Eye Contact

"The next game we'll be playing is called 'Three-Two-One, Look This Way.' I believe everyone knows the rules. We'll randomly select one of the eight guests to give the commands. The moment they give a command, the other guests' eyes must look in a different direction from the direction indicated by the command-giver's hand.

"If any guest fails the challenge, they'll have to accept a Truth or Dare punishment. If all seven remaining guests succeed, then the command-giver will accept the punishment. Got it?" the director said.

"So who's going to give the commands?" Xie Jingming asked.

"Let Teacher Liang do it," Zhong Su said.

Upon hearing that, Liang Meichen stood up from her seat with a confident smile on her face. She looked as though she could take down all seven of the others.

The remaining seven sat in a row, waiting for Liang Meichen to give them commands one by one.

Yu Lin sat at the very front. He exchanged a glance with Liang Meichen, then flashed her a dazzling smile. "Teacher Liang, remember to let me know before you start so I can get ready..."

Before Yu Lin could finish, Liang Meichen moved immediately. She pointed downward and quickly shouted, "Three-Two-One, Look This Way!"

Yu Lin didn't react in time. His eyes followed Liang Meichen's finger downward, all of it happening within a single second—so fast it was unbelievable.

For the first time, Yu Lin felt that reacting too quickly wasn't necessarily a good thing. Clutching his head, he wailed, "Teacher Liang, that's cheating! I wasn't even ready yet!"

Liang Meichen chuckled. "Sorry, Yu Lin. Opportunities always go to those who are prepared. You weren't prepared, and you thought you could beat me?"

Yu Lin left his seat with a pitiful look on his face, becoming one of the people who would have to take a punishment later.

Shu Menglan was second in line. Her gaze was so resolute it looked like she was about to join the Party. She concentrated intensely, and the instant Liang Meichen gave the command, her eyes immediately turned in the opposite direction from Liang Meichen's hand.

"Damn, Sister Menglan is awesome..." Yu Lin watched from the side.

"Of course. I'm one of the prepared ones!" Shu Menglan said proudly, patting her chest.

Xie Jingming came next. He remained extremely calm. After Liang Meichen said, "Three-Two-One, Look This Way," his eyes didn't even shift.

Liang Meichen wasn't discouraged. She had already dragged Yu Lin down at the start, so she wouldn't have to take the punishment. All she had to do next was use every trick she had to drag more people down with her.

Chi Yan, Zhou Yanqing, and Xiang Zhinan all succeeded next, leaving only Li Yu.

Li Yu was last in line, and when it was his turn, he suddenly became a little nervous.

He was afraid his eyes would instinctively follow Liang Meichen's finger. After all, overcoming instinctive reactions was genuinely difficult.

He took a deep breath and was about to focus completely on "facing the enemy," but the moment Liang Meichen said, "Three-Two-One, Look This Way," Li Yu's eyes obediently followed the direction of her finger.

Even Li Yu was stunned. He had been telling himself not to look that way, yet his eyes simply wouldn't listen.

"Teacher Liang is impressive—she took down two people in one go," Shu Menglan said gleefully from the side.

"Hahaha, Little Yu looked so serious just now that I was intimidated. I thought I might not be able to get him... Who knew he'd be so adorably slow? His eyes immediately went where I pointed." Liang Meichen covered her mouth as she laughed.

The others all smiled too, finding Li Yu's dazed expression just now rather cute.

What else could Li Yu do? He could only stand up from his seat and join Yu Lin in the punishment group.

Yu Lin grinned and walked over to sling an arm around Li Yu's shoulders. "Little Yu, you must've thought I'd be too lonely taking the punishment alone, right? So you deliberately came over to keep me company. Hey, isn't it such a coincidence? Everyone in our group got taken down by Teacher Liang."

Li Yu's mouth twitched. Did Yu Lin think he was some kind of masochist?

"Do you remember the first episode? The Sugar Painting episode. I got the dragon, and you got the phoenix. Now, we're the crouching dragon and fledgling phoenix," Yu Lin said.

Li Yu gave Yu Lin a complicated look. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

Forget it. Yu Lin didn't look all that bright anyway. He wouldn't argue with him.

"Will you two choose Truth or Dare?" Zhong Su asked through a megaphone.

"I'm definitely choosing Dare," Yu Lin said.

"I'll choose Dare too," Li Yu said right after him.

"Alright, Yu Lin can go first. How about singing?"

"Singing? I've got no problem with that."

Yu Lin shrugged. Come on, he was a singer. Singing a song was effortless for him, as easy as eating~

Zhong Su said, "Sing 'Baby,' and maintain eye contact with one person here the entire time. You can't laugh halfway through."

"Pfft. Director, can I choose to make eye contact with you?" Yu Lin asked.

"If you want to, that's fine."

Yu Lin made a noise of consideration. He had only been joking, of course, and wouldn't choose Zhong Su. After all, who could keep from laughing while singing "Baby" to a balding man?

"Little Yu, I choose you. You don't mind, right?" Yu Lin turned to Li Yu.

"That should be fine."

Li Yu nodded. He didn't mind. It was just eye contact, wasn't it? The song was only three minutes long and would be over in no time. Besides, they only said Yu Lin couldn't laugh. They never said he couldn't.

At that moment, Li Yu had no idea how serious things were. A staff member brought over a small speaker. As soon as the Bluetooth connected, the familiar intro to "Baby" began to play.

Yu Lin cleared his throat and quickly got into character. Looking into Li Yu's eyes, he opened with a crisp, "Oh woah~"

Li Yu nearly lost it. It wasn't that Yu Lin sang badly—he simply couldn't stop himself from wanting to laugh. But afraid of affecting Yu Lin's performance, he held it in.

The painful part was that he had to maintain eye contact with Yu Lin for the entire song.

"You know you love me..."

"I know you care..."

Yu Lin gazed at Li Yu. He saw Li Yu "shyly" clench his fists, his soft pink lips pressed together, his lashes trembling. A mist seemed to cloud his beautiful eyes, and a rosy flush gradually spread across his jade-like skin.

He thought Li Yu was embarrassed by the lyrics, so he sang with even more passion. "My first love broke my heart for the first time..."

Good heavens, Li Yu felt like this moment was taking his life. He was holding back laughter so hard his face had turned red and tears were about to come out, only to realize the song hadn't even reached the chorus yet.

Some of the onlookers also thought Li Yu's reaction was one of embarrassment. They clapped and cheered, and when the song reached the chorus, they even began singing along with Yu Lin: "Baby, baby, baby, oh like~ Baby, baby, baby, no like~"

In an instant, Yu Lin had worked the entire atmosphere up. They surrounded Li Yu and Yu Lin and sang along. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought the two in the middle were getting engaged. Even Yu Lin's gaze at Li Yu unconsciously softened.

Li Yu had no idea what Yu Lin was thinking. He only felt even more suffocated.

Wasn't this Yu Lin's Dare punishment?

Why was he the one suffering the most?