At the end of February, Tao Yi Ning took Sheng Xing Ze to participate in the recording of the variety show, and Yu Bai woke up early to send Sheng Xing Ze off.
At seven, Yu Bai knocked on the door of the Sheng Family.
Father Sheng wearing an apron opened the door, "Xiao Yu is here, Xing Xing still doesn't want to get up."
Yu Bai was holding soy milk in a thermos pot in his hand. He poured a cup of soy milk at the dining table. "This is homemade, so it tastes better than outside."
Father Sheng received the soy milk, "You go to call Xing Xing, breakfast will be ready soon."
Yu Bai responded and he found his way to Sheng Xing Ze's room with ease, then entered it.
A few rays of mischievous sunlight penetrated into the dark room through the thick curtains, Sheng Xing Ze curled himself up on the big bed, and his whole body was shrinking inside the bed.
Yu Bai stood beside Sheng Xing Ze's bed and stretched out a finger to touch his raised eyelashes.
Sheng Xing Ze moved away dissatisfied and buried his head in the pillow.
Yu Bai saw that it was almost time and pulled Sheng Xing Ze's pillow.
"Get up."
Sheng Xing Ze closed his eyes and pushed the pillow away, dragging a quilt and stuffing it under his head.
Yu Bai took the innocent quilt away, "I'll kiss you if you don't get up."
Sheng Xing Ze rolled over, he said with eyes still closed, "Come here, I'm ready."
The first time he heard Yu Bai said this, he was shocked. Then, he found out that Yu Bai was all talk but would not take real action, so it did not matter. No matter what Yu Bai said, he just continued sleeping.
Yu Bai smiled and grabbed Sheng Xing Ze's hand to pick him up from the bed, grabbing the clothes and putting it on Sheng Xing Ze's head while he had not fallen back to bed.
He had done this for almost a month now. After Mother Sheng found out that Yu Bai could make Sheng Xing Ze get out of bed quicker, the task of waking Sheng Xing Ze up every morning fell on Yu Bai, and Father Sheng would help make breakfast for the young people every day.
Sheng Xing Ze lost his temper due to Yu Bai's violent dressing method. He gave Yu Bai a glare, then did his morning routine under Yu Bai's supervision.
Yu Bai saw the not so deterrent glare being thrown at him by the younger man, and had the urge to hold him in his arms.
Sheng Xing Ze received a phone call from Tao Yi Ning after he finished eating, and he said goodbye to Father Sheng and Mother Sheng, then went downstairs with Yu Bai.
Tao Yi Ning saw the two coming down together, winking her eyes proudly at Yu Bai, as if to suggest something.
Yu Bai ignored her indifferently and told Sheng Xing Ze to take care of himself during the recording. He did not go back home until the car was out of his sight.
That day, Mother Yu's words made Yu Bai face his awkward emotions towards Sheng Xing Ze, which was actually a thing called liking. Even Mother Yu could see it, yet the involved people were still ignorant.
Knowing his own feelings, Yu Bai was not hesitant at all in his actions, so he specifically made a phone call to Tao Yi Ning to give her a heads up.
"I may want to be in a relationship."
"You have confessed to Sheng Xing Ze?" Tao Yi Ning's tone did not sound surprised.
Yu Bai: "..."
Tao Yi Ning did not notice Yu Bai's silence. She just continued on with her blabbering, "I said that there is something off about you two relationship, yet you said I was thinking too much, look at how long ago you said that, this is really interesting."
Yu Bai hung up the phone.
**
Sheng Xing Ze sat in the car for nearly an hour and the two finally arrived at the recording site, where Sheng Xing Ze first met Liang Qing, the father of variety shows.
Different from Sheng Xing Ze's imgationation of a calm middle-aged man, Liang Qing had a round beer belly, wearing half-frame glasses on his chubby face, and a little bald. It felt very affable at first glance, and it was difficult for him to think that this person is rumored to be unapproachable by others.
Standing next to Liang Qing was Sheng Xing Ze's acquaintance--Hui Si Yong. He had not seen him for more than a month. He seemed to have been over Hui Cheng's affairs and changed back to his old self of a lively boy.
Seeing Sheng Xing Ze's car coming, Hui Si Yong waved at them with a big smile spreading on his face.
"Brother Sheng, I missed you so much!"
Without waiting for Sheng Xing Ze to get off the car, Hui Si Yong rushed forward to give him a warm hug, and Sheng Xing Ze almost stumbled back into the car.
He reluctantly rubbed Hui Si Yong's head and pushed the kid off him, "Don't cause trouble."
Hui Si Yong obediently listened to Sheng Xing Ze, walking behind him with a giggle.
"Hello Mr. Liang, my name is Sheng Xing Ze," Sheng Xing Ze introduced himself to Liang Qing, who was standing on the side, smiling and watching them.
In Sheng Xing Ze's view, Liang Qing was not as unapproachable as people said. He smiled and responded to Sheng Xing Ze, and gave Hui Si Yong a playful tap to the head.
"This kid has always been spoiled by me and his parents. Regarding Hui Cheng's matter, thank you for your help, otherwise I don't know how much hardship this kid would have to deal with in the future."
Hui Si Yong explained that Liang Qing was the uncle he mentioned before, the one who first discovered Hui Cheng's evil character. Sheng Xing Ze was relieved to find out the source of having this opportunity to eat such big pie drops from heaven this time.
"Si Yong showed me a small segment of your acting. Young man, you have good acting skills. If you get popular later, don't forget about this Uncle Liang ah," Liang Qi explained.
"Thank you Uncle Liang for giving me this opportunity," Sheng Xing Ze smiled and changed his calling.
Hui Si Yong told Sheng Xing Ze that he had to wait for his family and waved goodbye to Sheng Xing Ze. Liang Qing took Sheng Xing Ze to the recording site for this show, and along the way he introduced the variety show in detail.
"I Have an Agreement with Ah Piao'' was the name of this variety show, and like Liang Qing's other variety shows, "I Have an Agreement with Ah Piao" would let the audience watch a segment of the recording through live streaming. One purpose was to promote the show, another was to pique the audience's interest in the show to boost ratings when the edited version was being released.
The variety show "I Have an Agreement with Ah Piao" this time is using the horror secret room theme. Each guest will be arranged to stay in a haunted house for two days and one night. The guests need to rely on their own abilities to figure out the password for each stage and finally walk out of the secret room.
Unlike other escaping shows, the production team has added a lot of make believe elements to this show, which not only to increase the atmosphere of horror, but also to make clearing the stage much more difficult.
Sheng Xing Ze felt something was off the more he listened; Tao Yi Ning only told him that the variety show was a room escape theme, but she did not mention it being a horror theme.
I'm scared of ghosts.
Sheng Xing Ze did not feel well, Sheng Xing Ze wanted to go home.
The two were getting closer and closer to the recording site, and Sheng Xing Ze finally saw the dilapidated hospital not far away.
This was an abandoned hospital, no one knows how long it had been abandoned, and many of the exterior paint had fallen off. The green dew filled the outer wall of the hospital. Sheng Xing Ze could not help but shudder.
"In the first episode, we did not set up some kind of creepy or skin crawling environment yet, just a general hospital scene, to give the guests a little adaptation to the show."
Liang Qing pushed open the door of the hospital as he spoke. The rusty iron door made a harsh "creak" sound, and the strong smell of disinfectant came to their senses.
"This time my regular guests lineup are all newcomers. You first get acquainted with each other, and the production team will explain all the script to you."
With Liang Qing's explanation, the two went to their destination--the outpatient lobby of the hospital. In addition to the filming crew and the on-site director, a man and a woman were seated.
They had been here for quite some time as they had started to chat and got familiar with each other. When Sheng Xing Ze arrived, they stood up and introduced themselves.
The male was Jia Jie Mao, whose name sounds like false eyelashes, and was popular overnight. The female was a popular face named Zhang Shi Jing, who became famous after participating in a public service advertisement.
Indeed, as Liang Qing said, both of them were newcomers who have just debuted. Compared with them, Sheng Xing Ze was more popular, but his real work had not yet been released.
Sheng Xing Ze greeted them with a smile, and found a place to sit down.
Liang Qing saw that Sheng Xing Ze was getting along well with other people, patting him on the shoulder, "You wait here for a while, Si Young left his stuff at home, and made his family to bring them over for him." Sheng Xing Ze could hear the man's pampering tone towards Hui Si Yong.
Sheng Xing Ze realized that Hui Si Yong is also one of the regular guests.
Jia Jie Mao was quite easy to talk to and quick to get familiar with others, soon he found a common language with Sheng Xing Ze. The two chatted with each other. Although Zhang Shi Jing was still shy and not talking much, she would from time to time join into the other two's conversation. Such a harmonious scene.
"Brother Sheng, I'm here!" Hui Si Yong rushed in, shaking the rune papers in his hand flauntingly.
Hui Si Yong asked Liang Qing in advance about the number of guests and got one for everyone.
Four people sat in the outpatient lobby waiting for Liang Qing to return.
Sheng Xing Ze put the rune paper in his pocket, Hui Si Yong claimed that it had been exorcised by the expert, and he could feel a smooth stone in it. It was a jade carved into a koi shape.
Yu Bai's call came at this time.
"I'm guessing you should have arrived by now."
"Yes, soon I will have to hand over my phone," Sheng Xing Ze watched Liang Qing walking towards him, and whispered to the phone.
"Did you see what I sent you?"
"The jade?" Sheng Xing Ze touched the little koi in his pocket.
"Whenever you feel scared, just touch it," Yu Bai's low and magnetic voice entered Sheng Xing Ze's ear through the earpiece. Sheng Xing Ze switched his phone to the other side, while rubbing his hand on the red ear.
Sheng Xing Ze did not know when Yu Bai knew he was afraid of ghosts, but now he felt the warm jade in his hand, as if he really felt Yu Bai was standing beside him.
During the whole New Year, the two of them had not separated much, and suddenly they had to start their own work. Sheng Xing Ze was not used to it all at once.
"Compensate for my birthday present?"
"Lest you can't step out of the haunted house."
"This shape is a fish?"
"Koi."
Sheng Xing Ze laughed, jokingly said, "You are...giving yourself to me?"