Part 2
But for the money, he couldn’t say it.
He could only think it in his heart.
On the surface, he still said: “It was okay.”
He really couldn’t bring himself to say words of praise like “You’re already great” or “Keep it up next time.”
Wen Ran was afraid he would vomit.
Lunch was chosen by those who finished first.
By the time the two of them went out, only the last set meal was left: two bowls of plain porridge.
“What a pity,” the host said. “The set meal for the first victory was a whole roast chicken!”
“Mu Wan, Dawn, your team needs to work hard next time, okay?”
“I will!” Mu Wan looked at the camera. “I’ll fight for Dawn!”
“Senior Brother, next time I’ll definitely take you to eat a big meal!”
Wen Ran: “…”
Who gave you the courage to say such things? If you want to pose, just pose, but why drag your father into it? Fighting for me… do you think your father needs that?
I wonder if there’s a mirror so you can see how big your face is.
Wen Ran endured. “Then I’ll thank you in advance.”
During the break after filming this segment, the professional players returned to a room without cameras.
Nan Xi took an individually packaged cake and handed it to Wen Ran. “Eat a little. We’re filming right now, so it’s inconvenient to order takeout.”
“Thanks, Nineteen!” Wen Ran didn’t stand on ceremony with him, taking it and biting into it with small bites.
Nan Xi thought the way he ate was particularly cute and really wanted to poke his cheek.
Xiao Huang sighed with emotion. “Brother Ran, this fan of yours—his skill level isn’t quite up to par.”
“Can’t even handle a Platinum match.”
Wen Ran took a bite of the cake. “Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat.”
Xiao Huang: “…”
In another room.
“Isn’t he just a gamer? Why do I have to worship him?”
Mu Wan said to his assistant, “Damn it, it’s really disgusting.”
“Wouldn’t it be fine just to say he thinks I’m bad? He had to beat around the bush and say I can’t play Ren Ling. What, is he the only one in the world who can play it? The only one who knows how?”
“You didn’t see that look on his face,” Mu Wan’s face was full of disgust. “I even gave him an out. Is it that hard to compliment me and offer some encouragement? He just had to say ‘It was okay.’ So many problems.”
“Calm down, calm down,” the assistant placed a peeled apple in front of Mu Wan, then said, “Don’t forget our goal!”
Mu Wan said viciously, “Isn’t the manager just biased towards the captain? Giving that girl to him.”
The assistant comforted him. “Just endure it. After all, he has a lot of fans, and the purchasing power of his fans is very strong. One of his live streams, at its most exaggerated, had fans dropping millions.”
“Besides…” the assistant added, “Look at how he usually roasts people. He’s already been very lenient with you.”
Mu Wan: “What do you mean? You also think I’m bad?”
“No, no.”
“I just wanted to say, everyone else in the team has had a CP (couple pairing) and their resources have boomed. The internal team CP didn’t include you. Now that we’ve finally grasped this opportunity, we can’t let him go.”
“I know,” Mu Wan said. “We’ve reached this point; of course, I won’t fail within sight of success.”
In the entertainment industry, even talented individuals need opportunities. But with traffic, even without real substance, one can make money with a bit of packaging.
One shortcut to gaining traffic is shipping a CP.
It could be a CP within the team, a CP in a drama, or even just pairing two people together because they look good.
Mu Wan’s resources within the group were the worst because he didn’t have a popular CP. This variety show was his turning point.
The original plan was to ship a CP with the only female professional player, but he didn’t even get a chance with her.
So, after looking up information, he and his assistant decided to ship with Wen Ran.
Wen Ran had high visual appeal and brought his own fan traffic. If he could form a male-male CP with him, it might attract some fans.
Mu Wan made a gagging motion. “You say, with me flirting with him like this, he won’t fall for me, right?”
“I don’t like men!”
Assistant: “…”
Assistant: “Let’s do the things for these two days well first, then we’ll see.”
“I think he shouldn’t have such bad taste… ah, no, judgment!” The assistant hurriedly corrected himself. “How could he differ from you?”
“I also think he’s not worthy. Just a broken gamer.”
Although Mu Wan was very disgusted, he continued to use various ambiguous words and actions to flirt with Wen Ran in the following activities.
It was very oily (cheesy/sleazy). And since Wen Ran was gay himself, he could clearly see that Mu Wan was straight but insisting on forcibly flirting with a guy.
Wen Ran wanted to punch him several times, but in the end, thinking of the money, he held back.
On the last day, the task given by the program team was to do one thing they most wanted to take the other person to experience.
The others were fairly normal. Only Mu Wan wanted to take Wen Ran to learn a dance routine.
Refusal was written all over Wen Ran’s face, but Mu Wan leaned in shamelessly. “Senior Brother, I also want you to experience my life.”
Wen Ran, with a wooden face, followed him to the dance studio.
Wen Ran had never been in contact with these things, and his body was very stiff. Mu Wan was waiting for exactly this kind of opportunity. While Wen Ran was doing a move, he circled behind him.
Then, he placed his hands on Wen Ran’s waist.
“Senior Brother, your waist is so stiff.” Mu Wan’s entire body was about to press against Wen Ran, and he even lowered his head, looking as if he were nuzzling into the crook of Wen Ran’s neck.
“Let me guide you.”
As he spoke, the hands pressing on Wen Ran’s waist exerted force.
Wen Ran disliked his touch very much and used force to break away from him immediately.
Mu Wan was very repulsed by this behavior of refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit, but on the surface, he had to pretend to be pitiful: “Did I make Senior Brother uncomfortable?”
“I just wanted to teach you to dance, no other meaning.”
“Can’t you tell if I’m comfortable or not?”
Wen Ran looked at the camera over there and said, “Stop recording. This segment makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t want to film anymore. As for the money, deduct it if you love deducting so much.”
Mu Wan completely hadn’t expected this situation. “You…”
“You what you?” Now that he was saying it, Wen Ran only felt that he had suffered enough in these three days. “Do you think you are very handsome? You’re so oily you could rival the Daqing Oil Field. I don’t know what a clove of garlic is doing pretending to be a little wolf dog.”
“You don’t have the fate of a CEO but you have the illness of one. You’re making your father vomit up his overnight meal. It’s annoying just looking at you.”
Mu Wan absolutely couldn’t imagine such a development. Growing up, no one had ever scolded him so harshly to his face. This Wen Ran!
“Before wanting to experience a profession, at the very least, you must first achieve respect.”
After Wen Ran finished speaking, he left the shooting scene directly. Seeing him leave, Nan Xi also got up and chased after him.
The others had finished their parts long ago and followed them out at this time.
Xiao Huang’s reaction was just a beat slower; when he went out, Wen Ran and Nan Xi were already gone.
“Wen Ran!”
Nan Xi chased Wen Ran from behind and finally grabbed his wrist.
“Are you okay?” Nan Xi’s face was full of concern. “What did he do to you?”
“He acted crazy so I scolded him,” Wen Ran puffed up his cheeks like a pufferfish. “I won’t indulge him.”
Nan Xi loved this look of his extremely. “Mm, don’t indulge him.”
Wen Ran’s mood was affected by this idiot, and he couldn’t go back immediately, so he asked Nan Xi, “Nineteen, want to go to an internet cafe?”
The two of them found a small internet cafe nearby and rented two computers.
After playing duo queue with Nan Xi on alt accounts for a few games, Wen Ran finally leaned back in his chair. “Nineteen, it’s still comfortable playing with you.”
“I was almost driven crazy these three days. That cow-horse, I really suspect whether he can play games or not.”
“Do you know? He mentioned he was my fan three times every day, and yet he didn’t even know what hero I used in the finals.” Wen Ran said, “He didn’t even know I used to be in DS.”
“I hate people who pretend the most, and are so arrogant, wanting to ‘fight for me’ at the drop of a hat.”
Wen Ran felt goosebumps all over just thinking about it. “No, I can’t talk about him anymore.”
Nan Xi silently listened to Wen Ran’s complaints and gently touched his head. “You suffered. Let’s not participate in these things next time.”
Wen Ran sighed. “Sigh, the money in hand flew away.”
“As long as you are willing, I can raise…” Nan Xi’s sentence was cut off by Wen Ran before he could finish.
“Damn it, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!”
Wen Ran sat up straight. “What did you say to me just now?”
Nan Xi pursed his lips. “Nothing.”
Wen Ran didn’t take it too seriously either. “Nineteen, I want to play Ling Dang (Bell)!”
“Lie down and win for a round.”
“Mm.”
Nan Xi selfishly chose Fei Yun (Flying Cloud). Although Fei Yun usually went to the Clash Lane, he could also Jungle. They were playing an entertainment match, and the lineup itself was weird, so no one cared that Wen Ran was following Nan Xi.
“Nineteen, I want to buy attack items.”
When Wen Ran said this, his voice sounded particularly soft and well-behaved, as if he were acting coquettishly towards him.
Nan Xi could feel his heart beating violently.
Beating for Wen Ran.
“Mm.”
He even gave all the buffs to Wen Ran, only hoping he could play a little happier.
“Nineteen, let’s chase that Gu Ling. I’m just a little short on damage. Killed him, killed him!”
“T is in the bush, Light Heavy Sword is camping. Wait for me to check the bush first!”
“I got knocked down, holy crap, three big guys! Nineteen, come pick me up quick!”
“Coming.” Nan Xi operated Fei Yun, calculated the distance, and picked up Wen Ran, who was at 1/3 health. After easily counter-killing the three opponents, he safely sent Wen Ran back to the crystal.
Wen Ran couldn’t help praising, “Nineteen is awesome, your skills are really getting better and better.”
Nan Xi smiled and gave a faint “Mm.”
But, I only want a chance to stand side by side with you.
They played until three in the morning, then casually put on a movie.
Wen Ran was probably sleepy; as he watched, he spoke less and less, swaying left and right, and finally, his body simply slumped over, falling directly onto Nan Xi’s shoulder.
Nan Xi couldn’t bear to move. He was afraid he would wake Wen Ran, so he could only put his hand around his back to give him some support.
Wen Ran was really thin. Holding him, Nan Xi could feel the other’s frail back.
Nan Xi couldn’t resist; he lowered his head and gently kissed the top of his head.
Ran Ran, how good would it be if time could just stop here forever?
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