Gao Yuan swiftly glanced at Zhou Yang, then whispered to Chi Li, "Is he talking to you?"
"No idea." Chi Li shook his head, not even bothering to look at him. "Humans can't understand dogs."
The corners of Shen Xunye's mouth slowly lifted.
Fuck...
Zhou Yang swore inwardly, but continued earnestly, "I really have your best interests at heart."
Chi Li rolled his eyes at him.
Shen Xunye, however, was very curious. "I'm new too. Why do you only have his best interests at heart? Isn't such blatant favoritism a bit much?"
Zhou Yang: "..."
He really wanted to throw the truth in Shen Xunye's face.
Chi Li was my ex-boyfriend, who I spent three loving months with!
Sure, something unpleasant happened last night, but a good gong doesn't fight with his shou. I won't hold it against him.
But who the hell are you?
So tall and so handsome-you came here to steal my audience!
You should count yourself lucky I haven't driven you out, and you still expect me to be nice?
"Hmm?" When he didn't answer, Shen Xunye tilted his head questioningly.
Zhou Yang suppressed his impulse and forced a smile. "Chi Li and I know each other better, so I wanted to look after him a little more."
"Not looking after your senior anymore?" Jiang Lele added with a faint, ambiguous smile as he passed.
"Ahem... My senior's always the one looking after me." Zhou Yang scratched his head awkwardly. "You could say I'm carrying on his fine virtues."
"Keep chatting, and your senior's fine virtues are going to disappear," Gao Yuan kindly reminded him.
Zhou Yang: "..."
Remembering the contents of last night's "meeting," he hurriedly abandoned the idea of chatting with Chi Li and rushed to the kitchen.
By the time the food over there had all been served, Chi Li and the other two had finished eating.
As they cleared their table and left the dining room, Chi Li noticed that Fang Jin wasn't among the people eating at the other end.
He turned into the restroom, took out his phone, found the show, and opened Fang Jin's individual livestream.
Judging by the room's furnishings, he was in his own dorm room, seemingly... writing a song?
Without hesitation, Chi Li switched straight to the main livestream.
Sure enough, it was showing the four of them eating and chatting.
And the subject of their conversation was Fang Jin.
"Should I dish up some food and take it upstairs for Senior Fang?" Zhou Yang looked a little worried.
Xie Weishui put on a reluctant expression. "What? He throws a tantrum, and we're supposed to grovel and coax him?"
Wei Xuan kicked him while he was down. "Exactly! I think he's forgotten who really calls the shots in this house."
Jiang Lele voiced the question the viewers were curious about. "Why exactly is he angry?"
That little exchange amused Chi Li.
Xie Weishui had probably put quite a lot of thought into giving the plot its twists and turns.
If Chi Li were a viewer, he really would have been drawn into watching more.
Unfortunately, he wasn't.
Chi Li left the livestream and slipped his phone back into his pocket.
After a quiet morning, it really was time for some "confrontation," or the show would start getting boring.
But it was still too early to sell that half-baked BL fanservice with Shen Xunye, so he could only start somewhere else.
Fang Jin, for instance.
Chi Li left the restroom, avoided any possible lines of sight from the dining room, and headed upstairs straight to Fang Jin's room.
Knock, knock, knock-
He knocked softly on the door three times.
About thirty seconds later, the door opened from inside.
"It's you?" Surprise was plain on Fang Jin's face.
"It's me." Chi Li flashed a standard professional smile. "I haven't seen you all morning... I wanted to check how you're doing. Can I come in and have a look?"
Fang Jin hesitated for a few seconds before stepping aside to make room, gesturing for Chi Li to enter.
He took a disposable cup, filled it with water, and handed it to Chi Li. "I'm fine. Thanks for checking on me."
Chi Li accepted the water and openly surveyed the room's decor.
The main color in Fang Jin's room was a cool gray, giving it a cold, unapproachable feel.
Yet the walls were covered with several posters of Skeleton, a band known for being "wild and unrestrained."
"Actually..." Chi Li drew his gaze away from the posters and looked at Fang Jin, his tone sincere. "I came to apologize."
Before coming, Chi Li had already thought up a reason for himself.
Fang Jin gathered up the lyric sheets scattered across the desk and asked casually, "Apologize for what?"
"That." Chi Li pointed to the shopping bag in the corner containing a green hat. "I'm really sorry. I actually don't bear you that much malice."
"...Then who do you bear that much malice toward?" Fang Jin asked reflexively.
"You can probably tell." Chi Li lowered his head and took a small sip of water before continuing, "Zhou Yang, and Xie Weishui."
Fang Jin glanced up at the camera on the wall and lowered his voice. "Did you think about the consequences before saying that?"
Since the advent of livestream variety shows, viewers had become considerably more tolerant of celebrities who "kept it real," but someone who openly declared their dislike for their "seniors" as soon as they appeared on a show would most likely still be labeled as having "no emotional intelligence."
That wouldn't do him the slightest good during the rest of filming.
[I could tell yesterday. My wife is someone who loves and hates fiercely. [Smitten]]
[You have to dare to love and hate! Saying it openly is better than screwing people over behind their backs.]
[But isn't this way too disrespectful to his seniors?]
[What seniors? They're just coworkers filming a show together. Tell me, who likes their coworkers? [Eye roll]]
[Protect my wife's freedom to hate people!]
"I thought you'd ask why first." Chi Li leaned back in his chair, relaxed.
"That doesn't matter."
Fang Jin was indeed somewhat curious about that.
But with hundreds of thousands of eyes watching, he still wanted to preserve a little privacy for Chi Li.
Besides, liking or disliking someone was very subjective. Just as he... felt nothing in particular toward Zhou Yang and Xie Weishui.
Chi Li raised his hand straight up. "I'm curious about something."
Fang Jin: "...Go ahead."
"You and them... why didn't you eat together today?" Chi Li asked, his gaze sincere.
Eat...
Fang Jin immediately checked the time in the bottom-right corner of his computer screen.
Crap... Xie Weishui should be bringing food up any minute now.
But finding an excuse to send Chi Li away now would be too abrupt.
"I had a minor disagreement with someone." Fang Jin gathered his scattered thoughts and gave an "official" explanation.
"Whatever the disagreement was, I still think... Xie Weishui isn't one of your kind."
[[OMG] Are we really going for a topic this spicy?]
[This hottie doesn't just have a hot body, he's got a fiery temper too. He's openly sowing discord just like that. [Drool]]
[I'm done for. He's so bad, so why don't I dislike him at all...]
[Because he's openly telling everyone he's bad... That's so much better than people who won't fully commit to being bad...]
[It's not that complicated. You're just letting his face dictate your morals.]
[Hehe, am I the only one looking forward to the three-way confrontation when Xie Weishui brings the food up later?]