Chapter 77 Candlelight Dinner: "Everything related to you is a fresh experience."
At 6:30 p.m., the two groups of MVPs departed from their respective meeting locations and arrived at the same Western restaurant.
The two groups entered one after the other and sat down in different private rooms.
The silence skill took effect, and the two groups exhibited completely different results.
The two people in Box 1 seemed to be forming a hand seal, quickly using sign language.
A moment of silence fell over the second private room; even ordering food was difficult.
Jiang Yan was afraid the waitress would leave, so she kept a polite eye on her. Qin Lan, on the other hand, opened the menu and pointed to a soup.
The waiter, barely containing his excitement, said, "I'm sorry, we're out of matsutake cream soup today. We also have very popular French vegetable soup, classic French onion soup, and Italian seafood soup. Which one would you like?"
Qin Lan didn't want to drink anymore, so she looked at Jiang Yan questioningly.
Jiang Yan was completely focused on the waiter and didn't notice her at all.
Qin Lan wanted to cough but couldn't make a sound, so he snapped his fingers in front of her.
Jiang Yan turned to look at her: "?"
Qin Lan gestured towards the waiter.
Jiang Yan: "?"
Qin Lan flipped through several pages of the menu in front of her and ordered the remaining soup dishes.
Jiang Yan glanced down at it twice and pointed to the French vegetable soup.
The waiter made a note of it.
Informing Qin Lan of the dietary restrictions was even more difficult, and in the end, Qin Lan didn't want to eat anymore.
After struggling to order the food, the two stared at each other blankly.
Jiang Yan got up, intending to say that she was going to the restroom.
As a result, Qin Lan, due to excessive tension, also stood up, staring at her without saying a word.
Jiang Yan tried to get her to sit down, gesturing helplessly a few times.
Finally, she thought of washing her hands, so she rubbed her palms together.
Qin Lan breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down.
Then the waiter turned back, looking shy, and said to her, "Ms. Qin... I'm a fan of yours. Could you please sign an autograph and take a picture with me?"
Qin Lan nodded aloofly, and the other person immediately handed her the notebook, opening it to the first page: "Just write here."
Qin Lan almost blurted out "to sign," but quickly covered her mouth.
That was close; the sound was almost heard.
She stared blankly at the camera, and the cameraman, sensing her presence, turned away and gazed leisurely at the sky.
Qin Lan simply wrote "To," then looked up and shrugged.
Fortunately, the fan was quick to respond, immediately saying shyly, "To Xiaoyan..."
Qin Lan: "?"
Which cigarette?
She looked up with a troubled expression.
The other person understood: "The 'yan' in 'absent-minded'..."
Qin Lan felt as if he had been granted a pardon and quickly began to write.
When Jiang Yan returned, the two were taking a photo together.
The cameraman set up his camera in the corner and took three consecutive photos with Xiao Yan's phone.
Xiao Yan blushed when she saw Jiang Yan return. She was initially a loyal Qin fan, but later she was lured into a cult and joined Qin Jiang's organization. Now, the more she looks at Jiang Yan, the more pleasing she becomes.
So, she boldly suggested, "Teacher Jiang, how about we take a picture together too?"
Jiang Yan paused, then walked over and stood to Xiao Yan's right.
Xiao Yan stood in the middle, feeling that something was wrong. Although neither of the two people on her left nor right said anything, she felt like a third wheel.
So she squatted down and looked up to plead, "Could the two teachers stand a little closer?"
So the two teachers each took a step towards the middle.
The cameraman silently lowered the angle a bit.
They've taken a family photo.
Cameraman: "Cheese!"
Only that fan showed eight teeth.
The two people behind him smiled expressionlessly.
Cameraman: "Teacher Qin, you could be a little sweeter."
Qin Lan picked up the sugar jar from the table and came back.
Cameraman: "Cheese!"
Jiang Yan poked Qin Lan in the waist, forcing her to grin.
At 8:30 p.m., Qin Lanjiang, Yan Feng, Man Hong, and Liu Lü returned to the villa.
The other six people sat neatly on the sofa in the living room on the first floor.
Qin Lan had long forgotten about the punishment and changed her shoes with a puzzled look on her face.
Feng Manhong asked, "What are you doing?"
Xiahou Cheng chuckled and stood up.
"Old Qin, prepare to accept your punishment!"
Qin Lan was stunned: "What... there's this too..."
The others looked on expectantly.
Qin Lan gritted her teeth: "Go ahead and say it!"
She was prepared for Xiahou Cheng to kill her, but unexpectedly, Xiahou Cheng said, "Then confess your love to the beautiful lady next to you for one minute!"
"..."
Can I exchange it?
"cannot."
Qin Lan thought to herself that this was no better than singing and dancing.
She steeled herself and faced Jiang Yan, who was clenching her hands nervously, her expression also quite unnatural.
Qin Lan could hear her own heartbeat, and she always felt that there was another heart beating just as loudly around her.
She froze for a moment before finally managing to squeeze out her first words: "Next, I want to confess my love to you."
Yu Jintang: "Reading the question aloud is prohibited."
Qin Lan ignored her, focusing on her role in front of the camera, not caring about other people's reactions or whether they would laugh. She stammered, "I'm not very emotional, and I'm not very good at talking. I also have a bad temper, um... because of these factors, I don't really know how to... communicate with you."
"Besides work, I haven't found anything else that particularly attracts me. Well, after arguing with you, I found it was actually quite fun."
Yu Jintang whispered anxiously, "Old Qin, what are you saying?!"
Qin Lan continued, "I don't know how you view arguments, but everything related to you is a fresh feeling, whether in the past or now... I don't know how to express what I'm about to say better, so I'll just say it directly: this variety show will be finished filming in six days. I have my work to do, and you have yours, but there will still be opportunities to work together, roadshows, premieres, and award ceremonies. There will also be many holidays and special anniversaries. You are destined to be my biggest rival, but of course, you are also my partner now."
Jiang Yan didn't say anything, but slightly stretched out her hand.
Qin Lan walked over and gave her a brief hug.
Jiang Yan rested her chin on her shoulder, nuzzled her almost imperceptibly, and closed her eyes.
In a warm atmosphere, a staff member said softly with heartache, "Teacher Qin has violated the rules once."
Xiahou Cheng whispered to Yu Jintang, "Old Qin is really on point tonight."
Yu Jintang: "So how do you plan to punish me?"
Xiahou Cheng chuckled: "I won't make it difficult for you. I'll just punish Teacher Tangtang by making her feed me a piece of fruit with her mouth."
After everyone had enjoyed the spectacle, they went upstairs, chattering amongst themselves.
Nothing happened for the next three days. The guests completed the random tasks of [Anonymous Letter], [Blindfolded Object Passing], and [Scent Memory], and Jiang Yan, Feng Manhong, and Xiahou Cheng were awarded the MVP of the day.
On Day 8, the guests faced their most challenging task: the blindfolded maze.
Lin Shu spared no expense in building a huge maze, then blindfolded all the guests and forced them inside.
"Your task is to find your ideal partner. There is a gift box in the center of the maze. The person who gets the gift box and successfully teams up with their desired partner will be the MVP of the day. There are snacks and water inside. If you need to go to the restroom, just call the staff."
All the guests stood at the entrance and skillfully put on their blindfolds.
Everyone on the show adapted to the lives of blind and mute people. Some members even complained that they were "forced to accept" "training" and "discipline".
At the sound of a whistle, Qin Lan raised his arm and skillfully began to feel his way along the road in front of him.
Before, at least there was a mentor—no, a partner—next to me. Now, there's only a cameraman around, so I have to be careful.
After Qin Lan fumbled around for a while, the cameraman couldn't help but remind her, "Teacher Qin, the entrance is here."
"Oh, oh." Qin Lan took two steps in the direction of the sound and finally entered the maze.
After walking straight for about five meters, a wall appeared in front of her.
Qin Lan turned right and continued to stay close to the left wall.
After walking about five meters, the wall on the left suddenly disappeared.
She continued to feel her way forward for a while, maintaining her direction, when suddenly the wall beside her reappeared.
She mentally drew an opening at the spot she had just been, intending to continue walking forward.
The maze was huge and quiet, with a slightly damp smell that made it feel very safe.
She walked along like this for half a day, feeling her way, when she heard faint footsteps coming from ahead.
Qin Lan stopped: "Who?"
"Teacher Qin!" Liu Lü's desperate voice rang out, "Oh my god, finally someone's here!"
She walked for more than twenty minutes, but kept getting lost in a dead end that looked like a snail shell.
Qin Lan tried walking forward a little: "Did you meet anyone else?"
"No, I feel like I've been going in circles." Liu Lü's dejected voice came through: "If you run into Teacher Feng later, please give her some general directions."
"OK." Qin Lan continued to explore forward, and after a while, she suddenly felt a gust of wind above her head.
Qin Lan had a bad feeling and quickly dodged to the side. The next second, a person fell down from where she had just stepped.
"Who is it?" Qin Lan pressed her hand to her chest, still shaken. "Was it you, Xiahou Cheng?"
"Hehe, you guessed right."
Xiahou Cheng grinned. She walked along a straight line for a long time but couldn't find the next intersection, so she climbed over the wall just a meter away from the intersection: "Did you run into anyone?"
"I ran into Teacher Liu. What about you?"
"I encountered a northwest wind and got a nose full of dust."
"..."
Qin Lan was a little thirsty. Following the cameraman's instructions, she found a mineral water bottle hanging on the wall, took a sip, and continued walking.
The cameraman noticed that she didn't act blindly and rarely went in the opposite direction, trying her best to keep moving closer to the center of the maze.
Qin Lan's mental map kept updating, recording every path she had taken. Lin Shu, observing the entire situation from the drone's perspective, discovered that she was the person closest to the center of the maze.
The remaining people were all sorts of strange characters.
Xiahou Cheng became obsessed with circumventing internet censorship.
Yu Jintang is eating.
Yang Xingji tried to persuade the cameraman to chat with her.
Liu Lü entered her second dead end.
Feng Manhong and Jiang Yan bumped into each other and chatted for a while.
Anna met Song Man and kindly told her that Yun Chui was just ahead.
Following Feng Manhong's directions, Yun Chui walked further and further away without looking back.
In fact, Feng Manhong pointed out the right direction, but Song Man changed direction because she met Anna, and the two passed each other in adjacent passages.
Yun Chui's sense of direction is comparable to Qin Lan's, but her goal is slightly different. Jiang Yan can also find the center, but Song Man is terrible with directions. If she doesn't find Song Man first, he could wander around in the maze forever.
Fortunately, just before they were about to miss each other, Song Man ran into Yang Xingji.
The sound of their collision was loud, so Yun Chui stopped and silently turned his head.
"Who goes there!" Yang Xingji grimaced as he got up.
Song Man's nose bled from the impact, and she groaned in pain.
Upon hearing her voice, Yun Chui couldn't help but walk over: "Aman?"
Yang Xingji: "Hey? You're here too?"
Song Mantou was still dizzy, and her tone softened considerably: "Give me a piece of paper..."
"What happened to you?" Yun Chui took out a tissue and groped for it, handing it to her. At the same time, she smelled a faint scent of blood and immediately became anxious: "Are you injured? Where are you injured?"
Song Man covered her face with a whole tissue: "Nosebleed, it's nothing..."
Yun Chui fumbled for a moment, then carefully placed a piece of paper on her chin: "Don't move her yet, stop the bleeding."
Song Man reached for a tissue, speechless: "That's my chin."
Unexpectedly, they both froze when they grabbed Yun Chui's wrist.
Yang Xingji, like a blind bear, struggled to move away: "Where am I... Ouch... I'm so dizzy... Ouch..."
She called out and groped her way along, hurriedly squeezing into the next intersection.
Song Man paused for a moment, then mumbled through her stuffy nose, "What are you doing here?"
"I just happened to be passing by when I heard your voice," Yun Chui said. "Have you run into Teacher Feng?"
"Ah, right," Song Man said, "Did she tell you I was here?"
"Mmm." Yun Chui couldn't help but laugh. "How are you feeling now?"
"You can walk."
Song Man tried to sit up, but due to a lack of visual perception, she jumped up too quickly and almost fell over.
A pair of hands supported her back: "Slow down."
"oh."
Song Man got up, steadied himself against the wall, and looked around.
Yun Chui invited her at the opportune moment: "Would you like to come with me?"
"What am I supposed to do with you?" Song Man muttered softly, "Fine."
Qin Lan arrived at the center of the maze and asked Lin Shu, "I'm not going any further. Can I take off my blindfold?"
“Okay,” Lin Shu said.
There was an open space in front of us, and sure enough, a rather large gift box was placed in the center.
Qin Lan sat down on the grass, staring longingly at the snacks and drinking mineral water.
Yun Chui calculated the path he had taken and concluded that he should be close to the center.
She thought for a moment and started a conversation: "Aren't you curious about what gifts the production team has prepared?"
"It's alright." Song Man wasn't very interested: "Unless there's a Latin master inside, it's just average."
Yun Chui laughed: "Isn't dancing the only interesting thing in your life?"
“That’s not necessarily true,” Song Man retorted.
She used to think that the person next to her was the most important person.
Perhaps not as important as her dance, because dance is the source of her confident and exuberant belief, but Yun Chui is still an indispensable part of her world, and she once thought that this part would never be broken.
"What else does Ah Man also find important?"
Yun Chui's words had a hint of persuasion.
Someone has to bring up the past for the issues to gradually be resolved.
Two intersections appeared ahead. After thinking for a moment, Yun Chui chose the right one.
Song Man rolled her eyes inwardly and spoke ambiguously: "There used to be things that I thought were very important, but they're gone now."
"Has Ah Man thought about finding something more important to do?"
"……without."
Song Man was stunned for a moment, not expecting her words to go in such an unexpected direction. She thought for a moment, then hid all the grievances in her voice and said with a proud attitude, "Since that day, I don't feel that anything else matters."
She spoke with pride, but Yun Chui felt a pang of heartache. She remained silent for a moment, then said, "Aman, I'm sorry."
Song Man was stunned for a moment, and surprisingly, she couldn't think of anything to say in response.
Suddenly, she felt she didn't want to oppose Yun Chui anymore. Since Yun Chui wasn't going to say anything, she might as well back down this time. Anyway, she had no other choice.
"It's nothing, it's been a long time." She lowered her head, her eye mask fixed on her toes.
"Hey!" someone suddenly called out to them, "Found it?"
Yun Chui turned his head to the left and asked, "Qin Lan?"
She took off her blindfold and found that Qin Lan was the only one sitting there: "Are you alone?"
“Yeah.” Qin Lan stared at Song Man with ill intent: “You two came together? I don’t believe someone with no sense of direction could find this place.”
Song Man retorted, "So what? It's better than some people searching for it themselves."
Qin Lan looked up at the drone and said, "I admit defeat and come to collect your prize."
The announcement came over the loudspeaker: "The Yun Chui and Song Man duo have arrived at the center of the maze first. This mission is now complete."
The guests returned to the villa, and Song Man opened the gift box in front of everyone.
Liu Lü exclaimed, "What a beautiful dress..."
Feng Manhong immediately recognized their quality: "These two outfits from E's Fall/Winter Haute Couture collection last year are a perfect match."
Lin Shu then said, "Since the yacht is temporarily unavailable, the two teachers' date may have to be rescheduled for the evening. We will compensate the two teachers by allowing them to freely choose their dinner location, and they will not have to abide by the program rules during the meal."
Song Man was a little unhappy when she heard this, and immediately said, "If it's the production team's problem, why should we shorten the time? Shouldn't it be arranged for the next day like last time with Qin Lan and Jiang Yan?"
Lin Shu was prepared: "Of course, but there are scheduled activities for tomorrow afternoon, so we can only have the date in the morning. That would separate it from the candlelight dinner. We'll see what you two teachers think."
Yun Chui understood: "Aman, let's do it tonight. I want to see you wearing it."
Song Man was so flattered by her words that she had no objections.
Yun Chui returned to his room and made the most of his time to rest.
Long dates are too physically demanding for her, so she has to shorten them.
Everyone was helping her create opportunities, and she could feel their encouragement and warmth, which made her even more eager to work hard.
————————!!————————
There will be bread, and the main couple will have it too. The variety show will end soon.
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