Chapter 25 Part 2

But then he reconsidered—this was his final variety show. Besides briefly experiencing the kind of family life he’d always longed for with Ao’ao, his primary goal was to be the “straight man, the foil”…

In principle, the four groups of guests were isolated from each other, unaware of each other’s progress. This way, the first group to charge through wouldn’t slack off, and those behind wouldn’t just give up because they had no hope of winning.

However, Lu Aotian had blitzed through the task with Little Fatty’s “help.” The father-son trio was in no rush at all. They strolled leisurely back to the boarding point after eating and drinking their fill, digested for a while, then got into the car to head for the third checkpoint.

Just as food comas hit, Lu Aotian dazedly leaned against Ji Nuo and fell asleep. Ji Nuo, affected by the deeply sleeping child, swayed in the car for a bit before slowly closing his eyes as well.

At first, his head just tilted to the left, which wasn’t comfortable for sleeping. Just then, the minibus took a slight drifting turn, and the entire family of three was affected by the inertia. The cub flopped back into Ji Nuo’s arms, while Ji Nuo’s head fell onto Han Cheng’s shoulder.

Han Cheng used one hand to steady himself by gripping the handrail and the other to cushion Ji Nuo’s head, absorbing the inertia before letting him rest against his shoulder. Because of this, Ji Nuo slept very soundly, even nuzzling his head when he leaned on Han Cheng’s shoulder, finding the most comfortable angle.

The warm, damp breath from his nose spread right across the side of Han Cheng’s neck up to his jawline, making its presence quite known.

The gentle sunlight streamed in sideways through the window. Han Cheng’s long eyes lowered. An otherwise utterly ordinary afternoon was touched with a hint of warmth he had never experienced before because of the two figures—one big, one small—sleeping soundly with their heads tilted back. An inexplicable sense of peace and comfort settled in his heart.

Many viewers in the livestream room, hearing the drive would be over half an hour, also left the stream running to take a nap.

Another portion of people jumped to other livestream rooms to watch the other three groups of guests, who were still deep in trouble. The heat in the danmaku died down considerably.

That is, until the minibus took that soulful drift turn:

[Ahhhhh, Teacher Han is truly noble and elegant to the bone! That hand! You can tell just by looking it’d be nice to lick prprpr!]

[To be fair, I might not be sold on Ji Nuo, but ever since Han Cheng arrived, every time the camera cuts to the two of them together, it feels like stepping into an aesthetic love movie scene. I don’t know if it’s because of Ao’ao, but the longer you look at these two, they somehow have that married couple face, right?!]

[Teacher Han has a natural movie face. With someone as artificially crafted as Ji Nuo, is there really a need to mention any ‘married couple face’?]

As soon as the minibus stopped, the positioning alarm timer in their hands went off. It was a pre-recorded message from Bai Yong, first educating the guests that the bee pupae they needed to collect were wasp pupae:

“The wasp, scientific name ‘Vespa,’ also known as the ‘paper wasp’ or ‘yellow jacket,’ is an omnivorous insect. It does not collect honey, feeding mainly on other insects, fruit, etc., and sometimes also eats bees… They have large bodies, long bodies, and are highly venomous. The female wasp has a powerful, long stinger. When faced with attack or disturbance, they will swarm to attack, which can cause allergic and toxic reactions in humans, potentially leading to death in severe cases.”

“The guests have now arrived at a wasp nest location near the road. As pedestrians frequently pass by, the wasps here have severely impacted the safety of nearby residents. Please, guests choosing the third checkpoint, under the guidance of a wasp-catching master, independently complete the tasks of catching the wasps, digging out the pupae, and filling in the nest…”

Ji Nuo was jolted awake by the sound. Because the device for the third checkpoint was attached directly to him, when he woke up, he found he had been leaning against Han Cheng and sleeping for the entire ride. His face quickly heated up. He didn’t even clearly catch Bai Yong’s recorded introduction, getting off the car in a daze.

Lu Aotian, also woken up, furrowed his small face and covered his ears, reluctantly jumping out of the car as well.

Still groggy, his body stumbled, nearly failing to steady himself. He nearly did a faceplant right behind Han Cheng. Luckily, he quickly grabbed onto Han Cheng’s pants to stabilize himself.

Han Cheng turned back to look at him. Lu Aotian instantly suppressed the panic on his face and raised his little chin: “What are you looking at?!”

“You almost fell. Do you need me to carry you?”

Lu Aotian snapped fully awake in a second: “I did not!”

Hearing the dispute between the big one and the little one, Ji Nuo turned back around: “What’s wrong?”

Han Cheng withdrew his gaze: “Nothing.”

Lu Aotian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least Han Cheng knew what was good for him. He didn’t want to be picked up and hauled around like a sack of potatoes by his oversized lackey on the show.

Although Ji Nuo hadn’t heard Bai Yong’s introduction very clearly, the task objective was straightforward: destroy the wasp nest and remove the pupae. He quickly put on the professional protective suit. Han Cheng and Lu Aotian were also escorted by staff to a safe, upwind location to watch from a distance.

After the wasp-catching master gave a simple introduction, Ji Nuo took the catching net and covered the entrance of the nest. He vigorously pounded the dirt clods at the top of the nest, continuously shaking wasps out from within.

Even with the protective suit on, the viewers in the livestream watched as highly aggressive, large wasps buzzed out of the hole one after another. The sight was enough to trigger trypophobia:

[Holy crap, Ji Nuo is so strong. If it were me, I’d have dropped dead a hundred times by now!]

[Ahhhhh, some are flying out of the net, ahhhhh help!]

[Is this the most terrifying task today?! How is Ji Nuo so calm? Holy moly, he can reach out and grab a wasp??]

Following the master’s instructions, Ji Nuo basically knocked all the wasps out of the hole. He cleanly swung a pickaxe to smash the surrounding earth walls, then, as the remaining wasps flew out to attack him, he grabbed them one by one and shoved them into the catching net.

After clearing the wasps, he dug away most of the outer soil of the nest. In less than twenty minutes total, he had taken out a five-layer, large chunk of the honeycomb and placed it into another small net.

Wasps don’t make honey; what the nest contains are individual white, tender pupae that haven’t yet broken through their wall membranes. Although this ingredient wasn’t as difficult to find as bamboo worms, due to its high nutritional value and delicious taste, its price was equally high, earning it the nickname “soft gold.”

Lu Aotian saw that the “white flesh maggots” bursting through the membranes were even more sanity-draining than the bamboo worms. Hearing such an introduction, his small face immediately scrunched up into a ball.

Thank goodness this thing was meant for fishing bait! And, do people around here just eat anything?! Ao’ao’s look of disgust.jpg

Little friend Lu Ao’ao retreated further and further back, only stopping when he could no longer see the wriggling pupae in their little “private compartments” within the honeycomb.

Ji Nuo could finally take off the protective suit that resembled a thin spacesuit. The mountain forest in the early August afternoon was still very hot. When he removed the head cover, his disheveled fringe was already soaked with sweat.

His originally flawless, jade-white face was tinged with two blushes of crimson. His perpetually pale, faint lips were now heated to a moist, vivid red. The tip of his slightly sweaty nose shimmered with a faint pearlescent glow under the sunlight.

[Holy crap… Ji Nuo is really too beautiful!]

[So this is the legendary rosy lips and pearly white teeth of a beautiful youth, ababa… Narcissus, is that you!!]

[Those lips look very kissable… chotto matte, am I actually envying Best Actor Han for being able to have Ji Nuo??]

Han Cheng handed an opened bottle of mineral water to him. Ji Nuo froze for a moment before thanking him and taking it. A flash of overwhelmed surprise flickered through his eyes, but he was indeed too hot and too thirsty to care about much else. He tilted his head back and gulped it down.

Having Han Cheng standing beside him always made Ji Nuo fall into an inexplicable shyness. In a moment of distraction, he squeezed the bottle, the force in his hand losing its proper measure. The water gushed out rapidly, and his mouth couldn’t keep up, causing it to overflow from the corners of his lips.

The cascading water traced down his chin and into his neck, soaking his lustrous skin and thin T-shirt. Once wet, the light-colored cotton tee became exceptionally transparent, clinging to the young man’s slender, lithe body, seeping out a hint of alluring, decadent beauty.

[Oh fck fck fck, is this what we get to see on a kid variety show??? My phantom limb is hard as a rock, ahhhhh!]

Only one thought occupied Ji Nuo’s mind: After all these years, Teacher Han is still so good. To be a fan of such a virtuous and artistically excellent idol, he truly must have… cultivated blessings for several lifetimes!