Can You Believe It? I Ran into My Ex on a Dating Variety Show - Chapter 24

He Xingzhi did not eat breakfast.

When Yan Jin went to find him, he was not in his room. It was only after asking the production staff that Yan Jin learned He Xingzhi had taken a leave of absence to shoot a magazine cover. Yan Jin returned with the lunchbox exactly as he had carried it out, relaying the staff’s words to everyone at the dining table.

Upon hearing this, Shi Yu put down his chopsticks and said, “I am full.” Then, he also left.

Su Jingxi was still wolfing down his food while busy replying to messages in a group chat. Unknowingly, he had somehow become a site administrator who held first-hand information from the front lines. A new fansite master.

Su Jingxi explained that he was a site brother, but the fans replied, “Then you are the first site brother.”

Although Shi Yu had a significant number of fans, there were very few fansite masters, and even fewer big fans who posted fan art. The main reason was Shi Yu’s lack of activity. Fans were still repeatedly looking at leaked photos from his filming days years ago. There was a nearly three-year gap of silence, followed only recently by the recording of this variety show. Since the recording had just begun, there was very little material. The original fansite masters had mostly moved on, and new ones had not yet emerged.

Most people lacked confidence, feeling that Shi Yu might record one variety show and then disappear for another four or five years. Being a fansite master was partly a hobby, but it also relied on making money through an artist’s exposure. Su Jingxi did not post photos, but he would occasionally share trivial, first-hand news.

Shi Yu returned to his room to rest. He took out the Jenga set he had brought, arranged the blocks on the table, and started a new round against the system.

When Shi Yu was troubled, he liked to play this game. It allowed him to calm down slowly while he thought. One round was not yet finished when a knock sounded at the door.

Shi Yu opened the door to find Su Jingxi standing outside with a bowl of washed fruit. It contained strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and seedless grapes, which were all things Shi Yu liked. The fruit platter was arranged quite beautifully.

Su Jingxi asked with a smile, “Brother Shi, I washed some fruit. Do you want to eat some together?”

Shi Yu stepped aside to let him in. Su Jingxi looked around as he walked inside, his attention quickly drawn to the half-finished tower of wooden blocks on the table. He walked over, placed the fruit platter down, and said, “Brother Shi, do you like playing this too?”

Shi Yu sat back down and said, “I am just playing to pass the time.”

Su Jingxi popped a strawberry into his mouth and laughed. “I will play with you. Playing alone is too boring.”

He did not actually enjoy this game much, but someone he knew liked it, so he played occasionally. He simply felt that playing a game alone was pitiful and that he should keep Shi Yu company.

Shi Yu could not easily refuse and said, “Then I will set it up again.”

Su Jingxi waved his hand. “No need. Let us start from here. Do you want to go first, or should I?”

Shi Yu replied, “You go.”

According to the order, it was now the system’s turn. Su Jingxi casually pulled out a block, making the system nearly fume with rage.

“Curse it! He is so stupid. How could he take that one? If he takes that, he is going to lose,” the system complained.

The system, which placed great importance on winning and losing, was furious. However, it could do nothing to Su Jingxi, so it could only grumble to Shi Yu and curse at Su Jingxi. Occasionally, when the system’s insults became particularly funny, Shi Yu could not help but smile.

The system became frantic. “Shi Yu! Do something about him! Let him win! Ahhh! I am going to lose again! No, wait, if he loses, does that count as my loss or his?”

“Why do you care so much about who wins?” Shi Yu communicated with the system.

“Of course, I care! I have to review the match and record the data. The more data I integrate, the stronger I become. By then, I will be an invincible existence and will no longer be afraid of you!”

Su Jingxi was concentrating hard while Shi Yu ate a blueberry. “Is this fruit provided by the production team? I did not see any this morning.”

Su Jingxi replied, “No, it was delivered by He Xingzhi’s assistant. He said He Xingzhi bought it for everyone as an apology for not eating breakfast with us.”

“Oh ho! Everything he bought is what you love to eat, Shi Yu,” the system remarked, enjoying the drama.

Shi Yu’s hand shook as he held a wooden block, and the Jenga tower collapsed completely.

“Ahhh! I won! I won again! Shi Yu, you are no longer an invincible god!”

One second the system was worried about whose turn it was, but now that the game ended in a win, it immediately claimed victory. The system eagerly announced its second win. The first had been in the airport lounge. Both victories happened for the same reason: because of a man.

Su Jingxi thought he had won and felt happy, but he worried that Shi Yu might be upset. He suppressed his joy, pressing down the corners of his mouth, and said, “Again, again!”

Shi Yu played another round with Su Jingxi, but he was completely absent-minded. Even so, he won easily. When Su Jingxi lost, he chirped and complained.

Looking at the wooden blocks scattered across the table, Shi Yu’s thoughts suddenly fell back into the past. The scene before him overlapped with a memory from five years ago.

It was the third day after Shi Yu had transmigrated into the book. His younger brother, Shi Qian, was in the first-floor living room playing Jenga with a group of friends around the same age. The loser had to have sticky notes placed on their face with phrases like “I am a big stupid pig” or “Big idiot” written on them.

The group was having a great time; their laughter and shouting occasionally reached the second floor. Shi Yu’s bedroom was on the second floor; if he opened the door and stood in the hallway, he could see the entire living room clearly. However, he did not go out. His relationship with Shi Qian was not good. Shi Qian was his half-brother, three years younger, and they had nothing in common.

Furthermore, Shi Yu was not the original brother. He was a transmigrator who came with a mission. His mission was to get close to a boy named He Xingzhi. He Xingzhi was about the same age as Shi Qian, a classmate, and one of Shi Qian’s close friends.

Shi Yu sat at the desk in his bedroom. On the computer screen before him, a surveillance feed was playing. If one looked closely, the footage was identical to the scene in his living room downstairs. He enlarged one of the frames, freezing it on the face of a handsome young man.

The boy was tall, a high school senior already over 1.8 meters tall. He wore his school uniform but deliberately left the buttons undone, revealing a black T-shirt underneath. The other boys were dressed similarly, but the one in the middle stood out remarkably in both temperament and appearance.

“3875,” Shi Yu called out to the system. “Give me the detailed information on the target.”

“He Xingzhi. Male. 1.87 meters tall. High school senior. Twenty-five days until his eighteenth birthday. Currently a salted fish with no dreams.”