“Nan Yao, consider me completely blind!” Peng Xin trembled all over, her face pale with fury.
“Whatever you say,” Nan Yao replied icy cold. “I respect your opinion.”
“Nan Yao!”
“Xinxin, what got you so worked up? I could see that little pouting face of yours from a mile away. Did you miss me, or are you just jealous that someone else picked me?”
Chu Jie sauntered down the stairs, a distinctly wicked smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
The overly sticky, sickly-sweet tone made Nan Yao’s skin crawl. She looked up, only to see Chu Jie transformed from a gloomy, depressed teenager into a horribly greasy flirt.
The shift was so jarring it was completely impossible to digest not even his handsome face could save him now.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Chu Jie threw an arm over Peng Xin’s shoulders, reaching up to mess with her hair in an overtly doting gesture.
“It’s nothing.” Peng Xin forced a faint smile. “I’m heading back to my room.”
Chu Jie twitched an eyebrow and shrugged. “Alright then. Get some sleep, and good night, Xinxin~”
He blew a dramatic kiss toward Peng Xin’s retreating back as he spoke.
Unable to stomach his insufferable chatter any longer, Nan Yao brushed past him with long, brisk strides.
“Hey, beautiful, who are you planning to vote for?” Chu Jie instantly darted in front of her, winking playfully. “How about giving me a shot?”
“You’re the Wolf, aren’t you?” Nan Yao said with absolute certainty.
“No way!” Chu Jie immediately straightened up, putting on a serious expression. “I am a total good guy here. Don’t go smearing my stellar reputation.”
Nan Yao offered a deadpan smile. “Good things happen to good people.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean? Hey, gorgeous, don’t walk away! Come back and elaborate—let’s talk all night!”
Chu Jie trailed behind Nan Yao like a persistent shadow, chirping endlessly in her ear like a noisy sparrow.
Pushed to her absolute limit, Nan Yao sped up and went to push open the glass door ahead.
Only to find…
It wouldn’t budge at all.
“Why aren’t you opening it?” Chu Jie popped up beside her. “Waiting for me, huh?”
He leaned in close with a cheesy smile, extending his long arm to easily push the glass door open. “Serving a beauty is my absolute honor. Here you go, gorgeous—it’s all yours, head on in.”
Treating the open air as a wall, Chu Jie leaned his arm against the space right behind Nan Yao’s neck. Striking what he clearly thought was an irresistible pose, he tossed back his bangs and gave her a seductive, smoldering look, effectively trapped her in an imaginary “wall slam.”
Reeling from the sheer grease of his antics, Nan Yao couldn’t hold back and shoved him away with a sharp slap.
“Whoa, what’s with the insane strength?!” Chu Jie shouted in shock as he stumbled back. “Tell me what you’ve been eating! I’ve been trying to boost my boyfriend-strength lately!”
Knitting her brows tightly, Nan Yao hurried to step through the doorway.
Thump!
Nan Yao landed hard on her bottom on the floor, her eyes widening in disbelief as she stared at the wide-open glass door in front of her.
“Holy crap, what happened to you?” Chu Jie gasped with a crooked smirk, dashing into the room to demonstrate. “I opened the door! There’s no glass! Don’t try to frame me here.”
Nan Yao’s expression turned dark. She couldn’t enter an invisible, solid wall was blocking her path.
Out of options, she asked, “Where is the Heartbeat Room?”
“Say what?”
She closed her eyes, repeating herself with forced patience, “I asked, where is the Heartbeat Room?”
Looking completely bewildered, Chu Jie pointed to the left. “Go straight down. There’s a sign with a pink heart that has words on it… Wait, what does your fake fall have to do with the Heartbeat Room?”
He looked around nervously. “There’s no trap waiting for me, is there? Like, the male guest you actually like happens to be nearby, so you staged a fall to frame me for hitting on you, giving him a chance to play the hero, rescue the maiden, and confess his feelings?!”
“Halt! Who goes there!” Chu Jie suddenly snapped into a dramatic fighting stance, his eyes darting frantically left and right.
“Nan Yao, who is it? Nan Yao!” Chu Jie called out several times without a response. He turned around. “Where’d she go?!”
Nan Yao stood before a door bearing a glowing pink heart sign and pushed it open.
Inside was a circular, pink-themed room lined with a ring of rustic, half-height mailboxes in various colors. There were nine in total, each adorned with a cute, chibi-style portrait of one of the participants.
In the center of the room sat a large, round table made of pink solid wood, its top scattered with rose petals. Resting among the petals were nine small chibi figurines of the group, and surrounding the table were nine carved pink chairs with their names written on them.
Stepping onto the soft carpet, Nan Yao walked over to the round table, reached out, and picked up her own figurine. Beneath it lay a pink card with a feather pen clipped to it.
She glanced around, but saw no cards for anyone else not even Lu Jingwang’s.
After a moment’s thought, Nan Yao wrote “Jiang Jingyu” on the card, located her assigned mailbox, and dropped it inside…
Nan Yao froze. What was that sound?!
In that split second, several faint, ghostly complaints echoed out of nowhere…
“Why’d she pick Jiang Jingyu? I wanted to see her with Jiang Ying!”
“Lu Jingwang! I want to see Lu Jingwang!”
“Can’t she pick someone interesting? I want some real drama…”
Nan Yao went instantly on guard, her vigilant eyes scanning every inch of the room.
“Oh no, oh no, let’s get out of here, fast! She noticed us…”
Nan Yao’s brows pulled tight, her eyes locking onto Lu Jingwang’s mailbox. She had just caught a subtle flicker on his chibi portrait sticker.
“Everyone, run…”
Run? Nan Yao reached straight out and ripped Lu Jingwang’s portrait sticker right off the mailbox.
It’s heavy!
Flash!
A beam of blinding white light shot straight into Nan Yao’s forehead at lightning speed. She collapsed to the floor on the spot, the sheer shock still frozen on her face as her body hit the soft carpet with a heavy thud…
“Nan Yao, look at the mess you’ve made! I didn’t sign you to this company just so you could tear it down! From your debut until now, I must’ve been totally blind and brain-dead to keep covering for you. I babied you so much that you actually started thinking of me as your personal nanny like it’s my job to follow behind you and wipe your ass every time you make a mess!”
“Manager Li, it’s not like that! Don’t be mad, it really wasn’t my fault this time!”
Nan Yao grabbed her manager’s hand, blinking her eyes with a pitiful, aggrieved expression. “That bitch Peng Xin set me up! She purposely invited me out to a bar saying she wanted to apologize. You know how innocent and kind-hearted I am—of course I believed that bitch! I just never expected…”
“Never expected her to secretly record you and expose your vile, disgusting behavior to the world, right?!”
Scared out of her wits, Nan Yao bit her lip, shooting fearful glances at Manager Li every few seconds.
“She’s the vile one…”
“Shut your trap! I’ve been managing you for years you think I don’t know what kind of trash human being you are?!”
“Manager Li, we’re in this together! You can’t just talk to me like that!” Nan Yao rolled her eyes at him in annoyance. “Haven’t I been good to you all these years?”
“You have the nerve to say that!” Manager Li slammed his hand down, grabbed the water cup off the table, and hurled it toward her. “Pack your shit and get the hell out! Dammit, I’m done serving you, you absolute idiot!”
“Damn it, are you trying to kill me?!” Nan Yao clutched her racing heart in terror, pointing a finger fiercely at Manager Li’s nose as she yelled back, “You old bastard, just you wait! I swear I’ll make you drop to your knees and beg to serve me again just you wait!”