They were almost at the summit. Why hadn't these people started tearing into each other yet?
A familiar sense of foreboding suddenly crept over him.
They hadn't cooked up another boomerang to stab him with, had they?
With the beach volleyball incident as a cautionary tale.
No matter what happened during this segment, the director hadn't taken his headphones off once.
He was terrified of missing another secret plot by the Roaming Group.
This time, however, the Roaming Group had changed tactics.
They had already worked out a strategy in their group chat while the VJs' cameras weren't filming their phones.
Of course.
It was mainly Pei Tingyun proposing a countermeasure in the group chat, then everyone else instantly jumping in after seeing it and following his plan unconditionally.
They had this whole team spirit thing down pat.
The Roaming Group's lineup of five men and one dog reached the summit and finally saw the Sunset Restaurant and the check-in standee the production team had set up.
The five exchanged glances.
Then, in unspoken understanding, they split into their assigned pairs to find their respective photo spots.
The pose for this check-in spot wasn't difficult.
In the sample photo, the groom stood carrying the bride on his back, her chin resting in the crook of his neck as they smiled cheek to cheek at the camera.
At last, they didn't have to gaze lovingly into each other's eyes anymore.
Xie Huan volunteered. "How about I take this one? With my eyes on the camera, my hand definitely won't shake again."
Pei Tingyun glanced sideways at him and teased, "What, you're blaming me for your bad photography now?"
Xie Huan's survival instincts kicked into overdrive. "Aw, come on, how could I! I was just thinking I should get some practice so I can take good shots of you later!"
Pei Tingyun rejected him outright. "You can practice another time. Not this time."
The timing of this photo was crucial.
One mistake could easily give the directors an opening.
So they had to get it right on the first try.
Xie Huan still tried to salvage things. "Then how about I carry you, huh?"
Pei Tingyun crouched slightly, already ready to carry him:
"Don't even think about it. Get on!"
The livestream comments:
[LMAO, big bro just can't hide his desire to turn the tables anymore.]
[Peipei's gone full domineering CEO again. So dreamy! Xie Huan, just give in to him!]
[Without the older one's pampering, how could the younger one go wild? I think big bro's enjoying himself.]
[Got it. We're part of their play too.]
Xie Huan stopped struggling and jumped onto Pei Tingyun's back.
Pei Tingyun caught him steadily.
Except...
It wasn't quite what they had imagined.
In the sample photo, the bride's chin could rest right in the crook of the groom's neck while she was on his back.
But with Xie Huan.
His chin landed straight on top of Pei Tingyun's head.
Pei Tingyun: "..."
Bruh, is this right?
He turned to look at the other two pairs.
There was a slight height difference between Yao Xuan and Tang Keni. Once one carried the other, reaching the crook of the neck was a little difficult, but touching cheeks wasn't a problem.
With Gu Lin carrying the husky, the height worked out even better.
On the climb earlier, Xie Huan had communicated with the husky and promised to cook him a meaty bone separately that evening.
So the husky was being especially cooperative now.
Pei Tingyun had never expected this.
His own pair had ended up being the hardest.
People of the same height really didn't seem suited to taking photos like this.
Still, it wasn't as though there was no solution.
Pei Tingyun bent farther forward.
Xie Huan cooperated too, wriggling around on his back to find an angle.
At last, he spotted Pei Tingyun's collarbone.
Xie Huan rested his chin on it and shouted, "All set!"
Pei Tingyun raised the phone, aimed it at their faces, and called out too, "We're ready!"
The other two pairs were ready as well. "Ready! Ready!"
Then the director heard Pei Tingyun counting down through his headphones:
"Three, two, one!"
The shutters of all three phones sounded at once.
The livestream comments:
[Wow, I felt their team spirit burning in that moment!]
[Haha, looks like it's the production team's rules getting burned again.]
[Oh, right! If they all check in successfully at the same time, there won't be a slowest pair!]
[The Roaming Group never disappoints!]
[Am I the only one focused on big bro occupying Peipei's 5A-rated neck area?]
All three pairs finished checking in at the same time, then posted their check-in photos on Weibo simultaneously.
Even so, the director, ever adept at finding fault, didn't give up.
What good did taking the photos together do? The production team determined the results by the posting times displayed on Weibo.
Every phone had a different internet speed and response time.
So the photos would definitely have different posting times.
Even if they were only one second apart, the slower pair would still have to take the punishment!
However.
After checking everyone in the Roaming Group's Weibo accounts, the director was dumbfounded.
This wasn't right!
Why did everyone's Weibo posts have the same timestamp?
Not even a second's difference!
Seeing that familiar look of a shattered composure on the director's face, the Roaming Group cheered together.
Tang Keni's mouth activated with zero startup frames, all so he could say:
"Woohoo! Hand over that candlelit dinner for five! Didn't see that coming, did you? We've got a strategist on our side. You'll never beat us in your lifetime!"
Yao Xuan said, "Number Two's dog food needs an upgrade too. We want the deluxe version!"
Gu Lin: "..."
He still couldn't calmly accept the fact that the husky was named Number Two.
As someone who ranked second himself, he kept feeling personally offended...
Grand Strategist Pei, who had long since told everyone in the group chat to schedule their Weibo posts for the end, smiled without a word, keeping his achievements and fame hidden.
When it came to exploiting bugs from every possible angle.
Seriously, who else could compare?
As for Xie Huan...
He felt nothing but pride.
What he was proud of, he didn't know.
Anyway, Pei Tingyun was awesome, and that made him proud!
Shattered composure or not, the director still had to cue the next part.
After all, in the next segment, whether the guests tore into each other or not, he would get to savor his revenge!
The Roaming Group's five men and one dog took their seats at the Sunset Restaurant on the summit.
The director sat on the ground opposite them and went through the proceedings:
"As everyone knows, a candlelit dinner calls for a sense of occasion. Besides formal attire, you also need polished makeup.
"We've prepared all the cosmetics you'll need for a full face of makeup. Next, please work in your assigned pairs and apply makeup to your partner at the same time."
This time, it was the Roaming Group's turn to be dumbfounded.
Even their strategist Pei Tingyun was out of ideas.
He did belong to the more well-groomed type.
But that meticulous grooming mainly came down to skincare.
When it came to makeup, he really couldn't manage without a makeup artist.
Having had his makeup done so often, Pei Tingyun did know the steps.
But when it came to actually doing it, all he knew how to apply was tone-up cream.
Xie Huan was even more hopeless.
Expecting someone who didn't even put on face cream after washing his face to know how to do makeup?
That was basically something you could only dream about.
Prop your pillow a little higher when you slept, and you could dream of anything.
Yao Xuan and Tang Keni also relied on makeup artists for their makeup and styling.
The production team wouldn't let them bring their styling teams.
So apart from wearing makeup on the day they boarded the flight, they had been bare-faced the entire time.
Neither of them knew the first thing about makeup.
They were pure, 24-karat beginners of the sort who wouldn't know what to put where even with the cosmetics laid out in front of them.
The only person present with makeup skills was Gu Lin, a renowned stylist in the industry.
Unfortunately.
His teammate was a dog.
He had absolutely no room to put those skills to use.