Chapter 123

Chapter 123

“You will take turns chatting with the female guests anonymously. The male and female guests with the longest two-way chat time will automatically be grouped together.”

Director Qin announced the new grouping rules.

“Aren’t the male guests supposed to choose according to their favorability ranking?” Wei Xuan’s expression changed when he heard that.

Director Qin blinked his big, dewy eyes. “No? The rules said the male guest with the highest favorability can choose today’s photo partner first. They didn’t say the female guests would be chosen in ranking order.”

Wei Xuan looked at Director Qin, who was staring back at him with that deliberately innocent expression, and was left completely speechless.

[So basically, only the strong get to choose. The losers can only be chosen.]

[This is pretty good, actually. Otherwise the male guest in last place would have to pair with the female celebrity nobody picked, and that last female celebrity would definitely feel kind of awkward.]

[Exactly. Isn’t the main selling point of this variety show the female celebrities and their male friends? Of course the grouping choices should prioritize the female celebrities’ wishes. The female celebrities are the heart of this show, after all.]

[The female celebrities are the heart of this show… God, that sounds so satisfying.]

[Right? If the production is smart, they’ll bring in seven or eight more male guests and make a full set of the twelve zodiac signs so our four ladies can have more options. With the four male guests we have now, aside from Xiao Xie, every single one of them has their own roast-worthy issues.]

[Hahahahaha, you think Xie Lanchen hasn’t been roasted? Ning Xi’s solo fans, mom fans, and wife fans are already dying for the Program Team to release a “Ning Xi Pure-Cut Edition (Xie Lanchen/Fu Zhi content: 0).”]

[That line comes to mind again. Toxic]

[solo]

[stans]

[hate]

[the real]

[girlfriend]

[the most]

[You people are so wicked. I hope we’re online friends again in the next life. [your smile is so cute.jpg]]

And so, the male and female guests sat on opposite sides, with a folding screen placed in the middle to block each other’s line of sight and movements.

Director Qin handed the guests new phones.

“Each phone has added four friends of the opposite sex. In addition to the three male or female guests, one of them is a staff member from the Program Team.

“This staff member of the opposite sex will also participate in this anonymous chatting mini-game. Their chat time with the guests will not count toward the final ranking. Any guest who can identify which of the four friends is the staff member will receive a special benefit prepared by the Program Team.

“Friendly reminder: the special benefit is related to the guests’ funds for the next leg of the trip.

“The total chat time is fifteen minutes. Please allocate your time wisely. Good luck, everyone.”

The moment they heard the word “funds,” the guests’ fighting spirit instantly ignited.

“We’re together all day long, and before this we chatted in the group every day. You think we won’t be able to recognize one little Program Team spy?” Jiang Sheshe said disdainfully.

Wei Xuan smiled in agreement. “Sheshe is right. Everyone has their own commonly used words and tone when chatting. As long as you’ve spent enough time together, it’s very easy to tell who is who.”

After saying that, he looked toward the folding screen.

However, no sound came from the other side.

Wei Xuan’s eyes dimmed.

Then he thought of the little emojis Jiang Sheshe often used when chatting, and his confidence returned.

As long as he recognized Sheshe’s WeChat later and spent the longest time chatting with her so they could be grouped together, he would be able to have a proper talk with Sheshe.

The anonymous chat began.

Wei Xuan was just about to open Female Guest No. 1’s WeChat when the chat box showed a message from her.

Female Guest 1: “Hellooo [happy] [spin]”

That tone, those emojis…

Wei Xuan had a guess in mind, but considering the possibility that a staff member might interfere, he was not completely certain.
So he replied, “Hello.”

The other person sent back an “Awkward Cat” sticker and then stopped messaging.

And it was precisely that sticker that made Wei Xuan even more certain of his guess.

Among all the guests, only Sheshe would pair every sentence with a sticker, and she was especially fond of cat and cartoon-girl stickers.

Thinking that his tone just now had been too cold and might make Sheshe mistake him for Shen Yibai, Wei Xuan hurriedly sent another message:

“Awkward Cat.jpg”

The other person replied almost instantly, “You actually stole my sticker [going crazy][screaming]”

Wei Xuan: “Cat stickers are cute. I like using them too.”

This was Wei Xuan testing the waters.

At his age, most of the people he interacted with were business partners or seniors a little older than him, so he barely had any stickers at all.

The only cat stickers he had ever used were ones he had specifically started sending to Sheshe after she accused his tone of being too cold and emotionless.

That tiny detail was known only to him and Sheshe.

Sure enough, after he sent that message, the other person went silent.

Then the WeChat chat box kept showing “The other party is typing…” but after a very long while, the message that came through was just a simple, “Oh [dazed].”

With that, Wei Xuan was finally certain. The other person was Sheshe!

The staff could imitate Sheshe’s chatting habits, but they absolutely couldn’t imitate Sheshe’s reaction after realizing the person on the other end was him!

And so, Wei Xuan started messaging with even more enthusiasm. His topics included but were not limited to the weather, favorite songs, and so on and so forth.

Although the other person’s replies grew shorter and shorter, they still maintained the habit of pairing every sentence with a sticker.

And sometimes, when they encountered a topic they were interested in, the chat would keep showing “typing,” but in the end, all they sent was another, “Oh [dazed].”

They clearly couldn’t suppress the urge to talk, but also didn’t want to deal with him.

It was definitely Sheshe.

Wei Xuan shook his head with a helpless smile.

[Strange, why don’t Wei Xuan’s chat records match any of the female guests? I switched through all the guests’ perspectives, and Jiang Sheshe is clearly arguing with Fu Zhi right now.]

[Could the person chatting with Wei Xuan be a staff member specifically assigned to interfere with the guests?]

[That chatting tone-how many Jiang Sheshes did they eat? The flavor’s soaked all the way in.]

[Oh [dazed][going crazy][screaming]]

[So there’s no staff POV? I’m actually kind of curious what the other person’s chat screen looks like, hahaha.]

[Speaking of which… where did Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen go? They went off to take photos after successfully choosing each other earlier, but their livestream room just mysteriously disappeared.]

The instant that Danmaku appeared, another feed suddenly popped up in the livestream room.

Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen, who should have been taking photos, were now sitting head-to-head, each holding a phone and replying to messages.

On the whiteboard behind them hung a list of all the guests’ chatting habits and word choices:

Jiang Sheshe: Sticker fanatic. Cat and cartoon-beauty stickers appear in over 70% of her chat records. Online, her chatting style is soft, cute, and talkative, forming an extreme contrast with her real-life persona.

Wei Xuan: Uses grammar particles with exceptional precision. Every sentence must end with a period. Extremely strict about punctuation.

Shen Yibai: As terse online as he is in real life. An out-and-out conversation killer.

…

Last came the Program Team’s assessment of Ning Xi’s chatting style, though there was one difference:

Everyone else only had one line of evaluation, but Ning Xi had two.