“How do gold coins run out so fast?”
After leaving the shop, the guests felt an aching pain in their teeth.
Wen Xin said, “We haven’t bought our toiletries yet—toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, combs, all that stuff.”
Even though these items were small, they couldn’t go without them.
Ming Qiuqiu added, “Pajamas and sneakers, too.”
The large wooden house didn’t have walls, lacking any private space, so everyone had to wear pajamas to sleep.
Shi Yi paid more attention to food. “Our dinner hasn’t been taken care of yet.”
Speaking of which, Wen Xin said with regret, “If I had known, I would have brought back some of the leftovers from lunch. We could have just heated them up for dinner.”
Xie Yixing chimed in, “But we haven’t paid the water and electricity bills yet. The kitchen probably can’t even be used, right?”
Wen Xin: “…”
Ming Qiuqiu: “…”
Shi Yi: “…”
Oh, right, there were water, electricity, and internet bills.
They had forgotten.
Wen Xin fell silent for a moment. “Does anyone still have gold coins?”
The group looked toward Gu Zhan with hopeful eyes. If anyone was likely to still have gold coins, it was him.
Gu Zhan said, “Sorry, I’m all out too.”
Suffocation.
No one suspected he was lying; there was no need for that. He must have bought other things.
Shi Yi took an extra glance at the shopping bag in his hand.
Gu Zhan raised an eyebrow, as if asking: Wanna know?
Shi Yi turned her head away—Nope!!
This silent exchange occurred in an instant while the guests were suffocating over their oversight.
“We all forgot about electricity and water…”
Fang Yanhang said, speechlessly, “Alright, let’s make some money. Otherwise, I suspect there really won’t be electricity tonight.”
Wen Xin thought for a moment. “Remove the word ‘suspect.’ The director will definitely do that.”
A power outage—what a great environment to foster romance!
The director would love nothing more.
“…”
Earning money was an urgent matter.
Instead of heading back to the cabin, the guests turned around and went straight to the exchange hall.
Fang Yanhang accepted a job to sweep the living room, Xie Yixing carefully examined the farmer requirements, and Ming Qiuqiu took on a modeling task. While everyone was scattered at their respective windows, Shi Yi went to the robot to try out singing—
Ten seconds later, she casually hit the button to clear her score record.
She would need to give feedback later; this robot had a bug.
Gu Zhan: He had to support two people.
He pondered what kind of poem he could write. If he wanted to earn gold coins quickly… ready-made ones were naturally faster.
Returning to the cabin, the guests barely recognized the place, standing there slack-jawed.
Wen Xin said, “TBH, I want to be an NPC.”
Shi Yi nodded in agreement.
In just three short hours—the time it took to eat a meal—Sweet Cabin had transformed completely. The two roof-only houses had turned into exquisite, elegant, retro-style works of art.
Through the windows, one could faintly glimpse the rosewood king-sized beds and various warm, classical household items inside.
Then they looked at their own drafty, desolate, roof-only structures.
Who wouldn’t want to be an NPC?
Teacher Chen and Director Lu were older and accustomed to taking an afternoon nap every day. Teacher Chen had left a note in the living room stating that she and Director Lu were sharing one room, while the other room wasn’t being used, so any tired guests could go inside to rest.
The guests consciously lowered their voices. “Love Teacher Chen!”
However, none of them went in to rest.
Poor people couldn’t afford to o(﹏)o
Everyone threw themselves into work with full steam.
Fang Yanhang said, “I need to sweep the living room… Ming Qiuqiu, where did you say you saw the cleaning tools last time?”
“In the corner of the kitchen… Let me show you.”
“Thanks.”
“I remember the hoes were placed there too. Do you need one, Senior Xie?”
Xie Yixing said, “Maybe? I’ll try it out first.”
He didn’t know if farmers needed hoes either.
As the others headed toward the kitchen, Shi Yi picked up the teapot to pour tea.
Gu Zhan walked over, stuffed something into her pocket, and murmured right by her ear, “Pour a cup for me too.”
Shi Yi’s body froze, and she was just about to push back.
Wen Xin turned around. “Pouring what?”
Shi Yi immediately held back all her movements, calmly pouring the tea. “Plain warm water.”
She brought out six cups, filling each exactly two-thirds full without bias, then pushed one toward Gu Zhan. “Teacher Gu, have some water.”
Gu Zhan looked at the toothbrush that had already been transferred into her pocket, his smile deepening. “Thanks.”
“Pretty sweet.”
Shi Yi’s lips twitched.
Wen Xin picked up her cup and took a sip, looking suspicious. Sweet? How come I couldn’t taste it?
Shi Yi maintained her smile and stood there for two minutes before using the bathroom as an excuse to leave the living room and pull the item out.
It was an electric toothbrush.
Moreover, it was an electric toothbrush with the words “The Person Beside Me Is My Hubby” printed on it.
Shi Yi pressed her hand over the printed text, at a loss for whether to be touched or furious. She had good reason to suspect that there was another toothbrush out there printed with “The Person Beside Me Is My Wifey”…
—
In the outside world.
As time passed, more and more news about Love Island spread across the internet.
Love Island’s pre-show publicity had been very strong, and many netizens had been eagerly waiting for a long time. It was just that the first livestream was at 6 AM, forcing many people to reluctantly give up.
In addition, the news of Gu Zhan participating in Love Island as a secret guest hadn’t been leaked beforehand. Many Bone Broth fans didn’t follow Love Island and ended up missing the first stream.
—Bone Broth was the name of Gu Zhan’s fanbase.
The second livestream drew far more people.
Since the second stream was close to noon, the new generation of night-owl youth had mostly woken up. Waking up to discover they had missed Gu Zhan’s stream, the Bone Broth sisters cried out in heartbreak. While rapidly spreading the word to amplify publicity, they guarded the livestream room waiting for the broadcast.
A word of praise was due for the quality of Love Island: as a dating variety show, it wasn’t boring or greasy, but highly entertaining—a guaranteed blockbuster hit.
Many netizens who had just clicked in out of boredom ended up unable to leave.
Netizens: [Seems kind of good?]
Netizens: [Okay, fine, I admit it’s really good.]
Netizens: [I want to keep watching so badly QAQ]
Thousands of netizens urged for updates while complaining: [Is there no fixed time for the livestreams? As a noble wage slave, I really don’t have time to keep guard over the livestream non-stop!]
[If live doesn’t work, recorded episodes are fine too! I can watch recorded episodes.]
Yet there were none.
The director seemed determined to tease everyone’s appetite; when he said no recorded episodes, he meant no recorded episodes. Those who missed the livestream could only rely on verbal descriptions from other netizens.
Having their curiosity stoked by written descriptions, yet being completely unable to see the actual footage—
Netizens: … Damn it.
Believe it or not, I’ll block you and stop watching!
Forget it, forget it, for the sake of Gu Zhan’s face…
Wuuu, which kind-hearted soul recorded the screen? Save the children!
“…”
After the second livestream, some netizens actually raised doubts, feeling that something was off between Gu Zhan and his high school classmate! One netizen even posted a thread stating they had a terrifying theory: Could the high school classmate actually be Gu Zhan’s ex-girlfriend?
The post blew up for a while, spurring some people to the point of almost officially stamping the young lady as the ex-girlfriend.
Of course, that was just netizens getting swept up in the heat of the moment.
Later on, more rational netizens entered the thread.
Netizen A: [The original poster’s deduction lacks solid evidence; it’s purely speculation.]
Original Poster: [The ex-girlfriend’s name is Shi Yi! Drop the surname and it’s ‘Little Yi’!]
Netizen B: [It is a bit of a coincidence, but the ex-girlfriend’s nickname was Xixi, while this young lady is called Little Yi. You can’t just link them together based on a minor coincidence.]
Netizen C: [If Little Yi were the ex-girlfriend, there’s no way Gu Zhan would have asked those questions during the “Of Course” game—asking his own ex-girlfriend if she thought her ex-boyfriend was handsome? How shameless and brazen would a guy have to be to ask that?]
Netizen D: [Actually, I thought it was a coincidence too, but TBH, Xie Lou posted a Weibo earlier: ‘Why didn’t I look for the ex-girlfriend? Because my little heart hasn’t come back yet.’]
Netizen D: [Highlighting the key phrase: hasn’t come back yet.]
Netizen E: [Eee, I wanna believe it! OP, OP, were there any suspicious interactions between Gu Zhan and the young lady? The sweet kind!]
Original Poster: […Not for now.]
Netizen E: [Forget it then.]
Netizen F: [I simply think it’s impossible. Everyone saw the ex-girlfriend’s reaction when she bumped into Gu Zhan last time—she ran the moment she heard his voice. If this young lady really were the ex-girlfriend, there’s no way she’d join the same variety show as Gu Zhan, right?]
Netizen G: [The person above makes sense! Even a helicopter couldn’t chase her back, hahahahaha!]
The original poster felt a bit unwilling to give up, but thinking about it, it did make sense.
On top of that, other topics were pushed to the top, such as: [Voting starts at 8 PM tonight, which CP do you think is the sweetest?]
[Looks like my Goddess is pairing up with Little Brother Xie, and Fang Yanhang asked the young lady again, so will it be Wen Xin & Xie Yixing, Fang Yanhang & Little Yi, and Gu Zhan & Ming Qiuqiu in the end?]
Netizens were successfully led off track.
[I like bickering rivals, not the queen and sweet boy combo. I’m voting for Fang Yanhang & Wen Xin!]
[You’re overthinking it. Wen and Fang have no chemistry; Wen Xin said herself that she likes men with a strong aura.]
[I’m all about innocent first love! I like the kind where they blush just looking at each other—maybe Xie Yixing and Ming Qiuqiu?]
[Wen Xin and Gu Zhan are reuniting for a second time, is no one shipping this pair?]
[…???]
[You can ship this pair too? If you had watched even a bit of the last variety show, you wouldn’t be able to say that out loud.]
[To be honest, after watching the dating show, I can’t ship Gu Zhan with anyone. Just thinking about his glorious feat of forgetting he had a girlfriend… how much alcohol would I have to drink to swallow that ship?]
[Hahahahahahaha I’m dying of laughter!]
[Looking at Gu Zhan’s face: Ahhh I can! Watching his actions: Sorry Gege, I’m turned off.]
[No no no, I ship Gu Zhan and his ex-girlfriend! An acrostic love poem! Ahhhh I ship them so hard!]
[Me too! Especially Xie Lou’s Weibo—I beg everyone to go check it out! It’s insanely sweet!]
[Too bad Shi Xixi didn’t join the variety show.]
Netizens were happily discussing Love Island online.
The water army hired by the company sent a private message to the manager: [Done, Brother Yu. Just as you ordered, half suppressed and half left open.]
Yu Wensheng let out a sigh of relief. “Good, keep paying attention to them moving forward.”
The water army guy, Little Liu, let out a chuckle. “Don’t you trust me?”
Patting his chest, he said decisively, “Don’t worry, even if it wasn’t just a guess and it really broke out, I could still suppress it!”
Little Liu didn’t have time to watch the livestream, but he had followed Gu Zhan’s previous variety show before and felt very confident.
With Teacher Gu’s personality, there wouldn’t be any problem!
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