Isn’t money good?

Chapter 12

Two hours later, the plane landed in Yuncheng.

The production crew’s car was already there to pick them up. Yan Shiqiu, taking advantage of the fact that no one recognized him, stingily saved money by skipping the VIP passage and walked out through the regular exit with great swagger.

Tu Ya didn’t have it so easy. She had already gained some fame, and this trip had been exposed. Just as the plane took off, fans had organized to meet her at the airport.

They found the production crew’s car one after the other. Yan Shiqiu was about to get in when he saw Tu Ya approaching, so he stepped back to let her go first.

As before, Tu Ya didn’t even spare him a glance.

After getting in the car, Yan Shiqiu spoke up: “This won’t work. We need to talk.”

He said seriously, “You can’t blatantly hang the words ‘I hate you’ on your face. Although this journey isn’t being filmed for the show, you’re getting popular now, you have fans, and entertainment reporters will follow you. You’ll be giving them headlines.”

Tu Ya crossed her arms and finally turned to look at him, saying expressionlessly, “I don’t care.”

“Personally speaking, I actually don’t care about that either.”

“Then let’s just—”

“But.” Yan Shiqiu interrupted her, changing his tone, “we’ll cause trouble for the production crew and for our companies. Entertainment reporters aren’t factual news reporters. They make things up based on speculation.”

Tu Ya opened her mouth but couldn’t find words to refute him.

Yan Shiqiu continued, “I apologize for what I did before. I’m sorry. You don’t have to force yourself to forgive me—you can still hate me. Just restrain yourself a little during these two days and one night.”

Probably not expecting him to actually apologize, Tu Ya was stunned and stared at him steadily.

He looked back at her calmly.

“Mm.”

A cold, single word. After responding, Tu Ya stopped looking at him, turned her head away, and closed her eyes.

Yan Shiqiu knew she understood.

The filming location wasn’t close to the airport. The car drove for nearly two hours before finally turning into the village. Soon after, it stopped at a fork in the road. Cars couldn’t go further, so they had to walk. Yan Shiqiu and Tu Ya got out one after the other.

Tu Ya was carrying her guitar and had a large suitcase. Yan Shiqiu offered, “Should I help you with that?”

Tu Ya had indeed listened to his earlier words, and her attitude had softened considerably, leaving only distance and unfamiliarity. “No need.”

Hearing this, Yan Shiqiu withdrew his hand and didn’t insist. He slowed his pace to match Tu Ya’s speed, staying neither too close nor too far from her.

At the end of this path was a standalone two-story house rented by the production crew, surrounded by flowers. From a distance, it looked as beautiful as a painting, like a paradise on earth.

When they reached the entrance, the director team’s person in charge came over to greet them. “Tu Ya, Yan Shiqiu, hello. I’m the chief director, Chen Feng.”

The two politely shook hands with him.

Chen Feng then mentioned some precautions before letting them go in.

Pushing open the door, the first thing that came into view was a large courtyard. Above the steps was a half-open door with sounds of conversation coming from inside.

After exchanging a glance with Tu Ya, Yan Shiqiu pushed open the door. The previous conversation paused, followed by hearty laughter and an extremely welcoming voice: “Our new lab— guests are here!”

Yan Shiqiu: “…”

You were about to say laborers, weren’t you?

Yan Shiqiu had watched all three episodes that had already aired and had also read the materials. He recognized everyone in the room.

The person greeting them was Lu Ze, a theater actor who had also ventured into the entertainment industry in recent years. He kept a low profile and had excellent acting skills. Several of his representative works had good ratings, and the characters he portrayed left lasting impressions.

In this show, he was mainly responsible for being the chef. Although his cooking skills weren’t great, at least he wouldn’t burn down the kitchen.

“Nice to meet you, Teacher Lu. Hello, everyone.” Yan Shiqiu smiled.

“Hello there.” Lu Ze was very easygoing. He then looked at the cool Tu Ya beside him. “You’re Tu Ya, right? Hello to you too.”

“Hello, everyone.” Tu Ya greeted them.

“Let me introduce everyone to you.” Lu Ze acted as the intermediary, smiling as he introduced each person. “This is our precious little brother Xia Linqiu, caring sister Lin Xue, group pet little sister Su Yunmu, scatterbrain Wu Shan, grumpy Zhang Xiaowen, and I’m the head chef.”

“So what are these two?” Wu Shan picked up the running joke.

Wu Shan had debuted through a talent show and starred in two sweet romantic dramas. He was a popular traffic star with a cute appearance and a dimple at the corner of his mouth when he smiled, making him quite likeable.

Although he was a traffic star, he would step up to restrain his fans, so he had good public favor.

“How about: the visual Yan Shiqiu and the coolest girl Tu Ya?” Su Yunmu raised her hand high and said enthusiastically.

Su Yunmu had also debuted through a talent show and had maintained a sweet, innocent little angel image ever since. However, her agency loved to promote her “beloved by all” persona, releasing press releases about almost every male artist she had worked with “liking her and appreciating her.” Fang Yuhua had specifically warned him to stay away from her.

Yan Shiqiu modestly declined, “No, no. Let me compete with Teacher Lu for the head chef position instead. I’m quite confident in my cooking skills.”

“You can cook?!”

Everyone’s faces lit up with anticipation upon hearing this.

Yan Shiqiu nodded, “Yes, and I brought a lot of good stuff too.”

As he spoke, he crouched down to open his suitcase and actually pulled out more than a dozen salted duck eggs, several packages of Jinhua ham slices, a jar of chili sauce, two pounds of beef, various seasonings, and finally even produced a breakfast maker and a bag of bread slices.

Everyone watched in amazement, even Tu Ya glanced over.

“Are you the legendary Santa Claus?” Wu Shan immediately rushed over, grabbed Yan Shiqiu’s hand, his eyes sparkling.

Yan Shiqiu lifted his chin slightly, “Come on, call me daddy.”

Wu Shan made an “mm” sound, “You’ll have to turn those ingredients into food first. Really, delicious food.”

Yan Shiqiu smiled confidently, “Deal.”

“Wu Shan, Yunmu, take them both to their rooms to put their things down. We need to get to work, or we won’t complete our tasks and will have to go hungry today.”

Lin Xue brought the flow back on track, put on her sun hat, and prepared to go out.

Like Lu Ze, Lin Xue came from a theater background, but she had entered the entertainment industry earlier than Lu Ze. She had debuted seven years ago and acted in many productions, but had always lacked that bit of luck to become a big hit. However, she had a good mindset and truly loved acting. She was low-key and zen-like, with good public favor.

Lu Ze said, “Right, let’s get ready and head out.”

Xia Linqiu and Zhang Xiaowen, who hadn’t spoken much, stood up as soon as he finished speaking, consciously put on their sun hats and waders, preparing to go into the water to catch fish.

Seeing them ready to go, Yan Shiqiu asked, “What are we going to do?”

Lu Ze thought for a moment and assigned tasks, “Shiqiu, you’ll dig sweet potatoes, then cook them into pig feed to feed the pigs, and also feed the geese.”

Heaven wants to destroy him!

“Can I apply for a different job?” Yan Shiqiu said with a bitter expression.

“No way.” Wu Shan grinned, “This is our hospitality tradition, especially feeding the big geese. They’ll give you a warm welcome.”

Yan Shiqiu: “…”

Don’t think I can’t tell you’re gloating!

“Tu Ya, you can pick flowers with Yunmu.” Lin Xue said, then added a reminder, “it’s sunny in the flower field with mosquitoes and bugs. Remember sun protection and bug protection.”

Tu Ya nodded, “Okay.”

There weren’t many rooms, so they had to share two people per room. Wu Shan led Yan Shiqiu to Xia Linqiu’s room, “You’ll stay with Linqiu.”

Yan Shiqiu had no objection to staying anywhere.

“Mm.”

After putting away his luggage and coming out, he happened to run into Tu Ya and the others. Tu Ya had changed from short sleeves to long sleeves and from shorts to long pants. She glanced at Yan Shiqiu, then turned to Wu Shan and nodded at him.

Yan Shiqiu sighed inwardly.

What exactly had the original owner done to Tu Ya?

The sun was very strong outside. Without a hat, it was so bright you could barely keep your eyes open. However, the environment and scenery were really beautiful—high sky and broad clouds, fresh air. As Yan Shiqiu walked and looked around, he felt all his troubles being left far behind, and his heart calmed down.

At the sweet potato field, Wu Shan chattered in Yan Shiqiu’s ear, telling him how to distinguish which sweet potatoes were ripe and which weren’t. However, before he finished speaking, Yan Shiqiu had already quickly and skillfully started digging, pulling out a sweet potato in just a few moves without breaking the skin at all.

“…Have you dug them before?” Wu Shan was surprised.

Yan Shiqiu shook his head, “I just read a few books before coming.”

“There are books about how to dig sweet potatoes?” Wu Shan was shocked.

“Of course there are. Agricultural colleges have specialized sweet potato cultivation tutorials and books.” Yan Shiqiu counted on his fingers. “I also read ‘Pig Feeding and Technical Management,’ ‘Postpartum Care for Sows,’ ‘Encyclopedia of Agricultural Plants,’ and such.”

Wu Shan was bewildered: “Wait, why did you read ‘Postpartum Care for Sows’?”

“I bought it to make up the order total. 120 yuan minus 50, and I was 10 yuan short. Since I bought it anyway, I figured I’d read it. It might come in handy.”

“You’re a genius.” Wu Shan gave him a thumbs up with a head full of black lines.

“Not really, it’s just reading.” Yan Shiqiu enthusiastically recommended, “Do you want it? I can give you the purchase link. There’s still a promotion going on, 120 minus 50, 200 minus 100, very cost-effective.”

Wu Shan’s mouth twitched: “…No, no thanks.”

After digging enough sweet potatoes for two pigs to eat, they returned the same way.

Wu Shan skillfully set up a large pot in the courtyard and lit a fire. Yan Shiqiu crouched beside him, holding a knife to cut the cleaned sweet potatoes and throwing them into the large pot, cooking a whole bucket of pig feed.

Feeding the pigs was simple. The two pigs were still half-grown piglets, and so not only not fierce, but actually quite cute and silly. When Yan Shiqiu teased them through the fence, they would affectionately nuzzle his hand with their snouts.

Wu Shan looked at him with some admiration, “Aren’t you afraid?”

“Why should I be afraid? Pigs are so cute, and they taste so good.” Yan Shiqiu ladled a big spoon of pig feed into the trough, the corners of his mouth curving up. “Eat more, then grow up and get fat quickly.”

Wu Shan: “…”

After feeding the pigs, all that was left was feeding the geese.

There was a flock of geese, more than ten of them, all very large and looking extremely fierce.

Yan Shiqiu stood two meters away from them, holding corn and unwilling to move.

Wu Shan stayed even farther away, giving him moral support: “Yan Shiqiu, go for it! Don’t be a coward! The more you cower, the more arrogant they get!”

“Then why don’t you come!”

“Because I’m scared.” He said matter-of-factly. “They chased me around in the first episode. We were enemies in our past lives, so we don’t get along.”

Yan Shiqiu glared at him, “I’m scared too.”

“But you weren’t enemies with them in your past life, and you’ve read books!”

“I didn’t read ‘Goose Breeding’!”

“You read ‘Pig Feeding and Technical Management’, so round it up and that’s the same as reading ‘Goose Breeding.’”

Can you round it up like that?!

Yan Shiqiu was speechless.

He took a deep breath and tiptoed forward in small steps. Finally, he got close without disturbing the flock of big geese.

Just then, Su Yunmu’s voice came from behind: “Are you done feeding them!”

At the same time, a small dog also came running in, barking.

The flock of geese was startled and scattered everywhere. One goose flapped its wings and charged straight toward where Yan Shiqiu was standing. Yan Shiqiu didn’t react in time and froze in place.

The next second, the goose crashed into his arms.