Chapter 25: 25

The moment Li Chengyuan appeared, both the guests present and the netizens went silent almost simultaneously.

Evidently, no one could have imagined that a person who was so low-key that he didn’t even post pictures online might show up here without any warning.

This variety show was said to let one “experience life,” but to put it bluntly, this just meant suffering hardships. Everyone was popular and brought in money, so what was the purpose of this kind of high-ranking and pampered rich man?

[Wtf?! This is Li Chengyuan?!]

[Isn’t this the fugitive hero of some comic? This face, these legs, this whole body, is this something that mortals can have?]

[Holy shit, the body proportions are perfect, and his legs are so long. He has to be 1.9 meters, right? It turns out that this is the real high-quality male god]

[I don’t believe it! Everyone hasn’t seen the last season, it involves a lot of hardships. A person with this kind of status is crazy to participate]

[I doubt this is the actual fucking male god. Could this be the emperor’s face double?]

[No no no! Go to the hot search, upstairs! All the photos of Mr. Li at the financial summit were posted! It’s him!]

[Dude, dude, I called it. Then I wonder who Li Chengyuan participated in the show for.]

[+1, for example……is there a lover among these guests?!]

At this time, Xia Xingchi’s mind was filled with tens of thousands of grass mud horses[1] galloping past. No matter what, he never imagined that Li Chengyuan could be so outrageous that he would make an impulsive decision and immediately appear here.

Up until his death in the book, his fans never knew what he looked like, so he was caught off guard when he showed up and disrupted the original plot.

Xia Xingchi had to try his best to control his expression first, otherwise the Sherlock Holmeses from all walks of life on the screen would notice the clues in minutes.

Seeing that everyone politely called him “Mr. Li,” he promptly pretended not to know him, and said nonchalantly: “Hello, Mr. Li.”

Li Chengyuan glanced at him with an inexplicable smile in his eyes.

Upon seeing this, Xia Xingchi suddenly had a bad feeling, and hoped that the big villain wouldn’t go crazy in front of the cameras.

Fortunately, Li Chengyuan didn’t do anything in the end. Except for the brief smile, he just nodded expressionlessly.

The director spoke at just the right time: “Welcome to the filming of <<Experience Life In Progressive Time>>. In the coming week, we will experience a different kind of life together!”

“So first of all, let’s release some simple small tasks to warm everyone up —”

[Hahaha who is “together” with his director? This bald old man is evil!]

[Let me see how they create difficulties for even the simplest tasks this season]

[According to this experienced old fan, the first day is just a warm-up and will indeed be a little easier]

[Then I’m relieved. Don’t get tire out our Mr. Li! Don’t make things difficult for him! (super loud)]

[Li Chengyuan probably invested money in this show, they dare not embarrass their benefactor]

Regardless of whether it would be difficult the next time, the first task was really not difficult. Xia Yu took the initiative to step forward and take the task card to read it: 

“Gather the necessary ingredients for dinner and cook it on your own.”

“The guests will be divided into three groups to carry out the work of picking vegetables, gathering goose eggs, and making purchases.”

Then, without waiting for anyone to speak, Xia Yu arranged it in a very “gentlemanly” way: “I think that shopping is relatively simple, and isn’t dirty or tiring. It is very suitable for girls, so shall we let An Jing do it?”

Turning to Han Yuanhe and Li Xiu, he spoke again: “So Han-ge and Li-ge will pick vegetables, ba? I feel like this shouldn’t be too much work.”

Li Xiu still held the egg that was about to hatch: “Then you and Xingchi will go to pick up goose eggs? Geese are not like chicken and ducks. It is said that they are very powerful and can guard the home.”

In the end, this was theoretical knowledge that came from a certain text in elementary school. No one had seen with their own eyes whether or not geese were easy to mess with.

Xia Yu sent Xia Xingchi an inexplicable glance and then smiled innocently: “It’s okay, Xingchi-ge must be very experienced, I’ll just count on him!”

Xia Xingchi was inexplicably given a cue. Everything had been forcibly arranged by someone before he could say a word, and he knew that there was another bloody storm in the barrage without even looking at it:

[Anyway, Xia Xingchi came from a remote area, so for him, this is not a new life experience at all, but a return to his roots]

[Our baby Yu is a rich second generation, so he must have never experienced such hardship. The best point of this low-tier artist is that he will do all the work]

[Ah, this, I think they are all human beings, so why does Xingchi have to work so much? Is this a status thing? How great.]

[Do Xia Yu’s fans talk like this? You usually get beaten a lot, right? Morons.]

[Xiao Yu is just telling the truth, and he’s being very friendly. Xia Xingchi just came from a mountain village, isn’t that right? Are you worried?]

Ever since the two of them were on the same frame, the barrage had been full of gunpowder. Xia Yu’s fans were numerous and their fighting power was superb, so things that were obviously unreasonable could also spark off an unreasonable quarrel.

Xia Xingchi was speechless, and wanted to kick Xia Yu. Picking goose eggs was a trivial matter, but the question was, what combination of ghosts and snakes was this?

On one side was the big green tea spirit that induced nausea at first sight, and on the other side was a crazy man who had appeared out of nowhere. He just wanted to shout “Save me, ah, don’t come over here!”

He would rather pick goose eggs by himself and let the two of them cool their heels.

Everyone was unwilling to be at odds with Xia Yu on camera. Although they were a little dissatisfied with these forced arrangements, they still accepted the tasks one after another.

Even Li Chengyuan just stared at Xia Xingchi indifferently for a few seconds, then looked away and nodded slightly in agreement.

Xia Xingchi: …….

It wasn’t only Xia Xingchi who didn’t want to team up with Li Chengyuan. When the tasks were assigned, An Jing was also clearly afraid that everyone would arrange for Li Chengyuan to join her team.

After all, the procurement task was leisurely, and not dirty or tiring, and she happened to be in a group by herself. This group was very suitable for the rich and esteemed businessman to join.

At present, it was suspicious for Li Chengyuan to associate with anyone. With his behavior of appearing out of thin air, fans were almost certain that “Ms. Li” was among the participants.

Although many young artists were chasing popularity just a few days ago, An Jing, for example, already had an official boyfriend, so she didn’t dare take part.

[Xia Yu arranged it so naturally, eh? It’s as if he knew Mr. Li would definitely be in this group]

[En en en? Raising gossip ears!]

[They were saying before that Mr. Li’s other half is a boy, a young master from a rich family]

[Wtf! Could it be that Mr. Li came to this reality show to……]

[Ahhh! Is it really our family’s Xiao Yu?! Xiao Yu is worthy! The wealthy young master is worthy of the boss!]

[If so, Xia Xingchi is redundant here, ah. Those who can’t read the room hinder Xiao Yu from sprinkling sugar]

[Laughing to death, your family really knows how to leech off Li Chengyuan. You cross out Xingchi as superfluous when things haven’t even started to take shape?]

[Are you OK? If you have nothing to do, just eat plums.[2] Not everyone ships blindly, we don’t speculate on Mr. Li’s love life]

. . . . . .

Twenty minutes later, the odd trio of monsters, ghosts, and snakes reached the border of the goose pen.

Xia Xingchi didn’t dare to say a word to Li Chengyuan, for fear that he would say something crazy and shocking, so he stripped off his “Mrs. Li” vest on the spot.

And he didn’t want to take care of the green tea spirit, lest Xia Yu once again do something immoral to gain popularity.

As for Li Chengyuan, he didn’t talk much, so it was impossible for him to bother to take the initiative to say something to Xia Yu.

For a while, the strange atmosphere felt like a funeral procession, not as lively as the geese squawking at each other.

“Xingchi-ge must be very powerful and experienced.” Xia Yu felt no shame at all, and continued his green tea talk, “This is the first time I’ve seen a goose with my own eyes!”

Xia Xingchi shrugged. It was fine for this guy to repeatedly highlight his wealthy young master character and step on the “bastard” from the mountain valley on the way.

The problem was that he didn’t do any work and let the “experienced” one do it all, but his pay was a whole zero more than his own?

The little money-grubber was considering his reply when Li Chengyuan, who had been silent all along, abruptly said with indifference: “If you have no experience, go see more of the world. Don’t talk nonsense.”

Xia Yu was taken aback, never having thought that Li Chengyuan would speak for Xia Xingchi, and was stunned speechless for a long moment.

[Hahahaha it turns out that the tyrant will also diss people, ah! It’s so satisfying, someone finally dissed that green tea. I can’t wait to give Xia Yu a slap]

[Upstairs is Xia Xingchi’s water army, right? Is this called dissing? This is obviously very sweet, ah!]

[Yeah, he didn’t talk to Xia Xingchi, he just asked Xiao Yu to see more of the countryside. Isn’t this just a normal conversation?]

[My dude, I think Xia Yu’s fans all need to eat plums wholesale, are you okay? Did you receive a knock to the head? You have a problem with your brain?]

[Open your eyes, today he can be counted as going to the moon and leeching off fame. Should my Mr. Li have to endure that green tea?]

Xia Xingchi didn’t expect Li Chengyuan to insult people, and wanted to laugh wildly.

In order to prevent himself from gloating too much, he picked up the basket and decided to go in first so that he could complete the task early and clock out of work early.

But with his hands on the fence, he also felt a little uncertain.

Although Xia Yu had mentioned his “experience,” he had never actually gathered goose eggs. After all, no one hired people to do this, and they wouldn’t make much money.

Such huge geese must be scarier than dogs, and they could also fly up to peck people. Perhaps he would be chased and pecked while stealing their eggs.

But considering the weird atmosphere between the funeral trio, Xia Xingchi took a deep breath and finally opened the gate to enter the enclosure. In any case, the goose pen was livelier, and some geese “talked” to each other.

Everyone thought that Li Chengyuan would watch from the sidelines, but unexpectedly, this pampered boss rolled up his cuffs slightly and then strode in to follow Xia Xingchi.

Although it was scary to snatch eggs from under the noses of geese, the big geese were taking a leisurely stroll at this time and didn’t have a care for the whereabouts of their eggs at all. Only a few were staring vigilantly at the uninvited guests.

Xia Xingchi remained motionless and stared back at the three aggressive geese for a long moment. When he finally confirmed that he wouldn’t be chased and pecked for the time being, he continued to walk slowly.

“Li Chengyuan, I’m going to gather the goose eggs, you go and lure them away, and make a little noise when you get there,” Xia Xingchi said softly.

After speaking, he realized that he was so nervous that he forgot to pretend not to know a certain person, so he quickly added: “Thank you, Mr. Li, please remember to be safe.”

Hearing this, Li Chengyuan gave him a cold half-smile, as if he was a little dissatisfied with the second half of the sentence.

But he turned around and did as he was told, walking a few steps further away and coughing lightly.

As expected, the geese guarding their nest turned their heads when they heard this sound, and Li Chengyuan deliberately took a few steps back, causing them to immediately switch to the fleeing target and move forward.

Xia Xingchi heaved a sigh of relief, and quickly lowered his head to fumble for a goose egg.

The two cooperated tacitly, while Xia Yu was left alone with no one paying attention to him.

[Hahahaha this is the cp you want to force? I think Mr. Li likes Xia Xingchi more]

[Ha. Xia Xingchi is able to do farm work, it’s normal for our little master not to be able to. What are you so proud of?]

[Is this called showing one’s skill before an expert? Mr. Li is a real nobleman with a golden spoon in his mouth, and he’s still working. What can your family be proud of?]

Xia Xingchi was bending over to gather seriously, but suddenly sensed Xia Yu walking over from behind him with light steps.

A bad premonition flashed through his mind, and Xia Xingchi immediately straightened up, turning his head as he said: “Stop! What are you doing?”

“I’ll help you gather them together,” Xia Yu said with an innocent expression. “May I, Xingchi-ge?”

Xia Xingchi let out an “oh,” thinking that maybe he was being too suspicious, and he was only here to show his presence. Thus, he bent down again and continued to feel around: “Whatever.”

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Unexpectedly, as soon as his fingers touched a smooth egg, he heard a big goose behind him let out a very aggressive “honk!” 

Startled, Xia Xingchi quickly raised his head —

As soon as he looked up, he saw a white figure soar into the sky like lightning, rushing towards him!

The incident happened so suddenly that he could only think: “Fuck! It can really fly so high?!”

Looking at Xia Yu again, this grandson had already run away quite innocently, as if this was none of his concern.

Xia Xingchi was filled with fury. He must have invisibly provoked this group of firecrackers just now, and ran away after lighting them up.

As if responding to its call, the aggressive behavior of this goose immediately attracted countless companions.

In just a few seconds, the scene was thrown into chaos. More than a dozen big geese besieged him at the same time, and goose feathers flew around in an instant.

It was too late for Xia Xingchi to run. He didn’t forget to grab the last goose egg in the confusion, and then hurriedly covered his head with his arms and tried to crouch down to hide.

At this time, his wrist was grasped by a cold hand, and then his whole person was buried in a familiar embrace.

Protecting his head with one hand, Li Chengyuan picked him up from the ground neatly and ran all the way out of the goose pen, throwing off the fierce geese that were chasing after him.

[ ! ! ! ! ]

[Fuck, geese are really not cute, they’re too fucking scary, the kind that can leave a psychological shadow!]

[Wu wu wu Mr. Li is so cool, ah! So handsome! So handsome!]

[ (whispers) There seems to be such a smug look?]

[Oh my god, when the goose flew up just now, Mr. Li’s expression changed and he rushed up to protect Xia Xingchi without even thinking about it]

[Actually, I have a bold guess…….]

Contrary to common belief, geese did not lack teeth when they bit people. In fact, the edges of their upper and lower beaks were covered in them, scalp-numbing, thin, and densely serrated. They could even directly draw blood with a peck.

Xia Xingchi held the basket in one hand and quickly closed the gate with the other to block the jumping geese, then quickly turned to look at Li Chengyuan’s hand.

Sure enough, he was right. The back of his hand was bleeding, especially conspicuous against his cold white skin. The bright red blood ran all the way down his slender fingers, dripping from his fingertips to the ground.

“Damnit……”

Xia Xingchi held Li Chengyuan’s bloody right hand, and all at once felt his heart tremble with distress.

After a long moment, he couldn’t bear it and roared: “Xia Yu! What the hell are you doing! Is this fun for you?!”

Xia Yu suddenly appeared frightened and pitiful: “I, I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m sorry, Xingchi-ge, I’m sorry, President Li.”

As he spoke, the edges of his eyes were turning red with grievance.

[Wu wu wu Mr. Li’s hand, ah! His hand! It’s bleeding!]

[There must be something wrong with Xia Xingchi. Xia Yu didn’t do it on purpose, what’s with this attitude? How does he deserve to talk to Xia Yu like this when he’s such a jerk?]

[Didn’t do it on purpose? Didn’t I see him step on a goose’s foot and run away afterwards, just leaving our Xingchi where he was?]

[Cut it out with all this Xia Xingchi shit, what does he have to do with Li Chengyuan? Besides, wasn’t it all for him?]

[Although, don’t you think he is skillful in holding Mr. Li’s hand? There seems to be something between them]

[Don’t be ridiculous, your family is the one who went to the moon and rubbed shoulders with fame, so he deserves it? He’s a low-tier pauper, is he stacking debuffs?]

Li Chengyuan pursed his lips. Seeing Xia Xingchi genuinely worried for him, he couldn’t help being a little happy.

But he also knew that an artist needed to maintain their image, so he gently grasped the back of Xia Xingchi’s neck with his other hand, where the cameras couldn’t see.

He comforted in a low voice: “It’s okay, it’s just a small wound. Don’t worry.”

With cool fingertips stroking the back of his neck, the little hedgehog finally calmed down.

Xia Xingchi glared at Xia Yu angrily for a moment, and realized that what Xia Yu might want was for his image to collapse when he lost his composure.

Forget it, after a dog bit someone, they couldn’t bite it back in front of the camera.

Xia Xingchi took a deep breath and said coldly: “Fine, we’ve collected enough goose eggs. Let’s go back and get the wound treated.”

– – –

When they returned, the vegetable-picking team had also completed their task. Only An Jing, who was in charge of shopping, needed a little more time as she tried to buy all the daily necessities on the list in the small shops where supplies were scarce.

It stood to reason that for this kind of accidental injury, participants were required to purchase first aid supplies by themselves, so as to experience the real hardships of life.

But Li Chengyuan was not a normal participant, after all, and it would be courting death to deliberately make their employer suffer. The program team hurriedly brought the medicine kit and stuffed it into Xia Xingchi’s hands.

When Li Chengyuan dropped in, they were aware of the relationship between the two and knew who the real master was, so this set of actions was performed naturally.

However, Xia Xingchi’s anger had subsided, and let alone gently holding the big cat’s injured paw, he wished he could be far away from Li Chengyuan.

He didn’t pretend to have a good attitude when the accident happened, and now he was probably included on the “Mrs. Li” suspect list.

If he gave Li Chengyuan medicine in an ambiguous manner right now, he would simply be incriminating himself.

He quickly set the medicine kit in front of Li Chenyuan as if it were dynamite: “Boss Li, hurry and apply the medicine……I’m going to choose vegetables and prepare to cook.”

Li Chengyuan looked at Xia Xingchi with a slight frown, not saying a word.

Like a willful and arrogant big cat, he insisted on someone treating his wound, otherwise he would never do it himself and just sit there with a cold face.

Pretending he didn’t see it, Xia Xingchi walked into the simple kitchen and used a primitive water tank to scoop up water and wash the vegetables.

At the same time, he couldn’t help pricking up his ears to hear if Li Chengyuan had opened the medicine box.

But it seemed that he had caught a chill from the late autumn wind, and had a cough at this time that was obviously uncomfortable.

With Li Chengyuan’s cough, Xia Xingchi couldn’t help being worried and wanted to go out to see him.

But outside the kitchen, there were cameras all around slapping him in the face, and an increasing number of fans had come to see the male god after hearing the news.

Just as he was considering it, Xia Yu asked in a manner that implied they knew each other well: “Are you all right, Mr. Li? I went to pour a glass of warm water, why hasn’t the injury on your hand been treated yet? I thought Xingchi-ge would……”

“Get lost,” Li Chengyuan said angrily.

He had coughed half-fakely for a long while but failed to fish out his little hedgehog, and he was getting irritable when Xia Yu leaned over to obstruct his view again.

He had thought to sow dissension, and his original intention was to imply “Xingchi-ge doesn’t feel sorry for you at all, he is not as considerate and caring as I am.”

But Li Chengyuan only paid attention to the first half of the sentence, and was offended when provoked by the delicate topic.

After all, whether it was the cameras or Xia Yu, it was all undermining his purpose of tricking Xia Xingchi back out to feel sorry for him.

[Hahahaha I laughed so hard! This “get lost” is very aggressive]

[I’ve already made a gif. Hehehe, special green tea emoticon pack]

[Ah, this, Xia Yu showing concern? Isn’t being rich amazing, ah]

[Oh, it’s really amazing to be rich. Xia Yu made a play and was directly banned]

[Che, Xia Yu is also a rich second generation, so can he be easily shut out?]

[In the eyes of ordinary people, he might be called “rich,” but the assets of the Xia family may be less than a few tenths or even one percent of Mr. Li’s, understand?]

[Hey, hey, hey, Mr. Li seems to be upset? He looks so pale]

Li Chengyuan raised his eyes and stared in the direction of the kitchen for a few seconds, then slowly lowered his head to stare unblinkingly at his wound.

A few seconds later, Xia Xingchi, who had pricked up his ears and continued to listen, suddenly heard an exclamation: “Mr. Li, what’s wrong?!”

“Quickly help! Help!”

Xia Xingchi was startled, and rushed out of the kitchen before he could shake off the water on his hands, almost tripping over the old threshold.

Li Chengyuan’s face had turned pale, and he frowned as he pushed away the team doctor, sitting on the chair with pursed lips and not saying a word. He was obviously very uncomfortable, and it was a bit difficult for him to brace his body and sit upright.

“What’s going on?” Xia Xingchi rushed forward anxiously. “What’s wrong?”

Li Chengyuan was silent for a long time before whispering: “I get sick at the sight of blood.”

Xia Xingchi was taken aback upon hearing this. He hadn’t expected him to have such a problem, and he clearly heard a bit of blame and……grievance from his tone?

But obviously no matter how he thought about these words, they should have nothing to do with this terrible and crazy villain.

In any case, Li Chengyuan obviously didn’t want others to help him deal with the wound, and he couldn’t deal with it himself if he was feeling faint.

Xia Xingchi had no choice but to open the medicine box and pretend that the two of them didn’t know each other: “Mr. Li, may I help you treat your wound?”

Fortunately, the wound was not too deep, but there was a lot of blood, so it looked a bit scary. He could only see that this paw that could be used as a hand model should not scar.

For fear of hurting Li Chengyuan, Xia Xingchi couldn’t use too much force. He could only concentrate and carefully wipe off the blood, and then gently apply iodophor with a cotton swab.

Finally feeling a little happier, Li Chengyuan pursed his lips and silently gazed down at Xia Xingchi’s concentration expressionlessly.

[Fuck, this scene. Knock cp, knock cp!]

[Look at Mr. Li’s eyes, ahhhh I’m dead, I won’t believe it if you say these two aren’t a thing]

[Applying medicine is a matter of course, but this doesn’t look like brotherhood. Sworn brothers wouldn’t look at each other with such affectionate eyes]

[Boldly guessing, Xia Xingchi didn’t want to admit the relationship, so Mr. Li tried to find a way to make him show his affection hahahaha]

[Oh my god, isn’t President Li chasing after him! I ship it even more!]

Xia Xingchi didn’t look up, unaware that Li Chengyuan was staring at him.

It was only that while applying the medicine, he felt that something was off. Why did he get sick at the sight of blood?

Wait……

Wasn’t this wrong, ah? When this big villain became crazy and warped in the later stages, wasn’t he able to meticulously bleed someone without changing his expression, and then throw them into the sea to feed the sharks?

This was fucking called getting sick at the sight of blood?

Was it so selective that he only got sick at the sight of his own blood, or did he just choose this period of time in front of the camera to grow faint?

Only then did Xia Xingchi realize that he was clearly being deceived. He gnashed his teeth, and the strength in his hand suddenly increased!

Li Chengyuan was caught off guard and gasped. Xia Xingchi raised his head gloomily and asked with a smile: “Mr. Li, think about it again, do you really feel sick?”

[1] “Grass mud horse,” 草泥马 (cǎonímǎ), is a near-homophone of the profanity phrase, “Fuck your mother, ” or 肏你媽 (cào nǐ mā). It is used to circumvent internet censorship. ⮐

[2] This phrase dates back to a Chinese commercial for the plum preserves brand Liuliu Mei (溜溜梅). It became an internet meme/insult. ⮐

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