Chapter 228: Ranking Enters Top 100
The cruise ship is about to dock, and the Program Group begins directing the staff to prepare for disembarking.
The mermen on the ship are also acting as staff this time and should follow the arrangements in principle, but because they were having a great conversation with Xuan Xia, and unwilling to disappoint the beauty and other factors, two of them choose to continue simply telling Xuan Xia about this last Sacrificial Maiden.
Like the vast majority of familiar stories, it was just as clichéd; hundreds of years ago, the merman clan was also very devout in Sacrifice, praying for the Sea God to bless the clan’s people with enduring well-being through Sacrifice.
And the most important part of the Sacrifice was live human Sacrifice.
The merman clan’s live human Sacrifice selected young maidens.
These selected Sacrifice Victims were even chosen right from birth.
One is selected every year, and one is offered every year.
These selected maidens are uniformly arranged and raised by the clan until the day of the Sacrifice arrives.
Shi Mei was not the last selected Sacrifice Victim, but Shi Mei was undoubtedly the wisest, most beautiful, bravest, and most decisive among all those chosen.
She developed a consciousness of resistance very early on; she also acted according to her own ideas.
In order to make the merman clan abolish the maiden Sacrifice, she planned and worked hard for it for about ten years, until the year she was offered.
It was also that year that she succeeded.
The Sacrifice finally ended, but she still became the last Sacrifice Victim.
……
The two mermen telling Xuan Xia the story couldn’t recount many specific events, like exactly what Shi Mei planned or how she did it.
Regarding Shi Mei’s affairs, what they heard the most was the words passed down by the elders describing this person Shi Mei.
The elders said Shi Mei had eyes as brilliant as stars, that her smile was sweet and charming; even though the young people in the clan knew she was the Sea God’s Sacrifice Victim, they still liked her very much, utterly captivated by her one by one.
Xuan Xia listened and felt like the plot was veering toward the cliché of a beauty bringing disaster.
Fortunately, the story was just that simple, finished in two or three minutes.
These young mermen only knew that much.
At the end, one of the mermen summed it up: “My grandmother always said that perhaps Shi Mei was our Sea God.”
Xuan Xia smiled, then nodded.
What he said might not be wrong.
The Program Group finished urging the staff and began reminding the guests to prepare for docking and disembarking.
Xuan Xia thanked the mermen who told her the story and told them to go do their own tasks.
After digesting Shi Mei’s story on her own for a bit, Xuan Xia planned to go meet up with Ji Ziyao; just as she moved her feet, she suddenly sensed something, turned around, and saw Zhou Shiqing and Jiang Feng both standing behind her.
These two were like two stabilizing Sea God needles, quietly standing on her left and right without a sound.
Before Xuan Xia turned around, the two were exchanging something with their eyes until they noticed Xuan Xia had seen them; they stopped the eye exchange and both looked toward Xuan Xia.
Xuan Xia couldn’t help but be speechless and choked for a moment, not knowing what to say.
But it seemed these two had followed her and listened to the entire Shi Mei story.
At this, Xuan Xia couldn’t help but look at Zhou Shiqing a couple more times.
The two had their own thoughts about her differential attention.
Zhou Shiqing met Xuan Xia’s gaze and simply looked directly at her generously.
The more Xuan Xia looked, the more she felt something was off with him; normally, if she looked at him like this, he would have spoken up long ago.
Now he was surprisingly so quiet.
The ignored Jiang Feng’s eyes dimmed slightly.
But soon, Jiang Feng rallied his spirits again.
He smiled and spoke first: “It seems you’re quite interested in the local culture and legends.”
“Not bad.” Xuan Xia finally shifted her attention to Jiang Feng, simply explaining: “Just suddenly got a bit curious.”
Jiang Feng nodded and said that was good.
“This filming was quite enjoyable. It also taught me a lot.” Jiang Feng suddenly said, “You have one more day of filming tomorrow, right?”
Xuan Xia nodded, puzzled why he suddenly brought this up.
Jiang Feng’s next sentence gave the answer: “My filming is only today; I have to leave tomorrow. Very regrettable that I can’t participate in the last day of your Program’s filming.”
Xuan Xia was quite surprised this time: “Ah. Teacher Jiang is only participating today?”
Jiang Feng made an “mm” sound.
“But after I go back, I’ll watch the entire Program and will also follow the final episode.”
Xuan Xia laughed: “What? Teacher Jiang hasn’t watched it before? You can’t let the Program Group know that; it’s too heartbreaking.”
The smile at the corner of Jiang Feng’s lips suddenly warmed like a spring breeze: “Of course I’ve watched part of it; just haven’t watched it completely.”
“Oh. Have you watched the earlier episodes?”
Jiang Feng thought for a moment: “I’ve only watched your parts.”
“Ah, really?” Xuan Xia responded.
Her brain told Xuan Xia she could drop this topic; asking further might head toward awkwardness.
It was also at this time that Zhou Shiqing, who had been a background board for a while, finally regained his state and mocked: “Paying so much attention to a cooperating actor’s Program, and specifically only watching the cooperating actor’s parts. That’s a bit perverted. So is your next role playing a pervert?”
Jiang Feng: “……”
Xuan Xia was also speechless.
Good thing the cruise ship really was docking now.
“Time to disembark, you two teachers.” Xuan Xia tossed out the line and walked off first.
–
After Xuan Xia and the others disembarked, they immediately met up with the other groups of guests and began the final part of the evening’s Recording.
The other groups who chose other flavors of guests didn’t know what tasks they had done that day, but looking at each other, they concluded that no one had an easy day.
After all the guests gathered, the Program Group began announcing the results of the entire day.
The final winner was Song Yuhan’s group.
True to their word, the Program Group gave the gourmet food reward to Song Yuhan and Wen Zhu; as for the other guests, they could only drool on the side.
Wen Zhu hadn’t expected to win by lying down; her face was almost smiling off.
Looking at the other female guests, she felt an inexplicable sense of superiority.
Compared to Wen Zhu immersed in the joy of victory, Song Yuhan looked at the table of gourmet food and immediately said to the Program Group: “So much food, how can two people finish it? Let’s all eat together.”
The Chief Director immediately shook his head and said no: “Game rules cannot be broken.”
Song Yuhan furrowed his brows: “In that case, if Zhou Shiqing and Xuan Xia hadn’t given me a ride to the mission location, I couldn’t have done the later missions at all. The others can’t share, but those two should be able to share, right?”
【My goodness, the kid’s grown up.】
【Covering mouth and sobbing, my baby actually knows to take care of other guests. But my baby’s right; behavior requires knowing to return a favor.】
【Double stan in ecstasy! Suddenly shipping Song Yuhan and Zhou Shiqing pair.】
The live Bullet Comments praised Song Yuhan; on site, Song Yuhan argued a bit more with the Chief Director.
The Recording fully ended around nine o’clock.
The final result was a happy ending for all; Song Yuhan shared the table of gourmet food, and all the guests ate their fill.
Since everyone enjoyed the gourmet food, Xuan Xia dropped her original plan to treat out of her own pocket.
But getting full makes one sleepy.
Having done missions all day, physical consumption was already high. Plus, at the end of Recording, the Program Group notified everyone to gather at eight tomorrow for Recording, and the guests immediately wailed.
Everyone scrapped their original plan to go night touring after work and headed straight back to the hotel to rest.
Xuan Xia had exerted less effort and wasn’t as tired as the others.
But it was as if others knew this too; just as she returned to her hotel room, her mobile phone received many messages in a row.
Opening it, there were messages from the academically busy Qu Xingxuan and the brand Female Manager Ding Lu whom she met through an ad.
But why were these two contacting her at this time?
Xuan Xia immediately opened the messages.
She looked at Qu Xingxuan’s messages first.
『Qu Xingxuan: Holy crap holy crap holy crap, what have you been doing while I was diligently studying?』
Xuan Xia was puzzled by what he meant when Qu Xingxuan’s messages popped up one after another.
『Qu Xingxuan: Have you seen your ranking?』
『Qu Xingxuan: Just now, you reached the top hundred!!! You’ve entered the top 100!!』
『Qu Xingxuan: Are you there or not, if you are reply quick, what exactly did you do? Why did your ranking rocket up?』
『Qu Xingxuan: Aaaah reply me quick, I’m suffering, I can’t focus on studying! Screw studying, I can’t get it in at all!』
Xuan Xia: “……”
Seeing Qu Xingxuan going crazy in the messages, Xuan Xia simply switched out and opened the Performance Chart app she’d neglected for a long time.
The last time she checked the ranking… was the previous time.
After entering the app, she directly checked the Ranking.
At this moment, her name was at position 99.
Just as Qu Xingxuan said, she had entered the top 100.
Even she herself couldn’t help but be puzzled; yeah, what had she done to enter the top hundred?
Unable to figure it out, she didn’t think about it further.
Switching back to the message interface, she quickly replied to Qu Xingxuan.
Xuan Xia: “I don’t know either. But this isn’t what you should be focusing on now; study hard, hope next time you contact me it’s about studying.”
After replying to Qu Xingxuan, she remembered Ding Lu had also messaged her.
She clicked into Ding Lu’s messages like rushing between venues.
『Ding Lu: Xuan Xia, if you have time, contact me. I need your help.』
After reading the message, Xuan Xia immediately called Ding Lu.
The phone rang twice before being picked up, and Ding Lu’s voice came from the other end: “Xuan Xia?”
“Good evening, Sister Xiao Lu.”
Last time after helping Ding Lu resolve the matter, Ding Lu told Xuan Xia to call her sister.
Xuan Xia thought about it and chose a form of address that wouldn’t make Ding Lu seem old but still showed closeness.
“Good evening.” Ding Lu’s tone was apologetic: “Just finished work? Sorry, disturbing you after work.”
From this, it was clear Ding Lu had watched her live broadcast today.
Xuan Xia quickly said she wasn’t tired, then steered to the main topic: “Sister Xiao Lu, is there something you need me to do?”
“Actually, it’s not my matter. It’s my relative; their family has run into some issues recently.” Ding Lu said: “After thinking it over, I still feel I trust you; you might be able to help.”
“Mm, tell me.” Xuan Xia’s tone was gentle.
Ding Lu then told her.
The relative she mentioned was actually her aunt.
