Isn’t money good?

Chapter 14

Yan Shiqiu had almost forgotten that the matter between Ye Peiyuan and the original owner hadn’t been resolved yet, so nominally, Ye Peiyuan was still his boyfriend.

This made him very! Very! Un! Happy!

Perhaps because he hadn’t replied for so long, Ye Peiyuan called him. Yan Shiqiu turned away from the camera, pursed his lips in disgust, and hung up without thinking.

A few seconds later, Ye Peiyuan sent another WeChat message.

[Ye Peiyuan]: Why didn’t you answer the phone?

Because I hate you, Yan Shiqiu said in his heart.

But his reply was still dutifully playing the role: [I’m filming a show.]

[Ye Peiyuan]: Didn’t you already terminate your contract?

[Yan Shiqiu]: I thought about it, and I still love this job. I don’t want to terminate it.

[Ye Peiyuan]: The Ye family won’t accept a lowly actor who shows his face in public. I remember we already discussed this matter.

Yan Shiqiu’s fists clenched. He wanted to put the guy in a sack and beat him up.

Using “him”, yet worried about him gaining any say in matters, wanting to cut off “his” path. What a bastard!

[Ye Peiyuan]: Let’s put this matter aside for now. There’s a banquet in three days. Find a way to slip some drugs into Ji Yunnian’s drink, then take him to a room. I’ve already arranged for people. They’ll just help take a few “bed photos” of him.

Yan Shiqiu: “…”

Sure enough, it was a typical cannon fodder mission.

Without refusing, Yan Shiqiu agreed, then immediately took a screenshot of their chat to send to Ji Yunnian, only to remember he had already blocked him.

And when he blocked him, he had also deleted his phone number.

Oh right!

Thinking of something, Yan Shiqiu’s eyes lit up.

He quickly scrolled to Wen Chen’s WeChat and sent him a message, asking him to help organize a dinner tomorrow night and invite Ji Yunnian.

Wen Chen quickly replied.

[Wen Chen]: You want to treat Yunnian to dinner?

[Yan Shiqiu]: Last time he took me to the hospital, I haven’t thanked him yet. We’re not very familiar, so I’m asking you to help, cousin.

[Wen Chen]: That works. I happen to have something to discuss with him.

[Yan Shiqiu]: Thank you, cousin.

After he told Ji Yunnian about this matter, he would successfully retreat and let Ji Yunnian and Wen Chen have dinner together to cultivate their relationship. This way, Ji Yunnian wouldn’t think he was deliberately making excuses to get close to him, right?

Yan Shiqiu smiled and gave himself a mental thumbs up for his cleverness.

Just then, the door was pushed open. Xia Linqiu tiptoed in, walking lightly. Seeing that Yan Shiqiu wasn’t napping, he resumed normal walking.

“I’m studying.” He said.

Xia Linqiu was young and still in school, currently in his second year of high school. He had to return to school in July for final exams, so he spent all his free time studying.

Yan Shiqiu nodded and put his phone on silent mode. “I won’t disturb you.”

After that, neither of them spoke.

Yan Shiqiu lay in bed trying to fall asleep, but discovered that Ye Peiyuan’s WeChat message had completely energized him. He opened his eyes, rolled over irritably, and mentally cursed Ye Peiyuan with eight hundred words of profanity.

Unable to sleep anyway, he suddenly sat up in bed, planning to go out for some water.

After putting on his shoes and taking just a few steps, he heard regular “bang bang bang” sounds. Following the noise, he turned to see Xia Linqiu looking utterly dejected, banging his head against the desk.

Yan Shiqiu: ???

He walked over. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s so hard.” Xia Linqiu stared blankly ahead, looking dispirited. “I can’t solve it.”

Yan Shiqiu immediately understood.

High school coursework was already intense, and once you missed classes, it was easy to fall behind. As an entertainer, Xia Linqiu often missed several days or even dozens of days of classes at a time. Even with the best tutors for makeup sessions, it was extremely difficult to keep up.

“Which problem can’t you solve?” Yan Shiqiu asked.

Xia Linqiu looked at him questioningly. “You know how to do it?”

Yan Shiqiu sat down at the foot of the bed. Considering the original owner’s grades, he didn’t make any promises. After all, there were cameras in the room. “Maybe I can.”

Xia Linqiu was very doubtful, but he couldn’t continue working at all right now. Having Yan Shiqiu take a look wouldn’t hurt anything, so he handed over the test paper.

“Oh, it’s a trigonometry problem. Let me take a look first.” Yan Shiqiu pretended to think.

He then asked, “Do you have scratch paper?”

“Yes.” Xia Linqiu gave him a sheet of A4 paper.

Yan Shiqiu took the pen and first did some incorrect calculations on the paper, then crossed them out and started a new line, deliberately dragging out the time before finally writing out the correct steps.

“Done.” He returned the scratch paper and test paper to Xia Linqiu.

Xia Linqiu immediately took them to check the answer. After a few seconds, he turned back, beaming with excitement: “It’s correct! Please explain the approach to me.”

After a pause, he added earnestly, “You’re amazing. It’s been so long since you graduated high school, yet you still remember these concepts.”

Yan Shiqiu smiled without saying anything and began explaining the problem-solving approach. He then extended from the relevant concepts to summarize methods for solving similar types of problems.

After listening, Xia Linqiu looked at him with admiring, star-struck eyes.

At 3:30 PM, when it wasn’t so hot anymore, the production team began assigning new tasks.

This time, the task was to make dinner for the elderly living alone in the village and then help them clean.

After hearing Director Chen Feng’s words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness it’s not land reclamation.”

“No sheep herding!”

“No carrying manure!”

…

The eight people gathered together, and Lin Xue asked, “How many households of elderly living alone are there in the village?”

Lu Ze looked at the card given by the production team. “Six households.”

“That many?” Xia Linqiu frowned. “There are only eight of us total.”

“Shiqiu and Teacher Lu definitely have to cook.” Wu Shan thought for a moment and said. “The six of us happen to be three men and three women, so we can pair up. Two people per group, each responsible for two households. This way, if there’s anywhere we need to lend a hand, it’ll be more convenient.”

“I agree.” Lin Xue nodded.

The others had no objections either.

“Then let’s get moving.” Lu Ze clapped his hands.

Cooking for fourteen people was no light task. It was a big project. Moreover, some of them were elderly, who didn’t have the same bite strength as young people and preferred lighter flavors, so nothing could be too heavily seasoned.

Yan Shiqiu pulled Lu Ze aside to discuss the menu. After whispering together for about ten minutes, they finally decided to make dumplings directly, with several different fillings to accommodate everyone’s tastes.

Making the filling entirely by hand would be too time-consuming, so Yan Shiqiu once again relied on his incredibly useful goose bodyguard and his silver tongue to successfully borrow a juicer.

Seeing it firsthand was much more shocking than hearing about it secondhand. Lu Ze watched the goose’s affectionate behavior toward Yan Shiqiu, studying it intently for a long time but still couldn’t understand why. He asked curiously, “Why is it so attached to you?”

Yan Shiqiu smiled. “I don’t know why either.”

Lu Ze felt very regretful. “It’s a pity you’re leaving tomorrow, otherwise we could use it to bargain with Director Chen for more things.”

They quickly arrived at the kitchen arranged by the production team.

The kitchen was large, with standard restaurant back-kitchen stove configurations. The heat was very strong, and all the pots, pans, and seasonings were readily available. They could start cooking immediately.

Yan Shiqiu rolled up his shirt sleeves, put on an apron, and asked, “Teacher Lu, do you know how to roll dumpling wrappers?”

Lu Ze shook his head. “I actually only know how to wrap them. When my family makes dumplings, we buy the wrappers ready-made.”

“Then you prepare the fillings, and I’ll roll the wrappers.”

“Okay.”

For fourteen people eating dumplings, they needed at least four hundred. After mentally calculating the amounts of flour and water needed, Yan Shiqiu began mixing the dough.

“I wanted to ask you at lunch. Do you cook at home often?” Lu Ze suddenly spoke up, asking curiously.

“Mm, because it saves money.”

In his previous life, when his family had their accident, he was just a senior in university.

After that, his parents passed away one after another. After handling their funeral arrangements, he had only about one thousand yuan left in his pocket.

From that time on, he learned to cook for himself. At first, the food was either too salty or too bland, barely edible, but the more he cooked, the more skilled he became.

Gradually, his cooking improved.

Later, after graduating from university, he threw himself into the entertainment industry to quickly earn enough money to buy back the house and paintings. He was so busy his feet barely touched the ground, with pitifully little free time, so he never cooked for himself again.

Now, having been reborn and finding himself in a book, he was once again dirt poor, so he had to pick up his culinary skills again and cook for himself.

“That’s true.” Lu Ze’s acting fees weren’t high. He was married with twin children, had many places where money was needed, and also lived frugally.

Chatting while working, the two divided the labor and quickly finished preparing the fillings and dumpling wrappers.

“You handle the seasoning. Your cooking skills are better.” Lu Ze wiped his sweat and said to Yan Shiqiu.

Yan Shiqiu nodded. “Alright.”

After seasoning all the fillings, they began wrapping dumplings. Yan Shiqiu’s movements were very fast, and each dumpling he made was beautiful and delicate. With some packaging, they could be sold directly. Lu Ze was slower, but his dumplings also looked decent.

At 6:30 PM, all four hundred dumplings were wrapped and neatly arranged by category on the cutting boards, very satisfying for anyone with OCD.

At seven o’clock, five plates of dumplings with different flavors came out of the pot.

The steamed dumplings were relatively light, but considering that most of the people here were young, he also made an extra plate of pan-fried dumplings with golden-brown wrappers that looked very appetizing.

The elderly living alone in the village were all quite old, and walking at night wasn’t safe, so the production team didn’t gather them together to eat. Instead, they had Yan Shiqiu and Lu Ze portion out individual servings to deliver to them.

After delivering to two households, Yan Shiqiu was heading to the third when he happened to run into Tu Ya. She and Xia Linqiu had just finished cleaning and were heading back.

“You have some dust on your face.” Yan Shiqiu reminded her.

After hearing this, Tu Ya raised her hand to wipe her face and asked him, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to deliver dinner to Grandma Lin.”

“Oh.”

The two didn’t have much to talk about, so after a few more awkward exchanges, they went their separate ways.

After delivering to the last household of elderly living alone, Yan Shiqiu walked back under the cover of night.

Insects chirped and frogs croaked in the fields beside his ears, and looking up, he saw stars scattered across the entire sky. He thought tomorrow’s weather would surely be very good.

As he approached the small courtyard, Yan Shiqiu saw a familiar figure getting out of one of the production team’s cars. After recognizing who it was, he stopped in his tracks, dumbfounded.