Once these words were out, the atmosphere on the set became stagnant for some reason. Fearing that the comments section wouldn’t fight, the production team immediately switched the camera to the indifferent Yun Qi and the visibly dark-faced Duan Xingge.
This time, other viewers clearly wouldn’t misunderstand his expression as fighting for favor with Yun Qi, but Ming Jiao’s fans were clearly delighted by this misunderstanding, and the chat exploded immediately:
“Oh, Xingxing is jealous again. Why didn’t anyone ask when Xing-Jiao would have their HE!! Does our ‘US Empire’ [top ship] have so little face?”
“? Ah? Jealous of whom? Who is the ‘US Empire’?”
“I’m amused by Jiao fans. Can you open the supertopic ranking and see who the true top-tier ship is?”
“Are you crazy? Xingxing is obviously cursing your ‘baby’ for fighting over his wife with him.”
“…I’ve wanted to say this for a long time. It’s one thing that Xing-Yun going mainstream attracted a bunch of outsiders, but now that it’s a Yun-Jiao occasion, can you people stop jumping in?”
“A wholesale one-sided crush isn’t a CP, thank you. And besides, since when does watching a dating variety show involve ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’? Are you ‘glue fans’ [Jiao fans] some kind of domestic mammals that you love circles so much?”
Seeing that the battle in the chat was about to become heated, Ming Jiao’s segment thankfully ended there.
Afterward, the situations for Yu Siwei and the others were about the same as Ming Jiao’s. As the host said, the comments were quite harmonious, no broadcast accidents occurred, and it counted as a gentle game of interaction with the audience.
Yun Qi breathed a sigh of relief, but when it was truly his turn, who knows how the production team’s algorithm worked—the first comment up was:
“Bai Yun Ai Ai v: #XingYun# What’s saving a photo worth? Don’t look at how you, Xing, are a star and deal in jewelry; your taste is actually godawful. You spent a lot of money to buy a huge, ugly wood carving, and your wife cursed you out for it. The weird thing is, after you two ‘broke up,’ someone actually kept that wood carving by their bedside… I said it before, 77 loves his little husband to death. He can look at that ugly thing and think of the person; if that thing had been bought by another suitor, it probably wouldn’t even have made it through his front door, let alone his bedroom.”
Once the entire passage was posted, the live room was silent, and even the activity site under the camera fell into sudden stillness.
This wasn’t because everyone saw something explosive right away, but because this thing was just too long—a dense, packed passage that felt like it had more words than everyone else’s comments put together. Everyone needed time to read it.
But when they finished reading, this silence became a true silence.
The timestamp of the comment was 2:00 AM last night, newly posted content from “Bai Yun Ai Ai,” and the IP address was still overseas. No one knew which corner of the world the production team had found it in.
Many viewers hadn’t seen this post, so the live stream room exploded after they finished reading it:
“WTF, it’s really Madame Ai Ai. Production team, you really get it!”
“Ahhhhhhh, President Yun, you really love your little husband so much!!”
“Damn, what kind of title is ‘little husband’? It makes the corners of my mouth rise, ahhhhh.”
“I don’t believe Xingxing’s taste could be that bad. Can the production team go and live-stream President Yun’s house?”
“? You just want to look at 77’s bedroom! Well, I want to see it too; who doesn’t want to see it?”
“President Yun, say something!!”
After reading it, Yun Qi’s mind went blank. His only remaining sanity was used on how to explain this, so under the urging of countless people who loved to see a spectacle, Yun Qi took a deep breath and finally spoke: “…At the time, I was missing a piece for the bedside table, so I just placed it there. There’s no other meaning.”
Saying the wood carving was beautiful would be to go against his conscience and slander his own taste, but saying the wood carving was ugly would make it even harder to explain why it was placed by his bedside.
That was why Yun Qi chose this kind of “two-pronged” answer.
But the one thing he overlooked was that this seemingly “two-pronged” answer actually admitted that the wood carving was still placed by his bedside. For the audience, there was no difference, and it even felt like “protesting too much.” The comments became even more brilliant.
Yet the even more explosive content was in the next one. Before Yun Qi could let out a breath, it was stuck in his chest as the screen read:
“Bai Yun Ai Ai v: #XingYun# Do you think only you, Xing, are crazy? Then you don’t know the inside story; you two are equally crazy. Before Duan broke up with his brother years ago, he was angry and mentioned he wanted to go out and set up a subsidiary to make a name for himself for his brother to see. Guess how his brother reacted?”
“Someone was locked in a bedroom for a whole week, with meals fed to him by his brother personally; he wasn’t allowed to see anyone from the outside. But Duan is truly a talent not only was he content with it, but while locked up, his hands and feet were still restless. His wrist was also broken at that time, but that was entirely self-inflicted it had absolutely nothing to do with his brother. And later, when you, Yun, felt soft-hearted, you actually let him escape.”
“Guess why someone didn’t dare to call him ‘brother’ during the first phase? He was just afraid his brother was still angry about his setting up a business independently and wouldn’t acknowledge him.”
“Someone is outwardly wild, but in private, he’s still a puppy that tucks its tail when it hears its wife call its name.”
Out of the ten comments, seven and a half were posted by “Bai Yun Ai Ai.” That half was not posted by her, but was a netizen’s retelling: “Madame Ai Ai said Xingxing wanted to sleep with his brother when he was in high school. Is that true?”
Viewers who had earnestly flipped through all of Bai Yun Ai Ai’s Weibo posts were few and far between, so facing such explosive revelations, the audience couldn’t sit still for a moment, and the comments erupted into chaos:
“??? Wait, who locked up whom?? Ah?? And he wasn’t allowed to see outsiders??”
“Damn, I thought that crazy look from Xingxing was him wanting to lock up his wife but not daring to. So it was actually President Yun?!!”
“I said it before: Dom-Shou pairing with a younger male is an immortal delicacy!!!”
“Ahhhhhh, what do I do, I want to believe it. I really want to believe it!!”
“If it’s true… being locked up by his wife and not being allowed to see anyone, and being fed and watered, Xingxing must be in heaven. You’re happy, Brother Xing!”
“Oh my god, silent possessiveness; this feeling of being equally matched is explosive, ahhhhh. Xing-Yun is real!!”
Facing such sacrilegious revelations, Yun Qi was so angry he nearly couldn’t catch his breath.
There was no way he would admit to such things in front of the camera, so relying on the fact that Yun Ai was not present and even if she were, the little girl wouldn’t dare to defy him Yun Qi kept a cold face and denied it all:
“Never heard of it, nonsensical.”
“Don’t know.”
“No such thing.”
“How would I know if he sleeps naked or not?”
In reality, the audience didn’t take everything Bai Yun Ai Ai said as truth; they just wanted to see Yun Qi’s reaction to such explosive statements.
However, Ming Jiao’s fans, who had been quiet for two full days, were like they had found some precious treasure at this moment. They were overjoyed, and one after another, they took feathers for arrows, saying:
“Why didn’t the previous comments keep on being wild?”
“Laughing to death, the Xing-Yun delusional women got slapped in the face by the main characters.”
“Why aren’t Xing-Yun fans calling out now? Weren’t you swearing it was real before?”
“There’s no way what this ‘White Clouds and Snowy Skies’ said could be real; they even believe such ‘coquettish wife’ literature.”
“Shippers just need to ship it in their own heads; to go dance in front of the main characters… you really have a lot of nerve.”
While Ming Jiao’s fans were sarcastically mocking, Yun Qi cut his turn short with a lightning-fast speed.
Originally, he thought it was over, but to his utter surprise, when it came to Duan Xingge’s turn, the production team seemed to be at odds with the two of them. Eight out of the ten comments were Weibo posts by Bai Yun Ai Ai, and a few were even repetitions of Yun Qi’s.
Duan Xingge looked at the familiar comments and fell silent for a moment. He paused, then couldn’t help but look at Yun Qi, cautiously asking: “Is this… can this be true?”
Yun Qi: “…”
Yun Qi nearly couldn’t catch his breath: “Don’t you know if it’s true or not? Why ask me?”
“Then… then let’s say it’s not true.” Duan Xingge didn’t know whether he was doing it on purpose or really didn’t know what to say, but his appearance of trying to cover up was too obvious. “Rumors, um, entirely rumors.”
Ming Jiao’s fans, who had been rejoicing just a moment ago, actually sensed that something was wrong by now. The audience wanted to use the topic to express themselves, but both main characters were denying it, so they couldn’t say much.
But precisely because both were denying it, the comments from certain fans became even more rampant, stating one after another that Xing-Yun was fake, that the so-called “sugar” was all rumors by “White Clouds and Snowy Skies,” and incidentally mocking the CP fans for being stupid enough to believe such “fake at a glance” candy.
But times had changed. The current environment of the live stream comments was no longer for them to control like in the first phase.
Many new viewers had entered the fandom in the last two days and didn’t even know much about what had happened in the past. Seeing this, a massive wave of defiant comments immediately appeared in the live room:
“?? Where did these internet water armies come from?”
“Are you crazy? Whose fans are these? The Xing-Yun couple themselves only denied it; they didn’t attack. Why are you cursing here?”
“Outrageous. So what if it’s fake? CP fans just look for fun. Why are you house-wreckers so anxious?”
“My CP is a perfect match. Are you so anxious just because they won’t be in your ‘baby’s’ harem? Well, you deserve it; there will be more for you to be anxious about later!”
The comments were arguing endlessly. Coincidentally, Yun Qi was the anchor, and Duan Xingge was the last one at the bottom. Once they finished, the morning activity came to an end.
The war instantly spread from the live room to Weibo. Even though Xing-Yun’s CP fans now occupied an overwhelming advantage in numbers, after the afternoon passed, the sounds of ridicule still gathered under Bai Yun Ai Ai’s Weibo.
However, the usually powerful “Bai Yun Ai Ai” was silent now, and the IP address on her homepage had changed from domestic to overseas at some point, as if she really felt guilty after being exposed by the main characters for lying. Consequently, those ridiculing remarks became even more rampant:
“Laughing to death, why is your fan head silent? She felt guilty after being slapped in the face by the main characters, right?”
“They even believe in a shipped CP that was hype-driven. Speechless.”
“A bunch of CP-brained people. This ‘White Clouds and Snowy Skies’ definitely made a lot of money using your stupidity. She earned a pot full of gold and gracefully escaped to enjoy herself, but your CP is coming to an end.”
“Escaping overseas so quickly; it seems the money from fools is really easy to earn. It’s enough to go see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. If I had known, I would have held my nose and written some ‘coquettish wife’ literature to earn a wave of money.”
There was a massive uproar online, but the two main characters other than Bai Yun Ai Ai were temporarily unaware of the matter. Yun Qi was even feeling relieved that the morning activity had ended.
But after eating lunch and returning to the deck, the host continued to introduce the afternoon activity: “Guests and viewers, good afternoon! I wonder if our guests still remember the contact information for friends and family you left before the start of the first phase?”
He paused, then smiled meaningfully: “Next, we will need to use this contact information, because what we are holding this afternoon is our interview activity with friends and family.”
Hearing the name of this activity, Yun Qi’s heart missed a beat. He couldn’t even care about the camera, turned his head, and asked Duan Xingge directly: “Who did you fill in for your contact?”
Duan Xingge looked innocent: “I have no parents, so I didn’t have anyone to fill in.”
Duan Xingge said this casually and openly; he didn’t seem to think much of it himself. But upon hearing this, Yun Qi’s heart softened instantly, and following his lead, he assumed that he hadn’t filled in anyone, so he didn’t ask further.
The audience also felt a wave of pity:
“Oh my god, Xingxing’s mother has also passed away, right?”
“QAQ Then does that mean Xingxing only has his brother left as a relative in the world?”
“A relative who is written as ‘brother’ but read as ‘wife.’ I wouldn’t be willing to let go, either.”
“No wonder he would rather risk being cursed at just to coax his wife into the variety show. Sob, poor little puppy.”
Coincidentally, the order this time was different from the morning activity. After the host drew lots randomly, the first one drawn was actually Yun Qi.
Seeing this, Yun Qi’s breath hitched. Fortunately, he had taken a precaution before joining the show and hadn’t left Yun Ai’s number, but rather his uncle, Yun Mingrui’s, contact information.
Otherwise, once the name “Yun Ai” came out, there would be no need for that girl to speak—a discerning person would know what was going on, and the lies Yun Qi had woven would basically be a complete failure.
However, there was one more thing to worry about: his uncle, Yun Mingrui, only had one daughter, Yun Ai, and was a standard “daughter slave.” Three sentences wouldn’t go by without him mentioning his daughter, and if he slipped up, it would essentially be the end.
After the call connected, Yun Mingrui’s slightly aged but still handsome face appeared on the screen. Yun Qi quickly called out, “Uncle.”
Yun Mingrui seemed to be in his office: “Xiao Qi, what is it?”
Seeing this, Yun Qi quickly indicated that it was nothing, just a task given by the production team, and since his uncle was working, he wouldn’t bother him.
Seeing that he was inexplicably nervous, Yun Mingrui was a bit suspicious but didn’t ask further, stating that he wasn’t busy.
After they chatted casually for a bit, Yun Qi hung on to eighteen thousand levels of vigilance, but still didn’t guard against his uncle changing the subject: “Is Xiao Ai obedient at the company?”
Yun Qi’s heart rate instantly soared to 80 mph. He immediately said: “Cousin’s business ability is very good, and her performance on this business trip was also excellent. I recently gave her a vacation to go traveling.”
Yun Qi had always called Yun Ai by her full name in the past, but now he was calling her “Cousin.” Yun Mingrui felt it was a bit strange but didn’t say anything.
Fortunately, older people have a slight accent, and the “Xiao Ai” he called sounded a bit like “Xiao Ai” [a common name], which was quite standard, so the audience didn’t think much of it.
Just as Yun Qi was about to hang up, the camera flashed, and just happened to capture Duan Xingge.
Older people didn’t pay much attention to dating variety shows, and when he saw Duan Xingge, Yun Mingrui was visibly stunned: “Xing Ge is there, too.”
Duan Xingge quickly sat up straight, nearly tying his tie on the spot: “Uncle, long time no see. How is your health?”
He was visibly nervous. Yun Mingrui paused for three seconds before suddenly smiling: “Good, good, all good. You and your brother are well, too?”
“Very well.” Duan Xingge quickly said, “I’m watching over brother; I promise not to let him stay up late, Uncle, please rest assured.”
Yun Mingrui smiled even more happily: “That’s good, that’s good. Uncle is happier than anything to see you two getting along well.”
Duan Xingge called him “Uncle” just as naturally as Yun Qi did. Yun Mingrui himself didn’t feel anything was wrong, and Yun Qi didn’t think there was anything wrong with it either, but the audience couldn’t sit still:
“《Uncle》”
“The ‘bone-orthopedic’ [incestuous/familial romance] vibe is getting stronger, ahhhhh. Even if they part ways, they still end up obediently calling him Uncle.”
“Oh my, only at this moment did I clearly realize that 77 and his little husband really lived together for so long so long that relatives and friends thought they would accompany each other for a lifetime. QAQ But they ended up breaking up.”
“Sob, both painful and delicious bone-orthopedic rice! Fortunately, Xingxing was willing to do anything to trick 77 onto the show, otherwise they would have missed each other. Sob!”
“Xingxing, you’re so nervous! It’s not like meeting your father-in-law, why are you so nervous!”
After some small talk, Yun Mingrui finally hung up the phone. Both Yun Qi and Duan Xingge breathed a sigh of relief, although the reasons for their relief were probably different.
However, before Yun Qi could finish exhaling, when it came to Duan Xingge’s turn, the production team didn’t skip him.
Yun Qi’s heart missed a beat: “Didn’t you say you didn’t fill in a contact?”
Duan Xingge turned his head and looked innocent: “I didn’t say that. I just said I have no parents; I didn’t say I had no friends or relatives. Does brother even want me to have no friends?”
He said this obliquely, seeming to hint that Yun Qi had a strong possessiveness. Yun Qi, however, didn’t care about that; instead, his heart skipped a beat for no reason, and he couldn’t help but ask: “Who did you fill in?”
After Duan Xingge stared at him for three seconds, he smiled and turned his head away without answering.
The premonition of doom in Yun Qi’s heart instantly intensified.
The audience didn’t know what kind of riddle they were talking about, but in the next second, the host spoke: “Then next, let us connect to President Duan’s outside relative/friend and see what this friend has to say to President Duan and the other guests present.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a video connection interface appeared on the screen.
Regrettably, Duan Xingge hadn’t given the person any note, so that person’s full name appeared directly on the screen—”Yun Ai.”
At such a familiar name, the chat room instantly went quiet.
The audience, who had been arguing for the entire noon, simultaneously went silent at this moment, their eyes widening in disbelief.
Yun Qi’s vision went dark. He immediately picked up his cup and held it in front of him to cover his expression, praying internally that Yun Ai wouldn’t answer, or that if she did, she would say less of what shouldn’t be said.
After finishing his prayer, he tilted his head and took a sip of cold water, trying to suppress his fright. Yet, the more one fears something, the easier it is for it to come.
Before Yun Qi could swallow his mouthful of water, the image on the big screen flashed, and the person on the other side answered the video call at lightning speed.
A girl wearing sunglasses appeared prominently in the frame. She was carrying big and small bags of things, seemingly shopping and enjoying a holiday. The Eiffel Tower behind her could not be more conspicuous.
Perhaps she couldn’t see too clearly through her sunglasses, so after glancing at Duan Xingge, she spoke casually: “Duan Dog, aren’t you on a cruise ship with your wife having crazy sex? How do you have the time to call me?”
Once these words were out, the entire live stream room instantly fell into dead silence.