Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Abyssal Love

When Cheng Shiyuan woke up, she hadn’t yet fully recovered from the visit of the “new guest” last night.

Today was the last day of the life-extending system’s deadline, and her accumulated affection points had already reached 99.

—And it was precisely at this moment that Shen Lingxi appeared.

She still remembered how the woman last night had walked into the house as if no one else existed, seemingly blind to the unwelcome expressions on everyone’s faces.

She spoke to herself:

“The production team told me when they came that I could choose my own room? Are we all living together now?”

The metal cane that constantly accompanied her tapped lightly on the floor, making a thud sound.

Shen Lingxi coughed faintly, as if she had unfortunately caught a cold from traveling under the stars.

But she didn’t seem to mind, instead praising the arrangement:

“That’s good, too. Living together is the best way for all of us to foster relationships, isn’t it?”

After speaking, she turned to look at Cheng Shiyuan, who had just emerged from the kitchen. At this moment, she seemed like a polite newcomer again; all the assistants, secretaries, and servants who usually surrounded her were nowhere to be seen.

“Which room should I stay in?”

“Does this… beautiful woman have a recommended room?”

The rooftop, the balcony, the living room, or the kitchen—any place unsuitable for living was best for her.

Everyone present thought the same thing, united in their opinion.

Only Cheng Shiyuan, wiping the water from her hands with a clean towel, replied coolly:

“Up to you. You can choose any room that’s not currently occupied.”

Shen Lingxi politely said thank you.

She appeared to have reined in the madness she had shown on the island.

But no one would forget that she had appeared just as normal and sane the first time, only to openly strike down Cheng Shiyuan and brazenly kidnap her right before their eyes.

Even though Shen Lingxi only chose a room farthest from everyone else that night, some people inevitably suffered from insomnia.

—For instance, the empty spot in the quilt right next to Cheng Shiyuan, still retaining residual warmth.

Everyone had chosen their preferred room upon arrival, but she had no fixed abode, sometimes sleeping to the sound of the waves, sometimes spontaneously drifting off while staring at the stars.

In short, she would find an empty room and sleep halfway through, only for a puppy to start growing in her quilt.

At first, she was reserved, but later, she would openly pull her into her arms, and when met with Cheng Shiyuan’s questioning gaze, she would be exceptionally self-righteous:

“You were cold last night and squeezed into my arms yourself.”

Cheng Shiyuan recalled Xia Ziran’s typically lower body temperature, blinked, and fell silent.

But there were even more excessive incidents.

One night, someone secretly turned the air conditioner down. She was sleeping soundly next to Xie Zhiqing.

When she woke up, she found her feet being held in someone’s arms. As she sat up and met Chen Chuxing’s hazy, dazed eyes, the other woman, oblivious, instinctively smiled at her.

Then, the woman pitiably squeezed onto the edge of the bed and continued sleeping.

She turned her head while still sitting and noticed new excitement in the room—

On the other bed.

Wang Shu, sleeping alone, even had a frown on her face, possibly because her wound hurt… or simply because she was dissatisfied that she was a step too slow and hadn’t secured a better spot.

She even tripped when she got out of bed.

Xia Ziran opened one eyelid, stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then looked at the edge of the bed next to her, furrowing her brow, deep in thought.

After a while, she dragged Cheng Shiyuan down and smoothly wrapped the thin sheet she had layered and covered herself with around her:

“I’m freezing. Come back to sleep with me for a bit.”

“I’m telling you, if you don’t warm me up right now, I’m going to get a very expensive minor illness and prepare to extort you.”

Cheng Shiyuan: “…”

The cold blast of air conditioning hitting her face kept her wide awake, and she thought, 16 degrees is the limit of the AC, not yours.

In short, what should have been simple sleep was made so complicated by these people that it felt as if they were secretly having an orgy in the room after the cameras were turned off every day.

Cheng Shiyuan felt there was something a little perverted about them.

But everything changed after Shen Lingxi’s arrival.

She remembered that she had gone into Chen Chuxing’s originally chosen room yesterday to comfort her, but now, before dawn, the person who was usually so clingy in her embrace was gone.

There was no sign of anyone else in the room either.

When Cheng Shiyuan got up, she had a strange premonition.

This premonition peaked when she opened the door and found everyone sitting quietly around the sofa, the atmosphere eerily silent.

The look they gave her was complicated beyond anything she had seen before.

It was so complex that she couldn’t interpret it immediately.

So she spoke up, asking: “Are you… playing ‘Red Light, Green Light’?”

Shen Lingxi was the first to speak to her, smiling: “Yes, we are. What now? I lose the moment you show up.”

But only Shen Lingxi herself knew whether she had truly lost or won.

Shen Lingxi couldn’t help but recall the scene from the previous night.

She had merely been unable to sleep due to the lack of a body in her arms, and her habitual insomnia made her want to take a walk. However, the moment she stepped out of her room, she was fixed by two highly present gazes.

It wasn’t enough for the people to stare; essentially, the cameras that had been turned off by the production team turned on wherever Shen Lingxi walked.

But none of them was the first to speak, sharing a deep, tacit understanding that they didn’t want to wake the person they cared about most.

It wasn’t until the three of them stood in the garden, where the rain had stopped, that Shen Lingxi squinted in the dim light of the streetlamp and looked back, seemingly making sure she wouldn’t disturb anyone’s sweet dream.

Only then did she speak slowly to the tall figure:

“I invested in this show. No one can air content I don’t want aired.”

She stared at the handheld device in Wang Shu’s hand.

However, the person who answered her was Xie Zhiqing:

“Who knows? If a staff member accidentally leaks program content, and it unintentionally spreads online for everyone to see, that’s not something we can control.”

“After all, we normal people try our best to control our every word and action, don’t we?”

Shen Lingxi curled the corner of her lips at the hidden warning.

But the urge rising in her lungs made her cough again.

The coughing fit was sudden and violent, not stopping for a while. After finally catching her breath, the pale face at last showed a hint of a living person’s color.

She spread her hands, looking frail as she faced the two people who were tense and constantly guarding against her.

After a moment, she realized:

“Are you… bullying and ostracizing the new person like this?”

“Such despicable tactics really wouldn’t look good if they got out.”

So she pretended to cooperate: “Let’s not film this. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything.”

Xie Zhiqing and Wang Shu watched expressionlessly as the famous CEO Shen, the Grand Slam actress who had fallen from grace, gave them a performance of changing faces.

No one fell for it.

Shen Lingxi, however, applauded her own performance: “Seriously.”

Those eyes, which usually looked somewhat empty and chilling, now held a strange sincerity.

Then, they heard her follow up with a statement of fact:

“Because doing nothing is already enough to take all of you out of the running.”

If she calculated the time, it should be close to the final deadline for that strange, life-extending mystery on her wife.

Since Cheng Shiyuan wasn’t in a hurry during this period, she must be confident.

In that case, all Shen Lingxi had to do was wait.

The moment she should make her move was when these people’s utility had been completely drained.

If she’s too loud now, she won’t be likable, will she?

“You seem very confident in the information you possess.”

The villa door was opened again at some point.

Xia Ziran, who was closest to the door and had been woken by their conversation, leaned languidly against the door frame, her hands, now wrapped in thin bandages, casually folded across her chest.

She looked at the person in front of her, who exuded confidence from every pore, and suddenly understood why Cheng Shiyuan had always been so displeased with her before.

—Because she was truly annoying.

However, Xia Ziran wouldn’t deliberately give her opponent the advantage of failure based on her personal mood.

Shen Lingxi gave her an extra look: “Isn’t that your strength too? You don’t have to pretend to be calm. You and I are the same type. How could you strike easily without sufficient information?”

Xia Ziran showed a look of deep, respectful rejection.

“Cut the crap.”

She said, “The reason I’m messing with you lately isn’t because I’m certain you’re going to die.”

It was because, whether you die or not, I can’t stand you living so comfortably and happily, so causing some trouble for your company is only right.

Shen Lingxi tilted her head.

After a while, her gaze passed over Xia Ziran’s shoulder: “What about you, Chuxing?”

She spoke with an innocent expression: “The two of us have known each other for so long, we should be on the same side, no matter how you look at it, shouldn’t we? If you choose to form an alliance, you should choose me as your ally, right?”

Seeing her again, Chen Chuxing still couldn’t control the chill that rose in her bones, nor could she overcome her fear of her.

But she didn’t intend to stand forever behind Cheng Shiyuan.

She knew ‘Xiaoshi’ would feel bad for her and protect her out of guilt and a desire to repay a favor for the recent incidents.

But that wasn’t what Chen Chuxing wanted most.

She knew Cheng Shiyuan didn’t like being automatically protected, but at this moment, she needed the strength of being “needed” to give her the courage to overcome her nightmares.

“You must be joking. Whether in the past or now, I don’t think you ever considered me qualified to be an ally, did you?”

“—I’m not worthy of CEO Shen.”

Shen Lingxi looked at her meaningfully, and then at the others who were watching intently, “So you’re rejecting my olive branch and choosing to associate with this rabble?”

Chen Chuxing replied calmly: “My relationship with them is not what you think.”

These women were all outstanding figures in their respective fields; no one was willing to bow their head and admit defeat.

The only reason they appeared to be getting along peacefully right now was because they all cared about the same person.

They didn’t want to trouble her, didn’t want to pressure her, and didn’t want to make her unhappy…

That was why they were willing to sheathe their own sharpness and maintain this facade of harmony in front of her.

Shen Lingxi seemed to understand, or perhaps she just didn’t care.

She shrugged, and the dark coat draped over her shoulders lightly shook with her movement, its somber color mirroring the night sky.

Standing in the darkness, she dropped a bombshell:

“Ah. It seems you’ve misunderstood something.”

“What I mean is—”

“If gaining information that shouldn’t be known leads to my wife’s displeasure, then you and I are accomplices.”

She pointed out with delight: “Didn’t you delay reporting to the program because you discovered the secret on her?”

“I’ve even seen more than you have. What reason does my wife have to choose you and not forgive me?”

Then she looked at her rivals around her, especially staring at the youngest, Wang Shu.

“Some adults aren’t as harmless as they seem on the surface. If you’re deceived by her fragility, let down your guard, and treat her as another pitiful person, that’s very dangerous.”

The moment Shen Lingxi arrived, she had already seen through the precarious balance between them.

Although CEO Shen wasn’t afraid of strong opponents, she didn’t want to see such an ironclad alliance.

It would only cause her unnecessary trouble.

Therefore.

It was essential to dissolve their unified hostility and let them return to the self-serving state they were in at the start of the show, because individually, they were nothing to fear.

In any case, the ending on Pearl Islands had shown her the threat posed by their cooperation.

And recently, while she was recovering from her fall into the sea, she hadn’t been able to rest for a moment—

She could have shown up later, but some people were trying to take advantage of her illness to finish her off, causing upheaval in her company.

If she didn’t come out now, some restless grasshoppers would jump higher than they do after autumn.

Despite being plagued by troubles, Shen Lingxi showed no sign of it, even condescendingly offering her hand to Chen Chuxing:

“It seems you didn’t share the most important secret with them.”

“I think, in their eyes, you are now my accomplice. Chuxing, for the sake of our past pleasant cooperation, come over to my side, or you’ll be the first one eliminated.”

Come on.

Like when you were at your wits’ end before, grasp the last life-saving straw I’m offering you.

Even if it’s fragile and about to break, it’s the only thing you can hold onto.

Why do you always have such bad luck, always finding yourself isolated and helpless at the critical moment?

However.

All that fell onto her dark-gloved hand was cold air.

For the first time in front of Shen Lingxi, Chen Chuxing smiled with composure:

“Whether I’m eliminated or not is not up to you this time, is it?”

She was so grateful that the judge of this affection was Cheng Shiyuan.

Perhaps.

She had wanted to place her life and death in Cheng Shiyuan’s hands like this many years ago.

As long as it was given by Cheng Shiyuan, even a bitter fruit, she would savor every inch of the heartbreak with care and devotion.

Shen Lingxi’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

She seemed to see the old Chen Chuxing again, the one who had staked everything on love, a side of her that was unfamiliar.

This subordinate, who had always been so useful, seemed to enjoy falling into the same pit repeatedly.

—If only that pit hadn’t also been chosen by Shen Lingxi, it would have been better.

Shen Lingxi sighed, a little troubled.

“What did you say to her now?”

In front of her.

Cheng Shiyuan, who was completely uninterested in the results of their “Red Light, Green Light,” noticed that Chen Chuxing was more silent than before after half a morning of observation and immediately rushed up to the suspect with an air of aggression.

Shen Lingxi slowly blinked.

“You know nothing, yet you’re just arbitrarily pointing fingers at me—Honey, why didn’t I notice before that you’re so biased?”

The words were barely out before a tremendous fit of coughing started again.

But compared to her genuine concern before, or the feigned solicitousness on Pearl Islands.

This time, Cheng Shiyuan’s reaction was to ignore it:

“I’m asking you what you did to her.”

Shen Lingxi revealed a pale smile, her hand pressing on her chest through the glove, feeling the unfamiliar, throbbing sting there.

“If I say I did nothing, you won’t believe me, will you?”

“Just like those others, who merely saved you from a devil like me. So you allowed them to recklessly attack my company and devour my shares during this time.”

“You’re all competitors, yet the rule with you is that they can hurt me, and I can’t retaliate, right?”

“Since you already have the answer and can make the judgment you desire, why bother asking me?”

Cheng Shiyuan was silent for a moment.

Perhaps because she had rarely seen Shen Lingxi show weakness, she felt a sense of unfamiliarity towards the girl who was now looking wronged.

And it was amusing.

She then naturally asked:

“Is that so? CEO Shen, are you truly willing to let me decide this matter?”

Shen Lingxi’s heart skipped a beat.

Bad, she over-acted.

Sure enough.

Cheng Shiyuan quickly seized the opportunity she presented: “Then I want you to forever—” stop appearing in front of any of us.

“Shiyuan.”

Xie Zhiqing’s voice sounded from behind her.

Just as she was worried about them being alone with Shen Lingxi, they had the same worry about her.

“The production team is calling the guests to assemble. They have a new arrangement to announce.”

A task that should have belonged to the staff was taken on by her.

The intention was obvious.

For the first time, Shen Lingxi felt the existence of tacit understanding between these two, specifically reflected in their simultaneous, warning stares at her.

As they both turned and left.

Only Shen Lingxi was left standing there, continuing the uncontrollable coughing she had suppressed.

Amidst the intermittent coughing, there was her murmured voice:

“Is… it still not enough?”

It sounded like self-talk, yet also like a question directed at someone too ruthless:

“Is it because my love is less than theirs? Is that why you won’t choose me?”

She clenched her fist stubbornly, and a shallow layer of pain appeared in her usually emotionless eyes.

Shen Lingxi felt as if she had fallen back into the cold seawater.

Endless darkness from all directions, and she was constantly falling.

The abyssal darkness embraced her, but the person she wanted wasn’t in that cold depth, so she could only struggle up, up.

Until she swam back to the world of the living.

She had crawled back after escaping hell. How could she go back and endure that kind of loneliness again?

After a long while, the coughing finally stopped with difficulty. Shen Lingxi straightened her back again and walked steadily toward the crowd, just as she always had.

The production team was announcing the new arrangements.

“Given the special circumstances of the guests this season, the program will no longer use a lottery system. Instead, we will initiate a new round of dating based on voluntary selection.”

“Of course, for this date, if one guest is chosen multiple times—the date will automatically change to a group date.”

“Please make your selections now. Once the pairings are decided, the production team will announce the time and location of the dates.”

Almost the moment the staff member’s words fell, everyone’s eyes landed on Cheng Shiyuan.

Except for Shen Lingxi.

She was scrutinizing her rivals with keen interest.

As her gaze swept over Chen Chuxing, Cheng Shiyuan’s choice was the first to ring out:

“Shen. Ling. Xi.”

She knew she shouldn’t choose this way.

She also knew that today was the last day given by the life-extending system.

To be precise, only 8 hours remained until 24:00 tonight, and she still had a full point of affection value that she hadn’t collected.

Without life-or-death crises or emotionally stirring stories, a long and steady daily life was the hardest way to generate new affection.

Choosing Shen Lingxi at this time—

Everyone else would be disappointed in her.

She might fail at the last step.

Before the program’s arrangement was announced, Cheng Shiyuan had very easily planned how she should manipulate the hearts of the people around her, just as she had before.

Chen Chuxing was the best; she would do whatever she was told.

Wang Shu was good too, docile, and would rush up eagerly with just a little sweet reward, like a young puppy with poor self-control.

Or perhaps just do a very ordinary, mundane thing with Xie Zhiqing, because that person had carved loving her into her bones, and the affection would reappear with every repeated life habit.

Even Xia Ziran—

Was easy to fool.

After all, the woman was tough on the outside but soft on the inside, and very innocent.

But…

But if she could do it all over again, she would never choose to let them get involved in the Pearl Islands incident, which had nearly ruined their futures.

So this time, she had to stand at the very front of the abyss and not let anyone fall in—

“I choose, Shen Lingxi.”

Cheng Shiyuan heard herself announce clearly.

The next second.

Someone’s sigh sounded in her ear.

“Shiyuan.”

Xie Zhiqing called out to her like that.

Louder than that was the voice in her mind:

“Xiaoshi.” Chen Chuxing also stated her answer.

“Cheng Cheng! Of course I choose Cheng Cheng!” Wang Shu’s affection was always bright and fervent, hot enough to scorch one from a distance.

Xia Ziran gave them all an irritated glance, being the only sensible one.

“I choose, Cheng Shiyuan.”

It didn’t matter if she didn’t choose them, because they wouldn’t change their minds due to this option.

Cheng Shiyuan’s eyes widened slightly, and she turned to look at them.

Then, in the next second—

Shen Lingxi raised her hand and turned her face back, bit by bit.

She was fixed by those eyes that seemed to absorb everything again.

Then she heard the final sound in her mind:

She seemed to hear the fireworks on Pearl Islands again.

Until Shen Lingxi asked with a smile:

“The person who dates me is going to be my wife, did you know that?”

Her affection, this time, was ultimately more than all of theirs combined?

In that case.

This time, it must be her who wins, right?

After all.

Her love was like an abyss, and the person who received it must also fall into the abyss.