It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when Xia Zhi arrived at his destination. The staff arranged by the program team to pick him up had been waiting for a while. Since they had never met before, the staff specially held up a sign.
The sign was very eye-catching, and Xia Zhi saw it as soon as he got out of the station. He walked over with his luggage.
The person who came to pick up the car was a young girl who looked like she had just graduated from college. She was holding a sign and looking around, searching for her target in the crowd.
The girl didn’t know much about Victoria originally. She only knew that it was a group that disbanded eight years ago. Therefore, her initial impression of the five members was similar to that of netizens—a group of greasy middle-aged men!
But when I saw the true faces of the members today, I was so shocked that my eyes almost popped out.
Chuanxing did a good job of keeping the secret, so until yesterday, most of the staff of the program had not seen the members of Victoria. So when four of them showed up together today, countless people were shocked.
Especially when seeing the newly crowned actor Jiang Zhixia was also among them, everyone had only one thought in their mind—this group is too damn amazing! In addition, who the hell said it was a group of greasy middle-aged men! These four people are handsome, cool, handsome, and beautiful. They can beat 99% of the male stars in the entertainment industry!
At that time, a staff member couldn't help but sigh: "I didn't expect that the members of Victoria are so good-looking. Their looks are so amazing!"
Unexpectedly, Sang Luo smiled after hearing this and said, "This is incredible. We haven't even arrived at our house yet."
There was a sudden gasp at the scene.
These four people are not the face of the group! This group is far from the truth!
With Sang Luo's precautions, the girl specifically stared at the handsome man when she came to the high-speed rail station to pick up Victoria's legendary face, but she couldn't see anyone who looked like him.
When she thought that Jiang Zhixia, who became an overnight sensation for her good looks, was not even a celebrity, the little girl became more curious about Xia Zhi's appearance.
Just then, he saw a man walking out of the crowd.
The man was wearing a clean light blue short-sleeved shirt and ordinary casual cropped pants. He was dressed very simply, but his figure was slender and well-proportioned, and his posture was upright. He looked very comfortable at first glance. Especially his face, his eyebrows and eyes were picturesque, and he was handsome and extraordinary.
Surrounded by travelers walking in a hurry, that man was walking leisurely with a calm and graceful step. From head to toe, he exuded two words - exquisite.
This refinement not only refers to the appearance, but also includes the entire atmosphere of the person.
The first time the girl saw him, she had a strong premonition that it was him! So she quickly raised the sign a little higher. When the man saw it, he really walked towards him.
Xia Zhi walked up to the young staff member and smiled slightly. Her beautiful eyes behind the lenses also showed a soft smile: "Hello, I'm Xia Zhi."
The girl felt her heart skip a beat, she felt dizzy, and her face immediately turned red.
To be honest, the five members of Victoria are all very good-looking. Any one of them can be the face of other groups. If we only talk about the exquisiteness of facial features, this face is actually comparable to Jiang Zhixia. There is a unique attraction in this person that makes people see him at a glance. If he is on the red carpet, Xia Zhixia must be the kind of camera hunter. As long as he appears, the camera will automatically capture him, making everyone else a foil.
The girl realized that she was a little fascinated by the appreciation, and quickly came to her senses and said, "Hello, Teacher Xia, I am sent by the program team to pick you up. The car is waiting outside. Shall we go now?"
Xia Zhi nodded: "Let's go."
"Okay, Teacher Xia, this way, the car is parked in the west parking lot." The girl took the initiative to say, "Teacher, let me help you with your luggage."
"No, can I take it myself?" Xia Zhi declined with a smile, "The box is a bit heavy."
When the girl met Xia Zhi's smiling eyes, she felt her heart skip a beat again.
Xia Zhi followed the staff and got into the program crew's nanny car and rushed to the filming location without stopping.
Xia Zhi also found out today that the theme of the reality show that Chuanxing arranged for them was to experience rural life. So they will stay in a village under the jurisdiction of Y City for a month.
Y City is located in the southwest, with a relatively backward economy. Many villages are still relatively poor and the traffic conditions are not very ideal. There is still some distance from Y City to the village where the filming was done, and it takes an hour to drive.
On the way, the staff were worried that Xia Zhi would be bored, so they tried hard to find topics to talk about.
"I heard that Teacher Xia is from U City? Did you grow up in the city?"
Xia Zhi was admiring the scenery on both sides of the car window. Hearing this, he retracted his gaze and nodded to the girl with a smile: "Yes, I grew up in the city."
"Then the teacher probably has no experience of living in the countryside, right?"
"Indeed not." Xia Zhi said with a smile, "So I am actually looking forward to this trip to the countryside."
The staff member immediately showed an expression of pity. Seeing that Xia Zhi was easier to get along with than he had imagined, he gradually relaxed. He couldn't help but say to Xia Zhi, "Teacher Xia, you think too simply. You'd better be prepared first."
Xia Zhi raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Could it be that you have arranged a lot of difficult tests?"
The girl covered her mouth and smiled, "You should wait for the teacher to see this question and make your own judgment."
Xia Zhi laughed. Although this girl is young, she is quite smart.
Since the other party wanted to keep the mystery, Xia Zhi did not ask any more questions. He then asked some of his teammates about the shooting in the morning, and in the midst of the conversation, they finally arrived at their destination.
The car got off the provincial road and turned into a village called "Jingwu". The village is not only beautiful in name, but also in scenery.
There is only one main road in the village, which is made of cement. The road surface is not wide, barely wide enough for two cars to drive side by side.
After driving 50 meters on the cement road, the commercial vehicle turned into a dirt road. On both sides of the dirt road were streams and rice fields, and in the distance were low green mountains. At the foot of the green mountains was a two-story courtyard with white walls and black tiles.
The girl pointed to the building in front and said to Xia Zhi, "Teacher Xia, the one in front is where we're going to shoot."
Xia Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at him from a distance.
The girl then introduced the village to him.
"Jingwu Village is located in a valley. There is only one way out, which is the cement road we just came in. We are still at the entrance of the village. This area is basically farmland. The residential area is about 500 to 600 meters further in." The girl obviously did her homework and knew the village very well. "Although the scenery of this village is beautiful, it lacks development. It is one of the poorer villages in Y, so most of the young people have gone to work in the city. Now the people who remain in the village are basically the elderly and children."
"Stay in the village?"
"Yes."
Xia Zhi didn't ask any more questions. He turned to look out the window and continued to admire the village.
The dirt road was bumpy and it seemed to have rained a few days ago. The road was a bit muddy. The car was swaying on it and I dared not drive too fast. There were farmlands on both sides, and crops were planted in the fields. Summer is the season when rice matures. Looking around, there is a heavy, golden rice field and distant mountains. It is a completely different beauty from the modern city of steel and concrete.
Soon, the car drove up to the white two-story building and stopped.
The staff member said to Xia Zhi, "Teacher Xia, we have arrived. We can get off the bus now."
"Okay." Xia Zhi pushed open the car door and got out, then looked at the house again.
Because it was in the village, Xia Zhi had prepared herself mentally for the poor environment of the house. But she didn't expect the production team to prepare it very well. There was a yard outside the two-story house, and the interior was obviously carefully decorated. There was a pond in the yard, and there was also a sunshade for people to rest and cool off.
The interior decoration of the house was obviously a B&B. But Xia Zhi was a little puzzled. Isn't Jingwu Village one of the poorest places in Y City? Can a B&B really make money here
The girl probably saw the confusion and took the initiative to explain, "This was originally a B&B. The owner was from Y City. He heard that Jingwu Village had beautiful scenery and wanted to open a B&B. But after the B&B was built, there was no customer source at all, so it closed down after half a year, and this house has been abandoned here."
“I see.”
As the two were talking, a middle-aged man wearing a black T-shirt and a beard opened the door and walked out.
When the man saw Xia Zhi, his eyes suddenly lit up, his expression was a little surprised and a little delighted, he quickened his pace and walked up to Xia Zhi, smiled and extended his hand to introduce himself: "Hello, Teacher Xia, I am the program director, Xu Tian."
"Hello, Director." Xia Zhi shook hands with him, and saw several more staff members coming out with equipment in their hands, so he asked, "Shall we start shooting now?"
"Yes," Xu Tian said, "I'll ask the staff to put the microphone on you first."
"OK."
The staff quickly put a microphone on Xia Zhi. The stylist waiting on the side stared at Xia Zhi's face for a long time without taking any action. Instead, he walked to the director and whispered, "Director, Teacher Xia is naturally beautiful. She doesn't even need makeup."
"Then don't put on any makeup, just leave it like this." Xu Tian touched his chin and stared at Xia Zhi's face. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up, revealing a look of satisfaction.
Actually, Xu Tian agreed to take on the production of this program because he wanted to repay Fang Yuan's favor. Before the official filming, he had no confidence in whether the program could be done well. After all, the guests were a group of outdated boy band members, and because the program had no gimmicks and could not attract investors, it looked like it would fail. But after meeting the five guests today, he was suddenly full of confidence.
Xia Zhi straightened his appearance and asked Xu Tian: "What should I do now?"
He hadn't faced the camera for many years and was inexplicably a little nervous.
Xu Tian seemed to see his embarrassment and smiled to comfort him, "Don't be nervous, just drag your luggage and push the door open normally."
Xia Zhi nodded, took his luggage and walked towards the door. As soon as he approached, he heard Sang Luo's voice coming from inside.
"Xia Xia should be here soon."
"He's probably almost there. The bus he's on arrives in Y City at one o'clock, and it takes another hour and a half to get there from Y City. It's almost time." This was Xiao Han's voice.
Next up is Cheng Yunan.
"Xiao Xiaer is in a hurry to catch the bus, and he probably hasn't had lunch yet. Let's get him something to eat before he arrives."
"What are you doing?" Xiao Han asked, "There's not much food in the house."
"Let's cook a bowl of noodles first." Sang Luo said, "We have some soup left over from lunch, so give him a bowl of noodles and fry two eggs."
"That's fine." Cheng Yunan agreed, "Then I'll cook the noodles first and fry two eggs at the same time."
Xia Zhi was hiding outside the door and eavesdropping. He couldn't help but smile knowingly when he heard this. Just as he was about to push the door open, he heard voices again.
"Fry the eggs harder," Jiang Zhixia suddenly called out to Cheng Yunan, "He doesn't like runny eggs."
Xia Zhi paused.
Just during the few seconds he hesitated, Sang Luo's teasing voice came out again.
"Yo~ I still remember Xia Xia's taste after all these years."
Jiang Zhixia ignored him, but Xiao Han laughed twice.
Xia Zhi lowered his head, took a deep breath calmly, reached out and gently pushed open the half-closed wooden door.
When the door was pushed, the wooden door made a slight sound, attracting the attention of the three people in the yard.
"Hey, you're here." Sang Luo waved at him lazily while lying in a rocking chair.
"We're finally here. We were just missing you." Xiao Han was closest to the door and walked quickly over to take the luggage.
"Sorry, I'm late." Xia Zhi felt a little embarrassed.
"Why are you being so distant with us?" Xiao Han was unhappy. "You must be hungry. Anzi will go make noodles for you."
"Yeah." Xia Zhi was indeed a little hungry, so he didn't refuse.
Xiao Han took the luggage into the house and said, "Sit down and rest for a while."
"Okay." There happened to be a chair next to Sang Luo, so Xia Zhi sat over it and looked around the place where he would be living for the next half month.
Although it is a homestay, the house is not built in a particularly modern style, probably to match the surrounding scenery. It has white walls, black tiles, and bluestone walls, preserving the original ecology to the greatest extent. The house is not big, so there are not many rooms. There are three rooms on the first floor, namely the living room, public bathroom, and entertainment room. Due to lack of space, a small bungalow was built for the kitchen, next to the main house. The second floor is the guest room, which also has only three rooms.
Although the house is a little small, it should be quite comfortable to live in.
After looking around the house, Xia Zhi felt a little thirsty. Seeing a teapot on a small table, he wanted to pour a glass of water. However, the next second, a glass of water was handed to him.
"Have a glass of water first." Jiang Zhixia's voice came from the side.
Xia Zhi turned around, met Jiang Zhixia's eyes, pulled the corners of his mouth slightly, and took the cup: "Thank you."
At this time, Cheng Yunan had also finished his work and came out of the kitchen with a bowl of noodles, calling Xia Zhi: "Xia Xia, eat first."
Jiang Zhixia lowered her head, looked at the empty cup in her hand, and suddenly laughed softly.
Xia Zhi went into the house to eat noodles, and the other four followed him in. They sat around the dining table and discussed things while eating with Xia Zhi.
"What are we having for dinner?" Xiao Han was also a little hungry. He laid on the table with his hand on his chin, staring at the bowl in Xia Zhi's hand.
Cheng Yunan has been a househusband for many years. When he arrived here, he visited the kitchen first. He knew the situation inside best, so he said: "There are no ingredients in the kitchen now, and the seasonings such as oil, salt, sauce and vinegar are not complete. We have to go buy them first."
"But there is not even a small shop in the village, where can I buy it?" Xiao Han was distressed, still staring at Xia Zhi.
Xia Zhi glanced at him, took a small bowl from the table with a little helplessness, picked out half of the noodles from the bowl, and handed it to Xiao Han.
Xiao Han took it and smiled sweetly at Xia Zhi: "Love you!"
Cheng Yunan kicked him in disgust: "Look at you, you are such a loser!"
After finishing his meal, Xia Zhi also joined the discussion: "There are no shops in the village, but there must be some in the town, right?"
"We're new here and don't even know where the town is." Cheng Yunan spread his hands.
Jiang Zhixia suddenly spoke up and said calmly, "The nearest town is Huayan Town, four kilometers away from here."
The other four turned to look at him.
Sang Luo asked: "How did you know? Have you been here for filming before?"
Jiang Zhixia put the phone on the table, and the familiar interface of the Bad Map appeared on the screen.
The four of them were silent for a moment and took out their cell phones.
Sang Luo observed the route and said, "The location of Jingwu Village is not as remote as I thought. It's quite fast to get to the town and the county seat."
"Yes." Cheng Yunan also said, "It's too late today. Let's find time to go to the county town some other day. There are still many things to buy for this house."
"Let's go to town today and buy some vegetables and seasonings to prepare dinner first." Sang Luo suggested, "It doesn't need all five of us to go shopping. Why not make a list at home and send two people to buy them. The remaining three can stay here to clean the house."
This proposal made no sense to everyone.
Xia Zhi casually asked, "How do we divide the groups?"
Cheng Yunan was just about to say that they should draw lots, but Sang Luo said before him, "Why don't you and Lao Jiang go buy some groceries?"
Xia Zhi was stunned and subconsciously glanced at Jiang Zhixia, and saw that he was also quite surprised.
"The two of us?" Xia Zhi asked again.
This time it was not just Sang Luo, Cheng Yunan and Xiao Han also said in unison: "Yes! Just the two of you!"
"… "
Fifteen minutes later, Xia Zhi and Jiang Zhixia drove to Huayan Town with the shopping list.
The staff member who followed him took a separate car, so the atmosphere in the car with only him and Jiang Zhixia was particularly silent. Fortunately, Jiang Zhixia was driving, so even if she didn't speak, she could explain that it was to avoid distracting him.
After figuring this out, Xia Zhi no longer worried about whether to find a topic to liven up the atmosphere, and just started playing with his phone.
Just ten minutes ago, a student asked him some academic questions, so he took this opportunity to reply.
Huayan Town and Jingwu Village are not far away, and can be reached in five minutes by car.
Xia Zhi was concentrating on answering students' questions when he suddenly heard Jiang Zhixia's voice.
"arrive."
"Ah?" Xia Zhi looked up and saw that they had arrived at the parking lot at the entrance of Huayan Town. He said, "Oh," put away his phone, and said, "Let's get off the car then."
"Um."
The two got out of the car. Xia Zhi looked around, pointed ahead and said to Jiang Zhixia, "There seems to be a farmer's market there."
"Let's go and take a look first." Jiang Zhixia said.
"good."
The two walked forward side by side, with two cameras following them on either side. The residents around them looked over curiously, whispering to the people around them.
"What are you doing?"
"Are they filming a movie? Look, there's a video camera."
"Oh, stars are worthy of being stars. Look at these two kids. They are so cute."
"Oh my god! I wish my baby could be this beautiful."
"Don't dream. These two children are fair-skinned and tender. You can tell they are from rich families in the city. They are nothing like us."
Xia Zhi walked on the road, bearing the gazes from all directions, and felt his face getting hotter and hotter. This made him even more uneasy than being stared at by a group of female students with gleaming eyes in class.
Jiang Zhixia was obviously used to it. She calmly ignored the looks around her and walked calmly.
When the two of them walked into the farmer's market, they were stared at again. But by this time, Xia Zhi had probably gotten used to this feeling, so his expression became much more natural, and he took the list and compared it with the shops one by one.
Xia Zhi is usually busy with work and seldom cooks for himself. He doesn't know much about vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, which he still thinks are collectively called "green vegetables". So he started to have a headache when he looked at the "Shanghai Green", "Hangzhou Cabbage", "Chinese Cabbage" and "Baby Cabbage" on the list.
He shook the list in his hand and asked Jiang Zhixia helplessly: "Do you recognize these dishes?"
Jiang Zhixia looked down at the list, then looked up at Xia Zhi, reached out to take the note, and said to him, "Let me buy it, you just watch from the side."
Xia Zhi was a little surprised: "You know them all?"
"Um."
Jiang Zhixia took him to a vegetable stall and started to pick from a pile of green leafy vegetables. Xia Zhi stood by and saw him quickly pick up a vegetable, check the appearance, hand it to the boss to weigh, and then pick up another one and repeat the previous action. After repeating it five times, Jiang Zhixia stopped and asked the boss: "How much is it?"
"The total is fifty-four dollars and sixty cents." Since he bought a large quantity, the stall owner generously said, "I'll give you a zero, so fifty will be fine."
"Thank you." Jiang Zhixia took out a fifty-yuan note from the living expenses given to them by the program team before they set off and handed it over.
Jiang Zhixia was surprisingly reliable, which surprised Xia Zhi. What surprised him most was that Jiang Zhixia was very natural when buying vegetables, as if she did it often, and it was full of life.
After buying vegetables, they went to the supermarket to buy seasonings and daily necessities. This town is very small, and there is only one supermarket, which is near the farmer's market and is very easy to find.
The two bought all the items as quickly as possible and drove home.
When we got home, it was time for dinner. Among the five people, Xia Zhi, Sang Luo and Xiao Han had no cooking skills. Cheng Yunan had been a househusband for several years and was the best cook. Jiang Zhixia said he could cook, but none of the four people had eaten his cooking, so it was hard to say how good his cooking skills were.
Therefore, the first dinner after everyone got together was tentatively scheduled to be Cheng Yunan's cooking, with Jiang Zhixia assisting. In addition, Xiao Han said that he had recently learned a dish and had to show it off, so Cheng Yunan made an exception and allowed him to enter the kitchen as well.
Xia Zhi and Sang Luo were completely unable to help with cooking, so they were assigned to make the beds on the second floor.
Xia Zhi went up to the second floor and found that two of the three guest rooms were locked, and only the innermost one was opened.
Xia Zhi pushed the door open and walked in. The room was quite big, but there were only five beds and no other furniture. She was stunned. "We have to sleep in a dormitory."
"Yeah. I heard that the ceilings of the other two rooms are leaking, and it will leak when it rains." Sang Luo leaned against the door with his hands folded, and glanced at him, "Why, do you dislike us and don't want to be with us?"
"How could that be." Xia Zhi laughed dryly. "It's nice to sleep together. We haven't slept together for many years. I miss it a lot."
The two began to make the bed, and went downstairs after the mattress was laid. Dinner was just ready. After the five people were at the table, Xiao Han couldn't wait to promote his masterpiece.
"Everyone, try this new dish I learned to make - Pearl Jade Soup!"
Cheng Yunan complained without giving any face: "Isn't it just a pot of stew? Just look at the mess you put in."
"Bah! You're the one who's just stewing everything!" Xiao Han refuted seriously, "The dishes I put in are all very particular, okay? Even though they don't look very good, they still taste very good! Try them all! Try them all!"
Xiao Han enthusiastically served everyone a bowl.
Sang Luo stirred it with a spoon: "Isn't it soup? Why is it so sticky?"
"That's what it says on the menu." Xiao Han was a little anxious. "Don't worry, it's not poisonous! It won't kill you!"
The other four looked at each other and finally picked up the spoon. Xia Zhi scooped up a spoonful and was about to drink when Jiang Zhixia suddenly called him.
"Xia Xia, don't drink it. It contains bean sprouts."
Xia Zhi was stunned, and stirred the bowl with a spoon, and indeed saw bean sprouts.
"Oh, I forgot Xia Xia doesn't eat bean sprouts!" Xiao Han patted his head, reached out to take Xia Zhi's bowl, and said, "Xia Xia, don't eat it. I'll make something else for you next time."
"It's okay to eat a little."
"No," Xiao Han said with a serious face, "You will have diarrhea if you eat bean sprouts, you can't eat them!"
Xia Zhi didn't get to drink the pearl jade soup made by Xiao Han in the end. He felt quite regretful because the other three praised Xiao Han after tasting it, saying that it tasted very good and praised Xiao Han very much.
However, at nine o'clock in the evening, Cheng Yunan suddenly said that he felt a little uncomfortable in his stomach, and soon after that, Sang Luo and Jiang Zhixia also began to complain about stomach discomfort.
"What, what's going on?" Xiao Han was anxious and scared. "Could it be food poisoning?"
"Food poisoning?" Xia Zhi was a little uncertain. Could it be Xiao Han's pot of soup? Because if it was food poisoning, only the four of them drank that pot of soup, and he didn't drink it. But Xiao Han obviously drank it, so why was he fine
Xia Zhi had no time to think deeply. As the only healthy person in the room, he quickly called the staff. Fortunately, the program team was equipped with a doctor.
After examining the three people, the doctor found that they were indeed suffering from food poisoning, but fortunately the situation was not serious and they did not need to go to the hospital. They just had to vomit out the food they had eaten.
The three were fed emetic drugs and started vomiting while holding a basin.
The staff looked serious and could not hide their worry on their faces.
Xiao Han was completely frightened. He knew that the culprit that caused the three people to be poisoned was his pot of soup. He felt regretful and blamed himself. But at this time, the three people were vomiting uncomfortably, and he did not dare to disturb them. He could only stand aside helplessly with his hands clenched, his eyes red.
Xia Zhi and the doctor took turns patting the three people on the back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xiao Han standing by with red eyes, blaming himself so much that he seemed to be about to cry. He felt a little sorry for Xiao Han and wanted to comfort him. But before he could open his mouth, Cheng Yunan spoke tremblingly.
"Xiao Han~ Stop crying, yue~ We have already agreed to let you cook, yue~ We have accepted it, yue~ Be mentally prepared to have your stomach washed, yue~"
Sang Luo also raised his head and weakly comforted Xiao Han: "That's right~ We all know~ how good your cooking is~ We are very clear~ We volunteered to be the guinea pigs~ right, Lao Jiang~
Jiang Zhixia: "... Yeah. Yue~~~~"
Xia Zhi: “…”
(End of this chapter)