Jiang Liyue’s back was slightly more hunched than usual, a subtle change that most people wouldn’t notice, but Zhao Chenxing could tell that Jiang Liyue was in a bad mood.
Jiang Liyue just stared at him, biting his lip hard, without saying a word.
Zhao Chenxing felt a tingling sensation in his heart, like a little cat gently kneading his chest with its fluffy paws. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed before that Jiang Liyue had this cute side.
“You’re bleeding…”
Jiang Liyue said in a suppressed voice, gripping his left wrist tightly with his right hand, his knuckles turning white like fragile porcelain.
Hearing this, Zhao Chenxing’s eyes immediately widened. Just as he was about to scold him, he saw Jiang Liyue looking at him with a “totally unfair” expression, and his anger vanished instantly.
He sighed and said helplessly, “You’re really something. You’re not a kid anymore, how can you still be so careless? You even managed to hurt yourself while cooking.”
As he spoke, he gently pried open Jiang Liyue’s tightly clenched wound to take a closer look, but the more he looked, the stranger it seemed.
…
Zhao Chenxing frowned and immediately shouted anxiously, “This won’t do! Jiang Liyue, if you don’t see a doctor soon, it won’t be good!”
Jiang Liyue raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by Zhao Chenxing’s urgency. He suppressed the urge to smile, took a light breath, cleared his throat, and pitifully said, “Ah… is it that serious?”
Zhao Chenxing looked at the cut on his hand again and, changing his previously anxious tone, teased with a smile, “Yeah! If you don’t see a doctor soon, your wound might just heal on its own!”
…
*
Jiang Liyue originally wanted to continue cooking, but Zhao Chenxing said he didn’t want noodles anymore, so he had to give up.
In the end, they got food from the director’s team, who were in the villa next door with a few staff members, and they just made do.
Of course, only Zhao Chenxing was eating, while Jiang Liyue was there to keep him company.
The two staff members eating with them not only used their mouths but also their brains. It was only after these two unexpected guests left that they started gossiping.
“Hey, what do you think their relationship is?”
“Hard to say. It doesn’t quite feel like an artist and assistant. Which actor do you see eating with their assistant? Especially one with such a high status.”
“Now that you mention it… could they be relatives? I’ve heard that many successful people like to hire relatives as their assistants.”
“Relatives? If that’s true, then their family’s genes are really strong.”
“No, do you really think they look alike? Besides, have you ever seen relatives who keep their eyes glued to each other? Not to mention during meals, didn’t you notice during the evening recording that Mr. Jiang was practically stuck to his assistant?”
“Tsk tsk tsk…”
The two being discussed were naturally unaware. After returning to their room, Zhao Chenxing started rummaging through his suitcase. When Jiang Liyue asked what he was looking for, he didn’t respond and continued searching.
Zhao Chenxing’s suitcase was filled with all sorts of random things. Since he hadn’t packed it himself, he wasn’t sure where everything was.
Usually, when artists are rushing for schedules, their assistants need to carry a lot of essential items. Jiang Yun, being considerate, guessed that neither of them would think of such small matters, so she prepared a list for them.
Zhao Chenxing remembered that Jiang Yun had sent him a list on WeChat. He had glanced at it, and iodine and band-aids should be among the essentials.
Young master Zhao Chenxing naturally wouldn’t lower himself to pack things. After receiving the package, he just tossed it to Mr. Jiang.
“I don’t quite understand. Can you tell me your thought process while cutting meat? Did you find there wasn’t enough meat and decided to cut a piece of your own?” Zhao Chenxing teased while searching, “Wasn’t getting your hand caught in the door enough? Now you have to cut it with a knife. Being your finger is really unfortunate.”
While Zhao Chenxing turned to search, Jiang Liyue silently smiled while pinching his fingers. When Zhao Chenxing returned with the medicine, he put on a pitiful expression again.
Zhao Chenxing held the medicine, gesturing towards Jiang Liyue’s hand, and said, “Young master, want some medicine?”
“Didn’t you say it wasn’t a big deal? Why are you concerned now?” Jiang Liyue pretended to be calm, but inside he was overjoyed.
He made Zhao Chenxing wait a bit before finally placing his hand in front of him.
“Hiss—”
“Bear with it, it’ll be over soon.” Zhao Chenxing carefully applied iodine, gently dabbing the wound with a cotton swab. The room was so quiet it felt like time had stopped.
Zhao Chenxing thought he should distract Jiang Liyue, even though the wound was small, Jiang Liyue was quite dramatic.
Well, not exactly dramatic, just really afraid of pain.
He had never met anyone more afraid of pain than Jiang Liyue.
“I’m afraid your fans will drown me with their spit.” Zhao Chenxing broke the silence, responding to Jiang Liyue’s earlier words.
Speaking of Jiang Liyue’s fans, he remembered an older female fan who had been around the longest.
“Especially Ms. Yuan. If she saw this, she’d probably be on her way with a knife. You don’t know, last time your hand got caught in the door frame, I was practically kicked out.”
“Speaking of which, it’s been a while since I saw Aunt Yuan.”
“Heh, some people call her ‘Mom Yuan’ to her face and ‘Aunt Yuan’ behind her back. So sneaky.”
A drop of excess iodine fell onto the tiled floor, making a crisp “drip” sound.
Jiang Liyue snapped back to reality, realizing his hand was already covered with a pink bunny band-aid. He absentmindedly said, “So you’re only concerned about me because you’re afraid Aunt Yuan will scold you?”
“Hmm? You believe that? Did the knife make you stupid? If I don’t care about you, who should I care about?” Zhao Chenxing tightened the band-aid, then naturally ruffled Jiang Liyue’s fluffy hair, playfully saying, “If there’s really a reason…”
Jiang Liyue unconsciously held his breath.
“Of course, it’s because you’re my little brother, Jiang little brother~” After teasing the big animal, Zhao Chenxing hummed a tune and went to the shower.
*
Each room in the villa was like a luxurious hotel suite, fully equipped.
The difference was that it also had a specially equipped game room with a holographic pod. The data from the holographic pod, combined with the supercomputer in the control room, connected directly to the variety show for a live broadcast.
The experience inside the holographic pod was completely the same as reality, including feelings of hunger and fatigue. Of course, the passage of time inside was also different.
These high-tech features were developed by NEURON, spending over a billion dollars in collaboration with renowned neuroscientists.
Out of curiosity and for the entertainment value of the show, the director’s team specifically instructed them not to try it out in advance.
Director Qian’s mischievous expression was still vivid in their minds. At that time, Director Qian, with a smile, said with ill intentions, “You’re all young, let’s see your talents. As per the show’s tradition, the last group to arrive will have a surprise.”
After he finished speaking, he imagined some funny scenes and giggled, making everyone get goosebumps.
They naturally knew what the director wanted to see tomorrow.
It was nothing more than building joy on their suffering, and they had no choice. Could they quit recording now and leave?
For such a rare holographic pod in the country, their various reactions would be genuinely presented to the live audience. Whether they looked cool or embarrassed would be the show’s hidden highlights.
For both the production team and the game investors, it would be all benefits and no harm.
When Zhao Chenxing heard this, he secretly cursed the NEURON company boss for being so cunning. Jiang Liyue chuckled softly and agreed. The two of them were like high school students whispering in class, secretly amused.
Tomorrow’s live broadcast script was titled [Travel].
It could only be said that the variety show’s name, “On the Road [Mixed Religion],” lived up to its name, sending them on a journey on the first day.
The live streaming platform and Shengshi Entertainment had always had a close partnership, and they had already spread the news of the variety show’s official launch tomorrow.
The production team specifically chose to air on the weekend to ensure the first episode’s viewership was as high as possible, attracting enough people to stay in the live room, ensuring stability during the weekdays.
Jiang Liyue’s fans were free publicity, and top-notch at that. Someone even took the lead and hung a promotional image on the big screen at the busiest intersection in the capital city overnight.
Although the variety show’s name only occupied two-fifths of the entire LED screen, it was enough to crash the live room with viewers the next morning.
“Woc! I got kicked out again!”
Zhou Xiaoan was anxious at this moment. This was their brother’s variety show debut, and nothing could go wrong.
The broadcast was set for 10 a.m. She was so excited last night that she stayed up until 3 a.m., finally forcing herself to sleep with two melatonin pills. She woke up automatically before 8 a.m., even before the alarm went off.
She and Liu Ningyu had agreed to join the live room together in the morning to enjoy the visuals. The joy of being a face fan was so simple.
“No, no, no…” Liu Ningyu covered her face, squinting through her fingers at the computer screen.
At this moment, she was in the live room, but as the number of viewers skyrocketed, her computer screen started to lag, turning into a series of jpgs.
“Ahhh! I got kicked out too! Wuwuwu!” Eventually, Liu Ningyu saw the same screen as Zhou Xiaoan.
“TMD!” Zhou Xiaoan’s anger flared up, speaking as fast as a machine gun, “What the hell is the network security department doing? We pay you to work like this? If you can’t handle it, just pull the plug on the whole country!”
Liu Ningyu was also annoyed, but unlike Zhou Xiaoan, who turned into a chatterbox when angry, she was the type to become even calmer.
She started checking on Weibo to see if any sisters were still in the live room. If they couldn’t get in, they could join an online meeting and rebroadcast it.
Just as she was about to search, a hot search caught her eye.
#JiangLiyueVarietyShowDebutCrashed#
“Cao!”
At this moment, Liu Ningyu couldn’t help but curse, and her good upbringing made her apologize three times immediately after.
“Xiaoan, stop cursing, get on Weibo and control the comments.”
“Huh? What happened?”
“We’re on a negative hot search. Why do people keep targeting our family?”
“Already on a hot search?”
Zhou Xiaoan frantically searched for her phone, comforting herself, “Think positively, our brother is really popular. People only get jealous when you’re famous, they’re just waiting to pounce, not letting anything slide.”
However, when she saw the Weibo hot search, her anger flared up again.
“What kind of nonsense is this? Playing word games? What impression does this give to passersby?” She found that the source of the popular Weibo was actually an apology from the official variety show account.
[@OnTheRoad[MixedReligion]: Due to a malfunction in the platform’s automatic expansion system, the broadband capacity was overloaded when a large amount of data flooded in. The live room line is being urgently repaired by the network security department. Please wait a moment.]