Cheng Yanzhi moved quickly, serving the three portions of breakfast to the other three individuals respectively. His cooking skills couldn’t hold a candle to Xu Qingnan’s, remaining merely a notch better than the rest of the young master squires present.
This was his first time preparing breakfast for such a large group, and he felt he had performed exceptionally well today, though regrettably, he didn’t receive a genuine expression of praise from a single soul.
Because those three individuals were each more absent-minded than the last.
Deng You and Huo Zheng blatantly kept peering toward the tents, whereas Ye Yuyao stood in stark contrast to the other two.
He didn’t cast a single glance over there, focusing entirely on eating his breakfast with extreme concentration.
Even Huo Zheng whom Ye Yuyao had always viewed as “easy to handle” kept glancing toward that side, yet Ye Yuyao remained completely unresponsive.
It was entirely different from his reaction yesterday upon seeing Huo Zheng gaze dazedly at Xu Qingnan.
It looked as though he were exercising every ounce of self-restraint to keep himself in check, sparing no extra mental bandwidth to notice anything else.
Cheng Yanzhi’s eyes rolled as he spun a thought, purposely calling out to Ye Yuyao in a low voice, “Yuyao, look at those two they’re just staring around aimlessly, and nobody’s even complimenting how well I cooked.”
“Then let me praise you,” hearing this, Ye Yuyao instantly lifted his gaze, adjusted his glasses, and offered a thoroughly standard smile tinged with just the right amount of doting indulgence. “It’s simply fantastic, crispy on the outside and tender in the middle. Bread slices should definitely be sweet; I’ve never tasted toast this delicious in my life.”
Ye Yuyao glossed over the first half of his remark, refusing to follow Deng You and the other two’s gazes toward that direction as if deliberately dodging something, responding solely to the latter half of his sentence.
“Cut it out,” Cheng Yanzhi continued, “You’re acting like you’re coaxing a kid.”
Watching Cheng Yanzhi’s face, where his smile carried a trace of coy petulance, Ye Yuyao lowered his eyes.
Right, just like this.
Interact with the right people.
Adjusting his glasses once more, Ye Yuyao beamed with an even gentler and more considerate air, handing a tissue to Cheng Yanzhi while pointing to the corner of his own mouth, “Yanzhi, your lip.”
Taking the tissue, Cheng Yanzhi failed to hit the right spot. “I can’t reach it.”
“Shall I help you?” Ye Yuyao asked like a true gentleman.
Cheng Yanzhi tipped his chin forward slightly in silent assent.
Ye Yuyao reached his hand out—
The tent flap flipped open abruptly.
Deng You, seated right beside him, called out a greeting, “Morning, Qingnan!”
Ye Yuyao’s hand gave a jerk, and the tissue fluttered down onto the tabletop.
Looking bewildered, Cheng Yanzhi let out an, “Eh?”
“Morning,” Xu Qingnan’s answering voice drifted over, laced with the chill of the morning wind.
Ye Yuyao withdrew his hand, instinctively picking up the tissue to hand it back to Cheng Yanzhi. “At the corner of your right mouth, a tiny speck of bread crumb.”
“Ah, thanks a lot.” A spark of amusement flashing in his eyes, Cheng Yanzhi let his gaze linger on Ye Yuyao’s face.
Originally, he had found Ye Yuyao eloquent and slick, belonging to the most common breed of person he encountered daily someone whose every scheme could be read at a single glance, rendering him thoroughly boring.
Yet right now—
Ye Yuyao wasn’t even aware that he was openly sizing him up.
At dawn, during the fifteen minutes Ye Yuyao and Xu Qingnan spent alone together, something had undoubtedly transpired.
His wristband suddenly vibrated, drawing everyone’s attention. It was a notification from the production crew instructing the guests to continue moving upward to watch the sunrise, with the sun scheduled to make its prompt ascent at five-thirty.
“No wonder,” Deng You muttered with an expression of mild annoyance, “Putting that gadget on the tent and waking people up at five sharp.”
Zipping his windbreaker up to his chin while looking rather sleep-deprived, Huo Zheng mumbled, “Let’s go. Once we watch it, we should be able to head back.”
The trail leading up to the summit wasn’t difficult to navigate. Since it was still dark and filled with mountain mist that made visibility even dimmer, the production crew had constructed stone steps leading straight to the top.
Xu Qingnan still held that exact same stick in his hand.
Accustomed to carrying a weapon on his person, he had gone so far as to spend money unlocking the virtual spatial storage on his optical brain so he could summon items at will in both virtual and real environments, but since the production crew had banned bringing personal items these past two days, Xu Qingnan had no choice but to forage for a branch for self-defense.
Noticing the stick in Xu Qingnan’s hand, Cheng Yanzhi spotted that Huo Zheng was carrying one, too. “Are you two rocking a couple’s set?”
The moment those three words dropped, multiple gazes snapped over.
Heat flushing across his face, Huo Zheng hastily denied it, “No, he just picked it up randomly on the way up.”
“He?” Catching the keyword, Deng You immediately locked onto Xu Qingnan. “I want one, too.”
“If you want one, find it yourself.” Xu Qingnan didn’t even spare him a glance.
“Playing favorites,” Deng You didn’t take the rejection to heart, sidling right up next to Xu Qingnan. “You gave one to Huo Zheng and not me.”
Huo Zheng’s face threatened to bake itself dry.
The way Deng You phrased it made it sound as though Xu Qingnan held some deep affection for him.
“Huo Zheng has a great physique.”
A jolt shook through Huo Zheng Does Xu Qingnan actually fancy my body?!
His build was already quite different from back when he competed in tournaments.
Huo Zheng instinctively reached out to touch his own abdomen.
Recovering his wits a split second later, he dropped his hand, raised it back up into a fist to press against his lips, and offered a slight cough tinged with a measure of flustered awkwardness.
Cheng Yanzhi and Ye Yuyao walked at the very front, chatting casually back and forth. Observing Ye Yuyao—who was clearly miles away in his thoughts yet still gamely keeping up his end of the conversation—Cheng Yanzhi could almost visualize the man being torn apart by his own logic and emotions.
At a bend in the stone steps, a flat viewing platform jutted outward. Leaning against the railing at its edge offered a panoramic view of the entire island’s scenery. Wide-eyed with pleasant surprise, Cheng Yanzhi called the others over to take a look.
The production crew had invested a staggering sum; an island bordered by the ocean on three sides had been crafted with exquisite precision. From the distant streets and buildings down to the flora and fauna within arm’s reach, everything had been simulated to a degree capable of passing for reality.
With a scale of production this massive, it was easy for people to lose their footing between illusion and reality or become hopelessly addicted to the virtual realm. When holographic technology had first emerged, such medical cases frequently surfaced, which was why spiritual power thresholds had been instituted alongside a protective mechanism that forced users to log out if they remained logged in too long and suffered from fatigue.
The group gathered along the railing to gaze into the distance, where the dim morning light washed the landscape in a chilling blue tone.
Yet Ye Yuyao stood frozen in place, unmoving.
He ought to walk over; the show was being broadcasted, and if sharp-eyed viewers realized he suffered from a fear of heights, it would undoubtedly expose a fatal weakness.
That being said, Xu Qingnan had found out last night, too.
After all this time, that name finally surfaced within his mind.
Accompanied by the memory of that illusion-like embrace saturated in the scent of cedar.
The man’s slightly elevated body heat had washed over him in an instant.
Xu Qingnan had held him for only a brief second before pulling back, and before Ye Yuyao could even react, his wristband had chimed to notify him that his time was up.
Leaving Ye Yuyao sitting alone in a daze on the swing.
He ought to remind Xu Qingnan to keep quiet about the incident.
Perhaps he should prepare some form of hush money? Would offering cash directly be too vulgar?
What on earth would Xu Qingnan appreciate?
Amidst his wandering thoughts, a stick abruptly poked straight out right in front of his eyes.
Following the line of the stick, Ye Yuyao locked gazes with the face currently testing the limits of his rationality.
Xu Qingnan flicked his wrist, causing the branch to sway in tandem. “Grab hold.”
Xu Qingnan hadn’t given it excessive thought. Accustomed to taking care of himself since childhood, then looking after his younger cousin when he stayed at his aunt’s, and living entirely alone upon arriving at Silver Frost Star where he had worked as a children’s tutor which involved minding a child throughout the day and later on, looking after Shen Jiacheng, a pampered young master as well.
Noticing the needs of others had long since become a conditioned reflex for Xu Qingnan, and offering a helping hand within his capabilities was hardly worth a second thought.
Nor would he compromise his own interests to do so.
It was merely a matter of convenience.
Just like tossing Deng You a motion sickness pill, helping conceal Ren Xubai’s injury, letting Huo Zheng walk ahead of him, or protecting Ye Yuyao on the swing.
None of them were monumental undertakings.
He simply did them because it was convenient.
And perhaps he might even harvest a small reward along the way—hardly a bad outcome.
Just like right now.
Ye Yuyao’s body reacted a fraction faster than his reason, his hand closing around the far end of the branch thrust out before him.
He was reeled in closer to the railing.
And closer to that breathtaking scenery capable of soothing the soul.
Nobody noticed the brief exchange between the two.
Before long, the rest of the group urged everyone to resume the climb.
Ye Yuyao walked over to a spot safely distanced from the railing and released his grip.
He harbored an impulse to murmur a word of thanks to Xu Qingnan.
Only to watch Xu Qingnan flip the stick around, grasping the end that still carried his own body heat.
Ye Yuyao’s pupils constricted slightly as his heart delivered a heavy thud.
Staring unblinkingly, he watched Xu Qingnan casually wipe that hand against his clothes.
Only belatedly realizing that the stick had been used by Xu Qingnan to poke around the dirt along the way, leaving one end thoroughly soiled, while the clean end was the one he had handed over to him.
“Thanks,” Ye Yuyao realized he was capable of being at a loss for words. “Actually… you could have just used your hand.”
!
What on earth am I saying?
Will that give Xu Qingnan the wrong idea?
I didn’t mean he could hold my hand directly!
Should I explain?
Though it’s not like holding hands is impossible, two grown men, both Alphas—
Right.
Ye Yuyao snapped back to reality.
Xu Qingnan was an Alpha.
And judging by appearances, he certainly wasn’t the bottom in a dynamic.
Xu Qingnan harbored zero misunderstandings; getting him to misunderstand required a certain degree of difficulty.
“Weren’t you avoiding me?”
Ever since they crossed paths again this morning, Ye Yuyao had deliberately dodged all physical contact with him, right down to avoiding eye contact.
If he had reached out to touch him directly—
Xu Qingnan possessed zero hobbies of pasting his warm face against someone else’s cold backside.
Had Ye Yuyao not gifted him a barren planet the previous night, Xu Qingnan wouldn’t even have handed him the stick; and had Ye Yuyao failed to grab the stick, Xu Qingnan wouldn’t have bothered a second time.
“…” Ye Yuyao fumbled for words once more. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Whatever,” Xu Qingnan turned on his heel to rejoin the pack. “Don’t fall behind.”
Watching the sunrise completed, the group prepared to make their descent. Having spent this long lingering here, everyone looked somewhat peaky, but fortunately, the return trip was brief, and the production crew granted everyone half a day of downtime to recuperate, with everyone required to log back online tomorrow morning at eight.
Removing his helmet, Xu Qingnan stood up and stretched his limbs, calculating that once the payout from the show cleared, his very first priority would be purchasing a holographic pod.
Pacing as he headed toward the refrigerator to grab a bottle of icy water, Xu Qingnan glanced around his one-acre plot of territory in his game room, weighed it against the steep price tag of a holographic pod, and ultimately decided against it.
His residence occupied the ground floor of an aging residential complex. He had rented it ever since first arriving on Silver Frost Star, and after living there for an extended period when the landlord urgently needed cash, he purchased it outright at a bargain price.
The apartment wasn’t spacious two bedrooms and a single living room, hitting the sweet spot for a single occupant like Xu Qingnan. One bedroom served as his sleeping quarters, while the other was transformed into his gaming room.
A small courtyard lay out front, where Xu Qingnan cultivated a wide array of flowers—including many demanding meticulous care, all of which flourished splendidly under his thumb.
A basement sat underneath, utilized exclusively for storing miscellaneous items.
Stretching his muscles, Xu Qingnan filled a watering can and carried it out to the courtyard through the back exit, patiently watering each potted plant one by one.
The courtyard faced the street directly, enclosed by a low perimeter wall. For security, Xu Qingnan had reinforced the low wall with an additional layer of iron fencing woven over with creeping ivy, displaying a lush, eye-soothing shade of green under the sunlight.
As water droplets splashed across the foliage, rendering them dewy and vibrant, Xu Qingnan flicked a leaf with satisfied approval and turned around to head back inside.
Only to be greeted by a loud, ringing shout: “Older cousin!”
Tang Yu’s father had passed away roughly three years ago.
Xu Qingnan had made a trip back then not to offer condolences, but simply to check on his aunt.
And conveniently bring along his cousin Tang Yu, who was dying to venture out and see the world.
Tang Yu was also a Beta. Much like how Xu Qingnan had been unvalued by his elders, Tang Yu received zero affection from his biological father.
Fortunately, he still had his mother, and now he had his older cousin as well.
“Cousin, let me tell you,” Tang Yu blurted out the second he stepped through the front door, hastily kicking off his slippers and sprinting over, “You’re about to blow up!”
Setting the watering can down, Xu Qingnan raised an eyelid, causing Tang Yu to snap his mouth shut instantly. Submissively accepting the beverage handed over by his cousin, Tang Yu sat up spine-straight. “Got it, composure, composure.”
Once Xu Qingnan seated himself as well, Tang Yu eagerly cracked open his optical brain. Only three days had elapsed since the reality show’s premiere, yet the revenue collected purely from audience fees had already crossed nine figures. The production crew edited and broadcasted footage of the recording process; viewers could purchase the edited version for a mere thirty star coins, but to guarantee the experience for VIP keyholders, the edited version had only concluded broadcasting its first day, and the sheer volume of discussions surrounding both versions had already rocketed the show to the top of the trending searches.
The five other phoenixes alongside Xu Qingnan stood at the absolute pinnacle of their respective fields, boasting follower counts that constituted staggering numbers all on their own. Yet Xu Qingnan—the ordinary mortal mingling amongst the phoenixes currently commanded a discussion volume that led the pack by a wide margin.
“Cousin, we’ve already got ten advertising deals knocking on our door,” a feverish, burning light ignited in Tang Yu’s eyes, causing him to lose his composure once more as his torso leaned forward toward Xu Qingnan. If not for a shred of lingering restraint, Tang Yu would likely have lunged directly onto him. “Cousin, let’s debut! I can go take the agent certification exam!”
Xu Qingnan’s patience officially hit rock bottom. “Got business or not?”
Tang Yu understood that look his cousin was telling him to get lost.