Two and a half months later, the third episode aired. This episode coincidentally came one day before *Spring Night’s* public release, and the popularity of Wu Man and Zhui Ye as a pair reached unprecedented heights.

Because in the previous episode, they had gotten caught in the rain on the deck. After returning, both refused to sleep in the double bed using the excuse of fearing they’d catch cold and infect others, and once again slept on the sofa.

Once was a coincidence; twice meant something was up.

If these two really just preferred sleeping alone, that would be one thing. But when the third day arrived and they could finally exchange bed partners, the two couldn’t wait to check each other’s names.

When bedtime arrived, the two people who had originally been dawdling and unwilling to return to their rooms appeared in the bedroom at a speed comparable to opening Doraemon’s Anywhere Door.

Moreover, they had none of the awkwardness they showed when with others in the room. For instance, when it was time to wash up, Wu Man didn’t even ask Zhui Ye – she just said “I’ll go first” and went straight into the bedroom’s bathroom.

Sister, where was that unfamiliarity from the first day when you discussed with Weng Shaoyuan who would go first and then simply went to use the shared bathroom?

Zhui Ye’s reaction also had an indescribable strangeness. He wasn’t the type to obediently listen. Compared to Ji Sijia – her forcefulness and self-centeredness completely hit a wall with him and didn’t work at all.

But facing Wu Man’s equally unquestioning, my-way-or-the-highway attitude, he just said “mm” without looking up from his phone.

As if this scene had already happened many times and had become an instinctive bodily reaction. So he wasn’t surprised at all, and was completely accommodating.

The camera cut away here. When it cut back, Wu Man was already nestled in bed reading a book. Her hair wasn’t dry though – just wrapped in a bath towel as she leaned against the headboard. Her nightgown shoulder was dripping wet in a small patch – evidence left by wet hair peeking out from the towel.

Zhui Ye came out after showering, glanced at her, and immediately frowned.

“Didn’t blow dry again?”

This word “again” was very telling! The melon-eating masses in front of their screens immediately caught the key point.

Wu Man immediately glanced at the camera and coughed: “Filming dramas and variety shows is exhausting. You just happen to encounter me in these situations. At home I would blow dry.”

Oh, so she was saying she also didn’t blow dry her hair on film sets.

Fans disappointedly tossed aside their metaphorical watermelons.

But a very small portion of fans snorted coldly, sensing something wasn’t simple. This explanation was a bit deliberate, especially considering Wu Man’s glance at the camera. As the old Chinese saying goes: protesting too much reveals guilt.

Zhui Ye was slightly stunned, responded with an “oh,” and went back to the bathroom to get a hairdryer.

He walked straight to Wu Man’s side of the bed and smoothly pulled the book from her hands with a “swish,” placing it on the nightstand. Then his hand naturally reached into the blanket. The blanket pushed outward twice as he scooped her halfway up, moving her from facing forward to facing sideways, positioned directly toward him.

Wu Man’s expression was a bit dazed. The audience in front of their screens was also somewhat dazed.

“Dry it first before reading. When you get sleepy, you can go straight to sleep.”

He murmured while plugging the hairdryer into the bedside outlet. Warm air blew gently at a low frequency. Wu Man instinctively closed her eyes, feeling her head being kneaded and stroked with moderate pressure, as if bathing in a spring breeze.

At the same time, she said lazily: “It’s okay, I can blow dry it myself.”

But her hands remained wrapped in the blanket with no intention of coming out.

“The back of your head is always not fully dry.”

“That’s because women’s hair is thickest in that area.”

“Is that so? Then I can’t be blamed even more, since I’m not a woman.” His hand threaded through her hair, slowly weaving through the strands. “I’ve only touched one woman’s hair.”

Wu Man hummed with a strange tone: “Can’t trust the words of a ‘flirt.'”

The reason for saying the tone was strange was because fans who understood Wu Man knew that if she really wanted to coldly mock someone, she wouldn’t put on such airs while barely suppressing laughter. It sounded more like deliberately teasing and chiding.

The air-conditioned room had doors and windows closed on all sides to prevent cold air from escaping. In the cool room, the warm air overhead didn’t feel stuffy, only made one drowsy faster.

Before the drying was finished, Wu Man drowsily yawned.

“That’s enough, it’s pretty much dry.”

To sleep, she didn’t realize her voice at this moment was very close to acting spoiled.

Zhui Ye’s wrist holding the hairdryer tightened, his chest rose and fell once, then returned to calm as he tousled her hair a few more times and turned off the dryer.

At this moment, the fans in front of their screens were also nearly dozing off. When the dryer’s noise stopped, they immediately perked up.

He should get into bed now!

Zhui Ye seemed to hear their shouts across space. He took the hairdryer back to the bathroom, came out, and headed straight for the other side of the bed.

In every second before he got into bed, most people in front of their screens held their breath, afraid he would just grab a pillow, turn around, and go sleep on the sofa again. That would be too boring.

Finally, Zhui Ye lifted the blanket and calmly rolled himself in.

…That’s it? I took off my pants for this?

Haven’t you two already been at negative distance? What’s with the demarcation line between the Chu and Han kingdoms now?! Especially with Zhui Ye sleeping ramrod straight, the blanket covering him like a slice of fish on sushi, extremely neat and proper.

You’re a “flirt”! Not a “monk”!

Fans were heartbroken.

But this time he completely blocked out their cries. He stretched comfortably and didn’t move again, only his lips barely opening and closing once.

“Sister, I’m sleeping.”

Wu Man was actually more alert than when getting her hair dried. She picked up the book from the nightstand and continued flipping a page, responding casually: “Sleep then.” While reaching to the bedside to dim the lamp a few degrees.

This scene had no ambiguity whatsoever, yet inadvertently made fans curl up their limbs, as if glimpsing the bedtime routine of a young couple.

Because everything was so natural, it even made people forget the room they were sleeping in – as if it wasn’t some Western-style villa being filmed by a production team, but rather their own little nest.

The camera cut away. When it returned to this room, the lights were off. Wu Man had already laid down, her back to Zhui Ye, pressed against the very edge. Zhui Ye maintained his face-up lying position, hands placed outside the blanket to show his innocence.

The gap between their blankets arched up like a small tunnel. The air conditioning’s draft blew through lightly, seemingly making Zhui Ye subconsciously feel cold, so his hand retracted into the blanket.

Fans turned their screens to maximum brightness but couldn’t see what was happening under the blanket. They just saw Wu Man suddenly move from the edge to the middle of the bed. Zhui Ye turned from lying flat to lying on his side, pressed against Wu Man’s back. The blanket covering their waists slightly bulged – the shape looked like a hand reaching across.

Wu Man drowsily hummed, seeming to wake up a bit. Her hand reached into the blanket and moved twice, then she shifted forward back to her original position, casually tossing the pillow on the bed behind her.

Zhui Ye contentedly grabbed that pillow and nuzzled it. The fans were extremely unsatisfied and their faces fell.

Can this pillow please grow legs and roll away!

The camera cut to the other two rooms. Qin Fanlei and Jian Qun were fighting over the blanket even in their sleep. Qin Fanlei had just dragged the blanket over a bit when Jian Qun smacked his lips and pulled the blanket corner back like a tug-of-war, rolling his body twice to wrap himself into a cocoon. A few minutes later, Qin Fanlei woke up freezing. Seeing the blanket, she flew into a rage and angrily got out of bed to switch the air conditioner mode to heating at twenty-eight degrees.

In the other room, comparatively speaking, it wasn’t much gentler. Ji Sijia’s sleeping posture was quite domineering – sprawled in a big X occupying three-quarters of the bed. Weng Shaoyuan, much larger than her, rolled over and crashed to the floor with a thud, blinking his eyes in confusion.

Cutting back to Wu Man and Zhui Ye’s room, these two were currently sleeping most peacefully. Neither had been woken up by the other’s tossing. Wu Man, who had been facing away from Zhui Ye earlier, had now turned around, held face-to-face in Zhui Ye’s embrace. As for that pillow from earlier? It had long been pitifully tossed on the floor.

Zhui Ye’s chin rested on top of Wu Man’s head, his arm around her waist. She was firmly nestled inside, so closely it was like sleeping in a single bed.

…This sleeping position was far too natural and practiced.

At one glance, these two clearly didn’t normally sleep alone.

As for who they slept with, this posture seemed to have already very obviously exposed the other party.

Just as everyone began seriously suspecting this pair, Zhao Boyu had already arranged a wave of paid commenters to guide the narrative. He had been tormented helplessly by these two love-brained people and didn’t want to say anything anymore – just help clean up the mess.

So that night, several marketing accounts published identical press releases:

“The scripted traces of *Double Bed* seem a bit obvious, doesn’t it? Isn’t this deliberately arranged sweetness? This level of sweetness is too deliberate. For the film’s promotion, these two are really working so hard!”

Such passive-aggressive tea-spilling language normally didn’t have much威慑力, at most just stirring the pot.

However, what was ruthless was that Zhao Boyu leaked one harmless page from the script they had received.

This wave of marketing accounts received internal praise from both solo fandoms, though on the surface they had to act like they wished to take their favorites away with a “don’t tag us” attitude while controlling comments.

“Everything is the production team’s fault and has nothing to do with our handsome guy. Instead of this gossipy mindset, why not pay attention to *Spring Night’s* release!”

“Our sister is just working seriously according to the script. Privately, please don’t put these two colleagues together anymore. Since *Spring Night* was mentioned, please settle the appearance fee – not much, just one movie ticket is enough!”

Watching the public opinion gradually being redirected, Zhao Boyu breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as they never officially acknowledged it, as long as no private intimate actions were photographed – like holding hands, kissing, spending the night… all ambiguous interactions on variety shows could be pushed onto promotion, pushed onto the script, pushed onto business. This was probably the cunning aspect of dating within the industry.

Though CP fans dismissed such claims, there were inevitably some with fragile hearts who couldn’t stand any possibility that these two might not love each other. So when the “it’s just business” theory came out, these people were actually the ones who stepped on it hardest.

Chen Qian’s friend Xiao Ba was one of them.

They had met in a certain fan forum. When they discovered they were in the same city, they added each other on WeChat, but didn’t know each other’s real-life situations and hadn’t met in person – just followed stars together and shared gossip. As they followed, they ended up shipping Wu Man and Zhui Ye together.

However, because there had been no content for so long, Xiao Ba had left the fandom long ago. She knew Chen Qian was also in a half-departed state, but two months ago she inadvertently discovered she had started crazily posting Spring Night couple content on Weibo again.

Because she didn’t know Chen Qian was a *Double Bed* staff member who had witnessed up close two months earlier how their aura when together could practically drown others.

So when Xiao Ba asked in confusion, Chen Qian could only vaguely say: “Well, I’m just treating it as crack shipping now.”

“I don’t have your good mindset. Without interaction, I completely can’t ship it. I’m not the type who fills in blanks with imagination.”

Xiao Ba coolly replied. Chen Qian could only be rendered speechless like a beautiful woman, thinking coldly: Just wait – in two months you’ll come back crying and begging me to ship together.

Sure enough, after *Double Bed* aired, Xiao Ba quickly surrendered.

“I’m dying from shipping, really. How could this be crack shipping? It must be real!”

Chen Qian let out a long breath, finally satisfied.

The two happily shipped for a while. Xiao Ba sent Chen Qian various 800-word essays written by major shippers every day, analyzing what each action represented in an intimate relationship, what each sentence revealed about Wu Man or Zhui Ye’s thoughts.

They even agreed to camp out for *Spring Night’s* premiere tomorrow. To be precise, not tomorrow, but in a few hours at midnight.

It just so happened that because of their previous collaboration, Wu Man’s studio had reserved a theater and sent many tickets to the *Double Bed* production team. She was fortunate to receive two tickets – one for her and one for Xiao Ba.

Chen Qian never expected Xiao Ba would tell her she couldn’t go just hours before the movie started.

“So sudden?”

“My body suddenly feels a bit uncomfortable. Don’t want to stay up late.”

Chen Qian frowned. Such a reason…

“Then rest well. Tomorrow during the day, do you want me to go watch with you again?”

She patiently replied. Xiao Ba was silent for a while, then suddenly sent over a Weibo link.

It was actually tonight’s marketing account script narrative.

“What do you mean?!”

“I want to leave the fandom.”

Chen Qian said incredulously: “You don’t actually believe all their interactions on the show were scripted, do you?”

“Aren’t they?”

Speechless. As a staff member, didn’t she know whether *Double Bed* had a script?  Unfortunately, she couldn’t say directly.

Chen Qian could only hint: “It’s completely normal for variety shows to have scripts, but variety show scripts aren’t like film or TV drama scripts that detail every single action. Their interactions are all real.”

Xiao Ba remained unmoved.

“Don’t forget they’re actors – one Best Actor, one Best Actress. Wouldn’t performing love be easy for them?”

“Please, didn’t you watch tonight’s episode? Forget that the script doesn’t specify how they sleep – when people are asleep, how would they know what they’re doing? If this could be acted, they’d go straight to the Oscars for lifetime achievement!”

“That’s why I say you’re naive.” Xiao Ba sent a smiling emoji. “How do you know they were really sleeping and not pretending to sleep?”

When a person’s fragile heart is provoked, any fulcrum can be used to argue.

At this moment, Chen Qian was really furious.

She held back and held back, but finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She slapped her thigh and frantically typed out:

“Let me be honest with you about something. You absolutely cannot tell anyone else. Last time didn’t you ask why I suddenly started shipping them again two months ago? Because I’m with the *Double Bed* production team. I even coordinated with them before. I saw their private interactions with my own eyes.”

Every detail of their interactions was deeply sealed in her mind. Even after two months, she could restore them intact for Xiao Ba.

“This wasn’t during filming. They had no need to keep up an act, right?”

Chen Qian thought this would leave Xiao Ba speechless. She never expected that after another period of silence, Xiao Ba replied:

“One, he didn’t just grab a seat for Wu Man – he later wanted to help you grab one too. Is there a difference between you and Wu Man in his heart? This only proves he’s a gentleman toward women in general.”

“Two, although there were no cameras filming, you’re a staff member, so this doesn’t count as completely private. It doesn’t prove anything.”

Chen Qian was argued with to the point of almost doubting reality.

She completely gave up and sent a goodbye emoji.

Ten minutes until midnight, Chen Qian took her ticket and prepared to enter.

The theater wasn’t large – a small hall with only a few scattered people besides Chen Qian. After all, there were many reserved showings, and most people chose daytime slots. Moreover, although *Spring Night* had a lot of buzz, at its core it was still an obscure art film. Those staying up to catch the midnight premiere were the minority.

Chen Qian habitually sat in the last row. When the movie started, she roughly scanned the entire theater – about seven or eight people total.

The big screen went black. She couldn’t help sitting up straight.

When the opening credits appeared, the theater door was pushed open. The white light from the corridor outside flashed inside for a moment, illuminating one tall and one shorter figure walking toward the back row.

Chen Qian most hated people who arrived late to movies – it really affected her viewing experience. She frowned and glanced at them. Those two people walked to the most remote two seats in her row and sat down.

Chen Qian withdrew her gaze, stopped paying attention to them, and focused intently on watching the movie.

As the evening’s damp wind blew clothes, the second Wu Man appeared, Chen Qian held her breath. Strangely, the movie’s aspect ratio was somehow a cramped 1:1 square.

Chen Qian felt this perspective looked especially oppressive. Combined with Wu Man silently doing housework on screen – no soundtrack, only the rustling sounds of objects colliding – it was simply suffocating.

But there was no choice but to grit her teeth and keep watching.

After young Chen Nan burst in, Chen Qian was completely captivated by Zhui Ye’s fresh youthful appearance on screen. Surrounded by grays and blacks, his drenched white shirt and eyes shone equally bright. That suffocating feeling also weakened somewhat.

The movie progressed. The spring rain-like first kiss on the balcony, the blue-breathed wet kiss by the water tank, the kisses pecking from toes up calves on the sofa, or the rough, impulsive kiss on a oppressive thunderstorm spring night under the massage parlor’s flickering neon.

Every scene had rain, large or small, without exception wetting the viewers’ hearts along with it.

The first scene after they finally communicated their mutual feelings showed Chen Nan being kept late by a teacher after evening self-study, so at the usual time he should return, there was still no sign of him.

Xu Long had already gone to sleep, his snoring covering the sounds at the door, making it hard for Deng Lizhi to hear clearly. She quietly got up and walked to the kitchen window to look out. This direction faced the street entrance.

The night streetlights flickered on and off. The youth’s tall shadow swayed onto the wall – the person hadn’t arrived, but the shadow came first.

Just from a shadow, the expression on Deng Lizhi’s face suddenly became vivid.

She pushed open the frosted glass window with a “bang—” and the big screen’s aspect ratio was also pushed open, expanding from the suffocating 1:1 with Wu Man’s opening gesture to 16:9.

In that instant, the oppression weighing on Chen Qian’s heart vanished without a trace – not just visual openness, but an emotional release.

Without exaggeration, she got goosebumps all over.

However, at the movie’s end, Chen Nan left crying while dragging his suitcase. The black fish that had witnessed their secret passionate tide became a dead piece of meat on the cutting board.

Outside the window, rain continued pattering down, but there were no more kisses from the young man.

The 137-minute spring night had ended.

The movie began rolling end credits. Chen Qian still couldn’t come back to herself, crying like an idiot in her seat.

She thought not only of Deng Lizhi and Chen Nan’s separation, but also about Wu Man and Zhui Ye.

If they also separated like in the movie’s ending, each pursuing their own lives. Or like Xiao Ba said – actually from beginning to end they were fake, everything just a performed mirage.

Love – sometimes even those involved realize it belatedly, let alone those watching love from thousands of miles away.

So even though one second ago she had sworn she was fortunate to witness an exquisite love, the next second she would waver.

It hurt too much. Why did she have to be a CP fan? It was complete self-torture.

Chen Qian lamented. Perhaps because just seeing one look between them, one embrace, could bring enormous happiness. More addictive satisfaction than being in love herself.

Although seeking precious true feelings from distant people seemed a bit ridiculous, there was already too much hurt and loneliness in this world, and she wasn’t fortunate enough. So through this method, she could still believe that there truly were people in the world who purely loved each other. She also gained strength and warmth to move forward from this.

The small theater’s audience left before the credits finished. Chen Qian was the last to get up, but discovered those two people in the corner were still sitting there.

They wore masks and baseball caps, covering most of their faces.

Ordinary people probably couldn’t recognize them at all.

But Chen Qian found them very familiar… She had seen Wu Man and Zhui Ye wearing masks and had ridden the subway with them the whole way – a memory she couldn’t forget to this day.

Plus having watched their videos hundreds of times, she was very familiar with their physiques.

The theater lights brightened fully. Chen Qian’s heart pounded wildly. Thinking about how this was originally Wu Man’s studio’s reserved showing, she was almost certain in her heart they were Wu Man and Zhui Ye.

Her scalp tingled. Chen Qian pretended she hadn’t recognized them at all and walked forward on her own.

After exiting, she didn’t leave immediately, keeping watch on the entrance with her peripheral vision. After a while, those two came out.

They had originally been holding hands with fingers interlaced. The empty theater at 2:30 AM seemed to make them feel relaxed, not needing much vigilance. But unexpectedly Chen Qian hadn’t left yet. They froze and immediately let go of each other.

Chen Qian remained completely unmoved. She was currently pretending to make a phone call, not turning her head once.

Wu Man and Zhui Ye exchanged glances and quietly breathed sighs of relief.

The two didn’t hold hands again, walking side by side with subtle distance between them.

Only then did Chen Qian turn to look at them.

Just now, for an instant she really wanted to call Xiao Ba to tell her what she’d seen, wanted to triumphantly prove she was right, wanted to viciously shatter her fragile heart.

But gazing at their departing backs leaving together, she felt none of that mattered anymore.

They walked further and further away, disappearing into the night.

She didn’t chase after them, didn’t try to pry further.

Even though this might be the only time in her life to get this close to touching them, unrelated to work. Even though after this she might never again have the chance to see their truly private lives.

Chen Nan and Deng Lizhi got separated, but they left behind another Zhui Ye and Wu Man in this mortal world, replacing them to love deeply, becoming a pair of worldly, ordinary lovers.

Yet you are also one of a kind.

Chen Qian silently recited in her heart.

One day, you will once again walk the red carpet shoulder to shoulder, openly announcing to the world. No longer at the pitch-black deep night of 2:30 AM, but in bright magnificent daylight. With singing, with flower children, with all the love in the world accompanying you. You’ll be like acacia trees rising from barren land, growing wildly, savagely leaning toward each other, finally soaring upward, unstoppable.

May your future be bright, my beloved ones—

**Double Bed (Complete)**

**Author’s Note:**

The expanding aspect ratio filming technique references Xavier Dolan’s film *Mommy*. When I saw the aspect ratio expand at the film festival, it was truly shocking – a perfect example of emotion and audiovisual combination. That film also won Cannes’ Jury Prize.

The variety show arc ends here – hope you enjoyed this sweetness!