The gland patches he sent

Once their activity ended, the livestream was temporarily shut off again.

The two of them had a simple lunch near the park, then the production team sent a van to take them back.

On the way, Ning Chunchi stayed on the phone, apparently dealing with work.

Jiang Yumiao received the system's notification that his task was complete.

"Congratulations on successfully completing your fifth task, host! You're really amazing~ With your health in such poor shape, I thought you were going to fail this time!"

"...I didn't have much choice." Jiang Yumiao paused, then asked, "What happens if I fail a task?"

"Not only will you lose your reward, but the worldline you've changed will also start moving closer to the original novel again."

"So... if I fail, Ning Chunchi will develop feelings for Lin Xu like he did in the original?" Jiang Yumiao's heart sank.

The system added, "Developing feelings is only one part of the worldline. More importantly, the second male lead's feelings will go unanswered, making it difficult to reduce the original readers' unresolved regret value, and the world will continue to collapse. So make sure you do your tasks properly, host~"

Jiang Yumiao now understood how important the tasks were. For Ning Chunchi's sake, he had to complete every task from now on. He only hoped Ning Chunchi would... look at him a little more, instead of looking at anyone else.

Task reward "Pink Cherry" has been issued. Please check it!

It really wasn't that he had a dirty mind. Given the system's tendencies, though, Jiang Yumiao felt certain that this so-called "cherry" wasn't referring to fruit. It had to be...

Jiang Yumiao lowered his head and glanced at his chest.

He couldn't see anything through his white shirt. He would have to check once he got back.

The two of them walked into the house, only to find someone lying on the couch.

Jiang Yumiao jumped, then took a closer look. It was Yu He.

Most of Yu He's body was sprawled across the couch, his long calves dangling over the edge. He looked utterly listless.

Ning Chunchi was still giving work instructions to the person on the phone. He nodded at Yu He, then headed back to his room first.

Yu He didn't sit up either. "You're back? Why are you two back so early too?" he asked lazily. "I thought you'd all stay out until tonight."

It was only two in the afternoon. The villa was empty, with just Yu He in the living room.

"We finished all the activities we wanted to try, so we came back since there wasn't anything else to do. President Ning also has work." Jiang Yumiao didn't want to volunteer the fact that Ning Chunchi had temporarily marked him. Yu He was a beta and couldn't smell pheromones, so naturally, he hadn't noticed.

"When did you get back?" Jiang Yumiao asked in turn. "Where's Emperor Qin?"

Yu He gave a cold laugh. "Ha. The producer called him away to shoot a mid-roll ad. We got back at eleven."

"That early! Did you fail your task?"

Jiang Yumiao's question opened the floodgates. Yu He sat up straight and began pouring out his grievances. "The mountain rafting task we drew required us to ride in the same boat, then make a heart at the camera halfway through."

"That's a pretty simple gesture, right? It should've been easy! I'm afraid of heights too, so having someone with me would've been reassuring. But Qin Yuan complained that the boat was too small and insisted we wouldn't fit. The directors discussed it and said we could each take our own boat, but the heart gesture was nonnegotiable. We had to make the same gesture to pass."

"Normally, you make a heart with both hands in front of your chest, don't you?" Yu He said indignantly. "That's what I did. But Emperor Qin made one of those finger hearts, crossing his thumb and index finger on one hand. So we failed and came straight home."

Jiang Yumiao held back a laugh. "I feel like getting Emperor Qin to make a heart at all was already pretty good."

Yu He sighed. "True. When I drew him this morning, I honestly thought he'd just leave as soon as we got there. Oh well, at least he tried the task. He's such an iceberg. I wonder who could ever catch his eye?"

Obviously, a certain sunny young man from the Conservatory of Music, Jiang Yumiao thought to himself.

By now, Lin Xu should have caught the attention of Qin Yuan, Ning Chunchi, An Zhiwan, and Yu He. But because Jiang Yumiao had kept clinging to the second male lead and had also taken off his glasses, Lin Xu now seemed to have only had much meaningful interaction with Leng Haiyue.

Fortunately, Qin Yuan had still written to Lin Xu last night. Jiang Yumiao had absolutely no intention of breaking up the original novel's Main CP!

After venting, Yu He felt much better and got up to return to his room.

Jiang Yumiao went back to his own room to rest as well.

Only after entering his room did he truly realize how uncomfortable his body felt.

The gland at the back of his neck ached faintly, and his whole body was weak.

He had been running entirely on adrenaline just to finish the task earlier, which explained why Director Yang and Ning Chunchi had looked at him in such disbelief when he said he still wanted to go rafting.

Jiang Yumiao was about to change when he noticed an extra package on his bedside table. He picked it up and found that it contained gland patches.

Was the production team really this considerate? They knew he didn't have any spares and had even delivered some to his room.

Jiang Yumiao opened the outer packaging and discovered that the gland patches actually had grapes printed on them.

His favorite fruit!

They even knew to choose things according to their guests' preferences. His opinion of the production team instantly shot up a hundred points.

Delighted, Jiang Yumiao put the gland patches away and took off his clothes.

He hadn't forgotten to check his reward.

Ahhh, they're way too pink!!!!

They were so pink that they looked as though they had never experienced any friction at all, without the slightest trace of pigmentation.

He had thought they were already pretty pink before. He hadn't expected them to get even pinker.

If there was a swimming activity later that required him to take off his shirt, how was he supposed to participate?!

Jiang Yumiao sighed silently and changed into his pajamas.

He took a quick shower, then struggled to put on a grape-patterned gland patch. Since it went on the back of his neck and he had never applied one before, he kept accidentally sticking it on crooked.

Somehow, putting on a single gland patch had made him sweat again. Jiang Yumiao was speechless. He rather missed the second male lead's gentle touch when he had put one on for him.

He climbed into bed, ready to sleep to his heart's content. The other two pairs probably wouldn't be back until tonight anyway.

If he had been feeling well, he would have wanted to stay at the Water Kingdom until evening too. Apparently, there was an incredibly beautiful light show at night.

I wonder if I'll ever have another chance to go see it...

The omega's thoughts grew hazy.

Ning Chunchi was in a video conference. He would never let a dating show interfere with his regular work. Over the past two days, he had mostly been squeezing work into his spare time or staying up late to deal with it.

His phone suddenly vibrated. The screen lit up, showing a new reply.

It was from his assistant, He Yuan.

"President Ning, the grape-print gland patches you requested have been delivered to Jiang Yumiao's room."

Ning Chunchi replied, "Good," put his phone down, and continued the meeting.

On the other end of the video call, the marketing director keenly noticed that after President Ning glanced at his phone, his expression hadn't changed much, but his presence seemed less oppressive.

Just moments earlier, while the director was giving his report, President Ning's brows had been tightly furrowed and his expression dark, as though he wasn't particularly satisfied.

The marketing director wiped the nervous beads of sweat from his forehead along his noticeably receding hairline. He had no idea what miracle worker had improved President Ning's mood, but he was profoundly grateful!

The President Ning who had put the marketing director so on edge was sitting perfectly upright, looking as though he was listening attentively to the report. In reality, his thoughts had already drifted upstairs.

Had Jiang Yumiao fallen asleep? Had he... put on one of the gland patches he'd sent him?