Chapter 27
To avoid interfering with each other’s filming, the groups tacitly shopped in different areas.
After Lu Xiao and Meng Xueyuan left the toiletries section, Best Actress Jiang Weina pushed her cart over and decisively tossed in a bath sponge and the smallest bottle of shampoo on the shelf.
Lu Xiao glanced at the others’ carts and made a decision—judging by their level of ingredient preparation, the show would definitely open a back door later or release tasks to exchange for food.
In that case, there was no need to add more meat. He could freely buy daily necessities and not shortchange Meng Xueyuan.
Lu Xiao picked up a packet of yeast, a packet of baking powder, five fragrant pears, mosquito repellent, and a water bottle specifically for Meng Xueyuan…
Meng Xueyuan mentally totaled the cost. “284.1 in all. We only have 15.9 left.”
Lu Xiao rested his wrist on the cart handle. “What else do you want?”
Meng Xueyuan walked into a secluded corner and whispered, “Let’s weigh a bit more vegetables or something—exactly 15.9. Can you get it right?”
The production team didn’t allow repeated weigh-ins to hit three hundred. Once you weighed something, it was final.
“Getting it exact to the decimal is a bit hard…” Lu Xiao’s gaze passed over Meng Xueyuan’s shoulder to the shelf behind him, marked with the words “Special Sale”—clearly a bargain.
The director’s broadcast echoed through the supermarket: “Five-minute countdown!”
As if possessed, Lu Xiao reached out—condom trial pack, 15.9 yuan for three.
Cleaning up would definitely be inconvenient during the show. Having condoms would be better.
Meng Xueyuan turned around in confusion, saw the condoms, and his eyes widened. Without thinking, he slapped Lu Xiao’s hand away and hissed, “What are you doing?!”
Forget whether it was a waste of money—how could you buy that on a livestream? Everyone was watching!
Instinctively, Meng Xueyuan tried to block the camera, only to realize it had already locked onto the condoms faster than they could react. Because of their positioning, the shelf was fully visible.
No wonder the cameraman had been holding back laughter ever since they came here—he noticed and didn’t say a word!
Lu Xiao calmly withdrew his hand and slipped it back into his pocket, unruffled. “I just thought it fit the budget perfectly.”
Meng Xueyuan said to the skinny cameraman, “Please remind me next time, okay?” Lu Xiao’s recent ‘fan service’ had gone way too far—it felt like he was trending toward going public.
When a stunning beauty asked you to do something, how could you refuse? The skinny cameraman immediately agreed. “Leave it to me.”
[Who buys condoms just to make up the total? I think they’re necessities.]
[Please, Meng Xueyuan, let Lu Xiao take them. Look how desperate you’ve made your husband—without condoms, how will you little couple survive the night?]
[Slap! That was loud. I heard it all the way in Guangdong. Baby, you’re getting a bit spoiled.]
[Cameraman, don’t betray the people—I want to see what other slips this couple makes.]
[Make-up items! Do you understand what extreme cart-padding means?! When it’s 300-50 on 6.18, I’ll pad with anything, okay!]
[What kind of person has condoms in their cart? Definitely not someone without a sex life.]
[You can return 6.18 padding, but you can’t return this kind.]
[Everyone stop speculating—being this calm means they’re really just colleagues, openly creating show effects.]
[Only-fans, keep being stubborn. Let’s see how many episodes you last.]
[Who understands—before this I was a pure night-watchman, now they call me a ‘top-dream girl.’ wails.jpg]
[As a Snowflake mom-fan, I understand. lights cigarette.jpg]
[I’ve already ordered the same ingredients as Lu Xiao. For the next five days I’ll cook along with my bro—cheap and delicious. Rounded up, that’s basically my bro cooking for me.]
[Ordered too +1, but when I saw Lu Xiao grab yeast and baking powder, I knew it wasn’t that simple…]
Ingredient bundles “same as Lu Xiao” went viral almost instantly, with major fresh-food platforms scrambling to list them.
The variety show director glanced at the sales numbers and nearly vomited blood from jealousy. Why hadn’t he thought earlier that Lu Xiao’s cooking skills could sell products too? At least he could’ve negotiated an exclusive sponsorship—what a massive loss!
The broadcast began counting down, and guests scattered around the supermarket hurried back.
Lu Xiao reminded him, “Hit three hundred.”
Meng Xueyuan stared straight ahead and pushed the cart back the way they came. Even if it meant missing out on the snack gift pack, he was not using condoms to pad the total.
Lu Xiao followed with his hands in his pockets. “Believe it or not, it’s probably already trended. Taking them or not makes no difference now.”
“Stop talking,” Meng Xueyuan said.
Lowering his voice, Lu Xiao coaxed, “You could sell them to your esports friends for instant noodles. Only we came here—if they want them, they won’t be able to find them.”
Meng Xueyuan wavered for a second and stopped. Lu Xiao’s tone made padding the cart sound like a good deed; his friends might really need them. After all, you couldn’t exactly ask out loud which aisle these things were on. The supermarket was huge—only the fated would spot them.
Wait… he’d been led astray.
Meng Xueyuan lifted his chin coolly. Hmph. Trying to trick me. If Li Fei needed them, he’d definitely bring his own—there was no way the production team would strip-search them to check for contraband.
Lu Xiao couldn’t help reaching out to scratch under Meng Xueyuan’s chin. His wife was too cute.
Harder to fool now.
[What are you whispering about? I’m a VIP—can’t I listen either?]
[Wow, Meng Xueyuan was almost persuaded just now. My god, what kind of dirty talk was Lu Xiao saying? You two really… facepalm.]
At the checkout counter, everyone’s carts were piled high.
The staff scanned items one by one. Meng Xueyuan stood nearby supervising. Lu Xiao disappeared for a moment, then suddenly reappeared as if performing magic, setting down several bags of loose, weighed goods.
Meng Xueyuan took a look—rock sugar, glutinous rice flour, white sesame seeds, priced at 5.9 yuan, 6.2 yuan, and 3.8 yuan respectively.
The staff announced, “Three hundred yuan exactly.”
“How did you do that?” Meng Xueyuan exclaimed in amazement, cupping Lu Xiao’s hand. These must be hands blessed by the god of measurement!
Lu Xiao said, “Just grabbed them randomly.”
[Stop pretending, bro. After your wife praised you, the corners of your mouth are harder to suppress than an AK.]
[What other surprises do you have that I don’t know about?]
“Ahhh—” A wail came from the neighboring group. The production team, well aware that many people would choose convenience foods, had covered up the prices of instant noodles, frozen buns, and the like.
Li Fei and Ouyang Lai had filled a cart with instant noodles and frozen buns. They were found to be over budget; not only could they not take the excess items, one most expensive item was also confiscated.
Their priciest item was the deluxe self-heating hotpot Li Fei had picked, which the staff ruthlessly took away.
Ouyang Lai comforted Li Fei. “I’ll cook you tomato-and-egg noodles. You like that, right?”
Li Fei: “Alright.”
The same fate befell another group—Jiang Xunbai and Wang Changyi. Wang Changyi kept muttering “My Bai needs this” at everything he saw, filling the cart at lightning speed. At checkout, they were even forced to give up a large water bottle.
“It’s okay, I’ll remind you to drink more water,” Wang Changyi said, pulling Jiang Xunbai into his arms and kissing his forehead in comfort.
Jiang Xunbai, who loved drinking water, stared longingly at the water bottle. So mad.
Meanwhile, in the Jiang–Wang livestream room:
[So real. The esports group and the Changjiang group are so real. Real couples really hit different from those just selling an image.]
[Openly kissing to comfort each other—unlike certain people skirting the edge with condoms, taking them or not, so vulgar!]
[If you step on Snow Night, don’t drag us esports fans into it, or you’ll experience ultimate trash-talking. xoxo.]
[LMAO, Wang Changyi’s “wife-doting” persona is overdone—he grabbed a bunch of useless stuff for Jiang Xunbai, messed up the math, and got Jiang Xunbai’s favorite water bottle taken away. And people are still praising him?]
[Don’t you Snow Night folks have your own livestream? Why are you here?]
[I heard someone here was being nasty, so I came. Spit once and leave.]
Meng Xueyuan, without question, won the snack gift pack.
The snack pack was, of course, sponsored—very generous, a 1.5-meter-tall transparent jar filled with various items, not all of which were necessarily his favorites.
Meng Xueyuan picked out some fruit cups and nuts, then distributed the rest to the other groups. He liked fruit cups; the nuts were for Lu Xiao.
This was also a tacit form of soft advertising.
Veteran host Zhang Jinhe and his wife said their teeth weren’t great, so they left the snacks to the younger folks.
Li Fei took chips and spicy strips as if they were treasure, making up for the loss of his hotpot.
Jiang Weina took dried vegetables and seaweed, saying they were diet snacks.
Jiang Xunbai watched for a bit, then took a bag of sunflower seeds and dried fruit, and said to Meng Xueyuan, “Actually, I’m a CP fan of you two.”
Meng Xueyuan glanced at Lu Xiao—should he reply, “I’m also a CP fan of you two”?
Forget it. Lu Xiao probably wasn’t interested in something as childish as shipping CPs.
Meng Xueyuan rummaged through the bottom layer of the snack jar and found a bag of sunflower seeds. “Thanks—ship more.”
Jiang Xunbai replied, “You can ship ours too,” then returned to Wang Changyi’s side, tore open the bag, and started cracking seeds.
The director clapped his hands. “Shopping segment over. Now we’re heading to the small fishing village. Please carry your shopping bags.”
The production team allowed them to use supermarket carts to transport their goods to the vehicles. Meng Xueyuan glanced toward Old Mr. Zhang Jinhe.
Lu Xiao immediately said, “Go help them.”
“Okay,” Meng Xueyuan replied.
He walked over and quietly helped lift their bags onto the cart, not daring to strike up conversation.
Zhang Jinhe had worked on the legal affairs channel before and often said, “The net of heaven is vast, yet nothing slips through”—extremely serious.
Mrs. Zhang was a bit gentler. “Xueyuan, I see your fans all call you that. Your line delivery is excellent—Old Zhang has praised you before.”
“Really?” Meng Xueyuan said happily. “I grew up watching Teacher Zhang’s programs.”
Mrs. Zhang smiled. “That must be true—you two break sentences very similarly.”
Meng Xueyuan didn’t take the chance to claim a virtual teacher–student relationship, only said, “Maybe watching too much had some influence.”
…
The production team had somehow unearthed a treasure of a small fishing village on an island. There were only a few households. They paid in advance to clear the area, instantly turning it into an empty island.
Jiang Weina’s glamorous face fell. “How is this survival in the wild? That’s a different price!”
Everyone burst out laughing.
The director said mercilessly, “Lunch requires at least one dish that reflects the theme of love. It can be a symbol of love, a love legend, or your own love story. Then bring it here to share.”
The houses on the island were all similar, no need to choose. Everyone left the most comfortable-looking one for the seniors, then casually picked houses to stay in.
Lu Xiao portioned out oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar into disposable cups and delivered them to each group. Meng Xueyuan stayed inside organizing the ingredients and storing them in the fridge.
Preserving food came first. After that, Meng Xueyuan carried their suitcases to the bedroom, took out the clothes, and hung them in the wardrobe.
[Xueyuan looks so wifely hanging clothes.]
[Baby, you’re more careful hanging Lu Xiao’s clothes than your own.]
[Remember to put the soap in the bathroom—Mom will check tonight.]
[Yes yes, the camera angle in this bedroom is perfectly aimed at the bathroom. Give the cameraman a drumstick.]
“What do you want to eat for lunch?” Lu Xiao asked.
Meng Xueyuan said, “The director said it has to reflect a love theme.”
Lu Xiao replied, “Then just make something up. Say it’s what we ate the first time we met.”
Meng Xueyuan’s eyes lit up. “You’re so smart.”
[Bro, did you forget there’s no love between you two?? The first thing you ate together can only be called a coworkers’ meal, right?]
[These two custard buns are leaking everywhere—this is killing me.]
The cameraman cleared his throat and reminded them, “Read the prompt carefully. The first meal you ate together reflects brotherhood, not a love theme, doesn’t it?”
[I was worried the cameraman’s reminder would make them keep pretending—turns out… the cameraman is literally my mouthpiece.]
[Cameraman, say more. I want to see the little couple get awkward.]
Meng Xueyuan blanked for a second. Right—he and Lu Xiao were just brothers.
“Sorry, I misunderstood,” Meng Xueyuan said, gratefully glancing at the cameraman. “Then let’s make red-bean buns. Red beans symbolize longing, so that fits the love theme.”
Lu Xiao had bought very little red bean. Once he made the filling, there would be none left. He wanted to save it to cook red-bean porridge for his wife for beauty and health, so he said rather stingily, “There’s no time to stir-fry the red-bean filling. We can make sweet rice shaped like five-petaled peach blossoms. ‘Peach trees young and bright, brilliant are their flowers’—Tao Yao is a poem about marriage between a man and a woman, so it fits the theme too.”
Meng Xueyuan thought Lu Xiao was very eloquent, just like Father Shen, and said, “Sure.”
The snack gift pack they had just won contained mixed nuts—walnuts, red dates, raisins, and so on. Lu Xiao poured them out, flattened and chopped them, and arranged them in the shape of a flower’s center at the bottom of five oil-brushed bowls.
Next, the glutinous rice was soaked. When it was about half-cooked, it was drained and mixed with rock sugar for sweetness—brown sugar would’ve been even better. The rice was then put into the bowls and steamed.
Once steamed, they were unmolded upside down. Lu Xiao put on gloves and gave them a light squeeze, shaping them into flowers.
[Bro, could you give some narration? My eyes can’t keep up with your hands.]
[I’d never have thought sweet rice could be made like this.]
[Lu Xiao, you’re way too good at working with what you’ve got… Baby, sticking with Lu Xiao means you eat so well. If it were me I’d get fat—Mom’s relieved.]
[I could’ve sworn Lu Xiao’s ingredient pack didn’t have nuts though?!]
[Wait, how much rock sugar did you add?]
[To taste.]
Smelling the sweet rice, Meng Xueyuan practically wanted to turn into a little honeybee and buzz around it—he loved sweets.
Lu Xiao made five bowls, one for each group. They carried the sweet rice over to the gathering point, where the other guests had also arrived.
The production team had set up a romantic canopy, with the sea and beach as the backdrop, decorated with flowers and balloons. A white plush carpet covered the ground—shoes had to be taken off to step on it. There were no chairs, just a long, low table, everyone sitting around it on the carpet to eat.
Holding the dish, Lu Xiao saw Meng Xueyuan squat down proactively and hold the heel of his shoe. “Take them off.”
Lu Xiao felt a bit unaccustomed. “Okay.”
Meng Xueyuan neatly set his shoes aside, then took off his own.
[Living the dream, Lu Xiao.]
[The wife is so soft—who said Meng Xueyuan was aloof?]
Host Zhang Jinhe’s group made five servings of longevity noodles. Mrs. Zhang said she made them every year for Zhang Jinhe’s birthday—most of the time delivering them to the TV station—and she’d been doing it for thirty-three years.
“That’s such a long time,” Meng Xueyuan thought. A marriage lasting thirty-three years, never tiring of seeing each other or eating together—how enviable. Lu Xiao, on the other hand, got bored of things easily, even if they brought him supreme glory and adulation.
Film queen Jiang Weina made a small fried pastry using flour and sugar and teased, “Guess what legend it comes from?”
Meng Xueyuan recognized it as Qiao Guo, eaten during the Qixi Festival, but felt too shy to answer. Mrs. Zhang said the name instead.
“Qixi qiao guo—the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.”
“Guess mine!” Li Fei said eagerly. He thought his idea was brilliant. Ouyang Lai had caught a bit of a cold, so he’d bought lots of ginger to ward off the chill.
Thankfully, there was ginger—he’d simmered goji berry ginger soup. Otherwise, he’d have had to make up a love story about bonding over a cup of instant noodles on the spot.
Everyone looked at each other, unable to guess Li Fei’s intention. Not wanting his friend to be left hanging, Meng Xueyuan joked, “Could it be another love legend—the Lady Meng Jiang crying down the Great Wall?”
Li Fei looked at him with shining eyes. “Exactly! Meng Xueyuan, you’re my soulmate!”
Meng Xueyuan: “……”
[Our Fei-god only made it to first year of high school—please forgive him, everyone.]
[Guess you have to be surnamed Meng to get it.]
Li Fei said, “What about yours?”
Meng Xueyuan introduced, “Our group made peach-blossom-shaped sweet rice.”
“Oh…” As soon as peach blossoms were mentioned, everyone understood. Zhang Jinhe’s lips moved—he was about to recite a passage from the Book of Songs in his broadcaster’s voice.
Li Fei interrupted, “I know, I know—it’s about ‘cut sleeves and sharing peaches.’”
See? His thinking really was on the same wavelength as Meng Xueyuan’s.
Meng Xueyuan said, “…Right.” Cut sleeves and sharing peaches refers to peaches, not peach blossoms.
[Alright then—still one of you gay love legends.]
[Not inferior to the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, I said what I said.]
[If I hadn’t seen your discussion before cooking, I might’ve believed it.]
