Chapter 2

He wasn't actually the last one to arrive.

The characters from the novel had suddenly become real, and Zhai Xingchen didn't know which one to look at first.

"Hey there."

A boy waved at him with a bright smile.

White tee, jeans — one look at the outfit and you knew he was Red Team's fourth guy.

This season of The Red and Blue Signal was going for a rich-kids-of-the-era vibe. Probably worried it'd come off too materialistic and get flagged by the censors, so they threw in two actual civilians. One was him, the other was Red Team's fourth. He was the pure, broke college student type; the other was a sweet little hottie who'd dropped out early to make pastries, family just a notch above his.

The other guy smiled shyly: "I'm Wen Nu."

Wen Nu lived up to his name — warm and easily flustered. Zhai Xingchen had high hopes for him.

Because he was the soft, sweet, innocent type.

The sweet type is really a Love Variety Show killer — nine out of ten shows, the most popular contestant is the sweet type. Whether it's BL or BG, sweet always ranks first; the guests' tastes have always been pretty consistent.

He looked next at the tall, mature guy beside Wen Nu.

"Hey there, Duan Yihua." The man politely extended a hand.

Duan Yihua — eldest son of some famous beverage brand family. The classic proper-and-generous archetype you see on every love show.

Good-looking, sure, but not quite top-tier handsome.

Look at love shows across China, Japan, Korea — these guys are always the ones the audience feels most sorry for. Capable, independent, strong, but missing that little pink romantic spark.

He shook Duan Yihua's hand, then said hi to Red Team's second guest Hu Ying and third guest Lin Qingning.

Lin Qingning — family runs a hotel chain. The refined type.

Quiet personality, head-to-toe luxury menswear, black-framed glasses, thin and pale — textbook intellectual elite.

Hu Ying — real estate tycoon's heir, shoulder-length hair, blindingly gorgeous, ambiguously gendered.

She was a rich-kid internet-famous socialite, ran her own streetwear brand. Even in a pile of handsome guys, her beauty hit you at first glance and stole your soul.

The one who got censored with mosaics the most, and the one who got muted the most — both were her.

Strong suspicion she's a flower-type bottom.

Of course nobody in the novel was ugly — every single person on this show was a total hottie. But he hadn't expected the text to be made flesh quite like this.

Each one more radiant than a male celebrity.

A feast of male beauty!

Wen Nu said, "You can just leave your suitcase here — we all did."

Zhai Xingchen set his suitcase down and smiled at them.

Wen Nu covered his mouth and giggled: "So handsome."

"You're Blue Team?" Hu Ying glanced at the blue bracelet on his wrist, sounding skeptical.

"Yep." Zhai Xingchen said.

Barrage:

[What's with Hu Ying's face? A baby 1 is still a 1, you know.]

[Sister Hu's never seen one before — a weak 1 is still a 1.]

[It's not that Sister Hu's never seen one — she just doesn't like this kind of 1. Go check out her social media and you'll see her type.]

Zhai Xingchen glanced at the four guys across from him — all red bracelets.

But he wasn't the only Blue Team Member here. He glanced at the cameras in the living room and spotted another person sitting on the sofa.

He was lounging lazily on the sofa, dress pants hugging two long straight legs, black shirt making him look even paler and sharper, brows dark and fierce, radiating a stay-away vibe.

"Hey." Zhai Xingchen made the first move.

The other barely lifted his eyelids, gave a lazy little nod — polite but distant: "Hey."

Then went back to looking at his tablet.

Cold bass voice, tall and gorgeous, lean and pale, big nose, big Adam's apple, big knuckles, pretty veins on the back of his hand.

Ah — heard guys like this aren't simple.

Worthy of a Jinjiang male lead!

Pei Xu himself wasn't in the entertainment industry, but his mother was the legendary superstar Pei Huahong, which added a layer of stardust to the family. Among rich-kid second gens, he was the one who showed up in entertainment news the most.

Pei Xu had the kind of family background people envied, looks that stood out, and a brilliant mind. In the original text's words: "He doesn't have to do anything — just standing there is enough to make a pile of people fall for him."

Except the original text had a second half: "Probably the Creator thought that was too unfair, so He gave him a soul this terrible and boring. Unless you're a masochist, nobody's love for him lasts a month."

A parade of people fell for him one after another, then left because they couldn't take it.

Pei Xu was a finance prodigy — he'd won the national math olympiad in middle school. As a science idiot, Zhai Xingchen deeply admired that kind of brain. Pei Xu was the type who loved neither men nor women, had no friends, and had nothing in his heart but numbers.

After graduating from Columbia, he didn't join his stepfather Zhou Family's business — instead he founded a fund company called Huaxu Fund Company. These past two years, Pei Xu had blown up with crazy-high Sharpe ratios and crazy-low drawdowns, offense and defense both maxed out, basically cheating. His fund now managed close to a hundred billion, and the investor masses lovingly called him Master Pei.

On top of that, Pei Xu had the most cliché, melodramatic backstory — a superstar mom bringing a kid with a different surname into a top-tier wealthy family. You can imagine how dramatic that is. The Zhou Family was a century-old dynasty with tons of heirs and branches, and the infighting between the houses was constantly trending — as complicated as any harem drama novel. Nobody knew how rough the survival environment was for an outsider-surname kid like Pei Xu in there. Bottom line: he was psychologically dark, bad at getting along with people, just waiting for his fated person to save him, warm him, become his one and only light.

The classic gentle-redemption trope from Jinjiang novels — am I right?

With that thought, Zhai Xingchen used his peripheral vision to check out the other four guests.

Mm, as expected — everyone wanted to redeem him.

The viewers watching the Live Streaming noticed it too.

[As expected, weak 1s have no appeal.]

[Baby 1s can't compete with grumpy-face 1s.]

[We already said Zhai Xingchen should just play a pretty background prop — there's no role for him in a rich-kid romance drama anyway.]

First meeting, so everyone was a bit awkward and stiff;

Duan Yihua and Lin Qingning sipped their coffee while sneaking glances at everyone through their peripheral vision.

Hu Ying lay on the sofa, running her fingers through her long hair.

Wen Nu was even shyer — hugging a cushion, absently twirling a little tassel on it with his finger, his eyes drifting between Pei Xu and him, occasionally pressing his lips together in a mysterious little smile, looking shy and innocent.

Classic sweet-type moment — smiling at the drop of a hat. If you didn't know the plot, you'd think he was into both of them. Actually, Wen Nu just couldn't contain his beauty-appreciation frenzy.

Wen Nu loved shipping CPs — male-female, male-male, female-female, anything. His interests were wide-ranging.

But his smile was so sweet, so pure.

Duan Yihua beside him laughed and asked, "What are you always smiling about?"

"Nothing, I just feel so awkward, nobody's talking." Wen Nu said, blushing.

"First day's always like this, once you get to know each other it'll be fine." Zhai Xingchen comforted him.

"Have you two even introduced yourselves to each other yet?" Duan Yihua suddenly pointed at him and Pei Xu. "Did you exchange names just now?"

Zhai Xingchen was about to say he already knew Pei Xu when Pei Xu said without looking up: "Pei Xu."

Cold as he was, his voice was genuinely beautiful — deep, mellow, devastating. The moment he spoke, everyone stole a shy little glance at him.

So this is the novel's 'makes-you-pregnant' bass voice, huh.

Green Jinjiang really does produce a lot of devastating semes.

Zhai Xingchen quickly said, "I'm Zhai Xingchen."

With names out of the way, the few of them started chatting.

Just like in the original novel — every now and then someone would sneak a look at Pei Xu, those little admiring glances impossible to hide.

But Pei Xu never joined their chat, didn't even give them a glance.

They'd barely chatted for two sentences when they heard someone push the door open outside.

"Looks like someone else is here." Wen Nu stood up and said.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a tall, solidly-built buzz-cut guy walked in carrying a suitcase.

At the sight of him, Zhai Xingchen's eyes lit up.

Hetero novel male lead Huo Cheng — northern-type handsome, sculpted features, sharp contours, masculine wheat-toned skin, a slightly rugged vibe, an extremely masculine look.

Unlike Pei Xu, who was born with a silver spoon, Huo Cheng came from a small County Town up north. Studied his way through hardship into a top-tier domestic university, legit self-made. Started his business before even graduating, did everything under the sun, and finally established himself these past two years. Not even thirty yet, already owns four units at Tomson Riviera, a pile of luxury cars, and can fly a plane! Good-looking, fit, loves sports, been on god knows how many magazine covers.

Give it two more years and China won't be able to contain him — his company's short-video app was about to take off globally and become a real internet giant.

"Hey." Huo Cheng set his luggage down.

"Hey."

Huo Cheng gave them all an undisguised once-over, then his gaze landed on Zhai Xingchen — and he noticed the blue bracelet on his wrist.

The Red and Blue Signal might brand itself as a show about male emotions, claiming there's love and friendship both, which adds a bit of ambiguity and bumps up the watchability. But the Production Team knows what their real selling point is, so when picking guests they confirmed most people's romantic orientation — which mainly shows up in the Red and Blue team split.

Take Hu Ying's group — they read softer, so the Production Team put them on Red Team.

Anyone not interested in dating, or straight guys, naturally ended up on Blue Team.

And someone like Zhai Xingchen, a soft top, was naturally Blue Team too.

A soft top is still a top, after all.

Red and Blue make CP, top and bottom clearly defined — makes it easy for viewers to pick a side.

In theory there could be some Red-Red or Blue-Blue pairings, but in reality The Red and Blue Signal has run three seasons and every single one has been Red-Blue pairings.

They say gay people don't care about top and bottom — clearly a lie.

And this is a danmei novel anyway, so Red-Blue pairings are inevitable!

They exchanged greetings. Huo Cheng's gaze finally locked onto his number one rival, Pei Xu. He went over to say hi. Pei Xu was still his usual dead-faced self, but this time he stood up and shook Huo Cheng's hand.

"You two know each other?" Duan Yihua asked.

"Met at a youth commendation conference before," Huo Cheng said.

"We just got word that Male Guest Number Three had something come up and can't make it — he'll arrive later," someone from the Production Team suddenly said.

"So we don't have to wait for him?" Duan Yihua asked.

Production Team: "Right."

Everyone stood up. Huo Cheng asked, "Have you all seen the house? Let's check out the rooms and figure out sleeping arrangements."

It was a two-story villa. Considering the living habits of a bunch of rich, hot guys, the Production Team gave each of them their own bedroom this season — but every two bedrooms formed a suite, so it still counted as two people sharing.

Everyone was happy with the rooms, but what really left an impression was the cameras — they were everywhere in the Red and Blue house. Zhai Xingchen counted: thirty manned camera positions upstairs and downstairs, three unmanned wide shots, forty-two surveillance cameras, plus a roughly fifty-meter flycat rig outside the house for exteriors and shots of guests coming and going.

At the top of the stairs on the second floor there was a sign with house rules — basically the same as the handbook they'd received before, just more concise. Wen Nu, probably on the Production Team's instructions, read the whole thing out loud.

No privately exchanging contact info, no private confessions before the show ends, mind your public manners, and so on: "We hope that in the coming month, you'll find your own love and friendship in this little house of love, regardless of age, profession, background..."

Wen Nu finished his diligent reading. Hu Ying's group had already bolted up to the second floor.

The second floor was nicer — better environment, wider view. Outside the small living room was the ocean, ferries, white birds, green mountains floating in thin mist. Beautiful.

The Red Team Guests chose to stay upstairs.

The two suites downstairs naturally became the Blue Team Members' rooms.

"Xingchen, which one do you want?" Huo Cheng asked him directly.

"This one." Zhai Xingchen pointed at the one on the edge.

That room was right next to the back yard, facing north, the most out-of-the-way room — perfect for a melon-eating bystander like him.

"Let's share a room, you and me."

Both Huo Cheng and Zhai Xingchen turned around to look — and saw Pei Xu walk in with his suitcase.

Zhai Xingchen looked at Huo Cheng. Huo Cheng smiled good-naturedly: "Then I'll take the one next door."

Zhai Xingchen carried his luggage in.

Exactly like the original novel. He'd been worried there might be differences.

Pei Xu's reason for choosing to room with him was simple.

"He seemed pretty quiet."

Quiet, low-maintenance, no threat.

In reality, all three Blue Team Members got along well with him and were pretty considerate.

After all, he was the least threatening — bros with everyone, besties with the girls.

Zhai Xingchen tidied up his room, then tidied up the living room too.

Most work, least screen time — that was his character setting.

It was hot. After cleaning he was drenched in sweat, so he went to shower. Since he was sharing the bathroom with Pei Xu, and Pei Xu had a temper, after his shower he crouched down and very carefully cleaned the whole bathroom — not a single hair left. When he came out and reached for his clothes on the rack to put them on, the bathroom door suddenly swung open. He whipped his head around — it was Pei Xu.

Pei Xu froze when he saw him too. "Didn't hear the water. Thought no one was in there."

Zhai Xingchen turned slightly, giving Pei Xu his back and rear. "Just finished. I'm getting dressed."

He'd just showered — hair still damp. Six-one, slim waist, long legs, crazy head-to-body ratio, light muscle, those smooth youthful lines.

He toweled his hair again, then looked back at Pei Xu — cheeks flushed pink from the hot water.

Pei Xu stepped back and closed the door.

"I'll be done in a sec," Zhai Xingchen said.

Then he heard Pei Xu grunt "Mm" from outside the door.

Pei Xu went to the dining area, grabbed a sponsor-provided mineral water, twisted off the cap and took several big gulps. His prominent Adam's apple bobbed up and down. Heavy-lidded, he watched a staff member approach.

"Pei Xu, you haven't done your solo interview today, right?" the staff member asked.

Pei Xu grunted "Mm," pressed his thin lips together, and asked: "Now?"

The staff member went to his room and did the solo interview.

"Why did you come on this show?"

"Didn't you ask that already?" Pei Xu glanced past the camera at his aunt — the show's producer, Zhou Lan — and answered, clearly reluctant: "Doing a favor."

"So you came on The Red and Blue Signal not to date?"

Pei Xu countered: "Do I look like someone who'd date on a variety show... You sure you want to ask these questions? I'm not one for polite talk."

The producer laughed coldly from behind: "Who knows how it'll turn out. Maybe all this pre-interview stuff will become face-slapping, 'turns out great' footage later."

Pei Xu heard that and tugged at the corner of his mouth, unimpressed.

But that fleeting smile stunned every staff member there — like ice just beginning to melt, so beautiful it made hearts skip.

Just for that instant, though. Pei Xu was back to his cold self, brows slightly furrowed, those black-and-white eyes fixed on the camera.

"First day. How's it feel?"

"It's whatever."

Zhou Lan raised her voice from behind: "Pei Xu."

Pei Xu's expression got a little more serious: "It's whatever. Pretty much what I expected."

"All four Red Team Guests are here today. Anyone left an impression on you?"

Pei Xu shook his head, then asked: "Does it have to be Red Team?"

"Other male guests are fine too."

"Zhai Xingchen," Pei Xu said.

The staff seemed surprised — one girl even stifled a laugh: "Why?"

"Because I accidentally saw him naked just now. Most memorable."

Production Team: "..."

Zhou Lan stared at him, glanced at the monitor. Pei Xu's personality was terrible, but that face was just too good-looking — on camera he was absolutely stunning, sharp and striking.

Pei Xu looked at the stunned faces across from him, pressed his thin lips together, and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Zhou Lan couldn't help asking: "Do you like him?"

Pei Xu: "If you mean that kind of like — let me put it this way. I've never liked anyone in my whole life."

At the end, Pei Xu added: "If you're recording this hoping to catch me eating my words later — let me tell you, that's not gonna happen to me."

The barrage exploded.

[Holy shit, the most arrogant male guest in history.]

[He's so cocky! Someone come tame him already! I want to see him eat his words, get his face smashed in!]

[You better stick to it. Don't end up crying later!]