Jiang Li’s skin was naturally very pale, and hearing this, blood rushed straight up, his ears burning red with anger: “Who the hell is your wife!”
The man didn’t answer, only pressed his face against Jiang Li’s neck and nuzzled, like a big clingy dog seeking affection.
Warm breath spread across his neck, their skin inevitably pressed together, an involuntary shiver running through him.
Jiang Li’s face burned unbearably. Fortunately the darkness hid his expression. He fiercely jabbed the man’s chest with his elbow, successfully hurting himself in the process instead.
Before he could say anything, the man played the victim first, his seductive voice steeped in exaggerated grievance, like well-aged liquor.
“Do you find me this disgusting?”
Jiang Li was puzzled, when had he said the man was disgusting? That time with the reporters hadn’t even been meant seriously, was it reasonable for this human to still be holding onto it?
Besides, this wasn’t even a question of disgusting or not, it was a question of not being allowed to call him “wife” after divorce, and definitely not being allowed to cuddle.
But he’d never seen Duan Zhihan look like this before.
In his memory, Duan Zhihan had always been proud and dignified, back on set playing a minor role, eating cold boxed lunches, he’d never once lost his composed bearing.
Jiang Li had no idea how to handle this situation, so he forced himself to offer comfort: “I don’t think you’re disgusting.”
Duan Zhihan pressed on, step by step.
“Then why don’t you let me touch you?”
During their two years of marriage, the boy had always seemed to resist his touch, even in bed, he’d only ever lie face down, instinctively refusing his kisses.
An ordinary person might deny this to some extent, but the little robot answered with complete confidence: “I’m like that with everyone.”
To Jiang Li, this counted as reassurance, it’s not just you.
Duan Zhihan lowered his dark eyes, not sure whether to feel happy or not.
Happy, because Jiang Li’s aversion wasn’t specifically about him. Unhappy, because Jiang Li’s resistance to touch was probably related to the psychological issue Ye Cheng had mentioned, he’d need to see a therapist after the show wrapped up.
Jiang Li felt the man suddenly let go of him, and the air instantly turned cold, then, the next second, a warm piece of clothing was draped over him.
The man’s action could be described as polite. He almost thought his earlier impression had been a hallucination.
The human’s breathing beside him told him it hadn’t been a hallucination. Before shutting down, his visual sensors flickered with a faint sense of confusion, but it lasted only an instant.
At seven in the morning, insect sounds filled the rainforest, and warm sunlight spread from the top of the tent.
A small patch of light landed on the little robot’s nose bridge. He pressed his forehead to power himself on.
Today’s temperature was 20.3 degrees, a particularly comfortable temperature for both humans and robots alike.
Once powered on, he slowly walked out of the tent.
The livestream hadn’t started yet. The staff gathered behind the cameras for a meeting, discussing various topics, such as the order in which to distribute task cards.
Jiang Li went to get some lemon water to recharge.
Just as he stepped out of the tent, something resembling food was handed to him.
Since it was cooked pitch black, he wasn’t entirely sure it deserved to be called “food,” and he couldn’t help asking, “What is this?”
Duan Zhihan said calmly, “Breakfast I made for you.”
“No thanks.”
Jiang Li reasonably suspected the man was trying to poison him and coldly refused.
Duan Zhihan blocked his path. “Don’t judge it by appearance, the taste’s actually not bad.”
Jiang Li shoved past him directly, and the wind chime tied to the tent swayed violently, accidentally grazing the man’s cheek, leaving a thin trace of blood.
He’d meant to apologize and walk off, but Duan Zhihan spoke up behind him: “That really hurts.”
This counted as hurt? For him, it didn’t even meet the standard of minor damage.
Jiang Li looked at the man’s soft, helpless expression, wondering just how fragile humans really were, could a species like this even survive in the dangerous depths of interstellar space?
Whoever caused the man’s injury had a responsibility toward it, even the tiniest scratch, the little alien robot suddenly understood the meaning of “milking an injury for sympathy.”
Jiang Li went to his suitcase to find the first aid kit Ye Cheng had packed, digging out a bandage.
He stood on his toes to apply the bandage to Duan Zhihan, the man’s shadow falling over his face, completely enveloping him.
Because of their height difference, and his perfectionist tendencies, he kept failing to place it in a satisfying position, tilting his head back wasn’t helping much.
He had no choice but to speak up.
“Bend down a little.”
Duan Zhihan leaned down directly, his striking, elegant face appearing before Jiang Li’s eyes without warning, even blinking his gorgeous peach-blossom eyes at him, the curve of them especially bewitching.
Even though Jiang Li was thoroughly sick of looking at this face, his heart skipped a beat regardless, his fingers unconsciously brushing against it.
Realizing what he’d done, he cursed under his breath, “damn fox spirit,” and stiffly finished applying the bandage.
When the livestream started, it happened to catch this exact scene. Jiang Li walked away with a displeased face, and the comments noticed the bandage on Duan Zhihan’s cheek.
“What’s up with the bandage on Teacher Duan’s face?”
“He was fine yesterday”
“They didn’t actually fight, did they?”
“No evidence, don’t just make things up”
A bandage on the face was hard to miss. The other guests glanced at Duan Zhihan, then at Jiang Li, who was busy sipping his lemon water.
Although Jiang Li wasn’t sensitive to human expressions, with so many people staring at him, he finally realized something was off.
He immediately denied it: “I didn’t hit him.” He’d only contributed the bandage.
But to the livestream audience, this looked exactly like protesting too much, practically a confession.
“Yeah right, like anyone believes that”
“Didn’t know Jiang Li had it in him to throw hands, clearly Teacher Duan’s on the losing end, wonder how mad he is”
“Teacher Duan’s expression looks pretty calm though”
“You know what kind of ocean is scariest? Not the one with visible raging waves, it’s the silent one”
Meanwhile, Duan Zhihan was just thinking, my wife doesn’t like others touching him, but he touched my face on his own, my wife loves me so much.
Director Xia, watching from the side, felt his heart nearly stop. If these two ended up in some intense conflict, would the show even be able to air anymore?
He’d originally planned to have each pair complete a task today, but immediately abandoned that terrifying plan, letting the episode wrap up quietly in the campsite instead.
Before signing off, Director Xia teased the audience once more, having each guest anonymously write their reflections, to test whether the show had changed their views on marriage, to be revealed once the official episode aired.
“I want to see what the guests wrote for their reflections! Is there anything my noble video membership can’t unlock?”
“It’s over already??? Feels like we’ve only seen the beginning”
“Probably worried about Jiang Li and Teacher Duan getting into more conflict, I didn’t actually think they’d really fight, thought it was just a meme”
“Is next episode going to fast-forward straight to Jiang Li storming off the show?”
“This ship fan’s heart is broken”
After the 48-hour livestream ended, the fans showed no signs of fatigue at all, shifting their battleground from the streaming site to Weibo, promoting the show to passersby.
Actually, the fans didn’t even need to promote it, ever since the livestream began, related topics had been sitting at the top of trending searches, impossible to ignore even if you wanted to.
Everyone was guessing whether this week’s ratings would break CCTV’s variety show record.
“No need to even guess”
“Any suspense about breaking the record? Weibo’s been going crazy for two days”
“Feels kind of hard though, CCTV’s audience and Weibo’s audience aren’t the same, the grandpa and grandma generation might not even recognize who Jiang Li is”
“A lot of people already watched the livestream, probably won’t watch the official broadcast again, that’s the downside of real-time streaming, TV ratings are still what matters most for a network show”
Opinions on Weibo were divided, but everyone equally looked forward to the official episode airing, many had already stocked up on milk tea and chips, camping in front of their TVs.