Chapter 26: Choosing Fine Cuisine Over Dating Shows and Handsome Men
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Shen Mu drove steadily, while Xu Zhaozhao and Aunt Fu chatted and laughed in the back seat.
Aunt Fu said, “Little Xu, Little Shen, I’m especially happy to be with you two today.”
“We’re especially happy to be with you too, Aunt Fu,” Xu Zhaozhao replied with a smile.
As she spoke, she did not forget to glance at Shen Mu.
Shen Mu immediately played along, baring his teeth in a grin from the front seat.
His face was usually cold, but that fleeting curve of his lips made him suddenly even more captivating.
【Ahh, Shen Mu, do you have to be this obedient?】
【Screaming, rolling around, crawling through the darkness!】
【Shen Mu, you’re being way too in love.】
【Showrunners, this is my final warning. Hurry up and return my husband to me.】
【I’m just curious—how is Xu Zhaozhao supposed to get through tomorrow?】
【Same here. If Xu Zhaozhao gets eliminated, Shen Mu might not be nearly as entertaining anymore.】
【Entertaining? Hmm… er… a very suggestive vehicle just drove through my mind…】
The car was still parked beside the haystack not far from the ancient tree.
Shen Mu got out last, taking care to drape the tarpaulin back over the vehicle.
【People, does anyone understand? Even though the borrowed car is covered in rust, he still takes such good care of it.】
【I understand, I understand. A friend once borrowed my car, complained the interior was old and cheap-looking, and didn’t even put gas in it!】
“Village Chief, thank you for lending us your car.”
Xu Zhaozhao waved her thanks toward the village chief, who was working in the fields at a distance.
The village chief merely looked up at them in passing, nodded, and went back to work.
Xu Zhaozhao shaded her eyes with one hand and looked even farther into the distance.
“Aunt Fu, is that… a fishpond?” she asked, pointing toward the glittering expanse of water.
“Not a fishpond,” Aunt Fu replied, shaking her head. “It’s a small lake.”
“Little Xu, Little Shen, why don’t you come to my place for some tea?”
Xu Zhaozhao shook her head and yawned sleepily. “No, thank you, Aunt Fu. I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m going back to get some rest.”
“That’s all right. It’s your first time here, so you must still be adjusting. It’s perfectly normal to have trouble sleeping.”
Aunt Fu slung the empty basket over her arm. “Then I’ll head home first. Come visit me whenever you have the time.”
“All right.” Xu Zhaozhao nodded obediently.
【I made the rounds of the other couples’ livestreams and realized that only Xu Zhaozhao has maintained such a good relationship with the family that hosted their very first meal.】
【If I were from the village, I’d like someone like Xu Zhaozhao too—sweet-talking and willing to work.】
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The moment Xu Zhaozhao entered the old house, she saw Song Qing and Sun Yu sitting in the courtyard, chatting.
Upon seeing Song Qing, she instinctively glanced back at Shen Mu, who had just entered the courtyard, then immediately looked away.
“Zhaozhao, you’re back! Where did you go?”
“Ha…”
Xu Zhaozhao deliberately let out a huge yawn. “Sorry, I’m exhausted. Ask Shen Mu!”
With that, she quickly took back the things Shen Mu had been carrying and hurried into the room.
【Ha-ha, Xu Zhaozhao is literally me when I’m protecting my food.】
【So between delicious food and a handsome man, she chose food without hesitation—is that it?】
【Shen Mu has been abandoned by Xu Zhaozhao again. Pat, pat, good puppy.】
Song Qing turned to Shen Mu. “So, where did you two go?”
“The market.”
“There’s a market nearby?” Song Qing looked at Sun Yu in surprise. “If we’d known, we should have gone too.”
“We could definitely have bought a lot of supplies there. Maybe a hundred yuan really could have lasted us until the end of the dating show.”
That morning, Song Qing had not been chosen by the award-winning actor, while Sun Yu had once again been beaten to the punch by Shen Mu. The two equally dejected men had therefore teamed up.
Their breakfast had been a single cucumber.
They had bought it for two yuan from a villager’s vegetable plot.
As for lunch, they had spent another two yuan on broccoli.
They planned to blanch it and eat it as it was.
One of them was a fitness instructor, while the other had returned from studying abroad, so both were fairly accepting of Western-style food.
The viewers, however, were having none of it.
After answering their questions in the simplest possible terms, Shen Mu silently went back to his room to rest as well.
Behind him, Sun Yu glared. “So cold.”
【Ha-ha, Sun Yu has finally cracked.】
【He’s been beaten to the punch twice. If he didn’t crack, who would?】
【Have you noticed? When Shen Mu is with other people, he never takes the initiative to ask questions and doesn’t like answering them either. But whenever he’s with Xu Zhaozhao, he suddenly has plenty to say.】
【Don’t say it. We all know what it means: he’s completely in love!】
【Exactly. It’s not that he doesn’t like talking, and it’s not that he’s cold. He simply talks and smiles for the person he likes.】
【I want a love this special too. I’m signing up for the next dating show. Just give me a partner like Shen Mu, please.】
【Shh… Chen Sisi has returned to the livestream next door…】
“Xu Zhaozhao, get up!”
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Xu Zhaozhao was still groggy when a sharp voice pierced her ears.
She opened her bleary eyes. “Lower your voice. I can hear you!”
“Xu Zhaozhao, you’ve gone too far!”
Chen Sisi stood at the foot of the bed beneath the camera, tears streaming down her face from the most flattering angle.
Through her tears, she accused her, “Why did you drive the car away without waiting for me and Director Ke? Do you know how we had to get back?”
“Who told you to take so long to return?” Xu Zhaozhao replied. “Aunt Fu had already sold her entire basket of duck eggs, and you still hadn’t made it from the east end of the street to the west. Were you taking a stroll on the moon?”
“You could have come and called for us if we hadn’t shown up. Leaving without saying anything was incredibly rude!”
“You’re talking about manners when you made someone wait?” Xu Zhaozhao pulled the quilt over her head and ignored Chen Sisi.
【Ha-ha, even though we know this is staged, Xu Zhaozhao may be blunt, but she’s absolutely right!】
“Boo-hoo-hoo…”
Bullied into silence by Xu Zhaozhao, Chen Sisi turned and ran into the courtyard, where she began sobbing loudly.
The other couples gradually returned as well. The old house had terrible soundproofing, so everyone had heard their argument in full.
Song Qing, who had witnessed everything, was the first to comfort her.
“Sisi, don’t be angry. That’s just the kind of person Zhaozhao is.”
“That’s right, Sisi. Xu Zhaozhao has always been like that. Just stay away from people like her. She isn’t worth getting upset over,” Qiu Qianrou added.
The male guests, however, were reluctant to say anything.
When it came to disputes between women, no one dared speak carelessly for fear of appearing to take sides.
Ke Hao was technically involved in the incident, but honestly, compared with being abandoned by Xu Zhaozhao and the others, he was more bothered by Chen Sisi’s series of outrageous maneuvers.
So he did not give Shen Mu a hard time, nor did he particularly want to make trouble for Chen Sisi.
Xu Zhaozhao slept until sunset before finally feeling refreshed.
She rose and went into the courtyard to stretch, only to find everyone sitting around a table in neat rows.
When they saw her, Ke Hao waved her over.
“Zhaozhao, perfect timing. Let’s have a meeting!”
“A meeting?” Xu Zhaozhao scratched her brow, looking troubled.
【Ha-ha, I understand Xu Zhaozhao. She’s the only person on this entire dating show who actually has a job, and now they’re dragging her into some inexplicable meeting.】
【Someone save me. The award-winning actor is being a little oily.】
【But they have no choice. A hundred yuan really isn’t enough. If this continues, everyone will be eliminated one after another!】
“Zhaozhao, it’s really difficult for everyone to keep going with only a hundred yuan each. So we discussed pooling all the money together and managing it collectively. What do you think?”
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