At the ice cream counter, Sheng Nian said, "One scoop each of this, this, this, and this flavor!"
"Um... two scoops of matcha."
The ice cream shop employee deftly scooped out five scoops for him. "That'll be 320 Star Coins. How would you like to pay?"
Sheng Nian had just raised his hand to pay with his Light Brain when he realized his wrist was bare.
Oh no. He'd had to wear a wristband for the go-karts earlier, so he'd taken off his Light Brain and left it there, completely forgetting about it.
"I, I..."
Now he remembered Yan Feizhuo. He turned around to call for his errand boy. "Feizhuo, I left my Light Brain over by the go-karts. Could you come pay for me?"
Yan Feizhuo came over and paid for him, then turned to tell his assistant to go back to the go-karts and retrieve Sheng Nian's Light Brain.
Sheng Nian took a bite of ice cream, the cold making his words slur. "Thank you, Feizhuo..."
They were just about to leave when the ice cream shop employee took out a small party popper and set it off with a pop. "Ta-da! Congratulations on triggering a Heart-Pounding Surprise Task! Please complete the task as instructed to earn an extra Heart-Pounding Badge."
The sudden pop made Sheng Nian shudder and duck behind Yan Feizhuo.
Hearing about the surprise task, Sheng Nian poked his head out from behind Yan Feizhuo and asked, "What's a Heart-Pounding Surprise Task?"
The ice cream shop employee took a card from behind the counter and handed it to them.
Yan Feizhuo accepted the card, which read: Please pose together for a set of promotional photos for the ice cream shop. (P.S. These photos will be used as advertisements for this internet-famous ice cream shop, and the shop will pay an advertising fee at market rates~)
Sheng Nian said, "Wow~ Picking up another job while we're already working?"
[I'm dying. You can tell President Yan and our darling Nian aren't very interested in this ad.]
[Sure, the client is an interstellar ice cream chain, but the talent is Yan Feizhuo and Sheng Nian! Yan Feizhuo goes without saying-this little bit of money means nothing to him. And I remember hearing that Sheng Nian's family is pretty rich too.]
[I know this isn't a nice thing to say, but if Sheng Nian's family weren't rich, with his reputation in the entertainment industry, he really wouldn't have gotten onto this show...]
Even the livestream viewers could tell they weren't interested, let alone the staff.
A staff member immediately stepped forward to remind them, "The badge is what matters! The badge!"
"Besides, this ice cream shop is an interstellar chain. Once you've shot their ad, you can get free ice cream at any of their locations."
Since a Heart-Pounding Badge was involved, Sheng Nian and Yan Feizhuo ultimately decided to do the task.
Hearing this, the staff immediately began preparations, setting up several platforms outside the ice cream shop in no time.
The ice cream shop employee brought out several sample photos. "Please use these sample photos as references for the promotional shoot."
Sheng Nian picked up the first photo. It depicted a classic scene from an idol drama: an Omega had a little ice cream at the corner of his mouth, and an Alpha dotingly wiped it away for him.
The Omega looked shy, his gaze full of love as he looked at the Alpha. The whole image was romantic and beautiful.
The moment Sheng Nian saw the photo, he knew this was bad.
The photo itself wouldn't be hard to recreate, but he currently had the debuff of being hopelessly in love with Jiang Shu. How could he possibly look at another Alpha with such a loving gaze? That would be OOC!
Sheng Nian thought it over and over, then had a flash of inspiration.
He issued instructions in his mind: [Yan Feizhuo, when we take the photos, do this, then this...]
After hearing him out, Yan Feizhuo raised an eyebrow in displeasure but said nothing.
He kept feeling that whenever the young master had to do something out of character, it was connected to the appearance of the transparent bubbles he could see, as well as Jiang Shu and He Gu, as though some unknown entity would punish him if he didn't do it.
So although he was displeased, he decided to follow the young master's instructions for now.
The two first went to the changing room to put on outfits provided by the ice cream shop that better suited the scene.
Sheng Nian wore a pure white stand-collar shirt with a gray checked double-breasted vest and a silk cravat patterned with black flowers on a silver background, paired with striped cashmere dress pants.
Now he looked every bit the young master of noble birth, with an innocent, guileless air-the image of a sweet, pure, and innocent Omega from an idol drama.
Yan Feizhuo wore a very close-fitting, light-colored shirt, its thin fabric outlining every muscle. His long legs were encased in black suit pants, but the long trench coat he wore over them concealed it all, leaving his muscular contours only faintly visible and making him all the more enticing.
Meanwhile, Sheng Nian accepted the ice cream a staff member handed him and walked to the first set.
Sheng Nian licked the ice cream, deliberately leaving a little smear at the corner of his mouth.
The camera was soon ready, its lens aimed at them.
Yan Feizhuo reached out to wipe the ice cream from the corner of Sheng Nian's mouth, but Sheng Nian gently turned his head to avoid him, his amber eyes wet, his expression one of silent refusal.
Following the young master's earlier thoughts, Yan Feizhuo reached out and gripped his chin, turning his face back toward him. With a manner that brooked no refusal, he wiped away the smear with his thumb, then licked it into his own mouth, as though tasting the most delicious thing in the world.
A sea of question marks drifted across the comments before everyone launched into a frenzied discussion.
[Ahhhhhhh, what are they doing?! This isn't what I imagined after seeing the sample photo!]
[President Yan looks like a brooding obsessive right now, like he's about to lose his mind after his wife rejected him.]
[Exactly. Take our darling Nian home and lock him in a dark room, hahahahahaha~]
[Am I the only one who finds this heartbreaking? Sob, sob, sob. President Yan finally gets a chance to be intimate with Sheng Nian, only for Sheng Nian to dodge him like the plague.]
[There's nothing to be done about it. Sheng Nian only has eyes for Jiang Shu...]
Click, click-the photographer took several shots in succession.
As soon as the shoot was over, Sheng Nian pushed away Yan Feizhuo, who was standing extremely close, looking as though he wanted no such intimate contact with him.
The ice cream shop's manager came over and looked at the photos, seeming to hesitate over what to say.
"What is it?"
Yan Feizhuo's voice was calm, but the manager somehow felt there was a murderous edge to it.
Forget it. The photos had turned out very well, especially the one where Yan Feizhuo licked the thumb he'd used to wipe the ice cream from the corner of Sheng Nian's mouth. The sexual tension was off the charts. It was just that the atmosphere wasn't quite what they'd originally envisioned. What was with this air of taking someone by force?
The manager said timidly, "Nothing, nothing. The photos turned out very well..."
"Mm. Good, then."
[President Yan looks completely unapproachable right now.]
[I'm dying. The manager doesn't dare offer any criticism. Who's the client here, anyway?!]
[The photos really did turn out well, just not how everyone first imagined, hahahahahaha. I thought the vibe would be all sweet.]
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