Meng Xu stood on the steps of the front hall, holding a notebook and calling everyone over to register one by one.
Shen Yuzhou went up first and handed in two envelopes.
Cheng Yanqiu handed in three. Ji Shiyu handed in three. Lin Yanru handed in four. Jiang Wantang handed in five.
As for Pei Yubai... he only had the one task Qiguan Yuan had posted.
Meng Xu did some calculations in his notebook, then looked up.
"Jiang Wantang, first place. You get one special privilege at our next travel destination."
Shen Yuzhou leaned over. "What privilege?"
Meng Xu closed the notebook. "We'll talk about it when we get there."
Shen Yuzhou pursed his lips but didn't ask any more questions.
Cheng Yanqiu leaned against a pillar and watched Jiang Wantang with a little curiosity in her eyes, but said nothing.
Ji Shiyu stood nearby, eyes lowered, fingers pinching the corner of an envelope, knuckles turning slightly white.
Jiang Wantang stood apart from the group, still holding her round fan and gently fanning herself.
Her expression barely changed, but the corners of her mouth curved up slightly, so subtly that it was impossible to notice without looking closely.
Meng Xu clapped his hands. "All right, that's it for the rankings. You're free to do what you like for the rest of the day. Yue Lao Temple is quite large, so feel free to look around. Wait for the announcement about tonight's task."
Shen Yuzhou stretched. "Finally, we can take a break."
Cheng Yanqiu glanced at him. "You didn't run around that much."
Shen Yuzhou protested, "I ran around loads! Look, even my legs have gotten thinner!"
Cheng Yanqiu ignored him and turned toward the side hall.
Ji Shiyu hesitated, then followed Cheng Yanqiu, though at a slightly slower pace than usual. Lin Yanru stood where she was, looked around, and chose another path.
Jiang Wantang didn't follow anyone. She walked slowly along the covered corridor, lightly twirling the round fan in her hand, and paused at a corner.
She tilted her head to glance in the direction Ji Shiyu had gone, looking for only half a second before continuing on.
Pei Yubai was the first to move.
The moment Meng Xu finished speaking, he turned around. Not toward the matchmaking tree, where the other guests had all chosen to go, but toward the side hall.
He didn't walk fast, but his strides were long, carrying him across the front hall's courtyard in just a few steps.
The bullet comments immediately grew excited.
[Where's Pei Yubai going?]
[Pei, what are you off to do?]
[Is he going to the side hall?]
The livestream's viewer count jumped the instant Pei Yubai turned around.
It wasn't just because of Pei Yubai himself, though he had plenty of fans too, but because everyone knew the change in numbers had to do with Qiguan Yuan being in the side hall.
Becoming a fan of someone outside the entertainment industry was a pretty frustrating thing.
There was no super topic, no fan club, no studio, no schedule.
There wasn't even a basic verified account. You couldn't find any official channel through which to follow him. All you could do was wait in someone else's livestream for a shot that might never come.
That was how it was for Qiguan Yuan's fans.
They were scattered across several guests' livestreams, jumping back and forth as though constantly switching channels, just so they wouldn't miss footage that might last only a few seconds.
Some kept the livestream running in the background, going about their own business with their ears pricked, immediately switching over to watch whenever they heard Qiguan Yuan's name.
Besides his own fans, Pei Yubai's livestream was packed with these people.
And with casual viewers drawn in by the trending searches. They might have clicked out of simple curiosity, wanting to see what that "beauty in red on the matchmaking tree" actually looked like, only to find themselves unable to leave.
In short, there was no denying that, right now, Qiguan Yuan was the most popular person on the show.
By the time Pei Yubai reached the side hall's entrance, his livestream's viewer count had already dwarfed those of all the other guests combined.
Even some of the other guests' fans were coming over.
Occasionally, a comment drifted across:
[Shen Yuzhou fan reporting in.]
It was immediately followed by a whole row:
[Me too.]
[+1]
[+10086]
[Switching biases, switching biases.]
[This isn't switching biases. It's appreciating beauty.]
The same people were still in the side hall.
But Qiguan Yuan was no longer the one surrounded by them.
The fortune-reading table was still there, as were the vermilion brush and fortune sticks on it, but a monk now sat behind it.
It was the one they had seen while releasing sky lanterns last night. Dressed in red robes, his head shaved, he was interpreting a fortune stick for a worshipper.
His voice was quiet, his words indistinct, but his expression was calm.
Qiguan Yuan wasn't by the table.
Pei Yubai stood at the side hall's entrance and swept his gaze around. Then he spotted Qiguan Yuan.
He was inside the side hall, near the back door.
There was a wooden railing there, with the eaves overhead.
Qiguan Yuan sat on the railing, leaning against a pillar, one leg bent with his foot resting on the rail, the other dangling and swinging in midair.
He held a red thread, leisurely winding it around his finger.
His silver hair fell over his shoulders, stirred slightly by the breeze. His dark red robes looked deep in color in the shadows, like a mass of congealed blood.
His head was slightly lowered as he watched the red thread around his finger, his expression focused, as though he were doing something very important.
The moment Pei Yubai stepped into the side hall, Qiguan Yuan raised his head and looked straight at him.
Those pale eyes flashed in the shadows, like a cat's.
His hands didn't stop moving. The red thread wound around his index finger once, then again.
Pei Yubai's steps faltered.
Then he took out his phone and opened his own livestream.
The screen was densely packed with bullet comments. He couldn't make out what each one said, only swathes of text scrolling from right to left.
They moved fast, almost too fast to read.
The instant Qiguan Yuan looked his way, the comments doubled in speed.
Pei Yubai saw a barrage of comments flash across the screen:
[He looked over!]
[He's looking at Pei Yubai.]
[Is he looking at the camera?]
[Aaaaaah!]
He put his phone away and walked toward Qiguan Yuan.
He stopped in front of Qiguan Yuan. Seated on the railing, Qiguan Yuan was a little lower than him and tilted his head up slightly to look at him.
The question in his eyes was obvious-What are you here for?
Looking into those eyes, Pei Yubai felt his ears begin to grow warm.
But his expression barely changed, and his voice sounded much as it usually did. "There are a lot of your fans in my livestream. They wanted to see you, so I came over."
Qiguan Yuan tilted his head, silver hair slipping off his shoulder. "Fans?"
Pei Yubai considered how to explain. The word was so familiar to him, but to Qiguan Yuan, it was probably an entirely new concept.
From what he knew of Qiguan Yuan, it was obvious that Qiguan Yuan could practically be described as out of touch.
He seemed to know nothing about anything outside Cloud-Hidden Village.
"People who like you. They watch videos of you online, take screenshots, and talk about you. Since you don't have Weibo or an account, they can only wait for you to appear in the livestreams."