VH: Chapter 73

TL Note: Funny thing is that Zijia Entertainment actually means Purple Eggplant. I have been using the pinyin for it but in keeping with the naming style of the novel, I will now change it to Purple Eggplant Entertainment.

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“Every weekend, the volunteer brothers and sisters will teach us how to draw, play games and make paper cutouts.” Li Zhao spoke about life in the welfare home without any grievances. “The dean was particularly powerful. Not only could he write beautiful characters, he could also play the panxiao.”

The LI fans watching the live broadcast remembered how Zhao Zhao had performed the panxiao for a TV program during the broadcast of Overbearing Female President. At that time, he said the dean taught him but they didn’t think it was the dean of a welfare home.

It was ridiculous that not long ago, there were marketing accounts saying that Zhao Zhao was pretending to be rich. Zhao Zhao had always said he was poor and even the house he was staying in was borrowed from a friend, but these black marketing accounts didn’t want to let him go.

“After I lived in the welfare home, many people wrote to me and sent me greeting cards. The kind-hearted people were worried that I couldn’t understand complicated Chinese characters so they drew me cute chibi people.” Li Zhao’s eyes were red but his mouth was raised in a smile. I really feel that the world is beautiful, there are too many beautiful things.”

“I have read all the comments you left me. Please rest assured here.” He looked at the camera. “The past is over. At that time, I was very lucky and was protected by countless well-meaning people. So don’t worry that I will be sad about these things.”

The happier Li Zhao smiled, the more pained the Li fans became.

“Silly Zhao Zhao, being so happy just because of two chicken drumsticks. I thought that chicken drumsticks weren’t great as a child.”

“The baby is so foolish that it is painful, painful.”

“He must be afraid that we’re worried so he went to this live talk show. Zhao Zhao, in fact, I wanted to thank you for the joy you brought me.”

“I finally understand why Zhao Zhao would stand up to clarify for Song Yu when everyone was blackening him. Song Yu prepared good food for Zhao Zhao every day. For Zhao Zhao, as long as a person is a bit good to him, they are a good person.”

“The more the sisters upstairs speaks, the sadder I am. My baby, he must have a happy life in the future and don’t be wronged.”

The live talk continued.

The host asked, “From Overbearing Female President to Seclusion Mountain Forest, you are becoming more and more loved by the viewers. Does this have any impact on your life?”

“I am receiving more jobs and the number of people who care about me is higher.” Li Zhao laughed. “If I send a Weibo post at midnight, there will certainly be many fans telling me to go to bed early and to not stay up all night, although they themselves are awake.”

“Staying up late is a big problem for many young people right now. Do you usually stay up late?”

“I go to bed early apart from when I shoot night scenes.”

“There are no other entertainment activities at night?”

“This…” Li Zhao laughed. “Everyone knows that the consumption level of Beijing is quite high. Going out at night to play costs a lot of money.

The Li fans, who had been feeling sad for Li Zhao, were now amused. Indeed, being poor was the biggest problem.

The host hadn’t expected such an answer. She thought Li Zhao would say something like he didn’t like to go out to play or his life was very regular. She didn’t expect it to be because of money.

“Ah…” The host was stunned. “Then what do you usually do when you aren’t filming?”

“I just stay at home at watch TV, harm the flowers in a friend’s garden, cook hot pot with my friends, read scripts and so on.” Li Zhao asked the host, “Does this type of life seem boring?”

“It’s good.” The host laughed. “It seems that your hair is so thick because you sleep on time.”

“Poverty is the key.” Li Zhao scratched his head. “Having no money means you aren’t in the mood to go out and play.”

The host was silent for a moment. “Now that you have many job opportunities, your living conditions must be better.”

“It really is much better.” Li Zhao nodded. “But it isn’t because I made money. It is because my friend thinks I’m too miserable and often takes me to his house to eat.”

“Is it the friend who let you borrow the jewellery worth several suites?” The host was very interested in Li Zhao’s local tyrant friend.

“I really don’t know if it is worth a few suites. In any case, I quickly returned the jewellery when I went back that evening.” Li Zhao laughed.

“Were you afraid of losing it?”

“No, I was afraid that if I wore it for a long time, he would give it to me.” Li Zhao explained, “My friend usually has a boring character and doesn’t value money at all. As you know, I’m poor. This means I’ve struggled to prevent him from sending me things.”

“Oh my god, I can’t even dream about having such a good friend.” The host spoke in an exaggerated manner. “I would love to have this type of trouble.”

In the barrage area, the netizens also said they needed such trouble.”

“Don’t make fun f him. My friend is somewhat shy and doesn’t know the entertainment buzzwords. I’m worried that he is watching this livestream right now.”

Who would’ve thought the barrage would become even more severe as the netizens asked the local tyrant friend to show himself. Yan Ting, who was watching the live broadcast, saw these words influence his ability to watch Li Zhao and ruthlessly blocked the barrage.

“It can be seen that you have a very good relationship with this friend.”

“Of course, we can be counted as good friends wearing the same pants.”

CP fans: It isn’t only good friends wearing the same pants but also…

Pure fans: My family’s Zhao Zhao is amazing to have such a good friend.

After the live broadcast ended, Li Zhao said goodbye to the staff and the host sent Li Zhao to the door. “Zhao Zhao, you’re welcome to be a guest in the next live broadcast.”

“Thank you.” Li Zhao thanked the host politely before getting in the car and leaving.

“Sister, the number of online viewers in our live broadcast room has set a record.” The director walked behind the host and whispered. “In addition, a large number of them are new viewers. They were all here for Li Zhao.”

The host watched the car disappear and turned to the director. “Li Zhao and Overbearing Female President have earned enough attention for Green Pepper Video. His participation in the New Year party also helped us earn a lot of heat. This time, he chose to cooperate with us.”

The director laughed. “The day after tomorrow is Green Pepper’s Happy Night. Will Li Zhao come?”

“He should.” The host spoke softly, “The other day, didn’t Purple Eggplant Entertainment send a message saying that they wanted Xu Bei to go in front of Li Zhao?”

“This…” The director shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

“Xu Bei participated in an audition show and didn’t even enter the debut team. He doesn’t have any works so s there a reason for him to go before Li Zhao?” The host raised her eyebrows. “We must do things according to the rules. Are newcomers so ignorant? They have no one in their eyes once they become a bit famous.”

The host had a very high status in Green Pepper Entertainment. If she said this then others who wanted to move Xu Bei’s red carpet position forward couldn’t do anything.

Thanks to the development of the Internet, the parties hosted by multimedia video platforms received more and more attention from celebrities, especially those who have just become popular. If they weren’t invited then they would be ridiculed by fans of other artists.

Li Zhao hadn’t intended to participate in the Happy Night of Green Pepper Entertainment but fans were all looking forward to him walking the red carpet. His team also suggested that he participate so he had to agree.

He couldn’t let his fans worry about him.

The styling team and clothing were ready. Once the housekeeper uncle heard Li Zhao was going to appear on the red carpet, he excitedly pulled Li Zhao to choose jewellery. Even Cangshi sent him a new limited-edition watch. Everyone was looking forward to his appearance on the red carpet.

On the night of the red carpet, every fan held up a lantern to support their artist. The media had long occupied their positions and fashion bloggers had their eyes wide open, staring at the live broadcast screens as they waited for the outfits of the entertainers.

After getting the final red carpet list, Xu Bei’s expression was very ugly. He touched his diamond collar and suppressed the anger in his heart. What exactly did Green Pepper Video mean, deliberately letting a group walk in front of him?

This team was the one formed from the audition program Xu Bei participated in. He didn’t have a good relationship with any of the members in the group so letting them walk in front of him was simply a needle in his heart.

The thing that made him even angrier was that even though Li Zhao was walking in front of him, why was that Song Yu walking in front of him as well? The last time he recorded the program, he was very unhappy with Song Yu. The entire program group saw that Song Yu didn’t like him but Xu Bei could only tolerate Song Yu’s provocation again and again for the sake of his gentle person image. This was despite the fact that in his heart, he already wished to beat Song Yu to the ground.

The red carpet started with the first-tier big names and then the artists who were currently popular. Once it was Li Zhao’s turn, the Li fans present cheered.

“Zhao Zhao, come on!”

“Zhao Zhao, rest assured that the Li fans will always accompany you.”

“Zhao Zhao, charge straight forward.”

Li Zhao smiled and waved to them. There was the constant sound of camera shutters at the scene.

The fashion bloggers had already moved their fingers and searched for the clothes and accessories on Li Zhao’s body.

Sure enough, the watch was a limited edition Cangshi watch, the clothing was the latest model from A House and the accessories weren’t yet known. However, since the person who mocked Li Zhao last time was hit hard, this time no one ridiculed Li Zhao for wearing fakes. They just reflected that their knowledge wasn’t wide enough to recognize Li Zhao’s accessories.

After walking the red carpet, Li Zhao went o find his seat. His seat was in the first row of Area B. As he sat down, he looked up at a chair with the nameplate Xu Bei on it. Xu Bei? Li Zhao’s eyebrows raised slightly as he took his seat.

The artists gradually entered, followed by some fans and media people with tickets. Li Zhao was bowing his head and playing with his mobile phone when a hand stretched out from behind him. “Senior Li, hello. I am Xu Bei.”

“Were you in last year’s audition program?” Li Zhao looked at Xu Bei’s outstretched hand. “It seems that we debuted in the same you. I can’t afford for you to call me Senior.”

The smile on Xu Bei’s face was slightly stiff. Last year, he failed to make his debut in the audition program. Later, he signed with Purple Eggplant Entertainment and barely made his debut. What did Li Zhao mean?

“How can that be? During the time when Senior Li was running around the crews as substitutes, I was still studying at university.“ Xu Bei sneered. “There is a sequence so I deserve to call you a senior.”

“It turned out to be like this.” Li Zhao smiled and nodded. “Hello junior,  you’re well-behaved.”

Xu Bei, “……”

He dared to call Xu Bei this way? Li Zhao even answered with impudence?

His heart was clogged. Who said that Li Zhao was simple and harmless? This person was clearly pretending to be an innocent white lotus.

This type of party would have awards. The prestige wasn’t high but the focus was on the fun.

Overbearing Female President was an online drama exclusively shown on Green Pepper Video so there would definitely be a place for it to win at the awards ceremony part.

The thing that made people feel subtly strange was that the first female lead and the third male lead of this online drama didn’t appear at the party, as if the crew and platform side had forgotten them.

In the end, no one was surprised when Li Zhao won the Best New Male Actor award. Overbearing Female President brought great benefits to Green Pepper Video. The industry knew that Li Zhao’s performance in this drama was remarkable and the relationship between Green Pepper Video and Li Zhao was good. This was normal.

Xu Bei almost couldn’t control the expression on his face as he reluctantly raised his hand to applaud.

“I would like to thank the two teachers handing me this award and all the cast members of Overbearing Female President. Of course, there are two people I’m most grateful to. I want to thank my agent Zhang Xiaoyuan for not taking me to open a noodle store and I want to thank Song Yu for the delicious food he gave me.”

The camera swept to Song Yu and Song Yu silently covered his face. He really didn’t want to gain a sense of presence in this way. This caused laughter in the venue. Meanwhile, Xu Bei took out his phone and texted the young director of Purple Eggplant Entertainment.

Xu Bei: Brother Hang, didn’t you tell me that you would ensure Li Zhao didn’t get the prize?

No one responded to the message. Chen Hang, who had been very attentive to him in the past, seemed to be dead. He didn’t reply even after a few messages were sent.

In the quiet environment of the teahouse, Qin Xiao in a suit and gold-rimmed glasses was pouring tea for the father and son opposite him. Once it was full, Qin Xiao smiled. “Sorry, I’ve been quiet for too long. Come and drink tea. Mr Chen, I’m asking for your understanding.”

The tea was full of ‘taking unfair advantage of the guest’. Boss Chen had lived for 60 years and it was impossible for him not to understand this.

‘How can that be?” He picked up the cup and took a sip of the hot tea. His face was as usual as he said, “Good team. Mr Qin is indeed Mr Ting’s special assistant. The tea you make is more fragrant than others.”

After this gulp, there wasn’t much tea left. It was only 70% full.

Chen Hang saw his father’s cautious look. The expression on his face was a bit impatient but he didn’t dare to attack. His personal phone in his clothes shook several times and he knew Xu Bei had sent a message to him.

He moved his body, prepared to make an excuse to go outside and look at the message.

“It seems that Mr Xiao Chen isn’t satisfied with my tea?” Qin Xiao wiped his hands with a towel and looked at Chen Hang with a smile that wasn’t a smile.

“No, no.” Before Chen Hang could speak, Boss Chen replied first, “That child is someone who can’t sit still. Mr Qin, please forgive him.”

“It is normal for young people to be active.” Qin Xiao pushed up his glasses. “However, being too active and offending people isn’t a good thing.”

Boss Chen groaned in his heart. How could this stinky boy offend Qin Xiao?

“I admire a young actor lately.”

Boss Chen thought, ‘His son dared to steal someone from Qin Xiao?’

“Coincidentally, this young actor is also a spokesperson for our Canghuan product.” Qin Xiao lifted the teacup and gently blew on it. “However, Mr Xiao Chen had a misunderstanding with our company’s spokesperson. A few days ago, he spoke with Green Pepper Video for them to cancel the award our spokesperson won.”

“It is normal for young people to have friction. I asked the two of you to come out to understand Mr Xiao Chen’s thoughts. If it is a misunderstanding then I hope it can be solved earlier.” Qin Xiao took a sip of the tea. “Otherwise, it will be too much and not everyone will look  good.”

Boss Chen couldn’t take a breath in or let it out. In addition, he was almost shivering. This little bunny was really good. He didn’t steal Qin Xiao’s person but dared to bully Qin Xiao’s person.

Slap!

Boss Chen slapped Chen Hang in the face. This slap contained 10% of his strength and Chen Hang fell to the ground.

“Dad?!” Chen Hang stared at Boss Chen with disbelief. This outsider only casually said a few words and his father hit him. Was his father crazy?

“Don’t call me Dad. I don’t have a son like you.” Boss Chen secretly observed Qin Xiao’s face and saw this person was unmoved as he drank his tea. Thus, he continued to punch and kick Chen Hang.

“Didn’t I usually teach you to be kind to others and not embarrass others? How can you even bully the artists under Canghuan?” Although Boss Chen felt distressed, he had to show his attitude in front of Qin Xiao or his son would only suffer more.

Seeing that Chen Hang was beaten until his cheeks were swollen and tears fell down, Qin Xiao spoke slowly, “Mr Chen, what are you doing? Children who don’t listen can only be taught slowly.”

“I will listen to Mr Qin and spare him this time.” Boss Chen kicked Chen Hang. “You should say thank you to Mr Qin.”

Chen Hang, “……”

Boss Chen raised his hand and hit his son again.

“Mr Chen, if you have something to say then say it slowly. Violence isn’t the answer.” Qin Xiao’s lips curved up. “The young man has learned his lesson.”

“Yes, yes, it is as Mr Qin said.”

“I have a friendship with Mr Chen so I talked to you in advance this time.” Qin Xiao drank his tea. “However, there is no next time.”

“Mr Qin, rest assured that I will educate him when I go back.” Boss Chen’s head was sweating but he didn’t dare wipe it. He dragged the swollen-faced Chen Hang out of the teahouse. “You said you provoked someone who isn’t good. Why did you provoke Qin Xiao’s person?”

Chen Hang covered his face. “Dad, how can you hit me for an outsider?”

“I’m saving you!” Boss Chen pushed Chen Hang into the car. “Two years ago, the Xu family offended Qin Xiao. Do you know what happened to this Xu family?”

“What?”

“The company became bankrupt. They were also involved in economic crimes and were locked up.”

“I just wanted to clean up a male artist. Who would’ve expected Qin Xiao to fancy him?” Chen Hang was someone who was also afraid of Canghuan. “As the special assistant of Canghuan’s boss, how can he dare tell us that he won’t get along with Purple Eggplant for a man?”

“Do you think that Purple Eggplant is that great?” Boss Chen smiled bitterly. “Last year, Strawberry Entertainment had an artist with the surname Xu who tried to speculate that he was the distant relative of Canghuan’s boss. Canghuan said nothing but that person surnamed Sun personally went to the door to apologize. Is Strawberry Entertainment worse than us?”

“It means his personality is the same as his surname, a ‘grandson.’”

“Bah!” Boss Chen scolded. “It is better for me to kill a young man like you or else the foundation of the family’s industry will be destroyed in your hands.”

“Dad, Dad, what are you talking about? Don’t do it!”

In the struggle, Chen Hang’s mobile phone fell out of his pocket. Boss Chen picked it up to take a look and saw the latest WeChat message.

Xu: Brother Hang, I’m scared. Do you have an opinion of me that you don’t even want to reply to my message?

“Who is this? A man or a woman?”

“Man, a man!”

“This man talks like this. At first glance, he isn’t serious!”

“Ouch!” Chen Hang held his head as he accepted Boss Chen’s iron fist of love. “Dad, I have something to say.”

“This old man has nothing to say. I just want to kill you!”

***

“Sir.” Qin Xiao walked to a black car parked on the side of the road. Someone was holding his phone and watching a live broadcast with no expression.

“I’ve already warned the Chen family.” Qin Xiao glanced at the time. “The party is coming to an end. Do you want to rush home before Mr Li gets back?”

Yan Ting gave a slight nod.

“I just watched the entertainment news. Mr Li seems to have won the prize. Congratulations, sir.”

“Zhao Zhao won the prize. Why are you congratulating me?”

“Mr Li is your child.” Qin Xiao smiled. “Sir, have you thought about how to celebrate with Mr Li?”

“En.”

Qin Xiao secretly let go of his worries. In this regard, the boss’ emotional intelligence was still normal.

Li Zhao came back with a golden trophy and saw Yan Ting sitting on the sofa with a large gift box in front of him.

“You’re back?” Yan Ting got up. “Congratulations on winning the prize.”

“Thank you.” Li Zhao changed his shoes and trotted to Yan Ting with the trophy. “What’s inside?”

“It is a gift to congratulate you on winning.” Yan Ting took two steps back and motioned for Li Zhao to open the gift box.

“For me?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.” Li Zhao stuffed the trophy into Yan Ting’s arms and curiously pinched the bow. “Can I open it?”

“Okay.” Yan Ting touched the trophy and found it was gilded, not pure gold.

How could his Zhao Zhao only get a gilded trophy when he performed so well?

Li Zhao pulled at the bow. The gift box opened instantly, revealing the contents inside.

The seven-year university examination five-year simulation?

The secret volumes?

A comprehensive collection of problem solving?

10 year university examination simulations?!

Li Zhao gulped. “T-These are for me?”

Wasn‘t this gift too simple?

“I believe you will get excellent results.” Yan Ting gently wiped the trophy with a handkerchief. “I will have the housekeeper clean up a room and put only your trophies in there.”

Li Zhao, “……”

Did Ting Ting have a mysterious confidence in him? He only got a trophy with no gold content and Ting Ting was already thinking of installing a trophy room?

“Wait a minute.” Yan Ting also took a red box out of a drawer. “This is also a gift for you.”

Li Zhao opened it. Inside was a pen and the golden nib shone in the bright light.

“Study hard every day and don’t forget to read books while filming. I’ll cheer you on for the university entrance examination.”

At this moment, Li Zhao felt the urgency of the university entrance examination students who were cared for by their parents. The tension he didn’t experience three years ago was finally felt today.

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The author has something to say:

Baby Zhao Zhao took first place in the class.

Baby Ting Ting was very happy. He took out his pocket money and bought a bunch of papers for Baby Zhao Zhao: Zhao Zhao, I believe you are the best.

Baby Zhao Zhao: QAQ.