Chapter 8
[I really don’t understand whether the production team is afraid of offending Qin Ye or trying their hardest to offend Qin Ye. If you say they’re afraid of offending him, they didn’t dare touch his skills or personality at all. If you say they’re not afraid, they somehow managed to step precisely on the thing Qin Ye hates most: finding a partner.]
[Actually, Qin Ye is twenty-nine this year, right? It’s not strange if he wants to find a partner. He’s at the age where he should be building a family and career. He doesn’t even work in the entertainment industry anymore, so why are the fans reacting so strongly?]
[We’re not against Qin Ye finding a partner, okay? We’re against him not wanting to find one right now, yet being implanted by this idiot show with a persona that wants to find a partner. He said in a magazine interview last month that he temporarily didn’t have anyone he liked. Wanting something subjectively and being passively influenced are completely different things.]
[Exactly. Who doesn’t know my brother is destined to be alone for life? Making a workaholic want to find a partner—how is that different from making an impotent man get hard?]
[I slowly type out a question mark. No, upstairs, are you speaking up for Qin Ye or are you Qin Ye’s anti-fan?]
[Shit, this stupid show. No wonder Qin Ye’s reaction just now was so strange. He couldn’t have taken a fancy to Shen Jinfeng, right?]
[Can Shen Jinfeng get out of this crappy show?!]
[Is upstairs sick? From the beginning of the show until now, what has Shen Jinfeng done badly? And no one forced Qin Ye to reply.]
[Actually, don’t be too sensitive… Are people who’ve been single since birth always single because they don’t want to date? Wanting to date and being able to date are two different things. Qin Ye was obviously just joking just now. With his conditions, the fact that he’s never dated all this time shows how high his standards are.]
[Don’t let the conflict be shifted. A thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes, they’re all the stupid production team’s fault.]
[I just went to Baidu and came back. The newspapers and marketing accounts that shut down in the early years because they spread rumors about the Best Actor’s scandals are as follows: … The companies that went bankrupt or were acquired over the years because of Qin Group’s rise are as follows: … Old Dog Sun, good luck.]
Sun Xinping broke out in sweat across his forehead.
Only a few minutes after the persona was announced, the What Kind of Person Are You? production team was cursed onto the trending searches.
Sun Xinping received special treatment and enjoyed a hashtag all to himself: #OldDogSunComeOutAndExplain.
Xiao Li hesitated. “Director, are you going to respond?”
Sun Xinping glared at him angrily. “Respond my ass.”
Respond to what? What could he respond with?
Respond by saying that Qin Ye himself did not approve, and that this was a trick he and Qin Ye’s mother, Madam Yun, had come up with together?
Because Madam Yun simply wanted her son to experience what it felt like to want a partner, and the only method she could think of was through the persona implantation in What Kind of Person Are You?
He only hoped that after the truth came out, Madam Yun would protect him.
Wealth and honor were found amid danger. He would go all in.
After completing his mental preparation, Sun Xinping continued watching the livestream “calmly.”
Fortunately, on the screen, after Qin Ye saw Shen Jinfeng’s tangled expression, the corner of his lips curled up somewhat wickedly before flattening again.
His cool and distant brows and eyes held a smile, unexpectedly revealing a bit of flamboyance. “I was joking. Don’t misunderstand either.”
Shen Jinfeng’s expression stiffened, and he raised his head in disbelief.
Qin Ye lowered his eyes to look at him, smiling very beautifully.
Shen Jinfeng slowly gave an “oh.”
Understood. Qin Ye was thin-skinned and too embarrassed to admit it.
The two of them carried the fish back to the team.
He Erwang jumped up immediately. “So many fish? Where did they come from?”
Shen Jinfeng said faintly, “Caught them by the sea.”
Gu Shengsheng’s tone was stunned. “Catching fish is that easy?”
“Then we don’t need to worry about having no food!”
Mo Fan’s expression immediately became alert. “Little Gu, don’t stare at the fish in Boss’s hands. If you want to eat fish, come catch them in the sea with me later.”
Gu Shengsheng: “…”
That was not what he meant. He was not trying to freeload.
No, Shen Jinfeng was the team leader. Wasn’t it only right for him to take care of the team members?
But Mo Fan was glaring at him from the side, so Gu Shengsheng pursed his lips and did not dare say anything more.
Shen Jinfeng waved his hand indifferently. “It’s fine. I can’t finish this many by myself anyway.”
Qi Xiu had already very perceptively gathered a lot of dead branches and dry grass from the side. He ran over to Shen Jinfeng with quick little steps, his eyes sparkling. “Boss, what do you need me to do? Are we roasting fish?”
He propped up the branches and dry grass. Wasn’t this how it always looked in movies and TV dramas?
“But I don’t have a lighter.”
The others hurriedly searched through their backpacks. “I don’t have a lighter either. Then how—”
Before the words had even fallen, everyone saw flames already lighting up on the dry grass.
Shen Jinfeng casually tossed aside the branch in his hand, blew on the sparks, and the flames immediately burned fiercely.
Gu Shengsheng’s expression went blank. “Was that drilling wood to make fire just now?”
Shen Jinfeng nodded and smoothly took the fish Qin Ye handed him from the side.
“You need to remove the scales and guts first,” Mo Fan reminded from the side.
Shen Jinfeng flipped the fish over. The fish’s split belly revealed its bright red insides under the sunlight.
Mo Fan swallowed his words back and saw Qin Ye, who had not spoken all this time, squatting beside Shen Jinfeng with a military knife in hand.
His hand rose, the knife fell. In just a few seconds, one fish had been cut open, gutted, and thoroughly dead.
Hiss!
Qin Ye raised his head at the sound and looked at him. His expression was cold and indifferent, but he politely asked, “Is it clean now?”
Mo Fan’s voice was sluggish. “Clean. It’s clean.”
Removing fish guts was normal, but why were Qin Ye’s movements so practiced? It looked like he had done this motion hundreds or thousands of times.
Even more efficient than a fishmonger.
“I’ll help too.” He picked up a fish and copied Qin Ye’s movements.
The fish’s slippery texture was slick and sticky. Mo Fan mentally prepared himself for a while, but the moment he used the knife to cut open the fish’s belly, the fish, not yet fully dead, moved. He was so frightened that he threw the fish away.
“My god.” He could not help crying out.
The fish he threw happened to hit He Erwang.
It knocked the two pieces of wood in He Erwang’s hands onto the ground.
“What are you doing? My fire was almost started!” He Erwang shouted in frustration. After noticing everyone’s gazes turning toward him, his expression stiffened.
“Sorry, my voice was a little loud just now,” he apologized.
He was supposed to be a polite person.
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Should he tell He Erwang that his posture for drilling wood to make fire was completely wrong?
[Pfft, I was wondering what He Erwang had been doing with two pieces of wood this whole time. He was actually trying to drill wood to make fire hahahahaha.]
[Speaking of which, how did Shen Jinfeng do that just now? My eyes blurred, and the fire was already started. I didn’t even see his movements clearly. Why does he really look like a wilderness survival expert? He even knows how to make fire by drilling wood.]
[I just searched videos on C Station. There are quite a few bloggers who know how to make fire by drilling wood, but every single one of them has to work really hard at it. After Shen Jinfeng comes out of the livestream, can he start a class? I want to learn how to make fire by drilling wood too! Following those bloggers’ lessons, I can’t learn it at all. And it looks exhausting.]
[No, do you think you’ll learn it just by following Shen Jinfeng? Look at He Erwang. His two pieces of wood don’t look even remotely like they were “almost about to start a fire.”]
[Mo Fan is killing me with laughter. He’s even scared of fish.]
[Heh, someone who’s even scared of fish can beat his wife and commit domestic violence. Isn’t that terrifying?]
[Qin Ye and Shen Jinfeng cooperate a little too well. Qin Ye’s movements look like he’s been killing fish at RT-Mart for thirty years.]
[Pfft, because Qin Ye’s debut movie was about a fish seller hahahahahaha. Sure enough, no step in life is wasted. There will always be a time when it comes in handy.]
By the time the fragrant roasted fish was ready, not only the people present, but even the audience seemed to smell the aroma rushing at them.
The surface of the fish glowed with a golden color. It looked crispy down to the bones, tender to the spines, savory and delicious.
Paired with the unknown wild herbs Shen Jinfeng had casually picked as seasoning, the domineering aroma made people’s mouths water.
This looked way too tempting!
Qi Xiu swallowed and suddenly felt that the bread he had eaten earlier was not fragrant at all.
He was squatting off to the side, his eager gaze like a little dog waiting so long his eyes were about to see through the world.
Shen Jinfeng casually handed him the first roasted fish. “Here.”
Qi Xiu froze, his eyes full of emotion. “Thank you, Boss!”
But just as he was about to reach out and take it, he suddenly thought of something.
“No, Boss, you eat first.”
“I’ll roast the rest of the fish.”
Shen Jinfeng paused. Seeing Qi Xiu’s insistent gaze, he gave up the spot.
He held the roasted fish and went to the side, preparing to eat. But from the corner of his eye, he saw Qin Ye still killing fish.
Sigh. Qin Ye had called him selfless earlier.
Wasn’t Qin Ye the same? Working silently on an empty stomach.
After thinking for a moment, he handed over the first roasted fish. “Do you want to eat some first?”
Qin Ye was still holding an unfinished fish in his hands. Smelling the fragrant aroma at the tip of his nose and seeing the roasted fish placed in front of him, he could not hold back and bit into it.
Too delicious!
He did not know whether it was because he had been too hungry, but he actually felt this roasted fish tasted better than the cooking of any so-called Michelin three-star chef or state banquet inheritor.
He could not help taking a second bite immediately, only then realizing that something was not quite right.
Qin Ye raised his eyes and saw Shen Jinfeng looking at him expressionlessly. “Hold it yourself and eat.”
His tone was stiff, but his earlobes were flushed red.
Qin Ye thought of the American shorthair cat he had raised when he was studying. The American shorthair had been very good-looking. Every time Qin Ye came home from school, it would immediately run to his side, but it loved pretending otherwise, its cat face always cold and indifferent.
As long as he reached out and rubbed it, the American shorthair would soften all over and meow as if overstimulated, its aloofness gone without a trace.
Shen Jinfeng now looked a little like that American shorthair.
Obediently holding up the fish he had personally roasted and feeding it to Qin Ye’s mouth, trying to curry favor.
But after Qin Ye discovered it, he became shy, and his cool, detached appearance was almost unable to hold.
Damn. So cute.
Qin Ye put down the knife and took the roasted fish, holding it himself to eat.
“Little Captain, thank you for personally roasting this fish,” he said with a satisfied sigh.
Shen Jinfeng went numb.
Someone with a secret crush really loved to overthink things. Qin Ye couldn’t possibly think Shen Jinfeng had specially roasted it for him, right?
“Because you were the only one who hadn’t eaten yet, I gave you the first fish,” he explained.
Qin Ye smiled and nodded. “The fish Little Captain roasted is the best fish I’ve ever eaten.”
This was the truth.
Shen Jinfeng: “???”
“That’s only because you’re very hungry right now.”
Fuck, did someone with a secret crush think anything their sweetheart made was the best?
Also, what kind of address was “Little Captain”? Was calling him Boss too scalding for his mouth?
He silently turned his head back and asked Qi Xiu, “Is it roasted yet?”
Then his gaze froze.
“What are you roasting?”
Qi Xiu shrank back his hands, wanting to cry but having no tears. “Boss, I’m sorry.”
“I think I’m about to roast the world’s worst fish.”
Gu Shengsheng could not bear it anymore. “Qi Xiu, stop roasting.”
“I also want to eat the world’s best fish roasted by Boss.”
It really smelled so good.
Qi Xiu said, “Boss, why don’t you do it instead? If you’re hungry, I can feed you while you roast, okay?”
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Numb.
The audience in the livestream room was also numb.
[Is Qin Ye flirting with Shen Jinfeng? The world’s best fish? Does a love line have to be this low-level?]
[Is it possible that it really is the world’s best fish? It genuinely looks pretty good! This is the first time I’ve seen Qin Ye eat without caring about his image.]
[Someone give Gu Shengsheng a mirror. The way he looks like his drool is about to fall—he’s about to lose even his status as a pretty face!]
[I just feel that whether or not it’s the world’s best fish, Shen Jinfeng leading such a team of useless children waiting to be fed is… honestly pretty tiring.]
