In the first round of the game, Wu Zhiqi lost and drew the first album, the tenth photo.
Wu Zhiqi generously unlocked her phone and showed it to the camera. It was a photo of her with her little dog. The dog had great camera presence—its round black eyes curiously stared at the lens, and its fluffy fur made it adorably cute.
In the second round, it was Fu Le’s turn. When the host announced the total score for the round, Fu Le’s expression stiffened.
The damn production team hadn’t notified him in advance that he needed to show his photo album. He hadn’t had time to clear out the contents. Fu Le forced himself to stay calm as he stepped forward to draw. Fortunately, luck was on his side this time—the photo he drew was just an ordinary selfie.
In the third round, it was Yu Xi who had to show his album. Remembering the pile of forgotten heart-gesture photos in there, Yu Xi asked, “Can I switch to a dare instead?”
“No can do,” the host said curiously. “Does Teacher Yu Xi have something he can’t show everyone?”
“Yes.” Yu Xi’s expression turned grim. Half of those failed heart-gesture photos were of him tripping or getting stuck mid-fall. If they were seen, Yi Chen wouldn’t be affected much, but he… he’d definitely get turned into memes by netizens and fans.
【We have to see it even more now!!】
【Teacher Yu Xi’s pain is our joy.】
【My gossip flames are burning bright.】
【Is there anything we VIP members can’t see?】
Yu Xi resigned himself to his fate and drew a number, then unlocked his phone.
Perhaps the lighting was too bright, or there was paint from the game on his face—facial recognition failed several times. Yu Xi manually entered the password. Fu Le watched from a not-too-close, not-too-far distance as Yu Xi tapped the screen a few times.
The nine-grid keypad was easy to guess. Fu Le saw that Yu Xi’s password was his own birthday.
Yu Xi showed the drawn photo to the camera.
Luck was good this time—it wasn’t one of the heart-gesture photos. It was a screenshot of a chat with Guan Zifan.
Guan Zifan: Don’t mention that matter outside for now.
Guan Zifan: Make sure no one else finds out.
Guan Zifan: We’ll announce it to the public once things stabilize.
They had been discussing the secondary differentiation at the time.
Yu Xi had screenshotted those lines to send to Yi Chen, hoping Yi Chen would play along. His condition wasn’t stable right now, so it was best not to let the secondary differentiation news get out.
The crowd: “!!!”
Chat: 【!!!】
Fu Le: “!!”
Wasn’t this basically confirming a romance?!
Yu Xi didn’t explain. Saying anything now wouldn’t help—it couldn’t delay his secondary differentiation, and it might even give schemers ammo to smear him.
“You’ll know in a while,” Yu Xi said to the camera. “Wait for my official announcement. Don’t believe any rumors floating around.”
【Got it, Teacher Yu Xi is dating!】
【Pass it on: Yu Xi and Yi Chen are dating. Pick an auspicious day to go public!】
【I’ll obediently wait… but I can’t, so I’ll spread rumors and believe them first!】
Fu Le seized the chance to dig a pit for Yu Xi. “I do have a guess. I’ve been smelling Omega Pheromone around Teacher Yu Xi lately. Do you have a close partner these days, Teacher Yu Xi?”
Yu Xi: “.”
The green tea was starting his tea performance again.
This was live broadcast. Fu Le’s seemingly questioning remark directly nailed the coffin for the viewers.
Denying it with “No, I don’t, don’t talk nonsense” would look like a guilty cover-up, a panicked explanation. Admitting “Yes, that’s right” would be confirmation, an admission, going public with the relationship.
“Yeah.” Yu Xi slung an arm around Yi Chen’s shoulders. “It’s him. We’ve been inseparable lately.”
Yu Xi looked at Fu Le with feigned confusion, then lobbed a lethal question back: “You… wouldn’t be confusing Alpha and Omega pheromones, would you?”
“I did smell it!” Fu Le insisted. “Several times, Omega Pheromone—really sweet and soft. You must’ve been with an Omega, Brother Yu Xi.”
“You’re sure you smelled it?” Yi Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze dangerous.
Fu Le didn’t dare continue, afraid that one more word would make Yi Chen expose his chats. He shrank back timidly.
The afternoon segment ended, and dinnertime arrived soon.
Summer nights had long days. When they set off for the restaurant booked by the production team, the sky was still light, the setting sun a gorgeous blaze. The campus roads were filled with university students rushing from class to the Dining Hall.
Dinner wasn’t live-streamed—it was just for filming clips to use in later edits. Since it could be cut, the guests chatted freely at the table without reservations.
“Your lock screen password is too simple,” Yi Chen said to Yu Xi.
Yu Xi: “?”
Yu Xi: “How is it simple?”
Yi Chen: “Easy to guess. If you used that number for your bank card, it’d get locked for being too basic.”
“So what if they guess it?” Yu Xi shrugged indifferently. “What then?”
“That’s not okay,” Yi Chen warned. “What if you lose your phone someday and someone malicious guesses it, then live-streams your private stuff?”
Fu Le, who had overheard the whole conversation and already guessed the password: “……”
Fu Le’s phone rang, and he stepped aside to answer.
When he returned, Yu Xi and Yi Chen had apparently discussed something. Yu Xi stared at Fu Le with an indescribably complicated expression.
Fu Le felt his hair stand on end under the stare. “What?”
Yu Xi turned away without a word. Yi Chen chimed in from the side: “You’re not planning to stir up trouble, are you?”
Fu Le, whose intentions were seen through: “……”
The call he’d just taken was from his sponsor.
His metrics had plummeted lately—impossible to salvage. Once netizens disliked him, everything he did just fueled their hate, like dancing wildly on their nerves. Hiring water armies to control comments would only backfire.
Getting fully blacklisted might let him ride the black-red wave for traffic, but their “dislike” was just pure dislike. The sponsor’s team tried digging for his dirt to stir discussion, but even they found Fu Le too bland. Nothing juicy except his fake rich spoiled Omega young master persona—and that was fabricated. The more they dug, the more bored they got, let alone the netizens.
The sponsor had lost interest in a worthless Fu Le. In the call, he issued an ultimatum: If he couldn’t reverse his reputation soon, he’d be cut loose. Pause work until the public forgot his flops and the hate died down, then resume.
Fu Le couldn’t afford to pause work.
He desperately needed money right now.
Another call came in—an overseas number. He hesitated over the reject button for a long time before stepping away to someplace private to answer.
Whatever was said on the other end left Fu Le irritated.
“Money, money, money? What good does harassing me do!”
“My dad’s the one who ran—go find him! Why me! It wasn’t me who gambled! I don’t have money to pay it back!”
“What sponsor? Don’t spout nonsense!!”
“I already gave you all my earnings! My accounts are empty now!”
“No, no, no—don’t post this online. I’ll pay it back for sure. The deadline hasn’t come yet. When it does, I’ll handle it.”
“It’ll be in time. I have a way, really!”
Fu Le coaxed and wheedled until the debt collector hung up, then he powered off his phone.
Lately, he’d changed contact methods countless times, but these collectors had endless ways to harass him—text bombs, call bombs—disrupting his work and life.
Alone with no one around, he didn’t need to pretend. His face was full of anger and impatience.
Fuck.
He kicked the nearby railing hard.
What did it have to do with him?!
It was his dad! Who’d taken high-interest loans, scammed him into “investing” and “starting a business,” tricked him into signing as guarantor. Then gambled it all away! Owed a mountain of gambling debt, then vanished—no way to contact him. The lenders came after Fu Le instead, sued him, transferred the debt to him as guarantor. Since he hadn’t paid on time, his credit was ruined—flight bans, border restrictions, and these collectors hounding him relentlessly.
At the start, when the production team did the live credit check, he’d breathed a sigh of relief.
It had landed right in the payment window—hadn’t hit his credit record yet. He bluffed through it. The rainforest days were lucky too—no rain. If it had poured, and the director took them to the border scenic area, he’d have been screwed. He couldn’t get a border pass with his restrictions.
He’d weathered crisis after crisis, and now his sponsor wanted him to pause work and wait out the storm?!
No way! Impossible!
He needed money too badly!!!
The call had dragged on. When Fu Le returned, Yu Xi and Yi Chen were gone from their seats. A phone sat on the table.
“Where are they?” Fu Le asked.
“Back to the hotel,” Wu Zhiqi said. “Something came up suddenly.”
“Like that…”
No people, but a phone left behind…
And he just happened to know the password…
Fu Le eyed the phone on the table, temptation stirring.
No other options. To whitewash himself, he had to expose someone darker, something dirtier.
Time to gamble.
In the hotel room, Yu Xi and Yi Chen crowded around one phone screen.
“He’ll really go live?” Yu Xi asked.
“Phone’s left there. If he doesn’t live-stream, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?” Yi Chen replied.
The night before, Yi Chen had outlined his plan to Yu Xi.
Fu Le kept trying to stir trouble. Before Fu Le could act, Yi Chen planned to expose Fu Le’s own scandals first.
Plenty of ways to drop bombs, but Yi Chen figured having Fu Le spill it himself—show it to netizens personally—would pack the biggest punch.
The afternoon photo album game segment was his suggestion to the production team.
He’d subtly hammered “photo albums” all afternoon, deliberately let Fu Le see Yu Xi’s password, and dropped hints everywhere about “secrets on Yu Xi’s phone.” Today, his debt collectors and sponsor were sure to pressure him. So exposing “Yu Xi’s secrets” would be Fu Le’s only way out.
Yi Chen had prepped plenty of tantalizing chat logs on his phone to hook Fu Le.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, Fu Le started a live stream.
His expression and tone brimmed with excitement: “Everyone, it’s Fu Le. I’m here to drop a huge, real-name bomb.”
【?】
【Sudden live?】
【Dropping bombs? Little green tea turning paparazzi?】
【Watching neutrally. If the tea’s bomb interests me, my impression of him might improve a tad!】
Fu Le was thrilled now.
The chats on Yu Xi’s phone were explosively juicy!!
Exposing them would bury his bad press, solving all his problems!
Fu Le milked the suspense until the viewer count swelled, then slowly raised the phone. He input the password on camera, unlocking the home screen successfully.
【Yu Xi’s birthday?】
【Yu Xi’s phone!!! Desktop matches Yu Xi’s too!】
【Oh no, bad feeling.】
【Real-name bomb means it’s legit, right?】
【Yu Xi collapsing? No way?!】
“Yu Xi” trended in the stream, and viewers surged.
Fu Le could no longer contain his excitement. He eagerly showed the chat logs he’d just seen to the audience.
His finger had just tapped into the chat app when the screen switched automatically. A document bloomed fresh on the live feed.
【Fu Le, real name: Wang Guichun. Secondary gender: Beta. Highest education: High school. Current status: In debt, credit blacklisted, flight-banned, border-restricted.】
Chat: 【????】
Chat: 【!!!!!!】
Meanwhile, Yi Chen rapidly operated some software.
The phone left for Fu Le’s live stream was Yi Chen’s—same model, same color, no case. Impossible to tell apart.
He’d installed remote control software on it. No computer handy, so he borrowed Yu Xi’s phone to operate.
Simple steps: While Fu Le streamed, swap windows to display the prepped bomb doc—toggle between stream, remote, his phone interface. Yu Xi got dizzy watching and stopped. The stream had screen recordings anyway—he’d enjoy it later.
Yu Xi handed the phone to Yi Chen. “I’ll go take a shower first. You can take your time with it.”
Yi Chen said, “Okay, I’ll wait for you to come out.”
Yi Chen was focused on controlling the remote software when the phone vibrated. A system push notification popped up on V Blog.
【Dear [Zhen Bu Chi Yumi], you’ve been chatting frequently with [Geng Shanglou] this week. Your friend heat has successfully upgraded to chatty friends—poke her and tell her this good news~】
Yi Chen glanced at the ID.
He looked at it again.
Yi Chen: “?”
Footsteps approached, and Yu Xi rushed out from the bathroom. “I forgot to log out of my alt account. Don’t look around—log me out first.”
Yi Chen: “?”
Yi Chen: “……”
Yi Chen: “O.O”
