Chapter 109: 0109

Chapter 109

In a secret underground location on the small island, Jiang Juyou was with the staff controlling the scene, constantly monitoring the progress of the five participants to prevent any deviation from the plan.

As behind-the-scenes footage, Jiang Juyou and her team were separately edited into a special feature, which would be released online the day after each episode aired. Usually, few people would bother to watch such extras, but because of Jiang Juyou's presence, many were willing to pay for VIP access to view it, even though it required a subscription.

To prevent plot leaks, the NPCs appearing in the show were pixelated in the behind-the-scenes footage, appearing as uniform black silhouettes with their voices muted, only subtitles visible.

Jiang Juyou had given some instructions earlier. She sat in a camping chair, holding a walkie-talkie, "Don't break character. Let me see how well you've applied your acting lessons."

While observing the action on the ground, a staff member approached Jiang Juyou to share some hot gossip, "X just told me that they accidentally leaked the script to the five of them earlier."

Hearing this, Jiang Juyou was startled and turned to look. The staff member continued, "But they thought it was too long and didn't read it."

"Hahaha, who? Who could do such a thing?"

"My guess is either Pei Luming or Chi Qiao. They're the only ones smart enough to pull that off."

"Hahaha, the show almost ended before it even started."

At this moment, the monitoring screen showed them inside the convenience store. After seeing the doorknob to the storage room move a few times, the five scattered around the store like ants caught in the rain, eventually squeezing behind the shelves with only their ears sticking out.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Juyou lowered her head and covered her face, her sigh loud enough to be picked up by the camera.

The viewers in the comments laughed once during the main show and again during this behind-the-scenes footage, dubbing it the most legendary scene of the first episode.

This video clip was uploaded to Douyin, and marketing accounts made several videos from it, each garnering hundreds of thousands of likes.

The entire internet now knew that this group was both cowardly and dim-witted.

In the plot, there were only seven living people on the entire island, and the task was very simple: explore various locations, find clues, and deduce who the culprit was.

Among the seven, only two were original island inhabitants, so it was either one or the other. In the eyes of the five participants, it seemed like a very straightforward matter.

However—

Since they arrived on the small island at night and had been traveling all afternoon, all they could think about was resting first. So on the first night, apart from rummaging around the convenience store for a while, they spent the rest of the time sleeping at Sang Mo's house.

But when they woke up, the world had changed.

"..."

Pei Luming, the first to wake up, stared blankly at the room with his crooked rabbit headgear, trying to force his brain to boot up, but it wasn't cooperating.

Sunlight from outside crept into the room. Three people were sleeping on the large 1.8-meter bed, with two others on the floor. Sang Mo, who was supposed to be in the bedroom with them, had disappeared, along with the mattress and blanket he had been using the night before.

Not only that, but the room itself looked different from what they had seen before going to sleep.

"Holy crap?"

"?"

"Did Random Entertainment cast a spell on them now?"

"Not acting anymore, huh? You guys are actually magicians, right?"

The viewers in the comments were so shocked because during the few hours they were sleeping, the camera didn't cut away. It just played at several times the normal speed, meaning they had witnessed everything.

Even though the people on the bed hadn't woken up or moved locations, when they did wake up, the room had changed. It wasn't just that the furniture had been rearranged; the entire layout was different.

Pei Luming on the bed shook Ye Xing next to him vigorously, "... Bro, wake up quick."

Hearing this, Ye Xing struggled to open his eyes, and then sat up with his messy rabbit headgear, only to be shocked by what he saw.

"... Where is this?" Ye Xing glanced at Pei Luming, making sure the rabbit headgear on his head was still there before feeling relieved.

"I don't know. It was like this when I woke up. I originally wanted to go to the bathroom, but when I followed the wall, I found that the bathroom had disappeared!" Pei Luming was clearly frightened; goosebumps appeared as he spoke.

Their conversation also alarmed the others. Gao Xiayu got up and also took a moment to react, "Where is this?"

"I don't know!" Pei Luming's voice grew louder.

This wasn't Sang Mo's large open-plan room, but rather a room similar to a business hotel. Both the decor and layout were completely different from Sang Mo's room.

Yao Shuo, who was the first to get out of bed, went to the window and pulled back the curtains to take a look. After one glance, a chill ran down his spine. He turned towards the others with a shaky heart and said, "... The outside looks different too."

Hearing this, they all rushed to the window to see. Indeed, the outside was different. They had carefully observed their surroundings when they arrived the night before. The road then was like a straight, wide avenue with shops and residences on both sides. Now, there were many small paths below, and the most striking difference was that there were many people around, completely inconsistent with the information they had received about the island being uninhabited.

The most frustrating part was that they had no one to ask. They didn't know if this was arranged by the show or if the five of them had eaten something wrong the night before and were hallucinating.

The first episode ended abruptly here, leaving a huge mystery that left the audience craving for more.

When they went to school on Monday, the five of them were constantly interrogated by their classmates who wanted to know the inside story, but none of them would say anything, maintaining strict secrecy.

This variety show brought the biggest buzz. In the week following the premiere of the first episode, the previously declining download numbers for Random iWatch not only rebounded but showed a sharp upward trend.

Nowadays, with shows trying to outdo each other, audiences have become accustomed to novel set designs. However, this was the first time they had seen such impressive set-building capabilities as those demonstrated by Random Entertainment.

Especially since the first episode ended right at the climax, just as everyone was getting deeply engrossed, it suddenly cut off, leaving a pile of question marks for them to unravel.

The feeling — it was enough to raise one's blood pressure.

-

"Group name: Jiang's Rabbits Waiting for Slaughter"

"Pei Luming: My classmates keep pressuring me to spoil the show..."

"Pei Luming: [Heartbroken] If I had performed well, I wouldn't need them to pressure me. I'd go straight to the podium and spoil everything!"

"Pei Luming: I feel like after it's all aired, my image of being handsome and mighty will be gone."

"Chi Qiao: At least you were brave once."

"Yao Shuo: Do you need to wait until it's all aired? You didn't have that thing even before broadcasting."

"Pei Luming: ..."

"Gao Xiayu: Look on the bright side, the show's effect is maximized, the audience should be very entertained."

"Pei Luming: Hmm... my future image will be that of a 1.8-meter tall idiot."

"Ye Xing: You're 1.8 meters tall?"

"Pei Luming: What do you mean? Don't believe me? Let's go measure!"

"Pei Luming: Come out! I've brought a measuring tape!"

The second episode went live, and the number of simultaneous online viewers broke Random iWatch's record, even higher than during the platform's first few days after launch.

The beginning of this episode was easy to understand. It was about figuring out how this day-and-night difference came about. But no matter who they asked, everyone acted as if they didn't know anything, even asking if they were filming a show. Anyone could see that these were just clueless passersby.

So the only remaining method of verification was to wait until nightfall. They planned to stay up all night to see what this change was all about.

The viewers in the comments also stayed up with them. From 9 PM to midnight, the group's spirits were still high, but after crossing the 2 AM threshold, some started to struggle to stay awake.

Chi Qiao was the first to fall asleep leaning against the headboard, followed by Pei Luming. Gao Xiayu held out until 3 AM but eventually couldn't resist. This was because during the day, they had walked all over the neighborhood looking for clues, probably exceeding 30,000 steps.

The consequence of falling asleep was that the room changed again without them noticing.

"Click..."

In his sleep, Gao Xiayu heard the sound of a door closing. His brain struggled to process it for a moment, then he felt someone lie down next to him. The soft rustling sounds suddenly jolted Gao Xiayu awake.

"Ahhhhhhh!" He screamed when he saw Sang Mo appear before him, startling the others out of their sleep.

Sang Mo also started yelling, "Ahhh what's wrong, what's wrong?"

He reached to turn on the light.

Click—

As soon as the light came on, the eerie, horrifying atmosphere dissipated significantly.

The five of them had all been badly frightened, clutching their chests with pained expressions.

Sang Mo stood by the bed in his pajamas. "What's going on? Why the sudden screaming?"

Yao Shuo was the first to react. He asked, "What time is it?"

Sang Mo glanced at the digital clock by the bed. "1:47 AM."

"Impossible!" Pei Luming crawled over to look. "I was still awake at 2 AM, how could it only be 1:47?"

As soon as he said that, the others checked the time on their watches. It was indeed 1:47, but they had all checked the time after 2 AM earlier, and now not only had the time changed, but they were back in Sang Mo's house, and Sang Mo himself had returned.

"..."

Things were truly taking a horror movie turn now.

The comments section also grew serious, with all sorts of theories and analyses flying around. Viewers couldn't wait for the next day to see what behind-the-scenes footage there would be from Jiang Juyou and the others.

Meanwhile, Jiang Juyou was being interrogated by her sister.

"Just tell me, how did you film this part? I know you must have used Sang Mo as a medium to trick them, but how did you switch the rooms? I saw the scene didn't move at all just now," Jiang Tang shook Jiang Juyou frantically, dying of curiosity.

Jiang Juyou: "..." She refused to say.

Though panicked, the group managed to get back on track with the plot thanks to Gao Xiayu and Yao Shuo's calm analysis.

Although they had gone out sightseeing during the day, the nighttime timeline hadn't really progressed. It was still stuck at the point when they fell asleep. On the first night, they had fallen asleep around 2 AM, and now they were waking up close to 2 AM again. So they deduced—

"We'll keep looping through this night until the case is solved... No, that's not quite right. If we don't catch the culprit at night, we'll keep coming back here. So—" Gao Xiayu looked at the others, "Let's get up and go find clues!"

"So Sang Mo is really just an NPC then?"

"Great, now Pei Luming is the only fool in the whole world."

"Hahaha, poor thing, he's about to cry! But I'm so happy watching this."

Everyone was probably quite happy tonight, except for Pei Luming.

He was watching the second episode of the variety show in the dormitory. Initially, he was grinning and happily reading the comments, but after the twist, he couldn't smile anymore.

"Pei Zhiping Big Idiot: Hahahahahahaha!"

"Pei Zhiping Big Idiot: I'm dying of laughter!"

"Pei Zhiping Big Idiot: Thank you, finally something good happened today!"

"Pei Zhiping Big Idiot: Hahaha how can someone be so stupid!"

Pei Luming blocked Pei Zhiping, then scrolled through his photo album, found a meme of a kitten sitting on a bed crying while looking at a computer, and posted it on Weibo.

"@Timetrain: #PeiLuming# [image]"

Fearing his fans might over-interpret, he also replied in the comments with another meme [I cried, but I was faking it].

Outside the door, several people were standing with a cake, ears pressed against the door listening for any sound from inside. They had heard some laughter earlier, but now it was completely silent, so they knew Pei Luming must have reached that part.

Gao Xiayu knocked on the door. Ye Xing stood behind him holding the cake, waiting for Pei Luming to come out. Their manager stood to the side with a phone, ready to record.

Inside, Pei Luming dawdled for a while before opening the door. When he did, his lips were pursed and his eyes were red.

"Bang—"

The party poppers went off, and they all shouted, "Happy Birthday!"

After shouting, they noticed his red eyes and tear-stained face.

Chi Qiao's heart sank, and he quickly hugged the little puppy, "Oh no, don't cry. We're sorry, we're so sorry. If you're angry, we'll curse at Producer Jiang with you."

This made Pei Luming even more emotional. His eyes welled up again, and he raised his hand to wipe away a tear.

The older members hurriedly apologized.

Having heard enough apologies, Pei Luming wiped his eyes and finally smiled, "Ha! Fooled you! That's what you get for all ganging up to trick me! Tonight before bed, I'm going to curse you all to wet your beds!"

"Alright, alright, we'll all sleep in Pei Luming's room tonight!" Yao Shuo immediately said.

Pei Luming shot him a death glare, and Chi Qiao quickly hugged the little puppy, saying, "Let's sleep in Yao Shuo's room! We'll all squeeze onto his bed! Drive this clean freak crazy!"

This video was also posted on Weibo. Group fans were moved to tears by the beautiful team spirit and friendship, while CP fans looked for sweet moments in the video. Only solo fans were secretly competing, especially Pei Luming's fans, whose faces were darker than ever, clearly dissatisfied with the company's hidden camera prank.

Casual viewers, on the other hand, enjoyed it immensely. After watching the variety show, they came to Weibo and found this follow-up. An entertainment blogger reposted the video, touched by Pei Luming's cuteness. This repost successfully broke into the hot topics, breaking the monopoly of solo fans on hot reposts, indicating how large the casual viewer base for this Weibo post was.

Jiang Liuxing, who had also finished watching the show, came to Weibo. After seeing this series of operations, she wanted to applaud her sister and cheer loudly.

She got out of bed, opened the door to the living room, startling her two sisters sitting on the carpet. Jiang Liuxing suddenly had a fit, punching and kicking the air, then gave Jiang Juyou a thumbs up, "Sis, you're really amazing!"

Jiang Juyou turned to look at Jiang Tang, "She's at home..."

"I don't know, I thought she went out," Jiang Tang shrugged.

Ignoring what her two sisters were saying, the independent Jiang Liuxing returned to her bedroom, opened her computer, and noted down her sister's operational strategy.

"Utilize the popular member with a standout personality as the team's main promotion, targeting the market outside the circle. Use the popular member to attract fans for the group, converting casual viewers into group fans."

After writing this down, she replayed it in her mind, marveling more and more, "...How is she so good at grasping the market?"

This program's birthday celebration for Pei Luming is just a facade; the real aim is to create public interest in him. Both his personality and appearance are very likable, so using Pei Luming as a stepping stone to open the door to public recognition is a brilliant move.

Just look at the trending topics now and today's popular videos on Douyin - they're all about Pei Luming. In the group's Weibo posts, even casual viewers of the variety show are pushing into the top comments. One can imagine how many fans today's episode has brought him.

If it were Ye Xing, the effect might not have been as significant.

From this, Jiang Liuxing concludes, "My sister is a genius... hmm!"

-

Since Timetrain's group variety show went online, Random iWatch's download numbers have been increasing day by day, even doubling. They thought the first episode would be the peak, but after the second episode came out, it once again broke Random iWatch's download records.

When Jiang Juyou went to the company on Monday, she heard this news at the big meeting.

Not only did Random iWatch's downloads increase, but even the pilot drama saw a significant rise in subscription rates. A large number of viewers began to accept this rule and chose to pay for good works.

After the meeting, Jiang Juyou went upstairs with her assistant. In the elevator, she asked, "What's the current rating?"

"The forum hasn't opened for scoring yet, but the in-app rating is 8.9, and it's still trending upward," the assistant replied, having prepared this information in advance, guessing she would ask.

Jiang Juyou confirmed, "Is this from paying subscribers?"

"Yes, currently only subscribed viewers can rate."

"Good," Jiang Juyou's expression improved even more.

After exiting the elevator, the assistant continued to report her upcoming schedule, "Next week, there's the first evaluation performance for the female trainees. PD Yang is asking if you have time..."

"Next week, right? That's fine, arrange the time as you see fit."

"Alright."

With that, Jiang Juyou walked into her office with her bag. Today, her mood was noticeably better, so much so that even Cong Lixia couldn't help but ask her about it.

"Are you very happy?" he asked, his tone rising along with hers, as if infected by Jiang Juyou's good mood.

Jiang Juyou tossed her bag onto the low sofa, then removed her hair tie to fix her hair. As she tidied her hair, she walked towards the floor-to-ceiling window.

Gazing at the bustling streets below, she smiled again and asked Cong Lixia, "Didn't you not understand before?"

"Why, even though I'm the chairman of Random Entertainment, those people still don't include me or respect me much." She folded her arms, recalling those frustrating experiences at previous dinners.

Jiang Juyou looked into the distance and gave the answer Cong Lixia had been curious about for so long, "...Because they don't believe."

"They don't believe these things belong to me. They don't believe that a woman from a second-tier university background can achieve this level. They don't believe that a mere woman can shake their interests."

"They think there's a man behind me, and I'm just a puppet."

"They want to talk to the person behind me, not to me, a woman."

Cong Lixia fell silent.

Jiang Juyou relaxed her arms and untied the scarf that was constraining her. "They're not wrong, there is someone behind me... isn't there you?" She smiled as she said this, hanging the untied scarf on the coat rack. She turned to sit at her desk, "But whether I'm a puppet or not, you know better than I do."

"You're not," Cong Lixia replied immediately after she finished speaking.

In a good mood today, Jiang Juyou smiled and poked Cong Lixia's dialogue box, "Of course I'm not!"

Cong Lixia laughed out loud too, his dialogue box even shaking a bit.

It was the first time Jiang Juyou had heard Cong Lixia laugh out loud. Somewhat surprised, she raised an eyebrow and complimented him, "Your laugh sounds nice."

Then Jiang Juyou saw the control panel in front of her slowly change from light blue to pink.

"You can even blush!"

"..."

-

In the afternoon after school, the practice room downstairs became lively, with staff and trainees coming and going. Seeing Pei Luming standing there, they couldn't help but glance at him secretly.

The female staff members would ask Pei Luming what he was waiting for every time they passed by.

"I'm waiting for Pei Zhiping... my sister! Just bringing her something." He held up the paper bag in his hand, showing it off each time he explained.

After quite a while, Pei Zhiping finally came out, sweaty from dance practice.

Pei Luming looked at her exasperatedly, "Can't you wipe off your sweat? What if you catch a cold? Mom will scold me again."

"Why would she scold you? We're not training together," Pei Zhiping cut to the chase, directly taking the paper bag from his hand. "What is it?"

He looked down, "Shoes Dad brought back for you, a birthday gift."

Pei Zhiping naturally looked up and asked, "What about yours?"

"Oh, Dad got me shoes too."

"No, I mean your birthday gift for me."

"Pei Zhiping, one shouldn't be shameless."

Aliali: 67358284d72ede93494505f5"You've earned millions and you can't even buy me a birthday gift?"

"What millions! Stop spreading rumors!"

The two had barely exchanged a few calm words before they started bickering. Pei Luming, usually pampered by his brothers, hadn't felt his blood pressure rise like this in a long time. He covered the back of his head and waved at Pei Zhiping, "You can go back now, talking to you gives me a headache."

"Oh..." Pei Zhiping was about to leave when Pei Luming called her back, "Wait, what did you mean yesterday when you said there was nothing good? What happened?"

Pei Zhiping fell silent, just quietly looking at her brother who suddenly cared about her. The words circled in her mouth before she swallowed them back.

"...There is something good. You making a fool of yourself in front of the whole country is a good thing for me. I haven't laughed so happily in a long time." Pei Zhiping smiled, not caring about Pei Luming's reaction after she finished speaking, and turned to leave.

Pei Luming: "..."

They say Pei Zhiping is a big idiot!

Having lost the argument, Pei Luming angrily threw a set of military boxing moves at the corner.

Pei Luming: Ahhhhhhhh, I'm so angry!