Chapter 11: Variety Show

The next morning, the “Perfect Partner” production team released a short teaser from the first day.

Ning Ke’s fans were the most active, initially intending to dominate the bullet comments and control the narrative.

However, they unexpectedly clashed with Yan Yunzhi’s fans. After all, it was Yan Yunzhi’s first time on this type of entertainment variety show, and the ‘Yan-silks’ (her fans) were almost dying from excitement.

In just a three-minute video, not only did the bullet comments get filled by fans from both sides, but they also started fighting.

The issue arose because Ning Ke took Yan Yunzhi’s meal portion.

Yan Yunzhi’s fans were extremely displeased:

[“Long heard someone loves acting like a diva and has a bad temper, figures. She even snatches a meal portion? Does she know how to write the word ‘polite’? Look at her seven suitcases when getting off the plane this morning, late-stage princess syndrome, right?”]

[“Exactly, don’t bully our Teacher Yan just because she has a good temper!”]

[“Heh, never liked her anyway, now turning from neutral to anti-fan. Bye bye.”]

Ning Ke’s fans were also dissatisfied:

[“No way, Teacher Yan didn’t seem unwilling?”]

[“Exactly, making a mountain out of a molehill!”]

[“Complaining about luggage too? LMAO, minding others’ business much.”]

Fans from both sides argued back and forth until someone said:

[“Is it just me, or do these two have some CP vibes?”]

[“Right… I’m kinda shipping them too (kdl). Teacher Yan is so doting!”]

Solo stans from both sides instantly got angry, redirected their firepower, and started cursing those randomly shipping, force-feeding ships, leeching off popularity… a whole bunch of fandom jargon emerged.

Finally, the person who posted “shipped it” sheepishly deleted their comment, then added sarcastically: [“Go ahead and curse. You curse me during the day, your idols sleep in the same bed at night. Hehe.”]

This comment got torn apart even more fiercely, eventually吵 making it to the tail end of the trending topics.

But Ning Ke was unaware of all this.

She was sensitive to beds and didn’t sleep well last night, waking up very late.

The production team didn’t have time to get excited about the morning teaser’s popularity; the guests had all arrived, and the afternoon filming began in full swing.

Fans from both sides were halfway through their argument when they quickly started firing off bullet comments. Ning-silks arrived on the battlefield first:

[“Xiao Ning, Mommy is here!”]

[“Cub’s white coat today is so pretty, so well-behaved and gentle!”]

[“Wuwu, Xiao Ning’s face looks round and chubby, really want to pinch (rua)!”]

Yan Yunzhi’s fans followed closely, frantically spamming: [#YanYunzhi Wife#]

The production team watched the live broadcast popularity climb while filming, their smiles almost reaching the heavens.

As the number of live viewers soared, the first episode of “Perfect Partner” began.

There were 8 guests in total. Besides Ning Ke and Yan Yunzhi, and the Gao Qi couple, there were four others: Jiang Lin and Yu You, young idols from Ning Ke’s company, singer Jing Luo, and model Gu Yao.

As for Lin Yun’s ex, Best Actress Jiang Hongbing, she was just a guest star and would only join in the later two episodes.

Ning Ke greeted the Gao Qi couple, then nodded at Jiang Lin and Yu You.

Singer Jing Luo showed little expression, cool and detached, fitting her ‘cool big sister’ persona among fans. Model Gu Yao was inserted by some investor bigwig, with a very innocent baby face.

After introducing the guests, the production team explained the rules: “Our show is called ‘Perfect Partner,’ and involves grouping. But perfect partners are formed through continuous adjustment, so initially, we won’t force pairings.”

“Alright, let’s first form 4 groups.”

“After grouping, a small game will determine the room choices for tonight.”

The production team played a video of Russian nesting dolls, requiring pairs. One person says stop, the other points out which doll the smallest one is inside.

The bullet comments started刷 again.

[“Hehe, being grouped with the Eldest Miss is gonna suck.”]

[“Teacher Yan, run away quickly!”]

[“LMAO, you really think your great artist is like cash, everyone likes her?”]

[“Just a passerby, stop arguing. Maybe they both want the same room?”]

[“Random CP shippers get lost!”]

Ning Ke watched the nesting doll video and commented: “So boring.”

Having been previously reminded by her manager to listen to her, Jiang Lin and Yu You also followed suit: “Exactly, boring!”

Lin Yun: “…”

‘So her childhood friend came here to sabotage her!’

Yan Yunzhi watched the video seriously and asked Ning Ke: “You say stop, I’ll choose?”

Ning Ke’s heart skipped a beat.

‘Did she forget this was on camera?’

‘The production team hadn’t even announced the room allocation rules, how could she just… assume they would sleep in the same room?’

The bullet comments frantically scrolled:

[“Hahahaha, Yan fans, did your faces get slapped? Your idol is the one clinging?”]

[“Probably only Teacher Yan can tolerate the Eldest Miss’s princess syndrome!”]

[“Stop trying to save face forcefully, ahahahahaha dying laughing dying laughing!”]

Only then did the production team speak up: “Currently, we have four female guests, two male guests, and Teacher Gao Qi and Teacher Qin Pei. Same-s*x guests share a room, Teacher Gao and Teacher Qin share one. The four female guests, please choose freely. Everyone decide your groups! Note, there are 4 rooms tonight. The first is a deluxe double bed room with a hot spring, two are standard double bed rooms, and the third has only one single bed~”

Ning Ke: “…”

‘With Yan Yunzhi’s sickly constitution, if they drew the single bed, wouldn’t she have to sleep on the floor?’

Gu Yao immediately said: “I’ll room with Sister Luoluo.”

Jing Luo didn’t object: “Mm.”

Yan Yunzhi: “Mm. I’ll room with Ning Ke.”

Ning Ke: “…Alright then.”

The bullet comments increased again:

[“See? This is Teacher Yan being considerate. The other two guests didn’t dare room with the Eldest Miss, okay?”]

[“Just saving face, understand. We all understand.”]

Yan Yunzhi didn’t know how complicated her fans’ feelings were at this moment. She smiled at Ning Ke: “Let’s start.”

Ning Ke nodded: “Let’s go first.”

Production team: “Ready! Video, play!”

The screen showed a common Russian nesting doll video. Ning Ke used to play it often with Lin Yun and Tao Zhi when playing Mario games. The movements were dazzlingly fast. She locked onto one and suddenly said: “Stop!”

Production team: “Okay, Teacher Yan, please say whether the nesting doll is in the left, middle, or right doll?”

Yan Yunzhi met Ning Ke’s tense, expectant gaze, which held a hint of suggestion, and smiled warmly: “Right.”

Production team: “Play the screen!”

“Congratulations, correct answer!”

Many “thumbs up” appeared in the bullet comments.

[“Teacher Yan’s eyesight is too good, right?”]

[“Is this the eyesight of an artist?”]

[“Don’t rush, there are still other groups!”]

Qin Pei leaned lazily against her husband’s arm, asking with a smile: “Director, guessing has a 1/3 chance of being right. It’s not decided in one round, right?”

Production team: “Of course not. Three rounds, comparing the number of correct guesses.”

Qin Pei: “Okay, now it’s our turn. I say stop, hubby you guess.”

Production team again: “Video play!”

After a few seconds, Qin Pei called stop. Gao Qi said: “Middle.”

The screen showed the answer was wrong; it was on the left.

Qin Pei glared playfully at Gao Qi: “So stupid.”

[“OMG, real couples are the best ship, so sweet.”]

[“Teacher Qin is too charming. If someone called me hubby like that, I’d be willing to shorten my life by a year.”]

Finally, it was the turn of the young idols from YinChen Company, Jiang Lin and Yu You.

They debuted from a talent show, and show fans shipped CPs a lot. Their CP also had many fans. They had tried to unbind for a long time without success, only for the darn show to put them in the same room right at the start.

Jiang Lin lazily called stop. Yu You couldn’t see clearly and could only guess randomly ‘middle’. The answer was wrong.

Jiang Lin scoffed: “Yu You ah, you’re no good.”

Yu You: “You think you’re any better?”

[“Hahahaha, the elementary school kids are bickering again.”]

[“These two are so silly. Here comes, here comes, Teacher Yan is here!”]

The second round began again.

Ning Ke felt a bit more confident. After spotting one, she called stop and heard Yan Yunzhi’s firm voice: “Left.”

The answer was revealed, Yan Yunzhi was right again!

Ning Ke’s eyes lit up, looking at her in surprise. Yan Yunzhi still wore her usual gentle, smiling expression, merely raising an eyebrow slightly, as if silently asking her: Very surprised?

Ning Ke nonchalantly retracted her gaze.

Fans captured that moment and started replaying it.

[“OMG… I’m purely a solo stan, but that shot just now, Keke was so coquettish, Teacher Yan was so doting. Okay, something’s wrong with me, I’ll say it first.”]

[“Silently +1, something’s wrong with me too.”]

The show continued.

Yu You: “Um… can you guess a round for us?”

Ning Ke retorted irritably: “Dream on.”

In the second round, the other three groups still didn’t guess correctly.

Undoubtedly, the luxurious suite with the hot spring tonight belonged to Ning Ke and Yan Yunzhi.

In the third round, Gao Qi finally guessed correctly, and the usually quiet singer Jing Luo also guessed correctly. These two groups got the standard double bed rooms. Finally, Jiang Lin and Yu You, two tall, long-legged傻 sons of landlord families, were assigned one single bed.

The production team delivered an envelope: “Duang! This is the key to our luxurious double bed room! Congratulations Ning Ke, Yan Yunzhi!”

The bullet comments started scrolling again:

[“Clueless, so speechless today.”]

[“Don’t even know who is more speechless.”]

[“Solo stans, keep cursing! See, you curse me, your idols are sleeping in the same bed now, right? Hehe!”]

Ning Ke was in a good mood, asking generously: “Want to see our room?”

Yu You: “Forget it, Ning Jie, you’re just rubbing it in.”

Qin Pei哼了一声, linked arms with Gao Qi, and said half-jokingly: “Definitely not looking! Hubby, let’s go!”

Ning Ke couldn’t help but laugh. Turning around, she saw Yan Yunzhi smiling too, and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed: “Let’s go.”

Yan Yunzhi: “Okay. Let’s go back.”

The luxurious suite prepared by the production team was exquisitely decorated, with a hot spring, balcony, and both rooms equipped with bathrooms and walk-in closets.

Yan Yunzhi said: “You pick one.”

Ning Ke chose the one closer to the balcony: “This one.”

Yan Yunzhi: “This one is near the balcony, it’s windy, might be noisy.”

Ning Ke: “Just this one, I like well-ventilated rooms.”

Yan Yunzhi nodded: “Then… good night.”

Ning Ke gave an “oh”: “Good night.”

Returning to her own room, Ning Ke logged into her secondary account. Her ID was “NingDidYouEatStrawberriesToday”, respectfully known in the community as “Teacher Strawberry”.

On her feed, she scrolled past many mutual major fans seriously analyzing why she snatched Yan Yunzhi’s meal last night. Solo stans also started cursing those randomly shipping CPs. In just one day, a Super Topic (fan community) had even been created.

Ning Ke was also curious and clicked in.

Holding her phone, she frowned and exited after less than two minutes.

She knew fans had shipped her with others before, and she had seen Out-Of-Character fanfiction, mostly laughing it off.

Today, it was just CP fans interpreting some screenshots—the moment she received the key and turned back to look at Yan Yunzhi, and Yan Yunzhi smiling at her.

The comments were all:

[“This scene is amazing!”]

[“That gaze is so suave so suave so suave, suddenly realized her gaze has always been on Xiao Ning, really so doting!”]

[“I have a feeling, Teacher Yan is the ultimate top 1.”]

Ning Ke: “?”

‘Yan Yunzhi, looking so frail…’

‘Why would netizens think she’s the 1 (top)?’

‘Huh?’