LMMY chapter 41

According to the schedule, the next task for all the guests was to prepare a meal together. The ingredients had been prepared by the production team early in the morning. Since tomorrow’s shoot would only last half a day, it was being used to film the market shopping scenes, which would be edited and stitched together later.

The prepared ingredients weren’t meant to intentionally make things difficult for the guests. There were fresh shrimp, scallops, oysters, and a four-kilo banded grouper fish, which were all relatively easy to handle among seafood. Additionally, Yu Fuying, who turned out to be surprisingly good at cooking, made the cooking process the most authentic part of the whole reality show.

Li Xuan, who rarely even made instant noodles, found himself peeling shrimp. While it was already a stretch for him, he couldn’t afford to let Shen Min take the blame for shirking work when the episode aired. Reluctantly, he took a small basin of shrimp and started deveining them.

After handling only two shrimp, Liu Yinying, who was also a guest on the show, came over with a mysterious air. She was a former idol, a few years older than Sheng Min, but still maintained a youthful image. Though her face was small and she was full of energy, it didn’t seem out of place. She turned off her own mic, quickly shut off Li Xuan’s as well, and leaned in gossiping.

“What did Wang Ran say to you earlier? I heard you two argued?”

At that moment, Li Xuan realized how rumors of him cursing out Zhang Zhihua in the dressing room had escalated.

“Nothing much,” He stepped aside a little, “Why don’t you ask him?”

“I wouldn’t ask him,” Liu Yinying, who had known Sheng Min since childhood, though their paths diverged later on, was closer to him than an acquaintance. She spoke with a familiar tone. “Don’t mind him, people like that will drive you mad.”

Sheng Min had already told Li Xuan about their relationship. Li Xuan didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask her to leave, so he nodded slightly but didn’t comment further. Liu Yinying continued talking, mostly about how Wang Ran had been so angry he was cursing in the tent. Not long after, the production assistant approached them.

“Miss Liu, Mr Sheng, we need to keep the microphones on, otherwise, we won’t be able to record or shoot.”

“Give us a second, Jie,” Liu Yinying pouted and teased, “We’ll turn it on after, we don’t need this material right away. Let me talk to Sheng Min for a bit. We haven’t seen each other in ages, just ten minutes, ten minutes.”

She made a pleading gesture, her attitude sweet. The assistant hesitated for a moment before saying they needed to hurry, and then left.

“What do you want to say? Say it after the shoot,” Sheng Min knew her, but it was Li Xuan’s first time meeting her. If she hadn’t approached him, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to talk to her.

“No way! Don’t you know? Not finishing a piece of gossip is a crime! Sheng Min, you’re so cold today.” Liu Yinying feigned reproach before laughing, adding, “But even with a cold face, you’re still good looking.”

Despite being a young girl, her demeanor was lively but not annoying. Still, Li Xuan found it hard to deal with, so he silently continued deveining the shrimp. The raw shrimp were much harder to handle than cooked ones, and he ended up ruining several. Meanwhile, Liu Yinying mimicked Wang Ran’s expressions, gesturing dramatically. Li Xuan occasionally responded with an “mm”, pretending to listen, though his mind was already elsewhere. After finishing most of the shrimp, he looked over at Sheng Min.

This time, Sheng Min hadn’t gone far. He was still sitting under the shade, seemingly reading a book with his head lowered.

“What are you looking at?” Liu Yinying finally finished her gossip and, after gulping down most of her drink, noticed Li Xuan staring into the distance. “Sheng Min?”

“Nothing. Are you done talking?”

“You sound like you’re in a hurry to get rid of me.” She pouted but followed Li Xuan’s gaze. “Oh, right! I’ve been meaning to ask since you arrived. That guy—is he your company’s new signee? He’s so good-looking.”

“An assistant,” Li Xuan withdrew his gaze.

“What about Yang Xu? Did you fire him?”

“He had other things to do.”

“I was going to say, if you did fire him, he should come work for me. I think Yang Xu is adorable… But this assistant—are you sure? Our company’s new trainees don’t look half as good as him. Maybe I’ll ask if he’s interested in joining. What a waste to stay as an assistant.”

“He’s not interested,” Li Xuan said flatly, his movements more practiced now as he finished deveining the remaining shrimp, though they still looked a bit mangled.

“You’re so protective of his career,” Liu Yinying joked. “Maybe I should switch to your company—I’d love to have a handsome assistant too.”

Li Xuan didn’t respond. He set the shrimp aside and picked up the grouper fish that had already been cleaned. He didn’t know how to prepare it but assumed it needed washing and cutting, so he grabbed a knife.

“Hey,” Liu Yinying, despite her chatter, wasn’t idle. She took the shrimp to rinse under the tap. “By the way, what’s your new assistant’s name? Does he have a girlfriend?”

Li Xuan brought the knife down with a loud thud, splitting the fish cleanly in two. The force sent one half flying half a meter away.

“Sheng Min, are you upset with me?” Liu Yinying exclaimed, wide-eyed.

“No. You’re imagining things.” Li Xuan coldly pulled the knife out of the cutting board. “What were you saying…oh about a girlfriend? What, are you interested?”

“How could I dare? Don’t say things like that,” Liu Yinying exaggerated, chuckling. “A vibrant girl like me can’t be in a relationship. My manager would kill me if they heard… But it’s fine to get to know him, right? So, is he seeing someone or not?”

Her tone was clearly playful, and Li Xuan understood this. Besides, who exactly was Liu Yinying talking about—Sheng Min or himself? It was hard to say. Still, there was an indescribable discomfort in his heart. Meanwhile, Liu Yinying was still blinking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Yes,” Li Xuan replied, his face unchanged.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“What a pity,” Liu Yinying exaggerated, shaking her head. “Such a shame. A beauty like me can’t take the initiative to get to know guys who are already taken. It’s too easy to be misunderstood, and it’s not good for me.”

“It’s not good,” Li Xuan agreed, nodding as he finished chopping the last piece of fish and switched on his microphone. “So let’s hurry up and record the show, the PD’s been waiting for a long time.”

Aside from Wang Ran’s ill-timed interference earlier, the whole day of filming had actually gone smoothly. During lunch, Yu Fuying praised the shrimp Li Xuan had cooked—though Li Xuan had clearly used less salt than usual. Compared to the other guests, he didn’t face any intentional difficulties from the production team. During the sunset group photo, Wang Ran even tried to casually throw his arm around Li Xuan’s shoulders in a friendly pose, but Li Xuan quickly avoided it.

He knew that both Yu Fuying’s attention and the production team’s favorable treatment had the same underlying reason. Leaving aside debut time and trophy rankings, in terms of popularity, Sheng Min was undoubtedly a hot topic right now. Even among the show’s sponsors, two were brands that Sheng Min endorsed.

However, despite being a beneficiary of this attention, Li Xuan didn’t take pride in such special treatment. On the contrary, he felt a bit disgusted. He recalled a previous interview, where, precisely because of Sheng Min’s fame, the host had dared to risk offending him by repeatedly poking at his wounds in exchange for more views. Fame was protecting Sheng Min, but hurting him at the same time. Unless he could break out of this circle, Li Xuan couldn’t help but have this thought. When the director called for a cut, he felt the heavy breath he had been holding in finally begin to ease.

According to the plan for the two-day, one-night shoot, they were supposed to set up tents at the beach that night. Considering the outdoor setting was somewhat inconvenient, the production team had allowed the guests to return to the hotel and shoot an “exit tent” scene the next day. The place was forty kilometers from the city, requiring an hour and a half each way. Li Xuan didn’t feel like dealing with the travel, and since Sheng Min seemed to like the seaside, he decided to stay.

Li Xuan wasn’t much of a camping enthusiast, but he had some experience with being outdoors. The last time he joked with Sheng Min about sleeping under a bridge, it wasn’t entirely a joke. As night fell, the crew handed him a few bottles of mosquito repellent. After informing him of the wake-up time for filming the next day, they wished him goodnight and kindly closed the tent for him.

Li Xuan casually replied “goodnight,” but he wasn’t actually planning to sleep. He had his laptop with him and intended to test the chat system Qi Boyuan had set up last time.

At first, everything went smoothly, until he noticed that the air mattress seemed to be deflating for some reason.

“Wait a minute,” Li Xuan interrupted Qi Boyuan and looked down at the mattress. It wasn’t an illusion; despite the two layers of plastic, he might as well have been sitting directly on the ground. The beach wasn’t flat, and the small stones were digging into his thighs, making it painful. The natural moisture of the sand couldn’t be stopped by just the moisture-proof mat.

Qi Boyuan sounded confused on the phone: “What’s going on?”

“Something’s wrong. Wait a sec,” Li Xuan moved the laptop from his lap and crawled out of the tent. Using his phone’s flashlight, he circled the tent and quickly found the culprit—a fiddler crab had somehow made its way ashore, puncturing the mattress and letting all the air out.

Li Xuan clicked his tongue, grabbed the crab by its belly, and pulled it out of the sand, expressionless as he threatened it: “Clawing around like that? I’ll roast you with salt and pepper later.”

“Li Xuan, what are you saying?” Qi Boyuan couldn’t hear clearly. “The signal’s bad there.”

“It’s nothing. Can you hear me now?” The fiddler crab clearly didn’t care about Li Xuan’s threats and waved its pincers around. Li Xuan raised his voice a bit, “The chat system seems fine. The main logic works, and any small issues, I’ll just fix myself.”

“Okay,” Qi Boyuan murmured, “I’m going to sleep now. By the way, about that player trading feature I mentioned this afternoon…”

“Not adding it. Didn’t we already agree on that?”

“But I thought about it again…”

“Stop thinking,” Li Xuan frowned. “You’re so idle, just work on the maps for the next few rounds.”

Qi Boyuan decisively hung up the phone. “Goodnight.”

That night, the moon hung high, casting bright light over the sea. Li Xuan rubbed his eyes and took off his headphones. He walked a few steps toward the shore, threw the inconsiderate fiddler crab back into the sea, and realized the damaged air mattress couldn’t be repaired right away. The tent was unusable. The production team should have spare ones, but they were locked in the car.

Looking at his watch, it was already past 2 a.m. Li Xuan really didn’t think disturbing someone’s sleep was a good idea—and it was likely that more than one person would be disturbed, and he’d have to apologize again.

He searched around and noticed a lighthouse in the distance. During the day, he had seen several benches for tourists to rest and take pictures near it. He could go there and make do for the night. With that decision, he took his laptop out of the tent.

As he walked through the campsite toward the lighthouse, he unexpectedly found that one of the tents still had its light on. The tents the production team provided all looked the same, and they were set up far apart. In the darkness, it was hard to make out their exact locations. Li Xuan didn’t think much of it, intending to pass by when suddenly, the tent door opened.