By then, Xia Zhiyi had already lit the fire. It had gone smoothly, without anything going wrong.
Anyone else hearing Wang Chengran say that at a time like this might have felt, to some extent, that all their work had been for nothing. But this was Xia Zhiyi, so he calmly asked, "How much does it cost? Or is it points?"
Wang Chengran stopped, looking blank for a moment. "I haven't asked yet."
Xia Zhiyi: "..."
Without waiting for Xia Zhiyi to say anything else, Wang Chengran dashed back.
Standing at the back door, Fu Yunyi watched this unfold and chuckled. "Why is Wang Chengran so excitable?"
Xia Zhiyi glanced back at him. Fu Yunyi was tall and broad, blocking the doorway completely.
He thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "This is good too. He'll sleep soundly tonight."
Their rooms were very ordinary-at least to the locals. To people who had grown up in cities or rural areas elsewhere, they were a little novel, because the beds in their rooms were canopy beds.
They weren't the kind carved with all sorts of exquisite patterns that wealthy households had in ancient times, but the structure was similar. A cotton mattress padded the bed, with a bamboo mat laid over it. Sleeping on it was... pretty hard.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that there were no mosquito nets.
It was summer.
Living somewhere like this, even Xia Zhiyi wouldn't believe anyone who claimed there would be no mosquitoes in the rooms at night.
He didn't mind himself. Xia Zhiyi didn't attract mosquitoes. He wasn't sure whether he'd accidentally picked up a "100% immunity to insect bites" buff while transmigrating into some world, but he'd gotten used to it afterward anyway.
Wang Chengran, however, was an ordinary person. He would probably get bitten tonight.
So having him burn off some energy now and sleep more deeply tonight was a good thing too.
Tomorrow, Xia Zhiyi would look around the mountain out back to see whether he could make some mosquito-repelling herbal sachets or something. That should more or less take care of it.
Fu Yunyi knew nothing of what Xia Zhiyi was thinking and took his words at face value. "True. If he burns off more energy, even if he isn't used to being here yet, he'll be too tired to care."
Fu Yunyi said, "Looks like the production team's little shop isn't just meant to be our grocery market. They probably sell furniture, appliances, and things like that too. I'm planning to take a look. What about you?"
Xia Zhiyi thought for a moment. "I'll go take a look too."
No one needed to watch things here for now. They just needed to come back in a while to check the fire and adjust the firewood.
After watching the two exchange those words, forget all about her, and head toward the front together, Qin Yue felt very conflicted.
She looked around the now-empty room and listened to the occasional crackle of burning wood. Silently glancing at the chopping block before her, she raised the axe again, rather helplessly. "In that case, I'll chop some more firewood before it gets dark."
That should earn her a few points with the viewers, shouldn't it?
In fact, many viewers had already flocked to the little shop to watch the excitement.
It was called a little shop, and it didn't look as though it could hold much. Once they actually went inside, they discovered that-it really couldn't.
So there was a single shelf inside the shop, covered entirely with cards bearing various pictures, with prices printed on the backs. Earlier, Xue Ranran and Wang Chengran had been drawn to these strange cards and immediately spotted the gas stove.
When Xia Zhiyi and Fu Yunyi arrived, Wang Chengran was just about to bring a card over to find them. Seeing the two, he hurriedly said, "Teacher Xia, Brother Fu, this gas stove isn't expensive. We can rent it for one point a day, or buy it for ten."
Before Xia Zhiyi could speak, Fu Yunyi couldn't help saying, "I remember you're a year older than me, aren't you? Don't call me Brother Fu. Just use my name."
Otherwise, it felt weird.
Wang Chengran beamed. "Sure, Fu Yunyi."
Fu Yunyi asked, "When you say it isn't expensive, do you mean one point a day for the gas stove, or ten points?"
Xue Ranran poked her head out from behind him. "He's getting carried away. He thinks Teacher Xia has plenty of points, enough to buy a gas stove."
Xia Zhiyi took the card from Wang Chengran and examined it closely. After a brief silence, he said, "The production team has set a trap."
Wang Chengran: "Huh?"
Fu Yunyi took it and looked too, puzzled. "Where?"
Seeing that neither of them seemed to have caught on, Xia Zhiyi turned to Xue Ranran. "Did you notice?"
Xue Ranran tilted her head. "Huh? I just looked at it. Isn't it just a gas stove? Would the production team give us a broken one?"
Director Gong, who could hear every word from a short distance away, hurriedly clarified, "All the merchandise in the shop is brand-new! Any secondhand items will be labeled!"
Xia Zhiyi waved a hand, signaling Director Gong not to get worked up yet, then looked seriously at the three before him. "The card only says gas stove. Nothing else is included, not even a gas cylinder."
The three: "..."
At that moment, identical looks of realization appeared on all three faces. "Oh, right!"
Even the cleverest cook couldn't make a meal without rice. A gas stove was useless without fuel!
Wang Chengran turned and ran back. "Then the production team must have gas cylinders ready. Let me see how much one costs."
Xue Ranran turned back to search too.
Fu Yunyi said, "...I was so busy wondering how those two could say a gas stove wasn't expensive when they both have negative points that I really didn't notice the production team had set a trap here too."
Xia Zhiyi said, "We could already tell how they operated from the way they rented out those vehicles earlier."
Bicycles aside, the production team didn't cover fuel for things that needed it, like the electric tricycles.
Just then, Xue Ranran nearly blurted out a curse, only to force it back when she caught sight of the camera out of the corner of her eye. "Oh... my god, production team, you really know how to do business!"
Wang Chengran asked, "What? What is it?"
Xue Ranran said, "Gas cylinders cost five points each, but there's a ten-point deposit because the cylinder itself is expensive."
Wang Chengran: "What the-"
Xue Ranran: "Hold it in."
Wang Chengran: "..."
He silently mouthed the second word.
Xia Zhiyi said, "That's normal enough. In everyday life, you have to pay this deposit when buying gas cylinders too. The supplier rents you the cylinder. You're only buying the gas."
Xue Ranran: "It's so expensive!"
Wang Chengran: "It's so expensive!"
Zhou Kai: "What are you doing?"
Zhou Kai's sudden appearance startled the two, who had been about to curse the production team together for being so greedy.
Xia Zhiyi glanced at Zhou Kai without speaking.
Fu Yunyi reacted a little faster. "Oh, we got so excited we forgot you were resting. Did we disturb you, Zhou Kai?"
Zhou Kai: ...
Actually, even if they hadn't been making a racket here, Zhou Kai couldn't have stayed in his room.
The reason was very simple-there were mosquitoes in the room.
Although it wasn't dark outside yet and Xia Zhiyi and the others hadn't been bothered by mosquitoes so far, Zhou Kai, who had gone the whole hog with his act and lain down on the bed for a while, had quickly experienced just how annoying country mosquitoes could be.
Zhou Kai said, "If you're shopping, why don't you buy some mosquito repellent first?"
The mosquitoes here were deadly.