Chapter 36
The moonlight was dim, but the flashlight beam was blindingly strong.
By the flashlight’s glare, Lin Zhiqiao saw that at Qin Ye’s feet, the neat little corner of the yard had already been dug up, turning into a complete mess.
Lin Zhiqiao was heartbroken.
[Wuwu, my cute, beautiful little yard that I only just got my hands on less than a day ago QAQ! And now it’s been ruined just like this!]
Hearing his inner voice, the awkwardness on Qin Ye’s face deepened.
A neighborhood security guard heard the commotion and jogged over. “What’s going on? Do you need help?”
Lin Zhiqiao screamed inwardly, [Yes! There’s a lunatic here in the middle of the night digging up the corner of my yard!]
Qin Ye shot the guard a nervous glance. When he saw no strange reaction on the man’s face and realized he seemingly couldn’t hear Lin Zhiqiao’s inner thoughts, he finally relaxed.
Though he was fuming inside, Lin Zhiqiao kept his expression calm and pleasant. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Just a little misunderstanding.”
The guard gave Qin Ye a puzzled look. Maybe because he found him familiar and thought he’d seen him in the neighborhood before, he didn’t ask any further and simply strolled away.
Qin Ye’s expression eased a little, and his tense broad shoulders relaxed along with it. Lowering his eyes to the dirt-covered little box in his arms, he looked at it with a mixture of tenderness and complicated emotion.
He looked exactly like an idiot drowning in sweet memories of love.
Lin Zhiqiao poked 888. [The pink love bubbles are practically drowning me. Quick, save me with some gossip.]
888 replied, [Right away, host.]
But before it could open the gossip blind box, Qin Ye suddenly spoke.
“Did he come back too?” he asked.
The “he” obviously referred to Shu Lin.
Lin Zhiqiao looked mildly surprised. “How did you know?”
“Just a guess.” Qin Ye lifted a brow, and a trace of excitement appeared on his face. “Did he come back to get something too?”
“Yeah.” Lin Zhiqiao instantly perked up. “Not long before you came, he went into the study and took something out of the hidden compartment under the desk.”
Shu Lin hadn’t asked him to keep it secret, so Lin Zhiqiao didn’t hide it from Qin Ye.
Since it was such a well-hidden compartment, the cleaning lady from the afternoon hadn’t discovered it, so the things inside hadn’t been cleared away.
Something hidden inside a secret compartment.
And he had to sneak back to retrieve it…
Qin Ye lowered his eyes to the box in his arms again. Could it be that Shu Lin, just like him, also—
A little nervous, he asked, “Did you see what he took?”
“Not clearly.” Lin Zhiqiao said. “Judging by the shape, it looked like two matching little ornaments, about palm-sized.”
[They looked like something important. Could they be your love tokens?]
Palm-sized matching ornaments?
Qin Ye desperately dug through his memory for anything that fit that description.
But his mind was blank. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything that matched.
His expression instantly crumpled, his broad shoulders sagging with it. In a sorrowful, despairing voice, he said, “I understand.”
Lin Zhiqiao: “?”
Your expression looks a little off.
So what exactly do you understand?
Qin Ye muttered a couple of lines in utter misery. “Not me… not me…”
Then, clutching the dirty little box, he left in a daze. The powerful flashlight beam fell across his dejected back, making him look especially pitiful.
Lin Zhiqiao could practically see a fluffy dog tail dragging tragically behind him on the ground.
After hesitating for two seconds, Lin Zhiqiao still called out, “Qin Ye!”
Qin Ye snapped back to himself, and a glimmer of hope lit up in his dim eyes. “What is it? Is there something else? Did he leave some message for you to pass on to me?”
Lin Zhiqiao opened his mouth, stopped, then tried again. “…No, no.”
Qin Ye let out an “oh,” and the light in his eyes immediately dimmed again. “Then what is it?”
Lin Zhiqiao pointed to the chaotic corner of the yard and gave him an embarrassed smile. “That over there… I’ll have to trouble Mr. Qin to restore it to how it was.”
[You think you can dig up my yard and just walk off like that? No way! Absolutely no way!!!]
Qin Ye: “…”
Silently, he went back, crouched down, and obediently cleaned up the mess. Only then did he leave again, carrying his dirty little box.
After Qin Ye’s figure disappeared into the darkness in the distance, Lin Zhiqiao finally shut the door and went back to his room.
[A gossip house really is great. You get the freshest first-hand gossip right on the front lines.] Lin Zhiqiao sighed. [The only downside is that it kind of interferes with sleep.]
[There shouldn’t be anyone else coming now, right? Can I finally embrace a beautiful night?]
888 replied, [Probably not, host. It’s already past one in the morning.]
Even draft animals weren’t worked this hard.
But heartbroken little couples were another matter.
Lin Zhiqiao lay back down and closed his eyes, trying to sleep.
Not long after, he suddenly opened them again—
Damn it, stopping halfway through a juicy piece of gossip was torture. He was so itchy with curiosity that he couldn’t sleep at all! He desperately wanted to know what exactly had happened between Shu Lin and Qin Ye!!!
Unfortunately, he had been busy signing the contract during the day, and that evening the two of them had shown up too suddenly. He hadn’t had time to let 888 open a gossip box, so the chance had slipped right by.
Lin Zhiqiao climbed out of bed and drank a glass of water to suppress the feverish excitement surging in his chest.
That torn-up Love Contract he had seen on the floor earlier kept flashing through his mind.
With a loud pa, Lin Zhiqiao set down the cup!
Who could understand this, family? Only getting half the gossip was truly the lifelong pain of every melon-eating soul!
Unable to sleep, Lin Zhiqiao pulled out his phone and opened Weibo—
#ShuLinUnfollowsQinYe#
#ShuLinAndQinYeSuspectedBreakup#
#ShuLinPostsLateAtNight#
#TheHarpCPIsGone#
Good grief, they had even made the trending list!
Lin Zhiqiao scrolled through Weibo. The CP fans in the comments had completely collapsed. Even though it was already past one in the morning, Weibo was practically on the verge of crashing.
After lagging for ages, he finally managed to click into the first topic.
The original post came from a famous gossip marketing account:
“Shu Lin unfollowed Qin Ye late at night. Was it a slip of the finger, or has their relationship really changed? As everyone knows, Shu Lin and Qin Ye…”
Lin Zhiqiao didn’t bother reading the rest.
With a swipe of his finger, he scrolled straight to the comments.
“Rumor-spreading marketing account. Blocked.”
“Our Director Shu and Brother Qin were literally holding hands at the night market and sweetly eating late-night snacks together three days ago!!!”
“This is bad, family. Director Shu really did remove Brother Qin from his following list [pupil quake.jpg]”
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! It must have been a misclick!!!”
“Still scrolling through each other’s Weibo at one in the morning—he loves him so much [I’m shipping it.jpg]”
“If Harp CP breaks up, I’ll do a handstand and gnaw a keyboard!!!”
…
That was what the comments section looked like before Shu Lin made his late-night post.
Lin Zhiqiao went to Shu Lin’s Weibo, and sure enough, not long ago—at 01:31 AM—Shu Lin had posted a photo with one short caption:
“May the rest of our lives be peaceful, each on our own path.”
The picture seemed freshly taken. The camera faced the pitch-black darkness outside the window; the city deep in the night was silent and still, as if hinting at something.
Sharp-eyed netizens quickly noticed that in the reflection on the dark window glass, Shu Lin’s figure could be seen: his left hand hanging at his side, his right hand holding up the phone to take the photo.
And on the ring finger of his right hand, the plain band ring that ought to have been there… was gone.
That had been the matching ring he shared with Qin Ye.
Shu Lin had one, and Qin Ye had one too. Ever since they had gone public, neither of them had ever taken theirs off.
The CP fans were wailing in Shu Lin’s comment section.
“Director Shu, tell me this isn’t real, wuwuwu”
“This came way too suddenly. I don’t believe it. I’m waiting for Brother Qin’s response [tears exploded out.jpg]”
“Another one of my ships collapsed. This is already the second pair in less than two months [who understands my pain.jpg]”
“It looks like a peaceful breakup. Adult love is like that, I guess. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I just hope Director Shu and Brother Qin can each find happiness.”
“There are already marketing accounts jumping out and saying Director Shu and Brother Qin were in a contract relationship from the start, just hyping the new movie.”
“That’s just rumor-mongering. Shameless clout-chasers. Don’t believe it.”
“I’m so scared. This can’t be true, right? Black Sparrow only just won awards, and now Harp CP has collapsed… the timing is way too suspicious, QAQ”
“Director Shu didn’t deny it, and Qin Ye still hasn’t shown up… are they basically confirming it by staying silent? [closes eyes.jpg]”
“What ‘contract relationship’? Nice way to put it. Isn’t that just a kept relationship?”
“What is there to clarify? It was obviously mutual benefit from the start. Director Shu needed hype for the new film, Qin Ye needed to leverage Director Shu’s connections to get resources. Now they’ve both gotten what they wanted and used each other enough. Of course they were bound to split sooner or later. They’re adults. Stop naively fantasizing that there’s any pure, innocent love in the entertainment industry.”
“It’s already two in the morning. At least give people time to sleep, okay? Maybe when we wake up tomorrow we’ll finally get Brother Qin’s response… Could the little couple just have lost a game of truth or dare? [crying.jpg]”
“Waiting for a response, wuwuwu”
Shu Lin’s comments were a complete mess, but no matter how hard the fans cried, he gave no further reply.
Lin Zhiqiao kept scrolling, trying to see if he could find any new clues, but all he saw was a vast crowd of ravenous melon-eaters crying for food just like him.
Compared to them, he actually knew quite a bit more.
Leaving other things aside, one thing was certain: Qin Ye definitely wasn’t asleep at this hour.
Qin Ye had literally just been digging up his yard!
Lin Zhiqiao couldn’t help complaining.
The breakup was real, and the love contract was real too.
But still…
He’d bet his entire twenty-plus years of melon-eating experience on it! If Shu Lin and Qin Ye were really just using each other, or if it was some simple kept arrangement, then he—he’d do a handstand and chew watermelon rind!
After that day’s trending scandal, Shu Lin and Qin Ye seemed as though they had agreed in advance to vanish. Their whereabouts disappeared entirely.
There were no traces of them logging in online, and no trace of them in the outside world either.
Even the usually well-informed paparazzi couldn’t catch a single movement from either of them for quite a while.
The same went for Lin Zhiqiao. Ever since that late night, after the two of them had come one after the other to retrieve things from the house, he hadn’t seen Shu Lin or Qin Ye again.
Days without fresh gossip were unbearably lonely.
Fortunately, new work followed.
Lin Zhiqiao had originally assumed that the next job most likely to appear would be Our Life, Episode 2.
Who would have guessed that his manager Ning Qing would suddenly contact him and say a dating variety show had approached her, inviting Lin Zhiqiao to join as a guest?
Lin Zhiqiao was thoroughly shocked. “A dating show?”
“Yes, a new one.” Ning Qing said. “I’ve already sent you the relevant materials. Take a look. If you don’t want to go, I’ll turn it down for you.”
Lin Zhiqiao was quietly shocked again.
If it had been his old manager Wu Yuan, there would never have been an option to decline.
According to Wu Yuan’s philosophy, a washed-up little nobody like Lin Zhiqiao ought to be grateful just to get any job at all, with no right to be picky.
And though that was indeed how things often worked—unknown artists usually didn’t reject work that came to them—Ning Qing’s attitude still showed plenty of respect for the artist under her.
So Lin Zhiqiao said, “Okay, I’ll take a look.”
The dating show that sent the invitation was called Celebrity vs. Deserted Island, Love vs. Survival!, also known as Celebrity Deserted Island Romance Survival Challenge.
The title was straightforward enough that you could tell at a glance it was a survival-themed dating show.
According to the materials, the filming location for Celebrity Deserted Island was on a remote, uninhabited private island.
The production team had spent a huge sum renting out the island. Since the budget still wasn’t enough, they could only rent it for seven days, so the first season’s filming would last just one week.
With Our Life, Episode 2 still having no news, this kind of short, fast-paced job was actually perfect for Lin Zhiqiao as a temporary transition.
There was no issue with the schedule. What remained was the actual show format.
Unlike other dating shows, Celebrity Deserted Island openly stated—and even signed a formal pledge to viewers—that from beginning to end, the production team would not provide the guests with any romance script.
During recording, all ten guests would be free to act on their own while living on the deserted island for one week and completing the tasks assigned by the program team.
Whether it became a story of survival or a story of romance would be entirely up to the guests.
Even more worth mentioning was that in order to let viewers directly observe the guests’ romance vs. survival progress, Celebrity Deserted Island, just like Our Life, would be livestreamed across multiple online platforms.
Lin Zhiqiao seriously suspected that the director of Celebrity Deserted Island had gone to Fang Xinnan for pointers.
—Were all future variety shows going to become livestreams at this rate?
After reading through the show introduction, Lin Zhiqiao quickly replied to Ning Qing: “No problem. I’ll take it.”
To be honest, Lin Zhiqiao wasn’t all that interested in dating shows, nor did he currently have any plans of falling in love.
Compared to falling in love himself, it was much more interesting to watch other people fall in love.
But this dating show seemed a little different.
Fresh and unconventional. Pretty interesting.
It struck Lin Zhiqiao right in the heart.
Without a script, the guests wouldn’t be forced to find a partner on the show, and there likely wouldn’t be any obligatory CP marketing either.
But the most crucial point was—
As everyone knew, dating shows were always concentrated hotspots for giant juicy gossip.
Lin Zhiqiao signed the electronic contract at once.
He would not miss a single chance to eat gossip live on site!
After sending the contract back, he casually asked, “Did the production team say who the other guests are?”
“No.” Ning Qing replied. “Apparently it’ll be kept secret. You won’t know who the guests are until filming officially begins.”
Lin Zhiqiao gave an “oh.”
So mysterious.
Just like Our Life, huh.
*
A few days later, Lin Zhiqiao boarded the production team’s arranged transport and set off for the filming location.
The show’s car took him to a dock by the sea.
“We’re going by boat?” Lin Zhiqiao asked.
The staff member who had come to pick him up nodded and pointed toward a vessel docked by the shore.
Lin Zhiqiao glanced over and fell silent.
[That boat looks so shabby.] He immediately started worrying. [What if the wind picks up at sea later and flips it over in one shot? If I go buy accident insurance right now, would it still be in time?]
The staff member: “…”
“Not that shabby little boat.” the staff member said helplessly. “That one.”
Lin Zhiqiao paused, then followed the direction of the finger and looked up—
[Whoa! A luxury cruise ship!!!]
The staff member led the way ahead. “From the dock to the destination island, it takes a three-hour cruise.”
“Teacher Lin is the first guest to arrive. You can go aboard first to get ready. Once all the guests have arrived and the cruise departs for the deserted island, there will be a grand masquerade ball on board.”
After boarding, a neatly dressed staffer in a fitted vest mercilessly took away Lin Zhiqiao’s phone.
That’s right.
For the next seven days, all the guests would remain fully cut off from the outside world, immersing themselves in the thrilling romantic survival life of being stranded on a deserted island.
On board, the makeup artist was already waiting.
Each guest had a room of their own. Lin Zhiqiao’s room was on the second floor of the cruise ship, the second door on the right after the staircase.
A little sign hung on the door—
“The Civet Room.”
Lin Zhiqiao’s whole body jolted.
[Holy crap! Has the truth that I’m actually a thousand-year-old melon-eating beast spirit in human form already been exposed?!]
The little-vested staff member paused, then coughed lightly. “At the upcoming masquerade ball, all the guests will appear in animal identities.”
Lin Zhiqiao looked toward the other rooms—rabbit, cat, dog, eagle… creatures that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, and swam in the water. Every type was there.
Lin Zhiqiao relaxed.
Good, good.
Apparently his true nature still hadn’t been exposed.
After stepping into the room, Lin Zhiqiao saw a familiar face—something both surprising and not surprising.
It was the makeup artist Chen Xiaolin, who had already worked with him several times.
The door locked behind him. Lin Zhiqiao tried twisting the handle, but it didn’t open.
“The door won’t open again until an hour later, when everyone has arrived and the masquerade ball starts.” Chen Xiaolin beckoned him over. “Come on, Xiao Qiao, let’s get you ready first.”
They called it makeup, but costume change would actually be a much more accurate description.
A fluffy, oversized animal head, plus an equally fluffy mascot suit, covered every single detail that might reveal personal identity.
Face, height, body shape… even voice. A tiny voice changer was clipped inside the headpiece, completely altering the speaker’s original tone.
Lin Zhiqiao’s animal identity was a civet, so the mascot suit had naturally been custom-made for that—its head was an enormous black-and-white civet face.
Once Lin Zhiqiao had changed clothes and put on the head, he looked at himself in the mirror.
Actually pretty cute.
That was his judgment.
[This outfit’s not bad. If nobody knows who I am, doesn’t that mean I can hide in the crowd and happily eat gossip?]
Chen Xiaolin secretly laughed at the side.
Not at all.
Wearing a civet mascot suit and leaking his inner thoughts at the same time, Lin Xiao Qiao would actually stand out more in a crowd!
The room’s soundproofing was excellent. Lin Zhiqiao couldn’t hear the slightest movement from outside.
Not until an hour later, when the room door was pushed open from the outside.
“Mr. Civet, the masquerade ball has begun. Please follow me to the banquet.”
With the heavy civet head on top of him, Lin Zhiqiao followed behind the little-vested staff member.
Behind the staffer was a cameraman carrying a camera and filming Lin Zhiqiao like crazy.
Clearly, the show recording—or rather, the livestream—had already begun.
Lin Zhiqiao still wasn’t quite used to the heaviness of the costume. When he walked, he swayed clumsily from side to side.
Fortunately, the ship’s air conditioning was cranked up. Even in such a thick mascot suit, he didn’t feel too stifled.
Lin Zhiqiao lifted one hand to prop up the civet head and let his eyes land on the cameraman walking beside him.
He looked kind of familiar.
Not sure. Better look again.
[Whoa!] he exclaimed in surprise. [An old acquaintance!]
It was actually the same cameraman who had followed him around on Our Life! So had Celebrity Deserted Island temporarily borrowed the camera team from Our Life too?
Lin Zhiqiao raised a fluffy civet paw and, with some difficulty, waved it at the cameraman.
The cameraman didn’t let the camera shake even a little.
Steady as hell.
“Hahaha help, there’s actually a civet!”
“With that civet head on, he doesn’t look like he came here to date. He looks like he came here to eat gossip.”
“Isn’t he missing a prop? Shouldn’t a civet be holding a watermelon in its paws? [dog head.jpg]”
“Seeing this, the production team clearly knows dating shows are always packed with juicy and exciting gossip. I’m already looking forward to it, hehe.”
Lin Zhiqiao waddled downstairs bit by bit.
In the main hall, the production team had already prepared an abundant feast for everyone.
A slow, romantic dance tune floated through the hall, and the overall pink-toned decorations pushed the whole place’s flirtatious atmosphere straight to the maximum.
The scent of delicious food drifted through the air. Lin Zhiqiao’s stomach growled, and his feet immediately turned toward the food area.
He wasn’t the first animal head—ah, no, guest—to arrive in the hall.
By the long table laden with food, a snake head and a lion head were holding plates and sampling the carefully prepared dishes.
Near the bar stood a long cocktail table, beside which sat a fluffy cat head and dog head.
The two seats weren’t actually that close, but the mascot suits were fluffy and oversized, so from behind the cat and dog looked almost as if they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.
The black-and-white fur of the Alaskan dog and the snow-white fur of the ragdoll cat were pressed right together, looking especially harmonious and suggestive.
Cats and dogs had been born for shipping since ancient times.
Lin Zhiqiao’s attention was instantly drawn to this cat-and-dog pair.
Holding his plate, he selected interesting foods from the buffet table, but the gaze hidden under the civet headpiece kept drifting toward the cocktail table.
The cat head and dog head seemed to be chatting.
The distance was a little too far, so Lin Zhiqiao couldn’t hear what they were saying. He only saw the dog head skillfully mix a drink and gently slide it over in front of the cat head.
The cat head didn’t refuse.
Lin Zhiqiao’s gossip radar instantly went di-li!
This pair really looked like they might have something going on!
So, carrying his plate, he sneaked over and sat on a small sofa by the cocktail table. On the surface, he looked like he was sitting alone, elegantly enjoying the food. In reality, he was doing exactly what a civet ought to be doing.
This mascot suit really was excellent camouflage.
The only inconvenient part was that eating and drinking were a bit troublesome.
Lin Zhiqiao speared a cube of watermelon with a fork and awkwardly fed it into his mouth through the little opening in the civet muzzle.
Chew chew.
Sweet and juicy—a fine melon indeed.
The conversation between the cat head and dog head drifted over.
The voices, altered by the voice changers, were completely distorted, carrying a strange, cold metallic edge. There was no way to tell what their original voices sounded like.
The dog head said, “You don’t seem very happy.”
The cat head gave a faint hum. “Mm. Just got my heart broken.”
The dog head sounded a little surprised. “What a coincidence. I just broke up too.”
“Standard dating-show routine.” The cat head waved a fluffy cat paw, the cocktail in the glass shimmering prettily under the lights. “I’m not in the mood for romance. I’m just here to relax.”
The dog head nodded again. “What a coincidence. Me too.”
The cat head and dog head quickly formed a revolutionary friendship based on heartbreak and breakups.
[What a coincidence. I’m not in the mood for romance either.] Lin Zhiqiao secretly nodded to himself nearby. [I came here to eat gossip. Hehe.]
