For one thing, Ruirui’s mom had only found four Bamboo Worms in an hour, leaving the Little Dumpling somewhat “congenitally deficient” in the first round.
The Free-Range Chicken Ruirui was assigned, though not the poop-covered Chicken King, was still an unruly character. It ate two of Ruirui’s Bamboo Worms but then gleefully sprinted in the opposite direction.
Having lost half his bait, seeing the Free-Range Chicken run farther and farther, Ruirui’s mindset instantly collapsed.
He was a child with extremely high demands on himself. What he feared most was dragging his Foster Parents down. Tears welled up in his eyes, spinning in circles, and ultimately, he couldn’t hold them back.
This drew waves of heartache from the viewers. Danmaku cursing the Free-Range Chicken and Bai Yong flew together, all accusing that they’d never seen a Kid Variety Show like this.
Finally, the Little Dumpling Ruirui hugged his knees, curled into a ball, buried his face in his knees, and wept silently. He vented for a good while before wiping his tears and standing back up.
But although he accepted reality, he truly didn’t dare try again. After all, only two Bamboo Worms remained. According to the game rules, if the kids couldn’t lure a Free-Range Chicken, after two full hours, the parents could step in, but without extra tools.
In the end, the Little Dumpling Ruirui sat pitifully in place, planning to endure the two hours, then hand the two Bamboo Worms to his parents to fish with.
Then, seeing he wasn’t chasing anymore, the Free-Range Chicken instead cheekily ran over, clucking “cluck cluck cluck” incessantly. Ruirui puffed up his little cheeks, not wanting to deal with this stinky chicken. He ran forward a dozen meters and switched to another big rock to sulk.
If anything, all living things have spirit. The Free-Range Chicken Ruirui encountered was exceptionally infuriating. When Ruirui walked forward, it chased after him clucking “cluck cluck cluck,” then circled around him clucking, occasionally kicking some dirt onto the child. No one would believe it wasn’t mockery.
So angered he couldn’t sulk properly, Ruirui kept moving forward. Man and chicken, one fleeing, one chasing. Finally, near the trap, Ruirui tossed his last two Bamboo Worms onto the weeds covering it, a desperate gamble.
The chicken, having teased the child the whole way, its neck practically craned to the sky, swaggered over to peck at the Bamboo Worms. It promptly tumbled ass-first into the deep pit the Production Team had dug beforehand.
This twist-filled development caught everyone off guard. Ruirui burst out laughing for the first time on the show, stomping his feet and hopping around beside the trap. The viewers in the live stream laughed along too.
As for Xu Chengyi’s group, because Little Fatty Linlin was bitten by a snake, the Production Team specially granted them a pass.
However, to avoid arousing displeasure from viewers and other guests, the reason given was that Linlin needed rest due to the injury. So the Xu family of four had to stay at the first checkpoint for the full two hours before proceeding to the third.
Xu Chengyi knew Ji Nuo’s family had long since advanced to the third checkpoint. They had little chance of winning. After learning beforehand about the difficulty of collecting Bee Pupae, he was even less willing to make a fool of himself on the show. He simply used the child’s injury and fear of triggering an old illness as an excuse to withdraw from the competition.
Thus, only Tiantian’s and Ruirui’s families completed the subsequent two rounds. The results were roughly as Bai Yong had estimated: Tiantian’s family finished at six-thirty, while Ruirui’s family finished an hour later, just managing to catch ten small fish and report in before dark.
Although these two families couldn’t stay at the five-star hotel, they still ate Chicken Stewed with Fish cooked by the local chef for dinner—their most lavish meal since arriving at Jade Mountain Town.
The others were relatively reserved, just extremely emotional while eating. Compared to Ji Nuo’s family, who ate and drank lavishly every meal, they looked even more disheveled. And Weng Kai, always one for variety show effects, seized the opportunity to perform, crying pitifully while eating, straight into the camera.
He occasionally interacted with the nearby Staff Members: “What? Ji Nuo and the others are already at the hotel???”
The heaven-defying performance of Ji Nuo’s family after the live stream was evident to all. The dilapidated house they drew had hidden perks, didn’t cost money, and was the only one equipped with grain and cooking oil.
And the child, Little Friend Lu Ao’ao, was even more ridiculous. Small as he was, on the first morning he’d found a large, rare Thelephora ganbajun mushroom, and during the day, he’d picked an oversized top-grade Matsutake Mushroom. The father-son duo instantly achieved financial freedom in a suffering Kid Variety Show.
Not to mention Ji Nuo’s great cooking skills, which maximized Lu Ao’ao’s luck buff. In the other guests’ eyes, the father-son duo’s daily routine was just finding ways to eat and drink lavishly.
Meanwhile, they toiled hard all day, exhausted, eating bland food, accumulating heavy debts. Then they’d pull out their phones to see Little Friend Lu Ao’ao with a mouth glistening from being fed by Ji Nuo. That feeling… the word “agony” didn’t even cover it!
Especially Weng Kai, who was used to filming outdoor variety shows. He usually played the kind of bug-level role in various shows that Ji Nuo’s family was playing. Over the past few days, he’d gradually accepted his fate.
He guessed that Ji Nuo’s family, with Han Cheng as their lucky mascot, would likely be first place again. But he never imagined they! Actually! Finished! At! Two!! O’clock!!
Weng Kai instantly felt the chicken-fish soup in his bowl had lost its flavor. The first half of his fake-crying, misery-peddling act was just for laughs. But thinking of Ji Nuo’s family already lounging in a five-star hotel suite, Weng Kai didn’t need to act anymore. He slapped the table and let out a long howl like an ape.
With disgust, Tiantian shifted her stool to her mom’s other side: “Did Dad go crazy?”
Ming Yu glanced at her daughter: “Don’t talk about Dad that way.”
Tiantian pouted. Then Weng Kai, getting more and more into his act, turned and knocked the soup spoon from Ming Yu’s hand, splashing soup all over her.
Ming Yu lifted her eyelids and spoke flatly: “Weng Kai, don’t make me slap you.”
Weng Kai’s antics instantly subsided. He immediately pulled out half a pack of tissues to wipe the stains off his wife’s skirt. His utterly fawning, groveling posture sent the Danmaku into waves of “hahaha.”
~
In reality, Ji Nuo’s situation wasn’t as carefree as Weng Kai imagined. The main reason was that he had fallen ill against his will.
“Forced” might be similar to the principle of “your mom thinks you’re cold and makes you wear long johns.”
Ji Nuo felt absolutely no discomfort, but Han Cheng insisted he needed at least a full day and night of rest.
Conveniently, there was Chicken Stewed with Fish for dinner. Han Cheng heating it up wasn’t impossible.
So, upon arriving at the hotel, Ji Nuo was pressed into the master bedroom to lie flat and recuperate. Lu Aotian followed Han Cheng to a nearby supermarket to buy some rice for cooking.
In front of Ji Nuo, Lu Aotian couldn’t mention it easily. But with only Han Cheng left, he didn’t hold back: “I’m not eating Chicken Stewed with Fish.”
Han Cheng’s gaze darkened slightly: “Reason.”
Lu Aotian narrowed his eyes. His cool expression looked tough, like a kindergarten bully: “I don’t eat fish.”
Han Cheng nodded slightly: “Picky eater.”
Lu Aotian discovered that this minor celebrity named Han Cheng was truly, deeply skilled at being detestable!
After buying a pound of rice, Han Cheng walked to the Refrigerated Display Case and picked up a box of eggs, planning to make steamed egg custard for the picky little one.
This was one of the top 3 beginner recipes he’d looked up on a recipe app on the way—simplest ingredients and very suitable for children. After reading the steps, he felt relatively confident.
But before he could put it in the shopping cart, the little one beside him spoke again: “I don’t eat egg custard or standalone egg dishes.”
Originally, after experiencing Ruirui’s “biological weapon” incident, he was going to ban all things involving eggs. But after trying them, he found that Ji Nuo’s Wild Chive Scrambled Eggs and Ham Steamed Egg tasted excellent.
He thus pardoned some of eggs’ crimes, amending it to not eating standalone egg dishes. Otherwise, he’d always remember that blob flying toward his face…
Han Cheng’s face showed no reaction. After a moment’s silence, he still placed the small box of eggs in the cart: “What about Tomato Scrambled Eggs?”
Lu Aotian frowned: “If you can make it taste as good as his…”
Han Cheng didn’t answer directly. Lu Aotian sensed danger. Passing the oats, he pointed: “I want this.” If it was truly awful, he could still fill his stomach with milk and oatmeal.
Before Han Cheng could respond, the staff member following them intervened first: “During filming, guests cannot purchase oatmeal, but you can buy Oat Rice.”
In short, anything convenient was off-limits, even though the money the pair held was earned by Ji Nuo and the Cub themselves.
Hearing this, Lu Aotian’s little face scrunched up. Could he expect an adult who couldn’t even handle Tomato Scrambled Eggs to cook Oat Rice for him?
Han Cheng asked him flatly: “Do you want to buy Oat Rice?”
Lu Aotian tilted his chin up, his eyes filled with a “why are you so useless” resentment: “…Forget it!”
Just then, another father-daughter pair passed by them. The little girl, about Lu Aotian’s height, sat in the shopping cart’s child seat. As her young father sped up, the little girl let out strings of bell-like, joyful laughter.
Han Cheng saw the little one staring at them: “Do you want to sit?”
“Of course not!” Saying this, the little one put his hands behind his back and turned to leave, secretly feeling grateful in his heart that it was Ji Nuo who spent long periods with him.
This thought was especially profound at checkout. Lu Aotian looked at the huge shopping cart, which contained exactly and only four eggs, one pound of rice, and two tomatoes, his disdain for Han Cheng reaching its peak. He already predicted he’d be drinking milk to survive tonight!
~
When the pair returned to the suite, Ji Nuo had drifted off to sleep again. Han Cheng first rinsed the rice.
Although he couldn’t cook, he’d learned during filming that making steamed rice was quite difficult for beginners. So, he chose to make congee.
Conveniently, the electric cooker in the suite’s open kitchen had a porridge-cooking function. After checking, he learned that half a pound of rice was enough for three people’s dinner. He then filled the water to the line marked on the inner pot…
Half an hour later, Ji Nuo was awakened by clanking and banging sounds from outside.
He was dazed for a moment, then suddenly remembered Han Cheng should have returned from grocery shopping with the Cub. He originally planned to wait for them and find a way to convince them to let him cook. After all, he couldn’t bear to see either of them suffer hardship.
Ji Nuo threw off the covers, feeling a bit cold. He put on the hotel-provided bathrobe and immediately walked out.
