The ice-breaking dinner of the first segment came to an end after Jiang Qiyu led everyone in clearing the battlefield like a swarm of locusts.
As the mystery guest whose identity remained unguessed, she naturally earned the right to choose her room first.
Carrying her massive Mecha Combat Vehicle, Jiang Qiyu didn’t hesitate to choose the top floor.
No particular reason—aside from the open view and relative privacy, the top floor also had a small rooftop garden.
How lovely~
While the other guests harbored mixed feelings about her arrival, everyone was seasoned in the industry, so on the surface, they harmoniously began assigning rooms.
The Love Apartment had four floors.
Lu Heng, of course, chose the second floor, as far from Jiang Qiyu as possible. Zhou Shun and Fang Xubai, to avoid suspicion, also opted for the second floor.
Jiang Mian naturally wasn’t magnanimous enough to live next door to someone who always opposed her, so she chose a room on the third floor instead.
Although Jiang Ling secretly resented Jiang Mian for stealing her identity as the young lady of the Jiang family, she still sweetly chose the room next to hers to maintain her standing in the Jiang household.
Song Yan, keenly aware of the underlying dynamics, though envious of the rooftop garden, wisely chose to stay on the third floor as well.
And so, the men settled on the second floor, the women on the third, with Jiang Qiyu alone occupying the top floor.
With the apartment rooms temporarily decided, the production team gave everyone an hour to unpack their belongings.
As the guests busied themselves with settling in, viewers on the live stream began picking up on subtle hints:
【Ahhh! They did it on purpose, they must have done it on purpose! Handsome Heng is in Room 201, and Mianmian is in Room 301!】
【I’m shipping it, I really am! The little couple was too shy to say it outright, so they’re dropping hints by living one above the other, right?】
【Lu Mianyan is real! The little couple is locked in, and I’ve swallowed the key!!】
Apart from Lu Heng and Jiang Mian, the popular on-screen couple, viewers also spontaneously formed various unconventional and niche pairings.
【Am I the only one who thinks Zhou Shun and Jiang Ling are a good match too? Their vibes just click!】
【Zhou Shun and Song Yan are the real deal! A prince of love songs and a cool, chic supermodel—I’m in love!】
【What about Teacher Changmao? Who does Teacher Changmao pair with?】
【Jiang Qiyu? Didn’t you see how everyone’s avoiding her? Her reputation in the industry speaks for itself, no need to say more.】
【Teacher Changmao is obviously with Fang Xubai! A quirky female celebrity and a younger, sweet-natured guy.】
【Hands off our Baibai, no shipping! How can you ship any CP without feeling guilty?】
【I had a feeling when Baibai joined this dating show. If it has to be someone, why not Teacher Changmao? What should we call this CP? Changbai Mountain?】
【Let’s ship it, ship it! Changbai Mountain sounds a bit too cold, though. Since it’s an unconventional pairing, how about White Spear Woman?】
【Hahahaha, the CP name can be niche, but it shouldn’t be weird, sis!】
【……】
An hour passed quickly, and it was only 9:30.
The production team gathered everyone, now settled, in the living room sofa area and handed each of the seven participants a sponsored brand smartphone.
Off-camera, Director Zhang picked up a small megaphone and began explaining the purpose of the phones.
Everyone’s phone had a communication and social app specifically developed for the “You Understand Love” show—
“Understand Love APP.”
Guests could use it to make calls, video chat, send messages to each other, and even share their lives and moods in the “Love Friends Circle,” similar to WeChat or Weibo.
The most crucial point was that the app’s usage process was completely open and transparent.
All messages, communications, and posts in the Love Friends Circle could be displayed in a small window within the live broadcast.
Besides enhancing the immersive interaction with the audience, this also ensured that no private communication between guests was missed.
Additionally, the Understand Love APP had several relatively unique features.
First, it calculated the level of affection between guests based on their chat frequency.
Second, every night after activities ended, a pop-up window would automatically appear, allowing the phone holder to assign “heartbeat scores” to other guests besides themselves.
Guests with higher heartbeat scores would enjoy special treatment in subsequent segments.
Moreover, there was an anonymous feature.
Each person had one opportunity per day to anonymously confess their feelings, allowing them to send a love letter to their crush as a secret admirer.
Neither the audience nor the recipient would know the identity of the secret admirer, and it was up to the sender to decide whether to reveal themselves.
After the production team’s introduction, everyone nodded in understanding while holding their phones.
Only Jiang Qiyu, the moment she received the phone from the production team, immediately went to the app store and quickly downloaded several popular games of the moment.
A month without playing games—who wouldn’t go a little crazy?
She hadn’t come to this dating show specifically to annoy Lu Heng. Mainly, she knew the show would become hugely popular later, and as the holder of the script’s golden finger, it would be a waste not to take advantage of the opportunity.
Even if she were to leave the entertainment industry in regret someday, she’d need to make money first to enjoy a comfortable retirement, right?
Just as Jiang Qiyu was fantasizing about her wonderful retirement life while devouring the post-meal fruit with a small fork, Director Zhang picked up his megaphone again and announced:
“Next, the first round of ‘Understand Love Night Talk’ begins.”
Understand Love Night Talk.
As the name suggests, it was a casual chat session where everyone sat together after eating and drinking in the evening.
First, to deepen the guests’ impressions of each other, and second, to gather more footage for the edited highlights later.
With that, Director Zhang introduced the topic for tonight’s talk—
“What do you think a genuine person is like?”
Starting with such a philosophical question made everyone a bit nervous.
Answering well would naturally leave a good impression, but saying something poorly would be embarrassing.
Song Yan, true to her straightforward nature, was the first to raise her hand and answer:
“I think someone who matches their words with actions is genuine.”
Zhou Shun pondered for a moment before adding his answer:
“When judging a person, hearing is not as reliable as seeing.”
Fang Xubai blinked a few times and offered some nonsense wisdom: “I think… as long as a person isn’t fake, they’re pretty genuine.”
Jiang Ling glanced subtly at Jiang Mian beside her, her tone still gentle:
“Being genuine means not being hypocritical, not hiding behind a perfect mask…”
Jiang Mian, however, didn’t pick up on the implied meaning in her words. She smiled slightly and said earnestly:
“I think it’s sincerity—sincerely treating everyone.”
“……”
Meanwhile, Lu Heng, who loved showing off the most, waited for quite a while. Seeing that Jiang Qiyu remained calm and showed no intention of speaking, he put on an aloof, immortal-like demeanor and looked directly at Jiang Mian without any hesitation:
“I think it’s beautiful.”
As soon as these words were spoken, aside from Jiang Mian being slightly stunned, the barrage, which had been discussing the topic, instantly exploded:
【Ahhhhhhhhh!! The direction he’s looking—he’s looking at Mianmian, right?? Right, right??】
【Is Hengshuai saying the real person is beautiful or “she is beautiful”?! Lu Mian fans are celebrating the New Year early!!】
【I’m shipping it, I’m shipping it! Lock them together forever!!】
【As a devout believer who has done good deeds all my life, my Lu Mianyan ship should be real!!】
“If you ask me…”
Just as the CP fans were celebrating and the barrage was going wild, a calm, unhurried voice rang out, breaking the ambiguous atmosphere that had filled the air:
“The shoes you spent thousands on might not be genuine, the handsome guys and beautiful girls you see online might just be the result of technology and hard work, and even the words ‘I love you’ someone says might not be sincere.”
Jiang Qiyu paused, then, under the utterly shocked gazes of everyone, spoke with composure:
“But the idiots you encounter—no need to doubt it—they are genuinely idiots.”
【Teacher Changmao, I disagreed when you quit the literary world back then!】
【Though the words are rough, the reasoning isn’t, but these words are just too rough, aren’t they?】
【Others come to a dating show for romance, but you come here to be blunt, right?】