The large sausage bestowed by the boss wasn’t anything delicious. Zhong Yibin pressed Chu Qin down for a night, messing with him like a rogue. The next day, when Secretary Jin came to get them, he couldn’t bring himself to wake up.
“Baobei, get up for breakfast,” Zhong Yibin had already taken a bath in high spirits. He hauled Chu Qin and even the blanket into his embrace, shaking them.
“Stop being so noisy…” Chu Qin weakly stretched out an arm and covered Zhong Yibin’s mouth.
Zhong Yibin dropped a kiss onto his warm palm and wiped his face with a towel. “We need to rush for the plane. Eat something first, you can continue sleeping after getting onto the plane.”
Only after hearing these words did Chu Qin reluctantly open his eyes. “You eat, I’m not eating.”
“That won’t do, you’ll get airsick if you don’t eat breakfast,” Zhong Yibin sighed. He turned to speak to Secretary Jin outside the door, “We won’t be going to the dining hall. Call for breakfast to be sent here.”
Secretary Jin, who had come to ask the boss to eat breakfast, could only resentfully turn and call for the guest room to send up the meals.
The project had already been settled, so they could return to China after breakfast. Zhong Yibin let Chu Qin continue sleeping and packed their luggage on his own. As a young master who had currently just learnt three skills – cooking, washing the dishes, and peeling fruits, he was not yet equipped with the ability to fold clothes. He stood in front of the wardrobe and scratched his head. Taking out the clothes, he stuffed them into the suitcase without a care. When they refused to go in, he took them back out, rolled them, and then stuffed them back in again. When the suitcase couldn’t be closed, he pressed against the suitcase with a leg and fastened the lock. A ‘kacha’ sound resounded. Solved!
The breakfast sent to the room by the hotel was extremely sumptuous. There was Chinese and western food, as well as Korean dishes. The wontons in the seafood soup were paired with fragrant garlic bread, thick potato soup, pickled cabbage pastry, and a bowl of cold noodles… Fruits in Korea were very expensive so only two slices of orange and watermelon were given.
Chu Qin washed his face in a daze. After drinking a spoon of wonton soup, his stomach was warmed up. He tried a mouth of everything, but his favorite was the cold noodles that had chunks of ice in it. Zhong Yibin was scared that he would overeat, so after Chu Qin had three mouthfuls and two sips of the soup, he picked up the bowl of cold noodles and gulped down the remaining amount.
“Don’t eat so quickly, it’s cooling,” Chu Qin frowned. Zhong Yibin hadn’t eaten much warm food. Eating cold noodles in a short span of time would cause diarrhea.
As expected, Zhong Yibin went to the toilet twice after getting onto the plane.
Chu Qin was still quite sleepy so after changing into slippers and putting his seat back, he fell asleep.
“Qin-ge? Is that you?” A voice sounded from above, disrupting Chu Qin’s blissful dreams. Chu Qin was in the midst of a very comfortable sleep and didn’t want to open his eyes, but the voice droned on continuously, causing him some annoyance.
When the flight was booked, there were only two spots left in the first-class cabin. Thus, Secretary Jin and the rest weren’t in the same cabin as the two of them. Zhong Yibin was once again in the toilet so there was no one around to block this irksome fellow. Chu Qin could only open his eyes with much reluctance.
A young boy’s face appeared in his line of view. His face was caked in very white powder that made him look ill. Since Chu Qin had leaned his seat back such that it was nearly even, this person could cling onto the back of his seat to speak to him.
Confused, Chu Qin pondered over this. He didn’t seem to know him, could he be some small fan?
“Qin-ge, I’m Liu Zhen from the MBB Group…” He hadn’t finished speaking when Zhong Yibin returned from the toilet. Seeing that someone had disrupted Chu Qin’s sleep, he flared up.
“Didn’t the kindergarten aunties teach you that you shouldn’t disturb someone who’s sleeping?” Zhong Yibin stood at the aisle and looked at that raucous youth with an icy face.
The boy called Liu Zhen immediately turned pale and the hand clinging onto the back of Chu Qin’s seat was retracted without delay.
“Mister, would you like any help?” The air stewardess in the first-class cabin had always been present. Seeing that a commotion had arisen on this side, she hurriedly rushed over to ask after them.
“I made clear before leaving that no one was to disturb him,” The more Zhong Yibin spoke, the icier his tone of voice became.
The air stewardess glanced at the just-awoken, still somewhat dazed Chu Qin and then glanced at the scared Liu Zhen, who had just retracted his hand. She quickly apologized to Zhong Yibin. Another boy seated at the side stood up and had Liu Zhen apologize. “Apologies, I’m his team leader. He’s still young and not sensible. Sorry, sorry.”
Over twenty-years old and still not sensible… Zhong Yibin smiled coldly. Afraid that the disturbance would prevent Chu Qin from catching some shut-eye, he waved a hand and no longer heeded them. He seated himself beside Chu Qin and covered him with a blanket. “Sleep.”
Things had already reached this point, how could Chu Qin continue sleeping? He sat up and glanced at the two awkward boys. “It’s fine, let’s return to our seats.” Despite his slight irritation towards the boy who had disrupted his sleep, it was imperative for him to maintain his warm and good-tempered image outside.
Nevertheless, that team leader didn’t dare to let the troublemaker Liu Zhen sit behind Chu Qin and switched places with him so that he was seated behind Chu Qin instead. The entire process was done in silence.
Zhong Yibin gave Chu Qin his earphones so he could sleep while listening to music. Seeing the dark eye bags beneath Chu Qin’s eyes, he felt pained and guilty. Only he could disrupt his wife’s sleep; anyone else who disturbed his sleep would be eliminated without discussion.
On the other side, Liu Zhen went to sit with another team member. His face showed his grievances. He spoke to another companion in a low voice, “I just wanted to say a few words to Chu Qin.”
“Even then, you can’t insist on waking him up,” His companion rolled his eyes and ignored him.
“He’ll have a deep impression of us like this. I dare to guarantee that this time, he’ll definitely remember our MBB,” Liu Zhen regained his wits from the previous shock. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he did the right thing.
The companion listening to him was at a loss for words. Even if Chu Qin remembered them, it would be an extremely poor impression. Now, he could only pray that Chu Qin didn’t remember them. If not, their future in the domestic entertainment industry would be tough.
Chu Qin was in a daze due to sleepiness and hadn’t actually remembered the identities of these people. However, Zhong Yibin did. After alighting, he got Secretary Jin to run a check on this association.
MBB Group, short for Morning Bad Boy…
“It’s the idol group that Daily Media has recently been focusing on nurturing in collaboration with Korea. They’ve already debuted in China and they’re relatively popular,” Secretary Jin placed the information in front of Zhong Yibin.
Zhong Yibin frowned slightly. Daily Media was a small company under the Big Fish Group’s banner. On account of giving Yu Tang face, he couldn’t do anything directly either.
“They aren’t very polite, that’s all. They’re not worth bothering about,” When Chu Qin heard Zhong Yibin mention this, he was resting at home and watching the live broadcast of the national day evening party.
Zhong Yibin’s lips curled up, and he thought of having a word with Yu Tang later on to show some concern about the spiritual culture among the Big Fish Group’s employees.
“Our evening party has adopted Weibo’s live broadcast method this year. The screen behind me is our message platform. The comments posted by the audience will appear on it anytime. Everyone can ridicule as much as they want to,” Chen Jiming had on a sequined suit with a bow tie. He was all smiles as he stood on stage, speaking into the microphone in his hand.
Lin Xiaoxiao opened her mouth, ready to say her lines, but unexpectedly, Chen Jiming had no intention of stopping. He spoke yet again.
“Of course, we request that everyone not be too strict on us,” Chen Jiming winked charmingly and the audience burst out in laughter.
Lin Xiaoxiao had a stiff smile on her face. Those were originally her lines. Now that Chen Jiming had narrated it, what was she supposed to say?
Chu Qin had worked with Lin Xiaoxiao for many years and could naturally tell that that was not her natural smile. He understood what was going on after some thought and couldn’t help but raise a brow.
Fortunately, Lin Xiaoxiao started introducing the guests for the day after a short pause, so it wasn’t as bad as an awkward silence.
The screen started displaying the comments from the audience.
[Where is my Qin-ge? Where’s Qin-ge?]
[Why didn’t Qinqin host the evening party! I came for the sake of seeing Qinqin!]
[Qinqin, I want Qinqin!]
So many years had gone by, and the audience were already used to Chu Qin. The abrupt change in personnel was very hard to adapt to. Performances including song and dance were showcased on stage. Off-stage, Chen Jiming looked at the mass of ‘Qinqin’ on screen with an ugly expression. The television station had already been dominated by Chu Qin. His influence could be felt everywhere.
“Xiaoxiao-jie, it’s time to go on stage,” A program ended, and Chen Jiming smiled as he invited Lin Xiaoxiao to go up with him.
Lin Xiaoxiao gave a cold laugh. “It’s enough with just one of you. In any case, you know my lines.”
Chen Jiming’s expression changed. “Sorry jie, it’s my first time on stage. I was a little nervous and said too much by accident.”
Lin Xiaoxiao ignored him, smiling as she went on stage with him. However, when Chen Jiming attempted to crack a few jokes to ease the atmosphere, Lin Xiaoxiao didn’t connect with him, resulting in a poor outcome.
The director’s bellow could be heard from their earpiece. “What’s going on with the both of you? You have to continue talking for the next minute, backstage isn’t ready yet.”
Shensghi had always followed the trends closely. This time, <The Golden Age of the Great Jing> was the hottest broadcast within the station. The ending song was sung by Qiao Su and he had been invited to sing it during the evening party.
After a spell of smoke and fire, the soothing, elegant sound of traditional Chinese instruments accompanied the music. Qiao Su slowly walked out from the depths of the stage, his clear and moving voice singing the melancholic piece <Sandstorm of Sacrifice>.
The author has something to say:
Small theater:
Passerby A: Qin-ge, say something to me
Qinqin: I want to sleep
Er Bing: Block everyone who dares to disrupt my wife’s sleep
Secretary Jin: Qin-ge, get up and eat
Qinqin: I want to sleep
Er Bing: Dismiss everyone who dares to disrupt my wife’s sleep
Strawberry Condom: Qin-ge, let me in one more time
Qinqin: I want to sleep
Er Bing: Change everything that dares to disrupt my wife’s sleep
Qinqin: →_→