Chapter 83
Shen Jinfeng’s path was blocked. Hearing Qin Ye’s words, his gaze moved slightly.
“What misunderstanding?” He tilted his head up a little and could clearly see his own reflection in Qin Ye’s dark, deep eyes.
This feeling was strangely oppressive.
Qin Ye pursed his lips. “Just now, you said that on the deserted island, the memory implanted in you was that I…”
“Wait.” Shen Jinfeng interrupted him. “Do we have to talk about this right outside the restroom?”
He raised his hand and pointed to the side, where there happened to be an empty conference room originally prepared for their negotiations before they moved elsewhere. His lifted gaze was clear and innocent.
Qin Ye: “…Then let’s change places.”
Although talking about this sort of topic in a conference room was also very strange.
Shen Jinfeng asked, “Or should we talk next time?”
He asked as if seeking Qin Ye’s opinion, then saw Qin Ye’s heavy expression. The tall young man said nothing, silently protesting, yet somehow his entire body seemed to carry a trace of grievance.
“Go, go, go.” Shen Jinfeng compromised and took the lead toward the conference room.
This was the place where the production team usually gathered for brainstorming meetings. After the staff had cleaned it spotless, it inexplicably gave off a solemn, serious atmosphere.
It silently pressured people.
Words spoken here had to be taken responsibility for. One had to think carefully before speaking.
Shen Jinfeng casually pulled out a chair and sat down, clearly sensing that Qin Ye’s body language was a little tense.
He rubbed his fingers together, then leisurely stood up and went to the water dispenser to pour two cups of water. He handed one to Qin Ye.
“Don’t be nervous.”
“After coming out of the show, I already came to my senses. I didn’t keep misunderstanding you.”
As he spoke, he handed over the cup.
By the time he finished, Qin Ye had just reached out to take it.
Then Shen Jinfeng watched as Qin Ye squeezed the paper cup out of shape, causing the water to overflow and fall to the floor, splashing a few drops onto both of their trouser legs.
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Qin Ye quickly loosened his hand. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to use force.”
Shen Jinfeng was amused into laughing. “Then I can’t forgive you on behalf of the paper cup.”
Qin Ye carefully straightened the deformed paper cup back into shape, took a sip of water, and placed it aside.
“You shouldn’t be nervous either.”
Shen Jinfeng: “?”
Qin Ye said, “You keep dodging my eyes and won’t look at me.”
“You’re nervous too.”
“We’re the same.”
His tone was certain, as if he had absolute confidence in his judgment.
?
No, brother, had you always been this confident?
After being called out by name and accused of being nervous, Shen Jinfeng naturally raised his head and looked back at him, calm and composed despite feeling slightly flustered. “What about now?”
A flicker of amusement passed through Qin Ye’s eyes, and he did not avoid his gaze either.
He seized the opportunity and said directly, “On the show, you didn’t misunderstand.”
“But after coming out, now, you’re the one who misunderstood.”
Shen Jinfeng’s mind went blank for a second. He instinctively wanted to look away, but looking away now would seem like weakness or guilt.
“What do you mean? Sun Xinping confessed the whole story to me. My memories were tampered with by them.”
“Now that I’m out, I understand. They’re my memories. Wouldn’t I know better than you?”
Although he spoke with righteous confidence, he actually might not understand the original owner’s memories that clearly.
Qin Ye did not explain.
After a few seconds of silence, he continued to ask, “Did the production team only implant the memory that I liked you?”
“Did they implant a memory that you liked me?”
Shen Jinfeng quickly shook his head.
Qin Ye said, “Then I don’t know whether I misunderstood when I felt, on the deserted island, that we had feelings for each other.”
After saying this, he stared straight at Shen Jinfeng, his face expressionless. It did not look like a confession. It looked like he was lecturing him.
That pressure came again.
Shen Jinfeng felt as though, in that moment, his heartbeat had been forced into skipping a beat by Qin Ye’s question.
The meaning behind Qin Ye’s words was more than obvious.
He felt that they had liked each other on the deserted island.
What a coincidence. Shen Jinfeng felt the same way too.
No, not quite. He had believed deeply in the production team’s character setting. He had been preconceived from the beginning, firmly believing that Qin Ye had a crush on him. That was why he had interpreted many of Qin Ye’s actions through a distorted lens.
That was why he had felt they could be people who got to know each other and perhaps try to take things further.
But the premise of all this was that he thought Qin Ye had a crush on him.
That premise was false.
Qin Ye seemed to understand what he was thinking.
He pressed on relentlessly. “Team leader, the affection you sensed from me on the deserted island wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
He pursed his lips. “I originally didn’t want to say these things at such a rushed time, in such a careless environment.”
“But I feel like you’ve misunderstood me.”
“If I don’t say my feelings clearly, I somehow feel as if you’ll get further and further away from me.”
His black lashes trembled constantly, revealing the uneasiness beneath his brave and fearless exterior.
“Team leader, I thought you liked me too. Was I mistaken?”
Goodness.
In just a few sentences.
He turned defense into offense, showed weakness while pressing forward step by step.
Qin Ye was someone exceptionally sensitive to emotions and exceptionally sharp in judging situations.
He did not believe that what he sensed on the deserted island, that the two of them had mutual feelings, was fake.
What he was afraid of was Shen Jinfeng attributing everything to the production team’s damned character setting.
He was afraid that a misunderstanding would create distance between them.
So the moment he sensed a change in Shen Jinfeng’s state of mind, he chased after him.
In the business world, an information gap could create a winner-takes-all situation and leave the loser utterly defeated.
He had never had a relationship before, but for the sake of acting, he had studied all kinds of joys and sorrows in films and dramas.
In romance, an information gap was even more terrifying.
One misunderstanding could be the beginning of a relationship’s breakdown.
But Shen Jinfeng’s first reaction after hearing this was:
“Qin Ye, were you also influenced by the production team?”
Qin Ye frowned tightly. “I wasn’t.”
Shen Jinfeng lowered his eyes.
“Then when did you start liking me?”
Qin Ye froze.
He thought carefully. If he had to name a specific moment.
“From the beginning.”
The corners of Shen Jinfeng’s lips curved, and he said with certainty, “Then that’s love at first sight.”
“You thought I looked good, and then I found food for you. When a person’s sense of aesthetics is satisfied and gratitude for help in a difficult moment overlaps, it’s very easy to mistake that for affection.”
Just like in films and dramas, where beauties who were rescued by heroes often wanted to give themselves in marriage.
In the end, that was because gratitude from being saved in a state of extreme fear automatically added a filter to the savior.
As long as the savior looked decent enough, the stimulated heartbeat would make the person think they were moved.
The suspension bridge effect was similar.
But if the savior was very ugly, not even on the level of an ordinary person, then who knew whether the person involved would think that racing heartbeat was from being frightened instead?
Just like earlier.
When Qin Ye had stopped him, Shen Jinfeng had clearly felt a little nervous under the influence of hormones.
When Qin Ye hesitated and spoke in fragments, deliberately leaving things vague, Shen Jinfeng even felt his heart beating a little abnormally fast.
It really did feel a little like the legendary “deer crashing around in his heart.”
But after Qin Ye finished something close to a confession just now, Shen Jinfeng suddenly stopped feeling nervous.
That was not right, was it?
Although he had never been in love, under normal circumstances, shouldn’t he have felt even more nervous or shy?
Shen Jinfeng carefully felt through his own heart. After hearing Qin Ye’s answer of “love at first sight,” he suddenly understood.
It was as if the stone pressing on his heart had been moved away, making him feel much more relaxed.
He analyzed everything for Qin Ye in a proper, convincing manner, then concluded, “Maybe I didn’t misunderstand. Maybe you misunderstood yourself.”
“Qin Ye, why don’t you verify with Sun Xinping whether he’s still hiding anything from you?”
Maybe the desire to fall in love had continued into reality.
Qin Ye’s face darkened. He only felt wronged. “I didn’t misunderstand. You don’t believe my feelings right now.”
“I’m not someone without judgment. I understand my own feelings very clearly. Team leader, you don’t have any relationship experience, so you can’t just say things randomly…”
Shen Jinfeng raised his eyes. “You don’t have any relationship experience either, so don’t say things randomly either.”
Perhaps because he truly had no experience, Qin Ye could not think of how to refute that for a moment.
Shen Jinfeng stared at him for a few seconds.
Suddenly, before Qin Ye could react, Shen Jinfeng placed his hand on Qin Ye’s wrist.
Qin Ye: “?”
A few seconds later, Shen Jinfeng let go. “Your heart isn’t even beating faster.”
Qin Ye: “???”
He took two seconds to react. His handsome, sharp brows furrowed deeply.
“Try again now!”
Shen Jinfeng said, “No, don’t. Now you’re angry.”
Qin Ye: “…”
He was truly so angry that he could not speak.
Shen Jinfeng did not continue talking either.
The two faced each other, staring at one another for two minutes.
Shen Jinfeng tentatively asked, “Then shall we go back?”
Qin Ye loosened the hand hanging at his side, where veins had bulged from tension. After a long while, he answered in a low voice, “Okay.”
Shen Jinfeng quickly stood up and walked back to the reception room.
When Sun Xinping saw him return, his face lit up, as if he had come up with some new argument just now and could not wait to put it into practice.
Shen Jinfeng calmly waved his hand. “Director Sun only needs to give me one answer.”
Sun Xinping’s expression stiffened. Under Shen Jinfeng’s slightly impatient gaze, he swallowed.
“We… won’t do the next season.”
Shen Jinfeng glanced sideways at him and, rarely, offered a word of advice. “Director Sun, in the future, put your thoughts on the right path.”
“He who loves others will always be loved by others.”
No matter from which angle one looked at it, the original positioning of What Kind of Person Are You had been biased from the start.
Its view of human nature was far too negative.
The director team, especially Sun Xinping, had placed themselves high above everyone, like gods manipulating the fates of others.
It was not that he had not wanted to do evil things in the show. It was only that he happened to run into Shen Jinfeng and did not succeed.
But not everyone would be so lucky.
When starting with such a terrible hand, how many people could turn the tables against the wind?
And how many normal people would be driven mad?
Sun Xinping’s smile looked worse than crying.
But in truth, he had already expected this outcome.
Shen Jinfeng did not sit back down. He suddenly thought of something.
He grabbed Qin Ye, who had been following closely beside him and refusing to move away.
“Director Sun, I’m fine now.”
“But Qin Ye has something to ask you.”
He asked Qin Ye, “Do you want to discuss it in front of everyone?”
Qin Ye took a deep breath. “I don’t have anything to ask.”
Sun Xinping: “?”
The corners of Qin Ye’s lips reluctantly curved. “I’m just here to settle accounts with Director Sun.”
Being Implanted Into a Big Boss Character In A Survival Variety Show
