Several cameras are aimed at him, yet Shen Li sleeps deeply.
He seems to be dreaming. His brows remain gloomily furrowed, and a layer of cold sweat covers his pale face, making him look beautiful and fragile.
But does the word “fragile” really suit Shen Li?
Shen Li is like an iron man who cannot break.
He has simply gone far too long without sleep.
Ever since Shen Li returned a year ago to the village that once saved his life, the place has truly become unable to function without him.
When the villagers learned he would be leaving for half a month on a long trip, they stood crying outside Shen Li’s door every day, bringing eggs and milk and begging him not to go.
Shen Li ate eggs with his left hand and drank milk with his right,
explaining that he was only leaving for a few days and was not disappearing forever.
Yet during the days before his departure, while he was busy arranging utility poles for the village and watching over the whole nest of children at the school, he also had to devote enormous mental energy to soothing the villagers’ emotions. For three or four full days, he barely closed his eyes. Add Qian Xingzhi’s disturbance last night, which kept him from sleeping properly again, and now he sleeps as though heaven and earth have gone dark.
The blanket is truly soft, and the bed has an even stronger grip.
The moment Shen Li lies down, he feels as though the mattress has magically bound him in place.
The only unfortunate thing is that not long after falling asleep, he starts dreaming again. He dreams about what happened a year ago—
One year earlier, Shen Li, who by then had not eaten breakfast regularly for many years, happened to glance at Qian Xingzhi’s Moments and see a strange, inexplicable caption:
【I wonder if the sky over where you are is still blue. Are you eating breakfast like a good boy?】
Something in Shen Li’s brain short-circuited. For reasons even he could not explain, he took a detour, passed a breakfast stall, and decided to buy steamed buns.
By sheer coincidence, he saw a heavily bearded man who looked extremely similar to a wanted fugitive buying cigarettes beside the breakfast stall!
Shen Li did not alert him. After reporting to his superior, he did not want the lead to go cold, so he immediately followed the man and traced the connection until he discovered a criminal gang that his narcotics colleagues had spent two years failing to catch.
Seeing several people about to flee by car, Shen Li came up with a plan. He pretended to be a buyer and approached them, only to discover that their leader was into men and immediately reached for Shen Li’s ass!
How could Shen Li tolerate that?!
He had gone out for work. His police ID was still in his pocket!
He fought several of them bare-handed until they pulled out multiple knives and swung them at him. Shen Li’s heart jolted—
finally, he could “use excessive force” without wearing a body camera.
Three dead, three injured.
He was the one with the lightest injuries.
Yet after his right leg became permanently impaired, Shen Li still frequently dreamed of that morning. He dreamed of someone straddling him and stabbing his leg over and over, literally cutting through the ligaments in his leg.
Pain.
His right leg felt as though it were being torn off.
Almost every time he dreamed of it, Shen Li woke from the pain.
……
“Are you okay? Why are you sweating so much?”
A man’s voice sounds hazily beside the bed. Shen Li opens his eyes in a blur and sees a tall silhouette. Like an employee caught sleeping at the office, he instinctively almost asks, “Why are you here?” But his rational mind clears immediately, and his awareness returns fully.
He divorced Qian Xingzhi long ago. Why does he still think of him whenever his consciousness is muddled…
Shen Li sits up unhurriedly and looks at the male guest standing beside his bed. He is tall and muscular. Judging only by his build and outline, he does resemble Qian Xingzhi somewhat, but he is clearly much younger, looking just over twenty.
So young, and here to remarry?
“Hey, your face is really pale. Are you sick?”
Shen Li wipes the cold sweat from half his forehead, clears his throat, and sizes the other man up. “Oh. I’m fine. I was tired, so I slept for a while.”
The man does not seem particularly outgoing either. His narrow, thin face furrows in mild dissatisfaction before settling back into a faint frown. He introduces himself: “My name is Lin Xu. Ahem, everyone else has already introduced themselves to each other. You were still asleep, so they sent me to wake you.”
“Thanks. Shen Li.”
“Mm. If you’re all right, get up first. There’s going to be a task soon.”
Before the words even finish,
a piercing metallic noise suddenly erupts from the ceiling of Shen Li’s room:
Screeeech—!
Lin Xu instinctively clamps both hands over his ears and curses in disgust, “Fuck!”
Shen Li, meanwhile, remains sitting motionless on the bed, brows faintly drawn together. His sharp gaze quickly finds the source: a crude loudspeaker in the corner. But if Shen Li remembers correctly, this sort of device was only popular for a period around the beginning of the century and is rarely used on the market now. Why would the production team choose such an outdated model?
Just as the question forms, the long, grating sound finally disappears.
Lin Xu is slightly embarrassed by having instinctively sworn and rubs a finger lightly across his lips.
Fortunately, the awkwardness does not last long. The voice from the loudspeaker seems to attract everyone’s attention. It is a mechanical male voice:
【Welcome, eight guests, to the Survival House, livestreamed in its entirety!—I am the Housekeeper System. I will now immediately announce the rules for surviving in the house!】
The mechanical male voice of the survival System pauses briefly, then continues in its deep, synthetic tone:
【The Survival House completely simulates the realities of human life and strives to recreate authentic living conditions. Therefore, activities inside the house are divided into:
1. Daytime production activities
2. Nighttime social activities
Every house guest must earn sufficient “private assets” and obtain a certain social status through “daytime production activities” before they can possess enough financial resources during nighttime social activities to support dates with the person they like.
Furthermore, beginning at noon tomorrow, various problems may appear in the rooms you are currently occupying, such as peeling wall plaster, broken lights, or drafts through the windows. Please do not panic.
At the same time, if you do not wish to continue living in rooms like these, you may accumulate wealth through “daytime production activities” or exchange property through “nighttime social activities,” earn and save money, and submit an application to the System to purchase or rent a home!
Our brand-new, warm residential development will officially go on sale tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m.
Of course, if two guests are mutually interested, they may also apply to the production team to rent or purchase a home together.】
“Holy fuck! What does that mean?” Lin Xu, the male guest, once again fails to suppress himself and swears automatically. “You’re making us earn money during the day and go on dates at night, but dates cost money, and we even have to figure out our own housing?”
Enduring the pain in his injured leg, Shen Li props himself upright on the bed and squeezes out a half-smiling remark. “…Congratulations, workers. You came onto a variety show and still get to keep paying a mortgage.”
But the instant he finishes, Lin Xu is already completely absorbed in his shock and answers matter-of-factly:
“Fuck, I own around a hundred buildings. I came on this show to work for somebody else? To pay a mortgage?”
Shen Li: “?”
All right.
You win.
Shen Li pretends he did not understand what the man just said. His gaze slowly shifts to the curtains beside him, and he does not respond.
Mechanical male voice: 【There is one more piece of good news. Daytime production activities have limited openings. The guild will release varying numbers of jobs at around 3:00 p.m. every day. Please compete fairly and win your positions.】
“Huh?! There aren’t enough jobs for everyone?!”
“—Then what happens if you don’t win one?”
From outside the wide-open bedroom door, Shen Li hears the surprised voices of two women.
Unexpectedly, the System immediately answers their question:
【Haha, what else can you do? If you don’t have a shift, stay home. Maybe someone will take a liking to you and be willing to support you.】
“No way. I don’t want a man supporting me. Men are even less reliable than A-shares!” one woman says.
“Exactly. I’m thirty now. I’m already past the age of believing in men or A-shares,” another woman says.
Very quickly, however, the mechanical male voice overpowers them, and the Housekeeper System announces:
【I will now release today’s recruitment notice for the “production activity.” Please receive it!】
Then the male voice pitches itself higher. In the same voice but with wildly theatrical emphasis, as if possessed by an overdramatic actor, it abruptly starts performing both sides of a scene by itself:
【What are we eating? What are we eating! What are we having for dinner?!
Right now!
There is not a single cent in the “public fund pool.” Unless something unexpected happens, every single one of you will go hungry tonight!
If you have no money for food, naturally you will have no energy for socializing either. All nighttime social activities will also be canceled!
So—
you had better solve the dinner problem as quickly as possible!
Fortunately, the great Housekeeper has taken pity on you and specially opened the house’s forest grounds, issuing a recruitment activity for you—hurry to the tool shed, pick up the hunting rifles, and become the strongest hunters in the forest!
Attention! To inject funds into the “public fund pool” and pay for everyone’s food today, you must turn in prey weighing at least 40 kilograms in total!
Attention, the hunting-ground stage has some difficulty. Fortunately, among you there is a very powerful “capable person” who is highly suited to today’s work. Do not forget to bring that person along~
Today’s position: Forest Hunter
Job duties: Hunting
Job description: Each hunter will be issued one rifle and 35 rounds of ammunition for a two-hour hunt. All prey must be turned in before 6:00 p.m. If the total weight of prey submitted by all hunters is no less than 40 kilograms, the group will successfully clear the first day’s production activity. Dinner vouchers will be issued to everyone, and nighttime social activities will open at 8:00 p.m.
If the total weight of submitted prey is below 40 kilograms, the entire group will be considered to have failed the task. No dinner will be provided tonight, and nighttime social activities will be canceled.
Job salary: Base pay 5,000 + performance bonus
(That is: once each Forest Hunter successfully registers for the position, regardless of whether the overall mission succeeds, each person will receive a private salary of 5,000. A weighted performance bonus will then be distributed according to the weight of prey each person submits.
Weighted calculation formula: individual prey weight (kg) / 40 (kg) × 10,000 = performance bonus)
Number of positions available: 6
Application and selection method:
Any house member interested in this position may register with this System within ten minutes and demonstrate their advantages in order to compete for the job.
Selection will use weighted voting: house-member votes 40% + observation-studio guest votes 30% + livestream audience votes 30%.
The application and voting channels are now open.
Applications will close at 3:30 p.m.
The house will announce today’s job-competition results at 3:40 p.m.】
The moment the announcement ends,
Shen Li watches Lin Xu, who had just been complaining about having to work even after coming on a variety show. The man is clearly interested in a game like “hunting” now. He looks eager to try and peers through Shen Li’s window toward the activity in the first-floor hall.
“Ahem, so what do you say, bro?” Lin Xu licks his lips and asks Shen Li.
Shen Li looks confused. “Huh? Say what?”
“Sign up. You coming?”
Shen Li: “……”
Feeling somewhat drained, Shen Li leans against the bed and half-closes his eyes, recalling that the Housekeeper System just said the “selection method” would use some sort of weighted vote—
It is certainly fair enough.
The only problem is, who would vote for a cripple?
Unless he brings up the fact that he once took first place in a military shooting competition.
But he slept through most of the afternoon and missed the best opportunity for self-introductions. Besides, the production team may still be temporarily forbidding them from revealing their occupations—was he supposed to stand in front of the camera now and hint at it indirectly?
No.
Too performative.
Just thinking about it makes him want to vomit.
Shen Li waves a hand and politely declines. “Uh, you go sign up first. I’ll see whether all of you want to go, then decide.”
Shen Li does not know how good Lin Xu is with a gun, but at minimum his math is not very good, because this is how he tries to persuade Shen Li: “Who cares whether you get selected? Sign up first!—Look, I’ll calculate it for you. As long as you participate, you’re guaranteed a 5,000 base salary. That performance bonus is nothing. You’d have to hunt 40 kilograms just to get another 1,000. Who cares how much you can shoot?”
Shen Li: “…?”
Is that how the math works?
“Uh.” Shen Li blinks and does not point out the mistake. His beautiful face looks blank under the camera. The next second, he finally rises from the bed and takes two steps across the level floor.
Lin Xu looks at his leg and his expression changes.
“Bro, you…”
“I’d like to go. Would you vote for me, little brother?”
Shen Li smiles as if he does not care.
Lin Xu’s expression changes immediately. His gaze slides from Shen Li’s thought-provoking slender waist down to Shen Li’s straight legs marked by a very long scar. He licks his lips and only after a while says, “Uh, sorry, you—you… did you fall somewhere? Wh-why aren’t you wearing a cast?”
Shen Li’s extraordinarily beautiful face tightens slightly at the brows, his expression somewhat distant. “A cast wouldn’t fix it either. It can only recover slowly.”
“Oh, oh. Then… then you rest. I-I’ll go sign up first—uh, if I make a lot, wait for me to come back and I’ll share some with you.”
Shen Li: “……”
“Thank you.”
“N-no problem, bro. I’m going.”
Lin Xu runs off as if someone lit a fire under his backside.
Shen Li finds the guy somewhat funny. One minute earlier he said he did not want to participate, and after hearing the rules he is already afraid he will miss his chance to apply.
Shen Li checks the time, then glances toward the door and downstairs.
—The place crowded with people must be the “production activity” application desk.
Forget it.
He will leave it to fate.
In just a few movements, Shen Li completely finishes making the bed, then changes clothes and tidies his appearance.
The person in the mirror is thin, deathly pale, and looks half-dead, with no vitality whatsoever.
Shen Li looks at himself with some disgust and thinks that if Qian Xingzhi truly wants to remarry someone looking like this, then Qian Xingzhi must really be starving—
Yet for some reason, whenever that name appears in his mind, bitterness seems to seep into his blood and spread through his entire body.
Shen Li quickly suppresses the thought and forces himself not to think further.
He casually puts on a pair of well-fitting black sneakers and makes his way downstairs at an unhurried pace.
Two minutes remain.
The other seven ordinary guests in the house have clearly become fairly familiar with one another during the past two or three hours. They are scattered around the application desk now; some sit alone, while others chat together.
Shen Li has no intention of disturbing anyone.
He does his best to reduce his presence, and even more importantly to make his limp less obvious. He walks to a spot five or six meters from Lin Xu, the man who came upstairs to wake him earlier, and looks over the group from top to bottom:
Lin Xu, whose family owns around a hundred buildings;
Yang Zhiqi, who wanted to smoke in the dining hall;
Jiang Nan, one of the few who attended the meeting and whose presence is extremely low.
The three male guests cluster together, discussing their grand hunting plans.
“Hahaha, just follow me later. I’ve trained before,” Yang Zhiqi says cheerfully. “So besides that guy who’s always asleep, everyone else signed up, right?”
“Probably,” Jiang Nan answers.
Yang Zhiqi says, “If you ask me, one, two, three—the three of us—then add three women. Exactly three men and three women. Men and women working together makes the work less tiring, right? Hey, Xiao Lin, go talk to the ladies. See which one volunteers to stay behind and rest a little. Why are we doing this job competition nonsense on the first day? Isn’t it exhausting? Let’s keep it peaceful. Peace and love!”
Lin Xu folds his arms with a cold face and does not move his legs. “Go tell them yourself. I’m not doing it.”
The moment Shen Li hears Yang Zhiqi talk, he cannot help wanting to laugh.
Afraid he might genuinely laugh out loud, he simply shifts his steps and moves a little closer toward the women’s side.
The four women are also gathered together, chatting softly.
Among them, sweet straight girl Ke Jiujiu, wearing a pretty little dress and pink bow, and Li Weiwei, dressed entirely in black, were both at the nine o’clock meeting.
Of the other two, one has blond hair and blue eyes and looks foreign. Yet she is speaking fluent Henan dialect while telling a dry joke that makes the three women beside her giggle. The name badge on her chest reads 【Kris】.
The other is very quiet and extremely short, visually not even 1.5 meters tall, a tiny little person. The badge on her chest reads 【Zhao Yunzhi】.
Shen Li only glances at them once before the girl named Ke Jiujiu enthusiastically waves and greets him:
“Hi! Shen Li! You’re awake? Did you sign up?”
Shen Li shakes his head. “You all go. There are only six spots.”
After answering, Shen Li finds a firm sofa and sits down. He casually takes an orange and starts peeling it.
An application form is suddenly handed over by Li Weiwei in the black, sexy miniskirt. Along with a pen, she slaps it onto the coffee table in front of Shen Li. “Give it a try. You’re already here.”
Li Weiwei looks expressionlessly at his right leg as she says it.
Shen Li’s pupils constrict slightly. He looks at the paper and pen on the table in surprise.
To be honest, Lin Xu’s reaction after seeing his condition is the normal one. Someone like Li Weiwei, who sees him limping on one leg yet still hands him an application form as though he were an ordinary able-bodied person, is truly rare. At least since Shen Li was injured, he has never again received this kind of “treatment.”
After his injury, everyone at the unit treated him like a sacred ancestor. Even when he climbed a flight of stairs, they practically rushed over to support him.
Even in Gengjia Village, all the villagers took care of him and worried he might walk a few steps too many.
Everyone treated him extremely well—so well that Shen Li often wanted to sigh, yet feared letting the sigh out loud.
Shen Li coughs lightly and sets down the orange peel, hesitating over whether to fill it in.
The very short girl comes over too, smiling. “Exactly. You should try. Maybe you’ll get selected and earn a salary.”
Shen Li nods. He glances at Li Weiwei and Zhao Yunzhi, then fills in the application form, his pen no longer hesitating.
【Applicant】: Shen Li
【Reason for applying】: Money
【Personal advantage】: Shooting champion
Swish.
Shen Li lifts his hand and is just about to stand and submit the form.
At this moment, Ke Jiujiu snatches the application sheet away and reads it with curiosity:
“Wow~ Hahaha, Brother Shen, yours is so concise. Reason for applying: ‘Money.’ Personal advantage—huh? Shooting champion. What kind of championship?”
Hearing her bell-like voice, the other three men come over too.
Yang Zhiqi leans over to look. “Oh, the production team said this game is really difficult. With your condition, can you handle it?”
Shen Li frowns and is just about to speak.
The System announcement sounds: “Time is up. The application channel is now closed.”
Shen Li glances at the application form in Ke Jiujiu’s hands.
Ke Jiujiu clasps her hands together and apologizes playfully, saying she forgot about the deadline.
Shen Li waves a hand and says nothing more.
Forget it.
If everyone wants to go, let them go.
At worst, he can sleep again.
What in this world could possibly be happier than “other people work while I sleep”?