Don't!
You might not care, but I care, man!
Besides, I'm not someone you can win over just by pestering me relentlessly.
Why put yourself through this?
Pei Tingyun felt that Xie Huan had made up his mind to repay him with his body.
Nothing he said would help.
He could only demonstrate his refusal through action:
"I can't get through to you. I'm going to sleep!"
Xie Huan scratched his head.
He couldn't understand what was so hard to explain about the simple fact that he wouldn't hurt him.
But Xie Huan had one particularly good quality.
He didn't understand, but he listened.
When Pei Tingyun said to sleep, Xie Huan turned off the lights, lay down, and went straight to sleep.
He left only a small bedside lamp on for Pei Tingyun, who was afraid of the dark.
Pei Tingyun sighed in the dim yellow light.
Forget it. I'll leave him be for now.
Once we've spent more time together, Xie Huan will understand.
And yet.
The man who had just been saying no in his head still had the corners of his mouth slightly raised when he fell asleep.
Early the next morning.
Since the Roaming Group had secretly plotted something big in their group chat the day before.
Everyone got up very early that day.
Dawn had barely broken before they were greeting one another in their five-person group chat.
After confirming that everyone was up, Pei Tingyun gave the order in the chat:
[Move out!]
Then all five members of the Roaming Group appeared outside the director's room, carrying various props.
Pei Tingyun held a rolling pin.
Xie Huan carried a stainless steel basin.
Gu Lin had a dog on a leash.
Tang Keni had found a rubber chicken somewhere.
Yao Xuan held up a whistle, itching to get started.
One of the cameramen had gotten up early.
He happened to pass by and see the scene.
His professional cameraman instincts kicked in instantly.
He ran back to his room, hoisted his camera onto his shoulder, and raced over, afraid that if he was too slow, he would miss the shot of the director's lifetime!
When the cameraman arrived on the battlefield.
He caught Pei Tingyun silently counting down with his fingers-
Three, two, one!
The next second.
Barking, banging on the basin, whistling, and chicken squawks rang out all at once.
Deafening noises rose and fell.
There was a certain beauty to their complete disregard for whether the director lived or died.
Unsurprisingly, the noise woke the director.
He opened the door, took one look, and his world came crashing down.
The sight of the Roaming Group performing passionately outside his door was so beautiful that he could barely bring himself to look.
Mission accomplished.
Pei Tingyun made a cut-off gesture.
The frenzied noise stopped instantly.
Tang Keni's inner drama queen took over, and he instantly became a hotel attendant, serving up a professional smile:
"That was the wake-up service the Roaming Group thoughtfully prepared for you. May I ask if you're awake?"
The director's breakdown was written all over his face:
"With all that racket, how could I possibly still be asleep?"
Tang Keni maintained his professional smile. "Excellent. Our wake-up service was a success, then. Have a pleasant early morning!"
With that, Tang Keni, who had only just gotten into character, turned and waved, dropping the act in a second. "Boys, retreat!"
Before he had even finished speaking, everyone in the Roaming Group had greased their heels and fled.
Only the cameraman remained all alone, holding his camera right up to the director's face.
Before long.
This precious footage, blessed by the god of early rising, was posted online by the assistant director as a bonus clip for the show.
The comments were already laughing themselves silly:
[Director: Great wake-up call. Don't call again.]
[Oh my god, I'm laughing myself rich. If the guests from the first two seasons saw this, they'd definitely find it so satisfying.]
[Another iconic director breakdown for the collection.]
As it turned out, pranks really did make people happy.
Back in his room, Pei Tingyun lay on the bed, the corners of his lips still lifting from time to time.
Just thinking about it made him want to laugh.
Lying on his side on the next bed, Xie Huan suddenly spoke:
"Didn't you say you were going back to sleep? What're you still grinning about?"
Only then did Pei Tingyun realize that Xie Huan had been watching him the whole time.
His bright smile suddenly became a little unnatural.
Pei Tingyun gave a light cough. "Ahem. M-maybe... because I slept well last night. I'm not that sleepy."
Xie Huan said smugly, "See? Told you roasted sweet potatoes worked! If you like 'em, I'll roast you one every day!"
Pei Tingyun hurriedly refused. "There's really no need!"
He had no desire to eat himself into a sweat every night before bed.
For a clean freak, that was genuinely rather uncomfortable.
Xie Huan didn't insist.
After all, his only piece of luggage-
That old hiking backpack of his, in other words, had contained just that one sweet potato.
If he wanted more, he would have to find a way through the production team.
Come to think of it, when he had first divined that bringing a sweet potato would be useful, Xie Huan had wondered whether he had made a mistake.
He had studied the mystic arts under his master since childhood.
He couldn't divine romantic fate clearly, but his divinations about events were extremely accurate.
Unfortunately, his master had said his fate was unfavorable and he couldn't use his mystic arts too often.
He had told him to use them no more than five times a day.
As luck would have it, the divination that told him he would need a sweet potato on this trip had been his fifth that day, leaving him no chance to check it again.
Xie Huan had been mischievous since childhood, hardly an obedient child, and the reason he hadn't rashly attempted a sixth divination.
Was that what his master had told him was simply too frightening.
Something about coughing up blood in mild cases and losing his life in serious ones.
With his life at stake, he didn't dare experiment recklessly.
And so he had come to film the show with a raw sweet potato, without really knowing why.
He hadn't expected it to actually come in handy yesterday.
In truth, he didn't know why eating a roasted sweet potato would help Pei Tingyun sleep well.
But yesterday, he had performed a divination to find out how to keep Pei Tingyun from suffering insomnia, and that was the result he had gotten.
And it had indeed worked.
Mysticism.
Sometimes, it really was...
Illogical, but useful.
Although neither Xie Huan nor Pei Tingyun felt particularly sleepy, neither got out of bed.
Because they had already agreed on it with the other members of the Roaming Group.
After waking the director, they would go back to sleep, then get up at eight to eat.
While cooking last night, Xie Huan had specially prepared today's breakfast in advance and stored it in the fridge.
They only needed to get up ten minutes early to heat it up before eating.
But Xie Huan got up half an hour early.
"Where are you going so early?" Pei Tingyun asked.
Having already washed up, Xie Huan answered as he got dressed, "Bringing in the cured pork."
They had slaughtered a pig yesterday, and there was no way they could finish all that meat before leaving the island.
So Xie Huan had also made cured pork and sausages and hung them outside.
He planned to take them to the next stop to eat, so they wouldn't have to worry about the production team withholding meat again.
Pei Tingyun knew that Xie Huan had dug a pit beneath the meat-drying rack and lit fruitwood in it to smoke the meat.
The roasted sweet potato he had eaten last night had been cooked in that pit.
Pei Tingyun said, "You only started smoking that meat yesterday. Didn't you say you'd leave it hanging until we left the island? Why bring it in today?"
"It's going to rain today. If I don't bring it in, it'll all get soaked." With that, Xie Huan ran off.
Pei Tingyun looked at the bright sun outside the window. It didn't look like rain at all.
With Xie Huan gone, Pei Tingyun was bored on his own.
So he got up and washed up too.
By the time he went downstairs, the fire in the courtyard was already out.
Watching Xie Huan's back as he brought in the cured pork in the morning light, Pei Tingyun couldn't help remembering how he had hugged Xie Huan from behind on the beach quad bike yesterday.
His broad back, firm muscles, lean waist...