“Suli, are you deaf?”
Pushing open the car door, the salty sea breeze rushed fiercely toward them.
The moment the four of them got out of the car, the seagulls hovering in the sky swarmed together, letting out loud, clear cries of “Oof—oof—!”
“Wow! They’re so smart! They know we have food!” Xia Yuan said in pleasant surprise, quickly tearing open the box of french fries.
“Be careful, don’t get too close, their pecks hurt a lot,” Su Leli smiled and reminded them, taking a small pinch herself and tentatively tossing it into the air.
Several french fries traced arcs through the air, and in an instant, several seagulls dove down at astonishing speed, catching them mid-air with pinpoint accuracy, just like vicious hounds pouncing on food.
Jiang Tong also tore open her packaging.
The next second, a slightly smaller seagull swiftly and gracefully swept past in front of her. By the time she reacted, several french fries in her box were already gone.
“Bandit birds!” Jiang Tong complained.
The tone of Jiang Tong’s complaint was exceptionally brisk—the first time since arriving at the variety show that she had expressed herself so unpretentiously.
Combined with her slightly widened, rare and vivid-looking eyes, it made Xie Weiyi beside her burst into a chuckle.
Xie Weiyi stepped forward a few steps, very naturally positioning herself slightly ahead and to Jiang Tong’s side, blocking a few seagulls attempting another dive-bomb assault.
“They really are quite bandit-like.” Suppressing a smile, Xie Weiyi mimicked her tone and pinched a few fries from her own box.
Instead of tossing them into the air, she flicked her wrist and extended them right to Jiang Tong’s lips.
“Th-thank you…” Jiang Tong was startled, opening her mouth to accept them.
From behind came Su Leli’s light shout: “Come, come, come, two beauties, look at the camera.”
Jiang Tong and Xie Weiyi turned back in sync.
With a “snap—” sound, Su Leli captured this beautiful scene.
Xie Weiyi feigned annoyance, putting her hands on her hips: “You’re infringing on our portrait rights!”
The four of them laughed and frolicked for a while, having the driver help take a group photo as a souvenir of today’s purchasing quartet.
The fries were quickly consumed, and after circling a few more times and realizing there were no more gains to be had, the seagulls cried out unresignedly and gradually dispersed.
Returning to the car, the minibus continued on its way, bringing them directly to the barbecue area designated by the show production team.
The other group had already set up the venue quite nicely; a huge bonfire had been built up, and tables, chairs, and decorative string lights were arranged around it.
“Wow, you guys decorated so prettily!” Xia Yuan smiled as she placed the ingredients in her hands onto the long table.
Yu Ningzhi was the first to rush over, but only gave Xia Yuan a light nod before immediately walking over to Xie Weiyi’s side to help carry things with eager attentiveness.
In an intimate tone, she said: “Sister Aine, you’re back! You bought so much stuff, are you tired? Let me help you carry it!”
As she spoke, she reached out, quite naturally intending to take the heavier shopping bags from Xie Weiyi’s hands, her fingertips seemingly brushing against the back of Xie Weiyi’s hand by accident.
With someone volunteering to do the heavy lifting, Xie Weiyi was naturally willing, unceremoniously dividing the heavier half of what she was holding and saying with a smile: “Then thanks a lot, Ningzhi.”
After saying that, Xie Weiyi walked quickly toward the long table, put down the things in her hand, and then walked over to Jiang Tong and Su Leli, who were still unloading ingredients from the car trunk, casually taking the heavier box of drinks from Jiang Tong’s hands.
Turning back to continue looking for Xie Weiyi, Yu Ningzhi froze in her tracks upon seeing that box of drinks.
Yet Xie Weiyi put on an air of thick-skinned oblivious energy, showing zero chivalry as she beckoned to her: “Come on, Ningzhi, there are still drinks that need carrying.”
The smile on Yu Ningzhi’s face stiffened for a fraction of a second, but she quickly returned to normal: “Okay, Sister Aine.”
Seeing Yu Ningzhi getting rebuffed and turned into a coolie, Su Leli bit her lip to hold back her laughter, her shoulders shaking.
The afternoon sunlight carried a warm, sleepy languor, spilling through the leaves onto the long table in the courtyard.
Everyone gathered together, chatting and laughing while prepping the ingredients.
Jiang Tong rolled up her sleeves to reveal slender, fair wrists, skillfully washing green vegetables by the sink.
Xia Yuan took over the next step beside her, chopping the washed greens into large pieces suitable for skewering.
She was humming an unknown little tune, clearly in a very good mood.
Jiang Tong thought the melody sounded nice; the lyrics carried a local flavor, and although she couldn’t understand them, they had a unique charm of their own.
After listening a few more times, Jiang Tong turned her head and asked: “Xia Yuan, what song are you humming? It sounds so good.”
“Oh, you heard me.” Xia Yuan bit her lip in embarrassment, lowered her head with a smile, and replied, “This is considered a folk song from my hometown, sort of like Huangmei Opera, but easier to learn and understand.”
Jiang Tong nodded in agreement, trying to hum a few bars softly, not missing a single beat.
“That’s it! Sister Jiang Tong, you learn so fast!” Xia Yuan clapped enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling, looking at Jiang Tong with growing admiration—so much so that when some water from her hands accidentally splashed onto Xie Weiyi’s face opposite them, she remained completely oblivious.
Xie Weiyi cleared her throat: “Ahem.”
When the two of them turned to look at her, she pointed to the water droplets on her face: “An innocent bystander got hurt.”
“Sorry.” Xia Yuan apologized, turning back to continue her vegetable-chopping project while remembering to give Jiang Tong a thumbs-up, silently praising her skill again with mouth movements.
When the last batch of greens was washed, Jiang Tong carried the basin over to the chopping station, leaned close to Xia Yuan’s side, lowered her voice, and asked again: “I want to use this tune in a song, would you be willing to collaborate with me?”
The corners of Xia Yuan’s mouth, which she had managed to suppress with difficulty, lifted right back up: “Really, Sister Jiang Tong, am I really okay?”
Consequently, another water droplet appeared on Xie Weiyi’s face.
“I want to sing too.” Xie Weiyi viciously chopped down on the pork belly on the cutting board.
Su Leli beside her laughed and teased: “You just got comfortable speaking Chinese, and already you want to sing folk songs? Some local dialects can’t even be understood outside their own street; you’d better focus on standard Mandarin.”
Su Leli was from the Wu dialect region, and Xie Weiyi had once had the fortune of visiting and experiencing it. At the time, listening to it had given her a massive headache, prompting her to immediately swear: I will never set foot on this terrifying land again.
Recalling that past experience, Xie Weiyi instantly shut her mouth.
Su Leli monopolized the seasoning station next to them, laying out a row of jars and bottles in front of her with rapt concentration as she mixed her exclusive barbecue sauce.
Xie Weiyi glanced sideways and instructed: “Don’t put any spice in the seasoning, Jiang Tong can’t eat spicy food.”
“You don’t say…” Su Leli muttered as she raised her head, glancing at the figure drawing closer behind Xie Weiyi, a mischievous idea instantly popping into her head.
Feigning that she hadn’t heard clearly, she initiated a conversation comparable to a classic miscommunication sketch.
Su Leli: “Who?”
Xie Weiyi: “Jiang Tong.”
Su Leli: “What about Jiang Tong?”
Xie Weiyi: “Doesn’t eat spicy food.”
Su Leli: “Doesn’t eat what?”
Xie Weiyi: “…”
Xie Weiyi slammed the knife down onto the table with a loud clang, turned around with her hands on her hips facing Su Leli, and greeted her with: “Su Leli, are you deaf?”
To her surprise, instead of getting angry, Su Leli burst out laughing, covered her mouth, and ran off chuckling.
“What a weirdo!” Muttering to herself, Xie Weiyi turned back around, only to find Jiang Tong standing right beside her, instantly freezing her into a statue.
Xie Weiyi lowered her head, eyes fixed on her nose and heart, not daring to look at Jiang Tong at all.
“How… how long… have you been here?” she stammered, “Everything we just said… did you hear it all?”
“Mn.” Jiang Tong nodded.
Xie Weiyi only felt her earlobes burning hot, her fingers gripping the knife handle tightening involuntarily.
She wished she could pluck those last few seconds right out of time!
It’s all Su Leli’s fault!
Xie Weiyi secretly lifted her eyelids, taking a lightning-fast glance at Jiang Tong.
Jiang Tong’s expression was as calm as ever, a trace of an extremely faint smile playing at the corners of her lips as she looked at her.
Xie Weiyi lowered her head again in a hurry, pretending to study the grain of that piece of pork belly with utter devotion, while her brain spun in chaotic circles: Is Jiang Tong laughing at me? So embarrassing, wuwuwu.
“Um…” She cleared her throat, attempting to regain a shred of momentum, though her voice came out several degrees softer than intended, “I mean… Su Leli’s ears might actually need a check-up. I was just caring for a friend, not yelling at people.”
Jiang Tong smiled and placed her hand over the back of Xie Weiyi’s hand: “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Xie Weiyi’s mood instantly rebounded.
Just as she wanted to return the grip on Jiang Tong’s hand, she saw Jiang Tong move her hand away, take hold of the knife handle, and correct her: “Meat should be sliced along the grain.”
Xie Weiyi: “Oh.”
Oh, cutting meat, right. She thought… she thought she was holding something else.
Jiang Tong’s fingers were slender, her nails trimmed clean and neat, glowing with a healthy pale pink.
Xie Weiyi was completely distracted during this meat-cutting tutorial, spending the whole time staring at Jiang Tong’s fingers, her ears full of Jiang Tong’s voice, while not a single shred of meat-cutting common sense actually entered her brain.
“Sister Leli, Aine is such a simper; she completely goes offline the moment Sister Jiang Tong gets close to her,” Xia Yuan gossiped.
Xia Yuan and Su Leli were stringing vegetables onto skewers in the shade, but kept their eyes glued to the situation between Jiang Tong and Xie Weiyi, treating the pair’s boring skewering chores as a broadcasted good show to cure their boredom.
Su Leli watched with relish and nodded in agreement: “I think so too. But Jiang Tong’s knife skills are really good; if it weren’t to create some private time for the two of them, I’d want to go learn too.”
Jiang Tong’s fingers pressed steadily against the chunk of meat, her other hand holding the knife with a steady, powerful wrist and fluid movements. With a few swift cuts, appropriately sized pieces of meat separated from under the blade and were neatly lined up aside.
Xie Weiyi watched in a bit of a trance, her gaze shifting from those deft fingers to slightly fluttering eyelashes, and finally to lips pursed lightly in concentration.
“Did you get it?” Jiang Tong stopped moving and lifted her eyes to look at her.
Xie Weiyi snapped back to reality abruptly, averted her gaze in a flurry, took the knife, muttered an indistinct “Mn,” and tried to imitate what she had just seen.
Though slow and far less proficient in knife skills than Jiang Tong, it at least took on some shape—ensuring she wouldn’t chop out any bizarre “abstract art” meat slices.
“You’re making progress, great job.” Jiang Tong praised without holding back.
Xie Weiyi’s meat-chopping motion paused for a second. Without raising her head, the corners of her mouth curved upward uncontrollably, her earlobes turning a bit warm again.
Placing the sliced meat onto a tray, she asked as if unconcerned: “What were you and Xia Yuan chatting about just now?”