The next day, after lunch, the show had Liu Yu’an and An Xin who knows how to catch fish teach everyone how to. They chose a site where the ocean meets directly with the rocks. Normally, the beaches with shallow waters are frequented by fishermen so they will not easily land a catch. Therefore, they are heading towards where Lan Shi and Xue Junming went yesterday.
Liu Yu’an asks the director as they are walking, “director, have you asked the fishermen about when the tide is coming today?”
It’s been low tide all morning already.
“It should be around 3 or 4 today,” a middle-aged man in a straw hat answers in his stead. There are also a few people he hasn’t seen with them.
“They’re local fishermen,” the director introduces them.
Obviously, with both the lesson learned last time and normal safety consideration, the show has taken steps to prepare.
“I see, thanks,” Liu Yu’an is relieved. The fishermen are the ones to operate in the area day in day out. They might not be professionally trained or even know why tides exist, but they’d know approximately when tides would come in and go out. Especially the older ones.
Meanwhile, as they approach their destination, with the low tide, most of the breakwaters over the shoreline are largely exposed. Where the path is muddy, the local fishermen have put sacks of sand in place as a road. Since the cameramen are carrying heavy equipment, they decide against taking the long way around the shore and all take the shortcut on the sandbags.
They reach the breakwater the two celebrities got to yesterday. It is semicircular. Though the area is moist and damp with the lashing ocean waves, it is facing due east and is exposed to a healthy amount of sunlight, so there isn’t much slippery lichen. They are able to walk without much difficulty in sandals.
Of course, for the braver ones, that is. The ones less courageous or who doesn’t know how to swim are wisely steering clear of the edges. Meanwhile, He Anran is standing near the edge, extending her arms out and yelling, “ah, the ocean! Let the waves lash on!” Unfortunately, the waves are as gentle as ever, save for a few ripples from the seagulls scared off by her shouting; speaking of, they didn’t even realise there were that many seagulls in the area yesterday.
Lan Shi says with excitement, “I’m also someone to have seen flocks of seagulls now!”
Everyone is a bit excited too. Of course, part of it is obviously for the camera; they can’t just blank their way through it.
After the excitement, Cui Shaolin throws a wet blanket over them, saying, “good, now is time to learn fly fishing! Friendly reminder, but you’re expected to go into the water. Fortunately, there’s one person in each of your group that knows how to do it already, so you’re responsible for teaching the others how to do it. You have to balance your time between teaching and catching fish yourself though; the winner is the group with the highest average amount of catches calculated after removing the person with the highest number of catches from each group. You have until the tide comes in to do it.”
That is when the staff are starting to hand out equipment to them, and the fishermen have all been given life vests with some on standby and others in rubber boats further out at sea.
The show really is going all out for their safety this episode.
Then each group chooses an area. Liu Yu’an then explains briefly how to cast their fly rod, etc. with a few on-hand demonstrations.
Then finally he asks them, “who wants to go first?”
Lan Shi looks at Liu Yu’an then glances over at Shao Yanxi, saying, “I’m fine with whoever.”
She actually wants to go first, but thinking about Shao Yanxi’s identity, she holds back herself.
Xue Junming, meanwhile, isn’t particularly competitive. And to be honest, he isn’t much excited about fly fishing either, and concurs.
“Then I’ll go first,” Shao Yanxi isn’t used to the water, but decides to try not to hold Liu Yu’an’s team back. He sets up his fly rod as Liu Yu’an instructed earlier, before casting it out with a powerful throw.
And there goes the rod with it.
Again, and Liu Yu’an stops him before he casts, telling him his fly is installed incorrectly.
And again, with Liu Yu’an guiding him step by step. When Shao Yanxi is getting tired, he finally lands himself a catch once.
Liu Yu’an praises him, “Yanxi, amazing! You caught a fish!”
Xue Junming and Lan Shi follow suit too, “nice work, Mr. Shao.”
Lan Shi even employed dramatic facial expressions in her praise, as if Shao Yanxi really is some kind of genius. Though as he knows how he really performed, he can’t help but feel slightly embarrassed at the praise.
Though they can’t really see it with his usual poker face.
Then it’s Lan Shi’s turn to try. She’s unexpectedly talented at this, and manages herself a catch in less than half the time it took for Shao Yanxi. She happily praises herself, “wow, good job me!”
And they all smile and laugh in turn. Then, He Anran comes over to ask, “xiao-Liu, how much fish has your team caught now?”
“Just one,” Lan Shi rushes to answer before him, showing her her fly with the freshly caught fish, then winking at Liu Yu’an while He Anran is distracted looking at it.
Liu Yu’an “…”
Does she think the other team is blind or something? They’re not even that far apart; though, he doesn’t bust Lan Shi’s thinly veiled lie either.
Then Lan Shi asks He Anran, “how about your team?”
“We’ve caught two already,” He Anran just tells the truth straight on.
It doesn’t take long for a wilderness survivalist like Xu Bing to learn fly fishing as he already knows how to fish regularly, and just needs to learn to throw correctly. He Anran and Ge Zhengzhi are still learning though.
Then He Anran says, “I think we’re definitely learning faster than your team.”
That is when the fishermen yell out, “the tide is coming! We have to go back now.”
“Tide? Really?” She looks at the peaceful, unchanging shoreline. The others all seem visibly confused and reluctant as well.
“It’s coming in,” the middle-aged fisherman is insistent, “you can’t feel anything yet, but it’ll be too late to walk back when you do!”
The fishermen are experienced enough that they can linger a bit longer themselves, but not these celebrities and staff carrying heavier equipment. He can imagine their legs giving out and slipping all the way on the narrow path when the water is ankle-deep already.
Whether the celebrities’ legs are giving out can’t be seen, but when the water does rise over the breakwaters, Shao Yanxi’s legs go weak. Though with his poker face, other than Liu Yu’an’s who’s familiar with his gait, nobody else realises it.
“Don’t worry, lean on me,” Liu Yu’an says with his microphone out of the way as he gives Shao Yanxi a hand.
But before he even touched Shao Yanxi, a sudden jerk forces him off-balance and into the water.
Liu Yu’an is good at swimming from the many times he had to know it in his many prior experiences. He quickly balances himself and has kept his head on top of the water the whole time. So he is able to see the whole process of how the Shao Yanxi who was still trembling slightly jumping into the water after him yelling out ‘Youyou!’
And Liu Yu’an can’t help but be infuriated to the point of going ‘tch;’ Shao Yanxi isn’t even a good swimmer. What is he even doing jumping after him! But he is also worrying for him immensely. He doesn’t even have time to look at what force pushed him off-balance and quickly heads after Shao Yanxi. Meanwhile, the fishermen are also on the move, with one jumping off the boat and the other moving the rubber boat their way.
At the same time, those still on the path feel surprised. Nobody expected Shao Yanxi to jump after Liu Yu’an when he fell into the water. Even those that know they are actually a couple thought it is probably Liu Yu’an who loves Shao Yanxi way more than the other way around – both because of Shao Yanxi’s identity and because of how much care they see Shao Yanxi receiving from Liu Yu’an. It looks like Liu Yu’an won over Shao Yanxi by treating him extremely well.
They can’t help but facepalm themselves. Shao Yanxi is definitely in love with Liu Yu’an, at least, no less than how much Liu Yu’an loves Shao Yanxi, to jump into the water after him without hesitation like that. Even the people present here with a significant other can’t say for certain they can jump after their partner if this happened, or even that their partner will jump after them.
And those still looking for romance can’t help but wish they’d be able to find a partner like Liu Yu’an found Shao Yanxi.
But still, of course, everyone is still really nervous seeing Shao Yanxi in the water. The director spoke out immediately after Shao Yanxi jumped, “Mr. Ji, please!” Mr. Ji is the middle-aged fisherman. And he immediately jumped into the water after them as well.
When Mr. Ji reaches them, Shao Yanxi has already been lifted out of the water by Liu Yu’an. As it would be dangerous to speak like this, Liu Yu’an soothes Shao Yanxi by touching him on the cheek with his lips.
Shao Yanxi is quite scared right now; when he saw Liu Yu’an falling into the water, his brain went blank and he jumped after him without thinking; he only remembered he barely knows how to swim in the water, but it was too late.
Now, seeing Liu Yu’an, he can’t help but panic and cling to Liu Yu’an like an octopus.
Liu Yu’an wants him to hold onto him less tightly but he can’t really speak; the fishermen who can see their situation yells out, “Mr. Shao! Don’t grip so tightly or he can’t swim or float! You’ll both sink like this!”
Of course, they wouldn’t really sink, as the fishermen with the rubber boat is already closing in on them. They’d drag them up as soon as possible.
Thankfully, Shao Yanxi, against his fear, does let go of Liu Yu’an a little, allowing them both to be taken onto the waiting boat.
“Don’t worry,” when they walk back onto shore, Shao Yanxi is still shaking a little, and Liu Yu’an embraces him, patting him on the back to soothe him.
“I’m fine, but are you alright?” Shao Yanxi calms down a little and then tries to wrangle free of Liu Yu’an’s embrace.
“I’m alright.”
Shao Yanxi ‘mm’s, then quickly says to everyone, trying to look fine, at least, “I’m alright, so we should go quickly. The tide is still coming in.”
The water really does move in quickly, covering more ground by the second. Much of the path the others just walked through is already submerged. The water is already at their ankles even back at the edge of the beach already.
Coupled with how Liu Yu’an and Shao Yanxi fell into the water just now, it makes everyone other than the fishermen spooked. Normally, they might have asked about how Shao Yanxi was immediately but now it’s more important they get to absolute safety first. And Shao Yanxi and Liu Yu’an as well. They move quickly, or rather, Liu Yu’an is dragging along Shao Yanxi quickly as Shao Yanxi’s feet is still covered in band-aid from the blisters yesterday, and head for safety.
Behind them, the narrow road with the sandbags is already well underwater.