Published at 15th of November 2020 09:44:00 AM
Chapter 29
Editor: SleepyMango123
Proofreader: Lore
As a senior die-hard otaku and second-generation celebrity, Little Student Zhang Xin was obviously not Xia Rong’s opponent in talking glibly .
Xia Rong also knew well to stop before going too far and simply just wiped the other’s face with the towel again . “Accept the reality and get up . You still have a chance to avenge yourself on the next person!”
Then whether intentionally or not, the fingertips that were holding the towel brushed against the earlobe . “But the opportunity is just right to prove to the audience how good-looking you are without any make-up . ”
Zhang Xin simply snorted and turned his face away like a tsundere, completely oblivious to the small movements Xia Rong was making on the side .
DOUBLE KILL! Xia Rong made a ‘V’ in his heart— double kill, get!
Zhang Xin reluctantly went to tidy himself up, then according to the requirements of the game, also gave the big turntable a spin . The punishment he landed on was ‘blow in their ear, blow until they wake up’, to which he unhappily commented, “This one isn’t miserable at all, this is too unfair!”
Choking back his anger, he could only dispiritedly set off to avenge himself using the next person . When Xia Rong came out of the room with him, he just happened to run into Gao Junming who came out following Su Chi . Gao Junming seemed to be in decent spirits . After all, to be ‘woken up by feathers’ was still a softer and gentler way to be woken up— when compared to by water .
Sure enough, after Zhang Xin and Gao Junming had a brief exchange, the former felt more and more indignant . “Why was I the only one so miserable?! Director, the punishments you guys designed are too unbalanced . I strongly request that the next punishment gets replaced by ‘directly throwing them a basin of cold water to wake them up’!”
Of course, he only said it to say it . Because he and Xia Rong came out of the room earlier, according to the order, he would be ‘calling’ Ye Mang in room 05, whereas Gao Junming would call Kang Yifan in room 06 . Ye Mang was the oldest of the six of them . He had an ‘old cadre’-like temperament and was both gentle and kind to people . The younger ones like Zhang Xin and Kang Yifan both respected him quite a bit . So as soon as Zhang Xin heard the director say that he was going to call Ye Mang, he no longer brought up wanting to ‘pour cold water’ .
Taking advantage of the opportunity when Zhang Xin was speaking with Gao Junming, Xia Rong also secretly glanced at Su Chi . Su Chi gave him a slight nod, and with the right hand that was hanging on his side, he discreetly made an “OK” gesture .
Tacit understanding! Taking action separately, Su Chi was reliable as expected!
It was as if Xia Rong had heard the notification of a “Three Kills” in his mind, and that the final victory was imminent— It was just a pity that he couldn’t follow Zhang Xin into Ye Mang’s room, or it would easily arouse suspicion . But, fortunately, there was still a whole round of ‘Huashan Sword Debate’ today, so he wasn’t afraid that he and Su Chi wouldn’t be able to catch an opportunity when Ye Mang was alone .
Everyone was on guard against a certain assassin hiding in the dark somewhere, but they never expected that the real “assassin” actually had two people and could cooperate with each other . The program team had played a good hand!
So as Xia Rong was expressing praise for the screenwriter inside his heart, he was told to head to the hotel lobby for breakfast and to prepare for the final rounds of the tasks .
It was impossible for the so-called ‘Huashan Sword Debate’ to be for the six people to truly compete in the arena with real swords and weapons . Instead, the program team chose to arrange the group of people to head to the most in vogue building of the entire W County, the W County Cultural Tourism Exhibition Center .
The design of the exhibition center was very unique . From a distance, it looked like a huge colorful flower-drum1, whereas the interior adopted various design concepts from the international community . The various corridors and walkways intricately interlaced and looped, such that it was said that even the center’s staff would occasionally get lost .
The rules of the game stated for the six people of the two teams ‘Liang Shanbo’ and ‘Romeo’ to move about within the center . Each of them would have a balloon tied behind him . The balloons had been reinforced as such that they would not burst unless they were intentionally compressed by hand . Members of the two teams were then required to continuously search for new secret manuals to reinforce their balloon . And once they met members of the enemy team, they could do their best to destroy the other’s balloon . When one’s balloon gets destroyed, they would be eliminated, and one point would be given to the one who successfully broke the balloon . Meanwhile, two points would be added to the team that the last remaining member belonged to . The points would be tallied at the end, and the team with the highest score would win .
The various secret martial arts all had different effects . For example, Xia Rong’s 《Nine Yang Divine Skill》 could further “strengthen” his balloon, resulting in a balloon that was twice as thick compared to the others’, so it wouldn’t burst as easily; Su Chi’s 《Beiming Divine Skill》 would allow him to absorb an attacker’s secret manual whenever they touched his balloon, thereby strengthening himself; and Gao Junming’s 《Heaven and Earth Great Shift2》 could swap his balloon with his opponent’s, making it a divine life-saving skill… Xia Rong could already imagine the words they would use to describe the entire interlude— At the Cultural Tourism Center, six “martial arts masters” each displayed their own martial prowess… At the end, who would be the one standing at the peak of Wulin?
But who ends up being the final winner to stand at the peak was actually not his main concern, after all… who asked for him to be a little assassin? Instead, from the beginning, Xia Rong’s little wolf-like gaze had been locked onto Ye Mang . This was especially the case after the director announced the official start of the final round, as he made sure to stay an appropriate distance behind the other, prepared to ‘wait for the opportunity to attack’ .
For this day’s ‘Peak of Huashan’, everyone was wearing their own clothes which were light and cooling; firstly so the group’s mobility wouldn’t be affected, but also because it had become increasingly hot these past two days . Therefore, they weren’t as conspicuous as they would have been if they were to wear ancient costumes again, which also reduced the difficulty of tracking Ye Mang .
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But the big balloon floating behind him was still a problem, so Xia Rong straightforwardly just grabbed the string, pulled it down, and hugged it in his arms to reduce his sense of existence as much as possible .
During this period, Ye Mang first ran into his teammate Zhang Xin . After traveling together for a period of time, they parted ways after finding a secret manual . Then, like enemies meeting on a narrow road, he met Gao Junming . Ye Mang reacted extremely fast and quickly scampered away . So on one hand, Xia Rong needed to catch up with him, but on the other, he had to guard against being discovered by Gao Junming, causing him to become physically and mentally exhausted .
After Ye Mang had managed to get away from Gao Junming, Xia Rong finally saw a glimpse of an opportunity . From the corner of his eye, he caught onto Su Chi’s silhouette, so he immediately released his balloon and rushed out . Leaping over from behind, he ended up pushing Ye Mang onto the ground .
Seeing that Ye Mang was caught off guard and was struggling to protect his balloon, Xia Rong was planning to turn around and call Su Chi over to break Ye Mang’s balloon together, so they could then put on a show of triumphantly saying, “The appearance of you losing is really good-looking . ” which shouldn’t arouse any suspicion .
Unexpectedly, Ye Mang shouted faster than he did, “Su Chi, hurry over and help me!”
Xia Rong: “…”
Oh no, he had only fixated on the fact that Su Chi was an allied force and forgot that they were actually of opposing camps, instead, Ye Mang and Su Chi were the real teammates here!
Just like this, Xia Rong was stunned . Meanwhile, Su Chi couldn’t pretend that he didn’t see anything anymore and in a twinkling of an eye, he came over to help press him down . That is, he came over to help Ye Mang hold Xia Rong down— Xia Rong could understand that his actions were so that he would not expose himself . After all, according to the rules, they shouldn’t do anything that would cause their identities to be revealed, and if they were ever under suspicion, everything would be over .
But it was one thing to understand… At this point, Ye Mang had already managed to struggle out from under him and had even flipped over to push him down instead . Being so forcefully suppressed by the other two, Xia Rong’s back was pressed flat on the ground, unable to move at all . And so his position shifted from being dominant to being completely submissive to the other party . Meanwhile, he(XR) could only watch as Ye Mang gave the task of holding him down to Su Chi, while he(YM) knelt and went to grab the balloon that was behind him(XR)…
If he couldn’t think of a solution, he would be dying ahead of time!
In the haste, Xia Rong tightly grasped Su Chi’s arm, and while taking advantage of the fact that all of Ye Mang’s attention was on the balloon behind him, he desperately winked at Su Chi, hoping in his heart that his ally would save him!
Su Chi received the message from the other’s eyes without a change of face . He changed to holding the other’s hand, then pretended to have been counterattacked and leaned backward; when in fact, he was only dragging Xia Rong to sit up again to give him some room to breathe!
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Like this, Xia Rong managed to flip and sit up, then he immediately turned back to pull his balloon over, so Ye Mang won’t be able to touch it . In the confusion, he and Su Chi had yet to separate their hands, and for a moment, he felt that his palm had been firmly grasped . When he looked up, he found that Su Chi was signaling with his eyes towards the direction of his(SC) own back .
Xia Rong immediately understood the other’s implications . He rolled sideways, broke free of Su Chi’s false show of suppression, knelt down on the side, and went to hug Su Chi’s balloon! Now that he had something to rely on, his momentum was also sufficient as he condescendingly negotiated with Ye Mang, “If you let me go, I’ll let him go!”
Ye Mang stood in place and temporarily didn’t move, obviously struggling as to whether to choose to lose a teammate or to let an enemy run . He finally chose to stand up and took two steps back, indicating that he had decided to protect his teammate first .
Xia Rong pulled the “hostage” and stood up, stepping back step by step . As it wasn’t convenient to control the hostage while maintaining a hold on the balloon, he could only temporarily release the balloon . But in the instant that the balloon floated back into the air, the “hostage” suddenly counterattacked and heavily pressed Xia Rong against the wall face to face . Seeing this situation, Ye Mang also rushed over and together with Su Chi managed to suppress Xia Rong again .
Everything seemed to be a reproduction of the scene from just now . The only difference was that this time, Xia Rong’s balloon was squeezed to Su Chi’s side and was also blocked by Su Chi’s body . Meanwhile, Ye Mang had to keep Xia Rong pressed down and couldn’t spare a hand to break the balloon again .
This small difference, in Ye Mang’s opinion, didn’t seem very important?
After going through that round of being tossed about, Xia Rong was violently panting as he begged for mercy . “I was wrong, I was wrong! Let me go just this one time… Whew, it’s too inhumane for the two of you to fight like this with just one of me…”
In order to protect his balloon, he stretched out his hands and waved them randomly in the air, brushing by Ye Mang’s earlobe as if completely unintentional . “Mang-ge, you’re so handsome, so good-looking… Right? Let me go…?”
Ye Mang turned back to glance at the camera, Xia Rong was guessing that he was hesitating— That if he continued to heartlessly break Xia Rong’s balloon, whether he would be scolded by the audience . Exactly at that moment, Su Chi suddenly noted, “It seems Gao Junming is coming over . ”
Among all the members, Gao Junming was recognized to have the best physical strength . It was for this reason that Ye Mang had chosen to turn around and run when he saw the other earlier . So if the other really did hurry over to save Xia Rong, Ye Mang’s side would almost immediately lose their advantage, and there would be a high probability that they would be counter killed instead . Therefore, when Ye Mang heard the other’s name, his complexion went through a slight change and even the strength he had put into suppressing Xia Rong had become much lighter .
Xia Rong seized this opportunity to struggle fiercely . Su Chi’s two hands respectively clasped down Xia Rong’s two wrists, doing his best to hold the other down, as he turned his head and looked at Ye Mang, his face appearing heroic as if ready to sacrifice himself for a just cause . ”You go! I’ll stay here to hold him back! I have an unusual secret manual, they won’t be able to break my balloon!”
Under Su Chi’s continuous urging, Ye Mang stopped hesitating, gritted his teeth, and shouted “Good brother!” before he turned and wildly dashed away . Like this, the figure with a swaying balloon fled further and further away .
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“…Is he gone?”
“…Should be far away already . ”
“…Whew, that’s good . ” Xia Rong could finally sigh a breath of relief while leaning at ease against the wall . “But that’d tired me to death . ”
Su Chi silently squatted down with him .
“Your strength was really heavy . ” Xia Rong rolled his wrist as he murmured, “My wrist has already reddened from that clasp of yours . ”
“Sorry, I didn’t control it well just now . ”
“It’s okay, what I said wasn’t a complaint . If you went any lighter, it’d seem too fake and he’d have started to suspect you . It’s good this way . ” Xia Rong laughed as he got up and raised his hand to pat Su Chi’s shoulder . “Good tacit understanding, Bro! We didn’t even have to discuss it in advance and already this hand we played was absolutely epic! Hiss…”
The fight just now was too intense such that Xia Rong’s wrist was still a little sore and ached . Su Chi brought the other’s hand off his shoulder and, in front of the camera, started to help the other massage it using his fingertips .
“…That, no need to rub it for me . ” Xia Rong pulled back his hand and coughed, “…Feels strange and uncomfortable . ”
Only then did he find that the distance between them was unexpectedly small, that Su Chi’s beautiful eyes and nose were just in front of his face . Xia Rong averted his gaze and tried to stand up . “Like this, it should be considered that we’ve brought our mission to a successful completion, so continuing from here, we’ll just tread the water…”
Su Chi followed him and stood up as well, but at the same time, he also lifted his hand . His cool, delicate fingertips fell on Xia Rong’s eyelids, brushing past them infinitely gently, then boldly and presumptuously traced from the corner of his eyes to the end of his lashes .
Xia Rong’s eyelashes trembled, but he still didn’t lift them . But his hand hanging on the side of his body silently curled up into a fist .