Chapter 107

Chapter 107 [VIP] Extra Three (Honeymoon Three)

Actually, when they were driving back to the rented wooden cabin, aside from the almost deserted road with no cars or pedestrians, everything else seemed normal.

An Ye pulled out the weather forecast and took a look.

The weather forecast wasn't very helpful, as Norway had been experiencing wind and snow almost continuously lately. They had already checked before coming.

It was actually earlier this morning when they boarded the ferry, both their phones received a text in Norwegian. At the time, Qi Wei was relentlessly attacking them, and An Ye was busy eating the cheese biscuits, which were supposedly supposed to be eaten in moderation, so neither of them paid attention to the text.

Now, on the way back, An Ye translated the text and stared blankly at Shi Tuo.

Shi Tuo was focused on driving in the snow, not even turning his head, but he still knew she was looking at him: "What’s wrong?"

“The snowstorm…” An Ye said, somewhat confused, "It was sent this morning. There will be a strong snowstorm on the island in the next two days.”

“How strong?” Shi Tuo asked.

“The translation app says it’s a Heavy Snowstorm.” An Ye answered with a vague statement, "Then I couldn't understand the rest."

Shi Tuo: "…Shouldn’t be a problem. The waiter just now said that snowstorms are common in Norway during the winter."

“...The waiter was just saying that because you gave a big tip.” An Ye thought of the scene earlier and blushed.

It was basically hush money and an apology fee…

Thankfully, there were no people around, and they weren’t caught on camera.

“It’s fine.” By the time they were near their rented cabin, the small area was filled with isolated red cabins, many with lights on, just like them—tourists. “The worst that will happen is that the snow will block us from going outside.”

So, that turned out to be prophetic.

Actually, by 4 p.m., the weather was just a little more snowflakes and stronger winds. An Ye sat by the fireplace, watching the sea and the snow-capped mountains outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, still thinking it wasn’t as bad as the snowstorm in Bodø that night.

Later, before it got completely dark, the landlord came by, fully equipped, bringing them a whole iron barrel of candles and a few glass cups.

“It’s best not to go outside tomorrow or the day after. We’ve stocked up on enough drinking water in the fridge. There might be brief power outages, but don’t worry. This situation happens quite often during this season.” The landlord looked like a very typical Norwegian—light blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, and a chiseled Nordic face. He should have seemed cold, but when he said, “don’t worry,” An Ye could actually sense the businessman behind his sculpted face.

“Will the floor-to-ceiling windows be affected?” Shi Tuo asked.

One side of their rented cabin faced the sea, and the entire side had floor-to-ceiling windows. If the weather and timing were right, they could see the northern lights on the snow-covered mountains across the sea.

Of course, now it was just a blob of white and black.

“It won’t be affected.” The landlord said firmly, citing evidence, “This forecasted storm is a once-in-20-years snowstorm. 20 years ago, nothing happened to these windows.”

An Ye: "……"

Shi Tuo: "……"

“This angle here is sheltered from the wind,” the landlord emphasized once more before pushing his snowmobile to the next cabin to deliver more candles.

Shi Tuo closed the door.

An Ye tiptoed to look at the iron barrel in his arms.

They were the type of scented candles that could burn for four to six hours, the kind that could be placed in glass cups.

A whole barrel, at least sixty or seventy candles."We've made it." An Ye sighed, "In the past, when the power went out, the two of us could only afford the cheapest red candles at the supermarket."

"Fifty candles for seventeen yuan ninety." Shi Tuo clearly remembered the price, "That was my breakfast money for a whole week."

An Ye: "… I wanted to lend you money, but you didn’t want it."

"Teenage boys." Shi Tuo laughed, "My pride was sky-high. Borrowing money from you? I'd rather take on a few extra coaching jobs at night."

An Ye tilted her head to look at him.

Shi Tuo tilted his head to look back.

"Is it hard?" she asked.

Today, the topic had come up quite a few times, and An Ye was worried it might make him think of unhappy things.

"It’s not hard." Shi Tuo placed the iron barrel in the farthest corner from the fireplace and began counting their food supplies. "I wanted to tell you last month, let's go back to Wangcheng this year for Qingming. Let's go see Grandma."

An Ye sat on the carpet beside the fridge, helping him count the supplies while figuring out her schedule. "It might be a couple of days later. 'Ninety-Nine Days' has an interview during that time."

"Mm, okay." Shi Tuo took a bag of salmon. "Didn't notice when I bought it, but this one's smoked."

"Ah, I don't want smoked." An Ye shoved the salmon to the back corner of the freezer.

Shi Tuo calmly announced: "Alright, one less supply."

An Ye: "…"

Childish.

She grabbed a pack of pre-marinated cream prawns.

Shi Tuo: "… Did you grab the wrong one again?"

He didn’t like adding any creamy stuff to his dishes.

An Ye calmly announced: "Alright, two less supplies."

Shi Tuo: "…"

Two childish people.

The wind outside had grown stronger, and they could hear the clanking sound of the house's metal framework.

An Ye glanced outside the window, and Shi Tuo pulled her into his arms, enveloping her on three sides, and continued sorting through the fridge.

"Will the house collapse?" An Ye huddled in his embrace, looking outside.

During the day, the view outside seemed so beautiful, but at night, it looked just as terrifying. The sea wind whipped up ice and snow, pounding relentlessly against the surface of the water.

"It won't." Shi Tuo placed the food that didn’t require a stove in an easily accessible spot, while the ones that needed heating were placed inside. "Heavy snowstorms like this are common here. You see the grooves on the walls outside the house? They're for wind protection and to reduce the weight load from accumulated snow."

An Ye looked up at him, and because she was being held from behind, she had to tilt her head to a 90-degree angle to see his face.

"Am I handsome?" Shi Tuo kissed her forehead, a bit smug.

"Mm." An Ye smiled.

Very handsome, not the strange relaxed feeling he had when they first met, but the Shi Tuo that An Ye had known for a long time.They were cold in front of others, but when it was just the two of them, every word had to be thrown back at the other in a childish way.

That night, neither of them slept well.

The snowstorm arrived as expected. At first, listening to the crackling sound of the fire in the fireplace, lying in the dry, warm blankets, and hearing the wind and snow outside was quite therapeutic. They even made some hot ginger tea and wrapped themselves in blankets, sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window that looked like the scene of the apocalypse.

But by the middle of the night, the sound of the wind was no longer therapeutic.

First, the waves on the sea started to get bigger, and then something that sounded like snow or hail started banging against the roof. The balcony outside started leaking, and finally, the whole wooden house began to sway like it was on the sea.

Shi Tuo called the landlord. The landlord said the same thing as before, telling them it was just a small storm, nothing to worry about, and that it would be over in about half an hour.

The landlord also showed them where he lived, which was even closer to the wind. He sent them a video of his own skylight being hit by ice chunks, and every time it happened, the people in the video cheered rhythmically.

Very relaxing.

So, the couple, who hadn’t planned on running off to the Arctic Circle for their honeymoon, could only helplessly open a bottle of champagne, eat the entire bag of cheese crackers, and listen to the wind and snow outside.

The wind stopped when it was around 10 AM the next day, and then it was just continuous heavy snow.

The landlord was quite nice. Once the wind stopped, he came to fix the leaking part of the house and even shoveled snow off the roof twice.

For the entire day, An Ye and Shi Tuo huddled in front of the fireplace, watching the deep blue sea and endless snow outside. Visibility was very low, and the snow-capped mountains across the sea had already blended into the white.

Shi Tuo said that he had encountered similar snowstorms in Canada. Back then, he quite liked the snow, and in such weather, clearing snow could earn quite a bit of money.

But it was cold. At its worst, his thighs were covered in frostbite.

An Ye said she had filmed a martial arts movie in the snow. The snow on the roadside hadn't been cleared and was about 30 centimeters thick, with ice lumps underneath. She had a scene where she had to wear very thin clothes and bury herself in the snow, and it froze her waist, causing frostbite.

When they both compared their suffering, they curled up in the blankets.

After a year of marriage, they were very familiar with each other's bodies and knew the location of every scar, including the frostbites that could no longer be seen if you weren't paying attention.

In the blizzard, they started talking about the past, slowly recalling their sweet memories at first, but eventually, the conversation turned bitter.

Some pain could be directly touched, like the scars on their bodies that never faded. Some, however, were buried deep in their hearts, things they had once thought would never be brought up again.

But on this day, at the end of the world, with the layers of snow piling up on the skylight, they both brought up those pasts.

The one telling the story was calm, and the one listening was calm as well. The only thing that moved was the hand under the blanket, quietly caressing the scars on each other’s body.

It seemed that they had endured more hardships than their peers. They had been through a lot, some of which they had managed to get past, and some that they had suppressed with reason.

Those suppressed things would, in the quiet of the night, slowly peek out, reminding them that the time for reason was running out and that the days of losing control were not far away.

If they hadn't reunited, maybe this would have been their ending.

A bit more miserable than others, so they worked harder. But when they had given everything, and ahead of them was still nothing but emptiness, one day they would let themselves fall into the pain.

They never expected that, despite all they had gone through, they could have this kind of emotion, a kind of completeness, so much so that even in such harsh conditions, they could still feel happiness.

The scars were gradually smoothed out, turning into tiny, painless, and itchless wrinkles on their skin.

Then, when the night had completely fallen, the small house lost power.

There was no heating, but fortunately, the fire in the fireplace was still burning strong. As long as they didn’t get too close to the now-white windows, it was still warm.An Ye and Shi Tuo lit ten scented candles in glass cups, and the atmosphere in the room felt more complete, though their stomachs were still somewhat incomplete.

"Why did we wait until the power went out to cook...?" An Ye chewed on a whole wheat toast.

"Because you said you weren't hungry," Shi Tuo asked her to pass the salt.

He was attempting to fry an egg using the candles and tin foil from the glass cups. An Ye ate her toast while watching. After a minute, the egg actually started sizzling.

An Ye raised an eyebrow and folded the remaining tin foil into a square. She greedily asked, "Can we fry bacon and ham?"

"Sure." Shi Tuo indulged her greed.

So An Ye became even greedier, folding the tin foil into a little bucket. "Can we boil noodles?"

Shi Tuo looked at her with a blank expression.

An Ye rubbed her nose and folded the tin foil bucket a few more times, turning it into a bowl. She looked at Shi Tuo with sparkling eyes. "How about steamed eggs?"

"...Why don't you try making a cake?" Shi Tuo laughed. "You don’t even eat steamed eggs usually, don’t waste food."

An Ye shoved the remaining toast into Shi Tuo’s mouth.

"Why did we come to Norway?" She sighed, resting her chin in her hand. "It would’ve been so much better to stay home. At least we have natural gas."

Here, they only had an induction stove. Aside from playing pretend with tin foil to make tiny things, the rest was just cold, bland Western food.

"Because someone said the filming schedule in Finland was too tight and they didn’t have time to play in the snow, then they said it would snow heavily in Norway," Shi Tuo carefully moved the first fried egg onto a plate and cracked the second one.

It wasn’t wrong—there had indeed been heavy snow, but it was so heavy they couldn’t even go outside.

That someone sighed.

Shi Tuo flicked her earlobe, preparing to make a full meal with just these candles and glass cups.

After all, it was rare to see An Ye looking so eagerly at him, and they were really too bored. It was only a little after five, and it felt like once they finished eating, they’d just dive back into bed and fall asleep.

He scrambled the eggs, chopped a bit of salmon and shrimp, seasoned it, and carefully poured it into the tin foil bowl. He placed three candle glass cups underneath to keep it warm, trying to make the steamed egg An Ye had requested.

On another tin foil tray, he placed ham and bacon, along with two fried eggs.

An Ye sprinkled some parsley on top of the bacon.

The snow on the roof became too heavy, and with two creaks, it began falling off in large chunks, like cut tofu.

The snow on the skylight also began to fall. When they looked up, they briefly saw the dark sky, so dark, yet streaked with blue-purple clouds. Beneath the clouds, there were large, white snowflakes swirling down.

That night, An Ye ate the worst steamed egg she’d ever had in her life. The top was still runny, but the bottom had turned into an egg cake. The salmon and shrimp were edible but had no flavor.

But An Ye still ate it with a smile, lamenting how there could be something even worse than boiled, low-fat meals.

Of course, there was something even worse because of An Ye's experimental spirit, which led to steaks and pasta that ended up being swallowed down by Shi Tuo with a glass of ice water.

The amazing thing was, despite finishing all of it, neither of them had any stomach issues. That night, they cuddled under the covers and slept soundly until morning.

In the middle of the night, Shi Tuo got up, lifted the curtains, and glanced outside. He froze for two seconds, then quickly returned to bed.

An Ye groggily asked, "What happened?"

"It's nothing." Shi Tuo pulled her into his arms. "I must have been seeing things."An Ye: "?"

She rubbed her eyes and got up, moving to the spot where Shi Tuo had stood earlier. She lifted the curtain and glanced outside.

An Ye: "..."

An Ye: "Is that white thing piled outside the window snow?"

Shi Tuo: "No, it's cold outside. Come back to sleep."

An Ye: "Does that mean we can't go out tomorrow either?"

Shi Tuo: "Let's eat roasted fish tomorrow. I think if we dig through the snow outside, we might find some fish from the sea."

An Ye: "..."

An Ye: "..."

An Ye: "If you laugh at me again, I’ll open the door and let the snow drown you!"

Years later, in the long-running fan community of "99 Days," a behind-the-scenes interview from the film would be shared.

Because the male and female leads in the movie met during the male lead's brother's honeymoon, the host asked An Ye, who had been married for over a year at the time, if she had a similarly romantic honeymoon in real life.

An Ye, looking at the camera with a serious face, pursed her lips and said, "My honeymoon was much more romantic than the one in the movie."

After saying that, she suddenly lowered her head and smiled.

And then her smile was unstoppable.

So one of the unresolved mysteries in the fan community was what exactly happened during their honeymoon in Norway that made the usually quiet An Ye smile so mischievously in front of the camera.

Author's Note:

The honeymoon is finished!

Tomorrow should be about variety shows, since so many people requested it, I'll write it. Those who don’t like it can skip it, though. There might be a lot of bullet comments tomorrow...

The first 800 comments will get red envelopes!