TL: Hua
Someone knows you, but you can’t remember them. That’s an awkward situation…
He couldn’t just pull the “I have amnesia” card to get by.
But seeing the look of anticipation and enthusiasm in the other person’s eyes, Lin Yanran could only nod and choose a polite way to greet him. “Long time no see. Are you on the same flight?”
Because the person seemed so familiar with him, Lin Yanran expected him to answer right away.
However, after hearing the words “long time no see,” the person paused for a moment. Then he lowered his eyes, hiding the fleeting emotion in them. When he looked up again, his face was full of smiles, and his voice was cheerful.
“Like you, I’m also participating in the Almighty Showdown. But we really haven’t seen each other in years. I thought you…”
“Teacher Shang Chengcheng?”
Yingying, who was busy battling haters on her phone, looked up and saw Shang Chengcheng sitting next to Lin Yanran. She was so surprised to see him talking and laughing with Lin Yanran that she almost dropped her phone.
Sure enough, if you live long enough, you’ll see all sorts of “ex-groups” in the entertainment industry!
After Yingying interrupted him, Shang Chengcheng didn’t continue his sentence. Instead, he smiled and nodded at Yingying.
“Hello.”
The person was so friendly that Yingying didn’t know what to say.
Fortunately, at that moment, they were notified that they could board the plane. Seeing the awkward expression on Yingying’s face, Lin Yanran nodded to Shang Chengcheng. “See you later.”
Shang Chengcheng waved back at him, still smiling. “Okay.”
Once they were seated, Lin Yanran got straight to the point and asked Yingying, “What was my history with Shang Chengcheng?”
Although Shang Chengcheng’s words were interrupted, Lin Yanran could tell from his tone and Yingying’s expression that something must have happened between them, and it was likely unpleasant.
Yingying looked at him as if she had seen a ghost.
You should know this better than me! she thought to herself.
But she didn’t dare say that to Lin Yanran. Instead, she took a roundabout approach. “Brother, did you forget everything??”
Yingying said it as a joke, but to her surprise, Lin Yanran nodded at her seriously, not looking like he was kidding at all.
Yingying was confused.
Brother Yanran is only twenty-two. How could he forget something that happened six years ago…
Soon, Lin Yanran answered her question. “After I passed out last time, I couldn’t remember a lot of things from the past.”
The naive Yingying thought Lin Yanran might have hit his head when he fainted. She quickly and anxiously asked him, “Do you want to see a doctor?”
Lin Yanran shook his head. “I’m fine. Just tell me what happened.”
Yingying was skeptical but didn’t think Lin Yanran had a reason to lie to her. So, she told him everything she knew.
“Six years ago, you participated in The Best Male Voice, right? It’s said—just a rumor—that you went to the competition to accompany him. And at the beginning, you two had a really good relationship on the show.”
Yingying observed Lin Yanran’s expression as she spoke. Seeing that he showed no reaction, she continued.
“But then that thing happened. Everyone thought he’d stand by you since you two were so close. But… he said nothing and chose to protect himself. After the competition, you two didn’t seem to have any contact.”
After hearing Yingying’s description, Lin Yanran immediately caught the key point.
“What happened?”
Yingying was shocked.
She didn’t expect Lin Yanran to have forgotten such an important event.
“At that time, you were caught on camera cursing out Bai Tianyu and calling him trash…”
With Yingying’s hint, Lin Yanran was able to connect the missing memory with the novel’s plot. He vaguely remembered there was such a part in the story. However, the book described it differently. It said that when the original owner participated in the talent show, he was caught on camera cursing at another contestant and arrogantly refused to apologize.
This incident left a very bad impression on the public, and a large number of fans unfollowed him. From then on, the original owner, who was once the most popular contestant, went downhill. He was quickly eliminated and has been criticized ever since.
The reason he has so many haters is because of this initial incident of cursing and refusing to apologize.
In particular, the fans of Bai Tianyu, the person he cursed at, have held a grudge for years and have been relentlessly scolding the original owner.
After understanding the general situation, Lin Yanran closed his eyes to rest. He didn’t fall asleep, though.
Yingying and Shang Chengcheng’s unfinished words kept flashing in his mind.
Although he hadn’t met the original owner, based on his judgment of the original owner’s personality, he would never speak ill of someone so easily. There must be a hidden story.
Lin Yanran pulled the small blanket up.
He didn’t expect the first job Ding Weikang arranged for him would make him learn about such a past.
—
The filming location was in a rather remote area. After a three-hour flight, Lin Yanran took a nearly three-hour bus ride provided by the production team to get to his destination.
He left at 4 p.m. and, after all the waiting and traveling, arrived at midnight.
Looking at the time and feeling his eyelids getting heavy, Lin Yanran took his room key from a staff member and quickly got ready for bed.
Lin Yanran, who hadn’t slept on time since he transmigrated into the book, had one last thought before he fell asleep: With this kind of irregular schedule, it’ll be hard to stay healthy.
However, he had barely slept when a staff member from the show woke him up. He was still groggy when he was taken to the makeup artist.
After everything was done, Lin Yanran followed the staff to the filming location. He checked the time on his phone as he got in the car and saw that it wasn’t even 3 a.m.
Filming starts at this hour? This show truly is a devil…
Ten minutes later, Lin Yanran arrived.
He could see a variety of lights illuminating the filming location from a few hundred meters away. As he walked, he admired the cool light show and thought the production team probably chose this time to film just to show off their lights.
After walking another two hundred meters, he finally reached the filming location.
A staff member attached a microphone to him and whispered, “Teacher Yanran, please pay attention to the position of the microphone after you play the game. It sometimes gets crooked.”
Lin Yanran nodded. After putting on the microphone, he walked straight into the crowd.
Six other guests were already there waiting.
After they introduced themselves and got to know each other, Shang Chengcheng called Lin Yanran over to his side.
“Yanran…” Shang Chengcheng yawned several times as he spoke. His eyes were incredibly puffy; he was clearly not fully awake.
He rubbed his eyes, then pointed to the camera in front of them. “Do you know this show has a live stream channel?”
“Yeah, I just heard them talking about it.”
Shang Chengcheng nodded but still warned him, “That’s good. But the live stream has too many unpredictable variables, so you have to be careful about what you say and do.”
Just as Shang Chengcheng finished speaking, another guest walked toward them. The newcomer was a young and muscular man whose muscles were visible through the show’s uniform.
As each new guest arrived, everyone would raise their hand and high-five them to welcome them.
Lin Yanran also raised his hand and smiled, saying, “Welcome.”
However, the person only high-fived Shang Chengcheng and then walked right past Lin Yanran as if he didn’t see him, going on to high-five the next guest.
Lin Yanran, who was inexplicably given the cold shoulder, had to pull his hand back.
Shang Chengcheng witnessed the whole thing and looked even more embarrassed than Lin Yanran. He turned off his mic and whispered to Lin Yanran, “He’s from Bai Tianyu’s studio.”
Bai Tianyu’s studio??
What did that studio have to do with him?
Lin Yanran hadn’t been in the industry long and didn’t know much about the different companies and studios, so he didn’t understand what Shang Chengcheng meant.
Seeing Lin Yanran’s blank expression, Shang Chengcheng elaborated, “He’s… a contracted artist under Bai Tianyu.”
Hearing that name, Lin Yanran finally understood.
No wonder the guy was so inexplicably hostile. It was because of the past conflict between Lin Yanran and his boss.
After the final guest arrived, the production team announced the official start of filming for this episode. The official live stream channel and individual channels were all opened, and the audience, who had been waiting all night, began to tune in.
Following the usual format, the first segment was for guest introductions.
Everyone introduced themselves one by one, from left to right.
When it was the cheerful young man’s turn, Lin Yanran learned his name.
“Hello everyone, my name is Li Lang.” He then flexed his arm muscles for the camera. “I’m sure you can already guess my hobby from seeing this.”
Someone on set couldn’t help but guess, “Working out?”
Li Lang shook his head. “No, I’m actually an extreme sports enthusiast. Skiing, mountaineering, rock climbing, and skydiving are my favorites.”
He then went on to detail his various accomplishments in these extreme sports.
After hearing Li Lang’s impressive resume, the other guests couldn’t help but applaud and cheer for him.
After Li Lang finished, it was Lin Yanran’s turn. Compared to Li Lang’s elaborate introduction, Lin Yanran simply said, “Hello everyone, I’m Yanran.”
Shang Chengcheng, who was at the very end, also gave a very simple introduction.
However, when Lin Yanran and Shang Chengcheng appeared on screen together, the audience, who were starting to feel sleepy from staying up all night, suddenly woke up.
[Yanran and Shang Chengcheng!]
[Is this what they call the ‘if you wait long enough, you’ll see anything’ series?]
[Is nostalgia the trend now? The production team has some tricks up their sleeves.]
[Hahaha, are Yanran and Shang Chengcheng going to start a catfight? They used to be friends who became enemies.]
[After so many years of no contact, they’re suddenly on a reality show together. Let the fighting begin! I love this kind of thrilling drama.]
[I can’t believe I’m finding joy in this low-budget show.]
The show had just started, and the haters were already rubbing their hands together, eager to see Lin Yanran make a fool of himself.
While the audience in the live stream could see every move Lin Yanran made, he couldn’t see their comments.
After the introductions, he faced the first challenge from the production team.
[Warm-up Exercises]
The warm-up, as the name suggested, was meant to get the guests into the game state quickly.
The director told the eight guests they would choose from three events: standing long jump, high jump, and a 100-meter dash.
Each person had to choose at least one event to challenge, but they only had one chance for each event. The best score would be calculated and would earn corresponding points.
As the director spoke, the lights behind them lit up, outlining the venue for standing long jump, a pole vault, and a 100-meter track.
Having to do such physically demanding exercises late at night, many of the guests groaned and shook their heads in frustration.
Of the three events, the standing long jump was the easiest, so most people chose it.
They all walked over to the field.
One of the female guests stood on the line, swung her arms a couple of times, and jumped forward. As soon as she landed, the loudspeaker announced her score.
“I was just doing a practice jump, though?”
“Practice jumps are not allowed in this area.”
Hearing this from the production team, everyone realized they had fallen into another trap.
The other guests stopped their practice jumps and began to warm up.
However, even with the warm-up, without a practice jump, they couldn’t get their timing right. Many people’s scores were not ideal, and some even fouled.
The scores of the first few people were not enough to even earn the minimum points for the standing long jump. They had no choice but to choose another event.
Even Li Lang made a mistake, and his score couldn’t be counted.
After Li Lang finished, Lin Yanran, who had already warmed up, stood up. But instead of going to the long jump area, he jumped a few times in place.
The other guests immediately warned him, “Stop jumping! No practice jumps are allowed.”
Lin Yanran pointed to the direction where Li Lang had jumped and re-explained the production team’s words to everyone. “They said practice jumps aren’t allowed in that area, but they didn’t say we couldn’t practice anywhere else.”
After hearing Lin Yanran’s explanation, the director, who was about to mark his score as zero, was stunned. He turned and asked his staff, “Did I say that?”
The staff member nodded.
The director was speechless.
Good grief! They had a loophole-finding wordsmith on their hands!
In the live stream, the audience heard the director’s conversation with his staff and burst into laughter.
[Yanran is a master of finding loopholes.]
[Honestly, if he hadn’t pointed that out, I would have thought practice jumps were banned everywhere.]
[Hahaha, I feel bad for the honest people who already jumped.]
The remaining guests saw that the production team didn’t stop Lin Yanran, so they knew his method was allowed. They all started practicing in place. After more than ten minutes of practice, they all felt ready to challenge the event.
In the end, everyone got a valid score. Two people got 60 points, two got 80 points, and Lin Yanran, who jumped last, got a perfect score with a 2.60-meter jump.
Li Lang, who had honestly run the 100-meter dash, looked at Lin Yanran’s perfect score in disbelief.
[I think Li Lang is starting to question his life.]
[He probably doesn’t know about the rule bug yet, hahaha.]
[Yanran jumped so far!]
[Is he part frog?]
[What do you mean ‘part frog’?!]
The production team’s original plan was to make everyone try all three events in the first round. But who knew Lin Yanran would find the bug in the rules, making the first event a breeze for many?
Failing to achieve their goal of tormenting the guests, the production team immediately launched the second challenge: The Campus Sports Meet.
This challenge had two events for the guests to blind bid on. The rule was that each person would first bid a psychological price to compete. The lowest bidder would win the right to participate in the event.
The winner could then choose other guests to join them. After they completed the event together, they would divide the earned points among themselves.
To ensure everyone participated, the production team stipulated that any guest who didn’t take part in the sports meet would lose all their points.
When the director announced the first event, the triathlon, someone immediately bid an incredibly low price of 30 points to win the right to participate.
The winner of the triathlon was a model. Seeing him win the event, Li Lang and another person, afraid that the price for the next event would be even lower, quickly joined his team. Based on the show’s past experiences, the last event was always the most competitive and the most difficult.
Lin Yanran saw how eagerly they bid with such a low price and frowned in disapproval.
The haters in the live stream immediately started to mock him.
[What’s the matter? Jealous that you can’t go?]
But just as the haters finished their taunts, they saw Lin Yanran gather the remaining confused guests and advise them that they should all bid the maximum price next. This way, everyone would get the most money.
“This game is actually a bit like a prisoner’s dilemma. If we all bid maliciously low, we’ll end up in a lose-lose situation, putting in a lot of effort for little reward. But if we all work to maximize the profit, we can find the best solution.”
The best solution, without a doubt, was for everyone to bid the highest price. This way, everyone would benefit, unlike the first group, where three people had to share only 30 points…
The guests who hadn’t figured out the game’s rules were suddenly enlightened after listening to Lin Yanran’s explanation!
So in the bidding for the second event, a 1500-meter relay, Lin Yanran and the remaining four guests all bid the maximum 500 points offered by the production team.
Thus, the five of them won the right to participate in the event with 500 points.
By this point in the show, this was the first time the second challenge had failed to achieve its goal of tormenting the guests and making them fight.
Seeing the peaceful and relaxed group led by Lin Yanran, the head director was so angry his teeth were almost grinding to dust.
Bug!!! Lin Yanran is a bug!!!
He even explained the principle behind the rules when others hadn’t even figured them out yet!
