Countless pairs of eyes were watching her from off set and the host was also busy hooting and urging her from the side. Xu Xinyi had to scramble to unlock her phone and the contact list.

In fact, this punishment game was not a big deal at all because, before the program, the staff had informed all the guests who would be participating in the show about the contents of the whole program. But now that they actually reached the punishment game some details had been changed. The ‘Call the tenth person on your contact list to borrow money’ rule had been changed to ‘Call the person you most recently called to borrow money’.

Before appearing on the program, Xu Xinyi had specially arranged the tenth person on her contact list to be Liang Chuan, he was an artist who had just signed a contract with her studio.

They said not to let your own water flow to outsiders' fields, so calling Liang Chuan on the program was a good method to let him show his face, why wouldn’t she do it?

But who knew that the punishment game would be changed after they actually started shooting.

From the side, the host said jokingly, "I'm a little curious who Xinyi recently called."

Han Xiao's eyes swept over and focused on her phone.

The other hosts also began to talk.

"It should be her agent, right?"

"I’ll guess it's probably a director or an artist," exclaimed the host. "We won’t really be able to dig anything out of Xinyi today, will we?"

"Maybe we will, then we can make a hot search like: Surprise! The xx hidden by artist Xu Xinyi for many years has surfaced! Haha."

"Alright, stop it. Xinyi, can you tell us who the person you called most recently is?"

"Ah..." Xu Xinyi’s face did not look good as she looked at Yi Yang’s name.

She could make an excuse and say that they were friends but, after all, they were husband and wife. They just hadn't made it public yet.

No matter what she said it didn’t seem right.

But Xu Xinyi was experienced, she knew that when she didn't know what to say, all she had to do was act mysterious.

"Everyone can find out later."

"Ok, let's wait and see. Are you ready?"

Xu Xinyi thought about it carefully. It was 4:30PM so Yi Yang should still be in the office. There was a good chance he would be busy if she called and he probably wouldn't answer his phone when he was busy. Even if he did, he would probably just hang up after a few perfunctory words.

So she nodded.

Jiang Nian, who was beside her, asked her in a low voice, "Sister Xinyi, is this really alright?"

"It’s fine."

Her phone was put on speakerphone so the call could be heard by the whole audience. At the moment when the first ring sounded, the host shushed the audience and signaled everyone not to speak.

Although Xu Xinyi kept an indifferent smile on her face, her palms were all sweaty, and her heart rate increased with each ring.

She had seemed calm and unmoved just now, but the serenity quickly disappeared and went up in smoke.

She really regretted.

She shouldn't have called Yi Yang after she got off the plane, or at least she should have called Anya after she called Yi Yang.

If it was Anya, she would know what was going on as soon as she opened her mouth, her agent would be able to cooperate seamlessly with Xu Xinyi.

The whole audience was quiet. It was as if everyone was holding their breath as they looked at the phone in Xu Xinyi's hand, waiting for the call to connect.

The only sound that could be heard at the scene was the steady ringing.

‘Don't answer the phone.’ Xu Xinyi couldn't help praying silently.

But on second thought, what was she so afraid of? She could just hang up if things seemed bad, the program wasn’t live anyway, so even if something really happened it’s not like it would be impossible to ask the program staff to edit it out.

The ringing suddenly stopped.

The call connected.

Xu Xinyi's heart suddenly rose to her throat. Eventually, a man’s voice gave a greeting from the other side of the phone. It was a deep voice that captured the imagination.

This twist immediately set off some small gasps of surprise in the audience.

"Shh--"

The host shushed the audience and they suppressed their exclamations.

For a moment there was silence on the phone.

"What's going on? Why is it so noisy?"

Xu Xinyi said hurriedly, "I'm still outside, so it's a little noisy."

"Outside? Aren't you recording a show now?"

"It's not time to record the show yet. What about you, are you busy right now?"

Yi Yang looked at the people in front of him who were waiting to deliver their reports and waved his arm to signal them to leave.

"Not too busy. What did you want to talk to me about?"

Xu Xinyi looked at the host, who mouthed the words ‘borrow money’ at her.

She needed to ask to borrow money from Yi Yang.

It was actually a terrible excuse considering their relationship but Xu Xinyi couldn’t do anything about it.

Xu Xinyi said bluntly, "Well, I'm in a bit of trouble right now and I wanted to ask you a favor. Could you lend..."

"Trouble?" Yi Yang, on the other end of the phone, was stunned. He noticed Zhao Bin coming towards him and looking like he had something to say so he motioned for him not to interrupt. "What happened? What kind of trouble could you have when you just went to record a show? Where are your people? Your assistant? What about Anya, she didn't go with you? Where are you now?"

Xu Xinyi tried to interrupt his rapid series of questions several times but failed to get a word in.

The host's expression was wonderful, he looked excited as if he were discovering a whole new world.

Not to mention, even despite the host gesturing for them to quiet down the audience still made a lot of noise in the background.

"Xu Xinyi, where on earth are you? Say something!"

"I'm fine. I just wanted to borrow some money from you to buy something." Xu Xinyi decided she had already smashed the jar so she needed to keep soldiering forward. She wondered how Yi Yang would reply.

There was a long silence from her cell phone.

"You called me to borrow money?"

"Are you willing to lend it?"

"How much do you borrow?"

The host made a 100,000 gesture to her.

"...one hundred thousand."

"What do you want for a hundred thousand yuan for?"

"I just casually want to buy something. So can I borrow it?"

Yi Yang silently thought to himself: Doesn't Xu Xinyi have his card? Why didn’t she just swipe his card if she really wanted to buy something?

She called to borrow money?

What kind of tricks was she playing?

"Don't you have my card? If you want to buy something, just swipe my card. I have work to do. I have to go now."

The call was abruptly hung up.

Xu Xinyi only had two words on loop in her heart: It's over.

It was all exposed.

She could almost imagine how these viewers would all go out and create a lot of hype online after the show was over.

There were exclamations of surprise from the audience and the hosts but several people on stage stayed silent.

Han Xiao frowned. He knew the real relationship between Yi Yang and Xu Xinyi but Yi Yang seemed to want to solve everything with a card. In his view, Yi Yang did not assume the responsibilities of a husband at all.

Several of the hosts looked embarrassed. After all, Xu Xinyi was still considered to be an unmarried woman in the circle but the man on the phone brazenly told Xu Xinyi to just swipe his card. It wasn’t like he had just given her a bag or something, was he raising her?

Ding--

A text message appeared on Xu Xinyi's phone.

[xx Bank of China]: Your account ending in 2411 had an online deposit of RMB 1,000,000. Transaction completed at 16:42 on March 20th. New balance of 1,280,460.00.

The host who was beside her accidentally saw the message and his mouth gaped wide while he looked at Xu Xinyi exaggeratedly.

"Do you know what text message was sent to Xu Xinyi's phone just now?" He said dumbfoundedly.

But before the other hosts could respond, Xu Xinyi's cell phone rang.

It was a call from Yi Yang.

"Hello?"

"I just transferred a million to you. Use that first. Call me again if it’s not enough." Before the people on set could react, Yi Yang’s voice appeared again from the phone, "Don't spend it all in one night like last time. I have something to do. I'll hang up first."

"Wait a minute -" just before Yi Yang hung up the phone, the host smiled and spoke, "Hello sir, we are here today recording ‘Happy One Hundred Percent’*."

Yi Yang, on the other end of the phone, went silent for a moment as he immediately ran through the whole sequence of events in his mind, "You’re recording?"

"Yes, Xu Xinyi lost our game just now and the punishment was to call someone in her phone and ask to borrow money."

"So that’s how it is." Yi Yang recalled the words he said just now and gave a faint smile. If his guess was correct, Xu Xinyi should be feeling very anxious now, right?

After all, every word he just said revealed their relationship.

Did he still not know Xu Xinyi? She must be scolding herself furiously right now, right?

"I am a friend of Xu Xinyi."

"A friend?"

Xu Xinyi was stunned.

"Yes, she’s my friend. She has helped me a lot before and I’ve always wanted to thank her but she has always been reluctant to accept my thanks. That’s why I gave her my card and told her that, if necessary, she could swipe my card. And some time ago, I asked her to buy some gifts for my family, which ended up costing one million yuan in one night."

The host suddenly realized, "I see, I almost misunderstood."

Xu Xinyi's lips fluttered as if she had something to say, but when it reached her mouth, she held the words back in her heart.

"Take that million and transfer it back to me if you really don't want to receive it. I still have work to do. We'll get in touch some other time."

Xu Xinyi bit her lip and mumbled a low reply.

The phone hung up a second time.

Han Xiao frowned slightly. He obviously did not expect Yi Yang’s explanation.

The moment the call ended, the audience quickly became rowdy, and they seemed to want to overturn the whole studio.

"One million!"

"Oh my god, did I hear that right? Xinyi, did you really spend one million yuan in one night?"

"Was it like how they do it on TV, buying things without looking at the price? Otherwise, how could you spend one million yuan in one night?"

Seeing that the host led the topic in this direction, Xu Xinyi followed along with his performance, "If you say ‘wrap up everything except this one’, one million will run out quickly."

The host marveled, "You are the most expensive artist I have ever seen."

After changing the subject, the host looked over at Jiang Nian to check that he was ready.

"OK, let's continue the program. Just now Xinyi accepted our punishment, so now it’s Jiang Nian's turn."

The staff brought up Jiang Nian's phone.

Jiang Nian did not panic at all. His latest phone calls were all work-related, basically just calls to Xu Xinyi or Anya.

A staff member gave the host a quiet reminder and the host reacted. He smiled and said, "I was mistaken just now. I thought we were supposed to be calling the last person called, but what I wrote in the script was to call the tenth person in the contact list."

Xu Xinyi: "…"

"Come on, let's see who the tenth in Jiang Nian's contact list is."

There were only a few numbers in Jiang Nian's contact list. If you opened the list, the tenth one was Xu Xinyi’s number.

The host looked at his contact list. "The tenth number in Jiang Nian's contact list is Xu Xinyi, which doesn't count. So now, I’ll ask Jiang Nian's fans to pick another number. Everyone tell me, which number should he call?"

The audience all started shouting out a number for him to call and the host eventually determined that they wanted him to call the seventh number.

Jiang Nian looked at the seventh number in his contact list and his lips pursed slightly.

"Jiang Nian are you ready?"

Jiang Nian looked up and moved his thumb. The phone barely rang before it was picked up, which caught him off guard.

The one ring sounded in the studio before the sound of the phone being picked up rang out which made Jiang Nian felt very surprised. When he realized what happened and wanted to hang up the phone, the call had already been connected.

"Hmm? You were looking for me?" There was obviously delight in the voice on the other end of the phone, "What's the matter?"

Jiang Nian, egged on by his fans, said slowly, "You... can you lend me some money?"

"You want to borrow money? What happened? Where are you now? Is there anyone around?"

"I'm fine. I just want to borrow 100,000 yuan from you."

"Are you sure you’re alright?"

"I’m alright."

The person on the other end of the phone didn't ask Jiang Nian why he wanted to borrow the 100,000 yuan. He just said, "OK, I'll transfer it to you right away. Did you need anything else?"

"There’s nothing else, thank you." Jiang Nian said and then hung up the phone.

The host joked: "It seems that the person Jiang Nian called has a very good relationship with him. He agreed to lend 100,000 yuan in less than a minute."

Ding--.

There was a message on Jiang Nian's phone.

[xx Bank of China]: Your account ending in 2190 had an online deposit of RMB 1,000,000. Transaction completed at 17:19 on March 20th. New balance of 1,000,054.00.

The host picked up Jiang Nian's phone and showed the screen to everyone with an extremely exaggerated expression on his face. The cameras even took a close-up to the screen.

"One million!"

"He can borrow one million yuan in a minute! Am I seeing things right?"

"Just look at Jiang Nian and Xu Xinyi, they can borrow a million yuan every minute. But if you call someone to borrow money, probably you'll get hung up on in a minute."

The host who was teased said with a dark smile: "They probably won’t even have to hang up on me, the phone will only say, ‘The number you have dialed is no longer in the service area’."

When he said that there was a burst of laughter from the audience.

"I'm actually curious. Was that your friend on the phone just now? If he’s your friend, he's really too generous. Jiang Nian, don't keep secrets. I also want to be friends with your friend."

Jiang Nian's expression was not very good.

After all, it never occurred to him that today he would have to call Jiang Huai.

The host crowed, "Add me, money is not important, I just want to have more friends."

"I'm really curious, Jiang Nian, who was that on the phone just now? Can you tell us? If you can't tell us, just forget I asked. "

Jiang Nian looked at Xu Xinyi, who seemed absent-minded. After a moment of silence, Jiang Nian said, "It was my brother."

Screams came from the audience.

Jiang Nian's phone call actually shared a lot of pressure on Xu Xinyi.

The good news was that after today, Jiang Nian would share some of the heat with Xu Xinyi.

At the program quickly entered the second half and, leaving out a part with the phone calls, they just talked about some interesting things that happened during filming "The Way of the Phoenix". The whole program steadily drew to a close.

The guests and the host walked off stang but there was still a lot of excitement among the audience as they left.

"Just now I almost thought that the man Xu Xinyi called was her Gold Master."

"I saw people saying earlier that Xu Xinyi had a Gold Master. So that was probably him, right?"

"I’ve said before that since Xu Xinyi could gain a foothold in the entertainment industry she must have a backer behind her. Who do you think that was that Xu Xinyi called?"

"How could Jiang Nian have such a rich brother? Is he a rich second generation? How come I’ve never heard of it? "

"He is a rich second generation but he works in the entertainment industry anonymously? How inspiring!"

"This is really big news. No, I have to post it on Weibo."

"It was worthwhile for me to spend a lot of money to come see this program. I was shocked today."

After they got to the backstage lounge the host apologized to the guests for what had just happened on the stage.

"I'm really sorry about the program going off script just now. The prop department had a problem so I had to temporarily change things," One of the more well-known hosts asked Xu Xinyi. "Xinyi, will what happened today cause problems for you?"

Xu Xinyi shook her head but she was obviously a little absent-minded. She pretended to have something to do on one side and used that as an excuse to avoid people, so she could quietly make a call to Yi Yang.

The phone call connected on the first ring.

"What's the matter?"

Xu Xinyi hesitated for a while before she asked him in a low voice, "What happened just now..."

"What's the matter? Did I say something wrong? Did people find out?"

"No, you spoke very well. I just don't understand why you lied for me. It's... didn't you want to disclose our relationship?"

Yi Yang got up from his desk and went to look out of the window at the building across the street. He could easily pick out the floor with Xu Xinyi's studio.

He always knew what she was thinking.

"You don't have to explain anything. I know you don't want our relationship to be public for the time being. Since you don't want it, I will respect your decision. I won't force you no matter what happens."

Yi Yang's low words slowly fell on Xu Xinyi's ears, and each word seemed to carry a great weight.

Before calling him on the program, she had imagined she would probably exchange some impatient and perfunctory words with Yi Yang if he picked up, but it was more likely that Yi Yang would not answer her call at all. But then reality showed that every word that Yi Yang said on the phone was something she would never have imagined.

Xu Xinyi really could not connect the Yi Yang on the phone with her now with the Yi Yang in the past. They were like two different people and she really didn't know when things had started to change.

"Have you finished recording?"

"I finished."

"When will you be back?"

"The plane should arrive in City A by nine o'clock."

"I'll wait for you at home."

"Mhm."

-------

*the show is called ‘快乐百分百’