Looking at the sincerity in Jiang Qingzhou’s eyes and the anticipation on his face, Pei Songming suddenly felt a little thrown off, and started to wonder whether the netizens had misjudged Jiang Qingzhou.
Maybe Jiang Qingzhou wasn’t riding on Liang Tingyun’s fame, maybe he genuinely liked him?
Pei Songming steadied himself. “Well, good luck then. I’ll head back to check my letters, see you in a bit.”
“See you in a bit, Teacher Pei.”
Back in his room, Liang Tingyun shut the door, sat down on the sofa, and opened his letters, expressionless.
He tossed the letter he’d written to himself carelessly onto the coffee table and picked up one of the other two, the one with the more graceful handwriting.
The moment he opened it, a few rose petals fell out.
Liang Tingyun picked up the petals that had fallen onto the carpet, then focused on reading the letter.
【Hello, Actor Liang!
I’m your fan, and I’ve liked you for many years now. Getting to be on this dating show with you has me genuinely thrilled.
I’ll be bold and ask, would you be willing to go on a date with me tomorrow?
—Your fan, Jiang Qingzhou】
Next to his signature, Jiang Qingzhou had even drawn a smiley face and a heart.
【Ahhhhh how does Jiang Qingzhou have the nerve to do this?!】
【He actually dared to write Daddy Tingyun a letter! Never mind whether he’s riding on Daddy Tingyun’s fame or not, does he really think someone at his level has a shot at a swan like that?】
【Jiang Qingzhou, back off! Back off! Back off!】
【I’ve never disliked anyone this much before. I used to not understand why some anti-fans went out of their way to attack people, if you don’t like someone, just ignore them, right? But now that I’ve seen Jiang Qingzhou, I get it. Some people are just asking to be cursed at!】
Liang Tingyun, having already anticipated this, furrowed his brow slightly, showed no other reaction, and set Jiang Qingzhou’s letter aside to open the next one.
【I heard there’s a decent forest park around here, want to check it out together?, Du Xinnuo】
【Told you Du likes Daddy Tingyun.】
【Daddy Tingyun’s so amazing, who wouldn’t like him?】
【Not gonna lie, before I even saw the letters, I was kind of hoping it’d turn out Sister Yu wrote to Daddy Tingyun.】
【No need to whisper it, say it loud, me too, there’s no shortage of fans shipping Daddy Tingyun and Sister Yu.】
【+1】
【+10086】
Jiang Qingzhou hadn’t gone back to his room, he was leaning idly against the railing, playing Fight the Landlord on his phone.
He’d been dealt a good hand this round, and had grabbed the landlord role.
Right as he was fully absorbed in the game, a message suddenly popped up at the top of his screen.
【Scumbag: Jiang Qingzhou, what game are you playing? Why did you write Liang Tingyun a confession letter?】
With only two rounds left before the game ended, Jiang Qingzhou irritably swiped the message away, glanced at the three cards left in his hand, and played a 7.
The other side threw down a king, the third player passed, and it came back to Jiang Qingzhou.
Jiang Qingzhou triumphantly threw down his last cards, a bomb rocket. “Bombed you, hey hey.” The two “farmers” on the other side collapsed into tears on the spot, and the victory fanfare played.
Watching his newly won 2,808 happy beans get added to his inventory, Jiang Qingzhou finally left the game satisfied, opened his chat with Xiao Wenyao, and quickly typed a reply.
【Jiang Qingzhou: I’m not playing games. Don’t you realize the only way to completely stop other women from getting their hooks in him is for me to team up with him?】
Once he finished typing, Jiang Qingzhou hit send with a blank expression and switched back to the card game.
In the original novel, Jiang Qingzhou had never written Liang Tingyun a confession letter.
Worn down by Xiao Wenyao’s abuse, the original protagonist hadn’t had any goodwill toward Liang Tingyun at all, if anything, he’d disliked him, even though Liang Tingyun had never actually done anything to him personally.
But whenever he saw Liang Tingyun, it reminded him of himself, forced by Xiao Wenyao to imitate the man, and it made his skin crawl.
Now that he was here, not only did he not dislike Liang Tingyun, he actually thought Liang Tingyun fit his ideal partner pretty well.
However he looked at it, pursuing Liang Tingyun was not a losing proposition.
So he might as well let Xiao Wenyao watch with his own eyes exactly how he stole his unrequited love away from him.
Ten minutes later, an announcement came over the intercom, calling all the guests down to the first-floor living room.
Jiang Qingzhou stayed put, glancing every so often toward the hallway while playing his cards. Pei Songming came out of the room next to his, smiling, followed right after by Liang Tingyun.
Liang Tingyun was farther away, still a good two minutes from reaching them.
Jiang Qingzhou kept playing his cards while chatting with Pei Songming. “Teacher Pei looks pretty happy, don’t tell me you got a letter from the sister you like?”
Pei Songming nodded. “Mm-hm.”
“Wow, congratulations to you and that sister, then.” Jiang Qingzhou looked up at Pei Songming, teasing. “Is it Teacher Chao?”
Before Pei Songming could answer, Jiang Qingzhou suddenly spotted Liang Tingyun, already right beside them, and immediately put his phone away, letting the other two players in the game spam “Hurry up, I’ve been waiting forever” without a second thought. He pasted on a smile and shamelessly went right up to him. “Actor Liang, did you see the letter I wrote you?”
“Sorry, I don’t like men.” Liang Tingyun’s expression stayed cold, completely ignoring the eager anticipation in Jiang Qingzhou’s eyes.
Liang Tingyun’s stride was long, and Jiang Qingzhou had to quicken his pace just to keep up. “It’s fine, Actor Liang, no need to feel guilty about it. I just wanted you to know, as long as Actor Liang knows how I feel, that’s enough.”
【?????】
【??? Which eye of yours saw our Daddy Tingyun feeling guilty?】
【If you’re sick, go see a doctor, don’t lose your mind here.】
【Don’t worry, our Daddy Tingyun will never feel guilty toward you, if anyone should feel guilty, it’s you, you little bitch!!!!】
Liang Tingyun ignored him.
Jiang Qingzhou kept right on going anyway. “Where does Actor Liang want to go tomorrow?”
Liang Tingyun still ignored him.
Pei Songming, trailing behind the two of them, muttered under his breath, “Forgets his friends the second he sees a pretty face.”
The other three female guests had already arrived early in the first-floor living room and were sitting side by side on the sofa, waiting for the male guests.
Seeing Jiang Qingzhou trailing behind Liang Tingyun, a flash of amusement crossed Zhong Yu’s face, Du Xinnuo turned her face away awkwardly, and only Chao Shu looked positively glowing.
Jiang Qingzhou didn’t notice any of the female guests’ expressions, and took a seat on the other side of the sofa, following Liang Tingyun.
Once everyone was present, the staff immediately announced the results of the “mutual confession letters.”
Of the six guests, only Pei Songming and Chao Shu had matched successfully, earning the chance to go on a date the next day.
That left Jiang Qingzhou, Liang Tingyun, Zhong Yu, and Du Xinnuo to choose the next morning between completing a task to earn a “date card” or staying at the villa.
Once the production team finished announcing the rules, they sent the guests back to their rooms to rest.
Jiang Qingzhou stuck to Liang Tingyun again like a piece of plaster, though this time he didn’t keep pestering him with pointless small talk.
He could tell Liang Tingyun didn’t want anything to do with him.
Some things really shouldn’t be pushed too far, or they’d backfire.
Once they reached his door, Jiang Qingzhou finally spoke up, calling loudly after Liang Tingyun’s retreating back. “Actor Liang, get a good night’s rest! I’ll work hard to win that ‘date card’ tomorrow.”
Liang Tingyun’s steps faltered for a moment, a flicker of distaste crossing his dark eyes, and he quickened his pace.
Jiang Qingzhou was already used to Liang Tingyun’s aloof coldness.
Humming some nameless tune, he went back to his own room, flopped lazily onto the bed, and pulled out his phone, planning to play a few more rounds before washing up and going to sleep, tomorrow, he’d work hard to complete whatever task the production team set, win that date card, and ask Liang Tingyun out.
Even with a date card, Liang Tingyun probably wouldn’t agree to go out with him.
But that was exactly the kind of male lead he liked, aloof, hard to approach, closed off from romance. From all his years reading novels, he knew that the coldest characters at the start were always the ones who couldn’t live without their partners by the end.
The moment he’d seen Liang Tingyun’s photos, he’d already taken a liking to that face, and now that he’d met the man in person, he could say for sure, this was exactly his type.
After all, who wouldn’t love a man who was both handsome and rich?