Jasmine carried the fish she won from the old man back to the village head's house to meet with others. Just in time, the other six people had already prepared lunch and were planning to send Ji Chun to call her. Seeing Jasmine coming back carrying a green bucket, there was a cheer in the courtyard --
"Our hero has returned!"
"Let me see what you brought this time?"
Seeing someone coming to take the bucket, Jasmine handed it over. After people saw clearly, they exclaimed, "Such a fat fish! Where did you get it from?"
Hearing this, two more people came over, and it was indeed a big fish.
"Big head, thin tail, and two whiskers dragging, is this a catfish?"
"Yes, it's a catfish, this one without small thorns, I love eating it."
Speaking was the youngest among the regular guests, named Shen Xingyu, who debuted as a child star and was only seventeen. In the show, his character was the bright and energetic younger brother who loved to eat and play.
The younger brother was almost drooling at the sight of the big catfish, then he looked at Jasmine with admiration. "Sister Jasmine, are you tired? Shall I give you a shoulder massage?"
After he finished speaking, he was teased, "What shoulder massage? Go set the table, once everyone is here we will start eating, you can flatter while eating."
"What about the fish? What should we do with the fish?"
"Let it stay in the bucket, we'll deal with it in the afternoon."
"Jasmine Jasmine, go wash your hands, after washing, we'll eat."
...
During lunch, the main topics were gossip and praise.
Previously, Ji Chun didn't want to talk too much due to male dignity, but the other five were curious and introduced to Jasmine their experiences from the previous episodes.
"I suspect that the production team secretly informed the villages before we arrived each time. Look at our high popularity, for several episodes we haven't received any special treatment."
"Last time in Baisha Village, a fan gave me two buckets of instant noodles but the production team confiscated them, saying it's not allowed due to popularity. We had to exchange food through labor. I wasn't able to eat well in the previous episodes, this is the first time we have such a sumptuous lunch!"
Jasmine looked at the dishes for lunch --
Boiled corn, smashed cucumbers, and stir-fried vegetables were the only dishes on the table, and even with seven people, this was considered sumptuous!
"How did you guys manage before?"
When talking about the past, the five regular guests were almost in tears.
"The worst time was pickled vegetables with porridge, basically, the first meal after entering the village was not very abundant. Today we have a lot of dishes, I just got two handfuls of mung beans, I'll cut the winter melon and make a soup in the afternoon, how about garlic stir-fried catfish for dinner?"
"How much garlic do you need for that?"
"With the fish already there, are you worried about not getting garlic?"
Jasmine looked at the group of seven, five men and two women, "Will one fish be enough? After dinner, I'll try my luck in the village again."
...
To put it simply, in recording variety shows, they generally don't let one person shine alone. The duration of one episode of over a hundred minutes should be evenly distributed among the guests as much as possible. Even if it's not absolute, the gap won't be too big. Otherwise, there will be dis-satisfactions after the broadcast. If significant conflicts arise, it may affect the atmosphere within the group, and subsequently affect the show's effectiveness.
According to the usual routine, Jasmine's role is almost over, and next she should control herself, but because others are very curious, they unanimously decided to take group action in the afternoon, saying they wanted to take a good look for future learning purposes.
Ji Chun thought, Even if you watch it a hundred times, you won't learn.
Just as they were complaining, Shen Xingyu asked him, "Borther Chun ge, are you going or not?"
"Going. If I don't go, can I see the embarrassing sight of you all kneeling down and calling Jasmine God?"
...
Jasmine doesn't talk much normally, but whenever you need her for something, she's there. Like right now, seeing everyone interested, she didn't even bother to try her luck, she went straight to find the village chief and whispered with him.
A beautiful actress like her talking to him alone made the village chief quite nervous.
After listening for a few sentences, his eyes lit up.
He nodded repeatedly and said, "This is good!"
"I'll go broadcast now, notify everyone."
Production team & celebrity guests: ... What's going on? Why do we need to broadcast for this???
"Jasmine, what did you discuss with the village chief?"
"I said I want to challenge their village's old farming techniques, do more work than in the fields, and if I win, I can take some of the ingredients they produce."
...
...
"Challenge the whole village??? Is it such a big deal??"
The director was just worrying, this time getting ingredients was too easy, without a sense of crisis, these people might just slack off, he was afraid they wouldn't capture interesting shots in the afternoon. At this moment, Jasmine rushed in to bring warmth, this lady's ability to stir up trouble is really strong, in the morning she reportedly battled with the old grandpa, and in the afternoon she upgraded to challenging the whole village.
With her dedication, what does the production team have to worry about for content?
If she really wins, the evening will be a happy banquet after sweating it out, maybe even the first luxurious meal since the show started filming.
Following this line of development, this episode's highlights will surpass the previous ones.
The variety show they are doing is called "That Village, Those People, That Challenge," aiming to have celebrity guests take on challenges, and Jasmine hit the nail on the head with her proposal.
The village chief turned on the loudspeaker, made a spirited mobilization, and in less than twenty minutes, all the idle villagers gathered, the village chief explained the situation, and goodness, one by one they rushed back to get things.
They brought out two large tables and put them together, displaying all kinds of ingredients, from various meats to noodles, tofu, seaweed, wood ear mushrooms, potatoes, mushrooms, and even a foodie contributed a box of fish balls, crab sticks, crystal tofu...
Having just finished lunch not long ago, the celebrity guests were already drooling.
Shen Xingyu blinked at Jasmine, "Whether we have fish hot pot tonight will depend on you, sis. Show your strength, do your best, don't be polite with the villagers."
Even the big stars were saying this, and so was the village chief, he wanted Jasmine to show her strength, the villagers could afford to lose, no need to worry.
"Really?"
"Of course, it's true."
The village chief still didn't fully understand our Jasmine sister's strength, what he said was all just for show, at this moment, even he couldn't have imagined the result of this encouragement would be Jasmine confidently taking action, challenging the village's elite farmers in all aspects of farming from plowing to planting to weeding to harvesting various crops. With the help of Aunt Lu's skills, as long as it's farm work, there's nothing our Jasmine sister can't do.
At first, the villagers thought it was luck, then they thought the other side might have some skills while they were also underestimating her, and then... even if they put in all their effort, they still couldn't win, losing completely. Now even fools know that the person standing in front of them is not just an ordinary female celebrity, she is definitely a battle-hardened queen of the farmland.
Someone whispered, "Was this girl from the countryside? She's so capable."
The director and others awkwardly smiled, thinking to themselves, It's better not to answer this question, to avoid shattering the remaining dignity of the villagers.
*
When the king goes on a mission, not a blade of grass grows.
Jasmine won all the ingredients that the villagers had laid out in just one afternoon. Not only were the villagers not upset, but they even said they would tell their young family members working outside to let them know that nowadays, to become a star in the entertainment industry, one must be versatile in many skills.
All stars: ... you may have some misunderstandings about our profession.
Forget it Forget it. ૮(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)ა
When you call later, your son or grandson will tell you.
Entertainment stars! Do! not! Need! To! Farm!
In short, this episode has completely turned into Jasmine's personal show. Even though efforts were made during editing to take care of others, what could be edited from others were scenes of eating, chatting, and Jasmine taking the spotlight.
Even so, the balance of this episode is seriously off. But the director is not planning to forcefully control the situation. With her explosive and attention-grabbing moments, of course, they will be given to her. Do you think others will be jealous?
Let them be jealous, anyway, she's only recording one episode, she's just a guest star.
That afternoon, the director felt Jasmine was outstanding enough, and then he had a new understanding of the little girl. After the battle, Jasmine said she wanted to use the bathroom to take a bath, leaving the preparation of the ingredients for the fish hotpot in the evening to others, giving space for others to showcase their talents. In the evening, she urged everyone to perform to liven up the atmosphere, and the rural performance was arranged as she said.
The director watched as the stars went completely wild...
After running so many episodes in so many villages, this time felt the most genuine. The daytime was genuinely enjoyable, and the evening was genuinely delightful.
The accompanying staff also found this episode exciting: "It's a bit late for Sister Jasmine to become popular. If she had become famous earlier, we could have invited her as a regular guest. Wouldn't every episode then have many highlights?"
The director pondered and shook his head, "You're thinking too simplistically. Having her occasionally in an episode is more interesting. Having her overshadow others every episode won't be well-received by the audience."
"...True, the duration of this episode might exceed. Should we split it into two parts? It would be good to cut it off at the point where the village chief gathers the villagers with the loudspeaker."
That's what the director was thinking. If the entire episode were released at once, either the supporting roles would have no lines, or if added, this episode would be exceptionally long.
*
They were supposed to leave the next day at noon. Compared to the previous day, the second day was more sentimental.
They woke up in the morning to see the village scenery, had breakfast, and then some wrote postcards at the village chief's house, while others talked to the village children. Jasmine, carrying a clean water bucket, went to visit the old grandfather's house again.
She had thought of using the bucket to carry fish later, as she had to return the bucket.
The old grandfather mentioned that his granddaughter was very interested in the entertainment industry and celebrities...
"I see. Grandpa, did you talk to your granddaughter about our battle last night?"
"Battle with you?"
"It's like when we were harvesting peanuts and sesame."
"I did."
"Is your granddaughter my fan asking you for my autograph?"
The grandfather's expression turned a bit awkward.
Jasmine: "...Isn't it?"
"She said she likes that little Shen."
Little Shen?
Shen Xingyu?! (ᇂ_ᇂ|||)
Sister Jasmine, feeling embarrassed by the mistaken affection, sourly said, "That little Shen confessed his love to me in front of the camera last night, saying he loves me to death!"
Once again, the grandfather put Jasmine in an awkward spot, saying he would have his granddaughter learn from Jasmine and maybe learn how to farm during the winter break.
Around eleven o'clock, the crew's car arrived at the village entrance to pick everyone up. The cameraman captured the final scene of this episode, where the celebrity guests bid farewell to the peaceful village surrounded by green mountains and blue waters, waving goodbye to the villagers before boarding the business car in a line.
As the camera stopped rolling, Jasmine, who had just gone up, raised her hand and asked, "Director, can I walk back by myself?"
On the car, a few others were confused: "You have other plans in the city, why get off the car now instead of going back to the city first and then deal with it?"
While the confused ones were still puzzled, the one who knew the answer showed up.
Two luxury cars arrived, one in front and one behind, stopped at the village entrance. As soon as the cars stopped, the window of one car rolled down, and a youthful figure with a black buzz cut popped out, calling out for Sister Jasmine towards the business car.