Chapter 72: “You’re caught.”…
By the time they finished surfing and returned to the beach, the sun was scorching. Xie Shibai rested on a lounge chair beneath a parasol, having long swapped out his wetsuit for comfortable, loose-fitting casual clothes. He relaxed in the sea breeze, but his skin, having soaked in the water, was prone to discomfort under the sun.
Just as Xie Shibai grabbed the sunscreen and was about to apply it, a large, slightly darker hand grabbed his.
Lu Ciheng held the sunscreen, his eyes burning with eagerness. His lightly calloused fingertips brushed against Xie Shibai’s pale calf, giving it a moderate squeeze. “Teacher Xie, let me help you apply the sunscreen. It’s hard for you to apply it evenly by yourself.”
Before Xie Shibai could even agree, Lu Ciheng had already squeezed out some sunscreen. He looked at him with eyes full of anticipation, his bright, dark eyes inexplicably giving off the illusion of a puppy.
The words on the tip of Xie Shibai’s tongue came to a halt. He stared at Lu Ciheng’s face for a few seconds, then lay on his stomach on the beach lounger, exposing his pale calves, and generously permitted, “Apply it, but no rubbing indiscriminately.”
Lu Ciheng nodded, the corners of his lips curling up. “Don’t worry.”
Xie Shibai: “…”
Suddenly, he felt a little worried.
The camera was placed a bit far away, leaving a blind spot for privacy. When the parasol tilted slightly with the wind, it just happened to block a bit of the lens. From the live broadcast, they could only see Lu Ciheng seemingly massaging Xie Shibai’s calf muscles, but the posture was a little too ambiguous.
[Camera bro, can you move the lens a little closer? I want to see what the leopard and cat are doing!] [Looks like he’s stretching his calf muscles.] [This posture, hehe.] [Instantly got it. This posture is really perfect for rear entry.] [Right!!! If he couldn’t take it and tried to crawl away, it feels like he could be casually dragged right back (slurps).]
Despite being mentally prepared, when Lu Ciheng’s hand touched his calf, his pale skin still couldn’t help but tense up. Lu Ciheng’s palms were very hot. The lightly calloused palms felt very rough against his pale skin. The hot, rough palms carried the sticky, slightly cool sunscreen lotion, which quickly absorbed the heat of his hands, turning searing hot as it pressed tightly against the pale calf.
The sensation of having his ankle encircled by a palm inexplicably radiated a sense of danger, making Xie Shibai subconsciously shift. The hand on his ankle remained tightly wrapped around it, an airtight shackle.
Lu Ciheng knelt beside Xie Shibai. A smile was hidden within the dark depths of his eyes. The tip of his tongue pressed against his canine tooth, like a large predator who had caught its prey and was choosing where to take the first bite. His deep voice slowly drawled, “Teacher Xie, how can I apply it if you keep moving around like this?”
Xie Shibai pursed his lips. Resting his head on his arms, his soft black hair clung to his cheeks. “Hurry up.”
Lu Ciheng gave a soft “Mm” and lowered his eyes, earnestly applying the sunscreen to the pale calves. His large, slightly darker fingertips formed a natural contrast in color as they slowly pressed into the delicate skin.
The rough calluses were a bit too hard for his skin, bringing a ticklish sensation as they scraped across. This slight tickle inexplicably brought out a strange feeling of physical contact.
Xie Shibai dazedly realized that from morning until now, there hadn’t been any truly substantial physical contact. All of their touches had merely been light, superficial brushes. The scorching hand resting on his calf gradually teased out the deep-seated dissatisfaction hidden in his heart.
The spot just a little above his calf was suddenly rubbed with moderate pressure. Xie Shibai pursed his lips, looking back to glare at Lu Ciheng. “You have to apply it here too?”
Lu Ciheng replied frankly with an “Mm”, adding, “Of course, this spot will get sunburnt too.”
Xie Shibai turned his head back, staring at a few grains of sand on the beach lounger, deciding to ignore him. The amount of skin he had exposed was minimal; it would be done in a few minutes.
Just endure it for a few minutes.
Lu Ciheng lowered his eyes to look at Xie Shibai, taking in the large expanse of pale skin in his vision. He gently dragged his fingertips upwards, feeling the tautness and slight trembling of the skin beneath his hand. The smile on his lips harbored a malicious teasing. “Teacher Xie, why are your muscles so tense? Did you get tired while surfing just now? Do you need me to help you relax them?”
Xie Shibai said coldly, “Are you going to apply it or not?”
Lu Ciheng beamed and immediately replied, “I am. Teacher Xie, turn over.”
Xie Shibai changed positions, causing the fabric around his waist and abdomen to bunch up slightly. He was just about to pull it down when, in the next second, he felt Lu Ciheng’s scorching palm press against his stomach. The cool sunscreen was spread out, gradually turning hot as it emulsified, and those rough fingers swirled along his lean abdomen.
The touched spot could be his legs or his arms, but his waist and abdomen were definitely not right.
Xie Shibai’s breath hitched. Not sparing any mercy to teach a lesson for this indiscriminate touching, he kicked Lu Ciheng in the leg. His cold eyes carried a hint of mist, looking as if he had held it in for a long time until he couldn’t take it anymore, the corners of his eyes turning slightly red. “Where are you applying that?”
Lu Ciheng let out a muffled groan from the kick. He lowered his eyes to look at the place Xie Shibai had unconsciously stepped on. His temples throbbed, veins popping on his arms. Aside from excitement, the look in his dark eyes was mostly filled with regret.
Just a little bit more.
He squeezed Xie Shibai’s foot, spouting nonsense with a perfectly straight face. “Teacher Xie, your waist will be exposed, so it needs sunscreen here too.”
Xie Shibai raised his eyes, the corners of which were somewhat moist. It didn’t take a genius to know Lu Ciheng was talking nonsense. He pulled his foot back and held out his hand. “Give me the sunscreen, I’ll apply the rest myself.”
Lu Ciheng’s hand holding the sunscreen hesitated. Before he could even try to coax him, Xie Shibai viciously pinched his cheek and snatched the sunscreen away, forcing him to finally behave.
He covered his cheek. Having grown accustomed to this level of force, it didn’t hurt at all; it just felt damn good. He sat obediently to the side, greedily watching Xie Shibai apply the sunscreen on himself as he mumbled, “Do you really not need help?”
Xie Shibai looked at him mildly, rubbing sunscreen on his own arm. “What do you think?”
The newly appointed sunscreen master was gloriously forced into unemployment entirely by his own doing.
After the beach segment ended, everyone’s original plan was to cook in the small kitchen and play simple board games to cut down on expenses. Apart from living expenses, they only played games that were absolutely necessary. Even so, they were still very stressed. With so many people, just buying everyone a cup of Americano could eat up a lot of money.
The viewers in the live broadcast room couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
[Why are they so poor?] [This is a bit too tragic, hhhh] [Last season’s overseas trip was full of fights over prices. Even if they didn’t have enough, they’d spend it anyway, forcing the production team to foot the bill in the end. This season, they are so obedient that my heart aches for them.] [I feel like the production team is holding back. Last season, they had activities to increase funds. If they don’t arrange any for this season, the kids are going to starve to death!]
Just as the netizens in the live broadcast thought, the production team had long prepared a mini-game to let them earn more funds.
After dinner, the production team announced that this time’s mini-game was Werewolf. Just by participating, they could earn team travel funds—a straightforward and crude excuse to give them money.
The Werewolf game prepared by the production team wasn’t a simple board game; it was more situational, and they had specifically set up a themed set for it.
Eight players, three wolves. Werewolves kill at night, and during the day, there’s a banishment vote.
The gameplay was similar to the regular Werewolf board game. The only difference was that in this live-action setup, everyone had their own independent small room. Whether it was the Witch using poison or the Werewolves making a kill, they had to physically go to their target’s room to perform the action. At the same time, there were costume differences: Werewolves wore wolf ears. Unlike the conventional board game, this added a lot of unpredictability and fun interactions.
The play area planned by the production team was in a villa next to their cottage. The area wasn’t large, but it had enough small rooms.
During the game preparation phase, everyone drew a number plate and entered their respective small room according to their number to wait for their role assignment.
Xie Shibai’s small room was right next to Lu Ciheng’s.
Lu Ciheng wasn’t very enthusiastic about this kind of game where they had to separate instead of sticking together. A second before entering the room, he was still pressing his shoulder against Xie Shibai’s. He only stopped and entered his assigned room after watching Xie Shibai go into his partitioned room.
The small room had a bed, a blindfold, and noise-canceling headphones. At night, all players were required to put on the blindfolds and headphones, waiting for the night phase until the production team transmitted their assigned roles through the headsets.
“Your role is: Werewolf,” the production team announced. “Please conceal your identity. Once the countdown ends, you may take off your blindfold and headphones, open the door, and collaborate with your kind.”
Xie Shibai took off his headphones and blindfold. He hadn’t expected to be assigned as a Werewolf right at the start of the game. This was quite interesting.
Following the production team’s prompt, he pushed the door open and saw his wolf companions who had also stepped out.
The other two wolves were Li Lechi and Qiao Jiayi.
[Teacher Xie is actually a Werewolf!] [Ahhhhh! Teacher Xie with wolf ears looks so good!] [Teacher Xie, knife me, knife me!] [I feel like aside from Li Lechi, none of the Werewolves in this group are the aggressive type.] [Yeah, still don’t know who they’ll kill. With Teacher Xie there, it feels like the blade will fall very gently.] [Suddenly, I kind of understand Lu Gou. No wonder he always wants Teacher Xie to slap him; so this is how it feels!] [I really didn’t expect Lu Gou to be eating this well so early on. I’m dying of jealousy!]
Because the walls of the set weren’t soundproof, they couldn’t speak to communicate. They could only use common board game hand signals to decide who to kill on the first night.
Li Lechi made a gesture, asking who they should kill on the first night.
Qiao Jiayi didn’t care. He pointed at Mi Qiran’s room number and shook his head, looking as if he was fine with anyone as long as it wasn’t Mi Qiran.
[Suddenly feeling like Qiao Jiayi and Mi Qiran are pretty ship-worthy too. I originally thought Qiao Jiayi was the type to be taken care of, but watching the show, he seems to take care of Mi Qiran more.] [Yes, Mi Qiran’s fans are about to let it all go.] [Isn’t it bad to act like this when playing a game? Makes him look like a sore loser.] [This isn’t a standard Werewolf game, it’s an entertainment round among acquaintances. They’re playing for travel funds, so of course they’ll just play however makes them happy.]
Li Lechi targeted Lu Ciheng’s room number and quietly observed Xie Shibai. His desire to kill Lu Ciheng was incredibly obvious, but considering Xie Shibai, he only made a brief suggestion. He was also worried Xie Shibai would be like Qiao Jiayi, so after pondering over it, he decided they might as well just kill Su Xingran.
Xie Shibai stared at Lu Ciheng’s number plate for a few seconds. Perhaps it was intuition, or perhaps he wanted revenge for the sunscreen incident at noon. Mostly driven by a sense of amusement, he raised his hand and gestured an ‘eight’: “Kill number eight.”
[Number eight is Lu Ciheng, right?] [Why does this feel like the confrontation lane?] [I just love watching the little couple love and kill each other!]
Li Lechi looked at Xie Shibai in surprise and nodded immediately, afraid that Xie Shibai would go back on his word if he was a second too late.
He made a hand signal indicating that tomorrow he would run for Sheriff and aggressively claim to be the Seer.
After confirming who to kill, Xie Shibai took the red fake blood prop handed over by the production team. Time was limited during the night phase, so they didn’t linger.
Xie Shibai was in charge of executing the kill this round.
Xie Shibai pushed open the door to Lu Ciheng’s room with very light footsteps.
Lu Ciheng was lying on the bed, wearing his blindfold and headphones. He had clearly heard the door open, his blindfolded face turned toward the entrance.
Xie Shibai’s footsteps paused. Even though Lu Ciheng was clearly wearing a blindfold, his gaze seemed to pierce right through the black material, landing on him with such burning intensity it felt like he was burning a hole right through him.
He smeared a bit of the fake blood on his hand. According to the production team’s rules, touching the target anywhere would count as a successful kill. But looking at Lu Ciheng’s appearance, Xie Shibai felt a rare surge of malicious playfulness.
Xie Shibai deliberately pressed his knee against the edge of the bed to support his body, letting his blood-stained hand rest on the side of Lu Ciheng’s neck.
His pale fingertips, stained with a smudge of dark red, landed on Lu Ciheng’s neck. He ground his fingers against the protruding Adam’s apple, leaving a spot of red on it.
Lu Ciheng could feel the slightly cool fingers on his neck tightening. That moderate squeeze immediately made him somewhat excited. With his eyes covered, his other senses had become exceptionally sharp. From the moment Xie Shibai entered the room, he had caught that faint, elusive fragrance.
A unique scent that belonged solely to Xie Shibai.
The tighter Xie Shibai’s cool palm squeezed, the more excited Lu Ciheng’s body grew as his breathing thinned.
Xie Shibai lowered his eyes to observe Lu Ciheng, his brows furrowing slightly.
It didn’t scare him.
Xie Shibai instantly felt bored. He retracted his hand and was just about to leave when an arm suddenly hooked around his waist.
“—!”
Xie Shibai’s breath hitched. The hand on his back applied force, and his entire body crashed into Lu Ciheng’s chest. Caught entirely off guard, he was startled into bristling like an angry cat.
Joy swam in the depths of Lu Ciheng’s eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as if he were still greedy for the tight, oppressive pressure of those pale fingers. He let out a low, husky laugh. “You’re caught.”
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