After Being Reborn, He Became An Ace In A Boy Band Chapter 16

The scale of this kitchen special was larger than the last one. The agency rented a small detached house for them to stay in for two days. The first day was for the competition, and the second day was for filming their daily life, to be broadcast in two parts.

The first day’s competition began with grocery shopping. They were allocated funds, divided into five tiers: 500, 300, 200, 100, and 50. The production team hadn’t told them how they would be grouped yet, so they were asked to play a bottle cap flicking game to decide who would get how much money. The rules were simple: everyone used a finger to flick a bottle cap across a table, aiming for the farthest distance without flicking it off the edge. This wasn’t the first time the others had played this game, but it was Li Xun’s first. He admitted he wasn’t good at these types of games and could only rely on luck.

Yuan Zhiyan, who went first, was either incredibly skilled or incredibly lucky. With a flick of his finger, the bottle cap slid smoothly and stopped just two centimeters from the edge. Everyone gasped in surprise. Yuan Zhiyan himself was shocked. After a moment of stunned silence, he jumped high, raising his hands and laughing, “I’m too awesome! I’m a genius!!”

He declared arrogantly to the camera, “Don’t cut a single second! You must broadcast the entire process, hahahahahaha!”

Li Xun was second. He was already nervous, and now he felt even less confident. He crouched down at the table, concentrating for a long time. Perhaps he was too cautious; the bottle cap barely moved before stopping, staring back at him.

He turned to the production team with pleading eyes, “Can this one count as practice?”

“Sure!” The director was accommodating. “We’ll give you another chance.”

On his second attempt, Li Xun felt a sense of dread as he released his finger. He hadn’t controlled it well, and the bottle cap slid cleanly off the table and onto the carpet.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Ge, you can be on my team! I have 500!” Yuan Zhiyan said optimistically.

“There are still three people who haven’t played yet!” Rong Xiao said, pinching his fingers together to show a tiny gap. “What if you get surpassed by one millimeter?”

“Impossible!” Yuan Zhiyan pointed at his very cooperative bottle cap, full of confidence. “Any further and it would have fallen off. You guys can’t possibly be that good!”

It was somewhat expected that neither Rong Xiao nor Wu Xingye managed to beat him. The last one was Tang Ruining. He crouched down, his finger hovering over the cap, his eyes fixed on the edge of the table as if measuring the distance.

Seeing Tang Ruining’s serious demeanor, Yuan Zhiyan tried to distract him. “Hey, Ge, hurry up. It’s not like you can beat me without letting it fall off anyway.”

The others stood quietly. Though it was a simple little game, Tang Ruining’s seriousness made everyone tense. Yuan Zhiyan held his breath, waiting for the moment his finger released.

Tang Ruining let go of his finger. The bottle cap slid out, hitting the cap closest to the edge with a crisp sound. Yuan Zhiyan’s bottle cap was knocked flying and tumbled off the table, while Tang Ruining’s cap stopped right on the verge of falling.

There was a second of dead silence, followed by the entire room erupting in cheers and laughter, except for Yuan Zhiyan. Yuan Zhiyan wailed behind him. Tang Ruining slightly curved his lips toward the camera, repeating Yuan Zhiyan’s words: “Don’t cut a single second, broadcast the entire process.”

“You’re too amazing!” Li Xun exclaimed. That was variety show gold that couldn’t even be scripted.

Tang Ruining turned his back, his smile widening.

The production team kindly preserved Yuan Zhiyan’s score from before his cap fell off, so he was still second, Rong Xiao third, Wu Xingye fourth, and Li Xun last.

“How are we grouping up?” Although he was second, Yuan Zhiyan was still deflated as he asked.

“No grouping this time,” the director said. “We’re doing individual battles.”

“…Huh?”

Yuan Zhiyan completely lost heart. He only knew how to eat. Without a group, even if he had 3,000 yuan, let alone 300, it would be useless relying on himself.

Tang Ruining’s expression was also not great, while Li Xun was already contemplating what he could buy with 50 yuan.

“There are no ingredient restrictions. You decide what to buy and what to cook. As long as you can make a complete dish—one is fine, several are fine—it’s all up to you,” the director continued. “We will find outside judges who won’t know which dishes were made by whom, ensuring relative fairness.”

The five people present no longer cared about the judges; they were all thinking about what they could make.

“Wuwu, Ge.” After the cameras were turned off, Yuan Zhiyan came over to Li Xun with a mournful face. “I was hoping to be grouped with you so I could be your assistant. How am I supposed to complete a dish by myself?”

“You can look up recipes and follow them. Think about what you want to make first. If it comes down to it, I’ll secretly teach you.”

“Losing isn’t the main thing, it’s mainly embarrassing,” Yuan Zhiyan whispered to him. Although acting foolish on a variety show created good content and fans would find it cute, Yuan Zhiyan felt a little annoyed that he was still struggling to distinguish between sugar and salt in the kitchen at his age.

“Ge, you only have 50. What are you going to make?” he asked.

“I’m thinking of making a dessert. 50 yuan is definitely enough for a simple home-cooked meal, but a small cake would be more novel and look better.”

“Dessert is great!” Yuan Zhiyan rested his chin on Li Xun’s shoulder, suddenly interested. “What kind of dessert?”

“Maybe a mousse cake? I’ve made strawberry mousse before, but I don’t have enough money for strawberries, so I’ll just make a plain mousse cake.”

“Mousse cake is good!” Yuan Zhiyan suggested. “If you don’t have enough money for strawberries, you can buy a pack of Oreos! I love Oreos!”

“Hmm, that works too.” Just as Li Xun agreed, Yuan Zhiyan let out an “Aiya,” leaning back slightly from Li Xun. The hood of his hoodie had been tugged from behind. Li Xun and Yuan Zhiyan turned around to see Tang Ruining standing behind them. “Time to go. To the supermarket.”

“Oh.” Yuan Zhiyan still harbored some lingering resentment toward him, and after having his hood pulled, he muttered to Li Xun behind Tang Ruining’s back, “He’s so hard to get along with! It was completely understandable why you two didn’t see eye-to-eye before!”

Li Xun smiled. “I think Ruining is quite easy to get along with. He just looks like he has a bad temper.”

“How is that possible!!” Yuan Zhiyan squawked. Tang Ruining turned back and glared at him, seemingly annoyed by his noise.

“Hehe.” Yuan Zhiyan grinned at Tang Ruining. Once Tang Ruining turned back around, he leaned close to Li Xun’s ear, his tone full of quiet resentment. “He doesn’t just look like he has a bad temper, he really has a bad temper! No one can do anything about him. Sigh, I’m just too nice and too kind to tolerate him, and I’m even good to him. But! Look at him, he takes an inch and demands a mile! He’s getting more and more excessive with me!”

“Hmm, that part is wrong. Constantly bullying you is not good,” Li Xun nodded in agreement, his voice very low. But Tang Ruining turned his head again. This time, he wasn’t looking at Yuan Zhiyan with annoyance; he was simply looking at Li Xun.

Li Xun tilted his head slightly, questioning, “Hmm?”

They were approaching the elevator. Li Xun took two steps forward and gently held Tang Ruining’s arm, reminding him, “Watch your step.”

“…I know.”

The production team drove the group to a large supermarket, with one cameraman assigned to each person. Li Xun, with his meager 50 yuan, quickly bought the necessary ingredients: biscuits, butter, gelatin, heavy cream, milk… He checked them off his list one by one, ensuring nothing was missed. He pushed his cart and wandered around casually. When he passed the fruit section, Li Xun couldn’t help but stop.

“Such beautiful strawberries,” he said to the camera with a hint of regret. He looked up at the even more beautiful price tag, closed his mouth tightly, nodded, and walked away.

On the other side, Tang Ruining had also finished his shopping and was waiting at the checkout.

“So fast. Did you spend all 500?” Li Xun looked down at his shopping cart, which contained beef, red wine, and some vegetables.

Tang Ruining didn’t have much cooking experience. To spend 500 yuan, buying a bottle of red wine and some good quality meat was enough. Since he couldn’t make a feast of four dishes and a soup, he might as well make the dish look more high-end.

“Almost,” Tang Ruining replied. He also glanced into Li Xun’s cart, then looked around the supermarket, seemingly searching for something.

When it was time to leave, Tang Ruining delayed for a bit before joining them. Yuan Zhiyan returned fully loaded, carrying a large bag of various ingredients. Since he didn’t know what to make, he figured he’d buy more and figure something out.

“I bought some ice cream,” Yuan Zhiyan said, rummaging through his large plastic bag and pulling out the tubs from the bottom. “Let’s share!”

Last time he made mousse, he hadn’t used enough gelatin, and the mousse hadn’t set properly. This time, Li Xun reviewed the recipe again and confirmed the measurements.

Mousse cake was actually very simple, yet delicious and visually appealing. It was just a shame that his remaining money couldn’t afford beautiful strawberries for decoration. Li Xun arranged the ingredients and the molds provided by the production team on the table. Just as he was about to start, someone approached and placed a box on the table.

Li Xun’s eyes darted over and instantly widened.

The beautiful, large strawberries he had admired in the supermarket were neatly arranged in a gift box, now sitting right next to his molds.

“I had extra money, and it would be a waste not to use it,” the kind person who gifted the strawberries said, his eyes fixed on the fresh, plump strawberries, not looking at the person beside him. “Didn’t you say you wanted to make strawberry mousse? The rules didn’t say ingredients couldn’t be gifted, right?”

“Right!” Li Xun put his hand on Tang Ruining’s shoulder, delighted. “Thank you, Ruining!”

He then told Tang Ruining, “It’s okay that you guys won’t get to eat this one. I’ll make you something even better when we get back.”

“Huo, yeah, they didn’t say we couldn’t gift things,” Yuan Zhiyan said, realizing. “I should have bought some for you too. I had extra money, which is why I bought ice cream.”

“Ice cream counts as a gift for us to eat too,” Li Xun said. He asked Yuan Zhiyan, “What kind of cake do you want? I’ll make it when we get back to the Company Dormitory.”

“Shouldn’t you ask me first?” Tang Ruining suddenly interjected. “I’m the one who gave you the strawberries.”

Li Xun paused. His hand was still resting on Tang Ruining’s shoulder. He squeezed it and asked gently with a smile, “You’re right. What do you want to eat?”

Whether he was thinking or spacing out, five seconds passed before Tang Ruining said, “…Anything is fine.”

“If anything is fine, why did you steal my line!” Yuan Zhiyan loudly challenged, then added, “I want Oreo, or maybe mango, Ge. And the egg tarts you baked last time were so delicious! Ruining Ge won’t eat those, I will.”

Tang Ruining immediately retorted, “Who says I won’t eat them?”

“My stomach says so, because they all went into my mouth.”

“Are you still controlling your sugar intake? Don’t eat too much or you’ll complain about gaining weight and getting acne again.”

Ignoring the two of them, Li Xun had already started opening the strawberry box and putting them into a basket for washing.

He picked out the two reddest ones and popped one into each of their mouths, smiling sweetly. “Mouths are for eating. Talk less.”

“…”

Their bickering wasn’t serious fighting, but the production team still edited it out, leaving only the shot of Jiang Yilan feeding the two of them strawberries.

The comments section: [I’m shipping everything! A grand feast of ships!]

[Eating everything only makes my nutrition balanced~]

[Wait, where did the strawberries come from??]

[Yanyan must have bought them. He had such a huge bag of stuff.]

After the strawberries appeared, the editor used a flashback to show the clip of Tang Ruining buying the strawberries.

The other four walked out of the supermarket, ready to get into the car, but Tang Ruining turned back alone, heading straight for the fruit section with a clear goal. He grabbed a box of strawberries and went to check out.

At the checkout, he even asked the camera, “They didn’t say we couldn’t gift things, right?”

The camera shook left and right, indicating a negative, but it was unclear whether it meant “They didn’t say that,” or “I don’t know either!”

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap]

[In this moment, I completely understand… why Tang Ruining was so focused on the bottle cap game, like he was trying to win 5 million…]

[He used all his strength and cunning to buy a box of strawberries for his wife (cries)]

[He just didn’t want to waste the extra money…]

[Be good, you in the front, go play somewhere else ^_^]