Can't Hide My Love for You - Chapter 98

While applying the lipstick, Cheng Yixin intentionally let her hand shake, causing some of the color to smudge past the corner of the mouth.

There were high-definition mirrors on both sides, so Chi Yi naturally saw it. “You did that on purpose.”

“No, I didn’t; my hand just slipped,” Cheng Yixin said with a giggle. She tucked the lipstick away and used the back of her index finger to gently rub away the excess color from Chi Yi’s lip. “I washed my hands, don’t worry.”

Cheng Yixin wanted to tease Chi Yi in front of the cameras, but she didn’t expect the other person to suddenly catch her hand. Simultaneously, with her other hand, Chi Yi skillfully flicked open the cap of her own lipstick with just her fingers.

With a clack, the cap fell onto the tiles. Chi Yi twisted the tube open with one hand and moved to apply it directly to Cheng Yixin.

Though her movements were crisp and decisive, the moment the paste touched Cheng Yixin’s lips, Chi Yi intentionally slowed down. She traced a perfect lip shape.

Cheng Yixin faced the mirror and gave a pursed-lip smile. “The shade you picked is actually quite nice. Five stars.”

“Of course. You have many lipsticks in this tone in your makeup kit.”

The moment the words left Chi Yi’s mouth, she realized she had said something she shouldn’t have. It made it sound like she was very familiar with Cheng Yixin’s private life; there was no telling what kind of strange theories the bullet comments would start spinning.

Stay steady.

Chi Yi composed herself. Coming onto this dating show, besides keeping an eye out for any male guests making out-of-line moves on her girlfriend, she also had to hide the “tail” of their secret relationship.

“Hi~!” In just a few seconds, while Chi Yi was regretting her slip of the tongue, the voice of a third person broke the atmosphere.

They turned to see a girl with clear mixed-race features walking in. She greeted them warmly and introduced herself: “Hello, Sisters! I’m Hannah, from Germany. You can call me Hannah.”

“Hello~”

With a third person present, Cheng Yixin quickly greeted Hannah. After a brief introduction, she told her: “The task now is to pick a lipstick you think suits you and put it on.”

“Oh~ okay!” Hannah immediately said, “I saw you two putting lipstick on each other when I walked in. So, do we need to find someone to help us apply it?”

“…” Those sincere, innocent eyes momentarily stumped Cheng Yixin.

Could she say no? But if she did, wouldn’t the act of the two of them applying lipstick for each other seem too deliberate? It wouldn’t be good to expose themselves so obviously right at the start of the recording…

“You could understand it that way,” Chi Yi stepped in to smooth things over.

“Then I’ll pick this one! Can a sister help me put it on?”

Naturally, Chi Yi wasn’t happy about her girlfriend helping another girl with lipstick—even a younger sister wasn’t okay. She took the initiative and said, “I’ll help you.”

She took the lipstick from Hannah’s hand. Compared to her proximity with Cheng Yixin, she was much more formal, her arm almost perfectly parallel as she quickly finished the application for Hannah.

“Thank you, Sister Chi Yi.” Hannah seemed very satisfied, her smile sweet.

“Then we’ll head in first! Remember to sign in here,” Cheng Yixin said to Hannah with a smile. She then put her arm around Chi Yi’s waist and headed toward the entrance door. While she had a beaming smile on her face, she gave Chi Yi’s waist a sharp pinch in private, making a mental note of her helping someone else with their lipstick.

The guests’ first meeting was arranged in a room decorated very cozily, featuring a long white dining table. Once everyone had arrived, the standard self-introductions began.

After dealing with Chen Fei, the male guests now seemed much more pleasant, moderate, and polite. Following the introductions, the conversation revolved mainly around “ideal type” standards. This was to allow those who were interested to confirm if they met each other’s criteria, helping them plan their subsequent “attacks” to boost goodwill.

When asked this question, Cheng Yixin first brushed back her hair. Her gaze inadvertently swept over Chi Yi beside her as she said, “Me? Actually, I don’t have any specific requirements. If we click and there’s a spark, that’s enough.”

“There must be some standards, right?” Male Guest No. 1 asked. “For example, do you prefer someone older or younger? Any requirements for height or personality?”

“I like someone a bit taller, with a slender build. As for personality, as long as we get along, anything is fine. Being kind-hearted is a bonus.”

“Girls nowadays don’t usually like slender guys, do they?” Male Guest No. 2 said with a laugh. “I feel like girls prefer the ‘masculine’ type, like Dongyuan here.”

True. Which is why she wasn’t talking about a man at all.

Cheng Yixin smiled. “Mainly, it depends on the feeling.” She tossed the topic to Chi Yi: “What about you, Chi Yi?” She mainly wanted to know what President Chi’s publicly announced standards would be.

“I like someone good-looking, with a good figure, older than me, with an independent and stable personality. Mature, steady, and full of empathy.”

She hadn’t expected President Chi to list such a long string of attributes. It was obvious the male guests at the table were all calculating if they met the mark, subsequently showing looks of disappointment.

“Then Sister Chi Yi, do you have requirements for a partner’s annual income?” Hannah asked curiously. “Or is it that because your income is very high, you don’t care about the other person’s financial situation?”

“I do. I hope for someone who can move forward together with me.”

The male guests at the table looked at each other, eventually settling their gazes on the male guest who was a corporate executive—essentially in the same field. However, he just rubbed his nose sheepishly, thinking he probably didn’t have a chance. But it made sense; an entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions coming on a dating show was likely just playing around; how could she truly be looking for a partner here?

The first meeting went quite smoothly. After it ended, it was time for each guest’s individual interview to describe their impressions of the opposite sex and choose one guest they were interested in.

This question stumped Cheng Yixin. If asked who she was interested in—she wasn’t interested in any of them. But obviously, she couldn’t answer like that. She chuckled and said, “I feel like everyone is quite nice. No one left a particularly deep impression yet; I’ll have to get to know them more.”

The recording for the first episode lasted three days. Since it was a reality show, they were basically being filmed the entire time. For the convenience of filming, the production team arranged separate dormitories for the male and female guests—two adjacent small villas. This meant they would be living in these dorms for the next three days.

“Goodnight, ladies!” the male guests waved to them. “We’re living right next door. If you run into any trouble, find us anytime.”

They carried their suitcases into the small villa. They had thought that since it was a detached house, the dorms would be single rooms. To their surprise, after a quick tour, they found the production team had only prepared two rooms: one double and one triple. Furthermore, there were countless cameras in the house.

“So how do we split the rooms?” Yi’er asked. “Any good suggestions?”

“I think…” Cheng Yixin wanted to say directly that she and Chi Yi would take a room, but Dai Mote spoke up: “Let’s just draw lots. I’m fine sharing with anyone anyway.”

“Aren’t Sister Chi Yi and Sister Yixin very close? How about they take a room together, and the three of us share the other one?” Hannah suggested.

Nice! Cheng Yixin gave Hannah a mental thumbs-up.

“It’s fine,” her “pig teammate” unexpected said. “Let’s just draw lots and leave it to fate.”

Very good. Another mark on the list.

In the end, Chi Yi and Hannah drew the upstairs double room, while the other three shared the downstairs triple room.

Once the rooms were settled and the luggage unpacked, the production team sent over dinner. The intention was to have the girls eat, chat, and discuss their views on the male guests. Among the five, the secret couple cooperated with the topic to avoid exposure. They chatted until 10:00 PM, when everyone felt sleepy and quite full, and decided to head to bed.

“You guys shower first. I ate too much; I’m going out for a walk to digest.”

“Okay.”

Chi Yi followed Cheng Yixin out for a walk. The villas were in a residential area, and this entire section was being used as the filming location. The roadsides were lined with light strips, looking beautiful at night.

Once she was out of camera range, Cheng Yixin took off the recording equipment that had been clipped behind her all day and handed it to a staff member. “We’re going for a walk; don’t record this part.”

“This…” the staff member looked hesitant. “We can record it. How about we film from a distance? We won’t follow too closely so you have your own space.”

“We want to whisper some secrets. It’s not great to have people following, right?”

Eventually, the staff consulted the director and got permission to stop recording for the night.

The two walked along the path. Next to them was a man-made lake, which looked like a pitch-black expanse at night. Once they had walked some distance, Cheng Yixin turned back to confirm no one was there, then she shook off Chi Yi’s hand and stepped aside.

“What’s wrong?” Chi Yi followed her. “Who made you unhappy? I’ll go beat them up.”

“Chi Yi,” she replied.

“Okay.” Chi Yi raised her hand and gave the back of it a loud smack. “I’ve avenged you.”

“…So annoying!” Cheng Yixin gave her a chiding look. “When Hannah said we should share a room earlier, why didn’t you agree!”

“The room is full of cameras. Even if the two of us stayed together, it wouldn’t mean anything.” Chi Yi paused. “Besides, if the two of us decided to share a room on our own, people would definitely feel we weren’t integrating with the group.”

“We can’t integrate anyway. We have to pretend to be interested in those male guests,” Cheng Yixin grumbled.

Chi Yi smiled slightly, suddenly grabbed Cheng Yixin’s hand, and started jogging with her.

“Huh?! Where are you taking me?”

Chi Yi didn’t say a word, leading her for a distance—about ten villas away diagonally from their dorm. She stopped at a pitch-black white villa, and Chi Yi entered numbers on the keypad.

Beep— The door actually opened.

“See, there are no cameras here,” Chi Yi said as she turned on the master light switch. The entire villa instantly lit up, the brightness making Cheng Yixin’s eyes blink. Chi Yi took two steps forward, pinning the other against the shoe cabinet. Her hands rested on either side of Cheng Yixin, surrounding her in her embrace. She pressed her forehead against Yixin’s. “Gotta coax my girlfriend.”

Cheng Yixin took the chance to hook her arms around Chi Yi’s neck, staring straight at her. “This is your house too?”

“Rented,” Chi Yi said. “I knew you wouldn’t be used to keeping your distance in front of the cameras. So, this is our own time.”

“You know…” Cheng Yixin suddenly smiled, drawing out her words: “If we were caught by a camera doing this outside of the filming area, it would be quite thrilling.”

Chi Yi checked the time. “We have at least an hour.”

“Then let me recharge my batteries first,” Cheng Yixin said. She cupped Chi Yi’s face and kissed her on the lips. In the heat of the moment, she leaned over to kiss her neck, but her lipstick accidentally smudged onto the collar of Chi Yi’s white suit.

It was a very obvious half-print of lipstick. The two looked at each other.

How did they end up like this on the very first night of their “affair”!!