Huh? I'm going in?

Bai Shen only returned toward late afternoon, and he was surprised to hear Xie Jiali say he had arrived that morning.

"You got here that early?"

"I finished my work and had nothing else to do, so I just came back." Xie Jiali smiled and nodded.

After the grocery-shopping assignments that day, he felt even more of a sense of urgency, as though a fire were burning inside him.

Really going all out. Bai Shen made no comment, just glanced at Xie Jiali.

Why does he look a little more worn out? He doesn't seem very energetic.

He still had no idea what had happened that day and simply assumed Xie Jiali was tired.

Shi Zhou ran out with everyone else to welcome him, too. "Brother Shen, you're back!"

Bai Shen's assistant and driver helped unload the purchases, but the production crew wouldn't let them any farther inside.

The staff helped carry everything under the veranda. The rain was coming down hard now, scattering flower petals all over the courtyard, and every time someone opened their mouth to speak, a puff of white mist escaped.

Shi Zhou wore a pale yellow sweater and light-colored jeans, with a pretty crocheted wrap around his waist. He looked soft and sweet, and very young.

Bai Shen smiled and handed things around for everyone to carry.

"Go on inside. It's cold out here."

Nobody had eaten much at lunch, saving their appetites for tonight's meal. Just opening the food containers and seeing all the different cuts of meat inside made Shi Zhou's eyes light up.

He had already decided how to eat them.

Some would be fried until crisp and coated in cheese.

Some would go on skewers, looking as good as they tasted.

Some would be sandwiched between zucchini, apples, pineapple, and the like. One bite would be incredibly satisfying, without being greasy at all.

Some would be grilled on the smokeless grill until they sizzled with fat, then dipped in his carefully prepared secret sauce, topped with a few extras, and wrapped in a vegetable leaf...

Paired with chilled fruit and drinks, it would be unbelievably delicious!

Shi Zhou quietly swallowed.

"Hungry?"

Seeing him stare longingly at the meat before him, Bai Shen couldn't help chuckling.

Shi Zhou shook his head. "It's only four. I'm okay."

Oh my god, I'm making it way too obvious how much I want to eat. The viewers will laugh at me when this airs!

Bai Shen lowered his lashes and glanced at his bowed head. "I didn't really eat much at lunch. I'm a little hungry now."

Shi Zhou understood what he meant and smiled, too. "Then should we start getting things ready? It'll be about dinnertime by the time we're done."

They did have a smokeless grill with automatic temperature control here, but it needed to be assembled first.

Naturally, the production crew wouldn't help with that. After hearing this, Bai Shen said, "You all go ahead. I'll handle the kitchen."

Shi Zhou smiled. "Then I'll marinate the meat in a bit."

Most of the supermarket meat had already been prepped. All they had to do was put it on plates and wash the fruit and vegetables they needed, so he could safely leave that to someone else.

Yu Manman worked up her courage. "It's hard to manage all this alone. Why don't I help Brother Shen get things ready?"

After saying that, she lowered her head and began rolling up her sleeves.

While everyone else assumed she had joined the show to raise her profile and advance her career, Yu Manman knew she genuinely did want to fall in love.

After a busy day at work, how wonderful would it be to come home to someone waiting for her, handing her a glass of warm water and gently saying, "You've worked hard."

Then she would have someone to confide in about the things buried in her heart, instead of bottling them up and numbing herself with alcohol.

That was all she wanted.

But someone too young wouldn't do. She couldn't bring herself to go there.

Someone as aloof as Su Yue wouldn't do either. They would have nothing to talk about.

A playboy was even more out of the question. She wouldn't feel secure.

As for Xie Jiali, he'd already made it pretty obvious. Unless someone was a blind idiot, surely they could tell he liked Shi Zhou?

After going through all the possibilities, only Bai Shen remained.

After talking to her close friend on the phone that morning, Yu Manman had remembered just one thing-

On a dating show, you have to take the initiative!

Nobody objected when Yu Manman volunteered. They could just as easily take the washed ingredients to the big table in the living room to work on them, and it would be livelier there.

Shi Zhou even gave Yu Manman an encouraging look.

Go for it! I'm rooting for you!

Although Yu Manman had offered to help, she hardly ever set foot in a kitchen. Bai Shen actually seemed a little more capable than she was.

Besides, they weren't alone in the kitchen. The camera operator Yu Manman had long since learned to ignore suddenly had a much stronger presence, impossible to overlook.

Bai Shen, on the other hand, seemed exactly as he always did: gentlemanly and composed.

"You don't need to handle the raw meat. I'll do it." Having washed his hands, he pulled disposable white gloves over his broad, long-fingered hands. He was handsome and tall.

For some reason, Yu Manman thought of his medical background, and how he had switched career paths and spent so many years working his way up, just like her...

She smiled. "Okay, then I'll handle the plating. I'm good at that."

They exchanged a few remarks. Bai Shen responded smoothly to everything Yu Manman said, and he could also take care of anything she couldn't manage.

The problem was that it was mentally exhausting...

After a little conversation, Yu Manman lowered her head and immersed herself in arranging the plates.

For one thing, she took her work seriously and wanted to do her best at everything. Even something as small as plating demanded thought and effort to make it look pretty, leaving her no time to talk.

For another, just like when they'd danced the night before, a stunning beauty like Yu Manman never had to strike up conversations with other people. They were the ones racking their brains for topics she wanted to discuss.

How was she supposed to strike up a conversation?

She had genuinely never thought about that question.

After only a few remarks, she had no idea what else to say.

Wearing his gloves, Bai Shen took the meat out of the containers piece by piece, while Yu Manman arranged it with tongs, cutting a few things or getting some ice to use as decoration along the way.

For a while, neither spoke, a stark contrast to the lively atmosphere outside.

The partition between the kitchen and living room was clear glass, so they could see straight inside. Watching the pair work together so cozily under the warm lights, Shi Zhou felt deeply reassured.

It's happening. Guaranteed. No problem!

He looked away, satisfied, and stopped slacking off. Then he noticed a skewer of meat on the plate in front of him and couldn't help laughing.

Some of his meat skewers had cherry tomatoes on them, while others had pineapple and zucchini. Each was only about the length of a palm, tasty and pretty.

But a new one had suddenly appeared with a strawberry skewered in the middle, its leafy top still attached, trying in vain to blend in despite looking completely out of place.

Shi Zhou didn't say anything. Smiling, he grabbed a piece of cantaloupe from the fruit basket beside him and quickly skewered it between pieces of meat, then put it on Xie Jiali's plate while he got up to fetch more meat.

He rarely did anything mischievous, and before anyone else had even reacted, he was already laughing uncontrollably.

Seeing his shoulders shake with laughter, Xie Jiali had no idea what had happened. Then he followed the "culprit's" gaze to his own plate and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"You little rascal."

They were all wearing gloves, so Xie Jiali gently hooked his arm around Shi Zhou's neck.

Shi Zhou finally burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! I'm sorry, Xie! I didn't do it on purpose!"

Xie Jiali still "refused to let it go," teasing him with a smile on his face. "You're terrible. How did you even come up with that?"

What would grilled cantaloupe taste like?

But since Shi Zhou had made the skewer, he'd eat whatever was on it.

After begging for mercy, Shi Zhou hurried to find the real culprit. "...I wasn't the one who started it. Who put a strawberry on my meat skewer? Come forward."

Everyone dissolved into laughter, but nobody confessed.

Asta laughed the hardest. Shi Zhou suspected him, but had no proof.

Shi Zhou held back a laugh. "Nobody's admitting it? Then I'm going to start making random skewers."

He was in especially high spirits that day. He took his haphazard fruit skewers and tried to put them on everyone else's plates, but nobody would let him. They laughed and fooled around, with the occasional shriek ringing out.

"Ah, get it away from me-! I don't want it! I don't want it!"

"Shi Zhou, eat it yourself!"

"My plate only has pineapple! Don't ruin my perfect color scheme! Aaaaaah!"

"Hahahaha, you have to eat it!" Shi Zhou hadn't managed to "give away" a single skewer, yet when he returned to his seat, he found that all his normal meat skewers had vanished, leaving only weird-looking ones.

Laughing helplessly, Shi Zhou ran over to the basket to look for durian. "Damn, you bunch of jerks."

Everyone now had to hold their own plates while stuffing strange things onto other people's. With the difficulty ramped up, they laughed so hard they could barely stand straight.

The two in the kitchen glanced outside. Yu Manman sounded envious. "They're having so much fun. Hahahaha."

Bai Shen's eyes held a smile, too. "They are. Let's finish up quickly and join them."

Nobody heard their conversation. Shi Zhou still thought the two were getting along beautifully in there. Friendship time outside, flirting time inside. How nice.

But the directing team disagreed, and they called Shi Zhou over to a spot the cameras couldn't see.

"...Zhouzhou, why don't you go in and hang out with those two for a bit?"

Shi Zhou was still holding his durian-and-meat skewer. When he heard the directing team's request, the excited smile hadn't even had time to fade from his face.

Huh?

Me?

I'm going in?

What would I go in there for?