Chapter 9: Chi Xiasheng is Missing
In the livestream, many people were complaining about Chi Xiasheng not working that morning.
[He’s so lazy! I was just starting to think he was okay yesterday, and now he’s showing his true colors today?]
[Pah! He even made Mianmian do his work for him. And Mianmian even brought him dinner yesterday. Why does our Mianmian have to do everything?!]
Some even urged Su Chimian to stop being so subservient, saying he should just ditch such a trashy brother!
The audience’s anger was on par with Rongrong’s. When they saw her go upstairs to drag him out, they immediately cheered her on in the comments, calling her a heroine.
But when they saw that the room was empty, the viewers, along with the guests standing outside the door, were all dumbfounded.
“Why is no one here? Did Chi Xiasheng go out?”
Rongrong was the first to enter. She looked around the small room and, after confirming it was empty, shook her head at the others outside.
“He probably went out,” Qiao Ning said dismissively.
“Impossible. I haven’t left the courtyard all morning. How could we not have known if Chi Xiasheng went out?” Qiu Li analyzed rationally.
Moreover, there were plenty of cameramen and staff in the courtyard. Could it be that not a single one of them saw him?
So, it was obvious that Chi Xiasheng hadn’t left during the morning.
Suddenly thinking of something, Qiu Li turned to Su Chimian. “Little Mian, are you sure you saw Chi Xiasheng when you brought him dinner last night?”
The moment Su Chimian saw the empty room, a bad feeling had crept into his heart. His mind was racing, and before he could come up with a plan, he heard Qiu Li’s slightly accusatory tone.
“Sister Qiu Li, what’s wrong with you? It must be that Chi Xiasheng snuck off because he was lazy and didn’t want to work. What does this have to do with Mianmian?”
Qiao Ning, who always defended Su Chimian, immediately shifted all the blame onto Chi Xiasheng.
Su Chimian’s face was a little pale. He was in a difficult position and could only nod stiffly. “I saw him when I brought him dinner last night.”
In reality, he hadn’t. He had completely forgotten about bringing him dinner at all. But he couldn’t admit that now. Su Chimian clenched his fists.
“Then he probably got up early and we didn’t see him. Maybe he went for a walk? I heard him say yesterday that this little village was quite interesting,” Rongrong added to the analysis.
Qiao Ning felt there was no need to worry. After all, Chi Xiasheng was a grown man. It’s not like he could have vanished into thin air, right?
“Hey, let’s just go back to work. Chi Xiasheng will definitely be back for lunch.”
Qiu Li had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, but since everyone else agreed to go back to their tasks, she couldn’t say much more.
The guests were drenched in sweat from their hard work, but they finally finished chopping the firewood and building the chicken coop. Fortunately, the production team showed some mercy and had lunch prepared for them.
They were all starving. Their eyes lit up at the sight of food, and they all dug in without any regard for their image. Qiao Ning and Rongrong, the two clowns of the group, were even turned into memes by netizens, their ravenous eating expressions posted online for everyone’s amusement.
But halfway through the meal, Qiu Li put down her bowl and looked towards the entrance.
“Oh, Sister Qiu Li, don’t worry. Chi Xiasheng won’t starve. Besides, his personal cameraman is definitely with him. We don’t need to worry!” Qiao Ning mumbled, his mouth full of food and a grain of rice stuck to the corner of his lip.
Qiu Li was still worried, but she could only nod in response. After all, the personal cameramen were with the guests almost 24/7, so when they learned Chi Xiasheng was missing, neither the production team nor the guests were overly concerned.
But just then, a cameraman in the corner turned pale.
“Um, I’m Chi Xiasheng’s personal cameraman…”
A faint voice came from the corner. Everyone stopped eating and turned to look at him.
“You’re Chi Xiasheng’s cameraman? Then where is he?” Qiu Li stood up and asked with a frown.
“Didn’t you guys say he wasn’t feeling well and was resting upstairs?” the cameraman’s voice lacked confidence.
He felt wronged. When he returned last night, he had heard the guests say Chi Xiasheng was unwell and resting. He was actually a little happy, thinking he could finally take a break from filming, so he had gone to bed early. And when he woke up this morning, Su Chimian had said to let Chi Xiasheng rest, so he hadn’t paid much attention.
Because Chi Xiasheng had so much negative press, the cameraman was naturally resentful about being assigned to him. He took every opportunity to slack off, hiding in a corner and avoiding work. As a result, no one had really noticed him all morning.
It was only now, when they compared notes, that they realized no one knew where Chi Xiasheng was!
“Damn it, Chi Xiasheng is such a troublemaker!” Qiao Ning complained without realizing the seriousness of the situation.
“Did Chi Xiasheng go out this morning? Has anyone here seen him?” Qiu Li remained relatively calm. She thought the priority was to find him first. If something had happened, it would be terrible.
Because of Su Chimian’s misleading information, everyone had assumed Chi Xiasheng was still there last night and had left early this morning. The danger during the day was low, especially for a mentally sound man like Chi Xiasheng. It was unlikely anything had happened to him.
The director even issued a task in a timely manner, asking them to find the “lost” Chi Xiasheng. Netizens laughed and joked that the production team was so good at incorporating current events into the show!
Qiao Ning didn’t want to move at all. He grumbled to himself but still reluctantly got up to join the others in the search.
The layout of the small village wasn’t complicated. The center was a small square paved with white stone slabs, with roads extending out in a cross shape. Residential houses lined the roads. However, there were many small paths between the houses. After searching for a long time, they still hadn’t found any trace of Chi Xiasheng.
By the time the sky began to darken, they had searched the entire village and still found nothing.
Now, even the slow-witted Rongrong sensed that something was wrong.
“This isn’t right. The old man under the willow tree over there told me he had been sitting there all day and hadn’t seen any strangers.”
Many elderly people and children gathered under that willow tree to cool off. It was the liveliest place in the village, where news traveled fastest, but no one there had seen Chi Xiasheng either.
The director was getting a headache. Could something have really happened to him? he thought. But it was broad daylight. If something had happened, news should have spread by now!
Panic began to set in. The director thought that if something really had happened, not only would the show be shut down, but he would probably be investigated.
“Get more people to search! Chi Xiasheng wouldn’t just disappear for no reason,” the director ordered anxiously.
“What are you all looking for?” an old man with his hands behind his back slowly wandered over, curiously looking at the group of strangers running around the village.
“We’re looking for a young man. He’s been missing for a day.”
The old man said, “Oh,” and after thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized. “Is it that tall, fair-skinned young man who came with you all yesterday? The one who’s as pretty as a girl?”
Qiu Li hadn’t had much hope when she started talking to him, but his next words made the hearts of the anxious group leap.
That description had to be him!
“Yes, yes! Grandpa, do you know where he is? Can you take us to him?”
The old man nodded and, with his hands behind his back, leisurely led the way. Behind him, the director was anxious but didn’t dare to rush the old man, afraid he would scare him. But deep down, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn’t missing, that was all that mattered. Otherwise, their show would be completely ruined.
Qiao Ning’s legs were swollen from walking all day, and his resentment towards Chi Xiasheng grew. “He really has nothing better to do. Running off and making everyone look for him, wasting everyone’s time and causing such a scene. He’s just looking for trouble.”
Su Chimian offered some “comforting” words. “My brother probably didn’t do it on purpose. Maybe he just wanted to go for a walk and got lost.”
The netizens, who had been watching the search all afternoon, had also gone from worried to exasperated.
[Chi Xiasheng is too much of a loner. Can’t he just say something before he goes out next time? He’s got everyone looking for him.]
When they reached the gate of a courtyard, the old man knocked on the door. A dark-skinned boy opened it from the inside.
“Little Ze, these are that boy’s companions. Has his fever gone down? Is he awake yet?”
After speaking, the old man turned to Su Chimian and said with a sigh, “That boy was burning up and delirious when he was pulled out of the water last night.”
“Last night?” Qiu Li’s brow furrowed. Something wasn’t right.
