Yun Qi’s brow twitched. But with the rules in place, this question felt just like a line to go through the motions. He had no choice, so he could only say: “Dare.”
Luo Guang didn’t know what to ask for a time. After pondering for a long while and intending to take out his phone to search, a sudden flash of inspiration hit him: “Got it, can I see the… 578th photo in President Yun’s phone album? Of course, if it involves company secrets, forget it. Apart from that, I guess we can all see it, right?”
“578”—this number was precise, clearly made up by Luo Guang on the spot.
No one could remember what every photo in their phone was. Plus, photos involving the company were always saved by Yun Qi on another phone, so he didn’t think much of it. He took out his phone, opened the album in front of everyone, didn’t count, and directly entered the number 578 in the search bar. Then, a photo crashed into the viewers’ vision off guard.
It was a photo of a man handcuffed to the bedhead, his slightly raised corners of the mouth still carrying very obvious bloodstains. The shirt buttons had somehow fallen off, leaving his chest open, exposing his abs in a brazen manner, with even a bit of his mermaid line faintly visible.
The photo was very blurry, and the lighting didn’t seem too good. In fact, one couldn’t really tell it was “handcuffed” one could only see the man’s hands behind his back, leaning against the bedhead. The presence of the handcuffs was essentially invisible. Moreover, the photo didn’t capture the upper half of his face; one glance at it looked exactly like the meticulously designed frames in certain short videos, filled with an indescribable tension and atmosphere.
But Duan Xingge’s facial features were too obvious. People with sharp eyes could directly tell who it was from the lower half of his face.
The screaming bullet comments in the livestream room were suddenly choked by someone. Countless viewers had thought that Duan Xingge’s off-guard marriage proposal at the beginning was already the biggest surprise of the day. They never imagined there would be an even bigger surprise from Yun Qi. For a time, they were all left dumbfounded.
While the audience was astonished, Yun Qi felt as if his heart was burning. His hand movements were faster than ever before. He only maintained the image for less than half a second before abruptly exiting, but that photo had already been screenshotted by someone with quick eyes and fast hands.
When Yun Qi took out his phone to search for the photo, the production team, fearing the other guests couldn’t see clearly, specifically projected it onto the large screen that came with the cruise ship.
Therefore, the guests on the scene actually saw it much more clearly than the viewers.
And as the person in the photo, Duan Xingge, who had originally been smiling, was stunned at the sight, then revealed a rare expression of shock.
He seemed completely unaware that Yun Qi had taken such a photo, and even more surprised that the other party had actually kept it saved in his phone until now.
Yun Qi exited the photo interface with barely visible trembling fingers, his entire being in a daze. His heartbeat was stronger than at any other moment, but the only reaction in his brain right now was shouldn’t this photo have been on the other phone? How did it get here?
But his sluggish brain couldn’t provide an answer at this moment. Naturally, he couldn’t remember that the last time he changed phones, his secretary had accidentally imported his work phone data into the new phone.
Although the files and work-related photos were deleted with AI afterward, images unrelated to work were clearly still perfectly saved in this phone.
In the silence, Yun Qi’s lips moved; he himself felt his explanation was incredibly pale. But what he ultimately said was: “…Forgot to delete it.”
Yet, saying this was worse than not saying it at all. After all, the meaning in the words sounded as if he hadn’t snapped it accidentally, but rather taken it intentionally, only forgetting to delete it afterward, which allowed it to be preserved until now.
Understanding the implication, Duan Xingge’s pupils shrank, and his Adam’s apple couldn’t help but slide up and down a few times.
Although it seemed to be the truth, this explanation still felt like pouring oil on the fire at this moment.
The most obvious evidence was the bullet comments that went crazy in nearly seven or eight livestream rooms simultaneously:
“No??? You guys play this big in private?? Ah???”
“Ahhhhhhh, which fan screenshotted it?? I’m so anxious, I’m so anxious, I am the King of Anxiety.”
“Woc, woc, woc, I think I saw the mermaid line, and the blood at the corner of his mouth, and the lower half of his face—even if he turned to ash, I could recognize that’s Xing-Xing, ahhhhhh!”
“Three-year veteran fan of Xing-Xing directly ascended on the spot. Sister-in-law is generous, Sister-in-law is auspicious, Sister-in-law, are there more? I still want to see!!!”
“What are you calling ‘Sister-in-law’?! Keep your distance, I am directly ‘Mommy,’ are there more? The child wants to see a duo photo.”
“Ahhhhh, the meaning of ‘forgot to delete’ is that taking it was intentional, right?? You ‘xql’ (couple) play this big in private???”
Compared to the near-overflowing atmosphere of the livestream room, the scene under the lens fell into an unprecedented silence.
It was so quiet that nothing could be heard except for the sound of waves hitting the cruise ship.
Yet, fate seemed to be at odds with Yun Qi at this moment. Just as the atmosphere had barely eased, when it was Yu Siwei’s turn to spin, the turntable needle actually pointed at him again.
Yun Qi: “…”
The atmosphere on the field became subtle instantly. Yu Siwei adjusted his glasses. He didn’t ask what Yun Qi was choosing, but said directly: “May I ask, is President Yun’s first kiss still there?”
Yun Qi fell silent instantly.
Before a certain person’s confession to him, he could have very generously said it was still there. But after that person’s confession, to say it again like that made even his own face unable to hang.
Seeing him remain silent, Duan Xingge laughed abruptly. The camera caught him very sensitively.
As someone who had just been “exposed” in such a photo, he looked completely unburdened; instead, he laughed incredibly happily.
The bullet comments suddenly understood. Although Duan Xingge appeared to be unaware of that photo, he was clearly enjoying the situation. As for whether Yun Qi’s first kiss was still there, no matter how he answered right now, the answer seemed to be already self-evident.
Yun Qi clearly anticipated this fact as well. Rather than biting the bullet and denying it or drinking the juice, he ultimately chose to squeeze out a sentence from his teeth: “…It’s not.”
Yu Siwei understood and continued: “Could I ask when it was lost, and who was it given to?”
Before Yun Qi could say anything, Duan Xingge said first: “You can only ask one question at a time.”
Yu Siwei was stunned: “Sorry, I was a bit too impatient to find inspiration.”
Yu Siwei wasn’t lying, because in the subsequent rounds, he clearly dwelled on this matter. Unfortunately, Yun Qi’s bad luck seemed to have come to an end; after a round of spinning, it didn’t point to him.
However, the good news was that when it was Yu Siwei’s turn again, although the turntable arrow didn’t point to Yun Qi, it pointed to another person by sheer coincidence.
Looking at the arrow that had appeared in front of him for the unknown number of times today, Duan Xingge sighed: “Why is it me again.”
He seemed very reluctant, but the expression on his face didn’t look reluctant at all.
Yu Siwei finally got his chance and went straight to the point: “May I ask, for President Duan, what is the best kissing experience you remember?”
He didn’t even ask meaningless questions like whether Duan Xingge had ever kissed before. One could only say a writer is a writer—his sensitivity was top-tier, and his way of asking questions deeply catered to the audience’s desires. To find inspiration, he was willing to get to the bottom of it.
“Actually, I haven’t kissed many times. If I have to say which experience was the best… it would have to be the first kiss.” Duan Xingge was reluctant in his words, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but lift when he spoke about it; he had no intention of hiding it at all. “He was drunk and asleep at the time, his body temperature was a bit high, and it was raining outside.”
“That kiss was very… soft, very hot, like jelly that was about to melt. It was completely different from what I had imagined. And he even responded unconsciously; he was more proactive than I imagined. In any case, it just—”
Yun Qi knocked his phone onto the table abruptly. Duan Xingge’s unfinished words came to an abrupt end. Everyone was startled; hearing the sound, they—along with the camera—looked toward him.
Duan Xingge paused, then chuckled: “Yeah, it was about like that. The person involved doesn’t want me to talk, so I won’t…”
Yun Qi “tsk’d”: “Are you ever going to finish?”
Duan Xingge obediently shut his mouth immediately. But it seemed too late for him to shut up now. The viewers in the livestream room were already howling impatiently:
“No, ‘The person involved,’ you guys aren’t even acting anymore, are you?”
“‘Haven’t kissed many times,’ you kid, you seem quite regretful??”
“Drunk and asleep, mark the focus. So Xing-Xing was taking advantage of his vulnerability to steal a kiss?!”
“Ahhhhhhh, I can’t take it anymore, insulin, bring the insulin quickly!!”
“Ah? Isn’t the focus that his body was very hot? Woc, how did you find out his body was hot just by kissing? I’m baffled, Brother Duan.”
“??? So you were kissing and touching at the same time? If you think any deeper, are we about to open an 18x plot??”
“Isn’t the more important part that since Xing-Xing stole the kiss, how did President Yun know his first kiss was gone?? You two must have kissed many more times afterward, right??”
After being scolded, Duan Xingge knew when to stop, but the uplifted corners of his mouth still betrayed his good mood.
The sun gradually climbed into the sky amidst the lively atmosphere. Over half of the morning had already passed. Yun Qi glanced at the time and let out an inaudible sigh of relief.
He had contemplated many times what his mood would be if he were in this day again.
But now that he was really here, thanks to that little bastard, he wasn’t nervous at all, only thinking about ending it as soon as possible. Without him noticing, the oppressive emotion had dissipated quite a bit.
As it neared the end, the atmosphere of the next round was much better than before, but before it stayed good for long, the arrow stopped in front of Yun Qi again.
Yun Qi’s action of drinking water paused. Looking up, he just happened to meet Ming Jiao’s slightly widened eyes.
Ming Jiao seemed to see that Yun Qi didn’t want to touch the fruit juice in the cup unless it was an absolute last resort, so after pondering for a long while, he cautiously said: “Um… I heard A-Yun and Brother Xing had a falling out over some matters. Can you say why?”
As soon as this was said, the harmonious atmosphere on the field instantly turned cold.
Duan Xingge frowned on the spot, looking at Ming Jiao with an unfriendly expression.
Yun Qi, hearing this, didn’t have much of a reaction; instead, he said directly: “Because of some direction problems regarding the company. After he graduated, I wanted to have him start from the marketing department; once he had experience, I would give him the branch company. But we had some differences in marketing strategies.”
“He thought jewelry shouldn’t be stingy with marketing, and that more costs should be invested in the sinking market, and that one should be willing to sacrifice some unnecessary designs for the sake of sales. I, however, believe that jewelry design is art, and art shouldn’t follow the trend…”
Yun Qi explained it very smoothly, even generously admitting his original idea of wanting to give the branch company to Duan Xingge to gain experience. The viewers were left stunned, not knowing what to say.
However, there was only one person on the field who wasn’t fooled by his evasion. After hearing his explanation, he chuckled instead: “It wasn’t just because of these, was it?”
Yun Qi’s words halted; he couldn’t help but glare at him: “…More because someone started having whimsical ideas not long after joining the company. They hadn’t even mastered marketing before they started wanting to usurp the position and plot against the company.”
Duan Xingge was scolded in front of everyone, but he became obedient as if he had heard a satisfying answer, smiling in a way that was shameless rather than shameful—one would have thought he was being complimented.
Before the second phase aired, if Yun Qi had said this, it would have become a story about Duan Xingge as a half-adopted son attempting to usurp the family fortune; worse yet, rumors about “true/false young masters” would likely have been pinned to the top of marketing accounts.
But after the second phase aired, even though Yun Qi had specifically added the words “plot against the company,” the viewers saw through the facts he was hiding at a glance, and the bullet comments understood instantly:
“Usurp the position?! Which ‘position’ are you usurping??”
“These two words make my imagination run wild!”
“The one plotting against him is definitely not the family fortune, but the head of the family!!”
“Grass, grass, grass, it’s so stimulating! But 77 knew he was plotting against him, yet he still raised him until he graduated from university!!”
“That is to say, I suspect President Yun is evading the truth. Having conflicts of interest doesn’t mean there are no emotional entanglements!! They must have slept together. Is it not stimulating for a cold, aloof, beautiful figure to lose his face and refuse to recognize people after being intensely ‘do’d’ by him?!”
Duan Xingge was satisfied after hearing it, but Ming Jiao’s gaze dimmed, seeming to have not heard the result he wanted.
But Yun Qi had no time to worry about what others were thinking now.
During the lull in the game, Yun Qi couldn’t help but think of those unknown, truly happened memories.
In fact, looking at it now, their parting of ways seemed destined from the beginning, and the reason wasn’t that complicated.
It was nothing more than a young wolf dog having feelings for the head wolf, but there could only be one head wolf in a wolf pack, and the strength the wolf dog gained in the wolf pack wasn’t enough to support his desires.
The wolf king was still robust; he was willing to shield his child and allowed the other party a certain degree of presumptuousness, but that wasn’t what the wolf dog wanted.
What he wanted was to pin his former elder brother to the ground, bite his hind neck, and declare his sovereignty in front of everyone, making no one dare to covet a single bit of him ever again.
What he wanted wasn’t even the power to be on equal footing with the wolf king, but complete suppression and possession. Just thinking about his former provider being forced to endure with reddened eyes, while still trembling and cursing him, made him want to demand more.
That sense of possession, which bordered on madness, continued to swell in the silent indulgence, and the final price was that the already disobedient wolf dog was thoroughly spoiled.
He left home that rainy night with nothing but his luggage. Yun Qi watched his retreating back from the second floor until he couldn’t see anything anymore, and he remained standing there.
Was it really just Duan Xingge’s fault that things developed to that point?
In those silent indulgences, was it really just derived from so-called kinship, without a shred of other emotions?
If Yun Qi truly had a clear conscience, how could he have left that photo behind for no reason?
Ultimately, no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it, he and Duan Xingge were the same kind of people.
He also wanted to cage the child he raised with his own hands, not letting anyone see him, not letting him experience any wind, frost, rain, or snow, only needing him to be a happy, idle person.
It was just that the process went awry his perfectly fine puppy was raised into a wolf cub thinking about usurping the position every day. Who can be blamed for that?
While Yun Qi was lost in thought, time slowly passed. When the activity finally neared its end, he snapped back from his thoughts and cast his gaze back to the round table.
Although the process had deviated significantly from his previous life, fortunately, it was pulled back in the end.
The last person to issue the order was still Cheng Xi, and after the arrow spun silently, it ultimately stopped in front of Yun Qi.
Yun Qi still had no choice: “Dare.”
“Then how about…” Cheng Xi rubbed his chin thoughtfully; after looking around, he said, “President Yun, just kiss number five.”
An identical request to the previous life. Yun Qi, having anticipated it long ago, didn’t show any surprise again. Duan Xingge, who was number five, didn’t say anything either, only raised an eyebrow and directly picked out a glass of fruit juice from the side.
But this time, the reaction of the bullet comments was completely different from the previous life:
“Fine, fine, fine, I announce that ‘Little Orange’ deserves to be worshipped in the imperial temple!!”
“You did well, Little Orange!!”
“What are you doing, Xing-Xing! Why are you picking up juice right away? Can you have a little confidence in yourself! (Though I don’t have any in you either), but a man shouldn’t just say he can’t do it right away!!”
“It’s over, although I really want to see the kiss, I feel that with 77’s pride, he will choose to accept the punishment directly qaq”
“I don’t care!! If he’s a man, he’ll kiss! It didn’t say where to kiss; kissing the cheek is fine too!”
Even the excited audience subconsciously felt Yun Qi wouldn’t kiss, let alone Duan Xingge himself.
While keeping an eye on Cheng Xi, seemingly wanting to deduce the true intention of the other party’s command from the details, he said: “It’s the final round, everyone is in a hurry to eat. I’ll drink this juice for President Yun and then—”
However, before he could finish his words, the next second he suddenly heard the sound of a chair moving and a familiar voice: “No need.”
Duan Xingge snapped back to reality, just in time to see Yun Qi push his chair back and stand up.
At this moment, he seemed to have completely crashed; his brain was entirely unable to analyze what Yun Qi wanted to do. He sat in his seat like a puppy suddenly touched by its owner, not knowing how to react, and could only watch as Yun Qi walked toward him step by step.
The bullet comments that were just shouting in the livestream, seeing this and realizing what Yun Qi was about to do, seemed to have suddenly been rendered mute. Countless viewers watched the screen in disbelief.
Ming Jiao sat obliquely opposite Duan Xingge; seeing this, he widened his eyes slightly in astonishment. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but before he could speak, Yun Qi had already walked up to Duan Xingge.
Cheng Xi hadn’t specified where to kiss, but Yun Qi seemed to have made a decision on his own.
Thinking of all the bitterness he had eaten that day, it wouldn’t be in Yun Qi’s character if he didn’t retaliate at this moment.
He stood still in front of Duan Xingge, looked down at the young man he had raised with his own hands, and said in a flat tone: “Lift your head.”
Like the charity of a superior figure, containing both a sense of indifference and something that would not be denied.
Yun Qi, of course, knew how to handle Duan Xingge, just as Duan Xingge was well-versed in how to make him soften his heart.
Duan Xingge clearly swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple rolling uncontrollably. His brain clearly wasn’t functioning well at this moment; his rationality had begun to question everything his eyes were seeing, but his body still obediently raised his head.
Yun Qi raised his hand and pinched his neck lightly, his gloved fingers pressing gently against his Adam’s apple, satisfied to feel the sensation of the Adam’s apple rolling beneath his palm through the glove.
Then, he leaned down slowly. In the eyes of the other party that had slightly widened, he lowered his eyes and kissed Duan Xingge’s lips.
The world seemed to have gone quiet at this moment.
This was actually Yun Qi’s first kiss since he gained consciousness, but it was indeed, just as Duan Xingge had described moments before, surprisingly not bad in sensation.
The kiss ended, Yun Qi gently licked the seam of the lips of the person in front of him who was stunned as if mocking Duan Xingge for his lack of experience. Yun Qi laughed softly in a voice so low only the two of them could hear:
“This is called being proactive.”
Follow-up question: Would you like to proceed to the next chapter, or is there a specific interaction or plot detail you would like to analyze?