The recording site of "Our Little Cottage".
After dinner and a bit more chatting, everyone went to wash up and rest. Today's recording was finally over.
Gu Ran checked her phone and finally learned about what had happened among the fans today.
"..."
So nowadays, being too enthusiastic towards guests is also a problem.
Probably because pulling him out made such a grand statement and helped them vent their frustration thoroughly, instantly waking up the delusional fans of Luo Sheng. The CEO of Xinbo suddenly saw a sharp increase in favorability within the Xiaoyuyu fan group.
Putting aside other things, just the fact that he was pursuing Gu Ran was enough to prove this person had excellent taste.
Gu Ran's eyebrows twitched as she read.
...
The next day, perhaps because they learned about the grudges between their fans the day before, both Gu Ran and Luo Sheng felt somewhat awkward when greeting each other.
The two of them spontaneously started avoiding any appearance of closeness, keeping as much distance between them as possible and not initiating conversation, using their actions to prove to everyone that there was really nothing going on.
However, this situation didn't last long. In the afternoon, Luo Sheng ended his visit to the cottage and waved goodbye to everyone.
After seeing off Luo Sheng, everyone resumed their daily chores.
Although the show is a slow-paced variety program, it can't possibly feature only the five permanent residents doing chores in every episode. It needs fresh guests or activities from time to time to add novelty.
During the after-dinner chat segment today, the director had everyone play some small games. The game was simple: each person chose a celebrity's name as their alias, then they randomly called out numbers. The two people who called the same number simultaneously had to say the other person's alias name. The one who failed to say it or said it too slowly would lose and face a random punishment.
Gu Ran kept thinking that if she just didn't call any number, she'd be fine. In the first two rounds, Liu Xiaolin and Zhao Mincong lost. The punishments they drew were an imitation show and calling the person from their most recent call log to borrow money right now.
Liu Xiaolin imitated the singing styles of several famous singers, fully showcasing his talent as a new-generation singer. Zhao Mincong's most recent call was to a friend within the industry. The friend agreed to lend money without hesitation, saying they would lend as much as needed, making everyone exclaim about Teacher Zhao's great connections.
In the third round, Gu Ran was still watching everyone call numbers with a smile, until the others had all called their numbers and then turned their gaze to her.
The director asked Gu Ran to draw a punishment.
Gu Ran was still a bit confused: "Me?"
Only then did she realize that in this game, if you're left last and don't call, that's also not allowed. Resigned to her fate, she went to the director to draw a punishment slip.
She handed the drawn slip to the director, who read it out: "Call the first person in your WeChat chat list and say 'I miss you'."
Hearing this punishment, the others all went "Whoa."
Gu Ran drew a sharp breath.
What kind of luck was this?
Bullet comments:
[Stirring the pot, stirring the pot, the production team is stirring the pot!]
[Who's the first on Ranran's chat list?! So curious!]
[There are many possibilities, like parents, friends, or work colleagues.]
[What if it's a crush? Side-eye smirk.JPG]
[The director is so sneaky ahhh, are we about to see something we shouldn't?]
[I also think it'll be family or her agent or something. My first chat is with my mom.]
[Want to see it prprpr]
...
On set, Gu Ran resignedly took out her phone and opened WeChat.
Logically, the optimal solution for this punishment game should be that the first person is family, calling parents to say "I miss you," taking a slightly sentimental route.
Unfortunately, she didn't have that.
Gu Ran frowned. Although there was nothing shameful, privacy still needed protection. She avoided the camera and showed the director her screen to prove she wasn't cheating—this was indeed the first person on her chat list.
When the director saw Gu Ran's first contact, their expression froze for two seconds, then they nodded.
Gu Ran sat back down and clicked into the chat with this person.
The other permanent residents curiously leaned over, and the camera lens moved in for a close-up, eager for gossip.
Then everyone saw the note for the first contact on Gu Ran's WeChat:
Housekeeper.
The gossipy crowd: "..."
Bullet comments: [...]
So the female streamer also hires a housekeeper.
[That's my Ran for you. There's nothing she can't do that you wouldn't think of.]
[I calculated a thousand possibilities but never guessed the person she contacted most recently was a housekeeper.]
[The ultimate homebody.]
[Of course a wealthy lady like Ran wouldn't do her own housework. A housekeeper is so cost-effective.]
[Local housekeeping websites, come and snatch her as your spokesperson!]
Wuwuwu, forget it not being a crush, it's not even a family member or friend. This punishment is so boring, it’s better to just call to borrow money.
Seeing the disappointed expressions on everyone else's faces after their gossip hunt failed, Gu Ran felt grateful for the note "Housekeeper" for the first time. Then, remembering the task of calling to say "I miss you," her nerves tightened again.
She didn't like this punishment.
Gu Ran slightly furrowed her brows, comforting herself with the thought that, logically, at this time, Ji Shiyu should be working overtime.
When Ji Shiyu is working, he doesn't check his phone much and occasionally puts it on silent.
There was an eighty percent chance he wouldn't answer this call.
Gu Ran took a deep breath, silently praying Ji Shiyu wouldn't answer, and sent the voice call invitation.
Holding her breath, she waited for about ten seconds.
Just as Gu Ran thought it was indeed as she predicted and was about to hang up to end this punishment task, the call suddenly connected.
Gu Ran thought "not good" to herself, quickly trying to figure out how to explain to everyone later that the "housekeeper" was a young man, but a woman's voice came through the speakerphone: "Hello?"
Gu Ran was stunned.
"What's the matter, Miss Gu?" the woman's voice continued. The voice could roughly indicate her age; she didn't sound too young.
Everyone around thought this was perfectly normal, waiting for Gu Ran to complete her task.
Gu Ran looked around, hurriedly snapping out of her daze from hearing the woman's voice: "Oh."
She didn't even have time to organize her words and directly said into the phone: "I miss you."
The auntie on the phone seemed confused by this statement, then tentatively replied, "I, I miss you too?"
Bullet comments:
[Let's reasonably imagine the housekeeper auntie's expression after receiving this. If you want me to come clean, just say it directly, why make it so mushy hahahaha]
[I'm going to send a 'I miss you' to my cleaning auntie too.]
[Step aside! Let me be the housekeeper at Ranran's place! I'm willing!]
[May I ask if Gu Ran's home still needs a housekeeper? One who has passed College English Test Band 4.]
...
Gu Ran completed her task and hung up. Despite being full of doubts, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The game continued. They played a few more rounds, and the day ended.
In the bathroom, after showering, Gu Ran looked at her phone's WeChat interface, at the user with the note "Housekeeper."
She clicked in. The Moments feed had a few shared Xinbo public account news articles, clearly Ji Shiyu's account.
After thinking it over, Gu Ran sent a message:
[You were watching the livestream just now, weren't you?]
[Who did you have answer?]
Soon, the person on the other end replied:
[The auntie at home.]
Just as she had thought, Gu Ran typed out a reply to their chat: [Thank you.]
The housekeeper, however, messaged back: [I miss you too.]
Facing these five words, Gu Ran's ears suddenly felt a little warm.
Was he responding to what she had said on the phone earlier?
He was clearly watching the live stream, yet he specifically had the auntie answer, knowing it was just a punishment task.
Gu Ran typed out a sentence: "Don't misunderstand." But after looking at the words, she felt there was something inappropriate about them.
She deleted and rewrote, and in the end, simply erased all the text she had composed: [Oh.]
Gu Ran came out of the bathroom.
Zhou Yuqi was lying on the bed with a face mask on, pedaling an imaginary bicycle in the air. Seeing Gu Ran, she suddenly asked, "What are you smiling about?"
Gu Ran: Huh?
She suddenly reached up and touched her own face.
Had she been smiling just now?
...
The recording for the show "Our Little Cottage" was more than halfway through. They had bid farewell to several more groups of visiting guests. The earlier guests were all arranged by the production team, but for the final batch, the team organized an event.
This season's live broadcast had achieved unprecedented popularity, all thanks to the support of the live stream viewers and fans. Therefore, the production team launched a repost-and-win event, randomly selecting five lucky viewers to visit the cottage as guests, with all travel expenses, meals, and accommodation covered. If any of the initially selected five couldn't make it for any reason, more draws would be held until five lucky fans who could attend were finalized.
Once this event was announced, it caused an uproar in almost every fan group, whether for the show itself or for the various resident guests.
The "Gu Ran's Fish Pond" fan groups were buzzing with unprecedented excitement. A unified message was sent to each group:
"You can visit Gu Ran on the show! Everyone, hurry to the official Weibo of 'Our Little Cottage' to repost and enter the draw! You don't need a Weibo account; you can participate directly with your Cat's Paw account! Go for it!"
Fans of all the celebrities and casual viewers reposted en masse, and the repost count on the show's official Weibo quickly surpassed a million.
Due to the tight schedule, the draw results were announced the same evening the lottery post was made.
The fans in the Fish Pond groups waited with nervous anticipation. Knowing full well that the chance of winning among so many reposts was about equal to winning the lottery, when the time came to announce the winners, they still checked the official Weibo with a hopeful heart to see if they were among the five lucky ones.
The system automatically drew the winners, and the list of lucky individuals was published.
With such slim odds, not winning was the norm. The little fish (fans) rushed to Weibo. While feeling a bit regretful upon finding they hadn't been tagged as winners, they remained mostly calm, smiling as they turned their attention to the winner's list to see exactly which five lucky souls they could all envy together.
As they looked, the smiles on their faces froze.
Lucky Winner Number Five: wdlpml.
