The first person that E Cheng Jun went to was Huyan Xia. Since she had run off on her when they talked before and she had saved the situation by saying that the contestant had probably had an idea, she figured that it would be a good idea to get back to that and inquire.

“Miss Huyan, how is the congee coming along? It seems that you suddenly had an idea when we talked before and needed to rush to make it work. Did it help with your difficulties with the time limit?”

Huyan Xia looked up, not quite as flustered anymore as she had been before. In fact, she even managed a small smile. “I indeed had an idea. And so far, it looks like it’s coming along quite nicely. I’m still not sure if the two hours will be enough but, at the very least, I don’t think it will turn out to be a total disaster.”

E Cheng Jun stepped closer and craned her neck, looking into the pot. “Well, it certainly does look like it’s slowly turning into congee. What’s that in the rice?” She motioned into the pot and the cameraman made it a point to get a close-up of what was inside.

Huyan Xia smiled and picked up a spoon that was lying to the side. “That’s what I thought of. It’s a trick that my grandmother taught me. If you don’t have enough time, you can put a porcelain spoon inside. I’m not sure why but apparently, it cuts down the time a bit?”

E Cheng Jun and raised her brows and then motioned at the spoon in Huyan Xia’s hand. “Then, can you put another one in to save even more time?”

Huyan Xia was startled and looked at the spoon as well, seeming unsure. “Well, my grandmother only ever put one in there so I’m not completely sure if it would work.” She turned to the pot, seeming even more unsure of herself now. Should she put in a second spoon?

E Cheng Jun couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. She was actually here to give some support and make matters interesting, not make the contestants doubt themselves. But somehow, when it came to Huyan Xia, she always managed to only do the latter. There definitely wasn’t anything comforting about what she had managed to achieve with her so far.

She really wanted to turn away and go to talk to somebody else but she also couldn’t do that without finding a good way to end this conversation. After a moment, she just laughed and reached over, patting her arm. “I’m sorry, I was just messing with you! Of course, it wouldn’t work that way, right?”

Huyan Xia hastily nodded, even though inwardly, she still couldn’t help but think about it. Actually, were two spoons better than one? She still looked into the pot, pondering deeply.

Meanwhile, E Cheng Jun really couldn’t take it any longer and turned back to the camera. “Well, this is a trick that Miss Huyan came up with to make the task doable within the time limit. I wonder what our other contestants are doing? Surely, they will also have some tricks up their sleeves. Let’s go and find out!”

With that, she hastily walked away from the cooking station of Huyan Xiang and went to take a look at another contestant. The one she ended up next to was Si Shi Qi’s sister, Fan Mei.

When E Cheng Jun stopped next to her, Fan Mei was stirring in a pot while her gaze was trained on the person in front of her.

E Cheng Jun looked from Fan Mei to that man and then back again. “Ah, Miss Fan, do the two of you know each other? That couldn’t be the person you thought about while thinking of making a delicious congee, could it?” Seeing how Si Qi had said that he was thinking of a special someone while cooking, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a similar inside story when it came to Fan Mei.

As a result, she soon regretted her choice.

Fan Mei turned around, her brows furrowing tightly, and immediately snapped. “Of course not!”

The person in front of her was nobody else but Si Jin. Of course, she was just looking at him to check whether he was doing anything suspicious. After all, she still believed that there was some kind of inside story behind this whole matter between him and Xiao Ming. So she wanted to see if there was any kind of information exchange between the two of them. Or whether that brother of hers who was on the other side of the studio would actually dare to try and help this so-called ‘business partner’ of his. Clearly, something was going on here and she would figure out what it was!

Si Jin didn’t care about what was going on behind him and just continued cooking. On the other hand, about two dozen pairs of eyes suddenly had been drawn by E Cheng Jun’s words and were now fixed on Fan Mei.

More than half of those belonged to the ninjas of the Si clan. With their training, they would naturally be able to listen in on this conversation no matter where in the room they were. And hearing the kind of rumor like ‘Si Shi Qi’s sister is secretly in love with the master’ was absolutely something that attracted their attention.

Qian Huang and Li Shui, who were behind the scenes watching what was happening on the screen, immediately perked up as well when they saw this. Usually, the person they paid the most attention to was Xiao Ming, but since they knew who Si Jin was, they also couldn’t help but pay a bit of attention to him as well.

Fan Mei staring at him was something that they had both noticed before. In fact, even before E Cheng Jun had approached her, the two of them hadn’t been able to help but joke about it. Clearly, there were some deeper feelings involved in this matter. Although, from what they had experienced with her as the blogger Misses Youya, they felt that this should be a personal vendetta rather than a passionate love confession.

Still, seeing her be put on the spot like that, they couldn’t help but feel a little bit of schadenfreude. Yes, if the person that had treated them like that was made fun of and that scene might even make it onto TV, they would naturally gloat a bit.

Other than them, Xiao Ming also couldn’t help but look over. Don’t mention his own experience with Fan Mei’s slandering, he also knew about Si Jin’s feelings for him so it was hard not to notice when something was going on with him.

In fact, compared to all of the contestants, he was probably way too much aware of Si Jin. It took a lot of effort to pretend that he wasn’t paying special attention to him and just looking at the contestants in general. In fact, his eyes always wanted to wander back there because this was a person he knew and somehow felt better about. Seeing Si Jin calmed him down as strange as it may sound.

He couldn’t really explain it himself. When streaming, he had never seen him. Before the casting last week, he had had no idea who exactly Si Jin actually was. To him, he had only ever been that name: Nin Sha. Not … a person that he could attach a face to, or even a real name.

He had only found out about these things little by little in the last few weeks. Now, he had seen him and had experienced some strange things in regard to him but still, his presence calmed him down at least a little. So naturally, when something happened over there, he would immediately look over.

Si Jin was currently just standing at his cooking station, a clay pot in front of him that was closed tightly while his gaze was also resting on the person in the middle of the table of judges.

The two of them looked at each other and Xiao Ming hurriedly turned away, feeling embarrassed.

Needless to say, Si Jin did not retract his gaze. This clay pot, it was taking care of what needed to be done and the other ingredients did not have to be taken care of until at least one more hour had passed. The only thing he needed to do was stir the congee regularly in between.

So really, he currently had nothing to do and even if he had, he would do it without looking. No, to him, this was a prime opportunity to just look at the person he liked. Of course, he wouldn’t look away.

The exchange between the two of them wasn’t noticed by anyone but the ninjas of the Si clan who then pretended that they hadn’t seen anything. Anyway, they already knew that their master was in love, so what was the big deal?

Well, there was one more person that realized that something was going on.

Chu Yu An leaned closer and raised her brows. “So, that’s the famed Nin Sha, isn’t he?”

Xiao Ming froze before he turned to glance at her, not sure what to say. In the end, he could only nod.

Chu Yu An nodded as well and leaned back, looking from Xiao Ming to Nin Sha and then back. This was actually quite interesting. What Si Jin was thinking wasn’t necessarily written on his face but the fact that he continuously stared at Xiao Ming really made it clear that his thoughts were on him.

As for Xiao Ming, he was behaving the exact opposite way, clearly pretending that he didn’t notice the other person at all. In other words, he was being so evasive that it was clear that all his focus was on Si Jin right now as well. Actually, looking at it, it was quite cute.

Chu Yu An continued to look at Si Jin and finally couldn’t help but turn back to Xiao Ming. “He’s quite handsome.”

Xiao Ming froze once again. That kind of thing, could he casually answer it? Even if there currently weren’t any cameras around, as a man, you couldn’t just comment on another man’s good looks, could you? At the very least, not in this type of way, he was afraid. But not answering would be impolite and that really wasn’t the impression he wanted to leave Chu Yu An with. Anyway, she was probably just trying to be nice. Clearly, she wasn’t having any bad intentions. To her, this was probably just small talk.

After a moment, he still couldn’t really come up with anything to respond so he could only try to evade the question. “Uh, I suppose so. Let’s just hope he will also be able to make tasty congee.”

Chu Yu An gave a hum. “People who can cook are definitely awesome partners. Although I guess for people like you and me, it doesn’t matter as much.”

Xiao Ming couldn’t help but turn to look at her, raising his brows. “Miss Chu …” He finally didn’t dare to say what was going through his mind, feeling that this was too strange.

Well, she was a temporary judge so she probably didn’t need to worry about seeming biased like he did or at least not to the same degree. But still, this casually commenting on Si Jin’s looks and virtues as a partner did seem a bit odd.

Chu Yu An also turned to look at him and then laughed, slapping his shoulder. “Oh, don’t look at me like this! I have a fiancee at home. I was just observing casually. Anyway, I watched some of your streams so I know some things about you. Who am I to insert myself into that kind of fairytale love story?”

Xiao Ming hastily shook his head. “What kind of love story? We’re just coincidentally both interested in cooking.”

Chu Yu An nodded. “Sure. It’s clearly been a hobby of many weeks for him.” She looked at Si Jin who was still staring at Xiao Ming and wondered if there was ever anything changing in his face. Because even though they were clearly talking about him and he looked as if he was able to hear every word, he hadn’t reacted in any way. Ah, it really made her wonder how things were looking inside of him!