Dark Fire chapter 13

Jealousy Overflowing

The next day’s recording began at nine in the morning.

The show was being filmed in a small water town in the south, full of canals and bridges, with a large area of Ming and Qing dynasty ancient houses. It was said that a prince settled here during the Ming dynasty, and the remnants of his residence were still present. Recently, it had been redeveloped for tourism, maintaining a rich ancient charm.

There was a local legend of a poignant love story between a prince’s daughter and a poor scholar, and this episode of “North and South” revolved around this tale. Each guest played a character from the story, advancing the plot based on their roles. The protagonists aimed for a happy ending, while the antagonists tried to thwart the romance. Success in either role meant winning the task.

The recording spanned two days. On the first day, the guests were divided into four teams to search for and compete for plot items within the ancient residential area.

Each team had three members, and the teams were drawn randomly.

When it was Ling Zhuo’s turn, he hoped not to be on the same team as Lu Chixie. He drew a red stick, and Lu Chixie, who had drawn before him, was also holding a red stick, chatting with someone.

Ling Zhuo, “…”

Beside him, Zhong Yiran whispered, “Want to switch sticks with me?”

Before Ling Zhuo could reply, Lu Chixie glanced at them and said with a half-smile, “Ling, no cheating; the cameras are filming.”

Ling Zhuo withdrew his outstretched hand, and Zhong Yiran frowned but said nothing more.

Ling Zhuo and Lu Chixie were on the same team, along with a regular male guest. They changed into their red team uniforms and separated from the other teams at the entrance of the prince’s mansion, heading west.

Lu Chixie leisurely followed behind Ling Zhuo, casually asking, “Ling, do you not want to be on my team or Cheng Ge’s team? Why were you trying to switch sticks?”

The middle-aged guest named Cheng Yafeng laughed and said, “I drew after Xiao Ling, so it has nothing to do with me.”

Lu Chixie said, “I forgot. So, Ling doesn’t want to be on my team?”

Ling Zhuo glanced at the camera filming them and said, “No, Teacher Lu, you’re overthinking.”

Yesterday, Lu Chixie’s words made Ling Zhuo increasingly feel that he was a madman. He regretted spending every day rehearsing alone with him in the crew. There was no such thing as a free lunch; he should have stayed far away from this person from the beginning.

Unfortunately, his luck was terrible. Today, he drew the same team as Lu Chixie again.

He didn’t want to talk much, so he lowered his head to look at the clue card in his hand.

Lu Chixie’s gaze fell on the back of his neck, hesitated for a moment, and said nothing more.

On their team’s clue card, it read, “The busier the place, the more stories there are.” Ling Zhuo asked Cheng Yafeng, “Is this a hint for us to find the plot’s golden finger in the busiest place?”

Cheng Yafeng replied, “Probably. I heard there’s a market in this old residential area. Let’s go check it out.”

Sure enough, the market was crowded, with various stalls and shops selling small goods and snacks. The three of them wandered through the crowd, completely clueless.

After twenty minutes of wandering, Lu Chixie stopped in front of a fruit pudding stall and called out to the other two, “Cheng ge, Ling, do you want to eat something?”

Cheng Yafeng wasn’t interested in this kind of children’s snack and was instead attracted to a shop selling masks behind the stall. He said he would go in to take a look and walked over.

Ling Zhuo wanted to follow but was pulled back by Lu Chixie, who grabbed his arm, “Aren’t you tired after walking for so long? Let’s eat something first.”

Ling Zhuo frowned, and Lu Chixie raised the pudding skewered on a bamboo stick and brought it in front of him, “I bought this for you.”

Leaning against the snack stall, Lu Chixie looked at him with lazy, smiling eyes, holding the pudding in his hand. Ling Zhuo didn’t know what to say, so he avoided his gaze and looked at the pudding in his hand.

Lu Chixie said, “Try it. It might taste better than those packaged ones with preservatives.”

Ling Zhuo reached out to take it and said, “Thank you.”

Lu Chixie watched him eat with a smile.

The taste was indeed not bad, but being stared at so intently by Lu Chixie made it hard for Ling Zhuo to swallow, especially in front of the camera. He had to remind him, “Teacher Lu, you should eat too.”

Only then did Lu Chixie, still smiling, take another skewer and bite into it.

Five minutes later, Cheng Yafeng came out, already holding a golden finger.

“I just chatted with the shop owner for a few minutes, and he gave me the golden finger,” Cheng Yafeng said proudly, shaking the sealed bamboo tube in his hand.

Ling Zhuo asked, “Cheng ge, what did you talk about?”

Cheng Yafeng replied, “I just talked about the plot.”

But on their way here, they had randomly talked to a few people about the plot, and everyone they asked was clueless.

Ling Zhuo asked, “Is there something special about the shop owner or the shop itself?”

Lu Chixie looked at the shop owner and smiled, “His outfit looks familiar.”

The shop owner was dressed in ancient attire, but there were people in ancient costumes all over the street. Ling Zhuo stared for a moment and then remembered, “We saw people wearing this outfit at the entrance of the Wang Mansion. I remember their clothes had a magpie embroidered on them, and he has one too.”

Hearing this, Cheng Yafeng also recalled, “Hey, that makes sense. We should find people related to the Wang Mansion and get information from them to obtain the golden finger. You two have good observation skills.”

Ling Zhuo modestly said, “Thanks to Teacher Lu’s reminder.”

Lu Chixie glanced at him, smiled, and said nothing.

For the next two hours, they wandered back and forth through the market on those two streets. They had a clue, but finding people was really difficult since there were only a few golden fingers. However, they were not in a hurry. 

When they saw street performers, Cheng Yafeng encouraged the two of them to give it a try.

Ling Zhuo was still hesitant when Lu Chixie had already walked over. There was a guqin there, and the person originally sitting in front of it gave up his seat for him. Lu Chixie plucked a string.

Cheng Yafeng whistled, “Nice, you can play this?”

Lu Chixie curved his lips and signaled Ling Zhuo, “Ling, come sing.”

Ling Zhuo walked to the microphone beside him and asked, “Can you really play?”

Lu Chixie smiled at him, “Yes. When my mom was young, she acted in a historical film that required playing this. She became interested and learned it, and I learned from her.”

Ling Zhuo knew which movie he was talking about. An Xin had indeed mentioned it in an interview before. He no longer doubted and asked, “What can you play?”

Lu Chixie replied, “Anything.”

Ling Zhuo adjusted the microphone and sang the song An Xin played and sang in the movie, which amazed everyone. Lu Chixie seemed surprised by his choice but raised his eyebrows and accompanied him.

As Ling Zhuo sang, Lu Chixie played the guqin. A crowd quickly gathered around them. Ling Zhuo’s voice was indeed good, and singing this kind of ancient style song was particularly captivating. However, he was somewhat distracted, glancing back at Lu Chixie several times.

Having gotten used to this person’s usual nonchalant attitude, seeing him seriously playing the guqin gave him an inexplicable, surreal feeling.

Lu Chixie looked up, their eyes met, and he smiled.

Ling Zhuo looked away.

When the song ended, applause erupted from the crowd.

From within the crowd, Qi Liangli shouted, “Zhuo ge!”

Ling Zhuo turned and noticed Qi Liangli and Zhong Yiran, who had somehow come over as well, feeling a bit embarrassed. They walked up, and Zhong Yiran glanced at Lu Chixie, who completely ignored him.

“You sang wonderfully,” Qi Liangli said excitedly to Ling Zhuo.

Ling Zhuo replied, “I just sang casually…”

Zhong Yiran also said, “You did sing well.”

“Really?” Ling Zhuo finally smiled.

Lu Chixie called out to him, “Ling, don’t I deserve some credit for your great singing with my accompaniment?”

Ling Zhuo quickly said, “Thank you, Teacher Lu.”

Lu Chixie chuckled, seemingly dissatisfied with Ling Zhuo’s tone.

Ling Zhuo ignored him.

Zhong Yiran’s team also had a female guest. The two teams exchanged information, and Zhong Yiran’s team also had two golden fingers, but their clues were different from Ling Zhuo’s team.

Qi Liangli asked Ling Zhuo, “There are boats by the river ahead. Zhuo ge, do you want to go boating with us?”

Ling Zhuo was somewhat tempted. Cheng Yafeng said, “Let’s go together and take a look. We probably won’t find anything else here.”

Ling Zhuo nodded immediately, “Okay.”

As for Lu Chixie, the minority obeys the majority, and his opinion didn’t matter.

The river was just a bit ahead of the market, with several small black awning boats docked. The boats were small; aside from the boatman, each boat could only hold two more people at most.

Qi Liangli was the first to jump onto a boat and, very gentlemanly, extended his hand to the female guest on his team, “Ling Jie, join me?”

The female guest smiled, “What about Yiran?”

Qi Liangli said, “Don’t worry about him; he can sit with Zhuo ge.”

Zhong Yiran boarded the next boat and then extended his hand to help Ling Zhuo.

Lu Chixie said, “Ling, you sit with me.”

Ling Zhuo glanced at him and, holding Zhong Yiran’s arm, boarded his boat.

Lu Chixie’s face darkened. Cheng Yafeng chuckled and patted him on the shoulder, “Come on, let’s get on the boat too.”

The boat moved forward along the winding river. Ling Zhuo kept taking pictures with his phone, occasionally turning to joke with Zhong Yiran.

While they talked, Zhong Yiran even took the phone from Ling Zhuo to take a picture of him. Ling Zhuo seemed very pleased with the result and then took a photo of Zhong Yiran. They even took a selfie together.

Lu Chixie’s boat was trailing behind. His expression was inscrutable as he kept staring at the two people on the boat ahead.

Beyond the river was a wide lake covered with lush green lotus leaves and blooming lotuses. The black awning boat slowed down intentionally as it sailed through.

Up ahead, Ling Zhuo leaned out of the boat, pointing at a blooming lotus on the water, and said something to the person next to him, making them both laugh.

Lu Chixie narrowed his eyes.

As they passed that spot, he stared at the lotus Ling Zhuo had pointed at for two seconds before reaching out and forcefully breaking it off.