The next day, Qi Xiao suddenly received a phone call from Su Mei, informing him that he would be shooting a mid-roll commercial for the show the following week.
“Is it for Xiangqi Jewelry?” Qi Xiao asked casually, remembering the brand that had sponsored the rings for the show’s guests.
“No, it’s Qise!” Su Mei could hardly contain her excitement, even over the phone. ” Qise just sponsored the show, and they explicitly named you for this ad. If it goes well, who knows? You might even land a future partnership with them.”
Qi Xiao remained silent for quite a while.
“Is it just me shooting it?” He asked.
“Yeah.” At that, Su Mei sounded a bit puzzled herself. “I originally thought Qise sponsored the show for Zhou Chongyu’s sake. Turns out they’ve got their eye on you?”
Qi Xiao was at a loss for words. This is way too obvious! Passing over Zhou Chongyu, their actual brand ambassador, just to hire him instead.
Noticing his silence, Su Mei assumed he was simply stunned by the sudden windfall. “It’s scheduled for next Tuesday,” she added. “I’ll send you the storyboard script later—make sure you review it carefully over the next few days.”
Qi Xiao could only give a muted nod of agreement. He knew he had no reason to refuse. Besides, when money comes knocking at your door, who turns it down?
Since all the guests resided in City S, the show was recorded locally—apart from group dates and special occasions—making things convenient for everyone.
On Friday, the production team announced the location for the second episode’s filming: a training institution in the city center. They had likely rented out a few classrooms to give the show an authentic classroom and learning vibe.
Because the team kept the exact subject under wraps, it subtly put pressure on the guests. Even though they were all adults and a single lesson shouldn’t matter much, performing poorly compared to the others would still be embarrassing once the episode aired.
Qi Xiao, however, maintained an “it’s the taking part that counts” mindset. He didn’t particularly care about online opinion anyway. Right now, his main concern was the script the crew had arranged for him and Zhou Chongyu.
Calling it a script was a bit generous—it wasn’t detailed down to every single line. The production team simply arranged for them to sit together during class, join in discussions, and share a bit of physical contact.
In truth, interacting with Zhou Chongyu wasn’t difficult for Qi Xiao at all. But once it came with script expectations, he felt out of his element.
After all, his acting skills were genuinely terrible! What if the audience called him out for faking it?
On the day of filming, before the cameras started rolling, Qi Xiao quietly shared his concerns with Zhou Chongyu.
Zhou Chongyu pursed his lips slightly. “Don’t worry. Just act like you normally do, and I’ll guide you through it.”
Qi Xiao nodded. Then, a thought crossed his mind, and after a moment’s hesitation, he whispered, “Um, aren’t you the ambassador for Qise? Hearing that they sponsored the show, did you get any updates from them?”
Zhou Chongyu shook his head, keeping his composure entirely unreadable. “Why do you ask?”
Qi Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed his brother hadn’t taken out his anger on an innocent bystander. Otherwise, he would have felt terrible for dragging Zhou Chongyu into it!
Changing the topic, he said, “Oh, it’s nothing. They just asked me to shoot a mid-roll ad, so I thought you might know.”
“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it,” Zhou Chongyu said with a smile.
While they were chatting, Qi Xiao failed to notice what was happening behind him. Suddenly, someone called out, “Mr. Lu,” prompting him to turn around instinctively.
Lu Xingliang had arrived.
“Senior!” Qi Xiao waved at him.
Lu Xingliang nodded in response and promptly headed toward the adjacent green room with his assistant.
Lu Xingliang’s expression really changes from day to day, Qi Xiao thought to himself.
With filming time approaching, Qi Xiao and Zhou Chongyu made their way to the classroom first. Being a training center, the room wasn’t as large as a standard school classroom. Two sparse rows of desks were set up—four in the front and three in the back—with the wall-side desk in the second row lacking a seatmate.
Naturally, early arrivals got first pick of the seats. Qi Xiao and Zhou Chongyu exchanged a glance and chose two adjacent desks in the front row. Meanwhile, Lu Xingliang hadn’t emerged from the green room yet; he probably didn’t care about seating anyway.
Facing the array of cameras in front of him and thinking about the script, Qi Xiao briefly felt like he was back on a movie set. He nervously tugged at his hemline. As if sensing his anxiety, Zhou Chongyu asked casually, “Any guess on what class we’ll be taking today?”
Diverted by the question, Qi Xiao felt his tension ease a bit. He scanned the room. On the podium and every desk lay a black cloth and a brand-new box of playing cards.
Qi Xiao reached out, unboxed the deck, and casually drew a few cards to look at. “These are just regular cards. Is Shen Ye going to teach us magic tricks?”
He had always loved novel things like this, fascinated by anything outside his expertise. Naturally, he immediately began fiddling with the cards.
Before long, the other guests arrived one after another. To everyone’s surprise, Lin Zhiyao and Shen Ye arrived together. Seeing Qi Xiao watching them, Lin Zhiyao explained, “We happened to be going the same way, so he gave me a ride.”
Qi Xiao nodded, though a sudden realization struck him: this meant Lin Zhiyao and Shen Ye stayed in touch after the show wrapped, even knowing where each other lived.
While he was pondering this, Liang Yi walked in. She hovered by the door for a moment before ultimately choosing the seat closest to Zhou Chongyu.
At this, Qi Xiao couldn’t help glancing at Zhou Chongyu, but the latter showed no reaction whatsoever.
He always felt that when it came to these matters, Zhou Chongyu was far more indifferent than he seemed.
Soon after, Song Mei arrived and took the seat next to Liang Yi.
When Jiang Fei stepped inside, a flash of disappointment swept across her face. Qi Xiao followed her gaze and instantly understood. Only two isolated seats were left in the room, positioned almost diagonally across from each other. Jiang Fei had probably hoped to sit next to Lu Xingliang.
Lu Xingliang was the last to enter. With only one desk remaining, he had no choice but to take the single seat directly behind Qi Xiao.
The moment Lu Xingliang sat down, Qi Xiao inexplicably felt a prickle of discomfort at his back.
Once everyone was assembled, Shen Ye—who had been there early—stepped onto the podium and cleared his throat with deliberate grandiosity. “Alright, everyone! Class is officially in session with Teacher Shen!”
“Today, I’m going to teach you card magic.”
Although everyone had guessed as much from the decks on their desks, hearing Shen Ye confirm it still brought a wave of surprise.
After all, magic remained quite mysterious and unfamiliar to the average person, with the Spring Festival Gala performances being their most familiar reference.
Qi Xiao was incredibly supportive. “Teacher Shen, hurry up and teach us!”
Lin Zhiyao chimed in, “Who would’ve thought, Shen Ye? You actually have a few tricks up your sleeve!”
Shen Ye smiled. “I just picked up a little out of interest back in the day. Definitely can’t compare to real illusionists.” With that, he opened the deck on the table, pulled out all the cards, rapidly fanned them out in his hand, and closed them just as swiftly.
Next, resting the entire deck in his left hand, he suddenly pulled upward with his right. The cards stretched out like pulled noodles before falling back into place perfectly a few seconds later.
Watching this flourish, several guests gasped in admiration.
It had to be said that this kind of flashy technique was a real crowd-pleaser.
Qi Xiao watched with great relish and couldn’t resist grabbing his own deck to give it a shot. Beside him, Lin Zhiyao was already giving it a try, though she misjudged her strength—the falling cards scattered all over the table, with a few dropping onto the floor.
A bit embarrassed, she scratched her head. “Looks like novices really can’t pull it off.”
Shen Ye quickly reassured her. “That’s completely normal. I didn’t get it on my first try either. It looks easy, but it’s actually quite tricky to learn.”
Hearing this, Qi Xiao grew even more curious. “Let me try too.”
As he spoke, everyone’s eyes naturally gravitated toward him.
Even so, Qi Xiao felt no pressure—after all, Shen Ye had just said it was normal to fail on the first attempt.
He cradled the deck in one hand, pinched the side with the other, and swiftly raised his hand.
To everyone’s surprise, the deck didn’t scatter everywhere. Instead, the cards obediently dropped right back into place, the entire motion as smooth and effortless as flowing water.
Qi Xiao froze for a moment. He looked down and examined the cards carefully, thinking to himself that they certainly weren’t rigged.
Standing at the podium, Shen Ye was visibly surprised as well, though he recovered quickly. “Haha, looks like student Qi Xiao is quite impressive—got it right on the very first try!”
Lin Zhiyao couldn’t help asking, “How did you do that?”
Qi Xiao answered honestly, “I just did what Shen Ye did just now.”
Lin Zhiyao gave him a thumbs-up. “Thanks, that tells me absolutely nothing.”
The other guests tried it out of curiosity next, but not a single one succeeded.
Qi Xiao glanced back at Lu Xingliang, only to see him casually flipping the cards in his hand with no intention of trying the flourish himself.
At this point, Shen Ye spoke up again. “Let me show you another one.”
He placed the deck flat on the table, gently laid his hand over it, and smoothly wiped from left to right. In an instant, the entire deck spread across the mat in a perfectly spaced, flawless arc.
He then lifted a single card from the far left and gave it a gentle nudge in the opposite direction. Like falling dominoes, the entire row flipped over in unison, revealing the dark pattern on their backs.
“Wow,” Qi Xiao couldn’t help exclaiming. This one is super cool too!
He immediately volunteered, “I want to try this one!”
Shen Ye smiled. “Sure.” He figured Qi Xiao’s earlier success was just beginner’s luck; this move required real practice and technique, impossible to execute on luck alone.
Qi Xiao nodded and mimicked Shen Ye’s exact movements once again.
A moment later, silence fell over the room.
Across the black mat, a neat row of cards lay completely flipped.
Qi Xiao tried flipping them back from the other side, and they rolled over effortlessly once more.
The smile on Shen Ye’s face stiffened slightly. He joked, “Qi Xiao, are you here to upstage me today? Be honest—have you learned magic before?”
Qi Xiao shook his head. “No, my older brother never let me play cards growing up.”
“Then you’ve got a real talent for this.” Shen Ye managed to stay composed and quickly reclaimed control of the room. “What I just did was just for show—not really magic. Next, I’ll perform a real trick for everyone.”
Shen Ye asked, “Who wants to come up and inspect the deck in my hand?”
Lin Zhiyao was the first to raise her hand. “I’ll do it!”
She walked up to the podium, thoroughly checked all the cards in Shen Ye’s hands, then turned around to face the other guests. “No problems here.” She added with a playful wink, “And I’m definitely not his plant!”
Shen Ye gave the deck a casual shuffle, held it up, and displayed it to the seven guests before him. “Take a close look, everyone. This is an ordinary deck of cards. Now, let’s flip over the top card and see what it is.”
With that, he flipped the top card of the stack over. “Can everyone tell me what card this is?”
“King of Clubs,” someone promptly answered.
“Alright.” Shen Ye offered a mysterious smile and flipped the card back face-down. “Now, I’m going to change the suit on this card.”
After a brief moment of dramatic suspense, he picked up the top card and flicked it into his other hand with a quick spin. “Do you all think this card is still the King of Clubs?”
Lin Zhiyao urged him, “Stop keeping us in suspense! Show us!”
Shen Ye grinned and revealed the card right in front of everyone.
It was the Ace of Hearts.
“Wow!”
“That’s amazing!”
The guests below burst into varying degrees of praise—some genuinely impressed, others just offering polite applause—everyone except Lu Xingliang, who was staring blankly at the soft crown of Qi Xiao’s head.
After receiving his round of applause, Shen Ye gave a polite nod. “This is actually just a basic magic technique. Since everyone here is a beginner, we need to take things step-by-step.”
At that moment, Lin Zhiyao turned to Qi Xiao with a look of eager anticipation. “Why don’t you try this one too?”
Shen Ye chimed in, “You have to learn the secret behind a trick before you can perform it. I haven’t even explained it yet—how do you expect him to try?”
Lin Zhiyao pursed her lips. “I’m just curious! I want to see if he can pull off another first-try success.”
Qi Xiao listened to their banter without saying a word, looking lost in thought.
Noticing his silence, Shen Ye suddenly grew a bit nervous. “Don’t tell me you figured it out?”
Caught off guard by being put on the spot, Qi Xiao quickly shook his head. “No, no, not at all.”
Shen Ye knew his performance just now was far from flawless. Out of nerves, he had glanced at the deck several times—a major cardinal sin in magic. When performing, an illusionist needs to misdirect the audience’s attention, ideally keeping their eyes off the props. If the magician stares at the deck, the audience’s eyes will naturally follow, making it far easier to spot the trick.
Rather than letting netizens point it out and mock him once the episode aired, he figured it was better to save a bit of face right now. After a quick thought, Shen Ye simply said, “It’s fine, if you saw through it, feel free to say so. I only learned this trick on short notice, so it’s only natural if there are flaws.”
Qi Xiao hesitated for a moment. “Then, should I give it a shot?”
Shen Ye’s heart was still pounding a little, but then he reassured himself: there was no way Qi Xiao could get this right on the first try. Although it was just the double lift—the simplest slide-of-hand technique in card magic—even if Qi Xiao understood the secret, practicing it to the point of performing seamlessly in front of a crowd was notoriously difficult. It had taken Shen Ye himself a long time to master.
So he nodded. “Sure, come on up and try.”
Qi Xiao walked up to the podium, holding the deck and twirling it in his hands a few times as if getting a feel for it. “Just to be clear, I’m only giving it a try. If I mess up, please don’t laugh at me, okay?” As he spoke, he casually flipped over the top card in his hand.
The Eight of Hearts.
Immediately after, Qi Xiao quickly turned the card back face-down. When he flipped it over once more, the card had transformed into the Queen of Spades.
Standing beside him, Shen Ye was left utterly speechless: “?”