The Cannon Fodder 'Seme' is the Center of Attention Again (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 39

Li Qingran naturally could not answer.

His fingertip landed firmly and resolutely on the red button. Li Qingran immediately darkened the screen. The black display returned to silence, leaving behind only a face filled with a complicated, stunned expression.

“888,” Li Qingran called out. “Didn’t you say celebrities do not look at private messages?”

Li Qingran’s voice was calm, but 888 could hear a faint hint of deathly exhaustion in it. “Then what is happening now?”

Why did the Read symbol appear under that photo? What kind of consideration or mindset led Chu Yu to make this video call?

Li Qingran did not know. He only knew that among all the potential plot developments, a bug had appeared in the exact content he most wanted to avoid: the harassment from a sasaeng fan.

How could Chu Yu have read it?!

Li Qingran could not figure it out. His brain, which usually provided the most advantageous solutions for any plot error, went completely blank. He could only turn to 888 for help.

“What do we do now? He has read it. How am I supposed to send the photo?”

Li Qingran looked at the photo of Chu Yu in his gallery, which he had secretly taken while Qin Yanyun was not paying attention. The face was blurred, but the large white stain on the jacket was very obvious.

Originally, he only needed to send this photo to Chu Yu and have 888 add the line: “The gift I left for you, do you like it?”

That would have successfully completed today’s plot. But now, at a time when Chu Yu had just called him and might still be staring at their chat box with a frown, if he sent the photo without regard for the consequences, Li Qingran guaranteed that within an hour, he would be dragged before Chu Yu by staff. The man would point at him and tell everyone exactly what kind of perverted fan he was.

If that happened, his job as Qin Yanyun’s assistant would be over. Not only would he fail the subsequent tasks, but he would also lose a great deal of face.

Li Qingran really could not think of a better way to proceed with the plot.

Fortunately, this plot bug was not something he had intentionally caused. After a brief moment of panic, 888 immediately sent a bug report to the Main System. For some reason, the Main System replied to the message almost instantly.

However, the content of the reply was a bit different from what 888 expected. 888 watched as the small checkmark on its report turned to Read. The next second, the Main System’s message appeared in their chat box.

“Another bug?” the Main System asked.

888 replied honestly: “Yes.”

Main System: “…”

888 did not quite understand what the string of dots meant. Was the system thinking this task-taker group was too much trouble? 888 felt inevitably nervous.

However, just as it thought the Main System might strip them of their task-taking eligibility, the system provided a solution after getting a general idea of the bug.

“The lead male’s memory regarding the photo has been cleared. Simultaneously, the cannon fodder task-taker’s private messages have been hidden at the bottom of the lead male’s background chat interface. To prevent such bugs from happening again, the headquarters has processed the task-taker’s messages. From now on, any message you send to the lead male will not appear at the top of his inbox, avoiding being discovered again.”

“Great, great. Sorry for the trouble, Main System,” 888 replied immediately, then prepared to close the chat to tell Li Qingran the good news.

But a second before it closed the box, the Main System, which usually stopped messaging after giving a solution, sent one more message after a short silence.

“Tell the task-taker to be a bit more restrained.”

Restrained? Restrained in what?

888 was bewildered. When it relayed the message to Li Qingran, the youth showed the exact same confusion.

“Restrained in what?” Li Qingran asked, puzzled.

Could it be that his desire to sabotage the plot had been discovered? That should not be it. If that were the case, the Main System would have punished him directly instead of giving a subtle suggestion to be restrained. The Main System was not on his side; Li Qingran had a clear understanding of that.

So, what did restraint mean? Li Qingran was perplexed, and 888 scratched its head until it was bald without figuring it out.

“Forget it, let’s not obsess over it. As long as the problem with the lead male is solved, it is fine!”

888 respected its identity as a salted fish system. If it could not figure a problem out, it would not think about it. It would just muddle through the current plot first.

Coincidentally, Li Qingran was not a task-taker who liked to overanalyze the boss’s thoughts. He and 888 were of one mind. He sent the edited photo and message to Chu Yu.

Under the Main System’s manipulation, the photo had returned to an Unread state. Li Qingran breathed a sigh of relief, but still expressed concern about the future of the private message plot.

“Are you sure he will not read it again later?”

“Guaranteed, host!” 888 was quite confident about this. “The Main System said that even if our message is the most recent, it will not appear at the top of his chat. It will only drift in the middle or bottom sections.”

“And as for the lead male himself, he already had his memory of the photo cleared. He is a celebrity, busy to the point of exploding every day. Where would he find the time to scroll through endless private messages to find one that is not even at the top!”

“So rest assured, host. This time, our message will absolutely, definitely not be discovered!”

“If you say so.” Although 888 had failed so many times before, since it made such a guarantee, Li Qingran chose to believe it once more.

This was not because he had total faith in the Main System’s methods, but because Li Qingran himself did not want his messages to be discovered again. A bug was one thing, but it was just too shameful and socially suicidal.

Looking at those explicit messages edited by 888, Li Qingran felt more uncomfortable than when he had to watch an overbearing CEO’s marriage proposal in a previous game. Those greasy lines like “Woman, from today on, you belong to me forever” were nothing compared to this. Especially since the sender of these messages was the character he played in this world. This fact made him feel even worse.

At this moment, he truly wanted to break through the plot and obtain the right to move freely. Let him be free quickly. When that time came, he would stay far away from these main characters, so far that he would never have to think about these magical experiences again.

Li Qingran took a deep breath and tiredly pressed his temples. Xiao Wen noticed and looked over with concern, only to see that Li Qingran’s face was extremely pale. His pallor, combined with his thin frame, magnified the faint aura of exhaustion around him, making people fear he might disappear the next second.

Xiao Wen was startled. When he asked what was wrong, he did not control his volume well.

“Brother Li, are you alright?!”

In an instant, everyone in the dressing room heard Xiao Wen’s shout. Li Qingran even thought he heard an echo. Since the voice was so loud, it meant…

“What is wrong with you?”

Li Qingran blinked. As expected, a second after Xiao Wen spoke, he heard Qin Yanyun’s inquiry. He took a deep breath and gave a comforting smile to the worried Xiao Wen before turning to Qin Yanyun and waving his hand.

“It is nothing. I just have a bit of low blood sugar.”

His excuse for buying ice cream earlier was low blood sugar, so using the reason again here was logical. Qin Yanyun did not suspect a thing. He told Xiao Wen to bring over the candies he had ordered him to buy.

“Pick a flavor you like and eat one to feel better.”

Qin Yanyun spoke, then paused. Under Li Qingran’s surprised gaze, he coughed twice and added unnaturally, “The filming task is quite heavy later. I was afraid I would have low blood sugar, so I had Xiao Wen buy some to have on hand.”

This reason was very far-fetched. While the filming for the pre-show gathering was indeed heavy, the problem was they were filming while eating. A steaming hot pot had been placed on the large round table in the center of the site since Li Qingran went out for ice cream.

Xiao Wen rubbed his nose, wanting to say something, but considering his boss’s tsundere and easily offended personality, he kept his mouth shut.

Li Qingran, sitting across from him, remained even calmer. Xiao Wen watched the beautiful youth stare at Qin Yanyun for two seconds before withdrawing his gaze. His fair, slender fingers slid over the colorful candies on the table, finally landing on a pink hard candy.

The plastic wrapper was slowly opened, and the peach-flavored candy was tucked into Li Qingran’s mouth. The candy rolled around in his mouth before being settled in his right cheek.

Qin Yanyun watched as his right cheek puffed out slightly. Then, Li Qingran looked back and curved his eyes at him.

“Brother, thank you.”

Boom!

For a moment, Qin Yanyun felt as if fireworks had exploded in his ears. The massive roar made his heart race uncontrollably. The falling sparks ignited his body, making his ears burn again.

“It’s…”

Qin Yanyun abruptly looked away. His ears, hidden under his black hair, were so red they looked like they might drip blood.

“I only bought them considering my own physical condition,” Li Qingran heard him defend himself.

Xiao Wen’s mouth twitched so much he looked like he was having a stroke. He really wanted to comment, but for the sake of his salary and bonus, he endured it. He planned to wait until Qin Yanyun started filming to talk to Li Qingran about their boss’s recent abnormal behavior.

Li Qingran certainly would not expose him. The black-haired youth sat on the sofa with his head tilted up. When he looked at Qin Yanyun with his gentle, clear eyes, they seemed to be filled with scattered light. Qin Yanyun felt his resolve wavering.

“Even so, thank you for sharing one with me. Otherwise, I really would not have known what to do.”

Li Qingran spoke slowly. His voice was light, but it seemed to carry a flame that easily made the fire in Qin Yanyun’s heart burn brighter.

He said he did not know what to do. He said if it were not for me, he would not know what to do alone. He needs me! Li Qingran needs Qin Yanyun!

Even Li Qingran did not know that his simple expression of gratitude was being completely misinterpreted in Qin Yanyun’s mind. He only knew that when Qin Yanyun was called to film by the staff, the excitement in his eyes had not completely vanished. Even the blush on his ears remained incredibly obvious.

When the close-up lens was pointed at him, it was clearly displayed to the audience in the livestream room.

The audience, unaware of what had happened, naturally took Qin Yanyun’s excitement and shyness as his reaction to seeing Chu Yu. In an instant, the bullet screen went crazy with shipping.

“I knew they were real! Look at how red Qin Yanyun’s ears are!” “Is the cold male god actually this easily embarrassed in private?” “Please, can you two just kiss for me on the livestream! This is too sweet!” “So no matter how cold someone is, they become an idiot in front of the person they like.” “So Chu Yu rolling his eyes at Qin Yanyun is because he thinks his brother’s behavior is a bit too worthless hahahahaha.” “…Am I the only one who thinks they genuinely can’t stand each other? They barely interact and don’t even serve food to each other.” “Do I need to remind you they are eating individual hot pots?” “Exactly, this kind of pot is for cooking your own food. You’re really nitpicking that?! Mental!”

Strings of comments flew across the screen. Even if a few were nitpicking, they were instantly buried by the army of shippers.

The director sitting at the computer exchanged a look with the screenwriter, then beckoned the cameraman over.

“Is the video from this afternoon edited?”

“It is done.” The cameraman leaned in. “As you instructed, I edited out all the footage of the assistant. Only the footage of Brother Qin and Brother Chu remains. It looks quite sweet, but some parts still seem a bit unnatural.”

A look of concern appeared on the cameraman’s face. To his surprise, that was exactly what the director wanted.

“Unnatural is better. After all, the title is Secretly Filmed. We want to show how they interact in private!”

The director had watched the rough cut. The scenes of Qin Yanyun and Chu Yu alternating between rolling their eyes and smiling shyly were indeed disjointed, but real couples are often in a state of being angry one moment and reconciling the next. Such a video would allow netizens to ship them better.

The director waved his hand and told the cameraman to post the video, then told the assistant director to buy a hot search spot for it.

In an instant, the livestream footage and the secretly filmed video appeared on the Weibo hot search list together. Netizens who clicked into the video through the hot search were indeed shipping the couple exactly as the director had envisioned.

However, among the many harmonious shipping comments, one or two nitpicking remarks appeared.

“This was clearly released with the production team’s permission. Otherwise, while the livestream is still going, how could a secret video be released without fear of being fired?” “It looks sweet, but am I the only one who feels their expressions are a bit disjointed?” “Is it just me, or does it feel like the person Chu Yu is smiling at is not Qin Yanyun, but someone behind him who was edited out?”

There were many such comments, but because there were so many shippers, these nitpicking comments were not prominent. They did not affect the rising popularity of the show.

However, just as Let’s See the World Together hit number one on the list of most anticipated variety shows of the year, ready to break the reservation record for the platform, the comment section of the secret video suddenly encountered a problem.

It was not that a rival show had bought trolls to blacken them, but a problem within the show’s own team.

On the day before the first episode’s filming, the filming started hot search that the director had bought had been at number one for less than two seconds before being pushed down by another term. Before the team could react, their hot search dropped another rank.

At this moment, the terms firmly occupying the top two spots on the hot search list were:

#Breaking, Chu Yu slips up and likes a comment about Qin and Chu not getting along #Breaking, Qin Yanyun slips up too!

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