Chapter 43: Four Men, One Date Spot

Besides, the painting was truly beautiful.

Pei Liu sincerely admired him, thinking Qin Wu was amazing.

But when the other man offered it as a gift, he hesitated. They had only just met. Qin Wu had already given him a deity statue, and now he was giving him a hand-drawn painting. He had no suitable gift to offer in return.

Noticing the hesitation on his face, Qin Wu’s eyes darkened slightly, and he said expressionlessly: “This painting used your flowers.”

Hearing this, Pei Liu thought of the female guests present. Qin Wu didn’t seem to have any obvious romantic inclination toward any of them, so it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to give it to anyone else. Was he just using him as a shield?

With that, Pei Liu accepted it and thanked him earnestly, his eyes showing obvious delight.

The live stream bullet comments had exploded the moment Qin Wu said he was giving it to Pei Liu.

“Tsk tsk, there are three female guests present, but he chooses to give it to Liu-liu. Savor this, savor it carefully.”

“‘Because it used your flowers, so I’m giving it to you?’ Yeah, right, tell it to the ghosts.”

“He didn’t say ‘giving it to you,’ he said, ‘This painting is a gift for you.’ Please do your reading comprehension.”

“I’ll translate! This sentence means: From the very beginning, I drew this specifically for you. Not for anyone else, just you.”

“What nonsense. Qin Wu is just giving a gift to a friend. It’s pure, socialist brotherhood, that’s all. [doge.jpg]”

It must be said that the production team’s arrangement for the guests to show off their charm like peacocks fanning their tails was very effective. The female guests gained a deeper understanding of the male guests, experiencing moments of infatuation, and the viewers watching the live stream were also swooning.

Ling Ke took the initiative to ask Tan Yiyang if he could carry her in games to rank up. Zhao Wen and Zhou Fei chatted about swim training.

And then there was Yan Xuehui.

She glanced at Tan Yiyang and the others, then shifted her gaze to Pei Liu, smiled, and asked: “Watching Qin Wu paint just now made my hands itch a bit.”

Pei Liu: “You know traditional Chinese painting too?”

Yan Xuehui shook her head: “No way. I just doodle in my free time, simple sketches at best.”

She paused, then asked straightforwardly: “I want to draw you, is that okay?”

Pei Liu was slightly taken aback: “I have somewhat…”

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly realized that Yan Xuehui might be upset because Tan Yiyang was carrying Ling Ke in games, so she was interacting with him to see Tan Yiyang’s reaction.

In that case, he had to help out and add some fuel to this love triangle.

Pei Liu immediately changed his tune and nodded readily: “Sure.”

Meanwhile, the expression of Qin Wu, who was standing nearby, clearly darkened. Unfortunately, Pei Liu was too focused on the guests’ love triangle to notice.

Pei Liu and Yan Xuehui sat face-to-face at the living room table.

To draw a person, it’s naturally unavoidable to stare at them for a long time, observing and contemplating the details of their facial features, light and shadow, and lines.

Being able to look at someone openly and unabashedly.

While studying Pei Liu and drawing slowly, Yan Xuehui couldn’t help but marvel inwardly. Pei Liu’s looks were truly top-tier; even looking closely from this distance, she couldn’t find any flaws.

His eyelashes were long, thick, and curled. His skin had a slightly sickly pallor, so delicate that no pores were visible, like a piece of top-quality warm jade.

His eyes were pitch black, clear and pure, as if brimming with a pool of spring water.

The shape of his lips was also beautiful. It was the “Cupid’s bow” shape that celebrities in the industry coveted but couldn’t replicate—like a crescent moon, also known as kissing lips. A peach-blossom pink, full and plump, looking incredibly kissable and alluring.

Unknowingly, Yan Xuehui’s gaze lingered on Pei Liu’s face longer than necessary.

Then, she noticed Pei Liu’s ears had actually turned red. Because his skin was so fair, any change was very obvious, impossible to hide from others’ eyes.

Yan Xuehui couldn’t help but laugh, teasing: “Shy?”

Pei Liu had never been a model, and being stared at continuously was indeed uncomfortable. He feigned composure and retorted: “…No.”

Yan Xuehui’s eyes crinkled in a smile: “So cute. Looking at you makes my heart flutter. I kinda want to try dating a younger guy now.”

Resting her chin on her hand, she casually tucked her falling curls behind her ear, uttering this ambiguous remark seemingly unintentionally.

Pei Liu pursed his lips, instinctively glancing at Tan Yiyang from the corner of his eye. As expected, he couldn’t sit still anymore. He abruptly straightened his back, stealing several glances in Yan Xuehui’s direction, his expression revealing obvious tension.

Pei Liu felt a bit amused.

“Hahahaha, K God is about to get his corner dug out.”
“Liu-liu, look behind you quickly! Your man is fuming.”
“Fuming? What the heck hhh. But that displeased expression—truly the King of Jealousy himself.”
“Qin Wu has been holding a book for ages and hasn’t turned a single page. Dying of laughter.”
“Liu-liu, please look at him, or I suspect he’s going to stab a hole in the book with his eyes.”

Qin Wu continued to exude a low-pressure aura. After a while, he suddenly looked up, glanced at Pei Liu, then stood up and returned to his room with a cold face.

Pei Liu didn’t notice at first. It wasn’t until Yan Xuehui finished drawing, and he was marveling at how realistic it was, that he turned to look and found the person gone.

“Where did Qin Wu go?” He asked Wu Kai.

Wu Kai scratched his head: “Oh, he went to his room.”

The bullet comments chimed in with answers.

“He’s sulking in his room.”

“He’s sulking in his room.”

“He’s sulking in his room.”

The formation was quite uniform, and they were completely unsparing of the Best Actor’s dignity. What’s the use of dignity anyway? You won’t get a wife like that!

Netizens felt exasperated with Qin Wu, yet found the situation highly entertaining.

In the bedroom camera view.

Qin Wu sat askew on the single sofa, not playing on his phone, expressionless, looking utterly lifeless.

But suddenly, as if hearing something, he immediately looked up toward the door.

Almost simultaneously, Pei Liu pushed the door open, perfectly locking eyes with him.

Qin Wu’s expression remained flat, seemingly unconcerned, and asked casually: “Done drawing? Is it pretty?”

“Pfft—dying of laughter hahahaha.”

“Qin Wu is truly a jealous spirit, the sourness is overwhelming.”

“More than that. Just now, before Liu-liu even entered the room, the moment he heard footsteps, he perked right up, just like a big doggy.”

“No way, today’s trending topic is set: #BestActorPersonaCollapse#.”

“Wuwuwu, I want to be wifey’s dog too.”

“Sister, this… people shouldn’t, or at least they shouldn’t.”

Pei Liu had originally come to ask him to go out and look at the drawing together. After all, they were filming a show, and hiding in the room didn’t make sense; there needed to be more interaction between guests.

But when he actually made eye contact with Qin Wu, Pei Liu, for some reason, found it hard to say.

He said dryly: “Um… it’s pretty good. Want to come out and take a look?”

Qin Wu looked at him, not moving for a moment, his expression somewhat cold. After a few seconds, he stood up and went out with Pei Liu.

“Qin Wu: Pretty? Is it prettier than what I drew? Heh.”
“You’re not allowed to look at her, only at me.”

“God help me, how did my idol turn into a middle schooler!”

“Are you looking down on middle schoolers? Middle school romance is the cutest and purest! I! LOVE! WATCHING! IT!”

“If Qin Wu’s persona ever collapses completely, no one here is innocent. [doge.jpg]”

The group of guests sat in the living room chatting, sparking plenty of chemistry.

Time flew by quickly. After dinner, it was time for anonymous text messages again.

This time, Pei Liu received two messages.

“Your piano playing is just like you, very charming.”

“Drawing you.”

He still couldn’t guess who they were from. For the first one, all the female guests had heard him play the piano, so it could be any of them. For the second one, was it from Yan Xuehui?

After thinking for a moment, Pei Liu gave up guessing. He was just a tool man anyway.

Looking up, he noticed Qin Wu was staring at him again. Still curious about how many messages he received?

Pei Liu naturally wasn’t going to tell, so he used taking a shower as an excuse to escape.

When he signed the contract, he was a guest star, participating in the recording for three days. This was already the second day; he would leave after finishing recording tomorrow. Thinking of this, Pei Liu felt quite reluctant to leave. He was sad to part with his friend Qin Wu, who had helped him so much and was such a good person.

But Pei Liu never imagined that the person before his eyes was not the real Qin Wu at all, but an entity in disguise.

Furthermore, Qin Wu was actually watching their live stream.

Rewinding to the morning.

Father Qin had never approved of his son working in the entertainment industry, and father and son often argued over this.

To prove himself, Qin Wu worked hard to polish his acting skills, dedicated himself entirely to his work, became increasingly popular, and even won the title of Best Actor. After watching his performances, Father Qin’s attitude softened slightly, but not to the point of support.

Today, he was supposed to take his son to a banquet with him. When his calls went unanswered, he stormed over to Qin Wu’s residence. At the same time, he also called his manager.

“Not at his apartment? Working again? Is his schedule so tight he doesn’t even have time to see his dad?” Father Qin sneered.

The manager quickly apologized: “Qin Wu’s career is on the rise, so he is quite busy. Right now he’s filming a dating show. It’s live, so if President Qin has time, you can watch it too. Next month, he also has a drama adaptation of a major IP to shoot. He truly is very hardworking. Having such a formidable father as President Qin, he naturally doesn’t want to bring shame upon you.”

“Livestreaming, living in another city—so he can’t be at home, right?” Father Qin held his phone, glaring with a dark face at the son standing before him. “Then why did he open the door for me in the middle of the day, wearing pajamas and looking like he just woke up?”

The manager was dumbfounded: “That’s impossible…”

He opened the dating show live stream; “Qin Wu” was right there inside the cabin. How could he be at home? The manager wanted to say more, but found the call had already been hung up.

It was Qin Wu who hung up. He even reached out and pulled his dad into the house.

Father Qin looked displeased, angry: “Is this how hard you work? Teaming up with your manager to lie to your old man?”

Qin Wu hurriedly interrupted and stopped him: “Of course not. This matter… you might not believe it if I tell you. Wait, wait, I’ll put it on for you to see.”

He fiddled with the TV for a bit, and the dating show live stream started playing.

Father Qin: “What are you showing me? Watching you have a body double work for you while you sleep in at home?”

Qin Wu: “…No. Look closely, would a body double look exactly like me? Unless my mom gave birth to twins back then, one was stolen by a malicious scumbag, and he’s my long-lost biological brother?”

Father Qin was stunned by this melodramatic scenario. Looking closely at the TV, he actually began to doubt: “To think the hospital would do such a thing…”

Qin Wu’s expression was complicated: “What I mean is, that’s impossible.”

He lowered his voice and said carefully and with great reverence: “The one in the show isn’t human, it’s that distinguished…”

Father Qin followed his gaze. It was the spot where the shrine was placed—made of mahogany, finely carved. Atop the base stood a deity statue, looking down with cold indifference upon everything from on high.

The Qin family had worshipped this deity from ancient times to the present.

Qin Wu had received a modern education and didn’t believe in gods. But since childhood, his father had strictly demanded that he offer incense to the deity every day, kneel and bow devoutly, and copy scriptures every week, allowing not the slightest disrespect.

He hadn’t taken it seriously, thinking his dad was pedantic and unreasonable. But to his surprise, the one day he didn’t worship the deity, his mother cried and hit him hard.

That was when he learned that his parents hadn’t been very religious before either. But when he was just a few years old, he almost died from an illness.

The hospital said there was no hope and told them to prepare for his funeral. Desperate and out of options, his mother knelt before the shrine, bowing and begging. Unexpectedly, she actually received the deity’s pity.

The child’s complexion visibly turned rosy, his breathing went from weak to normal, his pulse became steady and strong, and he survived perfectly fine.

Mother Qin wept tears of joy, continuously kowtowing to thank the deity. From then on, she was incomparably devout, demanding her son be grateful to the deity for the rest of his life.

Although Mother Qin firmly believed in what happened that day, Qin Wu was skeptical, leaning toward the idea that his mother, in her grief, was in a trance and hallucinated. As for why he suddenly recovered, it was likely a medical miracle. After all, the human body is mysterious and unpredictable.

Until he truly saw the deity descend and appear before his eyes.

Enveloped in mysterious black mist, its features indiscernible.

The deity didn’t speak, but he had already received instructions in his mind.

The deity wanted to borrow his identity temporarily.

The reason, he didn’t know.

But as a believer, he couldn’t possibly ask. He bowed his head deeply, hurriedly agreeing.

The next second, he vanished from the show’s cabin and returned to his own apartment, standing before the shrine.

After hearing his story, Father Qin looked shocked and in disbelief. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe what Qin Wu said—he knew Qin Wu wouldn’t dare joke about the deity. It was just hard to accept that his son had seen the deity first. He was clearly much more devout than his son; why didn’t the deity order him to do things? What was so good about a minor celebrity’s identity to borrow his?

Father Qin lamented, feeling extremely envious and jealous of his son. He couldn’t help but ask: “What does it feel like to see the deity?”

Qin Wu fell into memories, his eyes losing focus: “Hard to describe. Powerful, terrifying, dangerous, awe-inspiring… You feel incredibly insignificant, uncontrollably falling to your knees, your body trembling, not daring to look up.”

Father Qin listened intently, sourness rising in his throat. Afraid he might not be able to resist giving his son a severe beating, he focused all his attention on the show, figuring seeing the deity’s incarnation was good enough.

As a result, he saw various ambiguous love triangles and blatant, explicit bullet comments.

“This, this…” Father Qin suddenly lost his ability to speak, stuttering for a long time without forming a complete sentence.

Qin Wu, being a young person, was quite open-minded and unsurprised: “Deities also have emotions and desires. It’s not strange for them to have their hearts flutter and like someone.”

Father Qin was dumbfounded, clearly still unable to accept such a magical reality.

“A deity and a mortal? That’s impossible…” It was as unbelievable as a human falling in love with an ant.

Qin Wu added: “What’s wrong with a mortal? Could you possibly question the deity’s thoughts and decisions? Besides, if you say the person they like isn’t good enough, be careful not to anger the deity.”

Father Qin, unsurprisingly, shut up immediately.

Qin Wu muttered again: “Moreover, who knows if Pei Liu might be some deity reincarnated to undergo a trial, and the two of them have some past-life-and-present entanglement? There are plenty of scripts like that.”

Miraculously, the father and son sat together watching the dating show livestream, and watched it extremely seriously. If outsiders saw this, their jaws would drop.

Father Qin couldn’t help but say: “Why did he send his text message to Yan Xuehui? He doesn’t like the deity?”

Resting his chin on his hand, Qin Wu watched entranced, treating it like an idol drama: “It’s only been two days, isn’t it normal not to like someone yet? Speaking of which, seeing my own face like this, it truly is unusually handsome.”

Father Qin was unceremonious, slapping him loudly on the back: “That’s the deity, can you compare to Him? The aura is far off; it’s your face holding Him back. Otherwise, the deity would have won the person over long ago.”

Saying this, Father Qin even dragged Qin Wu next to the TV, as if comparing him side-by-side with Pei Liu, continuing his bombardment: “Look at Pei Liu, how beautiful he is, and then look at you, an eyesore!”

Qin Wu: “???”

Is this my real dad? Why the personal attacks? Who did I offend?

After the text message segment, the production team came to announce their itinerary for the next day.

A full day of dates.

However, the dating activities had rules. The production team provided photos of several date locations: an amusement park, an escape room, an art gallery, an ancient town, a movie theater, and an aquarium.

The guests would choose one based on their preferences, put it in an envelope, and drop it in a mailbox, without telling anyone.

When choosing, one naturally guesses where the person they like would pick. If at this location, how would they date? Would they run into a love rival? It’s very nerve-wracking and tense. Arriving at the location and finding that you and the person you like happened to choose the same place brings a sense of telepathy, a destined romantic surprise.

After some thought, Pei Liu dropped his choice into the mailbox.

When the production team finally collected the envelopes and opened them one by one, they couldn’t help but freeze. They ran to the director to ask what to do, and whether they should intervene and change the guests’ locations.

The director looked at the photos, frowned in deep thought, gritted his teeth, and finally waved his hand: “Leave it be. Film it like this, there might actually be surprises.”

Thus, the next day arrived.

Pei Liu took a car to his date location. He didn’t see a single female guest, only Zhou Fei, Tan Yiyang, and Qin Wu arriving one after another.

The four men looked at each other in dismay.

Watching this, Father Qin slapped his thigh repeatedly, incredibly anxious. Meanwhile, the real Qin Wu cried out in pain: “Hit your own leg, why are you hitting me?”

The bullet comments were even more lively.

“Hahahaha, I can tell you guys don’t have a script.”

“How are they going to date now? I’m feeling awkward for them through the screen.”

“Help, this hits my kink so hard. A love triangle with four men, I’m excited!”

“Asking out of ignorance, what is xp (kink)?”

“You don’t even know this? Windows XP operating system.”

“I’m going to die of laughter watching this show sooner or later.”