I'm Rich - 11
11
After the six of them moved into the wooden house, they first took a tour, then divided up the bedrooms. Once the group activities were over, everyone headed to their own rooms to wash up.
After taking a shower and changing into her pajamas, Guan Zhiyi lay on her bed for a while. Their phones had been confiscated that afternoon, all they had now were phones provided by the sponsor to use.
Guan Zhiyi watched some videos, until her stomach began growling with hunger.
They had all arrived in the afternoon. Technically, dinner was supposed to be at the house, but the "evil" production team clearly hadn't prepared anything for them. By the time everyone finished settling in and went back to their rooms, the whole dinner thing had just been forgotten.
Guan Zhiyi had initially thought she could just tough it out, but the later it got, the hungrier she became… After thinking about it, she remembered seeing some food in the refrigerator when they'd toured the kitchen earlier. So she put on her coat and quietly slipped out of her room.
Her room was on the third floor, while the kitchen was on the first. On her way downstairs, she happened to run into Lin Jia'er on the second floor.
“Zhiyi, are you going downstairs?” It was already late at night, and although Lin Jia'er was wearing a nightgown, she was somehow still in full makeup!
Guan Zhiyi's heart sank. Oh no. She'd taken off her makeup when she showered earlier. Now, on camera, the contrast would be brutal: Lin Jia'er was stunningly put together, while she looked like she'd just rolled out of bed.
Her manager was going to give her another lecture.
But she couldn't exactly turn back now, that would look strange, so Guan Zhiyi could only resign herself and walk over. “I'm a little hungry. I was going to look for something to eat.”
Lin Jia'er's eyes lit up. “Me too. I only had breakfast this morning. I didn't eat lunch at all. I'm starving.”
Guan Zhiyi: “Perfect. Let's go together.”
"Yeah, let's!"
The two of them walked downstairs together, but when they reached the first floor, they heard sounds coming from the kitchen.
They exchanged a glance and headed for the kitchen doorway. There they found Xiao Ran standing inside, holding a kitchen knife, clumsily chopping broccoli.
Hearing their footsteps, Xiao Ran turned to look at them too.
The three of them stared at one another in the kitchen.
But Xiao Ran only froze for two or three seconds before quickly breaking into a smile. “I was really hungry but didn't want to bother you guys, so I came looking for something to eat. You two hungry too?"
Xiao Ran truly lived up to his reputation as the hottest idol of the past two years. The moment he smiled, the kitchen practically seemed to light up.
Guan Zhiyi didn't know him well, and with her constant inner reminder not to give the editors any CP material, she wasn't sure what to say. Lin Jia'er, on the other hand, was extremely enthusiastic. Jia'er, on the other hand, was enthusiastically welcoming. Seeing him chopping broccoli, she walked right over. "We both came down because we were hungry too! I didn't realize Teacher Xiao was already here. What are you making?”
“Just call me Xiao Ran.” he said with a smile. "I was going to throw something simple together, but honestly, I'm not great at this."
On a variety show like this, being hardworking was always something to be praised.
As soon as Lin Jia'er heard that, she jumped at the chance to show her own initiative, “I'm not great either, but let me help you. It must be hard doing it by yourself.”
Xiao Ran: “It'll still be hard with you.”
“No worries, I'll help, I'll help you! Besides cutting vegetables, what else do we need?”
“Scramble some eggs? Vegetables alone won't fill us up.”
“Sure!”
The kitchen wasn't big. Xiao Ran and Jia'er were busy inside, and Guan Zhiyi couldn't really squeeze in, but simply leaving would have looked bad, so she had no choice but to stand off to the side and wait.
Watching them, she quickly realized that when they said they "weren't great,” they genuinely weren't joking.
They were only frying eggs and boiling some vegetables, yet somehow the two of them banged and clattered around like they were about to flip the whole stove.
“Ahhh!” Lin Jia'er poured the eggs into the pan, which erupted in a furious sizzle. Startled, she screamed and ducked behind Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran was just as helpless in the kitchen. The moment he saw what was happening, he hurried to turn off the heat, but when he reached for it, hot oil splattered onto him and he jerked his hand back.
“Hiss…”
Lin Jia'er: “Xiao Ran, are you okay?!”
“I'm fine, I'm fine. Turn off the heat first. Water must've gotten in."
"Right, right, turn off the heat… How did water get in? Was it on the spatula? Oh no, your arm is all red! What do we do?"
“It's fine…”
“Let me do it.” Guan Zhiyi couldn't stand there watching anymore. She stepped forward. “I'll handle it. Teacher Xiao, go rinse your arm under cold water. Jia'er, go get our first-aid kit.”
The two kitchen novices watched Guan Zhiyi take the spatula with practiced ease and instinctively stepped back.
“Right, right, rinse it first.” Lin Jia'er came to her senses and led Xiao Ran over to the sink nearby. Then, following Guan Zhiyi's instructions, she went upstairs to find the first-aid kit.
That left only the two of them in the kitchen. As Xiao Ran rinsed his arm under the cold water, he said to her, “Thanks, Zhiyi.”
Guan Zhiyi gave him a polite smile. “It's nothing. I can cook, so it's better if I do it.”
Watching her work with such ease, Xiao Ran was surprised. “You're actually pretty good at this.”
“I cook a lot.”
“A lot?” Not many entertainers cooked regularly.
Guan Zhiyi: “It's cheaper to eat at home.”
Xiao Ran: “Huh?”
Guan Zhiyi froze.
Ah. Why did she say that out loud? Back in college, she'd been on her own, and when money was tight, cooking was genuinely about saving cash. But they were still filming now. Guan Zhiyi broke into a light sweat and hurriedly tried to save herself. “I mean, cooking at home is pretty convenient.”
“Oh, oh.”
A little while later, Lin Jia'er returned with the first-aid kit.
“This should be burn ointment, right? Xiao Ran, put some on.”
Xiao Ran: “Okay, thanks.”
The two of them went into the living room to apply the medicine. Meanwhile, Guan Zhiyi finished scrambling the eggs, found some chicken breast in the fridge, and whipped up a dish with the broccoli Xiao Ran had chopped.
Once everything was ready, Guan Zhiyi brought it all out. But instead of sitting down to eat herself, she ran upstairs and called the others down to join them.
The others upstairs were already starving too, and they immediately came down and swept through the food.
Afterward, everyone returned to their rooms and went to sleep.
The next day, the cast began following the show's schedule: morning runs, a healthy breakfast, grocery shopping at the market, lunch, strength training… Of the six of them, three knew how to cook, but Guan Zhiyi and the crosstalk performer Hou Lu were the only two who were actually proficient. So over the following days, meal planning and cooking tasks fell to the two of them.
Before long, a week had passed.
During that week, the production team's tasks and workout intensity had Zhiyi feeling a bit run down. But there was one thing worth celebrating: her interactions with Xiao Ran had been practically nonexistent that week! Once the show aired, there wouldn't be much for anyone to latch onto and use as an excuse to attack her!
**
On Wednesday, a week later, the show gave them a rest day.
It was essentially a full day off from filming. The cast could go take care of other work or simply rest, and they were also allowed to have their own phones back.
The moment Guan Zhiyi got her phone, she wanted to message Qi Chengyan. At first, she hadn't known that their phones would be confiscated, so she hadn't even had time to tell Qi Chengyan. Although they had sponsor-provided phones afterward, with 24/7 camera surveillance, she couldn't exactly make calls.
But now that she had the chance, she kept typing and deleting, suddenly unsure of what to say.
She didn't know if he was busy.
“Zhiyi.”
Just as Guan Zhiyi was coming down from the third floor, Xiao Ran also came out of his room.
Guan Zhiyi was a little surprised to see him. “You're staying here today too?”
Xiao Ran nodded. “No work today. What about you?”
“Me too.”
Xiao Ran walked over. “By the way, can I ask you something?”
“Ah… Sure.”
Xiao Ran rubbed his chin, looking both helpless and slightly aggrieved. “Did I do something that made you uncomfortable?”
Guan Zhiyi was startled. Xiao Ran was dozens of times more famous than she was! And he was actually asking her something like this!
"No, of course not."
Xiao Ran: “Then why do I feel like you've been avoiding me? Like you don't really want to talk to me?”
He wasn't wrong. Others might not have noticed, but the person being avoided could certainly feel it.
For instance: whenever they split into groups for grocery runs, since Guan Zhiyi was one of the more experienced ones, everyone looked to her to lead and assign teams. And every time, she would send him to the other group. Once or twice was nothing, but after several days, it happened every single time.
Then there was washing the dishes after meals. If Guan Zhiyi happened to be in the kitchen and he walked in, she would silently slip out.
And during workouts, he was quite experienced in that area, and ometimes he wanted to help Guan Zhiyi out, but she always seemed to find a way to duck away. As for casual conversation, that went without saying. She'd escape even faster.
Hiss… This was a little troublesome. Someone had specifically asked him to look after her, too.
Hearing him say that, Guan Zhiyi felt cold sweat prickling at the back of her neck. “Teacher Xiao! I absolutely have nothing against you, and you've never made me uncomfortable.”
Xiao Ran spread his hands and smiled. “See, it's been a whole week and everyone's calling me by my name, and you're still calling me Teacher Xiao.”
Guan Zhiyi felt a little embarrassed. “You're also someone I really admire. It's just… I'm actually more nervous when we're on camera.”
“Is that really it?”
“Mm…”
Xiao Ran nodded. “That's good. I was worried I'd done something to upset you.”
Guan Zhiyi shook her head like a rattle drum.
Xiao Ran smiled. “Then let's keep working hard for the rest of the filming.”
“Mm!”
“I hope you won't be so formal with me from now on.”
Guan Zhiyi gave a small cough. “Right. Sure…"
Xiao Ran smiled, turned around, and went downstairs.
Watching his back disappear, Guan Zhiyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Had she really been that obvious?!
Meanwhile, after leaving the wooden house, Xiao Ran went straight to his van. Once he was seated, he took out his phone and made a call.
“Hello.” The person on the other end picked up.
Xiao Ran lazily leaned back. “Young Master Qi, are you free today? Let's get dinner."
"Can't. Got things to do."
Xiao Ran clicked his tongue. "Tsk… you're hard to pin down."
Qi Chengyan laughed and asked, “How is she?”
“Zhiyi?”
“Who else?”
Xiao Ran smiled. “She's doing pretty well. But your 'little sister' is impossible to get close to."
Qi Chengyan sounded surprised. “Impossible to get close to?”
“Yeah. I was trying to look after her properly, but she hasn't given me a single chance. She keeps her distance from me.”
Qi Chengyan asked in return, “And how exactly were you planning to look after her?”
Xiao Ran, deeply entrenched in the entertainment industry and understanding how things work, was blunt, especially with a friend like Qi Chengyan. “We're going to be working together soon, so I figured we could appear together in front of the cameras more often. More interaction means more buzz. I don't really need the exposure at this point, but Zhiyi might… I was thinking we could build a CP. It'd help her."
“CP?” Qi Chengyan immediately frowned.
“Yeah. You think it's a good idea too, right…"
“Not happening.”
Xiao Ran froze. “W-why?”
“I asked you to look after her in your everyday life, not put on some fake act in front of the cameras and manufacture a CP with her.” Qi Chengyan's voice was clipped. "Be normal, Xiao Ran.”
Xiao Ran was baffled. "Wait, wait, wait? This is the ultimate form of looking after someone, and you think I'm the one who's acting abnormal!”
“Don't lead her in that direction.”
“Why not? This would be good for her… Hold on, Qi Chengyan, is there something wrong with you?”
“What could possibly be wrong with me?”
Xiao Ran suddenly laughed. “You won't even let me promote a CP with her… I'm seriously starting to wonder, is this girl really just your 'little sister'?"
---
Author's Note:
Guan Zhiyi: I'm not doing a CP, I'm not doing one!
Qi Chengyan: No CP. Absolutely not.
Xiao Ran: Okay. Got it. I was being way too helpful. :)
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