FLME Ch21.2: End of the Recording

After spending the whole day in the God’s perspective, Yu Wen finally faced his reckoning. He was pulled aside for questioning, with Song Chenglei and the others thoroughly dissecting his analytical process before they let him go to rest.

Yu Wen talked until his mouth was dry.

The program team had prepared three camping tents for them, just enough for two people each. After washing up and entering the tent, Chu Han was already in his sleeping bag, engrossed in something on his phone.

Yu Wen didn’t disturb him, lying down to play on his phone for a while before sleeping, as they had an early task of watching the sunrise the next morning.

He opened his phone and saw Xi Su’s questioning message: [What are you doing?]

Yu Wen thought: What did I do?

He replied, only to realize the message was from an hour ago, when everyone was still discussing who the undercover agents were at the table.

Yu Wen: [What’s up?]

Xi Su: […What? Wait a minute, I forgot what I wanted to say. Let me think.]

About three minutes later, Xi Su remembered.

Xi Su: [I remembered! Don’t interfere with my and Chu Han’s interactions. I’ve held back for two days and didn’t say anything because we aren’t close, but you’re making it hard for us to do our job.]

Xi Su: [Today’s interaction, if you hadn’t interrupted, could have been edited into seven destiny moments and three tragic ones.]

Yu Wen thought Xi Su had lost his mind: [Aren’t you afraid of being targeted by Feng Chengzhou?]

After all, as the main character, Feng Chengzhou had great influence and could probably ban someone in the entertainment industry.

Xi Su’s actions, in Yu Wen’s view, were like licking blood off a knife’s edge. No one would believe there wasn’t some personal grudge involved, which is why Yu Wen initially thought Xi Su approached Chu Han with personal motives.

Xi Su: […I’m already being targeted, otherwise why would I think of using Chu Han to blackmail Feng Chengzhou?]

Yu Wen was speechless.

[Okay.]

After talking with Xi Su, Yu Wen’s habitual phrases were influenced.

Yu Wen: [I’ve told you a million times, extortion is 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 did.]

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

Xi Su: [Yeah.]

Yu Wen: […]

Risking his life for money, a true hero indeed.

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

Xi Su: [It’s not that serious. I know the difference between a full meal and constant meals. It won’t escalate to leaving the industry. I told Feng Chengzhou that Chu Han and I’s variety show CP is part of the contract and can’t be broken arbitrarily, so we can only wait for the show to end and naturally separate.]

Yu Wen: [Did Feng Chengzhou believe you?]

Xi Su: [He wouldn’t ask Chu Han for confirmation, so why not believe it?]

Yu Wen: […You’re a master of deceit.]

Xi Su: [Your turn, give me a reason for disrupting my work.]

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

Xi Su: […No.]

Yu Wen was almost amused by Xi Su’s always shameless attitude.

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

Xi Su: [Come on, I need to ask? The manager said it’s written in the contract, I just follow it.]

Yu Wen: [Chu Han doesn’t have a company, he can’t sign that kind of contract.]

There was a long silence on the other side.

During the chat, Yu Wen thought for a while. The company Xi Su signed with seemed to be a mid-to-lower-tier entertainment company with a few artists, the most popular currently being Xi Su. They had only managed to promote Xi Su.

With Xi Su’s money-oriented mindset, Yu Wen could believe he hadn’t paid attention to the company’s marketing strategies.

“Yu Wen.” While he was thinking, Chu Han suddenly spoke, his voice muffled in the sleeping bag, sounding a bit nasal.

He poked his head out of the sleeping bag, his eyes bright as he looked at Yu Wen, “Does your organization need clerical workers? I graduated with a literature degree and can work in administration.”

Yu Wen was stunned, “What?”

Chu Han was still hopeful, “I mean your superpowers organization. Since there’s logistics, there must be clerical work too, right? How about me?”

Yu Wen: “…”

Goodness! He actually believed it!

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

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

Chu Han was dazed for a moment, then seemed to connect the dots, rolling back into his sleeping bag excitedly, “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 be better if it wasn’t so early.

Yu Wen, still sleepy, with eyes covered in a watery haze, couldn’t fully open them, and half-heartedly echoed, “Beautiful, beautiful, wow, really pretty…”

His lips moved like a squirrel’s, mumbling.

When he finally woke up, the sun had completely risen above the mountains, painting the sky with a blend of golden and orange hues, spreading morning light everywhere.

Yu Wen squinted for a while, then slowly reacted: “Hmm, really beautiful.”

While other guests were taking pictures, he also took out his phone and snapped a shot. Surprisingly, it turned out well, with rich, saturated colors, almost like a vibrant oil painting from the Middle Ages.

He suddenly felt a strong urge to share the photo with someone. After scrolling through his chat list for a while, he considered:

Send it to the boss?

—Although the boss was approachable, they weren’t close enough to share trivial matters.

Send it to Director Gao?

—Forget it, he might get scolded.

Post it in the group chat?

—That was a good idea. Yu Wen decided to do it, but just before he entered the group chat, his finger slipped and, inexplicably, he opened Xie Heyu’s chat window.

He sent the sunrise photo to Xie Heyu.

Then he zoned out, chatting with the other guests while letting his mind drift. When Xie Heyu’s voice call came through, Yu Wen was aimlessly wondering why the mountain was so sharp, if one day it might poke a hole in the sun, and if the sun was like a soft-boiled egg, oozing fragrant, thick magma.

“I feel like eating a soft-boiled egg,” was the first thing he said to Xie Heyu after picking up the phone.

There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by a low hum with a hint of a raspy, magnetic quality from just waking up.

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

Yu Wen shook his head, then realized the other person couldn’t see him, “No… it was just a random thought. Did I wake you?”

He often had random thoughts, or rather, whimsical ideas might be more accurate.

“No, I was about to get up.”

Yu Wen glanced at the sunrise.

“You wake up really early.”

“Yeah,” Xie Heyu replied, “so I got to see Teacher Yu’s ‘soft-boiled egg.'”

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

Xie Heyu: “It’s not hard to understand.”

Pressing the cold phone to his ear, Yu Wen laughed.

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

–

After hanging up with Xie Heyu, Yu Wen poked Chu Han next to him.

Having woken up too early, Teacher Chu was still groggy, wobbling like a tumbler toy when poked.

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

The temperature was low on the mountain, and Yu Wen wrapped himself tightly in the thin down jacket provided by the show, with only a fuzzy head sticking out of the collar.

The cold wind made the tip of his fuzzy nose a bit red. He sniffled and said, “I told you last night I’d give you a surprise. Listen up.”

Chu Han was stunned for a moment, his eyes just starting to brighten. Before he could turn his head, the person next to him said, “There’s no Ultraman, and I don’t have superpowers. I lied to you last night.”

“……”

Chu Han rarely thought of someone as cruel.

Yu Wen, this friend who seemed kind and gentle in his eyes, used a cold, merciless tone like the winter wind to whisper devilishly in his ear, “It’s all fake. Don’t believe it.”

After saying that, Yu Wen walked away with a carefree pat on his butt, leaving Chu Han standing there bewildered in the wind.

–

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

Teacher Xie was still inexperienced and not good at lying, easily getting exposed in just a few words. Yu Wen didn’t plan to make him travel across provinces to pick him up. Though he was tired, he wasn’t that pretentious.

But just as he left the recording area and saw a taxi by the roadside, the driver rolled down the window, poked his head out, and asked in an odd accent, “Are you Teacher Yu? Someone asked me to pick you up, and 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 information with the driver, and just as he got in the car, Xie Jiamao called to ask about his recording experience.

“…Experience? It was good, just a bit tiring… I never want to climb a mountain again.” Yu Wen let out an exaggerated sigh to show his frustration.

“The PD just contacted me and invited you to the final episode recording, but it seems to clash with another of your commitments, so I haven’t agreed yet. He said you shouldn’t have come here; you should go to the escape room next door and carry the show. He also said that after this episode airs, there will definitely be mystery-solving shows inviting you, hehe, and the PD mentioned this episode will air next week.”

The boss had a habit of celebrating early, and Yu Wen was used to it. What surprised him was that his schedule could clash.

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

“Of course! You’re very valuable!”

Xie Jiamao always had an inexplicable pride and confidence in him.

–

After recording “Mountain Courtyard,” Yu Wen stayed at home for three days to recover.

During that time, the boss called with good news, telling him that the agricultural assistance livestream had been signed for five episodes. Yu Wen guessed it was Chu Han who agreed, although Chu Han had offered the agricultural assistance livestream as a condition before recording the variety show, Yu Wen didn’t really care about it.

Yu Wen: [Teacher Chu, if you don’t want to do the livestream, don’t do it. It’s not that important, and you can repay this favor later.]

He thought he was being kind, but Chu Han’s reply surprised him.

Chu Han: [No.]

Chu Han: [I don’t want any unnecessary entanglements with you until you realize your mistake.]

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

Had he done something to wrong Chu Han and then forgotten? This tone was like scolding a scumbag.

Yu Wen: [What did I do wrong? Confused.jpg]

Chu Han: [Think about it yourself, Teacher Yu. Mistakes have to be realized personally to be deeply ingrained. I won’t give you any hints.]

After a while, he added: [Playing with someone’s emotions is a despicable thing. I hope you understand that.]

Yu Wen: […]

Chu Han had always been serious, but this time it was a bit too much. Yu Wen felt a bit embarrassed.

He had Song Chenglei’s WeChat, so he tried to subtly inquire.

Song Chenglei: [I don’t know. But yesterday, during dinner, Teacher Chu had a bit of alcohol, suddenly started crying, and asked each of us if we believed in light… I said I didn’t, it’s just a childish thing. Then he cried even more, sobbing all night while singing “Miracle Reappears.”]

Yu Wen imagined the scene and burst out laughing, also understanding why Chu Han was upset.

He opened the chat and patted Chu Han. The other side played dead.

He simply sent a voice message: “I’m sorry, Teacher Chu, hahaha… I didn’t expect you to hahaha… I’m really sorry for the harm caused, hahaha…”

He genuinely wanted to apologize, but it was too funny. He laughed while apologizing, so naturally, he didn’t receive the victim’s forgiveness.

Chu Han: [You’re really too much!]

Teacher Chu used an exclamation mark.

It showed strong emotions.

Congratulations.

–

The editing speed of “Mountain Courtyard” was always fast, recording one episode and airing one episode. This time, they even released a trailer a day early.

The trailer didn’t focus on the brainteaser parts but rather on many of Yu Wen’s catchphrases, giving him many close-ups. If there’s any persona that could quickly capture the hearts of contemporary netizens, it had to be someone good-looking with a bit of a quirky side.

Yu Wen happened to fit perfectly into this category.

“Bamboo staff and straw sandals surpass a horse, coming and going with unyielding spirit.”

“With friends like this, I’d be willing to win a hundred million!”

“Teacher Xi, you don’t need to worry about us. The crispy ones have their own dignity. Even if I die on this path today, I won’t let anyone carry me.”

Two minutes later—

“How could I have dignity? This is simply alarmist talk!”

At the end of the trailer, it freezes on Yu Wen’s last interview shot, “‘Mountain Courtyard’—a great place to train all-around entertainers,” paired with a smile that was both sincere and insincere.

The trailer was released at noon, catching the audience off guard. Initially, there were few comments, but it soon became lively.

[What kind of weird poem is this, haha, it’s oddly rhymed.]

[Tang Sitong: Senior Su Shi, any ideas?]

[His mental state is so advanced, is he from the same mental hospital as me?]

[With friends like this, you still want to win a hundred million? Wow, you really take everything!]

[Smells like a warning.]

[As soon as he mentioned dignity, I knew something was wrong, hahaha.]

[Honestly, where did they dig up this unknown guy? He’s pretty good-looking.]

[How could the company let someone with this look out to be a special forces soldier???]

[Haha, everyone thinks this show is training special forces.]

[He’s a bit delicate, not suited for idol dramas, but perfect as my boyfriend. Shy and bashful.jpg]

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

[Oh my nine-tailed fox grandma, he really has a teardrop mole!]

[0:22 seconds, 0.25x speed, you can get a high-definition close-up, sisters go for it!]

[Good people live a safe life.]

[Good people live a safe life.]

……

……

This was probably the earliest work from Yu Wen’s entire collection to be released.

The night the show was updated, he wandered to the night market in slippers to eat some barbecue. Out of some guilt over failing to manage his figure, he only brought some cash and didn’t bring his phone, afraid of getting a call from his boss halfway through.

He returned home at nine o’clock in the evening, picked up his phone, and saw over twenty missed calls.

He called back, and Xie Jiamao’s excited voice almost penetrated the device: “Xiao Yu! You’re trending!”

Yu Wen: ?