In the afternoon, the production team changed their mild approach from the morning and assigned a series of extremely physically demanding activities to them.

First, they had to compete in passing through plum blossom stakes, and later they were sent to play river rafting. Not to mention Xie Wanxing and the other three men, even the two female guests didn’t receive any special treatment.

However, to Xie Wanxing’s surprise, the model who appeared frail and seldom smiled, Yuan Xier, turned out to have excellent athletic skills.

In the final round of competition, which involved climbing the mountain to retrieve a flag, she effortlessly outpaced several men. Seizing the moment when Fu Wenshan was distracted, she swiftly surpassed him and reached the mountaintop to claim the first flag.

Xie Wanxing’s athletic abilities were never impressive. He nearly fell into the water while river drifting earlier.

When it came to the final round of mountain climbing, only he and Xiao Ya remained at the bottom.

He panted and asked Xiao Ya, “Aren’t models supposed to be slim and delicate? How come Yuan Xier is so unexpectedly athletic?”

Xiao Ya was equally exhausted.

She had gotten along quite well with Yuan Xier yesterday and learned quite a bit from their conversation.

“Because she’s a professional,” she managed to say between breaths. “Before her debut, she was part of the diving team. Can someone like that not be strong?”

Xie Wanxing fell silent, watching as everyone else reached the mountaintop. Finally, he realized a fact.

Among this group of six, only he and Xiao Ya were novices.

The rest were all champions.

After all the exertion, by evening, Xie Wanxing’s score had plummeted, even lower than Xiao Ya’s by one point.

This meant Xie Wanxing ended up in last place, with Xiao Ya just ahead of him by a narrow margin, thanks to a bonus item she unexpectedly found while river drifting.

Naturally, he became the one without dinner.

At lunchtime, he had kindly exchanged meals with Xiao Ya due to her low blood sugar. But now, in the evening, he found himself holding two large white steamed buns, watching helplessly as everyone else gathered together to enjoy barbecue.

Xie Wanxing mechanically tore off a piece from one of the buns, his expression blank as he stared at the sizzling pork belly and steak on the table.

The festivity belonged to everyone else, but he had nothing.

Perhaps because of the strenuous activities in the afternoon, everyone was exhausted. After dinner, Han Jiujin simply gathered everyone in the living room to play a few rounds of cards before letting them go to bed.

But just as everyone was about to climb the stairs, Han Jiujin reminded them, “Keep your phones on and set to maximum volume. Special tasks will be assigned in the middle of the night. If you’re late, the punishment will be terrible.”

Everyone’s nerves instantly tensed up.

But after Han Jiujin said this, he slipped away without giving them a chance to ask questions.

The six of them looked at each other in the living room.

Zhou Ying forced a dry smile and said, “Middle-of-the-night tasks? Could it be shooting a horror movie?”

Xie Wanxing thought for a moment. “I remember in the previous seasons, there was one time where guests were called up in the middle of the night to find a bunch of puzzles on the mountain. After finding them, they had to assemble the puzzle. Otherwise, they had to be exiled to the desert the next day.”

After Xie Wanxing finished speaking, the living room fell silent for a moment.

Everyone scrambled to run, trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep before the production team woke them up.

If they were really called to wander around in the mountains in the middle of the night, it would be impossible without enough energy.

Xie Wanxing and Fu Wenshan also returned to their room.

After a day and night of “harmonious coexistence,” they could now lie calmly next to each other on the same bed, without trying to push each other off.

But Xie Wanxing lay there for almost half an hour and still couldn’t fall asleep.

It wasn’t because he was suffering from insomnia; he was simply hungry.

After all, he was a tall, adult man. The two large steamed buns he had for dinner were barely bigger than half a palm combined, hardly enough to satisfy him.

After spending the entire afternoon doing strenuous exercises and not eating much in the evening, his stomach was growling furiously by the time he tried to sleep.

He tried to pretend he was asleep, but the rumbling of his stomach was embarrassingly loud.

He could only angrily open his eyes in the darkness and glare at the ceiling.

“Are you hungry?” Fu Wenshan’s voice startled Xie Wanxing.

But soon he silently rolled his eyes. Wasn’t that obvious?

He didn’t say anything.

After a few seconds, Fu Wenshan sat up, turned on the small bedside lamp, and got up.

At first, Xie Wanxing didn’t know what he was doing until Fu Wenshan opened his own suitcase, rummaged through it, and threw a few things onto the bed, conveniently near Xie Wanxing’s pillow.

When Xie Wanxing turned his head to look, he saw several packets of instant chicken jerky, the kind he often used to stave off hunger when dieting.

Fu Wenshan also sat back on the bed. Under the dim bedside lamp, his eyes were not gentle like peach blossoms but sharp and dangerous, like a predatory animal’s, cold yet captivating.

Xie Wanxing wasn’t stupid; he knew that Fu Wenshan was giving these to him.

But he was puzzled. The production team didn’t allow guests to bring snacks or drinks, and they even checked their luggage.

“How did you sneak these in?” Xie Wanxing asked.

“My manager hid them,” Fu Wenshan said confidently.

Jiang Han, his manager, was also quite protective. He was afraid that this young master would really suffer from lack of food on the show and went out of his way to sneak these snacks in for him.

But Fu Wenshan didn’t really care. When he and his brother went to military training back then, they went without food for two days. He wasn’t that delicate.

Unexpectedly, the snacks Jiang Han prepared for him went unused and ended up benefiting Xie Wanxing.

Seeing Xie Wanxing’s eyes fixed on the packets of chicken jerky but hesitating to reach out, Fu Wenshan could almost see the inner conflict in his mind.

Wanting to eat but feeling ashamed of lacking integrity.

Fu Wenshan couldn’t help but smirk and teased, “Are you going to eat them? If not, I’ll put them back.”

Xie Wanxing decisively reached out and grabbed the snacks, pulling them into his arms.

“I’ll eat them.”

Integrity was important, but starving was worse.

He crawled out of bed, tore open the snack bags, and eagerly took a bite, feeling satisfied and content in his heart.

Fu Wenshan leaned against the head of the bed, as if he was looking at his phone, but in fact, he had been watching Xie Wanxing out of the corner of his eye.

He noticed that Xie Wanxing sometimes showed a very childish side.

For example, now, Xie Wanxing was nibbling on the chicken jerky, like a little hamster, with a little shine on his lips, eating attentively and earnestly.

…quite cute.

Xie Wanxing, biting into the meat, finally felt a little better in his empty stomach.

“Thanks,” he said to Fu Wenshan, “I owe you one.”

Although Fu Wenshan’s integrity was not great, he was at least somewhat helpful.

Xie Wanxing decided to quietly raise his impression of this person by one percent.

Fu Wenshan ignored him and crawled into bed on his own.

“Eat quickly and then sleep, there’s a task tonight.”

Xie Wanxing pursed his lip, feeling like the slight improvement in impression he just made had disappeared.

But he quickly got up again to brush his teeth, then crawled back into bed, trying to sleep as quickly as possible.

It was already past ten o’clock, and he didn’t know when the production team would call them out.