【Little Tricks for Love has started filming!】
【Why can’t they make it a live broadcast? Ahhh, I really want to watch.】
【The guests this season can’t really be considered amateurs, right? Except for President Pei who doesn’t have a Weibo, even the actress with the fewest fans has a hundred thousand.】
【LMAO, does the photographer have more fans than the actress?】
【I checked out Yun Chu’s page. She’s really pretty and often posts vlogs. She’s the sweet girl type I like! I’m a mom fan now.】
【Filming has already started this season, why haven’t the observation guests been announced yet?】
【It wouldn’t make sense not to invite Song Yushi and Qi Ke, right? They were the ones who broke new ground in the first season! The show only became a dating variety show after they came out on it!】
【QiYu CP fan here, uninvited. I support the guests showing off their love too! Bring on the competition!】
【The QiYu stans are here to freeload on the sweetness again.】
【Um, is the Little Tricks for Love you guys are talking about filming in XX Village? I live right here! I just got to the village entrance and saw the production team’s logo. I thought some kids had just stuck it there for fun, but then I saw someone in the distance who looked a lot like Jian You.】
【OP… post a pic… don’t make me…】
【Image】
In the picture posted by the original poster, the scenery of the fields was beautiful. Two people stood facing each other on an empty road, so close they were almost touching, though it was unclear what they were saying.
Perhaps because the photographer was nervous, combined with the distance, the photo was a bit blurry, but that only added to the artistic mood.
【I can recognize Jian You, but who’s that standing with her? And so close… what are they doing? It can’t be love at first sight, have they already fallen in love?】
【Bullshit! Impossible! [Crying emoji]】
【It’s so blurry, how the hell could anyone recognize them…】
【This is killing me, I ship it so hard.】
【Being able to ship something this blurry is a real talent [smirk].】
At the recording site.
The blurry photo that had gone viral online was rendered in high definition on the GoPro in Jian You’s hand. Her other hand was still resting on Yun Chu’s hair. The smile at the corner of her lips had faded. She straightened up and looked at the camera. “Does this count as completing the mission?”
She stuffed the paper back into the envelope, only then realizing that Yun Chu hadn’t spoken for a long time.
She looked up.
Yun Chu had already taken several steps back, trying hard to calm herself, but her face was still burning uncontrollably. She stammered, “Teacher Jian…”
How can she make even a cheesy pickup line sound so heart-fluttering, ahhhh!
Jian You hummed in confusion. Then, as if in understanding, a faint smile appeared in her eyes. She thought to herself, Yun Chu seems so reckless and fearless, I didn’t expect her to be so easily flustered…
Still just a kid, after all.
Jian You changed the subject. “Shall we go find the ingredients?”
Yun Chu nodded dazedly and was about to follow her when she suddenly stopped. “Wait!”
Jian You turned back. “What’s wrong?”
“Can this mission only be completed by one person?” Yun Chu called out to the staff member hiding in the shadows.
Jian You was sharp; she understood in a second that Yun Chu also wanted to get the reward and have dinner with her guest of choice. Jian You frowned slightly. Who? Who does she like? Is it Pei Wan, who she spoke with for a bit this morning? Or is it Zhu Wan’er, whose cooking she kept praising?
With that thought, she hid the envelope behind her back and said, “It can probably only be one person.”
Yun Chu was disappointed. “Is that so?”
Jian You’s expression didn’t change. “Yes.”
Yun Chu sighed softly.
She was annoyed with herself. She had been so stunned by the cheesy pickup line that she only remembered the reward as they were about to leave. Even though Jian You had said last night that she wanted to have dinner with her, now that the other guests had arrived, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t change her mind. In that case, wouldn’t she have just done all the work for someone else’s benefit!
Jian You asked, “Do you have a guest you’re interested in?”
Yun Chu didn’t process the question. “…Huh?”
Jian You asked again, “Who do you want to have dinner with?”
Yun Chu: “…”
You, of course!
But she couldn’t say that directly. Yun Chu answered vaguely, “No one.”
Jian You: “Then have dinner with me.”
Yun Chu’s eyes widened slightly. “Teacher Jian… is your person of interest… me?”
Jian You’s fingertips, hanging at her side, lightly scraped the envelope. She didn’t answer yes or no, simply repeating, “Have dinner with me tonight.”
Yun Chu: “?”
Jian You asked, “You don’t want to?”
Yun Chu: “No…!”
Jian You lowered her head, glanced at the envelope, and said in a low voice, “It’s okay if you don’t want to. It seems this designated partner can be mandatory.”
Yun Chu didn’t hear clearly. “What?”
Jian You said, “Nothing.”
Yun Chu didn’t hear, but the cameraman squatting closest heard everything crystal clear. With a look of someone who had just found their new ship, he sent a message in the camera crew’s group chat: I’m totally shipping Jian You and Yun Chu now.
Colleague A: Elaborate.
Colleague B: Let me ship it too.
The cameraman recounted what he had seen and heard.
Colleague C: Getting some forced-love vibes.
Colleague D: Would our screenwriters really let a CP lock in this early? Last season’s ‘you love me, I love him, he loves her’ love triangle was so melodramatic and bittersweet. That’s what the audience loves to see.
Colleague F: Not necessarily, right? That was because the guests had no CP chemistry, so they had to force it with the storyline. The couple that did have chemistry was locked in from beginning to end, and they’re still together now.
Colleague C: Anyway, just lock these two in. I’d love to see it [drooling emoji].
This kind of idle chat was permitted by the production team. After all, when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours, you have to allow people some entertainment. But what started as a small piece of gossip in the camera crew’s chat grew more and more outrageous as it spread.
“Did you hear? Jian You demanded that Yun Chu must have dinner with her.”
“Jian You has her eyes on Yun Chu!”
“Why is Jian You resorting to forced love? She can’t do that just because she’s a big director, right? This isn’t one of her movies where everything has to follow her script… Poor little Yun Chu!”
The rumor spread and spread, and by the time Yun Chu and Jian You entered the villager’s greenhouse to pick vegetables, what reached the director’s ears had become: “Jian You is going to force herself on Yun Chu! Who isn’t shipping this?”
The director: ???
What the hell!
How could something so ridiculous happen on the very first day?
With a truth-seeking spirit, the director traced the whole thing back to its origin, found the initial version, and sat down with the assistant director. They exchanged a look and sighed faintly.
Assistant Director: “What is it?”
Director: “It’s even better to ship than forced love.”
Assistant Director: “Hmm…”
Although they had never directed a film and weren’t in the same school of thought as Jian You, her name was legendary to them. She was like a flower on a high peak—unattainable, a worldly beauty who couldn’t be moved by money or deep affection.
To think she would become so insecure when facing Yun Chu.
This contrast…
Who wasn’t shipping this?
But more surprising to Yun Chu than this display of “contrast moe”—which she hadn’t seen and which Jian You was destined to order cut from the final edit—was what she was seeing right before her eyes.
Right now, she was standing in the greenhouse, while not far from her, Jian You was seriously picking out vegetables.
The heating in the greenhouse was turned up high, and vegetables and fruits grew freely in well-ordered rows in the soil. Jian You was standing on the dirt floor, speaking knowledgeably with the farmer about something.
It was too technical, beyond Yun Chu’s scope of understanding.
Initially, out of consideration for Jian You’s mysophobia, she had volunteered to pick the vegetables and told Jian You to wait on the side. But after she mistakenly picked unripe vegetables several times, Jian You finally couldn’t watch anymore, pulling her away. “Let me do it.”
“Do you know how?” Yun Chu asked doubtfully.
She had grown up with her grandmother, after all, and her grandma had a small vegetable garden. Although she didn’t recognize many plants, she had to be better than someone like Jian You, who looked like she didn’t partake in the mundane affairs of life, right?
Jian You hummed. “I probably know how.”
Yun Chu shoved the basket into her arms. “Then you do it!”
And then, she was brutally proven wrong.
Probably know how?
She was practically an expert, okay?
The follow PD beside her was laughing so hard her shoulders were shaking. Yun Chu glanced at her. “…Don’t laugh so hard. Weren’t we not supposed to have follow PDs?”
The follow PD was the same one Jian You had “shooed away” by the field path. She explained, “Mainly, there’s nowhere to hide in the greenhouse. Rather than huddling in a corner, it’s better to get closer to ship… I mean, to film.”
Yun Chu: “…”
Ship, you wanted to say ship, didn’t you!
She asked, “What should I call you?”
“Call me Xiao Lan.”
Xiao Lan asked, “Teacher Yun, what do you think of Teacher Jian?”
First, Yun Chu had a slight allergic reaction to the address “Teacher Yun.” She wanted to tell Xiao Lan to just call her by her name but felt it would be a bit pretentious, so she resisted the urge to correct her. Then, her gaze fell upon Jian You.
The corners of her lips couldn’t help but curve up. “Teacher Jian, huh.”
Xiao Lan: “Yeah.”
“Teacher Jian is always full of surprises,” Yun Chu said.
Over there, Jian You had already finished picking the vegetables and paid. She was walking toward her along the path. Yun Chu went to meet her. “Teacher Jian, how do you even know how to pick vegetables? Do you usually have to buy groceries yourself?”
The tone sounded familiar to Jian You. She tilted her head and thought for a moment.
Oh, it was a common phrase used by her fans.
Mostly used when @-ing her personal studio, with comments like, “How can you let the princess press the elevator button herself!” “Why does the princess have to drive her own car?” “Excuse me, does your studio need someone to lull the princess to sleep?”
Jian You’s lips curved slightly. “I’ve known how for a long time.”
She wasn’t willing to say any more than that.
Yun Chu didn’t press further, naturally linking her arm with Jian You’s. “Let’s hurry back then! I’m starving!”
The other two pairs had returned long ago.
Pei Wan and Zhu Wan’er were a pair; they had found the second treasure box and were now in the kitchen preparing ingredients for hot pot. Wen Xi and Meng Zhaozhao hadn’t found one and were undergoing their punishment—feeding the chickens and walking the dog to cultivate their relationship.
Yun Chu pushed open the wooden door just in time to see Wen Xi being chased by a hen. She was running and shouting, “My skirt! My skirt! It’s very expensive! If you keep pecking at it, I’ll turn you into chicken soup tomorrow!”
Meng Zhaozhao made no move to rescue her. She just stood to the side, tossing rice into the chicken coop, her suit jacket still draped over her shoulders. The scene had a strange sort of harmony.
Yun Chu and Jian You exchanged a look. She whispered, “It seems their relationship-building isn’t going very well.”
Jian You was noncommittal.
“You’re back!” Wen Xi welcomed them amidst the chaos, then yelled at Meng Zhaozhao, “Hurry up and catch this chicken! Aren’t you the best at catching chickens?”
Meng Zhaozhao froze for a moment, looking a little annoyed, but she still walked over.
By the time Wen Xi and Meng Zhaozhao returned from feeding the chickens, the hot pot was already on the table. Hot pot is the best way to cater to everyone’s tastes and also helps people warm up to each other quickly. Over the course of the meal, the atmosphere among the six of them finally became lively.
“How about we play a game?” Wen Xi suggested.
“What game?”
“I Have, You Haven’t,” Meng Zhaozhao said. “Five fingers. Each person says something only they have or have done. If the others haven’t, they have to put a finger down. The first to put all their fingers down gets a punishment.”
Wen Xi said, “Let’s go in order of where we’re sitting. Teacher Jian, you can go first!”
Everyone held up their hands.
Jian You looked at her palm, thought for a moment, and said, “Yun Chu and I are neighbors.”
Yun Chu: “!!!”
The others: “???”
The production team: “Holy shit??”
