Chapter 4

"We probably don't have to guess professions tonight, right?" Huo Cheng said. "Every other Love Variety Show makes them guess professions on the first night."

"Probably not," Zhai Xingchen said.

These rich second-gens' info was all over the internet. Half of them even knew each other already.

"Which university are you at? What do you study?" Huo Cheng asked.

"Dance Academy," Zhai Xingchen said.

"A student?" Pei Xu turned to look at him.

Zhai Xingchen gave a small nod.

"He looks like a student," Huo Cheng said. "The dating market these days is brutal — you post-00s college kids are coming to compete with us now?"

Zhai Xingchen hurried to say, "I'm just here to fill a spot. This is still the older brothers' home turf."

Huo Cheng looked at him. "Good that you know to step aside for your older brothers."

Then Huo Cheng suddenly added, "A dancer. No wonder he looks different..."

Pei Xu glanced at Huo Cheng through the rearview mirror. Huo Cheng's expression was strange — once that smile faded from his lips, the way he was sizing up Zhai Xingchen went bare and direct. Probably because he figured nobody in the back seat could see.

But the livestream viewers saw the whole thing.

[That look...]

[I knew it the second I saw him — this Huo Cheng guy is thirsty.]

[He won't even spare his own kind... is this season going full blue-on-blue?]

[When two tops meet, one of them's gotta bottom.]

[Now I get why people said three 1s can still do plenty.]

[Huo Cheng looks like he'd be intense, and Zhai Xingchen's a dancer — he can take it.]

[My face is turning yellow. They always said BL variety show bullet comments are wild, but you guys are going nuclear in the opening episode?]

[Car door locked shut. I already came up with their CP name — Mars CP!]

The big supermarket was close to where they were staying — five or six minutes by car — but finding a parking spot took longer than the drive itself.

This stretch was South City Old Town, a row of old mansions with no skyscrapers anywhere nearby. The roads twisted every which way, and Zhai Xingchen made a point of studying the layout.

All three of them were total heartthrobs, and with a whole crew of cameramen trailing them, they drew every eye in the supermarket the moment they walked in.

Pei Xu glanced at the directory by the entrance. "I'm going up to the second floor."

"What are you buying?" Huo Cheng asked.

"Slippers."

"Your room didn't come with slippers?" Huo Cheng asked.

The Production Team had stocked them with tons of slippers — ten pairs each, more than they could ever wear.

"Don't like the color," Pei Xu said.

Huo Cheng watched Pei Xu step onto the escalator, then headed toward the fresh produce section with Zhai Xingchen.

Zhai Xingchen explained, "He only likes black and white."

"Yeah?" Huo Cheng said, smiling.

Zhai Xingchen nodded.

Pei Xu's clothes, shoes, even his bedding — all black and white. Not even gray.

Just as monochrome as the man himself.

Huo Cheng had been so slammed these past few years that even grocery shopping felt novel. He read off the list while Zhai Xingchen grabbed the items — the two of them fell into an easy rhythm.

With the cameraman trailing them the whole time, plenty of people in the supermarket kept glancing their way, and even the staff were unusually attentive and warm. Huo Cheng came across as the picture of a gentleman. Wen Nu's snacks were on his side of the cart, and when Zhai Xingchen reached across to grab them, Huo Cheng pressed a hand to his shoulder and reached over to pull down the bag of shrimp chips himself. "I thought you had your ears pierced."

Zhai Xingchen turned. "Huh?"

"You've got a mole on your earlobe."

Huo Cheng leaned in for another look as he said it — a very faint mole, barely noticeable unless you were up close.

Zhai Xingchen just smiled.

Huo Cheng's mood lifted for no clear reason. He asked, "So who do you think the four red-side guests will text tonight?"

"No idea," Zhai Xingchen said.

He didn't care. It wouldn't be him anyway.

"Who would you send yours to?" Huo Cheng asked.

"Isn't that supposed to be confidential?" Zhai Xingchen said, glancing at the follow-cam beside him.

"I have a feeling neither of us is getting a single text tonight, so how about we just send ours to each other?" Huo Cheng said, smiling. "I mean, didn't they say this season the eight of us can text anyone?"

The reason The Red and Blue Signal did it this way was that last year, a rival network's Love Variety Show had a male guest who switched his crush every episode — and got absolutely roasted online as a playboy jerk. That guy later did an interview and said he didn't actually like any of them, but the show made him send a daily text to one of the girls, so he just rotated through them one by one.

The story blew up online. Right? Even on a Love Variety Show, you have to let someone not like anybody. Forcing a guest to pick a crush every episode really wasn't fair.

So The Red and Blue Signal changed the rules this season — if you don't have romantic feelings for any of the guests, you can send a friendship text.

And if it's a friendship text, you can send it to anyone.

They'd just finished grabbing snacks when Pei Xu came down from the second floor.

Huo Cheng spotted him first and waved.

Zhai Xingchen turned to look and couldn't help sighing — Pei Xu really was the Jinjiang Type Male Lead made flesh. That build, that face, genuinely one in a million. Standing on the down escalator holding a pair of slippers, he looked like he was filming a romance drama.

What really stood out was that lazy, cold air about him — like he'd been used to people admiring and watching him his whole life.

The bullet comments flooded in instantly.

[Can't blame the other guests — with a face like that, who wouldn't fall?]

[Pei Xu is honestly wild. Look at that smug attitude — I want to slap him and then kiss him breathless at the same time. What's wrong with me?!]

[This man you can't decide whether to love or hate. His build and vibe are unreal.]

"I think this kid is our biggest rival," Huo Cheng said to Zhai Xingchen. "How about we team up first?"

Zhai Xingchen laughed at that. Huo Cheng smiled back at him and thought Zhai Xingchen was honestly too pretty when he laughed — his eyes looked like they had stars in them — and Huo Cheng couldn't resist leaning a little closer to catch that milky scent on him.

That milky of a guy — he had to smell good everywhere, right?

Huo Cheng glanced at the slippers in Pei Xu's hand. "Xingchen just told me you only like black and white, and you really went and bought a pure black pair."

Pei Xu dropped the slippers into the cart and looked at Zhai Xingchen.

"How did you know I only like black and white?"

Zhai Xingchen couldn't exactly say he'd read it in a novel, so he said, "I noticed all your clothes are those two colors. Not a single other shade."

"Then what color do you think I like?" Huo Cheng asked.

Zhai Xingchen turned to look at him.

"Floral shirts?"

Pei Xu, who'd been dead silent the whole time, suddenly smiled.

Huo Cheng was stunned. "How did you know? I haven't even worn one yet!"

The smile on Pei Xu's face got even more obvious — so much so that his follow-cam leaned in for a close-up. Pei Xu must have noticed, because he shot the lens a cold look and the smile vanished.

The cameraman sighed.

The crowd around them kept growing, and plenty of people were pulling out their phones to sneak photos. But all three male guests stayed completely chill. When they went to pick out vegetables, Pei Xu and Huo Cheng just stood quietly to the side and watched Zhai Xingchen sort through everything.

"Now I believe you actually know how to cook," Huo Cheng said, taking the vegetables Zhai Xingchen had picked. "One look and I can tell you're a pro."

"I cook for myself all the time at home — Chinese, Western, Japanese, I can do all of it. So the kitchen at the Red and Blue House is mine. Nobody's fighting me for it," Zhai Xingchen said.

The Red and Blue Signal's live streaming today was short, only a few hours — after all, the live stream was just for drawing traffic, and they still had to keep some secret content for the broadcast. When Zhai Xingchen and the other two came out of the supermarket, the picture suddenly froze and the theme song started playing.

In the frame, the tallest and broadest of them, Huo Cheng, stared straight into the camera with a bright, easy smile. Pei Xu's brow was slightly furrowed, his skin pale, his beauty sharp — cold as an iceberg. And standing between them, Zhai Xingchen radiated pure youth, dazzling and luminous, bright enough to burn.

Three young men carrying shopping bags — straight onto the trending list.

Plenty of netizens who'd missed the livestream were floored.

[Pei Xu is actually on it?!]

[Isn't Pei Xu famous in rich-kid circles for having a terrible temper? And he actually came on a Love Variety Show? I always thought that was just a rumor!]

[His temper's garbage, sure, but that face is genuinely gorgeous — he totally inherited his mom Pei Huahong's beauty.]

[Huo Cheng's so hot too — Prince of University A, right? I heard he even won a sailing championship. Sports and looks, the whole package!]

[So that list going around the other day was real? Duan Yihua's on it too? And Lin Qingning, Hu Ying, all those famous rich kids? And my man Yan Zhi?!]

[Yan Zhi hasn't shown up yet, but he's definitely going. His fan group already leaked it everywhere.]

[Yan Zhi — the quiet, buttoned-up type who buttons his shirt all the way to the top, total Asceticism vibe, gorgeous as hell? That's him?]

[Anyone calling our Liu-ge quiet clearly hasn't watched his matches.]

[Hahaha, is Liu-ge really doing a Love Variety Show? Honestly, of everyone on that rumored list, he's the one I'm most hyped for.]

[This season of The Red and Blue Signal is stacked — it's gonna blow up for sure!]

The online buzz gave the Production Team a real shot of confidence. After they got back from the supermarket, the team handed out their phones and told everyone to officially announce themselves on Weibo.

Zhai Xingchen went and followed the other guests first. He made a point of checking out their follower counts.

Yan Zhi had the most — esports king, no surprise. His popularity was in a league of his own among the eight guests.

Second was Hu Ying. Her Weibo was basically a rich-girl influencer's daily life feed.

The rest — Huo Cheng and the others — had anywhere from a few thousand to over a hundred thousand followers.

He had the lowest. New account. A dozen or so followers, all bots Sina hands out, plus the other six male guests.

Right, six. Pei Xu didn't open a Weibo.

Zero cooperation from that guy.

Since he was a total nobody, the Production Team went out of their way for him — picked out a photo for him specifically. He posted it with the caption: "Hi everyone, I'm Zhai Xingchen."

Half a day later, he got one like. From Huo Cheng.

When it was time to hand the phone back, he asked the staff: "When do I get paid?"

He was a pure nobody, but since the Production Team had approached him first, the pay was decent — a hundred grand.

That was already generous for a Love Variety Show. Most of them only paid twenty thousand as a missed-work fee. Most guests weren't on these shows for the money anyway — they wanted the traffic and the exposure.

"We'll transfer it next week when we go live," the staff said.

A hundred grand wasn't much for the old him. But for the him right now, it was a fortune.

He was planning to split it — half to his current parents, half to invest.

He was going to buy into Pei Xu's fund.

Pei Xu's fund had topped the charts two years running. It was sitting at a high point now, and most people were too scared to get in. But he'd read the whole thing. He knew how insane Pei Xu was. In the volatile market coming up, he'd pull off another money-making miracle.

Zhai Xingchen walked into the kitchen in a great mood.

Huo Cheng, Duan Yihua, and Wen Nu were already in there prepping vegetables — two tall ones and one shorter, handsome and pretty mixed together, easy on the eyes. Huo Cheng had an open, slightly roguish personality and kept cracking jokes that had Wen Nu laughing nonstop.

A bunch of good-looking guys in one place — pure eye candy.

"The chef's here."

"Didn't we agree the kitchen's mine?" Zhai Xingchen said.

Duan Yihua and the others all turned to him with smiles. Huo Cheng said, "We can only be your sous chefs, Zhai-ge. See if our prep work passes muster."

"Already pulling out the Zhai-ge, huh?" Duan Yihua laughed.

"Thanks for the hard work." Zhai Xingchen rolled up his sleeves. "Leave the rest to me."

"I'll stay and help," Wen Nu said.

"Nah, I like doing it solo. You guys go hang out in the living room." Zhai Xingchen shooed them off.

Handsome guys needed face time to spark something.

They could tell he wasn't being polite about it, so they went along with it. The kitchen was empty in no time.

Laughter drifted in from the living room now and then. Zhai Xingchen rubbed his hands together, satisfied, and got started.

He always focused when he worked. The second he got serious about cooking, the playfulness dropped away.

He glanced at the menu. Today's spread: chicken wings braised with potato, tomato meatball soup, dried shrimp and winter melon, minced pork steamed egg, egg-wrapped tofu, stir-fried carrot, and a steamed bass.

The second he lit the stove, the control room lost it.

"Is he a student?"

"Yeah. Sophomore at the Dance Academy."

"Probably cooked at home a lot. But you rarely see someone this young this good in the kitchen these days."

"When we first reached out to him, he said he could cook a little."

"A little? Look at how he moves."

On camera, Zhai Xingchen was julienning radish. His knife work was lightning fast — chop chop chop, dozens of strokes in a row. He pulled his hands back and there it was, a clean plate of radish strips, thin and even, plated beautifully.

For an indoor variety show like this, the lighting was dialed in so every corner of the room looked perfect. The kitchen, being the main filming zone, was lit even better. Zhai Xingchen in his thin shirt, phoenix eyes lowered, his face practically glowing on camera.

"Give him a close-up," Director Guo said.

The camera pushed in — his slender pale fingers, his brows, his chin. Zhai Xingchen had a face that loved the lens. Half the staff were already smitten.

"A 1 this good-looking and this handy in the kitchen — I refuse to believe nobody's gonna fall for him," Liu Screenwriter said.

"He's legit impressive."

Zhai Xingchen jumped, looked up, and there was Pei Xu — one hand in his pocket, the other holding a water glass, standing by the fridge watching him.

"Food's almost ready," Zhai Xingchen said.

Pei Xu just stood there watching him cook. Hu Ying's laughter drifted over every now and then. Zhai Xingchen asked, "Why aren't you out there with them?"

"Hungry," Pei Xu said.

"Then bring the dishes to the table. Almost done," Zhai Xingchen said.

Cooking was hard work. His forehead was sweating, both hands slick with oil. He braced his arms and tried to swipe at the sweat creeping toward his eye with his forearm. Pei Xu pulled a piece of paper towel and wiped his forehead for him.

"Thanks."

"Mm." Pei Xu reached for the dishes. Huo Cheng and the others noticed and crowded around.

"Whoa, you made all this?" Wen Nu said, stunned.

"Thought you were rolling in with a slingshot, turns out you brought a nuclear bomb."

Hu Ying and the rest were surprised too. Everyone pulled out chairs and sat down, staring at the spread on the table.

Looked good, smelled good, tasted good — the whole package.

Huo Cheng popped open a red wine. "Let's have a drink. One, to celebrate our first day in the Red-Blue House. Two, to thank Xingchen for cooking this whole meal for us."

Everyone clinked glasses. Huo Cheng decided red wine wasn't gonna cut it and cracked open a baijiu.

"When's the other guest getting here?"

"We just asked the Production Team. They said probably this afternoon."

"It's Yan Zhi, right?"

Wen Nu nodded fast. "Yeah, I saw his fan group leak it."

"You're in his fan group?" Huo Cheng raised his glass, squinting at him over the rim.

Wen Nu's face went red. "Mm."

"Is he really that big?" Duan Yihua asked.

"He's huge. Biggest name among all of us, right?" Hu Ying said.

"Tons of fans," Lin Qingning said. "And yeah, he's genuinely good-looking."

The doorbell chimed a few times out front. Duan Yihua straightened up first.

"Sounds like someone's at the door," Wen Nu said.

"Speak of the devil and he appears, huh?"

Wen Nu jumped up and ran to open the door. An unfamiliar male voice came from the entryway: "Hello."

"Hello," Wen Nu said.

They all stood up. A moment later Wen Nu came running back, face bright red.

Hu Ying was about to ask him what happened when a broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted man in a white shirt and thin gold-rimmed glasses walked in carrying his luggage.

Polished. Refined.

First words that popped into Zhai Xingchen's head.