The verdant sea surface was crushed by the wind and waves, churning out white froth.
The sunlight was scorchingly bright; You Zijun raised his hand to shield his eyes as he looked out, just in time to see those two huddled under a large black umbrella at the bow, clueless about what they were doing.
After staring for a while, You Zijun suddenly felt that the production team was somewhat absurd. What was the point of scripting a scene between a nobody and the pop diva Pei Muchan?
Could it be that the nobody was actually brought in by Pei Muchan, the paid kind?
Audiences are really naïve, unable to discern such an obvious script. Ridiculous, as if in reality a pop diva would throw herself at a random passerby.
He didn't care much, not one to easily lose his composure.
After all, he too had a female guest as a partner. Although he and Shen Jinyue were almost on brotherly terms now, it didn't matter. At least he had a fallback female companion and wouldn't lose face.
He had always maintained the attitude of an observer, not losing his composure no matter what he saw because he mainly wanted to consider the feelings of his friend Liu Renzhi.
After all, Liu Renzhi had always had a crush on Pei Muchan, yet had received no response, which must have seemed particularly cruel to him.
"What are you standing here for?" Liu Renzhi had already played a round of cards, walked over to You Zijun's side, and his eyes were slightly squinted just in time to see the two people at the bow.
"Look at what they're doing." You Zijun turned around, suppressing the thrill in his heart, and said solemnly, "Sister Pei shouldn't be doing this."
Hope nearly brimmed over in his eyes; he couldn't wait to see Liu Renzhi trembling all over, eyes red with jealousy, or even cursing frostily.
However, Liu Renzhi's reaction was completely unexpected.
"Oh, they must be applying sunscreen. Right before I joined the card game, I saw Sister Pei take out a box of sunscreen."
You Zijun was full of question marks and couldn't help but ask.
"They're already like that..."
"Brother Xu can persist in fishing in the scorching heat, truly a real man." Liu Renzhi interjected, "Sister Pei applying sunscreen on him is quite cute, what's wrong with that?"
Quite cute?
He stared dumbfounded at Liu Renzhi, suspecting he'd been body-snatched. Cute my foot! You should be raging powerlessly, crawling in dark, twisted jealousy!
"Forget it, Enya is calling me to play cards." Liu Renzhi patted You Zijun's shoulder, whistled cheerfully, and walked away.
He stared blankly as the stoutly-built Liu Renzhi, with a flattering trot, headed towards the card table. He squeezed his large frame into the small card table as if an elephant was being stuffed into a fridge.
"Scandal is also a kind of fame," he muttered. "Song Enya is just a cosmetics blogger with a fixed fan base. If she votes you out, the show will go on."
"She has four days to clear her name and can use this opportunity to get a lot of free hot search exposure. At most, she'll be scolded for a while, and as long as she can catch the traffic, she can monetize it."
Pei Muchan glanced at him lightly, astonished.
"How do you know so much?"
He was too embarrassed to say that when he couldn't sleep at night, he liked to drink Snow Beer and watch live broadcasts of internet celebrities tearing into each other in scripted dramas. That stuff pulled him in.
"That, game theory, game theory."
"Then let them vote, it's fine by me. After I leave the show, I can directly record 'Qing Tian', catch up with the schedule, and the production of a single can be completed by next week."
After she finished speaking, she thought to herself that it would be just perfect for you to team up with Moon. She pursed her lips, holding back from saying it out loud, worried that Xu Qingyan might give her a cold face.
Even though she felt a little sour inside, Pei Muchan kept a straight face and said.
"You can stay a few more days anyway. Since Moon is the love hunter, having a good relationship with you might even help you get that million from the show."
The sea breeze blew, and Xu Qingyan thought to himself that he wouldn't need her help to get the million—he was an internal beta player. Whether he won or lost wasn't important; he wouldn't get the reward anyway.
"You mean Shen Jinyue, she's not the love hunter."
"What?" Pei Muchan turned her head abruptly, looking astonished, "What are you talking about? Did she reveal her identity to you in private?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?" she asked, puzzled.
"Guessed." Xu Qingyan did not directly answer Pei Muchan's question but glanced sideways, intending to say something else when his fishing rod suddenly pulled downward.
His pupils dilated instantly, and he shouted,
"Got one!"
Pei Muchan wanted to ask more, but his excited shout startled her, and she involuntarily leaned forward.
Just as Xu Qingyan pinned his large black umbrella under his arm, straightened his arms, and frantically lifted the fishing rod, a gust blew the umbrella ribs almost gently bumping into Pei Muchan.