Chapter 872 - 871: Li Yang, You Better Play Well for Me

Once everyone else had gone down, Shi Yuhuai, sitting alone in the stands, was greeted by a punishment game just for him.

It was simple—it was a bet.

"Brother Huai, you have to pick someone now. Among the ones who carry one-third of a basin of water from the starting point to the finish line, whoever uses the shortest time—if you bet on the right person, everything’s fine. If you bet wrong, your dinner tonight will be nothing but a bowl of mung bean porridge, and all the other dishes will be taken away."

Shi Yuhuai: "I can eat by myself."

The staffer kept smiling: "Tonight’s dinner has Eight-Treasure Duck, roast goose, braised chicken in brown sauce, hot and sour radish soup, lotus leaf sticky rice chicken, steamed pork with rice flour... and you all have to film a vlog while eating and upload it. We heard from your assistant you had a lot of snacks this afternoon, so we really will take the dishes away. And once dinner’s over, you won’t find anything else to eat around here."

"Oh, and the delivery apps stop working then too."

Shi Yuhuai: "......."

[I’m dying, they blocked every single path hahahahahaha]

[Brother Huai: I’m killing my assistant as soon as I get back]

[Why does my Mr. Huai have to suffer this kind of grievance hahahaha]

[I’m literally drooling, is it really okay for you guys to eat that well tonight? Don’t you have to keep in shape?]

[Mu Qiu and Guan Yu don’t. Don’t underestimate these two’s combat power.]

[That’s what you get for slacking in the last episode. Thought being a fixed NPC meant you just sit there and fish for the whole show, didn’t you? Brother Huai, you’re still too young.]

[Brother Huai, bet on Li Yang! The only one here with decent athletic ability who just knows how to charge forward is our Yangyang.]

[Ancient-style Water Splashing Festival, I’m into it. Brother Cheng hurry up and pick a nice basin to splash with!]

[So the story just ends like this? I’m not satisfied yet.]

[You’re filming dinner as a vlog and uploading it?! Little Bu you’re getting more and more savvy!]

[Bet on Guan Yu! She’s sly as hell, she’ll definitely get you your dinner!]

[There’s also Song Weili. The two youngest ones can run and jump! Bet on them!]

[Xu Jihua isn’t bad either! Most importantly, he’s not afraid of falling in the water.]

[Brother An Zhou is old but still tough, okay? Back when he was a total nobody he actually competed in a water-park obstacle race show.]

[Brother Huai, you better choose carefully. Your dinner’s on the line here.]

[What’s wrong with you guys, the whole screen’s bullet comments and not a single one telling Brother Huai to bet on Shu Ran /dog head]

[Hahahahahahahahaha exactly! Are you all looking down on our social butterfly!?]

After all that audience debating, the man in question swallowed his anger and bet on Li Yang.

With someone chosen, and his own dinner on the line, Shi Yuhuai finally felt invested. Wearing that gorgeous red dress, his 1.9-meter frame standing right at the edge of the already flimsy railing of the stands, he shouted downwards.

"Li Yang, you better play properly for me!"

Down below, Li Yang, who had just picked out a little blue basin, looked up in confusion.

"Huh?! Brother Huai what did you say?!"

Shi Yuhuai sank his breath to his dantian, practically itching to roll up the crappy straw mat under his butt and throw it down at him.

"Play the game properly!"

Li Yang lowered his head and glanced at Mu Qiu and the others.

"What does that mean? Why is Brother Huai suddenly cheering me on so excitedly? Is his punishment a bet? And he bet on me?!"

Mu Qiu was holding some ugly yellow basin, practicing scooping and splashing, and commented while she did it: "Where did you hear ’excitedly cheering you on’ in that? That was clearly gnashing his teeth."

"So you’re saying Brother Huai bet on Li Yang. Bet on what? The game mechanics are fixed... he bet on who finishes fastest?" Shu Ran ran through the logic, then gave Li Yang a thoughtful look.

Li Yang immediately raised his basin to shield his chest: "Sister Shu Ran don’t look at me like that. The grudges between you guys and Brother Huai don’t drag me into it, okay! Besides, we’re on the same team!"

Shu Ran: "Don’t be afraid, it’s just a punishment game. Don’t let it affect your mission performance."

Li Yang: "...Why did Brother Huai have to yell it out that loud?!"

He was touched that Brother Huai chose him, but wasn’t this just exposing him and painting a target on his back?!

"Yeah, why make it that obvious?"

Guan Yu’s eyes hurt just watching Mu Qiu practicing the scooping-and-splashing motions, so she hurriedly pressed her down and then helped analyze:

"Either the stakes are huge so Brother Huai no longer cares about subtlety, or this bet is super crucial and he can’t expose his real choice—so he’s using you as a decoy to draw our attention."

Song Weili tilted his head toward Li Yang: "Turns out you’re just a human shield."

Nobody even bothered to consider the first option.

"......Stop, my heart already hurts."

Li Yang had just been happy that Shi Yuhuai bet on him, the "seed player," and now it suddenly felt unbearable. These people on the show were getting more and more wicked.

He felt aggrieved; the others did not. Mu Qiu was even discussing with Cheng Zhirang and Zhu Qi who the real pick was if Li Yang wasn’t Shi Yuhuai’s actual choice.

Guan Yu: "Could it be me? I mean, I am fairly outstanding, I’ll admit that."

Shu Ran: "Try having some shame."

Song Weili: "Any chance it’s a feint and he actually bet on me?"

Li Yang: "You also try having some shame."

Zhu Qi: "Maybe he bet on Xu Jihua or Brother An Zhou."

Guan Yu: "I get it now. Anyway, it definitely isn’t Shu Ran."

Shu Ran: "...You just have a way with words, don’t you?"

Mu Qiu snickered and made a bet with Cheng Zhirang.

"I think maybe it really is Sister Ran."

Cheng Zhirang just smiled without saying anything.

Why were they so invested in who Shi Yuhuai bet on?

Because they were bored and wanted some fun, obviously.

The people on the starting line were already in position, and the ones standing beside them with basins, eyeing them like predators, were ready too.

Mu Qiu stood on the far edge, holding Cheng Zhirang’s hand and gingerly stretching her foot out onto a block.

The thing was dangerous; if you weren’t careful and stepped a bit crooked, you’d topple straight into the water, splashing everywhere.

Of course, that was just for this first step. Once the game actually started, there was no way they’d stay this cautious—people would be dropping in like dumplings, splash splash splash, one after another.

"We have to go into the middle later. Staying at the start isn’t fun."

Zhu Qi was staring enviously at Guan Yu’s grampa shirt and asked when he heard that: "Then why not just go camp at the finish line? Wait there for them to run over and poke them casually so they lose all their water?"

"It’s their mission to carry water through the obstacle course; blocking people isn’t our mission. We’re just here to add some spice to the process. Don’t go too hard or they’ll come back for revenge later."

The few people listening behind them all breathed a sigh of relief.

Guan Yu decided this person still had a conscience, then turned to ask the others: "Alright, let’s start. Who’s first? I nominate Li Yang."

Li Yang: "?"

"We’re doing nominations now?! Isn’t that just volunteering someone?"

"Oh, it’s all the same. I nominate you—do you want to go first? If you’re scared, we’ll let the next one go."

She really covered all bases, and what else could Li Yang do? He pinched his nose and took the lead spot.

They were still technically on shore, but the moment he set one foot on that string of blocks bobbing with the waves, before he even put any real weight on it, the block sank a bit, and he lost his footing, wobbling with the basin on top like someone kneading noodles.

And then—plop. Man and basin went straight into the water, and the whole basin’s worth of water poured right over his own head.