The Onion-Cutting Ninja's Secret Crush

58 Virtually the Same

There was an odd moment of silence on the stage as both judges stared at the bowl with the rice cake soup. Behind the scenes, everybody was taking a cursory glance at what was going on to already filter through the things that would be kept in the episode about the casting and what could either be deleted or should be saved for later. The situation on the stage soon attracted some views.

"What's going on there? Why aren't they saying anything?" The producer, Mister Bian, furrowed his brows a little, wondering if maybe this was because of Xiao Ming.

Even though he had invited him, it was indeed the case that he had mostly done so to bring in more viewers and especially get the younger people interested. After all, he was sure that that would finally benefit them in the end. But he had also been a bit worried about whether Xiao Ming was up for the task.

Now, seeing the situation of the stage, he felt like his worst nightmare was coming true. If it was just one scene, it could be cut out but this was only the casting and if something like this happened more often, then that would be quite difficult to deal with.

One of the staff members that had been keeping a close eye on things shook his head though. "It's both Mister Xiao and Mister Yu, director. I listened in and apparently, the dish that this contestant made is quite surprising. There seems to be some kind of hidden meaning behind it as well. I actually think we should leave the scene in. We can cut out a bit to make it seem less long but I'm pretty sure that the viewers online will like this." In fact, looking at those rotten women online, he was pretty sure that something like this had the potential to be shared widely in their circles. Even though the show was a serious one, why wouldn't they want some more viewers? So this was actually a good opportunity.

The director didn't quite catch his drift since he hadn't heard the discussion about the shapes and also hadn't looked too closely at what was in the bowl but he still nodded.

In his mind, this would at least make for a comedic touch. While the overall tone of 'Golden Spoon' was on the serious side, having a good laugh every now and then would also be good. Also, an interesting dish that could even make a seasoned chef like Mister Yu speechless was definitely something worth showing. They could even put this in a trailer!

"Alright, you keep it in then. Keep up the good work! Make sure that we have the most interesting tidbits ready this evening. We need to make some teasers before the episode airs next week. Hype it up online as much as we can!"

"Yes!" The staff members got back to work while the director walked off.

Not too far away, Qian Huang was also staring at the monitor. This one wasn't part of the ones that the staff members used but actually the one in the waiting area where family and friends of the contestants could wait for them.

Since the three of them had come early, he had managed to snatch a good spot and was now watching whatever the camera showed outside. These clips were selected at random so he wasn't able to see Xiao Ming all the time. But now that the judging process had started, there were quite a few more bits and pieces from the stage than there had been at the beginning when it had mostly been scenes of contestants cooking.

Right now, the cameraman was indeed showing the scene of Xiao Ming and Mister Yu staring into the bowl, looking at the rice cakes. There wasn't any tone to make sure that not too much info would be given out to the public by some bloggers that had sneaked in and so as to not disturb the people that were waiting and cause too much of a commotion that might even disturb the people inside the hall. Still, he could see quite a bit from this.

In any case, Qian Huang knew Xiao Ming quite well. To show this kind of expression ... something had to be seriously wrong. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at the dish in the bowl. Were those ... hearts?