CH 19

The six guests were sitting in a row waiting for the plane, and Luo Qiuman was using his massager while sitting next to him on the left side.

Bo Ye was on the far right. When he felt his phone vibrate, he took it out and glanced at it, then switched off his screen.

Qi Xingchen waited but did not receive a reply; he leaned forward to look to his right and found that Bo Ye was listening to music with his headphones on, so he probably did not hear it.

He typed again: 【By the way, what did you use to buy it? Didn’t we have nothing left of the funds for our stop at Denmark?】

During the recording, the camera followed Bo Ye practically every inch of the way, and had also followed him when he went to buy ice cream just now, so Bo Ye could not find the opportunity to cheat by using his own money.

Bo: 【Just eat.】1

Xingxing: 【……Oh】

How harsh, Qi Xingchen put away his phone indignantly. It was the first time he had eaten such delicious ice cream. Not wanting to finish it too quickly, he took small bites each time.

Bo Ye subconsciously stroked his index finger, where a ring had been, but was now completely bereft.

.

After the ten hour plus flight, it was already Monday noon when the group arrived in Qianzhou.

Director Zhao was quite forthright: “We’ll pay for the vehicle to the destination this time, no need for you all to spend money!”

“Ah,” Zhang Yunfei was so tired that there were rings of green and black around his eyes, “My intuition tells me that you guys definitely are up to no good2.”

Sure enough, Zhang Yunfei’s intuition was accurate. After getting into the multi-purpose vehicle and catching up on their sleep, when the group opened their eyes, they were already in the middle of a boundless expanse of green.

Qi Xingchen jumped out of the car, hand at his brow as he stood on tiptoe to look ahead. All he could see were the continuous mountain peaks reaching through the clouds; the lush green mountain forests were limitless, as if the ends of the mountains were the edge of the world; a place that could never be reached.

“It’s beautiful!” Seeing this kind of view, the guests could not help but exclaim.

At this moment, more than ten villagers driving ox carts, seeing the multi-purpose vehicle approaching, immediately started applauding while shouting with accents interspersed: “Welcome Damai3 TV to Niuben4 Town and Yangshan5 Village to film a drama!!”

“…… It’s Maimang6 TV, not Damai,” Director Zhao was the last to get out of the car and corrected exasperatedly, “and not to film a drama, but to record a programme.”

“Forgive me, leader, forgive me, I said it wrongly,” the leader of the group of villagers said sheepishly, “My name is Zeng Er7, you can just call me Old Zeng. The village chief, whose sheep is giving birth, asked me to receive you. I don’t have a way with words8, so leader, don’t take this personally hah.”

Saying this, he pulled out a towel from his trouser pocket and gave a few harsh whips on the ox cart: “Get in, leaders, it has been raining for the past few days and the road is all muddy, so cars can’t get in, we can only inconvenience everyone to take this la!”

Liu Ziyu: “……”

When she had said at that time that she might as well be participating in X-Change9 when she joined《Budget Travel》, she never thought that her words would turn out to be tragically prophetic. With the situation now, how was it any different from f*cking X-Change?!!!

The guests climbed onto the ox cart with wooden faces, and Qi Xingchen stared at Bo Ye from the corner of his eyes and could see with one glance that his complexion was not looking well.

He had a chronic dust allergy, all of the Night Skies knew about it. Facing an ox cart that was full of dust, no one could say for sure if his allergy would be triggered.

Qi Xingchen took off his outdoor jacket10 and laid it along the side of the cart without batting an eyelid, “Bo Ye-ge, there are wooden splinters here, be careful.”

He was afraid that the villagers could hear them and it would hurt their pride, so he didn’t say that it was because there was so much dust. This was also why Bo Ye had kept quiet. Luckily, Qi Xingchen managed to cover it up with a reason, and Bo Ye nodded at him in acknowledgement, finally taking a seat.

The road into the village was really bad, and after moving then stopping again and again for over an hour, the guests covered their bottoms while they were sent to the village chief’s office by Zeng Er.

The village chief’s office was right at the entrance of the village, a small brick room of a dozen square meters, which would not have fit this many people if the village chief had not gone home.

Director Zhao made the guests stand in a line, “Yangshan Village and the surrounding mountain range and villages are the main tourist places we will be tackling at this stop. From now on, I will release a mission message every morning. If the mission is completed, the challenge will be a success; if not completed, the challenge will be a failure and two thousand dollars would be deducted from the travel funds.”

“Two thousand?” After hearing the director read out the rules, Tao Tao couldn’t help but protest, “We’re down to four thousand now, after two deductions, wouldn’t we lose all of it?!”

Director Zhao shrugged, “You all can choose to complete the mission ah.”

“…… Who knows how difficult the task will be!”

“It doesn’t matter how difficult it is, I’ve invited help for you all at this stop,” the director laughed, “our temporary guest11…… Oh, speak of the devil12, he’s here just at the right time!”

Through the very small glass window, a thin, tall man could be seen talking to the video camera as he walked this way, and the curious guests stretched their necks to look outside.

Only Qi Xingchen was frozen in place as if ice water had been poured over his head, unable to utter a single word.

Qi Xingchen did not expect that even though he had tried hard to push Zhou Yu down and squeeze himself in, what he wanted to prevent from happening still failed to be prevented, and what was supposed to have happened still had to happen.

Was it possible that he still could not change the plot after all?

Zhou Yu was seen pulling a red RIMOWA1 Supreme co-branded suitcase in his left hand, a Gucci shoulder bag hanging from his right shoulder, dressed from head to toe in the Balenciaga men’s collection, pairing just perfectly with the dirty shoes on his feet.

He had to grudgingly admit that Zhou Yu’s looks and figure were really not bad, if not Qi Yuji would not have loved him to the point of madness.

Walking into the courtyard, Zhou Yu bowed while respectfully shaking hands with Director Zhao, who smiled: “His name is Zhou Yu, he is now a model under Noah. Bo Ye and Xingxing should know him, right?”

“…… Oh, yes2.”

Bo Ye did not say anything, and Qi Xingchen just responded mechanically.

“At the same time, he is a kid that came from Qianzhou,” Director Zhao continued, “He is more familiar with this side of the country, so if there are any social customs or habits that anyone doesn’t understand, you can ask him.”

“That’s right, please give me lots of guidance for the following week.” Zhou Yu followed up.

Once the audience had gotten to know the fixed guests better in the first episode, it was common practice for variety programmes to start adding in new blood from the second episode onwards, to save the audience from aesthetic fatigue.

It was just that when choosing a temporary guest, they would usually have to choose someone who is more famous. For Zhou Yu to be able to come over this time, is certainly due to the existence of Qi Yuji’s involvement.

After the director’s introduction, the guests began to exchange pleasantries. Zhou Yu very politely shook each hand one by one, and he reached Tao Tao.

Tao Tao smiled lightly, “Hello, you can just call me Taotao.”

【In a spark of lightning3, Zhou Yu was dazzled by Tao Tao’s smile.

…… This line was from the original text of 《Peach in the Night》. Qi Xingchen had a strong recollection of it.

And the image before his eyes had already overlapped with the original text; Zhou Yu looked at Tao Tao, his soul completely lost. It was just that in the original text, it took place during the first recording of the programme, and now it was taking place at the second stop of 《Budget Travel》.

Qi Xingchen gritted his teeth and hurriedly inserted himself between the two people, pretending to be familiar as he patted Zhou Yu’s arm, “Yu-ge, how could you not inform me before you came?”

Zhou Yu’s expression was bewildered. He didn’t have Qi Xingchen’s contact information, how could he inform him?

Immediately after, it dawned on him. Now that the camera was here, Qi Xingchen was probably trying to worm his way into being friends with him.

Ever since participating in 《Budget Travel》, Qi Xingchen’s popularity had skyrocketed. Often waking up from his dreams in the middle of the night4, Zhou Yu always could not help but slip into reverie. What would have happened, if the one who had entered 《Budget Travel》at that time had been him?

He would certainly perform better than Qi Xingchen, right? He would have several millions of fans by now, right? He should have gotten hold of a role in a big platform web drama already, right? Maybe he could even be cast in a satellite television show, right?

It was Qi Xingchen who blocked his way, but fortunately, for the past few days, he had incessantly buttered Qi Yuji up5, begging Qi Yuji to stuff him in by means of her guanxi6.

Now, it was his turn to take revenge and set up a counterattack. Zhou Yu twisted his mouth into a smile and said snarkily7 “I was afraid that you were busy, hence I didn’t get in touch with you. Xingxing, long time no see ah.”

.

After welcoming the person, the second stop of the trip officially began, and the first priority was still finding accommodations.

Zhang Yunfei was still thinking of finding a local farming household to rent a courtyard, like what they did in Aunslev Village. Qi Xingchen stopped him, saying, “Yunfei-ge, let me try. Perhaps, there will be no need to spend money.”

“How are you going to do it?”

“Wait for me to go and chat with Zeng Er.”

With that, Qi Xingchen let the rest wait at the sidelines, then ran towards the courtyard of Zeng Er’s house.

As one of the villagers who could be entrusted with important guests when the village chief was not available, Old Zeng’s family was the wealthiest in Yangshan Village.

Qi Xingchen crossed over into the courtyard and nodded in satisfaction before calling out, “Uncle Zeng!”

“Aiyo,” Zeng Er had picked up the people and helped settle them down at the village chief’s office, then went home to feed the horses. Seeing Qi Xingchen and the cameras crashing9 in as one large group, he immediately set aside the fodder in his hands, “The leader is here lah!”

“I’m not the leader, you10 can just call me Xingxing,” Qi Xingchen smiled genuinely, “Uncle Zeng, I would like to discuss a matter with you.”

“What matter is it ah?”

“The seven of us guests came over in such a hurry that we have no place to stay. Can we lodge at your place for a few days?”

Zeng Er’s face promptly showed that he was at a loss. Although his house was big, his son and daughter-in-law were living with them. With so many people arriving at once, not only would it be inconvenient, they would also have to provide meals and such for more mouths, which would be too troublesome.

Qi Xingchen could see that Zeng Er had apprehensions, bringing over a small foldable stool11 and sat down next to Zeng Er. He adopted an attitude of confiding in him with entire sincerity12: “Uncle Zeng, you know what we are here for, right?”

Zeng Er: “I know, it’s for shooting a programme mah.”

“Then you13 should also know why the village chief came to pick us up with great fanfare14.”

Zeng Er nodded: “’Said that you all are strategic partners who can promote the development of the tourism industry and start renown farmhouses to become rich, and whatnot.”

“That’s precisely it, Uncle Zeng.”

Qi Xingchen moved closer to Zeng Er, lowering his voice. The following shot assistant could not record the audio, also drawing nearer to be next to Zeng Er.

Qi Xingchen whispered: “Do you15 think it was appropriate to toss such important guests like us in the office unattended?”

Zeng Er shook his head and said firmly, “It’s not appropriate.”

“Then ponder about it for a bit, why would the village chief rather throw us to the village office, than let you bring us to your home. Your home is certainly the best in the village, even bigger than the village chief’s courtyard. By right, it is the most suitable to receive guests, and also the best equipped to open a renowned farmhouse to earn money.”

Qi Xingchen emphasised the last two words “earn money” very clearly.