At the director’s words, Lu Yiwen, who was standing in the middle, looked surprised.
He glanced at Jin Zhihan on his left, then Bai Jishen on his right, wondering if the one who had gotten it wrong could possibly be him.
His wife often came up with wildly imaginative ideas. Maybe something else had suddenly caught his attention at the last minute. It was hard to say.
Damn. Was he about to get slapped in the face?
This was certainly delivering plenty of variety-show drama. Anyone who did not know better might think there was a script.
Lu Yiwen was regretting having bragged to Bai Jishen when the director revealed that the dramatically chosen “child of destiny” was not him after all.
“President Jin, unfortunately, your choice was incorrect. Teacher Chu Yao chose Villa No. 1.” The director shrugged helplessly. “You’ll have to accept our punishment.”
[Under normal circumstances Baby Yao absolutely should have picked the gaming room! President Jin’s mistake is totally understandable, right?]
[Uh… why do I feel like Chu Yao deliberately chose one President Jin wouldn’t guess because he wanted him to get punished?]
[Sister, that train of thought is wild. Are Raise the Flag and Cheer secretly following an enemies-in-love script?]
[I love teasing and pranking my husband too! If anything, that proves you’re close. Otherwise you wouldn’t dare do it.]
[Am I the only one who thinks Chu Yao may have picked the style President Jin likes? President Jin looks exactly like the kind of person who wants to stay somewhere quiet and elegant. Brother Yao is sacrificing himself for love!]
[Good lord. After hearing this sister’s explanation, I suddenly feel so narrow-minded. Is true love always this earth-shattering?]
[Camping here for the correct answer.]
[Camping camping camping.]
The livestream room had already exploded, but Jin Zhihan himself looked perfectly calm.
He asked the director directly, “What’s the punishment?”
“Before today’s filming ends, you have to say three cheesy romantic lines to Teacher Chu Yao, and you can’t make them sound too deliberate.” The director smiled ambiguously.
Lu Yiwen and Bai Jishen exchanged a glance and joked, “What kind of punishment is that? Aren’t you just creating opportunities for them to feed everyone dog food?”
Bai Jishen nodded in agreement. “Exactly. We normally say things like ‘I love you’ all the time.”
[Brother Shen’s survival instinct is so strong. Why not teach President Jin what to say? Hahaha.]
[President Jin: You think I need someone else to teach me? You’re underestimating me.]
[Looking at President Jin’s cold, abstinent vibe, he really doesn’t seem like someone who can say cheesy romantic lines. I think this challenge will be pretty hard for him.]
[Sister, you’re still too naive. He only acts proper in front of outsiders. The second he gets in front of his wife, his tail starts wagging automatically.]
[I imagined how they might interact and got so excited I started pounding the table!!]
“Teacher Lu, why don’t you come up with a harder punishment for them?” Hearing what Lu Yiwen had said, the director deliberately teased him.
Lu Yiwen immediately waved both hands. He was not about to do something that offensive.
He had only said that earlier for the sake of the show.
The director laughed and stopped teasing him. “The three husbands can go find your wives now.”
The camera followed Jin Zhihan. Villa No. 1 was immediately to the left after entering, and he soon reached the front door.
Jin Zhihan stopped and turned to say goodbye to Lu Yiwen and Bai Jishen.
“President Jin, can you cook? If you can, we’ll come freeload at your place someday,” Lu Yiwen asked casually.
Bai Jishen thought the question was a little unnecessary. Someone like Jin Zhihan, who had a thousand things to manage every day, surely had chefs at home and never needed to cook himself. How could he possibly know how?
“I can make a few simple dishes. You’re welcome to come over.” Jin Zhihan rested a hand on the door handle. Anyone could see that he was eager to go inside.
Lu Yiwen and Bai Jishen agreed and waved goodbye.
Jin Zhihan entered the villa courtyard. Immediately to the left was a small garden planted with roses of every color. On the right stood a stone table and stone stools beside a swing, all facing the floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond the iron fence was a bamboo grove. The entire scene had a quiet, soothing serenity to it.
As he took it in, Jin Zhihan’s gaze deepened slightly.
This villa’s environment was exactly the style he liked. It seemed Chu Yao’s choice had been made to accommodate him.
Reaching the entrance, Jin Zhihan saw that the door was open, so he simply lifted the suitcases and went inside.
Abstract oil paintings hung along the entry hall. The space was broad and empty, with no one in sight.
Seven or eight cameras were visible at a glance, filming from every possible angle without a single blind spot.
After setting down the suitcases, Jin Zhihan took off the backpack and hung it on the rack by the foyer cabinet.
The villa was small but refined, with only two floors. Downstairs were the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Upstairs were one bedroom, one study, a gym, and a media room.
Chu Yao had already finished looking around and happened to be coming downstairs. The instant he saw Jin Zhihan, his relaxed nerves snapped taut.
Ready—
Action!
A faint curve lifted the corners of Chu Yao’s lips. Wearing a sweet little smile, he quickened his steps toward Jin Zhihan.
“Jin—” The moment he instinctively began to say the man’s name, an alarm sounded in his head.
No. That was too distant.
Thoughts flashed like lightning, and all kinds of forms of address flooded his mind. For some reason, Chu Yao suddenly remembered what Jin Zhihan had said that night on livestream: “In private, he likes calling me ‘big brother’.”
Sometimes words left the mouth before the brain had time to think them through.
The instant Chu Yao’s hand landed on Jin Zhihan’s arm, a lilting “Big Brother” slipped right out.
Jin Zhihan’s back stiffened.
The livestream room was instantly overwhelmed too.
[They’re feeding us dog food the second they meet!! Looks like I don’t need lunch anymore.]
[Why do I love hearing one man call another man ‘big brother’ this much? Watching other people show affection really is addictive.]
[Is this still the Brother Yao I know? I can’t believe a man is better at acting spoiled than I am. I’m ashamed of myself.]
[Now you finally understand how Chu Yao managed to win President Jin over, right? He really does have some soft, clingy skills.]
Noticing that Jin Zhihan’s expression looked a little unnatural, Chu Yao guessed that he had not gotten into character yet.
He was not an actor, after all. It was understandable that he would be slower to enter the role.
“Big Brother, how did the guessing go? You all got it right, didn’t you?” Chu Yao patiently guided Jin Zhihan into the scene.
The beginning was always the hardest part.
Since he had already said it once, calling him “Big Brother” a second time came much more naturally.
“They both got it right. I was the only one who got it wrong.” Jin Zhihan lifted the larger suitcase and headed upstairs. The smaller one remained, so Chu Yao easily picked it up and followed him. “Which one did you choose?”
“The gaming room.”
Chu Yao was a little surprised, but with the cameras there, he did not show it.
“You must have picked that one because you know I like gaming.” Chu Yao smoothly supplied an explanation for himself. “I wanted that villa at first too, but then I thought this one had a really nice environment. There’s a stone table and stone stools outside. We can sit there in the afternoon and have tea together. Isn’t that better than playing games?”
As expected of an experienced entertainer, his ability to improvise on the spot was impressive.
Jin Zhihan glanced back at Chu Yao. He did not expose him and instead continued acting along. “I failed to think about things from my wife’s point of view. I’ll remember next time.”
The sudden “wife” nearly made Chu Yao’s legs go weak on the stairs.
He was getting into character much faster than Chu Yao had expected.
–
After putting down the luggage, it was time to make lunch.
Chu Yao had already opened the refrigerator earlier. It was packed with ingredients; practically anything one could think of had been prepared.
Before coming on the show, Chu Yao had searched up recipes online. His brain remembered them. His hands did not.
Of all the ordinary home-cooked dishes, he believed scrambled eggs with tomatoes had to be the easiest.
Seeing how eager he was to try, Jin Zhihan got to the refrigerator first and took out the tomatoes, deciding to leave Chu Yao the chance to show off.
Rolling up his sleeves unhurriedly, Jin Zhihan asked whether Chu Yao needed a helper.
Chu Yao was afraid viewers would criticize Jin Zhihan for doing nothing, so he handed over the washed tomatoes and told him to dice them.
With a crisp motion, Chu Yao turned on the stove, poured in the oil, and prepared to cook the eggs first.
While cutting tomatoes, Jin Zhihan casually glanced over. Chu Yao held a spatula in one hand and the pan in the other, terrified that oil might splash him. His profile was tense, making the line of his jaw look even sharper. His expression was solemn and intensely focused—and strangely adorable.
Jin Zhihan was so busy looking at him that he nearly cut his own hand.
The oil began to smoke. Chu Yao cracked the eggs into the pan with a frantic clatter, panicking as though he himself were the one being fried in hot oil.
Without even checking whether any eggshell had fallen in, Chu Yao immediately scooped in two spoonfuls of salt. The very next second, anxiety set in. Had he added too much…?
His first instinct was to fix it by adding water, so he poured a bowl of plain water into the pan. The more he looked, the more wrong it seemed.
How had he somehow turned scrambled eggs with tomatoes into tomato-and-egg soup?
From the corner of his eye, he glanced toward Jin Zhihan and saw him leaning lazily against the counter, watching him.
Watching him very openly, at that.
“Is there something on my face?” Chu Yao frowned awkwardly.
“I’m looking at you because you’re especially charming when you cook,” Jin Zhihan said with complete seriousness, delivering his romantic line.
“…” The air instantly froze.
Chu Yao seriously suspected that Jin Zhihan had attended some unreliable crash course in acting before coming on the show. How else could he say such outdated idol-drama lines?
The livestream room dissolved into laughter.
[I was eating lunch and the second President Jin said that, I sprayed rice all over my desk.]
[President Jin is really giving it his all to complete the punishment. Did you see Chu Yao’s speechless expression? Hahaha, I could laugh about this for a year.]
[Help! I instantly thought of that classic domineering-CEO line: “You enchanting little minx.” Could this fit his character any better?!]
Still completely in the dark, Chu Yao assumed Jin Zhihan was merely acting and did not think much of it. All his attention was on the eggs in the pan.
The final result was less than ideal. The perfect scrambled eggs with tomatoes Chu Yao had imagined bore almost no resemblance to reality, so the cooking duties still ended up falling to Jin Zhihan.
Chu Yao had assumed a pampered rich young master like Jin Zhihan, born with a golden spoon in his mouth, would not know how to cook. Yet once he took over as chef, he quickly produced two dishes and a soup.
Chu Yao had never seen Jin Zhihan cook before, so he could only attribute it to “extraordinary natural talent.”
The disastrous-looking plate of scrambled eggs and tomatoes was not thrown away either. Jin Zhihan placed it in front of himself.
Wasting food was wrong to begin with, and they were filming a show. If viewers caught them doing something improper, they would start scolding them again.
Chu Yao approved of Jin Zhihan’s choice and reached his chopsticks toward the dish he himself had made first.
He ought to clean up his own mess.
But the next second, Jin Zhihan reached out with his chopsticks and blocked him. “Don’t you want to taste mine first?”
His gaze was overbearing, his deep eyes fixed firmly on Chu Yao. “I’ll eat what you made.”
“Don’t. My cooking tastes awful.” Chu Yao rejected the idea instinctively.
A faint smile curved Jin Zhihan’s lips. “I like anything my wife makes.”
[Aaaaaah!!! I’m developing a love-addled brain!! President Jin, I’m sorry, I underestimated you before. How can a man be this good at flirting? He’s got the smile and tone down perfectly!]
[Teacher Lu was right after all. Isn’t this punishment just feeding the viewers dog food? Aren’t we the ones being punished?]
[Look at President Jin’s shamelessly lovestruck smile. You’d think he was the only man in the world with a wife. [dog-head]]
[If I had a wife like Baby Yao, I’d want to show him off too.]
Chu Yao fell silent for several seconds before coughing awkwardly.
He truly wanted to remind Jin Zhihan that he was overacting a little. What couple who had been married for two years still kept such sappy lines constantly on their lips?
Going onto a marriage reality show without any real practical experience really did look fake.
The viewers were probably already criticizing them by now.
Chu Yao pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a slight headache coming on.
Author’s Note: