To keep Duan Xuanyu from making trouble, exposing his identity, and getting hauled off to be studied, Su Mian did what she could.
She nodded and humored him. "Yes."
Duan Xuanyu held her gaze for half a minute.
He looked like an aggrieved husband. "You're lying to me. This is clearly socialism. You don't have an emperor."
Su Mian: "..."
Why ask if you already know!
He'd only transmigrated a few days ago, and he'd already learned bad habits!
He'd even learned to run sting operations!
[Hahaha, he's so immersed in playing an ancient emperor!]
[He really seems like an emperor who came to modern times and is learning to be a modern person! There's this contradictory mix of ancient and modern about him!]
In the end, the host, Yin Xiaohong, explained that these were the rules.
Once they were on the show, they had to respect the rules.
Only after Su Mian also shot him a glare did Duan Xuanyu reluctantly put the money away.
Yin Xiaohong continued, "Guests without living funds can borrow money from the production team first. It'll simply be deducted from the prize money you win in later competitions."
"Next is today's room assignment segment."
"To increase intimate contact between the male and female guests, the production team has prepared three rooms, each with only one bed."
"The top floor has a luxury king room, the second floor has a standard king room, and the bottom floor has an ultra-minimalist single room."
Fang Nuonuo blushed. "Oh my gosh, there's only one bed in each room? Sharing a bed on the very first day we meet-isn't that a little inappropriate...?"
[Aaaah, our goddess is so innocent! I don't even want to talk about the other two female guests!]
[Haha, certain gold diggers probably get no love in real life and are just waiting for a show to give them access to men~]
Su Mian unscrewed the container of water steeped with her ex-boyfriend's head.
She poured herself a glass of water.
Then she said languidly, "They only said we share a room. They never said staying overnight in it was mandatory. You can kick your roommate out."
[Sis Mian is the truly innocent one. She didn't even think about men and women sleeping together, okay!]
[Some people see one room and immediately think of sleeping together. Ewww, shame, shame.]
Backstage, Lu Zhou monitored the live comments in real time.
Why was Su Mian actually starting to have fans defending her?
Her account had also slowly grown from four thousand followers to ten thousand!
He had planned this dating show to teach that gold digger Su Mian a lesson.
Surely he wouldn't end up making her successful through some bizarre twist of fate?
Lu Zhou's expression grew uglier and uglier.
On set, Yin Xiaohong gave an awkward smile and continued explaining the rules:
"For our room assignments, the guest who has obtained the most living funds gets first choice. Roommates will be decided by drawing lots."
With that, she had everyone draw lots.
The box Su Mian drew from had been rigged. There was absolutely no way she could draw Duan Xuanyu.
In the end, Su Mian drew Lin Xi and chose the luxury room.
Duan Xuanyu was just about to object when Su Mian raised a hand to cover her mouth and whispered, "Don't worry. I won't stay in the same room as him. I'll kick him out."
Only then was Duan Xuanyu satisfied.
He drew Fang Nuonuo and chose the worst room, the ultra-minimalist single.
That left Gu Yichen and Cheng Qin sharing the standard single room.
That evening, each pair of guests returned to their room.
Fang Nuonuo walked into the ultra-minimalist single room, took a look, and inadvertently revealed an expectant smile.
She had already asked Lu Zhou in private.
Although all three male guests were either rich or influential, the Duan Family that Duan Xuanyu belonged to was a top-tier wealthy family. Its wealth wasn't on the same level as the other two's.
Lu Zhou also hoped she would win one of them over, tie herself closely to him, and hype up their CP.
She could weed out those previous fans with no financial value and gradually bring in some valuable CP fans.
The person she most wanted to tie herself to and hype a CP with was Duan Xuanyu.
His temper was a little strange, admittedly.
But that didn't matter. An anime otaku was just a kid.
Once she chatted with him about anime, she would surely capture his heart in no time!
And in the room he had chosen, the bed was right inside the door. There wasn't even room to stand!
There wasn't even a chance to sleep on the floor!
Duan Xuanyu would definitely sleep with her.
Yet... Fang Nuonuo waited in vain for most of the night!
Duan Xuanyu sat on the sofa in the communal area outside, reading for most of the night!
[Our goddess is waiting in the room, and he's out there reading? What a poser!]
[It's a persona. He's showing off. Tch, I don't believe men still like reading in this day and age.]
[He deliberately left the room all to Nuonuo. He dotes on her so much-he really has fallen for her!]
[...Has it occurred to you that he might not be going to the room because he can't stand your goddess?]
Duan Xuanyu had no idea what cultivating a persona meant.
He only knew that these were all books the empress had packed for him before he left, to help him understand this era.
Once he had learned everything, he would return home hand in hand with his empress and build up Northern Liang!
On the top floor.
Su Mian had no intention of standing on ceremony. She flopped straight onto the bed.
As expected of the most luxurious room!
What a soft, huge bed! It was even more comfortable than the dragon bed she had slept in back then!
Lin Xi stood beside the bed, his face full of disdain. "There is absolutely no way I'm sharing a bed with you."
Su Mian didn't even lift her head. "Then what do we do?"
Lin Xi said, "You go sleep outside!"
Su Mian said, "But I'm the whole reason you're even eligible to enter this room. If anyone's leaving, it should be you."
Lin Xi stared hard at her.
Why should I indulge this gold digger?
He flopped straight onto the bed too!
Let's see who gets embarrassed and gets lost first!
Su Mian silently climbed out of bed.
Lin Xi's lips curled up. Heh, giving in first after all, aren't you?
The next second, Su Mian kicked him right off the bed!
Clutching his backside, Lin Xi scrambled up and demanded through gritted teeth, "What? You won't share a bed with me because you look down on me for being poor?"
"..." Su Mian took a deep breath.
She had rested enough. It was time to show her ugly side and earn Disgust Points.
Su Mian asked him calmly, "You said you deliver food. How many orders do you deliver a day?"
Lin Xi said, "A dozen or so!"
Su Mian said, "Wait, you only deliver a dozen or so orders, and you have the nerve to say it? With such a proud look on your face, too? I deliver more than you when I do it part-time between shoots."
"You don't work hard, and you're nothing special to look at. So you're just plain poor?"
"Or are you actually a rich kid pretending to be poor to test women?"
Lin Xi choked, a flicker of panic flashing through his eyes.
Su Mian clicked her tongue and shook her head. "If that's really what you're doing, you're trash among trash."
"We female guests don't even have any emotional foundation with you yet, and you're already pretending to be poor to test us, hoping we'll suffer alongside you?"
"Then wouldn't you get even worse once there really are feelings involved?"
"Wouldn't you live off my food and drink, take my money to speculate in stocks, and refuse to let me mention money even when my mom gets sick, manipulating me by calling me a gold digger whenever I bring it up?"
"What gives you the right?"
"You're utterly shameless. I want to list you on an online store for a flash sale."
Under her barrage, Lin Xi's face kept going pale.
"Waaahhh..."
He cried.
Tears sprayed out like diarrhea.
[Well said! Some people keep saying, "I don't want you to love my money," but the point is, you don't have any other good qualities besides money.]
[I can never stomach those novels where the husband is the richest man alive pretending to be poor! Marriage needs honesty!]
[Sis Mian's being so specific. Did she go through this? No wonder she chopped off her ex-boyfriend's head and steeped it in water. I'd do the same!]
Backstage, Lu Zhou's expression was even uglier than Lin Xi's.
He couldn't shake the feeling that Su Mian... could she have found something out?
No, impossible.
If she knew he was rich, how could she have broken up with him so decisively?
Heh, Su Mian, you really know how to manipulate men!
Listening to Lin Xi cry, Su Mian stared unblinkingly at the Disgust Points panel.
Up, up, up... ninety!
Oh yeah!
She opened her mouth, wanting to insult him a little more and make one last push to max out his Disgust Points.
Suddenly, someone downstairs shouted, "Fire! Fire!"