Romance Variety Show: The aloof and beautiful fourth female lead is always coveted.

Chen Yuze is almost used to the feeling of having his 1v1 dates interfered with.

Upon arriving at Love House, he familiarly picked up the task card from the bed.

This time, the task card still offers a choice between two options.

However, the number of male guests increased from one to two, which meant that after one of the tasks was chosen, there were no more options left.

[A. The Candy is Super Sweet—There are candies of different flavors on the table. The male guest is blindfolded and has to lick a candy fed to him by a female guest and guess what it tastes like.]

[B. You retreat, I advance—Two people stand facing each other in the middle of the bedroom and play rock-paper-scissors. The loser takes a step back and the winner takes a step forward, until one person's back is against the wall.]

According to the winning and losing order of the plank challenge, Chen Yuze can choose first.

A's words were quite ambiguous.

If it's B, what's this about you retreating and me advancing? Isn't it just a wall slam?

Chen Yuze chose B according to his own idea.

Ling Yan had no objection to the task A assigned to him.

Being able to come to Love House with Bai Nianchu is already an incredible stroke of luck.

The director originally intended for the two men and one woman to work together in the same room, but then decided against it.

While it may be dramatic, there will be far fewer ambiguous elements.

"Chen Yuze and Bai Nianchu, please come first. Ling Yan, please sit and rest in the courtyard."

The director and crew all went out, leaving only the tracking cameras inside.

After the room was cleared out, only Chen Yuze and Bai Nianchu remained.

Finally, we can be alone together, Chen Yuze thought.

He curled the corners of his lips into a smile, his gaze falling on Bai Nianchu with a hint of tenderness.

The game rules stipulated that players would advance or retreat by playing rock-paper-scissors, and Chen Yuze was fairly confident in his luck.

He had even planned out the next part of the script—he would gradually corner Bai Nianchu against the wall, and with his height and build, he would cover her completely from head to toe.

Chen Yuze observed the tracking cameras in the room; from their angles, they could only capture back views and side views.

All he has to do is lower his head and block with his hand...

In the live stream, it was impossible to tell whether they were whispering or kissing.

However, reality was vastly different from Chen Yuze's fantasy.

When he encountered Bai Nianchu in the game, his good luck was like a dud, failing to materialize for a long time.

He only won the first game.

The second game, the third game, the fourth game...

The action of Chen Yuze taking a step back and Bai Nianchu taking a step forward kept repeating.

When he was only three or four steps away from the wall, Chen Yuze's score was still a pitiful "1".

Chen Yuze stared at Bai Nianchu, his mind racing.

He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Bai Nianchu always seems to be able to guess what he's going to do. Is it really just good luck?

The fact that he hadn't won a single game since the first one made Chen Yuze wonder: Could it be that Bai Nianchu deliberately let him win the first game?

But... is that even possible?

"Rock, paper, scissors—"

Bai Nianchu threw the cloth, Chen Yuze threw the fist, and Bai Nianchu lost again.

Chen Yuze's face betrayed his frustration, and he took a step back. Bai Nianchu also took a step forward, unhurriedly, as if taking a stroll.

"Miss Bai, how come you win every single game?" Chen Yuze feigned a complaint. "Is there some kind of skill involved in this game?"

"No," Bai Nianchu said, "it's purely based on intuition."

Chen Yuze: "..."

Chen Yuze didn't know what to say.

He wasn't angry or aggrieved; he just suddenly felt like he'd been tricked and was powerless to refute it.

From his angle, he could clearly see the shadow cast by Bai Nianchu's eyelashes, and the faint curve of her lips.

Is Bai Nianchu smiling?

When Chen Yuze first met her, he always thought she was like a cat.

It's still the kind of independent, aloof Ragdoll cat that doesn't like to talk to people and only responds with a meow after you've begged and pleaded. It takes a long time to get to know it before you're allowed into its territory and slowly melt that icy exterior.

But Bai Nianchu wasn't always like that.

She can laugh, make jokes, and occasionally reveal a bit of dry humor and a wicked sense of humor.

She especially enjoys teasing people when they are alone together.

At times like these, I resemble a little fox even more.

Chen Yuze's willingness to be Bai Nianchu's "stupid dog" doesn't mean he's actually stupid.

On the contrary, he is very perceptive about many things.

For example, Bai Nianchu's personality is that she is easily swayed by gentleness but not by force, and she has a penchant for watching men cry... as well as Ling Yan's obvious "savior complex".

Chen Yuze thought that the reason for this "savior complex" might be because Bai Nianchu had also experienced some painful moments in the past. While saving Ling Yan, he was also redeeming his own past pain over and over again.

Or perhaps, it's some other, more hidden reason that he hasn't yet discovered.

This is also why Chen Yuze, although he dislikes Ling Yan, does not reject him.

Because he wasn't seeking Bai Nianchu's redemption.

What he needed was not the occasional glimmer of light from her, but to walk alongside her through the years to come.

After his wandering thoughts returned, Chen Yuze realized that his back was already against the wall.

He lost.

Before he could even react,

Bai Nianchu stood less than a foot away from him, close enough to feel each other's breath.

Because she was a head shorter than Chen Yuze, Bai Nianchu had to tilt her head slightly to look at him.

Chen Yuze's back was pressed against the cold wall, and in front of him was the girl's beautiful face. Her eyelashes were long, her eyes were beautiful, and her pupils were deep and hazy, as if looking through a thin layer of mist, and if you looked at them for a long time, it seemed as if you could be drawn into them.

Bai Nianchu didn't move, nor did she make any unnecessary movements.

Instead of copying those seductive wall-slamming poses from the internet, she reached out and braced herself against the wall, trapping him.

She simply looked at him silently, her expression calm and matter-of-fact, and said, "You lost."

Chen Yuze: "..."

Chen Yuze swallowed hard, then suddenly felt his throat was a little dry.

He originally thought that he would take the initiative to advance the task from start to finish.

Unexpectedly... he was the one being led around from beginning to end.

Bai Nianchu was like a mind reader to him, guessing his thoughts in every round, eventually cornering him, and then...

Wait and see his embarrassed expression.

Chen Yuze didn't think she was bad.

He actually found Bai Nianchu quite adorable.

"Um..." Chen Yuze paused before speaking, his voice lower than he had expected, "I lost."

Admitting defeat in every sense of the word.

Bai Nianchu tilted her head, as if she was thinking about something.

After a while, she raised her hand and gently placed it against his chest.

Her fingers were so light, it was almost an illusion.

But... that small patch of chest pressed against the fabric felt like it was being burned.

It was so hot that his whole heart felt like it was on fire.

"Chen Yuze," Bai Nianchu suddenly said, "your heart is beating so fast."