28 Games

They drove all the way to Huyang City, a border city where Han and ethnic minorities live together. In recent years, tourism has been developed, and some traditional buildings with distinct Central Asian styles have been restored, exuding a strong exotic atmosphere.

The midday sun slanted down relentlessly, and the road surface radiated scorching heat. They encountered few pedestrians along their journey.

"Mom, why is there no one here?" Gu Sinan looked at the empty street with great curiosity.

"It's probably because it's too hot at noon," Ye Zhenzhen said, glancing at the temperature display on the car, which showed that it was nearly 40 degrees Celsius outside. "Everyone is probably resting at home. When you get out of the car, be sure to wear a hat and sun protection clothing, it's extremely sunny outside."

The sun was too strong, so Gu Tingshen wore sunglasses the whole way while driving. He looked very different from usual, dressed in casual clothes with sunglasses on.

Ye Zhenzhen kept glancing at him without realizing it the whole way.

Now that they were inside, standing in a small stadium, he took off his glasses and casually tucked them into his chest. Suddenly, he turned to Ye Zhenzhen beside him and asked, "Why are you staring at me?"

"..." Ye Zhenzhen was caught peeking, her face flushed, and she hurriedly made up an excuse, "I see you're all sweaty, do you want to wipe it off?"

She looked down and hurriedly pulled a tissue from her bag and handed it over.

To her surprise, the man gestured to the suitcases in his hands and bent down to stand right in front of her.

"I don't have a free hand, can you wipe it for me?"

Ye Zhenzhen looked into the man's smiling eyes and suddenly realized that he was teasing her.

My competitive spirit instantly overshadowed the previous awkwardness. I even washed your face when you were drunk! It's just wiping your sweat, as if I wouldn't dare! Who do you think you are?!

Gu Tingshen felt those fair, jade-like hands first brush across his forehead, then roughly ruffle his short hair. After ruffled it, they even tidied his hair, then put their hands on their hips and looked at him.

Seeing her smug smile, Gu Tingshen lowered his eyes and chuckled, wondering what she had imagined again, and suddenly her previous shyness disappeared.

"Come on, Nannan, let me wipe your sweat too!" Ye Zhenzhen took out another handkerchief and gave Gu Sinan a thorough wiping of her sweat.

He found her technique strangely familiar, but couldn't quite place where he had seen it before.

Zhang Siqing, who caught up from behind, immediately noticed the matching hairstyles of the Gu father and son, muttering to herself, "Oh, matching hairstyles for the whole family? Quite unique!"

Ye Zhenzhen cleared her throat, feeling a little guilty, and didn't reply, only glancing at the grape trellis next to her.

Hey, why are these grapes so big and round?

"Welcome to Huyang City. The production team has carefully selected four courtyards for you. Please follow the guide to visit your accommodations for tonight."

The courtyards are all traditional local dwellings, flat-roofed adobe houses with a distinct Central Asian style. The courtyards are all quite large, with brightly colored paintings on the doors and various flowers growing in flowerpots in front of the gates.

"Mom, why are all the houses here built with earth?" Liu Lele asked after looking at the two courtyards.

"Um, I really don't know." Zhang Siqing scratched her head. "You can ask Uncle Guide."

"Because it's so arid here, there's very little vegetation, so we can't make bricks. In the past, we just used this kind of loess to build houses,"

The guide, a young man in his twenties, smiled and explained to the adorable child with big, blinking eyes, "Don't be fooled by how dilapidated these mud houses look; they're actually very comfortable to live in, warm in winter and cool in summer."

Everything here was very different from what they usually saw, and the children turned into curious little ones, surrounding the guides all the way.

"Uncle, are these grapes ripe? May I pick them?"

“

Uncle, what are those blue flowers by the door? They're so pretty!

"uncle...."

Yan Xu and Gu Sinan were relatively quiet, but they stayed close by, listening attentively and exchanging a few words in hushed tones from time to time.

After walking around, they returned to the small stadium, where Jiang Wei announced the room selection method for this episode: "Next, we will determine the order of room selection tonight through a game."

As soon as he finished speaking, the temporary set behind him was pulled back, revealing the acupressure mat on the ground.

"Ah?! Acupressure mat?! I hate acupressure mats?!" Wang Liqing cried out in anguish.

She had recently been tortured by acupressure mats on a TV show.

"There are so many thorns, it looks so painful..." Lanno also looked troubled.

"That's ruthless! Such a large area, what kind of game are they going to play? Are they going to participate in everything? Huh? Director?" Zhang Siqing asked the director directly, pointing to Liu Wei, "We can send a representative!"

"Stop it, you're light and can't withstand much force, you go first!" Liu Wei was not happy and reached out to close her fingers. Zhang Siqing's hand slid down his forearm, and the two exchanged several blows in an instant.

Before anyone could see clearly, Liu Wei's hand was grabbed from behind by Zhang Siqing.

"It hurts, it hurts, let go, let go now, I'll go, I'll go, okay??" Liu Wei immediately gave in and begged for mercy repeatedly.

"You should have done this earlier." Zhang Siqing let go of him and pretended to kick him in the butt.

Liu Wei immediately lunged forward to Kang Kang and Lele, pretending to cry and complaining, "Mommy hit Daddy, you all saw it, right?"

“Dad, don’t cry. You didn’t break any bones, which means Mom didn’t even use any force.” Kang Kang said calmly.

“Yes, Dad, Mom still loves you. A real man bleeds but doesn’t cry!” Lele earnestly advised.

"Hahaha......"

A burst of laughter erupted around him. Liu Wei pretended to be heartbroken, clutching his chest as he stood up.

"Sister Siqing's move just now was so cool, I didn't even see how she did it," Ye Zhenzhen murmured to herself after laughing.

Seeing her look at Zhang Siqing with adoration, Gu Tingshen's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

"Each of our guests needs to complete a relay game on the acupressure mat: 1. Jump rope 20 times in pairs, 2. Run quickly and pass a colored ball, 3. Use chopsticks to put the colored ball into a designated container."

"Can you jump? Do you want me to carry you?" Gu Tingshen took off his shoes and stepped onto the acupressure mat to try it out.

Seeing that his expression was calm and he didn't seem to be in much pain, Ye Zhenzhen firmly refused.

She took a deep breath, stepped onto the acupressure mat in the jump rope area, and her expression cracked the moment she stepped on it.

It hurts so much!

She felt as if she had stepped on a cactus. A sharp, distinct pain shot through the sole of her foot. Even the Little Mermaid hadn't experienced this much back then!

The pain was constant; as long as you stood on it, waves of pain would assault her nerves, making her body stiff, and she had absolutely no courage to step on the other foot.

How does Gu Tingshen manage to maintain a blank expression? Doesn't he have pain receptors in the soles of his feet?

The stadium was filled with screams, cries of pain, and the shrill cheers of children.

She turned her head and saw that the other three groups had already started grimacing as they grabbed their jump ropes. Gritting her teeth, she was just about to step on with her other foot when she felt a lightness in her body, and the pain in her foot instantly disappeared.

Gu Tingshen carried her back.

"?" She turned around and looked at him in confusion.

"Get on, I'll carry you." Gu Tingshen half-squatted down, gesturing for her to jump onto his back. Seeing that she was still hesitating, he added, "Don't your feet hurt? Come on, they've already started."

She looked around, pursed her lips, and leaned against the man's broad back, wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt his large hands lift her up slightly before she stepped firmly onto the acupressure mat.

"Should I get down? It'll hurt you more if you do." Although she wasn't fat, she was still 168 cm tall and weighed around 100 kg. Ye Zhenzhen saw the veins on the man's neck and his tightly clenched jaw, and felt a little sorry for him.

"Hold on tight, I'm going to start jumping." Gu Tingshen turned his head slightly, a smile playing on his lips. He felt her slightly rapid breathing brush against his ear. Her slender legs wrapped around his waist, and she tightened her grip on the jump rope. He took a deep breath and tried jumping once.

Finding that Ye Zhenzhen was holding him firmly and wouldn't fall, he jumped up with peace of mind.

"Director, is it okay to jump rope like this in pairs?" the director whispered to Jiang Wei.

"Why not?" Jiang Wei glared at him, then laughed and scolded, "This isn't the Olympics. The most important thing is that the visuals look good. Look at the effect! The guests are all on their own, saving us the trouble of making any arrangements. What are you thinking?"

The director glanced at the monitor and chuckled. Sure enough, the other three groups contributed bizarre and hilarious facial expressions, while Ye Zhenzhen's group maintained a pink idol drama style.

He looked at Gu Tingshen, who moved with ease, his eyes filled with respect.

He had tried this acupressure mat out of curiosity before, and damn, it really hurt! He even jumped so steadily while carrying someone on his back—Mr. Gu is a real man!

"12, 13,..."

"Wow, President Gu is awesome! How come I didn't think of that?!" Zhang Siqing first heard the rapidly increasing numbers coming from their side, turned around and was immediately stunned.

"What are you doing? I can't carry you to jump!" Liu Wei saw her eager eyes and quickly said warily, "Grandma, hurry up and jump, I'll run the next leg after you're done, okay?"

Lanno and Wang Liqing also noticed the commotion, but after hesitating for a moment, they didn't adjust their posture and just finished jumping 20 times with grimaces.

Wang Liqing has a background in traditional opera, giving her a high pain tolerance and strong control over her limbs; Lan Nuo, on the other hand, has a clear understanding of her artist husband's physical strength. Fortunately, she is lightweight, so she didn't experience as much pain on the acupressure mat.

Once the men begin the second step of running and passing colorful balls, the female guests stand still and hand them colorful plastic balls the size of baseballs.

The atmosphere was both funny and tense. Although the female guests were still in pain standing on the acupressure mat, at least they didn't have to jump up and down. They quickly grabbed balls and passed them to their husbands while cheering them on.

The male guests had probably gotten used to it by now. They pulled up the hems of their short-sleeved T-shirts to catch the colorful balls, held their breath, and ran towards where the children were sitting. Although they managed not to shout, the expressions on their faces were quite interesting.

The difficulty level is slightly lower for children. They sit on a low-difficulty acupressure mat and use their feet to pick up colorful balls and put them into the basket next to them.

The children encouraged each other and sat down together. Zhang Siqing's twins, Liu Kangkang, participated in the game, while Lele cheered them on loudly from the sidelines.

"It's prickly, just like a cactus," Zhou Jingyi exclaimed as she stepped on it.

Gu Sinan frowned and silently used her feet to hold the ball until the whistle blew when the time was up, at which point she sprang up from the acupressure mat.

Yan Xu and Liu Kangkang remained silent until they reached flat ground, at which point they secretly began rubbing their buttocks.

When Ye Zhenzhen finally put on her shoes and stood on the ground, she felt as if she were walking on cotton; her feet had never felt so comfortable.

Because skipping rope saved time, Ye Zhenzhen's group was the first to complete the game and won first place.

"Children, please come up in order to choose your rooms."

Gu Sinan, who came in first place, chose the courtyard with blue flowers painted on the door; Yan Xu, who came in second place, chose the courtyard with sunflowers painted on the door; Zhou Jingyi and Liu Kangkang chose the courtyard with pink flowers and green plants respectively.

After dropping off their luggage, they went directly to the central square of Huyang County, where the production team had the locals cook a big pot of hand-grabbed rice for everyone's lunch.

As the lid was lifted, a delicious aroma wafted out, with mutton, carrots, and onions mixed in with the translucent steamed rice, whetting the appetite.

"Mmm, delicious! The mutton here is really good! So fresh and tender!" Liu Weimeng shoveled down several mouthfuls of rice before finally having a moment to exclaim.

Everyone else was focused on eating, and no one spoke up.

"Hmm, Nannan, try a bite of this mutton. It's different from what we eat at home." Ye Zhenzhen squinted as she ate, then looked up and saw Gu Sinan eating silently. She put the carrots and mutton aside and coaxed her.

"There's absolutely no muttony smell. Try it, and if you don't like it, give it all to me!" Seeing that the child was still a little hesitant, he encouraged him further.

Gu Sinan glanced at Gu Tingshen's expression, slowly picked up a piece of mutton and put it in her mouth. After chewing it a couple of times, she quickened her chewing motion, and her eyes lit up when she swallowed it.

His mother wasn't lying; it really was delicious!

"Right? Right? It's so delicious!" Ye Zhenzhen ate with her mouth full of oil, still enthusiastically recommending it.

Gu Tingshen looked up and saw a piece of food in his bowl. He casually pulled out a tissue and wiped her mouth.

As Ye Zhenzhen was speaking, she caught a glimpse of the tissue being handed to her. She reached out to take it, but it was instead pressed directly to the corner of her mouth. She paused for a moment, and on camera, she looked as if she were obediently tilting her head back and letting someone wipe her mouth.

Although I tried to convince myself that he was only taking care of me as a younger sister, I still blushed uncontrollably.

He lowered his head and silently ate his rice, like a little ostrich avoiding eye contact.

When Wang Liqing looked up, she saw Gu Tingshen throw away the tissue and then casually put his arm on the back of Ye Zhenzhen's chair. He looked at the girl, whose ears were red and who was eating with her head down, and smiled gently.

After lunch, on the way back, the group of people who had accidentally eaten too much were all sticking out their bellies and holding their backs in rather strange postures.

No other reason than overeating.

There were few people on the streets. Under the summer sun, even the occasional tree by the roadside looked wilted, its branches and leaves bearing a scorched green, providing only a small patch of shade.

After a morning of flying and playing games, it's already past 4 pm and the kids are getting sleepy.

Everyone returned to their respective courtyards to rest for a while before starting their evening activities.

When Ye Zhenzhen woke up, the curtains were drawn, so she couldn't see the sky. She took out her phone and saw that it was already past six o'clock.

Gu Tingshen had already woken up sometime earlier and was busy working on his laptop next to her. When he saw her wake up, he first handed her a glass of water.

Ye Zhenzhen then realized that her throat and nasal cavity were very dry, as if they could breathe fire. She took the water and drank it all in one gulp, only then did she feel the thirst lessen a little.

She glanced at Gu Sinan, who was still fast asleep beside her, and asked in a low voice, "Did you oversleep? It's almost seven o'clock. Should we wake Nannan up?"

"It's still early, why don't you sleep a little longer?" Gu Tingshen said, seeing that she was still rubbing her eyes, as if she hadn't had enough sleep. "There's a two-hour time difference between here and the mainland, so it's about four or five o'clock in City A right now."

Ye Zhenzhen went to the window, pulled back the curtains, and saw that the sun was still high in the sky, showing no signs of setting. She thought to herself that she was really stupid. She had learned in her geography textbook that not only does the northern Xinjiang region have a time difference with the inland areas, but it also has long days, which is why the fruits are especially sweet.

"What you learn from books is never as good as what you learn from experience. Even though I've studied it before, it's still not as memorable as experiencing it firsthand." She opened the curtains halfway to make sure they didn't block out the light from Gu Sinan, who was still asleep, and lay on the bed playing on her phone.

I just opened Weibo and saw that I had 99+ private messages.

? ?

I haven't been online for half a day, what happened?