Hearing his words, Mao Buyi looked at him with a face full of pity.
He could already anticipate the kind of expression Xue Zhiqian was going to make next.
At this moment, their antics amused the audience in the livestream chat to no end.
"Haha, did you guys see Maomao's expression just now? Total resistance, haha."
"Hey, do you think future guests, knowing how Back to Field forces you to earn your ingredients, will all just choose to eat noodles?"
"Hard to say, hard to say."
"Hehe, I'm already starting to look forward to Lao Xue's performance next."
Sure enough, after listening to He Jiong explain the rules for getting food, Xue Zhiqian was once again left dumbfounded in his spot.
"What?! We have to get our own ingredients?!"
At this point, Mao Buyi's timid voice piped up.
"Teacher Xue, I feel like at a time like this, there is no 'we', only 'you'. I've chosen to eat noodles."
"Huh?"
"Do you even know what you're saying? Let me tell you, don't even think about it!"
Xue Zhiqian hurried over to Mao Buyi, looking utterly exasperated.
Hearing this, Mao Buyi's face instantly fell.
His lips stammered a couple of times, but in the end he didn't say anything, just let out a long, aggrieved sigh.
Meanwhile, Xue Zhiqian rolled his eyes and asked He Jiong, "Teacher He, where do we exchange things for ingredients?"
He Jiong pointed toward a studio not far away.
"Once you've collected some valuable items, you can go over there to make the exchange."
He Jiong suspected nothing and kept explaining.
"If you really have no idea what valuable items to look for, just have Maomao take you out to dig bamboo shoots. Yesterday he and Xueqin spent the whole day digging shoots, so his shoot-digging technique is very polished now. If you guys are quick, you might even make it back in time for lunch."
Xue Zhiqian didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked over at the studio used for material exchanges, wondering what to make of it.
After a good while, he looked back at Huang Lei.
"Teacher Huang, what ingredients do we need this time?"
Huang Lei smiled and listed the required ingredients along with their approximate quantities.
After making a mental note of them, Xue Zhiqian turned back to He Jiong.
"Teacher He, would it be all right if I looked around the area first?"
"Of course. Do you need me to take you on a tour of the neighborhood?"
Hearing this, Xue Zhiqian shook his head repeatedly.
"No, no, no need to trouble Teacher He. Hasn't Maomao already been here for a day? He must have a pretty good grasp of the surroundings by now. Besides, we won't be going far; Maomao is more than enough."
With that, paying no mind to Mao Buyi's protests, he grabbed him by the arm and pulled him outside.
As they walked out, Xue Zhiqian casually glanced back at the two production crew members following them.
Then, he reached over and switched off his own audio recording equipment, while using his other hand to turn off the gear on Mao Buyi as well.
"Maomao, find a way to stall the two crew members behind us in a minute," Xue Zhiqian whispered. Then, he quickly turned both of their audio devices back on and immediately made a shushing gesture at Mao Buyi.
Because the microphones had been turned off, the livestream hadn't picked up what they just said, and since Xue Zhiqian kept his voice very low, the crew on site hadn't heard anything either.
Besides, Xue Zhiqian's movements were extremely fast; the mics were only shut off for a few seconds, so the staff simply assumed it was a loose connection and didn't think much of it.
However, Xue Zhiqian's fans in the livestream instantly felt that something was amiss.
"Qian's fans, why do I feel like Qianqian is about to pull some crazy stunt again?"
"To the user above, please don't doubt it—Qianqian is definitely about to pull a stunt."
The number of viewers in the livestream was simply too massive, however, and the bullet comments were scrolling past at lightning speed, so none of the crew members noticed these remarks.
By this time, Xue Zhiqian and Mao Buyi had already gradually distanced themselves from the Mushroom House.
Xue Zhiqian glanced back at the two crew members once more, then reached out and patted Mao Buyi on the shoulder.
Seeing Mao Buyi look back at him, he said:
"Maomao, remember what I just told you."
With that, he nodded at him and took off running at full speed.
Seeing Xue Zhiqian bolt, Mao Buyi and the two staff members were all momentarily stunned. Because he had been mentally prepared, Mao Buyi recovered faster than the crew.
The moment the cameraman assigned to film Xue Zhiqian started to give chase, Mao Buyi lunged forward and grabbed him, holding onto him for dear life to keep him from pursuing Xue Zhiqian.
Even though he had no idea what Xue Zhiqian was planning, out of sheer instinct, he was willing to trust him.
After struggling for a long time and finding it impossible to shake Mao Buyi off, the crew member anxiously shouted to his colleague, "Hurry up and chase him!"
Seeing this, Mao Buyi didn't make any reckless moves; he just kept his death grip on the staff member in front of him until the second crew member ran close by, at which point he violently lunged and grabbed that one too.
Mao Buyi clamped his arms tightly around both crew members. Pushing himself to the limit, his face turned completely red. To maintain control over both men, he even sat down on the ground, wrapping his arms around their legs with an unyielding grip.
The two crew members didn't dare struggle too violently for fear of injuring Mao Buyi.
By now, Xue Zhiqian had already vanished from sight.
With no other choice, the staff had to report the situation to the director's team.
Meanwhile, the crew members monitoring the livestream had also spotted the commotion and reported it to Wang Zhengyu right away.
"You two just focus on handling Mao Buyi, forget about chasing Xue Zhiqian. I've already dispatched someone else after him."
When the viewers in the livestream saw Xue Zhiqian make his escape, the previously dense wall of bullet comments came to a sudden, brief halt.
"I told you so! Qianqian this guy was definitely gonna pull a stunt!"
"Why did he run away?"
"Haha, Maomao is so hilarious! Not only gets abandoned by Xue Zhiqian, but he's also left holding back the pursuers."
"Haha, not just that, Maomao is probably going to have to go dig bamboo shoots all by himself now, haha."
"Hmph, my idol Qianqian would never be that kind of person! They must have some plan we don't know about!"
"User upstairs, stop being a fanboy/fangirl. This is a live broadcast the whole way through—what kind of plan could there be that we wouldn't see?"
"If I remember correctly, their microphones seemed to have a connection issue for a few seconds just now."
"What can you even do in a few seconds?"
"No, no, to the user above, a few seconds is plenty of time for you to do anything."
On the other side.
Xue Zhiqian ran like the wind, and before he knew it, he had sprinted all the way to Yun Mu's construction site.
Seeing Xue Zhiqian appear out of nowhere, Yun Mu was taken aback. He looked around and noticed that Xue Zhiqian was all by himself.
"Xue Zhiqian?"
Yun Mu walked up to Xue Zhiqian and asked with a puzzled look.
"It's me, it's me, hello, hello."
With that, he cast another wary look around behind him. Finding that no one had caught up yet, he whispered to Yun Mu, "Bro, do you have a hiding spot around here? I need your help with something."
Upon hearing this, Yun Mu's gaze instantly turned guarded.
He took a few steps backward, eyeing Xue Zhiqian with suspicion.
"I don't have any money!"