"These things?" Ethan Quinn asked, though he already had an idea.
Amelia Lockhart scratched her head. "I traded my labor for all of it. It's a bit of a random mix, so why don't we just make hot pot?"
"You know how?"
Amelia Lockhart shook her head honestly. "It shouldn't be too hard, right? You just season the pot, then wash, chop, and throw everything in."
Ethan Quinn, who had yet to unlock his cooking skill, glanced at Amelia Lockhart, who also had yet to unlock hers. The silence was telling.
Amelia cleared her throat. "Actually, I have another idea. Iris Yates and her partner didn't have much luck either, so they probably didn't get many ingredients. But she's a great cook. We can give her some of our ingredients and ask her to help us out. The mission rules don't say we can't help each other."
Iris Yates was a very famous food blogger whose creations were as beautiful as they were delicious. Amelia had once seen her make braised pork ribs and had been drooling.
That was why she had frantically gathered ingredients, waiting to amass enough for both teams so she could ask for some guidance.
Hahaha! Iris and her partner really do need your charity. They've only managed to trade for a single eggplant! How pitiful!
When Amelia Lockhart and Ethan Quinn arrived at the meeting point, they discovered that no one had done well with their trades. Getting one or two vegetables wasn't too difficult, but meat or fish was practically nowhere to be found.
Anna Summers's four-color eyeshadow palette was almost useless to the villagers. After much difficulty, she finally traded it for some tofu and green onions, planning to make braised tofu.
Ruby Sawyer's white handkerchief, on the other hand, got her an egg and some rehydrated wood ear mushrooms. She was preparing to make scrambled eggs with wood ear mushrooms.
In terms of ingredients, Amelia Lockhart was the clear winner. Because she had planted rice seedlings, she had also received a small piece of lean meat.
"Iris, take whatever ingredients you need. But... could you tell me how to make hot pot?" Amelia offered generously. Iris Yates was so moved she immediately gave her a hug!
"Boo-hoo-hoo! I need them, I really do! I'm your number one fan now!" She had only managed to get a single eggplant. While she could make a dish with it, the situation was just too pathetic.
The production team had set up four simple temporary kitchens. Under Iris Yates's guidance, Amelia Lockhart began making a simple tomato and mushroom hot pot base.
Just as everyone was working in an orderly fashion, a series of CRACKLING and POPPING sounds suddenly erupted, immediately followed by Ruby Sawyer's scream, "AHHH! The mushrooms are exploding!"
Vincent Vance quickly slammed a lid on the pot, which was immediately followed by a loud sputtering sound. Ruby Sawyer looked completely shaken, and the live comments exploded with laughter.
"You have to blanch the wood ear mushrooms, cut them smaller, and then add the other ingredients before stir-frying them. That way they usually won't pop," Iris Yates immediately called out to Ruby Sawyer. After her scare, Ruby looked mortified.
'I wanted to show off my cooking skills,' she thought. 'I was sure I had a guaranteed win since I'd gotten wild, all-natural wood ear mushrooms from the mountains. Who knew they would actually explode in the pan!'
Amelia Lockhart rarely cooked, so she had no idea this could happen with wood ear mushrooms. As she was craning her neck to see what was going on, Ethan Quinn's voice sounded by her ear. "Time's almost up."
Amelia immediately snapped back to reality and checked the time. The cooking time was indeed about to end!
Amelia quickened her pace, finally adding all the chopped vegetables into the tomato and mushroom pot just as time was called.
"Time's up! Will all guests please bring your culinary creations to the table!"
Amelia Lockhart asked the production team for an alcohol stove or an induction cooktop, but the team had never imagined someone would make hot pot, so they hadn't prepared anything of the sort.
In the end, the delicacy Amelia Lockhart brought to the table had transformed from a hot pot into a large bowl of tomato and mushroom medley soup.
Paired with Anna Summers's spicy braised tofu, Ruby Sawyer's scorched-looking scrambled eggs with wood ear mushrooms, and Iris Yates's minced pork with eggplant, it perfectly formed a meal of three dishes and one soup.
There were ten villagers in total. They took turns using serving chopsticks to place food in their bowls, then tasted and scored each dish.
As Amelia watched, her heart settled. The villagers devoured the minced pork with eggplant at a visibly rapid pace.
The villagers also seemed to really like the tomato and mushroom soup; they reached for their spoons quite frequently.
In the end, the minced pork with eggplant took first place with a high score of 9.5, while the tomato and mushroom medley soup surprisingly received 9 points! The most pathetic was the scrambled eggs with wood ear mushrooms—almost no one touched it.
Anna Summers stared at her spicy braised tofu. 'It looked, smelled, and tasted perfect. How could it have only gotten 8 points?'
"Excuse me, was there something lacking in my dish? Did it not taste good?"
One of the village ladies replied enthusiastically, "No, it was delicious! But we eat this kind of homestyle tofu all the time. The plating for the minced pork with eggplant was just so beautiful, and it tasted great. Plus, that tomato soup had a very unique flavor. We all thought it seemed very healthy and want to try making it ourselves when we get back."
The villagers lived in these mountains year-round, working from sunrise to sunset. The internet was still a foreign concept to them, and it was hard to encounter new things. Most of what they knew about the outside world came from television and radio.
Anna Summers forced a smile. She had to admit her luck was terrible, and that Amelia Lockhart's luck was exceptionally good.
She had joined this show because she heard Ethan Quinn would be on it. With him participating, the show was guaranteed to draw a lot of viewers. If she could form an "older sister, younger brother" screen couple with Ethan on the show, it would be perfect.
But now, Amelia Lockhart had beaten her to the punch.
A dark glint flashed in Anna Summers's eyes. 'An artist with a bad reputation and no real body of work, and she's dreaming of latching onto a big shot like Ethan Quinn?'
Having won first place, Iris Yates finally got to eat the luxurious lunch she wanted. As for last place, Ruby Sawyer was served her own charcoal-black scrambled eggs with wood ear mushrooms.
Right then, her expression was as dark as the mushrooms.
'It's all Amelia Lockhart's fault,' she fumed internally. 'I was the one who was supposed to be paired with Ethan Quinn! It's all that bitch's fault! She's the reason nothing has gone my way these past two days!'
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, the director team announced the final mission for the first episode with a wide grin.
"The final mission of this episode is about to begin! This episode's theme is 'A Spring Outing Together.' Therefore, the couples need to find what they believe is the most beautiful spot and take anywhere from one to nine couple photos to send to the director. The production team will post the photos on our official Weibo account. The couple with the highest number of likes on Weibo by 10 PM tomorrow night will be crowned the Best Screen Couple for the first episode of *Fated Love* and will receive a thirty-second video feature on *Charm Magazine's* official Weibo account."
*Charm Magazine* was one of the most influential magazine brands in the country. A thirty-second video feature on their official Weibo was excellent publicity.
Iris Yates and Rhett Reynolds glanced at each other and smiled helplessly. They had their own fans, but their follower count was nowhere near the others'. 'Looks like we really are the unluckiest couple,' they thought. 'It's confirmed!'
Anna Summers, on the other hand, let out a relaxed smile.
'Although my and Leo Bishop's fanbases can't compare to Ethan Quinn's, he hates having his picture taken! He rarely even takes selfies, let alone couple photos!'
'Take Ethan out of the equation, and Leo and I have the most popularity. I'm definitely winning this round!'