As soon as Chu Minghe said it hurt, Lin Dingshi looked over.
“What’s wrong, Minghe-ge?”
Chu Minghe lowered his head to dodge the leaves. “It’s nothing, got scratched by a branch.”
Only then did Zhao Xingjian loosen his grip, leading Chu Minghe to another spot to pick pomegranates. The leaves were even denser there, and Zhao Xingjian guided him back and forth through that patch of foliage. From beginning to end, Chu Minghe never once mentioned wanting to change locations.
Chu Minghe brushed aside the leaves up top, gathered a bunch of pomegranates, and handed them one by one to the assistant nearby.
When the thirty-second countdown ended and Chu Minghe finally returned to the ground, his legs felt like jelly. But he paid attention to Zhao Xingjian’s state; seeing a fine layer of sweat on his forehead, he whispered, “Thanks for the hard work. You get to sleep on the bed tonight.”
Zhao Xingjian observed Chu Minghe’s condition, temporarily deciding that Chu Minghe hadn’t done it on purpose just now.
Besides, whether they slept on the bed or not didn’t matter anymore; either way, they wouldn’t get a peaceful night’s sleep tonight.
The assistant by the basket counted the pomegranates. They had picked sixty-two in total, with only three not quite plump enough; the rest were completely up to standard.
Each pair received one of those three unplump pomegranates, and the production team told them not to waste food and to finish off the pomegranates over the next few days.
Chu Minghe touched a pomegranate and handed it over to Zhao Xingjian. “Feel it. I picked this one.”
Zhao Xingjian glanced at him and actually reached out to touch it. “How do you recognize it?”
“When you grabbed my ankle earlier, as soon as it hurt, a patch of skin got scraped right off here,” Chu Minghe said as he turned the pomegranate around to show him.
Sure enough, there was a spot where the pinkish-white pomegranate seeds were exposed.
Zhao Xingjian: “…”
Zhao Xingjian stared at him without replying, and Chu Minghe took the pomegranate back.
For the entire afternoon, Zhao Xingjian kept his eyes on Chu Minghe, following him to the chicken coop and pigsty to feed the animals. Whenever Chu Minghe carried a bucket, Zhao Xingjian would tag along carrying a bag of feed.
After letting him tag along for two hours, Chu Minghe finally couldn’t help it anymore and asked, “Is there something you want to say?”
Zhao Xingjian washed his hands under the faucet and said casually, “No. Aren’t you supposed to show more on a variety show?”
That reasoning was indeed correct. Chu Minghe nodded, and led Zhao Xingjian along with the others to dig up potatoes in the vegetable plot. Armed with a small trowel each, they dug up enough potatoes to last them the next few days.
Zhao Xingjian once again temporarily decided that what Chu Minghe had said when handing him the pomegranate earlier wasn’t intentional, especially since Chu Minghe didn’t bring up the ankle-grabbing incident again afterward.
When evening came, the production team actually made good on their promise by bringing over a barbecue grill, charcoal, and skewered ingredients. However, as soon as the items were brought over, the group didn’t leave they all grabbed small stools and squatted down against the base of the wall.
Director: “The results for this morning’s milk milking are out.”
[Why does Xiao Er look so much like my head teacher?]
[Does anyone remember this scene from Season 1? In the end, they drank however much they milked, and the first one to finish drinking got a reward.]
[Surely not this season that’s half a bucket we’re talking about.]
Indeed, it wasn’t like that this season. Chu Minghe could already see the hidden dagger behind the director’s smile, though he didn’t know which pair it was aimed at.
The director held up a small board with the milk weights of the six people clearly written on it, listed from top to bottom: Chu Minghe, Zheng Yuan, Zhang Congsheng, Lin Dingshi, Zhang Qing, and Zhao Xingjian.
This was probably the first time Zhao Xingjian had ever seen his name ranked dead last.
Before he finished speaking, the director pulled out another small board: “The two scores are halved and combined; the bottom two pairs will have extra tasks to complete tomorrow.”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they stared at the sign the director was holding up, unable to see it clearly because it was already getting dark.
Zhang Qing anxiously snatched the board right out of the director’s hand.
Chu Minghe leaned forward. “…”
Just looking at the reactions of the other people told the whole story. Chu Minghe walked back and softly comforted Zhao Xingjian, “It’s fine, you can sleep on the bed tonight.”
Chu Minghe possessed a stubborn persistence about letting Zhao Xingjian sleep on the bed, refusing to quit until he achieved his goal. He couldn’t understand why such a huge bed couldn’t comfortably fit one more person why on earth did they have to sleep separately? And why did Chu Minghe seem even more averse to sharing a bed than he was?
He could only attribute all of this to the fact that he and Chu Minghe were about to get divorced.
Once there were only the six of them left in the villa, they lit the charcoal to grill meat and eat. The production team had very considerately brought fruit as well.
Lin Dingshi slipped away to the kitchen first carrying that bag of fruit; he didn’t know how to grill those things, and if he ruined them, none of them would be able to eat.
Actually, the only ones here who actually knew how to grill were Zheng Yuan and Chu Minghe. With one of them being a chef and the other having done numerous part-time jobs, they turned out to be the hardest-working guests here.
After cutting the fruit, Lin Dingshi trotted back with quick steps, first feeding Zheng Yuan a piece of melon, then running over to Chu Minghe to feed him a wedge of orange.
[What’s going on! President Zhao, do you still want your wife or not?]
[I know this is a married-couple variety show, but Chu Minghe and Lin Dingshi’s dynamic is also pretty striking]
[The person above, you’re way too twisted]
[President Zhao, where’s your fighting spirit?! Someone’s already coming to snatch your wife and you’re not making a move?!]
It wasn’t that Zhao Xingjian lacked fighting spirit; he, Zhang Qing, and Zhang Congsheng had their heads down skewering vegetables and eggplants pulled from the backyard, completely oblivious to what was happening behind them.
When the skewering was done and he still had two holes in his hands, he used a scrap of paper to wipe them casually, picked up that plate of vegetables, and placed it on the table beside the grill.
After a while, as he listened to Chu Minghe giving instructions on brushing oil onto the grill, a gust of wind blew past his side. Lin Dingshi darted over like a swoosh, squeezed right between the two of them, and shouted toward Chu Minghe, “Ah—”
Zhao Xingjian watched with his own eyes as Chu Minghe bit off and took away the small half-orange Lin Dingshi was holding.
The orange was sour; Chu Minghe chewed it haphazardly and swallowed it straight down, then turned around to put a batch of grilled meat skewers onto the plate before turning back to look for Zhao Xingjian’s vegetables and eggplants.
“Are they ready?”
Zhao Xingjian stood still, staring at him without moving.
Chu Minghe was stunned. “What’s wrong?”
Zhao Xingjian: “Doesn’t this count as not watching your words and actions?”
[…]
Chu Minghe explained patiently: “It doesn’t. Dingshi hasn’t touched raw meat or oil with his hands, and besides, Dingshi doesn’t know how to grill meat. You guys have enough people skewering vegetables over there; if he went over, he’d get criticized for ‘slacking off.’ Not just him, all of you would be accused of huddling together to slack off. Cutting fruit and waving a fan like Dingshi is doing right now is just right, and it suits his personality so people won’t find him annoying. You can learn from him although there are less than five days left, a lot can change in five days on this show, so you mustn’t give up halfway…”
He gave Zhao Xingjian a massive lecture, leaving Zhao Xingjian with the lingering feeling that he had been forcibly brainwashed.
When he spoke a couple of sentences himself, it was classified as inappropriate speech, but when Chu Minghe bit an orange out of someone else’s hand, it was correct, and he was even told to learn from others.
Feeling annoyed, he stared silently at Chu Minghe. When Chu Minghe tried to pick up the vegetables in his hands and couldn’t even lift them, he looked up and saw Zhao Xingjian staring right at him, and his mood wasn’t great either.
Uh-oh.
Though he didn’t know what went wrong, making amends was always the right move.
Chu Minghe let go and asked him, “Do you want to eat grilled potato slices?”
Chu Minghe always pulled this stunt; whenever things felt even slightly off, he would start coaxing, which could also be seen as a disguised form of yielding. Zhao Xingjian had already figured out his routine.
Yet he really couldn’t stay mad anymore. He let go and watched Chu Minghe place the oil-brushed vegetables and eggplants onto the grill.
“Peel and slice the potatoes. If you feel like these greasy things are too much, I’ll make you a plate of hot-and-sour shredded potatoes instead?”
Zhao Xingjian glanced at him, picked up a few of the potatoes they had dug up that afternoon, washed them clean, pulled up a chair, and started peeling them.
Because the potato skin was thin, Zhao Xingjian kept peeling into thin air every few strokes.
Chu Minghe caught sight of the two little red pinpricks where Zhao Xingjian had pricked his fingers earlier by accident, and feeling a bit worried watching him handle the knife, he took the potato out of his hand and started peeling it to show him.
“You can peel the skin a bit thicker, and hold it steady.”
Zhao Xingjian obediently complied; after all, Chu Minghe was all-around capable, and refusing to listen to him meant getting the short end of the stick. Peeling the potatoes went much more smoothly after that, and he even found it stress-relieving. Once he finished peeling the five or six potatoes he had brought over, he went back for more, but Chu Minghe stopped him right as he turned around.
“Enough, enough, we won’t use that many.”
Zhao Xingjian glared at him.
Chu Minghe: “…We’ll peel more tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll have stir-fried shredded potatoes.”
That was more like it, otherwise everything would be done his way.
Zhao Xingjian abandoned the potatoes and went over to skewer potato slices. He squeezed in right next to Chu Minghe before Lin Dingshi could push his way over, finished skewering them, and immediately placed them onto the fire, waiting for Chu Minghe to grill them.
They ate as they grilled, and they had to admit that the two of them grilled things exceptionally well. Chu Minghe even learned how to keep the meat tender from Zheng Yuan, making his culinary skills improve significantly further.
Once they finished up their work here, the group finally sat down to eat properly. During the meal, the production team brought over some more meat and beer, laughing as they remarked, “First time we’ve seen appetites this big.”
Lin Dingshi chased them off.
Everyone could hold their liquor, especially Zhang Congsheng, who wanted to challenge someone the moment he sat down, only to be slapped back into docility by Zhang Qing with a single palm strike.
Tonight could be considered the most peaceful night for the group since their arrival.
Chu Minghe sat next to Zhao Xingjian, asking for permission before taking a drink, and only placed a bottle in front of him after Zhao Xingjian nodded.
Lin Dingshi was the youngest among them and still loved to play games, dragging a few people into a game of turtle soup while implementing a points system where whoever had the fewest points had to perform a talent act.
He originally hadn’t wanted to make the penalty so simple, but because they were on camera, he had reined it in.
Holding a handful of skewers, whoever guessed closest to the answer got a skewer.
Lin Dingshi: “We’re starting, then. Let’s do a simple one first the soup base is very short.”
“The older sister reads books every late night. The younger sister feels sorry for her, brings a warmed glass of milk from the dining table into the older sister’s room, and the older sister goes crazy.”
Zhang Qing: “The younger sister has already passed away.”
“…”
“Yes.”
They played six rounds of turtle soup, and all six skewers ended up in Zhang Qing’s hands.
Lin Dingshi fell silent for a moment. “My husband is on my team, and I’m the host, so we’re exempt from the penalty.”
Zhang Qing: “We’re exempt too.”
Chu Minghe looked at Zhao Xingjian, who remained calm and composed.
The audio system the director had dragged over earlier was standing to the side. Lin Dingshi dragged it over and shoved a microphone into Chu Minghe’s hand.
None of them knew that Chu Minghe had written and sung songs in the past; this kind of penalty was practically tailor-made to highlight him.
Five minutes later, the bullet comments froze for a split second, then erupted violently.
[He can sing?]
[Never heard him before, only knew his acting was trash]
[Why didn’t he become an idol instead of an actor? Is this what it means to be wealthy and willful?]
[If he’d chosen to be an idol back then, there probably wouldn’t have been so many people cursing him]
[His acting is indeed trash, but his singing is genuinely amazing ahhhhh I’m so conflicted]
[Let’s pause the cursing for today and resume tomorrow, temporary truce]
Author’s Note:
Today’s married couple is a bit at a disadvantage, President Zhao is a bit willful, see you all tomorrow OvO