Chapter 30
Too early?
Shen Jinfeng looked at Qin Ye in confusion. Qin Ye lowered his gaze somewhat flusteredly and did not meet his eyes.
Shen Jinfeng narrowed his eyes and studied the young man not far away.
Because of the physical labor just now, the young man had sweated all over. The loose hair on his forehead had all been swept back, revealing sharp, handsome brows and eyes.
At this moment, his bright black eyes kept flickering, showing that his inner state was far from calm.
He even seemed to be silently protesting against him. Protesting?
This was absurd beyond belief.
Did the secret admirer think he was really inviting him to bathe together?!
Immediately, Shen Jinfeng also felt somewhat uncomfortable.
These days, were people with secret crushes especially prone to imagining things and misinterpreting others in front of the person they liked?
Then again, someone secretly in love could chew over a single sentence from their crush again and again until sweetness came out of it.
When he had done missions before, a certain idiot protagonist gong had once received an empty mineral water bottle casually tossed to him by the protagonist shou after the shou finished drinking it.
Wasn’t it obvious? He was simply being asked to throw away the trash.
But the protagonist gong, trapped in the whirlpool of love, kept feeling there was some deeper meaning. He carefully took the mineral water bottle home, washed it clean, and the next day, abandoned his thermos worth over ten thousand yuan to bring that mineral water bottle, no longer worth even two yuan, to school. From then on, he carried it every day and filled it with water to drink.
Later, the protagonist shou could not stand it anymore and asked him, “Did you know that using a plastic bottle for too long may be toxic to the human body?”
The protagonist gong answered affectionately, “If it is poisonous, I will still gladly accept it.”
Shen Jinfeng, who had accidentally overheard and analyzed the whole process: “…”
My god.
Love lowers intelligence.
Therefore, Qin Ye not hearing the rhetorical tone in his question now was also… understandable… like hell it was!
Besides, even if they bathed together, why did Qin Ye’s tone make it sound like something shameful?
In summer swimming pools, people crowded in like dumplings in a pot. Did all of them have this many thoughts too?
Shen Jinfeng closed his eyes, somewhat amused and exasperated.
He parted his lips and could not help letting out a trace of laughter.
Qin Ye stood there, nearly 1.9 meters tall, tall and handsome, yet somehow giving off a twisted, stiff air as if he were determined to preserve his chastity.
Shen Jinfeng crossed his fists in front of his chest and spoke as plainly as possible. “Qin Ye, what I said just now was a rhetorical question.”
“Do you understand what a rhetorical question is?”
He explained word by word, with a slightly teasing tone, “I’m going to bathe. Alone. You can go back and get ready now, and compete with Qi Xiu and the others for second place.”
Qin Ye: “?!”
“S-Sorry.” His mind blank, he turned and walked into the hut.
He realized what kind of embarrassment he had just made of himself.
He wanted to strangle the version of himself who had so narcissistically said “Isn’t it too early?” and send himself back to the furnace for rebuilding!
When he returned to the wooden hut, his figure once again appeared in the camera.
[Ye God, hurry and go play rock-paper-scissors with little purple-hair and the others! If you’re late, you’ll have to bathe last!]
[What’s going on with him? Why does he look like he’s in such a bad mood? His eyes are so fierce.]
Mm, what Qin Ye should be grateful for was that because of “harmony,” Sun Xinping had removed the livestream coverage around the bathing pool outside.
At least that awkward scene just now had not been broadcast in front of the entire nation’s audience.
After that, nothing else happened.
One by one, the group finished washing up. Fresh-smelling—no longer stinky—and fully satisfied—as if relieved of a heavy burden—they climbed onto the bed.
When Gu Shengsheng found out the others had actually bathed in the bathing pool, his eyes turned red with envy.
He had also boiled hot water himself and wiped down his body, finally no longer salty and smelly.
The group lay on the bed. Since it was all one bed, they did not argue over the order again and simply lay down according to the order in which they got onto the bed.
They entered dreamland.
Outside, the rainstorm was still falling.
Sun Xinping looked at the guests, who had not been affected at all, and gritted his teeth bitterly.
Especially because although the guests had fallen asleep and today’s livestream had ended, all the major social platforms were still filled with mockery directed at him.
Before midnight, #WhatAGoodTimelyRain# successfully climbed to the top of the trending searches.
[A rain trapped the guests inside the wooden hut. They ate boiled fish and even got to bathe. The rain on the deserted island is truly a timely rain, falling drop by drop and making me so envious~]
[Upstairs, why are you singing in voice form? Hahaha.]
[What a good timely rain indeed. It directly solved the guests’ freshwater crisis and even let them luxuriously take baths. In a bathing pool, no less!]
[Heaven knows how well they performed in terms of food after the rain came. Those seafood dishes afterward were original flavor, freshly cooked. This kind of fresh ingredient is already delicious enough just steamed plain, especially since Big Shot Shen added all those seasonings too. Even He Erwang and Qin Ye, who clearly don’t lack good food and have seen the world, were wolfing it down! That fragrance practically drifted through the screen into my nose! Outside, wouldn’t this meal cost several thousand yuan?]
[Wrong. More than several thousand? Everyone literally watched them catch those ingredients fresh from the sea with their own eyes. This kind of ingredient—you couldn’t even eat it if you wanted to.]
[So why can they eat a meal on a deserted island that costs several months of my salary, while I’m eating instant noodles in a rented room watching the livestream?]
[So, Old Dog Sun, did you send these guests on vacation? Huh? Incompetent roaring.]
[Maybe Old Dog Sun himself is also very confused hahaha. What’s going on? Why did the big move I carefully designed do nothing, and even add supplies to the opponent?]
[This part really can’t be blamed on the production team being useless. The opponents are just too strong. If it were other guests, even if you placed this correct answer in front of them, they wouldn’t be able to copy it.]
Sun Xinping was indeed very confused, even to the point that his expression was twisted.
“What was our original purpose for this rain again?”
Huh?
Who the hell knew what purpose you had?
Xiao Li froze for a moment. Anyway, it was ultimately to make the guests suffer and embarrass themselves.
“To drench them like drowned chickens?”
“Exactly. A rainstorm like this, even in real life, would be unbearable for mud houses in some underdeveloped rural areas. There’s no reason they should be able to avoid it on a deserted island,” Sun Xinping murmured.
But he looked at the livestream screen. Even though he had made the equipment team leader increase the rainfall by another level, that wooden hut still stood firm, unmoving like a mountain in the wind and rain.
It clearly looked so fragile, so primitive, but in reality, it was so sturdy that not even a single drop leaked in.
Some netizens were already exclaiming in amazement.
[Who understands? My family’s old house in the countryside is still a brick-and-tile house, and it leaks on rainy days. Every time, my mom makes me take a basin to catch the water.]
[Big Shot Shen is still too all-round. I bet this skill of his is some lost ancestral craft.]
[And the construction looks “simple.” It really suits the style of us Chinese infrastructure maniacs.]
[The key point is that all this wood can be recycled. Once it’s built in one place and no longer needed, it can be moved somewhere else and rebuilt. Damn, saying it like this, it feels like there are a lot of fields where this could be used!]
Because of the netizens’ heated discussion, Shen Jinfeng’s unique house-building technique indeed attracted wide attention. Of course, that was a later matter.
The next day, Shen Jinfeng woke up very early. He glanced at the others still sleeping, hesitated for a moment, and did not get up.
This was his retirement world. Why get up so early?
He closed his eyes again.
Over half an hour later,
he opened his eyes again. No, his mind was clear, but his whole body was sore and weak. If he continued sleeping, he would only feel more uncomfortable.
He rolled over and got out of bed, directly climbing down from the head of the bed.
The storm outside had lasted all night and still had not stopped.
Shen Jinfeng stood quietly by the window for two minutes, listening to the wind and rain and watching the hazy curtain of rain cover heaven and earth with a thick layer of gauze.
This mood truly had the flavor of what many ancients pursued: living in seclusion among mountains and fields, sleeping while listening to the rain.
It was just that, judging by the situation, they still could not go out today.
However, on this deserted island, although it was different from the comfortable modern life he had expected, it seemed pretty good too.
Since he had come, he might as well settle down.
The body was the capital of revolution. Only by being healthy could he properly enjoy his future life.
Shen Jinfeng walked under the eaves, breathed in the misty air, and began practicing a body-strengthening exercise he had learned in a martial arts world.
He tried to lay a good foundation first and then open up his tendons and bones.
Although this was modern society, one still needed some self-defense skills.
Thus, the first batch of viewers who poured into the livestream that morning saw two split screens the moment they entered.
One showed everyone sleeping soundly and peacefully.
The other showed Shen Jinfeng alone under the eaves, practicing martial arts.
[Although I don’t understand it, I feel like Big Shot Shen’s movements have such rhythm. It looks better than the grandpas doing tai chi in the park!]
[Big Shot Shen woke up so early! And his spirit is so good! Looks like this storm helps with sleep hahaha!]
[Is it my imagination? Why do I feel like Shen Jinfeng looks so good today? Holy crap, that flying kick just now made my heart tremble from how cool it was!]
[My god, I specifically got up to do a set of Baduanjin. It’s just that my hand had its own consciousness and opened the livestream first. In the end, I saw Big Shot Shen exercising too! Maybe I should just practice along with Big Shot Shen?]
[Huh? Person in front, did you just come in? Why don’t you watch Big Shot Shen’s movements before speaking? Practice along with him? Should we hang you on a wire and let you fly too?]
[Try it and you’ll die… These are not movements normal people can do!!!]
[So cool! If the martial arts scenes in current dramas could be filmed at this level, I wouldn’t have to cover my eyes and fast-forward every time. Damn it, directors and actors filming martial arts scenes, come take a look. I want clean, sharp, elegant, immortal, fierce fight scenes that look powerful at a glance, like this. Don’t give me close-up face shots and spinning in circles anymore!]
[Actually, on short-video platforms, some bloggers claim to be inheritors of Emei, Wudang, Shaolin, and so on. Their videos look super impressive too, but they’re basically edited one move at a time. They don’t have Big Shot Shen’s continuous, flowing-like-water-and-clouds feeling at all!]
This set of exercises of Shen Jinfeng’s was actually quite simple. After all, without a martial arts foundation, he could not practice anything too difficult.
Unfortunately, people in modern society did not have much experience. Upon seeing it, they only felt it was absurdly impressive.
Therefore, Sun Xinping, who had been so depressed yesterday that he suffered insomnia and had finally fallen asleep, was awakened early in the morning with sleepy eyes. The moment he woke up, he saw that his show was on the trending searches again.
The person responsible for this achievement and the culprit who had made him sleep badly were one and the same.
Xiao Li looked at Shen Jinfeng on the screen, who was still practicing, with eyes full of stars and worship.
“Director, I think there’s no need for you to be angry. Look, the purpose of making it rain was to make the guests embarrass themselves and suffer, and what was the purpose of making the guests embarrass themselves and suffer? Wasn’t it to get on the trending searches, gain traffic, and attract passersby?”
After Xiao Li’s explanation, Sun Xinping actually nodded and felt it made sense.
“But Director, look. With Big Shot Shen around, we get on the trending searches happily and easily every day, drawing traffic. And the fans attracted are less hostile and higher quality.”
During the first two seasons of What Kind of Person Are You?, the broadcast period could be described as bloody storms. They had appeared on the trending searches plenty, and the traffic had also been astonishingly high.
But were those positive trending searches?
Out of ten comments, five carried negative scolding and declarations of unfollowing.
“Director, you used to get scolded every day. This season, you’ve been scolded less.” Xiao Li’s face was serious.
The hidden meaning was: Could it be that you got used to being scolded, became addicted to being scolded, and fell in love with that feeling?
The corner of Sun Xinping’s mouth twitched.
Damn it, that really made sense.
He looked at Shen Jinfeng on the screen with complicated eyes and murmured, “This really is strange. I never thought before that there was a positive way to go viral beyond one’s original circle.”
Because there was no second guest who knew this many skills and could carry a survival variety show into a relaxed vacation style…
Early morning was logically the time when traffic was the lowest.
Moreover, only Shen Jinfeng was awake right now, and he was practicing martial arts. There was no plot, no conflict, no interaction.
But the number of viewers in the livestream kept increasing, rising from less than ten million as usual to more than fifteen million.
Clearly, this newly added audience group was not the show’s fixed fanbase, but newly incoming traffic.
The bullet comments from this new group were also very harmonious.
Apart from those quietly admiring the screen, many people were saying they wanted to study Shen Jinfeng’s movement technique, and that their sect masters had seen it and thought it was very useful.
What the hell? It seemed like a strange group had mixed in!
Just like that, everyone watched Shen Jinfeng “practice” for nearly forty minutes.
At eight in the morning, Shen Jinfeng had still not finished.
The second person inside the small hut woke up. It was Qin Ye.
After sitting up from the bed, he instinctively looked toward where Shen Jinfeng had slept. Not seeing him there, he got up and first brushed his teeth with a twig dipped in salt, washed his face, and only then went out.
Sure enough, under the eaves outside the bathing pool from yesterday, he saw Shen Jinfeng.
The young man’s posture was neat, graceful, and pleasing to the eye. Between the wide, sweeping movements, there was an aggressiveness only someone trained could see.
Qin Ye had not practiced Chinese martial arts, but he knew some taekwondo, judo, and the like.
He leaned under the eaves and quietly watched.
Because of the awkward scene yesterday, he was too embarrassed to speak.
But he also did not want to leave.
Shen Jinfeng sensed someone had arrived. After completing the move in his hands, he stopped.
“You’re awake too?”
Qin Ye nodded. “I usually exercise in the morning too.”
Shen Jinfeng’s eyes lit up. “Practice with me?”
“Hm?”
Qin Ye froze. The exercise he was talking about did not mean this kind of sparring. It was only ordinary morning jogging.
But under Shen Jinfeng’s eager gaze, the other party seemed happy that he had finally found someone who could “exercise” with him.
Qin Ye’s explanation circled around his mouth and suddenly became difficult to say.
In fact, in modern society, being able to jog every morning and still work out every night after work was already extremely rare.
But compared with Shen Jinfeng’s method of exercise, it truly paled in comparison.
He replied, “Then please give me some pointers, Little Captain. I know a little taekwondo.”
[I woke up too hard. I actually saw Ye God about to fight Big Shot Shen!]
[“Know a little taekwondo,” Qin Ye is being modest, right? His taekwondo seems to be the highest black belt level, and he even stayed in the military before. In recent years, the most famous martial arts scenes in the industry were all performed by him!]
[Big Shot Shen is also very powerful! Just from watching him practice earlier, he clearly has the style of an expert! A showdown between Chinese martial arts and taekwondo. Looking forward to it!]
Just as the netizens were discussing, Shen Jinfeng also smiled modestly. “I also know a little taekwondo.”
[??? Big Shot Shen knows taekwondo too?]
[What exactly is there that Big Shot Shen doesn’t know? I remember one line in his persona introduction: exceptional combat skills. I used to treat it like a joke, but now it seems more likely to be real!]
The two at the scene did not expect that a casual mention would be matched by the other.
They looked at each other and no longer spoke. They directly took their stances and suddenly started fighting before the audience even reacted.
At first, the two still performed classic movements in proper form, testing the depth of the opponent.
You throw a lead-hand punch, I respond with a spinning backfist.
You send a scissor-leg roundhouse kick, I answer with a double flying kick.
Rather than fighting, it was more like performing an evenly matched exhibition match.
However, after a few moves, both understood that they had encountered a trained opponent. The other side was not using taekwondo as a pretty but useless display.
Thus, their movements became increasingly sharp and fast.
At first, netizens who had practiced taekwondo could still explain a few things in the bullet comments, but soon, two minutes later, there was no more room for them to contribute.
Because Shen Jinfeng and Qin Ye actually seemed to be getting serious.
Classic finishing moves in taekwondo—things like cut kicks, axe kicks, hook kicks, side kicks, tornado kicks, back kicks—could actually be combined in pairs and trios and performed continuously without pause.
If this were an ordinary arena, the opponent probably would not even have enough time to block.
[Holy crap, so this is the correct way to kick in taekwondo? Did I practice fake taekwondo before?]
[Understood. I’ll call my coach right now and ask why he never taught me that a deadly downward kick and invincible tornado kick could be used together!]
[This taekwondo coach is silent… Those continuous moves Qin Ye just did—any one of them alone requires extremely strong core strength in the waist and abdomen. Without practicing for over ten years, you couldn’t do them, let alone link them together.]
[These two are still evenly matched? I finally know why Shen Jinfeng used a stunt double when filming fight scenes before. It was purely because he was afraid of crippling his opponent, right?]
[Damn, TV dramas are still too conservative!]
[Taekwondo sparring is this cool? I’m about to fall into the pit. Any knowledgeable friends recommend some world competitions for me to watch? Hiss, drool.]
Because the two were sparring so intensely, everyone almost held their breath.
Meaningless “ahhhhhhh” comments instantly filled the entire bullet screen.
The two fought for nearly ten minutes without determining a winner.
Because Shen Jinfeng knew too many kinds of martial arts, taekwondo could only count as one of his countless skills that was fairly decent.
If limited only to taekwondo moves, encountering an expert like Qin Ye meant they could only fight back and forth for a while.
If he switched to other moves, he was confident he could subdue the enemy within a few techniques.
But the rule was to compete in taekwondo, so he would not bully him.
Little did he know, Qin Ye was thinking the same thing.
In the stalemate, Qin Ye several times wanted to use fighting techniques he had learned from a retired special forces soldier in the past, but that would violate the rules.
Thus, the two tacitly fought fiercely.
He Erwang, who came out after hearing the noise, misunderstood when he saw the two.
His eyes widened like bronze bells. Because he had slept with his hair pressed against his forehead, the purple hair now sticking up in midair seemed to be protesting too.
He shouted in shock, “Oh my god! Stop fighting!”
Because Qin Ye and Shen Jinfeng looked far too much like they were fighting for real.
He thought the two had gotten into a conflict and were truly fighting.
Hearing his voice, both Shen Jinfeng and Qin Ye paused.
He Erwang thought his persuasion had worked, and he grew even more energetic.
He anxiously rushed straight into the battle circle. On the surface, he was trying to break up the fight. “Boss, Brother Ye, stop fighting! Talk it out!”
But in reality, the moment he rushed in, he thought he was subtly blocking in front of Shen Jinfeng.
Taking sides!
He pretended to use both hands to separate the two, but secretly used all his strength on one side, directly pushing toward Qin Ye.
Because they saw He Erwang charging in recklessly,
Shen Jinfeng and Qin Ye both tacitly stopped moving. But since they had stopped abruptly, their strength had not yet dissipated.
With this inspired move of his, He Erwang failed to push Qin Ye and was directly forced back several steps by the reaction force.
He widened his eyes in horror. “Why are you so strong?”
He retreated several steps, his hands numb from the shock. Still unable to stabilize himself, his whole body tipped downward, and he was about to fall on his butt.
At this critical moment, Shen Jinfeng’s eyes and hands were quick. He stretched out his foot and placed it under He Erwang’s butt.
He Erwang sat directly on Shen Jinfeng’s foot.
Then, instinctively, he hugged Shen Jinfeng’s thigh.
When he came back to his senses, his voice trembled in lingering fear.
“Mom, is breaking up a fight this dangerous?”
Shen Jinfeng and Qin Ye looked at each other and said nothing.
Because He Erwang’s voice was too loud, and he had even been shouting “stop fighting, stop fighting,” the remaining people sleeping in the small hut were all awakened.
They hurriedly rushed out, thinking some danger had occurred.
In the end, the moment they came out, they saw this scene.
Qi Xiu’s eyes were stunned. He pointed at He Erwang in disbelief. “He Erwang, even hugging a thigh isn’t done like this! Aren’t you being way too dogleg!”
The others also looked at He Erwang with strange expressions.
In the bullet comments, He Erwang’s fans covered their faces one after another, too embarrassed to speak.
[It’s over. This is the first time I feel that the main star I follow is really a little… hard to describe.]
[He Erwang, you’re still hugging Big Shot Shen’s thigh! Hurry up and get up!]
[Although, good intentions almost sending yourself off—what kind of operation is that? Hahaha.]
[Baby, listen to us. In the future, let’s not participate in battlefields between big shots. Sigh, Mommy really didn’t expect you to be this delicate and soft.]
[Pfft, what the hell do you mean delicate and soft? He Erwang’s mom fans are toxic hahahahaha.]
At the scene, once He Erwang reacted, he hurriedly let go. “No, I came to break up the fight!”
He pointed at Shen Jinfeng and Qin Ye. “Those two were fighting just now. They were fighting really fiercely!”
Shen Jinfeng tried hard to hold back his laughter. He bent down and pulled He Erwang, who was still sitting on his foot, up in one motion, then explained, “We were exercising just now.”
Qin Ye also nodded and said lightly, “We got up early to loosen our muscles and bones. We were practicing with each other.”
Gu Shengsheng still did not understand. “Then what does that have to do with He Erwang?”
Shen Jinfeng said, “He thought our exercise was a fight and wanted to come in to break it up, then accidentally fell.”
So he had misunderstood the two of them as fighting, tried to come in and take sides, but in the end, the only one injured was him?
He Erwang felt that at this moment, he was unbearably ashamed.
He was truly grateful that Boss had actually left him a layer of face-saving cloth.
Qi Xiu said enthusiastically, “Boss, I want to exercise with you too!”
He Erwang turned to look at him in horror. “What are you saying???”
Is that something you can practice?
Shen Jinfeng froze for a moment and looked at the “delicate and soft” He Erwang, the pale-faced Gu Shengsheng, the middle-aged Mo Fan with many physical issues, and Qi Xiu, who had volunteered himself.
He smiled. “Sure.”
“Starting tomorrow morning, everyone will get up at six to exercise together.”
Qi Xiu’s face went blank. “What… what time did you say?”
“Even in my senior year of high school, I never got up that early!”
Update Posting Schedule: Starting next chapter, posting schedule change from posting every day to 3 chapters every Saturday~
