Two minutes later, the three family groups split up according to the prompt words to search for the “Master Chef.”
The so-called “Master Chef” was both a local who knew how to cook and a “pioneering leader” who had contributed to the village and helped people achieve prosperity. There were bold village cadres who dared to be the first, merchants who expanded sales channels, and veteran farmers deeply rooted in the land.
These people served not only as the chefs teaching the guests, but also as the judges for the evening evaluation.
Therefore, once the guests found their respective “Master Chefs” using the prompt words, the “Master Chefs,” per the production crew’s rules, only gave verbal instructions without lifting a finger; all dishes had to be handmade by the guests themselves.
Jing Yuanwei knew how to cook some home-style dishes, and making mung bean cakes went smoothly enough for him to follow the steps taught by the “Master Chef.”
Jing Sichen quietly stayed by Jing Yuanwei’s side to help out.
As the two of them put the painfully hand-mashed mung bean paste into the molds, Jing Sichen seemed struck by a sudden wave of inspiration and skipped over to Liao Zhenzhen, the only female among the staff members.
Catching hold of her own low ponytail, her dark brown pupils stared straight at Liao Zhenzhen with a hint of timidity. “Sister, can you help me tie my hair?”
Jing Yuanwei on the side smiled wryly and said, “At noon she was making a fuss about wanting a pretty bun, but I only know how to tie a simple ponytail. Because of this, she even cried a round.”
Hearing this, Liao Zhenzhen also smiled, squatted down halfway, and gently untied the colorful hair tie bound to the end of Jing Sichen’s hair.
“Zhenzhen, the comb.”
The moment Liao Zhenzhen looked up, Chu Kai materialized with a wooden comb and was even holding up a small folding square mirror.
She took the wooden comb and tied Jing Sichen a neat and clean bun.
Jing Sichen was extremely satisfied with her hairstyle, admired herself in the mirror for a good while, and then turned to thank Liao Zhenzhen and Chu Kai. “Thank you, Sister, thank you, Brother.”
When the first batch of mung bean cakes came out of the oven, Jing Sichen fed the first one to Jing Yuanwei, and then started passing the second and third ones into the hands of Liao Zhenzhen and Chu Kai.
“You eat, Sister is not hungry.”
“Baby eat, Brother isn’t hungry either.”
Liao Zhenzhen and Chu Kai ultimately couldn’t win against Jing Sichen and were successively fed a mung bean cake.
When Chu Kai pulled up his face mask, Jing Sichen’s eyelids twitched. She pulled back her small hand and quickly ran over to Jing Yuanwei’s side.
Leaning against Jing Yuanwei’s shoulder, she suddenly began to sniffle softly. “The brother wears glasses just like Mommy. I miss Mommy. Daddy, let’s go find Mommy, and give Mommy the sweet pastries.”
Chu Kai, who had inadvertently made Jing Sichen cry because of his glasses, took off his glasses on his own initiative and retreated back to the very rearmost ranks of the staff.
When Jing Yuanwei returned to the village chief’s courtyard carrying the finished mung bean cakes and an extra plate of stir-fried bean sprouts, Jing Sichen had still not been coaxed out of her tears; her entire eye socket was red, and her little nose was sniffling.
“Sister Chenchen,” Liang Xun, who had arrived earlier, ran over to Jing Sichen’s side and proactively shoved the lollipop she had obtained today into her hand. “Here’s a lollipop for you, don’t cry.”
Jing Yuanwei placed the mung bean cakes and stir-fried bean sprouts down, squatted to embrace Jing Sichen, and said sternly, “Ruby, you cannot cry anymore. Little Sister Xun handed you a lollipop, did you see that?”
Jing Sichen lowered her tear-stained eyes, nodded, and accepted the lollipop. “Tha, thank you, Little Sister.”
“You’re welcome!” Liang Xun waved her hand. As she strode off toward the side, she suddenly burst into loud laughter toward the doorway. “Two little painted faces, look over there, Sister, their faces are all dirty, hey!”
Chu Kai looked toward the entrance as well.
Yan Chi held a plate in one hand and carried a child in the other.
Big and small alike, completely unconcerned about the flour smudged across their faces, they were both giggling.
Chu Kai pressed down on the glasses inside his pants pocket, ultimately deciding not to take them out.
His original intention was simply to avoid being recognized by Yan Chi and Chu Zhuo, never expecting it to make another child trigger memories of someone they missed.
The newly bought glasses could be used for Chu Zhuo’s plush toys when they got home; he could use other methods to conceal himself, hiding the tear mole at the corner of his eye that had been kissed by both Yan Chi and Chu Zhuo.
With all the guests assembled, the evaluation officially began.
Every “Master Chef” favored the disciple they had just taken in that day, awarding one point to each.
This was the happiest competition result for the children, and every single one of them cheered over their victory.
Accompanied by the bustling noise of the crowd, night gradually fell.
Only after Yan Chi used a wet towel to wipe Chu Zhuo’s face clean did he remember to salvage his own image. With a firm swipe of his large hand holding the towel, he revealed his fresh and handsome features.
He remembered the first time he met Yan Chi, when the mud on Yan Chi’s face had been much thicker than the flour right now.
That was right during the harvest season for water chestnuts. Chu Kai had a bamboo basket slung diagonally across his shoulder, planning to wrap up work before the setting sun.
He was sitting on the wooden boardwalk by Dongluo Lake when the hem of his shirt was suddenly grabbed. A warm gust of wind snuck past his spine and into his collar, startling him so much that he shrank his neck and shivered.
He whipped his head around and discovered that the person holding onto his shirt hem was covered in mud from head to toe, dragging an injured leg as they sprawled miserably on the ground.
“I’m not a bad person,” that person raised their head. Their face was stained with mud, but their eyes were as pure and clear as mountain spring water, and their voice was very pleasant to hear. “Hello, hel…”
Before the person could finish speaking, their gaze fixed on Chu Kai flickered slightly, and right alongside a streak of bright red blood that inexplicably flowed out of their nostril, they fainted away for reasons unknown.
“Hey, hey, who are you?”
Chu Kai tentatively called out while giving the person a couple of pushes, then pulled out a towel to briefly wipe the person’s face.
He didn’t have time to look at what the person actually looked like; he only knew this person wasn’t from Luoshan Village, presumably an outsider who had wandered into Luoshan Village by mistake, just like Cheng Yuan.
He immediately set down his bamboo basket, carefully keeping an eye on the surroundings as he dragged and pulled the person back to a nearby house.
This house was where Chu Kai and his family used to live when he was a child.
Nowadays, their Luoshan Village residents congregated on the west side, and very few people lived around Dongluo Lake anymore.
People only stayed here for a short spell during the busy harvesting season for water chestnuts, and Chu Kai had been living here these past few days.
Other than the bathroom and kitchen, only two rooms here were habitable, and one of them even leaked when it rained.
The person was filthy, so Chu Kai could only place him in the leaky room first and then inspect his injuries.
His nosebleed had already stopped, but the wound on his left leg was stuck to his pants; at a single glance, it looked severe.
Chu Kai paced anxiously back and forth beside the bed, suddenly remembering something, and went right back out with a hoe and a bamboo basket.
When he returned, he looked just as battered: his left cheek had been scratched by tree branches, leaving two red marks that ran from the corner of his mouth all the way to the tear mole at the corner of his eye, and they were slowly swelling up.
Such minor injuries meant nothing to Chu Kai; he simply crushed a handful of herbs in his palm, applied them simply to disinfect, and went out to the courtyard to grind other herbs.
The ground herbs needed to be applied to the leg wound, but Chu Kai hesitated for a long time, not daring to cut open the pants of the man lying on the bed.
“This,” Chu Kai held the scissors, still unable to figure out where to start. “Where should I cut so it won’t hurt?”
As it turned out, cutting anywhere hurt.
After Chu Kai made a few snips with the scissors, the man on the bed broke out in beads of sweat across his forehead and woke up from the pain.
“Hiss! It hurts!”
Yan Chi jerked his upper body up in pain, and upon seeing Chu Kai applying herbs directly onto his leg, he gritted his teeth and swallowed the rest of his voice.