There was completely no need for the production team to invent titles, as some of the bullet comments were already expressing more than enough.
Peng Hu cried her way onto the trending search list on the very first day, and the Chenhun Group tagged right behind left people bewildered, with many assuming that some food safety issue had occurred that caused the rumored chairwoman to weep so bitterly.
“In this day and age, people can still go on variety shows after getting divorced?”
“In the future, emotional variety shows can add another sub-genre: still going on a show with your ex-wife after a divorce to make money.”
“Is it trendy for entrepreneurs to go on variety shows lately? I thought with Jin Fuxiao at her level, there was no need to be so…”
“Did they actually divorce or not!”
Ju Cixin did not accompany Jin Fuxiao to the variety show location, and just watching the live broadcast made her blood pressure spike.
Bound by her position and status, she could not publicly post comments badmouthing Peng Hu, so she could only silently like a few posts under the hashtag #This Is a Divorce Show, Who Is Out Here Confessing# that supported Jin Fuxiao finding a new partner.
The company group chat was extremely excited because the boss was participating in a variety show, and some were curious about where the child was.
The upper management was even more brazen, directly seeking out Ju Cixin to ask for the truth.
Ju Cixin muted everyone, instructing her secretary to liaise with the production team’s advertising department instead.
She planned to take advantage of Jin Fuxiao’s absence from the company to launch the repackaged Fuxiao Time Seaweed.
What a wonderful marketing project, making this the perfect opportunity for promotion.
Peng Hu had cried until she was oxygen-deprived, which triggered a headache, so she went to rest.
The live broadcast proceeded as usual, with the production team announcing their five-day itinerary in City A.
They were also required to hand over their mobile phones, kicking off five days without communication devices.
All four cities would follow this same pattern, where the guests traveled according to assigned tasks and returned every evening to write a daily letter to exchange with their ex-wives.
Goodbye Wife was a brand-new variety show. The live broadcast format weakened the director’s post-production control, and Wu Tou, fearing Peng Hu might cause some chaos, originally wanted to mix up the order of the guests’ inn room assignments, but ultimately ended up arranging them together anyway.
“I was wondering why they chose tourist cities that are not very popular. Is it so they do not use phones and navigation?”
“I am used to electronic payments, so suddenly using cash feels quite unfamiliar.”
“I cannot imagine going five days without a phone, it gives the illusion of returning to high school.”
“Going out to complete a day’s check-in task and then coming back to write a daily summary is just like how I wrote essays in primary school.”
“There must be promotional tasks, right? Plus they are restricting the budget, and Chao Bei has such a big appetite that one hundred yuan for five days will definitely not be enough for her.”
Peng Hu went to take her medication, while the guests remaining on site received paper and pens, required to write down their reasons for participating in the variety show and their expectations after it ended.
Jin Fuxiao was still preoccupied with Peng Hu’s departure, appearing mind-absent.
The few people gathered around the wooden table chatted occasionally, and Lu Yan asked, “Fuxiao-jie, I see that you and Peng Hu-jie still have a pretty good relationship. Are you two not planning to remarry?”
Hearing the word remarry, Chao Bei took another look at Lu Yan.
“Remarry?”
The stroke of Jin Fuxiao’s pen slipped as she wrote. Her reason for participating in the variety show could hardly be stated as high-sounding excuses like making money, gaining exposure, or doing it for the company.
She followed her heart, though her strokes trembled as she wrote the two characters of Peng Hu’s name. Yet because of that question, the lower stroke under the character Peng dragged out into a long line, looking almost like the stylized signature she used to design for Peng Hu in the past.
“Have you thought about it that way?”
Jin Fuxiao threw the hard-to-answer question right back. Chao Bei let out a sneer, “Really? You want to remarry me?”
Even Jin Fuxiao could see through Chao Bei’s mind, thinking to herself who it was that actually wanted to remarry.
Are young people nowadays all this insincere?
Sure enough, Lu Yan did not even bother to answer, swapping seats with Shu Huaidie just to make it easier to bicker with Chao Bei.
The stationery provided by the production team was crumpled into a ball by the two of them. Even an unlimited supply could not stop them from shredding paper so maniacally while bickering.
“It is literally like puppies fighting.”
Lou Zimiao folded up her written letter, her peripheral vision inadvertently sweeping past her ex-wife.
Shu Huaidie wore light-colored lipstick, yet her lips remained very dry. Even with makeup on, faint dark circles were visible under her eyes.
She could not help frowning. Was her manager’s decision really a good idea?
Although her popularity was not what it used to be, she was not at a point where she needed to come on a show like this for publicity.
If it were not for the fact that the company had already agreed to the project, and had even received a response from Shu Huaidie who had returned to her hometown, Lou Zimiao would have wanted to decline it.
Shu Huaidie was still very young, and she was not even an adult yet when they first met.
Because her parents had passed away and she had nowhere to live, a friend sent her younger cousin to Lou Zimiao to be looked after.
Calling it looking after was really just Lou Zimiao being away filming while her empty apartment was given to the young girl who had just started high school to live in.
When she finished filming and returned to her place, opening the door to find someone waiting there gave her quite a fright, and it took her a while to recall the arrangement.
At that time, she had never considered for a moment that she would marry Shu Huaidie, treating her merely as a friend’s younger sister.
The production team had set up many camera angles, with Wu Tou presiding over everything, meaning none of the guests’ subtle expressions could escape notice.
People had long analyzed that there was more to this couple’s divorce, and it was likely not what was previously claimed about Shu Huaidie disliking how busy Lou Zimiao was with work and having no time to accompany her, leading her to seek a new partner.
“She is a dog, but I am not!”
When Lu Yan turned her head, her hair whipped through the air and slapped right across Chao Bei’s face. She failed to notice her ex-wife’s foolishly happy expression, let alone how much more devastated the fans in the bullet comments were.
Nothing was more heartbreaking than an idol whose persona during her group days was cool and distant turning into a complete fool after disbandment, which showed just how frightening the company’s management during her girl group days had been.
“What is wrong with being a dog? I am the number one best dog under the heavens.”
Chao Bei scribbled down her answers for the production team, folded the paper, and handed it over to the staff.
Shu Huaidie barely said a few words in total. Her energy was limited, so after finishing writing, she inquired about the itinerary, intending to head upstairs to her room to rest.
Peng Hu was taking her medication in the back. She carried with her the things given by Stygiomedusa, though it tasted truly revolting when swallowed, so Zhou Qi handed her a box of seaweed.
“Mommy, eat this.”
Only after Peng Hu ate a piece did she notice the packaging, with Chenhun’s icon in the upper right corner and four words printed right in the center.
Fuxiao Time.
“Who gave this to you?” Peng Hu asked casually after eating two sheets of seaweed.
There were cameras here as well, and although the child did not appear on screen, her edges were visible, and her voice sounded babyish and extremely adorable.
“Mommy?! Is there really a child?”
“Let us see the child.”
“Is this her reason for joining the variety show? There is no way they can say goodbye like this.”
“Auntie, Auntie Ill Intent gave it.”
Zhou Qi could not remember Ju Cixin’s name, so after thinking for a long time, she came up with a wrong answer.
Peng Hu instinctively corrected her, “Ju Cixin, not ill intent.”
After two seconds, she asked in confusion, “Who is that again?”
“The auntie next to Mommy whose eyes look a lot like a pufferfish.”
Yu Yan, who came to look for Zhou Qi, almost burst out laughing, holding it in for a long time before saying, “It was given by Vice President Ju, who said it is a new unreleased product.”
Peng Hu stared at the words Fuxiao Time on the packaging, “It should be called Fufu Time.”
A staff member came to fetch Peng Hu, so she bade farewell to Zhou Qi and headed to the front.
Jin Fuxiao had also handed in her handwritten answers. Seeing Peng Hu sit down carrying a scent of seaweed, along with the snacks pushed toward her, she asked, “Where did this come from?”
Questions were written on the stationery, and Peng Hu stared at them for a long time before solemnly writing down almost identical sentences.
“Being able to be together with Fufu.”
“Wanting to be together with Fufu forever.”
Jin Fuxiao stared at the company’s new snack, not even bothering to glance at Peng Hu’s answers.
She did not forget that there were cameras all around, holding back her exposed emotions.
Yet Peng Hu said, “Fufu, your eyes are breathing fire.”
Lou Zimiao, who was looking at the map of Location A, trembled her hand, while Chao Bei burst out laughing quite rudely.
Lu Yan really could not hold back any longer and asked Peng Hu, “Chairman Peng, you are completely different from what I imagined.”
Jin Fuxiao pinched the box and excused herself, taking advantage of the fact that her phone had not been confiscated yet to make a call to Ju Cixin.
Only four people remained on site, with countless pairs of eyes behind the cameras curious about her answer.
“Imagined, like what?”
Peng Hu’s appearance was far too extraordinary, though there was also Chao Bei with her long pink hair on site, making it seem at first glance as if two guests came from idol backgrounds.
Looking at their official ages, aside from Lou Zimiao, Peng Hu was the eldest.
Yet her face looked to be in her early twenties, and while her features were of a mature type, her eyes were far too clear, making her look several years younger still, leaving countless people curious about what kind of cosmetic procedures she had done to reverse her age back to adolescence.
Some also secretly speculated that the couple from Chenhun Group coming on the show might be planning an entry into the beauty industry.
“When you attended annual galas or interviews with Chairman Jin in the past, you did not like to speak at all, looking as if you were hard to get along with.”
Lu Yan was a photographer who had shot celebrities as well as ordinary people.
Presumably to cut ties with her ex-wife, she had almost severed contact with the entertainment industry before this variety show, her private bookings completely packed, and clearing a twenty-day window was entirely because the production team offered far too much.
As for personal motives, it was hard to say.
She and Chao Bei grew up together, and before realizing they were in love, they already knew that whichever of them died first would be the one to visit the other’s grave.
Whether love was an accident or not was something they had truly never sat down to discuss.
When people who were far too familiar got married, transitioning into lover mode meant that for Lu Yan, who was used to being alone before this, her personal space was extremely compressed.
On the surface, Chao Bei was a dazzling idol, yet her grievances during her group days were so plentiful they could make a person float if they lay on top of them.
She said the job was far too hard, Lu Yan said if you do not do it plenty of others will, and Chao Bei said she wanted to date, but being an idol made that impossible.
Lu Yan said then wait until your contract expires before dating.
It was at that moment when Chao Bei let out a call, saying how about when my contract expires, you just marry me instead.
It was an extremely casual sentence, and it took Lu Yan a long time just to distinguish whether her pounding heartbeat was a pleasant surprise or a fright.
The result turned out the same regardless.
She looked curiously at the beautiful woman opposite her, who was even more dazzling than Chao Bei during her idol days, “I heard you were the one who proposed the divorce, is that true?”
Peng Hu did not possess that memory, but before returning to her species, she had made several backup copies of that past.
Zhou Qi was her backup of love, while Dai Buyu belonged to another kind of entrustment.
On the moonlit beach, she had repeatedly recounted her past with Jin Fuxiao to the other woman, asking if recording it with a voice recorder could truly preserve it.
Dai Buyu said even if it disappears, I am still alive.
Sure enough, the audio recordings disappeared, and the written records vanished as well.
It seemed there was always a price for non-humans like them to become human: to gain something, one must lose something.
Even if her existence was not erased, her memories were bound to vanish completely along with the pressure of the sea.
Fortunately, Dai Buyu still remembered, as her memory was very good, and she had even described it once to Wu Tou.
However, Wu Tou seemed even more fascinated by their atmosphere that day.
A bright moon over the sea, a Turritopsis dohrnii trying to grasp her human existence, which was practically a page out of a human-written monster tale.
Unfortunately, Dai Buyu’s voice was unpleasant and she was not a romantic person, completely incapable of creating the atmosphere, so Wu Tou had no choice but to drop it.
Wu Tou, sitting before the monitors, captured Peng Hu’s disappointed gaze.
The Turritopsis dohrnii who had lost most of her memories resembled twenty-year-old Peng Hu even more.
Meeting Jin Fuxiao and falling in love, she engaged in physical intimacy with her in human form, beginning to unrealistically fantasize about the rest of her life.
Wu Tou knew Peng Hu could not lie and was already thinking of contingency plans.
Peng Hu, lacking that memory, would definitely say it was false.
Unexpectedly, Peng Hu nodded, “It is true.”
Her deep blue eyes were pure to the extreme, yet like clear weather on a calm sea, they carried a subtle danger that sailors would guard against.
So would prey.
“There are situations where humans marry not because of love,” she paused, “then getting a divorce does not necessarily mean a lack of love either.”
She had kept an expressionless face all along, but at this moment, as if having successfully justified her own logic, she smiled at Lu Yan.
“Is that not so?”