FLME Ch21.2: End of the Recording

Having had a God’s-eye view all day, Yu Wen’s karma finally arrived. After being grabbed and “interrogated,” Song Chenglei and the others completely dug out his analytical thought process before finally letting him go to rest.

Yu Wen’s mouth was dry from talking so much.

The production team had prepared three camping tents for them, exactly two people per tent. When Yu Wen finished washing up and entered the tent, Chu Han was already in his sleeping bag, holding his phone and reading something with absolute concentration.

Yu Wen didn’t disturb him, lying down intending to play on his phone for a bit before sleeping. They had a sunrise-watching task tomorrow morning, so they probably had to get up early.

He opened his phone, and what greeted his eyes was Xi Su’s questioning: [What are you doing?]

Yu Wen thought to himself: What did I do?

He replied to the message, only to realize the text was from an hour ago. At that time, everyone should still have been at the table discussing who the moles were.

Yu Wen: [What’s up?]

Xi Su: […What? Wait a minute, I forgot what I was going to say at the time. Let me think.]

After about three minutes, Xi Su remembered.

Xi Su: [I remember now! Don’t interfere with me and Chu Han doing business (hyping the CP). I’ve held back for two days, seeing as we weren’t familiar I didn’t say anything, but acting like this makes it very hard for our work to progress.]

Xi Su: [That interaction today, if you hadn’t interrupted, they could have edited out seven fated encounters and three bad endings from it.]

Yu Wen just felt he had lost his mind: [Acting like this, aren’t you afraid of being targeted by Feng Chengzhou?]

He was the male lead top after all, possessing immense power. Blacklisting someone in the entertainment industry was something he could easily do.

Xi Su’s actions, in Yu Wen’s eyes, were simply a livelihood of licking blood off the edge of a knife. Who would believe there weren’t personal grudges involved? That was why he previously thought Xi Su getting close to Chu Han involved personal emotions.

Xi Su: […I’ve already been targeted. Otherwise, why would I think of using Chu Han to extort Feng Chengzhou?]

Yu Wen was speechless.

[6. (Impressive)]

After talking too much with Xi Su, even his catchphrases were being led astray.

Yu Wen: [Let me say it ten thousand times: extortion and blackmail are illegal.]

Yu Wen: [What did Feng Chengzhou say?]

Xi Su: [He said he’d give me a million to stay away from Chu Han.]

Yu Wen: [You didn’t take it?]

Xi Su: [I took it.]

Yu Wen: [You took it, but you didn’t fulfill your promise?]

Xi Su: [Mn.]

Yu Wen: […]

Wanting money over his life, a true man indeed.

Yu Wen: [When are you leaving the industry? I’ll go see you off.]

Xi Su: [It’s not that serious. I can still distinguish between having one full meal now versus being full for every meal. It won’t escalate to leaving the industry. I told Feng Chengzhou that my variety show CP with Chu Han is written into a contract and can’t be casually breached. We can only naturally unbind after the variety show ends.]

Yu Wen: [Feng Chengzhou believed that?]

Xi Su: [He won’t go verify it with Chu Han anyway, why wouldn’t he believe it?]

Yu Wen: […What a great double deception.]

Xi Su: [Your turn. Give me a reason for interrupting my business.]

Yu Wen: […Didn’t Chu Han ever tell you that he’s not willing?]

Xi Su: […No.]

Yu Wen was almost amused to the point of exasperation by his completely guilt-free attitude every single time.

Yu Wen: [Why didn’t you ask before interacting?]

Xi Su: [Fuck, I still need to ask? My manager said these things are written in the contract, I just need to follow them.]

Yu Wen: [Chu Han doesn’t have an agency; he can’t sign this kind of thing.]

The other side fell into a long, deep silence.

During the gap in the chat, Yu Wen thought about it. The company Xi Su signed with seemed to be a lower-middle-tier entertainment company with a few artists under its banner. The most popular one right now should be Xi Su, and they had only managed to prop up this one Xi Su.

With Xi Su’s demeanor of having a brain full of nothing but money, if he said he never paid attention to the company’s marketing strategies, Yu Wen would actually believe it.

“Yu Wen.” Just as he was pondering, Chu Han suddenly spoke up beside him. His voice was muffled in the sleeping bag, sounding a bit nasal.

He poked his head out of the sleeping bag, looking at Yu Wen with sparkling eyes. “Does your organization need civilian workers? I graduated with a literature major, I can do administrative jobs.”

Yu Wen was stunned for a moment. “What?”

Chu Han was still full of anticipation, “I mean your organization of superpowered people. Since there’s logistics, there must be civilian work too, right? What do you think of me?”

Yu Wen: “…”

Oh my god! He really believed it!

Yu Wen glanced at his phone; Xi Su hadn’t sent any more messages. He simply turned off his phone, got up, and turned off the light.

He gave Chu Han a slight smile. “Teacher Chu, close your eyes and sleep. Tomorrow morning when we watch the sunrise, I’ll give you a surprise.”

Chu Han froze for a moment, not knowing what he associated it with, and excitedly rolled back into his sleeping bag. “Oh, you’ll hire me tomorrow… No, you’ll tell me tomorrow, right? Okay.”

Yu Wen: “…”

The sunrise at Luming Mountain was spectacular and beautiful.

…It would have been even better if it wasn’t so early.

Yu Wen’s eyes were heavy with sleep, covered in a watery mist. Unable to even open his eyes properly, he haphazardly chimed in: “Beautiful, beautiful, wow, truly gorgeous…”

His lips opened and closed, mumbling like a squirrel.

By the time he sobered up, the morning sun had completely broken free from the mountain range and risen into the sky. Brilliant gold and tangerine intertwined and spread, sprinkling the morning light everywhere.

Yu Wen squinted and watched for a while, reacting half a beat slow: “Hmm, really beautiful.”

The other guests were all taking photos. He also took out his phone and symbolically snapped one. Surprisingly, the result wasn’t bad; the tones were saturated and rich, resembling a brightly colored medieval oil painting.

He suddenly felt a strong desire to share it, wanting to send this photo to someone. He scrolled through his chat homepage for a bit.

Send it to the boss?

—Although the boss was very approachable, they didn’t seem to have the kind of relationship where they shared trivial matters.

Send it to Director Gao?

—Forget it, he’d get scolded.

Send it to the group chat?

That was a good idea. Yu Wen decided to execute it, but a second before clicking into the group chat, his hand slipped, and by some strange compulsion, he opened Xie Heyu’s chat window.

He sent this sunrise to Xie Heyu.

Afterward, he let his gaze go blank, letting his soul take a nap while casually chatting with the other guests. When Xie Heyu’s voice call came through, he was aimlessly wondering why mountains were so pointy, and if one day they would puncture the sun? The sun would be like a soft-boiled egg, leaking out fragrant, mellow magma.

“I want to eat a soft-boiled egg.” That was the very first sentence he said to Xie Heyu upon answering the call.

The other end was silent, then let out two low hums, carrying the raspy magnetism of someone who had just woken up.

“Do you want me to bring you a bento?”

Yu Wen shook his head, instantly realizing the other person couldn’t see it. “No need… I just had a sudden whim. Did I wake you up?”

He always had many sudden whims, or rather, whimsical ideas would be more fitting.

“No, I was getting ready to wake up.”

Yu Wen glanced at the sunrise.

“You’re up so early.”

“Mn,” Xie Heyu said, “So I saw Teacher Yu’s ‘soft-boiled egg’.”

Yu Wen paused for a moment, asking in surprise, “You knew I was talking about the sun?”

Xie Heyu: “Not hard to understand.”

Pressing against the cold phone, Yu Wen started laughing.

He said, “Teacher Xie, when I get home I’ll fry a soft-boiled egg for you to eat.”

Hanging up Xie Heyu’s call, Yu Wen poked Chu Han beside him.

Having gotten up too early, Teacher Chu was also a bit muddled right now. Poked once, he swayed twice like a roly-poly toy.

He had momentarily forgotten last night’s promise and yawned, “What?”

The temperature on the mountain was low. Yu Wen wrapped the thin down jacket provided by the production team tightly around himself, a furry head poking out of the collar.

The cold wind blew the tip of this furry nose a bit red. He sniffled and said, “I said last night I was going to give you a surprise. Listen closely now.”

Chu Han was stunned for a second. His eyes had just lit up, and before he even had time to turn his head, he heard the person beside him say: “There is no Ultraman in the world, and I don’t have superpowers. I lied to you last night.”

“…”

Chu Han rarely found a person cruel.

Yu Wen, this friend who in his eyes was approachable and kind-hearted, used a tone as cold and ruthless as the north wind to whisper devilishly in his ear: “It’s~ all~ fake~, don’t believe it.”

After Yu Wen finished speaking, he patted his butt and left, looking incredibly dashing.

Leaving Chu Han messing in the wind on the spot.

On the way to the airport, Xie Heyu didn’t come to pick him up; Yu Wen didn’t let him.

Teacher Xie was still green and not good at lying; he was exposed in just two or three sentences. Yu Wen had no intention of making him cross provinces to pick him up. It was a bit tiring, but he wasn’t so delicate as to require that.

But just as he stepped out of the recording zone, he saw a taxi by the roadside. The taxi driver rolled down the window, popped his head out, and asked with a strange accent: “Are you Teacher Yu? Someone asked me to come pick you up. It’s already paid for, I’ll take you to the airport, let’s go.”

Yu Wen was silent for two seconds, then smiled.

He verified the reserved information with the driver. After getting in the car, Xie Jiamao happened to call to ask about the recording this time.

“…The situation? Pretty good, just a bit tiring… I never want to climb a mountain again.” Yu Wen purposefully let out a long sigh to display his depression.

“The PD just contacted me, wanting to invite you to record the finale. But the timing seems to clash with another one of your schedules, so I didn’t agree for now. He said you shouldn’t have come here, you should have gone to the escape room next door to carry the whole team. He also said after this episode airs, puzzle-solving variety shows will definitely seek you out, hehehehehe. The PD also said this episode can be broadcast next week.”

The boss had a personality of popping champagne at halftime. Yu Wen was already used to it. What surprised him was that his schedule could actually clash.

“Am I an artist who needs to juggle schedules now?”

“Of course! Your net worth is very high!”

Xie Jiamao always possessed an unwarranted pride and confidence in him.

After recording Small Courtyard, Yu Wen holed up at home for three days before recovering his vitality.

During this time, his boss called to report good news, telling him that the charity live stream had been signed for a total of five episodes. Yu Wen guessed that Chu Han had relented. Although Chu Han had used the charity live stream as an exchange condition before recording the variety show, Yu Wen actually didn’t care.

Yu Wen: [Teacher Chu, if you don’t want to stream, then don’t. The live stream resource isn’t that important, you can repay this favor later too.]

He felt his action was out of goodwill, but Chu Han’s reply exceeded his expectations.

Chu Han: [I won’t.]

Chu Han: [Before you realize your mistakes, I don’t wish to have any extra involvement with you.]

Yu Wen looked at the chat box, lost in deep thought.

Did he do something to wrong Chu Han and then lose his memory? This tone sounded like he was scolding a scumbag.

Yu Wen: [Where did I go wrong? Confused.jpg]

Chu Han: [Teacher Yu can think about it yourself. Mistakes must be comprehended by oneself to be engraved in one’s bones and heart. I will not give you any hints.]

After a moment, he added: [Playing tricks on others is a very shameless thing, I hope you understand.]

Yu Wen: […]

Chu Han had always had this deadpan, serious style, but this time he was overly serious, making Yu Wen curl his toes in embarrassment.

He had Song Chenglei’s WeChat, so he went to ask around indirectly.

Song Chenglei: [I don’t know. But yesterday during our dinner gathering, Teacher Chu drank a bit of alcohol and suddenly started crying, interviewing us one by one, asking if we believed in light… Of course I don’t believe in it, it’s kid’s stuff. Then he cried again, crying late into the night, singing ‘Miracle Reappears’ while hiccuping.]

Yu Wen visualized this scene and instantly went crazy with laughter, finally understanding what Chu Han was angry about.

He opened the chat and nudged Chu Han; the other party played dead.

He simply sent a voice message: “Sorry Teacher Chu, hahahahaha… I didn’t expect you hahahaha… For the damage caused to you, I’m very sorry hahaha…”

He genuinely wanted to apologize, but it was just too funny. Apologizing while laughing, naturally, he failed to obtain the victim’s forgiveness.

Chu Han: [You are really crossing the line!]

Teacher Chu used an exclamation mark.

It showed his emotions were intense.

Truly worthy of celebration.

The editing speed of the Small Courtyard show had always been very fast, recording one episode and broadcasting one episode. This time, they even released the trailer a day in advance.

The trailer’s focus wasn’t on the brain-burning deduction parts; instead, it edited in quite a few of Yu Wen’s golden quotes, giving him plenty of close-ups. If there was a persona that could quickly capture the hearts of contemporary netizens, it was definitely being good-looking but slightly mentally unwell.

Coincidentally, Yu Wen fell right into this category.

“A bamboo cane and straw sandals are lighter and better than a horse, whether going or staying, we both possess the courage of Kunlun.”

“With a friend like this, even if I won a lottery of a billion, I’d still be happy.”

“Teacher Xi, don’t worry about us. A fragile person naturally has their own backbone. Even if I die on this path today, I won’t let anyone carry me.”

Two minutes later—

“How could I have a backbone? That’s simply alarmist talk!”

The end of the trailer froze on Yu Wen’s last shot from the pre-interview, “Small Courtyard — a great place to cultivate all-rounder artists,” accompanied by a smile where sincerity and hypocrisy coexisted.

The trailer was released at noon, catching the audience completely off guard. At first, there were very few bullet comments, but it quickly became lively.

[What kind of broken poem is this hahahahaha, it surprisingly rhymes.]

[Tan Sitong: Does Senior Su Shi have any clues about this?]

[His mental state is so avant-garde, did he come out of the same mental hospital as me?]

[With a friend like this you still want to win a billion, good lord, you want to eat your cake and have it too.]

[True Fragrance (Hypocrisy) Warning]

[As soon as he mentioned having a backbone, I knew things were going to go south hhhhh]

[To be fair, where did they dig up this obscure nobody, he’s surprisingly good-looking.]

[With this kind of appearance, his company is actually willing to let him out to be a special forces soldier???]

[Hahahaha so everyone feels this variety show is training special forces.]

[A bit too delicate-looking, not suitable for acting in idol dramas, suitable to be my boyfriend. Bashful_and_coy.jpg]

[I didn’t see clearly, does he have a tear mole at the corner of his eye?]

[Oh my nine-tailed fox grandma, there really is a tear mole!]

[At 0:22 seconds, 0.25x speed, you can screenshot a super clear front face photo, charge sisters!]

[May good people have a safe life.]

[May good people have a safe life.]

…

…

This was roughly the earliest piece of work from all of Yu Wen’s inventory to be released to the public.

On the night the episode updated, he strolled to the night market in his slippers to eat some barbecue. Out of some sense of guilt over failing his body management, he only brought some cash and didn’t bring his phone, afraid of receiving a call from his boss halfway through.

Returning home at 9 PM, he picked up his phone and saw over twenty missed calls.

He called back, and Xie Jiamao’s excited voice almost pierced through the electronic device: “Xiao Yu! You’re on the trending hot search!”

Yu Wen: ?