After Appearing On A Marriage Reality Show, The Top Star Cried and Says She Doesn't Want a Divorce - Chapter 29

By the time breakfast was finished, it was already 8:30. The group divided the tasks to clear the dining room.

“This breakfast was a little sweet,” Jiang Banxia remarked, her words carrying a hidden meaning. She watched Yan Mengyi and Li Tang closely, using her coffee cup as a shield. Before she knew it, she had finished the entire cup.

*****

At 9 a.m., Mo Zhenyi arrived in the hall with her team, warmly greeting the three celebrity couples.

“Hello, everyone! It’s great to see you again. How did you all sleep last night?”

“We slept very well. The mattresses you prepared were so comfortable. Thank you, Director,” Pei Nalian said.

“Tangtang and Xiao Yi must be exhausted,” Jiang Banxia said, glancing at Zhou Qiutong. “But Zhou and I… we should have slept well, right?”

Understanding her wife’s unspoken meaning, Zhou Qiutong burst into laughter.

“We’ve been married for ages, so we slept perfectly fine,” Zhou Qiutong said. “Before bed, I deliberately undid two buttons on my nightgown. When I woke up, only one was still undone.”

“Of course! I’m just being considerate,” Jiang Banxia said. “Our relationship is still strong. We have at least once a week, okay?”

Jin Youshu, standing next to Jiang Banxia, turned in surprise, genuinely curious. “Once a week?”

The atmosphere turned awkward, but then Jiang Banxia and Zhou Qiutong burst into laughter.

Jiang Banxia pretended to cover the camera. “Stop filming! You’ve ripped off the veil of middle-aged marriage! So what if it’s once a week? Once a week is still great!”

Zhou Qiutong laughed and covered Jiang Banxia’s mouth with her hand. “Enough, dear! Save some face for me! I need some dignity!”

Even Li Tang, usually so composed, couldn’t resist joining in, laughing and whistling.

“You guys are relentless! I used to be great at it, okay! It’s just that I developed tenosynovitis later… and now it’s a little… not so great…”

“Excuses! All excuses! You just don’t care anymore!” Jiang Banxia teased, playfully hitting Zhou Qiutong on the back.

Meanwhile, Pei Nalian’s mind wandered: Zhou Qiutong claims she’s gotten worse because of tenosynovitis, but Li Tang’s guitar playing is still so nimble… Damn it! Why am I even thinking about this?

“Teachers! Teachers!” Mo Zhenyi called out loudly. “This is a green, healthy program, remember?”

“Green?” Jiang Banxia muttered. “I hate that color.”

“What’s today’s challenge?”

Mo Zhenyi had the Props Team bring over three soft dice.

The group noticed that the numbers on each die were different.

One die had three negative numbers, another had two, and the last one had none.

“I think I know what game we’re playing,” Pei Nalian said. “We’ll probably roll the dice and move forward the number of steps shown on top.”

“Very clever,” Mo Zhenyi said. “But which dice you get depends on how well you complete the upcoming challenges.”

“Alright, let’s do this,” Jiang Banxia said cheerfully, striking a fitness pose. “I’m feeling incredibly strong today!”

“Our first challenge is called ‘Stacking Newspapers,'” Mo Zhenyi announced. She had the production team bring out a large, four-page newspaper and instructed the six contestants to stand on it.

“Fold it in half once. If all six of you can stand steadily on it for ten seconds, you’ll pass the first stage and get three dice with negative numbers.

Fold it in half again and stand steady, and you’ll pass the second stage and get two dice with negative numbers.

If you can manage a third fold and still stand, you’ll get dice with only positive numbers,” Mo Zhenyi explained. “Any questions?”

“You brought in the six most handsome men in the country just so we’d have to twist ourselves into pretzels and stick together, right?” Jiang Banxia snapped at Mo Zhenyi. “How is that supposed to look good with all these pretty faces? Why can’t we just sing and dance instead?”

“Artist Jiang’s suggestion is excellent. We have a singing and dancing segment planned for tonight, so please don’t worry.”

“This newspaper-folding game seems like a team-building icebreaker you’d find in a corporate retreat—definitely not a trendy one,” Zhou Qiutong remarked.

“By the time you say ‘trendy,’ you’re already out of touch with it. Come on, repeat after me: ‘fashion’!” Jiang Banxia teased.

“All the instructors are so witty,” Li Tang observed. “But I suggest we take advantage of the early hour and cooler temperatures to complete this task quickly. The next challenges will be much tougher.”

Hearing about the upcoming tasks, the group quickly snapped to attention, folding the newspaper and standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Fortunately, their slender frames allowed all six to fit comfortably on the single sheet of eight-page paper.

Li Tang tightly hugged Yan Mengyi, suddenly feeling a vibration from the other woman’s chest.

The staff began the countdown: “Ten-second countdown starting—nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Challenge successful!”

The group offered a perfunctory cheer; after all, the first challenge had been embarrassingly easy.

“What were you laughing about earlier?” Li Tang asked Yan Mengyi.

Yan Mengyi covered her mouth, chuckling again. “Being squeezed between everyone just now… I suddenly imagined a sausage stuck in a sandwich.”

“You have such a low laugh threshold,” Jin Youshu said. “Just being around you would make anyone happy every day.”

“You’re not short at all,” Jiang Banxia said with a smile. “It’s just that the others are so tall. Besides, I think a ten-centimeter height difference is perfect. When Tangtang turns around, she could almost kiss your nose.”

Li Tang’s face remained impassive, like a calm lake. “No,” she corrected. “She could kiss your forehead.”

As she spoke, Li Tang turned and pressed a light kiss to Yan Mengyi’s forehead.

Li Tang’s lips were naturally dark, and she wasn’t wearing lipstick, so she left no mark on Yan Mengyi’s face.

Yan Mengyi felt dizzy, wondering if the kiss had really happened. There was no kiss mark, but she still remembered the soft touch.

Li Tang had always been reserved about showing affection in public.

Perhaps she’d noticed Yan Mengyi’s envy of other couples.

“It’s not like you’re the only ones who can show affection in public,” Jiang Banxia said, tilting her head and gesturing for Zhou Qiutong to kiss her cheek. “Your turn.”

“Here you go.” Zhou Qiutong didn’t hesitate. The two of them had always been a model of open affection after all these years.

However, as Zhou Qiutong kissed her, a strand of Jiang Banxia’s hair seemed to brush against her lips. After the kiss, Zhou Qiutong unconsciously wiped her mouth.

Nalian was the first to notice Zhou Qiutong’s subtle gesture, and soon everyone followed suit.

“Hey, you! Are you disgusted with me?” Jiang Banxia feigned annoyance, her eyes widening dramatically.

“Darling, darling, I was wrong! Your hairpinched my lip earlier…” Zhou Qiutong, genuinely afraid of upsetting Jiang Banxia, hurried over to embrace her.

But Jiang Banxia wasn’t one to be passive. Taking the initiative, she grabbed Zhou Qiutong’s face and planted three quick kisses in a row, leaving three “love bites” before finally releasing her with a satisfied look.

“Hey, that’s for daring to dislike me. Are you happy now?” Jiang Banxia crossed her arms, looking quite pleased with herself.

Zhou Qiutong muttered, “A middle-aged wife’s kiss? That’ll haunt me for weeks.”

Yet when Zhou Qiutong lifted her chin, proudly displaying the love bites on her face, she wore a proud expression.

“Next challenge: fold the newspaper in half again. You have to stand six of you on the A4-sized paper for ten seconds to win.”

After several attempts, they all felt it was impossible.

Zhou Qiutong stood on the paper alone, her feet barely fitting. “A4 paper is only 297mm by 210mm. Six people? That’s ridiculous. How could we possibly fit?”

“You know the dimensions so precisely,” Pei Nalian said, surprised. In her eyes, Zhou Qiutong was a reserved senior, yet her breadth of knowledge was truly admirable.

“Hey, I used to study design. You have to know your measurements.”

“I have an idea,” Jiang Banxia said. “If you put down both feet, Tangtang and I can stand on them—one on each foot. That way, three of us would be on this eighteen-by-twenty-four-inch paper.”

“But there are still three people left.”

“Youshu and I have some ballet training,” Pei Nalian said. “Holding a ten-second pointe pose is no problem. The rules only say we have to stand steady. They don’t say both feet have to be on the paper. We only need a tiny space.”

“Now we have a solution. Tangtang will stand on both feet, Xiao Yi will stand on the left shoe, and Zhou will stand on the right. At the same time, Zhou will hold me, and Nalian and Youshu will stand in front and back, holding hands and balancing on their toes. Holding that pose for ten seconds should be manageable.”

“Let’s try it.”

Mo Zhenyi asked the staff to lay down soft mats around the newspaper, while a masked medical team entered the area.

“Everyone, please be careful while trying this. We have professional medical staff on standby, so don’t worry.”

But everyone was already immersed in the game, barely hearing Mo Zhenyi’s words.

Li Tang steadied herself as Yan Mengyi placed both feet on the shoe to her left.

Yan Mengyi stepped up, wrapping her arms around Li Tang’s waist. She pressed herself tightly against Li Tang, afraid to turn her head and distract her.

But she couldn’t resist asking in a whisper, “Does it hurt?”

“How could it hurt? You’re too light. I didn’t even feel you when you stepped up. I always tell you to eat more, but you never listen.”

“Hey,” Jiang Banxia patted Zhou Qiutong. “Zhou, give Tangtang a weight shock.”

Zhou Qiutong stepped up and gestured for Jiang Banxia to stand on her shoe.

Jiang Banxia climbed on, clinging tightly to Zhou Qiutong’s neck. But now she felt more conflicted and guilty.

“Tangtang, why aren’t you talking? Are we crushing you? It’s my fault—I eat too much. I even gained two pounds recently.”

Li Tang squeezed out the words between her teeth: “You’re not fat or heavy, but could you stop moving around so much?”

“Oh no, you’re giving the kid hallucinations! Nalian, Youshu, come quick!”

Pei Nalian and Jin Youshu also joined hands in front of and behind Li Tang, standing on their tiptoes.

Normally, standing on their toes wouldn’t be a problem, but now they were packed so tightly together.

Someone’s breath brushed against Pei Nalian’s ear, making her itch. She didn’t like being this close to others, hating the chaotic breathing.

But her competitiveness overpowered her discomfort.

Pei Nalian closed her eyes, pressing herself tightly against the others.

The timer began counting down.

“Ten, nine, eight…”

Everything was going well.

Then Li Tang suddenly looked up and saw the doctor in the corner, holding a medical kit and wearing a mask.

Sunlight streamed in, illuminating the floor.

The refracted light blurred the doctor’s figure.

But Li Tang could see clearly: the doctor had beautiful yet fiercely intense eyes.

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