Chapter 88: Chapter 88

That’s right, Ethan Hawthorne vomited directly!

He didn’t even have time to run backstage. Instead, right in front of the cameras and so many audience members, after taking a bite of a dumpling made by Anna Thornton, he couldn’t help but lower his head and gag.

Having recorded so many shows, Jay Cross prided himself on having seen it all, with excellent control and emergency skills.

But he had truly never seen such a scene!

On a live recording of the show, for a male guest to vomit immediately without commenting after eating the female guest’s dish, what kind of evaluation is that?

If Ethan Hawthorne still had the capacity to speak, he would only be proving a point he made earlier.

It seems good-looking people make bad-tasting food.

And the better-looking the person, the worse the food tastes.

Due to Ethan Hawthorne’s extreme reaction, everyone present, except Conrad Sterling and Anna Thornton, was taken aback.

Some even thought he was food-poisoned, which would be a big deal...

Jay Cross hurried over, only to find Ethan Hawthorne raising his head as if nothing had happened after vomiting.

Except... he looked a little embarrassed.

Ethan Hawthorne couldn’t believe he’d done something so unsightly in public.

But at that moment, when he put the dumpling made by Anna Thornton in his mouth, he didn’t know why his body acted out of his control.

What is this? Did that woman poison the dumpling?

Yet aside from the taste, his body felt perfectly fine.

Ethan Hawthorne preferred to believe it was a supernatural event, hoping what just occurred was an illusion, that nothing truly happened. He hoped the fans at the show and President Sterling, with whom he recently established a connection, didn’t witness his most embarrassing moment.

"Sorry, there was a slight mishap on set. We’ll edit out the previous part and re-record a segment to wrap things up."

Jay Cross’s response was quick, aiming to both reassure the live audience and Ethan Hawthorne, letting him know not to worry about being embarrassed, as the offending part would be cut.

The footage of Ethan Hawthorne placing the dumpling in his mouth could be retained, followed by a pre-recorded segment of praise for the taste.

However, this time Anna Thornton wasn’t going to let him off easily.

"Host, you haven’t tried the tacky cucumber yet," Anna Thornton reminded him.

Tacky cucumber? The mere mention of it made Jay Cross’s head spin!

Originally, Jay Cross intended to brush it off, but the director suddenly raised a sign from the audience, asking him to follow protocol and taste the smashed cucumber and comment on the flavor. Follow current novels on NoveIＦire.net

Perhaps the footage of Ethan Hawthorne’s earlier dumpling incident wasn’t long enough, requiring Jay to supplement it.

The camera panned to the dish called smashed cucumber drowned in chili oil; truthfully, the more Jay Cross thought about the name, the more peculiar it sounded.

However, faced with the pressure, the director insisted that he try it.

Fortunately, Jay Cross considered himself able to handle spicy food since he could eat food cooked in red oil hotpots, believing chili oil wouldn’t be too overwhelming.

Anna Thornton handed him chopsticks, and Jay Cross wisely chose the piece of cucumber at the top of the dish, which had the least chili oil.

Oddly enough, Jay Cross was just eating cucumber, but after placing it in his mouth, he showed the same expression Ethan Hawthorne had when eating the dumpling.

After not even the third bite, Jay Cross turned green and bent forward to vomit.

Unlike Ethan Hawthorne, Jay Cross had no sense of idol-like self-awareness or burden, vomiting profusely on stage...

Anna Thornton wisely kept her distance, avoiding the splash of vomit.

Ethan Hawthorne wanted to distance himself from Jay Cross too, but simultaneous disbelief drove him.

He secretly switched chopsticks, picking a few grains of glutinous rice from an untouched salted dumpling in front of him. This time, he cautiously tried a small bite...

But the result remained uncontrollable; he found himself vomiting alongside Jay Cross.

A program initially intended as a food show spiraled into chaos.

The mix of dumpling leaf fragrance and the strange smell of vomit created an uncontrollable bizarre atmosphere.

The production team had no urgent methods to halt the vomiting and were perplexed by the situation. They could only escort the vomiting male guest and host off the stage while cleaning up.

Among the bewildered faces of the audience, Conrad Sterling maintained his ever-calm, seemingly in-control demeanor.

Observing the scene, appreciating how impressive it was that he managed to swallow Anna Thornton’s chicken soup without vomiting, unlike Jay Cross and Ethan Hawthorne whose reactions aligned with the normal human response.

"Do you still want to try her dumplings?" Conrad Sterling suddenly asked Ethan.

Ethan was equally baffled by the situation on stage, moments ago infuriated by the host ignoring Miss Thornton and making unreasonable demands.

Without understanding what happened, why did these two vomit after eating Miss Thornton’s food?

Yet Jay Cross’s vomit sounded terrible, and he didn’t even mute his microphone while vomiting, making Ethan want to vomit along.

He forced himself to swallow his saliva, shaking his head at President Sterling: "No...better not."

The recording ended, Jay Cross was weakened from vomiting and hadn’t yet recovered. Ethan Hawthorne felt too embarrassed, opting not to show his face, being escorted backstage directly to the nanny van by his manager.

Anna Thornton, without a manager, was the last to leave.

Before departing, she made sure to greet the three fans who traveled far to support her and waved goodbye to Ethan, ignoring Conrad Sterling standing in front of Ethan.

Seeing her deliberately skip him, Conrad Sterling frowned slightly in displeasure.

He and Ethan also prepared to leave, but the director stopped them before they could exit.

"President Sterling, what did you think of today’s show?" The director eagerly asked, rubbing his hands expectantly.

Whether Sterling Group would sponsor them in the second half of the year hadn’t been confirmed.

"What do you think?" Conrad Sterling asked back.

The question made the director’s face blush; indeed, judging by today’s show and the host’s performance, things weren’t ideal.

"President Sterling, it’s just that today had some unexpected situations, very sorry about that. But rest assured, our hosts and guests have never experienced such incidents before, be it due to the food’s cleanliness or accidental factors. We promise to investigate thoroughly and provide a satisfactory answer."

The director effectively shifted all the blame to ’accidental factors,’ with ’accidental factors’ obviously indicating Anna Thornton.

However, the more he explained, the colder President Sterling’s expression became.

In the end, he simply ignored the director’s words, striding past him on his way out.

The director, sensing his mood sour, dared only to grab Ethan, who followed President Sterling, courteously inquiring: "Young man, what does President Sterling mean? Is there still hope for sponsorship?"

Though he originally intended to ignore him, noticing President Sterling suddenly drawn towards two remaining bunny-shaped dumplings on the yet-to-be-cleaned open kitchen counter, Ethan paused.

Ethan took the opportunity to remind the director: "Let me put it this way—until you officially recognize the problem, there’s no chance."

Correctly recognize the problem?

"Is there a problem with our show?"

Now, the director was the perplexed one.