Si Jin was so lost in the feeling of finally being called by Xiao Ming in this way on the live stream that he didn’t even notice for a moment that Xiao Ming had suddenly fallen silent.

On the other side, Li Shui and Qian Huang threw Xiao Ming a confused look, wondering if something was up with him. It wasn’t like him to suddenly trail off in front of the camera so they didn’t quite understand what was going on.

Their looks made Xiao Ming realize that his pause had been a bit too noticeable so he hurriedly cleared his throat and gave a small explanation. “If I’m not wrong, then Si Jin should be our Nin Sha. I think I saw you at the venue today.” He smiled at the camera, making a certain someone’s heart speed up.

Without looking, Si Jin started to type a message into his phone.

Qian Huang who was still hidden by the overlay of the website of ‘Golden Spoon’ raised his brows and risked a glance at Xiao Ming. They had been making fun of him because of that matter with Ai Gui Jin before but now look at this! Maybe there was somebody else they should think a bit more about. Not that they hadn’t made jokes about Nin Sha before.

With how this guy was always writing in the chat that he would do this or that for Xiao Ming and didn’t become tired of watching every time and supporting them however he could, it was probably safe to say that Nin Sha might indeed be more than just a fan of their channel. He was more so Xiao Ming’s personal fan and there might even be some feelings other than admiration involved.

If Si Jin had been willing to take his eyes off Xiao Ming for even a second, he definitely would’ve glared at Qian Huang by now. Not because he was able to guess his thoughts but because this shameless guy still hadn’t read out his heartfelt message to Xiao Ming. Now, would Xiao Ming even see it?

The person in question indeed didn’t have the opportunity to look at the messages. Since Qian Huang was showing the website of ‘Golden Spoon’ on the laptop for him to read from, he was looking at the channel’s comment section on his phone. Taking a glance there was more difficult.

Right now, Xiao Ming didn’t even want to try. In any case, he still remembered the rumor that Misses Youya had tried to cause. If he treated Nin Sha too well, people might think he was really giving him preferential treatment on the show. He had to make sure that that wouldn’t happen.

Thinking of that, Xiao Ming looked back at the camera, his smile turning a little brighter. “Well, I think I did see Nin Sha but I guess that a lot of the others might’ve also come.

“I’m sorry if we weren’t able to meet. There were so many people coming to the casting, I was surprised myself. And I didn’t even get to taste half of the dishes that were made today. So I’m really sorry if we missed each other. Maybe in the future, there will be another opportunity.” He turned back to the side where Qian Huang was still sitting with Nin Sha’s dish open and then rubbed his neck.

“Well, I’d say let’s take a look at the comments that Nin Sha got.” Leaning a little closer, his brows immediately shot up. “Look at this! The first comment is actually from a person that we already know. It’s Zhao Li Yu again!

“Now, our other contestant wrote ‘A bit too fancy for my taste but still a tasty soup. I have high expectations for this one as well!'” Xiao Ming stared at the comment for a moment longer than he had with the comments before and then turned back to the camera, his expression showing a wry smile. “I think we can already safely assume what kind of dishes Zhao Li Yu prefers. Apparently, Nin Sha didn’t completely manage to strike his fancy with the way he prepared his dish but could still convince him of the taste.

“I’m not surprised at that. In the rice cake soup — similar to the hot and sour soup — the seasoning is a very important part but for this one, the rice cakes will also play an important role. Especially if you haven’t been cooking for too long, they are easy to mess up. You need to make sure that they are done on both the inside and the outside. It can be a bit tricky to get right.”

He turned to look at the second comment and couldn’t help but laugh. “Look at this! I shouldn’t say so much myself and just read them. Here, Xu Xiang wrote ‘I was really surprised by this dish. There was another bowl with rice cake soup but in that one, the rice cakes weren’t fully done. In this one, that wasn’t a problem at all. Even more outstanding was that the rice cakes were actually in different shapes! There were two bowls of this: one bowl with perfectly round cakes and one with heart-shaped ones. So they didn’t just taste good, they were also looking really cute. I wonder why the participant was doing two types though.'”

Xiao Ming looked up at that, also looking a bit confused. “Mister Yu and me also noticed this and I have to admit that we couldn’t really come up with an explanation either.”

Naturally, Si Jin jumped at the opportunity to finally lay bare his heart.

Nin Sha: [They were for you. I don’t know why they would’ve put both bowls in the hall.]

Qian Huang stared at the message, his brows twitching. This guy … he really was something else. Well, this kind of thing, he naturally wouldn’t keep it quiet. He closed the interface of the website and waved at the camera. “For those that aren’t looking at the comment section of our channel, I can solve that mystery for you! Nin Sha just told us in the comments that it’s actually because of a special person.” He gave Xiao Ming a look and a slightly sleazy smile that made Xiao Ming raise his brows.

“A special person?” Just when the question was out, his face suddenly turned red. He hadn’t thought too much about it but the one with the heart-shaped rice cakes had clearly been him. Now, he kind of regretted even asking.

Qian Huang laughed and even leaned closer, his smile only getting brighter. “Well, when you were tasting the dishes up on that stage, who had the bowl with the heart-shaped rice cakes? Was that you or was that Mister Yu?”

Xiao Ming immediately lowered his head and looked away, really wishing that he could just continue to read the comments. “Oh, I wouldn’t be sure. It’s already been some hours.”

Qian Huang and Li Shui gave a hum that clearly sounded as if they didn’t believe him at all. As for the viewers of the stream, they were already laughing in the comments.

Cooking Enthusiast: [Oh, Nin Sha, to make a love confession with your dish at the casting, you’re really too bold!]

Cat Dancing on a Wire: [My respect for that though! I’m pretty sure that not many people would’ve had the guts. Don’t forget that there were cameras all around. I’d be embarrassed if my love confession was recorded like that. It’s bad enough if you have to give one, but for others to see … Yeah, I wouldn’t want that.]

Little Butterfly: [Poor Nin Sha! Xiao Ming didn’t even notice. Seems like next time, you should be a bit more outgoing when it comes to making your confessions. May I suggest literally spelling it out word for word? That way, he can’t pretend he didn’t notice!]

There was a row of laughter after that and some more finger-pointing but, as usual, Si Jin wasn’t even looking at the comments and just continued to watch the live stream.

And how couldn’t he? Right now, Xiao Ming looked especially lovely. He knew that Xiao Ming was somebody who could get embarrassed easily but he had never seen it happen to this degree. And to think that it was because of his confession … Well, he would be lying if he said that this didn’t make him happy.

This clearly showed that he had a good chance of making this dream of five years come true. Just to make sure that he really couldn’t be misunderstood he raised his phone and typed another message.

Nin Sha: [The rice cakes were intended only for you, Xiao Ming.]

The others still laughed but with the recipient of the laughter not bothering with them at all, they also didn’t feel like teasing him any longer. It really was vexing how everything seemed to just bounce off of him as if he had some kind of impenetrable armor that they as mere mortals couldn’t even dream of scratching.

After a while, the other viewers quieted down again. Well, from beginning to end, Si Jin hadn’t seen a single one of those comments. As for Xiao Ming, as long as Qian Huang didn’t read them out loud, he wouldn’t know about them either. Thus, after saying what he wanted to say, he focused on his task at hand and continued reading out the comments on Si Jin’s dish on the website of ‘Golden Spoon’. Not quite unexpectedly, they were all full of praise. Some had even guessed that this person might make it into the first episode.

After reading the first of such comments, Xiao Ming looked up with a smile. “Ah, from this, we can see that even though it was only Mister Yu and I who made the final decision, quite a few people there actually agreed with us. If we had that the opinions of all the chefs present there, I think that even though they might not have agreed with all of our choices, they wouldn’t have been able to say that any of them weren’t good.

“We haven’t taken a look at all of the dishes yet and I think that not all of the contestants had the chance or wanted to leave a sample of their dishes in the hall but when you see the episode of the casting, you will probably be able to understand why we chose these people especially.

“It’s just a pity that when it comes to this kind of cooking show, you can’t taste the dishes yourself. I think that is really one of the best things about being a judge on ‘Golden Spoon’.

“Seeing people cook, being able to have a taste of those dishes, and watching how they might grow over the course of the show is something that I am really interested in.

“So if there are some contestants that you are especially interested in, you should pay special attention! This kind of show is not just designed to find people who can cook well but also to give people that can already cook well an impetus to become even better.

“I’m sure that, at the end of these seven weeks, we will all see that there has been a bit of a change in the ones that made it into the finale of the show. And I’m really curious who will be the winner. Right now, that is really impossible to say.”

On the other side, Si Jin straightened up, inwardly promising himself that he had to make Xiao Ming proud. He had to get better in these weeks. He should spend every single minute that he could working toward that goal. Then, when the finale came around, he would be able to win.

No matter how hard it was, he couldn’t not take the chance. He had to. This was the only way for him and Xiao Ming to get together. Or, at the very least, this was how the thought. If he couldn’t win … well, he still wouldn’t give up and just search for another opportunity. But it would be preferable to have a guaranteed date after winning the show. Everything else could progress from there.