Chapter 13

When Han Cheng finished his scene at seven AM, his assistant Qian Lei had an Eight Immortals Tube, for refreshment and focus, stuffed up his nose. He was squinting, leaning back in his chair watching his phone, looking drowsy.

Hearing the car door close behind Han Cheng, Qian Lei scrambled up with a jolt. After a moment to steady himself, he shook his head. “Brother Cheng, need to reshoot any scenes? Should I go get Little Chen to remove your makeup?”

Han Cheng was covered in fake blood, mud, and sand. The special effects makeup on his face couldn’t hide his exhaustion. He nodded slightly in response.

Qian Lei’s phone was still charging, so he just tossed it onto the makeup table, immediately getting up to go wake the makeup artist, who had found a spot to catch up on sleep.

Although Qian Lei had been alone in the dressing room the whole time, his phone’s external speaker wasn’t loud. Once the man left and silence returned to the room, Han Cheng noticed that playing on Qian Lei’s phone was the live stream of “Where Are the Cubs Going?”.

Actually, it was a task Xu Li had given all the studio employees: keep an eye on Ji Nuo’s stream and Danmaku whenever they had time, and monitor online trends.

Ji Nuo’s situation was special: rampant anti-fans, a shattered reputation with the general public, and an obvious feeling that someone was paying for a commenter army to steer the narrative. In this early phase, it wasn’t prudent for Xu Li to step in. Most of the work still relied on Ji Nuo breaking through the situation via the twenty-four-hour live broadcast.

But that didn’t mean they could do nothing. They would monitor first to prevent any unexpected situations from going unhandled. At the same time, they would record every point the anti-fans latched onto, the public’s reactions when Ji Nuo proved them wrong with reality, the timelines of the paid commenters driving the narrative, etc., waiting for the optimal moment for a public opinion counterattack.

However, Han Cheng’s studio was mostly young people, all champions of staying up late and failures at waking early. The pre-dawn to morning shift fell to Qian Lei, who had been keeping Han Cheng company through all-nighters recently.

It just so happened that Han Cheng had two more days of intense filming before he had to make an appearance on the kid variety show. The more Qian Lei watched, the better he could “tutor” Han Cheng anytime. After all, his “wife and child” were on the show; no matter how busy Han Cheng was, he couldn’t be completely clueless.

Han Cheng sat down, his gaze casually sweeping over with a slow glance. His narrow eyes still held the cold, detached sharpness of the desperate fugitive he was playing in the drama.

On the screen was the moment Ji Nuo found the Thelephora ganbajun. The Danmaku was mostly accusing Ji Nuo of being both stupid and malicious. Yet the youth on screen was smiling warmly and gently, two shallow dimples lining the sides of his lips, clear eyes reflecting a faint soft light.

Han Cheng’s gaze wavered slightly. The smile before him seemed to overlap with the boy from a few years ago.

Back then, the boy had heard his throat was bothering him, so he ran back to his rented apartment under the blazing sun, using sterculia seeds and snow pears to brew a pot of sweet soup for him.

From her very first day, Xu Li had told him never to drink anything that had left his sight, let alone a homemade concoction like this. But the pure sincerity and anticipation brimming in the boy’s eyes were startlingly bright, and he had still thanked him and taken it.

He should have realized then: Ji Nuo’s genuine, pure nature wasn’t suited for this complicated circle, especially without any backing… What he thought was sensible advice had instead harmed the other.

As thoughts flashed through Han Cheng’s mind, the youth on screen transformed into a small, skinny child.

Upon clearly seeing the child’s features, Han Cheng couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. His deep gaze rested on the child’s gray-blue eyes…

~

What the production team overpriced for credit to the other three guest groups, aside from the children’s food, were all raw ingredients requiring cooking.

And while the children’s food could be bought ready-made, the price was absurdly high. The production team’s aim was precisely to force the guests to be self-reliant.

The older veteran actors’ couple was in the second-best situation after Ji Nuo. Both husband and wife had endured hardship in their early years. They could manage the clay stove, spending some time to cook a pot of egg porridge, and paired it with a cold cucumber salad to make do for breakfast.

Weng Kai’s family lived in the small western-style building with a gas stove. Weng Kai, relying on his expertise in instant noodle boiling techniques, made a pot of egg noodles. The result: the first time he turned off the heat, the noodles were undercooked; the second time, the noodles were cooked to mush.

Weng Tiantian took one look at it, said it looked like vomit, and refused to eat it no matter what. In the end, they had to take out a “loan shark” deal from the production team to buy the child a little bread roll with milk.

Kang Feier didn’t even struggle. She went straight to boiling eggs. Her daughter, Zhenzhen, was super well-behaved, eating whatever she was given, filling her belly with eggs and warm milk.

Although the three families’ breakfasts were terrible, they had racked up a small debt to the production team. Fortunately, late July and early August was the perfect time to hunt for mushrooms in the Jade Mountain area.

There were countless types of mushrooms with vastly different prices. Different mushrooms grew in different environments. Generally, the more expensive ones required going further and, like a treasure hunt, had a lower chance of being found.

The production team hired four masters, offering the guests four different digging schemes:

The first was the expensive, rare, and scarce truffle;

The second was the matsutake mushroom, much lower in difficulty and price than truffles but still very rare;

The third was a mixed bag of various cheap, quality mushrooms;

The fourth was a safe, guaranteed low-value option: sweet bamboo shoots.

Living in the small western-style building and carrying the heaviest debt, Weng Kai’s family could be considered the strongest overall. Weng Kai, who filmed various outdoor variety shows year-round, was a given. The Movie Empress Ming Yu was also a fitness enthusiast. After asking the price and approximate distances, the husband and wife naturally chose the hardest, most profitable option: truffles.

The older veteran actor couple wanted to choose matsutake, but upon learning the straight-line distance and altitude for picking them, they realized considering their physical condition and having a child in tow, they really couldn’t handle it. They ultimately chose the mixed mushroom hunting.

As for Kang Feier, alone with her daughter, she had a very clear estimation of her own capabilities. She decided to go work for Ji Nuo.

The production team was initially surprised hearing her idea of teaming up with Ji Nuo, but upon second thought, they figured they should let her try.

After all, Ji Nuo was about to go all “Return to Nature” living in that broken house with the kid. A collision between the two guest groups might spark something new. Coincidentally, both were currently “widowed” parenting, and three-or-four-year-old toddlers causing less trouble counted as helping. Two adults together could at least look out for each other.

Seeing the production team agree, Kang Feier immediately hugged her daughter and beamed. “Zhenzhen, we get to be on the same team as Uncle Ji Nuo! Are you happy?”

The little snow dumpling, carved from powder and jade, blinked, tilting her head in great confusion. Kang Feier added with a grin, “You know, the pretty big brother!”

The little dumpling Zhenzhen’s eyes lit up instantly, immediately flashing a smile full of tiny white baby teeth. “Pretty! Brother!”

The staff member explained: “You can team up, but you’ll need to get Little Teacher Ji’s permission first…”

If a guest wasn’t short on food, drink, or money, the production team had no way to forcibly make arrangements.

After breakfast, Kang Feier changed into matching parent-child sportswear with her daughter and headed straight for the shabby little house the Ji Nuo father-son pair lived in.

The idea of teaming up with Ji Nuo had sprouted in Kang Feier’s mind from the very first moment she laid eyes on him.

Anyway, the production team delighted in screwing over the guests. Accommodation was a trap. Food was a trap. Going up the mountain to dig dirt could certainly be a trap. But as long as she convinced him to team up, making the best of a bad situation while staring at Ji Nuo’s face was still enjoyment.

She and her three-year-old daughter naturally lacked the ability to toil hard and earn big money, but the show had to be recorded cooperatively. In that case, it was better to pick something pleasing to the eye under the limited conditions. Otherwise, Once her husband arrived tonight with his son, she’d have no excuse to team up with Ji Nuo.

Of course, that was only her initial plan. After the lights went out last night, she’d hidden under the covers playing on her phone, noticing Ji Nuo’s super-strong practical skills. One look told her he knew how to cook.

Combined with earlier when her assistant mentioned Ji Nuo making a huge table of food during a surprise live stream, only to be suspected of following a script, Kang Feier now felt Ji Nuo really could cook. She’d figured out the black material on Ji Nuo was absurdly unreliable, which only solidified her plan to cling tightly to Ji Nuo’s thigh.

Earning money was a lost hope, so debt was debt. She was willing to work hard for Ji Nuo, as long as he could spare her and her daughter from eating boiled eggs any longer!

Halfway there, Kang Feier and her daughter learned Ji Nuo wasn’t home, but had taken the child to inquire at a local villager’s house. This saved Kang Feier a few hundred meters’ walk.

The local villager was exactly the same older woman who had bought Ji Nuo’s Thelephora ganbajun sauce not long ago. When Ji Nuo arrived, she’d just eaten a big bowl of rice with the sauce he’d made. After profusely praising Ji Nuo,

upon hearing his request, she had the father and son sit under the grape trellis in the yard and carefully helped analyze the various options:

“It’s not truffle digging season yet. They’re all very small now, not mature enough, won’t fetch a price, and are really hard to find… Matsutake is in season right now, but that stuff is just as hard to find as truffles. Unless you have your own matsutake spot, going is a waste of time…”

A matsutake spot usually referred to a location where matsutake had been harvested before. Locals would cover the spot with weeds to hide the traces, remembering the location themselves. That way, when matsutake grew again, the grass would hide it from others, allowing them to go harvest repeatedly.

Worried they wouldn’t understand, the older woman added that the several types of rare wild mushrooms in the area were basically harvested by contracted mountain lots, so outsiders couldn’t enter. The forests open to the public had long been picked clean.

Like them, she also often went into the mountains to hunt mushrooms, but only for common ones. Occasional good luck might bring a single matsutake. Truffles were a similar situation to matsutake but even harder.

As for the production team’s claim of providing a professional master to teach, the older woman’s eyes were full of disdain. “You guys are going on TV. Who would reveal their main base and tell others? If you follow them, you definitely won’t find much. Otherwise, if he reveals his matsutake spot today, tomorrow someone familiar with the terrain will steal it from him. Unless your production team paid a huge sum.”

Ji Nuo turned to the staff member: “How much did the production team pay to hire these masters?”

The staff member smiled sheepishly. “Three to five hundred…”

The older woman shot a scornful sideways glare at the staff member, then muttered quietly to Ji Nuo, “Can’t even buy a single jin of good matsutake…”

The staff member’s face turned bitter. He really wanted to say he was just a wage earner too, old aunt, it wasn’t him who arranged this QAQ…

The arrival of Kang Feier and her daughter successfully rescued the staff member shadowing Ji Nuo.

The moment the little dumpling Zhenzhen entered the yard and saw Ji Nuo, she immediately opened her arms wide. “Nuonuo! Hold!”

Both sides’ live stream rooms burst out laughing simultaneously:

[Ji Nuo has a three-and-a-half-year-old fangirl!]

[Is it just me, or does this mother-daughter pair specifically want to team up because of Ji Nuo’s face? I gotta say, it was worth it. This wave is definitely a victory for the shallow!]

[Hahahaha, Zhenzhen is so devoted. Every time they meet, she’s a total Nuo-staring maniac.]

Kang Feier smiled and pressed down her daughter’s little chubby hand. “What did Mommy tell Zhenzhen on the way here? What should you call him?” Saying this, she mouthed to her daughter: Ji – Nuo – Shu – Shu (Uncle Ji Nuo).

Zhenzhen stared blankly for a moment, nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Ji Nuo and loudly declared, “Pretty brother! Hold!”

Kang Feier: “…”

In the end, Kang Feier pinched her daughter’s mouth into a little chicken beak. Only after setting her straight for ages did it become “Brother Nuonuo.” Kang Feier temporarily gave up, first explaining her intentions to Ji Nuo.

Standing behind Ji Nuo, little friend Lu Ao’ao was already clenching his small fists. Was this little thing trying to take advantage of him?

Ji Nuo was now his own cheap dad. If she called Ji Nuo “brother,” wouldn’t that put her a generation above him?!

Just then, Kang Feier’s arms got tired from carrying her daughter, so she temporarily set her on the ground, focusing on discussing the team-up with Ji Nuo.

Zhenzhen, unable to see Ji Nuo’s face, was originally a bit anxious. She still had a gift for the pretty brother. But once on the ground, she saw someone at her similar altitude: Lu Ao’ao.

When they met before, her attention had been completely on Ji Nuo. Plus, it had been dim outside then. Only now did she realize the little brother Ji Nuo brought, though a bit dark, was also so good-looking, his eye color so pretty, so pretty. Zhenzhen started blinking her large, doe-like eyes at Lu Aotian.

Both guest groups had their live broadcast cameras. Now that they’d met, they split the work: one filming the adults, one filming the two little ones.

Lu Aotian guarded against the uninvited guest before him with full vigilance. He watched the little girl stuff a chubby hand into her pants pocket, rummaging and digging, walking towards Lu Aotian as she dug.

Lu Aotian narrowed his long eyes slightly, full authority radiating from him. Setting aside the objective factor that his current height was under one meter, his grave expression did somewhat resemble his past self.

Finally, Zhenzhen finished digging and extended a round, chubby fist in front of Lu Aotian.

Lu Aotian squinted: A challenge?

Zhenzhen blinked her sparkling, big eyes. Mimicking the tone her mother used to tease the neighbor’s little golden retriever brother, she asked in her milky, childish voice, “Guess how many candies I have in my hand? If you guess right, I’ll give both to you!”

Lu Aotian: “…”