Xie Huan caught on instantly. "Oh, man! So you're not tired anymore, huh? How about I carry you?"
Pei Tingyun immediately perked up. "No! I'm not tired at all. Come on!"
The livestream's bullet comments:
[Haven't seen Peipei being this stubborn since the temporary group disbanded hahaha]
[The king of stubborn denial is back for a limited time!]
[Lmao, they somehow turned taking check-in photos into a sport]
The third princess carry.
Pei Tingyun had already found that familiar feeling of lifting weights at the gym.
Clearly.
Xie Huan was the one taking photos.
He was the one checking in.
Checking in at the gym, at that.
To prevent another tragedy.
Pei Tingyun came up with a foolproof plan-
No more photos. He would just have Xie Huan record a video.
Once it was recorded, they could take screenshots. Surely one frame would make a usable photo of them together.
However.
He had still underestimated Xie Huan's capacity to cause disasters when taking pictures.
This time, Xie Huan aimed the camera perfectly and finally got both of them in the frame.
But!
Xie Huan pressed the wrong recording button, so not a single second was recorded.
Pei Tingyun went numb.
He covered half his face and squatted on the ground, questioning his life.
Xie Huan squatted opposite him, apologizing nonstop:
"Oh, man! Sorry about that! This phone's different from the one I usually use. Didn't figure it out... How about I carry..."
Before he could get out that final "you."
Pei Tingyun suddenly snatched Xie Huan's phone away.
Then, with a heave, he actually lifted Xie Huan with one arm.
Xie Huan was so startled that even his wolfish eyes went round.
Pei Tingyun held his breath, raised the phone to a forty-five-degree angle, met his eyes, and snapped the photo, all in one go.
When the finished photo appeared, Pei Tingyun finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He no longer cared whether it looked good.
As long as both of them were in the frame, that was already a success.
The princess carry had turned into a one-armed carry.
They had the eye contact, but none of the affection.
One pair of eyes was full of alarm.
The other was filled with sheer determination to get a usable shot!
Still, Pei Tingyun shamelessly told their accompanying PD:
"That counts as completing the check-in task, right? Say it counts!"
The PD, who felt threatened, said, "...It counts once you post the photo to your respective Weibo accounts."
Pei Tingyun and Xie Huan did as instructed.
The moment Pei Tingyun's Weibo post went up, the comments exploded:
[Oh my god, they actually captured the feeling of two intertwined destinies!]
[Just a passerby, but they seem kind of good together. Let me have a little taste of White Clouds and Black Soil.]
[Peipei's leather gloves go so well with this pose. What a vibe!]
[I told you Pei was the top. This photo says it all!]
[Hahaha Pei Tingyun really is strong. Holding him like that actually makes Xie Huan look petite]
After posting on Weibo, Pei Tingyun suddenly thought of something and asked their accompanying PD:
"What criteria will you use to decide who finished the tasks last?"
Their accompanying PD said, "We'll go by the posting time of your final Weibo post."
Pei Tingyun sucked in a cold breath.
He had been careless!
Before they set off earlier, he had sent a message to the group telling everyone to gather at the foot of the mountain after finishing the tasks down below.
Then they would all go to the check-in spot on the mountain together and complete the final check-in task at the same time.
That way, no group would be the last to finish.
But judging by what the accompanying PD said, his exploitation of that bug had not been precise enough.
Pei Tingyun thought for a moment.
Using Xie Huan as cover again, he sent a new message to the group.
The others read the new message out of the cameras' view and all acted as though nothing had happened.
They continued moving between the various check-in spots.
Pei Tingyun and Xie Huan, meanwhile, prepared to return to the check-in spot by the pier and continue checking in.
But they did not retrace their steps.
Xie Huan took Pei Tingyun down another path.
When they reached a stretch of beach with surfboards laid out, Xie Huan stopped and turned to look at Pei Tingyun.
"Director Pei, come have some fun with me?"
In fact, the moment Pei Tingyun saw those surfboards, he had already guessed Xie Huan's intention.
This morning really had not been his imagination.
Xie Huan had suddenly brought up beach volleyball then because of the travel itinerary he had put together yesterday.
And surfing was another item on today's itinerary.
It would be a lie to say he was not touched.
But it was true that he did not dare move.
Because Pei Tingyun got seasick and had never tried surfing, he was a little worried the waves would make him sick.
If he threw up in the sea, his perfect top-star image would be utterly ruined.
Pei Tingyun said, "How about... you go by yourself? I'll sit here and watch your bag."
Xie Huan said, "Oh, man, there ain't nobody here. What's there to watch? No need!"
The accompanying VJ and PD standing nearby both felt offended-
Are we not people?
Pei Tingyun did not care whether the staff were people. In any case, he was dead set on sitting on the beach and watching the bag.
Xie Huan noticed his resistance.
But he did not press him for a reason.
Because over these two days of livestreaming, Xie Huan had discovered that Pei Tingyun was not entirely his real self in front of the cameras.
He was hiding a lot of things.
To avoid asking about something Pei Tingyun wanted to hide, Xie Huan simply did not ask.
"Okay, sit tight, then. I'll go have some fun myself!"
With that, Xie Huan stripped off his shirt, grabbed a random surfboard, and ran into the sea.
The VJ looked at the surfboard he had just fitted with a GoPro, still lying on the beach.
Meanwhile, the board drifting farther away with Xie Huan had no filming equipment on it whatsoever.
Was this the power of putting an ordinary person on a reality show?
There was a certain authenticity to his complete disregard for whether the staff survived.
Seeing how interested Xie Huan was in surfing, Pei Tingyun naturally assumed he knew how to surf.
But he had not expected this.
Not only could Xie Huan not stand on the board, he even struggled to get onto it.
Even when he finally managed to climb on, any passing wave could knock him off.
After watching for five minutes, Pei Tingyun finally could not take it anymore.
"Xie Huan, stop playing. Come back!"
Xie Huan thought that Pei Tingyun had gone to all that trouble making the itinerary. If he only played for such a short time, would Pei Tingyun feel disappointed?
Xie Huan thought it over and refused.
Left with no other choice, Pei Tingyun could only lie:
"I'm a little hungry. Where did you put the food you brought?"
Hearing that, Xie Huan immediately swam toward shore with the surfboard without another word.
He rushed ashore, tossed the board aside, and ran over to Pei Tingyun to look for food in his backpack.
Taking the little bread roll Xie Huan handed him, Pei Tingyun felt rather conflicted.
Xie Huan was always like this.
No matter what he was doing, all it took was a word from him, and Xie Huan would come to his side immediately.
He put him first in everything.
His love was tender and humble.
Even though he could not return that love, Xie Huan remained unchanged.
Seriously, I could cry!
How could a man with love this pure exist?
Xie Huan saw Pei Tingyun staring blankly with the bread in his hand, not eating it.
Thinking he did not like bread, he took a packet of crackers out of the bag and handed it to him.
Pei Tingyun watched him hold the crackers out in midair.
He looked at him with puppy-like eyes, sincere and free of any impurity.