[Nobody told me Shen Xingcan was this adorable in private. This kitty is so cute I'm going to faint.]
[Shen Xingcan is deliberately acting cute in front of his husband. We all know pretty ragdoll cats like this are the most scheming.]
[Shen Xingcan is so rude.]
[Judging by Shen Xingcan's track record, letting Bai Lin stay on this show is already the height of politeness for him.]
Xie Linchuan watched Shen Xingcan baring his claws with a gentle gaze and laughed aloud.
Though the others didn't dare be as blatant as Xie Linchuan, they were struggling hard to hold back their laughter.
Bai Lin's face alternated between red and white. Damn Shen Xingcan! How dare he humiliate me!
Feeling refreshed after snapping back at him, Shen Xingcan found a seat.
Seeing Xie Linchuan still standing there, Shen Xingcan reached out and tugged his hand. "Xie Linchuan, hurry up and sit down. It's dangerous to stand on a boat."
Xie Linchuan lowered his gaze to the hand holding his, his voice cool. "If you want me to block the sun for you, just say so."
Despite his words, Xie Linchuan sat beside him as requested.
Shen Xingcan glared at the man beside him. "Xie Linchuan, why are you assuming the worst of me? I was clearly concerned about you! What you just said has deeply hurt me!"
Xie Linchuan gave Shen Xingcan a long look.
Shen Xingcan met his gaze with perfect self-righteousness.
A few seconds later, Xie Linchuan stood up.
Shen Xingcan, who had been contentedly huddling in Xie Linchuan's shadow, said, "...Why are you getting up? Didn't I say standing on a boat was dangerous? Sit down."
Xie Linchuan said, "I'm not going to stand. I'm just moving to another seat."
Shen Xingcan answered without thinking. "No. Who's going to block the sun for me if you move?"
He couldn't compare to an iceberg like Xie Linchuan. He really, really couldn't stand the heat!
Xie Linchuan looked at Shen Xingcan expressionlessly.
Feeling a little guilty, Shen Xingcan looked out at the distant sea. After a moment, he looked back and honestly admitted his mistake. "...Fine, I admit I was wrong. I shouldn't have used you to block the sun, much less turned the tables on you after getting caught."
Xie Linchuan wasn't buying it. "Shen Xingcan, isn't that apology a little too casual?"
Unable to bear the heat, Shen Xingcan knew when to yield. "Then what do you want?"
Xie Linchuan's gaze lingered on Shen Xingcan's face for a few seconds before he said lightly, "Come to my company and be my personal assistant for a week after the show ends."
Shen Xingcan looked at him incredulously. "Xie Linchuan, why don't you just fly up and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun? I'm a hugely popular star! I'm not being your assistant!"
"Shen Xingcan is a big star, but Xie Linchuan isn't? Your actions just now have seriously damaged my reputation. Only making you be my assistant for a week is letting you off easy."
Shen Xingcan adopted a shameless, nothing-to-lose attitude. "Still not going. Sue me if you can."
Xie Linchuan said, "Then wait until I contact Auntie Shen after the show."
Shen Xingcan grew wary. "...What are you contacting her for?"
Xie Linchuan glanced at him casually. "To tell on you. I'll tell Auntie Shen you bullied me again."
Shen Xingcan's beautiful peach-blossom eyes went round with utter shock, making him look exactly like a startled, beautiful cat. "Xie Linchuan, are you a tattletale puppy? You're in your twenties, not a little kid! Aren't you embarrassed to still be tattling at your age?"
The tattletale puppy Xie Linchuan took Shen Xingcan's mockery in stride, looking as though no amount of ridicule would sway him.
Not particularly eager to have his parent called in, Shen Xingcan spoke in humiliation. "I'll be your assistant for three days."
"Eight days."
"Four days."
"Nine days."
Shen Xingcan protested, "...Why does the number keep going up? Xie Linchuan, are you a loan shark?"
"Ten days."
Shen Xingcan looked thoroughly aggrieved. "...Then let's go with what you said earlier. I'll go to your company and be your personal assistant for a week."
"Eleven days."
Afraid this would snowball into a whole year as Xie Linchuan's assistant, Shen Xingcan instantly settled it. "Eleven days it is!"
Xie Linchuan looked at the director. "Director, do you have a pen and paper?"
"Yes."
Soon, a staff member handed Xie Linchuan a pen and paper.
Xie Linchuan took them and passed them to Shen Xingcan. "Write."
Shen Xingcan eyed the pen and paper in his hands suspiciously. "Write what?"
"Write: I, Shen Xingcan, voluntarily agree to serve as Xie Linchuan's personal assistant for eleven days. During this period, Shen Xingcan will never arrive late or leave early. Pledged by: Shen Xingcan."
Shen Xingcan began trying to wriggle out of it. "...I seem to have forgotten how to write."
Xie Linchuan said, "Auntie Shen..."
"Aaaah, Xie Linchuan, you awful tattletale puppy!"
Fuming, Shen Xingcan began writing the pledge, and soon a freshly written employment pledge was ready.
Xie Linchuan took the pledge and glanced at it, then turned it around. "Could the camera get a close-up of this pledge, please? Everyone, remember to take screenshots for me. Otherwise, I'm afraid someone might steal this piece of paper."
A certain Xingcan, who was considering how to steal the paper, said, "..."
The staff obligingly gave it a close-up lasting several minutes.
[Hahaha, screenshot taken.]
[Just like that, he tricked his wife into becoming his assistant at his company? Xie Linchuan, you really are a schemer.]
[Auntie Shen? So that means Shen Xingcan took his mother's surname... The odds that he's Empress Shen's son just went way up.]
[Tattletale puppy. Even when he's genuinely angry, he only gives his husband cute nicknames like that?]
[Eleven days as his assistant! I wonder if I'll run into Xingcan at the company, hahaha.]
[Let's congratulate this old couple on officially making up.]
[Shen Xingcan, can you stop scheming to seduce our darling? Can you stop acting cute with him all the time? Aaaaah!]
[Sis above, give it a rest. Your darling is obviously enjoying every second.]
[Sure enough, no human can resist a pretty kitty.]
Shen Xingcan got his wish of having Xie Linchuan block the sun for him, but he wasn't particularly happy, because it had cost him eleven precious days.
Another ten-odd minutes later, the three women returned.
Shen Xingcan's breakfast won unanimous praise.
Ye Ran spoke as she ate. "I'm starving. I thought we'd have to go hungry until we got back to camp. We were going to have breakfast after selling the mangoes, but we were selling too slowly."
If they hadn't come back, the boat would have left. There had been no time to get breakfast.
Song Tiantian sipped her sweet soy milk. "Xingcan is so thoughtful. Long live the Xing faith!"
[There are seven people on-screen, but only one wasn't invited to breakfast. Guess who?]
They returned to Chongshan Island just before the shop opened. Everyone stocked up on what they needed before returning to camp.
Song Tiantian tallied the money each pair of guests had earned selling mangoes, then converted their earnings into points at a one-to-one rate.
Shen Xingcan looked thoughtful. "So we'll be spending points on our trip to France too?"
Song Tiantian said, "Yes. The production team will provide an exchange price list when the time comes. You don't need to worry too much about not having enough points. We'll offer a range of choices."
Shen Xingcan said, "Such as?"
"For example, for our flights to France, first class costs five hundred points, business class three hundred, and economy two hundred."
Jiang Yifeng exclaimed, "That's such a huge difference! First class and economy are a whole three hundred points apart!"
Song Tiantian said, "Flying from here to France takes at least ten-plus hours. On such a long flight, comfort is crucial."
Shen Xingcan said, "Even the cheapest economy seats cost two hundred points per pair, and once we're there, food, clothing, accommodation, and transportation will all cost points too... Is the production team planning to send us backpacking around France on a shoestring?"
Song Tiantian smiled. "Of course not. The production team will issue more missions later. You can absolutely earn points by completing those missions."
Ye Ran looked dazed. "...Lin Cen and I only have 140 points right now. Even if we work ourselves to death over the next few days, we'll be bankrupt the moment the plane touches down in France."
Jiang Yifeng said, "...Can we do without the production team's help? Like buying our own plane tickets?"
Song Tiantian said, "The production team will collect the guests' phones and bank cards when filming begins. If you can still find a way to buy tickets under those circumstances, we won't object. Like Mr. Xie's ice cream, for instance."
Jiang Yifeng said, "...Tell us our next mission. I'm already desperate to do it."
Ye Ran said, "Yes, hurry up and announce it. No ulterior motives. I just love doing missions."
An idea struck Bai Lin. "I have a villa in France. We can move straight in once we land. That way, we won't have to worry about sleeping on the streets because we don't have enough points."
Lin Cen played along. "Wow, thank goodness we have Bai Lin. We won't have to work ourselves to death these next few days, since the biggest problem, accommodation, is solved."
Ye Ran wasn't so optimistic. She calmly pointed out the problem. "...But the production team hasn't said which city in France we're going to. What if it isn't the city where Bai Lin has his villa?"
Bai Lin answered without thinking. "It definitely will be."
Shen Xingcan looked thoughtful. "So Bai Lin's villa can randomly respawn in any city in France."
Jiang Yifeng chimed in. "Now that's impressive."
[Randomly respawn, my ass. Hahahaha, I can't.]
[Jiang Yifeng: if the captain initiates, I'm following him in.]
[When it comes to being passive-aggressive...]
[I'm probably doomed. Even when Shen Xingcan is being sarcastic, I think he's adorable.]
[I reasonably suspect Bai Lin doesn't have any villa in France.]
[No need to suspect it. He doesn't. Wherever the production team goes, Bai Lin will rent a villa there in advance and claim it's his.]
Bai Lin struggled to keep smiling. "You're joking, Xingcan. My villa is in Paris. How could it randomly respawn? I just thought Paris was the most famous, so it's also the likeliest place the production team would take us."
Shen Xingcan sounded quite disappointed. "So it can't randomly respawn."
Xie Linchuan said, "..."
Song Tiantian dug her nails hard into her palm and cleared her throat several times. "You'll find out exactly which French city we're visiting when the France trip begins in the second half. I'll announce the next mission now."
"After three days of livestreaming, viewers have plenty of questions for the guests and plenty of things they'd like the guests to do. In response to viewer requests, the production team has created a special interactive segment where viewers can engage directly with the guests.
"Starting now, viewers can log into Weibo and post questions or requests with the hashtag #A Fruit#. Please note that questions or requests must specify which guest should carry them out, or the post will be invalid. Submissions close at 16:00.
"Afterward, staff will put the one hundred most-liked posts onto little balls and place them in the interaction box for random draws. Guests can earn corresponding points through these questions. Each question or request is worth twenty points. If a guest feels unable to complete it, they must drink a penalty cup of bitter melon juice or alcohol."
The moment Song Tiantian finished, the livestream chat exploded.
[Holy shit, anything goes? Then can I ask my ship to kiss on camera? I want intense French kissing!]
[You above, keep dreaming. If they actually kissed, wouldn't this livestream get shut down?]
[Apple really goes big or goes home. I can already imagine how explosive those questions and requests will be.]
[I think we should show a little restraint. They'll definitely ignore anything too outrageous, and then we'll have wasted a slot... No, I need to check the super topic.]
[...I can already imagine the bloodbath on Weibo. Yikes.]
[Exactly. Shen Xingcan and Xie Linchuan alone are a whole drama.]
[No, no, I have to go tell the girls in the super topic. Aaaaah, Apple, you're practically my own mother. You know exactly what we want!]
Jiang Yifeng said, "Hahahaha, Captain, you and our youngest are done for. Your shippers definitely won't let either of you off, hahahaha."
As an expert internet surfer who kept up with everything, Jiang Yifeng naturally knew his captain and their youngest had a terrifyingly large number of shippers.
"Such as?"
Jiang Yifeng said, "Like asking you to kiss our youngest or something, hahaha. But that's actually pretty easy. We're all brothers. A kiss won't cost you a chunk of flesh."
Shen Xingcan agreed with Jiang Yifeng. "A kiss between good brothers won't cost anyone a chunk of flesh. And for sworn enemies like Xie Linchuan and me, there's even less pressure. A kiss between people like us could give the other person nightmares for ten years. You earn points and deal a blow to your sworn enemy. That kiss is incredible value!"
Jiang Yifeng said, "Exactly. That's twenty points! A piece of our plane tickets to France!"
Xie Linchuan said, "..."
Shen Xingcan moved in front of Xie Linchuan, stopping almost flush against him. He tipped his chin up slightly, gazing with smiling eyes at the tall, handsome man before him. "Best Actor Xie, will you let me kiss you later?"