Thinking this, Shen Li does not care very much and gives a sleepy yawn.
The camera captures it, prompting discussion and affection from netizens:
【Wow, he yawns like a kitten. So cute, baby.】
【Shen Li is so pretty.】
【k99 deliberately took his form. He would’ve been able to submit it.】
【what? Wasn’t it Yang Zhiqi’s fault? He talks too much and wasted everyone’s time.】
【Honestly, maybe it’s not bad that Shen Li didn’t get to apply? His leg genuinely looks pretty serious. Better let him rest properly.】
【But he said he’s a shooting champion. Am I the only one curious what level of competition that was?】
【What kind of serious competition could people like these have won? At best some youth amateur regional event. Eighty percent chance he won it when he was ten.】
【Haha, upstairs exposed the truth. These performers love showing off. Even some tiny little championship has to be dragged out for attention.】
【He isn’t even a performer. He’s an ordinary guest, okay?】
【So what if he’s ordinary? Why come on a variety show if you don’t have some agenda? If two people really wanted to remarry, they’d just go straight to the civil affairs bureau. Why put on this whole production?】
【Okay, okay, stop arguing. Go vote. The livestream audience vote is weighted too, so at least we have a little decision-making power.】
【Voting channel is open! I’m going!】
Ten minutes later.
Voting ends and the channel closes.
The result can be described as entirely unsurprising.
Zhao Yunzhi, who is under 1.5 meters tall and whom everyone considers the other least suitable person for hunting, receives only 1.2% of the votes and is eliminated with the lowest total.
The remaining six follow the Housekeeper System’s instructions to the tool room to collect equipment.
Shen Li glances at Zhao Yunzhi and is not actually surprised by the result.
A smile still hangs on Zhao Yunzhi’s round face. She waves away everyone’s attempts to comfort her and graciously says things like “Good luck” and “Come back with a huge haul.”
Shen Li lounges on the sofa eating an orange. When Zhao Yunzhi walks toward him, he offers her one:
“Want one?”
Zhao Yunzhi instinctively accepts it, hiding the disappointment in her eyes at not being selected, and says politely, “Thank you.”
Shen Li shakes his head and turns his gaze back toward the nearby tool room, comforting her. “It’s fine. There are plenty of days ahead. You’ll have lots of chances.”
Zhao Yunzhi nods. “Mm-hmm. We can tidy the living room in a bit. That’s pretty good too.”
Shen Li does not want to tidy the living room, so he does not respond, though he completely understands the guests’ desire to present themselves well on the first day.
Zhao Yunzhi speaks again. “Teacher Shen, can I call you that?”
Shen Li frowns slightly. “You don’t need to be so polite. Just call me Shen Li. I’m not a teacher.”
“Okay.” Zhao Yunzhi sits beside Shen Li, rubbing both hands on her thighs, and introduces herself with some awkwardness. “My name is Zhao Yunzhi. You can call me Xiao Zhao, or Yunzhi.”
Shen Li has equally little to say. “Mm, okay.”
Zhao Yunzhi seems very afraid of letting the atmosphere go cold, so she keeps searching for things to say. “I really didn’t expect the production team to design the show like this. I originally thought it would be a really simple dating-and-chatting program.”
“Ah, me too,” Shen Li agrees casually.
“Hahaha, has anyone ever told you, Teacher Shen—uh, Brother Shen—has anyone ever said you look like a huge celebrity?”
“No.”
“Ah~ Then am I the first person to say that?”
“……” Shen Li scratches his head awkwardly.
Shen Li truly is not someone who knows how to keep a conversation going. After only a few exchanges, he can be called a topic terminator.
Zhao Yunzhi is also an introverted girl. It is obvious she is trying hard to find topics, but after a few lines, she cannot build any atmosphere either and can only sit there awkwardly peeling her orange.
Fortunately, only a few minutes later, the six people who went to collect tools come back out.
Shen Li looks over. The instant he gets a clear view, his gaze sticks to the guns and cannot be pried away.
Benjamin Marauder.
A PCP air rifle with high accuracy and substantial power. It is indeed suitable for hunting activities requiring precision, and it offers good adjustability, quiet shooting, relatively easy maintenance, and a moderate price. Its drawbacks are that it is fairly amateur-grade, has a slower firing rate, and is not light: each gun weighs roughly 3.2 to 3.6 kilograms, making it less friendly to shooters with limited strength.
But Shen Li can tell at a glance that these guns have clearly been modified and their power significantly reduced. Even so, for a gun fanatic like Shen Li, who loves firearms as much as his life and has not touched one for a year, they are extremely attractive.
Shen Li forces his gaze away. Since he cannot have one, he refuses to keep looking. He yawns as he watches the group divide magazines, trekking poles, binoculars, backpacks, high-top boots, and walkie-talkies.
Envy shows in Zhao Yunzhi’s eyes too.
At this moment, Ke Jiujiu is already fully equipped. She bounces over with a gun in hand and happily shows it off to the two people on the sofa, even spinning in place. “Look! Am I handsome or not?”
Xiao Zhao enthusiastically plays along. “Handsome, handsome, handsome! Absolutely devastating!”
Ke Jiujiu lifts her chin and raises the gun to aim at Zhao Yunzhi for a pose, almost wrenching her waist under the nearly seven-pound weapon.
Xiao Zhao hurriedly stops her and warns, “Hey, take it easy. That gun must be pretty heavy, right?”
“It really is!!”
As though she has found a kindred spirit, Ke Jiujiu pouts while holding the gun and complains sweetly, “If I’d known it was this heavy, I would’ve stayed home too. Two whole hours—that’s so long. Just thinking about it is exhausting~ The production team is really something. Why did they find such heavy guns for us to use? Ah~ I don’t get it. I’m so jealous of you two. You can stay home and don’t have to stand in the sun~”
Zhao Yunzhi licks her lips and gives an awkward smile, finally having no idea what to say.
Lin Xu has changed into his boots too. He walks over, stands behind Ke Jiujiu, and gives a cold snort. Frowning, he says flatly, “If you don’t want to go now, it’s not too late. If you don’t go, withdraw and give the spot to someone else.”
“Huh?”
Ke Jiujiu turns around. Seeing Lin Xu behind her, she immediately says helplessly, “Is it still possible to withdraw now? I’m serious, I genuinely think it’s so heavy~”
Shen Li’s long brows sharpen. He gives Ke Jiujiu a cold look and does not indulge her. Raising his voice, he asks the production team directly, “Housekeeper, Miss Ke doesn’t want to go. Can her spot be given to Xiao Zhao?”
The Housekeeper System falls silent for three seconds before answering, “Yes. If a player voluntarily withdraws, the work opportunity may be transferred.”
The instant it says this, Yang Zhiqi and Jiang Nan also approach carrying their guns, craning their heads to watch the commotion. “Who isn’t going?”
Ke Jiujiu had only been complaining and did not truly want to stay behind.
She had not expected the System to say they really could replace her. She immediately waves her hands and changes her tune. “No, no, no, I’ll still go. Everyone voted for me. It wouldn’t be very nice if I didn’t go. Wouldn’t I be letting everyone’s expectations down~?”
Li Weiwei stands behind her, already wearing her backpack and helping Kris sling her gun. Hearing Ke Jiujiu say this, she cannot help sending over a cold glance but says nothing.
Kris, the foreign-looking beauty, is warm and kind. Perhaps sensing Ke Jiujiu’s embarrassment, she smiles and smooths things over. “All right, then let’s set off—the time’s getting late. The forest grounds are only open for two hours. If we really don’t catch anything, not only will everyone go hungry, but tonight’s dates will be canceled too!”
And so,
the group marches out energetically, every one of them excited and heroic as they face the cameras:
“We’re off!”
“Wait for our good news!”
“Our prey will definitely exceed forty kilograms!”
Zhao Yunzhi graciously sees the group to the door.
Under the camera, Shen Li’s eyes carry a faint smile. His backside, however, has not moved once since he sat down. He lazily remains on the sofa by himself, quietly eating his third orange.
He skipped lunch, and oranges will not fill his stomach, so he still hopes the others return with a huge haul. At minimum, they need to bring dinner back.
At this moment, Zhao Yunzhi turns around and, exactly as she said earlier, begins tidying clutter from the entrance, straightening the shoe rack everyone messed up and organizing luggage that was left scattered.
Shen Li sighs. After thinking for a moment, he confirms with the Housekeeper System, “What are the two of us supposed to do now? Is there anything else arranged?”
The Housekeeper System remains silent for ten seconds before the mechanical male voice answers:
“You two do not have jobs. Your time is yours to use freely.”
Good.
He did say “free use of time” was his favorite.
Without another word, Shen Li stands and tells Zhao Yunzhi, “Tidying it roughly is enough. Let them come back and deal with their own things.”
Zhao Yunzhi does not know whether she has taken the advice in. She asks, “Okay. Is there anything you want to do?”
“No. I’m going back to my room for a nap.”
“……”
Zhao Yunzhi freezes. She did not expect Shen Li to sleep again, but there is nothing appropriate to say, so she can only respond, “Mm, okay. Go ahead.”
Shen Li nods and genuinely leaves without another word.
After the scene switches, the living-room camera feed is replaced by the forest grounds. Only the fixed cameras in Shen Li’s room capture him doing exactly what he said: he quickly gets back into bed, and very soon he is asleep again.
【Online comments】
【Holy shit! Sleeping again? This is starting to feel a little staged. How can someone sleep this much?】
【One look and you can tell he’s some pampered young master who never does any work. Good thing he’s crippled.】
【Is the internet really this hostile now? He couldn’t go hunting, confirmed with the System that there was nothing for him to do, so what’s wrong with sleeping?】
【No, but you came on a show. At least pretend on the first day, right? Xiao Zhao is tidying the room. Why does a grown man like him get to sleep? Zero emotional intelligence. If he’s too lazy even to pretend, he deserves to get criticized!】
【I’m seriously speechless. I was just in the comments watching people accuse Zhao Yunzhi of putting on an act because she was tidying the living room, and now the person who doesn’t clean gets attacked too. You criticize this one, then that one. Whatever other people do is wrong.】
【I really hope the moderators ban all these trolls. Can’t everyone just enjoy watching the livestream?】
【Look at the observation studio! They’re back! Now they’re going to answer the collected questions!】
—
【Livestream Observation Studio】
After the voting results were announced, the more than three-hour livestream entered an intermission. Following another round of product sales for the sponsor, Qian Xingzhi, Yao Shuang, Qin Zhao, and Wang Zixin touch up their makeup and return to the livestream for the first 【Answering Netizen Questions】 segment.
This segment is mandatory every day and is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Not only can it draw the viewer count back up, it also gives netizens clues and ideas for the later vote selecting the “ex-husband bro.”
So the directing team does not choose questions randomly. They may even arrange insiders to post targeted questions in the comment section and use bots to push the vote counts upward.
At exactly four o’clock, today’s host Yao Shuang receives the questions.
She glances at the teleprompter, and her pupils abruptly contract. She grabs the chair, nearly sliding off it.
First, she turns to Wang Zixin and asks the first question:
“Little Sister Zixin, the first question is for you—netizens ask: after promotions for 《Zhuangsheng’s Dawn Dream》 ended, you continued maintaining a high level of interaction with the male lead. Was that deliberate fan service to maintain attention, or did you genuinely just want to stay in contact with him?”
Wang Zixin puts on a very surprised expression and glances toward her manager below the stage.
This kind of question is essentially a CP-fan attack directly to the face. The comments instantly fill with Wang Zixin’s solo fans.
After a while, Wang Zixin licks her lips with an awkward little grin. She withdraws her gaze and answers carefully, “Wow, Teacher Yu and I were already very good friends. Honestly, it’s all normal work, but it’s not like I’m deliberately trying to maintain popularity or do fan service either. Sometimes I just reply when I feel like it. I don’t plan, like, ‘I’ll interact today and interact tomorrow.’ Everyone, don’t read too much into it.”
Her answer is skillful.
To solo fans, it draws a clear boundary: the words “normal work” and “don’t read too much into it” are crystal clear.
To CP fans, however, it is covert public affection: “very good friends,” “reply when I feel like it,” “not deliberately selling the pairing”—all of it is candy personally made and distributed by the actual stars. She is practically the bravest warrior in domestic entertainment.
Either way, both solo fans and CP fans are delighted by the same answer, and both camps leave satisfied.
Next question.
Yao Shuang asks Qin Zhao, “Ahem, Qin Zhao, netizens ask whether Lin Li knows you’re on this show as a guest. Does she know you said behind her back, ‘I really like this one’?”
Qin Zhao covers his eyes with his right hand in a gesture of surrender.
Lin Li is Qin Zhao’s rumored girlfriend. The two have never responded publicly to their relationship. A rumor that has lasted ten years being laid bare under the camera like this certainly creates excellent television.
Qin Zhao answers, “Lin Li and I are colleagues. We’ve never dated. I’ll officially respond to that today.”
The netizens come away empty-handed and instantly lose interest.
Yao Shuang nods, then quickly answers her own question too.
“All right, I can answer the thing netizens asked me in one sentence too. I’ll do that first, then we’ll ask Brother Qian—‘Trending topics about Yao Shuang overlapping productions and acting like a diva have repeatedly been taken down by investors. We heard a powerful patron is supporting you. Is that true?’ Ha, you people really dare to ask. False. I’m the capital.”
The comments are divided over Yao Shuang’s response:
Some say 【Sis is so badass AAAA】 and 【Wife, I love you】;
others seize on the key point: 【She didn’t deny overlapping productions or acting like a diva!】,
【She’s made so many trash dramas and earned all the money from them. Of course she turned into capital herself.】
The debate becomes especially heated. Yao Shuang pretends not to see any of it and continues controlling the room forcefully. Clearing her throat, she asks Qian Xingzhi:
“Qian Xingzhi, someone asks you—this whole ‘I don’t love humanity and humanity had better not touch me’ image of yours: is it real or fake? Up until now, how many times have you dated? Outside of acting roles, how many people have you held hands with, kissed, and slept with?—This question is pretty direct. Come on, answer. Nobody gets to run.”
Qian Xingzhi’s question is rather long, with quite a few question marks.
Especially for a serious actor like Qian Xingzhi, who never discusses his private life in any interview, this is genuinely the first time in more than a decade in the industry that he has answered a personal question.
After all, his achievements are extraordinary and he is extremely low-key. He has done no commercial activities in the last three years and has barely appeared in public. No matter how wild his fans become, it is difficult for passersby to dislike him.
Now that he has been asked such a pointed private question, almost all the earlier arguments about the other three celebrities stop. Or rather, every other topic is buried under the new flood of messages.
In the end, the comment section becomes the kingdom of copy-and-paste spam:
【Shove the microphone into Qian Xingzhi’s mouth. I am a noble gossip-eater and I demand every answer.】
【Shove the microphone into Qian Xingzhi’s mouth. I am a noble gossip-eater and I demand every answer.】
……
Inside the observation studio,
Qian Xingzhi sits there with his legs spread in an imposing posture, his extraordinarily handsome face adored by the camera.
Yet across these three hours, despite sitting in the center position, he has barely spoken. He has not uttered even thirty complete words. Now he has finally been asked a question he cannot avoid answering—after all, Qian Xingzhi is universally recognized as exceptionally professional. He signed the contract, so he cannot simply refuse.
In fact, Qian Xingzhi really does honor the contract.
He casts a sidelong glance at the question. His beautifully shaped red lips part, and he answers with extreme concision: “One. One. One. One.”
Qian Xingzhi says “one” four times, corresponding exactly to the questions:
“How many people have you dated?”
“How many people have you held hands with?”
“How many people have you kissed?”
“How many people have you slept with?”
The instant Qian Xingzhi says this, the already wildly popular livestream crashes.
The screen lags beyond belief. Other than an endless sea of “?” there is not another word on the public chat. Even Weibo officially crashes. Every other topic that had been trending all afternoon is pushed aside, replaced by
#OnePerson# EXPLOSIVE
#QianXingzhiSaidFourOnesAreYouPlayingCards# EXPLOSIVE
#QianXingzhiHasDatedOnePerson# EXPLOSIVE
#WereThePeopleQianXingzhiHeldHandsWithKissedAndSleptWithAllTheSamePerson# EXPLOSIVE
Four topics slaughter the rankings.
The level of discussion is unprecedented.
And after answering the question, Qian Xingzhi, sitting in the livestream studio, crosses his long legs elegantly and looks once more toward the smallest screen in the corner, where Shen Li’s sleeping face is calm and cool.
Qian Xingzhi is supremely confident—
once the observation studio’s “ex voting” channel opens, the first observation guest to enter the house will unquestionably be him.
About thirty minutes later.
After frantic work behind the scenes, the production team finally manages to stabilize the overloaded server and reconnect the livestream.
This time, however, to keep the server stable and prevent the livestream’s popularity from spiking too high, the director temporarily withholds the celebrity observation studio and shows only the forest cameras, displaying the six-person hunting group. The camera gives each ordinary guest repeated close-ups to highlight their individual traits.
Unfortunately, their situation can hardly be called good.
Every one of them is dusty and disheveled. More than an hour has passed, yet their backpacks and wooden baskets remain almost completely empty.
This is no exaggeration.
After one hour and thirteen minutes of effort, all six people have managed to obtain only one rabbit (0.3 kg) and one pheasant (0.6 kg). Together they do not even reach one kilogram!
The sky is gradually darkening, and nobody is in a good mood.
Yang Zhiqi and Jiang Nan form one team. The two seem accustomed to being bosses, so they naturally take leadership roles in the group.
During this hour, they repeatedly negotiate with the staff.
Yang Zhiqi says, “There’s genuinely something wrong with your retractable targets! You paint an animal on a board and that makes it an animal? If you want us shooting these retractable boards, at least set the mode correctly! We barely aim for one or two seconds and the board retracts? How is that reasonable? A real animal wouldn’t react that fast!”
Jiang Nan says, “I’ve received professional shooting training, so I absolutely have standing to comment. The sights on your guns have definitely been adjusted off-center. I can tell you that from a professional perspective.”
When the directing team clearly states that every part of the game has been repeatedly measured and verified by professionals and contains no problems, the two men’s resentment toward the production team grows.
To avoid recording profanity, the follow-camera operators have already started focusing on the women as much as possible.
Among the women, aside from Li Weiwei, who works out often and still has decent stamina, Ke Jiujiu and Kris are not doing very well either.
“My gosh! This gun is seriously damn heavy. This game is ridiculously hard.” Kris speaks in fluent Henan dialect, trying to use humor to ease the atmosphere.
But Ke Jiujiu’s volume is extremely high, and her sharp voice is almost piercing. “I seriously can’t take it anymore! If I’d known it would be like this, I really should’ve given the opportunity to Sister Zhao! Boo-hoo, my waist is about to snap!”
Li Weiwei walks over and helps lift her gun. “You okay? Want me to carry it for you?”
Ke Jiujiu says gratefully, “Boo-hoo, no. You’re tired too. I’ll just keep trying.”
“Give it to me.”
Lin Xu, who does not want to walk with the two middle-aged men, has been hovering behind the three women. Hearing Ke Jiujiu and Li Weiwei now, he cannot very well pretend not to hear as a grown man. He steps forward, takes Ke Jiujiu’s gun, slings it across the other side of his back, then frowns impatiently. “Next time, if you’re like this, don’t come out. Other people have to take care of you.”
Ke Jiujiu looks grateful and ingratiating. Her pretty little face lights up as she says coyly, “Thank you, big brother~ I knew you treat me best~”
Li Weiwei cannot resist rolling her eyes. She checks the time on her wristwatch and asks the production staff, “How much longer until the forest grounds close?”
The field director answers, “Forty-five minutes.”
Li Weiwei nods and scratches at her thighs, which are covered in mosquito bites. She says to Kris and Lin Xu, “I don’t think this can keep going. If we continue like this, all eight of us will have no dinner tonight. How about I go back?”
Kris blinks, confusion and exhaustion filling her large, dark eyes. “Go back?”
Now relieved of carrying the gun, Ke Jiujiu noisily asks, “Huh? Big sis, are you so tired you’re dizzy? If you go back now, will that magically give us dinner?”
Li Weiwei glances at her, somewhat annoyed. “First, I don’t like people calling me ‘big sis’ every other sentence. You’re young now, but one day you’ll be in your thirties too. Second, if you hadn’t taken Shen Li’s application form, maybe he would’ve had a chance to hunt.”
Ke Jiujiu never expected this. She had only casually called her “big sis.” In daily life she often used that kind of address with female colleagues and friends, and no one had ever confronted her over it. Yet Li Weiwei is actually drawing boundaries with her in front of the cameras, going “first” and “second” at her.
Ke Jiujiu’s nose immediately stings, and tears threaten to fall.
In the end, she holds them back with extreme grievance and stiffens her neck to retort, “First, I only called you that casually. I didn’t mean anything bad. If you don’t like it, I absolutely won’t say it again. Second, even if I took Shen Li’s application form, I didn’t deliberately stop him from applying. He filled it in so late because he didn’t really want to go. If he truly wanted to, he would’ve been the first to fill one out—and besides, even if he had applied successfully, so what? He’s disabled. How much better than us could he possibly be?”
“—Ke Jiujiu, don’t go too far!”
Lin Xu immediately stops her from continuing, his tone stern.
Kris is stunned speechless, listening blankly. At this point she tugs Ke Jiujiu’s sleeve too, reminding her that the camera is still there and not to escalate the conflict.
Ke Jiujiu immediately collapses onto Kris’s shoulder and starts crying with little sobs.
Li Weiwei watches everything coldly without speaking. Carrying her own gun, she turns and walks away.
Kris calls after her with concern. “Hey! Weiwei! Where are you going?”
Without looking back, Li Weiwei says, “Forty minutes left. I’m going back and transferring my gun to the shooting champion they left in the house.”
Kris did not see the application form earlier and has no idea who the “shooting champion” is. She looks at Lin Xu in confusion. “Shooting champion? …Yunzhi?”
Lin Xu says, “Shen Li.”