Showbiz Scandal: The Official Announcement of My Ex and Myself-Chapter 290: Falling into a Trap

"That’s right, so we should try to find a place where there are people. Ideally, farmland that’s been developed, or even better, a river."

If there’s a river, there could be fish, shrimp, crabs, and we wouldn’t even need pots or pans. Just a stick to skewer the fish and roast them will do.

Yu Xia’s imagination made her mouth water, and the raspberries she was eating tasted bland in comparison.

"This episode is really playing big—survival plus escape. I seriously doubt if there will be a winner this time. Maybe nobody will even make it to the final stop because they’d all be eliminated. With no food, who can bear that?"

Xie Qingci pulled out a knife from his bag, sharpened the walking stick he was holding, raised an eyebrow, and looked at her, "I think it’s quite possible for you."

"Ah? Me?" She pointed at herself, "What makes you think I have such endurance and resilience?"

"I just feel that, maybe when I don’t want to persist anymore, you’ll drag me to the finish line."

And perhaps scold me, saying that if I’m a man, I should just roll and crawl forward.

Yu Xia thought about it and couldn’t help but laugh.

It might really happen.

The two of them laughed quietly to themselves, sitting face to face on the dead tree trunk. They didn’t meet each other’s eyes, but the harmonious and natural atmosphere was undeniable, even if they intentionally looked away.

After resting for a while, they set off again. This time, Yu Xia didn’t let Xie Qingci carry her. She took the sharpened stick and poked it as she walked.

Like a blind person using a cane.

The forest was quite large. Before entering, they thought it was just level ground, but as they ventured deeper, they encountered a steep slope.

It seemed to cut through a low mountain. The variety of trees increased, and the branches on the slope connected, extending some fresh and soft vines.

They didn’t climb up immediately. Xie Qingci walked around below, checked the positioning system on his phone for about two minutes, and then decided on a place.

"We’ll go up from here," he handed her the phone to see, "We’ve gone pretty far from the first checkpoint. The map shows there’s a river not too far away. After crossing this mountain, we should see it in about two or three hours."

A bit far, but it’s better than no hope at all.

The map only showed the first checkpoint and their current position. The location of the next checkpoint hadn’t appeared yet, so for now, they could only look at the photo and search aimlessly.

She put the phone away and nodded, "Okay, let’s climb higher to see where the mountain in the photo is."

This really felt like a wilderness survival game, with no food around and needing to find a water source.

Xie Qingci reached out and pulled away the blocking vines on the outer edges, using his knife to cut down the thinner branches and attach them to his backpack.

"I’ll go first." He grabbed the trunk of a tree, took a big step up without needing to climb at all.

Once he was steady, he bent down and extended his hand, "Come."

Yu Xia steadied herself, placed her hand in his palm, and with one pull, climbed the high slope successfully.

The two were a bit close together, but Xie Qingci seemed oblivious, turning to explore ahead and advising her, "Stepping on the leaves might be slippery, you can hold onto the backpack."

Which meant holding onto him.

She didn’t refuse, grabbed the backpack, and asked him, "Why are you bringing along those branches?"

"Sharpened, they can be used as chopsticks."

He didn’t turn around and continued climbing while answering by pulling the branches. This slope was tricky to traverse, so they moved slowly, constantly looking around as they went.

Then the drone following them made an announcement.

"One team of guests has been captured! One team of guests has been captured! Captured guests are converted and become part of the pursuers! Attention escapees, good luck!"

The two exchanged a glance instinctively.

"If caught, they become pursuers?" Xie Qingci frowned, "That makes it more dangerous for the remaining ones."

Yu Xia was briefly surprised but wasn’t too fazed, casually saying, "They signed a contract, after all. Having no screen time after just a day isn’t worth it, it makes sense."

This news didn’t immediately endanger them; continuing was more important.

After lots of climbing, they finally reached a higher spot and discovered a barely noticeable path.

"Someone’s been here, but maybe no one has taken this path recently, so it’s become overgrown," Yu Xia’s eyes lit up.

Xie Qingci also smiled, "Signs of people mean there should be people living nearby or someone lived here before. Let’s follow this path and see."

The lush wild grass and vines grew about half a meter tall, tickling them as they passed through. Occasionally, some poked through clothes and stung the skin a little.

She pressed her lips together, avoiding what she could, enduring what she couldn’t, pressing down on the grass before moving forward.

Just as she pressed down a patch of fuzzy unknown wild grass, Xie Qingci from in front turned back and smiled, "I see a wild Sichuan pepper tree, should we go pick some?"

"Sure." She tiptoed to look past him and indeed saw a tree a few meters away laden with green wild Sichuan pepper, its fruits heavy, weighing down the branches significantly.

She took a step forward, just about to ask what difference the taste of these had compared to cultivated ones when, unexpectedly, before her, Xie Qingci lost his footing and toppled over sideways.

Startled, she immediately lunged to grab him, "Xie Qingci!"

She only grabbed the backpack strap, unable to hold onto the weight of a grown man, and ended up falling into the wild grass with him, the grass scraping her face uncomfortably.

Luckily, the wild grass wasn’t entirely useless; Xie Qingci grabbed onto a handful of vines, managing to hang onto the edge without falling all the way down.

Yu Xia lifted her head and finally saw clearly—beside them was an abandoned watering pond, the sort built around fields for irrigation, about two meters deep.

This pond hadn’t been used for a long time, completely dry, filled with soil mounds, stones, weeds.

The surrounding wild plants were so lush that they hadn’t even noticed this dry pond was here.

Still holding the backpack, she crawled to the pond’s edge and asked Xie Qingci, "How are you holding up? Can you keep your grip? I’ll pull you up."

Xie Qingci’s muscles were taut, veins bulging on his neck. He shook his head, "You can’t pull me up. This grass is quite strong; I’ll try climbing up by gripping it. Step back a bit."

"Alright." She didn’t waste words, immediately letting go of the backpack and stepping aside, watching him slowly climb up with the help of the grass.

Just as he was about to reach the top, the wild grass on the side gave way, the roots detaching from their flimsy layer of soil.

Unable to find another hold, Xie Qingci slipped down again. Without thinking, Yu Xia lunged to grab his hand once more.

In the process, her wrist grazed something, leaving a cut. She didn’t even have time to wince at the pain before being yanked down along the arc pressed out by the grass, pulled down by Xie Qingci.

"Ah!"

Thud—a heavy noise as they fell into the dry pond. Xie Qingci landed on his back, the tent in his backpack absorbing some of the impact.

Yu Xia was sprawled on top of him, hands protecting the back of his head, her chest pressed against his throat.

Almost a face full of chest.