The mountain village was peaceful and serene in the evening, and the guests returned to the courtyard with the ingredients they had collected that afternoon.
The production team staged a series of photos of the ingredients, and the guests cheered that they could start cooking dinner. Zhang Chaohe secretly glanced at Cheng Jixue, his eyes filled with expectation and pleading!
Cheng Jixue also secretly smiled at him, indicating that she had received his message.
When everyone arrived at the kitchen, they found that the stove was completely empty, with not even a salt shaker except for a water bucket!
The guests immediately let out a wail—the production team revealed a wicked smile and started blaring through the megaphone again: "As you've probably all noticed, besides the ingredients we received today, you're also missing the necessary seasonings—"
The staff pushed out a small cart, which was neatly stacked with various seasonings, including not only the usual oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce, but also instant food seasoning packets such as Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, curry cubes, and even hot pot base!
Each type of seasoning has a label with Arabic numerals on it—oil, salt, and sugar are "2", light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce are "3", while instant seasoning packets reach a terrifying "5" or "6"!
Luan Zhang knew the show's tactics all too well: "Is this the exchange price?"
Director: "Yes, everyone needs to work together to complete the task, and at the end, you can exchange the points you get for the seasoning packets you need!"
Xiao Chen couldn't wait any longer: "What is the mission? Tell me quickly!"
Although no one was hungry, they really wanted to eat.
Tonight, we'll have crayfish, mushrooms, and local pork, plus a poached duck that we got by threatening the production team since we can't catch wild ducks!
It's so delicious that just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
The production team smiled mysteriously and led everyone into the room—where they saw that the Switch that Xiao Zhang had smuggled in was already connected, and the TV screen was displaying the standby screen with a row of games carefully selected by Zhang Chaohe!
The guests exclaimed excitedly, "Ohhh!"
It's about scoring points in games—isn't that a piece of cake?
The director tapped the megaphone: "Considering the overwhelming demand for gaming, our production team has decided, after discussion, to include gaming competitions in the challenge segment!"
"After all, we're a considerate and kind production team, not some kind of devil!"
Zhang Chaohe: As expected, CCTV's program team is truly generous!
Everyone looked excitedly at the production team. The assistant director smiled slightly: "This challenge involves completing a game and earning shopping points based on your score: 3 points for A, 2 points for B, and 2 points for C. Each group has five chances to challenge, and you'll get double points for challenging the monster-guarding level. The seven people will be divided into four groups: three groups will challenge the two-player mode, and the other guest will challenge the single-player mode alone."
Upon hearing this description, Zhang Chaohe suddenly had a bad feeling: "What kind of game are we going to challenge?"
The directing team collectively revealed a mysterious smile: "Cuphead."
Zhang Chaohe: ! !
Huh? You're letting a bunch of players who might not even have played games with a controller before challenge Cuphead?
What's the difference between this and making a warrior in beginner gear fight a dragon, bro?!
Zhang Chaohe immediately protested: "Cuphead is too difficult. Considering that the guests here may not be able to get the hang of it right away, I suggest we change the game!"
But the production team ruthlessly rejected his suggestion: "Life is full of challenges."
You guys wanted to play games?! Give me the game—
The director continued sarcastically, "With Mr. Zhang around, we can at least guarantee to earn enough for a set of oil, salt, and sugar, right?"
I told you not to smuggle in game consoles!
Zhang Chaohe fell silent—everyone realized the challenge was far from simple and began discussing team composition. Zhang Chaohe, who appeared to be a skilled player, took the lead, asking first, "Anyone here have experience with Cuphead?"
The room fell silent... Cheng Jixue suddenly raised his hand: "I..." He hesitated for a moment, biting his lower lip: "I've seen game streamers play this."
Okay, I'll say he's played it, but Zhang Chaohe then asked, "Does anyone have experience playing games with a gamepad?"
This time, Luan Zhang, Feng Yingyu, and Zhao Xinyue all raised their hands—Zhao Xinyue said shyly, "I've only ever played farming games..."
Luan Zhang remained quite calm: "I've played AAA games."
Zhang Chaohe immediately gained a new understanding of these two seniors! He hesitated for a moment: "How about we learn from Tian Ji's horse racing strategy?"
One group consisted of two people who had never played gamepad games before; if they could score points, great, if not, so be it. Another group consisted of Luan Zhang, whose game skills were said to be slightly better, and Cheng Jixue, who had watched game commentary. The third group consisted of Feng Yingyu and Zhao Xinyue, who were relatively more familiar with gamepad controls.
Zhang Chaohe teamed up alone and challenged himself in the solo mode.
This way, at least everyone can manage to put together a set of oil, salt, and sugar tonight...
The guests took turns learning how to operate the equipment and even tried it out—the results were disastrous. Zhang Chaohe calculated that tonight, forget about the hot pot base, it would be a luxury to even get all the seasonings at the 3-point level!
The production team officially announced the start of the game, and the retro game screen in the style of 20th-century Disney slowly loaded. Zhang Chaohe directly chose the first map's gatekeeper level and passionately fought against the pumpkin head, garlic, and carrot - Cuphead is a game that really raises blood pressure. After five attempts, he even failed to pass the level twice.
Zhang Chaohe received one A and two Bs. Considering the rule of doubling the challenge points, Zhang Chaohe's turn ended, and the guest team received a total of 14 points!
Lu Tao felt relieved: "Great! Two parts oil, two parts salt, two parts sugar, and I can also get the light and dark soy sauce!"
Actually, the production team didn't make things too difficult for the guests—Mr. Zhang, a game enthusiast, won a basic seasoning gift pack, and even if the other guests slack off, they wouldn't have to eat boiled cabbage tonight.
The second group to compete was the gaming newbies Lu Tao and Xiao Chen. The two of them chose the normal level... but unexpectedly, this normal level was even more difficult than the guard level.
At least when guarding a checkpoint, you can stand still and fire randomly, but in ordinary checkpoints you have to run forward while dodging monsters!
This isn't a normal level; it's clearly a difficulty trap!
As expected, the rookie group of guests got beaten up and had their heads shaved, so the two groups that came on next decided to change their strategy and everyone went to rush to defend the checkpoint!
Win and get double points, lose and you won't lose anything!
Zhang Chaohe gave frantic off-field instructions, and soon Feng Yingyu's team successfully obtained two C-level ratings, earning 4 points!
When Cheng Jixue and Luan Zhang came on stage, the guest group already had an astonishing 18 points of cash! They could even use it to buy hot pot base!
Luan Zhang and Cheng Jixue both seemed very calm, and amidst the screams and groans of the other guests, they successfully obtained two B-level ratings, earning a total of 8 points!
The production team handed the excited guests a thick stack of round cardboard tokens. Lu Tao immediately grabbed 26 tokens, cheered, and joined the buying frenzy!
After discussion, Lu Tao first exchanged for the most basic oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, thirteen spices, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and oyster sauce.
Tokens -19, 7 remaining.
You can only choose one: curry or hot pot base... After weighing the quantities of the two seasoning packets, everyone felt that the hot pot base was more versatile and could last longer.
And with the hot pot base, we can have stir-fried crayfish tonight!
Tokens -6, 1 remaining.
The guests rushed to the kitchen with the seasonings they had worked so hard to obtain. The kitchen was bustling with activity, with Cheng Jixue taking the lead in cooking while the others helped prepare the ingredients.
Feng Yingyu was assigned the task of cutting mushrooms, and the other guests repeatedly reminded him to wash his hands after cutting them to prevent accidental mushroom poisoning.
The production team said helplessly, "Actually, mushrooms aren't some kind of deadly poison—"
Zhao Xinyue suddenly spoke up: "Red umbrella, white pole, let's lie down on the board together after we finish eating!"
As she started, the other guests joined in singing: "Red umbrella, white pole, after eating we lie down on the plank, on the plank we sleep in the coffin, and then we're buried together on the mountain!"
The catchy nursery rhyme immediately filled the entire courtyard, and the director helplessly covered his forehead, seemingly in despair. Amidst the singing of "Bury the Mountain Mountain," Cheng Jixue first stewed the duck, and then began to cook crayfish in a wok. The blanched crayfish were like translucent red gems, glistening with oil, and looked very tempting.
Zhang Chaohe glanced at it longingly, then suddenly remembered that wonderful night with boiled fish.
Two people, no other light bulbs, boiled fish, perfectly proportioned chili oil.
Sorry, hot pot broth for stir-fried crayfish is just garbage!!
Cheng Jixue's hands were incredibly fast, comparable to a professional chef. Everyone's eyes were practically green with envy at his skillful movements in stir-frying crayfish—but Cheng Jixue suddenly said, "It would be perfect to have a can of beer to accompany the crayfish."
Everyone turned their attention to the production team: the production team was very embarrassed: "Um... we really don't have that."
Who would have thought that Cheng Jixue, who looks like a professional chef, would be among the guests! The cooking skills of the veteran guests are basically equivalent to "cooking well," and the new guests don't look like they're used to cooking either—you can't judge a book by its cover. The gentle and delicate Cheng Jixue can even lift a large iron pot filled with crayfish and oil with one hand!
Is this the "Copper Hammer Flower Girl"?!
While the duck was still stewing, the fresh, spicy crayfish were already ready! Cheng Jixue prepared the other side dishes and neatly placed them on the cutting board, planning to stir-fry the other dishes after the duck was almost done stewing.
The guests carried two large basins of crayfish back inside, chatting and munching on them. Everyone praised Cheng Jixue's culinary skills—in the face of such delicious food, Cheng Jixue was immediately crowned the MVP of the day!
Today we're having braised crayfish instead of steamed crayfish, and Cheng Jixue deserves a lot of credit for that! Zhao Xinyue originally didn't like Cheng Jixue a little bit—everyone in Jiasheng knew that she was the Imperial Concubine, and Little Zhang treated her with special favor.
Zhao Xinyue thought to herself, "What makes him so special? I am the most esteemed and popular woman, with the biggest online presence!"
But when it comes to crayfish, Zhao Xinyue says: Traffic is all superficial, crayfish is the eternal god!
She exclaimed, "I thought I could just use the hot pot base to stir-fry vegetables... I didn't expect I would need to add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar for seasoning."
Cheng Jixue explained, "Actually, it can be used directly, but since it's a hot pot ingredient, I think it needs to be improved in terms of flavor."
Zhang Chaohe plucked off another crayfish head—he was rather lazy and too lazy to carefully peel the shell, so he used the tip of his tongue to deftly hook the meat out and discard the shell. He thought to himself, "I really want to show off, but it's just so-so... For the real deliciousness, you'll have to see the boiled fish that day!"
Pre-packaged instant food will extinguish the noble soul of a chef!
Everyone was scrambling for shrimp when suddenly Xiao Chen exclaimed, "Look, what's the dog doing?"
The little Malinois was seen frantically chewing on the air at the table where the guests were sitting, taking two steps forward and two steps back, still making the motion of gnawing on a bone.
A group of people watched the dog's pantomime with bewilderment. Even award-winning actor Feng Yingyu remarked that these days dogs can act better than young heartthrobs—suddenly, he paused, his hand holding the crayfish freezing in mid-air: "Oh no!"
Everyone looked at him with suspicion.
“When I was cutting the mushrooms just now, I actually threw away a piece of the mushroom stem that I had cut off,” Feng Yingyu paused for a moment, “I hope the puppy ate it…”
So, if a human gets mushroom poisoning, they'll see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs dancing on the ceiling—and if a dog gets mushroom poisoning, it'll see meat bones dancing on the floor.
That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
A note from the author:
So the reason I couldn't update at midnight the other day was because I was battling with Cuphead. I highly recommend everyone play with Cuphead; it's fun because ⚹⚹⚹【mute】
I'll release the remaining 1,000 words along with tomorrow's due to the issue of missing chapters!
I'm not saying a single word today, so you can't laugh at me!!
To all the cuties I'm feeding today! And a big punch to each of those silly little rascals laughing out loud—[loudly]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 69
The pug is fine, but the duck is.
The guests rushed the little Malinois to the village veterinarian's house. The older brother's actions not only successfully saved the little Malinois, but he also asserted that it would be fine after a nap.
Everyone felt relieved after hearing this, and they returned to the courtyard with the little Malinois. However, they found the crew members happily eating duck, each holding a bowl.
Guest group: ?