Holding the flowers as he stepped back into the room, Qi Xiao sat on the bed and began to ponder carefully.
Currently, the ones he could confirm who had given out rings were Lin Zhiyao, Liang Yi, and Song Mei. As for Shen Ye, although he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, it was most likely given to Song Mei. That left only Jiang Fei, Zhou Chongyu, and Lu Xingliang.
Jiang Fei had consistently shown a stronger interest in Lu Xingliang, making the possibility of her sending flowers to him rather slim. Thus, the person who sent the flowers should be Lu Xingliang or Zhou Chongyu?
Qi Xiao was instantly startled by his own conclusion. Impossible, impossible—that’s way too bizarre.
After some thought, he shifted his perspective. Giving a ring didn’t necessarily signify genuine romantic interest. After all, this wasn’t an ordinary dating show—there were Liars among the male and female guests, and the exact count was unknown. Which meant everyone was a suspect, so these flowers could very well be a tactic deployed by a Liar.
Coming out of the shower, Lu Xingliang saw Qi Xiao sitting on the bed staring blankly into space while clutching a bouquet of sunflowers.
He asked casually, “Where did those flowers come from?”
Qi Xiao shook his head: “I don’t know who sent them to me.”
Lu Xingliang swept a glance over, and catching sight of the ring box sitting on the nightstand, he understood immediately. “Just use the process of elimination,” he said.
A sudden thought struck Qi Xiao, and he asked, “Senior, you gave out a ring too, right?”
At his words, Lu Xingliang’s hand drying his hair paused slightly. His voice remained calm: “Of course.”
“Then who did you give yours to?” Qi Xiao asked, feigning curiosity.
Lu Xingliang glanced at him: “Before asking others, shouldn’t you share your own situation first?”
Reasoning that it would be broadcast on the show eventually anyway, Qi Xiao didn’t bother hiding it: “I gave mine to Lin Zhiyao.”
Lu Xingliang showed no reaction upon hearing this, remaining silent.
“What about you, Senior?” Qi Xiao pressed.
Lu Xingliang said, “Did I ever promise to tell you?”
Only then did Qi Xiao realize he had been tricked. Pouting his cheeks in mild frustration, he huffed, “Fine then, don’t tell me!”
As expected, Lu Xingliang is still the most suspicious!
Lin Zhiyao had mentioned earlier that the probability of actors being Liars was very high. On top of that, Lu Xingliang was a Film Emperor—playing a flirtatious player would be second nature to him. But he hadn’t expected Lu Xingliang to choose him as a target. Did he think he was easy to fool?
Qi Xiao thought to himself, That’s way too patronizing! I’m not a three-year-old child who can be tricked so easily.
Beside him, Lu Xingliang was completely unaware of what Qi Xiao was thinking. As he dried his hair, he pulled out his phone, still somewhat bothered by the earlier trending search topic.
Uncannily enough, Song Shishuang had messaged him first: “Guess what I just found out?”
Lu Xingliang: “Cut the suspense.”
Song Shishuang: “Under that trending topic with Qi Xiao, wasn’t everyone shipping the two of you? I was considering whether to suppress it, but guess what? Before I could even make a move, the topic was pulled directly.”
Seeing this message, Lu Xingliang was a bit surprised: “Who did it?”
Song Shishuang: “How would I know? And not only was the trending topic taken down, even the leaked video clips were completely deleted. Right now, you can’t search for a single thing online.”
Song Shishuang: “Don’t you think it’s weird? Previously, those negative trending topics about Qi Xiao were left hanging without anyone bothering, but the moment a couple-shipping topic popped up today, everything got erased. I’m guessing, could it be that the backer supporting him behind the scenes got unhappy?”
Lu Xingliang frowned: “What do you mean?”
Song Shishuang: “You’ve been in the industry for so many years, you should know better than I do. Qi Xiao landed the male lead in a major IP right upon his debut. Is it really possible he has no background or backing?”
Lu Xingliang stared at the screen for a moment, offered no further reply, and casually tossed his phone aside.
The next morning marked the time for the guests to part ways, each returning to their respective work and personal lives until they gathered again next weekend.
To facilitate counting the number of participants for course selections, the director had all the guests create a group chat face-to-face and informed them that they needed to reply in the group before next Friday regarding whether they would participate in the weekend class. As everyone waved goodbye to each other, Shen Ye even joked, “Remember to all sign up for my class!”
In truth, the guest conducting the very first lesson held the biggest advantage. Since everyone wasn’t particularly familiar with one another yet, most people wouldn’t want to miss this first class in order to get to know each other better.
Qi Xiao thought so too—as the Liar, he naturally couldn’t miss such an opportunity!
After a moment’s thought, he couldn’t resist subtly probing Lu Xingliang: “Senior, are you going to participate?”
Lu Xingliang didn’t answer immediately.
He kept his gaze fixed on Qi Xiao for a few seconds before asking, “Do you want me to go?”
Although Qi Xiao didn’t know why he was asking this, he answered honestly: “Of course I hope you do.”
In truth, he had thought about it very carefully last night. Since Lu Xingliang was currently under such heavy suspicion of being a Liar, if he appeared alongside him, wouldn’t it help divert the audience’s target fire? In other words, he could pull Lu Xingliang along to take the heat for him!
Qi Xiao felt he was truly a little genius!
Looking at Lu Xingliang, he asked with full anticipation, “So will you go, Senior?”
Lu Xingliang averted his gaze, paused for a few seconds, and said impassively, “Depends.”