Shen Xingci smirked at Lu Chengyan, raised an eyebrow, replied “Alright,” and jumped into the water with a splash.
Xia Yan looked at Lu Chengyan with a smile, extending a hand: “Big Brother, can you give me a hand?”
Xia Yan’s skin was very fair. Soaked in seawater, it looked practically glowing—so tender it seemed as if a gentle pinch would leave red marks.
His slender, lily-white fingers had neatly rounded nails, looking both beautiful and fragile, sparking an urge to ruthlessly ravage them.
Lu Chengyan stared blankly at Xia Yan’s hand.
Receiving no response, Xia Yan tugged at the corner of Lu Chengyan’s shirt: “Big Brother, give me a hand~”
Xia Yan had good core strength. Having just fallen into the water with Song Yutong, he simply braced both hands against the edge of the double kayak and hoisted himself right up.
Lu Chengyan, who had been keeping his eyes on Xia Yan, saw the whole thing clearly. He knew Xia Yan was just acting, but he didn’t call him out. Snapped back to his senses by Xia Yan’s voice, his hand moved faster than his brain and grabbed Xia Yan’s hand.
The tactile feel was just as he had imagined—soft and smooth, still a bit chilly from the seawater. His thumb imperceptibly stroked against the skin.
Lu Chengyan’s hands were thick, wide, and warm, but his gripping motion was full of deprivation and a sense of possession. His fingertips swept across in an ambiguous manner. Paired with Lu Chengyan’s aloof, high-and-mighty expression as someone used to being in charge, it sent delightful ripples through Xia Yan, who possessed a slight Sub/Masochist streak.
Holding Xia Yan’s hand with one hand and wrapping his other arm around Xia Yan’s waist, Lu Chengyan hoisted him onto the boat, then wrapped a towel around Xia Yan’s head and body respectively.
In a flat voice, he said: “Dry yourself off. Don’t catch a cold.”
Xia Yan didn’t move. He placed his hands obediently on his knees and blinked his dark, round eyes: “Big Brother, can you help me dry my hair? I’m all thumbs and can’t dry it properly.”
Lu Chengyan politely declined: “Do it yourself.”
He picked up the paddles and began to row, putting on the appearance of a very busy man.
Xia Yan climbed up Lu Chengyan’s arm, his index finger gently scratching back and forth, putting on an exaggerated, coquettish voice: “Big Brother.”
Goosebumps broke out all over Lu Chengyan.
Lu Chengyan disliked green tea types, couldn’t stand men acting coquettishly, and despised fake, pretentious people even more.
What Xia Yan was doing could be said to be tap-dancing all over his minefields, yet somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to hate it. He even felt an urge to spoil Xia Yan.
“Alright,” Lu Chengyan muttered. He put down the paddles, picked up the towel from Xia Yan’s head, and gently dried his hair.
The soft towel brushed past his strands of hair and the edges of his ears with just the right amount of pressure. Xia Yan squinted his eyes comfortably into slits, his mouth still not resting.
“Mhm, since Big Brother is drying my hair personally, I won’t even want to wash it anymore. But if I don’t wash it, it’ll stink and I won’t be able to get close to Big Brother. I’m so envious of whoever Big Brother’s future boyfriend turns out to be; someone as gentle as you will surely dry his hair every single day.”
A light pink towel enveloped Xia Yan’s head, setting off his fair and soft face.
Listening to Xia Yan’s words and looking at his face, a wave of mischievous malice welled up inside Lu Chengyan.
Pretending it was an accident, he used the towel to trap both sides of Xia Yan’s cheeks, squeezing the soft flesh toward the middle. It forced Xia Yan’s rosy lips to purse outward, making him look as cute as a fat-headed fish.
Uncomfortable with the treatment, Xia Yan pouted and whimpered: “Mhm, go easy on me, Big Brother. You’re hurting me.”
With such terrible phrasing and a sickeningly sweet tone, it was hard to say the relationship between the two of them was innocent; it sounded almost as if they were in the middle of doing that.
Lu Chengyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He pinched the lobe of Xia Yan’s ear and warned in a deep voice: “Stop flirting.”
“Who’s flirting? It’s just that Big Brother hurt me,” Xia Yan muttered softly, looking thoroughly wronged, though he did finally stop carrying on.
He obediently let Lu Chengyan dry his hair, and once that was finished, he sat quietly on the small boat to sunbathe.
The sea breeze and the sun dried his soaked clothes, and the kayak rocked back and forth with the gentle waves, rocking him right into a dreamland.
Seeing this, Lu Chengyan draped a towel over his stomach area.
When Xia Yan woke up, it was four o’clock in the afternoon. Lu Chengyan had rowed the boat back to the shore by himself, and the commotion of the boat bumping against the bank startled Xia Yan awake.
He had just had a dream where he was vacationing at the seaside with his parents and older sister. Waking up abruptly, he was still a bit dazed, thinking he was still with his family.
He stretched lazily, caught sight of the figure beside him, and casually asked, “Dad, what are we having for dinner?”
Not far away, Shen Xingci—who was stepping on the edge of the boat to get ashore—heard this address, slipped, and fell straight into the sea. Gu Xiaoran, who was drinking water, choked and spat it out in a spray.
Several of the guests turned their heads toward Lu Chengyan in unison, every pair of eyes spelling out the exact same sentence: Best Actor Lu, playing it this wild?
Lu Chengyan felt like his reputation was completely ruined.
Dad? To think Xia Yan actually had the nerve to say it; he really was utterly unrestrained.
Seeing Song Yutong giving him a thumbs-up, Xia Yan’s short-circuited brain instantly reconnected. What did he just call Lu Chengyan…
Thick-skinned as he was, even he wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it right now.
He turned his head to sneak a peek at Lu Chengyan. Lu Chengyan looked like he might actually want to beat him up.
Xia Yan swallowed hard and offered a sincere explanation to Lu Chengyan and everyone else: “I’m sorry, my brain was still half-asleep from napping. I dreamt I was playing at the beach with my parents and sister, and when I just woke up, I couldn’t tell reality from the dream. I thought my dad was right beside me.”
This explanation didn’t help much. Everyone simply gave him a “No need to explain, we understand” look.
As everyone knew, Xia Yan was an orphan with no parents, having grown up in an orphanage since he was a child.
Earlier, paparazzi had leaked reports claiming Xia Yan was dumped at the doorstep of an orphanage when he was less than a month old, and had even nearly been snatched away and eaten by stray dogs.
Therefore, Xia Yan couldn’t possibly have memories of his parents, let alone an older sister. Even if Xia Yan harbored expectations about having a family due to his personal experiences, it was impossible for him to mistakenly call out for an imagined father right upon waking up.
There was only one truth: he had deliberately called Lu Chengyan “Dad”!
Because of the lack of fatherly love in his childhood, Xia Yan liked to call his boyfriend—who was seven years older than him—”Dad” after reaching adulthood. The older partner, either due to personal kinks or out of pure indulgence, had always played along. The young couple called each other “Dad” and “Baby” in private every day, and he had slipped up and let it out on the show.
Was this guess reasonable? Extremely reasonable.
Ever since yesterday, they had felt these two were acting a bit suspicious, and Lu Chengyan had been overwhelmingly indulgent toward Xia Yan. Now, it was practically concrete evidence—these two must have gotten together long ago and were trying to use this show to go public!
Xia Yan: “…”
He looked innocently at Lu Chengyan: “Big Brother, I really didn’t mean to.”
Lu Chengyan glanced back at Xia Yan, his gaze profoundly meaningful.
In the evening, they arrived at a new guesthouse, and the guests finally got rooms of their own.
There was still a surplus in today’s romantic travel fund, so for dinner, everyone ignored the director’s team and skipped playing games, choosing instead to have a barbecue out in the courtyard.
Xia Yan seized the opportunity to hand out the gifts he had prepared for everyone.
Although the bracelets were store-bought finished products, Xia Yan had carefully chosen every single one.
For example, the bracelet given to Yu Wan had a small little starfish on it, because “Starfish” was the name of Yu Wan’s debut album.
Similarly, every gift received by the guests had a specific meaning.
If Xia Yan had handed these gifts out yesterday when they boarded the plane, the guests wouldn’t have felt much of a ripple, because those would most likely have been prepared by agents or assistants.
But right now, it was completely different. They knew Xia Yan had personally bought these at the DIY store at noon and carefully selected them. Such thoughtfulness was genuinely touching.
To Xia Yan, this was just lifting a finger.
For half a month before joining the show, he had studied information to crack Lu Chengyan’s defenses until he was dizzy and practically wanted to throw up.
Thinking he would read up on the show’s guests to relieve some stress—and incidentally get to know the colleagues he would be working with for the next month or so—he had memorized their profiles.
His memory was quite good, so he had a general grasp of the guests’ hobbies and interests.
Today, when he went to the store to do handicrafts, he had completely broken away from the group. Bringing the gifts back was just a matter of basic etiquette, and being able to close the distance between himself and the others was a pleasant, unexpected bonus.
To Xia Yan, today had been a pleasant day. The only unpleasant part was calling Lu Chengyan “Dad,” which could honestly be classified as a dark moment in his history.
The look Lu Chengyan gave him when he left at the beach that afternoon had been very telling. Xia Yan figured it was necessary to give Lu Chengyan a proper explanation so he wouldn’t be regarded as some weirdo.
However, when he went to look for Lu Chengyan, Zhao Weidong informed him that Lu Chengyan had temporarily left for some urgent business and was estimated to take three or four days before returning to resume recording.
Xia Yan didn’t press for details on why Lu Chengyan had left. Since his favorability rating hadn’t dropped, it definitely wasn’t because he was annoyed by him and left; it meant he genuinely had business to attend to.
Currently, his strategy progress was at 45. Xia Yan wasn’t in a rush for these three or four days, so he simply sent Lu Chengyan a message explaining the “Dad” incident before happily heading back to eat barbecue.
Besides, even if Lu Chengyan wasn’t physically here, he could still date online. All the guests had added each other’s accounts on the dating app officially launched by Love You, and he had Lu Chengyan added on the “Love You” app.
The barbecue party didn’t end until 10 PM. Only then did Xia Yan finally have time to check his phone, where he found a reply from Lu Chengyan sent two hours ago.
Future Hubby: Whether you did it on purpose or not, you know best 🙂
Xia Yan felt helpless. Heaven and earth as his witness, that really was an accident! He didn’t have a habit of calling just anyone “Dad”—he was a deeply filial son, and he only had one biological father who raised him!
Seeing that Lu Chengyan held a bias against him and didn’t believe his words, Xia Yan couldn’t be bothered to explain further and directly launched a new wave of attacks on Lu Chengyan.
Invincible Pretty Boy: I can still tell the difference between a husband and a dad (Little cat putting hands on hips · gif)
Invincible Pretty Boy: Big Brother, when are you coming back? (Little cat peeking out · gif)
(Message failed to send. Please add the other person as a friend first.)
【Ding! Target’s favorability increased by 1 point. Current favorability: 46.】
Xia Yan: “!!!”
Lu Chengyan actually deleted him!
What kind of quirk was this? His favorability had clearly gone up, he had obviously enjoyed being called “Husband” and yet he still deleted him!
Xia Yan was genuinely ticked off. Lu Chengyan was a truly difficult person to please; this was the first time in both his past and present lives that someone had ever deleted him.
Fine, fine, fine.
Since Lu Chengyan had deleted him, then he… would just have to add him back.
After all, Lu Chengyan’s existence was tied to his precious life.
Xia Yan sent a friend verification message: Big Brother, I was wrong. I promise I won’t run my mouth off casually ever again. Please give me a chance.
Xia Yan swore that today he would be meek and submissive, but the day he managed to get Lu Chengyan wrapped around his finger, he would definitely take revenge for today’s deleted-friend grievance. He was going to delete Lu Chengyan too, he’d delete him three whole times!
Two minutes later, Lu Chengyan accepted the friend request.
Invincible Pretty Boy: Big Brother~ (Little cat acting spoiled · gif)
Future Hubby: Flirt again and I’ll delete you.
Invincible Pretty Boy: (Little cat being well-behaved and honest · gif)
On the other end, sitting inside a private car, Lu Chengyan chuckled softly as he looked at his phone screen.