My cousin asked me to go to Wuha, and Hanikezi stuck to me.

"Hey everyone upstairs! Come down and gather here right now!"

Old Wang stood in the courtyard of the inn, holding a megaphone, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"The 24-hour binding task has entered its second day! Chen Yi! Hanikezi! You two, get your three-meter ropes tied up right now! Don't even think about slacking off!"

Chen Yi, with one hand in his pocket, slowly walked down the wooden stairs from the second floor.

Hanikezi deliberately lagged behind him by three steps, her eyes darting around as she pretended to be studying the inn's carved wooden windows.

The two had just held hands in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras on the second floor, and now, facing more than a dozen cameras filming their faces in the courtyard, there was an extremely subtle tension in the air.

Xiao Fang ran over with a red nylon rope, with metal buckles at both ends.

"Brother, Sister Hani, I'm sorry to offend you."

Xiao Fang deftly snapped the buckles onto the wrists of the two men.

Three meters is a distance that is neither too long nor too short. It is just enough for two people to walk side by side, but if one person takes a slightly larger step, the other person will be pulled and stumble.

"Today we're going to Dali Old Town to complete our check-in task." Old Wang stared at the monitor, his lips curling into a wide grin. "Attention all groups, if the rope taut more than three times during the binding period, your lunch allowance will be deducted."

The live stream chat instantly filled the screen with comments.

"I could hear Old Wang's scheme all over Northeast China! He's forcing those two to get together!"

"They just aired the original footage yesterday, and today they're doing this forced pairing. The production team knows exactly what we want to see!"

"Waiting for the sweet moments! I want to see a two-way race!"

However, to the surprise of all netizens and the production team.

Throughout the morning of recording, Chen Yi and Hanikezi acted extremely "awkwardly".

Walking on the bluestone streets of Dali Old Town, the two of them felt as if a Milky Way were separating them.

The task Lao Wang assigned was to buy three kinds of Dali specialty snacks with fifty yuan.

Chen Yi, clutching his empty wallet, carefully calculated his expenses along the way. Hanikezi, on the other hand, was like a curious child, wanting to buy everything she saw.

When passing by a tie-dye shop, Hanikezi couldn't move and stared at the small cloth bag hanging at the door with shining eyes.

Chen Yi stopped in his tracks, mercilessly shattering her fantasy.

"The mission is to buy snacks, why are you buying a keychain?" Chen Yi asked indifferently.

"It's only ten yuan!" Hanikezi held up one finger, retorting confidently, "Can't I pay for it myself?!"

"The production team confiscated my personal phone and wallet this morning," Chen Yi said, looking down at her. "What are you going to offer in return? Your face?"

Hanikezi was furious, staring wide-eyed at Chen Yi.

"Fine, I won't buy it! Why are you being so aggressive!"

Hanikezi turned around angrily, deliberately taking large strides and rushing forward.

The red nylon rope on my wrist tightened instantly.

Chen Yi was pulled so hard that he stopped in his tracks.

"Can you slow down a bit?" Chen Yi frowned.

"You have long legs, so hurry up!" Hanikezi said without turning her head, her tone icy. "You pulled my wrist!"

"You walk like a compass, is that my fault?" Chen Yi retorted immediately.

The two of them were exchanging barbs, their tone tense and completely devoid of the flirtatious atmosphere they had shared in yesterday's video.

The style of the comments in the live stream suddenly changed.

"What's going on? Weren't they so sweet yesterday? Why are they suddenly arguing like elementary school kids today?"

"Are these two trying to avoid suspicion? After all, there was such a big public relations crisis just now, the company must have given them a heads-up."

"Oh no, it seems like my pairing is going to break up. They're avoiding each other way too much, they can't even talk properly."

Old Wang sat behind the monitor, his brows furrowed into a deep frown.

He wanted a sweet, romantic atmosphere, not this kind of head-to-head bickering.

"What are these two up to?" Old Wang muttered, stroking his chin.

The camera cuts to a hand drum shop on the roadside.

Deng Chao and Chen Chichi were resting on a bench at the entrance of the shop, each holding a glass of chilled plum juice.

Chen Yi and Hanikezi walked over one after the other.

Hanikezi had just bought a skewer of candied hawthorns from a roadside vendor and was now biting into the last half of one. Her cheeks were bulging, and her lips were smeared with sticky sugar syrup.

She instinctively reached into her pocket for a tissue.

The pocket was empty.

Just as she was about to turn around and call for her assistant, a hand with distinct knuckles reached out to her.

A neatly folded wet tissue stopped precisely below Hanikezi's line of sight.

Chen Yi didn't even turn his head; his gaze remained fixed on the silver jewelry shop on the opposite street corner, but his hand was steadily raised.

Hanikezi took the tissue very naturally, wiped her mouth, and handed over the leftover bamboo skewer.

Chen Yi caught the bamboo skewer, applied slight pressure with his thumb, and snapped the sharp end off with a "snap," then casually tossed it into the nearby trash can.

The whole process took less than five seconds.

There was not a single word exchanged, not a single glance exchanged.

It flows smoothly and naturally.

Deng Chao, who was sitting on the bench, suddenly sat up straight, almost spitting out the plum juice in his mouth.

Chen Chichi hadn't reacted yet, and turned to ask while biting his straw.

"Brother Chao, what's all the fuss about?"

"Are you blind?!" Deng Chao slapped Chen Chichi's thigh and pointed at the two people in front of them. "Look at those two!"

Chen Chichi looked in the direction Deng Chao was pointing.

Chen Yi and Hanikezi were walking side by side.

Although the two were more than a meter apart, their walking frequency, the amplitude of their hand swings, and even their simultaneous movements to avoid puddles to the left were as if they were cut from the same mold.

Deng Chao put down his cup, rushed forward, and stood directly in front of the two of them.

"Why are you two pretending not to know each other?" Deng Chao's eyes were sharp as his gaze swept back and forth between the two men's faces.

Hanikezi was startled and quickly took half a step back, putting her hands behind her back.

Chen Yi remained expressionless, lifting his eyelids to look at Deng Chao.

"Brother Chao, what's wrong with you again?" Chen Yi asked calmly.

"Don't give me that crap!" Deng Chao sneered, pointing at the shadows on the ground. "You two are even breathing in sync! The way you handed each other tissues and caught the bamboo skewers—my wife and I, even after ten years of marriage, couldn't achieve that level of coordination!"

Chen Chichi realized what was happening and ran over to join in the commotion.

"Yeah, cousin! You wouldn't even pick up a fallen soy sauce bottle at home, but you just helped someone break bamboo skewers?" Chen Chichi winked and leaned closer. "Your double standards are so obvious!"

Hanikezi's face flushed red all the way to the roots of her neck.

She was so focused on pretending not to know him in front of the camera that she completely forgot that the muscle memory they had developed in private was impossible to hide.

Chen Yi looked at Deng Chao without even blinking.

"Brother Chao, are you hallucinating because you've been taking care of the kids too much lately?" Chen Yi blurted out, his logic so sound that it was impossible to refute him. "I'm just afraid she'll be carrying a sharp bamboo skewer and wobbling around, pricking me."

Deng Chao was speechless for a moment, pointing at Chen Yi without being able to say anything for a long time.

The chat in the live stream room has gone completely crazy.

"Holy crap! Deng Chao is practically my online mouthpiece!"

"What the hell am I afraid of hurting you! Chen Yi's stubbornness is so extreme it could be nominated for intangible cultural heritage status!"

"This is what you call avoiding suspicion? This is clearly just like an old married couple's daily routine! I watched the tissue handover scene ten times over! It was so natural!"

"The most sophisticated way to show affection is to pretend you don't know each other! Chen Yi, you've got your comeuppance!"

The day's recording ended amidst noise and commotion.

11 PM, Dali Inn.

The fixed cameras in the corridor emitted a faint red light, and most of the staff had already gone to rest.

After taking a shower, Chen Yi, wearing a loose black hoodie, leaned against the wooden railing of the second-floor terrace, enjoying the breeze.

The night breeze in Dali carried a slight chill.

Very light footsteps came from behind.

Hanikezi, dressed in a fluffy pink pajama set, crept over like a thieving kitten.

She glanced at the camera at the end of the corridor and confirmed that this angle was a blind spot on the terrace.

Chen Yi turned his head, just about to speak.

Hanikezi suddenly reached out and quickly stuffed something into the large pocket of Chen Yi's hoodie.

Then she made a shushing gesture, winked at Chen Yi, and turned and ran back to her room in a flash.

The door clicked shut.

Chen Yi lowered his head and reached into his pocket.

My fingertips touched a hard little square and a folded piece of paper.

He took it out and glanced at it in the dim light of the corridor.

It is a milk candy, a specialty of Xinjiang.

Chen Yi unfolded the note with one hand; it was written in the girl's neat handwriting.

"You've had a tough day, you idiot."