After Entering a Romance Reality Show Disguised as a Man to Win Over All the Female Leads - Chapter 11

The viewers in the livestream room could not see Rong Yu’s movements, but they could see Rong Yu moving closer to He Huaiting.

They could not help clicking their tongues.

[Tsk, tsk, tsk. It’s starting. Rong Yu is flirting with girls again.]

[Baby Yu, do you still remember Little Sister Shuiqing by Daming Lake? very loud!!]

[Baby Yu, I’m your brain-dead fan. struggling, twisting, wriggling and crawling in a dark corner.]

When the three of them returned to Qinghe Mountain Villa, the first person to notice them was Zhang Yong’an, who was interacting with the audience in front of the camera.

Seeing the giant “octopus leg” in He Huaiting’s arms, Zhang Yong’an’s eyes widened in shock. He could not help coming closer and touching the tentacle.

“You all… just came back from catching seafood in the Pacific?”

He Huaiting’s answer was completely justified. “Picked it up by the river.”

Zhang Yong’an was speechless. “……”

Like hell I believe you.

Livestream viewers:

[Zhang Yong’an, it’s true. Believe me.]

[Hahahahaha, I wouldn’t believe it either, even though I saw it.]

[I seriously suspect He Huaiting used an illusion on me! No, Baby Yu used an illusion on me! Otherwise, how could I possibly see such a huge tentacle?!]

The livestream viewers began muttering and sighing.

Zhang Yong’an saw the comments on the main screen beside him, but did not ask any more questions. In any case, the cameraman was supervising them. As long as the guests did not violate the program team’s rules, they could find ingredients however they wanted.

In the distance, Seven and Mu Shuiqing were still washing aromatic vegetables. Beside them, scallions, ginger, and garlic that they had asked the program team for were spread all over the ground.

The man and woman were separated by a full four or five meters. There was no sign of cooperation between them at all. They might as well have had six large words stuck above their heads—

The well water does not offend the river water.

Seven rubbed the scallions, ginger, and garlic in his hands, his face full of endurance.

Mu Shuiqing beside him was far more serious than he was. She carefully peeled the skin off the ginger, then placed the peeled pieces in a basin and soaked them in salt water to disinfect them.

The two vaguely heard soft exclamations from the staff in the distance. Hearing the sound, they raised their heads and looked over. Rong Yu and He Huaiting were walking over quickly with the cameraman.

When Rong Yu saw Mu Shuiqing, she happily waved at her.

Mu Shuiqing immediately put down the piece of ginger in her hand and stood up. Her crimson eyes stared straight at Rong Yu, and the little paper figure in her clothes secretly poked its head out.

As for Seven beside her, he saw the still-twitching tentacle in He Huaiting’s arms at a glance.

His face instantly turned green, and his pupils widened in fear.

“Huh?!!”

He Huaiting walked closer with the tentacle in her arms. Before Seven could even stand up, he abruptly retreated. Pointing at the unknown monster limb in her arms, he spoke with trembling hands.

“W-what the hell is that thing?!”

He Huaiting lowered her head and glanced at the thing in her arms. Her answer was concise and direct.

“Edible.”

“……”

Seven’s face alternated between green and white. In the end, he said four words with a dark expression.

“I’m not eating that.”

He Huaiting had not the slightest reaction. “Oh.”

Seven: “……”

What kind of attitude was that?!

He was just about to speak when the tentacle in He Huaiting’s arms suddenly twitched violently twice, and then—

Smack.

It hit him in the face.

Seven: “…………”

Mu Shuiqing was so surprised her red lips parted slightly.

Rong Yu nearly laughed out loud.

The livestream viewers were even less restrained.

[Ahahahahaha, I’m dying.]

[Wasn’t Seven’s persona supposed to be pretty cute before? Why does he look like the landlord’s foolish son after joining a dating show?]

Seeing that Seven’s expression was becoming increasingly ugly and that the gaze he fixed on the tentacle was gradually turning vicious, Rong Yu quickly spoke up to prevent him from killing today’s ingredient.

“You worked hard washing vegetables. Leave the rest to me.”

Mu Shuiqing immediately followed, “I’ll help you.”

She picked up one of the wooden chopsticks provided by the program team, lifted her long hair, twisted it around the chopstick twice, then pinned it securely, neatly holding up her smooth black hair and revealing her slender, fair neck.

Originally, Mu Shuiqing gave people the feeling of a beautiful but wooden Chinese-style doll. Now, this hairstyle added a bit of mature elegance to her, making her seem much gentler and softer.

In the livestream room, countless face-con viewers began frantically licking the screen.

[Baby Yu, I’m sorry. I’m going to love Qingqing for a while first.]

[Little sister, I can!!]

[How can Little Sister Shuiqing use the program team’s chopsticks? Isn’t that using public property for private purposes? I advise you to come to my house immediately. You can use my chopsticks however you want, and you can use me however you want too.]

[Person above, your abacus hit my face!]

Rong Yu could not help freezing as she watched too.

Sometimes, when she and Lian Langsheng were eating and playing board games at home, if Lian Langsheng did not have a hair tie, she would directly use chopsticks to pin up her hair. When other people used hairpins, they liked to wrap their hair around the pin to secure it. But Lian Langsheng was different. She always used the pin to lift her long hair, twisted it twice, then secured it from bottom to top.

From childhood to adulthood, Rong Yu had only ever seen Lian Langsheng use a hairpin this way.

And now, Mu Shuiqing had used the same method.

Rong Yu suppressed the thoughts in her heart and led Mu Shuiqing and the others into Qinghe Mountain Villa, which was providing kitchens for the program team.

When the staff in the courtyard saw the buckets of seafood in Rong Yu’s hands and the giant octopus tentacle in He Huaiting’s arms, they immediately led them to the kitchen assigned to them by the program team.

To prevent the flavors of the dishes prepared by the guests from affecting one another, each group’s kitchen was a separate single room. Since Rong Yu’s group and He Huaiting’s group had agreed to cooperate, they were assigned to share one room between the two groups.

The internal structure of Qinghe Mountain Villa was just as antique and elegant as its exterior. Even the kitchens were Chinese-style rooms with four upturned eaves.

The staff led Rong Yu and the others through a winding corridor. When they passed one of the rooms, they heard the sound of someone stir-frying inside.

The staff thoughtfully explained, “This is Miss He’s group’s dedicated kitchen.”

He Jiao and Sheng Ming?

Rong Yu had not expected it to be them.

She clearly remembered that in the original work, He Jiao did not cook at all.

No matter how different the personalities of the protagonists in each of her novels were, they all somewhat carried Lian Langsheng’s shadow. In reality, Rong Yu could not bear to let Lian Langsheng get tired, so it was even less likely she would make the female leads work hard in the novel world.

Her female leads, like Lian Langsheng, basically did not cook much.

She glanced at the tightly shut kitchen door of He Jiao’s group, then continued following the staff toward the kitchen assigned to them.

When they reached the kitchen door, the staff placed a walkie-talkie at the entrance and raised a hand to invite them in.

“If there are any tools you need that are not available in the kitchen, just turn on the walkie-talkie and ask someone to deliver them.”

Rong Yu said, “Thank you.”

The staff member nodded and smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Seven had barely followed the three of them this far. He looked at the tentacle in He Huaiting’s arms with an ugly expression, unable to convince himself to go inside no matter what.

“I-I’m not going in. I don’t know how to cook either.”

Rong Yu and the other two had no objections at all. They turned and entered the room. Mu Shuiqing, who entered last, closed the kitchen door, leaving Seven and the cameraman outside.

One cameraman followed Seven, while the other followed the three people inside. The kitchen, which had originally been fairly large, now felt slightly crowded with four people squeezed inside.

Rong Yu skillfully took out the tools needed for barbecue from the cupboards and arranged them in advance, setting charcoal aside for later use. Then she took out the small fish and shrimp they had caught by the lake earlier and placed them on the cutting board, preparing to clean the ingredients.

He Huaiting placed the tentacle on the empty table beside them, then walked to Rong Yu’s side and said in a low voice, “I’ll do it.”

Rong Yu was just about to nod when she saw He Huaiting grab the grass carp by the tail and directly fling it into the sink.

Then she took a small knife from the knife rack, sliced open the fish belly, turned on the faucet, roughly rinsed out the organs, casually scraped the scales a couple of times, then picked up the grass carp—still covered in large patches of scales and trailing intestines—and prepared to leave.

Rong Yu’s scalp tingled watching this. She quickly grabbed He Huaiting’s arm to stop her.

“What are you going to do?”

He Huaiting glanced at the slender, fair hand holding her arm. Her answer was calm and peaceful.

“Grilled fish.”

Rong Yu tried to make her tone sound natural. “Aren’t you going to marinate it first?”

He Huaiting was silent for two seconds. Gradually, a strong sense of confusion appeared in her eyes.

“Marinate?”

Rong Yu: “……You never marinated fish before grilling it?”

The corner of her mouth twitched as she took the miserable-looking grass carp from He Huaiting’s hand.

“Then at least clean out the organs and scales properly first.”

He Huaiting opened her mouth as if to speak, but in the end, she silently closed it again.

Mu Shuiqing, who had been quietly watching the two of them operate, suddenly stepped forward and pulled down Rong Yu’s hand, which was still resting on He Huaiting’s arm.

Rong Yu was lowering her head to look at the fish and did not notice.

He Huaiting, however, turned back to look at Mu Shuiqing.

The other girl stared at her expressionlessly with crimson eyes. Although she had no expression, He Huaiting clearly sensed a warning full of hostility.

Her golden eyes met the glaring sun outside the window as she quietly looked at Mu Shuiqing.

After two seconds of silence, she stepped even closer to Rong Yu. Sure enough, she saw Mu Shuiqing’s gaze toward her grow even colder.

Meeting Mu Shuiqing’s gaze, He Huaiting slowly spoke. “Before, I didn’t have that much time to clean food.”

Rong Yu did not see their interaction. Hearing this, her hand that was washing the fish instantly paused.

She suddenly thought of the plot in her original novel.

He Huaiting had originally been an ordinary university student. One day, she had been pulled into an infinite instance and forced to cut a bloody path through it in order to return home. Life inside the instances was one of licking blood from the edge of a blade, day and night blending together. Only after completing one instance and escaping could she take a few days to return to the real world. After that, she would have to enter the infinite instances again.

When Rong Yu had written the book before, she had only felt that the protagonist was working hard. Now that she was seeing the character from the book with her own eyes, even though she knew this was Lian Langsheng’s consciousness body rather than the original person from the novel, she still could not help feeling guilty.

“I’m sorry.”

He Huaiting looked bewildered and withdrew her gaze to look at her. “What is there to be sorry for?”

Rong Yu felt complicated inside but did not know how to explain.

Just then, a crisp breaking sound suddenly came from behind them.

The two turned back at the same time and saw Mu Shuiqing lowering her head. The wrist-thick piece of ginger in her hands had been snapped in half.

The ginger had not yet been peeled. Its rough skin was prickly, and after being broken, it even had burrs. Rong Yu quickly threw away the grass carp in her hand, washed her hands clean, took the ginger from Mu Shuiqing, and spread open her fingers to carefully check them back and forth.

“You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

Mu Shuiqing raised her eyes to look at her. Her crimson eyes were like two red gemstones. Her fair, delicate face was reflected against those red pupils, beautiful and obedient like a doll. She dazedly shook her head, her face still carrying a trace of lost confusion.

It made Rong Yu suddenly feel a strong desire to protect her.

She gently tucked the loose hair by Mu Shuiqing’s cheek behind her ear. “You startled me. It’s good you didn’t cut your hand.”

Mu Shuiqing pressed her lips together and nodded. No matter how one looked at her, she seemed docile and obedient.

Rong Yu turned and placed the ginger into the vegetable basket.

When she turned away, Mu Shuiqing glanced at He Huaiting beside them and met the other girl’s gaze.

The two silently looked at each other.

Mu Shuiqing stood sideways to the sun. Sunlight shone onto her face from the side, outlining her delicate and pretty features with sharp arcs. Her bright red eyes were like two blooming roses.

The refined, quiet girl lowered her eyes slightly. In an instant, her originally clean and innocent air vanished completely. She still had not the slightest expression, yet it made one’s heart jump.

Rong Yu’s voice drifted over leisurely. “Ginger doesn’t look like much, but if it really pricks your hand, the splinters are hard to remove. Be careful next time.”

Mu Shuiqing obediently responded. She raised her chin to look at He Huaiting. Her red lips curved slightly, and the surging darkness in her eyes carried undisguised provocation.

In the next second, Rong Yu turned back to look at her.

“Shuiqing, why don’t you go out first? We’ll make the food. It’s too dangerous for you in the kitchen.”

“……”

The corners of Mu Shuiqing’s mouth, which had not yet fully risen, instantly froze on her face.

This time, it was He Huaiting’s turn to curl her lips in a faint smile and say meaningfully, “Indeed.”

Mu Shuiqing had her back to the camera, so the livestream viewers could not see her expression, but they could clearly sense the strange atmosphere around them.

[I feel like I smell the scent of a battlefield romance drama.]

[Hiss, I feel it a little too.]

[Aiyoyo, whose vinegar spilled? Aiyo, it’s little Qingqing’s, hahahahaha.]

A dozen seconds later, the kitchen door was yanked open. Mu Shuiqing walked out expressionlessly. The little paper figure in the pocket at her chest had its arms crossed and fire burning above its head.

Seven, who was singing to his fans in front of the livestream camera in the corridor, turned back and saw her storming out. He gave a “yo.”

“Miss Mu got locked outside too?”

Seven’s words stepped on a landmine with perfect accuracy.

Mu Shuiqing glanced at him woodenly.

“Ugly man, shut up.”