The audience clearly had not expected Yin Chen to be so bold. Gasps sounded throughout the studio, and even the host began looking at Song Zang with something close to horror.
“Mr. Song, is that true? Were you unfaithful in a past relationship?”
What a brutally direct question. Song Zang remained silent… because he genuinely had no idea!
To maintain his fragile little-white-flower persona, Song Zang lowered his head and blinked a few times, clumsily squeezing out two tears.
When he raised his eyes again, a misty sheen had already gathered over his beautiful pitch-black eyes. He looked wetly toward Yin Chen, the corners of his eyes reddened as he silently pleaded for help. Yin Chen’s expression stiffened slightly, but at least he still knew how to cooperate. He immediately turned to the host and bluntly cut off the next round of questioning. “Enough. He’s upset.”
Below the stage, the director gave an OK hand signal. There was no need to reveal too much explosive material in the introductory special. Leaving the question hanging like this would whet the audience’s appetite perfectly and pull in more viewers once the official broadcast began.
Seeing that the director had no objection, the host hurriedly smoothed things over and continued the program. “All right, then let’s welcome our next guest—Best Actress Chi’s ex…”
Chi Yan was here too. This time, she was probably teamed with Lu Xing You.
She leisurely picked up her microphone and effortlessly drew the entire audience’s attention.
Finally out of the spotlight, Song Zang breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at his data panel in satisfaction, then quietly shrank off to the side and reduced his presence.
A dating reality show is pretty good. Being hated across the internet suits me even better. There might be a few embarrassing moments, but at least this time I didn’t start the instance by getting strangled by some malicious monster. Everything is wonderfully peaceful.
The introductory special was short. Once the guests had introduced themselves, their preferences in a partner, and their romantic histories, only one final segment remained—speed matching and mutual selection.
While everyone still barely knew one another, the guests would choose partners purely based on appearance and first impressions, pairing off in twos and spending the first episode of the dating show together as temporary couples.
If no sparks flew during the first episode, then after each week’s filming ended, the guests could send “love letters” through Cupid’s Mailbox and freely decide whether they wanted to switch partners. Before the mutual selection officially began, filming paused for an intermission, supposedly to give the guests one final opportunity to think.
In reality, after seeing the unexpected effect of the icebreaker game, the writers and director split up to negotiate with the guests’ managers and decided to make slight adjustments to the scripts for the upcoming episodes.
As an unpopular Z-list nobody, Song Zang naturally had no say in any of this. Without a word, he avoided Yin Chen’s gaze and returned to the dressing room to have his makeup touched up.
The production team had assigned him a handsome young male makeup artist whose features carried a faintly sharp, judgmental look.
The man gave Song Zang a critical glance, froze for a moment, then looked again far more carefully.
“Hey, your skin is actually really good. So soft and smooth. What skincare products do you normally use?”
Song Zang knew absolutely nothing about details like that. Completely baffled, he tried to muddle through. “I’m not sure, actually. I don’t really need much skincare, but I always wash my face morning and night and make sure I sleep early and wake up early.”
The makeup artist stopped moving, tilted his head, and gave him a sideways look with an exaggerated tsk-tsk. “Oh my God, you’re unbearable! No wonder everyone calls you a damn green-tea flirt. Who wouldn’t get annoyed hearing a humblebrag that outrageous?”
Song Zang: ???
What is he talking about? I don’t understand any of this…
This instance looked perfectly safe, yet barely any time had passed and Song Zang already felt mentally and physically exhausted.
Seriously. Watching Yin Chen run around hacking people apart was easier than this.
Song Zang decided to speak less. He quietly lifted his face and let the makeup artist finish setting his makeup.
But just as the makeup artist pinched his chin and leaned closer, the room door was suddenly shoved open with force.
Yin Chen stood expressionlessly in the doorway, his narrow eyes dangerously narrowed as he stared at the hand touching Song Zang’s face.
A bad feeling immediately rose in Song Zang’s heart. He hurriedly said, “Don’t do anything. He’s just doing his job!”
Unfortunately, in this instance, Song Zang’s assigned role was neither Yin Chen’s teacher nor his superior… which meant Yin Chen was completely free to do whatever he wanted. And yes—he chose not to listen.
“Take your hand off him. Song Zang, come with me.”
As Yin Chen spoke, his cool gaze swept across the makeup artist, frightening the poor man into immediately releasing Song Zang. Even so, the blatant gossip in his eyes remained as he looked back and forth between the two of them.
To be fair, the strange atmosphere between Song Zang and Yin Chen really did resemble a pair of exes with unresolved romantic history…
Song Zang sighed inwardly, bit his lip, and obediently stood before following Yin Chen out.
Yin Chen did not bully him. He might have looked fierce, but his real purpose was simply to drag Song Zang into his private lounge.
The difference in celebrity status meant the difference in their lounges was like heaven and earth.
Song Zang sat on an understated but luxurious calfskin sofa, accepted the hot coffee Yin Chen handed him, and stared at all the other players who had voluntarily come to “seek refuge” with Yin Chen.
Chi Yan shot Song Zang a teasing look that clearly meant impressive, while Lu Xing You remained sprawled over the table asleep, as though the entire world were one enormous bed.
Aside from those two familiar faces, there were three players Song Zang had never met before. There were eight guests on this dating show—four men and four women—and five of them were actually players… which was fine. At least they could coordinate their acting and team arrangements with one another and spend as little time as possible genuinely dating.
Song Zang looked around. Including himself, there were only seven players present, so this was probably another eight-to-ten-player instance. The remaining players were either members of the production staff or late arrivals who would join the show later.
Since most of them were gathered now, Yin Chen sent his NPC secretary out of the lounge and had everyone introduce their assigned identities.
The most “antisocial” of them was a middle-aged man named Xu Ji Dong, whose assigned role was leader of the follow-cam camera crew.
Xu Ji Dong did not look easy to mess with. He was quiet and wore a loose hoodie, but the fabric could not hide his bulging chest and biceps. Song Zang could practically feel the explosive strength radiating from him. One glance was enough to tell that he was a combat-oriented player.
Another guest was Li Jun, a handsome and genuinely talented singer.
He had a pleasant voice and seemed fairly mild-mannered, but the moment he saw Song Zang, he subtly frowned, shifted closer to Xu Ji Dong, and lowered his voice as though he wanted to say something privately.
Clearly, Li Jun had seen all the criticism of Song Zang on the game forum and wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
So Song Zang merely gave him a polite smile and quietly curled up on Yin Chen’s soft oversized sofa, drinking freshly ground coffee and silently enjoying… the special treatment that should originally have belonged to “President Yin.”
Chi Yan’s role was that of a veteran A-list, award-winning actress who had debuted years ago without a single scandal, while Lu Xing You was not technically a guest. He had gotten lucky and been assigned the role of a spoiled young scion sent by the investors to follow the production and amuse himself. The director was considering bringing Lu Xing You in later as a surprise special guest to stir up some drama for the dating show, but that would still require “Young Master Lu” himself to agree.
Another female guest was Wang Bao Zhu, the pampered daughter of the wealthy Wang family.
Even her name sounded like someone treasured by her entire family. She was dressed more extravagantly than Chi Yan, wearing exclusive bespoke clothing and carrying a small handbag worth well into the six figures. From head to toe, she radiated wealthy-heiress refinement.
Wang Bao Zhu herself, however, looked rather uncomfortable. She cautiously stroked the expensive bag, lowered her head to inspect the tiny stones on her elaborate manicure, then grabbed Chi Yan in alarm. “Sister, these are actually real diamonds!”
As a genuine heiress herself, Chi Yan seemed to find Wang Bao Zhu rather endearing. She smiled while listening to the younger woman marvel over everything and even began helping her coordinate outfits for future episodes.
The atmosphere in the lounge was still fairly harmonious. Perhaps having Yin Chen present was equivalent to having a lighthouse guaranteed to lead them through the instance… everyone’s psychological pressure had instantly dropped, and some of them were even becoming interested in the dating show itself. Before the mutual selection began, they started discussing possible teams.
Song Zang did not have to worry about his own partner, because Yin Chen would decide for him.
“You have to choose me.”
Seriously, so fierce. Song Zang thought that privately, but nothing showed on his face. He agreed without hesitation. Still, after seeing the pleased curve of Yin Chen’s lips, he could not suppress his curiosity. “Yin Chen, are you really my ex-boyfriend in this instance? My character background didn’t mention that at all.”
“It’s true.” Yin Chen gave a quiet laugh as he leaned against the sofa armrest, his beautiful long legs wrapped in tailored designer trousers and nearly touching Song Zang. “Maybe it wasn’t mentioned because, to you, it wasn’t important… because both of you are heartless people.”
Feeling the faint warmth where they nearly touched, Song Zang froze. Without drawing attention to himself, he subtly shifted farther to the side and changed the subject. “Then what’s your mission this time?”
At that, Yin Chen narrowed his eyes meaningfully and looked down at Song Zang, deliberately emphasizing each word. “Take vicious revenge on you. Expose you. Turn you into the most infamous heartless bastard on the entire internet.”
Song Zang: …
Truthfully, a lot of the time, Song Zang could not tell whether Yin Chen was telling the truth or deliberately teasing and mocking him.
Forget it. Whatever. As long as Yin Chen is happy.
Giving up completely, Song Zang proposed, “How about this? From now on, I’ll deliberately act like a complete scumbag and treat you terribly. We can coordinate so every viewer curses me. Your mission gets completed smoothly, and I don’t lose anything.”
Yin Chen paused. “Are you sure?” Song Zang put on an innocent, deliberately pitiful expression. “Mm. My persona is already universally hated, despises the poor and fawns over the rich, and acts like a cheap green-tea flirt anyway… Let them curse me. It’s fine.”
Faced with Song Zang’s spectacularly crude acting, Yin Chen—who had still been smiling a moment earlier—suddenly became unhappy again.
He snatched away Song Zang’s coffee cup, inexplicably took a sip himself, then lowered his eyes and threatened him coolly. “No. If anyone bullies you, I’ll help you kill them.”
Song Zang fell silent for a moment before protesting quietly, “This is a modern society governed by law.”
Yin Chen was still drinking Song Zang’s coffee. His long fingers slid suggestively over the rim where Song Zang’s lips had touched, and he slowly replied, “It isn’t.”
Oh. Yin Chen’s role really was some kind of absurdly powerful domineering CEO.
Song Zang stared at his beautiful, well-defined fingers and unconsciously bit his lip, then abruptly pulled his thoughts away before this bad person could deliberately influence him.
Thinking back to the Guangming Consortium’s criminal operations in the previous instance, Song Zang suddenly understood what Yin Chen meant.
—As long as someone possessed enough money, enough power, or enough secrecy, Yin Chen could still kill whoever he wanted.
How did he develop such unhealthy, gloomy, downright evil ideas?
Learning to apologize properly after doing something wrong clearly isn’t enough. Song Zang thought to himself that in the future, he would have to find some way to teach Yin Chen to behave a little better.
…
Wang Bao Zhu was also struggling with the upcoming pairing. She had no particular interest in Li Jun. “Can this show allow same-sex mutual selection?” “Of course.” Chi Yan raised an eyebrow. “Pick me, fake heiress.”
“Holy shit.” Wang Bao Zhu froze, clearly not expecting her identity to be exposed so quickly. She hurriedly pleaded, “Best Actress Chi, dear sister, you have to protect me! My role-playing mission is to survive the real heiress!”
Song Zang, who had quietly overheard that, immediately became suspicious.
Why is Wang Bao Zhu’s role-playing mission so normal while mine sounds completely unhinged…? Which one of us has the problem?
Just then, Xu Ji Dong gave a light cough, apparently somewhat troubled. “I was actually sent by the investors. My mission is to supervise Young Master Lu and make sure he works properly, while preventing him from partying too hard or causing trouble during filming.”
“Wow, that’s so easy!” Wang Bao Zhu looked envious.
“Um… where is Mr. Lu? Would he be willing to cooperate with me?” Xu Ji Dong hesitantly looked around.
For such a heavily muscled middle-aged man, his personality was unexpectedly mild and easygoing.
Chi Yan waved helplessly and answered on behalf of Lu Xing You, who remained deeply asleep. “Don’t worry. Young Master Lu doesn’t have any other hobbies. He only wants to sleep.”
“That’s good.” Xu Ji Dong breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his head to fiddle with the lens on his camera.
Song Zang, however, became slightly more alert. Mystery solved. Everyone else’s role-playing missions are normal. Apparently, only mine is strange.
Once everyone had become familiar with one another, they began discussing the instance’s Main Mission.
“We probably need to kill every impostor we encounter while filming the show. The game rules didn’t give us a specific definition or number. Does anyone have any ideas?”
Chi Yan asked first as she played with her thick black waves.
Wang Bao Zhu timidly raised her hand. “Um… I was only switched at birth. That shouldn’t count as being an impostor, right?”
Yin Chen glanced at her. “Explain.”
According to Wang Bao Zhu, although the Wang family had already brought the real heiress home, they had not abandoned Wang Bao Zhu, the adopted daughter they had raised from childhood under an elite education. The story the Wang family told outsiders was that the two girls were biological sisters, except one had been frail and sickly and therefore raised overseas for treatment before finally returning as an adult.
Coincidentally, Wang Bao Zhu and the newly returned Wang Ming Yue looked unexpectedly similar. When the sisters dressed elegantly and appeared together, they genuinely resembled fraternal twins.
Chi Yan listened with great interest. “Based on my many years of reading melodramatic novels, your father might have cheated. You and the so-called real heiress could both be his biological daughters.”
Wang Bao Zhu: “What?!”
“One was born outside the marriage and one was legitimate. As for which one you are, you’ll have to investigate secretly.”
It was certainly juicy rich-family drama, but Wang Bao Zhu clearly was not one of the targets they needed to eliminate.
Xu Ji Dong offered a theory. “Maybe ‘impostor’ isn’t a specific identity and they won’t necessarily appear from the beginning. Perhaps during filming, something replaces the people around us… Is that possible?”
“Very possible. Even players could potentially be replaced!” Chi Yan’s eyes brightened and she immediately came up with a solution. “To be safe, let’s establish several code phrases among ourselves right now. Everyone has to answer correctly every day. Anyone who fails is automatically suspicious and gets killed on the spot, no questions asked. How does that sound?”
“Fine. Do it,” Yin Chen said. He liked this kind of decisive, no-nonsense solution. “Change the code every night. That’ll make it more effective.”
Once Yin Chen agreed, the proposal naturally passed unanimously.
Today’s code phrase: “Do you prefer sweet zongzi or meat zongzi?” —“I prefer old zongzi from ancient tombs.”
Elio’s Notes: Zongzi are glutinous-rice dumplings traditionally wrapped in leaves and made in both sweet and savory varieties. In Chinese tomb-raiding fiction and slang, however, an “old zongzi” can mean an ancient corpse or zombie, which is what makes the password answer deliberately absurd.
＊
After that simple discussion, filming of the introductory special resumed.
Everyone poured out of Yin Chen’s lounge together in a crowd, leaving the production staff completely baffled.
The remaining three NPC guests looked confused too.
Sitting in the middle was Xiao Xiao, a currently popular young actress. She smiled naturally. “I think I smell coffee.”
Chi Yan smiled in return. “You’re not wrong.”
“Bao Zhu, Bao Zhu, what did you sneak off to do? Why didn’t you take me with you?”
The NPC female guest asking the question was named Xu Meng. She was currently an extremely famous pet-content influencer whose success had helped drive the entire online pet-content industry forward. She had a cat and a dog at home, and those two adorable pets were extremely popular with viewers—probably more famous than Song Zang himself.
Xu Meng was also very cute. She wore a strawberry-patterned floral dress and had a sweet, pretty round face. Her personality was lively, and from the very beginning of the program she and Wang Bao Zhu had already been chatting animatedly in private.
Wang Bao Zhu reacted quickly and joked, “We secretly went to drink President Yin’s coffee. Freshly ground Jamaican Blue Mountain beans. Super expensive, and the aroma was amazing.”
“Little Sister Bao Zhu, why didn’t you bring us? Sob, sob, I wanted some too…”
The oily male guest joining the conversation was Xia Zhi Zhi. He had unexpectedly become wildly popular through a drama that heavily played up male-male chemistry and was currently one of the hottest young actors around.
Wang Bao Zhu gave him a cool glance and ignored the “little sister” address entirely, merely brushing him off with, “Definitely next time.” The atmosphere cooled slightly, and the host hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over and asked everyone to introduce their hobbies.
Maintaining his domineering-CEO persona, Yin Chen mentioned that lately he enjoyed acting as an angel investor, specifically funding business-school students interested in starting companies.
Xia Zhi Zhi’s eyes immediately lit up. For the rest of the conversation, he kept eagerly chiming in between Yin Chen and Wang Bao Zhu. His transparently eager behavior made him look far more like a minor celebrity trying to latch onto powerful patrons than Song Zang did…
Seeing his own character niche about to be stolen, Song Zang refused to be outdone. He simply dragged his chair over and sat down beside Yin Chen, directly blocking Xia Zhi Zhi’s line of sight.
“You… Mr. Song, isn’t this a little inappropriate?” Xia Zhi Zhi’s expression changed slightly as he discreetly glared at him.
Song Zang lifted his chin, deliberately tugged at Yin Chen’s sleeve, and raised his voice into a sugary tone. “Oh, I’m sorry. Brother Xia seems like he wants to sit closer to you too. What should I do? He wouldn’t be angry, would he? Forget it. I’ll give my seat to Brother Xia.”
Both the host and Xia Zhi Zhi fell silent. Only Yin Chen, whose tastes were apparently uniquely terrible, seemed to unexpectedly enjoy hearing nonsense like this. He even reached out and pressed Song Zang back into his chair as the latter pretended to stand.
Then Yin Chen’s lips curved. “No. This is fine.”
Behind the scenes, the directors exchanged looks and silently decided to add pink bubbles to the scene during editing.
Xia Zhi Zhi seemed somewhat crushed after that and stopped causing trouble. The host, constrained by Yin Chen’s obvious “favoritism,” no longer dared blatantly target Song Zang either. There was little point now anyway; anyone could see that once the introductory special aired, Song Zang’s fame would inevitably skyrocket by clinging to Yin Chen.
Filming proceeded smoothly to the end and entered the final segment—First Impressions: Mutual Selection.
Aside from the two successful pairings of Yin Chen with Song Zang and Chi Yan with Wang Bao Zhu, none of the remaining guests matched successfully.
By drawing lots, Li Jun ended up paired with Xu Meng, while Xia Zhi Zhi was forced to form a temporary couple with Xiao Xiao.
When the studio audience was interviewed, one person commented, “Some of these pairings are completely ridiculous, but somehow the ridiculousness makes them weirdly shippable!”
The host smiled and withdrew the microphone. “Same time next week, don’t miss Episode One of Cupid’s Kiss—‘Full House of Romance’!”
＊
The introductory special had officially finished filming, but the guests were given no chance to go home and rest.
They boarded a bus and, before nightfall, arrived at the main filming location for the reality show: a detached three-story luxury villa.
The villa came with a spacious swimming pool, an astronomy corner, and private bedroom terraces.
The backyard was enormous. Beyond a rose garden tangled with green vines stood a beautifully decorated glass greenhouse. Inside the villa there was even a mixed-gender indoor hot spring, along with separate dry and steam sauna rooms.
Just a few steps outside the hot-spring area was a small cocktail bar stocked with every imaginable drink.
The production team had clearly done their homework. For the first episode of a dating show, they had deliberately chosen the kind of place most suited to ambiguous dates between young men and women. Every corner was packed with potential material and metaphorical pink bubbles, practically forcing everyone to radiate hormones. —Of course, if you dismantled the cameras, it would also be an excellent place for discreet murder.
The first episode would officially begin at midnight. For now, everyone had been exhausted by a full day of filming, so they needed to settle their luggage first.
Without hesitation, Yin Chen dragged Song Zang upstairs and headed straight for the bedroom on the top floor with its own terrace.
“You’re staying here.” Without even considering it, he immediately assigned Song Zang the best room.
“Um, President Yin, shouldn’t the rooms be distributed through fair competition? I’d like a terrace room too.”
Xiao Xiao, who had carried her own luggage upstairs behind them, asked in confusion.
What she said was perfectly reasonable, but Song Zang was playing a green-tea villain.
After thinking for a moment, he lowered his voice and said innocently, “Forget it, President Yin. Let her have it. I can stay in the worst room. I’m sorry, Sister Xiao. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Xiao Xiao: …
The innocent NPC frowned after being practically fumigated by Song Zang’s performance. To make matters worse, Xu Ji Dong deliberately aimed his camera back and forth between their faces, determined to maximize the entertainment value.
Seeing that the production team wanted to focus on the conflict, Xiao Xiao speechlessly turned around with her luggage and headed back down toward the second floor. She had no intention of getting entangled with this bizarre green-tea guy so quickly.
She had joined the show to increase buzz before her new drama aired. She was not actually here to land a rich husband!
Watching Xiao Xiao leave, Yin Chen leaned against the doorway and curved his lips in obvious amusement. He became thoughtful. “I think I might actually like… watching you deliberately bully people.”
Song Zang choked slightly and immediately dropped his pitiful expression. Ignoring Yin Chen’s baffling remark, he patiently tried to reason with him. “Actually, Xiao Xiao had a point. Maybe other people want this room too. Giving it directly to me really isn’t very fair.”
“The villa is my property. The production team is only borrowing it,” Yin Chen explained casually, as though it were nothing. “I can do whatever I want with it.”
Damn rich people.
Still, Song Zang remained confused. Something about Yin Chen’s character background did not match his behavior.
“You’re this rich, so why are you participating in a dating show? If you really joined only to take revenge on an ex-boyfriend, isn’t that a little childish?”
The instant those words fell, Yin Chen’s gaze abruptly deepened.
It was as though Song Zang had accidentally triggered some strange switch.
Yin Chen walked toward him one step at a time, deliberately forcing Song Zang to retreat again and again until he had nowhere left to go and could only shrink against the wall in bewilderment.
The distance between them closed rapidly. Yin Chen pressed one hand against Song Zang’s shoulder with an almost-smile, his fingers slowly rubbing over him through the fabric with blatant ill intent as his thin lips parted. “That’s right. I came here specifically to take revenge on you. Childish?”
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