Chapter 147.2: The New Year Ends, Departure for Mangila
Whether it was thinking about his friends offline or his fans online, Shen Xiu couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming excitement. And once he got excited, he just couldn’t fall asleep.
Trying to help Shen Xiu get used to this kind of emotional stimulation—so it wouldn’t continue to affect his sleep—the system suggested:
[Since you’re not going anywhere for the New Year, why not start a livestream?]
Chatting more with fans in a live setting might help Shen Xiu acclimate to the emotional highs. Maybe, over time, he’d stop getting so wound up that he couldn’t sleep.
Shen Xiu imagined what it was like when he used to go home during school holidays and murmured, “Most people are either working or studying away from home. It’s only during New Year that they get to be with their families. How could I possibly go live and ask them to spend that time with me?”
Besides, he didn’t feel he had the right to “compete” with his fans’ families for their time.
System: […]
So, in Shen Xiu’s mind, going live meant his fans were accompanying him?
It was just a simple holiday livestream, yet Shen Xiu’s train of thought had spiraled all the way to “companionship.” The system was momentarily speechless—unsure whether to chalk this up to Shen Xiu having lived a tough life… or to his incredibly strong sense of emotional projection.
Also… whose college senior starts writing their thesis when they haven’t even seen the shadow of their fourth-year classes?
The system couldn’t comprehend. It was, in a word, stunned.
Staring at the computer screen, the system muttered faintly: [Isn’t it just a tiny bit early to be writing your thesis?]
Shen Xiu’s long fingers continued tapping away on the keyboard without missing a beat.
“I’m not doing anything else anyway…” he replied matter-of-factly.
Just as Shen Xiu and the system had predicted, the following three days of the New Year passed in a simple, quiet fashion.
If he wasn’t at the cemetery talking to his parents, Shen Xiu was lurking in chat groups, silently watching his friends interact. And whenever the conversation shifted to a topic he could actually join in on, he would instantly chime in, chat excitedly, and then return to the study to continue working on his thesis.
…
In the blink of an eye, the New Year holiday came to an end.
Most office workers had their holidays extended until either the 8th or the 15th, but due to tight filming schedules, the Storm crew had already purchased their tickets and set out for Mangila by the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.
That very evening, the entire Storm team arrived at the hotel in Mangila, which the crew had pre-booked for them.
On the fifth day of the New Year, the production team posted an announcement in the group chat, confirming that everyone was to gather at the hotel entrance the next morning at 8 a.m. to take a shuttle to the port, where they would board a boat and head out to sea.
The members of The Galaxy, who had arrived in Mangila at different times the previous day after several connecting flights and long hours of travel, were all exhausted. Wanting to be in top form for the shoot, they mutually agreed not to meet up and only briefly checked in via the group chat.
Shen Xiu had arrived earlier than the others. By pure chance, he had discovered the location of the hotel’s gym and, thanks to his habit of waking up early, didn’t even need an alarm to rise on time.
What’s more, he had gone to bed relatively early the night before, which meant he woke up a full hour earlier than usual.
Feeling that he had nothing better to do, Shen Xiu headed to the gym for a morning workout.
By around 7 a.m., people began trickling into the gym. What had started as just Shen Xiu training alone soon turned into a crowd of sixteen.
Shen Xiu quickly realized that several of the people there were watching him. To him, it felt no different than being awkwardly trained for the first time in front of a strange fitness coach.
Uncomfortable, Shen Xiu decided to leave. He returned to his hotel room, took a shower, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and had the hotel breakfast before heading downstairs to the transport provided by the crew.
The driver, dozing off while leaning against the car, jolted awake the moment he saw Shen Xiu walking toward him. His sleepiness vanished in an instant.
As Shen Xiu approached, the driver heard his slightly hoarse voice through the mask.
“Good morning.”
“G-Good morning,” the driver replied, quickly opening the car door for him. He couldn’t help but comment, “You’re here really early!”
A moment later, Shen Xiu’s cool voice sounded again.
“…Not really.”
He hadn’t planned to be this early—but plans never quite kept up with reality. He couldn’t stay in the gym, and staying too long alone in his room wasn’t appealing either. If he came down too late, there was a 99% chance he’d be stared at by a whole group of people while getting in the car.
Weighing the pros and cons, Shen Xiu had decisively chosen: better early than late.
He had no intention of repeating his training camp nightmares.
The driver: “!”
As expected of the God of Competence—he even competes at arrival times! If he weren’t the designated driver, responsible for transporting crew members, he’d probably still be asleep in his hotel room right now. At the earliest, he would’ve dragged himself out of bed around 7:50 to wash up and dash downstairs, skipping breakfast entirely.
Now, seeing Shen Xiu already seated in the car, the driver felt too embarrassed to keep yawning and slacking off like before. But pretending to be busy? That was even harder. So, he simply came up with an excuse to leave.
“Mr. Shen, I’m going to grab some breakfast. Will you be okay waiting here alone?”
Shen Xiu: “!”
In the middle of stressing over what suitable small talk to make with a crew member, Shen Xiu heard those words as if they were divine intervention.
Overjoyed, he answered quickly, “Yes!”
“See you later, Mr. Shen!”
Not wasting a single second, the driver turned and walked off briskly.
Shen Xiu watched his back for a few seconds. Still catching his breath, he instinctively raised a hand to his nose and only then realized—after boarding the car, he’d been so preoccupied with thinking up conversation topics that he’d completely forgotten to take off his mask.
Shen Xiu withdrew his gaze from the driver’s departing figure and, slightly embarrassed, took off his face mask.
Once it was off, he sat in the very back row of the van and, taking advantage of the solitude, drew in a long, deep breath.
—
As eight o’clock drew nearer, the nine members of The Galaxy began arriving one after another, making their way toward the van marked with the production crew’s logo at the hotel entrance, just as instructed.
By 7:45, all nine had arrived—except for Ning Sinian.
With Xiang Yueting on board, Shen Xiu wasn’t remotely worried about any awkward silences.
Ever since Xiang Yueting got on as the third passenger, the chatter in the van hadn’t stopped for a second.
At 7:50, Ning Sinian finally rushed up to the actors’ van.
The moment the door slid open, he was met with Zhuang Yi’s face. His foot, mid-step, paused for a second—then he collected himself and climbed in with a perfectly calm expression.
As the door closed, Xiang Yueting fixed his eyes on Ning Sinian. “Sinian, don’t you have something you want to say?”
While speaking, he waggled his brows exaggeratedly toward Zhuang Yi’s direction.
Meeting Xiang Yueting’s not-so-subtle look, Ning Sinian immediately shook his head. “Nope!”
Zhuang Yi sighed and shot a withering look at Xiang Yueting. “How many times are you going to ask? Ask again, and I swear I’ll rearrange your face after filming’s done.”
Xiang Yueting dramatically clutched his face and leaned back as if deeply wounded. “This was the last time, I swear! I just—it’s the first time I’ve seen anyone go home for five days over New Year’s and come back four pounds heavier. That’s like gaining a pound a day. Incredible!”
Zhuang Yi touched his own face, defeated. He hadn’t meant for it to happen, either. But with the kind of New Year he had—five or six meals a day, group dinners at 2 a.m.—not gaining weight was nearly impossible. Especially since, unfortunately, whenever he gained, it always went straight to his face. Normally, he didn’t dare overeat even a little.
During the New Year holidays, it was easy to let his guard down. While eating, Zhuang Yi hadn’t thought much of it—but when he looked in the mirror before returning to the set, he had a sudden urge to die.
Especially when he saw his friends—the looks in their eyes made it clear that his face had definitely put on weight. Even though… no one besides Xiang Yueting actually said anything out loud, their eyes said it all.
Now, all he could hope was that Director Xuan wouldn’t chew him out too badly.
Hearing Xiang Yueting’s comment, Shen Xiu couldn’t help but glance over at him, silently wondering—Is Xiang Yueting really not afraid of getting punched?
Zhuang Yi sighed, pinched his own cheek, then suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned around and looked toward the usually quiet Shen Xiu in the back row. “Captain Xiu, have you been working out lately?”
He wasn’t a fan of exercising, but if someone supervised him—especially the Big Boss Captain Xiu—Zhuang Yi thought maybe he could stick with it.
Before Shen Xiu could answer, Song Chengwang shoved his phone in Zhuang Yi’s face. “What do you think?”
On the screen was a candid photo—someone had secretly snapped a picture of Shen Xiu running on a treadmill in the hotel gym.
The timestamp showed the photo had been posted around 7 a.m.
— That early?! Wait, no, that’s not the point. The point is, based on the location tag, this was in Mangila! Why is Xiu-baby in Mangila already?
— Now I finally understand how Boss Xiu keeps his eight-pack abs!
— Xiu-baby, what kind of sack do you like? I’ve got them in every color—wait for me, I’m teleporting to Mangila right now!
Seeing the photo and the posting time, Zhuang Yi quietly asked, “Captain Xiu, what time did you start running in the gym this morning?”
From the sweat on Shen Xiu’s forehead and neck in the photo, there was no way he’d only been running for ten or fifteen minutes.
Shen Xiu finally understood why, when he was at the gym earlier, the newcomers kept staring at him. Turns out, someone had taken a photo of him running and posted it online. Maybe those people had seen the photo on the internet, and when they saw him in real life, they were just curious and looked a bit more.
“Six in the morning,” he replied. He’d gone to bed early the night before, so he’d woken up an hour earlier than usual.
After hearing Shen Xiu’s answer, Zhuang Yi suddenly felt a strong urge to give up.
Waking up at six a.m. just to work out and maintain a perfect figure? That’s insane!
“Haha, that’s really early…” Zhuang Yi chuckled awkwardly and firmly decided not to bring up the idea of asking Shen Xiu to train him again.
Way too early. He couldn’t get up that early, and he was afraid Shen Xiu would kill him with just a look.
Shen Xiu didn’t know what else to say, so he just nodded and replied, “Mm.”
…
At 8:00 a.m., the entire Storm crew had assembled, and they set off for the port.
By 8:30, the crew’s vehicles arrived at the dock.
One by one, the passengers got off the bus. Shi Yu, the producer who had been dragged here by Xuan Yushu, stepped out and looked at the dock crowded with all kinds of large and small luxury yachts and boats. For a moment, he couldn’t tell which was which.
He pulled out his phone and dialed the contact he’d spoken with earlier. “Hello, I just wanted to confirm which one I rented…”
While Shi Yu was on the phone, Xiang Yueting’s eyes couldn’t stay still for a second. Before his phone could be confiscated, he quickly pulled it out and started taking pictures of the luxurious yachts docked by the pier.
After snapping a few, he opened his photo album and started admiring them closely. Suddenly, he exclaimed, “Hey! Look at this!”
As if he’d made an exciting discovery, Xiang Yueting strode over to Xia Wenhao and the others, waving his phone excitedly. “This yacht has the letters ‘SX’ printed on it—exactly the same as Captain Xiu’s initials!”
Hearing that, Shen Xiu immediately thought of the last time the system bought a car. But cars and yachts were completely different matters—he could afford a car with his earnings, but a yacht? Absolutely not.
Nervously, Shen Xiu asked the system: [You didn’t take out a loan to buy a yacht for me, did you?!]
