RSDH CH9

Cheng Duzhou and Duan Xingye were the first pair of guests, their interview occupying the first five minutes of the teaser trailer.

By the fourth minute, Cheng Duzhou was the only one left in the frame.

Text surfaced in the bottom-left corner of the screen: [Do you still remember the moment your heart fluttered for him?]

The camera cut to a close-up.

Cheng Duzhou lowered his head, seeming to subconsciously avert his eyes from the camera, his long, clean fingers interlaced and dangling loosely.

A well-timed beat of silence fell over the room, making viewers unconsciously hold their breath.

Maintaining his posture, Cheng Duzhou began to speak in a matter-of-fact tone:

“It was during the school anniversary gala when I was sixteen. I was in the audience, watching him perform a solo violin piece on stage. The piece was ‘only my railgun’… you know, from A Certain Scientific Railgun… Zero emotion, purely a flex of technical showmanship. He’s always had a gift for music, and that day he really showed off. When he played, it was so fiery and handsome; the entire auditorium was boiling with excitement from his performance. But as I watched him, the sound suddenly receded like a tidal wave.”

“I thought back on so many things from our past. Ever since childhood, he was always that bright, good-looking kid. In middle school, his body hit a growth spurt, his baby fat melted away, and girls would gather in crowds at our back door after class just to catch a glimpse of him. By high school, his facial features had fully matured into an uncontrollable beauty, to the point where male classmates would corner him at the school gates to confess. Finally, the memory settled back onto the backstage before the gala began. Tugging at his back collar, he asked me, ‘Cheng Duzhou, do you think this clothing tag bites?’ Then he leaned down close, and I caught a faint scent of white peach from his hair. The moment that scene flashed through my mind…”

Cheng Duzhou looked up and said, “In that instant, my heart felt tender, yet surging with a burning rush.”

Duan Xingye’s fingers snapped tight, crumpling the pajama fabric over his left chest into a tight knot.

The bullet comments were already streaming past in a dense blizzard.

“Wuuuuuuu! Don’t kill me with the blade of pure youthful love!!!”

“I’m bawling my eyes out! After all these years, he still remembers the scent of white peach in the hair of the person he loves!”

“Holy shit, I am blown away. Lu Ye Shu Huai delivers surprise after surprise every time; they are an absolute treasure of a CP.”

“Childhood sweethearts forever! Lu Ye Shu Huai is the GOAT!”

“It’s over, I’ve projected myself into President Cheng. With a top-tier childhood friend like Duan Xingye, it’s impossible not to fall head over heels.”

“I wish I could’ve been classmates with high-school Duan Xingye. He feels like the type who could dazzle a lifetime even with just a glance from afar.”

“No wonder Cheng Duzhou was willing to risk his popularity taking a hit just to get married—that’s someone he kept in his heart for seven whole years.”

“This reminds me of my first love that ended in nothing. Sigh, but seeing that there’s still love in this world that sees things through from start to finish feels like it heals my own regrets. How wonderful.”

The reason this interview blew up so massively was that the unrequited affection conveyed in that final minute was so sincere and delicate, successfully capturing viewers’ hearts while triggering a wave of nostalgic yearning.

When everyone went back to rewatch the first four minutes of the video, the vibe felt entirely different.

—Cheng Duzhou: “High-maintenance. Like a rabbit that chases people around to bite them.”

—Duan Xingye: “…”

First watch: “Duan Xingye pulling a face on set and leaving Cheng Duzhou hanging, is that appropriate? Blah blah blah…”

Second watch: “Hahahahahaha! Teacher Duan pulls a face whenever he hears something he dislikes without caring about President Cheng’s feelings at all—proves President Cheng spoils him rotten on a daily basis!”

—Cheng Duzhou: “I hope he can be a bit gentler.”

—Duan Xingye: “I hope he can know what’s good for him.”

—Cheng Duzhou: “…”

First watch: “Cheng Duzhou was so embarrassed he was rendered speechless. What was I even expecting from this pair? Blah blah blah…”

Second watch: “Ahhhhhhh, President Cheng silently conceded! He’s wrapped around his finger completely! His ideal type is gentle, yet he was conquered by an ungentle Teacher Duan! This is true love—lock them together forever!”

“…”

Once the personas were firmly established, the couple didn’t even need to do any promo; the audience would spontaneously ship them on their own.

Duan Xingye zoned out for a long time before taking off his earbuds and turning his head to look at Cheng Duzhou.

Cheng Duzhou was leaning against the headboard flipping through a script. Sensing the movement, he tilted his head to meet his gaze.

Duan Xingye didn’t speak.

Cheng Duzhou understood, glancing down at the gap between them, which was wide enough to fit an entire extra person.

—He was behaving himself with utmost restraint.

Duan Xingye said, “I just watched your solo interview. The part about the school anniversary gala at sixteen.”

Cheng Duzhou blinked, unreadable, though his voice sounded slightly aloof: “Yeah?”

“An entire team of company scriptwriters couldn’t match your impromptu performance.” Duan Xingye turned back to lie down properly, remarking, “Cheng Duzhou, you’ve really got some skills.”

“…” Cheng Duzhou pressed the tip of his tongue against the inside of his cheek, turning a page of the script with a rather loud rustle.

Duan Xingye didn’t pay attention. Popping his earbuds back in, he dragged the video back to the fourth minute, watched it through once, dragged it back again, and only exited after repeating this three times.

Duan Xingye remembered the school anniversary gala in high school. Cheng Duzhou had been sitting in the second or third row. Duan Xingye had glanced his way several times, and every single time, Cheng Duzhou had his head lowered playing on his phone.

The entire school had been wowed by his flexing, except Cheng Duzhou.

Still, that was all in the past.

Cheng Duzhou using the gala in the interview was an ingenious graft. A youthful, unrequited crush was indeed the storyline that best suited their childhood friends dynamic. Paired with Cheng Duzhou’s seamless, trace-free monologue, who wouldn’t be moved?

As expected of an experienced Best Actor, and no wonder Cheng Duzhou had declared the previous script unreliable right off the bat.

Formidable.

Duan Xingye buried his face, rubbing the tip of his nose against the blanket.

So Cheng Duzhou hadn’t deliberately sabotaged him during the interview, nor had he been uncooperative; it was just that the production crew’s unexpected questions gave him no chance to establish their personas. In the end, Cheng Duzhou still relied on his superb professional skills to salvage the awkward situation.

Instead, it was him who had acted out of spite, refusing to let the man come home.

…How heartless of him.

Duan Xingye placed his phone on the nightstand, switched off the wall sconce on his side, tucked in the blanket corners, and turned his head: “Cheng Duzhou, go to sleep.”

“Okay.” Cheng Duzhou switched on the desk lamp and turned off the sconce so the light wouldn’t disturb Duan Xingye.

Duan Xingye was dissatisfied, his lips pressing into a faint line. Beneath the duvet, he lightly kicked Cheng Duzhou, his voice carrying a soft, nasal mumble: “Turn off the lights and go to sleep! Can’t you understand human speech?”

When he pulled his foot back, whether intentionally or not, his curled toe brushed against the man’s calf through his trousers.

Cheng Duzhou’s wrist paused slightly, and he looked over.

He saw Duan Xingye peeking out with only his head exposed. His skin was snowy white, the corners of his eyes still flushed red. But unlike his previous anger, that redness was now dewy and soft. Because he was twisting his neck to look over, his slightly upturned eyes turned his gaze into a feather, drifting into one’s heart and leaving an unbearable itch in its wake.

The clear, ringing echo of “For the next month, I’ll trouble you to control yourself!” was still circling in his mind.

Cheng Duzhou took a deep breath, shut the script, and casually set it on the nightstand.

With a thud, the script slid off the edge of the nightstand onto the floor.

Cheng Duzhou had already switched off the light and slipped under the covers, initiating a shameless second half.

After the teaser trailer for Companionship Along the Way dropped, Cheng Duzhou and Duan Xingye became the hottest focal point of the season, garnering overwhelming support that crushed the other guests and easily claiming the sponsored brand shout-out for the first episode.

Xiao Dai watched with his own eyes as the Super Topic gained tens of thousands of followers each day. As more people fell down the rabbit hole, prominent fanfiction writers and fan artists were drawn in. The more fan works produced, the more new fans were lured in. In such a virtuous cycle, the CP that was once cold as the Arctic Circle had climbed onto the Super Topic rankings; though it was only hanging on by the tail, the buzz was climbing steadily.

Thanks to Cheng Duzhou’s nostalgic reminiscence in the teaser, Duan Xingye had transformed into an untouchable “white moonlight” in the hearts of viewers.

With the couple’s romance variety debut leaving a deep impression on everyone and the filming of the first episode about to begin, Xiao Dai wanted to strike while the iron was hot and create dedicated Super Topic fan chat groups for Lu Ye Shu Huai.

“This will help with CP fan cohesion,” Xiao Dai explained. “Companionship Along the Way is a live broadcast format, with individual stream rooms set up for each couple. Fan numbers directly dictate our recommended slot for the first episode.”

The hotter the stream room, the better the placement on the official homepage.

After some thought, Duan Xingye declined.

They were getting divorced in three months anyway; leaving behind a bunch of fan groups would just be an extra hassle to manage.

Besides, Duan Xingye hadn’t joined the romance show to achieve mainstream viral fame. He merely wanted to salvage his reputation from two years of marriage and slap the netizens who mocked him as an “abandoned husband” across the face. He couldn’t care less about fan counts.

On the day before the first episode premiered, Xiao Dai went to Duan Xingye’s office.

The heating in the room was blasting hot, prompting Xiao Dai to tug at his sweater collar the moment he walked in.

Duan Xingye, however, seemed impervious to the temperature, his complexion fair, pure, and cool as ice.

At the moment, he was watching a video on his computer, the speakers blaring the typical voice of a snarky commentary video creator.

“…Huang Liang and Tao Ziyi, who are also a same-sex couple, have several times more CP fans than Lu Ye Shu Huai. Yet in the end, Lu Ye Shu Huai had a whopping two hundred thousand more votes. If that’s not botting votes, it makes no sense at all.”

“Now let’s talk about whether the production team scripted this. Based on my years of watching romance shows, it was definitely scripted. The first half of the teaser was the same old formula and flavor—the couple lived up to expectations by being excruciatingly awkward. But at the end, the twist arrived! The production crew gave Cheng Duzhou a solo interview that no other guest received, letting him pour out a seven-year unrequited devotion. Only then did everyone learn that this plastic couple actually had feelings! Playing the ‘praise after critique’ game to perfection! What’s even funnier is that before the teaser aired, the production crew went out of their way to post a Weibo praising this CP. Could their favoritism be any more blatant?”

“Now Lu Ye Shu Huai has gone viral, and Companionship Along the Way has hit record-high viewership ratings. Both parties are the biggest winners, leaving only the other guest couples as pitiful collateral background props. But the upcoming episodes will be entirely live. I can’t wait to see whether Teachers Cheng and Duan, without editing or guidance from the production crew, can still deliver the same performance as in the teaser trailer~ After all, the internet has a memory. Two years of ‘widowed-style’ relationship management after marriage, only to suddenly become madly in love on a show? If you can’t figure it out, all you can do is look forward to the drama.”

Xiao Dai was speechless; to think someone could spin a conspiracy theory out of a five-minute teaser.

“Teacher Duan, don’t pay attention to this. Who knows if this uploader is just chasing clout or took money from someone. He probably knows he’s talking out of his ass.”

The only reason Duan Xingye had stumbled upon this video was that Tao Ziyi had liked it, unliked it a second later, and claimed it was an accidental slip of the finger.

Clicking into the video, Duan Xingye saw the tens of thousands of bullet comments and only then realized how many people were waiting for him and Cheng Duzhou to crash and burn in the first episode.

Closing the tab, he asked Xiao Dai, “Need something?”

“Oh, right, this.” Xiao Dai handed over a folded cue card. “The cue card for the night before the trip in episode one. Sister Yu wants you to look it over in advance so you can be mentally prepared.”

Duan Xingye swiveled lightly in his revolving chair: “Is the itinerary complicated?”

“Not complicated, it’s just…” Xiao Dai suddenly grew hesitant and stammered, “Some parts… I’m afraid you won’t be able to accept them.”

Halting midway through unfolding the card in his hands, Duan Xingye lazily lifted his eyelids to look at Xiao Dai: “Are you questioning my professionalism?”

Previously, Duan Xingye had cared about his idol baggage. But after seeing Cheng Duzhou willing to sacrifice his aloof, god-tier image and make up wild romantic histories with his eyes closed just for publicity, his attitude had shifted.

He and Cheng Duzhou were essentially in a business partnership. If one party took the romance show seriously, the other couldn’t just slack off.

What was there that he couldn’t accept? It was just work. Even if the production team asked him and Cheng Duzhou to put on an R-rated paywalled show, he could pull it off with zero mental burden.

Besides, not only was he going to pull it off, but he would also do it flawlessly to give those waiting for him to crash and burn a good hard slap.

“There’s no need to be melodramatic on a variety show.” Duan Xingye looked down and unfolded the card, saying calmly, “I might be a singer whose acting isn’t on par with Cheng Duzhou’s, but my dedication to my job doesn’t lose to anyone.”

Xiao Dai scratched his head, still wanting to explain: “No, just take a look, in case you can’t…”

“Enough. The word ‘difficult’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary. There’s nothing I can’t do.”

Xiao Dai shut his mouth and relaxed.

Duan Xingye looked at the cue card, reading aloud with casual detachment: “Interact with the audience…”

There were explanatory notes attached, but this segment posed zero challenge, so he flipped straight to the next page.

“Complete mystery task… What mystery task?”

The card didn’t specify.

Flipping the page once more.

“Pre-trip vow: tell Cheng Duzhou ‘I love you’…”

With a sharp snap, Duan Xingye slammed the cue card shut and decisively hurled it back onto the desk.

“Impossible. Can’t do it.”

Xiao Dai: “…”