Although Jiang Shu felt that Shen Fu had only said that to comfort him, the fact that she had specifically comforted him that way still filled him with joy.
Jiang Shu thought so.
And the four other men thought so even more.
Otherwise, how could they explain why Shen Fu had “acted” with them?
Most likely… Shen Fu had fallen for Jiang Shu. So she deliberately distanced herself from them in front of him.
But even if that was the reason, it was enough to leave them utterly devastated.
Shen Fu… seemed to be genuinely serious about Jiang Shu.
As unwilling as they were to admit it, reality was depressing. They had all lost completely.
The viewers only saw the male guests, who had been furiously typing moments earlier, suddenly deflate like punctured balloons.
The comments immediately began speculating:【Did they finally realize Shen Fu and the Crown Prince are mutual feelings??】
【LMAO. The show’s almost over. It’s about time they figured it out.】
Aside from their fans, nobody cared what they were thinking.
The audience, who had already been obsessively shipping the couple for days, didn’t care whether the four men’s hearts had shattered into pieces or into powder.
They only wanted the production team to hurry up and move on to the recordings.
【Judging by everyone’s expressions just now, the confession segment probably went exactly how we guessed. Hurry up and play the recordings already.】
The production team still followed the rules. Only after the full thirty minutes had passed did they move on to the next segment.
Every hotel room had a small speaker.
The production team’s voice came through: “Now that the free-confession segment has ended, please return to your phone’s home screen. We will send each of you a pop-up window. On that window, please select one member of the opposite sex whose recording you would like to hear. Please note: you may choose only one person.”
“After listening, if the other person asked any questions related to you in their recording, you may answer those questions on the spot.”
“Likewise, the audience will be able to see whose recording each guest chooses to listen to. However, the recording content itself may be hidden at the guest’s discretion, in which case they will wear headphones.”
【D*mn, d*mn, d*mn.】The production team was instantly cursed onto the trending charts.
【Why are you becoming inhuman right before the finale?! I want to hear the recordings! I WANT TO HEAR THE RECORDINGS!!! If I can’t hear them tonight, I’m literally going to waste away!】
【I heard Xiang Lingyun’s and Zuo Mei’s agencies sent the production team legal notices, so the show finally started toning things down. Seriously, if you can’t handle it, don’t play.】
Guests could freely listen to recordings from people of the same sex, but they could only choose one person of the opposite sex.
Unsurprisingly, all of the male guests chose to listen to Shen Fu’s recording.
【Who will the female guests choose?】
【Will the Film Empress choose the Film Emperor? We’re almost at the finale already, do they really have to end this tragically? Please!】
Zuo Mei didn’t particularly want to hear Wen Zhenghan’s recording.
If his recording was about Shen Fu, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control her expression.
After considering the male guests, she chose Jiang Shu.
The recording would probably involve tomorrow’s final choice. She needed to know whether Shen Fu and Jiang Shu had really gotten together.
Gu Qingshuang, without hesitation, also chose Jiang Shu’s recording.
Xu Tiaotiao was curious about Shen Fu and Jiang Shu as well, so she gossipy-mindedly picked Jiang Shu too.
The comments exploded:【HOLY CR*P I’M DYING. All the male guests picked Shen Fu, and all the female guests picked Jiang Shu. What is wrong with these people? Are they even nosier than we are?】
【Does anyone still remember that Xu Tiaotiao and Chu Wei were originally a couple…?】
Shen Fu remained seated on the sofa, putting on a pair of white wired earphones.
Ten meters away, in another room, Jiang Shu also put on a black wireless headset.
Both of them chose to hide their recordings.
As a result, any other guest wanting to hear them also had to wear headphones.
Thinking about what she had recorded that day, Shen Fu felt a little embarrassed.
But, well… once you’ve dug your toes into the floor enough times from embarrassment, you eventually get used to it.
Jiang Shu, meanwhile, held his breath. Would Shen Fu’s recording mention him?
“It’s starting now,” the production team’s voice came through the speakers.
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…”
As the countdown ended, at the exact same moment, both of them heard each other’s voices through the headphones, accompanied by faint static and electronic noise.
And within those voices…
They heard their own names.
“Jiang Shu… this time, you’ve really fallen for me, haven’t you?”
Shen Fu’s voice sounded slightly nervous.
She seemed to be sitting somewhere in a courtyard; faint insect chirping could be heard in the background.
“I hope Shen Fu can like me.”
A long silence followed.
Then Jiang Shu’s deep voice sounded, carrying an air of forced nonchalance. “But even if she doesn’t choose me in the end, I’ll still only like her from beginning to end…”
Then came a burst of static and noise.
It sounded as though a ship’s horn had gone off nearby on Jiang Shu’s side as he asked the production team:
“Will Shen Fu hear this recording? If, on the night the recordings are played, she doesn’t choose to listen to mine… will she never hear it?”
It’s about me.
Both of them thought so at exactly the same time.
Shen Fu couldn’t help curling her lips into a smile.
Ten meters away, Jiang Shu immediately turned his back to the camera and put on his sunglasses in an attempt to look cool.
In reality, his heart was practically beating out of his chest.
He genuinely hadn’t expected Shen Fu’s recording to be about him.
The feeling was indescribably strange.
Two separate rooms. Yet it felt as though they were looking directly at each other.
As if separated by time itself, they had both heard the confusion, nervousness, and longing the other had experienced several days ago.
A notification appeared on their phones: “If you’ve confirmed the recording, you may now respond to its contents.”
On Shen Fu’s screen, Jiang Shu’s reply popped up.
On Jiang Shu’s screen, Shen Fu’s reply appeared as a voice message.
Jiang Shu’s voice was low and steady: “Yes. But not ‘this time.’ It’s been that way for a long time.”
Shen Fu’s voice was light and cheerful: “Congratulations, seventeen-year-old Jiang Shu. And congratulations to the current Mr. Jiang as well. The wish in your very first sentence came true a long time ago.”
Hearing each other’s replies, both of them froze. Then, simultaneously, they couldn’t help but smile.
That feeling as though even their heartbeats were resonating with one another.
The comments section exploded:
【AAAAAAAAAA WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?!】
【WHAT WERE THEIR RECORDINGS ABOUT?!】
【AAAAAHHHH I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE RECORDINGS SAID, SO WHY AM I STILL SCREAMING?!】
【STOP MAKING THEM STAY IN SEPARATE ROOMS! LET THEM SHARE A ROOM TONIGHT!】
The viewers in front of their screens howled in agony.
They hadn’t even heard the recordings themselves.
All they had heard were Shen Fu’s and Jiang Shu’s replies to one another.
So why were they still this emotional?!
The other guests, meanwhile, had heard the recordings but couldn’t hear the replies: “…”
D*mn it.
So these two had been secretly building a relationship behind everyone’s backs all along?!
They’d even managed to pull off a mutual secret crush?!
【HAHAHAHA look at the guests’ reactions. The male guests’ faces have literally turned green.】
【Xu Tiaotiao, don’t look like you’re about to roll up your sleeves and write a million-word novel!】
【I’m dying. Aren’t you guys curious about the other guests’ recordings? All the guests only listened to Shen Fu’s and Jiang Shu’s, so now we can’t hear anyone else’s responses.】
…
That night, nobody could sleep.
It was obvious that the free-confession segment had made the trending charts but everyone also knew exactly whose names would be on those trending topics: Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.
Once tonight passed, tomorrow would be the final decision day.
Even though the last day had not technically arrived yet, it felt as though it already had. Could any unexpected twist still happen? Surely the only couple who would successfully choose each other and leave hand in hand would be Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.
It hurt so much.
Although the show’s rules stated that the guests could not meet before the final decision, that rule only applied while the cameras were rolling. Once the livestream ended, what rules were left?
Chu Wei tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. Finally, he grabbed his phone and went out looking for alcohol.
He couldn’t find any. Instead, he bought several bottles of sparkling water from a vending machine, took the elevator alone to the hotel’s rooftop, sat down on an outdoor sofa, and started scrolling through old photos on his phone.
After looking through the photos, he couldn’t resist opening a video site and watching old fan edits of himself and Shen Fu.
Unfortunately, his homepage was now completely flooded with videos of Jiang Shu and Shen Fu.
Chu Wei wasn’t the only one unable to sleep. Xiang Lingyun couldn’t fall asleep either.
He dug out the bottle of red wine he had brought in his suitcase, grabbed a glass, and headed to the rooftop.
As soon as he arrived, he discovered someone was already there.
Chu Wei sat on the sofa, his shoulders trembling.
When Xiang Lingyun walked over, Chu Wei looked up with tears streaming down his face. “Why are you here too?”
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
I was about to ask you the same thing. Why do I run into your dumb *ss even when I’m just trying to get some air in the middle of the night?
Still, they were fellow losers in love. Xiang Lingyun forcibly suppressed the urge to curse him out.
He poured himself a glass of wine and sat down beside Chu Wei. Seeing Chu Wei staring at his phone, he asked: “What are you watching?”
Chu Wei handed it over. “Some videos.”
Xiang Lingyun: “…” Why the h*ll was this idiot watching videos of Shen Fu and Jiang Shu?!
The video was playing through the speakers, so even if Xiang Lingyun didn’t want to watch it, the audio still reached his ears.
The video seemed extremely popular, over five or six million views already. The background music was “secret code”.
“What I want, what I wish to do, you understand better than anyone.”
The accompanying footage showed their first meeting. Jiang Shu pulled out a chair and sat beside Shen Fu with a blank expression.
The shot replayed twice. The second time in slow motion, making it seem full of tension and hidden feelings.
“No one could ever guess that this is our secret code.”
The footage showed a photograph slowly drifting out of Shen Fu’s suitcase.
Then came several quick cuts: Jiang Shu silently watching Shen Fu from behind. Jiang Shu hurrying over to wash dishes for her. Jiang Shu handing her motion-sickness patches.
“Too many people, too many things, roar between us.”
The footage switched to all of them interfering with Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.
One clip flashed by of Xiang Lingyun trying to pull Shen Fu away from Jiang Shu during the photoshoot. His distorted expression appeared for a split second.
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
…
“I want the wind. I want freedom.”
The Spring Date. Shen Fu and Jiang Shu walking toward the seaside. Shen Fu’s long hair flying in the breeze.
“At last, our signals connect.”
The kiss on the drunken night. The silent understanding when they simultaneously put on their headphones during the recording segment.
Countless moments of Jiang Shu and Shen Fu walking side by side.
Exchanging glances.
Looking at one another.
The video slowly faded out.
Only their voices remained.
“Because I like Shen Fu.”
“My first love was you.”
A line of text appeared on the screen:
“Dedicated to the two people I love. May your love never fade.”
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
Wait a second. When did that kiss happen?!
And those two lines,
When the h*ll did they say that?! That has to be edited together, right?!
Meanwhile, Chu Wei clutched his phone and cried uncontrollably.
Xiang Lingyun snapped: “Why are you crying again?!”
Chu Wei shook his head. “They’re so real! He and she are so real! They really are more genuine than we are!!!”
Xiang Lingyun: “…”
D*mn.
What an idiot.
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