The news about the recording of “Cat and Mouse Game” was all over the internet, but few trainees at the “NS” filming base knew about it.
The reason the production team gave for Quentin and the others leaving the base was to shoot an advertisement, which wasn’t wrong. After finishing the variety show, Quentin did have to film a promotional short video for a beauty brand.
Besides that, the four of them were also arranged by the production team to do a reshoot for the “NS” sponsor’s advertisement.
Starting from Yanhai, heading to Nancheng, the four of them first took the nanny van arranged by the production team to the airport, then after several transfers, they arrived in Nancheng.
On the plane, Galaxy Entertainment sent a man around thirty years old to accompany them.
This man was dressed quite formally, exuding an elite air, and claimed to be an assistant manager who might be working with Quentin and the others long-term in the future.
Hearing him say that, Quentin guessed that he was probably the assistant Galaxy Entertainment arranged for the group after debut.
The assistant manager patiently explained to them the other guests for this variety show recording, the rules and common tactics of “Cat and Mouse Game”, the types of guest behavior variety show audiences preferred, and other precautions. His nagging manner was quite mismatched with his elite aura, but this actually quickly brought him closer to the four trainees.
By the time of the second transfer, Quentin and the others had already changed how they addressed him to Brother Wu.
On the night he agreed to Director Chen Hai’s invitation, Quentin had already caught up on two episodes of “Cat and Mouse Game” through the system and had a general understanding of the variety show.
Simply put, it was about tearing off name tags. He had watched it quite a bit when he was in elementary school in his previous life. It’s just that in this world, the Chinese entertainment industry placed more emphasis on the development of the cultural and entertainment industry. Even when recording a variety show, they wouldn’t let artists easily earn their money while being carefree.
Comedic actors had to diligently pursue show effects, and when tearing off name tags, they also had to go all out in attack and defense. Slacking off or going easy was absolutely not allowed!
Fans of the”Cat and Mouse Game” had very high demands of the guests, and their fighting power was stronger than most fans of the guests themselves. After all, it was a long-running variety show that had been recording for ten years.
The artists who endured hardships and fatigue on this show in its early years were now all hugely popular, yet they still returned to record from time to time. Since even the senior artists could abide by the rules diligently, the younger generation of juniors naturally wouldn’t play around.
“‘Cat and Mouse Game’ is a national variety show. You should all have seen it before. I’ll go over the specific rules again in detail. Feel free to ask questions anytime.”
Assistant Manager Wu cleared his throat. “The name-tag tearing in ‘Cat and Mouse Game’ combines pursuit battles with hide-and-seek. Before the game starts, the production team divides the guests equally into two teams, the Cat Team and the Mouse Team.”
“Only you yourselves know your cat or mouse identity. Throughout the game, you will receive different tasks from the production team. While completing tasks, you need to hide your identity, and the best outcome is to find your teammates in advance.”
“There is one thing you must pay attention to during the name-tag tearing segment: the Cat Team can tear the Mouse Team, the Mouse Team cannot tear the Cat Team, and teammates cannot tear each other. If teammates tear tags from each other, both parties are eliminated together.”
“The Cat Team’s winning condition is to eliminate all members of the Mouse Team. The Mouse Team’s winning condition is to have at least one surviving member while being hunted by the Cat Team.”
Wen Xinyi couldn’t help but raise his hand to ask a question when he heard this: “Doesn’t this kind of rule put the Cat Team at a big disadvantage? The Mouse Team just needs to hide from start to finish, run when they encounter a cat, and just persist until the end, right?”
“That’s one way to put it. Under normal circumstances, the Mouse Team’s playstyle really is just hide-and-seek.” Assistant Manager Wu explained, “But if members of the Cat Team successfully complete tasks, they can randomly get the location of a Mouse Team member every ten minutes. So hiding all the time is actually quite dangerous.”
Yan Qiao thought for a moment and said, “I watched an episode before where a member of the Mouse Team successfully fooled everyone and survived to the end by posing as a member of the Cat Team.”
Wen Xinyi asked curiously, “They can do that? How? The number of people on each team is fixed. In the end, having an extra cat would definitely be suspicious, right? It can’t be hidden.”
“There’s a way.” After hearing Yan Qiao’s words, an idea popped into Quentin’s head. “If teammates tear tags fy each other, both are eliminated. If you pick up the scraps when two cats tear each other, and tell outsiders that you tore two mice at the same time, then you can take the place of one of the cats, and also free up the other cat identity for a teammate.”
Wen Xinyi’s eyes lit up: “Oh right, I get it.”
Yan Qiao: “…That is possible, but it’s quite difficult to execute. In the episode I mentioned, it was because there was a task prop that triggered a half-hour period of identity swapping, allowing the Mouse Team to counter-kill the Cat Team. In the middle, a guest muddied the waters, pretended to save a member of the Cat Team, and then managed to blend in until the end.”
Quentin turned his head: “Identity swapping is possible?”
Assistant Manager Wu chimed in: “That happens every episode, you could say it’s a fixed rule, but the prerequisite is very strict: it requires all members of the Mouse Team to successfully complete their tasks. On average, only one episode per season meets the condition. Last season, I think not a single episode did.”
Wen Xinyi used to be busy with school, work, and supporting his family. He didn’t have much leisure time and hadn’t watched many variety shows. The rules of “Cat and Mouse Game” were very novel to him, so he listened with great interest and had many questions.
“If we’re divided into teams, will the four of us be on the same team?” he asked. “Brother Wu, you mentioned earlier there are eight other guests: the entire Inferno group and two teachers from ECHO. If they group by boy bands, we should be able to be on the same team as the teachers from ECHO, right?”
Quentin was sitting in the seat next to him. Hearing his repeated use of “teacher,” he was a bit surprised. “Teacher” huh?
It indeed sounded more polite than something like “senior” or similar terms. For strangers meeting for the first time, it wouldn’t seem too intimate, nor too flattering. Hmm, good.
Upon hearing this, Assistant Manager Wu replied, “Maybe it’ll be as you said, or maybe they’ll deliberately mix up the teams. Director Chen loves to go against expectations and common tropes more than anything.”
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then still said, “The latter is more likely.”
He didn’t say why, but he thought about the online public opinion from the past two days…fans of both inferno and “NS” had already started subtly bickering with each other.
From Director Chen Hai’s perspective, he definitely loved watching the drama and wouldn’t mind it getting bigger. Why would he let inferno and Quentin’s four get along harmoniously? It would be much more exciting for them to face off on their own teams, and the feedback from fans on both sides after the broadcast would also be more intense.
Ji Yang, who hadn’t been speaking much, suddenly thought of something and opened his mouth: “I’ve watched a few episodes. The guests inside looked like they were about to come to blows when tearing off name tags. Were they actually fighting?”
Assistant Manager Wu was silent for a moment. What kind of question is that? Of course, they can’t actually fight!
He said: “Fighting is definitely not allowed. Are you asking if they were just doing it for the show effect? Let me tell you, no. They genuinely got too into tearing off name tags.”
“A major highlight of ‘Cat and Mouse Game’ is the intense desire to win from both teams. The guests aren’t just there to play around; they really want to win. The director wants you to be serious, and the audience wants you to be serious too.”
Assistant Manager Wu emphasized: “So don’t go easy, and don’t deliberately pretend to be weak. That kind of ‘delicate and easy to push over’ persona is outdated. At least on this show, it won’t be accepted. Everyone wants to see a well-matched contest. Understand?”
Ji Yang nodded: “Yeah, that’s fine.”
Assistant Manager Wu looked at his relieved expression and felt a vague sense of foreboding in his heart: “…Although you need to be serious, don’t actually hit people. There’s no need to cause any injuries.”
Yan Qiao laughed: “In several previous episodes, the guests’ clothes were torn to shreds. People from both teams got so angry their expressions were twisted. So they really got angry from playing the game seriously?”
“Of course, it’s real. But it’s just a game, the anger passes.” Assistant Manager Wu joked, “For this episode, aside from ECHO’s Ji Sheng and He Shuyi, you can offend anyone else as you like. Even those two from ECHO are nothing to be afraid of. It’s just a game. We’re all adults here. Who can’t take a game?”
They chatted along the way and arrived at Nancheng Airport at around noon.
Recording a variety show is a work itinerary, making strict secrecy difficult. Quite a number of fans were already waiting at the airport.
Thanks to the “Cat and Mouse Game” production team sending staff to pick them up at the airport, they didn’t waste much time there, and the group soon took a car to the hotel.
“Cat and Mouse Game” never lacked sponsors. The production team was well funded and was willing to spend it on booking hotels. The five of them each got a single room with a king-size bed.
Quentin was alone in his room. After organizing the luggage he brought for awhile, he heard someone knocking on the door.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
An unfamiliar voice came from outside the door, its tone rising, sounding very young and energetic.
“Hey~ Hey~ May I ask if this is Teacher Quentin?”
Quentin had just walked to the door and grabbed the doorknob when he heard this line.
He blinked and thought, what a coincidence. He had just learned this term of address, and someone was already calling him that.
Quentin opened the door, not fully, just halfway. He stood behind the door and peeked out.
One, two, three, four, five, six…
Outside the door, six boys were crowded together. They were all around 1.8 meters tall, with fair skinned and youthful features. Just by looking at their appearances, they seemed like a bunch of high school students, mostly with youthful-looking faces.
The light in the hotel corridor was dim and yellow, not as bright and clear as inside the room with the curtains drawn.
Quentin’s impression of these boys was “young.” Meanwhile, the first reaction of the boys outside, each with their own thoughts, upon seeing Quentin was quite similar;
“Holy crap! How is he even more handsome than on the show?!”
The boys, whose average age didn’t exceed 20, felt a small piece of their hearts crumble. They thought that the Quentin on “NS” only looked that enviably handsome because of beauty filters and styling.
But the person in front of them, with his calm expression, was clearly not wearing makeup. Even though his features looked like he had a full face of makeup on, and his skin was ridiculously good, they were professional idol group members with sharp eyes. It wasn’t hard to tell the difference between a real bare-face and a fake bare face.
Even if his hair was a little messy, a bit chaotic, and a little fluffy, it only made him look more real and natural. His handsomeness was aggressive and very charismatic.
If this scene were photographed, the picture would probably be used for online dating, scamming who knows how many rich young men and women until they cried.
Both sides, inside and outside the hotel room, looked at each other speechlessly. No one took the initiative to speak. Finally, Quentin couldn’t take it anymore and asked with half-squinted eyes: “What’s up?”
The boy at the front sighed inwardly. Even his fierce look is so handsome. Is there even any point in continuing to record this show?
He really didn’t want to be in the same frame as this guy. It was too discouraging. How did the other “NS” trainees put up with it!
Despite his thoughts, Ji Xu’s smile remained radiant on the surface, his eyes sparkling as he made eye contact with Quentin: “Good afternoon, Teacher Quentin. We’re Inferno. My name is Ji Xu. We’ll be recording the show together this afternoon, so we came to say hello first. Please take care of us!”

