The Film Empress White Moonlight Wants To Be A Salted Fish - Chapter 26

Because of the involvement of Lu Yiran’s mothers, no negative comments about Lu Yiran appeared on Weibo.

After watching Lu Yiran finish her meal, Director Zhang hesitated for a moment before approaching her: “Yiran, according to the original plan, we need to film the physical labor scenes tomorrow morning. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course, I’m fine now.”

Seeing that Lu Yiran’s complexion had indeed improved a lot, Director Zhang nodded. “Alright, tomorrow we’ll be helping the villagers harvest rice. Everyone, get some rest early tonight.”

Lu Yiran lay on the bed. In the darkness, Wen Shiyan sat up and said to her, “I’m sorry, I was so close to you, but I couldn’t help you at all…” It was

too dark for Lu Yiran to see Wen Shiyan’s expression, but she could sense his self-reproach. “I don’t need your help. He came for me, and I can protect myself.”

Hearing Lu Yiran’s words, Wen Shiyan was stunned. Yes, the Lu Yiran she knew now was completely different from the Lu Yiran of the past.

“Yes, I was too nervous today,” Wen Shiyan sighed, covering his eyes with his hand.

Lu Yiran felt that today was the most talkative Wen Shiyan had ever been. Although she knew he was frightened by her, she still preferred the aloof Wen Shiyan.

Indeed, what you can’t have is always the best. Lu Yiran wholeheartedly agreed.

In the morning, birds chirped outside the window, and Lu Yiran woke up very early. She didn’t know how well Wen Shiyan slept, but she slept very well.

Drinking her porridge, Lu Yiran noticed the dark circles under Wen Shiyan’s eyes as he walked up to her.

“Good morning…”

Seeing Wen Shiyan, Lu Yiran covered her mouth to suppress her laughter, but finally, she couldn’t hold back any longer. “Hahaha…” Lu Yiran put down her porridge and laughed at Wen Shiyan to her heart’s content.

Lu Shiran, who had also noticed, smiled slightly at Wen Shiyan: “Shiyan, did you go thief last night?”

Wen Shiyan belatedly touched her eyes, then quickly went to the mirror and saw a dark circle under her eyes.

After laughing at Wen Shiyan, Ruan Ning and the others got up and had breakfast. They all kept quiet about yesterday’s events, and Lu Yiran was grateful they hadn’t mentioned it; she really wanted to forget about that crazy person from yesterday.

Rice is best harvested on sunny days, so after breakfast, everyone went to the rice paddies with the villagers.

Before leaving, Lu Yiran searched the house but couldn’t find her straw hat, so she reluctantly put on the baseball cap Chen Ziyun had given her.

None of them had ever done farm work before and knew nothing about harvesting rice, but fortunately, the production team had staff specifically assigned to explain these things.

“Rice is usually harvested in the morning and then left to dry in a bright place for a few days to prevent sprouting. First, use a sickle to cut the rice, using the method most comfortable for you, and then be careful when using it,” the staff member demonstrated the correct way to use a sickle.

Lu Yiran bent low, grabbed a bundle of rice, and following the staff’s instructions, used a sickle at the right angle and with a little force to cut the rice. The bundle was easily cut down. Only

after seeing that everyone could use the sickle did the staff leave, relieved.

Wearing thick gloves, the group trudged through the mud into the rice paddy.

A baseball cap wasn’t as practical as a straw hat; Lu Yiran’s cheeks were burning from the sun after only a short while.

“There are even fish in here!” A surprised exclamation rang out as Lu Yiran and the others looked towards Xie Shuyao. “Can we sell these fish by weight?” Lu Yiran asked the auntie who was bent over working.

“No, we don’t sell them.” The auntie straightened up and looked at them. Lu Yiran didn’t say anything more. The auntie wiped her sweat with a towel around her neck and said, “But I can give them to you.”

“That’s not right, we can buy them.” Xie Shuyao knew the villagers had a hard life, and they also needed to sell the fish.

The aunt waved her hand, “What’s there to say? You’ve saved me so much effort by helping me with the work. What’s wrong with giving you a few fish?” She told them they could catch fish whenever they wanted after harvesting the rice. Seeing they couldn’t refuse, the group smiled and thanked her.

Watching Lu Yiran working diligently, Wen Shiyan suddenly noticed her cheeks were flushed. He went to her side, “Is your face hot? Where’s your straw hat?”

“I can’t find it, it’s okay,” Lu Yiran shook her head dismissively.

Seeing that Wen Shiyan’s sleeves were short, Lu Yiran put down her sickle and looked at her worriedly. “Rice is easy to cut people with,” she said, taking off her coat to give to Wen Shiyan.

Wen Shiyan took the coat but didn’t put it on immediately. “I’ll find you another hat.”

Understanding Wen Shiyan’s meaning, Lu Yiran sighed almost imperceptibly, “Okay, I’ll give you the coat, you give me the hat, we’re even.”

“Okay.”

Wen Shiyan went to a villager’s house and borrowed a hat. “Don’t underestimate my family just because we don’t have much. We have several hats, you can use this new one.” The aunt readily gave the new hat to Wen Shiyan. “Thank you, Auntie.” Wen Shiyan was about to leave when the aunt called out to him shyly. “Um, could you sign this for me? My child really likes you.”

After asking the aunt’s child’s age, Wen Shiyan borrowed a photo of himself from the program crew, signed a message of blessing, and gave it to the aunt.

The aunt couldn’t stop smiling as she held the photo: “That child will definitely be happy to go home after seeing this.”

Lu Yiran was bending over when suddenly her head felt lighter, and then something was placed on her head. The brim of the hat covered her eyes, and she looked up to see Wen Shiyan putting the straw hat on her.

“Th-thank you,” Lu Yiran stammered, looking down.

Hearing Wen Shiyan leave, Lu Yiran secretly looked up at her.

Seeing this, Qin Mo came up behind Lu Yiran and smiled, “Yiran, you’re so fast!”

“Ah, thank you for the compliment,” Lu Yiran replied, mindful of being on camera. Unexpectedly, Qin Mo pressed his advantage.

“But I’m not good at it, why don’t you teach me, Yiran?” Qin Mo said, moving closer to Lu Yiran.

Lu Yiran picked up a small pebble and threw it, “Ahhh! A bug!”

Sure enough, the moment Qin Mo heard the word “bug” and saw it fly away, she instantly moved far away from Lu Yiran.

Lu Yiran grinned mischievously, “Is Miss Qin afraid of bugs?”

“Hehe, no, why would I?” Qin Mo retorted stubbornly, but she didn’t go near Lu Yiran again.

Wen Shiyan, watching from the side, clearly saw Lu Yiran’s little trick, but she only chuckled lightly.

Lu Yiran wiped her sweat and harvested the last bit of rice. Harvesting rice was quite fun at first, but it became tedious and monotonous after a while.

The rice was harvested by eleven people working together, and it took them the whole morning to finish. Lu Yiran knew that most rice was now harvested by combine harvesters, but this village was too poor. Although several families could pool their money to buy a combine harvester, they would definitely prefer to do it themselves rather than spend extra money. Even the threshing machine was an old, wooden one that showed its age.

“Ha, finally finished.” Lu Yiran stretched and loosened her muscles. Seeing that Xie Shuyao hadn’t finished cutting the rice near her, Lu Yiran reminded her, “Shuyao, be careful not to get cut by the rice.” But as soon as she finished speaking, Xie Shuyao put down her sickle. “Ah, my hand…” Xie Shuyao frowned and covered the back of her hand. She looked at Lu Yiran and the others with a complicated, tearful expression. “I got hurt again.”

“Medical personnel, get ready!”

Director Zhang, both amused and exasperated, pulled Xie Shuyao out of the rice paddy.

Wen Shiyan saw Lu Yiran standing with the aunt, talking about something. After Lu Yiran returned, she told them, “The aunt said it’s better for us to catch fish tonight.”

The group exchanged their wages with the villagers for some vegetables that weren’t available in their yard. On the way home, Ruan Ning asked, “What are we going to do this afternoon?”

“Director Zhang said we have free time this afternoon, and this money is enough for three more meals,” Lu Yiran suggested. “How about we go catch crayfish tonight at the place Shuyao mentioned?”

“Yay!” Xie Shuyao waved her hand, which was conspicuously wrapped in gauze. “Shuyao, don’t get your hand wet,” Lu Yiran said pitifully. After

dinner, Lu Yiran and the others were led by Xie Shuyao to the place where she had seen crayfish. “It’s here,” Xie Shuyao said, pointing to a clear stream.

“Really? There are some here?” Ruan Ning looked at the crystal-clear stream with disbelief. “Of course, look.” Xie Shuyao said, stepping into the water and using her uninjured hand to lift a rock. As soon as the rock was lifted, something darted out. Xie Shuyao quickly grabbed one of the escaped creatures and pulled it into her hand.

“Look.” Xie Shuyao held the crayfish up to Ruan Ning’s eyes, startling her.

Lu Yiran appeared out of nowhere with a bucket and several pairs of gloves. “Quick, quick, enough crayfish for us to sell tomorrow morning!” Lu Yiran said, then jumped into the water.

Wen Shiyan found a stick and carefully tested the water depth. She said to Lu Yiran, “Be careful, the water gets deeper further ahead.”

Hearing Wen Shiyan’s words, Lu Yiran quickly moved closer to the shore. “That was close! I can’t swim.”

Hearing that Lu Yiran couldn’t swim, Qin Mo said with concern, “If Yiran can’t swim, then you have to be careful.” Lu Yiran thought Qin Mo was genuinely concerned.

Seeing Lu Yiran standing there, too afraid to move, Wen Shiyan glanced at Qin Mo and said to Lu Yiran, “It’s okay, just be careful.”

After catching crayfish for about half an hour, Lu Yiran counted only twenty in the bucket.

“Ah, so this is all we have after all this time.” Lu Yiran sat on the rock, feeling a little dejected. “At this rate, it’ll take a long time to catch them all if we want to sell them…”

Wen Shiyan nodded in agreement: “This really isn’t a solution. There must be other, simpler ways to catch crayfish.”

“Right! I’ll go ask Auntie.” Lu Yiran got up, took off her gloves, and left.

“Sister Shiran, sit down and rest for a while.” Wen Shiyan handed Lu Shiran a small stool. Lu Shiran smiled: “Thanks.”

A little while later, Lu Yiran returned with several cages and some snails.

“Auntie said to crush the snails and put them in the cages, find a good spot for the cages, and we can collect them in a little while.” As she spoke, Lu Yiran, wearing gloves, crushed the snails one by one and put them in the cages. She then asked Wen Shiyan to find a shallow spot with lots of weeds to place the cages there.

“It’s getting late. If we don’t worry about the cage for now, we can use this time to catch some fish.” Xie Shuyao said, and Lu Yiran showed her a straw basket.

“Jiang jiang jiang, you’re prepared.”

Arriving in the rice paddy, Lu Yiran couldn’t wait to catch all the fish swimming around.

“I think I heard there are snakes in the rice paddies.” Wen Shiyan’s words made the excited Lu Yiran freeze in place.

“Snakes?” She was walking around in the rice paddy this morning!

“Pfft, Shiyan, don’t scare Yiran. We’ve already checked with the villagers, and there are no snakes in the rice paddies now.” Director Zhang said, patting Lu Yiran’s shoulder.

“That’s good…” Lu Yiran secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“But it’s still better to be careful.” Director Zhang left after saying this.

“Then… should we go down?” A bitter look appeared on Lu Yiran’s face.

“Yes, of course we should.” Xie Shuyao said and was the first to enter the rice paddy.

Lu Yiran felt that Xie Shuyao had changed a lot since she came to the variety show.

After looking around the rice paddy, Xie Shuyao said to Lu Yiran, “There’s nothing here, Yiran, come down.”

Lu Yiran carefully entered the rice paddy, and as soon as she entered, she saw a fish.

“Where are you going!” Lu Yiran immediately reached out to catch the fish. Fortunately, the fish in the rice paddy weren’t very big, and Lu Yiran easily caught it.

After catching two, Lu Yiran saw a fish tail near Wen Shiyan’s feet. “Wen Shiyan, behind you!” Seeing Wen Shiyan’s slow pace, Lu Yiran hurriedly took action herself. But her hands felt slippery, and when Lu Yiran grabbed the fish’s tail, she discovered it was long and thin. Lu Yiran instantly shivered.

“Wen Shiyan… there’s a… a snake…” Lu Yiran stiffly shook off what she was holding and grabbed Wen Shiyan’s clothes.

Seeing the panicked Lu Yiran, Wen Shiyan pulled her behind him and saw the “snake” Lu Yiran had mentioned. “It’s not a snake, look closely.” Wen Shiyan said, shooing it into the straw basket. Lu Yiran cautiously peeked out from behind Wen Shiyan. “Isn’t that a snake?” Seeing how much it resembled a snake, Lu Yiran pointed at it with a hint of disbelief.

“It’s an eel.” After Lu Yiran recognized it, Wen Shiyan released it. Lu Yiran frowned, looking at her hand with a serious expression. Although she knew it wasn’t a snake, why did her hand still feel a strange sensation after touching the eel? After catching

the third fish, Wen Shiyan helped Lu Yiran wipe the mud off her face. “Okay, three fish is enough.” Hearing Wen Shiyan’s words, Lu Yiran obediently put down the straw basket. After

releasing the fish back home, since they would be going back into the water later, no one bothered to clean themselves off. Grabbing small flashlights and buckets, the group went to collect the cages.