After Entering a Romance Reality Show Disguised as a Man to Win Over All the Female Leads - Chapter 5

The viewers in the live stream, who had been staring in a daze, were jolted awake by the alarm from Mu Shuiqing’s pulse oximeter. Only then did they snap out of it:

【They… actually made it out?!】

【Holy crap, Brother Rong Yu is amazing!!!】

【Too cool, honestly, so cool.】

【Did anyone notice Shuiqing’s heart rate hit 152 just now?! Hahaha, oh my god.】

【She was completely flustered by Rong Yu’s teasing. My heart…】

【Yubao (Baby Yu), I understand the logic, but have the guts not to take off the oximeter (doge face).】

In the sub-stream, viewers began voting frantically. A flurry of various gifts filled the entire screen. The votes, which were originally only at 13, began to skyrocket, jumping to 134 and continuing to soar exponentially:

【Doesn’t Yubao want votes? Here, take them all!!】

【It’s not too early. It’s never too early to confess to Brother Rong Yu (shouting).】

【Yubao is the goat!!! I’m carrying the flag for Yubao!!! Take all my flowers!!!!】

Someone once again sent a Super Chat worth 100 RMB, and the one-minute prominent message hung at the top of the screen:

【I promised Yubao ten thousand votes just now. Here I am!】

As soon as this SC appeared, the screen was filled with drifting flower petals.

【Small Flower x10000】 flashed on the screen with golden starlight. The level of generosity was jaw-dropping.

The two at the haunted house exit couldn’t see the chat; they stood quietly by the door.

The staff member responsible for checking the pulse oximeters studied the device repeatedly for a long time but couldn’t find any issues. Even though the instrument was continuously alarming, Mu Shuiqing looked so calm. It didn’t look like the reaction of someone whose heart was beating beyond the human limit.

It could only be an equipment failure.

The staff member whispered to the two of them, “Sorry, the device might be broken. We’ll go notify the director.” Then, they trotted away clutching the oximeter.

At the West exit of the haunted house, only Rong Yu, Mu Shuiqing, and the cameraman remained.

“The device broke,” Mu Shuiqing said softly.

“Mhm, I know.” Rong Yu nodded with a raised eyebrow.

The chat roared with laughter:

【’Broke’ my foot. Shuiqing, keep making excuses (doge face).】

【Shuiqing: The device broke. Rongrong: Ah, right, right, yes, yes. LMAO.】

Mu Shuiqing paused for two seconds, then suddenly turned to her, her expression hesitant. “How were you so sure the password was those three words?”

The smile on Rong Yu’s face remained unchanged, but her left hand couldn’t help but tighten around the pulse oximeter she had taken off. She looked down at the heart rate display, which was frozen at 44.

Because this was the secret room she had designed. Because she loved her best friend.

Because that secret, unrequited love—one that could never see the light of day—could only be declared within the cold lines of her novels.

In the original book, He Jiao would have stumbled here by mistake, and the original protagonist “Rong Yu” would have entered the password to lead her out of the white room. But her own hollow, fruitless crush could only remain forever within those words, as pale and restrictive as a prison cell.

“Because this is a dating show,” Rong Yu pulled her thoughts back and blinked at her. “Those three words fit the theme, don’t they?”

She had been hiding it for a long time; she wouldn’t make a mistake in Lian Langsheng’s brain world. Mu Shuiqing met her gaze deeply, opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it and nodded.

Just then, the staff member who had run off to find the director returned quickly with a tablet. “Director Ruan said you might have to wait a while for the other guests. If you’re bored, you can watch the live feeds of the others.”

Mu Shuiqing said nothing. Rong Yu stepped forward and took it. “Thanks.”

In the show, Rong Yu was a “male guest,” so she didn’t wear heavy makeup. Her features were her natural ones, just sharpened with some contouring. Her mixed-race face looked radiant in the sun, and her sky-blue eyes were even clearer than the sky above.

The staff member looked directly into her face and instantly turned beet red. “It—it’s nothing,” they stuttered, waving their hands before quickly leaving with burning ears.

Mu Shuiqing watched the staff member leave, her lips pursed and her expression turning a bit cold.

Rong Yu didn’t notice. She looked down at the tablet. It was a specially configured device that could only view the main show feed and the sub-feeds of the other pairs. She placed the tablet on a nearby iron rack so both she and Mu Shuiqing could see.

The screen first showed Lin Mengxing and Qin Wenhan.

The chat was full of “LMAO.” On screen, the two were sprinting away from a sinister female ghost with long hair and a hoe.

Qin Wenhan, whose heart rate had been decent before, was now at 120. He was sprinting with a foul expression. His shoulders and hair were covered in sprayed blood and green-blue paint. His calm, arrogant CEO aura was gone; even his hair was blown sideways by the draft. He looked incredibly disheveled.

Lin Mengxing, meanwhile, looked much cleaner. Aside from some green paint on her arm, she was as fresh as when she entered. Even after a long sprint, she wasn’t out of breath.

She glanced back at the screeching ghost and suddenly said, “Go on ahead. I can’t run anymore.”

Qin Wenhan froze for two seconds, instinctively slowing down. The ghost behind them roared with excitement, scaring him into sprinting even faster. He stared at her in disbelief. “What are you doing?”

“I’m too lazy to run. You go first, don’t mind me,” Lin Mengxing waved him off. She didn’t give him a chance to react and simply stopped, standing against the wall.

The viewers were stunned:

【???? What the…】

【Is the ghost a hologram?】

【The ghost’s nails just tore Qin Wenhan’s jacket. It’s definitely real!】

【It’s over, Lin Mengxing is crazy. But that ghost is so persistent, I’d stop too.】

Trolls started attacking:

【What a drag. Stopping just because she’s ‘tired’? This is a team game, don’t drag your teammate down.】

【Ugh, so annoying.】

【She doesn’t even look tired. Typical ‘Little Fairy’ (princess treatment), so delicate. Tsk tsk.】

The ghost with the hoe closed in. Lin Mengxing, standing with her cat-ear hairstyle against the peeling wall, looked like a lost kitten. As the ghost lunged with the hoe, the fleeing Qin Wenhan hesitated for two seconds and turned back to help her.

The next moment, the entire audience saw Lin Mengxing grab the ghost with one hand and deliver a side kick, sending it flying five or six meters. The ghost slammed into the wall with a “thud” and slid to the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The chat:

【……??】

【Holy crap, so cool!!!】

【Sister is so badass AHHH】

【Wait—those NPCs are props, but they’re heavy… she just kicked it away like that?】

【666666】

Mu Shuiqing also raised an eyebrow and actually praised her: “Nice moves.”

Rong Yu stared at the screen without a word. She had clearly seen that before Lin Mengxing struck, the ghost had stopped its attack. It was like a robot whose settings had been changed mid-way; its eyes went blank and it even retracted its hoe. It was only because Lin Mengxing was so fast that the ghost’s reaction went unnoticed.

It was like… she had used some kind of mental attack before the physical one.

Rong Yu thought of the Hello Kitty sticker on Lin Mengxing’s neck and the lily scent that appeared and vanished.

What if she also took a new persona from another novel I wrote?

Rong Yu remembered writing an Interstellar ABO novel. The female protagonist had lily-scented pheromones…

Rong Yu: “.” A bizarre connection formed in her mind. If Lin Mengxing really was the lead of that ABO novel… Rong Yu’s expression became complicated.

Back then, she had gotten bored with the three genders of ABO, so she created a fourth, strongest gender that only the female lead possessed, just so she could be uniquely powerful.

If Lin Mengxing was maintaining that gender now…

Rong Yu’s scalp felt tight. For the first time, she felt a bit afraid.

Lin Mengxing clapped the dust off her hands, exhaled, and continued walking while humming. Qin Wenhan was dumbfounded, and the chat was filled with cheers. The trolls went quiet.

Rong Yu swiped the screen to Seven and He Huaiting.

Seven, the pop star, was now a mess of tears and snot, hiding behind He Huaiting in terror. The cold, golden-eyed woman led him through the twists and turns, indifferently dealing with zombies while dragging her “dead weight” teammate along.

The chat:

【Badass!】

【Why are all the sisters so cool this season?!】

【Sister He and her useless, ugly younger brother. LMAO.】

Rong Yu was about to swipe to He Jiao, but the West exit door next to her began to vibrate. The door rose, and the white room appeared.

The blonde, blue-eyed He Jiao walked out with a cold face. She spotted Rong Yu, gave her a fierce glare, huffed, and slammed into Rong Yu’s shoulder as she walked past.

Sheng Ming followed, rubbing his nose and nodding politely to Rong Yu and Mu Shuiqing.

Rong Yu: “…”

It wasn’t her first time being glared at by He Jiao; she was getting used to it.

If her theory held, and the guests were from other novels… she didn’t remember writing a character like He Jiao who was so aggressive yet “fierce-cute.” Where did this persona come from? And how did He Jiao know how to open the secret room?

He Jiao’s attitude was so obviously bad that even the “slow” Mu Shuiqing noticed. She looked at He Jiao, then at Rong Yu, and asked slowly, “Do you two have a grudge?”

Rong Yu wanted to shake her head, but something clicked.

He Jiao… she couldn’t be a ‘Rebirth’ character, could she?

If that were the case, her reaction made sense. The original novel only went up to the “grand prize” and the start of a relationship. If in He Jiao’s “previous life,” things went badly after the ending, she would naturally hate “Rong Yu” now.

Rebirth seemed like the most fitting answer.

Rong Yu just hoped He Jiao wasn’t the real consciousness. With this level of hatred, waking Lian Langsheng would be impossible.

The host and the other guests appeared in the distance. The staff member took the tablet back. Zhang Yongan waved them over. “Guests, please come forward!”

As they gathered, Mu Shuiqing stayed quiet at Rong Yu’s side. Sheng Ming tried to grab He Jiao’s hand again, but she coldly avoided him and stood next to Mu Shuiqing. Sheng Ming awkwardly retracted his hand and stood behind her.

Lin Mengxing’s group arrived. Lin Mengxing stood to Rong Yu’s left, and He Huaiting stood on her other side.

In this formation, Rong Yu was essentially the “Group Pet,” surrounded by the female guests in the center “C-position.” Even Seven didn’t get this treatment.

Surprisingly, no one corrected her. Even Seven, the only celebrity, didn’t question it. He was pale and exhausted, his blue hair a mess. He looked too pathetic to care about positioning.

The chat:

【It’s only been an hour, but it feels like a lifetime.】

【I bet those guys never want to join a dating show again. LMAO.】

【Aside from Rong Yu, the men look like they’ve been through a meat grinder.】

【The sisters are so beautiful and badass! AHHH!】

Host Zhang Yongan stood before the camera with a tray holding eight cards shaped like pulse oximeters.

“Congratulations on completing the mission! As we said, the pair with the lowest heart rate wins. To ensure fairness, we recorded the highest heart rate during the mission. For example, Mu Shuiqing’s 152 occurred after the mission ended, so it doesn’t count.”

He flipped the cards:

Rong Yu: 44 | Mu Shuiqing: 141

Qin Wenhan: 123 | Lin Mengxing: 80

Sheng Ming: 104 | He Jiao: 104

Seven: 148 | He Huaiting: 59

“Among the men, Rong Yu is the lowest! Among the women, He Huaiting. But because Seven’s rate was so high, the overall winners are Rong Yu and Mu Shuiqing! Congratulations!”

Rong Yu’s fans went wild:

【Yubao is the goat!!!】

【Suck it, Seven fans! Our ‘passerby’ took him down.】

【The pair with the least chemistry came out fastest with the best score!】

Rong Yu saw Seven’s face turn even paler, then a sickly green. He stood behind He Huaiting with a tight jaw.

“Now,” the host announced, “let’s bring out the reward for today’s mission!”

A woman in a dark red, gold-patterned cheongsam walked gracefully from behind the haunted house. Her curves were perfectly highlighted by the dress, which had a slit up to her thigh. Her brown wavy hair was pinned with a gold filigree clip. Her striking beauty didn’t lose out to any of the guests. She walked into the frame with a half-smile, exuding the scent of a sophisticated, sexy woman.

The chat:

【Are even the models this beautiful?! Sister, flirt with me!】

【She looks so familiar, I’ve seen her somewhere…】

The woman walked to Rong Yu and looked down at her. Her features had a soul-stirring beauty. She opened her palm to reveal a silver-white key.

Zhang Yongan explained seriously, “This is the key to your sleeping quarters for this stage.”

Rong Yu thanked her and took the key. The soft touch of the woman’s skin made her instinctively curl her fingers. The woman looked deeply at Rong Yu without a word, then turned and walked away with a grace that looked like an ancient painting.

Almost everyone stared at her back. Rong Yu wanted to look too, but she immediately met He Jiao’s glare.

“…” She rubbed her nose and turned back.

“Today is the first day,” Zhang Yongan continued. “To give you more time to get to know each other, there are no more missions. After the other groups draw for their lodging, you are free to explore. Cars are waiting by the road. Tomorrow we will begin the team missions.”

As he spoke, Rong Yu heard a cold snort from He Jiao.

In the original book, “Rong Yu” and He Jiao were the ones who were supposed to win that silver key. In other words, tonight was supposed to be her first night with He Jiao, her “original partner.”

Rong Yu instinctively looked at He Jiao, only to meet her angry blue eyes.

“Let me congratulate Mr. Rong in advance,” He Jiao said coldly. “You’ll have a ‘warm fragrance and soft jade’ in your arms tonight.”

Rong Yu: “…” Are you misunderstanding something?

Before she could speak, Mu Shuiqing grabbed her arm and tilted her head toward He Jiao. Her doll-like face looked pure and innocent, though her crimson eyes deepened in color. “Thank you, Sister.”

After she spoke, she stood straight again, her translucent ears turning a slight pink.

Rong Yu had a bad feeling. He Jiao’s face was now as black as a pot, her cheeks puffed out in anger. The conversation was quiet enough that the viewers didn’t notice, but Rong Yu felt a chill down her spine.

Zhang Yongan distributed the other keys. Once they were dismissed, He Jiao turned and marched away without a word.

As the other guests dispersed, Rong Yu looked at the silver key and then at the direction He Jiao had gone. He Jiao looked so much like Lian Langsheng that it was hard to ignore.

Mu Shuiqing pulled her sleeve. “Are we going?”

Rong Yu nodded and led her to the car the crew had arranged. It was parked across the street.

“Wait for me here,” Rong Yu told Mu Shuiqing. “I’ll pull the car out.”

Lian Langsheng’s parents had died in a car accident. Because of that, Rong Yu was always extremely careful when crossing roads. She checked both ways and began to walk across.

The next second, a “creak-creak” sound came from above. She looked up just in time to see a spring snap on a massive billboard. The entire sign tore free from its iron frame and hurtled toward her.

Facing ghosts, Rong Yu could tell herself it wasn’t real. but facing a falling billboard—hearing the roar of the wind and the screeching metal—the immersion was too real. Her legs turned to jelly; she was pinned to the spot.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Even Mu Shuiqing behind her couldn’t react in time.

Rong Yu closed her eyes.

But the next moment, a tall, lithe figure blurred in front of her. Like a graceful black cat, the person easily caught the falling billboard before it hit her head and tossed it aside.

The massive sign felt like a brick in her hands. It slammed into the ground with a thunderous “BOOM,” cracking the asphalt.

Rong Yu stared blankly at the girl. Lin Mengxing patted the dust off her hands, her golden star earrings shimmering in the sun.

Lin Mengxing tilted her head and snapped her fingers by Rong Yu’s ear.

“What?” she teased with a smirk. “Stunned?”