Chapter 156
Chapter 156
Everyone understood what those words meant.
And yet, the mathematical genius whose brain was supposedly smarter than most people’s seemed to somehow not understand.
Fu Zhi pressed his lips into a tight line, his expression tinged with stubbornness. “No. You can eat it. You have to come!”
His eyes were full of an icy, domineering gloom.
It was like being thrown right back to the first day of the variety show, when Fu Zhi had made his entrance.
Everyone present fell silent, afraid Fu Zhi might actually lose his temper.
By this point in the recording, Fu Zhi’s identity had not become widespread gossip online, but his surname was Fu, he was rich, young, a mathematics student at Cambridge…
Some well-connected people in the Program Team had long since learned who Fu Zhi really was.
His reputation as a little tyrant had also quietly begun to spread in private.
Everyone was genuinely afraid this ticking time bomb would suddenly go off right before the show ended.
[The princess is throwing another dog-temper tantrum.]
[What do you mean, “You can eat it, you have to come”? Ning Xi doesn’t owe Fu Zhi anything, does she?]
[They’re not going to start fighting, are they…]
The netizens were all a little worried for Ning Xi.
But Ning Xi clearly did not take it seriously at all.
She merely looked at Fu Zhi helplessly, wearing an expression that said she was doing this for his own good.
“Why are you being so fierce? Do you know you’re only being this fierce because your liver fire is too strong? Have some loofah soup and cool down a little~”
Fu Zhi felt as if he had punched cotton. It gave him the helpless frustration of a scholar trying to reason with a soldier.
“Ning Xi, I’m very seriously inviting you to dinner…”
“Will the guests in the second group for the Big Eater Challenge please come onstage!”
Director Qin’s voice rang out. Ning Xi turned, grabbed Xie Lanchen, and ran.
As if a dog were chasing them from behind.
Heh. He was very seriously inviting her to dinner? Well, she had very seriously turned him down, okay?
“Phew~”
Only after Ning Xi found her seat did she let out a long breath.
“Phew~”
Beside her, Xie Lanchen also let out a long breath.
Ning Xi turned her head and looked at Xie Lanchen suspiciously. “Hm?”
She had exhaled because she had escaped Fu Zhi’s endless pestering. What was Xiao Xie doing it for?
Xie Lanchen propped his chin on his hand, laughter rippling in his eyes. “That was close. It was almost the end of the world.”
Ning Xi’s eyes widened, and she looked around. “Where? When?”
Xie Lanchen explained with a perfectly straight face, “Mm… probably just now, when you were almost convinced by Fu Zhi and were about to go eat with him.”
Ning Xi: “?”
How did that count as the end of the world?
Xie Lanchen stared at her for a few seconds, his tone far too serious. “For me, it does.”
“…”
Ning Xi silently met Xie Lanchen’s gaze.
A moment later.
“Pfft.”
The two of them burst out laughing at the same time.
Ning Xi laughed so hard her stomach was about to hurt. She had never expected Xiao Xie to say something so corny too.
Seeing that Ning Xi had truly laughed, the smile in Xie Lanchen’s eyes instantly became much more genuine.
If he could make her happy, then he was happy too.
[I’ve learned nothing but also everything. Who’s going to act this out with me?]
[Xiao Xie is so nice. He even acts out cringey skits to cheer Ning Xi up.]
[Ning Xi agreeing to eat with someone else… is the end of the world… (takes notes.jpg)]
[What? The world is ending? Nooo, nooo!]
The sushi challenge was about to begin.
There were more than a dozen plates of sushi in front of each contestant.
Ning Xi was smiling so hard her mouth was about to split. “Viewers watching at home, do you think I can finish all this?”
The competition began, and Ning Xi answered with her actions: she could!
The sushi chef had originally been making sushi at an easy, unhurried pace, but after seeing Ning Xi swallow them down one bite at a time, he could not help but speed up a little.
It was fine, it was fine. It wasn’t as if he had never encountered a big eater before. As long as he went a little faster, he could still keep up with this female guest’s pace…
And yet, the sushi on the table kept dwindling… What was going on?
Out of the corner of his eye, the sushi chef glanced to the other side and discovered that aside from Ning Xi, the other contestant, Xie Lanchen, was keeping pace with her just as well.
????????
Since when did big eaters come in pairs???
The chef’s hands moved so fast they were practically flying, but the sushi he made was still no match for how much Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen were eating. Large beads of sweat began to seep from his forehead.
In the end, the Program Team had to temporarily borrow the sushi chef from the group next door to make sure there was enough sushi to go around.
The results came out.
Ning Xi: 40 plates.
Xie Lanchen: 35 plates.
The two of them took the top two spots in this Big Eater Challenge.
“Congratulations to contestant Ning Xi for winning first place in the big eater contest!!!” Director Qin was an old hand at show business, and he announced the results with an impassioned expression.
[There was no way to guess this. This was way too expected!!!]
[Ning Xi: If you wanted to give me a present, just say so.]
[This time she really ate her fill and took home the prize.]
[Wai… what? Are you saying Ning Xi finished 40 plates of sushi in ten minutes? I always knew Ning Xi could eat, but I didn’t know she could eat this much!]
[Wait, is no one going to talk about how Xie Lanchen ate 35 plates too? Is being a big eater contagious or something?]
Ning Xi was also very curious about that.
She could eat because she had always had a big appetite to begin with. Add in the fact that she’d been starved badly during the time she was kidnapped, and it had developed into the bad habit of revenge eating.
But why was Xiao Xie like this too?
“Hmm…” Xie Lanchen looked as if he was thinking it over, then said in a half-joking tone, “Maybe it’s because I never got enough to eat when I was little, so now I can eat a lot?”
[…………]
[Xiao Xie, you really are getting more and more into joking around.]
[Hahahaha, that Cullinan he arrived in was worth over nine million, and later when he went out he switched to a car worth more than ten million. He wears suits worth hundreds of thousands like it’s nothing. Who would believe what he just said?]
Because of the explosive popularity of You Are My Blessing, many fashion bloggers had been keeping an eye on the outfits worn by the Program Team’s guests.
Ning Xi had the highest fashion versatility. She could pull off all kinds of brands and styles perfectly. Since the variety show began airing, quite a few luxury brands had already reached out to Ning Xi for collaborations.
Xie Lanchen’s style was the most understated. There were no logos on any of his clothes. It wasn’t until someone sharp-eyed discovered that one of his suits was a handmade custom piece by a national-treasure-level Italian artisan that everyone slowly realized just how inhumanly rich this seemingly low-key Xiao Xie really was.
That Cullinan worth over nine million when he first appeared had already been shocking enough!
As it turned out, he also had another car of the same model worth more than ten million that he drove interchangeably!!!
If someone who knew cars hadn’t noticed the difference in the interiors, no one would have realized it!
The netizens were all joking about it because they were sure what Xiao Xie said had to be fake.
But Ning Xi looked steadily at Xie Lanchen, her little face tense as she said, “That joke isn’t funny. I hope Xiao Xie will always be able to eat his fill.”
-“My birthday wish is: from now on, my good friend will always be able to eat his fill, and he’ll be able to eat anything he wants!”
Ning Xi’s voice overlapped with the young, childish girl’s voice in Xie Lanchen’s memories.
He froze for a moment, looked at Ning Xi, and answered quietly, “Okay.”
Her wish had come true.
But she didn’t remember it.
…
When Director Qin was presenting Ning Xi with her award, Ning Mingyue, who had been out of contact, finally returned.
But she looked utterly dazed and dispirited, as if she had suffered some kind of shock.
Later, when she performed her solo stage play, she actually forgot her lines.
Fortunately, the Program Team temporarily cut to a long shot, and the staff members applauded from below the stage in time to smooth over the atmosphere. Only then did they barely manage to muddle through it.
But the audience’s eyes were sharp. In the end, Ning Mingyue only got 5 votes.
The lowest in the entire venue.
After Ning Mingyue appeared, the view count for You Are My Blessing also dropped sharply.
[Wow. Ning Mingyue again. I’m out.]
[The queen of dragging others down to lift herself up is back. If the next act weren’t Ning Xi and Xiao Xie, I wouldn’t want to keep watching either.]
[Sisters, I’m taking my leave. I’ll be back in five minutes. I really don’t want to see Ning Mingyue’s face.]
Without paid trolls and money shielding her, Ning Mingyue’s general popularity with passersby collapsed completely.
Most of her fans left too.
After all, they hadn’t been fans of Ning Mingyue for very long, so they weren’t that emotionally invested. It could be considered cutting their losses in time.
After Ning Mingyue’s performance came the act the whole venue was looking forward to most, and the one with the loudest calls online: Ning Xi and Xie Lanchen’s skit.