Chapter 5
Another half month passed, and Cheng Yuan’ai had now been completely free of work for nearly an entire month.
During this time, she had no work commitments whatsoever. Occasionally, she would watch a few films at home, head to the storage room to tidy things up, or suddenly feel inspired to cook a meal.
In short, she had far too much free time. So much so that one afternoon, after waking from another long nap, Cheng Yuan’ai almost impulsively called Ren Zhong to ask her to find a few minor supporting roles for her, just so she could work as an extra.
Of course, if Ren Zhong had actually heard such an impulsive suggestion, Cheng Yuan’ai would undoubtedly have received a thorough scolding.
Putting everything else aside, even if Ren Zhong agreed to let her lower her status like that, the company certainly wouldn’t. They might even…
But before Cheng Yuan’ai could share this frightening idea with Ren Zhong, she received a filming notice for the dating reality show Love and Desire the very next day.
The dating reality show Love and Desire had already produced two seasons and was now preparing for its third. When the first season aired, dating reality shows were enjoying tremendous popularity. Consequently, even without particularly outstanding entertainment value, the program had still achieved considerable success.
By the second season, however, all kinds of dating reality shows had sprung up across the country, each introducing new gimmicks and formats. Traditional, ordinary dating shows could no longer generate much excitement.
Unfortunately, the proud and arrogant producer failed to recognize this problem. Instead, they simply invited pair after pair of handsome men and beautiful women, believing that attractive faces alone would be enough to draw viewers, even if the content itself was mediocre.
Sadly, that calculation proved disastrous.
The screen was filled with gorgeous couples, each seemingly more beautiful than the last. Yet no matter how viewers watched them, they couldn’t detect even the slightest hint of that sweet-and-sour feeling of romance.
All they could do was sigh over the terrible waste of so many beautiful faces.
The second season was mercilessly criticized, and its ratings plummeted almost as soon as it began airing.
Still, it wasn’t as though the second season had been entirely devoid of couples worth shipping or elements worth learning from.
Cheng Yuan’ai flipped through the Love and Desire Program Invitation sent by the production team, then casually opened a video on a certain video-sharing platform featuring a secretly blossoming romance between two female contestants from the second season.
Cheerful background music bounced along like a little deer, accompanied by a deliberately added pale pink filter.
In the video, two women sat together in a corner, seemingly excluded from the rest of the group.
They exchanged a glance, hurriedly averted their eyes, and immediately began making a series of flustered, awkward movements.
The scrolling comments went wild—
“So innocent! They’re so adorable together!”
Cheng Yuan’ai had never watched this kind of program before.
Most of her time had been devoted to honing her acting skills and moving from one production crew to another, taking on roles both large and small.
When she first submitted her application, the production team had been so surprised to see her name that they contacted her again to confirm it.
Cheng Yuan’ai rarely looked back on what had been going through her mind at the exact moment she made a decision.
Perhaps she had hesitated.
When the production team asked her once again whether she was signing up of her own free will, she had indeed hesitated.
But she had still given them a definite answer.
“This is entirely my own decision.”
As for why she had done it…
“…” Cheng Yuan’ai sat cross-legged on the sofa, silently watching the edited video playing on her tablet.
Two grown women, both mature and independent, who had been working and living on their own for years, could still look as shy and inexperienced as eighteen-year-old students when they held hands.
Even a woman who was normally excellent at navigating interpersonal relationships could become jealous and red-eyed over such an obvious misunderstanding.
……
Cheng Yuan’ai had originally been sitting upright, holding the tablet as she watched. Somehow, by the end, she had ended up lying on her stomach on the sofa.
She dragged the progress bar back to the beginning, laid the tablet down, and slowly closed her eyes as the cheerful, lighthearted background music played.
The background music and dialogue from the edited video repeated over and over in the quiet living room.
Cheng Yuan’ai remained lying there for quite a while before slowly getting up and turning off the tablet.
She picked up the invitation from the production team once again.
[Hello, dear guest! You may already have learned about this when you signed up, but Little Love would still like to introduce the program to you again.
The theme of this season of Love and Desire is romance between girls~]
This wasn’t particularly surprising.
Although the second season had been a failure, that female couple who had seemed so out of place among the other contestants had undeniably brought the program considerable attention.
Just to find a few sweet moments to enjoy, talented fan editors had practically combed through the entire second season. Some viewers had even watched every appearance of that secretly affectionate couple while complaining about the show the whole time.
However, the second season had still been designed around relationships between men and women.
Even if those two women had developed feelings for each other away from the cameras, they hadn’t actually become a couple through the program.
Thus, before producing the third season, the newly appointed producer deliberately decided to build upon the only successful element of the previous season.
Furthermore, discussions about girls’ love were enjoying remarkable popularity online at the time, despite remaining somewhat discreet.
For a failing program hoping to make a comeback, taking advantage of a trending topic was certainly a good strategy.
However, trending topics brought not only considerable traffic but also enormous public scrutiny.
Even in a society where romantic relationships came in all forms—AO, AB, AA, and countless other combinations—and people generally didn’t concern themselves too much with whom others chose to love or how they conducted their relationships, the subject of same-sex romance somehow remained particularly taboo.
If that was already true for ordinary people, it was even more so for influential actors, celebrities, and idols…
That was why the production team had been so cautious during registration, repeatedly confirming that applicants understood the theme of the season before accepting their applications.
But none of this mattered to Cheng Yuan’ai.
Before joining this dating show, she had already appeared in one or two films featuring girls’ love storylines. Although the romantic elements were subtle, anyone familiar with such themes would immediately recognize them.
This was especially true of Wild Daisies, in which she played Si An, the second female lead.
Si An was a gloomy woman who lived in a damp little house. Her medium-length hair concealed her eyes, and she was always staring directly at the female lead. She rarely showed the male lead a pleasant expression.
Even when the female lead told her to die, she would pull out a knife and point it at herself without hesitation.
But she wouldn’t let the male lead off either.
“Darling, of course I can die.”
“But please, allow me to deal with this filthy thing first.”
As soon as the film was released, Cheng Yuan’ai earned the nickname “the gloomy, insanely dominant lunatic.”
Adding fuel to the fire, all her promotional appearances during those few days featured dark, almost entirely black styling and those unblinking, shadowy eyes.
Her fans couldn’t stop crying out, accusing her of having genuinely fallen in love with the character after portraying her.
Of course, she hadn’t.
Cheng Yuan’ai didn’t care if appearing on a dating reality show meant publicly revealing her romantic orientation, nor did she concern herself with the rumors and gossip that might follow.
She sat upright, closed the video on her tablet, swiped left, and casually opened another dating reality show that had become wildly popular both domestically and internationally the previous year.
Then she reached to put the invitation away.
But as she flicked her hand, a gold-embossed card suddenly slipped out from behind the invitation.
[This season’s dating show introduces an identity system! After reading the requirements, please choose your role in the game~]
[Note: Once you enter the game, you will have only one opportunity to change your identity.]
–
The following day.
The official account of Love and Desire released its promotional video.
Ordinarily, the video wouldn’t have attracted much attention, especially since the official account had been criticized so badly two years earlier that it had barely dared to make a sound since.
But one repost from Lu Wu, the notorious talentless pretty face, immediately caused an enormous uproar.
For one thing, Lu Wu’s position in the entertainment industry was rather unusual.
She attracted both fame and haters in equal measure. No matter how insignificant something she did might be, people would drag it into the spotlight, dissect it mercilessly, and then pour another bucket of criticism over her.
What made matters even more explosive was that the official promotional video had only subtly included the words “girls’ love.”
The comments beneath it were still filled with people hesitantly discussing whether the production team had made a typo and whether the announcement was actually real.
Then Lu Wu reposted it with a single sentence:
“Looking forward to seeing which adorable little sister I’ll meet~”
That one repost completely confirmed what the words “girls’ love” in the official promotion truly meant.
With Lu Wu’s controversial popularity combined with such explosive news, the comment sections beneath both her post and the official account practically collapsed under the traffic.
[Wait a minute, Sister, what do you mean by thiiiis?]
[AAAAAH! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! One look at Little Lu and you could tell she liked girls! So it’s really true!]
[Holy fuck?! Love and Desire, you really hit the jackpot this time. You seriously have the guts to pull something like this just for traffic. But apart from this celebrity who’s famous for being hated, who else in the entertainment industry would dare sign up for your show?]
[Little sister QUQ, why doesn’t Little Lulu want an older sister? Waaaaah.]
[Fuck, if it’s girls’ love, then please maintain the same standard of contestants as last season. If I’m going to ship couples, at least give me something good to ship, okay?]
[Is this for real? I was honestly obsessed with those two Alpha sisters from last season. If you’re really doing this, please, please take inspiration from that couple! The one your production team completely wasted! AAAAAH!]
……
Weibo and various short-video platforms were buzzing with excitement over the dating show’s promotional announcement.
At present, Lu Wu was the only confirmed contestant, and everyone was desperate to know who the others would be.
As a result, Lu Wu spent the entire afternoon unable to use her phone properly, with the endless stream of messages practically freezing it.
But unlike the uproar online, contestants from various places had already received their invitations, selected their identities, and set off toward the program’s filming location.
Of course, to provide promotional material for the following days, camera operators accompanied them throughout the journey, occasionally asking a few private questions along the way.
Just before Cheng Yuan’ai departed, Ren Zhong called her.
She didn’t say much. She merely reminded Cheng Yuan’ai to notify her before making any major decisions so she could at least prepare herself.
Cheng Yuan’ai tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do?”
Ren Zhong: “…How would I know? With all those things you keep hidden, making everyone guess, nobody could possibly figure out what’s going on in your head. Either keep everything bottled up forever, or if you’re actually planning to do something…”
“Remember to warn me in advance. That way, I can take some emergency heart medication. Maybe I’ll even survive.”
Cheng Yuan’ai hung up with a sharp tap.
Immediately afterward, the cameraman carrying his camera and the staff member assigned to guide her knocked on her door.
Cheng Yuan’ai briefly cooperated with them as they filmed some footage inside her home, then accompanied them to the waiting car.
The cameraman sat in the front, while Cheng Yuan’ai and the accompanying staff member took the back seats.
After the car had traveled smoothly for some distance, a question broke the silence.
“Ahem. Although we were already surprised when we saw Teacher Cheng’s name on the registration list, actually seeing Teacher Cheng sitting in the car on her way to the filming location is still quite astonishing.”
Cheng Yuan’ai gave a distant smile and answered frankly.
“I thought it was rather obvious.”
The staff member’s eyes visibly lit up.
“Exactly, exactly! Teacher Cheng’s portrayal of Si An…”
“Ah, all right, all right. Those who know, know.”
“Now then, before we reach our destination, we have a few questions we’d like to ask Teacher Cheng.”
“Teacher Cheng isn’t allowed to refuse to answer, of course. But if you happen to tell a little white lie, well, our production team wouldn’t really know, would we?”
Cheng Yuan’ai nodded slightly, unconcerned about what questions they might ask.
During her break, she had dug up quite a few dating reality shows to watch.
To make the programs more entertaining, the staff usually asked questions about the contestants’ preferred romantic partners or what their past relationships had been like.
Cheng Yuan’ai had already carefully considered countless possible answers to questions of this sort.
She could recite several responses without even having to think.
“All right, I’ll begin.”
The staff member ceremoniously cleared her throat, looked down at the script in her hands, and asked slowly, word by word:
“Teacher Cheng, may I ask whether you’re participating in this dating show because…”
Cheng Yuan’ai lowered her gaze.
Asking contestants why they had joined was a common question on variety shows.
She quietly waited for the staff member to finish so she could deliver the explanation she had already prepared.
But in the very next second, the staff member’s previously steady voice suddenly accelerated like a roller coaster plunging down a steep drop.
“…because of Teacher Lu Wu?”
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