……
Within the desert’s long-reaching, high flying sandstorms lies no message;
Jiangnan’s rain of apricot flowers, back and forth for a thousand miles.
……
This song was adapted from the <Poem of Sacrifice> written by Emperor Jingyuan. It had been written as a tribute to his sister, who had forcibly been married off and perished in the northern deserts. It was reported that the latter half of the Poem of Sacrifice had been written by Empress Duanhui. Hence, it was very fitting for the one playing the empress, Qiao Su, to sing it.
Only Qiao Su sang in the TV drama, but to fulfil the effect of an evening party, Mu Chen had also been arranged to sing it with him. Qiao Su would first sing a segment and Mu Chen would take over for the latter half.
Qiao Su’s voice was naturally clear and distinct. When paired with the agile sound of the traditional instruments, the effect was especially pleasant. Seated in the spectator stands and waiting to enter the spotlight was Mu Chen, who silently gazed at the person on stage. The stage was made of glass; when he reached ‘rain of apricot flowers’, a water screen dropped down, isolating everyone within a hazy drizzle.
“The effect isn’t bad,” Chu Qin lay on the bed and watched Qiao Su on stage, illuminated by lofty rays of light. His brows puckered up slightly. The stage had just been repaired last year. Although it was advanced technology, there was one problem – the glass near the water screen was not anti-slip. It wouldn’t do to go near it.
Usually when Chu Qin used this stage, he would inform the performers not to get too close to the water screen. Now, seeing Qiao Su walking to his position, he knew that Teacher Liang had forgotten about it.
……
My sister, my sister, eternal rest;
My sister, my sister, rest in peace.
……
After singing the chorus, Qiao Su moved a step forward to reach his allocated spot. The glass beneath his feet had countless water droplets. His leather shoe came into contact with the wet glass, causing him to suddenly lose balance.
“Wu…” Qiao Su had just made a graceful turn when he slipped and fell down with a bang.
“Ah—” A muffled burst of shocked sounds could be heard from the spectator stands. Mu Chen stood up with a woosh and headed straight for the stage.
“Ge, you can’t go up now!” The worker beside Mu Chen hurriedly grabbed onto him. Now that an unexpected situation had occurred, the workers would swiftly handle it. What was Mu Chen intending to do by going up now?
Qiao Su’s fall was evidently quite serious; he lay there for a long time without a single hint of movement.
Chen Jiming, who was standing at the host’s position, was flabbergasted. The spotlight shone down on him and the director’s voice sounded from his earpiece, “Quick, say a few lines to appease the audience. The workers on this end will quickly handle it.”
“Ah, there’s a bit of a situation. Don’t panic, everyone,” Chen Jiming said dully. Not only did the atmosphere not take a turn for the better, it even became worse. The music had stopped playing as the mike was being used and the entire venue turned frigid.
This was a live broadcast; a dead venue was an extremely severe mistake. The director was so incensed that he was hopping mad in the broadcasting room. “That idiot, is he trying to embarrass himself to death by saying such words? The music can’t stop, slot in an advertisement, quick!”
At this moment, a phone call came in. The director was originally too impatient to answer it, but seeing ‘Chu Qin’ on the screen, he instantly picked up.
“Old Wang, quickly let Xiaoxiao get Mu Chen on stage to do a ‘hero saves the damsel’. If Qiao Su isn’t too seriously injured, let the two of them finish the song on stage,” Chu Qin’s calm, rapid tone of voice successfully placated the irritable director. Without careful consideration, he directly switched to Lin Xiaoxiao’s channel and sent down the order.
Lin Xiaoxiao picked up her skirts and ran down. Qiao Su had only twisted his ankle and was a little dazed from the fall. Seeing that there wasn’t too big of an issue, she turned and spoke in the direction of the spectator stands, “Emperor, your wife slipped, quickly come up and take a look!”
The minute these words were uttered, the audience immediately became impassioned. Although everyone was aware that Mu Chen was present, they didn’t know that he would go on stage at this point. The spotlight instantly shone down on Mu Chen’s location. Maintaining the film emperor’s graceful posture, Mu Chen swiftly walked down the steps, propped a hand on the stage and leapt up.
Music once again resounded. From the time when the incident occurred to Mu Chen’s arrival on stage, only half a minute had gone by. A small advertisement had been slotted in halfway, but it quickly cut back to the venue.
Thus, those in front of the television saw Mu Chen racing on stage and bending on one knee to cradle Qiao Su in his arms.
“Ahhhh!” The audience let out crazed shrieks.
Coincidentally, the music reached the chorus. Mu Chen received the microphone and sang in his deep and melodious voice, “My sister, my sister, eternal rest; my sister, my sister, rest in peace…” As he sang, he used a hand to cover Qiao Su’s eyes.
Qiao Su cooperatively slouched into his embrace, acting out a scene of dying in battle.
Everything joined together perfectly and what had originally been an accident was transformed into a moving performance.
“Mu Chen truly deserves to be called the film emperor,” Chu Qin beamed as he watched this scene on television, biting into the fruit Zhong Yibin passed over.
“Tch, I know how to as well!” Zhong Yibin put down the fruit in his hand and wrapped Chu Qin tightly in his arms, singing in a low voice. “My sister, my sister, accompany your brother to sleep…”
“Get off!” Chu Qin aimed a kick at him.
The two people on stage finally finished singing. The lights dimmed and Mu Chen swept Qiao Su up in a princess carry, walking off stage with a steady gait.
“Chen-ge, I’m all right. I can still walk,” Qiao Su was red from ear to neck and struggled to get down.
“Don’t move,” Mu Chen said in a low voice. He didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go and continued to carry Qiao Su, heading directly to the lounge backstage. Both parties’ assistants raced over. Shengshi’s workers immediately picked up the first-aid kit. Mu Chen placed Qiao Su down on the sofa and squatted down to roll up his pants.
“Chen-ge, let my assistant do it,” The warmth on Qiao Su’s face had yet to dissipate and he hurriedly stopped Mu Chen.
Mu Chen glanced at the surrounding people and continued rolling up his pants without a single word. His ankle was a little red and swollen. Because he had slipped sideways, the area from his ankle to knee was colored a deep red. If nothing untoward happened, these areas would turn green the next day.
“This has to be applied on the entire area you fell on. Otherwise, you won’t be able to walk tomorrow,” Mu Chen often acted in combat dramas and was exceedingly familiar with such injuries. Seeing that the red injury which had spread above his thigh was firmly covered by his pants, he frowned a little. “All of you, leave the room.”
Nobody dared to defy Mu Chen’s orders. From the situation, Mu Chen had ran into some hindrance while applying the medicine and needed Qiao Su to take off his clothes. The workers went out one by one. Qiao Su’s gold-medal manager stood at the side with his hands in his pockets and looked towards Mu Chen taking care of Qiao Su with cold eyes. When everyone was out, he personally closed the door and arranged for an assistant to keep a close eye on Qiao Su and prevent any photos from being taken. Then, he went off to argue with Shengshi’s person-in-charge.
“Take off your pants,” Mu Chen told Qiao Su after everyone was gone.
“…Ah?” Qiao Su stared at him blankly, somewhat stunned.
Mu Chen’s perfect performance had turned the program back around and the outcome was had even exceeded expectations. Despite this, the issue of Chen Jiming’s rigid reactions on-scene couldn’t be concealed. Moreover, many flaws were present throughout the evening party. Chen Jiming didn’t follow-up with many of Lin Xiaoxiao’s jokes, causing several moments of embarrassment.
“Xiaoxiao-jie, the thing you said just now wasn’t in the script!” Chen Jiming said angrily to Lin Xiaoxiao after he got off stage.
“This is a live broadcast. Any situations that occur on-site need to be dealt with impromptu. Reciting from the script won’t be of any use,” Lin Xiaoxiao’s lips curled. So what if she bullied the newbie? A newbie needed to have a newbie’s awareness. If one wanted to steal the limelight, they would first need to see if they could hold on to it.
On their side, the two people were engaged in disputes with each other, while on the other side, the chief producer was under heavy pressure. This was because Qiao Su’s manager took advantage of the halfway point of the program, when they were in the midst of switching stages, to take a look at the area Qiao Su had slipped at and directly sought him out to ask for compensation.
The title of gold-medal manager was not for show – it was few and far-between in the industry. Not only did they have good resources and a wide range of connections, they also had a pair of expert money-grubbing hands. The next day when Zhong Yibin went to work, he received the official letter issued by Qiao Su’s company requesting for compensation.
Shengshi had to take responsibility for the inappropriate arrangement of the stage and the lack of timely response to the incident. Because of his injury, Qiao Su would need to be bedridden for three days, which would influence his work. The good thing was that Shengshi had bought insurance and the amount needed to be paid was paid in full to Qiao Su.
On the company’s end, everything was agreed on amicably. However, the fans wouldn’t leave it lying down.
[My family’s Susu took such a harsh tumble, yet the people from Shengshi didn’t care at all and kept an injured person on stage for so long!]
[Something was wrong with that stage. There’s even water on the glass floor. It’s impossible to stand stably on it without qinggong, all right?]
[That Chen Jiming is so stupid, breaking the ice with the audience to this extent. How embarrassing!]
Within a short period of time, the topic of ‘Shengshi’s most disastrous evening party in history’ made its way to fame. People continuously cut out Chen Jiming’s part with the awkward silence, scenes of him failing to catch Lin Xiaoxiao’s jokes, as well as the problematic areas halfway during the program when he failed to connect things together adequately.
“How did this happen?” Zhong Yibin threw the materials on the table and stared at the higher-ups of Shengshi TV with cold eyes. “Shengshi has been on satellite for so long. This is the first time we’ve been criticized so badly.”
Station chief Zhang had a head of cold sweat. “Uh, I will definitely do a thorough check and handle it strictly.”
Having been scolded by the director, station chief Zhang called for a meeting after returning to the station and scolded the members of the evening party crew in a melodramatic manner. “What have you been eating to do things like this! Everything was okay in the past but it wasn’t okay this time. That means you weren’t being diligent!”
The producer lowered his head in shame, meeting Teacher Liang’s gaze. Teacher Liang’s lips were curled. Internally, he thought that it was because the nitpicker Chu Qin, who loved to worry, wasn’t around, which was why this group of people became lazy. The rest of the producing crew also felt sorrowful. In the past, they always felt that Chu Qin fussed too much. Only now did they realize that Chu Qin’s words were correct.
As a guy who loved to worry, Chu Qin would verify everything with the various departments every time they planned for a live broadcast of an evening party. He would go over every small detail that could influence the scene over and over again. For instance, this sort of stage that one could slip on.
“Has someone been assigned to inform the performers?”
“Draw a yellow line at that spot.”
Chu Qin would request to change any areas he was dissatisfied with, no matter how troublesome it was. Therefore, no major issue had ever cropped up during the live broadcasts he hosted. Any small situations would be easily resolved.
“Chu Qin is a host. If every one of your departments relied on him, why would we need you?” It was station chief Zhang’s first time hearing such a way of speaking, and he was somewhat shocked. He hadn’t expected for Chu Qin’s presence to be crucial to such an extent. He became slightly angry again after thinking of this. Chu Qin was clearly aware of all these issues, so why didn’t he raise them instead of washing his hands of it and going on a trip? It was obvious he wanted to make Chen Jiming look bad.
After the meeting, station chief Zhang called Chu Qin into his office for a private conversation.
When Chu Qin heard station chief Zhang’s words stating that he shouldn’t be so selfish, he gave a cold laugh. “Station chief, I don’t like to listen to such words. I’m only a host and reminding every department is also for the sake of my program’s results. As for another person’s program, I have neither the obligation nor the authority to give orders.”
The author has something to say:
Small theater: <Filth is born from the heart>
Chenchen: Take off your pants
Susu: T-Take off my pants? That won’t very good
Chenchen: What bullshit
Susu: QAQ Be gentle then
Audience: What a beautiful medicine application scene
Er Bing: Take off your pants
Qinqin: T-Take off my pants? It’s broad daylight
Er Bing: What bullshit
Qinqin: Be gentle t-then
Audience: Eh…so filthy
There was never any filth on earth. It only becomes filthy when more people know of it — <Bird Sanskrit>·Great Yu·Yellow Wild Wanderers