Eldest Brother Ye had only come over to say hello. He still had to make a trip to the police station, so he left without staying long.
Watching Ye Xunzhi and Ye Lan walk away, venom flashed in Lin Ranran's eyes.
It was all Ye Xunzhi's fault.
She clenched both hands into fists. If not for her, nothing would have happened to her teacher, and everything could have gone according to plan.
But now, because of her, everything was ruined. Ye Xunzhi, why did you always have to be such an eyesore, insisting on stealing everything that could have belonged to me?
The temperature in Capital City varied greatly between day and night, and the nights were chilly. As Ye Xunzhi slept, she rolled herself into a piece of sushi.
Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, the production crew began banging gongs and drums. Director Mi stood in the center of the courtyard house with a megaphone, drawing a deep breath before calling out.
"Time to get up, folks! Even I'm up, so what excuse do you have to stay in bed? In this age of cutthroat competition, either other people work us to death, or we work them to death!"
"There was no rat race in this world until enough stubborn fools created one. So come on, let's quietly blow everyone away!"
"Get up already! The sun's scorching your butts!!!"
As his voice grew increasingly irate, Ye Xunzhi tucked her head farther into her sushi roll and mumbled:
"Please put some sunscreen on my butt."
Then she rolled herself up even tighter.
Ye Lan finished getting ready, and the other guests had already assembled. The director looked around in puzzlement.
"Where's Ye Xunzhi?"
Ye Lan's eyelid twitched. "Still in bed. I'll go call her again in a bit."
Director Mi showed ample tolerance toward his newly appointed little cash cow.
"That works."
With that, the production crew officially handed out the day's first task-making breakfast.
Making breakfast was nothing difficult. After all, however awful it tasted, it was still food, and as long as they did not starve, it would do. But the crew added another requirement.
Holding his megaphone, Director Mi added with a smile:
"Our crew will take you to the nearest village. You'll need to work alongside your family members to earn your ingredients."
At this, everyone exchanged looks.
Every one of them had been pampered since childhood. Even if their families were not particularly wealthy, they certainly were not poor. When had they ever been reduced to doing manual labor?
Even Jiang Mingzhi, who had maintained a cool, aloof demeanor all along, could no longer stay still. He stepped forward.
"Is there no other way to get ingredients? We have money on us. We could just buy them at a supermarket."
Director Mi had expected someone to speak up. "Sorry, we haven't reached a stage of the show that requires spending money yet. However..."
He changed tack. "Besides manual labor, there's also the option of using your brains, and the ingredients you can get are all top quality."
The guests' eyes lit up, but on the assumption that the production crew never had anything good up their sleeves, none of them spoke rashly. Sure enough, more followed.
Director Mi said, "Of course, the risks are proportional to the rewards. The crew has prepared two questions, and each of you will have one chance to attempt the challenge."
"One for the adult and one for the child. If both answer correctly, you'll earn the ingredients. Conversely, one wrong answer means losing your chance at the challenge, and before you head to the village to obtain food, each of you will also have to help husk twenty extra ears of corn."
Twenty extra ears per person meant forty ears of corn. The guests' faces turned green. It was obvious the crew would not give them easy questions.
They would not even get a chance to learn through trial and error. They could end up losing on both fronts.
Taking in all their expressions, Director Mi felt smug.
See? Just behave yourselves and choose the first option.
People always compromised. If you said it was too hot and you needed to cut a hole in the roof, they would certainly disagree. But if you proposed tearing off the entire roof, they would agree to the hole instead.
Director Mi said, "The crew's vehicles are waiting outside. Now, tell us your choices, starting from the left."
He looked toward Ye Lan on the far left. Hearing this, Ye Lan pondered for a moment.
Given that his teacher was certainly up to no good, this was an obvious attempt to force them to choose the first option. The second seemed richly rewarding, but it was bound to be extremely difficult.
It was essentially a pie drawn in the sky: they could look at it, but they certainly would not get to eat it. In short, the first option offered better value.
Ye Lan said, "Then we'll just-"
"Brains! Brains! We choose brains!" Ye Xunzhi rushed out of the room with a tuft of hair sticking up.
[No manual labor! No! No!]
In the livestream-
[You can tell Little Xun really hates working. She just sprang out of bed like a monkey.]
[Ye Xunzhi: sitting bolt upright on her deathbed.]
[Have you noticed? Whenever an activity involves food or money, Little Xun gets super enthusiastic, like she's become a whole new person.]
[What are you all praising her for? Ye Xunzhi is clearly holding Best Actor Ye back. The crew obviously has bad intentions this time. What a burden.]
[They're siblings. Who are you to stand here judging them? Since you love sticking your nose into everything, do you also have to taste the sewage truck's load when it passes your house?]
"Big sister, why did you come out with your hair all messy?"
Shi Yao, the youngest here at only eight years old, reached up to smooth down a strand of Ye Xunzhi's hair that was sticking up.
Ye Xunzhi turned her head at this. The girl had changed into another blue dress today, and her eyes were clear and innocent.
As she looked at her, Ye Xunzhi suddenly gave a faint smile and said with complete seriousness:
"Because I've been so busy I got muddled. Do you believe in the light? That's right, I'm actually Tiga's good friend. I went to save the world last night."
The young woman stood beside her, her beautiful eyes curving slightly with traces of amusement in them. The breeze gently lifted her snow-white nightdress, and her long hair fell loosely over her shoulders.
Her fair skin bore a faint, freshly woken flush, as though she were Nuwa's painstakingly crafted graduation project.
Unhurriedly, she pulled out a bank card and said, "Please support me. Whenever you feel like it, you can transfer a little money to this card and contribute to the cause of world peace."
Ye Xunzhi's looks were undoubtedly exceptional-so exceptional that even without her spouting nonsense, Shi Yao's first thought upon hearing her request for money would still have been:
-Give it to her!
It's only money. Why shouldn't I give it to her? Never mind a little money, even a lot is fine! Even if she said she was Tiga himself, I'd believe her! What bad intentions could a big sister who looks like a princess possibly have? She just wants a little more sleep!
Give her what she wants!!!
Shi Yao was not the only one struck by her beauty. The livestream viewers were, too.
Yesterday, to make herself less noticeable, Ye Xunzhi had mostly avoided the cameras as she moved around and had not liked showing her face directly. The only time she had shown it was in the dark at night.
After noticing this, Ye Lan had pulled her aside and told her to smile for the camera. Using her looks would make the viewers more tolerant of her, along with plenty of other benefits.
Ye Xunzhi had no objections.
She considered herself talentless, so she might as well rely on her face.
Relying on her face was the easiest option. All she had to do was sit there. As long as she did not have to work, anything was negotiable.
[Aaaaah, what a gorgeous face! I'm falling straight into this fandom, okay? No, I need to go grab a handful of shit to calm myself down first.]
[Was I blind yesterday? How did I stay unmoved by a face this beautiful? Who possessed me yesterday!!!]
[Come here, my darling daughter. What color sack do you like? Mommy has them all ready for you!]
[I really hate Ye Xunzhi. She acts one way in public and another in private. In private, she's actually an incredibly cold person. For example, why did she move into my heart without permission?! And she won't even take responsibility! Damn it, I'm fucking becoming a fan.]
Ye Lan took the hair tie Ye Xunzhi had carelessly left lying around last night out of his pocket, brought his fingers together, and simply combed her hair into place for her.
The director took out the question boards he had prepared earlier. Seeing this, the other guests immediately stopped in their tracks without making their choices and watched to see just how difficult the crew's questions would be.
Before you continue