The three guests returned from grocery shopping and went into the kitchen to cook together.
Cooking was actually an important part of a dating show.
But the previous episode hadn't properly explored that aspect.
Having failed to market her beauty, Fang Nuonuo planned to market her cooking skills instead.
The people of Hua Country had support for cooks written into their very bones.
As long as the food tasted good, any past dirt could be washed clean.
Besides, she didn't have any major dirt on her. She just hadn't blown up in popularity.
She took out the washed vegetables and began cutting them elegantly.
Beside her, Lin Xi also intended to help. He was going to make seaweed and egg soup.
When he cracked the eggs into it...
The first one was a bad egg.
He cracked another. Another bad egg.
Lin Xi asked in confusion, "Why isn't a single egg I lay any good?"
The gorgeous female cockroach came over and replied quietly, "Why don't you try eggs laid by a chicken instead?"
Lin Xi fell silent for a few seconds before catching on. "...Wait, what?"
[Thank goodness, a biologist! You're all saved!]
[Teacher Su makes me laugh my way to promotions and riches every day...]
[I rewound it three times and still can't see what's wrong?]
Fang Nuonuo's face darkened again when she saw Su Mian come over.
No. The kitchen segment had to be her moment to shine. She couldn't let Su Mian piggyback on it!
Fang Nuonuo looked up and smiled at the two of them. "Why don't you head outside first? I can handle this alone."
Su Mian nodded and actually left.
That viral post had only covered the original host's first episode.
The first episode had also included a cooking segment.
The original host had been far too much of a people pleaser. She had thought, Everyone else is working. How embarrassing would it be if I did nothing? Will everyone think all I do is wait to eat?
So she had insisted on helping cook.
But unexpectedly, that very night, the trending searches had exploded, and the whole internet had cursed the original host.
Because everyone had gotten food poisoning from eating the green beans she had cooked.
"Showing off when she can't even cook," "Su Mian is putting all the guests through an obedience test," "If Su Mian were even half as good as Goddess Fang, she wouldn't be unable to find a husband"...
The original host had been overwhelmed with guilt.
Meanwhile, Fang Nuonuo had comforted the other guests, displaying her gentleness and understanding to the fullest.
But in fact, the original host had been an excellent cook.
That scumbag Lu Zhou had often used PUA tactics on the original host over her career, but even he had never stopped praising her cooking.
How could an experienced cook possibly fail to tell whether 4G beans were cooked?
So Su Mian had always suspected that Fang Nuonuo had made that dish of 4G beans.
Then, through the almighty editing arranged by Lu Zhou, the blame had been pinned on the original host.
Because Fang Nuonuo had also entered the kitchen and made several dishes, but that had been glossed over.
That incident hadn't happened in the previous episode, so Su Mian had had no way to investigate.
Now, she glanced at the 4G beans in Fang Nuonuo's hands.
She wouldn't have a hand in any of tonight's cooking.
Would anyone still get 4G bean poisoning?
Su Mian walked out of the kitchen, and Sister Xiaohong suddenly beckoned to her.
Su Mian walked over, and Sister Xiaohong slipped a note into her hand. "Timed mission."
Su Mian made an "OK" gesture, then opened the note and read it.
It turned out she had to act out a scene from a fairy tale within an hour, and the scene had to last ten minutes.
So a simple fairy-tale scene like asking a mirror, "Magic mirror, magic mirror, who's the fairest of them all?" wouldn't work. It wouldn't last ten minutes.
The first guest to finish this mission would get first pick of tonight's rooms.
Su Mian put away the note and looked around.
She searched for a lucky person who could cooperate with her to complete the mission.
Found him!
It was Lin Xi, who had been driven out of the kitchen!
Lin Xi was sitting on the sofa with a computer, handling work, fully displaying the spirit of a domineering CEO.
Su Mian walked over and turned down the air-conditioning temperature.
[Is Su Mian going for "The Snow Queen"?]
[Turning down the temperature makes her Elsa? That's too much of a stretch. I object!]
Lin Xi suddenly sneezed.
Su Mian immediately handed him a blanket, her eyes full of warmth and friendliness. "Here."
[Su Mian really knows how to change faces. Last episode, she barely gave Lin Xi the time of day. This episode, she finds out he's a domineering CEO and starts sucking up to him!]
Lin Xi thought so too.
Heh. This materialistic gold digger.
His lips curled into a wickedly charming smile.
Though he wouldn't give this gold digger a chance.
He still wanted to see just what tricks this little woman would pull.
So he didn't refuse and accepted the blanket.
Su Mian suddenly got up and left.
A little while later, she came downstairs carrying over a dozen blankets and quilts!
She piled them all on Lin Xi!
Lin Xi struggled. "There's no need. One blanket is enough."
Su Mian said, "It's nowhere near enough! I know you're cold!"
Lin Xi got angry and tried to kick the quilts off.
In the blink of an eye, Su Mian leaped onto the top of the quilts and weighed them down!
Lin Xi was pressed flat against the sofa beneath a thick pile of over a dozen blankets and quilts, with Su Mian lying at the very top...
The moment this scene appeared, the viewers all figured it out!
[Now it's not a stretch. "The Princess and the Pea." Su Mian is cosplaying the princess, and Lin Xi is cosplaying the pea.]
[I knew Teacher Su couldn't possibly be that considerate toward a man...]
[Count your blessings, CEO Lin. Without Teacher Su, could you have completed the mission so easily?]
When Lin Xi's face turned ashen and he looked about to suffocate under the weight, Sister Xiaohong hurried out to stop her.
She told her ten minutes were already up, and there was no need to keep tormenting the male guest...
An hour later.
The host announced how the guests had done on their timed missions.
"The first guest to complete the mission was Su Mian, so Su Mian gets first pick of the rooms."
Su Mian said, "I want the biggest, most comfortable room on the top floor!"
Having only just caught his breath, Lin Xi raised his hand. "Then I want the room next to Su Mian's! Even though I completed the mission passively, that still counts as finishing at the same time as Su Mian, right?"
The host didn't quibble.
"The third guest to complete the mission was Duan Xuanyu."
The viewers had all witnessed this one firsthand.
After receiving the mission, Duan Xuanyu had gone online to look up what a fairy tale was.
Then he had used his scallop shell to clamp down on the director's head.
He had kept it clamped there for ten minutes.
The director had struggled for ages before finally breaking free and asking what he was doing.
He had said, "'The Snipe and the Clam.'"
The director had initially thought "The Snipe and the Clam" was a fable, not a fairy tale.
But he couldn't withstand the viewers doting on him:
[The definition of a fairy tale: children's literature, stories suitable for children written through rich imagination, fantasy, and exaggeration. How does "The Snipe and the Clam" not qualify?]
[It's perfectly normal for Tyrant Bro not to have read foreign fairy tales! Does he have to cosplay something from Didini for it to count?]
So his mission had been counted as complete too.
The fourth to finish had been Cheng Qin.
After receiving the mission, she had gone around praising how handsome Duan Xuanyu looked in his new suit.
Everyone had found it strange.
Duan Xuanyu was clearly still hiding inside his scallop shell.
He hadn't changed into a suit at all.
Only when the ten minutes were up had Cheng Qin told everyone she was playing a minister heaping praise in "The Emperor's New Clothes."
[Can't flame this one-he's an actual emperor.]
[Teacher Cheng has been possessed by the evil fleece and turned absurd too.]
Gu Yichen had given up because he couldn't think of any fairy tales.
As for Fang Nuonuo, she had been busy cooking and had voluntarily given up too.
The two of them picked the two worst rooms on the first floor.
[When I think about Su Mian snatching the biggest, most comfortable room while Goddess Nuonuo doesn't fight or compete and keeps cooking for the guests, it's instantly clear who's better!]
[No moral blackmailing Teacher Su! Teacher Su paid, after all. But you can go curse out those two male guests. They contributed neither money nor effort.]
[Those two male guests are catching stray bullets too, okay? Fang Nuonuo was the one who offered to let them go sit outside.]
Amid the viewers' flame war, the food finally came out of the kitchen.