The Protagonist Couple Refuses the Dating Show Shuraba - Chapter 3

Hearing the noise, Yun Qi frowned slightly, suddenly releasing his grip on the pillow as he looked toward the door.

Outside, a chaotic and clamorous sound followed the desperate shouts of the director and the panicked cries of others. However, Yun Qi didn’t even realize that as his attention broke free from those past events, the heat in his body had strangely dissipated. It was hard to say whether the heat just now had been due to the allergy or someone else.

Seeing that the person sent to fetch medicine had not returned, the commotion on the deck grew louder. Duan Xingge’s previous command of “don’t go out” had long been cast to the back of his mind; neither of them could ever convince the other, or they wouldn’t have reached the point of parting ways.

Yun Qi looked down at his wrists, where the red marks had already faded. Finally, amidst the clattering noises, he put on his coat, stood up, pushed open the door, and walked out.

The deck was, unsurprisingly, in total disarray, with the sea wind biting painfully.

“Ming Jiao… Ming Jiao has fallen into the sea!”

Yun Qi was stunned; he never expected that it would be Ming Jiao who fell overboard.

Seeing their “beloved treasure” fall, the chat in the live stream nearly exploded:

“Ahhhhh, Jiao-jiao!!”

“Hurry down and save Jiao-bao!”

“My precious wife cannot be harmed! QAQ”

“What is the production team doing, damn it!! How could they not have proper safety measures?”

Cutting the live stream now would have a greater impact. Without the stream, viewers would immediately disperse from the channel to major platforms; whether or not he was rescued, the public pressure would be more than the production team could handle.

Therefore, the production team dared not cut the feed. The directing team was eager to jump into the sea themselves to rescue him, and in other parts of the deck, several guests were already preparing to dive in to save him.

The cacophony buzzed in his ears, and the entire deck was as chaotic as a pot of porridge. The director’s desperate voice echoed across the vast sea:

“Lifebuoy! Bring the lifebuoy over, quick!”

“Wait, Cheng Xi, don’t be impulsive”

“At least put on a life jacket before going down!”

The sea wind was frighteningly strong, whipping Yun Qi’s coat up. Amidst the jumbled noise, a voice suddenly struck Yun Qi’s ears like a thunderclap: “President Duan seems to have gone down too! Quick, quick, bring all the spare lifebuoys!”

The chat erupted in a massive uproar:

“As expected of my Xing!”

“Ahhh, a hero saving the beauty! I believe in you, Xing!!”

“Baby must be fine, QAQ! You have to save him, Xing!”

Duan Xingge jumped into the sea?!

Yun Qi’s wandering thoughts instantly snapped back, his previously calm heart rate jumping to over a hundred. Just then, another wave crashed against the ship, the sound resonating like a heartbeat in his ears, deafening and thunderous.

Yun Qi furrowed his brows. Without a second thought, he walked to the edge of the cruise ship and gazed out at the sea. His palms, gripping his coat, were damp with a layer of thin sweat.

The ship’s lights could only illuminate a small patch of the sea; everything beyond was pure darkness. The churning waves swallowed everything, revealing nothing else.

Yun Qi used that sliver of light to desperately search for a figure in the darkness. He didn’t even realize that he had lost his composure; he subconsciously moved to take off his coat, forgetting that he didn’t know how to swim.

However, at that very moment, a disaster occurred.

Another wave struck the cruise ship. Amidst the crowd’s commotion, a massive force came from behind Yun Qi, and before he could react, he was pushed directly toward the sea.

The sudden sense of weightlessness left him no chance to look back. Everything happened too fast; everyone else was busy dealing with the situation involving Ming Jiao and had no time to notice this spot. In a flash of lightning, the juice in the cup and the missing allergy medication in the drawer all strung together like beads.

But it was too late to realize it now.

The moment before falling into the sea, Yun Qi saw a figure wearing a peaked cap against the light. That person pressed down on their hat and shouted, “President Yun has also jumped in to save Ming Jiao!”

The next second, Yun Qi slammed hard into the sea.

Someone who cannot swim will subconsciously inhale the moment they fall into the water, and salty, humid seawater instantly poured into his nose and mouth.

Yun Qi couldn’t control his coughing, and he struggled subconsciously, but the coughing caused by choking on water only made more seawater pour in a cycle that continued until death.

An indescribable burning sensation traveled from his lungs, the bitter pain rushing straight to his skull. The overwhelming emotions came rushing back in this moment. Yun Qi felt an inexpressible pain, but even now, he still possessed a will to survive and an incredibly strong one at that.

But that bit of survival instinct was no match for the power of the ocean.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. The strength he had already exhausted from the allergic reaction dissipated entirely in his struggle. Yun Qi felt himself sinking continuously, sinking until the light spot representing the sea surface overhead faded away, sinking until the bottomless darkness slowly swallowed his body and his thoughts.

On the verge of death, a scene like a carousel of memories flashed in Yun Qi’s mind without warning. It was like a hallucination seen by a dying person, or perhaps fate suddenly showing kindness. On the verge of his death, the non-existent creator allowed him a glimpse of some insignificant truths.

In the dark, Yun Qi suddenly realized that he and Duan Xingge were originally the childhood sweethearts and protagonists of a novel. Even if they had parted ways, they were ultimately meant to reunite.

However, the reality was that this story seemed too cliché. Everyone wanted to see this pair of “brothers,” who should have been lovers, turn into enemies over a delicate, soft, and cute little beauty, and thus, the book’s protagonist had been changed.

The protagonist of this book was now Ming Jiao.

Ming Jiao was a muddled, silly beauty who had nothing but a pretty face. By chance, he had transmigrated into an unfinished BL novel. After accidentally getting on a dating reality show, he began his journey as a crowd-pleasing heartthrob.

Ming Jiao didn’t know the direction of the story. At first, he tried his best to pair up the original protagonist seme and uke, but to his surprise, both of them fell in love with him. Moreover, besides these two, others on the dating show were also smitten with him.

Among so many pursuers, Ming Jiao couldn’t detect anyone’s intentions. Finally, everyone couldn’t hold it back any longer and unanimously decided to confess to Ming Jiao on the night after the Truth or Dare game.

But before they could confess, Ming Jiao accidentally fell into the water. Everyone jumped into the water to save him one after another. Obviously, whoever could save him would be the “official” seme, but the plot stopped abruptly right there, as if it were a suspenseful cliffhanger deliberately left behind.

This was the entirety of the plot so far.

Yun Qi suddenly felt a great sense of absurdity and irony, to the point that the physiological pain no longer mattered. His lungs felt as if they were burning, yet he couldn’t help but want to laugh.

His life, and everything that had happened and was about to happen to him, turned out to be nothing more than a setting created for someone else.

In the plot, he and Duan Xingge were forbidden to each other. The chat messages that had frantically shipped them at the beginning of the show became the targets of face-slapping later on. Their fans watched as they “turned into enemies” over someone else, eventually either defecting or disappearing, while together shouting that the “sandwich” dynamic was delicious.

Brothers who hadn’t become lovers turned against each other, becoming rivals for the sake of a muddled little beauty, while the little beauty sillily shipped the two of them, swaying piteously between them, not knowing who to choose. This both satisfied certain readers’ cleanliness and the exciting plot they wanted to see. They demanded that they remain chaste for the protagonist while also requiring them to have theoretically been involved in a vague, ambiguous past.

Only by having once had feelings and ambiguity, but no substantial progress, and finally turning into enemies for the same person, could there be a highlight. As for why they parted ways and how their relationship fell apart, the plot merely brushed over it, with less than one percent of the space devoted to it. Because for the readers and the audience, what they wanted to see was the “clash of rivals,” not a story about the two members of the protagonist’s harem. The story between the two of them was not only completely unimportant, it was not worthy of detailed description.

No protagonist fan would really want to watch the story between the protagonist’s harem members; that would only make them unhappy. All they wanted was the setting that existed as a background board nothing more.

Yun Qi’s consciousness gradually blurred amidst the bizarre and kaleidoscopic images. He couldn’t even hear the sound of splashing water from the sea anymore. Everything from the past flashed by like a carousel: the family grievances, the hardships in his career, and the stubborn, sealed-away past he dared not face none of it mattered in this moment.

The past dissipated like smoke. Everything finally froze on Duan Xingge’s face, clear to an unbelievable degree. A familiar and anxious face appeared before him, memories and reality overlapping stunningly in this moment.

Yun Qi suddenly returned to his senses, looking incredulously at the person appearing before him. He hadn’t seen Duan Xingge look so panicked in a long time. Clearly, it was he who was on the verge of death, yet the person before him looked as if they were about to cry.

Water poured into his lungs from all directions. Yun Qi’s lungs still burned, even more severely than before, yet he didn’t feel as miserable. But physiological reactions are not something one can control. He could only cough while using his last bit of strength to raise his hand in the current to push the person on top of him, wanting him to leave.

But in the next second, Duan Xingge suddenly grabbed his neck like a madman and leaned in. Large mouthfuls of air were passed over from the other person’s mouth. After realizing what Duan Xingge was doing, Yun Qi froze for three seconds before snapping back to his senses. Like a final surge of energy before death, he suddenly withdrew all his strength, struggling to turn his face away,  pushing the person on him, but the lips that were pressed against his became tighter and tighter.

Bubbles were constantly created and diffused from where they were joined, until they drifted to the sea surface, dissipating in the waves like bubbles into which a mermaid eventually turns.

At the same time, a sound came from the shore; it seemed like someone had been rescued, but the person deep in the seabed could no longer hear it clearly.

The chat cheered in a chorus:

“Ahhhhh, is Jiao-bao okay!”

“Woo woo, as long as my treasure is fine.”

“What about Xing? Xing jumped so urgently; he must have gone to save Jiao-bao. Why don’t I see Xing?”

“Good, good, good, Jiao-bao is finally safe!!”

“What are you men doing! Letting my treasure fall into the water, how can I be at ease letting you be my son-in-law?”

“Woo woo, scared me to death! Come here, whoever saved my treasure, grant them a title!”

The cruise ship cheered in a group, while under the seabed, death was silently descending. The darkness of the seabed was almost enough to swallow a person. In the vast ocean, the little bit of oxygen Duan Xingge passed over was just a drop in the bucket.

Even if they had long since parted ways, the little dog he had raised with his own hands still came to save him without hesitation.

Looking at the anxious and desperate eyes of the person in front of him, Yun Qi only felt a great deal of reluctance and regret. He hadn’t had time to ask clearly when the other person knew about his alcohol allergy. He hadn’t had time to ask… whether he had been living well alone since leaving home for so many years. He hadn’t even had time to tell him… that they were supposed to be childhood sweethearts, innocent lovers.

But it was all too late.

The seabed looked just like the starry sky, shimmering with glowing lights, and his “star” was crying for him at this moment.

By now, the pain had gradually disappeared; his eyes were too tired to open, and his body felt warm, as if soaked in water. Yun Qi used his last bit of strength to raise his hand and gently touch the cheek of the person in front of him.

Duan Xingge froze, suddenly opening his eyes wide, his pupils contracting uncontrollably. He hugged him like a madman and seemed to have shouted something in Yun Qi’s ear, but Yun Qi could no longer hear it. He tried hard to speak, but in the end, he only formed a silent shape with his lips: “…Don’t cry.”

After that, he could see nothing else, and the world returned to silence.

In a wasteland, all pain dissipated without a trace. Time seemed to stagnate from this moment, and space also lost its meaning, becoming distorted and brilliant.

After an unknown amount of time, the rings of the years were suddenly wound up, and the clock face began to turn backward. It felt like a century had passed, or perhaps just a second.

When Yun Qi felt the light again and opened his eyes to look at everything before him, he was entirely dazed.

Time and space restarted. After three seconds, the lingering, burning sensation in his lungs seemed to spread again. Yun Qi snapped back to his senses, turned to his side, supported himself on the bed, and coughed violently, as if he wanted to cough out the non-existent seawater from his lungs.

He coughed for a long time, so long that when the phone on the bedside table continued to sound with message notifications, he managed to recover a bit from that overwhelming suffocation.

Yun Qi frowned. With the pain and confusion of not having fully returned to his senses, he picked up his phone out of basic habit, wanting to check the time. However, before he could check the date, a notification first hit his eyes:

“Former lovers turned rivals? Who will the delicate beauty finally end up with? The top-tier dating reality show ‘Mountain and Sea Agreement’ is airing again. The Chapter of Sea Vows on the cruise ship will give you the answer!”