An idea struck him, and he turned right back around, plucked a few rose petals, and tucked them in with his letter before leaving the bedroom, satisfied.
Then, without any hesitation, he dropped the letter into the blue mailbox in front of the two boxes and went back to his room to wait for the production team’s notice.
With nothing to do, Jiang Qingzhou sat back down at the desk again, opened the diary, and hunched over it to write his first day’s love diary entry.
【April 25, 2023. Finally met my idol Liang Tingyun today, so happy! So excited! I really, really like Actor Liang! I know this is technically a dating show for men and women, but I still couldn’t help writing him a confession letter. I really want to go on a date with him tomorrow!】
Ten minutes later, the staff’s voice came over the intercom.
Jiang Qingzhou knew there was no way he’d get a letter today, but he still set down his pen right away and burst out the door.
Whether he got a letter or not didn’t matter, what mattered was showing up.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than fate worked in its own strange way, the moment he pushed open his door, he saw Liang Tingyun and Pei Songming heading downstairs side by side to collect their letters.
“Actor Liang, Teacher Pei.” Jiang Qingzhou called out to the two of them, then quickened his pace to catch up. “Are you two headed to get the letters?”
Pei Songming said, “Yeah, want to come with us?”
Liang Tingyun gave him a flat glance and said nothing.
“Let me go get them for you two,” Jiang Qingzhou said, his eyes fixed intently on Liang Tingyun’s sharp, striking features, offering up a perfectly reasonable explanation. “Three people making the trip is still just a trip, one person making the trip is still just a trip, might as well let me go alone.”
“You two wait here a minute, I’ll be right back.”
“No need—” Before Liang Tingyun could finish declining, Jiang Qingzhou had already turned and dashed off toward the stairs.
Running that fast stirred up a gust of wind, and the meticulous hairstyle he’d fixed up that morning to see Liang Tingyun sprang up a playful cowlick, bobbing up and down with each step, unbearably cute.
“Young people really are different,” Pei Songming said, watching Jiang Qingzhou’s figure disappear around the corner, teasing, “So much energy.”
Liang Tingyun’s eyes darkened, and he agreed coolly, “Sure is.”
Outside the villa, Jiang Qingzhou ran into Chao Shu, who’d also come down for the letters. He politely called out “Teacher Chao,” then scooped up the letters from the blue mailbox and turned to run straight back.
On the way, he thought about checking how many letters Liang Tingyun had gotten, but remembered there were cameras rolling. If viewers caught him stopping to read the names on the envelopes, he’d probably get torn apart again.
In the end, he obediently carried the letters straight back to the third floor without looking.
Pei Songming and Liang Tingyun were waiting for him in the third-floor common area. He barely had time to catch his breath before he started sorting the letters.
“This one’s for Actor Liang.” Jiang Qingzhou handed the first letter to Liang Tingyun, then checked the next one. “This one’s for Actor Liang too.”
Liang Tingyun took it, expressionless.
Jiang Qingzhou’s voice came again. “Still Actor Liang’s.”
“Well, looks like neither of us got a single letter,” Pei Songming said, standing to the side, putting on an exaggerated pout. “So sad.”
“Don’t worry, Teacher Pei, you got one.” Jiang Qingzhou handed the last letter in his hands to Pei Songming. “I’m the one who didn’t get a single letter.”
Pei Songming looked, puzzled, at the envelope with his own name on it, then looked up at the three envelopes in Liang Tingyun’s hands. “If I’m remembering right, there are only three female guests, aren’t there?”
Jiang Qingzhou nodded. “Yeah.”
Pei Songming said, “So why are there four confession letters?”
【I want to know that too, why are there four confession letters?】
【Right, so why are there four confession letters?】
【Please don’t tell me little bitch Jiang actually sent one to Daddy Tingyun?!!!】
【He wouldn’t dare!】
【Actually, I wouldn’t put it past that little bitch Jiang. He even dared to get a tattoo of the same mole as Daddy Tingyun, what wouldn’t he dare to do?】
【If he really did send one to Daddy Tingyun, I’ll fight him to the death!】
“I sent one to myself.” Liang Tingyun’s expression darkened, his words dripping with cold warning. “As long as no one broke the show’s rules and did something they shouldn’t have, that’s the correct count.”
Jiang Qingzhou blinked and, feigning ignorance, asked, “What exactly counts as breaking the production team’s rules?”
Liang Tingyun raised his eyes to meet Jiang Qingzhou’s clear, innocent gaze, his voice ice-cold. “For instance, a letter that should have gone into the pink mailbox ending up in the blue one instead.”
“That would be a violation.”
Jiang Qingzhou propped up his arm, feigning deep thought. “So Actor Liang means it’s a violation if a guy writes a letter to another guy?”
Liang Tingyun said flatly, “Yes.”
“But I don’t think that counts as a violation,” Jiang Qingzhou said. “The production team never actually stated this is a dating show only for men and women, and there’s no rule saying men have to write to women and women have to write to men, they just said to write to whoever you like. If a guy happens to like another guy, what’s wrong with him writing to the person he likes?”
“The same-sex marriage law’s been in effect for two years now, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with liking someone of the same sex, right?” Jiang Qingzhou was only trying to defend himself, not noticing how aggressive his own tone had gotten. “If Actor Liang insists that a guy writing to another guy is a violation, then didn’t Actor Liang also violate the rules by writing to himself?”
【What kind of attitude is that?! Who gave you permission to talk to our Daddy Tingyun like that?!】
【Liking the same sex is fine, obviously, but you sending one to Daddy Tingyun is where you went wrong!】
【Is that really liking him? That’s just riding on his fame!】
【You’re seriously too much, a substitute writing a love letter to his unrequited love? I really can’t believe what I just witnessed.】
【Wait, don’t let him drag you all off track, we haven’t even seen what’s actually written in the letter yet. Maybe little bitch Jiang is just trying to muddy the waters.】
Liang Tingyun stared at Jiang Qingzhou for a solid ten-odd seconds, the ice in his gaze loosening just slightly, then tossed out a single line, “You have a point”, and turned to leave with his long, straight legs carrying him away.
“Huh? What does that mean?” Jiang Qingzhou called after Liang Tingyun’s retreating back, pushing his luck. “Actor Liang, could you spell it out for me? Which part did I say that was right?”
Liang Tingyun’s steps never slowed, and he finally disappeared at the end of the hallway.
Pei Songming, who’d been standing there stunned this whole time, finally snapped out of it and looked at Jiang Qingzhou with obvious curiosity. “Xiao Zhou, were you saying just now that you wrote your letter to Tingyun?”
Jiang Qingzhou nodded without hiding a thing. “Yep, I’ve liked Actor Liang for years. Now that I finally got to be on the same dating show as him, I have to make the most of this chance.”
He was determined to confess his feelings at every possible moment, so the other man would know exactly how much he liked him.
What they were going for here was sincerity, plain and simple.