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People in the studio were either so melted they stood up and paced around clutching their heads or utterly stunned, covering their faces with their hands if that's what they were doing, as the atmosphere of the romance reality show reached its climax in that moment.
"Alcohol is really something, what am I seeing!!! Scripted or not, although Xu isn't worthy, at least it lets little me see something good."
"I've been unable to stop grinning foolishly all afternoon, my mom wants to send me to the psychiatric hospital. What should I do, I'm waiting online, it's urgent!!"
"I've been rolling in bed like a maggot, heaven knows how stiff my feet were when I saw the two little divas hold hands."
"Help, I'm still at work and I can't help but smile. My boss is coming, fuck!! Fuck!"
"Seeing Bai Jinze suffer made me so fucking happy, motherfucker, teaching someone to be a lickspittle."
Finally, the game ended.
Bai Jinze hurried off, leaving him with only two hours. His head was still a bit foggy from the drunkenness, but he didn't want to spend another moment in that living room.
Xu Qingyan smiled watching his retreating figure and said nothing. He stood up, and together with Shen Jinyue, they took the slightly tipsy Pei Muchan and Lin Wanzhou back to their rooms.
Dinner was probably a no-go, as the guests were all a bit drunk.
In the hallway, only Shen Jinyue and Xu Qingyan were left.
"Don't you want to go back to your room and rest?" He leaned against the wall, glancing at Shen Jinyue from the corner of his eye, "The show's voting will probably start around eight, but it might be delayed."
Shen Jinyue shook his head, silent for a moment.
There were no cameras here and they weren't wearing audio equipment. The lights in the hallway were glaringly bright.
"Okay, then I'll go back first," he said.
"Wait!" Shen Jinyue suddenly dashed up to Xu Qingyan like a mouse, blocking his way, "I have something I want to ask you."
"Ask away, all secretive and mysterious," Xu Qingyan yawned, leaning against the wall.
"Where are you going after tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow?" Xu Qingyan looked puzzled, "Tomorrow morning we reveal our identity cards, right? The love reality show would be over, of course, I'd go home. Where else could I go?"
"Where's your home? Can I come to see you later?" Shen Jinyue lifted his head, full of hope.
"You could, but I might be really busy for a while," Xu Qingyan didn't take his words to heart, the future was the future.
"Busy with what?"
"Working, all sorts of chores," said Xu Qingyan.
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"So when will you be free? I want to hang out with you, and then maybe... Sister Zhou Zhou might not have time, do you think Sister Pei would..."
No one brought up Bai Jinze; he seemed to be still packing his luggage on the second floor, and it was inappropriate to talk about these matters in his presence. Discussing Chen Feiyu was fine; he had left the island in the afternoon when the sea breeze was mild.
Xu Qingyan, leaning on the sofa, didn't see Bai Jinze come down for quite some time. Just as she found it strange, Zhou Mian suddenly sent her a message, saying Bai Jinze was pulled aside for a chat by the director.
She hesitated for a moment and, although she wanted to laugh, she sent back a question mark.
Zhou Mian replied quickly, "Damn that bastard, he almost screwed up our year-end bonus. If it really was that son of a bitch who did that hot search scam, he's toast."
"Such things can't be traced, can they?" Xu Qingyan typed back.
"We don't understand these things, but if the big shots in the capital really take it seriously, nothing is untraceable," Zhou Mian's chat status showed he was continuously typing, "Damn it, I'm so freaking angry!"
"Doing such things, is he out of his mind? He's a lunatic. Our entire year-end bonuses are riding on this variety show, and he just brought the whole house down," he wrote.
"He's really bold. Even small-time celebrities are going nuts, all thanks to their crazy fans' blind support. They really think they can be forgiven for anything, daring to do whatever they want."
Xu Qingyan could tell that Zhou Mian was truly anxious. He was probably hoping to earn enough for a down payment on a house from this show. If the show went under, he could kiss that goodbye.
Blocking someone's source of income is like killing one's parents; if Bai Jinze's actions get confirmed, he's finished.
"What's the situation now?" she asked.
"I don't know, he hasn't come out yet," Zhou Mian replied quickly, "This is most likely related to that asshole. Damn his mother, I really want to kick him."
Xu Qingyan didn't reply anymore, she put away her phone and looked up to find that the topic of conversation in the living room had changed.
She didn't care much about it and was about to lean back and rest when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pei Muchan next to her turning her head to look at her, seemingly wanting to say something.
"What's up?"
"Aren't you going to respond to that hot search?" she asked, holding up her phone to show him.
On the screen, Jiang Yunyao had posted a Weibo and tagged him. This message, riding on the fame of the previous hot search, was quickly reposted and trended separately.
The content of the Weibo was brief, "The moon doesn't belong to me, but at that moment, the moonlight truly shone upon me. @XuChunqiu"
Xu Qingyan glanced at it, his scalp tingling instantly.
He wrote some artsy-fartsy literary tweets to make money, and you take it for real?
"Hey hey, no need to reply, it'll blow over in a while," Xu Qingyan pushed Pei Muchan's phone away, "Jiang Yunyao is a good person."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Atok once said, 'If my goddess loves me, then she is not my goddess.' Xu Qingyan couldn't be direct, so he said, "Have you read 'The Narrow Door'?"
At the mention of "The Narrow Door," Lin Wanzhou sitting on the other side of the sofa immediately turned her head.
"Oh," Pei Muchan nodded, not asking any further.
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