The contestants looked at Xiao Ming in confusion, wondering what was going on now.

The first one to finally react was Chu Yu An. “Aiya!” She grabbed his arm and then leaned forward, looking in the direction where Yang Shu Na was standing at the side. “Ms. Yang, what about the boxes? With everything going on, it seems that the staff members forgot about them. How can Judge Xiao explain the task if the props aren’t distributed yet?”

The contestants also looked over at her, feeling that apparently, there was once again something more going on. Really, with the kind of ruckus that this Fan Mei had made before, it was no wonder that the staff members had forgotten about this. Judge Xiao was probably just too polite to call them out on it and had been thinking about how to save face for the crew.

Xiao Ming calmed down a bit when the tension was broken and took a deep breath, trying not to show too much how nervous he actually was.

The ninjas of the Si clan were naturally still paying attention to him so they realized what was actually going on. Even if there had been some kind of mishap with whatever should have been prepared, the actual problem was that young master Xiao was too nervous to actually introduce the task.

Si San had never been one to shy away from the limelight, so he immediately called out to lighten the mood further. “Forget about whatever boxes, where’s Ms. E? If we have a pretty MC, she can’t just go missing in the middle of the episode. I’ll be sad!”

Some contestants gave him looks while others chuckled, but he just shrugged his shoulders and grinned. Anyway, he was single, so he wouldn’t get in trouble when he got back home. Naturally, this was a tactic not everybody could use.

Yang Shu Na had been startled when Chu Yu An suddenly called out to her, now, E Cheng Jun was the same. She hadn’t wanted to be involved in any kind of rumors about somebody cheating, so she had hurriedly stepped to the side before. She didn’t want to get famous for being involved in a scandal, after all. Anyway, solving rumors like that was behind-the-scenes work so she didn’t think that she should appear in it.

But because of that, when everyone had hurriedly rushed to start again, she hadn’t walked up in time and had just continued to observe, still caught up in the previous chaos. When Si San called out, jolted awake, hurriedly got up, and bowed toward Yang Shu Na. “I’m sorry! I was also caught off-guard with everything that happened.” Then, she rushed to the front, giving the judges and the contestants an apologetic smile as well before getting in position.

Yang Shu Na still stayed frozen for a moment but then shook her head. “No problem. I think that the disturbance right when the break should have ended did that to all of us.” In fact, as the producer’s assistant, she was embarrassed that she herself hadn’t noticed either of these points. “Let’s just have a do-over.”

She looked around and, seeing that the staff members that had already prepared the boxes were about to bring them over, she held up a hand to hold them back. “Ms. E, please announce that we will continue with the next task and then we can have the staff members bring in the boxes before Judge Xiao takes over.”

Everyone nodded and got back into position.

At this time, E Cheng Jun stood in front of the judges’ table. Behind her, Chu Yu An patted Xiao Ming’s arm. “Don’t worry. Even if it’s not perfect, as long as it’s understandable, it’s alright. Just keep it short and simple.”

Xiao Ming nodded, closing his eyes for a moment to calm down. Anyway, after having a moment to sort himself, he felt a bit better. Before this, things had really gone too fast for him.

E Cheng Jun was also ready by now. She smiled brightly at the camera and started talking again. “Our contestants have already gotten their feedback for the first task. Even for those who haven’t done as well, there are still two possibilities to turn things around while even the best performance in the first task is not a guarantee to advance to the second episode yet.

“Let’s see how they will fare with the second task which will be issued by our second main judge, Xiao Ming!” She turned around while stepping to the side a little so Xiao Ming could be seen behind her and gave him a questioning look. “Judge Xiao, I saw behind the scenes that there was something prepared for the contestants. Certainly, you know what that is all about! Why don’t you let us in on the secret?”

Xiao Ming smiled, the nervousness still somewhat visible in his features but it wasn’t as bad as before. At the very least, this time, he didn’t freeze up and actually got out some words. “Ms. E is right that there was something prepared for this task. In fact, it is something that will play an essential part in it. Maybe we should take a look first?”

E Cheng Jun hurriedly nodded. “Oh, I can’t wait for it! Well, it seems like the staff members are already carrying the surprise in.” She turned to look at the entrance of the studio where a row of staff members was filing in, each of them holding a wooden box with the lid closed.

They waited for a moment for the camera to capture how they brought them in and then distributed them to all the workstations before they cut back to the judges’ table.

E Cheng Jun once again turned to Xiao Ming. “So, now that all the contestants have their boxes, what can you tell us about them?”

Xiao Ming smiled and accepted the box that was brought over to them by another staff member, putting it in front of him on the judges’ table. “Well, why don’t we have a look?” Saying so, he opened the box and showed E Cheng Jun the content. “As Ms. E can see, these are ingredients inside. The task for the contestants will be to use these ingredients and cook at least one dish with them.

“There is a small card at the side, that gives some further instructions.” Saying so, he pulled it out and held it up to the camera. Thankfully, they had agreed on writing down the instructions for this task ahead of time so the contestants would be able to review them later.

E Cheng Jun curiously looked at the card. “It looks like this task is pretty complicated.”

Xiao Ming hurriedly shook his head. “It might look like that at first glance but these are just some specifications. For example, the first point on it is that they are supposed to make one dish but they are also allowed to make more than one. The goal is to use at least a part of every ingredient the contestants will find in this box. So if they think of a dish that uses all but one ingredient, they can make that but will have to also cook a second dish that uses the last ingredient. Otherwise, they will fail the task.”

At that, E Cheng Jun raised her brows. “Oh, so actually, Judge Xiao is being pretty lenient. The contestants don’t need to decide on just one dish and use everything in it but they have options instead.”

Xiao Ming’s smile turned a little lighter. Originally, he had wanted to say more when he first introduced the task but Chu Yu An was right: if he kept it simple, it would be more interesting for the viewers at home and also easier to understand for the contestants in the studio. With E Cheng Jun asking questions and him just answering, this was definitely much better.

“That is indeed the case. In fact, they have even more options. If you look at the ingredients in here, then you can see that we have a bowl here.” He took it out and then took off the lid, showing the meat inside. “Now, we talked it over before and figured that not everybody likes to eat or handle meat. Nowadays, more people decide not to cook meat at all. So the contestants can exchange the meat for another type of ingredient.”

E Cheng Jun nodded but still looked a little puzzled. I see but what types does Judge Xiao mean?”

Xiao Ming put down the bowl and then motioned at the other ingredients in the box. “Well, other than the meat, we also have leafy vegetables in here, for example. This means that if you don’t want to cook with the meat, you can go and have it exchange for another type of leafy vegetable by one of the staff members.”

At that, E Cheng Jun’s expression lit up. “Ah! So there really are a lot of options for this task. I guess since we know the rules now, we shouldn’t keep the contestants waiting too long. Is there a time limit for this task as well?”

Xiao Ming nodded at that. There is. Just like when making the congee, the contestants once again have two hours to make their dish or dishes. In addition, since they will need some time to read the instructions carefully and maybe exchange ingredients, there will be a five-minute grace for this task.”

“Ah, you’re really too accommodating, Judge Xiao!”

Xiao Ming smiled at that. “Well, they are supposed to show us that they are good cooks, not fast readers or quick runners. Either way, let’s not lose time beforehand.”

E Cheng Jun nodded and turned to the contestants. “You’ve heard judge Xiao. So get ready and … go!” She pressed the button on the judges’ table, making the next countdown appear. This one was just five minutes long, indicating the grace period that Xiao Ming had talked about.

At that, the contestants all opened their boxes, looking over the ingredients they had and then hastily taking out the card to make sure they really understood all the ins and outs of it. Nobody wanted to be disqualified for a technicality, after all.

In fact, just like Xiao Ming had said, the task wasn’t all that complicated. There were supposed to make one dish or more, they could substitute the meat, and they were allowed to use additional sauces, spices, and other condiments, that they could get from the areas at the side where they had also gotten their ingredients for the first task from. To add to that, staples like rice or noodles were allowed to be included as well even though they weren’t in the box.

To say that Xiao Ming had been accommodating when coming up with the task was indeed true. The only thing they definitely had to do was to use every single one of the ingredients in the box. But then, they also didn’t need to use all of it, just some part would be enough.

The contestants checked the ingredients after reading the instructions and then thought quickly about what they could make from this. Among the sixty-four of them, there were only a couple of people who finally grabbed the meat, and went over to the staff members to exchange it for something else.

Xiao Ming had expected this but he had figured that it would the task more interesting if there was a bit of variety. After seeing how difficult it had been to judge the first task with everyone making the same dish, he was especially happy that he had done this. At least with these couple of people, they had one point they could talk about already.

Chu Yu An gave him a look and wriggled her brows. “Good choice! Honestly, you’d also fare well at my restaurant.”

Xiao Ming turned to look at her and couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you for before.”

Chu Yu An Yan shook her head then patted his arm. “Don’t mention it.” Anyway, getting scared in the limelight, that wasn’t too strange. And after just being accused of accepting bribes and paving the way for one of the contestants, she could understand that he hadn’t been in the right state of mind.

Seriously, this was actually the fault of the crew who had pushed them to continue without a moment of adjustment. Just look at how even the moderator hadn’t been able to do her part in time! And she hadn’t been part of the argument before at all. Why would Xiao Ming do any better than this woman who already had a career on TV and was used to being in front of the big camera? Expecting that was really laughable.