Grandma lived alone and did not eat much, so she only had a small patch of farmland.
But the village's harvesting tools were rather primitive. There were no tractors or anything like that.
At first, Grandma had worried that the two strapping young men would not know how to use them. To her surprise, once they picked up the tools, they were like someone chewing Stride gum.
They simply could not stop.
"Good, very good!"
She watched the two working in the field, her eyes full of gratification.
She gave the camera a thumbs-up.
[Xinghui is so nice. He even kept the cameraman from going in because he was worried about him getting too much sun.]
[Fake. Didn't you see our Hanmo doing the same thing? Maybe he just likes copying him!]
[Exactly. Cloned sheep only lived for three years, you know~]
[What are you arguing about? Didn't you see how proper their movements were?
I'm not a Chu Xinghui fan, but judging by his movements, he seems even better at using farming tools than Pei Hanmo.]
The two harvested for three hours, and the fans in the livestream watched for three hours.
During that time, #Chu Xinghui and Pei Hanmo expertly use farming tools# also became a trending topic.
The other two groups had also found elderly villagers to help with their harvesting, but none of them really knew how to use the tools.
They needed lessons or had to look it up online.
It made a stark contrast with Chu Xinghui and Pei Hanmo.
Netizens began frantically digging into Chu Xinghui's background.
But for some reason, information about Chu Xinghui online was either blocked or impossible to find at all.
In less than an hour, #Chu Xinghui mystery man#
became another trending topic.
Although it only lingered at number one hundred for a while, plenty of people still saw it.
[It really seems impossible to find anything about Chu Xinghui's background!]
[That's a little scary. Does he have a sugar daddy backing him?]
That comment received enough likes to rise to the top.
Most people believed Chu Xinghui definitely had a sugar daddy behind him.
Otherwise, how could even his identity be impossible to uncover?
And a very powerful sugar daddy at that.
Chu Xinghui was sitting on the ground resting, unaware of the bloodbath online.
After being baked under the sun, he was now dizzy from the heat.
Pei Hanmo took a bottle of mineral water from the cameraman, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Chu Xinghui.
He had just glanced at the trending posts. After thinking it over, he decided to have Gu Chupei intervene.
Although Chu Xinghui might block him again if he discovered that he had meddled in his affairs, he could not just let certain gossip accounts spread rumors online.
Besides, he knew Chu Xinghui all too well. Under normal circumstances, he would not open Weibo.
"Ah, I was dying of thirst."
After downing half the bottle in one go, Chu Xinghui sighed and prepared to tilt his head back again to finish the rest.
Pei Hanmo's large hand closed around his wrist.
Cold instantly coursed through Chu Xinghui's body.
He lowered his head and looked at the hand gripping his. After freezing for a few seconds, he looked up in confusion.
"Drink slowly. Don't choke."
The voice came from above his head, incredibly gentle, in stark contrast to the tight grip on his hand.
Meeting Pei Hanmo's aggressive gaze, Chu Xinghui trembled inwardly. He tried to pull his hand free and said softly:
"I know. Why are you holding my hand so tightly?"
Pei Hanmo's Adam's apple bobbed as he shifted his gaze away from Chu Xinghui's overly wide neckline.
Because Chu Xinghui was sitting hunched over, the little strawberries on his chest were fully visible from above, pink and adorable.
And because Chu Xinghui had drunk too quickly just now, water had spilled from the mouth of the bottle onto his neck. Droplets trickled down and clung to the little strawberries.
Pei Hanmo felt a little thirsty.
He released Chu Xinghui's hand and said:
"Go change your clothes when we get back."
"?"
Chu Xinghui followed where Pei Hanmo had been looking, then jerked his head up.
He mouthed at Pei Hanmo, who stood to the side with a suspicious flush on his face: "You damn pervert!"
Pei Hanmo coughed lightly and avoided Chu Xinghui's gaze.
It was already three in the afternoon, with only three hours left until their meeting time.
None of the eight had eaten yet, and they wandered through the village like zombies.
"I'm so hungry! It's so hot!"
Man Feiluan draped himself over Yuan Zhanpeng's shoulder and complained loudly.
While harvesting earlier, he had accidentally stepped into a hole, twisted his ankle, and toppled straight into the field.
Now he could only have Yuan Zhanpeng carry him back.
As a main vocalist, he did not really need to take such good care of his feet, but Yuan Zhanpeng had insisted on carrying him back.
He wrapped both arms around Yuan Zhanpeng's neck, buried his face against it, then lifted his mouth and gently nipped Yuan Zhanpeng's earlobe as a reward.
He breathed softly into Yuan Zhanpeng's ear:
"Thank you, Peng~ Love you~"
Yuan Zhanpeng immediately shuddered and nearly fell.
[? What happened?]
[I told you Yangyang was a seductive bottom!]
[Yuan Zhanpeng, look how red your face is! Is the agency really not going to do anything? Hahaha, it's an office romance!]
"So this is all you brought back?"
The director looked at the meager offerings the guests had brought, his face saying, "You're the worst batch of guests I've ever worked with."
Chu Xinghui and Pei Hanmo had brought two winter melons. Man Feiluan's group had brought one carrot; because of the twisted ankle, they had felt too embarrassed to take the elderly farmer's food. Hua Zhiyuan and her partner had brought three heads of napa cabbage. The best haul had actually come from Wen Liangtian's group: one afternoon of fishing had netted them one fish, two pieces of clothing, and three pairs of shoes.
Well, anglers never came home empty-handed.
They sat at the table, despair written all over their faces.
"Fine, fine." The director waved a hand, deciding to be a merciful god:
"Just make one dish. I'll provide the rest."
The six looked at one another, unsure who would cook.
"I'll do it."
Chu Xinghui raised his hand and picked up the bucket Wen Liangtian had set on the ground:
"I can make fish soup. Could you provide some dried shrimp?"
Looking ready to weep with joy, the director ran over to Chu Xinghui and shook his hand gratefully, then had the assistant in town buy food.
"You can cook?"
Beside Chu Xinghui, Wen Liangtian said quietly:
"How come I didn't know you could cook?"
Everyone at the agency had only ever said Chu Xinghui was a lazy, good-for-nothing piece of trash who liked to ride on other people's popularity.
The corner of Chu Xinghui's eye twitched. Did Wen Liangtian have some misunderstanding about his ability to take care of himself?
"He doesn't have to report everything he can do to you, does he?"
Pei Hanmo walked over to Chu Xinghui carrying two vegetables, took the bucket from him, and addressed Wen Liangtian.
Wen Liangtian turned away and rolled his eyes hard.
In just a few hours, he had seen Pei Hanmo for who he was.
It turned out he was not oblivious to romance. He simply only understood it when Chu Xinghui was involved.
Damn it, he was a total lovesick fool!
The kitchen prepared by the director was rather cramped, with just enough room for two people to stand, but that left Chu Xinghui unable to reach the seasonings.
Pei Hanmo stood beside him, watching him clean the fish and helping clear away the scraps.
The cameraman was squeezed into the doorway, pitifully poking his camera inside so the livestream viewers could see what the two were doing.
"Light..."
Chu Xinghui looked down at the fish he was preparing and reached for the light soy sauce. Before he could finish speaking, it was already in his hand.
Holding the bottle of light soy sauce, he glanced at Pei Hanmo without speaking and continued cooking.
"Dark..."
The dark soy sauce was placed in his hand.
"Gar..."
Chopped garlic was set in front of him.
By the end, Pei Hanmo knew what Chu Xinghui wanted whenever he held out his hand and obediently placed it in his palm.
Now even the shippers in the live comments were a little scared.
[This looks familiar... I'm not saying it.]
[Nobody's saying it, huh? Then neither am I.]
[Me neither...]
[Out of the way! I'll say it! Leopard and Kitty, am I getting little brothers and sisters?!!!]
[You two, don't give birth in the kitchen.]
[Wait, there are only so many steps to preparing fish. How does that make you think these two are dating?]
[Exactly. All this "I'm not saying it~ You're not saying it~" [Deng Chao mocking.jpg]]
Before you continue