Shen Li stared expressionlessly at the box of condoms for several seconds.
[Superman Extra Large]
[Trusted Domestic Brand, Quality Checked at Every Stage]
[Multiple-Lubrication Formula]
[10-Pack]
[Production Date: …]
Two months ago.
Although it was indeed not the brand Qian Xingzhi had habitually used in the past, the size listed on the packaging was genuinely uncommon on the market—one of the rare sizes that would actually fit Qian Xingzhi.
Shen Li was an adult. He had slept with Qian Xingzhi on the first day he became one, and they had spent so many years living as spouses. Naturally, merely seeing that Qian Xingzhi had bought a box of condoms was not going to make him blush or send his heart racing.
Besides, apart from the period just after they got together—when Qian Xingzhi had been obsessed with putting things inside him and once caused Shen Li to run a fever—the man had developed the habit of carrying a box of condoms with him everywhere. For a time, Shen Li had been genuinely baffled by how Qian Xingzhi seemed capable of “conjuring” a box of condoms at any time and in any place.
But it had been seven years. Did he still carry a box around with him?
If so, that was one habit he had maintained for an impressively long time.
Or rather…
From a more objective, reasonable perspective—one more consistent with investigative inference—if Qian Xingzhi really had kept that habit for seven years, then the probability that he had had a partner or sexual partner during those seven long years was actually extremely high. After all, no one carried around a practical item with an expiration date for seven years if they had no intention of ever using it.
They had been divorced for so long. Of course Qian Xingzhi was free to choose whom he slept with. But if Qian Xingzhi really had a regular sexual partner and was still eagerly coming over to get close to Shen Li…
No.
That did not seem like him either.
After knowing him for twenty years, Shen Li could at least be certain that Qian Xingzhi was not that kind of person.
All of those deductions had occurred in the span of only a few breaths. They were essentially Shen Li’s long-established logical instincts at work.
His eyes lowered coldly, and within a few more seconds he arrived at a second, more plausible inference:
If Qian Xingzhi had not maintained a “habitual action” for seven years, but had instead bought these deliberately and recently, then what exactly was he…
planning to do?
Shen Li’s whole expression darkened. He took a deep breath. From his point of view, he honestly could not understand it.
This room was only ever meant to be temporary accommodation for Qian Xingzhi. Altogether, Qian Xingzhi would not stay here for more than two days.
So why would he put condoms in this drawer?
Or had Qian Xingzhi already known last night that Shen Li would come deliver the medicine? Had he even prepared in advance, intending to be here with his ex and…
have sex?
…
With a sharp smack,
Shen Li coldly threw the condoms back.
He took out the keys and shut the drawer.
The sound of the metal drawer sliding closed rang especially clearly through the silent room.
When he turned around, Shen Li’s gaze swept across the drawer. The cold arc of his eyes looked almost like a blade severing memory, and now it carried a faint spark of anger as well.
—If that was really what had happened, then Qian Xingzhi was quite the actor. He had certainly thought far ahead.
Shen Li “put the box of condoms on trial” for roughly half a minute and did genuinely feel that Qian Xingzhi’s behavior before and after the fact had become even stranger.
This time, since joining the show, Qian Xingzhi had been far more proactive than Shen Li had imagined.
So proactive that Shen Li suddenly felt he was understanding Qian Xingzhi less and less.
…
There was no benefit in overthinking it.
Shen Li stood up and decided to deal with the “grass bag” first.
He was just about to leave. His fingertips had barely touched the doorknob, before the chill of the metal could even soak into his skin, when the door was abruptly shoved open from outside—
Qian Xingzhi’s tall, familiar body collided directly into him.
Backlit by the setting sun pouring through the corridor window, Qian Xingzhi’s silhouette seemed cut into fragments. His shadow stretched very long. With his height and broad frame, he truly carried a tremendous sense of pressure. He lowered his eyes toward Shen Li, then his gaze immediately flicked to Shen Li’s hands and sharply narrowed at the bag he was carrying.
Shen Li instinctively tried to step back, but Qian Xingzhi caught his wrist in one hand.
Qian Xingzhi’s palm was unusually hot and exceptionally strong.
Shen Li’s brows tightened, as though he deeply disliked this physical disadvantage in male strength. He silently waited for Qian Xingzhi to speak first. Qian Xingzhi’s expression, meanwhile, was colder and darker, carrying an unfamiliar sense of restraint. In a somewhat stiff tone, he explained first:
“I didn’t bring my phone. I couldn’t pay.”
Shen Li nodded expressionlessly.
Sure enough, Qian Xingzhi’s low, hoarse voice continued:
“Then what you’re holding…is that the thing you carried all the way back?”
He had probably noticed long ago that Shen Li’s backpack looked unusually full. But after tentatively asking once and hearing Shen Li say it was an iPad, he had not continued questioning him.
Yet now, even though the weeds were already visible through the black plastic bag that had not been completely tied shut, he still had to ask Shen Li, “What is that?”
What was it?
What else could it possibly be?
He had clearly already seen it, yet he still insisted on standing on the moral high ground of the deceived party and throwing the question back at him.
Shen Li took a deep breath. There was not the slightest trace of cowardice or remorse in his cool, clear gaze, nothing suggesting that he believed he had done anything wrong. Instead, he looked directly back. Their eyes met, and Shen Li stared into Qian Xingzhi’s eyes with an expression that was not particularly calm.
“Which hand are you asking about?”
Expressionless, Shen Li raised his other hand and returned the keys he was holding to Qian Xingzhi.
“—This?”
Clink.
The metal keys struck just beneath Qian Xingzhi’s Adam’s apple, neither lightly nor heavily, then rang sharply—
and fell to the floor.
Shen Li’s voice sounded again. “I took them from the bedside cabinet.”
Qian Xingzhi’s deep eyes abruptly contracted. He followed the fallen keys with his gaze, then looked toward the room’s only drawer. His brows tightened instantly. Apparently…
he had remembered the box of condoms too.
Shen Li watched Qian Xingzhi swallow. Then Qian Xingzhi bent down, picked up the ring of keys, his broad shoulders tightening as he reached out and took the bag from Shen Li’s hand as well.
Only after a long while did he say:
“…Give it to me. I’ll throw it away for you.”
The two of them reached a silent understanding.
Shen Li did not mention the box of condoms again. Qian Xingzhi did not mention the bag of weeds that should not have existed either.
Neither of them had enough evidence.
Qian Xingzhi had too little evidence to know whether Shen Li had weeded for him solely out of humanitarian concern, much less whether Shen Li would have helped if it had been some other sick colleague or a local villager with a headache.
And Shen Li understood even less about how much affection Qian Xingzhi still had left for him. If Qian Xingzhi really still liked him the way he once had, then why had such a long seven years grown between them…?
Shen Li waited for Qian Xingzhi to return after throwing away the bag, while he sat there and worked on his unfinished Task B.
His mind was far too chaotic, the conflict in his heart growing steadily stronger.
Today was only the fourth day. There were still six full days of filming left afterward.
Even though Shen Li had never watched an entire romance reality show, he had heard that such programs essentially put a group of guests into one house, and whenever the production team wanted to push them toward romance, they arranged vaguely suggestive activities. Even a divorce-themed variety show would naturally lean toward creating more emotional topics.
But this show was something else.
From the task segments to the filming style, everything was very different from what Shen Li had originally imagined.
During the first three days, the daytime production tasks had had almost nothing to do with “romance.” They really were more survival-oriented.
The nighttime activities had also been no more than a light meal here, a movie there—not even enough to count as proper dates—so Shen Li had not actually found the experience particularly difficult.
Yet on the fourth day, after Qian Xingzhi entered the cabin, the cameras had actually followed them even less. There were no special shots, and no one even supervised them when they slipped out of the camera’s range. The strange feeling in Shen Li’s heart grew stronger:
—This time almost seemed like…