127: Chapter 127 went viral on social media.

The Firefighters returned in the evening, smelling of smoke, exhausted but whole. After eating, many went straight to sleep.

Cheng Songyan washed up and changed his clothes. With an extra set of keys in hand, he dropped a sentence as he passed the guest lounge:

"The conference room on the second floor, the projector is set up, the first episode airs at eight. If you want to watch, go up yourselves."

After saying this, he turned and left.

Shen Jue was the first to jump up: "Watch, watch! I want to see how the Production Team edits me!"

Gu Zeyan stayed on the sofa, acting indifferent, but his phone screen was lit up, already on the program preview page of the TikTok app.

Li Li was dragged upstairs by Shen Jue, who was clutching his arm.

"Brother Li, you have to come. If they edit me to look ugly, you have to help me scold the Production Team."

"You don't need editing to be..."

"To be what?"

"To be very recognizable."

Shen Jue thought for two seconds and felt that didn't sound like a compliment.

In the conference room, the projector screen was pulled down. Nine guests plus Han Su, Qin Xiaoshan, and Zhong Ji—twelve people crowded in.

Qin Xiaoshan dragged a stool to the front row, holding a big bag of rice crackers, crunching loudly. Zhong Ji kicked his feet up, leaning in the back row. Han Su sat bolt upright, hands on his knees, looking like he was waiting for a lecture from his superior.

At eight o'clock sharp, the show began.

The thirty-second opening showed a panoramic view of the Fire Station, red fire trucks lined up. The bullet comments flooded in instantly; the first wave was all fans checking in.

Shen Jue held his phone, scrolling through the bullet comments simultaneously: "Ji Shen has so many fans... Gu Zeyan has quite a few too... Sister Qi's... Holy crap, Sister Qi's comments covered the whole screen."

Gu Zeyan's fingers swiped rapidly on his phone; he was calculating his share of the comments.

On the projector, the guests arrived one after another.

The segment where Ji Shen arrived at 8:56 was edited into a comedy montage, set to the BGM of "Kung Fu Jungle." Ji Shen sat in the second row, covering his face: "I told you I came too early."

For the part where Gu Zeyan and Jiang Shiyu arrived at the same time, the Production Team used a split-screen comparison. Gu Zeyan's action of taking off his sunglasses was frozen, and the shot of Jiang Shiyu trying to steal the spotlight was slowed down, accompanied by a "whoosh" sound effect.

In the room, the two turned their heads and made eye contact.

Neither spoke.

The segment where Shen Jue was called "the handsome guy who wet his pants" by Gu Zeyan aired, and the bullet comments were full of question marks and requests for context.

Shen Jue shoved his phone in front of Li Li: "Brother Li, look at this one, 'Did Shen Jue actually pee or not? Evidence please.' I didn't pee! That was spilled water!"

"Mhm."

"Do you believe me?"

"I believe you, it was spilled."

Shen Jue glanced at him, feeling like that "believe" was hiding a ton of perfunctoriness.

Then it was Li Li's entrance.

The post-Production Team had gone crazy.

The moment he rode the shared bike crookedly into the frame, the editors added a glittering entrance effect, and the BGM switched to "Borrowing Another Five Hundred Years from Heaven."

The part where he rode past and rode back was made into a reverse slow-motion shot, with subtitles:

[He looked around, confirming that this was his territory.]

The QR code for scanning and returning the bike was enlarged, with a line of text next to it:

[The ride of a man with ninety-nine million fans, costs only one-fifty to scan.]

They read that right; one fire incident, and Li Li gained more followers.

Laughter exploded in the conference room. Qin Xiaoshan laughed so hard he spat out his rice crackers, and Zhong Ji's feet slid off the back of the chair. Ji Shen slapped his thigh: "Whoever did this post-production is too savage!"

Li Li sat in the corner, arms crossed, expressionless.

Shen Jue laughed until he was convulsing: "Brother Li, your face is so green."

"It's the lighting."

The density of the bullet comments peaked after Li Li appeared, scrolling so fast the video froze for a couple of frames. Gradually, the content of the comments began to unify—

"Kill Li Li, save Mumu."

"Kill Li Li, save Mumu."

"Kill Li Li, save Mumu."

Six words, uniform.

Qin Xiaoshan was stunned: "What does this mean?"

Gu Zeyan seized the opportunity to sneer: "Netizens think Li Li snatched Jiang Rumu away, so they want to kill him to save her."

"... Was Jiang Rumu kidnapped or something?"

Gu Zeyan was speechless, grabbed a bag of rice crackers, and tossed it to Qin Xiaoshan.

"You should just eat your rice crackers."

Li Li glanced at that array of comments and didn't respond.

In the physical fitness test segment, the editor was even more ruthless.

The shot of him pulling a fifteen-meter lead at the first turn of the 1000-meter run was turned into a first-person racing game perspective, accompanied by a "BOOST" sound effect. The main group chasing behind was set to the soundtrack of "Fast & Furious."

The Production Team didn't point out the reason for the deceleration in the final two hundred meters.

But the camera cut between Tao Qianzhi and Li Li three times.

One wave of comments typed "So warm, so gentlemanly," while another wave typed "How much strength did he actually have left???"

Li Li caught a glimpse of Tao Qianzhi putting down the "Fire Safety Knowledge Handbook" in his hand and staring at the projection for several seconds.

Then Tao Qianzhi turned his head.

Li Li lowered his head to drink water, not meeting that gaze.

But he heard it; the chair next to him scraped against the floor.

Tao Qianzhi's position had shifted half an inch toward him.

The segment of the one-armed pull-up aired.

The bullet comments disappeared for two seconds. It wasn't a server lag; everyone had forgotten to type. The comments that flooded out two seconds later turned the screen white.

Shen Jue held up his phone: "Brother Li! You're trending! Third place! 'Li Li one-armed pull-up'!"

"What's first?"

"Brave Blue Friends premiere."

"And second?"

Shen Jue stopped talking.

Gu Zeyan leaned over and glanced at the phone screen.

Trending second: #Gu Zeyan Brave Blue Friends no screen time#.

Gu Zeyan's face turned green too. Trending second with no screen time? He had no shame left.

The second half of the program was a montage of the filming from those days.

Cheng Songyan scolding everyone with a straight face on the training ground, with the footage of him secretly handing bottled water to Qin Xiaoshan, was kept in full. The comments were filled with "Cold outside, warm inside" and "Instructor with a sharp tongue but a soft heart."

The footage of Han Su staring intensely at Li Li's scorecard after every training session was compiled, with subtitles added.

[Han Su only has one rival, but unfortunately, that person doesn't know it.]

Han Su sat in his chair, red from the neck up.

The footage of Qin Xiaoshan eating in the cafeteria was edited into a separate forty-second clip: three bowls of rice, two servings of braised pork, a plate of vegetables, half a watermelon.

Bullet comments: "Is this a firefighting variety show or a mukbang?"

Qin Xiaoshan silently put down the rice crackers in his hand in the front row.

Then, the segment where Su Nianzhi "cramped" and Qin Xiaoshan stretched her leg was aired.

It became legendary across the internet.

Qin Xiaoshan himself only realized at this moment that he had been used as a tool.

He turned to look at Su Nianzhi, then turned to look at Li Li, chewing the rice cracker in his mouth.

"So the young lady didn't actually have a cramp?"

The conference room went quiet for a second; everyone was holding back laughter.

Su Nianzhi's smile didn't change.

"Of course it was a real cramp, Little Brother Xiaoshan was a huge help."

Qin Xiaoshan nodded and continued eating his rice crackers.

Then he stopped again.

"But the bullet comments say..."

"What do the comments say?" Su Nianzhi's voice remained soft.

Qin Xiaoshan held up his phone, screen facing her.

The comments were flooding in — "Green tea meets a blockhead," "Textbook example of borrowing a knife to kill," "Brother Li's move was too ruthless."

Su Nianzhi's smile held for three seconds, then vanished.

"Netizens are just joking."

She turned away and didn't look at anyone else.

Li Li didn't look up throughout the whole thing.

In the last two minutes of the first episode, the Production Team included a segment of behind-the-scenes footage from that evening.

In the dormitory hallway, the guests returned to their rooms one by one. The camera followed a few backs as they walked by, nothing special.

Then the screen cut.

The fire escape stairwell.

A fixed camera angle that no one had noticed was mounted on the ceiling at the corner of the stairs.

Li Li was leaning against the stair railing, his phone screen lit up.

Video call.

On the other side of the screen, Jiang Rumu's face occupied most of the frame. Her hair was down, she was wearing loungewear, and one hand was propping up her chin.

The audio wasn't very clear, but a few words were captured —

"... Why did you go by shared bike today..."

"It's very close, I didn't expect the navigation to lead me the wrong way."

"Do you know you're trending?"

"What place?"

"Guess."

"First?"

"In your dreams, third."

"Then what's first?"

"Guess."

Jiang Rumu laughed.

The image quality was so blurry you could count the pixels, and there was practically no lighting, but the moment she laughed, the bullet comments exploded like fireworks.

In the conference room, Li Li's hand stopped by his water cup.

He stared at the projection.

In the stairwell, he was leaning against the railing, Jiang Rumu's face on his phone screen.

He had scanned all the cameras in the hallway at the time and specifically avoided them by going to the stairwell.

But he hadn't looked up at the ceiling.

The Weibo trending search on Shen Jue's phone refreshed.

First place.

#LiLiInMumu#

Explosive!

Shen Jue handed over his phone, his voice coming out word by word.

"Brother Li... you're done for."

On the projection, the image froze on the last frame of that video call.

Jiang Rumu extended a finger toward the camera and tapped the screen.

It looked like she was poking his face.

Li Li looked at that finger, and the smiling face behind the finger.

His phone vibrated once.

WeChat message.

Jiang Rumu: Did you watch the show? That last part?

Li Li didn't reply.

Jiang Rumu: I didn't expect that camera angle either.

It vibrated again.

Jiang Rumu: Director Pei Zhao asked me if it could be kept, and I agreed.