Xiao Jun slumped on the sofa. She was Yan Chi’s personal assistant and naturally followed her every move. However, this time, as soon as she arrived, she was directly assigned to a hotel in the homestay area where the staff of the variety show group stayed.
This was the first time Teacher Yan participated in an entertainment-oriented reality show, and even Xiao Jun wasn’t sure how Yan Chi would perform.
After all, she knew Yan Chi’s personality…she was simply full of double standards. Except for the people she cared about, she treated others as if they were an impenetrable iceberg.
Those marketing accounts and gossip magazines couldn’t find any faults in Yan Chi’s character or professional abilities, so they claimed she was pretending to be noble and looked down on others.
Xiao Jun hoped that this time on the variety show, Yan Chi wouldn’t be bothered by those people.
While waiting for Yan Chi to finish her tasks, Xiao Jun, as usual, refreshed Gu Qingtong’s Weibo hashtags and fan group, hoping to see if there were any new posts or beautiful photos.
This hashtag, which hadn’t gained much popularity before the live broadcast, now had a substantial presence.
Even during the previous live broadcast of the Game Star Tournament, there was a photo taken by a station sister for Gu Qingtong at the scene.
And Xiao Jun even concealed her identity as an insider and joined Gu Qingtong’s core fan group.
Almost everyone in the group became fans of Gu Qingtong after watching her live broadcasts and became like moms and older sisters. The group consisted of highly active fans, all of whom were young ladies of the same age, and Xiao Jun quickly became friends with everyone.
Based on the flight information of other guests, the fans knew that the first episode of “Love Game” would start filming today. Yesterday, someone mentioned wanting to wait for Qingtong to see if they could capture some behind-the-scenes photos.
However, at this moment, there were no behind-the-scenes leaks in the group.
[How strange, other guests were spotted by passersby during their tasks. Why haven’t we seen anything about our Tong Mei?]
[Ugh, it seems like our family is too clueless. I’ve finished scrolling through all the previous dramas and photos. If it weren’t for Tongtong’s live entertainment match that she fought for, we wouldn’t have seen her for a whole two weeks! If I can’t see Tong Mei, I’ll go crazy!]
[What can the garbage Asia Star Entertainment do to repay my daughter?!]
As soon as Xiao Jun entered the group, she saw everyone’s cries of despair.
Although she knew that Yan Chi’s filming location was Changhong Resort, she couldn’t casually disclose it. So she tried to console the group members:
“Maybe Tongtong has some hidden or indoor tasks this time. Those won’t be captured on camera, and it will bring some freshness to the show. Let’s wait a little longer.”
After saying these words, Xiao Jun suddenly thought of a method and entered Yan Chi’s name in the search bar.
She originally wanted to see if any passersby had captured Yan Chi and Gu Qingtong together.
But the search results shocked her: #Yan Chi’s Intimate Video with Same-Sex Friend Exposed# was trending.
Trending topics were usually a prelude to going viral. If enough people clicked on it, it would actually appear on the hot search list.
Considering Yan Chi’s popularity, it was almost certain to trend.
What’s going on? Countless possibilities flashed through Xiao Jun’s mind. She quickly clicked on it and saw the hottest post, which was from a notorious gossip marketing account that fabricated everything.
The post hadn’t been up for twenty minutes, but it already had thousands of comments and shares.
“Today, our company captured Yan Chi and an intimate same-sex friend at the amusement park, behaving intimately. Teacher Yan even embraced them. Click to watch the video.”
Seeing this post, Xiao Jun breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that they were just captured during their variety show filming.
However, despite that, she couldn’t help but click on the video to take a look.
In the video, the filming angle wasn’t great. It was shot from a distance, and only Yan Chi’s back could be seen. At first glance, it seemed like Yan Chi was alone, but upon closer inspection, one could barely make out that she seemed to be holding something fluffy and purplish.
Xiao Jun was speechless for a moment. It was indeed maintaining its consistent style of “interpreting based on pictures.”
Moreover, the quality of the video was quite poor. Even if that fluffy thing was really Gu Qingtong, there wasn’t a clear shot of her face.
Why was it so difficult to see Tong Mei?!
She clicked into the comment section and saw Yan Chi’s fans mocking the marketing account in disbelief:
[Heh, ‘same-sex friend’ refers to the amusement park doll.] The blurry picture of the enlarged fluffy thing was attached.
[Here they come again, trying to boost their KPI1Key performance indicator at the end of the year by involving our Teacher Yan.]
[I’ll summarize it in six points:… Unless Teacher Yan announces it herself, don’t believe anything else.]
Just as Xiao Jun was about to leave a comment herself, she suddenly received a message from Yan Chi: “Can you help bring mine and Gu Qingtong’s luggage to your room? We’ll come over in a bit.”
This message immediately straightened Xiao Jun’s posture.
Why did she suddenly want to come to her room, and with Tong Mei?!
Although she was puzzled, Xiao Jun quickly went to pick up their luggage.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Gu Qingtong secretly snuck into the bathroom, feeling inexplicably guilty, as if she was doing something sneaky.
Fortunately, the program crew had booked the entire lodging area, and the bathroom was quiet without running into any familiar faces.
She quickly entered one of the stalls, but when she saw the specific scene, she felt helpless. The delicate little dress had covered up the stains, but the white panties seemed to be tainted…
Gu Qingtong couldn’t bear to look at the inexplicable water stains anymore.
Blush covered her entire face once again.
Even though she had cleaned up, the cool and damp sensation of the fabric seemed to stick to her skin, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
But her spare clothes for changing were in the luggage, and she had no idea where the program crew had sent them. At least she would have to wait until they arrived in the room later in the evening to change.
She was clearly clueless on how to handle this situation.
At that moment, Gu Qingtong felt helpless and could only tidy up her clothes before stepping out of the stall.
But when she looked up, she was startled by the person standing outside the door. “Yan…Yan Chi?! Why are you here?” Gu Qingtong’s fingers clenched the door handle of the stall, reflexively lowering her head, trying to hide her still visible flushed cheeks.
“With it being so wet, no wonder you’re uncomfortable.”
Yan Chi’s gaze lightly rested on the hem of Gu Qingtong’s skirt. Her voice was calm as usual, but her words were surprising.
Gu Qingtong didn’t expect Yan Chi to say such things in a public restroom…
Her beautiful eyes widened in embarrassment. “N-No more talking!”
“No one’s here. Even if we were to do something now, no one would notice,” Yan Chi said with a faint smile, silently enjoying Gu Qingtong’s embarrassed expression, as if she were a cooked shrimp.
Finally, she changed her tone. “I won’t tease you anymore. Let me take you to change.”
It was only then that Gu Qingtong realized Yan Chi’s true intention and instinctively asked, “Where are we going? And what about the production team…”
“When you were drunk before, not cleaning up made it impossible to sleep. Can you endure it now?”
Every sentence Yan Chi spoke restrained Gu Qingtong tightly.
That night, she learned many intimate details about Gu Qingtong’s body.
“Getting drunk” had clearly become a term that Gu Qingtong couldn’t bear to think about. Just mentioning it made her wilt.
She had no recollection of that particular period, but when she woke up, she felt completely refreshed, with her clothes flawlessly in place. This was why she had no idea about what had happened.
Just how much did Yan Chi actually know about her?
Gu Qingtong fretted, realizing that she had mistakenly thought she was being bold and had done something to hurt Yan Chi. It felt like she had been deceived and was even counting the money for the person who sold her out.
She followed Yan Chi along the way and only then realized that they were heading to Xiao Jun’s room.
The familiar suitcase was blocking the doorway. Knowing that she wouldn’t have to continue filming in these sticky clothes at least, Gu Qingtong temporarily reconciled with Yan Chi as she hugged the suitcase and began to open and search through it.
Xiao Jun clearly had no idea about the current situation and craned her neck, wanting to see what Gu Qingtong was looking for so urgently.
“Xiao Jun,” Yan Chi’s calm voice came through.
Xiao Jun understood the warning in those words better than anyone else and sheepishly sat back on the sofa. “Oh.”
Gu Qingtong did find it, but when she saw what she had brought, her brain crashed once again.
Wasn’t this the pure white lace camisole she had recently purchased? How did she end up grabbing something so… unique?
She balled it up and mixed it in with her spare pumpkin pants, making sure no one was watching before hastily rushing towards the bathroom.
Although Xiao Jun didn’t dare to steal glances at her wife in front of Yan Chi, her thoughts instantly started to wander.
What’s happening? Why did she have to come to this bathroom? And why did she have to search for something inside the suitcase?
Looking at the clothes and cosmetics brimming from the suitcase, Xiaojun suddenly had a thought: Other things could be bought temporarily, but intimate clothing could only be used by oneself and needed to be washed before wearing. It seemed like Gu Qingtong had come back to change clothes.
Why did she need to change?
Weren’t they just participating in the recording of that escape room challenge?
Xiaojun’s breath hitched. Could it be? Was Teacher Yan really that… beastly?
Could it be true, as their manager had said? Can our Tong Mei handle it?!
As a dedicated fan, Xiaojun suddenly felt uneasy about entrusting Gu Qingtong to Yan Chi. She couldn’t let her be completely devoured!
With these thoughts in mind, she looked at Yan Chi with a mix of sorrow and indignation.
Of course, Gu Qingtong was unaware of Xiaojun’s inner turmoil. She changed into a new outfit and felt completely at ease.
Moreover, the lace camisole and shorts combo truly lived up to its reputation of looking like the “Ceiling of Pure Desire”. It looked even better in reality than in the model photos. It wasn’t the kind of thing that could be seen through at a glance. Instead, adorned with large lace butterfly bows, it exuded a charm that fell somewhere between youthful and mature.
Gu Qingtong even found the clothes she changed out of to be a bit too hot to handle. She packed them into a sealed bag, out of sight, ready to deal with them in her own room later.
“Teacher Yan, Miss Gu… I saw a video of you two doing a mission in the amusement park that was leaked by an entertainment paparazzi. It’s circulating with some gossip. Do we need to address it?”
After both of them came out, Xiao Jun told them about the incident with the marketing account secretly filming and leaking their video.
When Gu Qingtong saw the trending headline #Intimate Video of Yan Chi and the Same-Sex Scandal#, her vision nearly went black.
Wasn’t this exactly the plot from the original work that she had remembered inexplicably?
She had taken every precaution, and yet a scandal still emerged?!
But as she watched the video and realized she had been overthinking, she fell into silence. She realized it was truly nothing to fear.
Moreover, the comments under that Weibo post seemed plentiful, but they were actually fans of Yan Chi criticizing the marketing account. Everyone treated it as a joke.
Gu Qingtong suddenly remembered another angle of the video. It was indeed Yan Chi holding her while checking her wound, and she even leaned against her neck…
Luckily, they weren’t captured facing the camera!
Taking a relieved breath, she secretly glanced at Yan Chi, wanting to know her reaction.
Unexpectedly, Yan Chi was also studying her post-incident expression, which made her tense up involuntarily.
“Teacher Yan, is that fluffy thing you were holding really your wife?” Xiao Jun, unaware of the undercurrents between the two, eagerly asked the question that had been on her mind.
“Have you seen me holding anyone else?” Yan Chi’s gaze remained fixed on Gu Qingtong’s eyes, as if she were saying those words directly to her.
Caught off guard, Xiao Jun got a mouthful of dog food and clicked her tongue in response.
Finally, she understood why there were no photos of Gu Qingtong taken by passersby. It seemed that Qingtong had been playing the role of that puppet all along. Who would recognize her? But that fluffy clump of purple fur was too cute!
“The marketing account can say whatever they want. After all, what they said isn’t necessarily fabricated; it’s just that nobody believes them. It might even help promote the variety show.”
Not sure if it was her imagination, but Gu Qingtong felt that Yan Chi’s “not fabricated” remark was a deliberate reminder for her.
After leaving Xiao Jun’s room, the two returned to the production team’s base. However, they intentionally staggered their arrival to avoid arousing suspicion.
When Gu Qingtong returned to the resting area, no one even noticed that she had been away. From a distance, she watched Yan Chi being surrounded and cared for by the others, blinked her eyes, and remained silent.
Director Bu, however, noticed her solitary situation and calmly walked up to her, asking, “How is it? Are you getting used to being with Yan Chi?”
“Teacher Yan is a very reliable senior…” Gu Qingtong reflexively began reciting a string of compliments.
“Stop, stop! We didn’t inform you in advance about having a partner for the sake of the show’s effect. Of course, if you feel that it’s not suitable, you can use your privilege to unlink your CP2Couple pairing with Yan Chi.”
Director Bu watched Gu Qingtong’s reaction silently, hoping to gather some information.
He had found it strange when Yan Chi approached him about participating in this variety show. After all, who was Yan Chi to be interested in a small, inexperienced show like this?
If she truly wanted to participate in a reality show, Hua Yan had plenty of S+ level resources for her to choose from.
Although Director Bu didn’t ask why on the surface and even pretended to be eager for it, he couldn’t help but toss and turn privately, finally figuring out that it might be because of the post he made on WeChat Moments mentioning Gu Qingtong joining a romance-themed show.
So, he subtly tied Yan Chi and Gu Qingtong together in the variety show, starting with the manipulated live phone call from before.
Although Gu Qingtong appeared unfamiliar with Yan Chi, Director Bu could see the difference in Yan Chi’s attitude towards her.
After all, others didn’t understand Yan Chi. As a partner from the same company who had worked with her twice before, how could Director Bu not know that Yan Chi was a cold and distant person who kept her distance from others?
Never before had he seen someone protect another person so consciously and unconsciously.
In the end, Director Bu concluded that Yan Chi might have taken a liking to Gu Qingtong. That’s why she joined this variety show without Gu Qingtong’s knowledge, hoping to use the show’s momentum to get them acquainted.
It was a mutually beneficial transaction, and Director Bu was well aware of the advantages Yan Chi’s participation in his show would bring.
Therefore, he had to do his best to help the two of them get together.
Gu Qingtong had almost forgotten about her privileges. She glanced at Yan Chi quietly before saying, “It’s okay. Both Teacher Yan and I don’t want any ambiguous relationships with others on the show. Being paired together like this is fine.”
“That’s good to hear. If there’s anything you’re uncomfortable with, feel free to talk to our staff,” Director Bu replied, maintaining a reasonable demeanor.
The two of them fell silent, their gaze now fixed on the monitoring screen of the production team.
Through it, they could see the situation of each group inside the castle.
When Gu Qingtong returned, she happened to see on the screen the frantic and disheveled appearance of Deng Dongjun, who was being chased by Bai Jin in the castle.
“The game is almost over,” Director Bu suddenly said.
She couldn’t help but ask, “What do you mean? Have the others already solved the decryption?”
“Bai Jin is about to eliminate three players in a row.”
Just then, something slipped out of Deng’s pocket, and everyone gasped as they saw a shoe heel-shaped height insole lying quietly on the ground.
“Damn.”
Gu Qingtong let out a soft sigh, silently mourning for him. Now the production team and the national audience knew about his secret of wearing height insoles. It was truly embarrassing…
Deng Dongjun also realized what had happened. He seemed to have lost all his escape spirit in an instant and simply lay down, allowing Bai Jin to catch him.
The camera focused on the three people who were caught, obviously the male guests Yu Xi, Deng Dongjun, and Wen Ziyao.
Clearly, Bai Jin went after the challenging targets without any mercy, and she even gave some face to the most easily caught senior female guest, Chu Yu.
“She’s so powerful in the game?”
Gu Qingtong stood still in disbelief, realizing that if she hadn’t hidden earlier, she would have been caught by Bai Jin for sure.
But this time, she had definitely offended Bai Jin… Gu Qingtong couldn’t help but worry deeply about her future in the dating variety show.
Meanwhile, sitting next to her with closed eyes, Yan Chi suddenly felt a slight twitch in her forehead.
“Violent lolita, quite a contrasting moe, right?” Director Bu, unaware of her anxiety, introduced the character he had given to each guest. “Don’t be so afraid of her. Everything she does is for fun, just scaring people randomly. Besides, she has her own two CP battlefields to handle. It’s enough for her to deal with.”
Gu Qingtong knew that Director Bu hadn’t heard the things Bai Jin said to her in front of the restaurant, so she just nodded casually.
She also knew that if she were to speak out, no one would believe her. After all, it was completely different from Bai Jin’s appearance and image.
When the next bell rang, Chu Yu was easily caught on the spot, although she didn’t seem to struggle at all.
After all, the duo of Yu and Deng’s team had been eliminated before them, and they were already assigned the worst sleeping bag room.
Instead of hiding and struggling, it was better to be caught directly and quickly end this messy detective puzzle.
As everyone emerged from the castle together, Gu Qingtong almost instantly felt Bai Jin’s eager gaze sticking to her.
“What a pity, I didn’t catch my beloved Sister Gu. She ran away first. I hope I can achieve my goal next time,” Bai Jin boldly stated in her MVP speech.
The camera focused on Gu Qingtong, as if expecting to see her response.
Everyone thought she was just joking, but only Gu Qingtong knew that she was serious. As a result, she couldn’t force a smile and instead felt a bit anxious, taking a half step back instinctively, subconsciously looking for Yan Chi’s position.
To her surprise, Yan Chi had already walked up to her. She called out softly: “Yan, Teacher Yan…”
“Wait and see,” Yan Chi raised her eyes and looked calmly at Bai Jin across from them, as if she didn’t take her seriously at all.
The surrounding guests and staff members felt the strangeness in the atmosphere and couldn’t help but marvel at the intensity of the tension.
When did they ever witness such a fierce battle between two women for one woman in a dating variety show?
Yu Xi was choked for a moment and couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Why do I vaguely remember that I took the script for the battle?”
Gu Qingtong, caught in the middle, remained silent. She thought, ‘Do you guys want this fortune that I have?’
After the mission results were announced, the production team finally revealed the hidden task reward for identifying Bai Jin as the mole.
In four hours, she managed to catch a total of four people, which was the best result possible. She directly received the highest-level reward, and the house she was assigned to was right next to the glass-walled swimming pool room of Gu Qingtong and Yan Chi.
Chu Yu and Wen Ziyao, on the other hand, stayed in a standard double room. Although it wasn’t a luxury mansion, they didn’t have to sleep on the floor. Compared to not having lunch in the afternoon, it was considered an improvement.
Deng Dongjun was clearly still recovering from the embarrassment of the height-increasing insole incident. He remained unusually silent and didn’t target Yu Xi anymore.
He and Yu Xi were destined to spend a cold night on the floor in a thin sleeping bag.
Because Bai Jin lived next door, Gu Qingtong suddenly felt that her excitement about staying in a luxury mansion was diminished by half.
The other half was because they suddenly discovered that the locks on each room had been removed and couldn’t be locked. They could sense the familiar tricks of the production team at this moment.
As expected, at the next moment, Director Bu announced a new mission:
“It’s already late now, and our understanding production team naturally won’t continue to make things difficult for everyone. However, our luxurious breakfast tomorrow is limited. If you want to have breakfast, you can only do so through competition.
Therefore, we’ve decided to start the breakfast challenge. Starting now, each person can draw a task card from me. The deadline for completing the task is from 10 PM tonight to 7 AM tomorrow morning. You still have two hours to prepare before 10 PM. At 7 AM in the morning, I will be waiting for everyone in the cafeteria, and the first two people to complete the task will have the right to have breakfast for themselves and feed their CP.”
“Feed their CP?!” The crowd was in an uproar. What kind of operation was this?
“That’s right. Only the two winners are allowed to eat the food, but they can feed the food to their CP,” Bu Dao explained. “To prevent alliances between CPs, no one is allowed to reveal the detailed content of their tasks to others.”
“Since it’s a free task, it doesn’t matter when or if you do it. I will only gather the top two winners for a luxurious breakfast tomorrow morning.”
Although it was indeed a free task as Director Bu mentioned, there were only two winners in the end.
Everyone knew that not only would they work on their own challenges, but they would also hinder others’ progress.
After understanding the rules, everyone voluntarily drew a red task card from Director Bu.
Gu Qingtong sneakily flipped it open and glanced at it. It said, “Collect a strand of hair from each guest before 7 AM.”
She had no idea how difficult the tasks were for others, but for her, this was… extremely challenging.
Just the thought of how to get Bai Jin’s hair gave her a headache.
After reading the card, Gu Qingtong observed everyone’s expressions and realized that they all looked displeased, even Bai Jin, who was usually not serious, had an obvious downturned mouth and an unsatisfied look on her face.
She immediately understood that the production team probably didn’t intend to let them have a good night’s sleep.
The doors that couldn’t be locked were beckoning to the guests, inviting them to create chaos!
It was truly a ruthless night where sleep was impossible.
“You can return to your rooms and rest well. Wishing you all a wonderful night,” Director Bu said with the last sentence, almost provoking everyone’s anger.
“What’s your task?” Chu Yu began probing as they walked back. “My task is to take something from each of you.”
“It’s definitely a lie. Big sister Chu Yu has participated in many variety shows, and she must have started scheming against us from this moment,” Bai Jin chuckled.
Chu Yu clicked her tongue twice. “You’ll see if I come looking for you at ten o’clock.”
Gu Qingtong held the red card and had already started contemplating the order in which she would collect the hair. Whether it was to strive for more screen time or that damned competitive urge, she was determined to complete the task.
Hair could be taken from the head or picked up from the bed and clothes. The former was safer, but women’s hair was easy to collect regardless.
As for pulling hair, that was like disturbing the hornet’s nest and wouldn’t work. She would probably need to find a pair of scissors.
Taking hair from Yan Chi would be the easiest, as she could wait until the end of the task when time was running out. However, taking hair from Bai Jin was the riskiest. It had to be done in the deep hours of the night, around three or four in the morning when everyone was sound asleep, and she would have to ensure that the GoPro and microphone were safely worn…
Clearly, Gu Qingtong, who drew this task, had no possibility of sleeping.
As the others entered their respective rooms, the three remaining were Gu Qingtong, Yan Chi, and Bai Jin, who were staying in the luxurious mansion.
“I know your task is to come find me, right, big sister?” Bai Jin suddenly spoke, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Because you looked at me after receiving the card, you’ve never dared to look at me before. You saw through it in an instant. But I’m always ready to welcome sister, waiting for you~”
As soon as Gu Qingtong heard her voice, she reflexively dodged towards Yan Chi’s side and accidentally bumped into her arm.
“Well, in that case, Miss Bai’s task is not to approach others?” Yan Chi’s index finger lightly rested on Gu Qingtong’s shoulder, tracing circles. It wasn’t a question but more like uncovering Bai Jin’s secret.
Bai Jin’s expression seemed to loosen for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure and smiled. “You guessed wrong, oh. You might be disappointed.”
Both sides despised each other, but they had to maintain basic courtesy in front of the camera, so there was only a strong sense of tension.
Gu Qingtong, caught in the middle, trembled and could only poke Yan Chi to urge her to move faster.
Without saying anything more, Yan Chi and Gu Qingtong turned and walked into the glass house.
Similar to the one they had visited earlier, it had a layout of two bedrooms and one living room. Each room was spacious, surrounded by transparent glass. However, there were curtains that could be drawn to block the outside light and view. There was an indoor rectangular swimming pool on the balcony, reflecting the moonlight shining from above, shimmering with ripples.
The room was fully equipped with all the necessary amenities for cooking, exercising, and playing games. However, it was evident that none of the guests tonight had the inclination to use them.
The cameras were also hanging conspicuously, although they were currently powered off. But it goes without saying that they would definitely be turned on after the tasks started at ten o’clock.
The luggage previously sent to Xiao Jun’s room had been transferred here, placed in their respective rooms.
As soon as Yan Chi entered the room, she answered a phone call, and her expression visibly turned cold. She briefly told Gu Qingtong that she needed to deal with something and quickly returned to her room.
Gu Qingtong also retreated to her own room, ready to rest for a while.
Taking advantage of the fact that the cameras were still off, Gu Qingtong let herself go and kicked off her slippers, collapsing onto the bed exhausted.
Holding her phone, she started playing with it out of revenge. After all, she hadn’t touched her phone since she started doing makeup at five in the morning.
Thinking about how she had to continue non-stop after ten o’clock, she let out a sigh.
When she opened WeChat, numerous messages popped up, and the one at the top was a long list of messages from her manager, Sun Xiao:
“Yan Chi is participating in your variety show??!”
“Please reply to me quickly when you see this message, it’s serious.”
After all, Gu Qingtong didn’t have an assistant, and Sun Xiao couldn’t be by her side all the time. They hadn’t been in contact all day, so naturally, they had no idea about Yan Chi’s surprise appearance.
“How do you know? She did participate, I was surprised too. She’s the Female Contestant Number Four that I had a live phone call with last time.”
Little did they know that Sun Xiao’s reaction was even more intense than Gu Qingtong’s. In the next second, she sent another message: “Go check the hot search! Be mentally prepared…”
Gu Qingtong’s heart suddenly tightened, and she had a faint guess about what she was about to see.
The current hot search was no longer about the topic of the intimate same-sex photo, but a brand new one: “#YanChiSuspectedParticipatesInLoveShow#,” and the second one was “#YanChiCP#.”
Hesitating for a moment between the two, she clicked on the first one.
Finally, she discovered the sequence of events, and it was actually related to the afternoon gossip revelation.
Because the video at the amusement park didn’t seem to be a private outing, Yan Chi’s fans couldn’t help but dig deeper. That’s when they discovered that today’s filming location was Changhong Holiday Park, and it was for a celebrity dating variety show called “Love Game.”
Although the show hadn’t been officially announced, various clues indicated that Yan Chi was indeed one of the guests on “Love Game.”
However, she wasn’t part of the initial group of six contestants that were officially announced. She was an unexpected addition, the Female Contestant Number Four.
It was Yan Chi’s first attempt at an entertainment-oriented reality show, and she unexpectedly landed into such a low-budget dating variety show.
Celebrity dating shows were already sensitive, and this particular show was visibly lacking in production value. The guests who appeared on the show were relatively unknown, and none of them had the star power to attract attention. The unreliability of the show made both fans and onlookers astonished.
Why did Yan Chi agree to participate in such a show? No one knew, so various conspiracy theories started circulating.
Some radical fans insisted that the company arranged for Yan Chi to join the show in order to support their own director and the show itself. They started protesting in the comments section of the studio’s Weibo account.
The controversy gradually spread to the show itself, “Love Game.”
Being targeted by the general public even before it aired was something unheard of for this show.
“Love Game” had previously faced betrayals from its contestants, which was already a terrible situation.
However, from Gu Qingtong’s perspective, this hot search was definitely not manipulated by the production team or the marketing team. After all, the title of the hot search didn’t even mention the name of the dating show, showing a clear intention of not attracting attention to “Love Game.”
She wondered which competitor was trying to disrupt their position.
Taking a deep breath, Gu Qingtong closed the chaotic hot search and prepared herself mentally. She then opened the second hot search about the Yan Chi CP.
Their own unexposed front-facing images finally appeared, obviously taken by other onlookers while Yan Chi and the park representative were dealing with the person who assaulted them.
Although the images were somewhat blurry, the striking beauty of both individuals in the crowd couldn’t be ignored.
Interestingly, in this particular photo, Yan Chi was looking ahead while Gu Qingtong happened to be looking at Yan Chi. Her eyes and nose were still red, as if she had just been crying.
Instantly, a narrative of Gu Qingtong crying and clinging to Yan Chi emerged.
However, everyone had the same doubt: who was this person stirring up rumors with Yan Chi… and why was it an obscure and unknown individual?
Yan Chi’s fans felt that this was another person attempting to gain attention through false associations. They had previously seen Yun Mingxuan benefit from such tactics, and now everyone was trying to imitate her route to fame!
Still upset about the previous incident, the fans were even less polite towards Gu Qingtong this time.
They accused her of seeking fame through false associations and spreading rumors to overflow the screen. Among the many Yan Chi fans who condemned her, a few fans of Yun Mingxuan took the opportunity to insert themselves and spread brainwashing rumors.
Of course, once the Yan Chi fans discovered the involvement of Yun Mingxuan’s fans, it was inevitable for a fierce battle to ensue between the two sides.
Poor Gu Qingtong and her few newly gathered fans were completely overwhelmed, forced to seek solace and encouragement from each other in their fan community.
Having prepared herself mentally beforehand, combined with the fact that the criticisms from Yan Chi’s fans couldn’t compare to the unreasonable insults she had faced in the past, Gu Qingtong looked around and surprisingly remained relatively calm. She didn’t feel the impact of the collective criticism.
However, what Gu Qingtong didn’t expect was that while she was refreshing her feed, both of the hot search topics were suddenly removed. They went from being in the top two positions to being pushed down dozens of ranks, on the verge of disappearing completely.
Suddenly, she remembered Yan Chi’s cold expression as she left earlier, and Gu Qingtong felt a momentary lapse in her thoughts.
Could it be that these topics were removed because…Yan Chi took action?
Almost simultaneously, Yan Chi’s studio and the official Weibo account of “Love Game” released a joint statement.
The statement denied all kinds of unfounded rumors and speculations, stating that this collaboration was initiated by Yan Chi herself, and both parties were actively promoting it. They requested the rumor spreaders to stop harming Yan Chi’s partners and collaborators.
Even Yan Chi’s official Weibo account, which had only been used for promotional materials, reposted the statement personally.
With Yan Chi herself stepping forward and fans gradually believing that these were indeed her decisions, the situation began to shift.
Therefore, under Yan Chi’s influence, her fans did stop the controversy.
Although they didn’t fully understand, they respected Teacher Yan’s decision.
Various marketing accounts also changed their tune, no longer speculating on Yan Chi’s thoughts with a subjective attitude. Some even clarified Gu Qingtong’s past incidents.
From the start to the end, it took only a short hour for everything to settle down. The efficiency of the resolution left Gu Qingtong astonished.
She hesitated and sent a message to Sun Xiao: [It seems… everything is okay now?]
The next second, Sun Xiao called her:
“Are you silly? It’s obvious that someone was stirring up trouble and trying to target your ‘Love Game’ and you. Let’s not even mention the ‘Love Game’ for now. You almost got dragged into a pit by certain individuals again! At best, you would’ve been criticized throughout the entire season of the show, and at worst, you would’ve been labeled as someone who uses controversies for publicity without even doing anything.”
Gu Qingtong remembered the inexplicable second hot search topic and realized that something was amiss. After all, with her blurry appearance and doll costume, who would focus on their relationship all of a sudden? Not to mention that the hot search didn’t even include her name, yet it was aggressively pushing her narrative.
Clearly, someone wanted to associate her with the label of a staged controversy…
“Was Yan Chi’s team behind handling this matter?” Gu Qingtong asked, already having an answer in her heart.
“Of course! Besides Hua Yan’s PR3Public Relation team, who else has that kind of efficiency and capability? It cost over a hundred thousand just to remove the hot search, and those marketing accounts that spoke in your favor were also guided by them.”
Sun Xiao’s voice felt like a series of strikes hitting Gu Qingtong’s heart.
“I… I need to go now. I suddenly remembered something.”
As she spoke, Gu Qingtong hurriedly got out of bed, even putting on her slippers the wrong way, and ran to knock on Yan Chi’s door.
“Come in,” Yan Chi was facing her laptop working, but when she saw Gu Qingtong, she couldn’t help but put down what she was doing and look up at her standing at the door. “What’s the matter?”
She hesitated for a moment before finally mustering up the courage.
“Just now… the things online, thank you. Sister Sun said that if it weren’t for your help, I would probably have been criticized again for a while.”
“You saw it too?” She tightened her grip on the mouse, “All of this happened because I stubbornly participated in the program, so naturally I should be the one to handle it properly.”
“And…” Yan Chi’s voice paused, and she looked at Gu Qingtong’s sparkling eyes, “No need to say thank you. You are my wife, no matter what, I will protect you.”
“Instead of seeing what I’ve done, perhaps I still hope that you know nothing of it.”
Gu Qingtong also stared at Yan Chi in a daze, her breathing slowing down. A strange emotion burst in her heart, an impulse that went beyond a sense of security and reliance, the first time she wanted to wholeheartedly place all her trust in someone.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again, Gu Qingtong sincerely said to Yan Chi:
“I won’t say thank you to you, but…I want to kiss you, can…can I?”
