☆, Chapter 130: Substitute
Lu Congxu took the vegetable basket from Wen Mianyu's hand and said, "I'll do it."
"Thank you, Mr. Lu. Let me give you a shoulder massage." Wen Mianyu walked around behind Lu Congxu and gave him a shoulder massage twice.
Lu Congxu rarely smiled, pulled out two radishes and put them in the basket.
"Let's pick two more corns." Wen Mianyu suggested.
"Okay." Lu Congxu responded.
The two went to the cornfield together and picked half a basket of corn.
On Shenzui's side, the pumpkins were quickly picked, leaving only the cabbage field. Shenzui didn't dare to go there because he was afraid of cabbage worms.
Lu Congxu and Wen Mianyu were not afraid. They each picked a cabbage from the vegetable patch.
"Let's go back, this should be enough." Chenzui said.
Afraid that Lu Congxu would get jealous, Wen Mianyu didn't dare tease Chenzui anymore. On the way back, she stayed some distance away from Chenzui and walked side by side with Lu Congxu.
When they returned to the yard, Lu Yuxuan had just returned, and the two met at the gate.
Chenzui just remembered at this moment that Lu Congxu was in the same group as Lu Yuxuan. Seeing Lu Yuxuan carrying a full basket of vegetables, which looked very heavy, Chenzui helped to carry it over.
"Thank you, Brother Chen." Lu Yuxuan thanked him.
After the incident just now, Lu Yuxuan was obviously not as lively as before.
Wen Mianyu noticed it and was a little surprised. She couldn't help but look at Lu Congxu.
Lu Congxu gave her an ambiguous look and went into the room alone.
The other three followed closely behind.
"Yuxuan picked a lot of things." Seeing that the atmosphere was dull, Wen Mianyu had to come out to lead the conversation.
"Yeah." Lu Yuxuan responded without saying anything more.
Wen Mianyu was not the kind of person who liked to put her face in front of others who ignored her. Seeing that she ignored her, she did not say anything else.
The group entered the room in silence.
Liu Jie had already returned, and because Luo Zhifan didn't know how to light the fire in the stove, he just helped to light the fire.
Seeing everyone, Liu Jie hurried forward to help the girls carry the vegetable basket. "You're all back just in time. The fire has just been lit and the rice is cooking. We can wash the vegetables and prepare to cook. What dishes do you all want to eat?"
"Everyone can order one dish. The first meal will be prepared by Chef Ning for you. You will have to prepare the rest by yourselves." Chen Ning said while having hot pot.
"Really? Then let me order something first." Wen Mianyu took over the conversation, not wanting to let the atmosphere become dull. "My favorite dish is simple, scrambled eggs with tomatoes."
"This seems a bit too simple." Chen Ning smiled.
"I eat pickled cabbage." Chenzui said.
"This sounds simple, but making it delicious is not easy." Chen Ning said, "Today, everyone will try my cooking skills. Whether it is good or not depends on this vinegar-braised cabbage."
"Where is Congxu?" Liu Jie asked Lu Congxu.
Lu Congxu was lost in thought. After hearing this, he paused and replied, "I'm fine with anything. If it's not too much trouble, I'll make you a pumpkin pie."
"Okay." Chen Ning responded cheerfully. "If my family knew I could make lunch for Mr. Lu, they would be so envious. Everyone knows this, right? My whole family is a fan of Mr. Lu."
"Then remember to use this meal to exchange for more things, such as photos and autographs." Liu Jie cheered.
"Then we need to sign a few more autographs," Chen Ning said. After that, he turned to Lu Yuxuan and smiled at her. "Yuxuan, what would you like to eat?"
Lu Yuxuan had been silent since returning from the vegetable garden. Hearing this, she smiled as usual, "I'm fine with anything. I'm not picky about food. Since we have corn, let's make some corn soup."
"Corn and pork ribs soup?" Chen Ning asked.
"Okay." Lu Yuxuan said.
"Okay, everyone, divide the work and wash your own vegetables. We're ready to cook." Chen Ning announced.
Everyone agreed and took the vegetables to wash and cut.
Soon all the ingredients were prepared and brought back to Chen Ning. Chen Ning moved quickly and prepared a table full of lunch.
After the pumpkin is steamed, it is mashed into a paste and mixed with glutinous rice flour to make a cake, half of which is steamed and half fried.
Corn stewed with pork ribs, stewed in a large pot with pure firewood, the soup is sweet and fragrant, and the pork ribs are soft and tender.
The pickled cabbage is stuffed with several side dishes, including carrots, shredded wood ear mushrooms, etc. The taste is slightly sour but not pungent, and it goes very well with rice.
Scrambled eggs with tomatoes is a simple dish that goes well with rice and most people will like the taste.
Everyone sat at the bamboo table in the yard and ate together. Although Chen Zuiren looked thin, he ate a lot. However, Lu Yuxuan and Lu Congxu didn't seem to eat much.
"Do Congxu and Yuxuan have a poor appetite? Is the food not to your taste?" Chen Ning asked with concern when she saw that the two of them ate little.
Lu Congxu shook his head. "I ate in the car before coming here, so I'm not too hungry."
"I thought the food I cooked was not tasty." Chen Ning smiled.
"No, Sister Ning's cooking is delicious." Lu Yuxuan said flatteringly.
"Then eat more." Chen Ning picked up a piece of food for her with chopsticks.
"Thank you." Lu Yuxuan nodded.
In front of the camera, even if she is not in a very good mood, she will perform well and not give the audience a chance to find fault.
At the end of the meal, no one talked about anything nutritious, and in the eyes of the two hosts who were familiar with the routine, there was not much that could be edited in the overall conversation.
This is not surprising. We have just gathered together, so it is inevitable that we feel a little unfamiliar and uncomfortable. After completing the next task, things should get better.
Liu Jie was mainly worried that Lu Congxu's personality might not be very outstanding, so he often took the initiative to guide him when speaking, but the effect was not very good.
"Okay, now that dinner is over, everyone will come with me to complete the task in exchange for our dinner today." Liu Jie announced after the meal.
Upon hearing this, the others looked towards him, waiting to hear the mission.
"Our task this afternoon is to plant rice seedlings. Do you know what planting rice seedlings is?" Liu Jie asked.
"Are you planting rice seedlings?" Luo Zhifan came from the mountains and was quite familiar with these things.
"Yes, Zhifan is right. We're planting rice seedlings, the rice seedlings for the rice we eat every day." Liu Jie nodded and said, "Each of us has a task to do in a plot of land. The more seedlings we plant, the more ingredients we can exchange for dinner. Now, everyone needs to change into work clothes before we go to the fields."
The staff brought special clothes and shoes for transplanting rice and distributed a set to each person.
Wen Mianyu and the others took their clothes and went back upstairs to change.
The rooms were divided before lunch. According to the previous practice of the program, the boys had one room and the girls had one room. Chenzui Luo Zhifan and Lu Congxu lived in the large bedroom, while Chen Ning, Wen Mianyu and Lu Yuxuan lived in the small one.
The two of them went back to their room to change clothes. After entering, Lu Yuxuan covered the cameras in the four corners of the room with clothes, turned off the microphone, drew the curtains, and confirmed that there were no cameras filming before starting to change clothes.
"We're going to plant rice seedlings soon. I've never done this before, so I might hold everyone back." Lu Yuxuan spoke casually while changing clothes.
There were only the two of them in the room, so Wen Mianyu naturally had to join in the conversation, so she continued, "It's okay, I can do it, I can teach you."
"Sister Jasmine knows how to plant rice?" Lu Yuxuan looked very surprised.
"Yes." Wen Mianyu nodded.
"It really surprises me, but how did you do that? How did you learn to plant rice?" Lu Yuxuan asked curiously.
Wen Mianyu put on the T-shirt, straightened the collar in front of the mirror, and replied, "I learned this from my grandparents when I was a child. At that time, we lived on an island and there were rice paddies. I helped plant rice every year."
"Live on an island? Sister Jasmine, have you ever lived on an island? Aren't you from a small town?" Lu Yuxuan changed her top and came to the mirror.
"I lived on the island for a while." Wen Mianyu said.
The two stood in front of the dressing mirror, one in front and one behind. They were similar in build and height, but their looks were different, one bright and the other pure.
Lu Yuxuan looked at herself in the mirror, then looked at Wen Mianyu and said, "Sister Jasmine has a really good figure."
"Thank you, you are very good too." Wen Mianyu praised back.
"No wonder Brother Congxu's eyes are always on you. Is it your good figure that attracts him?" Lu Yuxuan said half-jokingly.
What she said was a compliment after all, and Wen Mianyu didn't know what to say. She just smiled and said nothing.
"But back when Cinema Queen Wen was alive, Brother Xu's eyes were truly clingy. Whenever the two of them were together, no one else could get in the way." Lu Yuxuan raised a hand and placed it on Wen Mianyu's shoulder. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she said, "Oh, I remember Cinema Queen Wen lived on an island when she was a child. I originally thought Sister Moli was a bit like her, but I didn't expect you two to be so destined to be together, even living in the same place."
"..." Wen Mianyu.
If Lu Yuxuan's previous words could be said to be unintentional, then this sentence of hers was an obvious attempt to sow discord.
She didn't know Wen Mianyu's true identity and mistook her for Su Moli.
So suppose that Wen Mianyu is not reborn, but is really Su Moli, and is now in love with Lu Congxu. Would she feel comfortable when she hears others say how good Lu Congxu is to his sweetheart?
How can I not be jealous?
How can I not suspect that I am a substitute?
What do you mean she looks like actress Wen? Even if it's true, Lu Yuxuan shouldn't say it. Isn't this just saying she's a stand-in?
Fortunately, she is Wen Mianyu herself, which sounds sweet in a different way.
It turned out that Lu Congxu had been looking at her all the time. She had never noticed this before.
"Brother Congxu has always liked Cinema Queen Wen. They've been in love since they lived together on the island. Even after Cinema Queen Wen got engaged, Brother Congxu didn't give up and look for someone else. He's always been secretly in love with Cinema Queen Wen." Lu Yuxuan sighed with emotion, "He's truly the most infatuated person I've ever met."
"Yeah, I almost cried when I heard it. I feel so sorry for him." Wen Mianyu pretended to wipe away her tears.
She really felt heartbroken, but Lu Yuxuan was so cruel to say these words in front of her, and she would never show her true emotions to her.
She deliberately disgusted Lu Yuxuan and sniffed artificially, "Thank you, Yuxuan, for telling me all this. You don't know how much I can't stand hearing this. The more I care about a man, the more I love him. I used to worry that I wouldn't be worthy of Mr. Lu, but now I just want to warm him up."
"..." Lu Yuxuan was almost suffocating, looking at Wen Mianyu in disbelief, "Do you know what you are saying? Brother Congxu and you... aren't you friends?"
"Do you think we are friends?" Wen Mianyu blinked, looking pretentious and innocent. "No wonder you said those things to me just now. If you knew we were together and you still said that, you would be looking for trouble, right?"
"..." Lu Yuxuan was choked.
"It's okay. Ignorance is not a crime. And after listening to what you said, I will only be more determined to like Mr. Lu. Don't worry." Wen Mianyu said.
"You..." Lu Yuxuan seemed to be irritated by her, and after a long while she managed to utter, "Don't you care that he uses you as a substitute?"
"Isn't a substitute good? As long as he treats me well, I don't care who he thinks of me, don't you think?" Wen Mianyu asked back indifferently.
“…” Lu Yuxuan.
"He treats me well, and I feel comfortable being pampered and loved by him. As for why he treats me well, that's not important, right?" Wen Mianyu said confidently, "When you like someone, ultimately, you're pursuing the result of him being nice to you, not the reason, right?"
"..." Lu Yuxuan was speechless. Wen Mianyu's logic was so strong that she couldn't find any rebuttal for a while.
"Okay, I'm done changing. You take your time. I'll go downstairs to meet them first." Wen Mianyu finally put on her rain boots, paced twice on the spot, turned around and walked out the door.
"If I like someone, with my dignity, I will not allow him to treat me as a substitute for someone else." Lu Yuxuan suddenly spoke.
Wen Mianyu walked to the door, turned around and looked at Lu Yuxuan when he heard the words.
Lu Yuxuan also looked at her, "When you are just a shadow, you will be abandoned after meeting a more similar shadow."
"There won't be a shadow more like me." Wen Mianyu said calmly.
"How do you know?" Lu Yuxuan revealed a mocking expression, finally no longer able to conceal her disgust. "Do you really think you look like Wen Mianyu? First of all, you don't look alike. It's just that your behavior is a little similar, which is why Brother Congxu uses you as a solace."
Wen Mianyu didn't get angry when she heard this. Instead, she smiled good-naturedly, "Even if it's just a solace, it's better than not even having the chance to solace. That's what I think. What do you think?"
“…” Lu Yuxuan.
"I'll go out first, take your time to get dressed." Wen Mianyu turned and walked out.
After the door was closed, Lu Yuxuan became furious. She grabbed the clothes that Wen Mianyu had changed out of on the bed, threw them on the ground, and stomped on them several times to vent her anger.
…
Outside, Wen Mianyu went straight downstairs after going out and met Lu Congxu who was waiting there at the stairs.
With both sides being followed by cameramen, it was hard to say anything. Wen Mianyu just smiled and looked Lu Congxu up and down. "Actor Lu looks quite handsome in this outfit. He doesn't look like he's going to plant rice at all."
She was not saying this as a compliment. Lu Congxu was indeed handsome, with good looks, and in rain boots he looked like a model ready to walk on the catwalk.
"You are dressed well, very cute." Lu Congxu said.
"Yuxuan hasn't finished changing yet, let's go out and wait." Wen Mianyu walked forward.
Lu Congxu followed.
When Lu Yuxuan came out, everyone was already in the yard, having chosen the tools they needed and gathered together.
Seeing this, Lu Yuxuan didn't ask for help from others. She went to the wall to get a tool and got on the farm vehicle with everyone.
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