I'm Crushing on Gorgeous Faces in Variety Shows!

Chapter 470 - 469: Bragging Contest

Zhao Yu saw the message when the rumors were flying all over the screen.

After helping to refute a rumor, she urgently called Mu Qiu.

But Mu Qiu was on a show, and even if her phone was on her, it was on silent, so there was no response at all.

Zhao Yu was worried to death.

Being falsely accused of plagiarism in the writing industry is no different than being rumored to have slept with the company general manager for a promotion; it’s both ridiculous and distressing.

And it truly affects future development.

She kept frantically calling, while the concerned person was heading to New Candle Hall for the third game.

New Candle Hall is not big, compared to the previous two halls. However, the lighting here is quite bright, and there’s a very long fish pond in the middle, with small water lilies on the surface, and the water, probably added with oxygen pumps, is still flowing.

There are some light brown fabric round stools around.

The environment looks very nice, somewhat reminiscent of "Flowing Cups," a traditional Chinese party game where participants drink from cups floated down a stream.

The front and side walls of the hall have small doors with floral designs, leading to who knows where, or maybe they’re just decorations.

Mu Qiu randomly chose a round stool to sit on, listening to the director announce the rules of this round’s game.

"Third round game: Literary Gathering. Imitating an author and reader dialogue event, participants will play authors and readers as required in the upcoming multiple conversation rounds.

In one conversation, there are three authors and six readers, three rounds in total, each conversation time is limited but undefined, specific time is determined by the seat you choose.

Each person randomly chooses a seat to sit in each round, and the chosen position has fixed ’literary direction expertise’ and a fixed ’conversation time,’ which cannot be changed once selected.

After sitting down, each guest chooses a pen name, which will be their only alias in the subsequent games; guests can only refer to others by their pen names, violating this rule deducts one point. Pen names must be remembered by oneself, there won’t be a nameplate showing it.

The conversation requirement is—those who receive author identity must respond with affirmative sentences, and before answering a question, must first correctly call out the questioner’s name; a wrong call or failure to call results in a point deduction.

Besides the game itself, everyone must continue abiding by Control Lock’s rules, each person starts with six base points, running out results in becoming a roaming NPC."

The director, wearing reading glasses, read for a while from an A4 paper. Out of breath at the end, he simply tossed the paper aside and summarized it himself.

"Essentially, based on the pre-set rules associated with your chosen seat, chat boastfully while ensuring your boasting isn’t revealed, choose a pen name, follow Control Lock’s rules, and that’s it.

The overall winner will be judged by the points deducted. Since everyone has chosen their seats, let’s start the game!"

The nine people listening, completely baffled: "......"

"Are we, are we competing on boasting?"

"...What kind of show is this? Making guests compete on boasting?"

"Are we all pretending to be big shots boasting? Which director thought of this weird segment?"

"Let me see, what literary style is required from my seat; is it reciting poems?"

"Boasting is something I’m good at!"

"Why does this segment seem like it’s hinting at me?"

That was said by Mu Qiu.

From the start, upon hearing the words "author" and "reader," she felt a shiver all over, sensing that this was a very bad idea.

Her actual identity is an author, and now she’s pretending to be an author bragging, answering "readers’" various questions, it undeniably feels self-promotional and narcissistic.

It’s as if the show’s team designed this game especially for her, and those with opinions will probably reignite chatter about "Cheng Zhirang promoting Mu Qiu’s debut."

And she could already imagine, the phrase most likely to be mentioned is urging updates...

"Actually, there’s a more serious issue that needs to be addressed now."

Next to her, Shu Ran raised a hand to ask a question: "If the author identity is drawn, and you need to call out the pen name before answering a question, what if you can’t speak?"

Shi Yuhuai, who was similarly mute, helped the director decide a rule: "We don’t have to call out."

Director: "Of course not. If you’re mute, you can write it down. Rest assured, we’ve prepared ample tools so that no one will face communication issues."

Shu Ran: ...No need to be so thorough.

"Any more questions? If not, we’ll start."

Everyone looked at each other, some barely understood the rules, but didn’t want to admit they foolishly didn’t get it, so no one spoke for a moment.

"Alright, no questions then," the director directly announced the start, "The staff will bring writing tablets, please first choose a pen name for yourselves. Mu Qiu cannot use her real pen name."

Upon being named, Mu Qiu nodded honestly: "Don’t worry, I wouldn’t want to use my pen name at all."

That would be too embarrassing.

The staff gave each person a writing tablet, Mu Qiu weighed it in her hand, it’s quite heavy, looks similar to a tablet.

Tapping the center button to turn it on, there were two apps on the screen, and a familiar wifi symbol on the top right.

"Huh??" She looked up at others, "Isn’t this just a tablet? And it’s connected to the internet!"

Li Yang also looked up and leaned over to check hers: "Same, it’s just a tablet, with touch pen writing functionality."

Guan Yu: "Hey hey hey, the first app lets us watch our program live!"

Mu Qiu was surprised, opening the first app revealed the live scene of the program, zoomed out so they all appeared on the screen, with heads lowered.

This is spooky.

She squinted at the director: "What’s the purpose of letting us watch the program?"

Jiang Lu stroked his chin thoughtfully: "Could it be that our pen names, or the questions to be raised if drawn as a reader, can be based on the comments? You cheated with comments before, didn’t you?"

"...Brother Jiang Lu, let’s not bring up past events."

Jiang Lu smiled mischievously, shaking the tablet in his hand: "Past events were too brilliant, now the show’s team is officially incorporating this segment into the program."

"So are we posing questions that are basically fan questions? The game relies entirely on viewers’ literary creativity?" Qiu Shuang asked.

"No," Guan Yu placed the tablet on her lap, speaking quite seriously: "It’s entirely reliant on the fans’ boasting abilities."

"......Alright then."

With that, actually, this game is similar to the third issue of Little Paradise before, where you guess the comments, but this time carried out in a talk show format.

The three newcomers haven’t played such a game before, Guan Yu gave them a knowing smile.

Guests might be serious or not, but as for fans... they’re all unserious.

What kind of questions might be raised, and what kind of pen names might be chosen, is really uncontrolled.