Before they could respond, Ye Qiyuan jumped in, agitated, “What? You’ve completed the punishment? How can we be sure you actually did it? This isn’t fair!”
Seeing the situation getting tense, Bai Runzhi stepped in with the demeanor of an elder to say a few fair words, “Whether or not the punishment was received, the production team needs to give us an explanation, rather than having us engage in this meaningless argument.”
Jiang Liyue glanced indifferently at the still indignant Ye Qiyuan, then looked directly at Teacher Bai and said, “We just found an intermediary to contact Director Qian.”
“Everyone has one of these metal rings, right?”
As Jiang Liyue spoke, he raised his arm to reveal the metal ring on his wrist, “This is the medium through which the production team contacts us. I believe you all heard the welcome message when you came in.”
“Ah! That cute girl’s voice, right? I think her name was Huan Huan,” Ren Sisi recalled the loli voice she heard when she entered, “Is she this metal ring? I thought she was a cute girl.”
Just as she finished speaking, a small white cat appeared out of nowhere at her feet, startling her.
Ren Sisi quickly jumped towards Jiang Liyue’s direction, and Jiang Liyue reacted swiftly, or else he would have been knocked to the ground by the beauty.
“How could I be such a cold metal ring?” Huan Huan disdainfully glanced at the thing on Ren Sisi’s wrist and continued arrogantly, “I am the most…”
Zhao Chenxing, seeing that she was about to repeat her lengthy creation history, quickly brought the topic back on track.
“Why don’t you tell us about our task? And didn’t you say we have a punishment?”
“Oh, right! I almost forgot.” Huan Huan elegantly walked in front of everyone like a host and explained the game rules for this [Tourism] instance.
When she mentioned that one of the four groups was an impostor, the other three groups immediately turned their gaze towards Jiang Liyue’s group.
It must be said, arriving last and using oversleeping as an excuse seemed a bit far-fetched.
Seeing their suspicion, Zhao Chenxing helplessly shook his head, shrugged, and indicated that they were truly innocent.
Huan Huan continued, “The impostor’s task is to reduce the coins you earn and win first place in the final settlement to be considered victorious. Every night at 8 PM, we will exit the game and vote in reality.”
Ye Qiyuan wasn’t interested in these messy rules; he just wanted to see the high-and-mighty Jiang Liyue get punished and make a fool of himself. As soon as Huan Huan finished speaking, he hurriedly asked, “What about the punishment for the late group?”
Zhan Wen, quick-witted, immediately connected the dots upon hearing this. He thoughtfully stared at Jiang Liyue, silently planting seeds of doubt in everyone’s mind, “Could your punishment be to act as the impostor group…”
Huan Huan immediately responded, “Their group’s punishment hasn’t started yet. The punishment needs to be carried out when everyone is present; otherwise, it wouldn’t be interesting at all.”
“The punishment is for the late group to draw lots and select one person to carry it out.” Huan Huan casually pulled out two slips of paper from the air and handed them to Zhao Chenxing, “You choose.”
Zhao Chenxing didn’t know what the punishment was. Earlier at the tower, they didn’t have time to discuss such details, so he let Huan Huan decide on some specifics.
Zhao Chenxing didn’t care whether he did the punishment or not. After all, he wasn’t an idol and didn’t have any idol baggage, so he gave the choice to Jiang Liyue, “You pick first.”
Jiang Liyue glanced at Zhao Chenxing, his emotions stirred slightly. After a moment of hesitation, he picked one of the slips. Without even looking at it himself, he opened it in front of everyone—
“Unfortunately!” Ren Sisi exclaimed dramatically, casting a slightly sympathetic glance at the expressionless Jiang Liyue and quietly stepping back a few steps.
As an idol, she had to maintain her image. The punishment games in reality shows weren’t a joke, and if she couldn’t control her expressions and true thoughts, it wouldn’t be good.
Huan Huan nodded, hid the other slip, and loudly announced the punishment game as “Find Your Teammate.”
As the name suggests, it required finding one’s teammate. But what kind of punishment was this?
While everyone was still puzzled, Huan Huan continued to explain the game: The punished person needed to quickly spin in place ten times with their head down, then walk to where their teammate was and hug their teammate’s shoulder, loudly declaring, “I’m not drunk! I’m walking in a straight line! You’re my teammate!”
Ye Qiyuan imagined the high-cold Film Emperor drunkenly shouting at his teammate and couldn’t help but grin. He excitedly said, “What are we waiting for? Let’s start!”
Zhao Chenxing, displeased with Ye Qiyuan’s eagerness to watch the spectacle, retorted unceremoniously, “So eager, do you want to do it? We can generously let you have it.”
Ye Qiyuan naturally didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t let others think he was eager to see Jiang Liyue make a fool of himself. His mind spun quickly, and he immediately explained, “I’m just thinking of everyone. Every minute and second we waste now is time we could be earning money.”
“Oh? Then if you’re in such a hurry, you can go earn money directly; no one’s stopping you.” Zhao Chenxing saw Ye Qiyuan still wanted to explain and continued to block him, “Everyone’s on the same starting line. Are you trying to cheat?”
Ye Qiyuan felt his mind wasn’t as quick as Zhao Chenxing’s, nor was his tongue as fast. He was so anxious that he broke out in a pimple and could only deny repeatedly, “I’m not, I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense.”
As Jiang Liyue prepared to start the game, Zhan Wen suddenly said, “Shouldn’t we add some difficulty to such a simple punishment game?”
Huan Huan, hearing this, first glanced at Zhao Chenxing, then said, “How do you want to increase the difficulty?”
Zhan Wen stared at Jiang Liyue and said, “Naturally, by adding some interference. Since it’s ‘Find Your Teammate,’ there should be some effort involved.”
“We can form a circle around Jiang Liyue and let him be in the middle. Maybe he won’t catch his dear teammate, and if so, he fails the game. How about that?”
Teacher Bai wanted to advise against it, considering everyone would be living together for a while, and it wouldn’t be good to make things so tense. Plus, the focus of the variety show wasn’t on punishment games; just a little fun would suffice. Before he could speak, Huan Huan had already decided on the game method.
Huan Huan had already consulted the variety show’s control desk on how to handle it when Zhan Wen suggested increasing the difficulty.
*
Qian Da watched the live stream’s viewership soar and grinned, exclaiming, “Here comes the drama! Conflict! Tension!”
If it weren’t for the fact that promoting violence wasn’t allowed, he would have loved for the artists to start fighting on the show.
After all, it wasn’t his loss.
*
Huan Huan: “Then, as Teacher Zhan Wen suggested, we’ll increase the difficulty. If you don’t catch your teammate, it will be considered a failed punishment, and the group will only be allowed to operate in the square during the [Tourism] instance, not beyond that area.”
[Awesome! The more challenging, the better. That previous punishment was nothing!]
[If they really fail, they almost can’t win.]
[The square may have a lot of foot traffic, but it seems like everyone’s busy. How will they make money?]
[Brother! Why are you so unlucky? You should have let the assistant draw.]
[Don’t say it, but Teacher Zhan Wen really knows how to create drama! No wonder he’s been doing well since switching to the capital side recently.]
[Hugging shoulders?! Brother, come to me, I’ll give you a hug! Don’t let others take advantage!]