Duan Xingge did not answer. He simply shed tears quietly while gripping Yun Qi’s wrist, kissing his way upward, inch by inch.
Watching that incredibly pitiful, tear-stained handsome face, Yun Qi couldn’t bring himself to scold him, let alone strike him. He could only tremble, gasping for air, as he was kissed from head to toe.
But Duan Xingge didn’t stop there; once he finished, he actually started pushing his luck.
He straightened up without a word. While one hand still held Yun Qi’s wrist, the other fumbled toward the bedside table. Before Yun Qi could recover from the palpitations of a moment ago, he reached out and picked up Yun Qi’s phone.
Under the dim, yellowish light, the sound of the waves and the rain blended together, creating a delicate white noise.
Having been pressed and rubbed by Duan Xingge, Yun Qi was in a state of utter physical weakness. Wrapped in such an environment, it was inevitable that he would begin to feel drowsy.
It took a full five seconds for Yun Qi to realize what was in Duan Xingge’s hand, and then his eyes widened abruptly: “You”
Those five seconds were more than enough for Duan Xingge to bypass the screensaver and open the camera. He didn’t even need to consider whether Yun Qi had changed his passcode; he simply entered a string of numbers.
The screen unlocked instantly. Duan Xingge opened the camera function with one hand and held it up right in front of Yun Qi, bold and unashamed.
“Tit for tat.” His voice still carried the nasal congestion of someone who had just been crying, and the corners of his eyes were a bit red. He looked exactly like a pitiful, bedraggled little puppy, yet the things he did were completely unrelated to a puppy. “I left a photo for brother to look at when missing me, but you didn’t leave a single photo for me. Do you know how I have…”
He paused abruptly, not finishing his sentence, yet Yun Qi understood him with strange clarity.
—Do you know how I lived through those years?
Yun Qi’s heart trembled, nearly falling back into his old habit of being soft-hearted.
But this time, he managed to hold his ground. He quickly realized the current situation didn’t allow for soft-heartedness. He had just come out of the shower and hadn’t gotten dressed properly; he had simply thrown on a bathrobe.
However, that bathrobe was precisely the problem. After being pestered and tossed about by Duan Xingge, half of the fabric had slid straight down his shoulder.
Combined with his skin having just been pressed and rubbed, Yun Qi’s entire body was burning hot, and even his collarbone was flushed a deep, unnatural red.
Although he couldn’t see himself, Yun Qi knew with his eyes closed what he probably looked like. If this were to be captured on camera…
Yun Qi’s breath hitched. He didn’t even want to contemplate the outcome and raised his hands to resist.
However, even without being soft-hearted, he was no match for this little bastard in terms of raw strength.
Yun Qi made a move to push the person on top of him away, only to have both wrists gripped and pressed above his head. He was stunned for a moment, then flushed red with fury as he cursed: “…Asshole, let go!”
Duan Xingge, however, acted as if he hadn’t been cursed at all. He raised an eyebrow and raised the phone to take a picture.
With no way to avoid it, Yun Qi bit his lip and instinctively turned his face, which only exposed more of his fair skin, leaving his collarbone with nowhere to hide.
Being pressed and photographed from head to toe, Yun Qi felt thoroughly “cooked.”
With his hands restrained above his head, his fingers curled in a tremble, and feeling the scorching heat on his wrists, Yun Qi cursed Duan Xingge to hell in his heart while wishing he could bury his face in the pillow.
Duan Xingge wasn’t satisfied with just taking the pictures. He leaned on Yun Qi and sent all the photos to his own phone right in front of him. This was a blatant way of telling him that deleting them would be useless he had backups.
Yun Qi ground his teeth, buried in his pillow, but in the next second, one sentence from Duan Xingge made him lift his face instantly: “Now then… let me see what other photos brother has stored on his phone.”
Yun Qi, who had no strength to resist being pressed and photographed a moment ago, was stunned by this. He didn’t know where the strength came from, but he put all his force into his hands, successfully breaking free from Duan Xingge’s restraint, and snatched the phone from his grasp.
Duan Xingge was caught off guard by the shove and slammed into the headboard.
After being dazed for two seconds, he saw Yun Qi flip over and sit on top of him. His clothes were disheveled, a vivid look of anger on his face, as he grabbed him by the throat and looked down at him: “Aren’t you ever going to quit?”
Duan Xingge’s breath hitched as the pressure on his throat tightened. The sensation of suffocation began to rise not long after, yet he stood his ground, showing no intention of resisting.
Yun Qi, still furious, was just about to say something while gripping his throat, but suddenly he seemed to feel something. He froze, then immediately pulled his hand back as if he had been scalded, his eyes widening in disbelief: “You…”
Recovering from the near-suffocation, Duan Xingge lowered his head and began to cough violently.
Yun Qi bit his lower lip and stared at him for three seconds. Once he gathered his wits, he rolled off him without a word, pulled open a drawer, threw the phone inside, turned off the light, and crawled under the covers.
The entire sequence of movements was incredibly fluid. Duan Xingge hadn’t even finished coughing before the room was plunged into darkness.
Watching this person pretend to be calm even while clearly in a state of panic, Duan Xingge couldn’t help but chuckle. He cleared his throat, leaned in, and mimicked Yun Qi’s tone from just before: “I’m the one who was choked… Why are you the one acting all embarrassed, brother?”
He was abnormally close, his breath spraying entirely onto Yun Qi’s ear and neck.
“…Shut up and go to sleep.” Yun Qi was too preoccupied to even address the way he was being addressed. He raised a hand and pushed his face away: “If you don’t sleep, I’ll throw you out.”
Duan Xingge had heard this threat since he was a child. He couldn’t help but smile: “Fine, fine, I’m sleeping right now. Goodnight, brother.”
Yun Qi closed his eyes and ignored him, but Duan Xingge intentionally repeated it by his ear: “Brother, goodnight?”
Yun Qi’s scalp felt numb from his persistence. Unable to take it anymore, he snapped: “…Goodnight.”
The spoiled, pampered little bastard behind him seemed to chuckle softly before finally pulling back the covers and lying down.
In the second half of the night, the sound of the waves and the rain gradually subsided. In this way, they spent their first night after “surviving.”
The next morning, the sea was calm, and the weather was excellent bright, sunny, and cloudless. However, Yun Qi’s mood was not as good as the weather.
The reason was simple: the moment he opened his eyes, yesterday’s events came rushing back. Realizing exactly what had happened during the Truth or Dare session, Yun Qi suddenly felt that jumping into the sea might have been the better option.
Compared to life and death, dignity was trivial but what if he hadn’t died?
Yun Qi took a deep breath, quickly splashed his face with water to distract himself, and then sent a text message to his troublesome cousin, expressing his gratitude and his apology for causing her trouble despite nothing having actually happened.
She replied quickly: “No problem. Being prepared is a good choice. Contact me immediately if the other party makes a move.”
Yun Qi replied: “Understood, thank you, cousin.”
Just as the message was sent, he lifted his eyes from his phone and saw Duan Xingge coming out after washing up. Around his neck were a series of finger marks, which were exceptionally visible from any angle.
Yun Qi’s brow twitched uncontrollably. Yet, Duan Xingge acted as if nothing was wrong, taking off his pajamas and preparing to change, appearing almost as if he were showing them off.
Yun Qi couldn’t hold back: “…Did you choke yourself last night?”
Duan Xingge paused in the middle of getting dressed, then put on an expression of shock and grievance: “Why would I choke myself for no reason? Did you forget that you were the one who did it, brother?”
“I couldn’t have used that much force…” Yun Qi felt his own words were weak.
As expected, Duan Xingge looked even more aggrieved: “You refuse to take responsibility, and now you’re blaming me instead? How could you be so fickle-minded, brother?”
Yun Qi got a headache the moment he heard him talk. He immediately dug a scarf out of his luggage and threw it at him: “Put this on.”
“Who wears a scarf in the middle of summer?” Duan Xingge said unyieldingly after putting on his shirt.
“Are you wearing it or not?” Yun Qi said coldly.
Duan Xingge hadn’t expected him to actually stand his ground: “No.”
…Does this little bastard think he can turn the world upside down?!
Seeing Yun Qi so furious that he didn’t even bother to close the luggage he had opened, Duan Xingge chuckled, walked over, grabbed a pair of new gloves from the luggage, and didn’t forget to neatly pack Yun Qi’s belongings.
After doing all this, he naturally gripped Yun Qi’s wrist and unhurriedly put the gloves on him, saying: “If brother kisses me once, I’ll wear the scarf… How about that? Isn’t it a profitable deal?”
Yun Qi’s expression became very complex; he looked as if he wanted to use the scarf to strangle him to death.
“Brother wouldn’t want others to know you choked me like this, would you?” Seeing him remain silent, Duan Xingge pushed his luck. He didn’t know what kind of things he usually read, but he spouted nonsense effortlessly: “Those who know will say I brought it on myself; those who don’t might think you have some strange hobby…”
He always had plenty of warped logic. Yun Qi was so annoyed he turned his head and bitingly kissed him on the face.
Duan Xingge beamed instantly, raised his hand to wrap the scarf around his neck, and changed his tune on the spot: “Wearing a scarf in summer is called ‘fashion.’ People without artistic cells naturally wouldn’t understand.”
Regarding such a person who was so brazenly arrogant, Yun Qi sneered, ignored him, changed his clothes, and pushed the door open.
When the two of them finished breakfast and reached the deck, the sun was bright and a leisurely sea breeze blew past.
However, on the spacious and open deck, in addition to the round table used yesterday, a fairly large screen had appeared.
Seeing this, Yun Qi had a premonition of doom. Even after sitting down, his eyes couldn’t help but drift toward that screen. He didn’t even react when Duan Xingge naturally pulled out a chair for him and sat down beside him.
The person pulling the chair did it with such familiarity, as if he had performed such menial tasks countless times, and the person sitting down accepted it with ease, without any excessive reaction. Only Ming Jiao, sitting across from them, couldn’t help but cast a glance, looking as if he were hesitant to speak, until he finally couldn’t hold back: “In such hot weather, why is Brother Xing wearing a scarf?”
Ming Jiao had been using that title for two phases, but for some reason, it felt jarring to Yun Qi now.
But he didn’t say anything, merely glancing at Duan Xingge; an outsider wouldn’t even have noticed.
Duan Xingge paused for a moment before explaining: “I caught a cold from the ice water challenge, and brother lent me his scarf to keep warm.”
Never mind the fact that there was no “ice water challenge,” and never mind that he had been full of life yesterday how did he catch a cold today? Just that simple, natural “brother” made Ming Jiao freeze. It took him three seconds to realize who he was referring to.
He clearly couldn’t figure out why Duan Xingge had been so coy about calling him “brother” the day before yesterday, and had called him “President Yun” yesterday, yet it was so natural after only one night.
Ming Jiao couldn’t help but look at Yun Qi, but Yun Qi did not deny it.
“Oh, right.” Duan Xingge said in what seemed like an offhand remark, drawing his attention back: “Xiao Ming, how old are you again?”
Ming Jiao hurried to say: “I’ll be twenty-four very soon.”
“Oh, twenty-four. That makes you older than me.” Duan Xingge chuckled, “You call people ‘brother’ all day long; I thought you were younger than me.”
Actually, Duan Xingge had pointed out Ming Jiao’s habit of using that title many times during the first phase, but he hadn’t been too blunt out of consideration for his feelings.
Ming Jiao, whether he truly didn’t understand or was pretending not to, had never changed it.
But times had changed. Anyone could hear the subtext in Duan Xingge’s words now. Even as slow as Ming Jiao was, he couldn’t help but let out an “Ah,” and after a long while, he opened his mouth to say: “…Then I’ll call you Xingxing from now on.”
Duan Xingge frowned visibly before smiling: “That’s a nickname fans gave me; it’s not very convenient for outsiders to call me that. You should just call me Xiao Duan.”
In just a few words, he drew a line. The grievance in Ming Jiao’s eyes almost overflowed. He spoke in a huff: “…Then I’ll just call you President Duan.”
He hadn’t expected Duan Xingge to nod seriously: “That works, too.”
Ming Jiao had painted himself into a corner. The comments section instantly became extremely lively:
“Oh my, oh my, whose precious treasure just got slapped in the face?”
“? This person is younger than Xingxing? Damn, and he’s been calling him ‘Brother Xing’ every day? It gave me goosebumps.”
“Hahahaha, who’s feeling refreshed? I am.”
“No, never mind the ‘coquettish Ming Jiao’ stuff for a second—what did Xingxing just call 77?! Wasn’t he calling him ‘President Yun’ yesterday?? How did you two become so inseparable after one night?? Huh?”
“They slept together. I’d bet my head on it. They must have done it after the Truth or Dare yesterday.”
“Damn, if you put it that way, that scarf he’s wearing in the middle of summer is also very suspicious. Could it be he was so vigorous during the act that he got scratched by his wife?”
The comments were excitedly engaged in creative writing that might get the live stream banned. The host arrived late and, after greeting everyone, finally introduced today’s activities and the function of the big screen:
“Dear guests and viewers, good morning! Welcome to the second phase of the variety show Vow of Mountain and Sea. You must have noticed that our set is different from yesterday. This big screen was built overnight, and it is closely related to our activities today. Now, let me introduce today’s activity ‘Netizens Face-to-Face’.”
“In the upcoming activity, each guest will randomly draw a netizen’s comment, and everyone needs to provide a corresponding evaluation. Of course, these comments have been filtered by AI for relevance to your positive reviews and questions, but the comments will be displayed on the screen. You are not allowed to evaluate content that is unrelated to the comments, okay?”
“Each guest will randomly draw ten comments and will have three opportunities to pass. After the three opportunities are exhausted, you must comment, or you will have to accept a penalty for this round.”
As for what the penalty was, the host kept it a mystery, and since everyone’s attention was on the activity itself, no one asked.
They say that what you fear most is what happens. When Yun Qi heard “Netizens Face-to-Face,” his heart had already cooled by half, and when he heard the explanation for this shitty activity, his heart completely stopped beating.
He glanced calmly at the calm sea and suddenly felt that jumping in right now wouldn’t be so bad. It was better than facing the strange thoughts of netizens later and not being able to remain silent. What was the difference between this and a public execution?
However, the audience was clearly much more excited than Yun Qi:
“!! Mom, I’m going to be on TV!!”
“Damn, where did you find these comments? Could it be from last night’s activity???”
“Ahhhhh, you should have told me last night’s activity could get on TV! Dammit!! I’ve been eating well on the Xing-Yun supertopic; I should have gone and posted a comment!”
“I don’t even dare to imagine how explosive the selected comments will be.”
“Coward. I suggest just moving the entire article about ‘White Clouds and Snowy Skies’ [Bai Yun Ai Ai] up there and having Xing and Yun recite it.”
“? You really are a living judge of hell.”
However, under the anticipation of the audience, the first to go up was not either of the “Xing-Yun” pair, but Ming Jiao, who had been quiet from the beginning.
As for the comments he received, they were all confessions from his fans—for instance, the first one was: “Ahhhhhh, baby, Mom loves you so much!! You’re so cute!!”
Facing such a comment directly on the big screen had a certain impact. Ming Jiao’s face flushed as he said, “Thank you for the love.”
The following few were similar, but the fifth one was different: “Yun-Jiao shippers want to know when they’ll have their ‘happy ending’ [HE] QAQ.”
Ming Jiao’s eyes widened slightly, and then he said playfully, “Well… that’s not really up to me.”