Chapter 88
After his filming with Kitten finished, Gustav lost all his patience, especially for the female players who wanted to tempt him. They often asked him to pose in intimate ways, like hugging their waist, embracing, and even kissing. Of course not real kissing, but shortening the distance between their lips.
If Kitten was the one who’d asked him to do these things, he would’ve been grateful, but for others, he only felt disgust, especially since Kitten was still watching from the sidelines, making him feel very guilty.
The photographer saw his impatience, but even so, his modeling skills was on point, so he didn’t say anything about it.
“Mr. Acheson, can you hold me up?” In the filming, a female player made such a request, her eyes unblinking and innocent.
Only if I can drop you in a ditch! Gustav’s inner thoughts were very ugly, but he had on a gentle smile, he nodded, “Of course Miss.”
As he bent over, he quickly looked at the crowd and found that his Kitten had left. He felt relieved, and his tensed muscles finally relaxed.
Zhou Yun Sheng was not interested in watching a group of women ‘subtlety’ lure a man, so he exited. He wanted to see how Ivana’s shooting was going.
Ivana’s idea was very unique. She made Bonnie wear a fiery red, sexy little skirt, while she wore a black suit. She made the stylist harden her facial lines and put in hair gel to give her a Mo Xi look. Now, she looked purely like a very handsome man, even her swagger was flawless.
She put her arm around Bonnie, and made her put on a damsel in distress pose. She was 180 centimeters, but her padded shoes increased her height by 10 cm, so she was a very good match next to the 178 cm Bonnie. She put a bunch of red roses into Bonnie’s arms, and had on an affectionate look.
If he didn’t know Ivana’s sex, Zhou Yun Sheng would’ve thought she was a downright man that was pursuing Bonnie. The photographer took many charming and fun pictures, when he was finished, he flipped through them, occasionally issuing peculiar chuckles.
Bonnie left Ivana’s ‘strong’ arms, while pushing her hair behind her ears she slowly opened, “My Dear, you’re very charming. After this competition, I don’t mind having a meal with you. You’ve given me a lot of inspiration with this shoot today. Maybe next time, I’ll give the men and women players a unique special challenge.”
Ivana watched her graceful back walk away, then ran to her friend’s side and proudly repeated her comments. Zhou Yun Sheng pondered for a moment, then gave a devious smile.
Was Bonnie hinting that the next photo shoot would involve a male and female role reversal? I wonder how tough guy Hayden will handle being in drag? As for him, female, Ger, yin and yang, he’s been it all, cross-dressing was simply a superficial challenge for him.
Next was Hayden’s photo shoot, the two hid behind the crowd and watched with relish. Hayden had selected a speedo, and had used sunscreen to highlight his muscles. When he walked out of the changing room, he even boldly had his hands on his pouch.
Several female contestants screamed and unblinkingly stared at his lower body, making his ego grow to an unprecedented size.
Bonnie walked out in a bikini, her complexion green, it was torture to take pictures with such a cocky pest. Valentine shouldn’t have made his son spend so much time with that old bigot grandfather of his, look, he’s just as unbearable as he is!
While Bonnie was holding back her vomit, Ivana scoffed at Hayden’s little speedo, “That thing is something to be proud of? I bet that whiny bitch stuffed his pants. Mr. Acheson’s package is probably more majestic and genuine. What do you say my darling? Which one has the prowess to bring you to heaven?” She never wasted an opportunity to belittle Hayden, while guiding her ‘girlfriend’ to agree with her.
Later, when Gustav sees this sample video, he’ll fiercely praise Ivana, this is what a good wingman is all about. Of course, Romeo’s answer will also make his heart burst in joy, almost making him act a fool in public.
Romeo was an innocent little virgin, when asked such a lewd question, of course, he had to be shy. Zhou Yun Sheng forced his face to redden, then he covered his face with his palms and muffled, “Of- of course Mr. Acheson is more…. powerful. I didn’t dare look…down there, but Mr. Acheson is so charming, masculine and s-sexy. I was so nervous working with him, my heart almost retired.”
Ivana put on a dubious expression and poked his forehead while she cross-examined, “Do you still like Hayden now? Hayden is dog shit compared to Mr. Acheson, please polish your eyes a little darling.”
Zhou Yun Shen turned his head and stayed silent, after a few minutes he whispered “I know your intentions, Ivana. I can only tell you ….right now I’m trying to break away from the marshes. So, please don’t put me and Mr. Acheson together again and again. He’s….he’s the sun, but I’m just dirt on the ground, we can never be together. Besides, he’s a straight man, he wants a woman.”
Ivana shrugged then no longer teased him about Mr. Acheson. She also understood the impossibility of setting up her girlfriend with Mr. Acheson.
After seeing this video, Gustav kneeled and cried out: My love, please don’t belittle yourself! You’re the sun, I’m the one who’s dirt. As long as you shine your affection on me, I’ll tremble for you and set off a tsunami filled with my love. I’m gay, but I don’t love anyone but you!
Hayden’s fashion photo shoots and swimwear shoots were completely different. When he was shooting fashion, he usually acted cool and handsome, but when it was swimsuit photos, he became very doubi. In order to show off his muscles, he did a lot of work out poses, he even lifted Bonnie up, causing Bonnie to let out a frightened scream. He thought he was making a good impression, and when he finished his thirty shots, he boasted to everyone that Bonnie was fascinated by him and became his number one fan.
“She must’ve never seen such a strong and charming man like me before. You don’t know, whenever she looked at me in our shoot, her eyes were hot enough to melt my hard muscles. I think I heard her telling the photographer how great I am and how I’m the most promising contestant. She glanced at me a couple of times when we left the studio, I bet she wants to ask me out.”
On the return bus, he boasted incessantly, provoking many players’ anger, especially Emily. They quarreled and accused each other all the way.
Ivana rolled her eyes, and Zhou Yun Sheng looked out the window, his expression bitter.
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The next day, the contestants gathered at the studio again and awaited their sentencing.
Bonnie quickly introduced the prizes that the champion could win and called them up, one by one.
Without the guidance of professionals, this session’s theme, modeling, clothing and other aspects had a lot of problems. Especially the female contestants, except for Ivana and Emily, all the others chose to wear swimsuits, and because they were obsessed with Mr. Acheson, their performances were abysmal.
Bonnie gave out several six points, five points, and even four points, when Ivana’s turn came, she finally exposed her first smile, “10 points, your taste is excellent!”
Eureka: “10 points.”
“Who is this handsome man? I want to spend a romantic night with him. If I give him 10 points, will he give me a chance?” Miss Jeffrey joked.
Ivana generously opened her arms, “Come on baby!”
The three judges and the players all laughed at her come back, and the tense atmosphere in the studio lightened a little. Then Emily was called to the stage. She straightened her back up and raised her chin, her whole body exuding confidence. Especially when her and Mr. Acheson’s tango photo appeared on the screen, she even screwed her eyebrows in haughtiness.
But the judges’ reactions were exactly the opposite of her imagination.
Bonnie curtly opened, “Honey, instead of wearing that see-through gown, you should’ve just worn a bikini. Your wide-open sexuality is better than this masked vulgarity. You have a great figure, it’s especially full, but this can’t get you anywhere in your modeling career. Well, it won’t get you to a respectable place.”
“In a high end fashion show, to not ruin the fit of the clothes, the models often aren’t allowed to wear undergarments. Your jumping figure will attract the audience and give the high-end fashion show a pornographic mood. Your body is not suitable for the high-end markets, especially when posing in such a sensual scene like in your photo, it’s very easy to overdo it. Hey, don’t look so resentful. Just look at Mr. Acheson’s expression, he’s terrified. He’s holding your waist, but I can feel how he really wants to push you away.”
Jeffrey immediately looked at Acheson’s handsome face, then nodded his agreement.
Eureka didn’t comment, she just directly gave six points.
“Six points.” Bonnie and Jeffrey said in unison.
Emily felt like she had been greatly insulted. The judges had simply described her as a horny bitch, panting after Acheson. Fortunately, the netizens were very happy with her erotic behavior and gave her a relatively high score, making her feel better.
Hayden’s picture also got bad remarks, Bonnie and Eureka only gave him five points, and Jeffrey gave him a point higher for the sake of his perfect abs and pecs. But his net score was shockingly still at the bottom. He couldn’t understand, where did his huge fanbase go? Did it evaporate overnight?
The last one called up was Romeo.
Bonnie leaned back on her chair and sighed, “Romeo, my beloved Romeo, you can always bring us surprises. Look at your photo.”
She snapped her finger and his and Acheson’s confrontation scene in the dark and narrow coatroom appeared on the screen. Acheson’s tall stature shrouded his body, his strong and powerful arms propped on both sides of his cheeks. He was not intimidated by Acheson’s strong oppression, on the contrary, he’d grabbed his bow tie, strangling his Achilles heel, and raised his chin to show his pride and dignity.
There was no light in the coatroom, everything was shrouded in shadows, and the subjects were wearing black and white or silver gray clothing, making the photo have a heavy sense of nostalgia. The boy’s narrowed sea blue eyes was the only bright and beautiful light in the photo, he was obviously a static image, but his pupils seemed to shimmer.
The judges had earnestly looked at it for a long while and failed to pick out even a hint of sloppiness. The other contestants were amazed, their jaws dropped. In the overabundance of sexy swimsuit photos, suddenly, a classical, solemn and romantic photo appeared. Like the only star in the dark night sky, it was extremely eye-catching.
Whether it was the picture’s consistency or the clothing or the two models’ cooperation, everything was perfect. Romeo’s talent seemed to be beyond all their imaginations.
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The judges marveled in their hearts for a minute before they began to comment.
“My dear, at first glance, I thought you were kissing Mr. Acheson,” Jeffery said, clutching his chest.
Zhou Yun Sheng widened his blue peach eyes, his face glowing red enough to drip blood. He didn’t know how to respond to this sentence.
Bonnie and Eureka smiled, apparently they felt the same way.
Jeffery gave the boy a playful wink, and continued “But after looking carefully, I saw that it was a confrontation. The faithful servant had overstepped his bounds with his arrogant and noble master, so they ended up in this position. I see a sad, melancholy and romantic story in this photo. So it can have a happy ending, I’ll give you 10 points.”
“I’ll also give you 10 points, I hope you can treat your faithful servant better.” Bonnie joked.
“I take back all my previous judgments. THIS is the most brilliant photo I’ve seen so far. There seems to be a pattern, every time you come up, my record is broken. I like that. So you can impress me more in the future, I’ll give you full marks.” Eureka wrote a ’10’ in the air with her ballpoint pen.
Zhou Yun Sheng blinked and gave his thanks to the judges.
Bonnie asked before she gave the net score, “Do you want to see the audience’s assessment of this picture?”
Zhou Yun Sheng looked up and nodded.
Bonnie snapped and a woman with colorful hair immediately popped up on the big screen.
She had two blood-stained toilet paper in her nostrils, and after adjusting the camera, she popped the paper out and seriously commented, “I saw a lot of swimwear on the official website, the contestants apparently wanted to show off their sex appeal, and I have to say, I admire how you guys weren’t afraid of Acheson and Bonnie. But, you guys had the wrong mindset. Real sexiness doesn’t come from exquisite looks and perfect bodies, but deep self-restraint and your character.”
“Some people can wear the most conservative clothes, their shirt neatly buttoned up, even covered with a scarf, but they’re unable to hide the sexiness radiating from their bones. I can understand why Mr. Acheson trapped Romeo in the coatroom, he must’ve been fascinated by his sexy little master. Their body language and eyes collided in passion and inexplicable tension. In that moment, the picture’s beauty and style was instantly raised to the sophistication level of an oil painting. I gave you 10 points. Finally, I would like to say a word to Mr. Acheson – let go of Romeo, let him come to me!”
Zhou Yun Sheng was amused, he nodded at the fan on the screen in thanks.
Bonnie laughed earnestly before giving the net vote.
His high scores left all the players behind, even if Romeo’s photo was not perfect, his fan votes alone could ensure that he wasn’t eliminated. The contestants didn’t understand where the millions of people who hated him disappeared to. Romeo has just been a little quieter lately, was that really enough to attract so many viewers?
But after seeing him laugh, his ocean blue and starry eyes complimenting his pure looks, the contestants seemed to understand the viewers’ thoughts.
Hayden once again stood in front of Bonnie as one of the two potentially eliminated players, ultimately winning by a small margin. The eliminated contestant wanted to hug him, but he pushed them away. This indifferent and ruthless performance lowered the judges and the players’ opinion on him even more.
Back at the villa, Hayden started drinking again. Because of the last light and display case smashing incident, the program group had brought him to a psychotherapist to help him ease his stress. That had caused him to feel very embarrassed, so this time, he didn’t take out his anger on Romeo’s photo, but his words were slanderous enough to cut.
Zhou Yun Sheng silently encouraged in his heart, “Curse me, curse me more. The faster you slander me, the faster your elimination approaches.” Then he had a peaceful night’s rest.
The ratings once again soared after the episode broadcasted. Romeo’s fans rose by the hundreds of thousands a day, which attracted the attention of ABC, causing them to repeatedly ask the program group to not eliminate Romeo.
“Even if his next picture looks like a lump of shit, you have to keep him.” These were the exact words of the CEO.
The audience’s obsession placed the boy in an undefeatable position. If he doesn’t get into the top three, the program group’s website will undoubtedly crash under the angry users’ protests. They loved Romeo too much, and their love seemed to be increasing.
They loved seeing his tender and fresh look after coming out of the bath, they loved seeing him gaze at Hayden with melancholy eyes, they loved seeing him and Ivana goof around, and they really loved his seriousness when he modeled.
Not only could he cook, he was a talented artist, in just a few minutes he was able to transfer the scene in his mind to a sketch more sophisticated than a real photograph. Many of the professional illustrators in the audience saw this scene and praised the boy’s superb skills, saying how not many people could achieve this level of skill at such a young age. At this point, his fans included cat lovers, beauty lovers, mother hens, BL lovers (women and men), and the newly added fine art lovers.
His unparalleled charm radiated into every corner of society. When he interacted with Acheson, the ratings instantly soared to a staggering degree. An elegant and mature man, and an innocent teenager, a humble servant and an arrogant master, so refreshing.
When Acheson refused to give the boy wine and poured him milk instead, the audience laughed and rolled on their sofas. When the two faced off in the coatroom, the distance between them close enough to kiss, the audience covered their faces and squealed. When the two ended their cooperation and parted ways, the audience gave a regretful sigh. They liked seeing the two get along, it felt very natural.
But the sensitive to rot, the BL lovers, found things fishy and immediately expressed their thoughts online:
“Did you feel that Mr. Acheson was particularly gentle when dealing Romeo too?”
“Mr. Acheson obviously wanted to take pictures with Romeo, and I felt that he was most focused with Romeo. He was very absent-minded with the other players.” As evidence they attached a screenshot of Acheson with dull eyes.
“Yay! I wasn’t alone in this! Acheson always peeped at Romeo, really it’s true, you have to observe carefully.” They also attached a few screenshots of Acheson sneakily peeking at the boy.
“I feel that Mr. Acheson’s devotion to Romeo was not part of the act. My whole body heated up when they flirted. When they stand together, Acheson always leans a little forward, as if he wants to pull Romeo into his arms. I drew inspiration from them, so my next fanfic will be about them. The loyal servant looking upon his master in forbidden lust. A dark story full of imprisonment play, water play, BDSM, candles, whips, the whole shebang.”
This user started a post to advertise their own fanfic, but quite a few people were interested in buying it, and private messages were exchanged.
Acheson declined to comment on these remarks, and the vast majority of people just took it as a joke. Romeo liked men true, but Acheson was a straight man, there had been several rumors of him and a few popular female stars.
Acheson’s fans were known for their possessiveness, and anyone who coveted their idol would be unconditionally attacked. The stars involved in the past rumors faced their wrath, they were humiliated and scolded, and some even ran out in front of the media to beg for mercy, crying about how unbearable the harassment was getting.
But the rotten women’s shipping miraculously didn’t provoke their overreaction. Although some people protested, most fans remained silent. They really felt favorable about the clean and pure teenager, especially when he said that Acheson was the sun and he was just dirt. That generous and humble reverence directly resonated with Acheson’s fans.
He worshiped their idol, his heart was about to explode from nervousness just from working with their idol. He was even willing to belittle his crush to boost up their idol. How can Romeo be so sweet and so lovely ah! No wonder Mr. Acheson is so kind to him.
The fans identified with Romeo and began to support him.
Seeing this trend, Acheson was really relieved. He regretted hiding in the closet for so long, if he’d had the courage to face life like Romeo, he wouldn’t have fallen into this predicament where he had to hide his love.
Everyone thought that Gustav Acheson was a straight man, even his Kitten also thought so, how could he get Kitten’s heart? This problem plagued Gustav, giving him restless sleep for days.
Ivana’s valiant character also won the audience’s favor. Her number of fans finally surpassed Emily and took second place.
Emily’s watching the pot while eating from her bowl behavior provoked a large percentage of the audience’s disgust. Although all the female players were panting after Acheson, most of the hostility landed on her. Except for Ivana, all the female players suffered varying degrees of reduction in online votes.
As for Hayden, his image had turned from being a tough guy and an aristocratic son, to an arrogant and annoying buffoon. When he showed off his muscles to Bonnie, a majority of the audience ridiculed him. He even boasted that Bonnie was captivated by him and became his loyal fan.
But in fact, after Bonnie finished the shooting, she gave the camera a big eye roll, showing how she thought he was a fool.
The editing gave this contrast a very comedic effect, causing the audience to laugh hysterically.
“I think Hayden should drop out of the game and do sitcoms. He’ll make good comedic relief.”
“I stalked my own TV this week just so I can see Hayden as soon as possible. Hayden never lets me down, I can always get a good laugh out of him!”
“Hayden baby is so entertaining, he brings me joy. But I still have to be honest, this high level game isn’t suitable for him, he should be a circus clown. I would definitely take my family to a show.”
This kind of ‘praise’ and aggressive scolding was numerous. If Hayden could see the audience’s messages on the official website, he would dig a hole to bury himself. He thought his confident performance would attract the audience’s favor, but he’d incorrectly estimated the line between powerful and foolish.
It was only the fifth episode, yet his fans had dwindled to a couple thousand people, and most of them were ironic fans, hoping he would continue to embarrass himself on the show.
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T/N:
Doubi – slang, silly but amusing person
Come on baby- written in English in the original
Watching the pot while eating from her bowl – To be greedy. Modernly used to describe infidelity.
Mo Xi – Faded on the sides, styled on top. Idk the English name for this style.