Shen Yeqing

Biodata

Background / History

Before revealing his face on the dating show, Shen Yeqing was already a world-famous philanthropist whose appearance and total fortune remained mysterious. Viewers describe him as having made more than 300 donations in recent years, each worth at least eight figures. During the finger-folding game, he treats ownership of fifty buildings as an unremarkable accomplishment 6 7.

Shen joins the show at the last minute. Xie Mi recognizes that he did not exist in the original novel she read: the sixth guest should have been You Hongxuan, its second male lead. His presence is therefore an unexplained departure from the story she knows 6 11.

He also has business dealings with Xie Zhengde. After telling Chairman Xie about his daughter’s hardships, Shen is invited to the family home; Xie Mi later identifies him as the reason her father brought her back 35 36.

Appearance

Shen’s unmasking reveals a notably handsome young man, overturning viewers’ assumption that the mysterious philanthropist was elderly 6.

• Face: Porcelain-fine skin, long eyelashes, a high nose bridge, and soft, rosy lips 6.
• Hair and eyes: Tousled black hair and expressive, alluring eyes, described as peach-blossom eyes and later as obsidian 6 19 43.
• Build: Tall, with long legs, a firm chest, and defined abdominal muscles 20 36 40 41.
• Clothing: Appears in a relaxed ivory sweatshirt during hide-and-seek preparations and a full-body black wetsuit for the pool date 16 17.

Personality

Shen habitually wears a languid expression and faint smile, delivering provocations as though they were perfectly reasonable remarks. He jokes about scamming Xie Mi, turns her threats into sexual innuendo, and readily matches her absurd humor. Their shared life philosophy leads them to greet each other as kindred spirits 6 8 16.

He is direct when defending her. Rather than politely tolerating Xiao Jingxi’s insinuations or Xu Shuangrong’s attempts to speak on Xie Mi’s behalf, he interrupts and challenges them. His teasing does not prevent practical attentiveness: he remembers Xie Mi’s favorite food and quietly covers her when she is cold 10 24 25 43 44 48.

His usual composure falters when he cannot find Xie Mi during the seaside camping trip. He searches repeatedly, calls for her with an openly tense voice, and clenches his hands until his knuckles whiten. Her subsequent shower of petals leaves him unusually emotional 45 46.

Abilities & Skills

Composure Under Pressure

Shen remains calm during the vehicle mission despite Xie Mi’s frightening driving. The assistant director reports that he is the only guest whose heart-rate alarm does not sound 15 16.

• His pulse remains normal throughout the mission 16.
• He is reportedly able to maintain a heart rate of eighty while bungee jumping; this is a reputation relayed by the assistant director, not a feat shown in the provided passages 16.
• His escape-room fear is revealed to be an act, rather than proof that the horror setting overcame his composure 20 21.

Acting and Selective Hearing

Shen can present himself as frightened, innocent, weak, or hard of hearing when it suits him 20 21 28 31 41.

• Feigning fear: Plays a trembling captive during the escape-room interrogation before turning the situation around 20 21.
• Selective hearing: Ends an unpleasant blind date by repeatedly answering “Huh?” He later hears Xie Mi’s very quiet insults and admits that pretending not to hear reduces pointless socializing 28.
• Performative weakness: Claims to be poor at sports and asks Xie Mi to protect him during volleyball, undercutting Xiao Jingxi and Qiu Chengye’s assertion that men are naturally better athletes 41.
• He says someone taught him the selective-hearing tactic, but does not identify that person 28.

Improvisation and Tactical Thinking

Shen exploits rules and available resources rather than relying on conventional approaches 17 18 43.

• Hide-and-seek: Clarifies that a seeker must touch a contestant, then hides underwater while breathing through a reed. He remains uncaught until the game ends 17 18 19.
• Crowd management: Orders one hundred drinks from each of two shops to draw their employees away from a mascot fight involving Xie Mi 43.
• Publicity awareness: Recognizes that the attack on the production crew can become a peak-viewership event 22.

Gaming

Shen introduces Xie Mi to the villa’s VR system, explains balance and fall risks, and joins her in the game 30 31.

• Chooses an Ultraman avatar dressed as a security guard 31.
• Uses the game’s Dynamic Light Wave skill to clear a row of monsters 31.
• The attack is an in-game ability, not a demonstrated supernatural power 31.

Limitations

• Cooking: His apparently polished preparation produces blackened creamy mushrooms. Dinner subsequently causes widespread mushroom poisoning, including symptoms in Shen himself 32.
• Physical vulnerability: He suffers a sprained ankle during the three-legged race and injuries after being thrown off Xie Mi’s scooter 14 42 43.

Relationships

• Xie Mi — His declared romantic interest and frequent partner. Shen says he joined the show to fall in love with her, while she remains suspicious of his unexplained knowledge and motives. The supplied chapters do not establish them as an official couple 20 21 47.
• Xiao Jingxi — A rival for Xie Mi’s attention. Shen confronts his passive-aggressive remarks, blocks his attempts to intrude on their time together, and pulls Xie Mi back when Xiao tries to separate them 10 32 40.
• Xu Shuangrong — A fellow contestant whose advances and interventions he rebuffs. He admits to using selective hearing during their early conversation and later mocks her claim that Xie Mi needs rescuing from Lai Bingxuan 6 28 48.
• Xie Zhengde — Business associate and host at the Xie family home. Shen informs him about Xie Mi’s difficult circumstances because he wants her to have a better life 35 36.
• Liu Woxing — Fellow contestant who recognizes his identity when he is unmasked. They later share a randomly paired music-festival date, quietly using their phones amid a loud heavy-metal performance 6 50.
• Qiu Chengye — Fellow contestant whom Shen trips when he rushes to stop Xie Mi from revealing embarrassing gossip 7.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Identity Reveal and Early Courtship

• Unmasking: Mr. Panda’s slipped mask reveals Shen’s face, prompting Liu Woxing to identify him and sending his dating-show appearance onto Weibo’s trending topics 6.
• Collision dispute: After he demands compensation from Xie Mi, she accelerates and brakes the car before he fastens his seat belt, knocking him unconscious against the windshield. He later openly admits to staging an accident to scam someone 6 8.
• Cookie mission: Initially resists being fed, confronts Xiao Jingxi for insulting Xie Mi, then accepts a cookie and lets her complete her hidden mission 10.
• Villa neighbor: Chooses the luxury room beside Xie Mi when the other guests avoid it, accepting her foot in place of a handshake because her hands are full 11.
• Public interest: Tells Xie Mi he is interested in her “every way.” Their pairing immediately gains a dedicated fan community 14 15.

Matching Antics and the Escape-Room Date

• Pool date: Arrives in a black wetsuit matching Xie Mi’s; they turn the intended romantic segment into a swimming race and soak the production team 16.
• Hide-and-seek victory: His underwater hiding place and Xie Mi’s underground shelter allow both to win. They choose each other for the resulting date 18 19.
• Extreme-horror escape room: The pair initially appear terrified, but both eventually expose their fear as performance. Shen catches Xie Mi when she falls backward and later reveals his stated reason for joining the show 20 21.
• Questioned motives: Xie Mi confronts him about the staged collision, his persistent attention, and his decision to pursue someone he supposedly does not know. He answers that he saw her online and admires her; she does not find this explanation convincing 21.

Hater Attack and Family Intervention

• Attack on the crew: Masked haters posing as Shen’s fans throw rotten food and destroy a production camera. Shen immediately doubts that they are genuinely his supporters 22.
• Exposure: Xie Mi exposes the attackers as Xiao Rong supporters. Their arrest and the livestreamed raid reconcile her fans with Shen’s and lift their ship to first place in the supertopic rankings 23.
• WeChat contact: Xie Mi discovers that “185-Centimeter Pure-Hearted College Guy,” the account flirting with her, belongs to Shen inside the villa 30.
• Return to the Xie family: Shen admits that he told Xie Zhengde about her hunger, cyberbullying, stalking, and threats. His explanation is simple: he wants her to have a good life 36.

Guardian Angel and the Apricot-Blossom Mystery

• Camping games: Shen holds Xie Mi after the tug-of-war and supports her change of strategy during volleyball 40 41.
• Scooter accident: Xie Mi’s sharp turn throws him off the scooter. After his rescue, she applies a Band-Aid to his scraped hand while his head is already bandaged 42 43.
• Flower gift: Xie Mi disguises herself as a coffee-shop mascot to care for him secretly as his guardian angel. Shen recognizes her, accepts her flower, and carefully puts it away as a treasure 43.
• Apricot-blossom wish: His written wish is to see “another shower of apricot blossoms.” Xie Mi fulfills it with falling petals, after which he catches her drunken collapse and calls her “Liu Liu” 45 46.
• Unresolved recognition: “Liu Liu” connects to Xie Mi’s childhood outside the novel, when other children called her Sister Liu. She cannot determine whether she dreamed his words or how a person inside the book could know that name 46 47.
• Aquarium rescue attempt: Shen immediately jumps into the water after Xie Mi falls into the beluga pool, only for the beluga to ram him aside and carry her itself 49.

Notable Quotes

“I'm very interested in you, Ms. Xie.” 14

“Being selectively hard of hearing cuts down on pointless socializing.” 28

“I want you to have a good life.” 36

Trivia

• His WeChat Moments contain only three posts: an apricot-tree photograph from sixteen years earlier, a park photograph from twelve years earlier, and a photograph of himself in a high-school uniform from eight years earlier. All three have conspicuously off-center compositions 30.
• His pairing with Xie Mi appears under several translated ship names, including Xie-Shen Donkey Slayers, Xie Yeqing Kills Donkey, and Xie-Shen Slaughter 11 15 23.
• He buys Xie Mi matcha chocolates and knows that her preferred camping snacks are original Lay’s chips and Pepsi 24 43.