Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 295: Building a Home Together, Haha

They now have a Fast Forward Card, which allows them to skip the task difficulty and directly advance to obtain clues for the third checkpoint. This means even if they go to the second checkpoint for the task tomorrow, they’ll be faster than others.

But the question is, what if the third checkpoint task is more difficult and requires the use of the Fast Forward Card? Wouldn’t using it now be a waste?

Yu Xia hesitated a bit.

"How about we go to the second checkpoint and then come back? Is that possible?"

Xie Qingci nodded: "You decide; I’ll go along with whatever you say."

Making decisions inevitably gives one a sense of responsibility. Yu Xia looked at the fish basket, then at the mountain they were about to reach, and decided, "Let’s head to the next checkpoint first."

But just ten minutes into their walk, the drone beeped to alert them—

"Group 2 has been captured, converted to hunters!"

"Ceasefire time! Stop all related activities from 18:00 to 8:00!"

Wow.

Yu Xia raised an eyebrow, holding up the fish basket, her eyes shining, "It really is, divine intervention."

Xie Qingci almost couldn’t hold back his laughter, lazily saying, "I saw a flat area on the way over just now, very suitable for setting up a tent. Let’s go, sister."

They returned to a spot they passed earlier, a flat area below an earth ridge, surrounded by sparse grass and not many stones.

The next task was to build a nest. Much like surviving in the wilderness with Bear, they had to ensure the safety of their haven. Just two tents wouldn’t be enough; who knows if some strange animals might appear nearby.

For this, Xie Qingci went and chopped more branches and dry wood from afar, along with some vines, then he cleared as many stones as possible, filled in grass-covered soil blocks, and flattened the ground.

Yu Xia took out the tent and attempted to follow the instructions to set it up.

But this task, though it looked easy, was tough in practice, so Xie Qingci ended up taking over.

She was assigned the task of sharpening branches, sitting on the earth ridge, sharpening each stick to a point, inserting them in a circle around the tent to form a boundary.

The branches varied in thickness, and she had to grip them tightly while sharpening. She had cuts on her hands and wrists; they didn’t hurt before, but the constant grip caused blood to seep and pain to emerge.

She didn’t even frown, shook her hand, and continued sharpening.

When it was nearly dark, Xie Qingci planted the stakes deeply into the ground, densely surrounding the tent, then wrapped vines around them. He also piled some soil at the base of the stakes and circled it with stones.

Yu Xia squatted nearby and asked, "Is it to block the wind?"

"Yes, the vines block the wind, and the soil and stones keep out ants and small insects."

His actions were fluid, clearly showing his familiarity with this sort of work.

This survival skill was quite impressive, no wonder Changhui thought this show would bring him another wave of fame.

Yu Xia went to pick a bunch of wildflowers, returned, and watched as their nest became more perfect, humming a song as she decorated the vines with flowers.

The sense of accomplishment from building a home together was truly rewarding.

Xie Qingci was still busy. A bit farther from the tent, he used sharpened sticks to dig a soil pit.

"Sister, can you find some dry firewood? Let’s start a fire."

"Sure, sure, sure, I’ll go right away."

What they needed was firewood that would burn continuously; if it was too small, it would require constant replenishment, which wasn’t convenient.

So, the collected firewood pieces needed to be large.

Xie Qingci thought she couldn’t carry much, so after digging the pit, he prepared to find her, but when he walked a few steps, he saw her dragging back a half-dried tree.

...An entire tree, the trunk almost as thick as her two thighs, the remaining leaves rustling as they dragged on the ground.

Xie Qingci approached her and couldn’t help but ask, "Why did you drag such a big tree?"

Yu Xia dusted off her hands, not finding it odd, and said excitedly, "It must have been broken by the water and washed ashore over there. Isn’t it free firewood? Why not take advantage of it?"

"...Isn’t it heavy?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Not at all!" she waved her hand casually.

Xie Qingci dragged the tree back, planning to slowly chop it into pieces with a knife, but Yu Xia couldn’t wait. She bounced on the trunk, stepped on the drier branches to snap them, then grabbed either side of the branches, and with a thrust of her knee, ready-to-use firewood was made.

Xie Qingci squatted to the side with the knife, that unspeakable expression appearing again on his face.

He couldn’t quite relate to her excitement.

When it was completely dark, their "home" was finally built.

Inside the circle of vines and branches were two orange tents, the circle opened at a point, providing entry and exit, and slightly ahead lay the kindled campfire.

On either side of the fire were two cleaning-stone seats, and in the middle was a simple canopy supported by three thick branches soaked in water, with a shallow pot hanging beneath.

The wildflowers on the vines swayed in the wind, and the twisting flames in the fire licked the pot bottom, inside which dumplings were boiling, the water gently simmering.

Xie Qingci turned on the drone’s light, found some more vines, and started binding them to the fish basket, using them as retractable lines for the basket.

Yu Xia propped her head, watching him, suddenly giggling.

"You really look like a good housewife sewing clothes by a kerosene lamp right now."

Xie Qingci: "..."

"Then, I won’t tie it. If the water washes the fish basket away, it’s not my fault." He made a gesture of letting go of the basket.

"Hey, hey, don’t," she quickly stopped him, "if it washes away, isn’t that money wasted? Keep going, I won’t say anything."

Xie Qingci then slowly resumed tying the vines.

She pouted, changing the subject.

"This life is so peculiar, I almost believe I signed up for a different kind of show back then."

"Isn’t it fun?" Xie Qingci asked.

"Do you find this fun? Having one meal and not knowing about the next, walking ten kilometers a day."

He tugged on the fish basket, testing the strength of the vine, and said, "I think it’s great."

Great in what way? This was a question Yu Xia didn’t ask. She felt his answer would likely be quite restricted.

The dumplings in the pot were ready; she fished out a few and took out two buns, asking him, "Want to open a mystery box? Which one do you want?"

"The one on the right."

Yu Xia compared them briefly, noticing the bun on the right was smaller.

She handed him the one on the left: "Eat the bigger one, my appetite isn’t as big as yours."

Without waiting for him to refuse, she bit into the smaller one.

Xie Qingci felt touched, but after two bites, he realized that this larger bun was the only hollow bun, drier than the mantou from the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the smaller bun in Yu Xia’s hand had meat.

"Eat up, why are you tearing up? Don’t be too moved," Yu Xia said with a chuckle.

Xie Qingci took a deep breath, tore off a bit of the bun, and tossed it into the fish basket.

He hoped some foolish fish would be attracted to this solid bun.

Eating a picnic in the evening breeze felt quite delightful. Yu Xia slowly savored the somewhat bitter shepherd’s purse dumplings, comfortably squinting her eyes.

"Xie Qingci, do you think any wild animals might emerge and attack us at night? Like wild boars or something."

Xie Qingci drank his soup in quick succession and replied, "There won’t be any wild boars."

There was one person, indeed.