"Heart-Throbbing Observation Diary: Experience Season"

Sheng Nian was discharged from the hospital after resting for a day. Nothing was wrong with his health anymore, so he really could not keep taking up a hospital bed.

He boarded the hovercar his manager had arranged and set off for the filming location for the variety show's first episode.

The dating show, Heart-Throbbing Observation Diary, was Yuzu Platform's flagship program. It had already run for four seasons and had produced several hugely popular celebrity couples who were still happily together.

The dating show's run had also produced countless iconic moments: heated showdowns with two Alphas fighting over one Omega or two Omegas fighting over one Alpha; Burning Winter-style love triangles where A liked B, B liked C, and C liked A; and all sorts of sweet little couples showing off their affection...

That was precisely why the show's popularity never waned. The guests it invited grew more famous with each season, and viewers were eager to see what new tricks the production team would come up with this time.

This was the fifth season of Heart-Throbbing Observation Diary, and its theme was "Experience Season."

Sheng Nian had no idea what this experience season meant, either. Before signing the contract, all he could think about was following Jiang Shu onto the show and stopping his illicit affair with He Gu. He had barely looked at the show outline his manager had handed him.

So, on the way to the production team's location, Sheng Nian took out his light computer, opened his chat with his manager, and scrolled up for quite a while before finding a brief introduction to the show.

The production team had invited ten guests in total this time: two male Omegas, one female Omega, two male Betas, one female Beta, one female Alpha, and three male Alphas.

The gender lineup was extremely varied, with the main draw being that every pairing viewers wanted to ship would be available. AA, AO, AB, BO, BB, OO-whichever pairing they wanted to ship, they could. No one would come away empty-handed.

The show's first episode generally consisted of the guests getting to know one another and choosing someone they were attracted to, and it was filmed in a studio.

The choice of romantic interest went both ways. If two people successfully matched, they would temporarily pair up and complete the tasks the production team assigned afterward together.

Sheng Nian also noticed that the show's contract stated that, besides being recorded, edited, and broadcast, the show would also be livestreamed. The specifics would depend on the production team's arrangements.

That meant every guest's true personality would be laid bare before the livestream cameras, putting both their ability to react on the spot and their character to the test.

Isn't this the perfect opportunity for me to tear away that scumbag top and shameless bottom's masks? Sheng Nian thought.

Before filming began, Heart-Throbbing Observation Diary had not officially announced its guests, only posting their silhouettes on its official V Blog account on the Star Network. As a result, guesses and rumors about this season's guests flew all over the internet. Discussion kept mounting, and viewers' anticipation grew stronger. Everyone wanted to see what new tricks the production team would come up with this time.

The theme for the first episode was: Attraction Etched into Your Genes.

The theme sounded fancy, but it really just meant that instead of blandly filming the guests' first meetings and romantic choices as in previous seasons, they would send all ten guests to the Pheromone Museum. There, in the museum's pheromone perfume-making experience area, they would make perfumes that smelled like their own pheromones or like a scent they liked.

The production team would place these perfumes in the pheromone experience hall, mixed among hundreds of pheromone scents supplied by the museum, and have the guests search for pheromone scents that interested them.

If they could find another guest's scent among so many pheromones, that would undoubtedly be a signal of attraction etched into their genes.

Of course, if they could not find a scent that stirred their hearts, they could choose no one, right up until the game segment ended.

Naturally, the filming location for the first episode was the Pheromone Museum in the Federation's capital.

Heart-Throbbing Observation Diary had been a massive hit for several seasons running, so it naturally had plenty of sponsors. With money to burn, the production team had booked the entire museum.

The hovercar brought Sheng Nian to the entrance of the capital's museum, and he got out.

The production staff, who had been waiting there for some time, hurried forward to greet him.

"Mr. Sheng, you're here. We're staff from the production team. Today's our first shoot, and the first episode will be recorded for broadcast."

After explaining the main content of the first episode's shoot to him, the staff began preparing his filming equipment.

What the guests did not know, however, was that the production team had pulled a major stunt. Although the drones really were recording first-person tracking footage, the camera operators following behind them were livestreaming.

"You'll have a camera operator following you and your own director, but you'll also need a self-filming device. Don't worry about it being a hassle. For this shoot, the production team specifically bought the Federation's latest tracking drones. You don't need to operate them. We just need to attach a locator to you, and the drone will automatically identify you and follow you to film from a first-person perspective."

Sheng Nian nodded in understanding and amiably let them bustle around him.

Seeing how cooperative he was, the staff all breathed sighs of relief. At the same time, they wondered: Sheng Nian seemed quite easy to get along with during this interaction. Perhaps those damaging stories circulating online about his bad temper and diva behavior were not entirely true.

After explaining a few more things he needed to keep in mind, the staff saw Sheng Nian into the museum.

[What's going on? Has the stream started?]

[I'm gonna puke. Why did the production team invite this talentless pretty face? Don't tell me he paid his way in again, just like people online said.]

[Aaaaaah, go away! Can you please stop pestering our Jiang Shu?]

[Is Sheng Nian a clingy tagalong? Is Sheng Nian a clingy tagalong? Is Sheng Nian a clingy tagalong?]

[Agreed. When is this guy going to get the hell out of showbiz?]

The Pheromone Museum in the capital was enormous, a high-tech black-and-blue building with five floors in total, housing the Federation's most comprehensive collection of pheromone types.

Led by the staff, Sheng Nian first arrived at the perfume-making experience area.

Pheromone perfumes were not blended using traditional perfume ingredients. Instead, essences were extracted from various raw materials, and a system analyzed the pheromone scent to determine precisely which essences were needed. These were then blended in the appropriate proportions. The process was highly technological and could reproduce a scent with ninety percent accuracy.

Following the museum staff's directions, Sheng Nian headed toward the pheromone extraction and analysis center.

"Rest assured, Mr. Sheng. After so many years of research, pheromone extraction is now extremely safe. You don't need to worry about privacy, either. Our museum does collect pheromones, but unless you consent, we won't put your pheromone scent on public display."

As the staff member led the way, they also made sure to explain things to him. After all, both pheromone scents and grades were fairly private matters.

Sheng Nian nodded in understanding.

He completed the pheromone extraction and analysis smoothly, then took the results to the perfume-making area and made a bottle of perfume that smelled like his own pheromones.