I'm Crushing on Gorgeous Faces in Variety Shows!-Chapter 100: Let’s Play Music Together

Under everyone’s gaze, the staff brought over a pile of strange items.

"What is this?"

The staff member fitting the props on Mu Qiu was a young lady, her voice gentle, "Open your hands and raise them up."

Mu Qiu dazedly spread her hands open, and as she did, her fingers bumped into someone else’s. She turned to look and saw Brother Zhirang standing to her right at some point, retracting his hand and softly apologizing.

"Ah, it’s okay," she replied softly.

The staff member waiting for her to raise her hands to put on the props grew impatient after seeing her hands remain idle, and they spoke again, "Mu Qiu, open your hands."

"Oh, oh, oh."

Only then did she spread her hands again, allowing the young lady to fit the circling props around her, threading through her belt loops and wrapping around her waist. The thin black tube had several small nozzle-like attachments, with a larger hard block at the back, resembling a mini reservoir.

As they were putting on the equipment, the director explained, "Each punishment prop only allows ten mistakes. This means you can only mess up your expressions ten times before you’re eliminated. Completing each task grants the first two teams a chance to win more punishment opportunities, thus extending their game time. The task concludes when two teams’ punishment quotas are depleted, with the remaining team being the winners."

"So completing tasks means we get punished more? Isn’t that a bit tragic for humans?"

"I think there’s more to it, we’ll know after playing the game."

"I want to know if we can switch teams?" Mu Qiu raised her hand while tiptoeing. "Our team has two girls and one guy, and the only guy is a natural slacker from last season. We have no advantage!"

Natural slacker Li Yang said, "Mu Qiu, that makes me quite sad."

"Well, I’m doing it for our team’s victory."

Lin Xixi patted both their shoulders, "No worries, I can count as two people."

Mu Qiu: I felt it, almost dislocated my shoulder.

Guan Yu was the first to finish donning, played with it a bit, then asked the director, "Director, what is this? How exactly does it punish? Can we test it on someone to see?"

The director sported a speechless face, not wanting to acknowledge her unreasonable request. However, regarding how the punishment works—

The director smiled mysteriously, "When someone doesn’t perform well during the task, you’ll find out what the punishment is."

"Alright, after everyone’s geared up, head downstairs, follow the signs to First Entertainment Center, to complete the first team task."

"First Entertainment Center?"

They queued up to take the elevator downstairs, Li Yang asked Mu Qiu, "Do you know what kind of place it is? With some entertainment facilities?"

Mu Qiu assumed a humble stance, "I don’t know, I’ve just heard of it, never had the money to play there."

This time, thanks to the show, they got to enjoy it once.

Lin Xixi glanced at the two, showing a dimpling smile, "Do you know what activities might come next? Since you’ve participated in two episodes, any guesses?"

Li Yang shook his head, and so did Mu Qiu.

"The crew tries to avoid us guessing, saying it’s based on content from Mu Qiu’s book, but it turns out even Mu Qiu can’t guess. How could we know?"

"Yes, each episode has new tricks, but I can guess their ultimate goal."

Lin Xixi was curious, "What is it?"

"To mess with us."

"..."

The First Entertainment Center was not far from the hotel, resembling an indoor badminton center, with a large open space filled with microphone stands and some musical instruments.

"Music?!" Li Yang’s eyes lit up instantly, "I can handle this! How do we play? I can do guitar, electric piano, or drums!"

As other teams arrived and saw the instruments, their first thought was, Li Yang’s in for a treat.

"This is practically a home for singing and dancing idols, natural slacker, you’re about to become a key member of the team."

"But we have Qi Feng in our team who’s also capable. Qi Feng, do you know these instruments?" Guan Yu asked Qi Feng.

Qi Feng smiled bashfully, but kindly, especially looking at those instruments like gazing at a lover, "I do know them, but I haven’t played the electric piano in a long time, might not be as good as Brother Yang."

"No worries, being able to play is good enough!"

The only team without musicians was Shi Yuhuai’s group. Shu Ran was just a casual variety show participant who occasionally did shoots, completely clueless about instruments. She looked up at Shi Yuhuai and Duan Pinyuan.

"Brother Huai, can you play a little bit?"

Brother Cheng and Brother Huai had become the standard names in the show, even the director called them that.

Shi Yuhuai shook his head first, "I can play a bit of guitar."

Everyone knew that when a straight guy says "a bit," it really means just a tiny bit.

She then asked Duan Pinyuan, who replied, "I learned drums before, but haven’t played in a long time."

That meant no one was particularly skilled, and Shu Ran smiled, "It’s fine, not knowing doesn’t mean we’ll do worse than them, just do your best."

Indeed, she was a natural at encouragement, perfectly fit for being appointed as guest relations.

They approached and stood together as the director announced the rules for the task. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"This segment is called ’Playing Music Together.’ On the long table are nine sausages, which, according to a market survey, are a popular choice. You all stand in front of the table simultaneously, and once the staff presses the timer, start unwrapping the sausages. Whoever unwraps first can rush to the circle in the middle to grab any backpack. The backpack is where we’ll put a slip, after selecting a pack, open it and pull out the slip to learn your music task. During the music task, you must maintain the expression on the pack, failing which the punishment tool will remind you. Everybody understand?"

"I’d rather not understand! Why does such a sophisticated show have these bizarre games all the time?" Guan Yu sighed, turning to ask Mu Qiu, "Do your book characters enjoy unwrapping sausages?"

Mu Qiu wore a "peace, don’t mess with my book’s main characters" expression, "Don’t blame my book’s characters, they play classy games. No way would these sausages barely worth two bucks appear in their hands!"

Shu Ran also resisted the game, "I just got my crystal nails done... do they have to get sausage smell now?"

"I could handle the smell, at least it doesn’t stink," Qi Feng chimed in, a bit resigned, "But when I eat instant noodles, unwrapping sausages is my weakest point."

"Me too!"

"I swear, I have a dedicated small knife at home just for opening sausages, because I never unwrap them properly!"

"Then I’m a bit better, I’ve unwrapped, but the sausage came out bumpy and only half remained."

"Another issue, besides unwrapping, if I pick guitar I can’t even play!"

——————

You could never guess what this prop is like, let me spoil it for you [The following snippet is from the real manuscript.]

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"Hahahahahahahahaha!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

[Is that enough spoilers?]