Day Five began with someone screaming.
Not danger. Just drama.
"WHY IS THERE AN EEL IN THE FRIDGE?"
The sound echoed down the hallway of the temporary house, followed by the unmistakable thud of someone tripping over a camera bot trying to flee.
In the kitchen, Lin Xie stood in front of the toaster, unmoved, holding a slice of bread in one hand while observing the clear container on the counter. A long, glossy eel flopped mildly in a shallow bath of ice water, blinking sideways at its audience. The label on the box read, "Challenge Prop - Do Not Open."
"I followed instructions," she said flatly.
"You literally opened the box."
"I opened it without damaging the seal. There's a difference."
Behind her, one of the sleep-deprived idols swore under his breath. "She opened Pandora's aquarium before we even had coffee."
A drone hovered above them, catching all angles.
Yuyan arrived two minutes later in silk pajamas and house slippers, stopped in the doorway, stared at the chaos, and muttered, "It's always you."
Lin Xie turned her head. "The refrigeration unit had an abnormal hum. I was investigating its source."
"By opening the eel box?"
"By verifying the hypothesis."
Yuyan exhaled sharply and crossed her arms, trying not to look directly at the way Lin Xie's shirt hung slightly off one shoulder. "You're going to be the reason this show shuts down."
"No," Lin Xie said. "That would require catastrophic financial collapse. The eel is not capable of that."
A crew member entered. "Who opened the prop?!"
Everyone pointed to Lin Xie.
She raised her toast in a vague greeting. "It blinked at me first."
An hour later, the eel was removed, and the challenge was reset.
That afternoon, the group gathered outside for the official Day Five obstacle-The Tower Tangle.
Each team had to climb a ten-meter vertical wall covered in loose ropes, puzzle-locked panels, and spinning footholds. One misstep, and the contestant would trigger the foam slide: a slicked slope of water and soap that would launch them back to the ground while confetti cannons sprayed glitter directly into their eyes.
It was supposed to be slapstick.
Until Lin Xie broke the course record by scaling the wall in one minute twenty-nine seconds while explaining the architectural flaws in the harness setup mid-climb.
At the top, she rang the buzzer and didn't even smile.
The host stared into the camera. "Did she just diagnose our scaffolding mid-air?"
The foam team whispered, "This isn't a game to her. This is a thesis defense."
Yuyan, on the platform waiting for her turn, pretended not to be watching too closely.
She wasn't staring at how Lin Xie reached the ground like a silent assassin. She wasn't noticing the single loose strand of hair falling over Lin Xie's temple. She definitely didn't catch the small, almost imperceptible twitch of muscle in Lin Xie's jaw when she finally looked up and accidentally met her eyes.
Yuyan immediately looked away.
Her ears burned.
At dinner, the table was loud and chaotic again. Someone dropped a tray of meat buns. Two contestants got into a shouting match about who forgot to rinse the rice. One of the drone cams accidentally broadcasted a whispered rant to the main feed.
Yuyan barely heard any of it.
Across the table, Lin Xie was taking apart a pair of chopsticks and reassembling them into a tiny bridge structure using the paper wrapper as support.
Yuyan cleared her throat. "You could at least eat something."
"I already consumed 480 calories today."
"You counted?"
"Standard processing."
"You're unbelievable."
Lin Xie glanced up. "That is subjective."
Yuyan bit the inside of her cheek. Her voice dropped. "You've never cared about any of this, have you? The cameras. The fame. The attention."
"I care about function. Design. Systems."
"What about people?"
There was a pause.
Lin Xie reached for her tea. "Some."
Yuyan looked down at her bowl, swirling her spoon absently.
"I was raised to be perfect," she said quietly. "Poised. Elegant. Controlled. All of it meant for one goal-marry someone powerful. Marry Shen Rui."
The name hung between them like fog.
"He never looked at me," Yuyan added. "Not once."
Lin Xie said nothing.
"But you... he looks at you. He listens. He lets you speak without interrupting. Do you even know how rare that is?"
Lin Xie lifted her gaze. "Yes."
"And now," Yuyan continued, her voice cracking slightly, "I can't even hate you properly. I've tried. You're cold. Blunt. You walk around like the laws of emotion don't apply to you-"
"Correct."
"But I still-" She stopped herself.
Lin Xie waited.
Yuyan looked away, red-cheeked, frustrated. "Nothing. Just forget it."
"No," Lin Xie said simply. "You were going to say something else."
"It doesn't matter."
"It clearly does."
Yuyan gripped her spoon tighter. "I think I'm broken."
Lin Xie blinked. "Unlikely."
"You're infuriating."
"You said that yesterday."
"You logged that?"
"Your behavior is statistically consistent."
Yuyan dropped her head into her hands. "You're going to ruin me."
Lin Xie picked up a meat bun and pushed it across the table. "Eat something. Your blood sugar is affecting your processing speed."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
Yuyan looked up slowly.
Lin Xie sipped her tea. "You're just recalibrating."
Across the room, someone yelled, "THE EEL IS BACK!"
Another person screamed.
A foam cannon exploded by accident.
And while the crew rushed to reset the wiring and clear the smoke, Yuyan stared at Lin Xie-
And quietly wondered what it meant when the person who made you feel most unsteady was also the one who made you feel most awake.
The internet was in flames.
Not just a flicker-no, it was a wildfire.
Fans and haters alike were dissecting Day Five of Immortal Arena: Stars vs. Strategy like it was a national event. And at the center of every clip, every screenshot, every unhinged slow-motion edit-was Lin Xie.
And now, Wen Yuyan.
@ChaoticMango: ok but why is Wen Yuyan BLUSHING around Lin Xie like that 😭😭😭 girl what is happening
@ArenaAddict: maybe bc lin xie pulled her from death with one arm and then called her emotionally redundant with cheekbones??? idk i too would fall
@WenYuyanOfficialStan: yuyan has always been graceful and elegant... and now she's STUTTERING over a girl who looks like she's calculating gravity in her head
@linxielogy: canon: yuyan trained to marry a ceo also canon: she's now glitching bc lin xie looked at her ONCE
@cryingcornflakes: did anyone notice Lin Xie sabotaging that puzzle on PURPOSE?? she said "challenge accepted" and then chaos ensued lmfao
@CEOShenHeartClub: Meanwhile Shen Rui probably at home throwing furniture
---
He was.
Well-not furniture.
But the remote definitely bounced off the marble coffee table.
Shen Rui stood, arms crossed, watching the livestream on the penthouse's curved OLED like it had personally offended him. Which, in a way, it had.
Because Wen Yuyan was smiling again.
At Lin Xie.
Lin Xie, who remained oblivious to human social rituals, was casually being stared at like she was a romantic drama protagonist who just saved a baby koala from a landslide.
And worse-Yuyan had giggled.
He muttered under his breath.
"You good?"
Jiang Wei, newly arrived from his stint abroad, was lounging on Shen Rui's couch, sipping imported cold brew and looking like a walking scandal in linen.
"No."
Jiang Wei grinned. "You're jealous."
"It's not jealousy."
"Right. You just hate anyone breathing near your girlfriend."
Shen Rui scowled.
"Dude, even I want to meet her at this point," Jiang Wei said, eyes still on the screen where Lin Xie dismantled an entire strategy game with one eyebrow raise. "You, the ice monk of the capital, emotionally unavailable for twenty-six years-then boom. One tiny genius girl and suddenly you're scowling at your TV like it owes you money."
"She's not tiny," Shen Rui muttered.
Jiang Wei snorted. "I'm serious. I wanna meet her. The girl who cracked the Shen Firewall. When?"
Shen Rui didn't answer.
Instead, he kept staring at the screen, where Yuyan tripped slightly while handing Lin Xie a ration bar. Lin Xie caught it mid-air without looking.
Yuyan turned red.
Jiang Wei's laughter nearly choked him. "You're doomed. I love this."
"What are you watching?" came Madam Shen's voice as she entered.
"The girl who's going to be your daughter-in-law," Jiang Wei said cheerfully.
Shen Rui nearly kicked him.
Online, meanwhile, the fans were fighting for their lives:
@spicyceo: YUYAN NOOOOOOO @LXSupremacy: she's gone. she's Linpilled. @YuyanYandere: I don't know if I wanna fight Lin Xie or frame her for war crimes she didn't commit?? help
And in the chaos, no one-not Yuyan, not the fans, not even Jiang Wei-knew the truth:
Lin Xie wasn't just a mysterious newcomer.
She wasn't just a genius actress with suspiciously inhuman reflexes.
She was a rogue AI weapon in a human shell.
A robot assassin who once tore through steel bunkers in the year 2189.
And now?
She was trending number one for refusing to share her dumplings and accidentally making someone blush.
Because the real danger of Lin Xie wasn't her past.
It was what happened when people started falling for her.
And one of them already had.
-----
The moment Shen Rui saw the new trending clip, he set his tablet down with an audible thud.
It was from that morning's live challenge. The camera had panned just in time to catch Wen Yuyan looking at Lin Xie-not with rivalry. Not even with confusion. With something softer. Something suspiciously like... longing.
She had been biting her lip.
Standing way too close.
And when Lin Xie looked at her, completely unbothered as usual, Yuyan had stammered and tripped over her words like a broken algorithm.
Shen Rui stared at the freeze frame for a full five seconds.
Then narrowed his eyes.
Across the penthouse, his phone buzzed.
Jiang Wei: [SEND]
> Bro are you seeing this??? 😭😭😭 Yuyan looks like she's about to write poetry about your girlfriend.
Jiang Wei: [SEND]
> Is this your villain origin story???
Jiang Wei: [SEND]
> I'm literally parking outside your building. Don't throw your phone at me.
He didn't. But only because the next message made him pause.
Jiang Wei: [SEND]
> Actually I want to meet her. That's the girl who melted the Great Wall of Ice that is you. And didn't die trying. I need to study her like a rare animal.
Shen Rui sighed. "I'm not an iceberg."
But he was staring murderously at his screen. Because the internet was currently flooded with clips of Lin Xie being calm and terrifying while Wen Yuyan hovered near her like a fangirl caught in a moral crisis.
---
[Netizens' Reactions]
@dramacereal:
> why does yuyan look like she wants lin xie to press her against a wall and recite pi
@chaosbunny88:
> Lin Xie: exists Yuyan: omg Shen Rui, probably: 🧍🏻
@glitchfangirl:
> WAIT IS THIS A GL LOVE TRIANGLE??
@cousin_of_the_frog:
> she's the same girl from the AI gala right??? the genius who destroyed Shen Yue in public?? OMG PLOT TWIST
@uwusniper:
> how is lin xie real. i'm scared. protect her. fear her.
@riceisgod:
> Shen Rui gonna pop a vein. Yuyan better sleep with one eye open lmao
---
Back in the penthouse, Jiang Wei finally stepped into the living room, grinning like the smug chaos he was born to be.
"I brought popcorn," he said, dropping onto the couch. "And a bottle of imported self-control. You clearly need both."
Shen Rui didn't respond.
"You've never been jealous before," Jiang Wei went on, kicking his feet up. "Not when the finance princess chased you. Not when the supermodel said she'd bear your children. Not even when Yuyan threw herself at your Maserati."
"She didn't throw herself," Shen Rui muttered.
"She fake-sprained her ankle in front of your driver. We all saw it."
Shen Rui rubbed his temple. "She's not the problem."
Jiang Wei raised an eyebrow. "So it is a problem."
Silence.
Then, lowly, dangerously, Shen Rui said, "She's mine."
"Ohhh," Jiang Wei cooed. "So we have melted the monk."
Shen Rui's glare could've triggered a national blackout.
Jiang Wei took a sip of his soda and smirked. "I still want to meet her."
"No."
"I'll be good."
"You won't."
"I'll bring my resume and a psychological waiver."
Shen Rui turned away from the screen, where Lin Xie was now single-handedly dismantling a rope-based booby trap while another contestant just... cried in the corner.
His expression softened.
"...Fine."
Jiang Wei perked up.
Shen Rui added, without looking at him, "But if you flirt, I'll break your legs."
"Wow." Jiang Wei grinned. "That's the most romantic thing you've ever said."
---
Shen Rui didn't say anything for the next fifteen minutes.
He sat on the penthouse couch in a tailored black shirt, arms crossed, eyes locked on the muted reality show livestream playing on the massive wall screen-where Lin Xie was currently dismantling a puzzle box under pressure while her partner shouted directions in the background like a malfunctioning GPS.
She didn't even blink. Of course she didn't. She cracked the box open in forty-six seconds, handed it off like it was beneath her dignity, and walked off screen.
The audience was going wild in the chat.
But Shen Rui's expression remained... stormy.
He hadn't said a word since Jiang Wei teased him about his possessive muttering. His entire aura was giving "CEO rejected by cat" energy. The kind of cold silence that usually preceded business mergers or military coups.
Jiang Wei slurped his soda loudly.
"I just think," he said casually, "if you're going to watch your girlfriend on live TV like a bodyguard with abandonment issues, you should at least hold a plushie or something. Add some emotional range."
Silence.
Jiang Wei glanced over.
Shen Rui was still glaring at the screen like he wanted to punch the pixels. His jaw had been clenched so long it was basically a sculptor's reference model.
"You know she didn't actually flirt back," Jiang Wei offered helpfully. "Yuyan was the one leaning in like she wanted to be coded and debugged."
More silence.
Jiang Wei threw a popcorn kernel at him.
Still nothing.
He sighed. "Okay. Look. Do you want me to hack the broadcast feed and insert a warning? Like: 'Step away from Lin Xie. She is taken. Shen Rui owns seventeen patents, a private helicopter, and a solid right hook.'"
Shen Rui finally spoke. "Stop talking."
"Oh, thank God, you're alive."
"I'm thinking."
"Are you plotting how to seduce her through a government-issued communication blackout?"
"I'm considering installing landmines around her bunkhouse."
Jiang Wei snorted. "Romantic."
On screen, Lin Xie reappeared-dry, calm, and ever-unimpressed-as one of the contestants began shrieking about a lost shoe in the mud. She simply raised a brow and said, "You have two feet. Solve accordingly."
The chat exploded again. Hashtags like #RobotQueen, #PleaseStepOnMeXie, and #YuyanWho trended within ten minutes.
Shen Rui narrowed his eyes further.
"She doesn't even notice when people look at her."
"Yeah," Jiang Wei agreed. "That's why it's extra painful when they do. Like trying to flirt with a firewall."
Shen Rui's fingers tapped against the armrest. "She notices everything. She just doesn't care."
"Ohhh. So she noticed Yuyan drooling, and didn't care. Savage."
"I'm going to send her a message."
"You can't. No phones."
"I'll send a drone with a note."
"Like a love-sick surveillance hawk?"
Shen Rui glared. "Do you want to be pushed off this balcony?"
Jiang Wei beamed. "Now there's the unhinged billionaire I know."
But Shen Rui didn't answer.
Because on screen, Wen Yuyan had just passed Lin Xie a towel-and Lin Xie, without hesitation, handed it back with a blink and said, "Your hands are shaking. You should rehydrate."
Yuyan turned pink.
The camera zoomed in on her face like it was a romance drama. The director clearly smelled drama and ratings.
Shen Rui stood up.
"Where are you going?" Jiang Wei asked.
"To find the showrunner's personal number."
"For what?"
"To remind him that if this becomes a love triangle, I will legally and emotionally bankrupt him."
"Again: romantic."
But Shen Rui wasn't listening anymore.
He had walked to his desk, pulled out his laptop, and was already typing furiously. Not a single word was said-but the energy in the room shifted.
Somewhere, in a high-tech control room, someone was about to receive a very cold email from a very powerful man.
And Lin Xie?
She was now adjusting the tension cables on the obstacle course with surgical focus-utterly oblivious to the war raging outside the screen.
Jiang Wei tossed another popcorn kernel into his mouth.
"God, I can't wait to meet her."
---