CH 44

Sending Chicken Soup Again

“This isn’t about culinary skills. Without ingredients, no matter how good your cooking is, it’s useless.” The Director said.

Hearing this, everyone could only make a funny expression. The Director then followed, “Next, you guys will be divided into two teams to answer questions. This game is just a warm-up, not a competition.”

After saying that, everyone then sat on both sides of the long table. There was a whiteboard and a black marker in front of each team, apparently to be used to answer the questions.

After the cameras were adjusted, the Director then asked, “The first question is who is the little sister of your dad’s older sister’s son’s older sister’s husband’s mother-in-law’s?”

“…….”

Everyone was stupefied, but the Director didn’t seem to want to say it again.

Seeing that Song Yan’s team were already discussing about it, Su Shen and her team didn’t even have a clue. It was just that the Director had said it all too fast. There were two sisters among the phrase, so it was difficult to distinguish the relationship between them.

“I think it’s daughter-in-law.” Zhang Jing took the black marker and wanted to write something with dead earnesty.

Su Shen grabbed her hand, “I think it’s auntie*.”

auntie – here in Chinese, it is 舅妈, which is maternal uncle’s wife

Zheng Luo at the side was also dumbfounded, “I don’t know these kinship relationships at all.”

With just a minute left, Su Shen had no choice but to let Zhang Jing write “daughter-in-law” down.

Director: “Okay, please show your whiteboards everyone!”

The other side wrote maternal aunt while they wrote daughter-in-law, with the two not being close one bit.

Director: “Both are wrong, it’s paternal aunt.”

“Ah? You said it so quickly, how can we remember!” Wang Cheng said with a bitter face, “These kinship relationships are even more difficult to understand than astronomy.”

“Right. Every time my relatives visit us during Chinese New Year, I’m afraid to see them, in case I call them by the wrong name.” Zhang Jing scratched her head, appearing helpless.

Director: “Okay, let’s move on to the second question. Why do people like to smoke a cigarette after a meal?”

At that, the three men across from them began to write quickly. Su Shen and Zhang Jing turned to look at Zheng Luo, who shrugged and said, “I don’t smoke.”

He was clearly smoking backstage at first, but now, he said he didn’t smoke, all to create an image of a good man that didn’t smoke. Zhang Jing glanced at him with disdain. When she turned around to look at Su Shen, she saw her writing something on the whiteboard.

As soon as she leaned over, her eyes lit up. She looked at Su Shen in disbelief, “A veteran!”

Director: “Time’s up, please show your whiteboards!”

It just so happened that Su Shen had finished writing, but it was a little messy, so she could only explain it to the Director, “I think that people like to smoke a cigarette after a meal because their taste buds have been completely opened at that time. They are at their most relaxed state, and blood circulates after a meal, in which nicotine would stimulate the nerves. This would invoke a feeling of being relaxed and excited even more than usual.” 

The three men on the other side were all surprised, as if they didn’t expect that Su Shen would know about this.

“Su Shen, do you smoke?” Song Yan couldn’t help but ask.

Just at this moment, the camera panned over. Su Shen smiled, “I accepted a role recently, where the character likes to smoke a lot, so I specially looked into it.”

Hearing this, Song Yan then nodded. Their answer was also about the same, but it was more simplified.

“Everyone knows that a smoke after a meal makes you as happy as the gods. It’s the same as a smoke in the morning and after doing it.” Jin Qingzhou explained earnestly.

Everyone else covered their faces and screamed, even the Director couldn’t help laughing meaningfully. The male staff members also had an expression of understanding.

Wang Cheng couldn’t help but leaned over and said, “Jin laoshi, we’re still kids!”

The scale of variety shows nowadays were getting bigger and bigger, but it would still be alright even if it was broadcasted, with the words “doing it” being replaced with mute sounds in post-production.

Su Shen also couldn’t help but cover her face and looked down. Fortunately, Xie Yan wouldn’t tell dirty jokes in front of her.

Director: “Good! Both teams gain one point for this question. Let’s move on to the third question. Is there any inscription under the Golden Flower Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress?”

“This is discrimination! How would we know if there are words carved on it?!” Zhang Jing looked at the Director dumbfoundedly.

However, the team across from them quickly wrote something down. As for Su Shen, she truly didn’t know, and she had never seen Xie Yan’s trophy before either.

When time was up, they wrote “yes” on their whiteboard, while the team across from them wrote “no”. As for the answer, the Director said that there was no inscription under the trophy.

Although the other team said it was a guess, Su Shen knew that someone among them must’ve seen the trophy before and had even observed it carefully. Otherwise, they couldn’t have written it so decisively.

Afterwards, they answered a few more questions, with Wang Cheng’s team winning in the end. But this was just a warm-up, they needed to go out to the food streets to look for ingredients later.

It was very cold outside, but there was also a lot of yummy food. Zhang Jing ultimately pulled her along with the cameraman to eat through the food street. Su Shen knew that she had to go on a diet again.

After searching for a whole day, they only found two carrots and a stalk of scallions. As the saying goes, “the cleverest woman couldn’t make a meal without rice.” Su Shen was not confident to the point of making two carrots taste even more tasty. Wang Cheng’s team, on the other hand, found a lot of ingredients. Jin Qingzhou’s cooking was quite good. There were none of those flowers or garnishes, it was closer to home cooking. In the end, their team won.

After the show, everyone became closer with one another. Song Yan said that he wanted to treat everyone to dinner, but Su Shen had to go back to set overnight, so she declined.

When she returned to the hotel, it was already dawn. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep after taking a shower.

Since she ate so much yesterday, Su Shen only dared to drink a glass of soymilk for breakfast the next morning. She was not chubby and was quite slim, but appearing on camera would make her look a little bit chubby, so she definitely could not eat a lot.

Fortunately, there were only indoor scenes today. It was not that cold, but Su Shen was still shivering even though she was bundled up in a cotton padded coat while reclining on Xie Yan’s wooden armchair. Xiao Zhou automatically brought her a cup of hot water.

At this time, the scene consisted of Xie Yan and Li Xue. The supporting female lead called the male lead over to a hotel and then notified the female lead to come over, in hopes of causing the female lead to misunderstand. Currently, Li Xue was in the middle of confessing her love. In the next scene, the female lead would then appear.

“Su jie, Liu jie called just now and said that the shooting for that magazine cover next week would be pushed up to this Saturday.” Xiao Zhou said and handed her phone to her.

Taking over the phone and after reading the message, Su Shen then replied to Liu jie with “I got it,” before continuing to look at her script. According to the normal filming schedule, she would still need half a month to wrap up this drama. However, if they continued to focus all her scenes together and film it all at once, it might only take a week to finish.

“The chair’s not cold?”

It was not until a voice sounded above her head that Su Shen looked up, only to see Xie Yan crouching down and holding her ice-cold hands, “I’ll ask Zhao Tong to go buy a cushion in the afternoon, so that it will be a little warmer.”

Xiao Zhou, who was suddenly fed a mouth of dog food, quietly walked away.

Seeing that he was still wearing the costume T-shirt, Su Shen couldn’t help but poke her head out from her cap, “You’re not afraid of the cold?”

Why was she so afraid of the cold? Could exercising resist the cold?

“Those who are skinny are afraid of the cold.” He chuckled and pinched her slender arm.

Su Shen withdrew her hand and glared at him angrily, “This is called being slim.”

There was a saying in the entertainment industry that if you didn’t lose weight, you would die!

For female artists, fat was their natural enemy. For some people, eating just one more meat bun was a luxury. Su Shen felt that she was already very blessed, since others ate meagerly. Normally, girls who were 110 lbs were already considered slim. But in the entertainment industry, that was considered chubby. Generally, female artists were about 99 lbs, and once they exceeded 100 lbs, they needed to go on a diet. There were some who even went to do liposuction in order to appear slimmer on camera.

“You’re so easy to provide then. I’ll only give you one meal a day in the future.” Xie Yan arched his brow, seemingly unhappy with her conduct from the tone of his voice. 

Su Shen blushed and couldn’t help but smile, “You think too much. Who needs you to provide for me!” 

“Don’t tell me you want someone else to provide for you?” Xie Yan said seriously as he leaned in.

Su Shen pushed him a little and looked at him fiercely, “Then, you need to save some more money. I want to buy a mansion, sports cars, a lot of clothes and bags!”

The Director couldn’t help but loudly shout into the loudspeaker as no one answered him after calling twice, “It’s time to film!”

The other staff members wanted to laugh, but they didn’t dare to. Their Film Emperor was absorbed in dating and no longer had the heart to film.

Hearing the Director’s shout, Su Shen immediately stood up in embarrassment, and then took off her cotton padded coat. Instantly, she had goosebumps again because of the cold.

Just as she was about to have lunch with Xie Yan after finally finishing the morning scenes, she suddenly received a call from her mom saying that she asked Tan Haozhi to bring her chicken soup! 

Since the chicken soup had already arrived, she couldn’t even refuse. She bundled up warmly to go pick up the chicken soup.  

“Where are you going?” Xie Yan, who was in the middle of putting on his coat to go out, couldn’t help but glance at her.

There were only the two of them in the dressing room. Su Shen was so embarrassed that she didn’t know what to say. She leaned against the sofa and covered her head with a huge cap, “My… My mom sent me chicken soup. I’m going to go get it. Why don’t you wait for me here for a while?”

“I’ll go with you.”

As Xie Yan said that, he took the pair of pink mittens on the table and crouched down in front of her, unhurriedly putting her ice-cold hands into the mittens.

Seeing that he didn’t seem to be joking, Su Shen immediately explained, “No, I can go alone. My mom didn’t come, she asked one of our neighbors to send it here.”

Her voice was light, with a trace of panic on her fair face and her eyes began to wander. This was one of Su Shen’s traits whenever she spoke without confidence, she didn’t dare to look straight at him.

Seeing this, Xie Yan stared into her eyes and asked, “Male?”