Chapter 84 - Make Money
Xu Bei?
Yan Ting’s eyes stayed on this name for a few more seconds.
Qin Xiao introduced the identities of the six artists. Once he reached Xu Bei, he didn’t directly mention the name. “I checked this artist. He is an artist of Purple Eggplant Entertainment and his relationship with Chen Hang is a bit ambiguous. However, since the last time I invited the Chen father and son to drink tea, Chen Hang has alienated him a lot. This person repeatedly bought articles to raise himself and pull Mr Li down. However, due to his lack of ability, Mr Li has severely suppressed his limelight every time and made him lose face several times.”
Yan Ting returned the list to Qin Xiao. “You go and deal with it.”
“Okay, Sir.” Qin Xiao put away the list to prevent Yan Ting from seeing the word ‘Xu’ again.
***
The day before entering the crew of Seven Boyfriends, a male artist of Strawberry Entertainment got acute appendicitis and was admitted to the hospital. However, this male artist was going to be a guest in a variety show. This male artist didn’t want to give his resource away to others but there was no way to go to the scene.
Finally, his agent discussed it with Luo Rong and wanted to ask Li Zhao to help replace the male artist for the first episode.
Looking for Li Zhao to help was the safest thing. Li Zhao was an artist from the same company and about to shoot a movie. There was no need to worry that Li Zhao would steal this resource.
The most important thing was that although Li Zhao only acted as a guest for a few issues of Seclusion Mountain Forest, his variety sense was vividly displayed on the show. Many variety show producers sent invitations to Li Zhao but Li Zhao had pushed them all away.
If Li Zhao was pushed to participate in this program then the program’s crew would definitely have no opinions. It was just unknown if Li Zhao’s side would agree.
Li Zhao agreed because he had nothing to do at home. Yan Ting had called him and said he would be back very late. Since Yan Ting wasn’t home, Li Zhao might as well record a program for the afternoon and make a bit of money.
The program was Beijing TV’s indoor variety show. Each season had fixed guests and the ratings and word of mouth were good.
Li Zhao arrived late. The program’s crew received him and also gave him a script. After reading the script, the staff took Li Zhao to meet the other guests.
In the guest lounge, the guests were chatting. The host greeted them and explained with a smile, “Due to Teacher Wang’s acute appendicitis, a temporary guest was arranged for this issue. Everyone, do you want to guess who the artist is?”
The guests were concerned about the physical condition of the artist surnamed Wang and started to speculate about the temporary guest.
“Old Wang is a man so the temporary guest must be a man.”
“Old Wang is a handsome man so the temporary guest must be very handsome.”
“Xu Bei, what do you think?” One of the artists saw that Xu Bei was in a daze with the camera next to him still on and spoke to draw Xu Bei’s attention.
“This… I can’t guess.” Xu Bei felt a bit strange in his heart. He didn’t have a good relationship with this artist. Why did this artist suddenly help him find a topic in front of the camera?
The artist who reminded Xu Bei was called Cen Han and he was a comedian. He had a harmonious family, an easy-going personality and was in the same company as Song Yu. Cen Han and Song Yu had a relationship. Cen Han had received Song Yu’s favour in his early years and he treated Song Yu as a little brother. Who would like someone who bullied his brother?
Xu Bei hadn’t received many fans in the Love variety show so he tried to enter this indoor variety show. Although Cen Han never targeted him on the show, the cold attitude behind the cameras allowed everyone to know that Cen Han didn’t like him. This made Xu Bei very embarrassed in the program group.
“It seems that no one has guessed.” The host laughed. “Come, let’s welcome the guest of this issue.”
Everyone clapped and looked at the door. The door opened and the temporary guest walked in. Xu Bei’s smile was almost stiff. How could it be Li Zhao?
“Welcome Zhao Zhao.”
The cameras in the room worked at the same time to capture the expressions on each guest’s face.
“Thank you everyone.” Li Zhao entered the room and greeted the guests with a bow.
“Welcome welcome.” Cen Han got up to greet Li Zhao and directed Li Zhao to sit next to him. He told Li Zhao, “I remember someone when I see you.”
“Who?” Li Zhao was a bit curious.
“Myself from 10 years ago.” Cen Han sighed. “I was as handsome as you are.”
“Brother Cen, you’re too humble. You were more handsome than me 10 years ago.” Li Zhao smiled at Cen Han. “Many guests still like your image in ‘Shadow Man’.”
“Unfortunately, life has been merciless to him.” Another female comedian beckoned to Li Zhao. “Come Zhao Zhao, sit here. I can protect your handsome face from being infected by Cen Han.”
“What protection? I can see you drooling over our Zhao Zhao’s face.” Cen Han introduced Li Zhao to the other guests while joking. It was unknown if it was a coincidence or not but Cen Han had a lot of words when introducing others. Then when it came to Xu Bei, he only had a few polite words. It could be seen that his relationship with Xu Bei was cold.
“Hello.” Li Zhao smiled and shook hands with Xu Bei.
“Hello Brother Li.” Xu Bei smiled and shook hands with Li Zhao.
“Brother Xu, you’re too polite. You are two or three years older than me so I’m embarrassed to have you call me Brother.” Li Zhao’s smile was unchanged. “You can call my name.”
Xu Bei had touched porcelain on the Internet for a while so Xu Bei was already on Li Zhao’s vigilance radar. Xu Bei’s smile stiffened. The two people let go and had no communication. Facing Li Zhao, Xu Bei felt both guilty and disgusted. These complex emotions almost reached the climax when Li Zhao was in the same room as him. However, once the shooting began, he and Li Zhao were actually divided into the same team.
“Brother Xu, please look after me.”
Looking at the smile on Li Zhao’s face, Xu Bei inexplicably felt that he was being targeted. Did Li Zhao already know that he was the one behind the breaking news?
In the game portion, Xu Bei had long been exhausted and was panting. Then he saw the energetic Li Zhao and gritted his teeth to persevere. Once he fell into the inflatable trap, Li Zhao suddenly rushed over and grabbed his hand.
“Brother Xu, don’t worry, I won’t let go.”
“No, don’t worry about me.” Xu Bei froze for a moment before discovering the camera next to him. “You go first and don’t let the opponent find you.”
The moment he spoke, Li Zhao dragged him out of the pit. Dragging Xu Bei’s body weight out of the pit…
Xu Bei looked at Li Zhao’s arms and felt a bit cold. The reason must be the air-conditioning in the room.
“Brother Xu, I won’t make you unhappy with such a bad result.” Li Zhao sent Xu Bei a bright and dazzling smile. “Let’s go.”
Bad result? What bad result? What was Li Zhao implying?
Li Zhao pointed to a room like he didn’t see Xu Bei’s trance. “Go, I suspect the truth is inside.”
Xu Bei followed Li Zhao with a stunned look, watching this person search the books on the bookshelves and telling some funny stories. He had a guilty conscience and couldn’t integrate into the shoot.
In the monitoring room, the director was very dissatisfied with Xu Bei’s performance. “What is Xu Bei doing? We are shooting a variety show here, not a wardrobe show. What is he standing here for?”
Variety shows weren’t afraid of guests who talked too much. They were afraid of guests who were like a fool, stuck in place like a wooden stake.
“I knew I shouldn’t have put him in a group with Li Zhao.” The director whispered. “Fortunately, Li Zhao is lively or this group can’t be seen at all.”
The director had some regrets when talking about Li Zhao. “Unfortunately, he isn’t a permanent guest or our program would have more viewers.”
Li Zhao’s expressions were very contagious and it was easy for the audience to enter his emotions, involuntarily gaining a good impression of him. Actors who had these traits were equivalent to a heavenly feast.
Looking at the monitor, Li Zhao was struggling to give Xu Bei some moments but Xu Bei was reluctant and unwilling to look at Li Zhao. The director was so angry that he drank a few sips of ice water to suppress the fire.
If he knew, he wouldn’t have agreed to the request of the My Immortal Girlfriend crew to place this person in the program. He was afraid the acting done by this wooden person wasn’t worth seeing or taking seriously.
At dinner time, the guests stopped shooting and the program prepared luxurious work meals for them.
The guests sat together and chatted while eating. Li Zhao heard the female guests boasting about how the red lipstick on their mouth looked good. He glanced at them secretly and couldn’t tell the difference between these types of red.
The female guest noticed Li Zhao’s blank eyes and pulled out a few lipsticks from her bag, opening them. “Zhao Zhao, can you distinguish these colour numbers?”
“Aren’t they all red?” Li Zhao carefully stared at the lipstick blankly. “That… what is the difference?”
“Tomato red, carmine red, Taisho red.” Cen Han glanced at it and patted Li Zhao’s shoulder. “Don’t look at it. A boy like you with no girlfriend won’t understand.”
Li Zhao suddenly realized. “Brother Cen seems to understand very very well.’
“How can I not understand?” Cen Han took a sip of soup. “Every time my wife buys a new lipstick, she asks me if it looks good or bad. Of course, I want to say it looks good. If I can’t even distinguish between the colours then how can I make my wife happy?”
Li Zhao’s gaze directed at Cen Han was instantly full of admiration.
Then he secretly sighed in his heart. Falling in love was much more difficult than the university entrance examination. He really didn’t understand the difference between these reds. Or in the future… should he not fall in love?
The location of the evening recording was Beijing’s famous haunted house.
Xu Bei and Li Zhao entered the door. Before Li Zhao could react, he heard a scream and Xu Bei rushed down the path like a gust of wind. The camera zoomed in on his dazed face and then shot the house where there were only a few props and green lights.
“Brother Xu, don’t be afraid. A haunted house is just a lie.” Li Zhao had to chase after Xu Bei. He had just crossed a door when a girl in a red dress appeared in front of him.
The two people stared silently at each other for three seconds. Li Zhao took two steps to the side and the female ghost followed.
“Beautiful little sister, I’m looking for a living person. Do you know where he went?”
There were three passages in this room and Li Zhao couldn’t figure out where Xu Bei went. The little ghost sister looked at Li Zhao. Li Zhao stared back. After half a minute of this, the female ghost suppressed his laughter and pointed to one of the doors.
“According to my experience with reading horror movies, the female ghost must point to the wrong path so I’ll choose this one.” Li Zhao took two steps and found a hanged ghost with a long tongue hanging out.
He rolled up the tongue prop and stuffed it into the hands of the actor. “Don’t stick your tongue out. It is dusty and unhygienic.”
The actor who played the hanged ghost held his tongue prop. “……”
Young man, could you respect my profession and be afraid?
Li Zhao entered a dark passageway with only a bit of green fluorescence. The cameraman whispered, “Zhao Zhao, aren’t you afraid?”
“Do you know that I often got first in the class for my ideological and political classes?”
The cameraman wondered, “So?”
“So I am a good socialist successor.” Li Zhao spoke seriously. “I can tear down all ghosts and monsters.”
The cameraman, “……”
Awesome, too awesome.
“Ah!”
Li Zhao heard Xu Bei’s scream and ran over quickly. He saw Xu Bei holding his head and standing in a corner. Hearing footsteps behind him, Xu Bei’s face showed some ruthlessly. He smashed the bone prop hidden in his arms at Li Zhao and then kicked out fiercely.
The bone was smashed and once Xu Bei’s foot touched Li Zhao’s clothing, Li Zhao fell to the ground.
“Zhao Zhao!” The cameraman was behind Li Zhao and only saw Xu Bei kicking him. He saw Li Zhao fall to the ground with his stomach covered and was so frightened that the camera was unstable. He hurriedly carried the machine in one hand and helped Li Zhao with the other.
This type of accident suddenly happened and the staff playing the ghosts and the security staff following the guests were on fire. “Zhao Zhao, are you okay?”
Xu Bei stared at Li Zhao who was white from pain. He hadn’t kicked Li Zhao that hard! He had intended to use the excuse of being overly frightened to make Li Zhao suffer a loss but he hadn’t hurt Li Zhao. Why did Li Zhao look so breathless?
“I…” The moment Xu Bei started to speak, Li Zhao interrupted him. “I’m okay, I’m okay. Brother Xu didn’t do it intentionally. He must’ve been too afraid just now and reflexively protected himself.”
Everyone saw from Li Zhao’s pained words that his state wasn’t good. This kick probably wasn’t light and they were worried that the guests had an accident so they proposed to suspend shooting.
“It’s okay, you can continue shooting.” Li Zhao shook his head. “You can’t influence the progress of the shooting just because of me alone. Everyone can finish the shoot earlier and then I can go back to rest earlier.”
The staff of the program was very moved. Li Zhao was really dedicated and too understanding.
In the monitoring room, the expressions of the director and other staff members were a bit ugly. They were all veterans of variety shows and had seen the secret methods used among the guests. Xu Bei’s reaction just was… was clearly intentional.
If he was really afraid of ‘ghosts’, once Li Zhao fell down and the staff playing ghosts rushed over, he would show fear. However, after kicking Li Zhao, he saw these ghosts and didn’t avoid them or avoid looking at them.
“Director, this… do you want to keep it?”
“Keep it. Part of it will be included in the promos and part of it will be included in the episode.” The director was disgusted by Xu Bei. If every guest did something like Xu Bei then how could he shoot the show?
Xu Bei knew that he had held back but Li Zhao’s performance was so excellent that no one would believe him if he said he didn’t hurt Li Zhao at all. He was afraid of what these people would think.
Listening to Li Zhao say good things to the staff and the staff comforting him, Xu Bei wanted to tear off the mask on Li Zhao’s face. There was no kick at all so of course Li Zhao was fine. This bitch!
“Brother Xu, don’t blame yourself.” Li Zhao placed a hand on Xu Bei’s shoulder and smiled. “I have thick skin. One kick is nothing.”
The cameraman remembered that Li Zhao was abused as a child and was beaten every day. Xu Bei’s foot was nothing compared to what happened when he was young. In this way, he looked even more pitiful.
The other guests had finished filming in the haunted house and were sitting in a room to rest. Cen Han glanced at the time. “It turns out the two young men, Zhao Zhao and Xu Bei are the most afraid of ghosts. They haven’t come out yet.”
The staff came out and whispered several apologies to the guests, explaining the original matter. After listening to the explanation, the guests had bad expressions. Hitting people with a prop and kicking them, was this really being careless?
At the end of shooting, Xu Bei’s expression sank the instant the cameraman put the lens cap on. He stared at Li Zhao gloomily and whispered, “Li Zhao, you are ruthless!”
Li Zhao smiled. “Xu Bei, what are you talking about?”
“Did you seduce Qin Xiao with this innocent smile?” Xu Bei bit his cheek. “Just wait, you won’t be proud for long.”
Li Zhao smiled without speaking.
Xu Bei was enraged by his smile. “Just wait. Once Canghuan changes hands, you will be in trouble.”
After saying that, he pushed Li Zhao’s hand away and turned to leave.
“Zhao Zhao, are you okay?” A staff member who came out of the haunted house gave Zhao Zhao a hand.
“I’m fine, thank you.” Li Zhao thanked the staff while feeling strange in his heart.
Canghuan changing hands? Wasn’t this Ting Ting’s company? Why would it change ownership?
Xu Bei…
Xu. Was Xu Bei a relative of Yan Ting who wanted to gain Yan Ting’s company? Numerous television drama plots emerged in Li Zhao’s head.
Back in the lounge, Li Zhao and the others finished shooting and returned home.
The night was deep. Li Zhao returned home and found that Yan Ting was still at the company. The housekeeper uncle prepared a meal for him and he was surprised to see that Li Zhao wasn’t in a hurry to eat. “Mr Li, do you have no appetite or are you feeling unwell?”
Li Zhao shook his head and asked the housekeeper. “Housekeeper uncle, does Ting Ting have a relative called Xu Bei?”
“Xu Bei?” The housekeeper’s smile became a bit strange and was even filled with a bit of contempt. “Those from the Xu family aren’t relatives. If someone says messy things to you then don’t care about them.”
Li Zhao nodded with understanding.
“This person Xu Bei is indeed a member of the Xu family.” The housekeeper continued. “However, the boss never associates with those people and he doesn’t like others to mention the Xu family in front of him.”
“Yes, I won’t mention it in front of him.” Li Zhao thought no wonder why Ting Ting didn’t want to deal with the Xu family. Even Li Zhao felt they were disgusting.
Relatives staring at someone’s company all day and wishing to replace the boss was really too disgusting.
Li Zhao called Zhang Xiaoyuan and told him about what happened when recording the program today.
“Good job. To deal with this type of villain, you must use villainous means.” Zhang Xiaoyuan was really happy. “The studio has already checked it. The one who spent money to buy the marketing accounts and blacken you is Xu Bei. This person is so ugly that he is in the same family as an orangutan. I don’t know who gave him the courage to blacken you.”
“You found out so soon?” He had suspected this matter was related to Xu Bei when Xu Bei brought up Qin Xiao to him tonight but he didn’t expect it was actually the case.
“Cao Jia’s side got the information and he told the studio.” Zhang Xiaoyuan didn’t know what method this high ranking person had used to find the news but it was good that he was willing to spend energy to get justice for Zhao Zhao.
“Forget it, don’t let your mood be affected with this type of garbage.” Zhang Xiaoyuan changed the topic. “In a few days, you will fill out your university application form. Do you have a favourite university?”
“I think Tsinghua and Beijing University are good.” Li Zhao was slightly stunned. He had never thought about it. He was currently an actor so which major was more suitable?
“Beijing has a department related to film and television while Tsinghua opened a major in performing arts last year. They are both quite suitable for you.” Zhang Xiaoyuan’s mood was complicated. “When he finished his university entrance examination, he was worried about where he could go with his score. Meanwhile, Zhao Zhao was anxious about which of the top universities he should choose.
The difference between people was really big enough to make people eat lemons.
Yan Ting came back very late and saw Li Zhao asleep on the sofa, covered with a thin quilt. He walked to the sofa, looked at Li Zhao’s quietly sleeping face and bent over to smell the faint fragrance of the shower gel.
Li Zhao was asleep and knew nothing. Yan Ting wanted to touch him, his lips and his soft hair. A warm breath brushing his cheek. Yan Ting wanted to… kiss him.
“Ting Ting?” Li Zhao opened his eyes and stared at Yan Ting’s face in a confused manner. “What are you looking at?”
Yan Ting stared at him for a few seconds before slowly standing upright, voice calm. “I was looking at your face for moles.”
“I don’t have one on my face.” Li Zhao unbuttoned the top button of his pyjamas and pointed to the side of his neck. “Here, there’s one here.”
Looking at the slender white neck, Yan Ting quickly pulled up his collar. “What are you doing? Button up!”
“Didn’t you want to see if I have any moles?” Li Zhao yawned. “Did the company have a lot of work today that you came back so late?”
“Yes, I am going to make money.” Yan Ting looked at Li Zhao.
Li Zhao, “……”
Wasn’t Ting Ting rich enough?
He really didn’t understand a rich man’s world.
The author has something to say:
Baby Ting Ting was recently especially serious when taking classes at the kindergarten.
Another child asked: Why are you so serious? We are still babies.
Baby Ting Ting: I want to get more red flowers and get the lollipop reward.
Child: Can you give me a lollipop?
Baby Ting Ting shook his head: No, I want to give them all to Zhao Zhao.