Chapter 160: Extra Story—Survival in a Desperate Situation, Part One

An early snowfall had just passed.

Several frail beauties in poor health remained completely fine, while Zhou Yili, who was as robust as a lion, collapsed.

"Yeah, he won't be able to do the variety show."

Shen Jixing leaned his lower back lightly against the quartz countertop, leisurely stirring the bitter medicine in his cup, his voice traveling through the receiver to the director's ear.

"Someone ran wild and frolicked in the snow like a monkey right after his concert ended."

"Now he's burning up so much that his apartment doesn't even need the air conditioning on."

"..."

Not far away on the sofa, the little blue lion wrapped like a rice dumpling with a thermometer clamped in his mouth: "?"

What kind of bad things were they saying about him?

Shen Jixing gave him a casual, indifferent glance. The man, usually so arrogant and domineering, looked rare in his frailty, the corners of his eyes flushed bright red from the fever.

Shen Jixing said calmly, "Indoor shooting is fine, but the outdoor PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds segment is out of the question."

"No, it's not that he's unwilling."

"It's that I don't agree."

Shen Jixing casually set his phone aside, walked over to the sofa holding the thick, bitter medicine, and said, "Open up."

Zhou Yili opened his mouth and released the thermometer. 39.2°C.

Shen Jixing took a breath: "Drink your medicine."

Zhou Yili rarely got sick, which meant the times he had to take medicine were few and far between. Now, looking at the dark-fuming potion that rivaled a biochemical weapon, he balked.

"Zhou Shuren once said that a fever happens because your immune cells are fighting the viruses, and in this situation, you should let them keep fighting for a while."

"..."

Shen Jixing pressed the cup against his lips and repeated calmly, "Drink."

Zhou Yili clicked his tongue and chugged the whole thing.

If this medicine hadn't been brewed by Shen Jixing's own hands, he wouldn't have touched a single drop.

"Don't touch me," he tilted his head to avoid Shen Jixing's reaching hand, "lest I infect you."

It was fine if he got sick, but if Shen Jixing fell ill, it would be much more troublesome.

"It's not that exaggerated."

Shen Jixing still reached out to touch his burning cheek, his cool, detached eyes betraying no particular emotion: "You're burning up just like a little stove."

Yet Zhou Yili seemed to know that Shen Jixing was feeling sorry for him.

He arched an eyebrow and chuckled softly, "Aside from the high temperature, there's no difference. If you don't believe me, touch the 39.2°C little Zhou down there; it can still respond—"

Shen Jixing: "..."

Beyond his limit of endurance, Shen Jixing covered Zhou Yili's head with a pillow, stood up, and looked down at him from a towering height.

"Stop trying to act tough. Your Zhou Shuren also said that men are useless when they have a fever."

"..."

Shen Jixing contacted Xiongxiong to come pick him up.

He checked the time and went upstairs to change his clothes. Zhou Yili, whose whole body felt like it was boiling over, watched his back and followed him like a pet trailing its owner, still wrapped in his blanket.

"What are you coming up for?"

Being sick made one unconsciously vulnerable.

Zhou Yili's core nature was clinginess masked by haughtiness; he leaned a large frame against the door frame, watching him in silence.

After a long while, he said, "I'm going too."

Shen Jixing fastened the jade clasp around his wrist with one hand. "Go to sleep."

Zhou Yili lightly bit down on his canine tooth. "Why don't you try giving me such an overbearing command again?"

Shen Jixing had finished putting on his shirt. His figure was slender and narrow-waisted, his long eyelashes casting shadows at the corners of his eyes. He looked at Zhou Yili with dark, beautiful eyes. Amidst Zhou Yili's desperate, feigned composure as his heart skipped a beat, Shen Jixing stepped forward and kissed him.

"Be a good boy, go to sleep."

"..."

...

After Shen Jixing left the apartment, Zhou Yili was still coaxed by his few words into lying down in his makeshift cradle, until a phone call from Sheng Que shocked him awake: "Bro, are you sick?"

"Not to the point where people are attending my funeral feast, don't get happy too early."

Zhou Yili replied in a cool, disgruntled tone.

Sheng Que let out an "oh" of disappointment: "Too bad, one less rival. I'm definitely taking home the championship today!"

"You?" Zhou Yili retorted instinctively, before catching himself, "What are you doing running off to a variety show when you're an outsider?"

Sheng Que always possessed a freakish talent for luck.

At first, it was because he didn't want to learn how to manage the company. When Fu Chen was teaching him about investments, he practiced what he preached by picking an utterly obscure variety show to invest in.

Who could have foreseen that this variety show would later sign both Shen Jixing and Zhou Yili.

Ever since then, Sheng Que had considered himself an investment genius.

Now, he had set his sights on Fu Chen.

Sheng Que said, "The prize for the champion is a global tour. I plan to take advantage of the time before Fu Chen reacts and abduct him abroad to get a marriage license. That way, even if he realizes it later, it won't matter. I'm latching onto him for the rest of my life!"

Zhou Yili leaned against the headboard, deep in thought.

Global tour, getting a marriage license, legal.

"What's the prize for second place?" Zhou Yili asked lazily.

Sheng Que said, "It seems to be a lifetime free pass to amusement parks all over the world. Did the director mine a whole family fortune out of a diamond mine?"

Their financial extravagance was infuriating.

Zhou Yili said, "Second place suits you. Little Uncle loves you to death, fighting for first place is completely redundant."

Sheng Que always felt he was taking advantage in this relationship.

Though the fact was indeed so, did Fu Chen really love him to death?

"Really?" Sheng Que was somewhat moved.

Zhou Yili nodded. "Really. Have you set off yet? Come pick your brother up."

Sheng Que clicked his seatbelt into place. "Leaving right now, what are you up to?"

Zhou Yili kicked off the blanket and stepped out of the cradle Shen Jixing had set for him.

"Going on a variety show, winning the championship, and abducting Shen Jixing abroad to get married."

Sheng Que: "...???"

Sheng Que's frantic curses drifted out from the car in the early morning.

"Damn you, Zhou Yili, are you a dog?!!!"

Sheng Que's frantic little head was pressed down by someone, and he met Fu Chen's cold yet smiling gaze.

"Let him be. It doesn't matter whether we win the championship or not."

Sheng Que looked up in a daze, staring blankly at Fu Chen. Naturally, Fu Chen reached out and smoothed down his curly hair.

"If you want to get married, we can get our license anytime."

"..."

Sheng Que's face turned beet red in an instant.

Having always been raised simply and not one to fuss over details, he immediately and generously told Zhou Yili, "Fine, today your big brother will do you a free favor. I'll take down whoever comes my way."

Little did Sheng Que know that the one who wanted to take them down was His Majesty in person.

"You brought him here?"

In the pine forest at the variety show recording site, Shen Jixing swept his cold gaze over the group of them.

Sheng Que nudged Zhou Yili with his elbow, whispering under his breath, "Holy shit, you didn't tell Brother Shen you were coming?"

Zhou Yili still hadn't fully recovered from his illness and was still running a fever, lacking his usual arrogance.

He raised his eyes to look at Shen Jixing. "Yeah, I sneaked over."

The cold-toned backdrop of the pine forest made Shen Jixing's features look all the more detached, almost melting into the frozen world around them.

Zhou Yili looked at him with a casual smile. "Oh, you're getting mad? I'm not here to do anything, I'll just grab the championship and leave."

Shen Jixing: "..."

He said, "You can try."

"Huh?" Zhou Yili thought he was going to get let off the hook that easily.

"Try snatching the championship from my hands."

Shen Jixing casually stripped off his black gloves, revealing his pale, clean fingers, and beckoned to Zhou Yili against the snowy backdrop.

"Come here, let me pet your head."