After Entering a Romance Reality Show Disguised as a Man to Win Over All the Female Leads - Chapter 2

He Jiao, who was on the left, turned her head and saw the interaction between Rong Yu and Lin Mengxing. The expression on her face grew even uglier.

Just as Rong Yu was about to raise her hand to take the sticker from Lin Mengxing’s palm, she felt that familiar burning gaze again.

She followed that gaze and turned her head, only to be glared at by He Jiao.

Rong Yu: “……?”

The look He Jiao gave her was very complicated. There was disdain and contempt mixed with resentment and hatred, along with traces of pain and grievance. She looked exactly like… someone who had been toyed with and then abandoned by Rong Yu, as if she wished she could plaster the words “scumbag man” across her face.

Rong Yu did not understand the meaning behind her expression, but the hand she had originally been about to extend subconsciously withdrew. She looked back at Lin Mengxing and shook her head.

“I don’t want it, thank you.”

Lin Mengxing glanced at He Jiao, who had already snorted coldly and withdrawn her gaze. She raised a brow, pulled her hand back, and gave Rong Yu an amused nod, narrowing her eyes with a smile without saying anything.

Just then, Host Zhang urged them twice more. Lin Su, the manager sitting beside Rong Yu, patted her shoulder.

“It’s time to go.”

Rong Yu immediately stood up and followed her, along with the male and female guests around them who had already risen, walking toward the host.

The female guests were generally not as tall as the male guests, so their positions were closer to the center. But Rong Yu was about the same height as them, so she stood beside He Huaiting on one side. Behind her stood a cold, elite-looking handsome man in a suit and tie, and a mature man who looked easier to get along with and wore gold-rimmed glasses.

Rong Yu quickly remembered their character settings from the novel: the domineering CEO Qin Wenhan, and the gentle professor Sheng Ming.

Neither of them was much taller than Rong Yu, but in the end, the difference between male and female body frames was large. When they stood behind her, the contrast in height and build was especially obvious.

Yet absolutely no one suspected Rong Yu’s gender.

Could this be the result of what Lian Langsheng’s attending physician had mentioned—the human brain world automatically shifting toward personal preferences? Lian Langsheng had given her a “woman disguised as a man” setting in the brain world, so even if her voice and figure did not resemble a man at all, no one questioned her gender.

Zhang Yong’an smiled brightly at the camera.

“Hello, dear viewers. Thank you for waiting. This episode of Heartbeat Moment now officially begins.”

“First, let me introduce the rules of this season. The rules for this season have undergone slight changes. There will be four episodes in total, and each episode will last three days. Within those three days, the male and female guests will draw lots to form pairs, complete tasks together, and cultivate feelings. At the end of each episode, the guests will vote for one another.”

“If a male and female guest vote for each other, they will be deemed to have successfully held hands, and they may claim this year’s two-person global travel prize and a cash prize of two million. If multiple guests choose the same guest, the chosen guest will be able to make a reverse selection. The selected guest and the chooser will both receive the luxury gift package we just mentioned. As for the guests who are not chosen… unfortunately, they will have to temporarily say goodbye to this season’s program.”

As soon as Zhang Yong’an finished speaking, everyone could see that the livestream room on the screen in front of them had far more comments scrolling across it than before.

But they were all about the male guest Seven.

[Finally, it’s starting. If not for Wenwen, I wouldn’t have waited until now.]

[Hurry up and start ahhhhh!]

[Wenwen!! Mommy loves you, hehehe.]

Rong Yu had an impression of this Seven. In the novel, he was a K-pop-style singer with curly hair dyed with blue highlights. Both his speech and clothing style followed a cool-guy image, and he had an unruly personality.

She craned her neck to glance at the guests on the other side of the line. Sure enough, she saw a thin man who was probably a little over 1.8 meters tall, standing on Lin Mengxing’s right with a head of blue hair.

He had obviously also seen the contents of the comments. He narrowed his eyes and let out a disdainful scoff, crossing his arms and standing with his head tilted in an extremely pretentious, “handsome and aware of it” pose.

When the fans in the comments saw his movement, they grew even more excited.

[Wuwuwu, Wenwen is so handsome!!]

[Looking at them like this, the male and female guests this season are all pretty good-looking. But our Seven is still better-looking.]

[Seven is so handsome today! Other than our Seven, who else could possibly make it to the end? Unless all the female guests are blind, they’ll definitely choose our Wenwen.]

When Rong Yu saw the last two comments, she nearly could not hold back her laughter.

Seven’s fans really were overflowing with confidence.

But it was no wonder. In the novel, when this variety show first failed to become popular, no celebrities were willing to participate at all. Seven was the only artist this season who had agreed to join. Although he was only a third-tier singer, he still had some fanbase.

With not many people watching the livestream online, Seven’s fans, who had long been waiting there, naturally looked as if they were dominating the screen. Besides, they came with their own fan filter, so no matter how they looked at it, only their own idol was outstanding.

Occasionally, a few comments such as “Huh, aren’t the other male guests clearly better-looking?” and “Who’s that curly-haired, blue-eyed puppy-boy in the middle?! He’s so handsome!” appeared, but they were instantly drowned out by Seven’s fans.

Rong Yu did not laugh, but a cold snort came from beside her. He Huaiting made no attempt to hide her voice. Even Mu Shuiqing, who stood farther to the right, heard it.

Mu Shuiqing turned to look at He Huaiting. Her beautiful but wooden eyes blinked, and the words that came out were merciless.

“You think he’s ugly too?”

He Huaiting’s face remained expressionless, but she answered the question very seriously.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call him ugly. He’s just a little unpleasant to look at.”

Rong Yu: “……”

These two really were just like in the novel. They did not spare anyone’s feelings when they spoke.

Neither of them concealed their voices at all. Even though the audience could not hear them without microphones, the other guests around them heard everything clearly.

Rong Yu quietly ate melon and turned her head to look at Seven. Sure enough, his face was already starting to darken. The unruly expression on his face was beginning to crack, but because of the camera, he barely restrained himself from losing his temper.

Lin Mengxing had clearly heard Mu Shuiqing’s words as well. Although she did not turn her head, she raised her long brows high. He Jiao glanced at Mu Shuiqing beside her, pursed her lips, and said nothing.

Rong Yu took in all of their reactions before silently withdrawing her gaze. In her mind, the expressions and movements of Lin Mengxing and the other three today flashed rapidly.

In the original text, He Jiao was the gentlest and most lovable female guest, yet today she was looking at Rong Yu with a face full of resentment. He Huaiting was the aloof older-sister type from a martial arts family, a media major, while Mu Shuiqing was a top student obsessed with studying. In the end, the two of them had put on a whole show of “idealistic” supernatural nonsense for her today. Lin Mengxing was no better. The fragrance on her body that sometimes became intense and sometimes disappeared was indescribably strange. When Rong Yu thought about the physical reaction she had been unable to control after smelling that fragrance earlier, her scalp tingled.

Four female guests. Each of them was somewhat similar to their original settings, yet each had strayed far away from their original character design.

Logically speaking, a person’s brain world was essentially that person’s dream. The protagonist of a dream was usually the person themselves. Therefore, Lian Langsheng’s consciousness body should only be lodged in one of the four female guests.

But now, all four female guests seemed to have broken away from their original settings to some degree…

So who exactly was the real Lian Langsheng?

Rong Yu had originally thought that, with her understanding of Lian Langsheng, finding the consciousness body that truly belonged to Lian Langsheng would not be difficult. But now, she had only been here for half an hour, and she was already at a loss.

She could only take things one step at a time.

Rong Yu sighed inwardly.

The more she thought about it, the more worried she became about the difficult road ahead in finding her close friend. Then Mu Shuiqing, who was to her right with He Huaiting between them, spoke again.

“He’s not even as good-looking as the one beside you.”

She was still speaking to He Huaiting. Rong Yu froze for two seconds before realizing that Mu Shuiqing was talking about her.

Hearing this, she turned her head and looked over, meeting Mu Shuiqing’s tilted gaze.

The tall, slender Mu Shuiqing quietly looked at her with those red eyes. Blood mist seemed to churn in their depths. Her delicate, stiff face was like that of a puppet as she said expressionlessly, “I hope you’ll be my partner in the first round.”

Hearing this, He Huaiting also lowered her head to look at Rong Yu. Her cold-blooded animal-like golden pupils reflected Rong Yu’s face. Then she withdrew her gaze with an indifferent expression and lifted her eyes to look at the livestream screen in front.

Rong Yu was not sure which of the four of them was Lian Langsheng, so she could only smile at each of them. She nodded quietly.

“Thank you. I’m honored.”

Rong Yu did not know whether it was her imagination, but after she finished speaking, Mu Shuiqing’s eyes seemed to become even redder. However, they quickly returned to normal. She stared at Rong Yu expressionlessly for another two seconds before woodenly looking away.

Fortunately, this was a novel world. Otherwise, with their unusual hair and eye colors, people would definitely say they were far too peculiar.

Rong Yu touched her nose and turned back to listen to the host explain the program’s content. At this point, the host had already finished explaining the relevant precautions for the show and began introducing the guests participating in this season’s Heartbeat Moment one by one.

Rong Yu boredly looked at the giant screen in front of her, which was displaying the livestream room, only to discover that the direction of the comments on the screen had somehow begun to change.

The comments that had originally all been praising Seven suddenly began talking about her for some inexplicable reason.

[Wait, holy crap? Who’s this little blue-eyed handsome guy?]

[?! Who is this?]

[Damn, that face is incredible!!!]

[Why didn’t I notice him earlier? I must be too tired from work today.]

[You keep going Seven this, Seven that—are you all blind? That brown, curly short-haired, blue-eyed boy beside the female guests is obviously better-looking!]

[Exactly. People who don’t understand puppy-boy charm shouldn’t come watch dating shows.]

[Has this comment section been conquered by mosquitoes—Seven’s brain-dead fans? Obviously that mixed-race handsome guy is better.]

[The handsome guy seems to be called “Rong Yu”? Wuwuwu, even his name sounds so good.]

[The male and female guests this season are all pretty good, but Rong Yu is so handsome, damn. Do guys this good-looking really exist?]

[I don’t mean to be a killjoy, but… I feel like Rong Yu would look even better in women’s clothing.]

But the comments did not improve for long before Seven’s fans could no longer hold back.

[A bunch of man-crazy bitches who’ve never seen a handsome guy before??? You see one man and get this excited.]

[I’m dying. Get better taste. What’s good about this girly-looking man? Is he cooler and more handsome than our Seven?]

[+11111. People who don’t understand Seven really shouldn’t watch variety shows.]

Some non-fans could not stand it and started arguing back. In an instant, the comments broke into a fight.

[Don’t you have a mother? Since when did “girly” become an insult, you disgusting thing?]

[Is this show only for Seven fans?? Do we have to worship that long horse face you stan?]

[You’re the fucking horse face! You donkey face!]

[There are eight guests on this show. It’s not just for watching some third-tier singer. His singing isn’t even that good, and he really thinks he’s popular now. LMAO.]

[Someone’s mad, someone’s mad. You already know non-fans aren’t welcome and you’re still watching. How shameless.]

…

This round of arguing directly helped the livestream room break two hundred thousand comments. Fat Cat Internet Video Platform sent a notification from the backend that the comment count had reached the required data target, adding twenty thousand heat points. The livestream room of Heartbeat Moment finally broke through one hundred and thirty thousand viewers, leaping to more than one hundred and fifty thousand.

Although the comments were basically all talking about Seven and Rong Yu, and the content was rather monotonous, the heat it brought was obvious.

The host looked at the slowly rising heat notification in the upper right corner of the livestream room and smiled even more warmly. But Rong Yu, looking at the livestream image filming all of them, felt something strange.

She did not know whether it was her imagination. They had not officially entered the program games yet, so the livestream room had not yet created separate cameras for each pair of male and female guests. It only used the main cameraman’s central camera to film all the guests.

But she just felt that in the camera, there seemed to be a very thin, extremely natural soft-light filter over her. It looked as if someone were giving her individual lighting. He Huaiting and Qin Wenhan were clearly standing right beside her on either side, yet they did not have this filter. Their lighting did not look any different from that of the other guests around them.

Rong Yu: “……”

Did the cameraman of this show secretly take money from her? Even the beauty filter was applied separately to her.

Rong Yu looked at herself on the screen thoughtfully. After thinking for a moment, she raised her hand and smiled, waving at the camera.

In the next second, she saw the version of herself on the livestream screen instantly become surrounded by a pink filter. Golden-pink bubbles and animated heart effects even began slowly falling from above her head. It was fully committed to a sweet little romance atmosphere.

The comment section, which had already begun gradually showing her name, instantly grew heated. Comments rolled across the screen wildly, even suppressing the comments praising Seven.

[Holy crap?! So handsome ahhhhh!]

[I love this puppy-boy little brother so much.]

[Baby Rong Yu smiled, he smiled! What do I do? My heart melted!]

[When little brother Rong Yu smiled, why did I feel like everything I looked at turned pink? Am I about to fall in love?]

Rong Yu: “.”

No, it was all the filter’s fault. Even I see myself in pink.

Rong Yu did not know what was going on, but the other guests around her who were looking at the livestream image did not seem to notice anything wrong. She suspected that perhaps only she could see this filter, or rather, only she felt that something about it was wrong.

Rong Yu remembered that this setting did not exist in the novel. Moreover, the “Rong Yu” in the novel had only gradually won the audience’s goodwill in the middle and later parts of the story. At the start of the program, the comments were basically all brain-dead comments about Seven. But now, it was obvious that more and more comments about her were appearing.

While Rong Yu was thinking about the filter and the comments, the host had already finished emotionally introducing each guest’s background.

What he said was not very different from what Rong Yu already knew, but it did enrich the character setting of her current identity.

According to the host, her current identity was that of an appearance-based internet celebrity who had been secretly photographed by a street photographer and posted online. As a result, merely with the side profile of “him” brushing past the camera, “he” became popular across the entire internet. The program producer then personally dug up “his” identity through online sleuthing, went to “his” university to find “him,” and invited “him” to sign a contract and participate in Heartbeat Moment.

The part Rong Yu found very puzzling was that since the production team had found her at her school, how did they still not know that she was a woman?

When Rong Yu arrived in Lian Langsheng’s brain world, it had been at the point in the plot thirty minutes ago. She did not know what had happened before that, so there was no way for her to find out.

While she was still feeling puzzled, the host had already clapped his hands. A staff member beside him immediately carried over two square lottery boxes.

The host accepted the boxes and smiled at the camera.

“Next, we have reached the exciting segment where the male and female guests draw lots to choose their partners for the first round. After this round of drawing lots ends, the male and female guests will form pairs and live together for three days to cultivate feelings. The program team will also set up small separate livestream windows for each pair of guests, allowing the audience to freely choose the livestream window they want to watch and separately tip the temporary couple they like.”

“In addition, during the livestream period of this program, all paid gifts sent by viewers to each CP’s livestream room will be separately allocated to the CP you gifted. Based on the calculation method of 1 RMB = 1 vote, the CP support votes will be settled at the end of each episode. The CP with the highest number of votes in each episode will receive our additional reward. Everyone, please freely vote for the CP you support!”

After the host finished speaking, he carried the lottery box in his arms and turned to walk in front of the guests.

The comments were full of:

[Ahhhhh, I’m so excited! Let Seven draw first, let Seven draw first!]

[Seven’s brain-dead fans, get off Earth! Let Rong Yu draw first!]

[Rong Yu draw first +111]

[Who will Rong Yu draw? I hope it’s He Jiao. I feel like two mixed-race-style beauties would have such CP chemistry.]

[Rong Yu looks like such an obedient puppy. I feel like it’d be nice if he was paired with He Huaiting too.]

[Isn’t cat x dog good? I support Lin Mengxing x Rong Yu, hahaha.]

The host shook the lottery box in his arms.

“Would the male guests like to draw first, or would the female guests like to draw first?”

Lin Mengxing narrowed her eyes without speaking. He Jiao only smiled. The cold older-sister type He Huaiting naturally would not take the initiative to speak. Mu Shuiqing kept her face wooden, like a beautiful doll.

The host coughed lightly twice.

“…Then, please have the four male guests choose your partners for this round.”

Rong Yu was the “male” guest standing closest to the center, so Host Zhang Yong’an had her draw first.

There were many round balls inside the lottery box. As soon as Rong Yu reached her hand into the wooden box, she felt several rolling balls inside, with words faintly engraved on them.

Rong Yu reached in and stirred them around. Before she could decide which one to choose, she felt one of the balls float up on its own. In a way that defied common sense, it stuck tightly to her palm, as if something had lifted it into her hand.

This situation, which violated Newton’s laws far too much, made Rong Yu pause. Still, she raised her hand and took the ball out.

On the red plastic ball were three black characters written in standard script.

—Mu Shuiqing.

The host smiled and took the ball from her hand, holding it up for the camera to see.

“Looks like the first CP of the first episode of this season has freshly come out. It’s Rong Yu and Mu Shuiqing.”

[Huh, I didn’t expect it to be Mu Shuiqing.]

[Two pretty dolls? So pleasing to the eye!]

[They’re good-looking, but they feel a little strange together.]

Rong Yu was mixed-race. Her appearance in the brain world perfectly replicated her real-world looks. Brown hair, blue eyes, sharply defined features, and a just-right fusion of Eastern and Western bone structure. Especially those blue eyes, beautiful like blue crystal. She was neither overly delicate nor overly sharp; her gender was already somewhat blurred. Standing among the male and female guests, she was strikingly eye-catching, with an indescribable sense of approachability.

Mu Shuiqing, on the other hand, had the standard appearance of an Eastern young woman. Her long black hime-cut hair curled inward at the ends and spread behind her. Her brows and eyes were delicate, and the contours of her face were refined. At a glance, she looked like a well-behaved girl. It was just that her expression was indifferent and her gaze was distant, making her look like a beautiful but soulless Eastern doll. Although she was pretty, people subconsciously overlooked her because they truly could not find a CP partner who felt very compatible with her.

The livestream viewers had been randomly shipping people for quite some time, but no one had expected that Mu Shuiqing and Rong Yu would be paired in the first round. The more they looked, the more they felt there was not the slightest CP chemistry.

Rong Yu raised her head and glanced at the red ball in the host’s hand, then turned to look at Mu Shuiqing. As a result, she met the other girl’s gaze directly.

Tall and slender, Mu Shuiqing quietly looked at her with her pair of crimson eyes. From a camera blind spot, the little white paper figure in her chest pocket poked out its head and waved at Rong Yu.

Looking at the little paper figure waving both hands, and then thinking of the ball that had inexplicably forced itself into her palm, Rong Yu instantly understood that Mu Shuiqing had done something.

Could Mu Shuiqing be Lian Langsheng’s consciousness body?

But Rong Yu clearly remembered that her friend was very afraid of ghosts, as well as everything supernatural that transcended materialism. She was even afraid of things that were only slightly scary.

When they had gone to play in haunted houses before, Lian Langsheng would tightly clutch Rong Yu’s hand every time. When they watched horror movies, Lian Langsheng would practically want to bury herself in Rong Yu’s arms. Even when they played horror-themed murder mystery games, if another player scared her, Lian Langsheng would tear up and hug Rong Yu around the waist, hiding behind her.

There was no reason for her to suddenly stop being afraid of ghosts and these mystical things in a dream that most restored her true personality.

Author’s Note:

Lian Langsheng: It was all an act! Otherwise, how was I supposed to hold her hand? Damn it.