Chapter 11 Countryside Trip

He came to the countryside so that everyone could make up their minds in the slightly worse environment over the next few days. Putting aside their superior material living conditions, many people's true nature would gradually be revealed.

When people have everything they need, anyone can act like a polite gentleman or an elegant lady, but that naturally makes the story less interesting. Artificial sweeteners in acting are no longer appealing in dramas or dating shows; the only way forward is to find a different path.

"Next, we will complete a random task combination. The groups will be determined by drawing lots. One group will be a pair, and the rest of us will work together."

The director sat off-set reading the script:

"You will be spending the next three days here with the villagers. To reward them for their hard work during the busy farming season, please help prepare a dinner for them. During these three days, you are not allowed to use any of your own money, but you can earn it by completing tasks."

"Preparing dinner?" Huang Dingyu, the white-collar worker, asked the crucial question, "How many villagers are there in total?"

The director said, "Not many, just one family, five or six people."

Five or six is ​​fine, as long as it's not a big banquet.

After the number of participants was confirmed, each group stepped forward and drew a slip of paper from a large red box. As Zhu Tu, the internet celebrity blogger who was paired with Huang Dingyu, unfolded her slip of paper, her expression suddenly changed, and she pulled her male partner aside and asked him a few questions in a low voice.

"no."

Zhu Tu curled her lip in displeasure, her gaze slowly sweeping over everyone before settling on Yu Shuling. Her pointed accusations weren't cleverly concealed; Yu Shuling could even clearly sense that she had only gone through the motions earlier, her real intention being to vent her dissatisfaction on her. Sure enough, the next moment Zhu Tu raised her hand with a beaming smile:

"I want to use the exchange card! I'll exchange with Qiyang and Lingling! You two can have some time alone together!"

Zhu Tu was originally assigned to work as a duo, setting up the scene and cooking. However, neither she nor Huang Dingyu knew anything about cooking. The other activity was catching crabs in the fields, which seemed difficult, but it was better than doing nothing at all. Yu Shuling, who was suddenly called upon, was slightly taken aback. She remembered that she and Zhu Tu hadn't had much interaction in the story before.

The exchange card was obtained during the game segment before Zhu Tu. It allows you to force a task exchange with any group of guests once. There's no point in objecting, so Yu Shuling just shrugged and accepted it with a smile.

Time was tight, and they had to leave after making the arrangements. Among the guests, only Tan Xiu felt a little guilty, but she left quickly under the director's urging.

Chen Qiyang never cooks at home; at most, he can only cook rice. He remembered that Yu Shuling hadn't shown any cooking skills either, so he couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

"Sister, what do we do now? Order takeout?"

Yu Shuling shook her head: "Since everyone has gone to work first, we two can't hold them back. We haven't had a chance before, so let's show everyone what we can do today!"

The screen was immediately flooded with a barrage of question marks.

Anyone familiar with Yu Shuling knows that before entering the entertainment industry, she came from a pretty good family background. Although it wasn't a truly wealthy family, it was far better than a middle-class family.

This was also the source of her previous pampered life. However, in the original story, her family fell into complete ruin due to failed investments, and their businesses went bankrupt with heavy debts.

That's why the agent had such a firm grip on the original owner's fate, convinced that the original owner couldn't survive without their company and would have to rely on them to pay off the debt.

Meanwhile, the other groups also arrived at the crab field in a state of utter disarray.

The guests participating in this program are mostly young celebrities. Catching crabs in the fields sounds simple, but it's actually quite difficult. Most of them are either afraid of being pinched by the crabs and dare not try, or they simply can't find any crabs at all. In particular, some people accidentally destroyed a piece of someone's crab-rice paddy, and the production team had to pay compensation to settle the matter.

After a group of people worked hard for most of the day, the crabs they finally caught were either old, weak, sick, or disabled with broken claws and legs, or tiny juvenile crabs that hadn't even had a chance to grow big. Such a harvest was hardly enough to entertain guests, and it would be too meager even for them to eat themselves.

The setting sun was almost swallowed by the distant green mountains. It would take another half hour or so to get back, and there probably wouldn't be enough time to cook anything else.

They arrived in high spirits, but now everyone looked miserable. After cleaning the mud off their hands and feet, the female guests climbed onto the tractor with the help of the male guests.

"It's okay," Zhao Cheng said softly to comfort Du Xuan, who seemed sullen, while quietly opening the food delivery app. "We can cook other dishes when we get back. The pressure cooker there cooks rice quickly, so don't rush."

Zhao Cheng originally planned to secretly order takeout and have it delivered here so he could eat it as soon as he got back. However, the signal was poor in the countryside, and even with mobile data, the connection was slow and choppy. When he finally managed to open the app, he discovered it was outside the delivery area!

"But there definitely won't be enough food, right? I saw there were only a few kinds of food in the fridge before I left." Thinking about how she was about to ruin the village gathering, Zhu Tu's eyes welled up with tears, making her fans in the live stream feel incredibly sorry for her. But she quickly wiped away her tears, changing the subject:

"I don't know if we can still make it in time to go to town to buy groceries, but please don't blame them if we don't cook it well. After all, they gave us a rather small amount of vegetables. Shuling is young and probably hasn't done much housework, so she might not think of going to the market to buy groceries. Actually, I initially thought they would just cook something simple in the small house and we could quickly go back and cook, but I didn't expect it to be so late..."

She looked exactly like a "caring older sister," and anyone who didn't know better would think she was speaking up for Yu Shuling.

At this moment, the male guests were all comforting the understanding Zhu Tu, but they didn't realize that her casual remark had caused many people's attention to shift to Yu Shuling, who was in the house and had not participated in this action.

According to Zhu Tu, she meant well; she had asked the two of them before if they could cook, and Yu Shuling said yes. She genuinely didn't want the two youngest to be burdened, but she hadn't expected them to fail to complete their task. The group the production team invited were mostly not good at cooking; having to cook for themselves for several days would be quite a headache.

But the moment they pushed open the door, Zhao Cheng, who was walking at the front, was stunned, as were the viewers who had been watching the live stream without switching cameras. Zhao Cheng stared incredulously at the steaming, exquisitely plated food, then glanced half-jokingly at the camera mounted above.

"Is the production team being incredibly lenient?"

The production team made it clear on the first day of filming that they would not help with the tasks. He felt that there might be exceptions, but he soon received a rejection from the PD.

The steam rising from the kitchen fogged the glass door with a layer of white mist. Zhu Tu, who was chatting and laughing with Huang Dingyu as they walked in, immediately noticed the exquisite dishes on the table—lotus leaf-wrapped pork tenderloin, shredded pork with scrambled eggs, pea flour cake, and other beautifully presented but unidentifiable foods. She couldn't help but smile gently:

"This isn't a takeout delivery, is it?"