Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: It Would Be Interesting to Spend The Apocalypse With You

Cheng Shiyuan, her mood brightened by the golden sunflower, walked deeper into the two-story cottage they were staying in, knocking on the bedroom doors along the second-floor hallway.

She peered in to see what Chen Chuxing and Xia Ziran, who hadn’t come down for breakfast yet, were doing.

Chen Chuxing was standing by the window talking on the phone. Almost the moment Cheng Shiyuan opened the door, she turned around alertly—

When she realized it was Cheng Shiyuan, the Cantonese she was speaking immediately stopped, and she started to walk toward her.

But Cheng Shiyuan preemptively gestured for her to finish her call and thoughtfully closed the door for her.

Her light steps soon reached the last room at the end of the hall.

Xia Ziran was surprisingly arranging flowers.

She was using the materials from the wreath Xie Zhiqing had made for her on the mountain a couple of days ago. The flowers had long since lost their moisture, but their color hadn’t faded; they had been specially preserved as dried flowers.

The dried flowers bloomed haphazardly in an unknown transparent jar, an unfading beauty.

Xia Ziran casually handed the jar to her: “I saved you the room with the best lighting yesterday. Put this on the windowsill, and the view will be much nicer.”

In Xia Ziran’s life, the sun, the dew, every inch of scenery she encountered, was destined to be exquisitely beautiful, piled high with money.

She had studied art, and even though she no longer worked in a related field, her pursuit of life’s romantic quality and the aesthetic sensibilities cultivated since childhood were ingrained in her.

The layout of her rooms was always the most eye-catching.

Perhaps she just adjusted the direction of the bed, or maybe she simply cut a cheap, plastic-checkered tablecloth into a brightly colored background tucked under the corner of a coffee table magazine.

She didn’t use expensive materials, yet people always wanted to live in the environment she created.

Like…

The colorful lair a cold-blooded animal builds with scattered jewels.

Cheng Shiyuan held the glass bottle and sincerely suggested: “You’re too overqualified for this dating show. How about I sign you up for a show like ‘Dream Home Makeover’ next time?”

Xia Ziran chuckled and chided her.

If Cheng Shiyuan weren’t on this show, she wouldn’t bother with such “peacock-displaying.”

Cheng Shiyuan curiously asked her which room she had saved for her.

Xia Ziran grabbed the special camellia-scented hand cream from the table, applying it to her palms and the backs of her hands. She was about to stand up and walk out with Cheng Shiyuan, but then, on a whim, paused to look out the window one more time.

Cheng Shiyuan curiously followed her two steps inside.

“What are you looking at?”

The room Xia Ziran was in faced the side of the mountain. One could vaguely see a well the town had dug previously, which was still in use.

Cheng Shiyuan first glanced at the perpetually foggy green hills, where the sun could never fully penetrate. Then she looked down at the dark mass near the well that, at first glance, seemed stationary but was constantly and subtly wriggling.

She let out a faint gasp.

She felt her trypophobia kicking in.

“Do you… like looking at this kind of natural scenery?”

She couldn’t even name the large patch of amphibians, nor what species they belonged to. All she saw were tiny, dense creatures bouncing on the ground and overlapping each other.

It looked like they were bubbling up from the well.

Although Cheng Shiyuan occasionally enjoyed watching Animal Planet, seeing these scenes on a screen was one thing; being near this sight, not far from the actual well, was quite another.

Xia Ziran “hmm’d”: “It wasn’t easy to take a shower when we arrived last night. They said the earlier downpour was so heavy that the well and mountain spring water were contaminated—”

“I was planning to see when the townsfolk would go and draw water, but it looks like that’s unlikely for the next few days.”

Despite her casual tone, Xia Ziran’s expression turned cold.

The small town had been hot and stuffy last night, making everyone feel another storm was coming, yet the sun was out today. Regardless, she disliked staying in this place.

“Never mind,” she walked over, closed the window, and asked Cheng Shiyuan: “Didn’t you say you wanted to buy a cake? Are we going out today?”

Coincidentally, she also wanted to go to a more developed commercial area, book a hotel temporarily, and take a proper shower first.

Cheng Shiyuan nodded indifferently.

As she was walking out with her, she suddenly remembered something: “What was your punishment?”

While accompanying Shen Lingxi at the hospital, Cheng Shiyuan only vaguely knew that the guests would face new punishments for not cooperating on tasks, but she hadn’t asked for specifics at the time.

It was only on the way back, when the production team mentioned Xie Zhiqing’s morning run, that she remembered to check in on her childhood sweetheart.

Xia Ziran smugly pinched her nose:

“To invite one person to accompany me on a shopping trip.”

She had originally planned to go out with Wang Shu if Cheng Shiyuan hadn’t returned today.

—What kind of ridiculously easy task is this?

Cheng Shiyuan was speechless, but considering that Xie Zhiqing’s earlier task was just buying breakfast, she realized the production team was already being extremely lenient with these privileged young women.

They were practically begging them to cooperate and provide some material for other marketable couple pairings.

She shook her head, followed Xia Ziran to place the beautiful dried flowers in her room, and before leaving, asked everyone if they wanted anything bought or brought back.

She intended to list everything in her phone’s memo app.

However, their instructions were more focused on her coming back soon.

Seeing the two of them leave, the production team timely provided information: the good cake shop was not in this small town, but in a larger one, nearly an hour’s walk away.

If they wanted a taxi…

The guests would have to figure it out themselves.

The experienced Cheng Shiyuan scoffed and walked toward the town’s main road.

It was neither a holiday nor the tourist season. Most of the young people in this remote town had gone out for work, and the town was eerily empty, with hardly any cars passing through.

So Xia Ziran pulled her back suspiciously: “Where are you going?”

Cheng Shiyuan pointed to her face: “Preparing to use my looks to hitch a ride.”

Xia Ziran: “…”

She choked.

But she had to admit that if they were in a big city right now, Cheng Shiyuan wouldn’t even need to stand by the road; cars would automatically stop and ask where she was going.

Her expression changed rapidly. She desperately wanted to stop her but couldn’t think of a better solution immediately.

For the sake of this group outing’s success, the production team had stipulated that they were not allowed to use funds from their personal accounts, only the dating budget provided by the show.

And the way to earn the dating budget—

Was through their cooperative draw yesterday.

Therefore, the amount of money Xia Ziran could currently access was: 1.5 yuan.

The usually overbearing CEO Xia opened her mouth repeatedly at the prospect of her beloved selling her looks, but she couldn’t muster her usual unyielding authority.

She even looked, rarely, a bit weak.

Cheng Shiyuan glanced at her: “Actually, I have an even worse idea.”

Xia Ziran asked without hesitation: “What is it?”

Cheng Shiyuan sized up this weak person, who had almost needed Wang Shu’s constant support and dragging to climb the mountain and had to stop frequently to wait.

Thinking of how Xia Ziran seemed to constantly expose her lack of physical fitness since joining the show—first being too slow in the escape room and getting caught by the NPC, and now facing a travel dilemma—she couldn’t help but smile.

“Too bad you can’t do it.”

Xia Ziran: “?”

Her face darkened, and she gritted her teeth: “Who can’t do what? Say that again?”

Cheng Shiyuan blinked innocently: “I mean, my idea is something you can’t pull off.”

This time, before Xia Ziran could question her, she quickly pointed her chin towards the cameraman nearby, sharing her wealth of experience in extorting the production team during reality shows.

“The truth is, as long as we commit to walking that hour and start sprinting now, as fast as we can, the moment the cameraman can’t keep up with us… he will willingly take out his wallet.”

The cameraman: “???”

He screamed: “Teacher Cheng!”

Then Cheng Shiyuan immediately offered a second terrible idea.

“How about this, Xia Ziran? You go back and wait for me. I’ll do this punishment task for you—”

Xia Ziran and the production team simultaneously voiced their refusal.

Cheng Shiyuan pouted slightly.

Then she heard Xia Ziran’s voice, squeezed from between her back teeth: “I’m going to train when we get back!”

As for now.

The imperious CEO Xia ultimately relied on Cheng Shiyuan’s invincible beauty, waiting patiently by the roadside, to snag a passing car and successfully get a time-saving solution to the next town.

Cheng Shiyuan rarely saw her so subdued. In the back seat, she scratched her chin out of boredom.

“Aiya, isn’t this our famous CEO Xia?”

“How did you fall so low after a few days? You’re even relying on a beautiful woman’s looks now?”

Relying on an ex-girlfriend’s beauty to get by, how is that not relying on a woman’s looks?

Xia Ziran frowned at the way she was being teased like a small cat or dog.

She raised her hand and gripped Cheng Shiyuan’s wrist.

However, when she turned and met the playful smile in her eyes, her movements paused. Instead, she pressed her cheek against Cheng Shiyuan’s palm, transforming completely from a wild, venomous snake into a domesticated pet.

She replied lazily, like a casual hiss: “Free lunch is delicious.”

Cheng Shiyuan: “…”

Damn.

A little cute.

Unfortunately, the driver kept glancing at them through the rearview mirror with such high frequency that it was hard to believe she was checking the road conditions on this empty, flat mountain road.

So Cheng Shiyuan could only lick her lips and stroke Xia Ziran’s cheek.

Leaving behind the scent of camellia on her hand.

She uncertainly raised her hand to smell it again, realizing that Xia Ziran had, at some point, changed her habit of wearing intensely overbearing perfumes.

This was the scent of Xia Ziran’s skincare products.

Although it was very faint and subtle, it still failed to evoke any sense of gentleness.

Instead, it possessed a vague, elusive sexuality.

Unfounded self-confidence never disappears; it just transfers. At this moment, a suspicion popped into Cheng Shiyuan’s head: she felt Xia Ziran was seducing her, and she had good reason to believe it.

“We’re here.”

Just then, the reluctant driver slowly brought the car to a halt from its twenty-mile-per-hour crawl.

She felt the dialogue between the two beauties was entertaining and wanted to listen longer. Even the silent drama in their eyes was amusing, the perfect couple!

Alas, she had excitedly stepped on the gas too hard earlier.

Cheng Shiyuan smiled and thanked the driver. She scrounged the money from Xia Ziran, bought the driver an ice cream to cool down in the hot weather, and happily walked back to Xia Ziran’s side.

She looked up at the dimly lit, half-exposed homestay sign.

She asked the burning question: “Didn’t you just say you were out of money? How are you going to afford a room by the hour to shower?”

Xia Ziran looked toward the production team.

“Congratulations to guest Xia Ziran for arriving at the punishment mission destination. The one hundred yuan budget deducted yesterday has been returned.”

Cheng Shiyuan announced righteously: “Spend sparingly. I don’t have enough money to buy the cake later.”

Xia Ziran: “…”

She weakly motioned for Cheng Shiyuan to look again at this place, which read as a homestay but looked more like an ordinary motel.

“If I wasn’t being careful, would I have chosen this?”

Right.

CEO Xia has endured all the hardships of her life on this dating show.

Cheng Shiyuan shook her head and sighed before walking into the room with her.

It wasn’t until the door was unlocked—

That she suddenly realized her sigh was premature.

Because this hourly rental room was an erotic themed couple’s room.

A rocking waterbed covered in plastic petals, and a row of padlocked sex toys of various price points lined the headboard, all directly facing them.

In the corner were some black, leather items, along with some bright red ropes.

The walls were even plastered with faded, old posters of suggestive poses.

The experience was so astonishing that Cheng Shiyuan cleverly gasped:

“Wow.”

The next second, her head was turned toward the door by Xia Ziran.

“Don’t look. It’s disgusting.”

Even the non-germaphobe CEO Xia was almost contaminated and developed a sudden case of germaphobia from these items, which looked like they had been used countless times and likely never replaced.

She frowned tightly and immediately said: “Forget it, go wait for me downstairs.”

Then she grabbed her wash bag and headed for the bathroom.

Cheng Shiyuan tilted her head, surprised to see her acting so prim and proper now, and took a curious second look.

As a result.

She happened to see the tacky, rose-shaped chandelier dangling from the ceiling behind Xia Ziran was shaking.

Cheng Shiyuan couldn’t help but stare at the swaying chandelier for another moment, feeling like she was catching the same dizzying motion. Finally, she laughed and reached out to press on Xia Ziran’s shoulder:

“No, why are you shaking too…”

Mid-sentence, she suddenly realized something, and her face abruptly changed.

Xia Ziran reacted faster than her. Upon hearing the loud crashing sound of a high-up metal sheet falling outside the window, she immediately pulled Cheng Shiyuan into her arms.

The building was shaking too violently. The motel hallway was too narrow, and they were on the sixth floor. Rushing out now would only risk getting trapped with others in the stairwell—

Xia Ziran ultimately aimed for the bathroom, which was narrow and conveniently located by a load-bearing wall.

In those few short steps, the shaking made both of their limbs uncooperative, and they nearly tripped each other.

As they huddled in the bathroom, Cheng Shiyuan looked at Xia Ziran’s pale face and tried to pull down the hand she was using to shield her head. Just as she pulled it down, the hand went right back up.

Logically.

If the ceiling really cracked and something fell, this action wouldn’t shield much.

But Xia Ziran was stubbornly determined to use her own mortal body to protect her.

As the world violently shook, Cheng Shiyuan thought of the unusual sight near the well she had seen before leaving, but she couldn’t help but tease her:

“This time, we’re not one inside and one outside. Why are you still so unhappy?”

In this crumbling world, Xia Ziran recalled many scenes.

The ink splashed on Cheng Shiyuan at the art museum; Cheng Shiyuan suddenly being locked in that airtight coffin during the escape room; the downpour they encountered while climbing the mountain, and now, an earthquake.

For a moment.

Xia Ziran suddenly wondered if she and Cheng Shiyuan were truly a cursed fate that heaven could not tolerate.

Not just her, but everyone in the Xia family seemed to bring disaster upon Cheng Shiyuan.

Her brother, herself, even Wang Shu.

“Why is it that every time… you’re with me, something like this happens?”

Xia Ziran’s usually clear phoenix eyes blurred for the first time.

The dust raised outside swept through the motel window, and the air turned murky, blocking out the sunlight.

She felt her heart drop straight down.

At this moment.

Xia Ziran thought that Cheng Shiyuan had come out with her to buy a cake to celebrate her rebirth, yet here they were again, standing on the edge of hell.

She thought she would never be shaken from her already firm resolve by anything, but in this reality where both of them could turn to dust, Xia Ziran suddenly felt regret—

If she had known she was the source of Cheng Shiyuan’s misfortune.

She wished, in this life, never to have met this person again.

A warm fingertip traced the corner of her lower eye at that moment.

Cheng Shiyuan rarely saw this expression on Xia Ziran’s face. She had thought that at most, Xia Ziran would cry out of anger at her, or perhaps shed tears of hatred and finality.

But that tear still did not fall.

So, she held her position but offered a smile.

She fanned her other hand, trying to disperse the dust between them, and her lips moved slightly.

“But.”

She said: “Do you know who I’d most want to bring if the world ended?”

“It’s you, Xia Ziran.”

Compared to Xia Ziran, Cheng Shiyuan was actually more familiar with the feeling of being on the brink of life and death.

So much so that at this moment, she wasn’t panicking much; instead, she was remarkably calm.

The hereditary disease she had, and these natural disasters she encountered, were all uncontrollable accidents in her life.

In the past, Cheng Shiyuan would have been resentful, furious, and unable to accept it, but now, she felt that if fate was determined to plunge her into despair, only to give her hope.

And then suddenly drag her back to hell when she was reborn.

Then, she had nothing more to complain about.

This was her destiny, and she had already accepted it.

However, Cheng Shiyuan didn’t believe for a second that the end of her fate would stop here—

Whether it was intuition or a superstitious belief that “great calamities bring great blessings.”

She smiled very gently amidst the dust and ashes: “It’s not because I hate you and want to perish with you, but because I think it would be interesting to spend the apocalypse with you.”

Cheng Shiyuan could always understand Xia Ziran’s intense emotions toward her.

Xia Ziran was a person with deeply rich emotions. Love, when intensified to the extreme, becomes a sea of hatred and passion. Her world only consisted of three types: loved, hated, and indifferent.

The beginning of the story that unfolded between them was wrong from the start, so how could the ending be considered a good one?

No matter how Cheng Shiyuan thought about it before, the most peaceful way for them to interact would be in an apocalyptic world.

Only when a more intense crisis emerged would Xia Ziran’s hatred for her transform back into extreme love.

However, in this very moment.

She saw a Xia Ziran that exceeded her imagination.

“Who would look forward to the apocalypse?”

Feeling the violent shaking outside subside, Xia Ziran simultaneously feared a stronger aftershock and wished for this moment of stillness to extend indefinitely.

Or simply to last long enough to get Cheng Shiyuan to a safer place.

She never let that tear fall. The hand suspended above Cheng Shiyuan’s head gently stroked the crown of her beloved’s hair and said softly:

“Didn’t you just manage to escape danger? Just keep living a peaceful life like this.”

Every time they encountered a crisis.

Xia Ziran became clearer than before.

She wanted Cheng Shiyuan to live.

To be well, and safe—

She wanted Cheng Shiyuan to live, even if it cost her own life.

After speaking, Xia Ziran turned her head, hearing the rain begin to drizzle outside again. She pulled out her phone and checked the earthquake prediction feature, but the signal was very poor.

“Want to try going downstairs now?” she said. “I remember there’s an open space behind the building across the street. It should be safer?”

Cheng Shiyuan thought about the shaking she had just felt.

She had traveled to earthquake-prone countries before and was somewhat familiar with the feeling. Although the shaking was severe, the magnitude shouldn’t be high if this was the epicenter.

The falling metal sheet was the loudest sound.

“Let’s go.”

Hand in hand, they cautiously left the bathroom and walked out.

The chandelier from the room had fallen onto the waterbed. Fragments had pierced the mattress, and water was gurgling out, flooding the floor.

Perhaps all their misfortunes had been used up by now.

They walked all the way to the open area without encountering any rapidly approaching aftershocks, successfully meeting up with the other residents of the town.

Xia Ziran received a satellite text message.

It was from Xie Zhiqing—

She was asking if Cheng Shiyuan was with her and if she was safe.

Xia Ziran showed the text to Cheng Shiyuan, asking if she wanted to call back.

However, Xie Zhiqing was clearly more anxious. The phone call came in almost the very next second after the text was sent.

Against the noisy backdrop of the open ground, Cheng Shiyuan had the rare experience of having to speak very loudly, even shouting, to be heard clearly on the other end.

Exhausted from the call, she confirmed everyone was safe and quickly handed the phone back to Xia Ziran to deal with.

Xia Ziran’s response was simple.

She simply hung up on Xie Zhiqing’s annoying call.

When Cheng Shiyuan met up and reunited with the production team, she sincerely asked them the question that was on her mind:

“What kind of auspicious place did you guys find?”

The production team staff, who had also experienced a similar ordeal: “…”

The cameraman, his face expressionless, looked at the two women whose relationship seemed to have deepened through the danger:

“Perhaps it’s to witness your great love, Teacher Cheng.”

After all, great love always needs to endure hardships.

Xia Ziran casually used a wet wipe to clean the dust off Cheng Shiyuan’s face.

When she heard those words, her movements subtly paused.

She thought, if their relationship had to be like this for it to be called love—

Then this great love, which constantly brought harm to Cheng Shiyuan, she would rather not have it.