Red beans grow in the south, male models come from Shandong

After Yin Zhengchuan finished speaking, his eyes darted around in panic. He hardly dared look Wei Zisu in the eye, and both his ears had turned bright red.

Wei Zisu froze for a moment, then said, "I meant that I need suppressants and scent-blocking patches, but I don't know my way around here. Could I trouble you to take me to a pharmacy?"

Yin Zhengchuan: ...

"Yes, of course." His toes silently curled with embarrassment as he struggled to keep smiling. "What I meant was, I'm always ready to go to the pharmacy with you."

"Thank you."

They had breakfast in Yin Zhengchuan's parents' courtyard again. Wei Zisu sat beside Qin Qin, and Yin Baozhu shoved aside her brother, who had been about to sit on Wei Zisu's other side. She happily sat down and hugged Wei Zisu's arm.

Yin Zhengchuan was about to lose his temper, but a glare from Yin Changjun stopped him. He could only sit sulkily across from Wei Zisu.

This couldn't go on. That brat would definitely keep pushing her luck. Today she dared hug Wei Zisu's arm; tomorrow she'd dare kiss his cheek.

Yin Zhengchuan seriously considered what excuse might convince his parents to make Yin Baozhu board at school.

After breakfast, Yin Baozhu eagerly took Wei Zisu to her little courtyard. Yin Zhengchuan intended to follow, but his sister ruthlessly refused.

"Brother Zisu," Yin Baozhu wrote on a portable whiteboard, "I have something to show you!"

"What is it?" Wei Zisu asked.

Yin Baozhu took his hand and led him into her bedroom. The sight before him startled Wei Zisu so much that he nearly gasped.

The little girl's bedroom walls were covered with posters and photos of Wei Zisu. Even her exquisite alcove bed had several neat rows of little stickers of Wei Zisu dressed as a mermaid.

Yin Baozhu dashed into the alcove bed and scooped four or five cotton dolls of different sizes off the quilt. The largest was about half a meter tall, while the smallest was only twenty centimeters.

Although the cotton dolls all had cartoonish features, he recognized them at a glance from their hairstyles and outfits: they were dolls based on characters he had played. One of them was the little mermaid.

Yin Baozhu stuffed the dolls into his arms, then ran over to the desk, pulled open a drawer, and took out a whole pile of boxes.

Wei Zisu noticed several ball-jointed dolls on the desk, too, all made in his likeness.

"What are these?" Wei Zisu asked, looking at the little boxes while holding his cotton dolls.

Yin Baozhu opened the boxes one by one. They were all filled with merchandise of him, too.

There were crystal standees, liquid glitter photo frames, and even solid gold keychains and badges.

Wei Zisu said, "These..."

Yin Baozhu wrote on the whiteboard, "I made all of these myself!"

"You made them yourself?" Wei Zisu asked in surprise.

Yin Baozhu nodded vigorously, her face begging for praise.

Wei Zisu knew Yin Baozhu was his fan, but he had never imagined she liked him this much.

Baozhu kept scribbling away on the whiteboard. "Brother Zisu, I've made lots and lots of merchandise of you, but things often disappear for no reason. I once made a solid gold badge that was my best work, but that disappeared too. It broke my heart."

"Where did you lose it?" Wei Zisu asked with a smile. "Did you drop it on the street and someone picked it up?"

It was gold. Anyone who found it certainly wouldn't return it.

But Yin Baozhu wrote, "I never took it outside. It disappeared at home! Hmph, there must be a thief in the family!"

Wei Zisu had only just replied to Director Zhang that morning to agree to join the couples' variety show when Director Zhang sent him his old classmate's WeChat contact that afternoon.

Liu Fan, a well-known variety show director in the industry.

He would stop at nothing for the sake of the show. In his eyes, guests were tools for attracting viewers. With viewers came traffic, and with traffic came the confidence to do as he pleased.

He had once made a young couple who had only recently gotten together climb Mount Tai on a Dating Reality Show.

As everyone knew, when people were utterly exhausted, not only would they stop hiding their emotions, but their dissatisfaction with their partner would also be magnified.

So before the couple had even made it halfway up, they began arguing, and eventually even came to blows. The Alpha said the Omega was constipated every day and spent longer taking a shit than putting on makeup. The Omega said the Alpha was soft and didn't last long, with the main event shorter than the foreplay.

Unsurprisingly, the couple broke up, but the viewers had an absolute blast watching the drama.

That was exactly the effect Director Liu wanted.

So he definitely wasn't up to any good in choosing these three couples this time, either.

Wei Zisu wasn't afraid, though. He would deal with whatever came his way. However bad things got, could they be worse than his current obscurity?

If the show became a hit, that would be good for him, too. If he put out word on the show that he was looking for his younger brother, it might actually help.

Director Liu said they would officially announce the guest list that evening and told them to get ready. If viewers were excited enough, filming might start ahead of schedule.

As the entertainment industry's first reality show about married couples, Still in Love had already attracted plenty of attention. Once the guest list came out, it sparked even more heated discussion online, sending three hashtags trending in a row.

#Still in Love guest list#

#Wei Zisu and Sun Liang couples reality show#

#Still in Love's battlefield lineup#

[No retirement till death: Hahahaha, what's going on with Zhu Zhu and their spouse? Are they getting divorced or not? We're all waiting for the drama!]

[Princess Zhenzhen: Excuse me, what do you mean, Wei Zisu and Sun Liang couples reality show? It's our Zhenzhen and Sun Liang who are joining as a married couple, okay? That bitch Wei Zisu really will latch onto anything for attention!]

[Boogers for dinner: Hard not to suspect the production team deliberately made that trending hashtag to stir things up. As a casual observer, I honestly don't think this has anything to do with Wei Zisu.]

[No need to report my shits: Oh my god, oh my god! I'm so excited for this show, aaaaaah!! Two people who were engaged for three years broke it off, each married someone else, and now they're going on the same show. Will they become bitter enemies or rekindle their old flame?]

[Wildly off the charts: To the person above, shipping everything will only give you... a balanced diet. I bet a pack of spicy strips that Liang-Su will rekindle their old flame on the show!]

[Zhenzhen the princess: Have that slut Wei's fans still not died out? Now they're pretending to be casual observers. If he weren't Sun Liang's ex-fiancée, would the production team have invited an obscure nobody like him?]

[Boogers for dinner: Yuan Zizhen's fans are so rude. They say fans reflect their idol, and now I'm starting to wonder if Yuan Zizhen's public persona is fake.]

[Piss-filled water gun: Wait, has nobody noticed that only Wei Zisu's husband doesn't have a promotional photo?]

Only after that reminder did everyone take a proper look at the guest information.

They had been so busy discussing the love triangle between Wei Zisu, Yuan Zizhen, and Sun Liang that they had forgotten Wei Zisu was married, too, and that his husband was a mysterious man they couldn't dig up anything about.

The production team seemed to know everyone was curious about him, so they mischievously decided to keep the mystery going all the way. The other five introductions all had photos, but in Wei Zisu's husband's introduction, the photo was replaced with a red question mark.

Even worse, the others' ages and occupations were all listed, while Wei Zisu's husband's introduction contained only a single line-

Wei Zisu's Alpha, Mr. Yin, from Shandong.

They looked farther down... and that was it.

[No retirement till death: Wait, that's it?]

[Princess Zhenzhen: What a joke. His background must be too embarrassing to show, so they're doing this on purpose. I heard Wei Zisu married an Alpha assigned by the state. Ha, how could an Alpha assigned by the state be any good?]

[No need to report my shits: Oh no, now I'm even more curious. I'm definitely watching this show!!]

[Plus one!]

[Plus one!!]

[Plus 10086!]

[Princess Zhenzhen: People from Shandong are all so tacky, and their dialect sounds ridiculous, too. Wei Zisu really isn't afraid of embarrassing himself, bringing him on the show.]

[Turkey-flavored rice crackers: I've heard that too. People from Shandong are provincial in everything they do, and they love eating scallions. I can practically smell them through the screen!]

[Great Sage Equal to Heaven's bleeding heart: That's not necessarily true. Haven't you heard, "Red beans grow in the south, male models come from Shandong"?]