141: Chapter 141: Taking off her coat ignites screams; fans want to have babies.

The group waved at the fans with smiles, then lined up in front of the open space.

Lei Jiayin was the first to fire a shot: "Executive Director, looking at this setup, if we don't pass the test, does that mean we'll be drinking the northwest wind and sleeping under a bridge tonight?"

The Executive Director held a megaphone and said with a smile: "Next, we are going to play a small game. Your game points will directly determine your food and accommodation standards in Dali City for these next few days."

As soon as the words fell, two staff members stepped forward and ripped the black cloth off the display board.

Posted on the board were five photos: 1. A luxurious, invincible sea-view villa; 2. A five-star hot spring resort hotel; 3. A traditional Bai ethnic dwelling at the foot of Cangshan Mountain; 4. A roadside budget chain hotel; 5. An abandoned, leaking, unfinished house that has been derelict for years.

Needless to say, these were their blind box options for tonight.

Tong Liya pointed at the first picture, her eyes lighting up: "This villa is so magnificent! If you open the window, you'd see Erhai Lake, right?"

Guli Nazha nodded: "The five-star hotel is also not bad; at least it has a heated swimming pool."

Liu Shishi: "I think the traditional dwelling has quite a bit of charm, too."

Xiaoyueyue pointed at the last picture, his face turning green: "Wait, Executive Director, hand on your heart, tell me—can people really live in this final 'Syrian war-torn style' house? Won't a female ghost crawl out in the middle of the night?"

Lei Jiayin waved his hand dismissively: "What is there to be afraid of! We have Lin Chen leading our team! Have you forgotten how Lin Chen rubbed the Production Team into the ground back in Inner Mongolia?"

This sentence instantly ignited everyone's hope.

Song Zuer, like a nimble little deer, hopped over to Lin Chen's side. Her fair, delicate hands rested naturally on Lin Chen's shoulders, and she tilted her youthful, vibrant face up, her voice sickly sweet: "Brother Lin Chen~ Whether we can stay in the sea-view villa tonight depends entirely on you~ Good luck!"

The corners of Lin Chen's mouth curled up slightly. He didn't reply, just calmly pulled his shoulder away from her hands, then took the opportunity to open his arms and domineeringly pulled Liu Shishi and Tong Liya, who were standing on either side, into his embrace.

Song Zuer's hands froze in mid-air, her eyes dimmed for a moment, and her little mouth pouted in grievance.

Song Dandan, standing to the side, hurriedly gave her frantic winks, signaling her not to be discouraged and to play the long game.

...

"There are two stages in this game. Stage one: Underwater breath-holding."

The Executive Director pointed at the water basin on the ground: "The eight of you will take turns submerging your heads in the water to hold your breath. Your total time will be the score for the first stage."

Tong Liya leaned against Lin Chen's solid chest and asked in a coquettish voice: "Executive Director, how is the scoring calculated? How long do we have to hold our breath to stay in the big villa?"

"If the eight of you hold your breath for a total of eighteen minutes, which is 1080 seconds, you get a perfect score of 100 points. You lose ten points for every minute less. Anything less than a minute will be rounded off."

Liu Shishi breathed a sigh of relief: "So, as long as we get 100 points, we can stay in the villa, right?"

The Executive Director shook his finger, revealing a standard villainous smirk: "No, no, no. I said just now that the game has two stages. Therefore, the threshold for the sea-view villa is a perfect score of 200 points."

"Then what about the five-star hotel?"

"180 points."

Xiaoyueyue asked weakly: "The Syrian-style dilapidated house I had my eye on earlier, how many points does that require?"

The director laughed: "We'll actually pay you to stay there. As long as your score doesn't meet the standards of the first four options, you'll all be packed up and thrown into the unfinished house."

"Lin Chen, what are we going to do?" Song Dandan poked her head out, her face bitter as she asked Lin Chen for help, "We're all out on a trip; we can't really go and stay in a haunted house, can we?"

Lei Jiayin also chimed in: "Yeah, Lin Chen, give us some advice."

Lin Chen raised an eyebrow, a smile playing on his lips: "You don't expect me to hold my breath for eighteen minutes all by myself, do you? If I actually held it that long, the Production Team would probably have to prepare my funeral arrangements."

"Hahahaha!" Everyone laughed.

Tong Liya, Liu Shishi, and Guli Nazha also chuckled. Liu Shishi even raised a delicate fist and tapped Lin Chen on the chest: "Pah, pah, pah! Don't say that, don't curse yourself."

Song Dandan started calculating: "This must be a team project. Eighteen minutes, divided among eight people..."

Although Song Zuer was a novice in matters of the heart, her IQ was definitely online. Her high school senior brain whirred at high speed, and she blurted out: "On average, everyone needs to hold their breath for 2.25 minutes, which is two minutes and fifteen seconds."

Song Dandan looked at everyone: "Dear ones, do you think we have a chance?"

The flesh on Xiaoyueyue's face trembled: "It's too hard. With my build, I'd probably be rolling my eyes after thirty seconds in the water."

Lei Jiayin kicked him: "You useless piece of work, can you have some ambition! This concerns whether we'll be eating and drinking well or suffering through the next few days! I'm warning you, Yueyue, if you dare to only hold it for thirty seconds, I'll hold you down in Erhai Lake until you soak into a steamed bun!"

"Executive Director! He's threatening me! I want to quit the show!" Xiaoyueyue yelled.

While the two of them were clowning around, Lin Chen looked down at the three beauties in his arms and asked softly: "Do you want to stay in the sea-view villa?"

The three women nodded in unison, their sparkling eyes full of admiration and anticipation.

As long as Lin Chen was the one saying it, let alone a villa, even if he said he would go to the sky to pluck the stars, they would believe him.

Lin Chen clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back: "Alright, stop arguing. Eighteen minutes is not a difficult task. You don't need to worry about the average; just hold your breath for as long as you can after getting into the water. Leave the remaining time gap to me to fill."

Lin Chen said this lightly, yet it carried an irresistible air of confidence.

Song Dandan let out a long sigh of relief and gave a thumbs up: "It really has to be our Lin Chen! Once you say that, my heart is finally at ease."

"Brother Lin Chen is mighty!" Song Zuer spared no effort in acting as a little fan girl.

Lei Jiayin patted his chest in assurance: "Got it! With Lin Chen backing us up, I'll risk my life to hold it a bit longer. I absolutely will not drag the team down!"

Lin Chen turned to look at the Executive Director: "Can this task be challenged by one person at a time? There's no need for eight heads to be dunked into the water together, right?"

The director nodded: "You can challenge it individually, and the time will be accumulated."

After receiving confirmation, Lin Chen casually took off the cumbersome white windbreaker he was wearing and handed it to Tong Liya, who was standing nearby.

This was just a completely normal action, but the broad, upright lines of his shoulders and back, combined with that air of lazy, ascetic charm, directly ignited the fan crowd outside the cordon.

"Ahhhhhhh! Lin Chen took off his clothes! So manly!"

"Lin Chen, I want to wash clothes on your abs!"

"Lin Chen! I want to have your babies!"

The deafening screams startled everyone else in the Divas Hit the Road Group.

Tong Liya and the other two held their husband's jacket, their faces full of helplessness.

Having a husband who is too much of a magnet for attention is truly painful yet happy.

They weren't jealous at all, just felt a headache.

Being eyed by so many wolfish and tigerish women every day, they really wished Lin Chen looked a bit uglier.

Xiaoyueyue stared with his mung bean-sized eyes, sighing in disbelief: "Are female fans these days all this thirsty? Just taking off a jacket makes them climax?"

Lei Jiayin didn't believe it, so he quickly stripped off his own sports jacket, struck a flamboyant pose, and looked at the fan crowd with anticipation.

As a result, the crowd instantly went dead silent. A few fans even turned their heads away in disgust.

The post-production editing was even more vicious, directly adding a special effect of cold wind blowing through fallen leaves for Lei Jiayin, accompanied by a string of crow caws.

"I can't go on like this! This is blatant looks discrimination!" Lei Jiayin was so angry he slammed his jacket on the ground and let out a long howl toward the sky.

Xiaoyueyue was so amused he kept slapping his thigh: "Who told you to have no self-awareness? You deserve it!"

"Hahahaha!"

After the farce, Lin Chen walked to the water basin: "Who wants to go first?"

Everyone looked at each other. Xiaoyueyue gritted his teeth and stepped out: "I'll go first. I'm the most useless anyway, so I might as well get it over with."

Xiaoyueyue shuffled slowly to the basin.

Lin Chen's broad palm pressed onto his back, a steadying force passing through: "Relax, don't be nervous."

Xiaoyueyue turned his head with a sorrowful face: "Lin Chen, my lung capacity is so bad that even blowing up a balloon is hard. If I can't hold my breath for long later, please don't hit me."

Lin Chen was amused: "Who told you that breath-holding depends on lung capacity?"

"Isn't it?"

"That's complete nonsense."

The length of time one can hold their breath does not depend on the size of one's lung capacity, but rather on the concentration ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood.

When people breathe, a large amount of waste gas (carbon dioxide) actually remains in the lungs.

It is precisely this waste gas that stimulates the nerves, causing a strong desire to breathe.

Therefore, the ultimate secret to holding one's breath is to take a few deep breaths before entering the water, completely expelling the waste gas from the lungs and replacing it with fresh oxygen.

This can significantly extend the breath-holding time.

An average person without training can hold their breath for a minute or two at most. Those with poorer physical fitness will fail after a few dozen seconds.

But those masters who professionally practice free-diving, once they have mastered the technique, can easily hold their breath for ten or twenty minutes.

The world record even exceeds twenty-four minutes.

...

Lin Chen had never specifically practiced breath-holding.

To be honest, this kind of thing is a typical "chicken rib" skill in real life—useless except for showing off in a swimming pool to prove you are more enduring than others.

If you are afraid of drowning? You'd be better off honestly signing up for a swimming class.

Although he hadn't practiced it deliberately, Lin Chen was proficient in Traditional Chinese Medicine and was very clear about the principles of human meridians and breathing.

This theoretical knowledge, used to deal with this variety show game, was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

Lin Chen placed his palm on Xiaoyueyue's broad back, and his other hand pressed on his chest, speaking steadily: "Feel my strength and follow my rhythm to breathe deeply. Exhale—"

His palm pressed slightly downward on Xiaoyueyue's chest following the instruction.

Xiaoyueyue was very cooperative, immediately exhaling a long breath like a deflating balloon.