CEO's Sweetheart is a Super Idol-Chapter 505 - 497: Desert Night 1

The fire pit was lit.

Yang Ni found two forked wooden sticks: "Let’s use these to prop up the pot!"

"That won’t work. We don’t have wire, and the wood will burn through in the fire." Lai Ruoxuan shook her head.

"So what now? I’m starving, I need food." Wu Zixuan knelt on the ground, looking defeated.

"I want grilled fish, I want sausages, ah!" Lv Fangxin wailed along.

The foodie girls were about to lose their minds.

At that moment, Ye Yuwei suddenly came running over: "Look what I found!"

"A barbecue rack!"

"Charcoal!"

"Wow! Captain, you’re amazing, truly our hero."

"Captain, I can sleep in your bed tonight..."

This last sentence triggered a wave of screams, as a certain someone was chased around by Zhang Zijing.

Meanwhile, Jiang Mengqi had already started her skewer-grilling mode.

The chicken drumstick sizzled in the heat, releasing an irresistible aroma that filled the camp.

The girls knelt around the fire pit, wide-eyed and solemnly staring at the big chicken drumstick.

"You all are scaring me with those looks!" Jiang Mengqi laughed as she sprinkled seasoning.

"Now I understand how hungry people in ancient times turned to cannibalism."

"The meat smells ridiculously good!"

"Zixuan, Fangxin, don’t freak me out."

Duan Yuxin, hearing her two older sisters’ remarks, backed away in horror.

"Let’s grill some corn! We’ve got corn here."

Ye Yuwei used skewer sticks to stick corn into the fire.

Lv Fangxin added two potatoes to the fire pit: "Once these are cooked, we can dip them in chili sauce."

"Yeah, we’ve still got some vegetables to grill." Lai Ruoxuan got up to go gather the veggies.

The group couldn’t wait and dug in.

"Crunch! Ah! Sand!"

"For real, I got sand too."

"Is it from the wind earlier? Do you think it’ll ruin our stomachs?"

"I don’t care. I’m eating anyway."

Lv Fangxin laughed as she ate: "We’ll just treat the sand as digestive aid. Like... a bit of friction."

Wu Zixuan also chuckled: "Let’s pretend it’s cumin powder." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The girls ignored whether it was too hot or sandy, eating like their lives depended on it.

"This potato looks like it’s been turned into charcoal, and it’s still raw inside!"

Duan Yuxin clawed at two blackened potatoes with a sharp tool.

"It smells pretty good though." Fu Xiaoyu leaned in, tempted by the aroma.

The two cleaned the potatoes, grabbed some chili sauce, and dug in.

"Haha, look at me. Do I look like a wilderness survival expert?" Qiqi put on sunglasses and pulled down her hat.

The group turned to look—she actually did resemble one a little.

"You’re just missing a scarf." Li Zimeng said, draping her own scarf over Qiqi.

"What are you doing? Using that to fish for noodles?"

Jiang Mengqi watched Fu Xiaoyu, who was using a charcoal clamp to fish noodles out of the pot.

"Chopsticks won’t cut it. They’re too short." Fu Xiaoyu replied, still fishing noodles.

By the second pot, the group had learned to use a shallower pot, but put in too many noodles.

Looking at the dried noodles sticking to the bottom, the girls gathered around, pouting as they pulled them out with chopsticks.

Their peculiar posture almost made the cameraman burst into laughter.

Ye Yuwei grabbed a plate and, while eating, fed noodles to Zhang Zijing beside her.

The two took bites from each other’s chopsticks, eating sweetly and intimately.

Soon enough, the girls faced a new challenge: cleaning up the leftover mess.

Since they had to keep the desert pristine, they packed up garbage in bags.

There were also used bowls and chopsticks to wash.

Another group started organizing belongings in the tent.

Suddenly, Qiqi let out a scream, shocking everyone.

It turned out a moth had flown in.

"How can there even be moths in the desert? I thought it’d only be little bugs."

"Not little bugs—scorpions!"

"Fangxin, stop scaring me like that. I hate bugs!"

Qiqi felt all creepy-crawly, dreading the thought of sleeping here tonight. She shuddered involuntarily.

By the next morning.

Even though the sun was up, the early morning remained unbearably cold.

They rekindled the remaining coals from last night, bringing them together to boil a pot of water.

The group prepared another pot of noodles, but there wasn’t enough for everyone.

After yesterday’s ordeal, many couldn’t even stomach food anymore.

The girls cleaned up the campsite thoroughly, getting rid of everything left undone from last night.

They buried all the ashes deep into the ground.

Ye Yuwei opened a bottle of water, drank a few sips, and washed her face.

A sense of the joy of being alive filled her body as she greedily inhaled the scent of water.

The group embarked on a new leg of their journey.

They had two more nights to survive in the desert.

Still, they felt as though they’d never see the end of the road. All they could do was keep walking, and walking some more.

With the jingle of camel bells, they began chasing the sunlight.

Above them, drones recorded their shadows and footprints from the sky.

By 9 a.m.

Yang Ni sat down abruptly in the sand.

"Yang Ni, are you okay?" Ye Yuwei asked, using her trekking pole for support as she walked over.

"I’m fine, just need to rest for a bit." Yang Ni replied while taking off her shoes.

Ye Yuwei immediately realized that her teammate’s foot injury must have flared up again.

"Yang Ni, we’ll wait for you."

"You can’t. If you wait for me, we won’t reach the campsite on time."

"We can’t leave you behind."

Ye Yuwei’s tone was firm. There was no way she’d abandon a teammate.

"I’m really fine. I’ll catch up with you guys."

"It’s impossible to catch up if you fall behind."

At that moment, the others gathered around, all saying they were tired and needed a break too.

Their support brought tears to Yang Ni’s eyes, filling her with warmth and guilt.

"I’ve got some ointment for injuries." Jiang Mengqi unstrapped her backpack.

The girls sat in the shade to rest, while the production team’s crew moved ahead without them.

The scenes were now filmed via drones and mounted cameras.

"Those jerks, they have no conscience. Can’t they let Yang Ni ride a camel or something?" Duan Yuxin complained fiercely.

"They just want us to humiliate ourselves—it gives them content." Meng Meixuan stabbed her trekking pole into the sand with frustration.

Having battled a cold yesterday, she had been unusually quiet, yet today she stood up and marched on with the others.

"I won’t let them see me weak. I’m not some pampered idol!" Duan Yuxin clenched her fists.

Everyone laughed; the team’s youngest seemed to be growing up.

"Can’t help it. Fans love treating us like fragile dolls and useless decorations." Li Zimeng fanned herself with her hat.

"Just wait until this show airs—I want to see who dares call us useless again."

Wu Zixuan’s remark made Meng Meixuan chuckle; among the "11 Flower Sisters" of their team, she was famously labeled the doll-like one.

For Wu Zixuan, the nickname "Sister" was a title she loved and loathed.

The thing that bothered her most was during their survival competition show.

Three performances—and not once did she truly beat her opponent.

"How far have we walked now?" Lv Fangxin asked.

Ye Yuwei checked her navigation app: "We’ve covered one-fifth of the distance."

"What?! You can’t be serious!"

"Oh my gosh! All that walking, and we’ve only gone this far?"

"Feels like we’ve been at this forever—breakfast’s long gone in my stomach."

"I can’t do this anymore. My shoulders are killing me."

Hearing they’d only progressed a fraction of the way, the girls nearly fainted on the spot.

"I’m just going to sleep on the sand. Let the sun roast me done." Jiang Mengqi collapsed onto the sand, pretending to swim.

"Kind of feels like a sunbath, though." Duan Yuxin found lying there rather relaxing.

Over in the corner, Lai Ruoxuan was digging in the sand.

"Qiqi, what are you doing?" Fu Xiaoyu asked, confused.

"I need to pee... but I won’t pollute the environment!" Qiqi said, spotting a beetle emerging from the sand.

Suddenly, everyone felt the urge to go.

After returning, Lv Fangxin muttered to herself: "The only good thing about this place is the lack of internet."

"True, it saves us the stress of Googling ourselves." Meng Meixuan nodded in agreement.

"Fans can be so annoying—some act totally deranged."

"Exactly, they’re just waiting for us to fall flat on our faces."

"Some even wish our group would break up, as if they’ll become superstars after we’re gone!"

"Their mentality is totally warped."

"Well, at least we don’t have too many ’toxic fans.’"

The mention of fan drama triggered endless complaints among the group.