Chapter 106

Chapter 106 [VIP] Extra Three (Honeymoon Two)

According to the plan, they were supposed to stay in Bodø for one day and then take a ferry to the Lofoten Islands, but due to bad weather, they stayed another day in Bodø.

Luckily, they had an extra day. After lunch, they had nothing to do and went to a big supermarket in the city center to buy some supplies, ensuring that they wouldn't starve during their troubled island journey.

"Ah..." An Ye crouched in front of the dairy fridge, staring blankly with her mouth open.

Shi Tuo pushed the cart over, bent down, and rested his chin on her head. "What's wrong?"

"I can't understand a single word. I just want to buy skimmed milk..." An Ye pointed at the wall full of dairy products. There were very few items with English labels, and everything was in Norwegian. She didn't even feel like pulling out her phone to look up the translation—there were too many.

While using his phone to translate, Shi Tuo told An Ye, "Pick a few. If we can't find skimmed milk within ten options, we won't drink milk."

An Ye: "..."

Only after traveling did she realize that Shi Tuo had probably gotten used to being alone in a foreign country. He was very laid-back.

This attitude of "if we can’t find it, just let it be" made the trip much more enjoyable.

An Ye picked a bottle with white packaging, featuring a cow drawing with a heart. Shi Tuo scanned it with his phone, then translated, "Yogurt."

An Ye: "…Why does yogurt have a heart drawn on it?!"

"Probably because it's delicious." Shi Tuo casually looked up the brand and showed her the description. "Good pasture, good cows."

An Ye: "…Oh."

She then picked up a black bottle.

The packaging was very artistic, with a huge zero on it. Apart from that, Shi Tuo stood there for a while, but couldn’t find any other text.

"Could it be zero fat?" An Ye started guessing randomly.

"It could also be zero lactose, zero gluten, zero sugar..." Shi Tuo muttered as he found a line of text at the very bottom of the package.

An Ye tilted her head back and smiled at him. Just as she was about to speak, she paused and turned to look toward the fresh food section.

"What’s wrong?" Shi Tuo looked down at her.

"It seems like someone is filming us..." An Ye, with the professionalism of a female celebrity, subconsciously adjusted her hair. "But maybe not."

It was Sunday, and there was a special offer in the fresh food section, so the store was quite crowded.

There were also some Asian faces around, but just like them, they were either holding their phones, unsure whether they were taking photos or translating.

When they turned around, no one seemed to be looking at them.

An Ye pulled up the turtleneck of her sweater.

Shi Tuo took a mask out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She had eaten instant noodles yesterday.

Every time she ate instant noodles, she would complain about swelling the next morning, and today, she definitely didn't want to be photographed.

This was also a compulsion that had been forced upon her by Wang Shanshan. She’d been like this since she was a child, and it would probably be hard to change now. Shi Tuo indulged her, letting her have these small anxieties about her body and appearance. He treated it as a minor habit and let it be.

Different purposes, naturally, led to different feelings.An Ye put on the mask, as if putting on armor, and eagerly continued studying the wall of dairy products. On the sixth try, she finally found a bottle of skim milk, placed it in the cart, and lowered her head to follow behind Shi Tuo, playing on her phone.

Shi Tuo turned around and spoke twice, but she didn't look up. The match-3 game was stuck at a crucial level, and this spendthrift had probably used all the data from the sim card on the game.

Shi Tuo sighed, pulled her over, and tucked her between him and the cart, then slowly moved forward.

"Do you want some biscuits?" he asked.

"Whole grain." An Ye tapped her phone rapidly.

"...I want cheese." Shi Tuo held up a bag of cheese crackers, looking conflicted.

An Ye glanced at him, then reached out to toss the huge bag of cheese crackers into the cart. "Then I'll eat two less."

"Do you want to buy some meat?" When they reached the fresh food section, Shi Tuo asked again.

There were indeed people taking photos of them. An Ye hadn’t noticed, but when Shi Tuo turned around to look at the spices, he saw two Asian people—a man and a woman—who didn’t manage to hide quickly enough.

Shi Tuo didn’t say anything, but subtly pulled An Ye to the left to avoid the camera.

"Let's buy shrimp or salmon," An Ye suggested. "The meat here doesn’t taste good."

She had felt the same when they were in Finland.

Shi Tuo grabbed a bag of shrimp.

The two of them wandered around the huge supermarket for a while, and by the time they made a loop, the people trying to take sneaky pictures couldn’t see them anymore.

An Ye crouched in front of the liquor shelf, studying the bottles, while Shi Tuo took out his phone and tapped the screen.

It was the same position as before at the dairy section: An Ye crouched down, and Shi Tuo bent over with his chin resting on her head.

They had created their own little world, so the snowstorm, the foreign land, and the incomprehensible Norwegian all turned into mere scenery along the way.

This supermarket trip resulted in constant bombardment from Qi Wei in the workgroup when An Ye and Shi Tuo got into the car to board the ferry early on the third day.

They had indeed been photographed, and it wasn’t just one shot.

They had been shopping at the supermarket around noon yesterday, which was just after work hours back in China. The photos had fermented for a day and were now trending on the hot search.

Wei Qi: [Four people! Four angles, plus a video! An Jiu Jiu, are you blind?! The clothes you wore today are even men's clothes! Where’s that whole suitcase of yours? Why did you wear Shi Lu’s down jacket? The big one could fit three of you!]

Little Goose: [Because it's cold.]

Wei Qi: [...The studio has issued a statement, saying it's a private trip.]

Shi Tuo: [Okay, thanks.]

Yao Dong Yao: [But the photos turned out really nice...]

Ma Lan Tou: [Quietly adding one more.]

Wei Qi: [Don’t encourage her to dress casually when going out! She has fashion endorsements! Also, can you throw away all of Shi Lu's black clothes? Haven’t you realized that you’re almost being assimilated? Nine out of ten photos of you that have been secretly taken recently are in black!]

Little Goose: [We’re on the boat, no signal.]

Wei Qi: [No, Shi Lu, could you at least act like it? You and An Jiu Jiu are both wearing the same three-word multipliers. Who are you fooling? Where is she? Why is her phone with you?]Shi Tuo: [......]

Shi Tuo: [Video]

The so-called couple with no signal, the little video was uploaded after just one quick loop.

In the video, An Ye is curled up in the ferry cabin, holding a piece of biscuit in her mouth, with her left cheek puffed out. She is holding a large bag in her arms, looking somewhat bewildered at the camera.

In the video, Shi Tuo says, "Qi Wei is going crazy."

An Ye, expressionless, swallows the biscuit and holds the biscuit bag up to the camera. "Let her see me eating this, she’ll go crazy like a groundhog."

Wei Qi: [………………]

Wei Qi: [All dead from anger.jpg]

Shi Tuo stopped responding to the workgroup and opened Weibo. There was a trending topic, but the heat wasn’t high.

However, the fan club was very active. Shi Tuo scrolled for a bit and saved the best photos.

They were indeed well taken. He bent over with his chin resting on An Ye’s head. An Ye was wedged between him and the cart. There was also a shot of them bending over together to pick shrimp. The supermarket lighting was perfect, and the photos had a strong atmosphere.

The comments below were full of people getting obsessed over how perfect they looked together. Some bystanders even uploaded a short video, with their voices faintly audible. In it, Shi Tuo was buying pasta, and An Ye said his pasta wasn’t as tasty as the simple noodles, and then the two of them started searching the entire supermarket for spring onions.

Now and then, there were shots of An Ye playing the match-3 game, with Shi Tuo reminding her about swapping the red and blue pieces, saying the most trivial things.

This wasn’t the first time they were photographed since publicly announcing their relationship and quick marriage. However, this time there were more photos and even some videos.

At first, including Qi Wei, everyone thought it was just private matters being sneakily filmed, and after chatting about it briefly in the group, they all went their separate ways.

No one expected that such a casual instance of being secretly filmed would cause An Ye and Shi Tuo’s fanbase to explode on the trending topic.

Since their public announcement of their relationship last year, the scandal had swept through, reshuffling the entertainment scene. After their sudden marriage, An Ye openly retweeted her husband’s fan account, and in the year since, photos taken by fans, reporters, and bystanders started circulating.

In the supermarket, in restaurants, at airports, at the premiere of Sunshine City, there weren’t many, but together, they revealed that the two had been inseparable outside of work.

Shi Tuo had some habitual actions. For example, when he saw someone secretly filming them, he would pull An Ye aside to hide. Also, whenever An Ye furrowed her brow, Shi Tuo would instinctively reach out to touch her head. Whenever An Ye spoke, Shi Tuo always responded.

An Ye, on the other hand, didn’t have any habitual actions. Before marriage, she was rarely photographed in public, and when she was, the photos were mostly edited ones for promoting their public relationship. After marriage, her private life was more frequently captured, and many of the ten photos were unedited and candid.

Several times she was photographed wearing men's jackets. Many times, when they went out and realized they were being secretly filmed, she would take a mask from Shi Tuo’s pocket.

In front of others, they didn’t show much intimacy. While their physical interactions appeared affectionate, they weren’t overly intimate. The photos mainly showed them doing the most ordinary things—shopping, eating, and watching movies—but when strung together over hundreds of days, these photos became something fans could obsess over.

Moreover, unlike other celebrity couples, many of An Ye’s die-hard fans had small accounts in the CP fanbase, making them the most active group.

The big fanfiction writers joined in, and for a while, the fandom was buzzing with excitement.

As the heat increased, people started digging into An Ye and Shi Tuo’s past. Many people claiming to be their former classmates began popping up, and surprisingly, some of them were genuine.

“...Did you hide love letters from others given to me?” When they arrived at a famous restaurant in the Lofoten Islands, where the chandeliers were made of dried fish, and the food didn’t quite suit her taste, An Ye had eaten a few bites and then started playing on her phone.

Shi Tuo took the leftover salmon from An Ye and asked, “Which time?”

An Ye: “......”

“In fourth grade, someone gave you a love letter. The handwriting was terrible, with a few lines of text and most of it written in pinyin.” Shi Tuo glanced at her. “He didn’t dare give it to you directly, so he secretly gave it to me and asked me to help him.”

An Ye: “And then?”“I said, if you’re going to write a love letter, at least check the dictionary. Why should I help you?” Shi Tuo recalled. “And then there was no ‘then’.”

Later, more and more people tried to use him as a channel to send love letters. His words became sharper, and eventually, there was no “after.”

An Ye ate her ice cream and laughed.

“I actually received a love letter for you too.” The unappealing food, the beautiful restaurant, and the snow-covered mountains outside made the memories feel clear and soft. “It was probably in the second year of middle school. A girl with long hair in our class prepared chocolate and a love letter for you, but she didn’t dare give it to you. She secretly came to me.”

“At that time, we had to be cautious, so I told her that we weren’t friends anymore. I told her to give it to you herself and even told her the route you took home.” An Ye thought for a moment and smiled. “But then that girl cried and said she didn’t dare.”

Shi Tuo had always been distant with strangers, but once you got close, you’d realize he was cold on the outside but a normal person on the inside—probably even more sensitive than most people.

Shi Tuo didn’t respond to An Ye’s story, just looked out the window.

It was a little past 1 p.m., and the sky already looked like dusk. The sea was calm, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance had a yellowish hue.

An Ye looked up at him.

“When we were younger,” Shi Tuo said, “I used to think that if I were the one sending you a love letter, you would definitely reject me.”

An Ye froze for a moment, put down her ice cream spoon. This was a question she had never considered.

“Maybe,” An Ye said uncertainly, thinking for a moment before nodding. “I think I would.”

“I was afraid of being separated from you,” An Ye said. “In the second year of middle school, my grades dropped to average. At that time, my mom actually wanted me to just focus on acting after my grades got a little worse, but you said your mom wanted you to go to Wangcheng First High School. You said your mom was always in a bad mood, like she could only be happy if your grades improved.”

“If you had gotten into Wangcheng First High School, we might have had to separate. So during the entire third year of middle school, I worked so hard to get into that school,” An Ye smiled as she remembered those days. “That was probably the time I worked hardest in my life.”

“I remember,” Shi Tuo said.

Shi Tuo remembered that time. He remembered how she stayed up past midnight doing practice questions. Every day, he would give her exercises and key knowledge points to work on, and she completed them all. Her grades visibly soared, like a rocket.

At that time, he didn’t know that her sudden drive was because she was afraid of separation.

Back then, he only knew that An Ye was working hard, so when they were in high school, he thought she could get into the same university as him. An Ye was always smart; as long as she worked as hard as she did in middle school, she would be fine.

But An Ye rejected him.

Because of An Ye’s rejection, Shi Tuo realized that their paths might diverge in the future, and he began to feel anxious.

At that time, neither of them wanted to be separated, but neither dared to speak out about their biggest fear.

“When did you start liking me?” An Ye suddenly asked, curious.

“I realized something was off in the third year of middle school,” Shi Tuo thought for a moment. “It wasn’t because of any particular thing. I remember it was because my desk mate was reading a yellow comic during math class. When the teacher walked over, he shoved the comic into my drawer…”

The comic had been left open and shoved in. After class, when Shi Tuo returned it, he inevitably saw the content inside.

That was Shi Tuo’s first encounter with such things. At that age, when puberty was starting and even hens seemed to have double eyelids, he was a little dazed when he saw those explicit images.

That night, he had a dream he couldn’t speak about, and when he woke up in the morning, he was even more confused.

He remembered the people in his dream.

He remembered every scene: he went to pick An Ye up for school, and An Ye was in her room, biting a hair tie while tying her hair. When she saw him, she looked at him through the mirror, and then he lowered his head. The two of them kissed, just like in the comic.

Then, he woke up, staring blankly at his bed.

“Ah…” An Ye suddenly realized, “That was the first time you washed your pants!”An Ye remembered too.

It was winter, on a certain weekend, the first snow of the year in Wangcheng. It had snowed all night, and early in the morning when she pulled open the curtains, everything outside was white. She immediately rushed to Shi Tuo’s house to drag him out to play.

At that time, Shi Tuo was squatting at the bathroom door, washing his underwear.

His face looked foul and very red.

During that time, the boys at school of similar age often talked about this, laughing loudly and teasing each other, saying things like, “You’ll definitely have to wash your underwear tomorrow morning,” so An Ye instantly understood.

She burst out laughing, and Shi Tuo, with a blank face, kicked her out of his house.

The transformation in a relationship between a man and a woman really happens in an instant. It’s like Pandora’s box opens, and it seems like you can never close it again.

After that, the naive and clueless teenage boy began to gradually fall deeper with each unintentional glance from the girl.

Thinking back, An Ye couldn’t help but laugh.

Shi Tuo also thought of the mischievous smile An Ye had back then and scooped up a bite of her ice cream, finishing it in one go.

An Ye: "……"

It was at this moment that the restaurant waiter came over. A handsome young man from Scandinavia, dressed in a neat uniform, with his left hand behind his back, politely spoke to them in English.

For the first time, neither of them completely understood the heavily accented English, so the waiter smiled and repeated himself.

He said that there would be a snowstorm tonight, and if they still had plans for the afternoon, it would be best to cancel them and make sure to return before nightfall.

At that time, it was already a little past 3 p.m., and the sky was about to darken.

The sea outside was eerily calm.

The waiter was eerily calm too. His expression was basically one that said, “You see, now the restaurant only has the two of you left. You two are really so calm,” his face subtly mocking them.

An Ye: "……"

Shi Tuo: "……"

Author's note:

Today was long!

I won’t update tomorrow, but will update the day after tomorrow.

The first 800 comments will get red envelopes~