At some point, a huge square table had been brought over beside the director, laden with all kinds of breakfast food.
"Director, are you treating us to breakfast?" Shen Ting walked between Yan Yi and Shen Rui and smiled at the director.
"In your dreams. You have to earn all this breakfast by playing a game." The director wagged a finger.
"What game? I'm hungry enough to eat two huge flatbreads right now." Meng Yun rubbed his rumbling stomach. He had barely eaten last night because of the bugs, and he was already hungry first thing in the morning.
"Eating biscuits face-to-face." The director took out a stick-shaped biscuit and beamed at the eight people in front of him.
"Those who successfully exchanged texts last night will automatically be paired up. Shen Ting and Yan Yi are one team, Meng Yun and Bai Yuanyuan are another, and Shen Rui and Su Weiwang are another. Finally, Si Chen and Su Yu, who either didn't receive a text or didn't make a successful match, will be a team."
Hearing the director's words, Si Chen looked at Su Yu beside him in disbelief. Little Yu had actually sent his romantic text to someone else.
Feeling the intense stare beside him, Su Yu quietly tugged at Si Chen's sleeve and carefully leaned toward his ear. "Si Chen, I'll explain in a bit."
As soon as he finished, Su Yu pulled away again.
Hearing the affectionate way Su Yu addressed him, Si Chen felt his displeasure ease a little. Little Yu probably hadn't done it on purpose, right? Had his manager told him to?
The director nodded in satisfaction at the four teams.
"The rules are as follows: eat the biscuit down to three centimeters, and you can choose any two breakfast items. Eat it down to two centimeters, and you can choose three. If everyone understands, you can begin."
[I hereby declare that the director is our biggest informant.]
[I love watching this kind of segment. Give us more games like this.]
[Speaking of which, have the new guests still not arrived?]
[It's only six in the morning. Unless they came over last night, they're probably still on the plane, right?]
[I wonder who's coming. I'm kind of excited.]
Meng Yun and Bai Yuanyuan went first. Both wore expressions of disgust as they bit the biscuit, struggling to get it down to three centimeters before it promptly fell to the ground.
"Ahem, that's enough. We should eat less in the morning." Bai Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm suddenly not hungry anymore either." Meng Yun patted his stomach, refusing to admit otherwise.
Su Weiwang and Shen Rui also barely held out until three centimeters remained. They bit through the biscuit and turned their heads away at the same time.
Shen Ting keenly noticed his older brother's slightly reddened earlobes. Was there a chance here? Was there?
The third team was Su Yu and Si Chen.
Su Yu put one end of the biscuit in his mouth, braced both hands on Si Chen's shoulders, and rose slightly onto his toes to feed the other end into Si Chen's mouth.
Si Chen's earlier displeasure instantly vanished at Su Yu's gesture.
Su Yu kept moving forward until, without looking closely, it looked as though they were touching. Only then did he bite through the biscuit.
Su Yu covered his face and took several steps back.
[Si Chen and Su Yu touched, right?]
[Aaaah, those two look so good together!]
[I'm jealous of Mr. Si. Our baby Su Yu is so adorable.]
[Wasn't that just a fake-out?]
[Person above, don't talk nonsense just because you don't like them.]
[It was a fake-out. They only looked like they were touching. There was actually still a gap between them.]
The director looked thoroughly satisfied with the scene and generously let the two choose three breakfast items.
Last came Shen Ting and Yan Yi. Biting the other end of the biscuit, Shen Ting tilted his head up slightly and looked at Yan Yi, who was extremely close to him. There wasn't a trace of shyness on his face. Instead, he winked at Yan Yi, as though saying that they couldn't lose, for the sake of their breakfast.
Yan Yi raised an eyebrow and slowly nibbled at the biscuit in his mouth, drawing closer to Shen Ting.
Looking at the nose touching the tip of his own, Shen Ting couldn't help swallowing.
Damn, this guy's nose bridge is way too high. Nuwa really played favorites with him. I'm jealous.
Yan Yi lifted his eyes, intending to see whether the little hamster in front of him had turned pink all over, only to discover that a certain little hamster was spacing out.
Yan Yi shook his head with an amused laugh, then bit through the biscuit after making sure there were two centimeters left.
Once released, Shen Ting instinctively swallowed the biscuit in his mouth.
Yan Yi stared straight at him.
Meng Yun and Bai Yuanyuan, who had already collected their breakfast, stared blankly at him too. He just ate it? Were those two actually together? Was this show really a stepping stone for them to announce their relationship?
[!!!]
[Holy crap! Shen Ting, could you be any more clueless? You actually ate the biscuit! Didn't you see everyone else biting theirs off? As a mom fan, I'm so disappointed in you!]
[Are those two seriously here to fall in love?]
[I found a real couple! Which little shipper has had her dreams come true? Oh my, it's me!]
The director looked at the two of them, then at the livestream comments, grinning from ear to ear. Coming to the village had clearly been the right choice. Look, wasn't the mood already there?
Shen Ting didn't feel anything was wrong. Savoring the biscuit in his mouth, he marveled inwardly, This biscuit tastes pretty good. It's milk-flavored.
Just as they were eating lunch, the rumble of suitcase wheels suddenly came from outside the courtyard.
An extremely handsome young man walked over from a short distance away, his eyes faintly blue in the sunlight.
Su Yu seemed a little excited when he saw him and stood straight up.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Pei Ming. I'm a racing driver." Pei Ming politely shook hands with everyone in the courtyard, lingering longest on Su Yu's hand.
Looking at Pei Ming as they shook hands, Shen Ting suddenly remembered: wasn't this the book's second male lead? The devoted supporting man every book had. His own older brother was the cannon-fodder third male lead, while Pei Ming was the devoted second male lead who had a bit of a storyline.
Despite how sunny and handsome Pei Ming looked now, the novel had mentioned that he had developed an eye problem at fourteen. His vision had been extremely blurry, and it hadn't been cured until after he turned sixteen.
In the novel, Pei Ming had been bullied by a group of people at a banquet when he was fifteen, and had even been pushed into a swimming pool.
Su Yu had found him lying unconscious at the edge of the pool and fetched adults to save him.
From then on, Pei Ming had been deeply grateful to Su Yu. Su Yu never turned down any of Pei Ming's gestures of goodwill, even accepting them without a qualm.
But that wasn't what had really happened. The person who had saved Pei Ming was actually his childhood friend, Xia Qing. The moment Xia Qing discovered that Pei Ming had fallen into the water, he had jumped into the pool to save him. By the time he dragged Pei Ming out, Xia Qing had no strength left and could only run to the banquet to find his father for help. But when he brought his father to the pool, he discovered that Pei Ming had already been taken away in an ambulance.
Xia Qing had tried countless times to tell him that he was the one who had saved him, but before he could speak or finish his explanation, Pei Ming, who had already been thoroughly brainwashed, would interrupt him. The two had even fallen out over Su Yu to the point of ending their friendship.
Before you continue