Chapter 42: World Two [12]

After hearing Jing Ke’s words, the faint smile on Shao Qing’s lips slowly faded. Her gaze no longer fixed on the bobber but drifted blankly toward the sea.

Don’t compare yourself to trash? If Xu Yin was trash in Jing Ke’s eyes, then everything Jing Ke had done before was truly involuntary? Had she turned over a new leaf?

“Jing Ke, you’re the first person to give me a ‘nice girl’ card.” Shao Qing’s tone held a hint of fluctuation but quickly returned to its casual nonchalance.

“But I’m not exactly a paragon of moral virtue. I just do what I want. There’s no need to put me on a pedestal.”

“By the way, did Teacher Yu and Teacher Li find the supplies boxes? Did they open anything good?” Not waiting for Jing Ke to answer, Shao Qing changed the subject.

【Li Liming already found his supplies box. Inside was a small box of soda crackers, four packs of 100g each. It could serve as two breakfasts, I suppose.】

【Yu Hongjun just found the box corresponding to your team. She’s still opening it.】

【It turned out to be small cakes—also a small box, ten packs inside, each around 40g. Her luck is really good.】

Ten packs of small cakes meant she could get five, which would roughly cover breakfast for two days.

【The bobber moved. Another fish is biting.】 Jing Ke reminded her.

Shao Qing focused, skillfully played the fish for two minutes, and then with a flick, lifted it out of the water.

This time, instead of a valuable wild yellow croaker, it was a common sea bream, not very big but over a catty.

Considering that yellow croaker wasn’t suitable for direct grilling, Shao Qing stretched her body and kept fishing, intending to catch a few more to try the taste of grilled sea bream.

Her catch rate, three or four times that of an average person, was quite impressive. Although she reeled in some small fish like marbled rockfish in between, by the time she stopped at 11:30, her supplies box was filled to the brim.

The bottom layer was filled with the shellfish she’d put in yesterday to purge sand, while the fish she’d caught—a yellow croaker, two sea bream, and a sea bass—swam about.

As for the palm-sized marbled rockfish, Shao Qing mercifully released them back into the sea.

The yellow croaker she’d keep for fish soup in the evening. The other three, like yesterday, would be grilled: one for herself, one as payment for Teacher Yu, and the remaining one, naturally, would be contributed to win favor and incidentally annoy Xu Yin, who couldn’t catch any fish.

After mentally assigning a fate to each fish, Shao Qing picked up the supplies box and headed back to camp.

The box, holding four fish and half a box of other stuff, was quite heavy. Carrying it by the handle soon gave way to hugging it in her arms.

She even stopped to rest midway before finally reaching the four-person camp, where she cheerfully handed the fish to Yu Hongjun, then sat off to the side, waiting to enjoy the fragrant grilled fish.

Compared to the three who were preparing lunch, the fishing trio on Xu Yin’s side was somewhat pitiful.

By exactly noon, the three had barely managed to produce one fish. Xu Yin finally caught one near the end, avoiding a total blank and making a minimal contribution.

This outcome made Zheng Xingxing, who’d persuaded Liu Chang to fish together to avoid hard labor, regret his choice. If he’d known fishing was this difficult, he would’ve gritted his teeth and chopped down ten qualifying trees.

At least cutting trees could get a clue to a supply point, and even a small bag of rice would be fine—plain rice could fill him up for several meals!

Zheng Xingxing grumbled inwardly. Because he’d talked Liu Chang into coming, he couldn’t complain now without slapping his own face.

He could only give Liu Chang the three fish he’d caught and quietly pray that Liu Chang would draw a big fish so he wouldn’t go hungry until evening.

Liu Chang’s expression wasn’t great, but he didn’t sulk. When picking a number, he even asked Zheng Xingxing and Xu Yin for their opinions.

“If I had to choose, I’d pick 6. That number sounds luckier,” Zheng Xingxing said.

Xu Yin thought for a moment. “I’d probably pick 8.”

When Liu Chang heard Xu Yin wanted 8, he immediately scrapped his own plan to choose that number and, without much thought, blurted out another.

“I’ll pick number six. I want the fish from box six,” Liu Chang said.

Xu Yin felt his face stiffen. He’d just said 8, and Liu Chang immediately chose 6. Was he treating his answer as an error to be eliminated?

“Congratulations, Teacher Liu. This fish is yours.” The staff quickly removed the black cloth in front, revealing a glass tank holding a sea bass a little over a catty.

After removing inedible parts and internal organs, this fish would probably weigh only half, barely enough to fill one person.

Seeing that the production team didn’t proactively reveal the other tanks’ contents, Xu Yin couldn’t help but speak: “Teacher Liu, that fish seems a little small. I remember the largest was a black sea bream over two catties? Too bad you didn’t pick that one.”

Xu Yin’s tone sounded innocuous, but his words clearly held other implications.

Liu Chang’s mouth twitched. He wasn’t stupid; he could hear Xu Yin’s veiled dissatisfaction and blame.

But Liu Chang wasn’t the type to stay calm at all times. Those words reminded him of when Shao Qing had questioned his chosen campsite—landing in the same place.

So Liu Chang, who had stubbornly clung to his opinion at that time, didn’t care about offending anyone now. He spoke according to the persona he’d set for himself.

“Since I’ve already chosen, could we trouble you to show us what’s in the other tanks?” Liu Chang looked at the staff. “The production team wouldn’t secretly swap out the largest fish, would they? That was a black sea bream over two catties.”

Hearing Liu Chang’s request, the staff member who knew the contents of tank eight hesitated.

“Teacher Liu, please rest assured. The viewers in the live stream can see each tank’s contents. We wouldn’t do something like that,” the staff member tried to dissuade him.

“The viewers already know? Then satisfying my curiosity shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Seeing the staff member being evasive, a momentarily riled Liu Chang frowned, even more eager to know the truth.

“Yeah, I’m quite curious too. I want to see how you sorted the fish. Did you number them from one to ten by size?” Zheng Xingxing chimed in.

After hearing the director’s permission through his earpiece, the staff member stopped beating around the bush. Starting from box one, they removed the covers one by one.

Seeing that the fish were indeed arranged in descending order by size, the expressions on Liu Chang, Zheng Xingxing, and Xu Yin’s faces all soured.

But the most embarrassed was Xu Yin. The fish in tank eight was not only far smaller than the one in tank six, but it was exactly the fish Xu Yin had caught at the very last moment—a fish the locals called a “local flatfish,” soft and limp with barely any meat. Grilled, it would hardly fill a tooth gap.

“Xu Yin really has no self-awareness. His luck’s been terrible lately, so isn’t it normal to be excluded as a wrong option?” Shao Qing sat on a rock, sipping soda while listening to Jing Ke describe the fishing trio’s situation.

【Indeed. So now he can’t keep his face, and he sent Liu Chang and Zheng Xingxing back early. He retrieved the entrenching tool he lent Zheng Xingxing. Looks like he’s planning to dig for some seashells by the shore so he doesn’t come back empty-handed.】

Shao Qing had no comment on Xu Yin’s approach. Splitting one fish among three was indeed absurd, and it was reasonable to look for more food.

But rather than searching aimlessly, Xu Yin would’ve been better off asking Liu Chang where they’d dug up wild taro the day before, then taking the entrenching tool to dig a few up.

It was a hassle to prepare and the taste was mediocre, but taro was a solid source of starch and carbs, perfect for filling the stomach.

Shao Qing grumbled inwardly, but the aroma of grilled fish soon pulled her attention back.

“You said you’re good at grilling fish too. Did you learn it yourself, or did a chef teach you?” she asked.

【Me?】 Jing Ke hesitated. 【I don’t remember, but I do know how to grill fish. I can clearly and fully recite the steps.】

“Hm? You don’t remember?” Shao Qing narrowed her eyes slightly. “Did you lose part of your memory?”

【I shouldn’t have lost any memory. My consciousness hasn’t been invaded.】 Jing Ke said with slight hesitation. 【It should be a very important memory, so important that I saved it separately.】

Shao Qing’s brow twitched. Was learning how to grill fish that important?

Logically, if she’d learned on her own or from a professional teacher, that wouldn’t count as a very important memory, right?

Could it be that Jing Ke’s family taught her? That she didn’t want to forget her family, so she preserved those memories separately?

Many thoughts flashed through Shao Qing’s mind, and she couldn’t help thinking of her own family.

In Shao Qing’s memory, the only person she could call family was her grandmother, who had raised her and supported her dream of becoming an entertainer.

Shao Qing’s parents died in a car accident when she was very young. The driver who caused it was wealthy and obtained a letter of forgiveness for one million yuan at the time.

But the orphaned Shao Qing couldn’t hold onto that million. Relatives took chunks of it for various reasons, and in the end, less than two hundred thousand remained.

None of those relatives wanted to shoulder an extra burden, so from elementary school, Shao Qing lived on with her grandmother.

That was why Shao Qing liked rainy days—because on drizzly days, no annoying relatives came to bother them, and her grandmother didn’t go out to work but stayed home doing handicrafts, chatting with Shao Qing about the past.

Once the fish was grilled through, lunchtime arrived.

Fragrant fish meat entered Shao Qing’s mouth. The savory flavor danced and twirled on her tongue, and even after swallowing, a sweet aftertaste lingered.

Delicious, truly delicious. If only she had such skill herself, she wouldn’t have to resort to convenience foods and premade meals when cooking at home.

【Do you really like grilled fish?】 Noticing Shao Qing’s quickly improving mood, Jing Ke couldn’t help asking.

“It’s not just grilled fish. I just love everything delicious,” Shao Qing said, taking another bite quickly.

As expected of self-reliance—the fish meat alone was over a catty, enough to fill her up.

【My cooking skills are quite good, too. After you finish filming, would you like to try my cooking?】 Jing Ke asked.

For some reason, when she saw Shao Qing’s delighted expression while eating food made by someone else, a sense of urgency rose in her heart.

Strangely, some odd things popped up in her database, like ‘The way to a person’s heart is through their stomach?’ and ‘Only food infused with love is true cuisine.’

Those were somewhat normal, but what Jing Ke found most puzzling was a sentence that seemed out of nowhere—Protein is three times that of beef.