The message was sent.
Bai Luochuan felt great.
He put away his phone and let out a breath. When he turned to look beside him, Chen Miao's face had already turned green.
But he still gave him no time for a lecture.
Bai Luochuan pointed outside.
He said, "I see the crew over there is already waiting, so I won't waste their time. Thanks for driving me here, Chen. I'm off to work."
As the words left his mouth,
he had already dashed out of the car as fast as he could.
The filming location was a sprawling manor, with a three-story building that looked a little like a fairy-tale castle.
A huge garden surrounded the white building.
As expected of a big-budget production from a major company.
They had certainly gone all out.
Before Bai Luochuan could enter the garden, however, a staff member called him aside.
"You can pick one of these mascot heads, and one of the rings over here."
The staff member explained, "When the guests meet for the first time in a bit, everyone will have to wear a mascot head and use a voice changer."
Bai Luochuan: ?
When he had read the program outline Chen Miao gave him earlier, there hadn't seemed to be anything like this in it.
Seemingly sensing his confusion,
the staff member continued, "This segment was added at the last minute. There will be similar segments throughout the show, too. We won't be following that brief outline we gave you to the letter."
After all, the whole point of this livestreamed dating show was to show the guests at their most authentic.
Bai Luochuan thought it over and decided that seemed reasonable enough.
So he gave a slight nod.
He didn't dwell on it any further.
He turned to pick out a mask off to the side. Meanwhile, in a luxury van in the parking lot not far from him, Qi Yu's golden eyes were half closed, his bearing once again as cold and regal as ever.
Sitting opposite him, Lu Ran asked him again, "Are you really going on this kind of attention-grabbing variety show?"
Qi Yu didn't answer.
Not even the indifferent expression on his face changed.
His stance was clear.
Now that he was here, there was no way he would change his mind.
Lu Ran could only sigh.
Changing the question, he said, "Covering your faces, changing your voices, and spending a little time together will let you confirm whether he's your wife?"
This time, Qi Yu finally lifted his eyelids a little.
He gave Lu Ran a look full of sympathy.
Qi Yu: "You've never been in love."
Lu Ran: "Right? So..."
Qi Yu: "So you wouldn't understand."
Lu Ran: "..."
Fine.
You've been in love.
You dated someone online for years.
You've never even met him once. Look how proud you are.
Qi Yu said nothing more. He simply pinned up his long, silvery-white hair, then picked up the large cartoon mascot head beside him and put it on.
Only after making sure his face was completely concealed did he open the door and get out, satisfied.
That person hadn't contacted him for many days.
He didn't know why.
But that didn't matter.
Whether that person was his wife or not, he needed to meet him.
If he was his lover, he would hurry up and get a firm hold on him, take him home, and marry him, so he could never run away from his side again.
If he wasn't...
Then he would ask him where his lover was.
After all, he had spent the first half of his life fighting on battlefields and had plenty of ways to deal with tight-lipped enemy soldiers.
He was just a minor actor.
Getting an answer out of him would be all too easy.
Half an hour later.
All the guests were in place.
The livestream began, and a flood of comments instantly swept across the screen:
[What's going on? Why are all the guests wearing mascot heads? I want to see my fave! Take them off already!]
[What stunt is the production team pulling now? Who exactly is the mystery guest? The stream's already started and you're still hiding him? Believe it or not, I... totally fall for this stuff!]
[I mean, the mascot heads are kind of pointless, aren't they? I've been following celebrities for years. You think I can't recognize my crush by his build?]
[I'll go first! The fox and the lion are definitely both Alphas! You can tell just from their builds! Comparing the two... the fox has to be Yan Cheng! His figure is way better than the lion's!]
[+1! Yan Cheng, baby, when did your persona become a fox? Trying to throw us off like this? Boohoo, but I love the fox too!]
[Yan Cheng's official height is 185 cm. I feel like the fox is over 190. Did Yan Cheng underreport his height?]
[Isn't it just that the lion is under 180?]
[The raccoon cat should be a Beta, but I can't really tell with the other three...]
[The little yellow chick is definitely an Omega! Holy shit, with that figure, I'm calling him my wife!]
[Bullshit! That's clearly my wife!]
[The little yellow chick is definitely Lan Muxing! Yan Cheng, lock down your wife! I could ship Chengxing for the rest of my life!]
The intensity of the discussion in the comments was even more feverish than the production team had initially anticipated.
Seeing this, the host immediately walked over to the guests.
He explained the opening arrangements to everyone.
They had a time limit of half an hour.
The guests could talk freely with one another.
But they could not reveal their real identities, nor deliberately steer the conversation toward asking anyone else's real identity.
If they wanted to pair up with someone for the first day's date, they could give that person the ring they had received at the start.
If that person accepted the ring and gave their own ring in return, the two would be successfully paired up for a date.
A refusal or failure to give a ring in return would both count as a failed match.
After half an hour, the next activity would be announced based on the pairings.
Put plainly, this was a chance to establish a persona.
After all, most of the other guests had joined this show for popularity.
Someone like Bai Luochuan, who was only in it for the money...
There probably really wasn't another one.
So the moment the host announced the start of the activity, the person wearing the cat head spoke up. "Although the rules say we can't reveal our real identities, we do need to find someone to pair up with. Why don't we introduce ourselves and talk about our hobbies first?"
That was indeed a good suggestion.
Bai Luochuan looked at him.
Judging by what he had learned about this world over the past few days, there was definitely an Omega beneath that cat head.
A slim waist and long legs.
His exposed hands were slender, their skin fair and soft.
Although his voice had been electronically processed, making its original timbre impossible to discern,
judging by his tone, he seemed accustomed to speaking in that sort of coy manner.
At his suggestion, everyone chimed in with agreement.
As for the hobbies they mentioned, they were mostly things like sports, singing, growing flowers, and keeping pets.
Soon, just about everyone around him had spoken.
It was Bai Luochuan's turn.
All the animal heads turned toward him.
Bai Luochuan thought for two seconds, then answered earnestly, "Nothing special. I just love playing with men."
Before you continue