Chapter 7 Part 1

Shen Li considered this and found he didn’t really care. Sleepy-eyed, he let out a yawn.

The camera caught it, sparking a wave of discussion and affection from the netizens:

【Wow, yawning like a little kitten—so cute, baby!】

【Shen Li is so handsome.】

【K99 deliberately took his application form— he could’ve made the shot otherwise.】

【What? Isn’t it Yang Zhiqi’s fault? Guy talks way too much and wasted everyone’s time.】

【Actually, it wouldn’t be so bad if Shen Li didn’t get picked. Those legs of his are pretty badly swollen. Better let him rest up.】

【But he said he’s a shooting champion. Anyone know what level that is?】

【What kind of competition are these people even competing in? Probably some amateur youth regional thing at best—likely won it when he was ten.】

【Haha, nailed it upstairs. These showbiz types love to show off—even a tiny little championship title.】

【Hey, he’s not an actor. He’s just a regular person, okay?】

【Regular person my ass. Who comes on a variety show without some agenda? If they really wanted to remarry, they’d just hit up the Civil Affairs Bureau instead of yapping here.】

【Alright, alright, quit arguing. Go vote—live viewers’ votes get weighted, so we actually have some say.】

【Voting channel’s open! I’m off!】

Ten minutes later.

Voting closed.

The results were no surprise at all.

Zhao Yunzhi, who stood no taller than one-fifty, was deemed the least suited for hunting by everyone else and scraped together just 1.2 percent of the vote, eliminated.

The other six followed the Butler System’s instructions to the tool shed and picked up their gear.

Shen Li glanced at Zhao Yunzhi. He wasn’t shocked by the outcome.

Zhao Yunzhi’s round little face held a smile as she waved off everyone’s consolation, offering graceful words of encouragement: “Good luck,” and “Bring back a big haul!”

Shen Li lounged on the sofa, peeling an orange. When Zhao Yunzhi approached him, he held one out to her.

“Want one?”

She took it on instinct, hiding the disappointment in her eyes behind a polite, “Thanks.”

Shen Li shook his head and turned his gaze back to the tool shed nearby, offering some comfort. “No big deal. We’ve got plenty of days ahead—lots of chances.”

Zhao Yunzhi nodded. “Yeah! We can tidy up the living room in a bit. It’ll be nice.”

Shen Li had zero interest in cleaning the living room and didn’t respond, though he fully understood the guests’ eagerness to shine on their first day.

Zhao Yunzhi pressed on. “Teacher Shen, can I call you that?”

Shen Li’s brows furrowed slightly. “No need to be so formal. Just Shen Li. I’m not a teacher.”

“Got it.” Zhao Yunzhi sat down beside Shen Li, rubbing her hands on her thighs, a touch awkward as she introduced herself. “I’m Zhao Yunzhi. You can call me Little Zhao or Yun Zhi.”

Shen Li had little to say. “Sure. Got it.”

Zhao Yunzhi seemed terrified of letting the conversation lapse, so she kept grasping at straws. “I never imagined the Program Group would set it up like this. I thought it’d be some simple dating and chatting show.”

“Oh, me too,” Shen Li echoed offhandedly.

“Hahaha, has anyone ever told you—you know, Shen—uh, Brother Shen—that you look just like a big celebrity?”

“Nope.”

“Aw~ So I’m the first one to say it?”

“…” Shen Li scratched his head awkwardly.

Truth be told, Shen Li wasn’t much of a conversationalist. A few exchanges in, and he came off as a total conversation killer.

Zhao Yunzhi was an introverted girl too, clearly trying hard to keep things going, but they only managed a handful of stilted lines before she sat there awkwardly peeling her orange.

Luckily, the six who went for gear returned just a few minutes later.

Shen Li’s eyes flicked over, then locked onto the guns and refused to budge.

Benjamin Marauder.

A PCP air rifle—high precision, solid power. Perfect for precision hunting, with good adjustability, quiet shooting, easy maintenance, and a reasonable price tag. Downsides: pretty amateurish, slow firing rate, and hefty at three-point-two to three-point-six kilos per gun—not friendly to shooters short on strength.

But Shen Li spotted right away that these had been modified, their power dialed way down. Still, for a gun nut like him who loved firearms like his life and hadn’t touched one in a year, they were irresistible.

He tore his eyes away. No use staring if he couldn’t have one. With a yawn, he eyed their magazine clips, hiking staffs, binoculars, backpacks, high-top boots, and walkie-talkies instead.

Envy shone in Zhao Yunzhi’s eyes too.

By then, Ke Jiujiu was fully geared up, bouncing over to the sofa with her gun, beaming as she showed it off to Zhao Yunzhi and spun in place. “Look! How cool am I?”

Little Zhao hyped her up. “Cool! Cool as hell!”

Ke Jiujiu tossed her head back, hoisting the gun to “aim” at Zhao Yunzhi in a dramatic pose—nearly throwing her back with its seven-pound weight.

Little Zhao jumped in to stop her. “Hey, take it easy. That thing isn’t light, right?”

“No kidding!!”

Ke Jiujiu, as if she’d found a kindred spirit, pouted with the gun still raised, whining in a cutesy voice. “If I’d known it’d be this heavy, I would’ve stayed home too. Two whole hours—exhausting just thinking about it. The production crew’s insane, picking such heavy guns. No idea why. You guys have it so good, chilling at home without baking in the sun~”

Zhao Yunzhi licked her lips and gave an awkward smile, at a loss for words.

Lin Xu, now in boots, walked over and stood behind Ke Jiujiu with a cold snort. Frowning, he said, “Too late to back out now. Forfeit and give your spot to someone else.”

“Huh?”

Ke Jiujiu whipped around. Seeing Lin Xu right there, she sighed helplessly. “Can I forfeit now? I’m serious—it’s so heavy~”

Shen Li’s long brows shot up. He shot Ke Jiujiu a cold look, no coddling. Raising his voice to the Program Group, he cut straight to it. “Butler, Miss Ke doesn’t want to go. Can she give her spot to Little Zhao?”

The Butler System paused for three seconds before replying, “Yes. If a player forfeits voluntarily, the work opportunity can be transferred.”

No sooner had the words landed than Yang Zhiqi and Jiang Nan came over lugging their guns, crowding in to see the drama. “Who’s sitting it out?”

Ke Jiujiu had only been venting, not serious about quitting.

She hadn’t expected the system to actually allow a swap. Now she waved her hands frantically and backpedaled. “No, no, no—I’ll go! Everyone picked me. It’d look bad if I bailed now. Can’t let you all down~”

Li Weiwei stood behind her, backpack already on, helping Kris strap up her gun. She shot Ke Jiujiu a cold glance but said nothing.

Kris, the foreign bombshell with a warm heart, picked up on Ke Jiujiu’s awkwardness and smiled to smooth things over. “Alright then, let’s head out. Time’s not on our side—the hunting ground’s only open for two hours. If we don’t bag anything, we’ll all go hungry, and tonight’s dates will be toast!”

And so…

The group strutted out full of high spirits, pumped and grinning for the cameras:

“Let’s go!”

“Wait for our good news!”

“Our haul’s gonna top forty kilos!”

Zhao Yunzhi saw them off with perfect poise.

Shen Li smiled faintly for the lens, but his butt hadn’t left the sofa. He lounged there lazily, quietly munching his third orange.

He’d skipped lunch, and oranges wouldn’t fill him up, so he hoped they’d return loaded—at least with dinner.

Just then, Zhao Yunzhi turned back and, true to her word, started tidying from the entryway: straightening the shoe rack everyone had messed up and sorting the unpacked luggage.

Shen Li sighed, then asked the Butler System to confirm. “What are we supposed to do now? Any extra tasks?”

The Butler System fell silent for ten seconds before its mechanical male voice responded:

“No work assigned to the two of you. Time is yours to spend freely.”

Perfect.

Just what he loved most—free time.

Without another word, Shen Li got up and told Zhao Yunzhi, “That’s enough tidying. Let them sort their own stuff when they get back.”

Zhao Yunzhi might not have fully registered it. She asked, “Okay. Got any plans?”

“Nope. Gonna nap in my room.”

“…”

Zhao Yunzhi blinked, surprised Shen Li wanted to sleep again, but she couldn’t very well object. “Alright then. Go ahead.”

Shen Li nodded and headed off without further ado.

The feed cut from the living room to the hunting ground, leaving only fixed cams in Shen Li’s room. They caught him doing exactly as he said: hitting the bed fast and conking out in no time.

【Netizen Comments】

【Holy crap! Sleeping again? Gotta be faking it. Who sleeps that much?】

【Total spoiled young master vibe—lazy as hell with that limp.】

【Internet toxicity at an all-time high? He couldn’t hunt, checked with the system that there’s nothing to do, so he naps. What’s the big deal?】

【Come on, you’re on a show. At least fake some effort on day one. Little Zhao’s cleaning, and this big guy’s napping? Zero EQ, too lazy to even pretend. Deserves the heat!】

【I’m done. I was just in chat seeing people bash Zhao Yunzhi for cleaning to look good, now the ones not cleaning get slammed too. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.】

【Mods, ban these trolls already. Can’t we just enjoy the stream?】

【Check the observation room! They’re back! Time for the Q&A with viewer questions!】

–

【Live Observation Room】

After the voting results dropped, the stream took a mid-session break for over three hours. Once the sponsors hawked their wares, Qian Xingzhi, Yao Shuang, Qin Zhao, and Wang Zixin touched up their makeup and returned for the first 【Answering Netizen Questions】 segment.

This daily ritual hit every afternoon at four, designed to boost viewership and drop hints for the upcoming “Ex-Husband Bro” vote.

The production crew didn’t pick questions at random. They might even seed some via plants in the comments, pumping likes to push them up.

Right at four, today’s host Yao Shuang got the cue cards.

She glanced at the teleprompter, her pupils contracting as she gripped her chair to keep from sliding off.

First, she turned to Wang Zixin and posed the opening question:

“Zixin, the first question is yours—the netizens are asking, after the promo tour for Zhuang Sheng’s Morning Dream wrapped up, you kept up those high-intensity interactions with the male lead. Is it deliberate fan service to keep the buzz going? Or is it from the heart, just wanting to stay in touch with him?”