Day 4 of Provoking
Barely two days later, Jiang Cheng received the money from the deposit payment of the variety show. A sum of 110,000 yuan, which was a big amount for the hard-working former chief instructor.
First pay the rent, then go to the hospital to cover the medical expenses required to continue the treatment.
Every week, Jiang Cheng would take a day off to visit his adoptive parents and check on their condition. It could also be regarded as doing a favor for the original owner.
The adoptive parents were lying on the hospital bed like they were in a vegetative state, neither deteriorating nor improving. The daily hospitalization expenses were like burning money. Fortunately, there was now a sum of money to provide assistance.
The original owner’s younger sister, Rong Juan, had called several times to ask for money during that period of time.
Jiang Cheng checked the original body’s past payment record and found that every time Rong Juan asked for money, he would give it to her. The amount varied from 100 to even over 1,000, and the sum accumulated in one month was around 5,000 to 6,000.
– This far exceeded the necessary daily expenses of a university student.
By no means did Jiang Cheng plan to indulge his younger sister like the original owner. He sent Rong Juan a WeChat message to tell her that her monthly allowance would be fixed at 1,500 in the future, and nothing more.
Rong Juan was immediately stunned when she received this ‘notice’ from her cheap brother for the first time.
The little sister next to her pushed her shoulder, “You said you were willing to cover the expenses of our sorority, what will you do now that you don’t have money?”
Rong Juan gritted her teeth and squeezed out a smile, “My brother is just sulking. I’ll go coax him in a few days and it’ll be fine.”
She said she would go, so she really went to find Jiang Cheng. But, unexpectedly, she failed twice in a row. Finally, she could only go to the hospital to intercept him–
“What did you mean when you said you would only give me 1,500 a month as allowance? How could it be enough?!” Rong Juan finally managed to successfully stop this person.
“It’s enough to allow you to eat and drink without worry,” Jiang Cheng glanced at the girl in front of him indifferently.
It has been almost three weeks since he had come into this world, but it was the first time he had met this ‘little sister’ of his. She was petite in size and had a delicate appearance when she wore makeup.
“Hey, little sister, 1,500 yuan isn’t a small amount. You have to make sense of the situation in your home and be sensible. If you want more allowance, you can go find a part-time job yourself. Starbucks, KFC… My daughter’s one year younger than you, but she doesn’t need us to give her an allowance nowadays!” A patient in the ward helped speak up while showing off their own child in passing.
Rong Juan, who was in the room, couldn’t help but glare at the patient who spoke. As a result, she caught sight of the people in the ward all looking at her with dissatisfaction.
Her face flushed, and she immediately pulled her brother towards the door. “Let’s go out and talk!”
Jiang Cheng drew his hand back. “I remember that you should still have class at this time, did you skip it?”
“I came here to look for you!”
“If you can’t even be bothered to attend your classes, then I don’t see the point for you to keep going to school.” Jiang Cheng said.
Rong Juan’s eyes suddenly widened. The label of a university dropout would make her unable to raise her head for as long as she lived!
She was suddenly a bit flustered. “I didn’t…”
“Find a way to pay the tuition for the next semester yourself,” Jiang Cheng said coldly. “Unless your grades for this semester are all above the A-line.”
Rong Juan looked at Jiang Cheng in utter disbelief. “All A?! How can this be possible!”
“That is your business.” Jiang Cheng said, then got up to greet the several patients he had become familiar with in the ward before directly leaving the hospital.
Rong Juan stamped her feet angrily and was just about to chase after him when a patient in the ward stopped her: “Little girl, it’s rare for you to come to see your parents, why don’t you stay a while longer? Surely you didn’t come here just to ask for money, right?”
“Come, come, little girl, I’ll give you a peach to eat.”
Rong Juan stared at the stiff peach resembling a buttock that was stuffed in her hand, her face turning green from anger. When she tried to look for Jiang Cheng again, the latter had already walked away and left for a while without her knowledge. And so, she could only swallow her pent-up frustrations.
The matter of the original owner’s younger sister coming to ask about her allowance was just a brief episode in Jiang Cheng’s 20 days.
In the meantime, he also went to the company to shoot the promotional videos and advertisement photos for the variety show. Even though the process was a bit hard to explain, and it felt like both the dazzling camera flashes and spotlight nearly blinded Jiang Cheng’s eyes, the task was still somehow completed.
The material was shot in less than two days. The program team registered an official account and issued the first official announcement of the line-up:
@XiaoHiWilderness: hi, the wilderness team has come to report! @DidiaoZuorenJianSuizhi(v) Super Deity God Jian! @SuNuannuanShaoShuoHua(v) Topic Queen Nuannuan! @JiangXingHao(v) Emerging Male God Jiang Jiang! @HuaTongBuLiShouHuangDaHeng(v) Witty And Golden-Tongued Teacher Huang! As well as @JiangCheng(v) Our Popular King Jiang Cheng! Hoping that everybody will support us as much as possible! Our little <Hi, Wilderness!> will be opening the live stream rooms of the five teachers on Saturday at 10:30, 10:45, 11:00, 11:15, and 11:30! Dear fans, be sure to come squat in advance! See you there! [Live broadcast link]…
As soon as this Weibo post was released, it was immediately sent to the top of the hot search. The comments were filled with the criticisms of the fans and the gossip of the passers-by.
The fans were calling out the program team for being heartless while the passers-by would fan the flames, accusing the team of stirring up trouble. Who didn’t know about those matters between Jiang Cheng and Jian Suizhi! They actually put those two people together in a show…
[Don’t get involved in others’ business! (Well done)]
[Help, why is this man always pestering our brother like a lingering ghost!]
[Laughing to death, my brother is the director’s assistant, and he said JC was like a plank of wood in the footage of the promotional material they shot. It’s estimated that the finished product is a disaster]
[I heard that JC has severe depression and autism? Someone took a picture of him going to a psychologist last time. It’s normal for him to be in a bad state]
[Tsk, the drama queen is just directing and playing the role himself, that’s all]
[To be honest, I really want to see Jiang Cheng and Jian Suizhi in the same frame (dog head)]
[+1 hahahahaha, I want to know how Jiang Cheng will make trouble this time]
[God Jian-jiejie is afraid of wanting to tear Jiang Cheng apart by hand]
Jiang Xinghao was also browsing through the comments of the official announcement.
After all, he was also a recently popular young artist. The result was that the criticisms of the fans still couldn’t catch up to the melon-eating passers-by. Except for God Jian’s fans, the passers-by in the front row were all discussing about Jiang Cheng and Jian Suizhi. There was no mention or acknowledgement of the former teammate at all!
Jiang Xinghao was so angry that he threw and broke three mobile phone screens that very night.
The program team was also collecting a large amount of data that same night. They had guessed that Jiang Cheng and Jian Suizhi in the same frame would be a hot topic, but they didn’t expect it would explode to this extent.
The chief program director praised, “This is really a godsend from Director Liu!”
Director Liu wiped off his cold sweat and forced himself to laugh a few times.
///
Early on Saturday morning, whether they were fans or passers-by, they were all squatting in the live broadcast room in advance.
The five guests each had their independent live broadcast room, and the number of people online was a direct reflection of their popularity. It was like a public comparison.
Jian Suizhi had several tens of thousands of fans squatting in his broadcast room since nine in the morning. Finally, when it was almost time for the broadcast to start, the number soared even more and reached several hundreds of thousands!
Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng’s room was on the other end of the extremity. There was only a pitiful two to three thousand people since the start of the live broadcast. Besides a few die-hard fans, the majority was melon-eating passers-by who were curious.
It was precisely mealtime when Jiang Cheng’s PD team came to start the recording. Before they could even knock on the door, they were hooked by the rich aroma in the corridor.
“Gululu–” [T/N: stomach rumble sound]
The PD and the cameraman looked at each other helplessly. With no prior agreement, they both swallowed their saliva at the same time– how did they have the illusion that they were doing a live broadcast about gourmet food instead?
The PD turned on the live function and at the same time, cleared his throat before yelling in the doorway, “Hello, Jiang Cheng! We are the crew for 《Hi, Wilderness!》! May I ask if you’re ready? We need to start recording!”
In the live broadcast room–
[Ah, gege is finally going to appear!! Wu wu, it has already been almost half a year since he disappeared!]
[Who would have thought that my idol would have no work after debuting… and also no official comeback? Heart is tired.jpeg]
[Hurry up hurry up! I want to see JC and God Jian in the same frame!]
[JC will definitely want to tie up God Jian tightly this time, just sit back and wait for God Jian-jiejie to tear him apart by hand hehe]
[…]
Jiang Cheng was eating when he heard the noise outside, so he put his chopsticks down to go open the door. “It’s you guys. Come in and take a seat. I’m still eating, I’ll get ready in a moment.”
“Oh, okay, okay.” The PD agreed, then walked into the small rental house with the cameraman.
Jiang Cheng held a bowl of noodles and ate very quickly. The large serving of noodles and even the soup were gone in no time, and the PD who was watching widened his eyes slightly.
It seemed like Jiang Cheng didn’t eat much, yet the noodles were already gone…
[Your family’s brother sure can eat a lot]
[A lot, a lot]
[Laughing to death. This is the first time I’m seeing an artist eat just noodles in a live broadcast of a variety show. Isn’t he afraid of having a swollen face on camera?]
[Watching gege eat made me hungry (facepalm)]
Jiang Cheng wiped his mouth after putting down his chopsticks. “What is the plan later? Where are we gathering? What time?”
When proper business was brought up, the PD immediately came online. “We’ll be recording a small interview for the trailer in a moment. As for the questions, your agent should have already went over them with you.”
Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. What questions, what go over with him? Wang Chen didn’t even send him anything. It is likely that he had forgotten to.
The PD carried on, “Once the interview is over, we can go. All the guests will gather at the pier at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, then we’ll leave for the destination together.”
“Okay.”
After Jiang Cheng washed his bowl, the PD instructed him to sit next to the window where the lighting was good and the interview for the trailer started.
“For what reason did you decide to be on this variety show?”
Jiang Cheng, “Shortage of money.”
The PD fell silent.
What a substantive answer.
A large amount of ‘hahaha’ slid across the live broadcast room– [That explanation makes sense! No wonder he has always been trying to cling to the rich!], [It’s so funny. If he was really a young master, his wealthy family should’ve taken him back a long time ago instead of letting him be this unsightly!]
The PD paused for a moment, then continued to ask, “There has never been a similar variety show as this one in China. Have you ever worried about encountering danger during the recording process?”
Jiang Cheng looked over in confusion, “In that case, won’t your program team lose everything from the compensations you guys will have to give out?”
The PD, “…”
[Hahahaha, you’re making me die from laughing too much, always saying nothing but such big truths!]
[Hahahaha, the program team: Are you afraid or not?, JC: It’s good as long as you’re not afraid :)]
[PD: I can’t continue this interview]
The PD, “One last small question. It may relate to your private life, I don’t know if you’ll mind or not?”
Jiang Cheng, “If I do mind, can you not ask?”
The PD, “…Probably not, sigh, everyone really wants to know.”
The corners of Jiang Cheng’s mouth curved upwards with a smile, “I’m just teasing, you can ask.”
The PD was dazzled as he looked at Jiang Cheng’s smiling face. It was probably because the afternoon sunlight from outside was just right, setting off the clean and sunny appearance of young man in front of him, making him look especially beautiful.
[Wu, I have no choice but to say that I used to really admire JC’s face!]
[Heck, who hasn’t? I’m just asking, who among us wasn’t amazed by JC’s stage back then!]
[If it wasn’t for all the excessively crazy things he did later, I would’ve still been Jiang Cheng’s face-dog until now!] (T/N: Someone who loves good-looking people)
The PD looked at the question for a while, suddenly feeling like it was a bit hard to talk:
“We would like to ask, do you have anything you want to say in response to the comments about [delusions of a rich family] online?”
One stone set off a thousand waves!
The number of people in Jiang Cheng’s live broadcast room began to soar at lightning speed. Countless melon-eating passers-by joined in from either other broadcast rooms or platforms just to see Jiang Cheng’s reaction.
Jiang Cheng lowered his eyes. The “delusions of a rich family” matter that was widely talked about on the internet actually originated from a video taken in secret.
In the video, Jiang Cheng’s blurry side profile could be vaguely seen. He was muttering repeatedly and unceasingly while drunk: “I really am a child of the Jiang family, why do none of you believe me? Why do they not recognize me? Why didn’t they want me when I was still a kid…”
“Jian Suizhi had a prospective childhood engagement with the Jiang family? Then his fiancé should have been me– urgh…” The man in the video was still speaking when he kneeled on the ground and threw up, and the video ended once it reached this part.
It was unknown how, but this video was uploaded on the internet. It forcibly occupied the top spot in the entertainment charts for three consecutive days, and Jiang Cheng’s name became the melon-eating people’s favorite source of hot topic for some time.
As for Jiang Cheng himself, he was unusually silent afterwards. It was only a month later that the matter surfaced again, when a reporter deliberately asked a question about it in a public press conference. Jiang Cheng, who had been uncommunicative since then, merely said, “Everything I said is true. If they don’t want to acknowledge it, then I can’t do anything about it.”
As a result, there was once again a party for the wild animals who love melons in the entertainment circle.
Even though Jiang Cheng and Jian Suizhi never appeared in the same frame, ‘Jiang Cheng’, those two characters, already firmly occupied the top entry of Jian Suizhi’s search query results.
God Jian’s fans once caused a bloodbath in Jiang Cheng’s public search results, but it was all in vain.
And now, Jiang Cheng was really going to be on the same variety show as Jian Suizhi. The entire entertainment industry was waiting to eat melons.
Jiang Cheng patted his chest to pacify the faint pain and bitterness in his heart. It was from the original owner’s unwillingness and powerlessness.
He looked in the direction of the camera lens, “A response? How do I say this, some things are valuable because I once cared about them. Once I stop caring, they are nothing.”
The PD was dumbfounded and hurriedly asked: “Then what about now?”
“As a successor to socialism, I only care about how valuable I am to society and to the country.” Jiang Cheng said in a serious and upright manner.
What wealthy family, what fiancé. In his eyes, they were nothing but rubbish.
Will try to update every 3-5 days! Shouldn’t take more than a week unless some unpredictable factors pop up. ^^
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