Chapter 457: The Mushroom-Picking Girl

"Come~ I'll show you."

"No!"

"You said it hurt, so let me put some medicine on it."

"Alright then, be careful—I'm super sensitive over there~"

"."

Oh no! Really?

Medicine? Hurt?

Now that she connected this with Big Tian Tian's diarrhea these past two days.

By the time Wang Churan heard these words, transmitted them to her brain, and analyzed what was likely happening, it was already too late.

She had already pushed open the RV's door.

But Wang Churan reacted quickly—to prevent others from seeing, she slammed the door shut and immediately covered her eyes with her hands.

Except that the gap between her fingers was enormous.

A pair of wide, round eyes stared straight ahead.

Bai Liang was applying medicine to the inner side of Big Tian Tian's forearm; there was a small red spot, apparently bitten by some insect.

Hearing the noise at the door, Bai Liang peeked out, "Churan, you're here."

"Um… do you need any help?"

"No!" Big Tian Tian refused outright.

But two seconds after saying that, she seemed to realize her tone was too harsh and added an explanation, "It's already done~"

"Oh~ Sister Tian Tian, I brought some special insect-repellent spray—spray it on when you're filming later, it should work pretty well."

"Oh okay~"

After the black water tank incident, Big Tian Tian visibly wilted.

More accurately, she suddenly became polite toward Wang Churan.

As for why?

She had secretly told Bai Liang: she suspected Wang Churan might know some kind of trick~

It left the other so taken aback: Sister Tian Tian, you don't have to be like this.

Big Tian Tian: I do, I do—just don't give me bean pills again~

It was her own unilateral guess, of course; since there was no evidence, she didn't whisper any suspicions to Bai Liang.

She just quietly cowered.

Pathetic, as expected of her.

Luckily Wang Churan is a Shandong girl—if she were actually from Yunnan, Big Tian Tian might've suspected her of casting curses.

She might've even slapped the title "Holy Maiden of the Five Poisons Sect" onto her.

So here's the question: as a native of Zibo, Shandong, what can Wang Churan do?

She actually knows a little bit of barbecue.

Funny enough, Bai Liang's RV—invested with a fortune—had everything, including barbecue gear.

And regarding her "little specialty," Bai Liang, as the only male in the trio, naturally evolved into the idea man.

Since they were already in Yunnan and had nothing else to do, why not go gather some mushrooms and roast them?

This suggestion quickly won the approval of both the big and little girls—they both wanted to be mushroom-picking girls.

The reason they could be so idle during filming was that the shutdown wind had finally reached Yunnan.

Official documents were issued: all film and television companies, production crews, and actors must suspend filming.

Now the "Sī Téng" crew, hiding deep in the mountains, had nowhere to run—they could only obediently halt production.

Although the crew had mentally prepared for this and had sufficient follow-up funding, they weren't yet in panic.

But mainly, no one knew how long the shutdown would last—if it dragged on indefinitely, even the biggest reserves couldn't hold out~

Jia Shikai, as producer, was deeply worried—he had a significant stake in this drama.

"Brother Bai, what should we do?"

Bai Liang, who was just about to take the girls up the mountain to pick mushrooms, hadn't thought much—he remembered that resumption was expected around mid-February.

Crews like theirs, with no mobility and stuck deep in the mountains, would definitely be among the first to resume.

"Don't worry—just treat it as a paid vacation. Producer Jia, wanna come pick mushrooms too?" Bai Liang casually invited.

Pick mushrooms now?

Jia Shikai waved his hand, but then turned and spotted Wang Churan, who had somehow found a small bamboo basket and slung it over her back—his eyelid twitched.

She looked well-equipped in that little village girl outfit—actually quite pretty.

Picking mushrooms is great—go ahead and pick mushrooms with Brother Bai~

"The problem is we don't know how long the shutdown will last—if it's about a month, we can tough it out, but if it's longer, the crew might as well disband temporarily and restart after this passes."

"Oh~ So that's your plan!" Bai Liang suddenly understood.

Jia Shikai's thinking was actually quite reasonable—the timing for resumption was still unclear.

If it dragged on too long, it'd be better to give everyone a severance payment and let them return home to quarantine for fourteen days.

Otherwise, just sitting here doing nothing wasn't sustainable.

One day of shutdown costs a lot of money!

Expenses for food, accommodation, transportation allowances, and rental fees for already-built sets could crush a smaller film company into bankruptcy.

"Brother Bai, you're so cheerful—you must have a plan! Tell me!" Jia Shikai said earnestly.

He seemed to genuinely believe that, given Bai Liang's current status and level, he might know some information he couldn't access.

Bai Liang: You look so refined, calling me "bro" left and right.

"Hold out for half a month."

"Half a month? Good, good, good!"

These words immediately gave Jia Shikai a sense of reassurance.

Some things aren't feared for immediate losses, but for bottomless pits.

This thing is just like the review standards for writing novels—worst of all is having no standards.

When laws are unknowable, their power becomes unfathomable.

Seeing his stingy expression, Bai Liang thought for a moment: "During the shutdown, don't lower the crew's meal standards—we've got money, so let's not pretend to suffer together."

"Ah, this…"

Jia Shikai, caught off guard about what Bai Liang suspected he wanted to do, felt a little awkward, but couldn't help saying: "It's a lot of money per day, Brother Liang—this is your money, you know~"

Strictly speaking, part of it is Bai Liang's money.

But Bai Liang replied: "No problem—when we sell it to the platform later, just double that portion and add it to the cost."

The meaning was simple: Why bother squeezing money from a pauper? Of course you go for whoever has money to make.

Jia Shikai: Brother Bai is tall and hard!

"Big White Brother, you're so kind!"

After silently listening to this exchange between Bai Liang and Jia Shikai, Wang Churan couldn't help but sigh.

She even gave Jia Shikai's retreating back a huge, unapologetic eye-roll!

This time, it was a righteous eye-roll!

Even though Jia Shikai was half her boss, hearing he wanted to cut crew expenses still made her instinctively sneer.

After all, she was only twenty now; after a few more years in the entertainment industry, she might slowly grow cold-hearted.

"Your boss Jia didn't do anything wrong—running a company means making money, right~ You've got to do it this way." Bai Liang even spoke up for Jia Shikai.

"But you can be more generous, more considerate of others!"

Bai Liang waved his hand. "I'm different from him."

"Yeah, but you're way, way more handsome~" The girl summed up seriously.

Bai Liang laughed. "It's not about that—I run my company for different reasons than he does. He wants to make money; I just want fun."

"Still handsome~"

"You win! I admit you've got a point."

The two chatted for a long while, and after much delay, Sister Tian Tian finally finished preparing.

Her gear was far more complete—boots, gloves, a delicate woven basket, a sun hat, a sun-protective coat—all purchased overnight after Bai Liang suggested mushroom picking yesterday.

And for this kind of "farmstay" activity, Sister Tian Tian was genuinely excited, babbling all the way up the mountain: "Will there be wild animals on the mountain? Will there be predators? Can you even fight a bear?"

Bai Liang: Me? Fight what?

Sister Tian Tian, dead serious: A bear!

Bai Liang:.

He scratched his head, shamefully admitting he probably couldn't—maybe even definitely couldn't—fight one barehanded.

But if he had a biubiubiu, he'd be confident.

"What about you? What do you want me to fight? You look so eager."

Hearing this, Wang Churan blushed slightly, then spoke up: "Can you fight a tiger?"

Good, good, good!

Bai Liang was starting to get confused about what image he had in these girls' minds.

Wasn't his nickname "Great Immortal"?

He wasn't Wu Song, for heaven's sake.

Of course, the girls said their "expectations" of him came entirely from the things he'd actually done.

Whether slapping a lion in the African wilderness or grabbing a snow leopard by the nape halfway up Zhufeng—he'd truly done these things.

These were all predators!

So by extension, bears and tigers should be fine too, right?

Bai Liang: That lion was well-fed and had the car—a "giant object"—as a deterrent; the caravan had many people then. As for that snow leopard? It was barely an adolescent, nothing but a big cat.

Laughing and chatting all the way into the mountains, they truly felt the vibe of a countryside getaway.

Of course, they weren't just the three of them heading up the mountain to pick mushrooms.

If it were just Bai Liang, he'd dare to go in alone.

But with two "dead weights" in tow, he needed a local guide.

Plus, mushrooms—you've got to know which are poisonous and which aren't. If you're just picking for fun, fine; but if you're eating them, one mistake and you're on a slab.

A few days ago, when they ate at a local restaurant, the staff locked the pot of boiling mushrooms right in front of them.

They didn't even give them chopsticks.

As if afraid someone might sneak a bite~

And even before eating, they'd take samples by scooping out some broth first.

Yet even with all that, every year, many people in Yunnan end up hospitalized from eating mushrooms.

Some even get hospitalized repeatedly from the same pot—discharged, think it wasn't cooked enough, re-cook it, and end up back in the hospital.

"This little mushroom looks so cute…"

"Deadly poison—eat it and you die!"

The guide's words made Sister Tian Tian instantly yank her hand back.

These mushrooms really can't be picked at random! This little one looked harmless and adorable, but it turned out to be highly toxic.

Instead, when she turned her head, she bumped into a big, thick, and— in Da Sister Tian Tian's words— rather ugly-looking mushroom, but the guide said it was delicious.

And this thing turned out to be a matsutake.

"A matsutake this big without the cap opened yet is really expensive on the market!"

"Really? Then we're eating it today!"

After digging the thing out, Da Sister Tian Tian didn't toss it straight into her basket. Instead, she held it in her hand and tilted her head, sizing it up.

Looks a little familiar~

The moment Bai Liang caught that little look in her eyes, he knew what she was thinking. To be fair, it did look a bit like that.

What a marvelous work of nature!

Afterwards, Da Sister Tian Tian carefully put the matsutake away, and under the guide's instruction, wrapped it up with some moss and the like.

Meanwhile, Wang Churan beside them was picking mushrooms even more intently, practically looking like she'd come to stock up. As long as the guide said a mushroom was fine, she didn't let a single one get away.

Later on she didn't even need to ask the guide anymore, because by then basically every fungus in the area had been explained to them—what you can eat, what you can't—she had it all down pat.

At least she herself felt she'd already got a handle on it.

Confidence is the peak.

By the end, since the baskets couldn't fit any more, she even remembered to stuff a mushroom into her pants pocket.

After they came down the mountain, the responsible guide went and sorted through the mushrooms they'd picked one more time for them.

And there really were a few that slipped through the cracks.

Today they're putting on a full mushroom feast—pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried, boiled, you name it.

Of course they couldn't manage all that on their own, so they specially hired a local cook to come over.

It also served as one more pass through the mushrooms, just in case anything else had slipped through.

But the girls weren't just sitting around waiting to eat either. The more complicated cooking they couldn't handle, but putting together a little barbecue was still doable.

Bai Liang's car also had a dedicated charcoal grill. After carrying it down, the two of them each took a small stool and busied themselves around that little grill.

But just when they'd finally managed to get the charcoal going, Wang Churan suddenly remembered something and pulled another mushroom out of her pocket.

"Almost forgot about this one~"

Da Sister Tian Tian was taken aback: "Did you have someone check this one?"

"Don't worry, Sister Sister Tian Tian, this one's definitely not poisonous. We picked plenty of mushrooms that look just like it—this is matsutake." Wang Churan said confidently.

Is this really matsutake?

Da Sister Tian Tian eyed the thing with some uncertainty. It did look somewhat similar to the matsutake she'd dug up.

Mainly, the shape really did look alike.

But something about it also seemed a bit off.

Of course, Da Sister Tian Tian really didn't know much about it; she hadn't really paid attention to what the guide had said earlier.

Her method for picking mushrooms was the dumb one—for every single one she picked, she'd go ask the guide whether it was poisonous, never mind the hassle.

So out of the three of them, she ended up picking the fewest.

As for Bai Liang, he never even asked the guide what was poisonous and what wasn't. He'd just pick at random, grabbing whichever one caught his eye.

When the guide did the final sort, Da Sister Tian Tian even declared with full confidence that the few more brightly colored mushrooms he'd picked were definitely poisonous.

Turns out the guide asked Bai Liang if he'd studied these before, because not a single one in his basket was actually poisonous—they were all edible.

These mushrooms aren't necessarily poisonous just because they look flashy, and they aren't necessarily safe just because they look plain. Anyone who believes in that kind of folk wisdom will have already been reborn in their next life.

Of the trio, Da Sister Tian Tian is the "dumb student"—she asks the teacher about every single problem. It's a bit slow, but she really doesn't make mistakes. Bai Liang is the stream-of-consciousness player who tosses dice to answer questions, but his luck is just good enough that every roll lands on the right answer.

As for Wang Churan, she seems to have clearly realized that on the track of being a silly fool, she can't outdo Da Sister Tian Tian, who is a born talent at it.

So she chose to be a "smart" girl instead—quietly memorizing the knowledge points the guide mentioned, playing the "top student" to wow everyone.

Generally speaking, that approach really shouldn't cause problems.

After all, there's still someone backing her up.

But clearly, Wang Churan isn't as clever and sharp as she imagines herself to be.

In the evening, when everyone gathered to enjoy the mushroom feast, Wang Churan and Da Sister Tian Tian enthusiastically tried to push on Bai Liang the few mushrooms they'd grilled together.

Honestly, they didn't look great, but Bai Liang still graciously ate two of them.

And sure enough, they didn't taste great either.

But he told them he'd felt the girls' good intentions, and gave them both a hearty round of praise.

Da Sister Tian Tian looked smug and said she just hadn't bothered, otherwise she could turn into a skilled little chef in no time.

Wang Churan, meanwhile, was "smarter"—she could tell Bai Liang was just saying it to be nice.

But she was also curious what it actually tasted like, so she picked one up and took a bite herself.

One bite.

*Bloop bloop bloop~*

The last time Bai Liang heard that sound was when he was drinking with Wu Jing, and that round of drinks landed him straight in the hospital.

And this time~

A villain racks his brain and still can't outdo a fool's lucky flash of inspiration.

He'd originally assumed the fool was Da Sister Tian Tian, since she really does fit that image better.

He never expected it to be Wang Churan, who seemed pretty smart.

And it was Da Sister Tian Tian who noticed something was wrong with her—she was foaming at the mouth, which scared Da Sister Tian Tian into screaming her head off.

Luckily, while other things in Yunnan may be hit or miss, when it comes to treating mushroom poisoning, the doctors' experience and skill are absurdly top-notch.

This incident didn't really affect the crew much anyway—filming was already on hold, so as long as nobody got seriously hurt, lying around in the hospital was fine.

The mushroom Wang Churan ate wasn't very toxic—she'd just lie in bed for two days and be fine.

"Does this count as a bond forged through life and death?"

While sitting with Wang Churan in the hospital room, Sister Tian Tian suddenly had an idea and spoke to Bai Liang, offering her thoughts and summary on the mushroom poisoning incident.

"Something like that," Bai Liang replied offhandedly.

"Usually, after something like this, feelings deepen."

Whether feelings deepened or not, Wang Churan, lying there, shed a single tear.

A bond forged through life and death? Your feelings deepened—why did I have to be the one who nearly died?

The only thing that gave her some psychological comfort was that Bai Liang came to see her every day for several hours.

This behavior moved her deeply.

Brother is just so warm! Made me cry~

As a result, in the hospital room, Wang Churan—feeling she had recovered quite a bit—suddenly wanted to be brave.

Perhaps she realized this mushroom poisoning had unintentionally created a perfect opportunity.

Private space. Alone together.

(End of Chapter)