“What happened to D?”
“I feel like his mood has been terrible these past two days.”
“When has the Young Master ever looked happy since joining the show? Hahaha.”
The second person selected was Xu Tiaotiao.
The production team asked her friend about her ideal type, and her friend also answered: “Someone like Xiang Lingyun.”
In the span of a very short time, Xiang Lingyun had achieved a double kill.
It was difficult not to develop a sense of superiority over the other male guests. Even his posture straightened noticeably.
His fans became arrogant as well.
“We told you! Ling Ge is a straight-girl killer!”
Neither Chu Wei nor Wen Zhenghan felt good about this.
If this had happened before, they would never have taken seriously the claim that Shen Fu’s ideal type was someone like Xiang Lingyun.
But they had only learned last night that Xiang Lingyun had apparently dated Shen Fu before!
If that was true, then perhaps her “white moonlight” type really was someone like him.
Comparison and jealousy were human instincts.
Even these two men, who had already reached the peak of the entertainment industry, could not escape them.
Wen Zhenghan suddenly recalled Shen Fu’s performance in The Galaxy of Drama.
He involuntarily began comparing himself to Xiang Lingyun, searching for similarities between them.
Could it be…
Had Shen Fu treated him as a substitute for Xiang Lingyun?
Even though he and Xiang Lingyun were not alike at all, the absurd thought flashed into Wen Zhenghan’s mind and stubbornly refused to leave.
The audience could only see Wen Zhenghan sitting there, lost in thought, his expression growing greener and darker.
Chu Wei was much more direct.
He laughed twice from inside the dinosaur mascot head. “What ideal type? They’re asking a friend, not the person herself. That shouldn’t count, should it?”
Xiang Lingyun shot Chu Wei an unhappy look. The reason he had not wanted people to know he was Shen Fu’s ex-boyfriend was exactly this. Yesterday, Chu Wei had been following behind him calling him “Ge.” Today, he had already started making sarcastic remarks.
The production team sensed the tension between them and quickly changed the subject. “What Teacher Chu says makes sense. Let’s switch to a different question.”
Now it was Xiang Lingyun’s friend’s turn to answer while Xiang Lingyun temporarily left the area.
“Hello. The next challenge question is: as Teacher Xiang Lingyun’s friend, how many of the guests on this show do you think he has feelings for?”
“One.” The friend was practically breaking out in a cold sweat.
He couldn’t possibly answer “two” or “three,” could he? If Xiang Lingyun was shown to have feelings for multiple people at the same time, he would be criticized to death.
After all, despite already achieving tremendous success, Xiang Lingyun had originally debuted as an idol.
“It must be Xu Tiaotiao!”
A smile unconsciously appeared at the corner of Xu Tiaotiao’s lips.
“Ahhhh, I’m shipping them!”
The topic continued passing from one person to another until it eventually shifted to Wen Zhenghan and Zuo Mei.
The atmosphere between those two had been awkward for a long time.
The audience had many questions they wanted answered, especially the Emperor-and-Queen CP fans, whose emotional state had collapsed over and over again.
However, before this segment began, Wen Zhenghan had already spoken with the director.
He did not want too many questions involving Zuo Mei.
As a result, the director only asked some relatively harmless questions.
The Emperor-and-Queen CP fans, once again denied answers, proceeded to angrily send their eight-hundredth round of curses toward the production team.
Shen Fu never reappeared before the livestream ended.
The audience found it both irritating and hilarious.
On a dating show, everyone else was desperately searching for opportunities to spend time with the opposite sex.
Meanwhile, aside from charging into the competition segments with maximum enthusiasm, Shen Fu spent all her remaining time hiding in her room sleeping.
Originally, the anti-fans had wanted to seize the opportunity to mock her.
Instead, the tone of the livestream comments looked like this: “Our little Fu Fu baby who loves sleeping is so cute.”
“Sleep more, sleep more. Auntie wants to give you kisses.”
Running Lighthouse: “The production team didn’t even arrange any new activities. What’s wrong with staying in her room a little longer?”
Anti-fans: “…”
D*mn it, this is so infuriating!
After Jiang Shu left his seat, he never came back. Since he himself wasn’t present, the production team couldn’t contact his designated friend, so they had no choice but to skip him during that segment.
The livestream ended, the production crew returned to their headquarters, everyone went to sleep, and the villa became completely quiet.
In the blink of an eye, it was midnight.
…
Shen Fu slept so deeply that she lost all sense of time. When she turned on the light, she realized it was already the middle of the night.
Ever since joining this show, her sleep schedule had been completely thrown off.
Whenever she stayed outside, she felt several pairs of eyes fixed on her at all times. Chu Wei was constantly looking for opportunities to speak with her privately, and Zuo Mei’s gaze made her uncomfortable as well. Besides, saying more under the livestream cameras only increased the chances of making mistakes, so it was better to appear less often.
Thus, whenever the other guests were outside, she tried to stay in her room. If she got hungry at night, she’d go to the kitchen to find something to eat.
In any case, the livestream had long since ended by this hour.
Shen Fu sat dazed on the bed for a while. Although she wasn’t actually that hungry, she felt she needed to eat something now so that tomorrow morning she wouldn’t have to eat breakfast together with everyone else before the livestream started.
She climbed out of bed, threw on a jacket, and headed out.
Shen Fu didn’t turn on any lights, not wanting to wake anyone.
Small floor lights lined the hallway outside her room. The light was dim, but it was enough to see where she was going.
Following the faint illumination, she made her way to the open kitchen and opened the refrigerator.
The moment she opened the fridge, she jumped in fright.
The window was wide open, and a strong wind was blowing in from outside.
Jiang Shu was crouched on the windowsill.
He wasn’t wearing sunglasses. He was dressed in a dark green silk pajama set, his short hair slightly messy, staring at her gloomily.
“When did you get here?” Shen Fu asked in astonishment, holding a loaf of bread as she turned to look at him.
Fortunately, she was naturally calm. Otherwise, she probably would have screamed when their eyes met just now.
Jiang Shu said gloomily, “I was here before you even left your room.”
Did she think he didn’t know about her habit of getting up in the middle of the night to find food?
“No, what I mean is, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Were you trying to scare me on purpose?”
If opening the refrigerator hadn’t illuminated the windowsill, she wouldn’t even have realized there was a person sitting there.
Jiang Shu’s skin was already pale, and under the refrigerator light he looked even more frightening, like some sort of vampire.
Staring at her, he slowly said: “I’m going to jump off the building.”
“…”
“???”
Shen Fu thought she had misheard. “Is your intermittent insanity acting up again?”
Jiang Shu shot her a bitter look. Without another word, he turned around on the windowsill.
Now his body faced outward.
The wind billowed his silk pajamas, making it look as though he might leap off at any moment.
The livestream was off anyway. It was the middle of the night, and there was nobody else around.
Embarrassing himself was embarrassing himself.
Shen Fu had been startled enough already. Now she became genuinely nervous.
Was he serious?
Had he really gone crazy?
“Wait, wait, wait! Hold on! Jiang Shu, did a donkey suddenly kick you in the head?”
Dropping the bread, Shen Fu rushed toward him.
Jiang Shu immediately stretched out one hand. “Don’t come any closer!”
Shen Fu instantly stopped.
At this point, she genuinely believed Jiang Shu might actually do something like this. They were on the third floor. It wasn’t extremely high, but if he jumped, he could very well end up crippled.
“Did the old man throw you out of the house? Or did something happen?”
Standing on the windowsill in slippers, Jiang Shu turned his head to look at her, appearing like someone who had been neglected for far too long and was struggling to speak.
Could it be?
Had something really happened at home?
Shen Fu’s heart tightened. “What exactly happened? Let’s talk properly.”
Jiang Shu stared at her for a long moment. There was a trace of desolation in his voice. “I’ll ask you one question. If you answer honestly, I’ll come down.”
What?
So it had something to do with her?
Meeting Jiang Shu’s eyes in the dim light, Shen Fu instantly imagined all kinds of dramatic stories involving the love-hate relationships of their parents’ generation.
She had long found it strange.
After her family’s accident, why would someone as important as Old Master Jiang do so much for her and even bring her into the Jiang family?
Could they be siblings or something…?
With difficulty, she asked: “What question?”
“I haven’t even asked yet, and you already look troubled?” Jiang Shu complained.
“I don’t!”
Jiang Shu said, “Then I’ll ask. And you have to answer honestly.”
Shen Fu stared at the foot he had dangling over the edge of the windowsill and was nearly frantic. “What is it?”
Without warning, Jiang Shu asked: “Is your ideal type really someone like that guy Xiang?”
Shen Fu blinked. “Huh?”
Jiang Shu felt utterly pathetic.
He had tossed and turned for two nights unable to sleep, yet still couldn’t resist coming here to humiliate himself.
Among the four male guests, anyone could potentially be her ideal type.
Anyone except him.
For some reason, the expression on his face was extremely complicated.
He was angry.
He was also heartbroken.
Seeing Shen Fu staring blankly, “What do you mean, ‘huh’?” Jiang Shu’s face gradually turned red from embarrassment and irritation. “I’m jumping. I’m really going to jump!”
Shen Fu finally understood. “The segment tonight?”
Since she hadn’t participated, she naturally didn’t know what had happened. “In tonight’s segment, Liang Xiaochun said my ideal type was Xiang Lingyun?”
Jiang Shu looked away.
Shen Fu was about to deny it when a crucial question suddenly occurred to her. “But what does that have to do with you?”
Jiang Shu looked completely devastated.
With a whoosh, he stood upright on the windowsill. “Shen Fu, I’m really jumping this time.”
“No, no, no!” Shen Fu immediately abandoned all other questions. Looking at Jiang Shu, she hurriedly said, “No, definitely not. I don’t like people like him. Come down first.”
“Really not?” Jiang Shu slowly crouched back down and looked at her suspiciously. “Your manager was talking nonsense?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say nonsense exactly. She just doesn’t really understand my tastes…”
Before she could finish, Jiang Shu shot to his feet again.
Shen Fu’s heart nearly stopped. “No, no, no! She was absolutely talking nonsense!” She raised both hands as if swearing to heaven. “I swear, I am not interested in the Xiang Lingyun type at all! Don’t jump!”
“…” Jiang Shu finally looked a little happier.
He pursed his lips. The tips of his ears were still slightly red as he said, “My legs just went numb.”
Shen Fu: “…”
Are you trying to kill me?
Shen Fu was furious. She picked up the bread bag from the floor, turned around, and walked away.
A loud thump sounded behind her.
Jiang Shu jumped down from the windowsill and immediately followed after her with long strides. “Then what exactly is wrong with that Xiang guy? Is it because his eyes are a bit too small? Or because he’s a little too dark…”
The two had just left the kitchen and reached the corner when they ran headfirst into Xiang Lingyun, who had come out to pour himself some red wine and had heard the entire conversation.
Holding a wine glass in his hand, Xiang Lingyun froze.
“…”
Shen Fu: “…”
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
Xiang Lingyun looked at Shen Fu, then at Jiang Shu.
He looked as though he’d just been struck by lightning and was beginning to suspect he was sleepwalking.
Shen Fu quickly looked away, overwhelmed with embarrassment.
Only Jiang Shu seemed somewhat pleased with himself. “Hi, Xiang. Out taking a stroll this late at night too?”
After experiencing social death enough times, Shen Fu had reached the point where she could maintain a completely expressionless face.
She brushed past Xiang Lingyun and continued toward her room.
As she walked, she pulled her jacket over her head and broke into a small run.
The moment she returned to her room, she hurriedly shut the door.
Jiang Shu took the wine glass from Xiang Lingyun’s hand, filled it to the brim with red wine, then returned it. “You’re already this dark. Stop drowning your sorrows in alcohol.”
Then, finally in a sunny mood again, he returned to his own room.
Xiang Lingyun stared at the now-full wine glass in his hand.
“…”
Was he sleepwalking?
Or dreaming?
No, wait.
Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.
Those two.
Since when had they become close enough to chat together in the middle of the night?
…
Previously, Limited-Time Heartbeat always ended its livestream promptly at ten o’clock every evening, and the production crew would carry all the cameras back to headquarters.
But tonight, one staff member woke up in the middle of the night and discovered he had forgotten to bring one of the cameras back.
“Did I leave it in the kitchen or the living room?”
The staff member was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. There was no way he could drag himself out of bed, much less return to the villa to retrieve it.
“Eh, it’ll probably be fine.”
He rolled over and went back to sleep.
If he got up a few hours earlier tomorrow morning and picked it up before anyone noticed, the director probably wouldn’t find out, right?
However, less than ten minutes after falling back asleep, the phone beside his pillow suddenly exploded with incoming calls.
“YOU IDIOT! YOU FORGOT YOUR CAMERA THERE AAAAAAHHHHHHH!”
The director’s voice cracked as he screamed, startling the staff member so badly that he rolled right off the bed.
The livestream, which had never actually been turned off, had already crashed from overwhelming traffic.
“Help! What the h*ll did I just see?! Did the production team forget to turn off the camera?”
“AAAAAHHH! It was too dark to see clearly, but was that really the Young Master crouching on the windowsill, mumbling and whining with a red face? His entire image is ruined! Isn’t he supposed to be the cool, silent type? Was he wearing sunglasses? If he wasn’t, I refuse to believe that was him! Maybe the sunglasses came to life and escaped by themselves!”
“LMAO. Some people are having another mental breakdown. The moment they saw signs that the Young Master might also be simping for Shen Fu, they refused to admit it was him. Since when has he been silent? Hasn’t D been roasting people nonstop ever since joining the show?”
“He got up in the middle of the night just to ask Shen Fu about her ideal type?”
Shen Fu’s anti-fans wailed: “No way. I refuse to believe it. That wasn’t jealousy, was it? I’d rather believe he was having a psychotic episode.”
For a moment, nobody paid any attention to Xiang Lingyun standing in the corner, whose newly boosted confidence had just been shattered on the spot.
“What exactly is going on between these two? Somebody save me! Where’s that garbled-username senior brother guy? Hasn’t he asked his upperclassman yet?”
“Does the Young Master know he just suffered complete social death? Tomorrow’s trending topics are definitely going to explode.”
“I can’t sleep. I seriously can’t sleep. Brothers and sisters, can anyone sleep after this? Why hasn’t the garbled-username guy come back yet? I’m literally dying of curiosity!”
4525245: “I’m here. Come to the forum. I posted screenshots and a thread.”
The entire livestream chat exploded.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!”
In an instant, everyone rushed over to the forum.
4525245 posted: “I asked my senior brother. But he said he can’t be 100% certain because he was never actually part of the Young Master’s social circle. He’s only heard rumors. Still, since he attended that school, he probably knows more gossip than we do.”
A crowd of midnight insomniacs screamed: “Stop wasting time and tell us already! We don’t care if it’s just rumors! We want to hear it!”
Someone excitedly guessed: “Let me predict it. The Young Master forcibly pursued and possessed Shen Fu in the past. Shen Fu resisted to the bitter end. Then the Young Master became enraged and kicked her out of the house. Years later, they meet again. He hates her but loves her. She’s afraid but conflicted. They…”
“Have you been reading too many clickbait web novels? Shut up and let the garbled-username guy talk!”
4525245 replied: “Actually, it’s exactly the opposite of what that young lady guessed.
“My senior brother said that Shen Fu once had a crush on D and confessed to him.
“And then she was brutally rejected.”
“???”
“???”
Within moments, the forum thread gained over three thousand replies.
Almost every single one was a question mark.
