Eight

Just as they were about to reach the Red and Blue House, Huo Cheng and the others up ahead suddenly stopped.

Further off, a noisy cluster of twenty or thirty people had gathered, with Production Team staff running over one after another.

"What's going on?" Zhai Xingchen asked quickly.

"Looks like Yan Zhi's fans tracked him down," Lin Qingning said.

Yan Zhi walked straight toward the crowd. The rest of them stopped and waited, and soon the fans' shrieks cut through the night.

Hu Ying watched beside him, face full of envy, murmuring, "He's really famous, huh."

The fans weren't about to leave anytime soon, so the group was escorted past by Production Team staff. One fan lifted a phone to film them. Pei Xu frowned and walked past quickly. Hu Ying smiled and waved, beaming at the camera. Wen Nu was super nervous, sticking close to Duan Yihua and Zhai Xingchen's group.

The clip hit the internet fast. A line of tall, long-legged gorgeous men filed past the camera one after another — flashy, shy, easygoing, aloof, gentle, sweet — every type, every flavor of beauty, each one glowing in the night like a constellation of starlight.

[Holy shit, this lineup!]

[They're all way too handsome.]

[Springtime for face-lickers. Where did the Production Team even find these rich hotties?]

[But Pei Xu is the most handsome, right? His face is genuinely beautiful, but also genuinely cold — look at everyone else smiling, his face is the most sour.]

[The prettiest is clearly Hu Ying. The "prettiest rich second-gen" title isn't just talk.]

[Nonsense, it's clearly Yan Zhi. My sixth brother stands out like a crane among chickens!]

The Production Team was monitoring online reactions the whole time. They were very pleased with the response.

A bunch of handsome guys is easy on the eyes. A bunch of handsome guys falling in love? Even easier on the eyes.

"How's the script coming along?" Director Guo Bing asked their show's writer.

Liu Screenwriter said, "Still polishing. I'll have it for you tomorrow!"

Liu Screenwriter pushed up his glasses with visible excitement, fired up and ready.

Every variety show has a script. Some are just like stage plays — the cast acts out exactly what's written. Celebrity variety shows have the most detailed scripts, but for civilian shows like theirs, if you wrote out a full script and made them act it, the amateur acting would come off painfully awkward.

But that doesn't mean civilian shows don't have scripts.

Their script lives in the setup of the games and situations.

They create certain situations and settings for the guests. Within those settings, the guests are still being themselves, and what shows on camera is their most genuine reaction. The Production Team's script is like an invisible hand, steering where the emotions go.

The first script they'd set up, for instance, was tomorrow's Sea Voyage Day.

They'd picked warm-as-spring South City as the first stop specifically so the guests would show some skin.

Hot guys showing skin — bodies and hormones everywhere. The audience loves it, and it's easier for sparks to fly between the guests. Two birds, one stone.

Liu Screenwriter designed a bunch of games, and every single one had the same basic requirement: physical contact.

Not only were netizens waiting to see people eat their words, he couldn't wait to see the guests do it either.

Just thinking about it got Liu Screenwriter excited.

This season's lineup was unreal — the guests' backgrounds and looks were basically the ceiling for civilian Love Variety Shows. He had to seize this chance and turn this season into a phenomenon-level Love Variety Show on par with idol dramas, one that drove the whole country crazy.

After getting back from the Beach, a lot of people were feeling anything but calm.

Huo Cheng, for one, kept regretting not pushing harder when they'd split up the rooms.

If he'd been roomed with Zhai Xingchen, they could probably be chatting right now.

Living together adds all kinds of chances to be alone — lying in bed chatting before sleep, perfect for slowly getting closer.

But at least the one rooming with Zhai Xingchen was Pei Xu.

Pei Xu wasn't anyone's rival — he stayed on the outside the whole time.

A blessing in disguise.

Thinking that, he glanced at Yan Zhi beside him.

Yan Zhi was just too handsome, plus the celebrity halo. Tonight he was definitely the biggest winner.

Yan Zhi had just finished showering and picked up the Production Team-issued phone. "Huo-ge, goodnight."

Huo Cheng nodded. "See you tomorrow."

He dropped onto the sofa and let out a long breath. Zhai Xingchen's face filled his mind, then after a while his thoughts drifted to his legs, and that tempting flush the cold wind had brought to his chest.

That's the beauty of fair skin.

Everywhere looks soft and tender.

Huo Cheng didn't think these thoughts were improper at all.

Appetite and desire are animal instincts. Liking someone means you naturally feel that pull. Not feeling it at all would make you a hypocrite. He was a real man.

After his shower, Zhai Xingchen washed the shells too. He planned to turn them into little keepsakes to give the other seven guests when they finally parted ways.

After all, he couldn't afford anything expensive — the heartfelt route was all he had.

The texting round was about to start. Zhai Xingchen lay face-down on the bed and ran through the guests' relationship lines again.

Among the Blue side guys, Huo Cheng was the most proactive. But now several of the Red side guests had their eyes locked on Yan Zhi and Pei Xu.

Too bad Yan Zhi and Pei Xu were both tough nuts to crack, and both very opinionated. He honestly couldn't figure out how those two would ever make a move later on.

But patience pays off. No need to rush — just quietly do his part.

If the novel blew up like that, the later battles had to be intense.

He tried to get online with the phone and found out the Production Team-issued phones didn't even support internet — texts only.

They didn't need to lock it down that hard. They'd all signed NDAs.

He flipped through the phone and discovered the gallery had a photo of every single one of them.

He had to admit, the Production Team knew what they were doing.

If the person you liked was in this gallery, you could lie in bed and scroll through their photos a thousand times.

The photos weren't taken by the Production Team — they'd pulled them from each guest's own social media accounts. The team was thorough; even the account watermarks had been blurred out.

Yan Zhi, Pei Xu, and Hu Ying — the three rich second-gens — had the most photos. Zhai Xingchen hadn't been looking long before he was completely lost in their beauty.

So pretty. Genuinely pretty. How are they all this pretty?

Even with that sour face, Pei Xu was gorgeous. Hu Ying was even more so — a dazzling beauty to begin with, and the photos had been retouched. She looked like some kind of seductive demon. There were even a few artistic shots of her from before, fully nude, with a red dragon-and-phoenix tattoo winding across her body — sexy and sensual, abs and all. Absolutely stunning.

Wow. If the three male leads saw these photos at night, they'd lose it.

Yan Zhi's photos were the complete opposite — fully covered, gentlemanly Asceticism.

He thought Yan Zhi and Hu Ying made a great pair.

Calling them Salt Lake CP works.

Direct Sales CP isn't bad either.

As for Pei Xu, he and Wen Nu could form a Promise CP. He didn't know why, but seeing them together reminded him of those gentle redemption novels on Jinjiang.

The cold rich young master and the gentle little sun.

He was drowning in CP fantasies when the phone buzzed twice.

He blinked and realized he'd received a text.

He opened it. A number ending in 68: "The food today was really good. Thanks for your hard work."

He checked the time and realized it was already ten at night.

The heart-signal text time had arrived!

He immediately sat up straight.

He studied the message carefully.

Couldn't tell who sent it.

He'd cooked today, so sending it to him made sense.

The content was pretty generic too.

But this wasn't what the novel said. He was supposed to get zero texts the whole way through.

Who was this kind soul?

He figured it wasn't just the four Red side guys — the Blue side was possible too. Especially Huo Cheng, who'd suggested at the supermarket that the two of them send to each other.

He was still guessing when the phone buzzed again.

He opened it — another text, same 68 number.

That was the Production Team's number. They all sent their texts to the team first, and the team forwarded them to the right phones.

This one was short too, equally generic:

"Really glad to meet you here."

Huh?

Before Zhai Xingchen could process it, the phone buzzed again.

Even shorter: "Thanks."

Thanks?

Thanks for what? The cooking?

Was the Production Team sure they hadn't forwarded these wrong?

He glanced up at the camera overhead, and the phone buzzed again.

Zhai Xingchen: '...'

Unlike the first three, this one had a slightly passive-aggressive tone.

"You collected quite a lot of shells, huh."