Chapter 57: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (57)
Three hours later, the plane finally touched down, arriving at the beachfront villa arranged by the production crew for this trip.
Because they had arrived together, they still needed to wait for the remaining two pairs from another flight.
Walking at the very front, Yu Huaining and Wei Ke put on expressions of pleasant surprise the moment they caught sight of the villa—
“The production crew really broke the bank this time!”
Cen Yu looked at the villa before them with a hint of confusion.
He wondered if there was a discrepancy between the novel’s description and reality. How did he recall the villa in the original work being described as a “cozy little cottage”? Calling it a little cottage now was an understatement!
It was big enough for the Kardashian family to film ten seasons of a reality show inside!
Sang Qianshan cast a glance at the villa, then turned his gaze toward Yu Jinheng, who was walking at the back of the group. Right at that moment, the show’s director spoke up—
“A big thank-you to our behind-the-scenes sponsor dad for providing his own personal beachfront villa!”
Although Cen Yu was curious as to how this villa had suddenly transformed from “cozy” to “unattainably luxurious,” he simply assumed that the sponsor behind the scenes saw the massive potential of the show and decided to inject additional investment. He didn’t pay it too much mind.
The entire villa was situated halfway up a hill right by the beach, occupying a vast area.
The ground-floor wall facing the beach was completely removed, replaced with sliding floor-to-ceiling windows. Once the windows were opened, one could walk straight from the living room out onto the terrace furnished with outdoor teak sofas, taking in an unobstructed view of the entire ocean.
Behind the villa were facilities like a swimming pool. The overall decoration scheme centered around beige, natural wood, and woven textures. With just a single glance, Cen Yu could tell that the soft furnishings alone were worth a fortune.
After stepping inside, the group simply went out to sit on the outdoor sofas.
Their luggage was temporarily placed in the living room.
That was when the production crew began handing out mission cards.
Taking his card, Sang Qianshan casually passed the envelope over to Cen Yu. Upon opening it, Cen Yu discovered the very first task for today inside—
[Room Assignment by Lot]
“…Room assignment by lot?” Cen Yu couldn’t help but read it out loud.
Beside him, Sang Qianshan knit his brows immediately. “Drawing lots?” He looked at the crew. “Shouldn’t best friends be rooming together?”
Wiping away non-existent cold sweat, the director let out a dry laugh. “Isn’t it because… our budget suddenly got a huge boost, meaning everyone doesn’t have to squeeze together anymore?”
As he spoke, his gaze drifted involuntarily toward Yu Jinheng, who was sitting quietly in a single-seater sofa.
Even after arriving at a warm place like the seaside, the man had merely shed his overcoat, keeping his oat-gray knit sweater on. He opened his mission card for a quick look, then set it aside as if thoroughly uninterested.
“Ahem,” the director continued. “Because we suddenly have a lot of extra empty rooms, no one has to share a room with two people anymore!”
“However, there are only four single rooms. I wonder who will be lucky enough to get one?”
Yu Huaining wanted to ask if the director had lost his mind!
Wasn’t the whole selling point of this show the sparks between “best friends” sharing a room, along with the overt and subtle drama with everyone else? If they weren’t even living together, where on earth were the sparks supposed to come from?
Beside him, Wei Ke didn’t seem to have realized this yet.
The moment he heard that single rooms were available, his eyes lit up.
Idiot! Yu Huaining rolled his eyes internally, feeling that marketing a bromance with him was a complete waste of effort. Despite his internal disdain, he maintained an expression of pleasant surprise on the surface—
“Since we have girls in our group, why don’t we leave the single rooms for the female guests?”
He even blinked as he spoke. “The rest of us guys can just draw lots among ourselves.”
What he was thinking inwardly was: Heh, there are only three female guests in total anyway. With one single room for each of the three girls, I refuse to believe my luck is bad enough that I’d get assigned a single room!
Before coming on the show, Yu Huaining had already mapped out his plan: this time, he was going to leech off not only Sang Qianshan, but also Pei Zhuo!
As for that dumbass Wei Ke, who cared about him!
—Ahhh, Ningning is truly a little angel, so thoughtful!
—…And now he’s acting for the clout-chaser, barf!
—Oh man, the crew sure knows how to stir up drama. If Gege and the clout-chaser end up drawing the same room, I’m gonna die laughing!
However, despite Yu Huaining’s clever calculations, he hadn’t anticipated that the remaining two pairs of guests would arrive just then. Upon hearing that the first task was room assignments, the only female pair spoke up immediately, “The two of us can just live together!”
Pop idol Lin Xinyan wrapped her arms around her senior schoolmate’s wrist right away. “It feels like going back to our school days.”
Her senior schoolmate smiled and added, “We won’t draw lots then. Yanyan and I will stay together.”
With those two staying together, the remaining co-ed pair found themselves in a somewhat awkward position. After all, as a non-celebrity female guest, it was clearly inappropriate for Yu Kexin to share a room with a male stranger.
So the production team made a quick decision on the spot: she would take a single room directly.
That left three single rooms, as well as the remaining double rooms…
Cen Yu glanced at the remaining guys.
Yu Jinheng—a venomous snake, best kept as far away as possible.
Pei Zhuo—a smiling tiger, keep interactions to a minimum.
Sang Qianshan—a decent guy, but as one of the protagonist male leads, best to avoid suspicion.
Yu Huaining and Wei Ke—a pair of idiots.
Jian Zhou—a guy he wasn’t familiar with… didn’t seem to have much of a role in the original novel either. Cen Yu stared at Jian Zhou for a moment. The guy was a bright, refreshing heartthrob going for the “first-love male god” image, currently skyrocketing in popularity thanks to a recent youth romance movie.
Unconcerned with what the group was thinking right now, the production crew pulled out the prepared props directly to let everyone draw lots.
Sang Qianshan glanced at the box before him. “This doesn’t seem very fair.”
“How is it unfair?” the director asked right away. “These are completely blind draws!”
“Whoever draws the same room number gets to stay in the same room,” he paused slightly before adding, “It’s purely down to luck.”
“What if someone pulled a subtle trick?” Sang Qianshan said. “For instance, preparing all the room slips in advance in their hand so they can pick whichever room they want to stay in?”
—…I am so done with Gege, this train of thought is really not something a normal person would come up with.
—Who on earth would be so hopelessly head over heels that they’d bribe the production crew just to share a room with a friend? Romantic fools, stop projecting onto others, okay? (annoyed)
—Love drives people crazy. Fearing his male partner/brother-in-law will room with another handsome guy, the top-tier idol has started spouting nonsense (shaking head and sighing)
Sang Qianshan cast a glance at Yu Jinheng, who happened to be sitting on the outermost edge of the group, knowing it was clearly impossible to get the production team to change the drawing method at this point.
So he added, “Then let’s start from our end.”
He happened to be seated on the far-right end, with Cen Yu to his left… Following this order, the last person to draw lots would be Yu Jinheng.
Although the production team didn’t know why Sang Qianshan wanted to do this, it was a minor request after all, so they simply followed his suggestion and started the drawing from Sang Qianshan’s position—
After everyone had drawn their small cards from the box, Sang Qianshan cast a glance at Yu Jinheng over there. “Since we started drawing lots from our end just now, how about we reveal our cards from the other side this time?”
He looked at Yu Jinheng. “Brother Jinheng, what room number did you draw?”
