firecracker sounds were so loud, so I wish everyone a Happy New Year.”
Su Anlin rubbed his pink hair and asked curiously, “Happy New Year, Happy New Year. Who was that making all that banging popping balloons?”
After a few moments of curious discussion among the group, Le Zhiyi uttered an ah and joined the conversation as well.
Jiang Yinnian still kept his head lowered without speaking.
[Hahahahahahaha Happy New Year.]
[Happy New Year, Happy New Year, thanks to Jiang Yinnian and Le Zhiyi for providing the firecracker noises.]
[I am dying of laughter, too savage hahaha.]
“Now to announce the results, Shen Qing got twenty-two, Jiang Siyu got twenty-two, Qi Li got twenty-six, Su Anlin got thirty, and Jiang Yinnian and Le Zhiyi both got forty-one,” the director said.
Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu exchanged glances before shyly lowering their heads, while everyone else’s gaze snapped uniformly toward Le Zhiyi and Jiang Yinnian.
Su Anlin spoke up first. “Well well, so the two of you were setting off firecrackers.”
The people around them burst into laughter, and Shen Qing gave Le Zhiyi a thumbs-up. “Zhiyi was super awesome.”
Le Zhiyi opened his mouth wide in feigned astonishment and then chuckled, looking thoroughly surprised. “I yield to you all.”
Jiang Yinnian still neither raised his head nor opened his mouth.
The director continued, “Since the results are out, let us assign the rooms.”
[Ahhhhh my CP is going to live together!]
[First time ever feeling so happy that Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu lost hahaha.]
[Hehe living in the same room, hehehehe strongly demand that the room be live-streamed for me too!]
[A joyous occasion for all the land ahhhhh!]
All six of them were exhausted and wanted to return to their rooms to rest, but the moment after, the director spoke:
“According to everyone’s usual way of thinking, the winners get rooms, but this time it is reversed. The winners will share the same room, meaning Le Zhiyi and Jiang Yinnian will share one.”
The six people: “?”
The bullet comments: “?”
Le Zhiyi’s smile froze on his face, and in his heart he clearly and properly cursed out loud.
Was this segment in the book not supposed to be for Shen Qing and Jiang Siyu?
Damn cheating director, then why on earth had he worked so hard to pop balloons?
Jiang Yinnian lifted his head this time, his usually cold face cracking apart.
[Huh?? What a wonderful plot twist.]
[Not allowed ahhhhh, Jiang Yinnian cannot suffer this kind of grievance!]
[I feel like neither Le Zhiyi nor Jiang Yinnian wanted to record this, they worked hard for half a day only to end up sleeping together hahahahahahahahaha.]
[If I had to sleep in the same bed with someone I hate, I would suffer insomnia, nausea, and vomiting.]
The absurd room assignment concluded, leaving only the director and the spectators who loved chaos feeling happy.
Jiang Yinnian walked expressionlessly toward the director, intending to pay the breach of contract fee and leave, but the director had anticipated this and had long since bolted away.
Leaving behind a shivering assistant director.
“How about we give you two duvets and you just make do.”
Jiang Yinnian:
Did he need to express gratitude for this generosity as well?
Le Zhiyi:
Your mother.
[This is killing me hahahahahahahahaha.]
[Good thing old fox ran fast.]
[Simply incredible hahahahaha.]
Jiang Yinnian glanced at Le Zhiyi, wondering why Le Zhiyi was not rewinding time anymore since this was clearly the time to do it.
Le Zhiyi was powerless to do anything about it. A rewind could not go back that far, and he let out a mental wail.
Returning to the house, fortunately the director still possessed a shred of conscience, as lunch had already been laid out on the table.
The moment the six of them sat down, the static hiss of the megaphone sounded again. With tacit understanding, all six people immediately lowered their heads to stuff their faces, eating as much as they possibly could—even Jiang Yinnian, who normally watched his diet strictly, was no exception.
The director said with gratification, “Seeing everyone eating happily makes me happy too.”
“So as a reward, everyone gets a mini game. The winners receive thirty yuan in startup funds, while the losers get three yuan. This money relates directly to your dinner tonight.”
The six people fell silent for a few seconds, then resumed shoveling food into their mouths.
Hurry up and eat, my dear mouth!
[What kind of torture are they putting these kids through?]
[Eating looks so appetizing, off to order delivery.]
[Even when celebrities eat in huge bites, they still look pretty, and they do not spill rice!! Praise.]