After a D-List Celebrity and Their A-List Ex-Partner Join a Travel Reality Show - Chapter 3

Meng Yichun automatically ignored that terrifying glare, dutifully sticking to the schedule: “What a coincidence. Well, since everyone has had a long and tiring journey, let us all get some rest for the first day!”

Today’s live stream was just a pre-broadcast, so the cameras remained on until bedtime.

It was currently 5:00 PM in Norway. Darkness fell unusually early, but the small town was brightly lit. The bustling scenes on the streets were a stark contrast to how empty it had been when they first arrived. As the streets became more crowded, there were occasional enthusiastic locals greeting them. Shen Shiqin even ran into some of his fans along the way and took photos with them.

Standing to the side, Zuo Jiaxi said enviously, “I did not expect Teacher Shen to have fans even in Norway.”

Yu An patted his shoulder with a smile: “Focus on your acting. One day, you will be able to do the same.”

“Tch.” He Lan kept his hands hidden in his jacket pockets, leaning lazily against a pillar. He glanced at Shen Shiqin not far away and remarked, “Envious? Just work all year round without a break for a decade or so, and you will be just like him.”

The sarcasm was thick.

Zuo Jiaxi was stunned: “Ah.”

Yu An held back a laugh and comforted the startled Zuo Jiaxi: “Do not mind him. He is like a machine gun right now, firing randomly at anything in sight. It does not matter who he hits.”

“Oh,” Zuo Jiaxi scratched his head.

The town was filled with Nordic charm. Now, covered in white snow, it looked like something out of a fairytale. Yu An and Ke Tongtong were both outgoing, and the two girls quickly hit it off. Ke Tongtong took out the camera she had prepared in advance, and they took many photos with Yu An along the way.

Passing a wall covered in graffiti, Yu An remembered the check-in task and said, “Let us take a group photo. I saw this on the internet; it is a famous check-in spot.”

Ke Tongtong adjusted the equipment and agreed: “Mm-hmm, this counts as our first group photo.”

The group had no objections. They stood in front of the wall and asked a passerby to take a picture for them. The cameraman immediately moved in for a close-up. In the first group photo, everyone cooperated by wearing smiles. Even the two polar opposites on the scale smiled for the camera to be polite.

They soon arrived at their designated guesthouse and went to their respective rooms as assigned by the production team.

Since He Lan and Shen Shiqin were staying in the same house, and their room was located in a remote part of the guesthouse, they had to walk a separate path to reach it. This path actually had a lot of atmosphere. On both sides of the road were rows of red houses. Because it had just snowed heavily, the people staying here had built many snowmen, some big and some small. The snowmen wore hats, and some were decorated with snowflake light strings.

Although the most atmospheric snowmen were actually built by Meng Yichun and his assistant director, who had worked overtime to build them the day before.

He Lan walked slowly behind Shen Shiqin with his hands in his pockets, occasionally admiring the scenery on both sides. To be honest, these snowmen were truly ugly. The snowmen had words stuck to the tops of their heads: “Let us Go,” “In The,” “Whole World,” and “Check-in.”

Whoever taught him to break sentences like that clearly had a bizarre taste.

Thinking this, he turned his head toward the camera and said in a snarky tone: “The snowmen are built quite well. They would have almost looked like a horror movie if not for them. Brilliant.”

Back in the monitoring room, Meng Yichun: “?”

He looked indignantly at the assistant director beside him: “What does he mean by that?”

The assistant director handed him a cup of hot cocoa and said softly: “He said that if it were not for the snowmen we built, this path would be very terrifying, just like a horror movie. He is praising you.”

“Oh, that is fine then,” Meng Yichun nodded with satisfaction. “Although he acted like his eyes were broken when he broke up with my Brother Shen years ago, he still has some taste now.”

He Lan lifted his eyes and looked at the person walking a few steps ahead. The man had his hands tucked into his coat pockets, and his black leather boots left uneven footprints on the snowy path.

The sky was still snowing lightly, and snowflakes were landing on the man’s shoulders. It had been years, but his hair was shorter now, and he had returned to his habit of wearing solid-colored clothes.

He was tall and long-legged, and he always carried an air of mystery when he walked. Pah! He Lan, what are you thinking!

“Ambitious.”

Shen Shiqin’s word suddenly echoed in his mind. He immediately looked away, slowed his pace, and silently increased the distance between them.

The two cameramen followed closely behind. However, the gap between the two subjects was so wide that it was difficult for the photographers to get them in the same frame.

The comment section was still a chaotic mess.

“He Lan’s eyeballs are about to fall onto the ground. Thanks.”

“Please, which eye did you see that with? He is clearly using his gaze to resist evil forces. I cannot keep making this up, sisters, help me out.”

“To the person above, just admit it. Admit that he still loves him. By the way, have you heard of the Kindergarten CP?”

“Let me educate the person above. The so-called Kindergarten CP is the exclusive nickname for our He-Shen CP. Now it is going to sweep back again, resurrected! Please join our kindergarten.”

“Agreed, but let me correct a mistake: it is the Shen-He CP, okay?”

Meng Yichun watched the two at the poles in the monitoring room, feeling very anxious. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and said to the cameramen: “Tell them to get closer! Get them in the same frame. Can you not make it look like they are two strangers? What do the audience want to see!”

The two cameramen received the message, exchanged a glance, and said, “Teachers, can you two walk a little closer? Otherwise, you will be out of the frame.”

“I do not want to!”

The two turned their heads at the same time and roared at their respective cameramen with an eerie level of synchronization.

The cameras in the cameramen’s hands shook in perfect synchronization as well.

Money is hard to earn.

They did not dare to speak again and obediently followed the artists they were responsible for.

A wave of “hahahaha” floated across the screen.

“To the person above, we are not joining that kindergarten yet.”

The two soon arrived at their guesthouse. The room was not big, consisting of only one bedroom, one bathroom, and one living room.

He Lan walked around, incredulous. He looked at the cameraman: “Only one bedroom?”

The cameraman nodded: “Yes, Teacher He. But please rest assured, the director has tested it, and it is enough for two people to sleep.”

He Lan was about to say something else when he saw Shen Shiqin walk out of the bedroom, asking with a cold face: “A single bed; how did he test that?”

“Well…” The cameraman felt awkward for a moment and immediately made an escape: “Have a pleasant stay, teachers!”

They left as soon as they said this, closing the door very considerately behind them.

The moment the door closed, He Lan and Shen Shiqin stood at the bedroom door, staring at each other. Shen Shiqin turned and went to the only tatami mat in the living room, speaking first: “Come over.”

“Oh.” He Lan’s mind was in a mess, so he responded subconsciously.

It was not until he reached Shen Shiqin that he realized. Wait, why was he being so obedient? He retreated a few steps, leaned against the doorframe, and said, “What for?”

Shen Shiqin looked at his lazy and insincere appearance and lowered his eyes.

“There is only one bed. We will take turns. I will sleep on the bed for the first day, and you will sleep on the floor.”

“Why should I?” He Lan refused flatly: “I am sleeping on the bed on the first day.”

He Lan had already set up his battle stance, but Shen Shiqin simply nodded slightly, stood up, took his toiletries from his luggage, and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

He Lan’s fire was extinguished instantly, and he began to pack his luggage.

Tch, boring.

The room really was not big. He only took out a few clothes that needed to be hung up and some essentials, leaving the rest untouched in his suitcase. The faint sound of water splashing in the bathroom made He Lan restless.

He added some wood to the fireplace, and after confirming that the fire had started, he simply stood up, put his coat back on, and went out of the wooden house.

Pushing the door open, a cold wind hit him. He Lan wrapped his coat tighter and walked around aimlessly.

In front of the cabin was a lake, boundless, with only the undulating snowy mountains visible in the distance, though they were hard to see under the black sky. Tromsø had many mountains and many lakes. Being in this environment and watching the hazy clouds in the distance made one feel as if they had accidentally strayed into a world of pure white.

He Lan walked slowly, approaching the lake. The lake before him had not frozen yet, but there were no fish to be seen. He walked half a circle along the lake, suppressed the inexplicable irritability in his heart, found a bench by the lake, and opened the trending search list he had not looked at since getting off the plane.

The entry “#He Lan Shen Shiqin” was still hanging at the top of the trending list without even a suffix.

He clicked on the trending topic and saw that the news article already had quite a few photos of him and Shen Shiqin. Even though the two had been bickering all day, they had managed to avoid appearing in the same shot.

There was only one photo that netizens had managed to capture.

It was from when they were finding the guesthouse earlier. In the image, red wooden houses were arranged in an alternating pattern on both sides, and snowmen were piled up on both sides of the path, with the lights on their heads illuminating the road segment by segment.

The person in front had half his face buried in a gray scarf. His eyelashes were coated with snowflakes, and only his eyes were visible, still captivating even in the snow. He was dressed in all black, as if he had melted into the foreign night.

The person behind had his hands in his pockets, following behind in a slouchy manner. He seemed born without fear of the cold, leaving his leather jacket wide open, with a few strands of hair standing up due to the wind. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. His peach blossom eyes, which were always upturned, never left the person in front, yet he had not forgotten to banter with the cameraman.

The foreign snow fell continuously, blurring the two of them.

He Lan examined the photo and scrolled down. Tens of thousands of comments emerged immediately. Phrases like “Baby Shen is so handsome” and “Get married, get married” piled up countless stories high.

Scrolling further down, a pile of “Please reconcile” comments appeared, only to be drowned out in an instant. A netizen with the IP “Big Bench” posted a comment: “Don’t you guys think Teacher He looks especially charming in this photo? That uninhibited, rebellious look stabs right into my heart!”

Reading this, He Lan immediately liked the post. Satisfied, he stood up and hummed a little tune as he walked back toward the path he came from.

The house was burning very warmly. When Shen Shiqin came out after his shower, he did not have the habit of drying his hair. He wiped it with a towel and stood by the fireplace to make coffee.

When He Lan opened the door, Shen Shiqin had just finished making his coffee. A chill wrapped in wind rushed in from outside.

Just as he closed the door, he heard a sneeze from the living room, followed by the remark: “You are freezing cold.”

He Lan raised an eyebrow. He had just entered and was about to say something, but when a figure caught his eye, he swallowed his words back down.

The person in front of him was wearing only a white turtleneck sweater and casual trousers. The bangs on his forehead were sticking up because they were not dried.

He Lan followed the line of sight downward and, sure enough, this person was wearing only fluffy socks, not even slippers.

“If you are freezing cold, put on your shoes,” He Lan dropped that remark and went into the bathroom.

When He Lan came out after his shower, Shen Shiqin was no longer in the living room.

He dried his hair and went into the bedroom, only to see that Shen Shiqin had turned off the lights and curled himself up in the quilt.

“Hey?” He Lan walked over and found that this person had buried his head in the quilt to sleep again.

“Did I agree to sleep on the floor for the first day?”

Naturally, the person in the quilt did not respond.

He Lan waited for a while, and seeing no reaction, he turned to find bedding in the cabinet, but he could not find another set anywhere. He gritted his teeth, smiled, and climbed into bed without his shoes.

“Move over.”

Shen Shiqin obviously did not expect him to climb into bed directly. His voice came muffled from under the quilt: “Get down.”

“Not getting down.”

Shen Shiqin was too lazy to argue with this person. He was truly exhausted, so he moved over to the side against the wall.

He Lan lay on his side, looking at the person who had his back to him and had wrapped himself tightly in the quilt. He reached out and tugged on the corner of the quilt, pushing his luck: “Give me some.”

His fingertips brushed against the back of Shen Shiqin’s neck, and the chill transferred to his body through the skin.

Shen Shiqin could tolerate it no longer. He did not need to endure it anymore, so he kicked back with his foot.

“You are freezing cold!”

He Lan was caught off guard and was kicked right off the bed. He rolled onto the floor, clutching his pitiful buttocks, and stared at the person on the bed in disbelief: “You, I…”

Shen Shiqin poked his head out of the quilt and glared at him, snarling: “If you move again, I will kick you again.”