Ye Jingxing ran for a while before putting Nuan Nuan down to catch her breath. Fortunately, the two eggs were not broken.
"Sister!" Zhao Qiang's voice came from behind.
"Uncle, Grandma asked me to give this to you." Zhao Qiang, panting, stuffed the things in his hand over and then ran away in a flash.
Ye Jingxing looked at the small piece of salted meat and two small sausages in his hand, and could only laugh and cry.
The two happily walked back with a basket of meat and vegetables. On the way, they ran into Li Yuanyao, who was empty-handed, and Li Xinyue, who was pouting and looking unwilling.
"Actor Ye, you have vegetables?" Li Yuanyao's eyes lit up when she saw Ye Jingxing and they walked over to strike up a conversation.
"Mm, you guys keep trying." With that, he took Nuan Nuan and wanted to leave.
"Actor Ye, where did you get the vegetables? Can you tell me?" Li Yuanyao blocked the way, unwilling to give up.
"We've already been to that place. It's not good for you to go again. Sorry!" Without waiting for her answer, he took Nuan Nuan and left.
When the two returned, the others had not yet returned. Ye Jingxing looked at the earthen stove in the kitchen in a panic.
Originally, to prevent himself from having to cook again, Ye Jinghuai had given him emergency training. But the training hadn't taught him how to use an earthen stove!
"Actor Ye, those who returned first can cook first. Each family is responsible for their own dinner. The kitchen will be very crowded later," the staff member reminded them.
Ye Jingxing nodded and decided to try using the earthen stove.
"Oh no, Nuan Nuan, Fourth Uncle forgot to get rice, what should we do?" Ye Jingxing said with a pained expression.
"It's okay, Nuan Nuan's tummy is small, meat is good enough!" Nuan Nuan patted her little belly, her round eyes looking at Ye Jingxing particularly endearingly.
"Fourth Uncle didn't take good care of you." Ye Jingxing squatted down and looked at Nuan Nuan with shame.
"Mwah~ Fourth Uncle is great!" Nuan Nuan stepped forward and gave Ye Jingxing a soft kiss to comfort him.
"Ah, little Nuan Nuan is too considerate!"
"I want to transmigrate into Ye Jingxing."
"Daughter, no, how can you kiss other boys casually? Ye Jingxing too!"
"I want to go steal the child, anyone want to join?"
"Upstairs, I don't want to go to prison to step on a sewing machine yet."
"Fourth Uncle, let's wait a bit longer!" Nuan Nuan said softly.
"Oh, right~ If others have it later, I can exchange some with them." Ye Jingxing's eyes lit up.
It wasn't until evening that Fang Zhongwen returned with his son.
"Jingxing, you still have meat!" Fang Zhongwen's eyes lit up when he saw the meat and eggs in Ye Jingxing's basket.
"It's Nuan Nuan's credit. What happened to you guys?" Ye Jingxing asked, seeing him covered in chicken feathers with some confusion.
"Sigh, don't mention it." Fang Zhongwen waved his hand.
"We just found a household that was a task point set by the show. They asked us to catch chickens, and that's how we ended up like this."
"Right, what did you guys do? Why are you so clean?" Fang Zhongwen asked with some doubt, looking at the clean and tidy uncle and nephew.
Ye Jingxing then sheepishly told him about his experience.
"Heavens! I'll trade my son for Nuan Nuan!" Fang Zhongwen looked at Ye Jingxing with pleading eyes.
"Don't even think about it!" Ye Jingxing hugged Nuan Nuan and took a step back.
"Dad, I'm your biological son!" Fang Lei looked like he had been struck by lightning, looking at him with condemnation.
"Oh, you won't be soon," Fang Zhongwen said expressionlessly.
"Pfft~ I'm going to die laughing at this father and son duo."
"You guys didn't see when he was catching chickens, Fang Lei was so filial to me."
"I saw it, he pushed his dad into the chicken coop, hahaha!"
"Dad~" Fang Lei's voice was mournful.
"Ahem, Brother Fang, do you have rice? I want to exchange some with you," Ye Jingxing asked, holding back a laugh.
"Ah? This, we really don't have any. After catching the chickens, we were only given a few tomatoes and a few green peppers."
"Then what should we do? None of us have rice."
"I have it. We have rice but no vegetables. We can eat together." Zhuo Fan walked in with a small bag of rice.
Zhuo Wenxing followed behind, father and son sweating profusely.
"We took on the task of picking mushrooms and got rice and some mushrooms. How about it? Eat together?"
"Alright! Director, can we team up?" Fang Zhongwen called out to the director.
"You guys can discuss it yourselves!" The director's voice sounded a bit gritted.
"Teacher Ye, can you also add two more people to us?"
Chen Yi also walked in empty-handed, looking a bit disheveled. Without asking the other two, she only looked at Ye Jingxing and asked.
"Sorry, I can't decide on my own." Ye Jingxing didn't like this kind of behavior of taking advantage.
"Uh... sorry Teacher Chen. We only have this small bag of rice. It's already tight for three families, and you don't have anything to bring either," Zhuo Fan said directly.
Chen Yi's eyes turned red, and she looked a bit embarrassed, but still looked at Ye Jingxing pitifully, regardless of Zhuo Fan and Fang Zhongwen's attitudes.
"Damn it! Is this Chen Yi sick? She has nothing but she wants to team up with others, and why is she only looking at Ye Jingxing? Aren't my Brother Fang and Brother Fan worthy?"
"Just speak, don't casually bring people up. Our brothers don't want to be entangled."
"Which of Fang and Zhuo has less popularity than her? Even though my Brother Fan hasn't been in the music industry for years, there are always legends of him in the industry."
"Exactly. Although Fang Zhongwen isn't popular, his acting is. In terms of acting, he's much better than that washed-up movie queen with her watery performance."
"I've been watching her live stream just now. She went to other people's houses and wanted to get things for free by showing off. It's fine to get things for free, but she should just get some vegetables. She insisted on meat, so how could people be willing? And that actor Ye exchanged things, and those snacks are not cheap."
"I watched it too. That household didn't know her. At first, they politely gave her some greens, but she was sarcastic, and then they didn't even give her the greens."
"She's no good at doing tasks either. She just swept the yard and complained about her hand hurting. Her daughter is also pitiful, so small, yet she's ordered to sweep the floor, and she can't even lift the broom."
"I really think such a woman deserves her husband's infidelity."
"Sister Chen, I'm sorry, but I have to respect other people's opinions. If we have any extra later, we can share some with you."
Ye Jingxing looked at Zheng Jiajia beside her and added a sentence with a pang of pity.
"Thank you, but no need." Chen Yi's expression stiffened when she thought of only being given leftovers.
The three families immediately got to work after discussing it.
Fang Zhongwen knew how to use an earthen stove, so he volunteered to start the fire. Zhuo Fan also had good cooking skills, so Ye Jingxing had no use for his talents.
He had no choice but to squat on the ground with Nuan Nuan to wash the vegetables.
While the three families were cooking, Li Yuanyao also returned, looking exhausted. Chen Yi shamelessly went to complain again.
Li Yuanyao was naturally unwilling, but her initial persona was that of a gentle and considerate older sister, so she felt bad about refusing.
Meanwhile, Zhuo Fan made stir-fried green peppers with cured meat, stir-fried greens, chives, and scrambled eggs with tomatoes.
Finally, the piece of salted meat was chopped and simmered with mushrooms into a thick, flavorful salted meat and mushroom congee.
While the three adults and three children ate heartily, the two women ate green vegetable porridge with darkened faces.