Chapter 27: Four Suites

Chapter 27: Four Suites

Qin Yao scanned the camera in front of him, hardly daring to imagine the spectacle of the live comments at this moment.

And the only ones who could enjoy the entire show like spectators and closely follow the barrage of comments were Mr. and Mrs. Huo.

On this, the couple agreed: Live streaming was indeed much more enjoyable than watching the edited version!

Ever since Liu Yan rushed to Zhou Zijian's side after getting into the car, some netizens had already keenly noticed Du Yueqin's displeasure on her face:

"How come I feel like Du Yueqin doesn't really like Liu Yan?"

"Totally normal. Du Yueqin has a thing for Zhou Zijian, and as soon as Liu Yan arrived, she cozied up next to him. There's no way she'd be happy about it. And given Du Yueqin's temper, I don't think this will end simply."

When they saw this comment, the netizens were somewhat puzzled.

Du Yueqin did have a bit of a bad temper, but weren't they still recording the show? She couldn't possibly embarrass Liu Yan right in front of the cameras, could she?

Then, not long after the netizens' words faded, they saw Du Yueqin rise gracefully and walk up to Liu Yan and Zhou Zijian.

At this sight, the netizens' gossip radar started buzzing.

"No way, no way, is Du Yueqin actually going to clash with Liu Yan right in front of us?"

"That can't be possible, can it? After all, we're still..."

But before this comment was even halfway through, Du Yueqin was already yelling angrily at Liu Yan on the screen: "What do you mean by that—"

"WTF???"

"She's really going to fight?"

Just when the netizens thought the most dramatic plot of the premiere day had arrived, Li Siyuan stepped forward at this moment, pushing the plot to its climax.

For nearly a minute after hearing Li Siyuan's lengthy rant, the screen was filled with a dense barrage of comments.

Shocked, confused, and amused netizens instantly erupted, propelling the "Travel Together" live stream to the top spot in real-time popularity across the entire platform.

The barrage of comments in the live stream continued in waves:

"Wow, a real celebrity argument! How exciting!"

"It's my first time seeing celebrities argue, so is there anything I should pay attention to?"

"Hahahaha, help me, what's going on with your variety show? It's just the first day of filming, and your guests are already fighting in front of everyone?"

"But, Li Siyuan's words hit me right in the feels."

"Hehe, entertaining, love it, bring on more!"

Before the live monitor, the director and producer looked at each other.

The director hesitated as he looked at the producer. "Should we turn off the live stream?"

The producer deliberated for a moment. "...Didn't President Qin just say..."

Since it was already airing regardless of whether it should or shouldn't, it would be better to let the audience have their fill than to cut the live stream halfway and have netizens chase after them for the full version.

Director: "…"

Although this kind of live streaming "accident" was indeed the first in his career, their live stream had become the hottest on the entire platform. It didn't seem like something he couldn't accept?

On the bus.

Du Yueqin was so enraged by Li Siyuan's words that her chest heaved violently, her face flushed red. She glared fiercely at Li Siyuan, unable to utter a word for a long time.

Anger was one thing, but she was also genuinely stunned by Li Siyuan's relentless barrage.

As a senior figure in the entertainment industry, Du Yueqin was always given due respect wherever she went.

She had never encountered someone who so openly disrespected her and pointedly berated her!

Ye Leyao saw through Du Yueqin's thoughts and secretly shook her head:

"Madam, times have changed!"

"Haven't you seen how post-2000s individuals are reshaping the workplace? Why can't the entertainment industry be considered a workplace?"

After holding back for quite some time, Du Yueqin finally spoke coldly. "Li Siyuan! Is this how you speak to your elders?!"

Ye Leyao blinked.

"Is it possible that Li Siyuan speaks to his own elders this way too?"

Qin Yao was somewhat taken aback.

Was that true?

In the next second, Li Siyuan proved with his actions that what Ye Leyao said was indeed true.

Li Siyuan: "Why not? My whole family speaks to our elders this way. I'm not being disrespectful; I just don't like people like you who don't respect their age."

Alright then.

Qin Yao believed him.

"Who doesn't respect their age?" As soon as Du Yueqin said this, her expression changed again, her tone rising. "Who did you call old?!"

Ye Leyao covered her face again, unable to suppress her laughter inwardly.

"Hahaha, Du Yueqin is completely caught up in this, when it comes to quarreling..."

Ye Leyao glanced at Song Zhehan, who was unabashedly enjoying the spectacle, then looked at Li Siyuan.

"They're evenly matched, neither gaining the upper hand."

Zhou Zijian couldn't sit still anymore and tried to mediate again: "Sister Du, Siyuan, why don't we both just say less... We're still live on air!"

Yang Qi also chimed in: "Yeah, let's stop arguing, after all, we're still recording the show..."

As she spoke, Yang Qi looked at the camera with some concern. Surely they weren't really live, were they?

Liu Yan opened her mouth, wanting to persuade as well, but she remembered the harsh words Du Yueqin had said earlier and ultimately decided to remain silent.

Li Siyuan wore an expression that said, "So what? I'm not afraid."

After all, it wasn't his first time arguing with a guest during a recording session.

You get better with practice.

Du Yueqin glared fiercely: "I should stop arguing? Who started the trouble? Live broadcast, perfect, let the audience judge right now, see whose fault it really is?"

Ye Leyao had already secretly taken out his phone, and upon hearing Du Yueqin's words, he quickly looked down at the comments, silently counting for a while. Ye Leyao then summarized quietly in his heart:

"The majority of netizens and viewers support Li Siyuan, their reason being that they also dislike people who chat noisily in public places without regard for others, even more so someone like Du Yueqin who causes trouble unreasonably."

"A portion of the netizens think it's Li Siyuan's fault, after all, we are live on air, Zhou Zijian and Liu Yan chatting isn't wrong, he's just overreacting a bit."

"And the remaining netizens believe that Zhou Zijian, Liu Yan, Du Yueqin, and Li Siyuan are all at fault, after all, the director did say before getting off the car that there wouldn't be any important filming during the next part of the journey, everyone could rest properly."

[Zhou Zijian and Liu Yan chatting loudly without considering others is wrong, Du Yueqin going out of her way to provoke trouble is also wrong, and Li Siyuan directly standing up to curse is even more egregiously wrong!]

"But Li Siyuan's cursing was indeed quite eloquent, every word clean yet every word filthy."

Qin Yao, recalling Li Siyuan's sarcastic tone earlier, couldn't help but chuckle softly.

Du Yueqin scanned the area, seeing no one siding with her. Upon hearing this very faint laughter, she instantly turned her head to look over: "Little Qin, you tell me!"

Ye Leyao instantly turned his head, looking at Qin Yao with affectionate concern.

"President Qin, are you trying to make the show more interesting by involving yourself?"

Qin Yao: "..."

He simply couldn't hold back his laughter.

But it wasn't about dragging himself into the mess; rather, given how far the farce had escalated, it was indeed time for it to end.

Qin Yao slightly tilted his head, looking at the furious Du Yueqin standing in front of him, and calmly said: "They're just minor conflicts, Sister Du doesn't need to let these trivial matters truly sour her relationship with Siyuan."

"He was just short of pointing his finger at my nose and calling me names, and you call that trivial?" Seeing Qin Yao not taking her side, Du Yueqin's anger flared up even more. "Little Qin, don't you dare..."

Qin Yao suddenly lifted his eyes, his sharp gaze locking onto Du Yueqin.

Du Yueqin's heart skipped a beat, the rest of her words caught in her throat.

Qin Yao had been too polite to her on a regular basis, causing Du Yueqin to momentarily forget, in her rage, that he wasn't like any other artist she could easily "manipulate."

Behind Qin Yao stood the entire Qin Group. Offend him, and it wouldn't just be this variety show; any future cooperation with the Qin Group would be out of the question for Du Yueqin.

Despite her raging anger, Du Yueqin cooled down when met with Qin Yao's icy stare.

She awkwardly shifted her gaze away, shot a glare at Li Siyuan ahead, then said, "Fine, for Little Qin's sake, I, as an elder, won't hold it against him."

Li Siyuan rolled his eyes without any restraint, promptly sitting down and ignoring Du Yueqin.

His temper was indeed bad, but once he vented, feeling relieved, he quickly reverted to his previously quiet and taciturn self.

Still, while they weren't arguing, Du Yueqin couldn't resist jabbing, "If it were anyone else... I'd never let it go!"

Then, addressing Qin Yao again, she said, "Ah, Little Qin, it's not that your sister was angry, but these youngsters nowadays really don't know how to speak properly..."

Qin Yao gave a slight nod, not engaging in conversation.

Du Yueqin laughed somewhat awkwardly, finding herself talking to thin air.

Song Zhehan, seated in front of Ye Leyao, suddenly stood up at this moment, turning to look at Du Yueqin.

A flicker crossed Du Yueqin's brow, about to frown and ask if there was something, when she saw Song Zhehan walk to the front and casually take a seat in one of the middle rows.

Du Yueqin: "..."

Ye Leyao hastily turned to look out the window, trying hard not to burst into laughter.

"You have to admit, President Qin's gaze just now was pretty cool!"

"It's just that with President Qin's word, the excitement ended rather abruptly!"

Qin Yao glanced at Ye Leyao with amusement.

So you haven't had enough yet?

In no time, Ye Leyao felt her phone vibrate.

To not miss any opportunity for juicy gossip, Ye Leyao had specifically created a secondary Weibo account to follow the "Gossip History" account, setting it up for special alerts.

The vibration just now was from such a special alert.

Ye Leyao hurriedly opened Weibo, only to instantly lose her composure upon seeing:

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—"

Qin Yao's ears were ringing from Ye Leyao's sudden laughter, and he instinctively turned his head to look at him.

Ye Leyao buried his head in his palms, his body trembling slightly from laughter.

Just as Qin Yao was about to ask him what was going on, he heard Ye Leyao's unrestrained laughter—

"I'm impressed; Song Zhehan walked so far just to post on Weibo?"

"Hahaha, he's too good at cursing!"

Qin Yao: "…"

So, what exactly did Song Zhehan say?

On the staff vehicle, Mother Huo directly opened Goushi's latest Weibo post.

Two consecutive posts, sharp words and incisive criticism.

"Goushi: Young people these days have such high morals. If they didn't, would they let you sit here and nag?"

"Goushi: Definitely won't let it go~ with him~. Sometimes I really wonder if she has some unspoken issues with her intelligence, which is why she can't tell right from wrong."

Those wavy lines looked incredibly sarcastic, and Father Huo and Mother Huo were amused.

Li Li was curious about what they were laughing at and glanced over. Mother Huo generously handed her the phone.

After reading it, Li Li also laughed, but then she couldn't continue. With a slightly horrified expression, she looked at Mother Huo. "This Weibo account… It's not Leyao's, is it?"

She had just seen Ye Leyao looking at his phone constantly.

Mother Huo laughed. "How could it be?"

Our Leyao usually spouts whatever he wants to criticize right away!

Li Li instantly relaxed. "Good, good."

Taking a moment to compose herself, Li Li became curious again. The person criticizing Du Yueqin was clearly one of the eight guests, but Mother Huo had already said it wasn't Ye Leyao, and Qin Yao was unlikely. So, who was this Weibo alias?

Li Li couldn't resist picking up her phone to search for the Goushi account. The more she read, the more alarmed she felt.

Looking back up at the screen in front of her, Song Zhehan was quietly scrolling through his phone, his fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard as if typing.

Suddenly, Song Zhehan put his phone away.

Li Li looked down at her phone screen. Just a second ago, Goushi had posted another new Weibo:

"Goushi: Alright, since she has issues with her intelligence, I, a generous and handsome young man, will let this old lady have her way."

A crisp snap echoed, something seemed to break.

Li Li looked at the phone screen, knowing that it was her rose-tinted glasses for Song Zhehan that had shattered.

…

After the farce ended, the bus fell into an unusual silence.

But while the bus was quiet, the internet was not.

During the frenzy in the live stream, many marketing accounts caught wind of the commotion and arrived on the scene.

Soon, the sensational "celebrity argument" clip was edited by the marketing accounts and directly uploaded online.

It was summer vacation, and it was a day off, plus it included tags for several celebrities. Once the video was released, it quickly became popular.

Netizens were both shocked and amused after watching:

"Living long enough, you see everything. I never thought I'd witness celebrities tearing each other apart in person!"

"True, it was very entertaining and interesting!"

"Who could disagree? When I saw the title, I thought the marketing accounts were exaggerating. After watching, I'm bowing in admiration! Li Siyuan's mouth is my mouth!"

"Alright, 'Let's Go Traveling,' I'm following this variety show for sure!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh my idol is so handsome. He stopped the drama with just a look. Who wouldn't call him the king of cool! So, when will Qin Yao come out and make more movies?"

"Agreed!"

"Hold on, is the person next to Qin Yao Ye Leyao? Why is he here again?"

Someone quickly asked, "Who is Ye Leyao?"

Contemporary netizens, true 5G surfers, quickly dug out the two instances where Ye Leyao appeared.

One was naturally the livestream clip of Feng Ziqi's downfall, and the other was the live footage of the Ning Xu siblings being deceived in the e-sports circle, with Ye Leyao's face briefly appearing.

Netizens quickly pieced together the three videos and directly posted them.

The melon-eating netizens were instantly amused.

"No way! Ye Leyao was present at all three melon-eating scenes?"

"Good, good, good. Ye Leyao, you're better at eating melons than me!"

"How do you keep popping up everywhere, Ye Leyao?!"

"Li Siyuan's cursing is 100% funny. Ye Leyao being there makes it 10000000% funnier."

In just half an hour, various topics related to "Travel Together" had climbed into the top ten trending topics online, with Ye Leyao's name naturally appearing on Weibo as well.

Ye Leyao was unaware of his brief surge in popularity online. After enjoying the spectacle, he felt somewhat tired. With a considerable distance still left to their destination, Ye Leyao decided to lean back in his seat for some rest, only to unexpectedly fall asleep upon closing his eyes.

It wasn't until a voice reached his ears: "Leyao, wake up."

Ye Leyao opened his eyes groggily, realizing that his head had been resting on Qin Yao's shoulder. He quickly sat upright.

"How did I end up sleeping against President Qin?"

Ye Leyao scanned his surroundings:

"Did Du Yueqin see this? She won't have developed a grudge against me, will she?"

Qin Yao: "…"

What was he thinking?

Du Yueqin really didn't have any designs on him!

He was overthinking things!

Qin Yao spoke with a hint of helplessness, "We've arrived at our destination. It's time to get off the car."

Only then did Ye Leyao notice that everyone else had already disembarked, leaving just the two of them in the vehicle. He immediately felt relieved:

"Du Yueqin isn't here, so it seems she's still more interested in Zhou Zijian."

Qin Yao: "…"

Yes!

She preferred Zhou Zijian!

"Alright, thanks, Brother Qin." Ye Leyao thanked Qin Yao.

The small house prepared by the production team for the guests turned out to be a three-story seaside villa. By the time they arrived, the sun was setting far away, hovering near the horizon and painting the sea with a splendid array of colors.

Pushing his suitcase, Ye Leyao followed Qin Yao out of the car, only to discover that the other staff members had also arrived. However, there were two figures that looked strangely familiar.

Mother Huo raised her smile and waved at Ye Leyao.

Ye Leyao widened his eyes.

"Weren't Father Huo and Mother Huo supposed to be traveling? How did they end up here?"

Father Huo and Mother Huo exchanged glances, thinking to themselves that if they hadn't come along, how could they have witnessed such an entertaining scene firsthand?

Of course, they couldn't just leave.

Was sightseeing more important than enjoying the drama?

With the camera crew still filming, Ye Leyao couldn't go over to greet Father Huo and Mother Huo. Instead, he simply waved at them before following Qin Yao into the villa.

As soon as Ye Leyao entered with Qin Yao, he heard Du Yueqin say, "We went upstairs earlier and found out that this villa has only four suites. Let's divide the rooms now, shall we?"

"Four suites?" Ye Leyao's expression became somewhat peculiar.

Just as Qin Yao was wondering what the issue was, Ye Leyao continued, "Doesn't that mean one man and one woman will have to share a suite?"

Qin Yao furrowed his brows. There was nothing wrong with a man and a woman sharing a suite.

A suite consisted of multiple interconnected rooms, with each suite having two separate bedrooms. Sharing a suite didn't mean sharing a bedroom; it merely meant that the two bedrooms shared a common living room and bathroom.

If someone didn't want to use the same bathroom, they could always use the guest bathroom outside the suite. There was really nothing to worry about.

Father Huo and Mother Huo agreed with Qin Yao's thoughts. As long as a man and a woman weren't sharing the same bedroom, there shouldn't be any problems.

What was Ye Leyao worried about?

Unfortunately, after uttering those words, Ye Leyao didn't continue his internal monologue. Instead, he looked at Qin Yao with a meaningful gaze, occasionally glancing at Zhou Zijian.

Qin Yao felt uneasy under Ye Leyao's scrutiny but couldn't ask what exactly Ye Leyao was thinking. His heart began to race with uncertainty.

The guests started selecting their rooms one by one.

Naturally, the two female guests, Yang Qi and Liu Yan, chose to stay together. Both of them didn't get along with Du Yueqin, who seemingly had no intention of sharing a room with them either. Thus, they quickly selected the suite on the east side of the third floor.

Seeing that the two female guests had chosen their rooms, Song Zhehan smiled and said, "Then I'll take the suite on the west side. Who wants to join me?"

Ye Leyao watched with amusement.

"Song Zhehan is remembering his character again?"

Li Siyuan responded, "I'll go with you."

Song Zhehan nodded.

This left the remaining four people with only the two suites on the second floor to choose from.

Ye Leyao glanced at Du Yueqin and suddenly looked at the remaining two men present with a pitiful gaze.

"Now it all depends on which male guest Du Yueqin chooses."

As if a bucket of cold water had been splashed on him, Qin Yao suddenly came to his senses, his body jolting in alarm.

How could he have almost forgotten this! Although Du Yueqin probably didn't have any romantic interest in him, still…

Zhou Zijian was yet to sense the impending crisis. He looked at Qin Yao and then at Ye Leyao, about to suggest that Qin Yao could stay with him, while Ye Leyao, being younger, wouldn't have any issues sharing a suite with Du Yueqin.

Then, Du Yueqin suddenly spoke up with a smile —

"Little Zhou, there are only two suites left. How about you share one with me?"

Zhou Zijian's robust body jolted in shock, his expression filled with horror.

Ye Leyao couldn't hold back her laughter anymore, bursting into hysterics internally:

"Hahahahahaha, in the end, it's Zhou Zijian who bears it all!"

Seizing the opportunity, Qin Yao said, "Then Leyao and I will take the other suite."

Ye Leyao nodded vigorously.

"Sure, sure, no problem at all!"

Zhou Zijian stood there, stupefied, looking at Qin Yao and Ye Leyao as if seeking help.

Ye Leyao laughed so hard inside she nearly choked:

"It's not that I don't want to help you, Brother Zhou, but Du Yueqin chose you! She really does like you!"

"I can confirm now, Du Yueqin is definitely confessing her feelings to Zhou Zijian on our show!"

Du Yueqin had already approached Zhou Zijian, her smile gentle. "Shall we go, Little Zhou?"

Zhou Zijian: "…"

He desperately wanted to run, but he couldn't escape.