Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: How Dare You Reject My Love?

Cheng Shiyuan was still in a daze when the usually unresponsive system, which never interacted with people, surprisingly popped up a few more sentences:

Currently, two ‘Life Extension Value Targets’ have been successfully unlocked.

If two ‘Life Extension Value Targets’ are present simultaneously, within a distance of twenty meters from each other, the Host can recover double life value.

Cheng Shiyuan: “…?!”

She instinctively ignored the fact that the two unlocked people were the mutually exclusive Xie Zhiqing and Xia Ziran.

Instead, she focused on Wang Shu, the girl right in front of her, whom the system had also flagged as a new life extension target—

Interacting naturally with her niece in the same space shouldn’t be unbearable for Xia Ziran, right?

Thinking this, Cheng Shiyuan decided to confirm the most important thing: “You look very young. Are you of age?”

Wang Shu quickly extracted the information she wanted from that sentence: The culture here promotes dating after coming of age. She’s suddenly asking if I’m of age; she wants to date me!

Although she didn’t know which simple self-introduction had captivated Cheng Shiyuan, the invisible puppy tail behind her had received the mating signal and began to violently wag and tremble!

Wang Shu flashed a brilliant smile: “I just turned nineteen. Speaking of which, there’s a dish I love to eat for my birthday every year on the street near the waterfront behind the art museum. Are you hungry? Shall we go try it together?”

It was a question, but she eagerly pointed out that the street was very close, less than a five-minute walk, completely blocking any room for refusal.

Of course.

Cheng Shiyuan had no intention of refusing.

She looked at this child, who was like the sun yet bore the elegant name of the moon, “Wang Shu” (Moon Chaser). She smiled and mentally nicknamed her: Little Moon.

The Little Moon wasn’t aloof; in fact, she was very clingy. Cheng Shiyuan only glanced up at the flowers growing on a high bank behind the roadside wall, and Wang Shu immediately noticed: “Do you like those flowers?”

Cheng Shiyuan sensed that if she nodded, Wang Shu would immediately display the social enthusiasm characteristic of a “foreign social terrorist,” detour to knock on the owner’s door, and ask if they could visit the garden.

So, she subtly replied: “They’re okay.”

The next second, she let out a cry of surprise—

Wang Shu had unhesitatingly lifted her up by the waist. Her field of vision suddenly elevated, giving her a panoramic view of the deep red and purple camellias and azaleas inside the nearby wall, as well as the rolling waves of the sea under the distant blue sky.

But Cheng Shiyuan looked down at the person holding her waist.

The deep eye sockets had distinct lower eyelashes that Asians often envied.

And the light-colored pupils were wholeheartedly reflecting only her.

Cheng Shiyuan instinctively wanted to see her own reflection in these two mirrors. After concentrating for only two or three seconds, she felt the hands around her waist tighten.

The child below was willing to devoutly sacrifice everything to the deity she was holding up.

Her full, plump lips actively moved closer to Cheng Shiyuan.

But they were abruptly interrupted by a deep, gloomy voice: “Put. Her. Down!”

Wang Shu froze suddenly, as if just remembering who else was beside them.

Meeting Xia Ziran’s menacing, almost man-eating gaze, Cheng Shiyuan licked her lips, glanced at the cameras still rolling, and patted the Little Moon’s shoulder, actively ending the “lift me up” game.

She picked up a camellia flower that had fallen to the ground, feigning ignorance of Xia Ziran’s anger, and smiled as she held up the flower and asked her: “Do you want to look, too?”

Xia Ziran’s gaze slowly shifted from the flower to her face, sharp, as if trying to pierce her mind:

“What’s the point of flowers when there’s a better show to watch?”

Without waiting for Cheng Shiyuan to respond, she clapped her hands and praised sarcastically: “What a great show of ‘old cow eating young grass.'”

Cheng Shiyuan, who was only twenty-five and complimented everywhere for her youthful beauty, was called an “old cow” for the first time.

Even more infuriating was the sudden memory that Xia Ziran had skipped grades to be in the same class as her, making her a year younger than Cheng Shiyuan in actual age.

She could only respond expressionlessly by throwing the camellia at that dog mouth.

Xia Ziran sneered, then politely bent down, picked up the flower, and brushed off the grains of sand without any sign of distaste.

As she smiled, the gorgeous red flower in her hand, known as the “flower of severed heads,” accentuated her dangerous aura.

“Wang Shu is still young, inexperienced, and easily misled by the flowery world. As her elder, I will guide and discipline her well.”

“What about you, Cheng Shiyuan? Are you also interested in her?”

However, the answer came from a sudden, loud sizzling sound nearby.

Xia Ziran frowned and turned her head.

It turned out they had unknowingly walked to the food stall.

The vendor was nowhere to be seen, and a sign reading “Self-Service” hung on the blue cart. Wang Shu was extremely resourceful and had already figured out how to light the gas bottle, skillfully pouring oil onto the iron griddle.

As she semi-professionally cracked the first egg, while still watching them, Xia Ziran paused and spoke again:

“Your Little Aunt Cheng doesn’t eat raw eggs or runny eggs; she only eats fully cooked fried eggs. And no putting vegetables with raw water directly on the pan; she doesn’t eat any kind of raw vegetable—”

A question mark slowly floated above Wang Shu’s head.

She distinctly remembered that in California, when Cheng Shiyuan first treated her to Eggs Benedict, she mentioned that the soul of the dish lay in the beautifully cooked egg, as delicious as the runny center of an omelet.

…How do you make Eggs Benedict with a fully cooked fried egg?

But Xia Ziran’s expression was too certain. Wang Shu could only shoot a pleading look at Cheng Shiyuan, wanting to confirm what to do.

However, the protagonist of their conversation wasn’t focused on either of them but was instead concentrating on scanning a QR code for a homeless man sitting by the railing.

“WeChat received, 5,000 Yuan.”

“What are you doing?” Xia Ziran listened in disbelief to the transfer sound. When the homeless man, looking like he’d found a great fool, put the QR code into his broken bowl and raised it again toward Cheng Shiyuan with a fawning expression.

She abruptly pulled Cheng Shiyuan back to her side, motioning with her eyes for the tall Wang Shu to intercept the man, and then began to lecture the big spender:

“Did you really study abroad? Are you so rich it’s burning a hole in your pocket? Do you like to show off? Who told you to give so much?”

“If we weren’t filming today, and there were more beggars in a more remote location, how did you plan to walk out unharmed, you ‘rich person’? Did you skip your safety education class?”

The anxious and irritated tone came down like a torrent.

Before Cheng Shiyuan could respond, she heard another sound: “Alipay received, 5,000 Yuan.”

As the fury in Xia Ziran’s eyes spiked, she innocently held out her finger, shifting the blame: “It wasn’t me this time.”

—It was Wang Shu.

Who knows what the Little Moon said to the man, but the homeless person cherished the two unexpected windfalls and quickly ran off with his bowl and QR code without looking back, terrified they would change their minds.

Wang Shu blinked her beautiful large eyes: “Cheng Cheng is very kind; she’s doing a good deed, and I should support her. Little Aunt, look, that person isn’t greedy either. Isn’t this the best outcome?”

She selectively omitted that she had whispered a warning to the homeless man that if he didn’t leave, asking for an amount over 10,000 Yuan would meet the local standard for extortion, resulting in prosecution and free jail time.

As long as the outcome sounded as beautiful as a fairy tale, it was good enough for Cheng Shiyuan’s ears.

But Xia Ziran seemed thoroughly exasperated by their back-to-back rebellions.

Cheng Shiyuan ended up standing side-by-side with Wang Shu as punishment, being scolded mercilessly. This resulted in Wang Shu creating a dazed, culturally adapted Eggs Benedict that looked like a hamburger, with a fully cooked fried egg in the middle.

She took the specialty dish with a mix of laughter and tears, listening to Xia Ziran ask if she was crazy to show kindness in such a stupid way.

She replied casually: “Maybe I can empathize with that kind of poverty.”

She looked up at her life duration, which, after all the adding and subtracting, pitifully showed [Remaining Life Duration: 28 minutes 01 seconds.

It was a number that meant she would die within half an hour of leaving Xie Zhiqing and Xia Ziran.

She narrowed her eyes and sighed sincerely: “I’m truly too poor. So poor I feel like I’m going to die.” If only life value could be bought with money.

Xia Ziran was momentarily bewildered by her genuine tone of being “scared of being poor,” forgetting what she was about to say, her face aghast.

The Cheng family was once on Singapore’s wealthiest list. Even if Cheng Shiyuan’s decision to enter the entertainment industry disappointed her family, excluding her from the line of succession.

She wasn’t disowned. The funds and company shares allocated to different descendants from the family trust were enough for Cheng Shiyuan and her next generation to lie on mountains of gold until they died.

How could this spoiled rich girl, born with a silver spoon, be “poor to death?”

Cheng Shiyuan rarely saw such a ridiculous “perplexed and greatly shocked” expression on the face of the genius who had received an early admission to Yao Class. She enjoyed the sight for a good while until they walked to the parking lot and she opened the passenger door.

Xia Ziran’s face instantly changed: “Cheng Shiyuan, you sit in the back.”

She hadn’t forgotten to cut off any slight possibility between the two.

Cheng Shiyuan shrugged and obligingly opened the back door of the Mercedes.

However, just as she sat down, her phone vibrated, displaying a receipt message.

“Your current account ending in 4545 received RMB 10,000,000 Yuan at 18:02 on April 20. Payer: Xia Ziran.”

Cheng Shiyuan counted the zeros three times, thought for two seconds, opened her chat app, and selected the person with the black profile picture:

“Are you so rich it’s burning a hole in your pocket?”

“Do you like to show off?”

The person in the passenger seat typed on her phone: “Yes, after all, thanks to you, I’m now the legitimate successor. I can freely allocate funds in the ten-million range without board approval. /smile”

Cheng Shiyuan raised an eyebrow: “Then I’ll gladly accept this money as your thank-you fee.”

Even with the distance between them, they didn’t forget to trade barbs.

Wang Shu gripped the steering wheel, observing the rearview mirror, keenly aware that they seemed to be “flirting secretly.” She suddenly spoke: “Has Cheng Cheng moved into the production team’s house yet?”

“I remember there are over six guests, two houses to choose from, and each house has two rooms. Is the one you’re staying in full?”

Cheng Shiyuan suddenly realized something: “No, there are only two people in my house right now.”

If the co-residents are Xie Zhiqing and Wang Shu, wouldn’t she have a great chance of doubling her life value?

She enthusiastically and eagerly started introducing Wang Shu to the good habits of her other co-resident.

Upon seeing the two houses in the distance, Wang Shu, whose impression of Xie Zhiqing was good enough, actively asked Cheng Shiyuan to ask Xie Zhiqing if she minded having her as a fitness sparring partner, mentioning that she had been on the school’s rugby team.

After confirming that the new guest was free to choose which house to move into, Cheng Shiyuan couldn’t wait. As soon as they reached the parking lot, she opened the car door and went back to brief Xie Zhiqing.

“I just met a very interesting kid at the art museum. You haven’t had anyone to practice with since you started filming, right? This kid’s height and stamina are quite good. Do you want to try playing ball with her?”

And just as Xie Zhiqing seemed to be persuaded and was being led toward the living room by her.

The doorbell rang.

But before Cheng Shiyuan could get to the door, the sound of a key unlocking the door came from outside, as if the new arrival was only symbolically announcing their presence.

Seeing the “new guest” at the door, Xie Zhiqing’s dark eyes narrowed, and she twirled the badminton racket in her hand.

It cut the air with a whoosh.

She curled her lips and asked with a smile, “Shiyuan, is this the new sparring partner you introduced to me?”

Leaning against the doorframe, Xia Ziran, seeing the look of shock and blankness on Cheng Shiyuan’s face, was suddenly utterly delighted.

That’s how it should be.

Cheng Shiyuan’s emotions should be held in her palm, obedient to her control, looking only at her, and showing the expression she wanted to see, no matter where or when.

Looking at the floral dress Cheng Shiyuan was still wearing, now painted with Xia Ziran’s brand, she smiled slightly, twirling the “gifted” camellia in her fingers, and replied carelessly:

“I didn’t come here to be some boring, muscular sparring partner.”

“I came because someone who received the hydrangea, which symbolizes hope and eternity, retaliated by sending back this very dominant gift—”

She slowly recited the language of the camellia in her hand: “How dare you reject my love?”

Then, she couldn’t help but let out a low laugh.

Having sufficiently enjoyed Cheng Shiyuan’s tense posture, as if she had been terribly wronged, Xia Ziran softened her tone, seemingly trying to soothe her.

“Your generous invitation moved me, so I reluctantly decided to change and move into this villa.”

Then, she finally looked at the cold-faced Xie Zhiqing and, smiling, added more chaos to Cheng Shiyuan’s dire predicament:

“What’s wrong? Didn’t she tell you about sending me flowers, confessing to me, and inviting me to live here?”