The production crew followed Lin Qinghe and the others, unsure of their intentions at the neighbor's house.
Lin Qinghe met a few elderly women chatting at the doorway and politely greeted them, "Hello, Aunties. We're from next door, just stopping by to say hello. You... are you chatting?"
One of the aunties hospitably replied, "Yes, we were just talking about you. You're filming some TV show next door, aren't you? That big star on TV, what's her name... I can't quite recall."
"Auntie, I'm Qinghe, and this is Wen Qianyi."
"Oh! Right, you're Qinghe. The actress who played Liu Zhenzhen in that drama last time, I remember now!"
Others chimed in, "That's right, it's that actress. I remember too. She's so beautiful... even prettier than on TV!"
"Exactly, exactly..."
"Oh, no... you aunties look so young. I'd guess you're at most thirty-five."
One of the aunties chuckled, her eyes crinkling, "Haha, we're all over fifty, how could we be that young!"
Lin Qinghe looked genuinely surprised, "Really? You're all over fifty? You can't tell at all! You look so youthful!"
"Hahaha... you big stars are so good with words, so sweet-talkers!"
"Not at all, I'm telling the truth." Lin Qinghe nudged Wen Qianyi with her elbow, "Right, Sister Qinghe? The aunties look like they're in their early thirties. Who would ever guess they're over fifty, right?"
Wen Qianyi caught on and quickly added with a smile, "Yes, Sister Qinghe is right. You all look so young. When you first said over fifty, my first thought was that you were joking."
Lin Qinghe continued with a smile, "See, aunties... I was telling the truth."
With Lin Qinghe and Wen Qianyi exchanging pleasantries and compliments, the aunties were delighted. Seeing this, Lin Qinghe got straight to the point, "By the way, aunties, I wanted to ask how you all shell corn? We can only do it by hand at our place, and it's so slow. We were hoping you could give us some pointers."
One of the aunties replied, "Oh! We all use electric corn shellers. You just plug it in, pour the corn in, and it shells the kernels. It's very fast! Probably takes half an hour to do a big pile."
Lin Qinghe and Wen Qianyi's eyes lit up. Lin Qinghe eagerly asked, "Auntie... could we borrow your electric corn sheller? We'll return it immediately after we're done!"
"Of course! Come with me, I'll get it for you to take back and use!"
"That's wonderful! Thank you so much!"
Lin Qinghe and Wen Qianyi eagerly followed, and in the auntie's kitchen, they spotted various cured meats hanging. Lin Qinghe, unabashed, smiled when the auntie came out, "Auntie, did you make these cured meats yourself? That's amazing! They look so delicious. If you stir-fried them with some chili and bamboo shoots, they'd be incredible..."
The auntie, being very kind-hearted, immediately took down a portion of the cured meats upon hearing Lin Qinghe's comment. "These are homemade. Please don't mind them, take them back to try. If you like them, tell me after you've finished, and I'll give you more!"
"Oh, oh... that's too embarrassing."
Lin Qinghe said she was embarrassed, but her hands were already eagerly taking the cured meats from the auntie.
The production crew watching their faces twitched, and one of them couldn't help but step forward to remind them, "Qinghe, you can only obtain ingredients by completing tasks."
Lin Qinghe gathered the items, handed them to Wen Qianyi to hold, and smiled sweetly at the crew, "You only said we could obtain ingredients by completing tasks, you didn't say we couldn't get them through other means. Besides, we didn't steal or rob. The kind aunties next door gave them to us. It can't be considered breaking the rules, can it?"
Wen Qianyi nodded vigorously, clutching the cured meats tightly, "Right! Sister Qinghe is absolutely right!"
The production crew had no rebuttal and could only watch as Lin Qinghe charmed her way into the neighbors' good graces, acquiring a large haul of various ingredients.
Back in their small courtyard, Lin Qinghe and Wen Qianyi, having borrowed the electric corn sheller, quickly completed their task. Looking at the ingredients gifted by the aunties, Lin Qinghe clapped her hands and said, "Let's go. Our task is done, and it's not yet time to prepare dinner. We'll go up the mountain to find You Rong and the others, and bring them some food for lunch!"
Wen Qianyi: "Great! I thought we wouldn't get so many ingredients today and would have to save on lunch. But then the aunties next door gave us so much! Now we don't need to worry at all!"
They were not worried at all and happily headed up the mountain to find You Rong and the others who were digging for winter bamboo shoots. The production crew trailing behind them, however, looked crestfallen.
The rules they had set were for the guests to experience various aspects of life, not to have them completed so effortlessly.
Following the directions given by the production crew, Lin Qinghe led Wen Qianyi along a small path up the mountain. After walking a considerable distance, they finally spotted Zhou Cheng'an, who was panting and digging for winter bamboo shoots with a hoe.
Wen Qianyi ran over and said with a smile, "Cheng'an, Brother Zheng Yi, You Rong... we've brought you lunch!"
Zhou Cheng'an saw them approaching, put down his hoe tiredly, and slumped to the ground, wiping the sweat from his face. "Why did you and Sister Qinghe come up here? Did you finish your task?"
"Of course! Thanks to Sister Qinghe's cleverness, not only did we quickly finish the corn shelling task, but we also got a lot of extra ingredients. We won't have to worry about going hungry for the next couple of days!"
Zheng Yi also walked over and asked curiously, "What happened? Tell us quickly!"
Wen Qianyi recounted the whole story, which made Zheng Yi and Zhou Cheng'an burst into laughter at the production crew.
Lin Qinghe walked over to You Rong with a large steamed bun given by an auntie and handed it to him. You Rong thanked her and took it to eat.
Lin Qinghe stood beside him, her eyes flickering, subtly looking around.
She was looking for an opportunity to increase You Rong's favorability.
It seemed fate was on Lin Qinghe's side. They were standing on a slope where the soil was a bit loose. A strong wind blew, causing the bamboo on the slope to sway violently. The loose soil became even more unstable, and finally, a whole section of earth gave way and tumbled down.
You Rong, sitting on the ground eating, was oblivious. Lin Qinghe's pupils constricted, and she lunged forward, tackling You Rong to the ground, exclaiming, "Be careful!"
You Rong was knocked to the ground, and Lin Qinghe shielded him protectively. The falling soil landed entirely on her. Both of them were buried under the dirt.