Chapter 26. Is there even a one in ten thousand chance...?
Jing Yitong adjusted the camera angle to capture Fang Xingu's face in the video. Seeing his stiff expression, he reminded him, "Teacher Fang, smile. Don't always have such a long face."
Fang Xingu's expression immediately became indescribable. He really wanted to slap Jing Yitong's face and his camera lens. He was clearly a normal person, so why did he always act so improper in front of him?
Fang Xingu clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly, but in the end he held back and silently turned his head as if he hadn't heard anything.
Li Wenyu witnessed their little interaction and immediately forgot about her seasickness. As one of the only two people present who knew the truth, she was speechless. Were these two not even going to pretend anymore?
Fang Xingu took a deep breath and explained to everyone: "This was Director Yan's idea. He said he wanted to edit a special feature to show the true, good and beautiful relationship between me and Teacher Jing, so that fans could feel the true feelings between people."
Luo Da teased him, "Director Yan is biased; he only assigned you his own cameraman."
Fang Xin Gu: "Is it because my paparazzi got seasick today and can't get up... or do you also want to have a little spat with my fans and then have Director Yan arrange a 'reconciliation special' for us?"
Rhoda quickly waved his hand with a smile: "Then I am not worthy of such a treat."
Wang Peiyang frowned and took a step back, quietly asking Li Wenyu, "Will Director Yan's trick work? I think Xin Gu is about to lose control of his fist, and it feels like it might land on Jing Yitong at any moment. Will this special feature backfire?"
Li Wenyu looked at Wang Peiyang in shock: No, you actually think that their deadly venture will backfire?
She recalled what happened last night. Fang Xin's fist did indeed land on Jing Yitong, but it was at most a playful exchange, and Jing Yitong seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
But when she thought about it carefully, Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong seemed to have gotten along like this before. It's just that they all assumed they didn't get along, so they were like blind men and didn't see their true nature. How could they have a bad relationship?
Looking at Wang Peiyang, who was blinded by appearances, Li Wenyu felt as if she were seeing her former self. She shook her head and sighed, "Alas, poor little Peiyang, it's a pity I have too much to bear, and I can't talk to you about it this time."
Seeing Li Wenyu's reaction, Wang Peiyang assumed she was also worried about the filming of the special episode and felt he had found an ally. He quickly smoothed things over, saying, "Brother Xin Gu, weren't you going to distribute clothes? Everyone's clothes should be the same."
Fang Xingu put the box on the table: "Yes, for the next few days when we land, everyone will have to wear the same windbreaker, the same one that Teacher Jing and I are wearing, but the colors are different. According to our preliminary analysis, we can tell Da Ge, Sister Jiyan, and Xiao Pei apart, but it's not so easy to tell Hui Jie and Wen Yu apart."
As Fang Xingu was speaking, he saw that the camera in Jing Yitong's hand, which was hard to ignore, was pointed at him not far away. He looked away, picked out two windbreakers, one pink and one red, from the box, and handed them to Meng Hui and Li Wenyu: "Why don't you try them on?"
Li Wenyu put on her clothes as instructed, but Meng Hui moved slowly, and even with makeup on, her fatigue was evident. Fang Xin asked, "Sister Hui, are you also suffering from severe seasickness?"
Meng Hui rubbed his temples: "Yes, I feel tightness in my chest, shortness of breath, dizziness, and nausea."
Fang Xingu took a few seasickness pills from his pocket. He had taken a whole pack with him when he took Zhou Xiaoyou back to her room that morning, and he still had a few left: "Did you take your seasickness pills? I have some here, they're pretty effective."
Meng Hui took the medicine: "Okay, I'll take it after the recording."
Wang Peiyang noticed that the medicine looked familiar. After thinking for a moment, he remembered: "Hey, Brother Xin Gu, this seasickness medicine of yours is exactly the same as the one Brother Jing gave me yesterday."
Fang Xingu looked down at the medicine. It was recommended to him and Jing Yitong by the crew when they went to sea together before. It was said to be the most effective seasickness medicine. Later, the two of them would carry this medicine with them whenever they went to sea.
It seems that not only he, but Jing Yitong also continues this habit.
“Yes,” Fang Xingu said, “this is a strong seasickness medicine, and many people carry it with them when they go to sea.”
Wang Peiyang simply mentioned it casually: "Oh, I see."
By this time, Li Wenyu and Meng Hui had already changed into their jackets. However, since they were about the same height and build, they couldn't be distinguished even after putting on their windbreakers. The others gathered around them and pondered for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out.
Liang Jiyan looked him up and down and said, "I can't tell the difference at all."
Meng Hui was already feeling unwell, and now he looked even more distressed: "Director Yan did this on purpose, didn't he? Is there going to be a punishment for making the wrong choice?"
Jing Yitong replied, "Yes, Sister Hui understands Director Yan very well."
Li Wenyu inquired, "Then you should already know what the punishment is, right? Can you tell us about it first?"
Fang Xingu opened his eyes and babbled nonsense: "The rewards for a successful challenge are very generous, and the punishment for failure is also terrifying. In short, if even one person fails, everyone will be punished together."
Everyone sighed in despair, except for Jing Yitong, who laughed, causing the camera lens in his hand to shake slightly. Fang Xingu was very good at deceiving people. Yan Tu hadn't even told him about the rewards and punishments, yet he could shamelessly lie to people here.
Hearing his laughter, Fang Xin Gu subconsciously glanced at him. The two exchanged knowing smiles for a moment, but then Fang Xin Gu noticed the camera in his hand, and the smile on her lips froze instantly. She then lowered her head and withdrew her smile.
Li Wenyu and Meng Hui were still hesitating between the two outfits when Li Wenyu finally gave up and said, "Let's take a gamble. Sister Hui, you pick the color you like."
Liang Jiyan stopped him with a headache: "Don't be so hasty."
By this time, Luo Da, Liang Jiyan, and Wang Peiyang had changed into their respective windbreakers, which all fit perfectly and should be fine.
Luo Da protested, "It was clearly Wen Yu and Sister Hui who couldn't choose the clothes, so why are we being punished too!"
Li Wenyu joked, "Brother Da, we're a team, we have to stand together through thick and thin!"
Rhoda waved her hand jokingly: "Let's break up this family. I'm the kind of person who can only share the good times, not the bad."
A group of people burst into laughter. Just then, Yan Tu came in and saw that they hadn't finished choosing their clothes after a long time. He started urging them to hurry up: "Wow, why are the seven teachers taking so long to choose their clothes? Hurry up!"
Meng Hui complained helplessly, "Isn't it you who gave us this difficult problem? Fine, let's just take a gamble based on what the question says."
After a best-of-three game of rock-paper-scissors, Meng Hui got the first chance to choose a color. She hesitated for a moment, thinking that the production team probably wouldn't arrange for someone over fifty years old to wear pink.
Pink is such a delicate color, let's leave it for little girls.
So Meng Hui chose to wear the red one, and Li Wenyu naturally picked up the pink windbreaker.
Seeing everyone had put on their windbreakers, Yan Tu handed three envelopes to Fang Xingu: "The first envelope contains the correct answer for each person's corresponding color. The other two envelopes contain a reward for passing the level and a penalty for failing. Are you sure you want to choose the clothes you're currently wearing?"
Li Wenyu looked like she was ready to die: "Alright, that's enough, Director Yan, stop dawdling."
Yan Tuchao and Jing Yitong raised their chins together and said to Fang Xingu, "In that case, Xingu will open the envelope and reveal the answer to you."
Fang Xingu knew exactly what Yan Tu was planning as soon as he heard it, but he was too lazy to say anything. He didn't even lift his eyelids. He quickly opened the envelope containing the correct answer and placed the letter in front of Jing Yitong.
Jing Yitong, holding the camera in one hand and the letter in the other, read: "Correct answers: Wang Peiyang, orange; Fang Xingu, green; Jing Yitong, blue; Luo Da, yellow; Liang Jiyan, purple."
So far, none of the five have made any mistakes. When it came time to announce the colors for Li Wenyu and Meng Hui, everyone held their breath. Even Fang Xingu was affected by the atmosphere and felt a little nervous. Just then, Jing Yitong deliberately dragged out his tone, delaying the announcement of the colors for the last two people, leaving plenty of suspense.
Fang Xingu couldn't stand Jing Yitong's attitude, so he directly snatched back the letter and decisively announced the final answer: "Meng Hui, pink; Li Wenyu, red."
Everyone: ...We were wrong!
Meng Hui was taken aback: "Director Yan, did you deliberately arrange for me to wear pink?" It just so happened that she had to choose between her and Li Wenyu, and she felt that the production team would never arrange for her to wear pink.
Yan Tu smiled sinisterly: "I was just telling you not to have stereotypes. There's no color that should only be worn by a certain age group. Did you fall for it?"
Li Wenyu said sarcastically, "You've even added some value to our lives."
Meng Hui closed his eyes and shook his head: "Today I'm truly having one misfortune after another."
Seasickness already made him feel terrible, and now he had to be punished. The thought of having to cross the Drake Passage again on the return trip made Meng Hui feel a little overwhelmed: "I should never have come."
As soon as Meng Hui finished speaking, the surrounding noise suddenly stopped, and the eyes of the other six people all turned to look at her. She was stunned for a moment, and then realized what was happening. She immediately covered her mouth and exclaimed, "Eh!"
But it was too late. Everyone had heard what she just said. Li Wenyu said, "Sister Hui, I never expected that you would be the first to break our travel vows!"
Luo Da laughed heartily: "I can't help but laugh at the thought of Sister Hui filming a low-fat video."
Meng Hui's face was filled with bitterness: "You mustn't mistreat the elderly."
Even Liang Jiyan laughed at this: "Sister Hui, I won't allow you to talk about yourself like that."
Li Wenyu mumbled, "When I get back, I'll help Sister Hui pick out a low-fat short video, hahaha."
"Film that, the one that's been trending online lately..."
Fang Xingu found it quite interesting to see them chatting happily, but when he glanced at Jing Yitong out of the corner of his eye, he found that the man was still filming him very persistently. Even though he hadn't done or said anything, Jing Yitong's camera hadn't moved away at all, and the viewfinder only showed his image. He was really fulfilling his exclusive duty of filming.
Fang Xingu couldn't stand it anymore: "You don't have to keep shooting at me, do you? You can shoot them occasionally, otherwise when Director Yan gets your footage, he can only say it's a piece of junk and he can't edit anything out of it."
Jing Yitong shook his index finger: "With Teacher Fang here, how can it be a bad shot? Those are issues to consider when shooting from the side. Anyway, I'm only shooting you today."
Fang Xin was rebuffed and, seeing that he couldn't reason with him, had no choice but to let him have his way.
The others were still laughing and joking, but Fang Xin Gu couldn't stand seeing them so happy. He said coldly from the side, "Don't get too excited yet. The punishment hasn't been announced."
The bucket of cold water poured over everyone's heads woke them up, and everyone became listless.
Fang Xingu was satisfied when he saw that everyone had suffered the same fate as him. He then opened another envelope and had Jing Yitong read it slowly: "Punishment for failure: Everyone must jump into the sea."
Jump into the sea?
Li Wenyu opened her eyes wide in horror and said, "Director Yan, you can't make us jump into the sea to die just because of our small mistake, can you?"
Yan Tu glared at her: "What are you thinking? The polar sea jumping activity is very famous. They're tethered, so you won't die. We'll let you all experience the baptism of Antarctica then."
Rhoda felt as if his soul had ascended to heaven: "If I jumped into the sea in this weather, I'd freeze to death..."
Yan Tu: "Every winter, so many people go winter swimming in the north of China. Isn't the temperature there colder than in Antarctica now? I haven't seen anyone freeze to death. And it's impossible for you to die here, polluting the Antarctic environment."
The other five were haggling with Yan Tu when Fang Xingu bent down and opened the envelope containing the reward for successfully passing the level. He took out the letter inside, but after seeing the contents of the reward, his expression became strange.
Jing Yitong naturally noticed the changes in his movements and expressions, and gave him a look, asking what was wrong.
Fang Xingu placed the letter in front of Jing Yitong's lens, and Jing Yitong saw the contents through the viewfinder.
"Success Reward: Everyone Jumps into the Sea Challenge."
Jing Yitong: ...
So the reward and punishment are exactly the same!
Jing Yitong couldn't help but laugh out loud. Everyone else turned to look at him when they heard the laughter, but Jing Yitong, acting like a god, switched his expression in a second, as if nothing had happened. The others thought they had misheard and continued to criticize Yan Tu.
Only Yan Tu, the person involved, seemed to realize something, and he gave the two of them a smug look.
Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong gave him a thumbs up in perfect unison: That was a brilliant move.
This polar sea jumping activity was actually a trip that Yan Tu had arranged long ago. No matter how much the guests threw a tantrum, Yan Tu would not give up his brilliant idea, nor would he openly admit that he had secretly registered them long ago.
The morning's recording came to an end. After lunch, the sea became even rougher. The Drake Passage is notorious, and the weather was bad during this period. Not only was the temperature low, but the waves were also more turbulent than usual.
By the afternoon, only a handful of people were still able to move around outside the room. Many of the guests and staff of the "The World Is So Big" program had collapsed. Yan Tu had anticipated this situation and did not schedule any more filming for the next day and a half, allowing everyone to rest and recover on their own.
Fang Xingu was happy to have some free time. He didn't have any seasickness, so it was like getting a day and a half of vacation for free. In addition, because the waves were too big, the ship's announcement told everyone to stay away from the balcony, so he didn't have to worry about Jing Yitong coming to the balcony to launch a surprise attack.
After taking a nap, Fang Xingu wrote and composed songs in his room, happily busy until five o'clock, when his alarm clock rang.
The Affogato has a small movie theater that occasionally shows classic films. "The Polar Messenger," a well-known film shot in Antarctica, is naturally on the list, and it will be showing at 5:30 pm today.
Fang Xin had been planning to go see it for a while. He packed his things and went out to the movie theater, only to bump into Jing Yitong, who had just come out of the room, as soon as he opened the door.
The two stood dumbfounded at the door, clearly not expecting such a coincidence. The moment their eyes met, Jing Yitong was the first to react: "You went to see 'The Polar Messenger'?"
Fang Xingu closed the door and nodded: "You wouldn't be one of them, would you?"
Jing Yitong laughed and said, "Yes, what a coincidence, let's go together."
Since they had already bumped into each other, Fang Xingu couldn't refuse, so the two walked towards the movie theater together. Fang Xingu thought about it and found it quite interesting: "I didn't expect that after ten years, we would still be watching 'The Polar Messenger' together."
Jing Yitong also recalled the scenes from ten years ago and couldn't help but sigh, "Time flies so fast. Did you go see the tenth anniversary re-release?"
"No, I was in the hospital at that time."
The two chatted as they arrived at the theater. Perhaps because there were so many people seasick, there were only four or five people scattered throughout the theater.
Fang Xingu found a good spot to sit down. Jing Yitong left for a while, and when he came back, he had a bucket of popcorn and two cups of cola in his hands.
Fang Xingu was both surprised and astonished: "Where did you get this standard equipment for watching movies?"
"Didn't you see?" Jing Yitong pointed to the door and sat down next to him. "There are staff members handing them out at the door."
Fang Xin looked at the Coke cups for each of them, then at the popcorn placed between them, and felt that the scene before him was so similar to his childhood.
Jing Yitong picked up the Coke and was about to take a sip when Fang Xingu pressed his hand down: "Don't move, let me take a picture."
Jing Yitong asked in surprise, "So happy? You even want to record it?"
Fang Xingu took out his phone: "Don't you think we look a lot like we did when we were kids?"
Same cola and popcorn, same movie, same people.
Because he was in a good mood, Fang Xin specially allowed Xu Jingyi's hand to be in the shot. He instructed Jingyi to make a "V" sign with his hand. After taking the photo, he still felt it wasn't enough, so he switched his phone to video mode and slowly pushed the camera up from the cola and popcorn, finally pointing it at the classic opening sequence of "The Polar Messenger" playing on the screen.
After finishing the recording, Fang Xingu reviewed the video he had shot, turned off his phone and switched to Do Not Disturb mode with satisfaction, and laughed, "Now it looks like the two of us are on vacation."
There was no one else around, and no unseen camera angles; they could get along so naturally like this.
Jing Yitong watched his every move tenderly: "Yes, it would be nice if it were just the two of us."
Under Jing Yitong's gaze, Fang Xingu's heart skipped a beat. He stared blankly at Jing Yitong, a ripple of emotion stirring within him, and he couldn't help but have a thought he had never dared to entertain before.
Could it be... could there be even a one in ten thousand chance—
Actually, Jing Yitong also has a bit of a crush on him?
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Author's note: Jing Yitong: Impossible.
Fang Xin Gu: ?
Jing Yitong: Because it can't be only one in ten thousand, it must be ten thousandths of ten thousand [dog head with rose in mouth]
Others: ...I remember this is a travel reality show, not a romance reality show, right? [Clown]
(In the end, it turned out that these two really filmed it as a dating reality show, hahaha)
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