After recording the first episode of Lost in the Game, none of the six guests, with the exception of Ye Qiusuo, looked particularly pleased.
As for Xie Xi... he was completely out of the loop. He hadn't immersed himself in the game from the very beginning; his mind was entirely occupied with how to get closer to Professor Ye during the show.
"Today is the first time we're recording the show, so everyone please stay for dinner," Director Zheng Longju came out to ask the six of them to stay. "We might use it for post-production footage."
The six of them had no choice but to stay. Ye Qiusuo had already mentally prepared herself for the fact that taking on this show would consume a lot of time, so she didn't resist.
Since they were recording footage, the six of them sat around a large table, maintaining a harmonious facade, with over a dozen rich dishes laid out before them.
"Just chat casually, about anything," the director said from behind the cameras.
Anyone in the entertainment circle who had recorded a variety show knew a little unwritten rule: talking to artists with a bigger status than yourself made it easier to get screen time.
Wan Yurou was dressed in a rather crisp and androgynous style today, a departure from her usual gentle image. She had specially and meticulously prepared for this show.
"Before I came, I didn't expect Brother Feibai to be here too," Wan Yurou was the first to speak, then she cued the other two. "It's also not my first time working with Mingzhe and Zhoubing. Coming to this show is a kind of destiny."
"I heard it was interesting, so I came over," You Feibai smiled politely, without the expected air of a senior. He had always been impeccable in front of the camera.
They started chatting. Xie Xi lowered his head and took a few bites with his chopsticks before losing his appetite; it wasn't really to his taste. However, the fruit pastries in a small dish tasted pretty good, probably bought from some popular bakery.
Those few people were still talking about meaningless things, idly picking at their food with their chopsticks. Xie Xi quietly pulled the dish closer to Ye Qiusuo and said, "This tastes pretty good."
Ye Qiusuo glanced at Xie Xi.
For some unknown reason, he was extremely enthusiastic about sharing pastries with her.
It just so happened that Ye Qiusuo didn't have much of an appetite for the meal either, so she picked up a sweet and sour pastry. It wasn't bad.
She looked down at the email inbox on her phone. Her students had sent a few emails asking questions, and during the gaps in the meal, Ye Qiusuo replied to them one by one. Because she wasn't at home, she couldn't send the ready-made materials from her computer, so she could only tell the students where to find them first, pinpointing the exact book, page, and line.
"Xie Xi was Mingzhe's mentor back then, so you two also share a bond," You Feibai, annoyed by being pestered by these people, casually shifted the topic to Xie Xi sitting opposite him.
Lu Mingzhe was somewhat different now compared to back then. Having become a star, he naturally had an indescribable aura that he lacked as an ordinary person; after all, it was piled up by capital and illuminated by starlight.
"I'll be relying on my mentor's guidance for the rest of the show," Lu Mingzhe raised his wine glass to toast Xie Xi.
"I don't know how to play either, so there's nothing to guide you on," Xie Xi said out of sheer boredom, resting his face on one hand, not even bothering to pick up his glass.
He hated Lu Mingzhe.
The cameras over there were still recording. Ye Qiusuo pressed the send button, looked up, picked up the wine glass next to her, and raised it in the middle. "Since we all share a bond, let's toast together."
With her sentence following the previous one, Xie Xi's words were sandwiched in the middle, making his coldness seem less obvious.
Xie Xi was the second to raise his glass, and You Feibai closely followed suit.
Since the two biggest stars present had both raised their glasses, the other three naturally had to do the same, amidst laughter and cheerful banter.
Ye Qiusuo just wet her lips and didn't drink. While they were talking, she went back to replying to messages from her company.
Wan Yurou watched her actions and sneered inwardly. They were told they were recording footage, yet this person was actually playing on her phone in broad daylight. Neither Xie Xi nor You Feibai was as audacious as her.
"I watched Lake a while ago and really loved it. Since the four of you are all here, could you sign your names for me?" Xia Zhoubing said, asking the staff for pen and paper, acting exactly like a fan.
Xia Zhoubing's career had been stagnant lately, making him much more cautious with his words, and he didn't leave Ye Qiusuo out of the autographs.
The piece of paper was passed from You Feibai, who was closest to Xia Zhoubing, then to Wan Yurou, through Lu Mingzhe's hands, and finally to Ye Qiusuo.
She picked up the pen, signed her name, and passed it to Xie Xi.
Xie Xi stared at the name Ye Qiusuo on the paper for a moment, then wrote down his own name.
It was in cursive script, not his previous artistic signature.
Finally, it returned to Xia Zhoubing's hands. He originally intended to show off his fan persona in front of the camera, looking at the signatures, but he was stunned when he saw Xie Xi's signature. "Why did Brother Xie change his signature?" It looked so similar to Ye Qiusuo's handwriting just before it. If he hadn't watched them write it separately, he would have thought it was written by the same person.
Xie Xi suddenly felt that Xia Zhoubing looked somewhat pleasing to the eye. He acted as if nothing had happened and said, "After I could read clearly, I practiced with the teacher's copybook for a while."
In fact, he hadn't missed a single day until now, taking special time out every day to practice his handwriting.
"No wonder they look so similar," Xia Zhoubing chuckled a few times, his eyes darting between Xie Xi and Ye Qiusuo.
Because of the casual chat, the topic slowly opened up a bit. After Ye Qiusuo finished sending her messages, she put her phone away and listened to them talk, though she was mostly uninterested.
They had already started chatting about netizens' misunderstandings about them and the hardships of contemporary artists.
Beside her, Xie Xi was probably quite bored too. He had put down his chopsticks and was tugging at the tassels of the tablecloth, braiding them into a four-strand braid.
Professor Ye watched his long, clean fingers nimbly winding around the tassels, and ended up staring for quite a while.
The meal remained fairly peaceful until it was over.
"Teacher, do you want to take my car back?" After coming out, Xie Xi called out to Ye Qiusuo. "You drank some wine just now, and you don't have an assistant with you."
Zhang Dong followed beside him and nodded, "Professor Ye, please take our car back."
Ye Qiusuo wanted to say that she had only wet her lips and hadn't drank at all, but Xie Xi had already opened the car door and was standing outside waiting for her to get in.
"..."
In the end, Professor Ye still took his car back.
The next day, Wei Qi specifically came over to ask Xie Xi how the recording went.
Wei Qi said, "This show is considered a domestic original. Do you think the setup of the show's segments is interesting?"
A momentary blankness flashed across Xie Xi's eyes, and then he nodded, "It's quite interesting."
After all, having managed Xie Xi for many years, seeing his expression, Wei Qi was a bit suspicious of his words. "Is it?"
"...Yeah, it's pretty fun." Throughout the whole process, he hadn't used his brain at all, only thinking about how to get a little closer to Ye Qiusuo.
...
The day before the show aired, which was also when they finished recording the second episode, the official Weibo account released a short cut. It was exactly the scene of the six of them sitting together eating.
It was two minutes in total. The first minute was Wan Yurou responding to rumors, and the second minute was the others talking. In the final short segment, Lu Mingzhe told Xie Xi to give him guidance in the future shows, and Xie Xi replied that there was nothing to guide him on.
Originally, this rather awkward remark had been dissipated by Ye Qiusuo's interruption to raise her glass. However, unexpectedly, the production team had edited out the conversation between Lu Mingzhe and Xie Xi separately and put it in this two-minute cut, which was immediately magnified infinitely by netizens.
[Um, Xie Xi really gives no face when he speaks.]
[This isn't his first or second time, right? Relying on his popularity, he always shoots his mouth off to suppress newcomers.]
[To be fair, who can blame him when he has the skills? Highly capable people don't have the time to care about what others are thinking.]
[That's completely unnecessary. You Feibai is a Best Actor, yet he remains humble.]
...
After these negative comments surfaced, Wei Qi, uncharacteristically, made no move.
Because Zheng Longju's team had already shown her the sample footage scheduled for release tomorrow, Wei Qi knew exactly what to expect. She had watched the entire first episode with a twitching mouth, wondering how Xie Xi had the nerve to claim earlier that the show was interesting.
"Wei Qi is actually letting those online comments fester." Jiang Jingyuan looked at You Feibai. "When you guys were recording the show, did Xie Xi perform well?"
You Feibai thought carefully: "...I don't know what your definition of 'well' is."
"I'll go to Director Zheng later to ask for the sample footage." When Jiang Jingyuan was negotiating the contract with the program team, it was agreed that he could review the sample footage, specifically to check if they were using the same malicious editing as in their previous shows.
By the time the first episode aired, quite a few casual haters were already itching to jump in and flame Xie Xi.
There was no deep reason for it. Xie Xi's kind of gaffe was simply great at drawing netizens' attention, and bashing him would always make them feel a sense of satisfaction.
So even this kind of person makes mistakes—some people harbored this exact mentality.
The show began. The six cast members took turns drawing cards that detailed their roles and missions for this episode. One of them was the villain, and everyone had to keep their identities a secret. After checking their cards, they placed them back into the box and proceeded down a passageway.
The setting for the six of them this episode was a cabin in the woods. They walked through a pitch-black tunnel, passed through a forest, and entered the only cabin in the woods. Inside, the air conditioning was blasting realistically to simulate winter.
[At least let us see what roles they all got.]
[Am I the only one who thinks they're so pleasing to the eyes?]
[Yurou looks so handsome today, completely different from before.]
[She's so brave, actually taking the lead and walking in front. Sister, I'm yours!]
The six of them entered the woodland cabin. It wasn't large and could be taken in at a single glance. On the left was a wooden bookshelf, along with some hunting gear and a fake deer head. Right in the middle was a fireplace.
Wan Yurou walked closer for a look: "It's fake."
It was made of an electronic screen.
"Try to see if it can be lit," You Feibai said from behind.
The temperature in here was too low.
The group immediately started searching the surroundings. Wan Yurou was the first to find a candle-shaped metal ornament. She rummaged around the fireplace and, sure enough, discovered a mechanism that perfectly fit the metal candle.
Once inserted, the fireplace lit up. Realistic flames began to burn, the blasts of cold air in the room stopped, and the temperature slowly began to rise.
[Wan Yurou isn't bad, finding her rhythm so quickly.]
[What is Xie Xi doing?]
On the show, while Ye Qiusuo casually picked up a book from the table to flip through, Xie Xi was toying with a marker he found on the desk. The deer head happened to be nearby, so relying on his tall stature, he leaned in close to its face.
[Damn, a visual critical hit!]
The deer head's eyes were actually two of the show's hidden cameras.
[Although Xie Xi's character isn't great, his face is quite something.]
[Baby Xi, you goofball. Anyone who watches movies or TV shows knows it's best not to get close to animal heads like this; there's bound to be something sketchy going on.]
After Xie Xi finished examining the deer head, his fingers got itchy, and he started using the marker to black out the deer's eyes.
The audience, slowly realizing the camera lens was turning pitch black: "..."
Fortunately, there was more than one camera in the cabin. The program team had already cut to another angle, clearly showing Xie Xi's back as he began coloring in the other deer eye.
"Xie Xi, what are you doing?" Professor Ye, having finished reading her book, voiced the audience's inner thoughts.
Xie Xi, who was coloring vigorously, turned around with a blank expression: "...I just thought its eyes didn't look very nice."
He was a bit dissatisfied with the black marker in his hand; it was too monotonous and limited his artistic expression.
Ye Qiusuo: "Come back and sit down. Don't touch those things."
"Oh."
Xie Xi put the marker back in its original place and sat down on the carpet, no longer moving. After a while, he reached out to feel the rug, then softly called Ye Qiusuo over to sit with him: "It's warm here."
He wasn't the only one who noticed this. Lu Mingzhe, who walked over later, also realized it and called everyone to sit down together.
[Tsk, the contrast in character is obvious.]
[One only cares about himself, while the other knows to share information with everyone else. Honestly, a certain singer really isn't cutting it.]
After all six of them sat down, Xia Zhoubing touched his throat: "I'm a bit thirsty."
Wan Yurou looked around: "I remember seeing... water over there."
Saying that, she got up, went to a corner, and picked up a kettle. She opened it to take a look and asked the group: "Should we boil it?"
"We don't know if the water is clean, so it's better to boil it," Lu Mingzhe quickly added.
Wan Yurou placed the kettle on the gas stove to boil, and the group began discussing their thoughts on the cabin.
"There are books, so the owner must be cultured. Hunting might be a hobby. This cabin should be a place where someone from the city comes to stay on a regular basis," Xia Zhoubing analyzed.
"I roughly flipped through those books. They are basically all about how to cultivate flowers and trees. The owner should be someone who loves nature," Wan Yurou said, pointing at the bookshelf.
The water boiled quickly. A few minutes later, the kettle started whistling. Wan Yurou turned off the heat and asked Lu Mingzhe to help bring the cups over. She sterilized each metal cup with hot water, poured six cups of water, and brought them over on a tray.
The room's temperature hadn't fully risen yet, so the allure of a hot cup of water was clearly strong. You Feibai was the first to take one, followed by Xia Zhoubing and Ye Qiusuo. After Lu Mingzhe and Xie Xi took theirs, Wan Yurou took the last one.
[Yurou is seriously so gentle. She does things at a steady pace, which is so soothing to watch.]
[Suddenly feeling the chemistry between Lu Mingzhe and Wan Yurou with that water-serving interaction.]
"Xia Zhoubing, out!"
A voice suddenly rang out in the cabin.
[???]
[What sound?]
Not only the audience, but even Xia Zhoubing and the others were confused.
But the broadcast continued: "Will the eliminated player please take the initiative to walk out of the cabin and follow the path out."
Xia Zhoubing: "What's going on? How am I out?"
"Eliminated players may no longer speak," the program team's voice continued.
Looking incredibly frustrated, Xia Zhoubing left the cabin.
"Someone in the room poisoned Xia Zhoubing's water, resulting in his elimination. Right now, there is a killer among the five of you." The broadcast continued, "Among you is a Judge who can sentence the killer to death. However, if they guess wrong, the killer can immediately kill the Judge, and the villain faction wins this round. We look forward to the Detective discovering the killer first."
The five of them listened carefully. Afterwards, You Feibai spoke up: "A Killer, a Judge, a Detective. The rest should be Civilians."
It was a game similar to Werewolf.
"The ones who had the opportunity to poison the water just now are me, Brother Feibai, and... Professor Ye," Wan Yurou took the initiative to deduce. "Even though Mingzhe handled the cups, I had already sterilized them."
