[Wen Zhiyan: 2 votes Ye Qiunian: 2 votes Jiang Lan: 1 vote Pei Du: 1 vote Qiao Xin: 1 vote Yu Nan: 1 vote Xu Can: 1 vote Lin Ziyou, Tan Duoduo: 0 votes]
The voting results plunged everyone into a brief silence.
Tan Duoduo had gone out with Pei Du, but he had been out cold, so naturally, he would not have voted for her.
What surprised everyone, though, was that Lin Ziyou had not received Wen Zhiyan's vote either.
Xu Can, on the other hand, had sat out yesterday's dates yet received a vote.
Xu Can looked at the 1 beside his name, glanced toward Jiang Lan, and asked tentatively:
"Lan-ge, you didn't vote for yourself again last night, did you?"
Jiang Lan shook his head. "No."
It was not that he was full of himself; his emotional intelligence simply was not low, and he could more or less sense when others liked him.
His intuition told him that his one vote was more likely to have come from Xu Can than Wen Zhiyan.
After what had happened yesterday morning, Wen Zhiyan had most likely done the same as him last night and voted for someone else.
Qiao Xin and Yu Nan got along well, so they had probably voted for each other.
Things were probably much the same with Ye Qiunian and Pei Du, but that was not entirely certain.
After all, Ye Qiunian had said Wen Zhiyan was also among the people he was keeping an eye on. Although Jiang Lan had suggested he stop setting his sights on Wen Zhiyan, whether Ye Qiunian had actually listened was another matter.
By that reasoning, Xu Can's vote should have come from Wen Zhiyan.
Of those remaining, the ones most likely to be interested in Wen Zhiyan at present were Lin Ziyou and Tan Duoduo.
Jiang Lan thought for a moment, then suggested:
"This voting system really doesn't offer much privacy, for one thing. For another, there's no clear first place, so who gets first pick of the rooms? Why don't we try a different method?"
The others agreed. Qiao Xin looked from side to side. "Change it to what?"
Wen Zhiyan exchanged a glance with Jiang Lan. "How about a scoring system?"
Everyone immediately understood what he meant. That would indeed be more interesting than voting.
So they asked Qiao Xin to represent them and communicate with the production team through the camera.
Two minutes later, a reply came over the speakers:
"We respect our guests' wishes."
Whatever Jiang Lan could work out, Wen Zhiyan could work out too.
In other words, anyone, present or otherwise, who was observant enough and sufficiently attuned to emotions could make a rough guess.
The hardest thing to guess was probably who Jiang Lan and Wen Zhiyan had each voted for, but a little process of elimination could narrow the possibilities down to one or two people.
Sitting opposite Jiang Lan, Wen Zhiyan gave him a thoughtful look without speaking.
Since last night's votes had been so close that there was no first place, room selection once again came down to drawing lots.
This time, everyone opened their envelopes together right at the dining table and showed their room numbers.
As the saying went, everyone had their turn at good fortune.
This time, Xu Can, Pei Du, and Yu Nan drew the single rooms.
Tan Duoduo, Qiao Xin, and Ye Qiunian drew Room 4.
That left Lin Ziyou, Wen Zhiyan, and Jiang Lan in Room 5.
As soon as the assignments were revealed, the three who had previously drawn Room 5 exchanged glances, their expressions turning somewhat odd.
Noticing something off about the atmosphere, Jiang Lan looked at Xu Can. "What is it?"
Xu Can's gaze landed on Lin Ziyou, and he pressed his lips together. "Room 5 only has two beds."
Previously, Room 5 had housed three omegas. Yu Nan and Lin Ziyou were both boys, so naturally, they had squeezed into one bed.
But the situation was different now.
As everyone knew, alpha pheromones were mostly overbearing and repelled one another. It was probably somewhat better during adolescence, leaving aside the habits formed during those years of living in school dormitories.
The longer they lived alone after entering society, the more territorial they became.
Merely sharing a room could make them bristle at each other, let alone sleeping in the same bed.
And there was an omega among the three of them, who clearly could not appropriately share a bed with either of the others.
Qiao Xin looked at Jiang Lan and Wen Zhiyan with delight at their predicament:
"You're both alphas. Squeezing in together is no big deal. Hopefully you won't suddenly start fighting in your sleep in the middle of the night."
Faced with this arrangement, Jiang Lan could not help gritting his teeth.
If he did not squeeze in with Wen Zhiyan, that meant he would have to sleep with Lin Ziyou.
Of course, Jiang Lan never even considered letting Lin Ziyou sleep with Wen Zhiyan. If Wen Zhiyan dared, he would break his damn legs.
But he and Wen Zhiyan had not even made up yet. What would it mean if they squeezed into the same bed already?
Even if he did agree to sleep with Wen Zhiyan, surely Wen Zhiyan ought to make his position clear first?
So, watching Lin Ziyou's gaze subtly rest on Wen Zhiyan's firm chest, Jiang Lan stretched out a leg and kicked Wen Zhiyan's calf under the table, tossing the question to him:
"President Wen, what's the arrangement?"
Wen Zhiyan lowered his eyes. "You decide, Lan-ge. If you don't want to put up with squeezing in with me, I can sleep on the floor. It's fine."
In the past, Jiang Lan could never have borne to let Wen Zhiyan sleep on the floor.
Back then, no matter how fiercely they argued or fought, when bedtime came, all Wen Zhiyan had to do was put on that pitiful expression, and Jiang Lan would still have to let him crawl under his covers.
But now, that tactic of retreating to advance no longer worked quite so well on Jiang Lan.
Since Wen Zhiyan would not take a stance, he would do the opposite of what Wen Zhiyan wanted.
So he smiled at Wen Zhiyan, hooking his toes around Wen Zhiyan's calf beneath the table, and praised him. "That's our President Wen. Why didn't I think of that? Then it's happily settled."
At that, Wen Zhiyan drew back the leg he had been obediently allowing Jiang Lan to hook and said distantly, "You're too kind, Lan-ge."
One look at Wen Zhiyan's behavior told Jiang Lan that he was sulking because he had not gotten his way. Amused, Jiang Lan withdrew his foot.
Secretly pleased, he thought, After all these years, I've finally made progress. I can actually keep my cool and watch Wen Zhiyan sulk for a while.
He pretended not to notice, finished his meal with his head down, then cheerfully took the initiative to clear the dishes and went to the kitchen to wash them.
Seeing this, Xu Can hurriedly gathered the remaining dishes. "Lan-ge, I'll help you wash."
Walking ahead, Jiang Lan answered without even turning around, "No need. It's only a few dishes. Just gather them up and put them in the sink."
Turned down by Jiang Lan, Xu Can said, "Oh," and was momentarily at a loss.
Wen Zhiyan looked at Jiang Lan's retreating back, then stood before anyone else could offer to help. "Everyone, go get ready for your dates this afternoon. I'll help Teacher Jiang."
Tan Duoduo interjected, "Whoever cooks doesn't wash the dishes. Let me go instead."
Qiao Xin remained sprawled motionless in her chair and said insincerely, "Duoduo's right. Take a break, President Wen. I can go too."
Wen Zhiyan looked at Qiao Xin. "Then you go."
Qiao Xin gave a little huff and nudged Pei Du. "President Wen's talking to you. Go wash the dishes."
Pei Du protested, "How come you never think of me when it's something good?"
Seeing the two of them start up again, Yu Nan hurriedly said, "Duoduo and I can go. We haven't done much these past two days."
Only after Yu Nan spoke did Wen Zhiyan continue toward the kitchen, saying as he went:
"No need. I need to work on my relationship with Teacher Jiang, lest he take a dislike to me while we're sharing a room tonight and get up in the middle of the night to beat me up."
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