Xiao Ming rushed out of the studio and back into the break room, looking around hurriedly. There wasn’t much time until the end of the break so he had to find Qian Huang fast if he wanted to still have a talk. Otherwise, he’d have to rush off immediately, and then it would be several hours before they got another chance. If this was time-sensitive, that would be a disaster. And he couldn’t imagine that it was anything else if Qian Huang would even send Fan Mei to tell him.

Unfortunately, with sixty-four contestants, two other judges, and also the members of the crew all being gathered in the same room, it really wasn’t easy to find the person you were looking for, much less at first glance.

Xiao Ming furrowed his brows, not sure what to do. He didn’t see Li Shui either so he couldn’t go to ask him if he had seen Qian Huang. Now, what was he supposed to do?

Just then, somebody called out to him instead. “Judge Xiao, are you looking for somebody?”

Xiao Ming turned around, needing a moment to recognize the man as one of the contestants. He should be called Nangong Ming if he remembered correctly. His congee just now had been quite good although not outstanding.

Still, the presentation had been good and he had seemed nice from the way he interacted with him and the other two judges. The current situation just reinforced that good impression.

Thinking of that, Xiao Ming smiled faintly. If all the other people involved in the show were this nice, the next few weeks would be a joy. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if he would have that good luck. “Actually, I am. Do you know Qian Huang?”

The other person was none other than Si Shi Er of the Si clan. Asking one of the ninjas whether they knew the members of Bright Yellow Water … He sighed in response. “Who doesn’t?” Even though their master didn’t always insist on them watching as well, the stream was the livelihood of his not-so-secret crush who might become their young master in the future. They’d need to be idiots to not at least sporadically check out his videos.

Si Shi Er really had more to say about that but since Xiao Ming looked stressed out, he refrained from adding anything and just pointed to the other side of the room. “I think I saw him over there.”

Xiao Ming was a little weirded out by the first part of the response but he figured that he shouldn’t bother about that right now. Instead, he looked over and indeed spotted Qian Huang still standing there together with Chu Yu An. Even Mister Yu had joined the two of them by now. “Ah, I see him! Thank you very much, Mister Nangong. I’d better hurry over then.” He inclined his head and then rushed over, still feeling stressed. Thankfully, Nangong Ming had been able to point him in the right direction or he really wasn’t sure if he would’ve managed to make it in time.

Qian Huang gave him a confused look when he ran up to him and then reached over, pulling him closer to him but away from the other two judges. “Did something happen? You’re looking really worried.”

Xiao Ming shook his head, not wanting to talk about his anxiety right now. “No, Miss Fan told me you wanted to see me so I rushed over. What’s the matter?”

Qian Huang raised his brows, looking completely confused. “I didn’t want to see you. Why would …” He trailed off, suddenly realizing who ‘Miss Fan’ actually was. He furrowed his brows and leaned in closer, lowering his voice to an angry whisper. “Why would you believe Fan Mei of all people if she told you something? What exactly is she doing right now?”

Honestly, he didn’t want to be an alarmist but considering what this woman had done before, he was afraid that she was up to no good. If they didn’t figure out just what it was that she wanted to do, then he was afraid that they would be in for a lot of trouble. His thoughts raced and he couldn’t help but for his brows further. “Where is she now?”

“In … in the studio.” Xiao Ming didn’t know what to say. He had also thought that it was strange but wouldn’t have thought that Fan Mei would do something like this. Why? Anyway, hadn’t it already turned out that there was nothing between him and Si Jin? Why was she still against him like this? In any case, he had never had to do with this woman before. Why was she targeting him and Bright Yellow Water like this? That just didn’t seem right.

Unless … this wasn’t about him but about Si Jin instead. Thinking of what Shi Ru Qiu had told him, he could actually imagine that. Yes, maybe he was just a means to get to Si Jin because she had realized that Si Jin liked him. That should be it.

Even though he finally realized this, there was nothing that Xiao Ming could really do with that knowledge. Telling Fan Mei the truth that he wasn’t interested in Si Jin wouldn’t change her mind and even if it did, it might be too late for whatever was going on right now. “What should we do now?”

Qian Huang wasn’t sure either. Go and check on her? But who knew what kind of tale she’d spin out of that? They might end up in a worse situation than they were in right now. Then just leave it alone? That didn’t seem like a good idea either. After all, who knew what she was doing? If they allowed that to go through, it could mean a world of hurt either later today or maybe next week when the show was aired. They couldn’t risk that.

But then, they also couldn’t alert somebody from the crew because, well, what were they going to tell them? In the worst case, Fan Mei may have just tried to play a prank on Xiao Ming to be petty or make him anxious and they had blown it out of proportion, making them seem paranoid or difficult to work with. Then they would be the ones who drew the producer’s ire. They couldn’t allow that to happen.

Ah, this situation was driving him mad! Nothing seemed to work but they had to do something. If they didn’t … Well, he knew how Xiao Ming was. He was anxious in general in front of the camera. Add something like this onto that and the chance that something unexpected might happen, and he didn’t think that Xiao Ming would be able to handle it.

And who knew if the crew would be nice enough to cut it out if there was a problem with Xiao Ming? After all, while they wanted to be taken seriously, they also knew that some small scandals and mishaps here and there would ensure that they were talked about on Weibo and in the media much more than a perfectly well-executed cooking show. People just loved watching others fail, after all.

Chu Yu An and Mister Yu weren’t standing too far away so when they saw the expressions of the two of them change, they couldn’t help but become concerned.

“Mister Qian, Mister Xiao, what’s the matter?” Chu Yu An looked from one person to the other, sensing that there had to be major trouble. So far, Xiao Ming had struck her as a rather soft-spoken and calm person, while Qian Huang was more outgoing. He might not be as worry-free as that Li Shui of theirs, but he was still rather easy-going compared to other people she had met over the years. To see the two of them like this, made her worry.

Xiao Ming didn’t know what to do and could only wring his hands, looking at Qian Huang for some guidance.

Qian Huang took a deep breath and then sighed. “Well, I’m not officially with the show so I guess I can tell you. You might’ve heard that we had some trouble with one of the contestants before. She slandered us online some weeks into the preparation for ‘Golden Spoon’.

“Just now, she went up to Xiao Ming and told him that I wanted to talk to him. Of course, I didn’t tell her anything like that. So we are worried about what she might be up to.

“It’s really not something that’s easy to deal with. I mean, maybe it’s nothing and she’s just playing a prank or something. So we aren’t sure how serious we should take this. Alerting the crew would probably be too much. We’d get in trouble if it turned out to be nothing.”

Chu Yu An furrowed her brows. Since she wasn’t living in China and had only returned a few days before the show, she wasn’t all that familiar with what had happened before the show started. Especially a scandal around a blog like Misses Youya’s was something that would slip her attention.

She only really followed the major news channels and the local news from the places where her family members lived to stay in the loop. And even though she had tried to stay somewhat up-to-date about ‘Golden Spoon’ and Bright Yellow Water, this was something she hadn’t heard about before today.

“I remember her. She was the woman who was pretty much one of the first contestants to come up, right? She seemed a bit rude to Mister Xiao. In that case, it might indeed not be nothing. I think this should be taken seriously.

“Maybe we should go and take a look ourselves? She might still be there if it was just a moment ago.” In any case, these two hadn’t talked long. So as long as Xiao Ming hadn’t needed a lot of time to spot them here, whatever that Fan Mei had been up to, she might still be doing it.

Qian Huang nodded, feeling that if this Chu Yu An and Mister Yu came along, there shouldn’t be any rumors about them being biased if a huge fuss was made about this. After all, the other two judges would also know about it. The main argument would still come from them, but this was already quite good, probably the best they could do in this situation.

Just when the four of them wanted to head over, there was suddenly a commotion on the other side of the break room. Everyone stopped talking and turned around to look at what was going on, making a loud voice from the other side of the room clearly audible.

“That isn’t her working station. She’s clearly cheating!”

Xiao Ming and Qian Huang stopped in their tracks, while Chu Yu An tiptoed to see over the heads of the people, trying to figure out what was going on.

She barely managed to get a glimpse of a person standing in the door to the studio, motioning inside while gesturing to some crewmembers. She felt like she remembered this person as well: His congee had been really good in terms of consistency and he had taken a rather creative approach with some unusual ingredients so he had stayed in mind. His name was Sima Qiu. And it seemed like, right now, he had managed to spot that Fan Mei who had indeed been up to no good.

Mister Yu also furrowed his brows when he realized that things were rather serious and then motioned for the three of them to follow him. After a moment of consideration, he turned back to Qian Huang though. “Just now, you said you aren’t a part of the show officially. In that case, I think it would be best if you stayed out of this. If there already was trouble with your group before, then I’m afraid she might try to spin this around if you turn up there as well. It’s better to step back for now and let us judges go and take a look alone.”

Qian Huang immediately nodded and then turned to look around for Li Shui, finally finding him when somebody motioned in the right direction for him as if the person had known just who he was looking for. He was a little weirded out but he still nodded at the guy, and then went over to Li Shui, quietly updating him on what had happened.

Meanwhile, the three judges walked over and Mister Yu took the lead with Xiao Ming standing back, looking a bit anxious. On the other hand, Chu Yu An just seemed as if she was watching a show with interest, not quite sure yet in which direction it would develop.

Well, to her, it probably was like that. After all, she had no skin in the game. A week from now, she would have already returned back home to her restaurant and her fiancee, and all of this would just be another thing she had done in her career and could add to her resume, nothing to think too deeply about.