Chapter 107: Even Breaking Up Is Not Innocent

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During filming, every live room remained a blazing hot spot of traffic. The one with the highest viewership by far was the split-screen featuring Yefei Ye and Chen Zhang; while the other pairs had already headed back to Shengboli Inn, only these two were still out at sea, shuffling for more coin pouches.
Zhang waited on the float board, Yefei was down in the water collecting money. The contrast between them was almost comic.
The audience couldn’t hold back.

[If he’s paired with Yefei, that’s just how he is. Chen’s macho nonsense is beyond cure.]
[When is he finally going to learn how to be gentle?]
[How ironic. He’s been resting forever and still says his stamina is gone? Yefei does all the collecting, yet he won’t swap with her. Totally ridiculous.]
[He’s used to being the pampered young master. He never learned how to be considerate.]
[They split up for a reason. If you follow a man like this, you’re signing up for a lot of pain.]
[Could it be that the production is staging this as an extra obstacle? People with money don’t run into this sort of trouble in real life.]
[The show only simulates hardship and magnifies character, but even in a fake crisis, a person’s nature leaks out.]
[But have you considered he may genuinely be running out of stamina? Even if he means to be careful, he may have good intentions and no strength.]

On set, Lin Jiale’s phone rang. He glanced at it carelessly and then stopped. The call was from Yefei’s family side.
With a cheerful tone he answered, and immediately the voice came through:
“How much more do they need to exchange for the luxury cruise ticket? Why can’t you just secretly make things easier for them? Must they risk everything just to push physical endurance? Right now the audience is on edge. Are your safety measures really adequate?”

“Absolutely. Safety is fully in place. Please don’t worry.”

“I’m still worried.”

“….”

It was obvious the Ye side had seen the live feed and was anxious about Yefei’s life. After hanging up, Lin Jiale had to scramble and send support for the pair.
Before the crew could reach them, the camera’s live footage showed Yefei had already grabbed another pouch.
Lin Jiale exhaled in relief and laughed: “This little princess is really capable, huh? Her family overreacted.” He waved away the staff who had been sent out to intervene and had them come back.

Meanwhile—
Zhang had been waiting on the float for quite a while. When he realized Yefei hadn’t surfaced yet, the words Lu Zhou had said before leaving kept ringing in his head, and he tensed immediately.
Damn, she hasn’t run into something?
And that damn crow-tongued Lu Zhou—always bad omens—

“Yefei!”
He cupped a shout.
“If you can’t find one, just come up now. The way you’re going is making me nervous!”

At that instant the surface stirred, and Yefei burst up out of the water.
“What’s there to be afraid of?” she wiped seawater from her face and laughed.

“You tell me!” Zhang let out a heavy breath of relief when she appeared, then, seeing her still smiling, felt a stab of irritation rise in him. “If something happened to you, what would I do?”

Yefei paused, then after a moment saw that his fear seemed genuine; the teasing left her face. “There are professional rescue teams everywhere. Nothing serious is likely to happen.”

“Not likely? Not likely? You’re a woman—why do you have to be so reckless in this?”
“In this kind of thing, why do you need to prove you’re invincible? Can’t you be a little more delicate, like other women?”
He was still worked up and couldn’t recover his temper. His words came out crooked.
Yefei stared at him, blank. “What?”
Then the silence arrived, thick and total. It was as if a flock of crows had screamed across the sky—awkward to the last feather.

“Ah... so that’s it. You like a delicate type, don’t you?” she suddenly understood, and began swimming toward the board.

“...”
Zhang cleared his throat, realizing he had been too hot-headed, then brushed at the bridge of his nose.
“It’s not... not exactly.”

“You’re the one who worries—look, this time you overdid the hero act. Out of all of us, you took down the most pouches under the water. It’s... a bit much. I really was afraid something might happen to you. If you were a little less… showy, at least you’d be safer.”

“Safety first, right?”
“Anyway, Lu Zhou said before leaving that this kind of thing could really go wrong, and he specifically warned me. It wasn’t just my thought.”
Zhang began explaining in a flustered rush.

Now sitting on the board with a fresh pouch in hand, Yefei raised a brow. “Really?”

“But I wasn’t showing off. I was working within limits. The others got fewer pouches in this section not because I’m extraordinary—because they burned through too much energy first and didn’t conserve themselves.”
She handed the pouch to Zhang.

“I know safety comes first.” She added, then shifted the topic abruptly.
“Still... maybe I really am a little better than you?”

Zhang’s mouth twitched. “...” Is she shameless, or what?
Seeing his expression crack into something almost amused, she smiled. “I mean in swimming. For work I train my lung capacity often, and I’ve worked specifically on swimming. No shame in saying this: my lung capacity is pretty strong.”

That helped him cool off.
“That’s true,” he nodded. “In that, I concede. I’m no match. When I was untying knots underwater before, I had to surface after a bit to breathe, while you can hold it so long...”

“It is tiring anyway. If it weren’t for exchanging for a luxury cruise ticket, I wouldn’t push this hard. Don’t you think lying around would feel better?” she said as she sat on the float and caught her breath.

“Can’t this ticket thing be flexible?” he shot back. “And if you really want to get on a luxury cruise, why couldn’t you already sit on one?”

Yefei shot him a long glance, eyes briefly flashing with what he can only call an impossible expression, then lifted a brow. “What do you mean?”

“...”
From the control room came a reminder: “Master Zhang, remember you’re live right now.”
The live comments began flooding the screen.

[???]
[Insider stuff! What’s going on?]
[Planning some behind-the-scenes manipulation?]
[Wow.]
[Explain it all, please.]

Yefei flicked him a glance, then asked, “What are you saying?”
Zhang pressed his lips together, realizing he had slipped again, and laughed it off. “If the coins aren’t enough to redeem the cruise ticket, we won’t go with production. I’ll just buy one with my watch. You know any level of luxury cruise you want is one phrase away for me.”

Yefei understood he was trying to cover for himself, gave him a quick sidelong look, and helped smooth things over. “Fine. If our money falls short, then you’re on your own.”

“...”
Yefei: “Come on. Paddle.”
He didn’t argue.

The comments kept rolling.

[Classic domineering-boss tone: ‘It’s one phrase.’]
[Production: We’ll seize your watch sooner or later.]
[Watch: I can’t wait to be traded.]
[Money makes everything easy.]

Shengboli Inn.
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Chuo Yao and Junze Xu were the first group to reach the inn.

“Hi, Will—we’ve come to redeem a ticket.” Junze headed straight to the young man at reception and stated it plainly.
“I’m not Will,” the young man said.
“Where is Will? We’re looking for your owner.”
He pointed to the courtyard where a rugged, tattoo-armed middle-aged bald man with a stubbly beard sat, a somewhat stern posture, coffee in one hand and a book in the other.
The sight felt oddly out of place.

A bit intimidated, Junze tugged Yao along and lowered his voice. “Sorry to disturb you—we need to redeem our ticket.”
Will took a sip of coffee, lifted his chin. “Money.”
Yao handed him the pouch.

He counted quickly. “This is for the boat tickets offered by this inn. Is that what you want to redeem?”
Yao quickly denied. “No. We want a luxury cruise ticket.”
Will looked Yao up and down and shook his head. “Not enough. The luxury cruise is one hundred dollars. You have ninety-five.”

Junze and Yao exchanged a shocked look.
“What now?” Junze asked.
“Still five dollars short. Let’s go back and pull one more pouch.” Yao took the pouch back from Will and said, “Sorry, not yet. We’ll come back when we have enough.”

She turned and walked toward the sea; Junze hurried after her.
“We go back for one more now, chances are slim and time’s running out.”
He was already out of breath; he wasn’t really on board with Yao’s plan.
“Whether or not we’re late, if we don’t have one hundred dollars, we’ll be on a small boat. So why not make one more attempt? We might make up the amount.” She kept walking as she spoke.

“But there’s a difference between making it on time and not. If we’re late, once we reach Black Island we have to camp there tonight.”
He caught up, still trying to reason with her.
“If we redeem now, at least we guarantee no overnight camp. It’ll just be a little rough on the small boat ride.”
Yao stopped dead. “You don’t want the luxury cruise?”
Junze sighed. “I want it. But based on our situation, I think there’s no chance of getting that anyway. Why not compromise—at least make sure we’re not late?”

“Why are you so sure we’ll get no new pouches if we go back?” Yao frowned, puzzled by his ‘rational’ tone.
“Because I’m exhausted.” Junze’s volume rose. “And I think you’re exhausted too. We didn’t find a single pouch earlier; going again now is probably wasted effort.”

“Oh, so you’re blaming me for not finding one underwater before?” Yao winced at how sharp it sounded.
They had been exactly one pouch away from solving it, and yet that one was missing. Earlier, in the marker-pile zone, she had no single one to show for it, while every other female cast member had some. In a moment of disagreement, emotions are fragile—his words landed like a quiet accusation.

Junze sighed deeply, shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “No. I didn’t mean to blame you. I’m just stating facts.”

Yao watched him for a while, and the easy rhythm they had built up between them seemed to fade in that moment.
Right then, they looked like the old pattern from before they split—
He always spoke from high-minded logic with a condescending impatience, laying out facts as if they were law;
she hated that expression on him most of the time. She often didn’t believe him, and when they hit a standstill they would freeze into a cold war.
How much old habits cling like this?

He had promised they’d cooperate well today, avoid fighting in public, and maintain a synchronized image for the audience, to chase tonight’s “compatibility award.”
Now it seemed impossible to fake real chemistry.

Yao steadied her breathing and said, “You’re afraid of being late? Afraid of camping.”
“Right.” Junze nodded, still firm. “For that little impossible chance, wasting what we’ve already put in isn’t worth it.”

Yao gave a small nod.
“Okay. I respect that. Then do this: keep these ninety-five with you here at the inn. I’ll go find a new pouch alone. If time gets tight and I’m not back, use this money and redeem the small boat ticket.”

She proposed another plan.
“You’re joking, right? You’re my partner—how can I let you go into the sea alone? And if we’re honest, you alone probably won’t get a new pouch either.” Junze thought she’d gone mad.

“Junze, do you realize how funny you’re acting?” Yao said, brows pulled tight.
“We’re not aligned. I want to make one last attempt. If you don’t, maybe I do the last try and you stay here to redeem. But you don’t want me alone in the water, and you won’t go in either—so you insist I ‘compromise’ with you? I’m not ready to compromise that easily, Junze!”

To Yao it sounded unreasonable, a waste of time.
“If you have no better plan than this, we do it your way.”

She stuffed the pouch into Junze’s chest pocket, turned, and ran toward the sea.

The livestream audience watched the scene and held their breath.

[This is suffocating.]
[I don’t know which one to support.]
[Both of them are reasonable.]
[At the end of it, no one wants to compromise, that’s the real issue.]
[Junze is already okay with the small boat, why can’t he accept one night of camping?]
[Honestly it comes down to values: one wants risk, the other wants stability.]

Junze stood still, staring at Yao as she moved farther away. Then he turned toward the inn, walked halfway, yanked his hair in frustration, and finally ran after the sea.

Wen Yiming and Jiayan Li were the second group to the inn. They went to Will expecting enough for the luxury cruise, only to be short by twelve dollars.
“Short by twelve? Then it’s the small boat.” Jiayan sighed with obvious regret.
“Should we go back and grab two pouches?” Yiming suggested.
On hearing that, Jiayan collapsed onto a chair like a rag doll and shook her head weakly. “Huh? I’m done. I can’t move.”

Seeing her exhausted, Yiming couldn’t help smiling and sat down beside her. “Then rest first. The small boat is choppy; if the trip is long you could get seasick. That’ll be rough.”
“Then I can get seasick later. I’m already too tired now.” She had fully entered full-on give-up mode.

Yiming looked at her and realized it—she truly hadn’t built much fitness habit. Not just talk. She had no reserve at all.
He was used to girls with at least basic training. Take his former girlfriend, Ji Jia Jia, for example. Don’t be fooled by her slim look—that was just her frame; she was very athletic, with strong training lines.
This was his first time seeing a girl as unwilling to move as Jiayan. Oddly, it felt endearing, almost fresh. It stirred in him a strange urge to mold her from scratch into someone who loved working out—something as a trainer, that’s a serious sense of achievement.

The comment section:
[How to handle a fitness idol when facing a complete exercise slacker]
[These two are kind of adorable.]
[Wen Yiming: this girl is going to erase my ambition.]

While they were resting, Lu Zhou and Ji Jiajia arrived at the inn.

“Boss, redeem our tickets.” Lu Zhou stepped up, placing the money on the desk.
When Jiayan heard the familiar voice, she opened her eyes and sat up. Even before someone who stirs her heart, one keeps a composed, graceful face.
Yiming turned to her in surprise. “You’re alive again?”
Jiayan just smiled faintly. “A little rest, and I have some energy back.”
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Yiming, amused by her, said, “Shall we go try again?”
Jiayan’s gaze had stayed fixed on Lu Zhou and Ji Jiajia, and she barely acknowledged him.
He followed her line of sight and saw Will hand them two luxury cruise tickets.

“What?” Yiming’s attention snapped upward; he sprang to his feet. “You two actually made a hundred?”
Lu Zhou flicked the two tickets in the air and grinned. “Don’t you have any?”

Yiming winced at the blow.
Jiayan picked up then, “Wow, I’d love to ride with you guys on the luxury cruise, but we’re still short twelve.” She gave a little defeated puff of air. “So we’ll take the small boat.”

“There’s still time. If you still have stamina, you can go back and try again,” Ji Jiajia said, glancing at the clock by the inn entrance.
Yiming nodded. “I can go back once more, but Jiayan is too exhausted to move.”
Jiayan gave him a look. “Why don’t you go by yourself? I’ll wait here; I wouldn’t help much anyway.”
Ji Jiajia chimed in, “Hasn’t the production said tasks are only valid with both participants?”

Jiayan’s words made it plain. Yiming was definitely still wanting to try one more round. She was tired, but dragging him down and losing the last chance would be unfair.
She stood slowly, saying, “Fine, let’s go try again. See if we can get one pouch.”

“Just one won’t be enough. We need two.” Yiming, now happy she was willing to move, said with a wry smile.
Hearing that, Jiayan felt the odds collapse, yet she had no choice but to rally herself and go.

As she was leaving, she noticed Lu Zhou had, in addition to their two cruise tickets, two extra coins returned by the owner in his hand.
“Lu Zhou~”
An idea clicked. She called softly, with a teasing lilt.

Ji Jiajia frowned so slightly it could barely be seen; that voice, somehow, always disarmed people.
Lu Zhou turned toward her.

“Do you maybe still have two coins extra? You won’t need them anyway, right? Could you give them to me?” Jiayan asked, her big eyes bright, voice a little cooing.

Lu Zhou examined the two coins in his palm, rubbed them, then hesitated. He could give them; it made no practical difference for him. But they weren’t his to give away personally.
He turned to Ji Jiajia and asked, “Should I?”

Ji Jiajia didn’t want to at first. They had worked hard together to collect these coins, and why should Jiayan just charm her way into free gains?
“What if we can only give out a limited number of cruise tickets? If we hand theirs over, and someone else comes later with enough money but no tickets left, that’s not fair.”

Jiayan’s smile stiffened.
“All right... forget it.” She flashed a smile at Lu Zhou anyway.

But Yiming, who had liked that sudden opportunist idea, thought it was brilliant. If they got those two coins, they’d only need one additional pouch. Their chances soared.
So he moved quickly, asking Will whether the cruise tickets were in limited supply. The answer came back: no.

Ji Jiajia’s face flickered with embarrassment. She tugged her mouth and told Lu Zhou, “If tickets are enough, give them the coins. It will save them a lot of effort.”

For some reason the atmosphere sat oddly wrong in Lu Zhou’s chest.
He didn’t overthink it and handed the coins to Yiming.
Jiayan said, “Thanks.”

With the gifted coins, Jiayan and Yiming went back to the water for a fresh run.

“Can you even walk there? Should I carry you? Once we reach the other side, you can sit on the board and rest; I’ll handle the searching.” Yiming offered when he saw how little energy she had.

Jiayan startled, then laughed and refused.
“Even if I’m tired, I can’t make you carry me. You need to save your strength to find the money. Otherwise it’s a wasted trip. Besides, I’m not that close to giving up. Thank you, Yiming—you’re thoughtful. You must have spoiled your old girlfriend, too, didn’t you?”

Being brought up in front of his former girlfriend, Yiming gave a silent half-smile. “I did.”
“Hey, I saw Yao and Junze over there. Let’s hurry—don’t let them grab the last pouch.” He steered the topic away.

Shortly after Yiming and Jiayan left, Chen Zhang and Yefei arrived at the inn as well.
Yefei saw the tickets in Lu Zhou’s hand the instant she entered. “Are these cruise tickets?”
Lu Zhou: “Yes.”
“How much to redeem?”
“One hundred.”
Hearing that, she pivoted toward Zhang with a raised brow. “See? I told you, right? It was exactly one hundred to redeem. In the end I kept pushing and opened one more pouch. Otherwise we’d have to run back again.”

Zhang made a surrender gesture. “You’re right, you read things perfectly.”
Lu Zhou, hearing this, knew their luxury cruise ticket was safe.

“How many pouches did you open underwater, all by yourself?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“Can’t remember—six or seven.” Yefei said.
He looked amazed, gave her a thumbs-up and joked, “Impressive. A full burst of stamina.”
“I had to if I wanted the luxury cruise.” Yefei yawned, scanned the room, and asked, “Which one is Will?”

Lu Zhou pointed toward the bald, bearded man in the courtyard still reading.
Surprised by how unlike he’d imagined the owner to be, Yefei walked over with her pouch. “Boss, redeem the ticket.”

The owner tapped the tabletop and motioned for her to place the money there.
She pulled a chair opposite him, dumped the coins from the pouch all over the desk, then pulled out three extra coins.
“Not one more, not one less—exactly one hundred,” she said.

Will set down his book, looked up once, counted the money, confirmed the total, and handed her the luxury cruise ticket.
“Out of curiosity,” Yefei said as she took it without leaving, eyeing him, “if I take the small boat your inn provides, how much?”
“Fifty.”
“What size boat is that?”

Will looked at her again, opened his book to a page, and slid her a photo. “This one.”
She glanced at the picture: about a 26-foot speedboat. She quietly felt relieved that she had managed the luxury ticket.

Zhang leaned in and offered, “For two people, a small sports boat could actually be nice—romantic, almost. A luxury liner is crowded and noisy.”
Lu Zhou smiled and interjected, “You think this is romantic; Yefei will probably jump into the sea.”
Zhang frowned and shot him a side glance. “What are you getting at?”
“She gets seasick, you know. A sports boat rocks more.”

Yefei just stared.
Ji Jiajia, watching, thought to herself: If I were Yefei, I’d have broken up with you already.

The two groups that had secured the luxury cruise tickets rested for a while at the inn.
Later, within the time limit, Yiming and Jiayan returned. Thanks to Yiming’s relentless effort, they finally and exactly reached one hundred dollars and redeemed cruise tickets as well.
As for Junze and Yao, they lacked the stamina to find any new pouches despite several tries back in the marker-pile waters. Considering the time limit, they returned early and could only exchange for small sport-boat tickets.
By then, the transportation for all four pairs to Black Island had been decided.

Thanks to Shili Qianli for donating 100 Qidian Coins.