When Qin Tianjiao went on dates, she loved to use the topic of her plastic surgery as a test for the other person.
She had received all kinds of reactions—people too awkward to speak, people whose attitudes shifted from fawning pursuit to contemptuous sneers, and people who thought they’d found a breakthrough and tried to break down her psychological defenses through PUA tactics.
With hundreds of people, you see all kinds. Qin Tianjiao never tired of playing this self-invented sociological experiment of hers.
Of course, there were occasionally those who spoke somewhat normally and would say: “That’s amazing—you’ve completed a masterpiece.”
Qin Tianjiao had almost forgotten that her original reason for getting plastic surgery was that no one had invited her to the freshman welcome dance in college.
Now, wherever she sat, she was the center of attention at any party. Men wanting to ask her to dance would have to line up from in front of her all the way to the door and around the corner.
But…
Ding Zhoujie was the first person to say to her, “That must have hurt a lot.”
Qin Tianjiao’s nose tingled slightly.
She raised an eyebrow, pressing down that hint of sourness with a radiant smile: “Never mind, I deserve all my beauty.”
Ding Yuxi smiled lightly and clinked glasses with her, a small dimple appearing on her cheek: “Congratulations.”
…
When most of the guests had arrived, Lin Sen, dressed up as a landlady, walked to the center of the small stage to act as MC. He had made his debut in stand-up comedy, so this kind of small gathering was right in his wheelhouse.
“Testing, testing.” After trying the microphone twice, Lin Sen started with a cheesy joke: “Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, good evening. Today, the reason we are all gathered here…”
The moment he started, Guo Xiaosi, sitting on the sofa to the right, shouted in embarrassment: “No! Lin Sen, shut up!”
Cheesy jokes were only fun when they were aimed right at someone’s face. The crowd below burst into laughter.
Lin Sen suppressed his smile and continued in a weird Taiwanese accent: “Is to celebrate the birthday of our dear friend since childhood, Xinxinzi.”
Yu Shuxin walked up to the stage with exaggerated flair, blowing flying kisses in every direction to her friends below: “Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend my birthday party. Eat well, drink well, have fun—tonight, all expenses are on Yu Shuxin!”
“Wooooohooo” Following the DJ’s turned-up music, Yu Shuxin bounced and hopped into the crowd, dancing some unknown dance.
Lin Sen continued: “Today, we’re continuing our tradition from before—we’re playing King’s Game. But since we have quite a lot of people, we’ll draw lots first. The two people who draw the same number will be bound together for the entire game, sharing both rewards and punishments!”
Ding Yuxi reached into the box held by the server and drew a ball: number 12.
Qin Tianjiao also reached in and drew one: number 7.
The two of them were a bit farther from Yu Shuxin, who was at the center of the crowd, and they could hear her looking for her partner: “I’m number 7! Who else has number 7?”
Before Qin Tianjiao could raise her hand, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses strode over: “Miss Qin, would you mind swapping numbers with me?”
Yu Shuxin’s friends were clearly divided into tiers—it was very easy to tell which ones she had known before entering the entertainment industry and which ones she had met after.
This person was clearly an old friend of Yu Shuxin’s. He had a quintessential domineering CEO face but was wearing the cosplay outfit of Haku from Spirited Away—no matter how you looked at it, it just didn’t fit.
Ding Yuxi recognized him as Shen Du, the only son of the chairman of the Shen Group. Exceptionally capable, he was already the vice president of the Shen Group at such a young age.
Qin Tianjiao noticed that Shen Du’s number was 12, and with a knowing smile, she looked at Ding Yuxi. “Do you think I should trade with him?”
“…”
Ding Yuxi felt a strange sense of helplessness. He wasn’t stupid; he knew Qin Tianjiao was here for him.
Not only that, she reminded him at every turn that she had plenty of strength and means at her disposal. “Trade if you want to.”
Qin Tianjiao said, “Alright, then I’ll trade.”
“Thank you, Miss Qin,” Shen Du said as he took the number ball from Qin Tianjiao’s hand, then raised his own and said without hesitation, “Xinxin, I’m number 7.”
“Brother Xiao Shen, come over here~” Yu Shuxin waved at Shen Du. As the birthday girl, she had the privilege of being the first king in the King’s Game.
Tsk, Brother Xiao Shen.
Yu Shuxin chattered away with Shen Du for quite a while, eventually settling on having one person from group 1 and one from group 8 come up to dance the girl group routine for Yes OK.
As it happened, among groups 1 and 8 was Li Miaomiao, a fellow member who had debuted in the same girl group as Yu Shuxin.
Li Miaomiao protested loudly, “Ugh, why bother dancing? Just two people dancing Yes OK is so boring. Yu Shuxin, why don’t you and President Shen join in? Six of us dancing together would be way more fun.”
The moment she finished speaking, everyone started egging them on, shouting for the six of them to get on stage and dance. Now Yu Shuxin had shot herself in the foot. She resigned herself to her fate and followed along, then turned back to ask Shen Du sympathetically, “Brother Xiao Shen, can you really dance? We’re the kings this round, you know—if you really don’t want to, you can forfeit.”
But Shen Du seemed to have made up his mind, accepting his fate. “Let’s dance. It’s fine!”
Yu Shuxin had no choice but to steel herself and stand at the front with Li Miaomiao as the lead dancers. After all, they were idols who had debuted as a girl group—their dance moves were clean, sharp, and perfectly synchronized, a real treat to watch.
The four people behind them weren’t nearly as coordinated. The two girls tried their best to keep up with the lead dancers but kept falling half a beat behind from time to time.
Shen Du and the other poor soul looked like they were trying to tame their own disobedient limbs for the very first time—flustered and all over the place, one moment like office workers frantically hailing a taxi on a Shanghai street, the next like traffic cops directing cars at an intersection. They managed to capture the hardships of every profession imaginable.
Hahahahaha!!
The whole room nearly died laughing, the space filled with warm, joyful laughter.
The second round of the game began. They drew new number tags, and Ding Yuxi and Qin Tianjiao both got number 3.
The new king was one of Yu Shuxin’s two friends from outside the entertainment circle. The female “king” pulled a bottle of hand cream out of her bag and said, “Now, one of the two people with number 3 has to apply hand cream to the other person’s hands.”
The instruction drew a chorus of boos. “Pfft… that’s way too tame.”
But the girl didn’t care about everyone else’s reaction at all. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation as she waited for the number 3s to raise their hands.
She had noticed that several people had sneakily swapped their number tags to pair up with new partners earlier—and they were all male-female pairings. If there wasn’t something a little flirtatious going on there, she’d eat her own head.
“Number 3 is here.”
Qin Tianjiao waved her hand, and “the King” cheerfully tossed the hand cream in their direction, which Ding Yuxi caught with quick reflexes.
Holding the hand cream, Ding Yuxi hesitated slightly—was he supposed to apply it to Qin Tianjiao’s hands?
Qin Tianjiao smiled charmingly and extended her hand generously. “I’ll do it for you.”
Everyone’s attention in the room focused on the two of them, with some whispering to each other, asking who these two unfamiliar faces were.
“What? Are these the rumored love interest of Yu Shuxin from the trending searches a while back, and her best friend?”
“Is the entertainment circle this exciting? Well, the guy’s handsome and the girl’s pretty—they do look quite compatible.”
At the center of the gossip, Ding Yuxi didn’t hear any of these whispers. He extended his hand hesitantly.
Qin Tianjiao squeezed some hand cream into her palm, rubbed it evenly, and carefully applied it to Ding Yuxi’s hand. Starting from the back of his hand, she slowly spread the cream across each finger, not even missing the fingertips, making sure every patch of skin was moisturized.
After finishing, Qin Tianjiao gently tickled Ding Yuxi’s palm, then winked at him. “All done~”
This gesture made the already ambiguous atmosphere even more charged.
Seeing this, the onlookers couldn’t help but start teasing the pair with their ambiguous chemistry.
Ooooh All done
Even as composed as Ding Yuxi was, he felt the discomfort of being put on the spot. This discomfort made him restless all over, and he instinctively turned his gaze toward the one familiar figure in the room—Yu Shuxin.
At that moment, Yu Shuxin’s pink lips were pursed into an “o” shape, and her hands were clapping enthusiastically like a little seal’s flippers.
The look Ding Yuxi gave her was filled with an indescribable sense of grievance, like a puppy caught in the rain.
When Yu Shuxin noticed his gaze, her clapping hands suddenly froze mid-air, hovering awkwardly in a position that was neither up nor down.
Ding Yuxi lowered his head slightly, letting out an almost imperceptible sigh. When he raised his head again, his expression had returned to normal. “Well then, we’ve completed the task.”