Popular Top Stream (8): These two seem to be a good match!

The live broadcast was still ongoing.

The production team assigned tasks to the guests in the village, and those tasks required the guests to find them on their own.

A few people came out of the house they were staying in, and after walking a short distance, they saw a van parked not far away. The back door of the van was open, and the owner was unloading boxes from the van.

The boxes contained cartons of frozen goods and fresh meat, and some elderly residents gathered around the van, buying things from the owner.

“I want a chicken.”

“I’ll buy some pork.”

“I want to buy some ribbonfish.”

……

“What is this?” Qiao Qiao asked with a curious expression.

He had always been the most lively one on the show, asking about everything.

Hu Bingshan said, “Some villages are relatively remote, and it’s inconvenient for the villagers to go out to buy groceries, so some people drive and bring various types of meat to sell in the villages. This way, it is convenient for the villagers, and they can also make a bit of profit.”

Hu Bingshan explained, but Qiao Qiao still went to ask the person driving the van. 

The situation he found out was similar to what Hu Bingshan had said.

There was a small shop in the village where you could buy cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and common snacks with a longer shelf life, but for fresh meat or vegetables that were not grown locally, you had to go outside to buy them.

Some people realized this was a market, so they bought meat from outside and sold it in the village. Of course, there were more than just the person driving the van doing this.

This person didn’t just do business in this village; after staying here for an hour or two, he had to go to the next village.

“Oh, I see. Everyone has it tough,” Qiao Qiao said.

The person driving the van looked a bit puzzled: “It’s already very good now, everywhere is accessible by car. When I was young, there were only mountain roads. If you wanted to go out to buy something, you had to walk there on foot. Now that was difficult.”

“Ah, you had such a hard time when you were young?” Qiao Qiao asked with a concerned look. 

Seeing Qiao Qiao talking non-stop with this person, Qin Yanming felt a bit annoyed—everyone else had already left!

Moreover, he didn’t like being surrounded by a group of middle-aged and elderly people.

These people, who knew if they didn’t bathe often, had an unpleasant smell on them.

Gu Juntian and the others had indeed already left.

As soon as he saw the van, he knew they were there to set up a stall and sell things.

They didn’t buy anything at all, just kept asking questions, which was disturbing their business.

Moreover, they still had to be busy with lunch.

There were a total of three tasks to help villagers exchange for ingredients, some were easier and some were more tiring. If he went early, he could find an easier task.

In the original plot, the tasks arranged by the director were to help with pickling vegetables, feeding pigs, and pounding rice cakes, with each task requiring two people.

Among these three tasks, Gu Juntian most wanted to help with feeding pigs; otherwise, helping with pickling vegetables would be fine too. Anyway, he didn’t want to pound rice cakes.

Pounding rice cakes is a physically demanding job that takes a long time to do well. The key issue was that the elderly man who needed someone to “help” him pound rice cakes had a bad temper.

This old man had been pounding rice cakes for decades and had his own insistence on how to do it. He couldn’t stand celebrities ruining his rice cakes.

In the original plot, Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming helped with pickling vegetables, the original owner and Zhao Li were responsible for feeding the pigs, and Zhou Qinghao and Hu Bingshan were in charge of making rice cakes.

While making the rice cakes, the old man kept blaming Zhou Qinghao, complaining that he was too weak.

At that time, Zhou Qinghao was sick and indeed lacked strength, and he didn’t know how to make rice cakes, so naturally, the rice cakes didn’t turn out well.

Then, Zhou Qinghao was scolded by the old man again, who accused him of wasting food.

Zhou Qinghao indeed didn’t make the rice cakes well, but anyone making rice cakes for the first time might not succeed.

This was a task arranged by the production team. Before filming, the production team communicated with this elderly person.

This elderly person took the money and had already agreed to let the stars who had never made rice cakes go to his place to make rice cakes. Given this, what did it matter to keep blaming the people making rice cakes?

Anyway, neither he nor Zhou Qinghao were going to suffer through this.

To be honest, among the three tasks, making pickled vegetables was actually the best. This task was not tiring, and the woman who needed the stars to “help” with making pickled vegetables had a very good temper.

But Gu Juntian chose to feed the pigs.

Chopping up pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and greens, cooking them, and mixing them with rice bran to feed the pigs was not only not tiring but also done indoors!

Pickling vegetables was good, but it was done outdoors and they had to deal with the wind.

Why deal with the wind in the cold weather? It was better to take Zhou Qinghao to cook pig food and let Zhou Qinghao tend the fire behind the stove.

The only drawback of feeding pigs was that it could be a bit dirty, but he could handle the dirty work.

Gu Juntian and the other three moved forward, and the first person they encountered was the elderly man who needed help making rice cakes.

This man looked to be in his sixties or seventies, very thin and frail. At this moment, he looked at them with bright eyes, and anyone with a discerning eye could tell that he had a task for them.

Hu Bingshan immediately said, “Is there a task here?”

“Definitely, look at the tools around him; the task must be pounding rice cakes,” Gu Juntian said.

“Pounding rice cakes? I saw it when I was traveling in an ancient town, it looked very interesting,” Hu Bingshan said, somewhat tempted.

“Making rice cakes looks interesting and simple, but it’s a physically demanding job. My whole body hurts right now, I don’t want to pound rice cakes,” Gu Juntian replied.

Hu Bingshan and Zhao Li were both from the north. They had seen rice cake pounding on TV shows or during their travels, but they didn’t know how physically exhausting it actually is.

Hearing Gu Juntian say this, the two immediately gave up on making rice cakes and continued walking with Gu Juntian.

They were also sore all over and didn’t want to do any more physical labor.

The group hadn’t walked far when they encountered an elderly woman sun-drying vegetables at her door. The way she looked at them was different from how the other villagers had looked at them.

When they approached and asked, they found out that the elderly woman needed help pickling vegetables.

This task wasn’t difficult, and the key was that it’s not heavy!

Hu Bingshan and Zhao Li were both very tempted, but Hu Bingshan still said, “Teacher Zhou is sick, so you guys should do this job.”

Gu Juntian said, “You all look pretty tired too, so you do it. I’ll go with Teacher Zhou to check on something else.”

“Then I won’t be polite, and I’ll take it as you respecting the elderly and cherishing the young!” Hu Bingshan was very happy.

He was the oldest among the guests, and Zhao Li was the youngest. Gu Juntian let them go first, which truly showed respect for the elderly and love for the young.

Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao continued walking forward, and then they saw a pigpen.

Gu Juntian went up to inquire and learned that they needed to feed the pigs. Without a second thought, he agreed.

This was the original owner’s job.

The original owner felt that feeding pigs was embarrassing, found the smell unpleasant, and was very dissatisfied with this job, but he thought it was quite good.

As for Zhou Qinghao, from what he knew, Zhou Qinghao came from a rural background and did not reject doing farm work.

In the first episode of the variety show, Zhou Qinghao even cleaned the sheep pen.

Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao were taken to a shed next to the pigpen.

This place was very close to the pigpen, but the owner must have considered that someone was coming to film a show and specifically cleaned the pigpen. Plus, since it was winter, they couldn’t smell anything.

There was a stove and a large iron pot in the shed.

Feeding the pigs is really simple; just cook the pig feed and pour it into the pig feed trough next to it.

Gu Juntian picked up the knife used to cut the pig feed and said to Zhou Qinghao, “Teacher Zhou, you go start the fire, and I’ll cut the pig feed!”

Cutting sweet potatoes is quite stress-relieving, and they had fewer sweet potatoes to cut than the pickled vegetable group had to cut vegetables.

So nice!

Gu Juntian happily started cutting sweet potatoes.

This time they were teamed up, so Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao shared a live streaming room.

Their live streaming room had the most people, after all, Zhou Qinghao was there!

Zhou Qinghao already had many fans, and last night he had someone guide public opinion… While the public opinion criticized Qiao Qiao, it also helped Zhou Qinghao attract a group of casual fans.

They started watching the live stream early in the morning, and the first thing they were amazed by was Zhou Qinghao’s looks: “Zhou Qinghao is so handsome! Standing next to Qiao Qiao, I can clearly feel what it means to be overshadowed by beauty.”

“I didn’t feel this way when I watched the first episode.”

“In the first episode, Zhou Qinghao had bad luck and was always assigned messy tasks, sigh!”

“Isn’t my brother’s condition so good now? Did he recover from his illness?”

“The young man with Zhou Qinghao is also handsome, only he didn’t get overshadowed by Zhou Qinghao.”

……

When Gu Juntian and the others started their tasks, more people began to send bullet comments or leave messages.

“Qiao Qiao stopped, why aren’t they stopping, etc.?”

“Zhou Qinghao is a task-oriented person, just focused on completing tasks.”

“Task-oriented? Seems like it. In the first episode, Brother was always focused on completing tasks!”

“Making rice cakes looks really interesting, I want to see Brother make rice cakes.”

“Preferably without a shirt, hehe.”

“Young Master Gu said making rice cakes is very tiring, is making rice cakes tiring?”

……

Immediately, a professional told them how exhausting it is to pound rice cakes; in short, it’s a physically demanding job.

Gu Juntian and Hu Bingshan had strained their muscles while digging water chestnuts yesterday, so it was perfectly normal for them not to want to do this.

In the end, they saw Gu Juntian happily choose the job of feeding the pigs.

“Young Master Gu is truly one of a kind…”

“The rich second generation and the top celebrity are feeding pigs together, hahahaha!”

“When Young Master Gu heard about the task of feeding pigs, his eyes lit up immediately. Why does it feel like Young Master Gu really knows what he’s doing?”

“Watching Young Master Gu cut sweet potatoes is quite interesting, his movements are really nimble!”

“These pigs are eating really well, all organic food from the mountains.”

……

Yesterday, because he hadn’t explained things clearly to Zhou Qinghao, Gu Juntian had something on his mind and didn’t talk much to Zhou Qinghao.

But today was different. Gu Juntian said to Zhou Qinghao, “Teacher Zhou, don’t you think the task I chose is great? You just need to sit and keep the fire going, and I only need to chop some vegetables!”

After saying that, he sliced a sweet potato with a few quick cuts and said to the uncle who was guiding him nearby, “Uncle, did you specially sharpen this knife? It’s really fast! Holding this knife, I feel like a hero, I could chop another hundred pounds of sweet potatoes!”

“These pigs are really fat. When I first saw the pigpen, I thought our final task was to kill a pig. Luckily, it wasn’t!”

“Teacher Zhou, which part of the pig do you like to eat?”

Gu Juntian kept talking non-stop while chopping things.

On the other side, Qiao Qiao, who was a step behind, realized that the only task left for them was making rice cakes.

Qiao Qiao chatted with someone halfway through to get a bit more screen time and also to let the two groups ahead go make rice cakes first.

He communicated with the production team and learned what the three tasks for today were and what supplies they could get.

Those who made rice cakes could get staple food, those who pickled vegetables could get vegetables, and those who fed pigs could get pork.

Among them, feeding pigs was the easiest, followed by pickling vegetables.

He looked at the route, and they would encounter the rice cake makers first.

In the show, when guests were given tasks, they usually didn’t choose after understanding all the tasks; instead, they did whatever they encountered.

He and Qin Yanming would leave later, so the task of making rice cakes had definitely already been taken!

He originally wanted to make pickles, but his reputation online wasn’t great right now. Given that, he could go feed the pigs. It was an easy job and could show that he wasn’t afraid of getting dirty—after all, they would be dealing with pigs!

Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming were walking in the back, and then they discovered that the place for making rice cakes was empty!

Qiao Qiao was taken aback, but Qin Yanming seemed quite interested in making rice cakes: “Shall we go make rice cakes?”

Qiao Qiao said, “Brother Qin, it’s still early. Let’s go check out the front first. We don’t even know what the others are doing.”

Qin Yanming liked men.

Before coming to participate in the show, he had a bit of a flirtation with Qiao Qiao.

Although something unpleasant happened during the day yesterday, when he felt that his room was damp and cold and he couldn’t sleep at night, Qiao Qiao not only found him an electric blanket but also got a heater from the production team.

With the heater added to the damp little room, it was much more comfortable to sleep!

This not only made Qin Yanming’s grievances towards Qiao Qiao disappear without a trace, but also increased his fondness for him.

Now that Qiao Qiao was going to check on others, Qin Yanming naturally wouldn’t disagree.

The two walked forward together, and soon saw Hu Bingshan and Zhao Li making pickles.

Although Hu Bingshan was a professional supporting actor, he had played so many supporting roles that it couldn’t be helped!

In the anti-Japanese dramas, rural dramas, and martial arts dramas that the villagers often watch, his figure frequently appeared.

His family encountered some financial difficulties, and for the past few years, he often stayed in the film and television city, playing countless roles.

The father of the male lead in this drama was him, the father of the female lead in that drama was him, and in the next drama, he would be the master of the male and female leads!

The middle-aged and elderly people in the village didn’t often use smartphones and watched TV more, so they were very familiar with him.

The aunt responsible for teaching people how to make pickles was a warm-hearted person, and now that she saw a familiar star, she couldn’t stop talking.

Hu Bingshan himself was also a talkative person, and the two of them had a great conversation. The aunt even took out snacks to give Hu Bingshan to eat.

Seeing the situation, Qiao Qiao naturally felt embarrassed to bring up the task change. He greeted Hu Bingshan and continued walking forward.

Then, Gu Juntian, who was cutting pig feed, saw Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming.

“Brother Gu!” Qiao Qiao’s eyes lit up.

“Please call me by my name,” Gu Juntian said.

Qiao Qiao looked disappointed.

“Why are you here? Why aren’t you out on a mission?” Gu Juntian asked.

Qiao Qiao replied, “We came to see what you all were doing. Brother Gu… Gu Juntian, you like things clean. Otherwise, we can feed the pigs, and you all can pound rice cakes?”

Gu Juntian said, “That’s not possible. My whole body hurts today; I can’t pound rice cakes. Teacher Zhou is sick again… If you’re going to pound rice cakes, you should go. You only dug a little water chestnut yesterday, so you should be fine today.”

Qiao Qiao’s expression stiffened for a moment, but since this was in front of the cameras, he couldn’t say much and could only go back to making rice cakes.

This trip was a waste, and Qiao Qiao still felt that Qin Yanming was a bit unhappy.

Of course, Qin Yanming was unhappy. Qiao Qiao inexplicably wanted to switch tasks with someone else and even attracted Gu Juntian’s displeasure… What kind of situation was this?!

Most importantly… Qiao Qiao cared about Gu Juntian, remembered that Gu Juntian was afraid of getting dirty, but why didn’t he care about him?

He also liked cleanliness!

People watching the live stream were speechless: “Is Qiao Qiao trying to get close to Gu Juntian?”

“Is he trying to swap tasks? Does he know making rice cakes is tiring, so he doesn’t want to do it?”

“He actually said Gu Juntian likes cleanliness; I didn’t notice that at all.”

……

Of course, some people thought it was not good that Gu Juntian wouldn’t change tasks just because Movie Emperor Qin got injured.

“Even if Movie Emperor Qin is injured, Qiao Qiao is still a big man!”

“Young Master Gu won’t even let Zhou Qinghao do any work. If they were both making rice cakes, he would definitely be the only one putting in the effort. If he can, why can’t Qiao Qiao?”

“Qiao Qiao’s fans wouldn’t be treating your brother like a delicate flower, would they?”

“If Qin Yanming’s fans want to blame someone, they should blame Qiao Qiao. It’s because he kept talking to people that Qin Yanming only had making rice cakes as an option.”

……

The live broadcast room was bustling with noise, while Qin Yanming and Qiao Qiao had already started making rice cakes.

Of course, making rice cakes couldn’t just involve them pounding away; there were many other steps involved, such as cooking the rice.

The old man responsible for teaching people how to make rice cakes was most proud of his rice cake-making skills throughout his life.

You should know, the local TV station had specifically interviewed him and recorded a program with him! Usually, people would come to learn how to make rice cakes from him, or during the New Year, he would be invited to participate in events and perform rice cake-making with his son.

Gu Juntian and the others were unwilling to make rice cakes, and Qiao Qiao and the others also took a detour to other places before coming back to make rice cakes, which made him very angry.

Moreover, he didn’t understand the entertainment industry and didn’t think much of celebrities, so his attitude towards Qiao Qiao and the others wasn’t very good: “My skill is the best in the area. You are lucky to be able to learn from me!”

He said this while teaching Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming how to make rice cakes.

In the original plot, Zhou Qinghao and Hu Bingshan had both done farm work and were quite good at it, but the old man still found them lacking. Not to mention Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming, who didn’t know anything about it.

Teaching these two how to make rice cakes made the old man’s blood pressure rise!

Qin Yanming and Qiao Qiao also felt wronged—it was not their fault for not knowing how to do it; the old man just didn’t explain clearly!

This old man had made rice cakes his whole life and was exceptionally good at it, but that didn’t mean he knew how to teach others.

The people who used to come to learn how to make rice cakes from him all had some basic skills, so it was no problem for him to give them a few pointers. But Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming had zero foundation!

Seeing the two of them clumsy and awkward, the old man exploded with rage: “How can you be so stupid?”

“It’s not like this!”

“You two are messing around again!”

……

By the time they were finally going to pound the rice cakes, Qiao Qiao had no strength left, and Qin Yanming, who had grievances against the old man and was also thinking about his “injured” persona, was slacking off.

The old man was even angrier: “What’s wrong with you two? Two tall men, and you have no strength at all? At this rate, the rice cakes are going to be ruined!”

In the old man’s eyes, Qiao Qiao and Qin Yanming were indeed very tall.

This old man was just a little over 1.6 meters tall, and Qiao Qiao, who was over 1.7 meters, was much taller than him. As for Qin Yanming, it was even more so; he already felt pressured by him!

“Have you guys not eaten or something? Your hands are so weak, you have no strength at all! Today’s young people really can’t do anything right…”

This old man was furious.

Qiao Qiao felt extremely wronged.

If he had known it would turn out this way, he would have dragged Qin Yanming to the front to snatch other tasks earlier!

He initially wanted Zhou Qinghao to do this task!

Qin Yanming was also angry.

They say that impoverished mountains and treacherous waters produce crafty people; in his eyes, this old man was one of those crafty people.

It was just filming a show. If it didn’t go well, it didn’t go well. Did they really expect him to produce a perfect rice cake?

Qin Yanming finally couldn’t hold back: “I got injured while filming before…”

“Injured? You’re lying, aren’t you? You don’t look injured at all. Young people just know how to slack off…” The old man was even angrier.

This old man had a bad temper. If his son really got injured or had a headache, he would think his son was faking it. Now that Qin Yanming looked perfectly fine, he naturally didn’t believe that Qin Yanming was really injured.

Qin Yanming’s face turned even worse.

This old man, however, was not willing to back down: “Don’t think you can use your injury as an excuse!”

“This isn’t an excuse, I’m really injured!” Qin Yanming’s tone was very bad.

The old man immediately exploded; when he used to teach people how to make rice cakes, those people wouldn’t dare to talk to him like this!

He dragged Qin Yanming out: “Fine, you’re injured! Let’s go to the barefoot doctor and have him check where you’re injured! When I broke my leg, I still insisted on making rice cakes. You’re pretending to be sick without being sick, and you still have the nerve to complain?”

Qin Yanming, being tall and big, naturally wasn’t dragged away by the old man, but the old man’s commotion left Qin Yanming standing there dumbfounded.

On the other side, Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao were warmly cooking pig feed together.

While cooking, Gu Juntian even asked the uncle who was guiding them, “Uncle, can we have some of these sweet potatoes? I want to roast some sweet potatoes!”

“Sure, these are for feeding pigs, they’re not worth much.” The uncle was very easygoing.

“Uncle, you are really a good person,” Gu Juntian said with a smile.

The uncle also smiled and quietly asked, “Can I take a photo with you? I’ve never taken a photo with a celebrity before.”

“I have no problem with that. Teacher Zhou, what about you?” Gu Juntian asked Zhou Qinghao.

Zhou Qinghao replied, “I have no problem either.”

They took a photo with the uncle, who was particularly happy and smiled while picking out sweet potatoes for them: “Some of these sweet potatoes have been frozen by now, but the ones I picked are definitely fine!”

Upon learning that Gu Juntian wanted to roast them, he shared his experience: “You can’t roast sweet potatoes directly in the fire. If you do, the outside will burn while the inside remains raw. Wait until the fire goes out, then put them in and use the residual heat of the fire to roast them.”

“Is that how it works? We got it!” Gu Juntian said with a smile.

The uncle also laughed, revealing his yellowed teeth.

Gu Juntian didn’t mind and continued talking to him.

The original owner indeed loved cleanliness, so in the original plot, he complained about this and that, and was very unfriendly to this uncle.

This uncle was different from that old man; after being criticized, he was at a loss and kept apologizing…

Gu Juntian felt that this uncle was really unfortunate to encounter the original owner.

Placing the sweet potatoes at Zhou Qinghao’s feet, Gu Juntian recalled what he had said yesterday and added, “Teacher Zhou, these are the sweet potatoes I got for you!”

He said it as if he were declaring, “This is the territory I’ve conquered for you!”

Seeing Gu Juntian like this, Zhou Qinghao couldn’t help but laugh.

The flames in the stove cast a red glow on Zhou Qinghao’s face, making the surrounding gray environment seem even more beautiful.

Gu Juntian’s heart raced once again.

Those who had just started shipping them yesterday also felt like they were going crazy.

“Ahhhh! These two look so good together!”

“You cook, I chop the pig food, hehe!”

“I’m hooked, I’m hooked!”

……

At the same time, Gu Juntian’s mentor was already dumbfounded.

Who on earth wrote the program Gu Juntian sent him?