The television drama awards ceremony ended perfectly, once again proving Chu Qin’s strength in the area of hosting. At present, there were innumerable reputable hosts in the domestic entertainment industry. Despite this, there were very few who could truly bear heavy responsibility. The majority of the hosts belonged to the sticky type – they needed a star performer to support them to make up for their imperfections. However, they would no longer be someone after leaving the star performer.
As it turns out, Chu Qin was such a star performer.
It was already December and the dress rehearsal for Shengshi TV’s New Year Evening Party was about to commence. Station chief Zhang finally learnt from experience and no longer brought up the topic of raising newbies. He directly set Chu Qin as the first host while Qian Liang, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Zhu Chang were designated for the remaining three spots.
Ever since Zhu Chang took over the outdoor program, his popularity had been on a steady rise. He could already shoulder responsibility on his own. It was just that he continued to obediently remain the warming host for Confusion.
This week, Confusion’s recording was based on <Bun, Quickly Run> as the topic, so as to publicize the reality show. In fact, the ratings for this reality show had already overtaken Confusion, so doing this was also to raise Confusion’s ratings.
Yu Tang had just been promoted to the director of the Big Fish Group Asia-Pacific region. He was busy with work and didn’t have the time to attend programs. The end of the year was also a very busy period for Shengshi, hence Zhong big brother didn’t participate either. The only guests who were able to make it were the Wen Qing sisters, the Zhao Xu brother and sister, the Mu Chen brother-sister pair, and Zhong Yibin. The arrangement for this week needed quite a bit of brainpower.
Chu Qin got Lin Xiaoxiao and Zhu Chang to think of an idea while he crossed his arms and supervised without lifting a finger.
“Qin-ge, you can’t not do a single thing,” Zhu Chang made a pained face. He had only ever provided a few ideas for this sort of thing and had never planned it himself.
“You two will eventually need to mature,” Chu Qin looked at them with a fatherly countenance.
The two people were helpless and could only endure the pressure, grabbing Teacher Liang to repeatedly discuss with him. Chu Qin leisurely made his way to Shengshi Entertainment in search of director daren to exchange feelings.
“Chang-ge, it’s completely possible for you to open up another program. There’s no need for you to continue going along with Confusion,” During lunch, Chen Jiming saw Zhu Chang hard at work watching foreign performing arts in search of inspiration and couldn’t resist telling him this statement.
Ever since his father was transferred out of the entertainment director’s position, Chen Jiming’s arrogance had shrunk by a significant amount. His relationship with Zhu Chang and the rest had also somewhat lightened.
Zhu Chang raised his head and glanced at him as if he were looking at a fool. At its essence, Confusion was still Shengshi’s main program with the highest ratings. On top of that, it was also the key towards maintaining his popularity. The wings had yet to firm up, yet he already wanted to fly – only an idiot like Chen Jiming would be capable of carrying out such a thing.
“I can’t bear to give up on Confusion’s benefits.” After all was said and done, their friendship was shallow, and Zhu Chang could not be bothered to say more. After laughing it off, he continued to immerse himself in the process of earning his bread and butter.
Chu Qin didn’t have much on today and leisurely made his way to Shengshi Entertainment. The people at the company greeted him politely upon seeing him and Chu Qin returned their greetings one by one. He was all smiles as he pushed open the main door to the director’s office. Suddenly, the smile on his face stiffened.
“Director, take a look at this…” The large-bosomed beauty from the artist management department was showing a document to Zhong Yibin. She stuck extremely closely to him, her chest nearly making contact with Zhong Yibin.
Zhong Yibin looked up and saw Chu Qin, who had entered without knocking. He narrowed his eyes slightly and sneezed, pushing away the large-breasted beauty. “You’re not allowed to wear perfume the next time you come to work.”
The lady was visibly aggrieved. Zhong Yibin didn’t notice and continued to rub it in. “It smells like durian, so pungent.”
Chu Qin’s lips pursed up as he suppressed his laughter. He raised a brow as he watched Anna run out while weeping. “Why is director daren so insensitive?”
“How am I insensitive?” Zhong Yibin rose and pulled Chu Qin into his arms. He buried his nose into Chu Qin’s shoulders and inhaled deeply. This faint smell of lemon was still the most comforting.
“What’s that?” Chu Qin lay in Zhong Yibin arms and looked at the document that had just been sent over. His name was clearly written on top.
“Oh, the invitation letter from the Golden Jubilee Awards Ceremony. They want you to be the host,” Zhong Yibin stuffed the document into Chu Qin’s hands.
The Golden Jubilee Awards was the most influential film award. The awards ceremony would be held in Spring. The year had yet to pass, why were preparations already being made?
“It’s probably because your hosting of the awards ceremony was so good that they rushed to book you,” Zhong Yibin raised his chin with pride.
For a host, it would be considered to have reached the apex if one was qualified to take on the awards ceremony for the Golden Jubilee Film Festival. Chu Qin picked up the invitation letter and looked at it repeatedly. This was only a preliminary indication of their intentions in hard copy and the cooperation following this would still require discussion. But this was already enough for Chu Qin to feel excited.
Zhong Yibin disliked that the person in his arms had his attention fixed on the document and bit one of his ears. “We agreed to go out today, put this aside for now.”
They were previously preoccupied with filming for the reality show and had delayed regaining Zhong Yibin’s memories. Not a single one of the locations for this purpose had been successfully visited. Truthfully, Chu Qin didn’t care much about whether the memories were regained or not. In any case, Zhong Yibin remembered him. But to the Zhong family, it was for the better if he regained them. After all, there were still many hidden dangers. If Zhong Yibin didn’t regain his memories, he could be swindled any other day.
Their destination for the day was Zhong Yibin’s senior high school.
One’s memories of senior high school were usually the clearest. This was because it coincided with the period of adolescence, when memory was at its strongest and the first awakening of love was experienced. The things glimpsed and heard with emotions left the deepest impressions.
December happened to be the period when it was close to the final exams and the entire school courtyard was suffused with an indescribably strained atmosphere. After lunch hour, the afternoon classes had already started and the teaching area was quiet and calm. Only the loud teaching sounds of the teachers within the various classrooms could be heard, echoing throughout the empty teaching block.
To sit in on a class, Chu Qin had previously already contacted the school’s headmaster and said that their visit was to film a segment for Confusion.
“Final exams are just around the corner and the students are learning very anxiously. Why don’t you guys go to another school to film?” The school was a municipal one and the headmaster had always placed emphasis on studies. He didn’t like any disruptions from the outside world.
Chu Qin pursed his lips. If he were to say that if was for Zhong Yibin to regain his memories, the headmaster would probably take him as a mental case and chase him out, so he could only say that it was for a program. After quickly recalling his personal resources and the school’s requirements, Chu Qin smiled and said, “I want to use this video in Confusion. Of course, we may not necessarily use it. The editing team may cut it out if they don’t like it. However, our sponsor will offer three vending machines free-of-charge. You can also suggest anything you would like to publicize for the school, we will try our best to put it in.”
The headmaster’s heart was moved upon hearing of the vending machines and publicity. The high schools within the entire country would be ranked every year according to grades, facilities, reputation in a comprehensive study. If their school were to appear on television and obtain good publicity, it would be of great use towards their ranking this year. A school’s rising rank was an excellent indicator of their accomplishments and would contribute towards improving the headmaster’s position.
After obtaining the headmaster’s agreement, Chu Qin immediately went to discuss it with Confusion’s sponsor.
This sponsor sold energy drinks and had been sponsoring Confusion for a number of years. Thus, their relationship with Chu Qin was very good. Three vending machines wasn’t anything major and Chu Qin had enough reputation in front of the sponsors, so they agreed.
Zhong Yibin was not aware of the effort Chu Qin had put in to obtain the chance for him to listen to a class in his original high school. He wore the uniform that didn’t suit him very well and sat at the back of the classroom to listen to the lesson. The more he listened, the more sleepy he became.
The school added two desks at the back of a classroom for Chu Qin and Zhong Yibin to sit. The students in the classroom were still oblivious to the two mysterious visiting students that had entered their class. The cameramen lay outside the windows to film. The teacher had previously informed the students that they would be conducting a demonstration and thus everyone continued to listen to lessons like per usual.
“…When placed on the wooden board at this angle, the small ball will slide down…” The less than 1.6 meters tall physics teacher stood at the teacher’s desk and vigorously drew a small ball on the blackboard. Her monotonous voice caused one to continuously feel sleepy.
Zhong Yibin gazed at that familiar blackboard. Several scenes flashed before his eyes. As if recalling something, the tranquil expression on his face gradually turned vengeful. Lowering his head, he scribbled a line of words on the paper meant for mathematical calculations and threw it to Chu Qin.
Chu Qin was shocked. He raised his head to glance at the teacher and seeing that the teacher had not found them out, he stealthily opened it. ‘Don’t leave after school ends!’ was written on the paper.
The classic lines appeared, leaving Chu Qin somewhat stumped. He had always assumed that Zhong Yibin was a diligent, studious student when he was in high school. But in truth, he had already started to get into fights with others. Chu Qin held in his laughter and wrote ‘what?’ beneath the line of words. Then, he scrunched up the paper and flung it towards Zhong Yibin’s hand.
Zhong Yibin opened it, scribbled a line of words on the back, and threw it back to him.
The teacher had already noticed the tiny movements of these two visiting students and was very displeased, glaring at them. Chu Qin stared at the teacher’s fierce gaze, opened up the paper underneath the desk, and took it out to read.
[Let’s do classroom play!]
“…” The corner of Chu Qin’s mouth twitched. He dragged Zhong Yibin out of the classroom without waiting for the class to end. He had a slight suspicion that it was him who had corrupted Zhong Yibin. A guy whose head was filled with dirty-minded thoughts would never return to his youthful, pure years…right?
The author has something to say:
Small theater:
Er Bing: Let’s do classroom play
Qinqin: How…how to play?
Er Bing: I’ll be the teacher, you be the student
Qinqin: Then?
Er Bing: Then I can assign you homework. Do five test papers today!