Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 296: Is Sis Going to Sleep?

The campfire was still flickering as Yu Xia held the drone as a lighting tool and went with Xie Qingci to set fish traps.

They found a spot where the current was relatively gentle, fixed the vines, and let the fish trap sink into the water.

Considering that the breadcrumbs inside might not attract the fish here, Yu Xia tore off a bit of the meat bun and put it in, then casually handed the remaining bun to him without looking up.

"You eat the rest."

Xie Qingci felt a bit pitiful.

To eat a meaty bun, he had to rely on the fish; the fish had to get a bite before he could have one.

He ate the bun with one hand while using the other to stack the river’s pebbles downstream of the fish trap, creating a simple barrier, hoping small shrimps or crabs might be swept there and get caught.

The river at night looked pitch black, with no discernible depth from afar. They squatted on a large rock by the riverbank, chatting intermittently while watching the water illuminated by the drone’s light.

Yu Xia pondered the difference between their current life and modern life, sighed, and said, "Without a watch, we don’t know the time. What if tomorrow we get caught in the tent by pursuers while still asleep?"

Xie Qingci replied, "I usually wake up before eight. I’ll wake you up then."

Facing each other awake wasn’t a first for them, and talking about this felt a bit like sleeping in separate rooms.

Watching her, Xie Qingci saw the light spreading on the river surface reflected in his eyes, making his dark pupils seem amber-like and transparent.

"There’s only one blanket. Remember to fold one half underneath as a mat and the other half to cover yourself."

"Got it, got it. But won’t you be cold without a blanket?"

He smiled at her, "I won’t."

Yu Xia had a hunch that his assurance was true—because he might have other ways to keep warm.

It was best not to ask further.

She brought up something else: "If only Grandma had new quilts and towels, we could’ve bought some. Before leaving, I gave Grandma fifty yuan, and now I only have just over a hundred left. What about your hundred yuan?"

"It’s in my bag; let’s save it. It’s best if we don’t use it all up this period; what if things get worse next time?" he said.

He finished his bun as he spoke, reached into the water to wash his hands, and cleaned his stained clothes and pants along the way.

After making sure everything visible was clean, he leaned close to ask Yu Xia, "Is there any dirt on my face?"

His handsome face suddenly loomed large before her, making Yu Xia instinctively lean back, feeling he was blatantly using his looks to charm her. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

That clear, focused gaze, that innocent yet expectant expression, as if the next second would witness "her delicate fingers tenderly brushing over his chiseled face to gently wipe off the cheeky stain."

It was too ambiguous at night; she couldn’t let it happen.

So, under Xie Qingci’s incredulous gaze, Yu Xia calmly untied her hair, which had been up all day, and pulled out two candy-wrapped items from her fluffy bun.

"Here, compressed face towel, with built-in cleanser."

Xie Qingci: "..."

What should he say? Praise her for outsmarting the program’s body search?

"You..." He took one, examined it carefully, and with a nuanced look, asked her, "How did you think of hiding it in your hair?"

During the inspection, she had acted so composed—who would’ve thought she’d really hidden something in such a concealed place.

"Think of it as ingenuity; as the saying goes, there’s always a way to counter policy. To live better, I had to resort to such a tactic."

She had already opened the other package, mixing the face towel with the cleanser to create bubbles, applying it on her face.

Her fingers rubbed her face as she mumbled further explanations, "There was really nowhere else to hide anything. The program group searched too thoroughly; only my hair was unexpected. I had to research with my assistant for a long time to successfully tuck the items in my hair."

Milky white foam clung to her eyebrows, nose tip, swaying and dissipating slowly over time. Her face, under the downward light, glowed softly.

Xie Qingci turned his gaze to the right side of the river and complimented her after a while.

"Good idea."

Without a sense of time, without antics, after a simple wash, the exhausted duo was about to enter sleep mode.

Yu Xia waved at the drone’s camera and said her final goodnight, "Good night everyone, see you in the morning."

Then she turned it off and put it aside.

Just after putting the drone down and turning around, she met Xie Qingci approaching.

He stood a few steps away and gently asked, "Ready to sleep, sister?"

In the pitch-dark wilderness, the evening breeze tousled his short black hair messily; she couldn’t discern his expression—he seemed like a wolf ready to pounce.

First, she glanced at the drone and then said, "Why not sleep?"

"You’ve been sweating all day. Won’t you have trouble sleeping? You might not even want to use the blanket, afraid of getting it dirty." He leisurely took off his t-shirt.

Yu Xia widened her eyes and took a step back.

"This place is the wilderness, not lawless territory! Don’t act rashly!"

"..." He wrung the shirt together, holding back the urge to act on her imagination, and said, "The face towel is too small, but my shirt can serve as a towel."

Yu Xia paused, "Oh, oh okay, then give me your shirt, and I’ll wet it."

Xie Qingci slightly turned his head, gesturing for her to enter the tent first: "It’s easy to fall into the water in the dark there; I’ll go. You go inside the tent."

"Alright, be careful."

She turned around and crawled into the tent on the right, with a blanket spread out, took off her shoes, and knelt to open her coat, planning to tidy up.

She mentally chided herself—how could she always think of her brother this way?

Although he’s a bit young and reckless, a bit wild, he was still a courteous and polite brother overall. How could she constantly view him with such an unhealthy perspective?

Sinful, sinful. It was her overactive imagination.

She shook out the blanket, set it aside, and reached down to pat the ground, flattening any bulges, lest she wake up with a sore back from the hard surface.

Patting just in front of her knees, someone leaned over from behind her, chest pressed firmly against her back.

Then a sharp biting pain came from her nape.

... Forget it, she thought, tossing aside her previous thoughts—Xie Qingci was just an unruly brother.

She turned her head to push him away and whispered angrily, "No biting! If you leave a mark, you’re dead meat."

Xie Qingci grasped her chin, kissed her, and still managed to free a hand to zip up the tent.

Yu Xia tilted her head back, accepting the kiss, until she felt satisfied before pushing him away: "Weren’t you bringing clothes?"

Knowing he wasn’t going to leave, she didn’t bother hiding, and directly undressed the remaining clothes in front of him.

"Hand over the clothes; I’ll clean up and sleep."

Xie Qingci, ghostlike, wrapped his arms around her from behind and softly said, "Let me help you."