Xie Zhuzhou hadn't taken any of it in. He was still wondering whether the director wouldn't cover lunch either. They were working this hard, and meals weren't even included? Outrageous!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
Both timid and angry.
Director, you've messed with me, and you've really... kicked a wad of cotton.
Leaning on his stick, Xie Zhuzhou gritted his teeth and increasingly regretted wearing a hoodie. He had barely started climbing and had already given up over a hundred times in his head.
Partway up, Xie Zhuzhou simply found a large rock and sat down, his arm muscles instinctively moving to pull out his phone.
His fingers entered his passcode so quickly they blurred.
The moment he opened it, he saw that someone in the class group chat had tagged him, asking him to change his nickname to his own name.
Sweat blurred Xie Zhuzhou's vision, and he was already feeling dizzy and muddleheaded. Faced with the class monitor's questions, he dazedly tapped the upper-left corner and changed his name.
Then, when he backed out, he watched the group chat's name become his own.
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
Damn! Might as well just die.
Could anything in life be more socially mortifying? Did they know how devastating this was for someone with social anxiety?!
Xie Zhuzhou's fingertips trembled slightly as he watched the class monitor change his name back to the class name. He had embarrassed himself in front of his whole class. His classmates would forget, right?
Xie Zhuzhou pressed his lips together, his face taut, looking cold and distant.
He sat on the rock. When Wen Nan saw him again, he began to suspect that this person was deliberately trying to get his attention. Why else would he deliberately stop and wait for him?
At that thought, Wen Nan's lips curved slightly before a hint of disdain followed. Tsk, thinking a trick like this could attract his attention? Wishful thinking. He had seen plenty of people like that in the entertainment industry.
Xie Zhuzhou got up again and walked past him without so much as a glance.
But Wen Nan believed he must have looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
He thought Xie Zhuzhou would keep waiting for him, little knowing that the thought of changing the group chat's name had already sent Xie Zhuzhou's emotions straight through the top of his head.
Even the few people in the livestream who noticed Xie Zhuzhou were quickly drowned out by the big names' fans.
Xie Zhuzhou only made it halfway up the mountain before decisively giving up. The director hadn't told him he couldn't quit, anyway.
With a shift in his thoughts, he turned back, brushing past Wen Nan and disappearing like a gust of wind.
Wen Nan glanced at him indifferently, but still committed that face to memory.
The director really did have a good eye, hiring even staff this handsome.
Director Wang hadn't noticed what Wen Nan was thinking.
But when he finally saw Xie Zhuzhou disappear from the camera, he knew Xie Zhuzhou was a slacker!
For the sake of the guests' safety, there wasn't much he could say. He couldn't force a guest to push beyond his physical limits. Who would take responsibility if something happened?
Xie Zhuzhou descended at top speed, his legs feeling weak and unsteady. As a homebody, he was all too aware of his own limitations.
It took him twenty minutes to get back to Director Wang.
Xie Zhuzhou wiped his sweat with a handkerchief, panting hard, his eyes holding a touch of both ease and apprehension.
Director Wang had no time to lecture him for now. He had just switched the camera to Zhang Yin and Xuelai. The handsome man and beautiful woman looked very well matched, and the livestream viewers were shipping them like crazy.
In the split screen, the two Wens bringing up the rear were still competing in secret. Even sworn enemies like these could get people shipping them. Director Wang felt more and more that his arrangements were excellent.
Xie Zhuzhou didn't know what to do, but he really wanted to go back. And he still hadn't had lunch.
As his stomach growled with hunger, he suddenly spotted the open snack shop by the main entrance. His mouth watered, and his Adam's apple bobbed.
Having finished assigning the camera feeds, Director Wang was just about to say something when he saw that the figure sitting beside him moments earlier had already turned into a dotted outline.
Just as he was about to unleash a boss's fury and make a wage slave tremble, he saw Xie Zhuzhou return with two skewered hot dogs and offer him one.
Forget it. I'll scold him next time.
Once again escaping Director Wang's loving guidance, Xie Zhuzhou obediently found a folding stool and sat a little distance from Director Wang, somewhere he wouldn't be in the way, eating his hot dog.
The embarrassment had already happened. Xie Zhuzhou contemplated the beauty of life. It's fine. A person's whole life passes in a few blinks of the eyes.
The philosophical Xie Zhuzhou had no idea that, no matter how much he relegated himself to the background, people who knew him would still recognize him.
In a men's dorm room at University A, Xie Zhuzhou's college roommates were watching Love 5. They had caught several fleeting glimpses of his figure, along with that indistinct face.
These roommates felt they could never forget this outrageously handsome rich second-generation heir.
The shoes on Xie Zhuzhou's feet alone were a limited edition, twenty-three thousand a pair, suitable for hiking, running, and ball games.
It was also those shoes that confirmed to Xie Zhuzhou's roommates that it was him.
"How rich does this guy have to be to play an extra on a dating show packed with big shots?"
"Hahaha, you guys missed Xie Zhuzhou changing the group chat name just now."
"Really? Let me see."
"Hahahahaha, Xie Zhuzhou is way too funny!"
"Never thought we'd see the day Xie Zhuzhou gave us something to laugh about."
University A's campus heartthrob happened to be passing their dorm room. Hearing Xie Zhuzhou's name, he froze for a moment, his footsteps halting. After a slight frown, he quickly left.
The subject of their gossip, Xie Zhuzhou looked up at the sun, whipped out his handkerchief, then lowered his head and sneezed hard.
So boring...
In the past, Xie Zhuzhou had passed the time by reading storybooks and travelogues.
In his previous life, the estates and shops under his name had brought in quite a bit of silver every month, all of which he had spent on books. He wondered what his father would think after his death upon seeing that his son loved storybooks so much.
As he thought about it, his face grew redder and redder. He remembered that his servant had accidentally collected a few books of erotic illustrations for him.
Father wouldn't discover them, would he?
Right, he didn't even care about this son of his. He definitely wouldn't know.
For the first time, Xie Zhuzhou fervently prayed that the father he only vaguely remembered wouldn't pay him so much attention. After all, how was this any different from forgetting to delete his porn search history before dying?
People who overthought things were always liable to give themselves internal injuries from bottling everything up. So he got up again and went to the bakery by the main entrance, bought a few more baked buns, and returned to find the director staring at him dolefully.
Reluctant though Xie Zhuzhou was, he ultimately offered up the pineapple bun that looked the largest.
Thinking of how easily he would earn a million over these two months, Xie Zhuzhou felt less reluctant.
Director Wang: ...
After eating the bun someone else had bought, the little bit of anger in Director Wang's heart vanished. This wasn't Xie Zhuzhou's fault, after all. During postproduction editing, there was only so much screen time each person could get, and on a show packed with big names, one careless moment could get an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. Having little screen time also... counted as a bit of peace of mind.
The mature Director Wang soothed himself.
Xie Zhuzhou bit into his bun, feeling that eating outdoors gave him a good appetite.
The mountaintop
Zhuang Xingye noticed that Xie Zhuzhou hadn't appeared again since falling behind. He had originally thought he might have a competitor, but it seemed that was all he amounted to!
The others took their time and didn't reach the summit until after twelve.
Zhuang Xingye had only taken first place, without completing the hidden mission. Zhang Yin had already guessed what the mission involved and thus easily learned several guests' hobbies and occupations.