Everyone was going crazy.
This was way too addicting!
They didn’t dare think about what this implied!
Judging by their expressions alone, you couldn’t tell they had any connection at all! Yet behind the scenes, they were privately chatting non-stop!
【I’m going crazy crazy crazy crazy】
After being alerted by his subordinates, Little Liu opened the stream only to see a screen full of screaming chickens. Cold sweat instantly broke out across his forehead.
Was the production crew out of their minds?!
He had just blown his own horn, too!
“What are you looking at me for? Don’t you know how to steer the narrative? Move your hands!” He yelled at the subordinate who was staring at him wide-eyed, annoyed by his slowness, before rolling up his own sleeves and sitting down in front of the computer.
【What is everyone screaming about?】
【I’m a little confused】
【Didn’t you see ‘In Private Chat’?! IN PRIVATE CHAT!! Wuuu, production crew, I love you!】
【…Are they just privately chatting about their nicknames?】
【It looks like they didn’t even chat for very long?】
【???????】
【Ignore these brain-dead comments. It’s already this obvious, why do they keep lying to themselves?!】
【If these two who are secretly chatting in private don’t have something going on, I’ll do a handstand and eat shit!!】
【I! BET! TWO! BOWLS!】
【I also feel like there’s something fishy, but without solid evidence I won’t jump to conclusions. What if they’re just hyping up a CP?】
【Even if it’s CP hyping, I still love it! I’m happy to let them fool me! Take my traffic, take it all, please keep going!!】
【Can’t control the doting auntie smile on my face, ship them, ship them, keep shipping!】
【Mama is shipping herself to death wuuu】
For the first time, Little Liu truly felt what an overwhelming trend was, and what the power of netizens meant.
He typed comments exceptionally fast, and he had quite a few subordinates under him, but the comments they posted were instantly swallowed up by the netizens’ burning enthusiasm.
Little Liu: “…”
Useless.
Little Liu didn’t panic.
He could handle this.
It didn’t matter if the netizens didn’t believe the two were unrelated; as long as they had doubts, it was enough. Just get them to cool down a bit and wait for evidence… In short, stall first!
This method turned out to be quite effective.
Some rational netizens agreed with his point. Sweet as it was, and fun as it was to ship them, CP fans weren’t stupid, so there was no need to jump to conclusions with such deep real-life investment so quickly.
Weren’t there plenty of ultra-popular CPs on the internet in recent years? Which pair didn’t look completely real back in the day? Yet, think about how they ended up—after two years of peak hype, both sides officially announced relationships with other people. Emmm.
Bringing up the recent mega-popular CPs and their eventual downfalls, the hot-headed netizens managed to calm down somewhat.
Although I still feel like the sweetness is off the charts, since everyone says so, I’ll calm down for a bit first… and observe further?
Right, exactly, just observe a bit more.
As long as they could stall, maybe an unexpected turn of events would come.
Little Liu let out a long breath and instructed his subordinates to hold the line, then turned his gaze back to the livestream. At this moment, his mood perfectly aligned with Gu Zhan’s manager from a few hours ago.
Brother Gu, I beg you, please take it easy.
“…”
Unaware that countless fans in the stream were craning their necks and scrutinizing her and Gu Zhan’s every move, Shi Yi put her anxious heart at rest after seeing the screenshot.
“What nickname did Little Yi set for me?”
“Qiuqiu… Your name is already very nice.”
“Thank you!”
“What about me?” Wen Xin raised her head.
“Big Beauty.”
“Not bad, not bad, thank you.” Getting her wish granted, Wen Xin beamed with a face full of smiles. “I set yours as Yiyi.”
“Okay.”
Compared to the female guests, the male guests were far less enthusiastic about nicknames.
Xie Yixing called the female guests “Sister” and the male guests “Brother”: Sister Xin, Sister Little Yi, Qiuqiu, Brother Gu, Brother Fang.
Fang Yanhang set their actual names directly, asserting self-righteously, “There’s no rule saying we can’t use real names, right?”
Gu Zhan went by age: for those his age, he wrote their real names, and for those younger than him, he added “Little” before their names. For example: Wen Xin, Little Ming, Little Fang, Little Xie, Little Yi.
“…”
Ming Qiuqiu couldn’t help opening her mouth, muttering, “Senior Gu, compared to ‘Little Ming’, I’d rather you just call me by my actual name.”
If she hadn’t brought it up, no one else would have noticed. “Little Ming”1 really was a bit…
Everyone tried to hold it in, but ultimately failed. A burst of laughter suddenly exploded in the Task Hall as several guests dissolved into a giggling mess. Shi Yi used a throw pillow to cover the lower half of her face, laughing until tears welled up in her eyes.
Gu Zhan handed Shi Yi a tissue and offered a quiet apology, saying he really hadn’t paid attention. His mind had been entirely on Shi Yi earlier, so he had casually set the others as “Little X.”
Ming Qiuqiu: “It’s fine.”
She shielded the light in her eyes and let out a sigh. “It’s not like I have a choice but to forgive you.”
Wen Xin fell into Ming Qiuqiu’s lap, rolling with laughter. “Hahahahaha Qiuqiu!”
Ming Qiuqiu sat still, as if she were telling the truth, yet also as if she were joking. “After all, who made me Senior Gu’s little fan?”
Wen Xin’s laughter grew even louder.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ming Qiuqiu saw both Little Yi and Gu Zhan’s movements pause subtly.
Trouble.
Her eyebrows knitted together slightly before relaxing again. The test result was very bad—her suspicion had been confirmed, and it was the most troublesome scenario possible. If it were just Little Yi not liking him, there would still be hope, but Gu Zhan was even more sensitive than Little Yi—
If she tried to push her luck, she was afraid Gu Zhan would strike before Little Yi even made a move.
The series of considerations took only a mere two seconds. Ming Qiuqiu pursed her lips, looked at Fang Yanhang, and shifted the topic. “Senior Fang, what kind of profile picture do you want?”
Fang Yanhang let out a “Huh?” “Asking me?”
“You can just set whatever you like.”
“Nah.”
Fang Yanhang remembered something else. “Let’s take photos. Take photos directly, which happens to kill two birds with one stone for Task 9.”
Task 9: Choose a male guest to take a photo of you / Choose a female guest to take a photo of her.
The two were sitting next to each other. Fang Yanhang held up his phone. “Come on, I’ll take yours first. Turn your head.”
Ming Qiuqiu: “Okay~”
Teacher Chen Hongmei was an old hand who knew the ways of the world. She glanced at the young girl who had turned her gaze away, refrained from meddling, and followed her lead with a warm smile. “Taking photos really does kill two birds with one stone.”
She reminded them, “The internet connection time limit is half an hour, with 13 minutes remaining.”
“Young men and ladies, hurry up and pick up the pace, oh.”
There was a time limit??
Wen Xin looked at the big screen and tallied the tasks. “Then let’s finish the tasks that require internet first. We girls need to do two: Task 5, send a message to three male guests, and Task 7, send a photo of yourself to a guest of the opposite sex.”
“The male guests have a few more. Besides sending photos and compliments, they also have an extra poetic line suited for us.”
“The remaining ones—changing profile pictures, singing love duets, and holding hands—can be done after the internet is cut.”
Once she sorted it out like this, things became much clearer.
Shi Yi’s focus shifted from Ming Qiuqiu’s sentence back to the tasks.
She had already set her profile picture, having dug out several stick figures from her photo album. Two cute ones wearing little dresses were set as profile pictures for Wen Xin and Ming Qiuqiu. Two wearing black suits were set for Fang Yanhang and Xie Yixing.
Only Gu Zhan was left.
Shi Yi selected a stick figure with a completely blank face and set it as his profile picture.
Fittings.
Shi Yi cleared her throat softly, exited the screen as if nothing had happened, and contemplated Task 5.
Sending a message:
To Xie Yixing: Keep it up, looking forward to getting along well.
To Fang Yanhang: Keep it up, looking forward to getting along well.
To Gu: Keep it up, looking forward to getting along well.
When it came to Gu Zhan, she hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she didn’t play favorites or make him an exception.
Within a few minutes, the messages from the male guests came through to her.
—Xie Yixing: 【Sister Little Yi has very delicate attention to detail. After my phone dropped, she helped me pick it up and thoughtfully didn’t look at my chats. I really want to be friends with Sister Little Yi.】
—Xie Yixing: 【Do not worry about lacking confidants on the road ahead; who under the heavens does not know you?】
—Fang Yanhang: 【Sister Little Yi is amazing, keep it up.】
—Fang Yanhang: 【I couldn’t think of a suitable poem…】
Xie Yixing and Fang Yanhang only sent two messages each. The third message was a photo, which only required picking one female guest, so Shi Yi didn’t receive one from either of them.
Gu Zhan’s messages, on the other hand, had not stopped coming. In the blink of an eye, the unread message counter went from 6 to 9.
The latest message was an image.
Shi Yi tapped it open. Before she even had time to scroll up through the previous chat, the moment she saw the picture, she wished she could throw her phone away.
She closed her eyes, glared fiercely at Gu Zhan, and cursed him in her heart countlessly for being utterly shameless.
The man acted completely unbothered, appearing as though he didn’t feel her teeth-gritting glare at all, staring intently at the task panel in deep thought.
Yet his finger tapped on his phone screen once more.
Ding-dong. Photo count plus one.
Shi Yi: “…”
She couldn’t help but reply: 【Have some shame!】
Gu Zhan looked at the task panel even more intently.
He thought to himself that Shi Yi probably didn’t realize that while she thought she was acting cool and composed, a flush of red was already spreading up from the tips of her ears… so cute.
Teacher Chen: Whether she was cute or not, Teacher Chen didn’t know, but she knew that he was definitely picking on her again.
Teacher Chen watched with relish. Seeing that time was almost up, she nodded and interrupted, “Alright, it’s almost been 30 minutes. Everyone hand your phones over to me, and I’ll inspect your task completion progress.”
Shi Yi: ????
Shi Yi: !!!!
Shi Yi snapped her head up, completely petrified.
“So fast?”
“Ah, I’m still short two poetic lines. My brain is running a bit dry.”
“Forget it, forget it, I’ll just compliment them casually then.” Fang Yanhang casually threw together two poetic lines to send to Ming Qiuqiu and Shi Yi, then handed his phone over.
He had originally planned to think of a nice line of poetry since there was a high chance he’d end up partners with Ming Qiuqiu… Turns out he had overestimated himself.
Several guests handed over their phones one after another, leaving only Shi Yi and Gu Zhan.
Teacher Chen asked, “Little Yi, what’s wrong?”
The other guests looked over as well.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Shi Yi barely maintained her composure. “I haven’t finished my tasks yet.”
Teacher Chen said, “It’s fine, I’ll inspect them first, and you can continue in a bit.” The livestream segment was almost up, so it wouldn’t do to wait until after the broadcast to inspect.
Shi Yi: “…”
With words having reached this point, what choice did she have? If she insisted further, she would definitely arouse suspicion!!
Shi Yi desperately wished she possessed superpowers so she could go back to a few minutes ago—she would definitely chop off Gu Zhan’s hands at the very first opportunity!!
Regrettably, she had no such powers.
Under everyone’s gaze, she reached out and handed her phone over.
Whew. Stay calm, Shi Yi, stay calm.
Auntie Chen definitely won’t read them out loud, not to mention you’re not the embarrassing one here.
Right, the embarrassing one isn’t me.
AHHHHHHH!
Gu Zhan, you bastard.
Gu Zhan also fell silent for a brief moment. He, too, had forgotten that Auntie was going to inspect…
He glanced at his aunt, his fingers twitching slightly.
“…”
What put Shi Yi’s mind greatly at ease was that Auntie Chen didn’t read them out loud; she simply picked up the phones to look at them, without reading what everyone had sent.
What made her heart leap into her throat all over again was when Wen Xin chimed in, “Teacher Chen, read them out loud! I want to hear what the guests sent.”
They were recording a show, after all—it wasn’t like there was anything that couldn’t be said.
Translator’s note
- A generic name used in Chinese textbook word problems, similar to ‘John Doe’ or ‘Johnny’ ↩︎
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