CH 12.2

Do You Still Hate Her? 02 – I didn’t know you guys are such good friends.

Netizens began to speculate.

[I feel that Ning Lin and Xu Ze have a greater chance of being right, as they are both careful people.]

[Yes, Ning Lin has been comparing the eyes, so she must have noticed something before.]

[Anyway, it’s impossible for it to be either Shang Lu or Song Zeqian. They both chose too casually!]

However, after the production team verified the selections one by one, everyone was wrong, except for Shang Lu who chose first, and and she alone succeeded.

As Shang Lu held up the winning envelope, netizens were all incredulous.

[How is this possible? Shang Lu was eliminated in the first round, so her forgetting time should be even longer!]

[Moreover, she was the first to choose, did she find the person quickly and accurately? It’s obviously scripted, right?]

[Is the director group really going to promote Shang Lu? Why the genius girl trope? Is it fake or not?]

Song Zeqian also seemed to be having a hard time accepting the result and acted as the mouthpiece for the audience, asking, “How did you find him?”

“It’s very simple.” Shang Lu didn’t hurry to open the envelope, but instead put it in her pocket and answered, “Because he has a scar on the joint of his index finger.”

Some bullet comments praised Shang Lu’s attention to detail, while others intentionally sang a different tune.

[The person who took Shang Lu away has an obvious physical characteristic. Shang Lu just happened to remember it, it’s just luck.]

[Yes, if it weren’t for that scar, she wouldn’t have found him.]

[I think this is unfair, it’s too simple for her!]

…

However, the director group announced the final result.

In fact, the person who took away the seven individuals had always been the same man, but only Shang Lu remembered the details of his hand.

[Hahaha, are they now eating their own words after criticizing Shang Lu for it being too simple for her and unfair earlier? It was obviously the same person all along!]

[No wonder the production team kept telling them they could also look at who others had found. In hindsight, the hint was quite obvious.]

[So even if it was the same person, only Shang Lu found him. It’s not a shameful thing for my own idol to not be attentive enough, there’s no need to put her down.]

After praising Shang Lu, Ning Lin expressed some regret and said, “Is Shang Lu always so attentive? Unlike me, who is always so careless.”

Fans immediately followed suit.

[Ning Lin is such a cute little scatterbrain.]

[Ning Lin doesn’t think too much, she’s a kind and pure girl. In contrast, some people pay so much attention to details, who knows if they’re trying to step on our Ning Lin to get ahead.]

But some bystanders couldn’t stand it anymore and spoke up to defend Shang Lu.

[It’s the first time I’ve seen someone describe being stupid so elegantly and refreshingly.]

As for Ning Lin’s question, Shang Lu simply replied, “I just thought that hand looked nice before, and I was thinking it’s a pity he had a scar.”

[Understood, so it’s not that Shang Lu relied on her brain, but she’s swayed by beauty. (Sorry)]

[Although it’s a bit far-fetched, it still suits Shang Lu well.]

Next up is the lunch cooking segment.

The program team arranged a separate kitchen for each of them, while Ye Lu, as the winner, could directly return to his room to rest.

However, before entering the kitchen, Shang Lu suddenly saw Lin Yanyan waving at her from a blind spot not far away from the camera.

Shang Lu : “?”

Lin Yanyan put her index finger to her lips, gesturing for Shang Lu to be quiet, while still waving at her with her other hand.

Although Shang Lu didn’t know what Lin Yanyan was up to, she turned to the cameraman and said: “You go in and set up the equipment first. I’ll go to the restroom and be back soon.”

Then Shang Lu walked towards Lin Yanyan and asked, “What’s up?”

“I saw that Ning Lin and you picked the same dish,” Lin Yanyan said with a twisted face, “I reluctantly remind you again, she’s very good at cooking.”

“You know this too?” Shang Lu sighed, thinking of the scene where Ning Lin sat on Lin Yanyan’s lap earlier, and once again sighed, “Your relationship is really good.”

Lin Yanyan : “?”

Lin Yanyan was obviously frustrated and asked, “Who has a good relationship with her…forget it, is this the point? She deliberately took the same dish as you to embarrass you! Can’t you be smarter?!”

With a light laugh, Shang Lu looked at Lin Yanyan and tilted her head slightly, “Have you ever thought that maybe I did it on purpose too?”

After Ning Lin worked hard in the kitchen for a long time and served a plate of delicious-looking Kung Pao chicken, Shang Lu casually served a very ugly plate of smashed cucumber without using any of the other ingredients.

Netizens commented :

[Hahaha, Shang Lu tells us from her own experience that it’s useless to look up recipes at the last minute if you don’t know how to cook.]

Shang Lu had already realized what Ning Lin was planning, and she knew she couldn’t win against Ning Lin in cooking, so she decided to make Ning Lin cook something she liked by “ordering the same dish”.

Either win or have a full meal, Shang Lu didn’t feel like she was at a loss.

Ning Lin was surprised to see that Shang Lu served smashed cucumber, but she couldn’t show that she knew what Shang Lu was up to, so she just looked at a nearby staff member and then at the dishes she and Shang Lu made.

The staff member understood what was going on and said, “It’s really strange. Both Teacher Shang and Teacher Ning used the same ingredients, but how come they made different dishes?”

Shang Lu admitted directly, “Because I don’t know how to cook.”

Ning Lin appeared as if she wanted to help Shang Lu, saying in a friendly manner: “Lulu, I have participated in another cooking-related program before, and I am good at this. I can teach you.”

Shang Lu didn’t understand what Ning Lin was getting at, but still said straightforwardly: “Thank you, but it’s too much trouble, it’s not necessary.”

Ning Lin smiled gently and continued: “It’s okay, it’s no trouble for me.”

“What?” Shang Lu looked at Ning Lin’s eyes, very confused and said: “If you don’t think it’s too much trouble, you can do it yourself. Why do you want me to learn? It’s very troublesome for me.”

The netizens in the live broadcast room were speechless.

[Hahaha, these two are not on the same wavelength.]

[When one person says ‘too much trouble’, what Ning Lin thought was ‘too much trouble (to you)’, and what Shang Lu thought was ‘(cooking is) too troublesome’, it just goes to show that Chinese culture is really profound.]

[I just knew Shang Lu couldn’t be that polite haha.]

[The previous, you stole my line! This is in front of the camera… forget it, Shang Lu has never pretended to be polite in front of the camera.]

Ning Lin’s smile froze on her face. She didn’t expect Shang Lu to be so impolite in front of the camera, making her feel like she was being presumptuous.

But fortunately, other people started to bring out their own prepared dishes one after another, and the topic naturally shifted, so as not to embarrass Ning Lin too much.

Jiang Jing made a fish soup, which looked very good.

Song Zeqian was not very good at cooking, so he chose to make a plate of stir-fried vegetables, which was on par with Shang Lu’s cucumber smashing skills.

What surprised everyone was that Xu Ze actually made a large pot of stir-fried rice cakes with hairy crabs, and the air was filled with its fragrance. It can be said to be both visually pleasing and delicious, and is undoubtedly the best dish of the entire event.

Shang Lu couldn’t help but drool, and her eyes almost glued to the dish.

Jiang Jing originally thought that she must be the best among these young people when it comes to cooking, but was surprised to say, “I didn’t expect Xiao Xu to have such a great culinary skill.”

The barrage was also full of praise for Xu Ze.

“Just now, Xu Ze’s level of professionalism in the kitchen looked like he had trained for it.]

[I’m shouting out from the depths of my soul—

Xu Ze, a perfect silent husband!]

Finally, Lin Yanyan proudly presented a dish—

Tomato and egg stir-fry.

The reason was simple: this was the only dish she knew how to make.

Shang Lu was taken aback and even regretted, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

She also knew how to make this! Tomato and egg stir-fry was also the only dish she knew how to make!

The barrage comments were like this:

[Hahaha, when she presented this tomato and egg dish, the princess suddenly became down-to-earth!]

[Shang Lu really looks regretful, but it’s okay Lulu! I believe you can also make tomato and egg stir-fry!!!]

[Does Shang Lu need this strange trust? Um… I think she does.]

[Shang Lu : ?]

[This is the first time in my life that I have felt so similar to a female celebrity because we both only know how to make tomato and egg stir-fry.]

When Ye Lu walked down the stairs in his slippers and saw a table full of fairly rich dishes, he was surprised, but also relieved that he had won.

He really didn’t know how to cook anything, not even tomato and egg stir-fry.

Next, in Ye Lu’s blind taste test, the cucumber that Shang Lu casually prepared actually scored higher than Ning Lin’s meticulously prepared Kung Pao Chicken.

Because Ye Lu—

doesn’t like sweet dishes.

Ning Lin never expected that. She was supposed to crush Shang Lu in cooking the same dish, but Shang Lu didn’t even use all the ingredients and only made a simple cucumber dish that didn’t require any cooking, yet still won in scoring?

What she didn’t expect was that on site, Ye Lu and Song Zeqian don’t like sweet food, Jiang Jing always strictly controls sugar intake to maintain her skin condition, while Xu Ze and Lin Yanyan didn’t give a specific reason, their chopsticks never reached for her Kung Pao Chicken.

So in the end, the dish that she carefully prepared—

was only enjoyed by Shang Lu alone?

As she watched Shang Lu eat with relish, Ning Lin’s grip on her chopsticks tightened.

Did she cook so hard just for Shang Lu? What was Shang Lu thinking? How could Shang Lu enjoy the food she cooked so much?

After being full, Shang Lu looked up at Ning Lin with a smile and said, “Thank you for your hospitality. Your cooking is really good.”

At the moment when their eyes met, Ning Lin suddenly felt like she understood the answer from Shang Lu’s gaze.

She seemed to have been… fooled?

Ning Lin suddenly felt inexplicably aggrieved, but she couldn’t show it too obviously and could only swallow her anger.