Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 434: Wild Greens Match-Three Game

Yu Xia accepted the invitation and went about digging with a shovel, treating the clumps of earth as Xie Qingci’s head. One shovel down, and the clumps scattered.

Xie Qingci felt a chill down his spine as he watched and decided it was better to let her go back and sit.

"You should pack up. In a bit, there’ll be a blessing ceremony, and then some people will come up the mountain to sell wild vegetable pancakes. After eating them, we’ll head down the mountain in the afternoon."

She squinted at him: "No other activities?"

"There are," he turned around with a mysterious smile, "there’s a wild vegetable matching game."

"Huh? What’s that?"

She quickly found out.

Xie Qingci dug up many kinds of wild vegetables, arranged them neatly under the shadow of the tent pole like a tidy line-up, almost like a matching game.

"Among these, there are edible wild vegetables and inedible wild weeds. If you match two identical ones, you can eliminate them. If you manage to eliminate a kind of wild vegetable, I’ll agree to one of your requests. If you choose wrong or eliminate a weed, then you have to agree to one of my requests."

Yu Xia looked at him with a complicated expression.

What a bizarre twist on a wild vegetable matching game with dares. Doesn’t he think adding the words "wild vegetable" to a game makes it... bizarre?

"Do you think you’re being fair to wild vegetables?"

Xie Qingci was indifferent: "Every man for himself, or heaven and earth will destroy him."

"...Don’t you feel uneasy if you don’t coax a promise out of me every day?"

He nodded straightforwardly: "Yes. It’s the rare Icebreaking Festival; it’d be a shame not to play some meaningful games."

Yu Xia was left speechless, staring miserably at the ground covered in wild vegetables and weeds.

Then she looked at him doubtfully: "How do I know you won’t trick me? What if I get it right and you still say it’s wrong? Who should I complain to?"

Xie Qingci put on an innocent face: "You don’t trust my integrity?"

"Not really," she said straightforwardly, then extended her index finger to move a piece of grass to the right.

"Of course, asking detailed questions about the rules doesn’t mean I’m bluffing. I can play along with you. Was I right? Is it a wild vegetable?"

Xie Qingci’s gaze was profound: "Yes, it’s a wild vegetable."

The joy of winning surged forward instantly. Her eyes brightened, the corners of her mouth lifted, and she leisurely placed those two wild vegetables in front of her as tokens of her victory, ready for the next round.

She squatted there, observing and pondering, all the while watching for any change in Xie Qingci’s expression as she slowly moved the wild vegetables.

His expression didn’t change, and he simply stated the result at the end: "Wrong."

"...Impossible, either you mislabeled them, or you’re deliberately tricking me."

She tried to take those two pieces of grass back, but Xie Qingci caught her wrist midway.

"No cheating, sis. Wouldn’t you like to hear what my request is first? What if it’s really simple?"

She didn’t move: "Then go ahead, let’s hear it."

Xie Qingci licked his lips and gestured with his finger for her to come closer, then he said:

"Give me a special ringtone as well."

"...Is that it?" She doubted it could be so simple.

"That’s it. Isn’t it easy? Can we continue playing?"

She was still skeptical, mulling over as she withdrew her hand, tossed aside the two pieces of weeds, and picked wild vegetables again.

In the wild vegetable matrix, there was a kind of wild vegetable she was familiar with, the lantern flower, because it was the only one in bloom.

However, after looking at Xie Qingci, who was boredly propping his head on his hand and smiling at her, she didn’t hastily eliminate the lantern flower, instead grabbing two similar-looking weeds to pair.

Xie Qingci lazily said: "Wrong. My turn to make a request—change all the wallpapers on your phone to my photos."

Yu Xia glanced around and nodded perfunctorily: "Oh, sure."

The requests were indeed quite simple; she agreed to all of them and even changed them in front of him, very cooperative and harmonious.

"What do you want the ringtone to be? How about the ’Song of the Pigs’? When the phone rings with ’The pig’s nose has two holes,’ I’ll know it’s you calling."

Xie Qingci: "...I can’t handle this song, pick another."

"Then how about this, the DJ version of ’The Drunken Butterfly’?"

Xie Qingci stopped her from changing the ringtone, calmly saying: "I’ve thought about it, just use that acapella clip I sent you before. I’m not one for formalities."

Yu Xia rolled her eyes dramatically.

She picked the ringtone and then picked a screen photo.

This time she didn’t pull out her phone to change it in front of him but urged him to quickly continue to the next round of the matching game.

"Just wait, I haven’t asked for the request I won in the first round yet, and I won’t lose for long. There’ll be a time when you’ll suffer."

"I believe in you," he reached out to her, palm up, smiling as he said, "but now it’s time to pick a photo, come on, phone, let’s choose on the spot."

She avoided his hand, focusing on the wild vegetables: "Wait a minute, I’ll change it later myself and show you, how about that?"

"No way, right now. Ah, don’t tell me you have something in your album you don’t want others to see?"

Neither was willing to give in, so eventually, the phone ended up in Xie Qingci’s hands.

Upon opening the album, most of the photos from the past two months were of Xie Qingci, detailed edits, high-resolution originals, and blurry videos taken by fans.

Xie Qingci lowered his gaze and smiled, picked one as the wallpaper, and held the phone out in front of her.

"Love me this much?"

"...Have some decency. I’m purely admiring beauty."

She kept a straight face as she snatched the phone back and kept playing the matching game. He was indifferent, his smile never fading.

After getting it wrong several times, Xie Qingci’s requests were always simple, usually asking her to surround herself with things related to him—to look at his photos all the time and make him her only special concern.

Finally, she placed the lantern flowers together, successfully eliminating a kind of wild vegetable.

Xie Qingci had been squinting while basking in the sun. When he saw she won, he leaned in and ambiguously said, "You’ve won, huh? What do you want to ask for? Go ahead, ask."

He seemed to be anticipating her to make some odd request.

She clapped her hands and deliberately placed her cool fingers on his face, cupping his cheeks as she leaned in and seriously said, "My request is—if there’s something you want or something you want me to do for you, just tell me directly, and I’ll agree."

No need to beat around the bush with these games to gauge her feelings, to extract a bit of attention.

This distorted way of getting love bears no meaning. Even if someone who doesn’t love you does everything sweet, it’s merely a wager in a lost game.

For those who truly love each other, such games are merely for fun, played a few more times and she feels bad for him.

Xie Qingci’s smile slightly faded, he looked at her but didn’t nod or make a sound.

Yu Xia kissed him lightly: "Hmm? Did you hear me?"

He took a deep breath, then grasped her wrist.

"Okay."

After the game, they dismantled the tent together. Sure enough, a few elderly ladies came up the mountain selling wild vegetable pancakes. Xie Qingci bought some to feed her, they tasted pretty good. She also took a few photos of Xie Qingci eating the pancakes.

The tall and handsome man smiled gently at the camera, making the mountain scenery behind him even more beautiful.