Xu Qingyan didn't continue the conversation, but rather leaned back from the table and crossed his arms, gazing downward.
The atmosphere suddenly stiffened in mid-air, and the awkward silence seemed tangible, dropping onto the table in piece after piece, deafening.
The naive Shen Jinyue finally sensed something was amiss and quickly stood up to smooth things over.
"Haha, it's okay, it was just a joke."
"Yeah, just a joke," You Zijun chimed in to lighten the mood, "With so many fans of the moon, how could anyone be expected to only like her alone?"
Bai Jinze also forced a smile, though his complexion didn't look too good. The other guests chuckled and laughed, and with that, the incident was deemed over.
But the people present weren't fools; moving on wasn't that simple, and it was clear these two didn't get along. With seven more days to spend together, things were sure to get interesting.
Shen Jinyue glanced at Bai Jinze with a hint of dissatisfaction in her eyes, he had truly offended her this time.
Beep---
The monochrome television at the head of the room suddenly flashed, startling everyone.
"What....!"
"Scared me to death!"
"It must be something from the production crew, look quickly, something is appearing on the screen."
A spinning Copper Coin suddenly appeared on the screen, recapturing the attention of the still slightly embarrassed group, with all nine of them focusing on it.
Then, two lines of white text appeared on the screen.
"Introduction to the Love Hunter rules."
"In the following seven days, you'll have the time to seek true love, but be wary of the Money Hunters hiding among you. Each person will have the chance to send a pulse-racing message once per day."
"Every three days there will be a public vote for the Money Hunter, and the person with the most votes will be forced to leave and their true identity will be revealed."
"After seven days, the identities of all participants will be revealed, please try your best to find true love!"
Once all the rules had been presented, the guests erupted into a flurry of activity, with Shen Jinyue showing a puzzled look on her face, apparently still unclear about the rules.
"The subtitles are too fast! I was still reading the previous line, and the next one disappeared!" she complained.
In the live broadcast room, the comments flew thick and fast in response to Shen Jinyue's complaint.
"Haha, Moon's CPU just got fried, the production crew shouldn't give the kid such hard questions."
"Moon's reaction is so real, just like when I was a kid in math class, only bent down to pick up an eraser and never excelled in math again when I looked up."
"Bad news is the brain's a bit slow, good news is the singing blogger."
"Speaking of which, these rules are quite interesting. They haven't announced the number of Money Hunters, everyone seems like a Money Hunter to me! If there are two public votes in seven days, doesn't that mean only seven people will remain?"
"It's gonna be awkward if two female guests are voted out, what will the remaining three male guests do for dates? I can picture it now, two go out for a date, the three left play Landlord at home!"
"Damn, the first one to be voted out has to be Xu, right? Daring to compete with my sister Pei, I want Xu gone!"
"That Bai Jinze is pretty annoying too. Am I wrong, or is he teaching the bros how to be a lickspittle to a woman? Damn him, his heart is condemnable!"
The living room's long table.
The guests were also discussing the implications of the rules among themselves, and it was temporarily clear that there would be two rounds of Money Hunter votes, one every three days, over the course of seven days.
"That... the voting is to get rid of the Money Hunters, right?" Nian Shuyu, who hadn't spoken much, hesitantly asked.
"Yeah, that's true," You Zijun nodded, patiently explaining, "But you don't necessarily have to vote to get rid of a gold digger."
"After all, if you really like someone, even if she is a gold digger, you wouldn't want to vote her off, since you'd still get to spend seven days with her."
"Exactly." Song Enya smiled broadly, "If the person I liked was a gold digger, I wouldn't bear to vote him off either, even if I lost, it would still be worth it."
Having said that, Song Enya even turned to her loyal dog, Chen Feiyu, and gave him a nod.
Chen Feiyu's heart immediately started pounding, his face blushed slightly, and his mind went blank. Sound effects of thumping played in the background, his heart drifting off to the clouds unknowingly.
Song Enya smiled, but her expression didn't seem too happy.
If only she had known about this damn rule sooner, she hoped to see Pei Muchan fight tooth and nail to protect Xu Qingyan, even at the risk of conflicts with other guests.
Lust blinds wisdom, and this strategy worked the same on everyone.
That way, she would have had a way to vote Pei Muchan out, but unfortunately, Pei Muchan hadn't spoken up during the lull just now. As a result, Song Enya was somewhat unable to decipher the relationship between Pei Muchan and Xu Qingyan, these two...
Liu Renzhi no longer dared to stare at Pei Muchan now; he had been taught a lesson by the barrage of comments early in the morning, and Pei Muchan's fans were not to be trifled with.
He only dared to steal glances at the cool and intellectual Pei Muchan out of the corner of his eye when looking at others.
Among the four female guests present, he had almost fallen in love with Pei Muchan at first sight. He had seen many women, but one glance at Pei Muchan was enough to know she was a rare gem.
If it hadn't been for her status as a diva, Liu Renzhi would have long used his methods to strike up a conversation with her.
Unfortunately... his gaze shifted to Xu Qingyan, who appeared calm and collected, elbow propped on the table, head tilted, gazing casually at the big screen.
"Aren't we still in the middle of self-introductions?" Liu Renzhi suddenly raised his voice, interrupting the conversation of a few people.
"Seems like it. Since Moon has already introduced herself, who wants to go first?" You Zijun asked.
Everyone looked at each other, all hesitating a little.
The game rules introduced by the show's crew had made all the guests present somewhat nervous, even if they knew they weren't the gold diggers, they couldn't help feeling a bit guilty.
If you weren't prepared and just blurted out something, you could easily say the wrong thing, which might lead to suspicion of being a gold digger, ending in a quick and tragic exit from the game.
"Ahem..." Liu Renzhi cleared his throat, about to speak.
Suddenly, a voice cut in before him, belonging to Xu Qingyan.
"I'll go. My name is Xu Qingyan," he stood up, looking around at everyone, "I'm an office worker, and the type of person I like is exactly the opposite of Shen Jinyue."
No sooner had he finished than Shen Jinyue's face crinkled in disdain as she shouted.
"Hmph! You're doing this on purpose! What do you mean, 'not like me'?"
"What's wrong with me?"
The barrage of comments instantly went wild, lines scrolling across the screen.
"Hahaha, our Moon is safe, totally out of Xu Dog's aesthetic range."
"Quick, let Moon bite him to death!"
"Congratulations, Moon is safe. It's bad enough that Sister Pei was fooled by Xu Dog, but if Moon had been deceived too, I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight!"
"To the comment above, what do you mean 'it's okay for Sister Pei to be fooled by Xu Dog'!? Come out and explain yourself!"
Hearing this, Xu Qingyan spread his hands, looking at Shen Jinyue who was flaring up.
"Sorry, you don't hit a single one of my aesthetic preferences, not tall or mature, I don't like someone younger than me."