Chapter 87: Teacher Shi’s “busy” Day
AAA Yue Na Imperial Clan: 【It’s landed, no worries.】
Good night, Maka Baka: 【Okay, no worries now~】
Chi Ye put away his mobile phone and already saw Keke waiting outside the airport, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
It had really been a while since they last met.
Ever since he breached his contract and established his personal studio, Keke had basically been as busy as a spinning top, acting as the studio’s big housekeeper + agent.
Although the two had been communicating via phone calls and WeChat, the number of in-person meetings was far fewer than before the breach of contract.
However, looking at the young girl’s energetic appearance, she should be enjoying her current life very much.
“So efficient, Ke Jie.”
Keke was wearing a long trench coat, with neat short hair, dressed like a capable female elite in the workplace.
Hearing this, she felt a bit embarrassed, quickly took the backpack from Chi Ye, and gave Xiao Liu a reproachful glance.
“There are a few notebooks inside, I was looking at them on the airplane, I need to carry this myself, it’s not her fault.”
Chi Ye explained.
Keke said earnestly: “You need to watch your image now, Chi Ge, many fans want to pick you up at the airport, you have to pay attention to your outfit too, in case those rivals take ugly photos of you, they’ll buy black marketing against you again.”
“Mm, I know.”
Chi Ye nodded, and the group got into the car low-key, the driver started driving, Keke sat in the back row, took out a file, handed it to Chi Ye, and lowered her voice: “This is the thing he gave.”
Chi Ye took it, flipped through it casually for a couple of pages, then closed it.
“Do you think this stuff will have much effect?”
Keke thought for a moment and replied: “If used well, it should have some effect, but… not fatal.”
“If it’s not fatal, keep it, aim for maximum damage.”
Chi Ye stretched lazily, leaned back in the soft back seat, closed his eyes to rest, with a slight look of fatigue on his face.
The bumpy ride this time, he really hadn’t rested well on the airplane.
But being his own boss meant he had to be a bit more tired than a regular artist.
Keke continued talking about work matters: “《Reboot》’s first batch of dividends has arrived, and there are a few music variety show announcements, with announcement fees two or three times higher than before…”
“On the music and film side, we haven’t received any announcements for now, our reputation and public opinion in this area is still too poor, big teams aren’t considering us, and there aren’t many small teams either…”
“After the 《Circulation》 ended, there were no new scripts, the big trend in the industry now is still in music and film, for future development focus, besides preparing the album, we still need to strive for as many music and film resources as possible…”
Keke gave a general report on the recent work summary, and an hour had passed.
“No rush on the script matter, I’m working on this on my side, we’ll discuss it with the ‘Big Boss’ when the time comes…”
Keke nodded and smiled knowingly—the Big Boss, isn’t the Big Boss just Chi Ge’s Empress Dowager?
She didn’t say more about this, and instead talked about a few major events that had recently happened in the industry.
“The landscape for young actors has changed again, Peng Chen’s ancient idol drama exploded big time, taking almost 80% of Meng Yixun’s resources, and hooking up with a big capital, now he’s a bona fide top streamer.”
“Wasn’t it said last year that there were four double hits and dual top streamers? Now Peng Chen has gone from ‘dual top streamers’ to ‘double hit’.”
Chi Ye nodded: “Lao Peng doesn’t seem to be having a bad year… find an opportunity to give him some trouble.”
Keke: “……”
But Chi Ye was just joking.
In the current entertainment industry, music and film is indeed the big trend, just talking about breakout stars, Peng Chen has soared in an ascension-like rise these two years, possibly related to drinking Jiang Mou’s fake wine, who would’ve thought there was such a boost.
From unpopular star to top streamer in the industry, only two dramas, much stronger than his exhausting singing to barely recover some reputation.
And with Peng Chen’s ascension, there are naturally upcoming stars wanting to fill the spot.
It’s said that nearly ten upcoming young actors like Peach Crown Prince and Cool Crown Prince are competing for the ‘dual top streamers’ spot vacated by Peng Chen.
Jiang Cheng and Shang Youshu’s lead roles in 《Meng Xi Yuan》 are also aiming for that position.
“Tsk tsk, the competition among male artists is fierce.” Chi Ye shook his head and sighed: “These upcoming stars that each company wants to promote could form a group, one shout of upcoming, a lifetime of upcoming!”
Keke laughed out loud but didn’t say anything.
Actually, Chi Ye used to be an upcoming star too, and the one with the worst reputation—because he really didn’t break out.
But now, thanks to 《Reboot》, he has gained some fame, considered taking a different path, somehow gaining star power in the music scene, time too short, works too few, not first-tier, but definitely hot.
It’s heard that not just Jiang Cheng, many upcoming stars seeing his success want to copycat, release albums to overtake on the curve.
“Any recent movements from Yue Na?”
The car stopped at the doorway of a restaurant, everyone got out to eat, during which Chi Ye asked about Yue Na.
“Heard they’re preparing to go public, but last time there was a problem in the music department, so recently they’ve been frantically promoting Hua Yichen.”
Keke told the truth: “《Voice of Nature》 is the hottest variety show recently, he now has a chance to win King of Singers this time.”
Chi Ye nodded, suddenly remembering something: “Eh, I remember Teacher Shi also joined this music variety show?”
“Uh…” Keke paused, hesitatingly looking at Chi Ye: “Chi Ge, you… you don’t know?”
“?”
Chi Ye was puzzled: “Know what?”
Keke thought for a moment and said: “Teacher Shi’s side… has a bit of a situation…”
……
Beijing, in a certain suburban rental dwelling.
The not-so-big rental dwelling was kept neat and tidy, Shi Daifu gently and carefully wiped her mother’s body, seriously wiping for half an hour before standing up to carry the basin out.
She started washing clothes.
This rental dwelling was rented before she joined 《Jian Ni》, at the time she had no money and had to participate in the program in Beijing, so she could only rent this small dwelling with not much square footage.
After 《Jian Ni》 aired, others all benefited, but her situation actually didn’t improve much.
It wasn’t until she live-streamed a cover of Chi Ye’s new song and got a bit popular on Douyin, and received an announcement invitation from 《Voice of Nature》, that her tight situation gradually got a bit better, but just a bit.
Because of various economic agreements with her former company, she actually carried quite a bit of debt, the formal kind, not much to repay each month, but it had to be repaid.
Her current company is a small company, originally not paying much attention to her, but after she joined 《Voice of Nature》, they rented her a place in the city, she usually lives there, more convenient for running announcements.
However, her mother has inconvenient legs and feet, so she didn’t bother the old man, just asked the sister-in-law at home to come take care of her mother, and she comes back to look after when not working.
At this moment, she was washing clothes, her pair of fair tender little hands moving nimbly, ears wearing a pair of bootleg earphones even cheaper than Chi Ye’s Huaqiangbei ones, humming pleasant tunes from time to time.
“Little aunt, little aunt.”
A chubby little boy came over holding an apple, sniffling snot: “I want to eat this.”
Shi Daifu glanced at it, washed her hands, took the apple, without seeming to use much force, just gently broke it, “crack”, the big apple was broken into two halves, the fruit flesh even, surface smooth, like cut with a knife.
“Here, for you.”
Shi Daifu handed over the two halves of the apple.
“Little aunt, Little Tiger eats half, the other half for you!”
The little boy only took half the apple.
“Aunt doesn’t eat, aunt isn’t hungry, you eat.”
Shi Daifu smiled, outsiders rarely see her smile like this, because she always feels embarrassed to show her smile.
She looked at her little nephew: “Do you have something else?”
“Mm…” The little boy was embarrassed, and brought over a bag of walnuts, looking at his aunt eagerly.
Shi Daifu didn’t speak, took the bag, held a walnut in her palm, gently squeezed, it cracked, revealing the walnut meat inside.
Then without stopping, she cracked them one by one for the little boy.
Soon, the whole bag of walnuts was “violently destroyed”.
“Little aunt, you’re so awesome!”
The little boy sniffed snot, eyes full of admiration.
Shi Daifu pulled out a piece of tissue paper, wiped his snot, then softly said: “Have you finished your homework? Go do your homework quickly, otherwise your mom will be angry when she comes back.”
“Oh, I’ll go do homework, little aunt, thank you.”
Shi Daifu ruffled his little head, stood up to throw the tissue paper into the trash can, then sat back on the small stool to continue washing clothes—her mother’s clothes were very dirty, couldn’t use the washing machine, wouldn’t get clean, sister-in-law would definitely be unhappy seeing it.
She washed for half an hour, as the sky gradually darkened, she stood up, rubbed her slightly sore arms, didn’t feel too tired, turned to prepare to go inside and make dinner.
Tap tap tap.
A crisp sound of footsteps rang out.
A fashionably dressed woman in her thirties or forties, carrying a bag, walked in the door, saw Shi Daifu’s “dirty” hands, and couldn’t help exclaiming: “Oh my god, my ancestor, I’ve told you you’re an artist, don’t do these things, why won’t you listen?”
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let you come back!”
Shi Daifu turned around, stunned, and said: “You’re here.”
The agent walked over dejectedly, took the bowl from her hand: “What else can I do if I don’t come? Do you really plan to quit the program?”
Shi Daifu was silent, didn’t speak.
“No, 《Voice of Nature》 is so hot right now, such high popularity, you say quit and quit, the company definitely won’t agree!”
The agent glanced at this cramped small dwelling: “Moreover, do you really not plan to change your living conditions?”
“Heard your brother even sent the kids from the old home to kindergarten here, without this variety show, do you have money to keep supporting the kids’ schooling?”
Shi Daifu raised her head, her almond eyes showing no emotion, just gently denied: “It’s not that I want to quit, it’s… just the difference between leaving early or late.”
The agent looked at her: “Then leaving later is better than early, if eliminated just get eliminated, maybe we can hype it a bit, rub off what we can!”
“Why won’t you get it?!”
Shi Daifu lowered her head, didn’t speak again.
The agent also felt a bit powerless, looked up at the sky, feeling the air in this urban village wasn’t bad…
“What do you think, why are Hua Yichen and them targeting you so much?”
She suddenly asked.
Shi Daifu raised her head to look at her, still didn’t speak.
“I’ll tell you.” The agent revealed the truth: “Because you had a good relationship with Chi Ye in 《Jian Ni》, because you two had a scandal before, Yue Na and Hua Yichen now wish Chi Ye would die tomorrow, that’s why they’re targeting you so much.”
Shi Daifu shook her head: “It has nothing to do with him.”
The agent: “?”
Shi Daifu paused, then said: “I offended someone before, many big stars in the program have ties to that company.”
“Keep being stubborn.”
The agent sneered: “No matter how tough things were before, you came back, means it’s resolved, yet Hua Yichen and Yue Na’s artists keep targeting you, buying all sorts of black marketing, is it also because of Harmony Image?”
“Harmony Image” was the company Shi Daifu once signed with.
Full name Harmony Image Entertainment Group.
This group is truly a hegemon in the music scene, headquartered in Taipei, one of the top leaders in the record era, involved in investing in many hit music variety shows.
And after entering the digital music era, Harmony Image followed the trend, actively transformed, after years of development, has become the true number one in internal entertainment music scene, with first-tier big star singers, King of Singers and Singer Queen under it from both sides of the strait and three places, not a few.
Even greater influence than Yue Na in the music and film circle.
Back then, Shi Daifu punched a senior executive of Harmony Image into the hospital, resulting in her being blacklisted.
In the past four or five years, the music scene has declined further, Harmony Image’s influence much less than before, plus new capital entering and help from Shi Daifu’s former teacher, she was able to make a comeback.
But though she made a comeback, the past events wouldn’t be erased just because of the comeback.
“It has nothing to do with him.”
Shi Daifu still said the same, lowered her head to start rinsing rice.
The agent tilted her head looking at her: “Hua Yichen and Yue Na messing with you also has nothing to do with him?”
Shi Daifu didn’t speak.
“Yue Na still has to listen to Harmony Image? Music scene number one? Pfft! The music scene is pulled to this state, don’t they have to kowtow and lick Yue Na?”
Shi Daifu stopped her hands, looked at the agent: “So what if it does.”
“If it does, then get your act together!”
“Wasn’t your relationship with him pretty good before?”
The agent got anxious: “Chi Ye is somewhat popular now, heard he even has ties with Jin Xia… who is Jin Xia? Go ask him for help… you staying silent like this, even if he wants to help, he doesn’t know you need it, my sister!”
Shi Daifu shook her head: “Our relationship isn’t that close.”
The agent “surprised”: “Not that close, yet his studio markets for you?”
Shi Daifu: “……”
“Not that close, yet you speak up for him every time? No, Chi Ye isn’t right either, when he was at his toughest, you never missed, now he’s a bit better, he really ignores you!”
Hearing this, Teacher Shi finally raised her head, wanted to say something, but still didn’t, just lowered her almond eyes: “Yeah, like you said, he’s just gotten a bit better, why trouble others?”
The agent: “……6.”
She gave up completely: “Fine fine fine, you don’t want to trouble people, don’t want to ask, don’t want anything, then why did you comeback? Just wait to die like this, wait to go back home for arranged marriage, marry some old man!”
“Don’t want this don’t want that, how did you even get popular back then? How can there be someone like you in this world who just doesn’t get it?!”
