That night, Shen Ting lay on his stomach on the bed, holding the phone the director had given him.
Shen Ting looked at the names in the contact list, his finger scrolling back and forth.
Finally, he tapped Yan Yi's number, typed a message, and hit send. Then he set the phone on the table beside him, lay obediently in bed, covered his stomach with the blanket, and began his nightly internet surfing.
Shen Ting rolled onto his side. He had just opened the trending searches when the phone on the table suddenly vibrated, its light particularly glaring in the darkness.
Shen Ting picked up the phone curiously.
Yan Yi: Do you like hamsters?
Shen Ting looked puzzled when he read that. What does that mean?
After staring at it for a long while, Shen Ting finally decided to spare himself the trouble. He put the phone back on the table and lay down again to continue surfing the internet.
Meanwhile, Yan Yi leaned back against the bed under a thin blanket, looking at his phone, when he heard two chimes beside him.
Yan Yi picked up the phone the director had given him.
There were two texts in total.
One was from Shen Ting, and the other was from Su Yu.
Shen Ting: I hope I get another chance to see what I saw today.
Su Yu: I hope we'll have more opportunities to spend time together. I want to get to know you better.
Yan Yi skipped straight past Su Yu's message and opened Shen Ting's. Covering his mouth with his right hand, he chuckled. That's you all right. As direct as ever.
[I hereby declare once again that Yan Yi and Shen Ting are the sweetest. No arguments accepted!]
[My ship is sailing both ways! I'm so happy, so happy.]
[Su Yu actually didn't text Emperor Si!]
[I was about to say that too. Even as a casual viewer, I feel bad for Emperor Si. It feels like he's been doing all the giving.]
[Yan Yi clearly isn't interested in Su Yu either, but Su Yu insists on pushing his way in.]
[You can't really put it that way, can you? There's nothing wrong with Su Yu wanting to get to know other people. After all, romance is about both sides making a choice.]
[Agreed, agreed.]
[You two above, don't tell me your dream guys or girls are stringing you along like this too.]
Su Weiwang's room was pitch-black. After sending his message, he closed his eyes.
Only when the phone beside him vibrated did Su Weiwang open his eyes again. In the light, his irises were coffee-brown.
Su Weiwang blinked and slowly reached out to pick up the phone.
Shen Rui: I'm sorry.
It was just a simple apology, but Su Weiwang could see sincerity in it.
Su Weiwang put down the phone, his expression unchanged. In truth, he did not care much about the matter involving the Su Family. What bothered him was that, once it came out, so many people knew who he was that even working part-time became inconvenient.
In the next room, Shen Rui had been watching the phone beside his pillow, something he rarely did.
His persistence paid off. Just as Shen Rui sighed and was about to give up, the phone vibrated.
Shen Rui picked it up.
Su Weiwang: Good night.
Shen Rui breathed a sigh of relief, settled into a proper sleeping position, placed his hands neatly over his abdomen, and closed his eyes.
[These two are kind of shippable too.]
[Su Weiwang is definitely a Socially Anxious Person like me. No doubt about it.]
[They both said so little, but somehow I understood everything. Why is that?]
[Same here. Shen Rui was apologizing for revealing Su Weiwang's identity without his permission, right?]
[Then why didn't he apologize to Su Yu? Double standards much?]
[Why don't you apologize to Shen Ting?]
[Exactly. Shen Rui was obviously backing up his little brother that day. It was only because both your fandoms said such nasty things and went too far.]
Meng Yun and Bai Yuanyuan texted each other.
Bai Yuanyuan: I hope you can be a little more manly tomorrow.
Meng Yun: Can't you be a little gentler?
They reacted exactly the same way upon receiving their messages, tossing their phones beside the bed and simply pretending they had not seen them. That brat/woman is talking nonsense. Who isn't gentle/manly?
Su Yu also received a text from Si Chen. He had expected it, so there was nothing surprising about it at all.
Si Chen: Yu, I believe you.
As Su Yu read the message, he could not help revealing a smug smile, his face turned away from the camera. He had Si Chen completely under his thumb.
Putting on a bashful expression, Su Yu turned and flopped onto the bed, hugging the blanket before poking his flushed little face out from under it.
Just then, Su Yu's personal phone beside him chimed as well.
Su Yu opened his phone, tapped the voice message, and deliberately turned on the speaker.
A rich voice came from the phone.
"Yu, I have a surprise for you tomorrow."
Looking curious, Su Yu sent a voice message back. "What surprise?"
"You'll find out tomorrow."
"All right, then." Su Yu's voice seemed full of disappointment.
The moment Su Yu finished speaking, the livestream went black.
[Could it be tomorrow's mystery guest?]
[Looks like it. Didn't you hear the director say tonight that some of them know the guest? And look how quickly they cut the feed. They were obviously afraid of leaking something.]
[Is it our baby Su Yu's friend?]
Last was Si Chen. Si Chen had not received a single text. He even suspected his phone was broken. Had the production team not assured him that it was working, he would have gone out to get it repaired.
The next morning, Shen Ting opened his eyes with a frown at the loud crowing of a rooster outside the courtyard. The early sunlight was not harsh, and he struggled to lift his heavy eyelids.
Downstairs, an enormous bronze gong stood beside the director.
Holding a huge mallet, the director struck it.
CLANG!!!
The tremendous sound reached everyone's ears.
Still in his pajamas, Shen Ting groggily opened his door and walked into the courtyard. The sight of the enormous bronze gong instantly woke him up considerably. No wonder it was so loud.
When Yan Yi came out of his room, he saw Shen Ting dressed in capybara pajamas. He probably had not tidied himself up much; a tuft of hair sticking up from his sleep still stood stubbornly upright.
Yan Yi pulled the not-yet-fully-awake Shen Ting to his side and tidied his hair for him. Only after making sure Shen Ting was fully awake did he let him return to his room to change.
By the time Shen Ting had changed and come back out, everyone was already in the courtyard.
The director stood imposingly in the middle of the courtyard with his arms folded, looking at the eight people before him.
Before you continue