30: Chapter 30: It turns out that their respective romantic partners weren't fixed! They were only temporary!

You could say that as soon as these words came out, the dining room went quiet.

"Your current pairings can choose to go on together for the long haul, and walk all the way until the end of the show."

Director Zhou paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone's face.

"Or they can be temporary, allowing you to "break up" at any time."

He pronounced the last two words with heavy emphasis, full of hidden meaning.

"So, dear guests, you had all better keep a close eye on your CPs."

As his voice trailed off, Director Zhou flashed a meaningful smile.

The atmosphere at the scene changed completely at that moment.

Lin Yu subconsciously leaned closer toward Xu Hao, but her gaze lingered on Zhou Yichen for a second.

Su Qing's expression also shifted from gentle to somewhat stiff; she glanced at Zhou Yichen, then at Shen Qingxue, pressing her lips together even more tightly.

Lin Mo still didn't have much expression, but his hand rested on the sofa armrest, three fingers tapping rhythmically.

As for Chen Wenwen, she lowered her head to drink her soup, as if deliberately lowering her presence.

As for Lu Li...

He was drinking yogurt.

The moment he heard this rule, his yogurt-drinking motion paused for a split second, then he continued drinking, as if this matter had nothing to do with him at all.

But deep down, he had already started calculating.

CPs can be changed at any time?

Wouldn't that make things easy? Once Shen Qingxue finds him annoying, or he finds Shen Qingxue troublesome, they can just part ways and go their separate ways.

After all, he was a sigma male; he would never fall into a woman's trap.

Perfect.

The livestream chat barrage was already in a full-blown discussion.

[Hahahaha, look at Zhou Yichen's gaze, he's practically staring holes through Shen Qingxue.]

[Su Qing's expression is so real, did she realize she's just a backup option?]

[Lin Yu, what are you looking at? Your CP is sitting right next to you, why are you looking at Zhou Yichen?]

[Xu Hao is pre-destined to be cuckolded.]

[Lu Li is still drinking yogurt, not rushing at all. I'm dying of laughter, does this dude only have eating in his world?]

[I bet fifty cents Zhou Yichen will definitely use that date right to ask out Shen Qingxue tomorrow.]

[Then what about Su Qing?]

[Su Qing? Just a tool.]

[Felt bad for Su Qing for three seconds.]

[Three seconds are up, continue watching the show hahahaha.]

At the scene.

Director Zhou seemed very satisfied with this effect; he put down the loudspeaker and took two steps back, leaving the space to the guests.

"Alright, the rules are introduced here. Everyone get a good rest tonight, and tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, the new segment will start on schedule."

With that, he winked at the staff, signaling that they could wrap up.

The lights in the dining room brightened a bit, and the red indicator light on the camera was still on, but the atmosphere visibly relaxed.

The guests stood up one after another and dispersed.

Su Qing was the first to stand up, smiling at Zhou Yichen with a gentle voice.

"Yichen, then... I'll head back to my room first. Your hand is injured, so remember to rest early."

Zhou Yichen nodded, a just-right smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah, you get some rest early too."

Su Qing turned to leave, walked two steps, then turned back for a glance, her gaze lingering on Zhou Yichen for a second before truly leaving.

Lin Yu also pulled Xu Hao along as they left, whispering something as they walked, and Xu Hao's expression didn't look too good.

Lin Mo and Chen Wenwen also left separately without much communication.

Soon, only three people were left in the dining room.

Zhou Yichen, Lu Li, and Shen Qingxue.

Zhou Yichen sat in his chair, his fingers still tapping on the tabletop, his gaze landing on Shen Qingxue as if brewing something.

Shen Qingxue didn't look at him at all; she stood up, picked up the water cup on the table, took a sip, and then turned to walk upstairs.

Her movements were smooth as flowing water, without any superfluous expression throughout the entire process.

Zhou Yichen opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but before the words came out, Shen Qingxue had already walked far away.

His expression stiffened for a second, then he took a deep breath, stood up, and walked in another direction.

When passing by Lu Li, his footsteps paused for a moment.

"Congratulations, runner-up."

Lu Li bit down on his yogurt straw, looked up at him, and replied indistinctly.

"Congratulations to you too, first place."

The two "congratulations" had completely different tones.

One carried mockery, while the other exuded perfunctoriness.

Zhou Yichen's mouth twitched, he let out a cold snort, and strode away.

Lu Li watched his retreating figure and shook his head.

Psycho.

He finished the last sip of yogurt, threw the carton into the trash can, stood up, and stretched lazily.

After tossing and turning all day, he could finally rest.

Lu Li yawned, then unhurriedly walked upstairs.

The suite door was open, but Shen Qingxue was nowhere to be seen; he figured Shen Qingxue must have gone back to her bedroom.

Without thinking too much, Lu Li returned to his room, kicked off his shoes, and flopped onto the bed.

Without any cameras pointing at him now, it was so damn comfortable.

Lu Li rolled over, just preparing to sleep, when his phone suddenly vibrated.

He fumbled for it and looked; it was a message sent by his manager, Sister Wang.

"Not bad, kid, you actually blew up."

Attached below the message was a link.

Lu Li clicked the link, jumping to Weibo.

At the very top of the trending list was the song little dimples he sang today, and its popularity remained high.

Looking further down, it turned out to be the livestream clip of him saying Shen Qingxue was caking powder, and its popularity was likewise extremely high.

Besides these, Zhou Yichen also made the trending list.

That video of his finger skin peeling and getting injured had completely blown up, arguably the trending topic with the most comments.

As for the content, Lu Li could guess it without even thinking.

However, out of these trending searches, he took up two all by himself, which was ridiculous enough.

With a curious mindset, Lu Li clicked on the trending topic about Shen Qingxue caking powder, and the top popular video was the clip of him saying Shen Qingxue was "caking powder".

The view count had already soared to over thirty million.

The comment section was even livelier.

"Hahahaha, is this dude's mouth blessed? He dares to say Shen Qingxue is caking powder?"

"Did you guys see the goddess's expression back then?"

"It turned red, and it was a shy red at that."

"Can the person upstairs even read expressions? That was clearly out of anger."

"I don't care, kill the Lu dog, snatch the goddess!"

"I'm dying of laughter, Lu Li better pray for himself, Shen Qingxue's fans are already on their way."

"I declare that the best straight-man remark of the year belongs to none other than Lu Li."

After reading the comments, Lu Li silently turned off his phone.

He fell silent for a moment.

Then he picked up his phone and replied to Sister Wang with a message.

"Sister Wang, can I still withdraw from the competition now?"

The other side replied in seconds.

"Liquidated damages are five million, are you sure?"

Lu Li stared at those five words for three seconds, then tossed his phone aside, rolled over, and pulled the blanket over his head.

Forget it, time to sleep.

...

Meanwhile, in the next room.

Shen Qingxue sat on the bed with her phone in hand, looking expressionlessly at the trending searches, especially the one related to her.

She clicked in and saw that video; her face in the video really had turned red.

But it wasn't just because she was angered by Lu Li's words about "caking powder," it was also because of the song he sang before that.

"little dimples."

She listened to the screen recording of this song again, and the barrage comments were overwhelming, all shipping their CP.

[Feels like this is a divine confession song]

[Oh mother, so sweet]

[Suddenly found these two inexplicably matched, whatever, I'll ship them first as a sign of respect!]

[This song sounds really good, love it love it]

[Begging for an official release! I want to put it on loop!]

Shen Qingxue watched the whole thing expressionlessly, then closed the video, placed her phone on the bedside table, and lay down.

Lights out.