Chapter 28
[Our Yuanyuan really gets along great with the esports group.]
[I want to be friends with Yuanyuan too—he’s wholehearted with his friends and never lets the atmosphere go cold.]
[Fei-god playing with love legends like this is pretty fun. Aside from Teacher Zhang with his silver-wedding marriage, everyone else talking about their own love stories kind of comes off as shallow showing-off (delete parenthetical: three mao a dozen).]
The final group to present was Jiang Xunbai and Wang Changyi. They made pumpkin millet porridge.
Wang Changyi said, “The first time I met Bai Bai was at a birthday party for someone in the circle. Bai Bai was late and got heckled into punishing himself with three drinks. He’d just finished filming and hadn’t eaten—his face looked bad. He downed the three glasses and then sat on the couch clutching his stomach. I arrived early, went to the kitchen, and brought him a bowl of millet porridge to tide him over. That’s how we got to know each other.”
Jiang Xunbai stood beside him, eyes sparkling as he looked at Wang Changyi, lost in sweet memories.
[You can tell when people are in love just by looking into their eyes.]
[Bai Bai is really so pure—whoever treats him well, he remembers it for a lifetime.]
[Ever since I heard Lu Xiao say you could just casually make something up about the first meal you ate together, I haven’t been able to listen to Wang Changyi’s segment anymore.]
[Lu Xiao, you’ve done real damage.]
Then Wang Changyi changed tack, saying that from then on Jiang Xunbai had fallen in love with millet porridge. Because of that, he’d specially studied all kinds of millet-porridge pairings—the origins of the millet, the heat, the cooking time… everything tailored to Jiang Xunbai’s preferences…
Lu Xiao listened with a blank expression.
Hearing him hype up the millet porridge to the skies, Meng Xueyuan got curious and scooped up a small spoonful to taste it.
Mm… nothing special.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Xiao caught Meng Xueyuan’s cute little expression and quietly curled his lips. So curious about someone else’s husband’s cooking—could it possibly be better than his?
After sharing his culinary experience, Wang Changyi concluded, “Conditions are limited today, so I couldn’t really show my full ability. Sorry, baby—just make do with it.”
Jiang Xunbai nodded. “It’s good.”
Wang Changyi said, “Careful, don’t burn your tongue.”
Jiang Xunbai: “Mm-hmm.”
[You can tell people are in love just by listening to how they talk. Changjiang, charge—drown out that working-the-camera pair.]
[Burn what? Meng Xueyuan already tasted it and swallowed it without even blowing on it.]
[I’m dumbfounded—could you have said you didn’t perform well a bit earlier? You wasted our baby’s curiosity.]
[First time eating the Changjiang CP’s food today—do you guys normally eat this greasy? Has no one told you the Yangtze’s water quality has improved a lot lately?]
[I counted it—Snow Night group introduced their sweet rice in one sentence, Wang Changyi gave a five-minute speech. I’ve already scrolled through ten short videos.]
[That sweet rice actually looks really good; the millet porridge is both greasy and bland.]
[Ahhh sisters, I’m here—expanding the Snow Night front, absolutely not letting some big-faced CP climb over our heads.]
[Do you even know what a real couple is? You’ve eaten too much fake sugar—can’t recognize the real thing. Snow Night probably can’t tell real designer bags from knockoffs in daily life.]
[Knockoffs are sometimes better quality than the real thing, but without certification they’re always knockoffs.]
[High oil, high sugar Changjiang CP—so what? Don’t you drink milk tea and eat fried chicken?]
After the introductions, everyone started eating. Mrs. Zhang’s noodles and Lu Xiao’s sweet rice became the main staples.
Lu Xiao quietly moved the millet porridge to the very edge and placed his own sweet rice in the center.
After finishing the noodles, Meng Xueyuan switched to the sweet rice. Lu Xiao silently moved the noodle bowl over, trailing after his wife to pick up leftovers.
Li Fei piled both staples in front of Ouyang Lai. “Eat up, eat up—next meal is instant noodles.”
Wang Changyi scooped up a spoonful of millet porridge, blew on it, and fed Jiang Xunbai. Jiang Xunbai smacked his lips—still tasting the sweet rice—and thought: Why hadn’t they thought of adding the dried fruit from the snack gift pack into the millet porridge?
Wang Changyi said, “This time, baby eats plain millet porridge first—it’s better for your stomach.”
Jiang Xunbai immediately forgot his dilemma. “Thank you, darling. What you make tastes the best.”
The director began speaking: “Everyone’s ideas were great. Each group gets one mosquito net as a reward. Please send one person to collect it.”
Meng Xueyuan finished eating faster than Lu Xiao, stood up, and said, “I’ll go.”
Lu Xiao: “Mm.”
Jiang Xunbai also liked activities where you collected rewards. He put down his spoon and said to Wang Changyi, “You eat the rest.”
Wang Changyi said out of habit, “Alright—baby, watch the steps.”
[Mr. Wang really is more loving. The other group looks like they’re mute.]
[LMAO, Jiang Xunbai isn’t an idiot.]
Lu Xiao focused on eating his wife’s leftovers when his peripheral vision suddenly caught a thick patch of beach grass behind the canopy.
The production team had laid the carpet quite far out, and everyone had taken their shoes off by the grass.
Thinking of something, Lu Xiao stood up and chased after Meng Xueyuan, stopping him as he bent down to put his shoes on. “Wait.”
Meng Xueyuan: “Hm?”
Lu Xiao squatted down, picked up Meng Xueyuan’s shoes, and tapped the heels against the ground.
Sure enough, a little bug flailed its legs as it fell out, then scurried into the grass.
Lu Xiao glanced inside, confirmed there was nothing left, and set the shoes by Meng Xueyuan’s feet. “All clear.”
Jiang Xunbai, who had been about to put his shoes straight on: ???
So all the guests started tipping out their own shoes, while Meng Xueyuan had already walked over to the director to collect the mosquito net.
[I’m dying laughing—one guy just moves his lips to remind you to watch the steps, another personally tips out his wife’s shoes. Who’s embarrassing themselves, I won’t say.]
[Public service announcement: you can tell people are in love through their actions.]
[Thanks to Lu Xiao, I finally got a close-up of Yuanyuan’s ankles—lick lick.]
[Jiang Xunbai looks a bit stunned, probably thinking: how are you even more real than me?]
[Jiang Xunbai’s solo fans reporting their first laugh of the day—finally found someone who makes Wang Changyi look like dog crap.]
Having learned from the last incident with the bee-protection suit, Meng Xueyuan checked carefully this time, making sure there were no gaps for mosquitoes to sneak in and bite Lu Xiao.
Meng Xueyuan himself didn’t attract mosquitoes. Holding the mosquito net open with both hands, fine, snow-white chiffon piled around him. Sunlight scattered like molten gold; black hair, dark eyes, skin whiter than snow—pure and beautiful, like a bride holding a seaside wedding.
Lu Xiao’s gaze lingered on his long, pale fingers, feeling that they were missing a ring.
Seeing how serious Meng Xueyuan was, the director also remembered the previous mistake that had earned him a round of threats from Lu Xiao. He immediately shifted responsibility like hot potato: “You check it yourselves—if there are holes and you get bitten tonight, the production team won’t be responsible.”
Meng Xueyuan finished checking and said to the director, “Mine’s fine.”
The director actually let out a sigh of relief.
As Meng Xueyuan folded the mosquito net, he saw Jiang Xunbai also checking his. On the other man’s ring finger was a dazzlingly large diamond ring, throwing off brilliant fire in the sunlight.
[Such a beautiful big diamond ring.]
[Men wearing diamond rings are gorgeous too!]
[Only at this moment did Snow Night fall silent.]
Meng Xueyuan reminded him, “Be careful—don’t let the ring snag the mosquito net.”
“This is a ring Changyi just gave me.” Jiang Xunbai hesitated for a moment, then took it off and slipped it into his pocket. “Thanks for the reminder.”
Lu Xiao withdrew his gaze, thinking that if it could be taken off so easily, there was nothing to envy. If he were going to buy a ring, it would have to be one that stayed firmly locked around Meng Xueyuan’s ring finger.
Meng Xueyuan carried the mosquito net back home. The bed itself already had a mosquito-net frame—he just needed to slip it on. Kneeling on the bed, he tucked the edges of the net under the bamboo mat, busy and focused.
Lu Xiao wrung out a towel. “Wipe your face and go to sleep.”
“Okay.” Meng Xueyuan took it, wiped his cheeks, and lay down right there without leaving the net.
After a short rest, the production team came with a new task.
“Tomorrow will be a clear, sunny day, and the seaside is quite harsh under the sun. Please each learn how to weave a straw hat and wear it for tomorrow’s showcase. Every task comes with an essential daily-necessities reward, so do your best.”
Each group was assigned a master to teach them. The master said, “Once you’re done, exchange hats and wear each other’s—so learn carefully.”
Meng Xueyuan felt a little nervous. Lu Xiao would definitely weave his well; he had to work harder too—he couldn’t let Lu Xiao wear an ugly hat.
His black-and-white eyes stayed fixed on the old master’s hands as he followed along, threading bamboo leaves through the prepared bamboo framework and securing them with twine.
Lu Xiao positioned Meng Xueyuan in the middle—turn left and he could see the front-facing technique on the master’s straw hat; turn right and he could see Lu Xiao’s slightly-behind-the-beat back-side weaving.
Meng Xueyuan: Easy to learn. If you’ve got hands, you can do it.
Lu Xiao’s mind wandered for a moment, wondering what tomorrow’s reward would be. Probably ingredients? Since they were by the sea, a whole basket of seafood would be ideal.
The two straw hats were finished, nearly identical in appearance.
Meng Xueyuan put the one he made onto Lu Xiao’s head. The smoked-dried bamboo leaves were a yellow-brown color, very waterproof.
“If we’d used fresh green bamboo leaves, it would look even better,” Meng Xueyuan thought. With it on, Lu Xiao looked like a great forest elf.
Because lunch had to be shared and exchanged, Lu Xiao only made one dish. Dinner was just the two of them, so he planned to add more variety.
While there was still plenty of peanut oil, he decided to fry some sesame glutinous rice balls for Meng Xueyuan to try first.
They had to be red-bean filled.
The red beans had already been cooked down soft; he added honey and rock sugar and stir-fried them until they came together into a paste. With such a small amount, it was easy—done in no time.
He mixed glutinous rice flour with water and baking powder, kneaded it smooth, wrapped in the bean paste, rolled the balls in sesame seeds, and fried them.
At the same time, he had dough fermenting and had chopped cabbage and lean pork for dumpling filling.
[Bro, are you secretly playing this on double speed?]
[One minute it’s wheat flour, the next it’s glutinous rice flour—I quit!]
[Making desserts without listing ratios? I quit! Flip the table!]
The cameraman, sneaking glances at the comments, quietly found Meng Xueyuan and said, “Could you interview Teacher Lu and ask about the ratios? The viewers really care.”
Meng Xueyuan was weaving a second straw hat—planning to make two for his parents as well. Hearing this, he set down the bamboo leaves and went into the kitchen.
Lu Xiao was wrapping buns. He glanced at Meng Xueyuan. “More vegetables, or more meat?”
Meng Xueyuan: “Half and half.”
“Okay.” Lu Xiao scooped a spoonful of red bean paste from the bowl and held it to Meng Xueyuan’s mouth. “How sweet?”
Meng Xueyuan took a sip. “Thirty percent sweet—just right.”
[????]
[Is this what you call interviewing ingredient ratios?]
[LMAO—your wife shows up and suddenly you know how many ‘percent sweet.’]
[Stop interviewing. The two of you just standing there makes my mind go yellow; I don’t want to cook anymore.]
When the vegetable buns came out of the steamer, clouds of steam rose up. The sweet aroma of white flour intertwined with the savory scent of meat, drawing the first wave of visitors.
Li Fei came over clutching a box of instant noodles. “Ouyang’s got a cold. I can’t bear to let him eat instant noodles—can I trade for two buns?”
With something fresh, who would still eat processed food?
Meng Xueyuan carried over a basin of snowy white, soft buns—like a bun-selling beauty—set it on the table, and said, “Sure.”
Jiang Weina’s director husband passed by. “!!!”
Such soft, fragrant buns!
He was just about to speak when he caught sight of Lu Xiao through the window wearing a clear “don’t even ask” expression. Inspiration struck—he ran home, stole half a bottle of his wife’s shampoo, poured it into a disposable cup, and trotted back eagerly.
“Four! No—three! Three!” His wife was dieting; she only needed one.
Since Meng Xueyuan had traded with Li Fei, he couldn’t show favoritism—he gave the big director three buns as well.
Now they’d have shampoo for the evening.
Lu Xiao tore open a bag and put four buns inside. “Take these to Teacher Zhang.”
Teacher Zhang… how did he know?
Meng Xueyuan said in surprise, “How did you know I learned standard Mandarin from him?”
Of course Lu Xiao knew. What childhood secrets of Meng Xueyuan’s didn’t he know? Memories that had gradually faded with time all sprang vividly back to life the moment Meng Xueyuan appeared. Baby Meng Xueyuan would even solemnly say, when Lu Xiao tried to skip class and take him for ice cream, “The net of heaven is vast and leaves nothing leak—brother, we’ll get caught and taken to the police station.”
“Boiled eggs for breakfast tomorrow.”
“…”
Meng Xueyuan worried, “If you give away so many, will you still have enough to eat?”
Lu Xiao had a big appetite too—it was most important that he ate his fill.
Lu Xiao rubbed his head. “Why do you think I bought so much flour?”
As the best cook, not sharing was impossible. If he could trade the food for something useful to Meng Xueyuan, then it was worth it.
Meng Xueyuan took a bun and walked toward Teacher Zhang’s place, eating as he went.
Had he offended Lu Xiao somehow? A sudden intuition struck him—boiled eggs were Lu Xiao’s punishment.
But why punish him with boiled eggs? Anything else would’ve been better.
