Chapter Ninety-One: An Unexpected Windfall

Because the show had been prerecorded, Bai Renzhong was sitting at home with Han Jiayi and Wang Bei on the sofa when this episode aired.

“Pfft... Hahaha!” Wang Bei pointed at Bai Renzhong on the television and laughed uproariously. “That look on Old Bai’s face is priceless! I can’t breathe, hahaha! He looks like a hollow shell with his soul already out of his body!”

“You think I wanted to go?” Bai Renzhong said irritably. “Let me tell you, my mother is the kind of person who, if you don’t do what she wants, will keep stabbing you with a soft blade until she kills you. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, but it’s too funny, hahaha!” Wang Bei doubled over with laughter. “The production team even sent people to film a few friend-intro clips, and in the end they were completely useless. None of them got aired, and he was eliminated during the self-introduction round!”

“Don’t force me to silence you permanently...” Bai Renzhong said through clenched teeth from the side, veins throbbing on his forehead.

“Oh, don’t make it sound so terrifying,” Wang Bei teased. “Didn’t the host help you save face in the end? Those women probably regretted it when they learned your video earnings last month were a hundred thousand.”

“Tch, that was just for the sake of the show...” Bai Renzhong rolled his eyes. “The host already had the male contestants’ information. When my mother registered me, she wrote down a monthly salary of a hundred thousand. So the host deliberately stayed silent halfway through, then exposed those female contestants at the last moment and staged a rags-to-riches comeback story... Everything they do is for ratings!”

“Did any of the female contestants add you privately afterward?” Wang Bei asked, covering her mouth and snickering.

“There actually was one.” Bai Renzhong gave a wry smile. “But I can’t swear, so I didn’t say a single word to her and left.”

The good news in all this was that young people nowadays hardly watched television, and the show itself had never been that popular to begin with. There would be no video uploads online, so the only people who would see this episode were elderly folks like his parents.

Most of his fans probably would never know. But if they did... then he would be no different from a dead man. Social death was still death.

“Don’t worry, I feel bad for you. I won’t tell anyone,” Wang Bei said, wiping tears from her eyes as she patted Bai Renzhong on the shoulder.

Bai Renzhong glanced at Han Jiayi beside him and asked, “Aren’t you going to take this rare chance to laugh at me too?”

“There’s nothing funny about it. I kind of pity you,” Han Jiayi said expressionlessly.

She didn’t find it funny at all; in fact, she was a little annoyed. What was this, that foul-mouthed Bai didn’t even tell his family about me? He was the one who was originally set up with me, and his mother didn’t even know I existed, yet she still sent him on that stupid show...

“Really?” Bai Renzhong asked suspiciously, frowning.

“Really.” Han Jiayi gave him a sidelong look and said faintly, “Next time Auntie calls to urge you to go on a blind date, just tell her you’re already on one with me. We were originally on a blind date anyway, introduced by Sister Xiaoxiao.”

“Can I?” Bai Renzhong asked in delight. This was an enormous help.

“Yes.” Han Jiayi rested her chin on her hand against the sofa armrest and said, “Leaving other girls aside, I’m still much better than the monsters on that show, aren’t I? Auntie probably won’t have any objections either.”

“Ah... that’s great.” Bai Renzhong finally relaxed. “Then my mother won’t keep forcing me to go on blind dates anymore... Honestly, when she made me go on that show, I really wanted to jump straight off the balcony!”

“You should have told her then that you were on a blind date with me,” Han Jiayi said with a glare.

“Well, I...” Bai Renzhong hesitated. “At the time I was already desperate. My brain... wouldn’t work.”

Han Jiayi lowered her eyes a little, looking somewhat displeased, but said nothing more.

The good news was that after this episode, his mother came to loathe that matchmaking show to the core. She denounced the female contestants as shallow to anyone who would listen and declared she would never watch it again.

After the brief two minutes in which Bai Renzhong appeared on screen, Wang Bei stood up and laughed, “All right, I’m heading home. Even if it was only two minutes of footage, Old Bai’s still been on TV once. That counts as exposure, right?”

“Then get out of my house!” Bai Renzhong glared at her fiercely, and went upstairs to his room first.

Right now he only wanted to hide in his own little world and never think about this again for the rest of his life.

“Damn it, to be saddled with a mother like that...” Bai Renzhong sighed gloomily, clutching his head. Then he pulled out his phone, opened the Appraisal Master app, and tapped into the achievements page.

As expected, the “Fifty Blind Dates” achievement had jumped from “17/50” to “49/50” in one go, leaving only one more to complete it.

Seeing that number, Bai Renzhong did not know whether to laugh or cry.

He had originally thought he would never complete this achievement in his life, yet by some twist of fate, he was suddenly on the verge of finishing it...

“At least that’s the only thing I got out of this...” he thought with a sigh.

But then his heartbeat suddenly quickened, because he realized something: his blind date with Han Jiayi had not been counted!

He remembered clearly that before meeting Han Jiayi, he had been at 16/50, and after the date with Yu Ruili, it had become 17/50. Yet the blind date with Han Jiayi had clearly taken place before Yu Ruili’s, and still it had not been counted.

Which meant... did he still have a chance with Han Jiayi? Had this girl still not sent him the equivalent of a polite rejection?

Just as his mind was racing, the door behind him was pushed open.

“Hey, foul-mouthed Bai, want to play a game?” Han Jiayi blinked her big eyes curiously. “It’s still early anyway.”

Bai Renzhong’s heart pounded even faster. Taking a deep breath, he turned and said to Han Jiayi, “Um, would you have time to go out for a meal and a movie together?”

“Huh?!” Han Jiayi froze, her eyes widening. “Why?”

“Aren’t we... on a blind date?” Bai Renzhong said, shifting his gaze away. “We should probably go through the motions, right?”

Good heavens! Han Jiayi thought in astonishment. Foul-mouthed Bai actually came to his senses? Even a straight man can learn to turn?

She quickly composed herself, smoothed her hair, and said with feigned nonchalance, “Sure.”

She agreed! Bai Renzhong was overjoyed. The Appraisal Master app really hadn’t lied to him!

But he kept his expression steady, cleared his throat, and said, “You pick the day. I’m free every day anyway.”

“Tomorrow would be fine,” Han Jiayi said with a slight smile. “It’s a weekday, so restaurants won’t be too busy.”

“Then tomorrow it is.” Bai Renzhong took another deep breath. “These past few days have been rough. I should let myself relax a little.”

“Then it’s settled.” After saying that, Han Jiayi turned and went back to her room.

What a pleasant surprise, Bai Renzhong thought with quiet relief.

By that “pleasant surprise,” his experience on this blind-date show had become almost bearable.

But then he suddenly remembered something: Didn’t that girl say she wanted to play a game? Why had she left?

Meanwhile, once Han Jiayi returned to her room, she immediately opened her wardrobe.

“Hehe, what should I wear tomorrow? I can’t dress too provocatively...” Han Jiayi murmured happily. “This straight guy went to a blind-date show and actually woke up to love? So he really did realize I’m better than those women, huh? Hmph!”