CH 24.1

Qi Yuji was already there when Qi Xingchen apologised and offered Zhou Yu the gift. This was the younger brother whom she had pampered to the bone, how could he become this subservient?!

Furthermore, the person he apologised to actually dared to reject his apology!

By then, Qi Yuji was livid. She restrained herself from walking over and lashing out at Zhou Yu, just to see if Zhou Yu would really accept her brother’s gift.

And yet, the scoundrel Zhou not only accepted it, he suspected her brother of giving him an imitation!

After that, he even punched her brother!

If he dared to hit her brother now, what would happen after they got married? A man like this should never be allowed into the family!

The more Qi Yuji looked at her brother’s bruised nose, the angrier she got. She commanded the bodyguards, “Quick, strip him!”

The two bodyguards immediately dashed forward.

Old Zeng, who was observing the situation by the side, didn’t expect that the man he spent day and night with was such a person. He angrily rolled up his sleeves, and started stripping the man together with the guards!

Initially, Zhou Yu’s eyes were blurry from the chilli sauce and he couldn’t see properly. When he heard Qi Yuji’s voice, he panicked, “No! Baby, listen to me! It’s not what you think! I’ve never thought of dumping you! I was just joking around with this little scoundrel!”

“... Little scoundrel?!” Qi Yuji almost fainted from anger. She stomped her foot with all her might, “Take it off, take it all off!”

“Yuji, baby, dearest baby … You, get off of me!”

Qi Yuji’s anger had been triggered, so no matter how Zhou Yu shouted, she couldn’t take in any of it. Five minutes later, Zhou Yu, who failed to free himself, had been stripped down to his underwear by the two bodyguards and Old Zeng.

It was a particularly unpleasant sight. Qi Xingchen recalled that he was still broadcasting live, hence he turned around and went to retrieve his phone.

On the other hand, Qi Yuji continued, “Tsk, this underwear was a gift from me too. Brother Li, take it off too!”

Even though the live broadcast had ended, the entire incident had already been captured onscreen and in the memories of the tens of thousands of viewers.

However, Qi Xingchen wasn’t in the mood to watch this at the moment. In his mind, a gentle and somewhat innocent woman like Qi Yuji would possibly cry for a long time when she was heartbroken.

That was the reason why he had never told her about Zhou Yu’s true nature. He wanted to take the latter down in one strike, so that Qi Yuji wouldn’t be coaxed by him, and have to suffer repeatedly. Yet, he had never expected her to be as ruthless as to strip Zhou Yu!

Originally, Qi Xingchen’s intention was simply to force Zhou Yu to retreat from the entertainment industry and leave Qi Yuji.

But now, since the viewers had seen Zhou Yu naked, it wasn’t solely a matter of retreating from the industry.

He was utterly ruined.

However, a green tea bastard [1] who cheated on women should suffer a fate worse than hell. Hence, Qi Xingchen didn’t feel an ounce of pity for him.

As Qi Xingchen was worried that Zhou Yu might scare Luo Qiuman if he returned with his dick hanging out, he stopped the bodyguards from removing the last piece of cloth covering his privates.

The situation gradually calmed. Qi Xingchen saw that Zhou Yu was pinned to the ground and unable to move, hence he turned around and consoled Qi Yuji, “Sister, don’t be angry anymore. He’s not worth your anger.”

“No, he dared to hit you just now, so I have to … wait, Xingxing, what did you call me just now?”

Qi Xingchen didn’t reply.

“Did you call me ‘sister’?” Qi Yuji was so happy that she leapt up high. “You called me ‘sister’, Xingxing called me ‘sister’!”

“Ever since you started junior high school, you haven’t addressed me as such …” As Qi Yuji spoke, the rims of her eyes turned red. “Xingxing, do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you call me this again?”

Qi Xingchen stared at the short girl standing before him. When Qi Yuji rushed forward just then, she had only blamed Zhou Yu for punching her brother. She never spoke a word about his swindling of her money and feelings.

He was punched once, but Qi Yuji, who had invested in the relationship, was actually the biggest victim.

Yet, in this whole incident, Qi Yuji had forgotten about her own pain, and placed him before herself.

This was how selfless kinship was.

Qi Xingchen had unconsciously addressed her as “sister”.

Zhou Yu was still curled up and groaning in pain, so he didn’t hear the siblings’ conversation. It wasn’t right for them to continue standing around in sight of someone being exposed since it was an indecent sight, so Qi Xingchen looked around and said, “Let’s go back first.”

Qi Yuji didn’t push him further. Her eyes brimming with tears, she said, “Alright, we'll listen to you, we’ll listen to you!”

Qi Xingchen brought Qi Yuji to Old Tie’s place. Zeng Er’s house was filled with cameras, and unless it was absolutely necessary, Qi Xingchen didn’t want too many footages of Qi Yuji to appear on screen.

Old Tie and Zeng Er lived beside each other. Qi Yuji was still sniffling about Qi Xingchen addressing her as “sister”, causing him to feel helpless. It was only when he handed her the gifts from Denmark that the stormy weather calmed.

Qi Yuji carried her new bag and refused to put it down. As she played with the bag, she jabbed Zhou Yu, whose arms were locked behind his back by the bodyguards, with the tip of her shoe. “How should we deal with him? I must have been blind back then, if not, there wouldn’t have been so many problems now.”

How to deal … This was a difficult problem.

Qi Xingchen frowned. At this moment, his phone rang. It was a call from Director Zhao.

Needless to say, Qi Xingchen knew that news of Qi Yuji tearing apart the cheater had already spread. He instructed the bodyguards to take good care of Qi Yuji, before rushing back to the Zeng family’s yard.

Director Zhao first reprimanded him, then threw his cigarette box on the floor before launching Weibo.

Qi Xingchen shamelessly leaned over to take a look too. All he saw was that the livestream had been reported endlessly by the “Starlight” and “Night Sky” groups.

Following that, when they witnessed how indomitable this beautiful girl had been when she tore this cheater apart, the netizens who were on the “Starlight” and “Night Sky” homepages also reposted in a frenzy, causing the video to go viral everywhere.

Most importantly, there were numerous bastards everywhere, and countless women have been hurt by them.

Yet, among these victims, how many would seek recourse for themselves like Qi Yuji did?

And how many of them would be so badly hurt, but they could only hide under their blankets  and lick their wounds alone at night?

Qi Yuji’s actions could only be described as satisfying.

Director Zhao launched the comments:

"Exhilarating! I haven’t felt so good for a long time!"

“I’d also met a bastard like him during university. Too bad I was too young back then, so I wasn’t as awesome as this pretty sister. If I meet him again now, I only have this to say: bastards should stay far far away!”

“On another note, I just want to live like this, looking pretty and being rich.”

“On an entirely different note, the young brother who started the livestream looks pretty good. Any links to him?”

Someone then tagged Qi Xingchen. Director Zhao narrowed his eyes at Qi Xingchen, “Tell me the truth. Did you intentionally do this to create hype, or was this unintentional?”

“It’s a bit of both.” Qi Xingchen replied honestly, “Inviting the female party was intentional, but I really didn’t expect the situation to evolve to this.”

Director Zhao was also a smart man. From Qi Xingchen’s explanation, he could more or less guess what was going on.

He put a cigarette between his lips, “If others told me they weren't doing this for publicity, I wouldn’t have believed them, but I still trust you when you say it isn’t the case. However, this is considered a filming incident. We’ve only filmed for two days on this second stop and the guest artiste is now caught in a scandal. Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? How am I going to find another guest artiste now? Moreover, Zhou Yu is the sponsor’s…”

Before Director Zhao could complete his sentence, his phone rang.

When he saw who the caller was, a smile appeared on his face, and he ran out.

When he returned, the frown on his face had disappeared entirely, and he was smiling cheerily, “Alright, Xingxing, don’t bother about this matter anymore. The sponsor had some disagreements with Zhou Yu too, and they've asked me to pull him out. We’ll mosaic his face during post-production, and they’ll handle the PR.”

“That’s great!” Qi Xingchen feigned relief as he nodded vigorously. He didn’t dare to tell Director Zhou that his family was the sponsor.

Under the instructions of Director Zhou, the editor pulled the clip out in advance, and quickly covered Zhou Yu’s face with a thick layer of mosaic.

Qi Yunxiao saw the reposted video online and got so incensed that he threw his fountain pen down in a fit of anger. “Ask the pilot to bring Yuji home, and get the PR Department up for a meeting.”

Under Qi Yunxiao’s orders, Qi Xingchen sent Qi Yuji to the Qi family’s private hangar, and passed the gifts for Father Qi and his elder brother so that she could bring them home.

Since the matter was concluded, Qi Xingchen didn’t bother to look for Zhou Yu, and left everything for Director Zhou to handle.

Director Zhou didn’t want to manage this hot potato too, so he asked the assistant to clean Zhou Yu’s swollen eyes, then asked the latter’s manager to pick him up.

Qi Xingchen also took the opportunity to obtain a plaster from the assistant. As he looked into the mirror and tried to stick it on, he was also dealing with the inquisition from the other guests. “I didn’t know that the girl would come. It was all a coincidence. Ouch…”

Bo Ye frowned. “You better go to the hospital to get your nose checked.”

“It’s fine, I fell many times before, so I’m experienced in this. I’m certain there’s no fracture.” Qi Xingchen had stuck an “X” on his nose, and he turned over.

The guests: “Hahahahaha…”

Qi Xingchen was somewhat depressed from their laughter, but he was even more worried that they would continue asking more questions, hence he found an excuse to slip away.

After the bout of laughter, Liu Ziyu couldn’t help but start gossiping. She asked quietly, “Hey, why do you think that Xingxing stood up for that woman? Could it be that … he has feelings for her?”

“That’s very likely!” Tao Tao analysed, “The young lady was beautiful. How many boys could withstand her charm?”

“I think they are quite compatible. Hey, you should look at Weibo. They even have the same surname! That's quite an affinity that they share!”

“If it weren’t because we know that Xingxing is from a regular family, I would even suspect that they are from the same family…”

As the chatter from the three female celebrities travelled into Bo Ye’s ears, his brows furrowed, and he stood up.

“Bo Ye, didn’t you just come back? Where are you going again?”

“Back to the room,” Bo Ye replied. “I’m a little tired, so I’ll go take a rest.”

---------------------------

Settling Zhou Yu was equivalent to cutting off the plot where Qi Yuji turned evil and became a villainous cannon fodder. It also meant that Qi Xingchen’s life was saved, hence he felt refreshed when he woke up.

Since the others weren’t awake yet, Qi Xingchen quickly washed up. When he was done, he noticed Little Tie leaning on the Zeng family’s metal gate and looking around. He waved at him and smiled, “Are you looking for me? Come on in.”

Little Tie came in, and in his hand was his exercise book. “Brother Xingxing, I have a question for you.”

The cameraman who woke up before dawn yawned, “Kid, your Brother Xingxing hasn’t had breakfast yet. Let him finish his breakfast first before you start.”

“It’s fine.” Qi Xingchen shook his head, “It only takes a few minutes to answer a question. Let me take a look.”

He took the questions, and true to his words, within a few minutes, not only did he solve the question, he even wrote down all the steps in the solution.

Little Tie stared at his writing, and when he realised that the answer was actually so simple, he was overjoyed. “Brother Xingxing, my classmates would like to consult you too. Go have your meal first, I’ll get them to wait for a while.”

“There’s no need.”

Yangshan Village wasn’t big, how many children of similar age could there be? Qi Xingchen was having fun solving questions, so he said, “Let them all come in. We’ll be able to finish in twenty minutes.”

“Alright, thanks Brother Xingxing.” Little Tie then dashed out and yelled, “Everyone, come on in!”

Next, one, three, five, eight children… walked in line into the room.

… Damn! There were more than forty of them!

The cameraman covered his forehead with his hand, “Oh my god, how many students are there?”

“Forty two.” Little Tie replied bashfully.

The cameraman asked again, “How many students are there in your level?”

“In our school, we aren’t split by levels. Two classes were formed from the villages in the vicinity, and there’s less than a hundred students.”

Less than a hundred in total, but forty two came today.

That’s half the school!

The cameraman didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Qi Xingchen’s proud expression gradually froze, and changed into a blank look as he forced a smile.

He ran to the table, grabbed a bun and held it in his mouth. Then, as though he was a valiant martyr, he said “Come on!”

Hence, Qi Xingchen’s entire morning was occupied by the children. It was only when Director Zhao came over to distribute their mission that the kids who had crowded around finally dispersed.

“Whose turn is it now?” Qi Xingchen wiped his perspiration away.

“It’s my turn now, Teacher Xingxing.” A young girl whose face was flushed raised her hand. “There are still eight others after me.”

“Alright, got it. I have to work now. You can come and look for me again tomorrow morning. Will it be in time?”

The girl hesitated for a moment, “We have an exam tomorrow at nine.”

“Then let’s do it earlier. Meet me at five o'clock.”

After setting the time, Qi Xingchen sent the kids away and gathered with the other guests to receive the instructions.

Director Zhao first teased “Teacher Xingxing” for a while, then raised his loudhailer, “As you all know, there was a small incident that occurred in our programme yesterday, and now the cast is down to six people again. I hope that everyone won’t be affected by it, and please do not respond to any queries on social media. Let’s continue to work together to complete missions everyday. And now, I’ll announce the mission for today.”

“Today’s challenge is about survival in the wilderness. The tools required for the mission will be provided by the crew, and the requirement is …”

Director Zhao turned and pointed at the area behind him. “Do you see the two mountains there? The one on the left is called Panlong Mountain, and the one on the right is called Jufeng Mountain. You’ll need to find mission keys from the two mountains in order to complete the mission.”

“The time limit for this mission is twenty four hours. If you are able to complete before dusk today, you’ll unlock the mystery prize. The prize will be announced after the mission ends.”

Everyone could sense how arduous this mission might be when they heard the time limit, since they were never given a limit previously.

“Keys?” Liu Ziyu asked, “Are they regular keys?”

“That’s for you to find out,” Director Zhao chuckled, “Anyway, it’ll be different from the things growing on the mountain. Alright, leave your personal belongings behind and come with me.”

Everyone looked at one another, then helplessly returned their backpacks to their rooms.

It was a thirty minutes’ journey from Yangshan Village to Panlong and Jufeng Mountains. In order to conserve energy, Tao Tao took out two hundred dollars from their travel funds and rented two trishaws from the villagers.

It was only when they were near Panlong Mountain that they realised why the crew had set the time limit.

From afar, these two mountains were the flattest and shortest among the other mountains here. But when they were close enough and could see the mountains in their entirety, it was clear that these two mountains were still much higher than the mountains that had been developed!

Xi Qingchen looked at Luo Qiuman from the corner of his eye and noticed her somewhat troubled expression. He asked Director Zhao, “Can I let the other guests use my Pass card?”

Director Zhao replied, “You can’t. I’ve already reminded all of you yesterday that you have to allocate it wisely.”

Qi Xingchen wanted to argued, “But…”

“It’s alright,” Luo Qiuman cut in, “Xingxing, you probably wanted to give it to me right? I exercise regularly too, so I should be able to persevere.”

Since Luo Qiuman had said so, everyone could only brace themselves as they went to collect the tools from the production assistant.

The tools were placed in two gigantic bags. Zhang Yunfei opened them up one by one, “Two tents, six trekking poles, six caps, a basin, six bowls, twelve chopsticks, a lighter, a switchblade, and some condiments.”

Seeing that he stopped, Liu Ziyu urged, “Continue.”

“... That’s nothing else.” Zhang Feiyun said, “Just these.”

Just these?!!

“That can’t be true,” Tao Tao was flabbergasted. “What about food? It’s only ten in the morning. If we have to hike up both mountains and return to the village after, we’ll need at least a day. And that’s only if we manage to successfully find the keys. If we can’t find it, we’ll need to spend the night in the mountains, and to go without food for more than ten hours…”

To not eat for more than ten hours, that was acceptable if they weren’t exercising. However, climbing a mountain was an extremely strenuous activity. Wasn’t asking them to go without food akin to asking for their lives?!

Zhang Feiyun also felt suspicious, “The production assistant might have overlooked this when he was preparing the items. I’ll go and ask.”

Five minutes later, Zhang Yunfei came back with a stony expression.

“What did they say?” Qi Xingchen asked.

Zhang Yunfei replied, “I quote Director Zhao, ‘This episode’s mission is survival in the wild. If food is provided, what’s the purpose of this survival test?'”

All the guests were speechless.

Tsk, they felt a strong urge to spew some expletives.

Zhang Yunfei could understand what everyone was feeling, so he tried to console them, “Shall we set off now? There’s no point in us staying here anyway. Who knows, we might find the keys as soon as we start.”

“Yes,” Qi Xingchen echoed, “Let’s take it as it comes. When we reach the mountain, there’ll definitely be a way through [2].”

The cameraman chuckled, “... To think that you can even cite an idiom now!”

The guests’ mood improved slightly as they laughed.

Following the resounding idiom, everyone started to ascend the mountain, their eyes trained on any objects that might resemble a key.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find anything by noon.

“Brother Yunfei, should we take a rest?” Tao Tao wiped her perspiration, “We’ve been walking for three hours now.”

Luo Qiuman was also panting. Zhang Yunfei looked at his watch, “Alright, let’s rest for an hour before we start again. Let me see if I can find some fruits to fill our stomachs.”

Qi Xingchen volunteered, “While you look for fruits, I’ll go get some water. I hear some trickling sounds at that side.”

They found a sheltered spot for the three ladies to rest. Qi Xingchen took the basin, and Bo Ye said, “I’ll go with you. There might be fishes in the water.”

Qi Xingchen asked, “... You want to catch fishes? The fishes in the mountains are usually smarter than humans. Without a fishing net, it’ll be hard to capture them barehanded.”

“Why do we need to do it barehanded?” Bo Ye pulled out the switchblade from the backpack, “We can sharpen a tree branch and use it to pierce the fishes.”

Qi Xingchen, “....”

Excuse me? What are you saying? Xi Qingchen was speechless.

Was this young master Bo brainwashed by those martial arts movies? Why would he think that stabbing fishes using tree branches would be easier than catching them barehanded?

Qi Xingchen thought to himself, his real idol would never be this adorably silly.

However, he couldn’t bear to break the fake idol’s martial arts dream, hence he left with Bo Ye.

Along the way, the fake idol picked up a branch about the thickness of a finger, then sliced the tip as though he was sharpening a pencil. Qi Xingchen didn’t say anything.

After walking for another twenty metres or so, true enough, they saw a river. Uncertain if this was fortunate or not, but the river flow had been cut off by a fallen tree, and filled into a shallow stream.

In the stream, some carps were swimming leisurely!

“There really are fishes.” Bo Ye raised the branch, stood by the water and observed for a moment, then raised his leg and prepared to step into the water.

Qi Xingchen was about to take some water with the basin, but he suddenly stopped. “Oh? Where are you going?”

“I’m going to fish.”

“Just like this?”

Bo Ye was bewildered, “If not, how should I go?”

[1] 绿茶吊 - male version of green tea bitch, acts innocent but is actually ambitious and will do anything for money.

[2] 车到山前必有路 - an idiom that means that everything will turn out fine eventually.