Chapter 8: Socially Anxious Star 08
【????????】
【There are so many points to roast that I don’t even know which one to start with!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Is this his sense of ritual for washing dishes?】
【Changing into a suit, HAHAHAHAHAHA! Kongkong: “This damn sense of ritual!”】
【What does this mean? Is his sister not going?】
【It’s completely normal for Jiang Kong not to want his sister to go to a hotel to wash dishes.】
【Washing dishes in a suit—as expected of CEO Jiang.】
【Emmmm… If a certain family’s fans don’t like watching, can they please just get out!】
……
Jiang Yi was also stunned for a moment. She raised her head to look at Jiang Kong and was just about to say something when she heard Jiang Kong say:
“It’s at a hotel, you know.”
A hotel.
There would be a lot of people.
The little sprout that had just poked out in the depths of Jiang Yi’s heart was instantly nipped in the bud.
“Then…”
While she was still hesitating, Jiang Kong made a quick decision on the spot. “You wait for me at home. In the meantime, you can think about whether there are any ways to make money.”
Jiang Yi nodded. Once Jiang Kong finished changing his clothes and she saw him off outside the villa, she returned to her room.
There was only one follow-cam assigned to each group, and the lens carried the livestream room along with Jiang Kong as he left. Seeing that Jiang Kong had mentioned it, the director simply didn’t switch the camera back to Jiang Yi.
Only Jiang Kong was left in his group’s livestream room.
【Kongkong in a suit is so handsome!!!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA There’s no escaping this sense of ritual.】
【I can already imagine how many comedic compilation videos this segment will be edited into!】
【Umm… Wait, is Jiang Kong’s sister really not coming along?】
【The very first person to wash dishes in a suit! You have to take interviewing for a dishwasher job seriously too!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Kongkong, don’t develop in the direction of a comedian!】
【The handsomest dishwasher!!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Boss: “Dishwasher? How about you be the boss instead?”】
……
Jiang Yi pulled out her phone and located The Strikingly Different Us livestream room. She opened Jiang Kong’s stream on the main screen, set her phone up on the side, and reopened Following the Wind.
The romantic scenes in Following the Wind were still stuck, but aside from the romance, the script adaptation was going much smoother.
Staying strictly within the camera’s blind spot, Jiang Yi held her pen and scribbled notes and drawings in the book, gradually becoming completely immersed in her work—
It wasn’t until 10:30 AM, when her scheduled alarm rang, that Jiang Yi carefully closed the book and set down her pen.
Looking up, she found that Jiang Kong’s stream in front of her had been densely covered in bullet comments at some point without her realizing it.
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Look how skilled he is HAHAHAHAHA】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAH Everything traces back to a cause!】
【Pfft HAHAHAHAHA Has anyone gone to dig up Jiang Kong’s background? Was he an emcee before his debut?!】
【Save me, this is genuinely better than the emcee I hired for five thousand yuan!】
【Jiang Kong, hurry up and drop your contact info! I’ll hire you when I get married in the future!】
……
With almost the entire screen flooded with “HAHAHAHAHA,” Jiang Yi was momentarily dazed. She hurriedly turned up the volume, disabled the bullet comments, and heard Jiang Kong’s voice come through.
“Now! The moment everyone has been waiting for has arrived!”
“Everyone, raise your heads, put your hands together, and let us use warm applause to welcome the world’s most beautiful bride to the stage!!!!”
Applause erupted loudly right by her ears. Jiang Yi quickly turned down the volume and looked at Jiang Kong in the screen, who was holding a microphone in his suit. After a long moment, she couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
So that was his plan for wearing a suit.
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAI really didn’t expect him to be an emcee, and I really didn’t expect anyone to hire him as an emcee, let alone that he’d actually do such a great job!】
【Kongkong, come to my wedding! I don’t lack an emcee, I lack a groom!】
【I suggest all wedding emcees watch this video! None of them even reach the level of an idol. The emcee I hired for my wedding back then was so boring and completely killed the mood!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Came here from Weibo! An idol who can’t emcee a wedding isn’t a good idol!】
【Are all the guests in this batch so good at pulling stunts? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Next door, Pei Wusi is taking an unconventional route too!】
……
Seeing this bullet comment, Jiang Yi couldn’t resist exiting and opening Pei Wusi’s livestream on the main screen.
“Knight to R3! Move over here, block him!”
“Sure, sure, sure!”
“Advance the pawn again.”
……
“HAHAHAHA, get ready for checkmate!”
Pei Wusi and Chang Ximing were actually guiding other people in playing Chinese chess.
“Hey, a true gentleman watches a game in silence! Calling in outside help doesn’t count!”
The old man who lost the game was extremely dissatisfied.
The old man who won wasn’t too happy upon hearing that either.
“You agreed to let me call outside help in the beginning! Are we playing or not?”
“…”
“Let’s play! This time he’s only allowed to give three hints!”
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA What round is this already? Must be the fifth round, right? Ten yuan per game.】
【Is Old Pei’s Chinese chess really that good?】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I see an old uncle next to them who wants to pull him over to help him win!】
【The park restricts their options to begin with. Being able to think of this light and effortless job right now is pretty awesome.】
【Teacher Chang and Old Pei’s chess skills are both amazing!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I feel like Teacher Chang wants to play a game against Old Pei himself!】
……
Jiang Yi exited full-screen, returned to Jiang Kong’s livestream room, opened her suitcase, pulled out a small toolkit, and left the room.
After host-emceeing a wedding, Jiang Kong politely declined the bride and groom’s offer to stay for lunch. Holding his freshly earned three thousand yuan, he made his way back to the villa.
The wedding concluded slightly later than the others’ schedules.
By the time Jiang Kong took a taxi back, all the guests except for Luo Jiajin’s group were already at the villa.
He greeted Pei Wusi and went upstairs first to knock on Jiang Yi’s room door.
No one opened it; she wasn’t in her room.
Not in her room?
Jiang Kong knitted his brows, standing by the second-floor window to look down at the lower floor twice more, but still saw no sign of anyone.
He hadn’t seen anyone in the living room or dining room just now either…
Logically speaking, his sister shouldn’t go to crowded places.
Jiang Kong took a loop around the second floor, searching even his own room, and after still finding no sign of her, he went downstairs filled with doubt.
Chang Ximing was resting in the living room.
Jiang Kong couldn’t help asking, “Teacher Chang, have you seen my sister?”
Chang Ximing opened his eyes and shook his head. “Wasn’t she with you?”
“I didn’t see her. Why don’t you ask Little Pei?”
“Okay.”
Jiang Kong looked around, and upon spotting Pei Wusi, he immediately walked up and asked, “Brother Pei, have you seen my sister?”
Pei Wusi shook his head. “No, what’s wrong?”
Jiang Kong shook his head. “It’s nothing, I’ll go look for her again.”
Just as his words fell, he turned his head and saw Jiang Yi walking in from outside.
“Sis!”
Jiang Kong walked swiftly to Jiang Yi’s side and said mysteriously, “Guess how much I made?”
His steps were light, and joy radiated from his back—looking like an enthusiastic puppy.
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA He looks so much like a little kid who earned a bit of money and rushed home to brag to the adults!】
【Ahhhhhhh How can Kongkong be so cute! Sister loves you!】
【I’ll just pretend that call of ‘Sis’ was meant for me too!】
【HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Yes! Rushing home immediately to brag to his sister, yet still insisting on teasing her with suspense when he meets her.】
……
Inside Jiang Kong’s group livestream room, which hadn’t been closed yet, the chat was buzzing with excitement.
“Three thousand?”
Jiang Yi held up three fingers.
Jiang Kong nodded, then shook his head. “Three thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight!”
“There’s also an eight hundred and eighty-eight yuan red envelope!”
Delightedly, he pulled two warm red envelopes from his coat, drew out two hundred yuan from inside, and stuffed all the rest into Jiang Yi’s hands.
Since both of them were wearing microphones and made no deliberate effort to lower their voices, everyone else heard them loud and clear.
Curious, the crowd all looked over. Pei Wusi was the first to ask, “Over three thousand? How did you do it?”
Jiang Kong flashed a toothy grin, straightened his suit, and said, “I went to be a wedding emcee.”
A hotel wedding emcee!
Luo Jiajin clapped her hands. “Ah, right! There’s that too!”
“Young people’s minds really move fast. Washing dishes was the only idea I had.”
Director Shen Ping shot several glances toward Jiang Kong’s side before withdrawing his gaze.
Shen Xiangcheng unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and took slow sips. His bangs were dripping with sweat, making it clear he was exhausted.
Dressed in mascot suits working as staff in an amusement park, they earned one hundred yuan an hour, making a little over three hundred yuan between the two of them for the entire morning. It was about the same as the other groups, but compared to Jiang Kong, it was like comparing a small witch to a great wizard.
However, there was nothing much to say about it.
Shen Ping unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, no longer looking in Jiang Kong’s direction.
Lunch was ordered through the production crew’s “takeout” service.
The group ordered through the system provided by the production crew, and once payment was completed, staff members delivered the meals upstairs.
Although Jiang Yi and Jiang Kong had plenty of money, like everyone else, they ordered a simple, ordinary meal of one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and one soup.
After lunch, Luo Jiajin and Luo Xia finally rushed back to rest.
The restaurant had been packed at noon; after 10:00 AM, they had been kept busy almost non-stop with no time to eat at all.
Only upon returning did they order food to eat a little.
At 1:30 PM, the villa finally fell into the quiet of an afternoon nap.
Jiang Yi set an alarm for 2:00 PM and sneaked out quietly while everyone was still asleep.
She had made some small handcrafted bamboo baskets this morning and intended to go to the supermarket to buy a few items to decorate them.
The villa was a standalone building, with neighbors over ten meters away.
The moment Jiang Yi set out alone, she began to feel regret, but she still braced herself and continued walking while looking at her phone map.
“Ding—You have veered off course. Recalculating—”
Jiang Yi stepped back a few paces, looking at the small green marker on her phone map, and rotated her wrist horizontally.
Which direction was this small arrow actually pointing toward?
It should be this way, right?
Jiang Yi continued forward.
“Ding—You have veered off course—”
Jiang Yi paused in her tracks, then stepped back to her original spot a moment later.
Jiang Yi: …
Holding her phone, she was just about to rotate another circle when she suddenly heard a soft chuckle beside her.
“Where are you going?”
Jiang Yi looked up instinctively, meeting Pei Wusi’s smiling eyes.
He was standing under a nearby tree, holding a cigarette in his hand that he had just lit.
Realizing that someone had witnessed her awkward predicament, Jiang Yi’s face flushed bright red in an instant. Like a freshly steamed crystal baozi, she radiated heat as pink tint rushed over her skin.
“…Going”
Jiang Yi clutched her phone, not knowing where to put her hands, and answered in a small voice:
“Going to the supermarket.”
Pei Wusi extinguished his newly lit cigarette and dusted off any smoke scent that might have clung to his clothes before walking over to Jiang Yi’s side.
“If you don’t mind, should I take you there?”
Enthusiastic.
Extremely enthusiastic.
Jiang Yi instinctively looked down at her bewildering map, wanting to speak up and refuse, but she was only too aware of her own direction-finding skills.
“Pei—”
Jiang Yi paused briefly, then nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Teacher Pei!”
Jiang Kong had mentioned to her before that in the entertainment industry, addressing anyone as “Teacher” was basically never wrong.
Pei Wusi looked at the fluffy, jet-black crown of the head before him, as well as the bright red earlobe hidden beneath the strands of hair. A faint, lingering sense of familiarity suddenly clicked into place. His heart stirred.
“Guagua?”
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