Chapter 227: Aftermath
Xuan Xia subconsciously clenched her hand, and the thing Zhou Shiqing had stuffed to her felt round and smooth, seeming like a bead.
Before stuffing it to her, he must have held it in his hand for a while, as it still had some residual warmth.
Xuan Xia was really curious about what he had given her and lowered her head to look at her palm.
Lying in her palm was a bead with a glassy luster.
The bead was not big, about the size of her pinky finger in diameter, but its color was exceptionally unique.
Xuan Xia looked up at Zhou Shiqing and softly asked him, “What is this?”
Zhou Shiqing glanced over and also lowered his voice: “Don’t know.”
Xuan Xia nearly rolled her eyes.
She had thought she might hear some kind of answer, but she truly hadn’t expected this one.
At this time, Chang Xi also joined in the fun, suddenly letting out three “tsk tsk tsk” sounds.
Xuan Xia: “…”
Because there were people all around, Xuan Xia couldn’t ask Chang Xi what they were being sarcastic about.
She could only continue asking Zhou Shiqing: “If you don’t know what it is, then why give it to me?”
Zhou Shiqing simply turned his head and said very calmly: “I picked it up during the mission earlier. I saw that your mission was done but you still didn’t want to come up, like you were looking for something. Were you looking for this?”
It was said to be picked up, but actually that wasn’t quite right.
Just as Zhou Shiqing suddenly realized, he felt something land in his palm—it was this bead.
Because he was very sure what the quest items were and what they looked like, this bead clearly wasn’t a quest item, so he had kept it separately.
Xuan Xia was truly a bit shocked now.
When did he become so smart?
She looked at the bead in her hand again and really couldn’t tell what material it was, but she was also very sure that this couldn’t be a prop prepared by the program group.
Xuan Xia pinched the bead with her index finger and thumb, feeling its texture again, and soon had an answer in her mind.
This should be Shi Mei’s dwelling place.
This Shi Mei, even at the end, dared to pull such a stunt. She really had guts!
If Zhou Shiqing hadn’t given it to her, Shi Mei probably would have really gotten her wish to follow Zhou Shiqing.
Thinking of this, Xuan Xia couldn’t help but look at Zhou Shiqing again, feeling that his intelligence had grown a bit too suddenly.
But she still didn’t dare to really ask him.
[Everyone is seriously waiting for the result, but someone is slacking off, exchanging glances. I won’t say who. But I’m hooked.]
[Do these two have to be so blatant? I can’t control you all anymore; CP fans are thrilled.]
[Too obvious, too obvious. These two really don’t care about the result. Not sure if it’s confidence or indifference.]
[Definitely confidence!]
The live broadcast camera showed the full scene, so Xuan Xia and Zhou Shiqing’s brief little actions and whispers didn’t escape the lens; they were faithfully broadcast, making the CP fans exclaim how shippable it was.
Soon, the scores of several guest groups were tallied by the staff.
In the end, the winning group was Song Yuhan and Wen Zhu.
Xuan Xia’s group of three was delayed for a while in the middle, and even though they tried hard to catch up later, they still fell short.
So their three groups ranked in the last three places, with Xuan Xia and Zhou Shiqing ahead, followed closely by An Qi and Gu Sun, while He Tiandong and Xie Yun were at the bottom.
After the staff announced the result, Song Yuhan’s fans in the live broadcast room cheered.
Zhou Shiqing’s fans didn’t curse the program group anymore; as long as it wasn’t He Tiandong and Xie Yun’s group that won, their emotions remained relatively stable.
On site, An Qi suddenly raised her hand.
The staff curiously asked her: “An Qi, do you have a question?”
An Qi nodded and gestured between herself and Xuan Xia.
“Our two groups have already formed an alliance, so I think our scores should be combined.”
As soon as An Qi spoke, everyone looked at her. But An Qi ignored the others’ gazes and looked at the staff with bright eyes.
The live broadcast room also exploded with discussion bullet comments because of her words.
[Is An Qi being a bit shameless?]
[How is this shameless? I think An Qi is right. They did say they formed an alliance from the start, so combining scores makes sense.]
[Zhou Shiqing fans are really shameless. Do you think Zhou Shiqing must get first place to be right? Do you really think Song Yuhan’s fan count is less than your Zhou Shiqing’s?]
[Some fans should curb their little thoughts and stop pulling alliances. Song Yuhan fans, don’t fall for it.]
The bullet comments were noisy again, and on site, Xie Yun also spoke up: “If you’re saying that, then we also demand to ally with Song Yuhan.”
After saying that, she openly rolled her eyes at An Qi.
[Xie Yun finally couldn’t hold back.]
[It’s out in the open, no more pretending—truly a moronic idea.]
An Qi was stunned: “…”
It seemed like that was indeed the case, and An Qi immediately regretted speaking too quickly without thinking it through.
The staff quickly smoothed things over: “That’s not allowed. For fairness, everyone can only enjoy their own results.”
“Oh, sorry.” An Qi instantly reverted to her timid, shrinking self.
Seeing this, Xuan Xia immediately leaned close to comfort her: “Thank you, An Qi. I’ll treat you to a big meal tonight.”
An Qi instantly put her earlier emotions behind her and looked at Xuan Xia curiously: “Big meal?”
Xuan Xia nodded: “We can’t eat the program group’s arrangement, but we can go eat ourselves.”
An Qi immediately showed a bit of a smile: “Okay, okay.”
[Shipped, shipped, shipped]
[Gotta say, girls are the most shippable]
…
The next period of time was relaxation time.
Xuan Xia looked at the mermen chatting idly nearby, thought for a moment, then walked up to talk with them.
The mermen seemed a bit flattered that Xuan Xia took the initiative to chat with them.
Xuan Xia asked them: “I’m very curious. You’ve made a living this way for generations, so in the distant past, did your ancestors perform sacrifices? Like sacrificing to the Sea God.”
The mermen glanced at each other and soon answered: “Of course. But we haven’t sacrificed to the Sea God for many, many years.”
Another said: “That’s ignorant behavior. Our ancestors abolished sacrifices a long time ago.”
“What kind of sacrifices were they? Grand?”
Xuan Xia acted very interested and asked quite a few questions about the content of the sacrifices.
The others saw Xuan Xia chatting animatedly with the mermen and were all puzzled at why she was still interested in that.
As the cruise ship neared the port, Xuan Xia had asked quite a few questions and finally got the name “Shi Mei,” asking the young mermen if they had heard of it.
Sure enough, one of them frowned, as if trying hard to recall, “Seems like I’ve heard it.”
Another person beside him also tried to think: “Isn’t that the name of the sacrificial maiden?”
“Ah, right!” The former finally reacted. “That’s the last sacrificial maiden.”
“The last sacrificial maiden?” Xuan Xia repeated, gesturing for them to explain in detail.
