Chapter 226: Leaving The Illusionary Scenery, Aftermath
While the darkness obscured her senses, Xuan Xia heard Shi Mei’s voice again, lightly and stiffly changing what she had just said.
“Let’s go. I agree to let you leave. And him, let him stay with me, okay?”
Xuan Xia reacted faster than her brain upon hearing it.
At this time, Shi Mei’s hand was still resting in her palm, and Xuan Xia unhesitatingly gripped it tightly with force, not letting her struggle free.
“I hate people who go back on their word. Especially when I’m in a hurry.”
The next set of actions flowed smoothly like water.
“Ah, it hurts!” Shi Mei, who had gone back on her word, soon tasted the flavor of being struck by lightning.
Shi Mei originally wanted to grit her teeth and hold on a bit longer, but Xuan Xia’s strike gave her no intention of letting her tough it out.
“Why are you doing this! Your heart is truly too ruthless!” Shi Mei cried out in pain.
Xuan Xia didn’t speak, continuing to channel the lightning release.
“Ahhh, since you’re like this, you stay too! The Sea God will definitely like a sacrifice victim like you!”
“……”
“Stop it, I’ll go with you. I’m not tricking you anymore!”
“……”
“Whine!”
……
[What the hell is going on? The live broadcast room signal has been interrupted for so long, can’t it recover yet?]
[Can it still broadcast? If not, the Program Group should come out and apologize! Look at the guests just standing in place, unable to move freely, is that fun? This is in the sea, whose fault is it if the oxygen runs out!!]
[All other live broadcast rooms are fine, only Zhou Shiqing and Gu Sun’s groups had signal interruptions one after another. If you say it’s not deliberate targeting, I don’t believe it.]
[This program has been clearly trying to promote Xie Yun and He Tiandong since it started airing, doing everything to sabotage Zhou Shiqing. This time, seeing Zhou Shiqing about to win, they pull this move? So disgusting!]
[Do you Zhou fans have some persecution complex? Xie Yun’s screen time is already at the bottom among all guests, where’s the promotion? Is this how you promote people at your house?]
[They just like bullying female artists, right? Didn’t you see Xie Yun also not daring to move around like your master? If she were really promoted, she should be hurrying to complete the mission by now.]
Ever since Zhou Shiqing and Xuan Xia’s live broadcast room had issues, their audience could only scatter to other live broadcast rooms.
First to Gu Sun and An Qi’s live broadcast room, after all, these two had already stated they allied with Zhou Shiqing and Xuan Xia.
But after watching for a short while, Gu Sun and An Qi’s live broadcast room also had issues.
The audience could only disperse again, flooding into other live broadcast rooms.
But with the live broadcast not recovering for a long time, the audience’s resentment grew accordingly.
Especially He Tiandong and Xie Yun’s live broadcast room, which was now a complete mess of arguments.
[Stop arguing, the live broadcast is back! Zhou Shiqing’s live broadcast room is back!]
[It’s back, it’s back, sisters hurry and withdraw, go home!!]
[What about Gu Sun and An Qi’s side?]
[It’s back too!!! Everyone go back to your own.]
He Tiandong and Xie Yun’s live broadcast room, which had been arguing fiercely, suddenly lost seventy percent of its audience.
At this time in the sea, Xuan Xia was the first to regain consciousness.
She lifted the hand resting on Zhou Shiqing’s shoulder and patted him.
Zhou Shiqing, who was in a daze, suddenly snapped back, turned around, and upon seeing it was Xuan Xia, his bewildered eyes showed a bit of surprise.
As Zhou Shiqing also regained consciousness, the people around them successively regained consciousness, and everyone felt more or less that something was off.
But specifically what was off, they couldn’t say.
Xuan Xia used the underwater gestures she had learned before to ask the people around one by one how they were.
Then she got consistent replies: No problem.
Although they had all experienced the Illusionary Scenery, their minds had no memory at all of what happened inside it.
Xuan Xia confirmed everyone was back and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Underwater communication was inconvenient, but at this time it was just right for blurring the focus.
Xuan Xia quickly led the mission to continue with her actions, directing everyone’s attention back to the mission.
Especially Xie Yun, seeing Xuan Xia start doing the mission, deeply afraid she and Zhou Shiqing would team up to turn defeat into victory, didn’t think much more and immediately turned to continue the mission.
Gu Sun and An Qi, seeing everyone busy with the mission, and unable to speak underwater, naturally followed along to continue the mission, forgetting why they needed to approach Zhou Shiqing and Xuan Xia.
Although Xuan Xia was doing the mission, she wasn’t just doing the mission; she was also searching for the container that seemed to harbor Shi Mei and her Illusionary Scenery.
But until the mission ended, Xuan Xia still didn’t find it.
Xuan Xia couldn’t help but suspect, could it be that her final strike was too heavy, dispersing Shi Mei and her Illusionary Scenery?
It shouldn’t be.
Xuan Xia wanted to search more, but the staff were already urging everyone, so she could only give up.
–
When the guests surfaced, the deep blue sky was already tinged with a layer of thin gold, the brilliant sunlight had lost much of its power, and even the sea breeze carried a hint of coolness.
When boarding the boat, Zhou Shiqing took the lead, then turned and extended a hand to Xuan Xia.
Xuan Xia accepted his kindness without hesitation.
After pulling her onto the boat, Zhou Shiqing removed his diving mask, and looking at Xuan Xia, he had an expression like he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Xuan Xia took the towel handed over by the staff: “?”
Why that look? It made her feel a bit uneasy.
Zhou Shiqing’s hesitation lasted two seconds, then he tsked and asked: “Didn’t you say you couldn’t go underwater? Why did you come down again?”
So that’s what he was asking. She thought…
Xuan Xia replied fluently: “I thought about it, and still couldn’t drag you down.”
Zhou Shiqing tsked again, his gaze toward her carrying a depth that Xuan Xia couldn’t quite fathom.
Xuan Xia smiled, ignoring his gaze, and turned her head to see Ji Ziyao waiting nearby.
The look in Ji Ziyao’s eyes toward her was full of disapproval, with some other emotions, and when his gaze swept to Zhou Shiqing, it immediately turned into looking at an enemy.
Xuan Xia: “……”
Looks like she’ll have to clear up the misunderstanding with Ji Ziyao later.
All guests successively returned to the boat, the staff didn’t mention them spacing out in the sea for several minutes, and the cruise ship picked up everyone and directly set off to return.
After everyone changed clothes, they gathered again on the deck.
The staff brought a table and placed it on the deck, with the gems gathered by the guests laid out on it.
The return trip time was just right for calculating everyone’s harvest and ranking.
For fairness, the calculation result would be done on camera.
The originally separate live broadcast rooms merged back into one, with audiences actively discussing which group among the several would win.
[It must be Zhou Shiqing, he was so desperate right after entering the sea, and I saw him gather a lot.]
[It should be He Tiandong! Everyone else was slacking, only he was blindly gathering, definitely more than others.]
[Slacking??? Do He fans have any shame? Taking advantage and still acting pitiful! Were others slacking? Clearly the live broadcast had issues!]
[Damn! Speaking of which makes me mad, can’t the Program Group compensate Zhou Shiqing and them by converting the wasted time into final score?]
[Agree to compensate score, why should the Program Group’s work mistake be paid by the guests?]
[Fine, compensate then, everyone compensates together. As if Xie Yun wasn’t delayed too.]
[Funny, then compensate per person. Your group didn’t move at all, unlike yours who divided tasks, one deliberately following to mooch the fault, one sneakily using the time difference. Either way, you’re clever.]
[Are we all forgetting Song Yuhan and Jiang Feng? Those two are the real contenders for victory, right?]
……
The arguments in the live broadcast bullet comments didn’t reach the deck.
The guests were all staring at the pile of gems on the table, waiting for the final result.
While fully focused, Xuan Xia suddenly felt her wrist being touched.
She glanced over distractedly, and saw Zhou Shiqing stuffing something into her palm.
Xuan Xia: “???”
Found a bug, minor fix
