Chapter 49: At Ease

After Yu Hui finished his tirade, Xu Shujian glanced at Pan Yun. He felt that this part of the discussion could come to an end here, and he even suspected that this segment had been tailor-made specifically for Pan Yun.

He did not remember any restriction on consumption in previous seasons. Before the production team arrived, they had talked to him extensively and even visited his home for filming and interviews.

It was definitely because the production team had figured out what kind of person Pan Yun was that they set up a tour guide segment, purely to intensify the "characteristics" of her personality.

So, Xu Shujian looked at Huang Miomiao: "How about this? I'll play the bad guy. It's clear that someone disagrees with this consumption, so let's just return the items. Sister Yun, don't speak for a moment."

Hearing that Xu Shujian wanted to return the purchases, Pan Yun immediately opened her mouth to speak, but Xu Shujian pointed at her and interrupted.

"The tour guide remains the tour guide, but won't manage the accounts. After we return the money and get the refunds, we will split the remaining amount into four equal parts. Each family will manage its own money. That way, there won't be any conflicts over consumption values. Once the money is divided, Sister Yun, you can buy whatever you like and save money however you want—we won't raise any objections."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not trying to create conflict; I'm resolving it. As for meals, the four families can just go Dutch. You can even choose not to eat with us; eating instant noodles from start to finish is totally fine. What do you say? Shall we vote by a show of hands?"

After finishing, Xu Shujian looked around at everyone. Yu Hui was the first to raise his hand: "That would be wonderful! I'm definitely in favor of it. This way, it really doesn't affect anything, and we can still order dishes together. It just changes collective spending into going Dutch."

Zhang Qidong glanced at the backpack Huang Miomiao was carrying. Seeing that so much had been bought earlier, he had also felt uneasy inside. He had said a couple of words, but couldn't get the better of Pan Yun. Pan Yun simply ignored everything, acting as if it was fine for her to engage in reckless spending when she held the purse strings, yet others weren't allowed to spend freely when they managed the accounts.

Zhang Qidong cared about saving face and just felt the matter hadn't reached an unbearable level, which was why he stopped arguing with Pan Yun.

Hearing Xu Shujian's suggestion, he thought about it for a moment and raised his hand as well.

Out of the eight people, only Pan Yun and Chen Linye did not raise their hands.

Xu Shujian made the final decision: "Alright, the minority yields to the majority. That's settled. We don't need to split the money spent over the past two days; I still have some left. The three of your families can just split it."

Zhang Qidong had been observing everyone's expressions in the scene. Even Huang Miomiao, who usually maintained her composure, let out a sigh of relief. Clearly, everyone's current attitude was somewhat fearful of Pan Yun.

It was truly fucking magical.

Zhang Qidong thought that at this very moment, Pan Yun did have some virtues. For instance, in a situation clearly designed to embarrass her, she could digest it all by herself and even try to spin it positively, saying that this arrangement wasn't bad and that if the money was split, her family would certainly live better than the other three families.

Zhang Qidong also noticed that aside from making things difficult for Chen Linye, Pan Yun still didn't dare to openly make things difficult for anyone else.

Seeing Xu Shujian step aside, Zhang Qidong walked over and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Won't this look bad?"

"In what aspect?"

Zhang Qidong glanced at the cameramen around them.

"It's fine, I know what I'm doing."

Zhang Qidong was a bit surprised. Was talking to Xu Shujian really this easy? He certainly had some tricks up his sleeve.

When walking up the mountain, Zhang Qidong had also considered whether they should just split the money to prevent Pan Yun from nagging incessantly, but doing so would mean cutting down on the show's content.

Clearly, this kind of conflict was the exact television effect the production team wanted.

Xu Shujian clearly knew this too.

"Would you consider this the first time you've formally come to talk to me about these things?" Xu Shujian looked at Zhang Qidong and smiled.

Zhang Qidong shook his head with a sigh: "I let my guard down. I didn't expect to run into Sister Yun here. It's truly a headache."

Xu Shujian glanced at Pan Yun and couldn't help laughing heartily.

Zhang Qidong had his own theories, but trying to reason with an unreasonable person was like a scholar trying to reason with a soldier—communication was impossible.

When a patriarchal attitude met a maternal nagging attitude, it was clear the patriarchal attitude fell a bit short.

"Don't you feel like Sister Yun seemed quite normal at first? Why is she becoming harder and harder to get along with as the days go by?" Xu Shujian asked in return.

"How would I..."

Zhang Qidong originally wanted to say "How would I know?", but his eyes suddenly widened. Did Xu Shujian mean that he was part of the reason?

Zhang Qidong recalled that in the very beginning, Pan Yun was indeed quite normal. She took the initiative to serve everyone and flattered others in conversations; she was normal indeed.

How did she gradually change? Or rather, when did her true self get exposed?

Zhang Qidong suddenly sighed. He remembered the night of the zero-score incident. It was he who kept agreeing with Pan Yun that Chen Linye had problems, and after that, she became increasingly outrageous.

Pan Yun had even explicitly stated that everyone mutually agreed other people had problems, so why was it that when it came to her household, everyone said Chen Linye had the bigger problem? Wasn't that Chen Linye's own fault?

Wasn't this simply a case of others giving Pan Yun the room to unleash her nature!

Xu Shujian suddenly kicked out, sending a small stone flying away: "I was wondering why standing here felt a bit uncomfortable. Turns out there was a stumbling block."

Zhang Qidong: "I..."

Xu Shujian looked into the distance with a smile on his face. Ah, much better.

...

They returned to their accommodation at four o'clock in the afternoon.

All the purchased items had been returned, and the store owner was quite reasonable.

The remaining nine hundred or so yuan was divided into three portions. Neither Xu Shujian nor Song Yue took any; both of them had their own secret stashes.

They spent four hundred yuan to order a table of dishes, with each family chipping in one hundred yuan. Everyone was quite happy.

Halfway through the meal in the restaurant, Zhuo Hui appeared again.

After talking with everyone yesterday, she hadn't left yet, and today there was another collective group chatting session.

"It's fine, keep eating, no need to stand up. I heard you went hiking. How was it?"

Everyone began speaking at once. Some said the scenery here was gorgeous and they never knew such a place existed, while others began to mention more specific flaws in the people around them.

The table was long, and Zhuo Hui sat at the head of it, allowing her to see everyone's facial expressions clearly.

"Actually, I've been observing you all from the moment I walked in. I feel like your atmosphere today is better than yesterday's," Zhuo Hui smiled and said.

Pan Yun laughed loudly: "What you see is just the surface. From yesterday until today, a lot of things have happened."

Pan Yun sat on Zhuo Hui's left hand side. Zhuo Hui glanced at her and smiled: "Then how about this, I'll start the conversation with you. I want everyone to use a single sentence to describe Pan Yun."

At this, Zhuo Hui looked to her right: "Let's start with Yu Hui. Go ahead."

Pan Yun laughed heartily: "Brother Hui, you better go easy on me. I'll have to talk about you later too."

Yu Hui smiled: "It's fine, say whatever you want. In my opinion, Sister Yun is a very contradictory person."

Zhuo Hui: "Contradictory? Could you elaborate on that?"

Yu Hui: "At the beginning, when she was chatting with President Zhang and me, she talked a lot about the areas where Brother Ye fell short in his daily life. To the point that I initially thought Brother Ye had huge problems. But after spending these past few days together, I realized Brother Ye isn't the kind of person who is wasteful and completely uncomprehending of Sister Yun. He just has a pure, engineering-student mindset..."

As he listened, Xu Shujian pondered Zhuo Hui's intention in coming today. Yesterday, she clearly wanted to bring the conflicts of each couple out into the open to spark more dramatic television effects.

Today seemed to be aimed at a one-sided approach. She wanted to put everyone's strengths and weaknesses out in the open to spark more single-perspective television effects, and perhaps she also meant to help everyone understand each other better.

When his turn came, Xu Shujian spoke up: "Actually, my perception of Sister Yun and Brother Ye is similar—they are both rather self-centered people."