Most awkwardly, they were assigned to the same group.
Probably to grab more attention and spice up the show, all the groups consisted of a male and a female.
To appear better on camera, someone even helped put light makeup on her. Even though it wasn’t much, it was still weird to someone who acted to their hearts’ desire and never put on makeup.
Then, she saw Li Juan. Mhm, her heart was toppled, very unbalanced.
He also had on what could be considered as ‘light makeup’. There was barely any difference. One couldn’t even tell that he was wearing makeup.
Since they were being filmed, she couldn’t say much.
Quickly, everyone embarked on their trips.
Since they were partners, Tan Jing greeted Li Juan.
“Mhm, hello.” Li Juan was a bit shy, but continued, “Do you still remember me? We filmed an advertisement some time ago.”
“Yep.” Tan Jing was surprised that he also remembered her.
But it was still very awkward, as they were pretty much strangers despite the advertisement.
“Let’s plan out our route,” Li Juan said. “We should take a bus to the train station, and then try to make enough money at the station for two train tickets.”
Li Juan’s voice was a bit shaky…
Tan Jing turned around, looking at him, “Are you cold?”
Li Juan’s face reddened. “No, no. Are you? We can get a hot drink.”
Of course Tan Jing wasn’t cold. She still had her athleticism, like those who could run outside during winter wearing only a shirt.
“You should get one.” Tan Jing really thought that Li Juan was freezing.
His voice was trembling.
Following them were a few cameramen, a director, and Li Juan’s assistant.
But naturally, they weren’t allowed to help.
The two went to the nearby milk tea store for a hot drink.
Then, they saw the prices. They started from thirteen, fourteen, eighteen, nineteen, and the most expensive juice even went up to thirty.
The two poor people who had two hundred dollars between them: “…”
“Let’s start running then, that’ll warm us up,” Tan Jing suggested.
Originally, she was worried that her superstar partner might not listen to her as he would enjoy much freedom in his day-to-day life.
However, he nodded, seemingly serious. “Okay.”
So, the two started running.
The cameramen and assistants behind them: “…”
Many passersby had been watching them, but they were all kept back by the program staff.
After a bit of running, they stopped to rest on the side of the road while waiting for the program staff to catch up. The two seemed to be much closer to each other, possibly from running side-by-side.
“How are we going to make money next? How good is your singing?” Tan Jing asked.
If he sang well, they could invest their two hundred dollars in an instrument. Wait… Can you even afford one with two hundred dollars? They could make some money from busking.
Li Juan was a bit frustrated, “My voice sucks, otherwise my company would make me be a singer already.”
So, he was good at acting, and she was good at badminton. There wasn’t much to make money in between them.
Li Juan thought for a moment, “Maybe I can try singing?”
Finally, the cameramen had caught up. After all, one had long legs and the other was an athlete. They’d be impossible to catch up to once they started running.
Fortunately, they didn’t go very far, otherwise the crew would have a marvelous time trying to film that.
So, the two quickly decided that they were going to sing.
But where would they go to rent an instrument?
“Do you know how to play the guitar?” Tan Jing saw a guitar shop on the side of the road.
“A bit.”
The two went and rented a guitar out of that store.
Tan Jing didn’t know how to sing nor play the guitar, so the important task of busking was entirely up to Li Juan to do.
To be frank, even though he said to her that his voice was awful and his guitar was bad, she thought that he was just being conservative. Many actors were extremely talented, as many would sing the OSTs of the dramas they starred in.
Since Tan Jing didn’t know anything, she tried to get people’s attention. Pretending to be street vendors, she yelled, “Busking, busking, ten dollars for a song, twenty dollars for 3. Buy two, get one free!”
Soon enough, some people came. Why would anyone want to listen to people sing in the middle of winter?
But as the figures came closer, they realized that they were photographers and here to gather materials.
They all came over to see what was going on. The man that was going to sing was wearing a hat and sunglasses, but even though they couldn’t see his face, they could still tell that he was a good material.
So, they stayed around to see what the two were going to perform.
Hearing that they were charging a song for ten dollars, they felt that it was still too expensive even if they were filming a show, so some people purposely said, “Your market price isn’t normal, everyone else charges five dollars a song, what makes your songs worth twice the money?”
Tan Jing: “…” She hadn’t done any market research.
However, she couldn’t change the prices, as if they cut the price to five, other people might follow and continue trying to lower the price.
She still had some entrepreneurship.
“We just charge ten for a song,” Tan Jing responded.
She was also wearing a hat. Even though she didn’t wear a mask or sunglasses, no one was able to identify her under her thick winter jacket.
Then, someone took out ten dollars. “I’ll have one, can you play ‘爱如潮水’ for me?”
(Note: ‘爱如潮水’ is a very popular song from the Taiwanese singer Jeff Chang)
Tan Jing: “…” Yes!
She turned around, looking at Li Juan. “Our first business is here!”
Li Juan naturally heard that as well.
After tuning his guitar, he began playing and singing.
His voice was deep but still quite nice.
“My love is like the tides, overcoming me like the water…”
However… It was so off-tune!
Tan Jing had a moment when she thought that… He wasn’t lying when he said that he sucked at singing.
But now that he began singing, a lot of girls were able to identify his voice.
“Li Juan! Li Juan!!!”
Tan Jing: “…” Mhm, great, now we have ticket money.
The first person was a male. He couldn't help but say, “Okay, okay, enough, that song’s enough for me.”
Li Juan ignored the career ethics and finished the entire song, earraping everyone.
Everyone except for the fangirls.
The film crew also told them that they were filming.
Because there was no point hiding it. This entire show was created to get views, so these people recording the song and uploading them on the web would even save money off the advertisement campaign.
Many fangirls wanted to jam hundred dollar bills in their hands, but of course, that wasn’t allowed.
So, under the cool wind, Li Juan sang twenty songs and earned two hundred dollars before leaving.
The most impressive part about Li Juan was his speed. He could finish any song in three minutes. No matter how horrible he was, he still remained calm.
A qualified actor.
In addition to the two hundred they began with, they had four hundred dollars in total.
Train tickets were ninety seven dollars per person, so two would bring the number up to nearly two hundred.
They would have to take a bus after the train, and they’d most definitely also have to eat.
So, they randomly chose a restaurant.
Li Juan handed the menu to Tan Jing, “You can order.”
Tan Jing thought the money was very important, as it took him a lot of effort to even make ten dollars.
“You should order.”
Anything and everything on the menu was more expensive than singing a song for a person.
It was obvious that food was in higher demand than spiritual entertainment.
So, the two ordered two small bowls of noodles and a fried egg.
Tan Jing ordered the egg. Originally, Li Juan wanted to order her a bowl of noodles with meat.
But Tan Jing refused. Those few pieces of meat would add six dollars to their receipt.
So she ordered an egg instead. It was only two dollars.
The cameraman and assistant behind them: “…”
So, they finalized on two small bowls of noodles and an egg.
When the egg came, Tan Jing obviously pushed the plate to the main workhorse of the day.
Li Juan paused, his face reddening, “Let’s share it.”
He sliced the egg in half for them to share.
Everyone else: “…” This feels a bit odd.
The two quickly downed their noodles and finally headed to the train station.
On the train, Tan Jing finally asked the program staff, “Are we ahead or behind everyone?”
“There are two groups behind you, but also one ahead,” the program staff said.
On the high-speed train, Tan Jing quickly fell asleep, leaning on the window.
Li Juan let out a breath of relief, and then uncontrollably glanced at her.
When Tan Jing woke up, they were almost at their destination. Then, she realized that Li Juan was braiding something.
“What are you doing?” Tan Jing was surprised.
Li Juan suddenly felt very awkward, “It’s a bracelet, we can sell it for money.”
Tan Jing stared at him with astonishment.
Li Juan felt a bit defeated, “Okay, you can laugh at me all you want.”
Tan Jing shook her head, “I’m not going to laugh at you, you’re so good! Brother Shui taught me this before, but I couldn’t learn it, and…”
Tan Jing took one from him, “This looks beautiful.”
Li Juan had seen two girls in the row in front of them making these, so he bought some strings from them.
His family was poor when he was little. Her mother used to sell these outside of a temple. Naturally, he had to learn to make these bracelets as well, or else he would be beaten.
Of course, he didn’t tell her that.
Tan Jing tried to learn this again. She wanted to use all the strings before they arrived at their destination.
Tan Jing started off slow, but Li Juan wasn’t annoyed at all, patiently teaching her instead.
Since Lin Miao had tried to teach her before, memories soon came back and Tan Jing was quickly able to do it by herself.
The two worked their hardest to finish all their strings.
Looking at these scenes, the director behind them only thought of one thing. This show is going to blow up!
The neighbouring group pawned their rings to solve their money issue, another went to sell flowers for the owner of a flower shop, and he was here with a selling point on the rather awful busking…
And now the bracelets!
The director thought that his pay was multiplying.
Meanwhile, Tan Jing felt that her partner was completely different from her imagination.
She’d thought that he might be annoyed to be paired with her as a celebrity in their prime. Their collaboration in the public service ad was such an absurd reason to be together.
However, she actually found him quite cute.
Once they arrived at the station, the two began to sell their bracelets.
They had expected this idea to flop, but they were each swarmed by a sea of people when they got off the train.
News of Li Juan participating in reality TV had spread onto the web. It was his first time on reality TV.
His appearance was naturally also shared online.
So, they quickly went through all their bracelets. The two had more money. Even though it wasn’t much, they could at least order two eggs with their noodles tonight.
The two walked towards their destination, as requested by the program staff.
They were the first to arrive, as expected.
Of course, this was only a part of the task.
They had something else to do tomorrow.
That night, Tan Jing was handed back her phone. She went to her room. There weren’t any cameras, so she video called Lin Miao, watching little Lele learning to talk.
Little Lele kept a straight face, calling her auntie in all seriousness.
Because she had always called Lin Miao ‘brother Shui’, they went by the naming for the male side of the family instead of the female side.
(Note: In Chinese, there are different words for one’s father’s sisters and one’s mother’s sisters.)
Little Lele was adorable, so much so that Tan Jing even wanted a kid.
Of course, these impulses went away not long after. Older brother Shui was always obedient from her childhood, even though Tan Jing was younger than her and made ‘childhood’ sound weird, it was the truth.
Tan Jing held her face with her hands and watched Lin Miao interact with Lele, “When little auntie comes back, she’ll bring you some pretty clothes.”
Then, she heard someone knock on her door.
Tan Jing wasn’t expecting a visit from anyone, but she still went to answer the door.
Opening her door, she saw Li Juan carrying something in his hand.
“I bought some soup,” Li Juan said.
Tan Jing was suddenly agitated, pulling him inside the room, “How’d you get it?”
Aren’t they allowed to go outside during the night?
“Delivery,” Li Juan took out the container.
Tan Jing had then realized the size of the portion.
“It’s cured ribs with lotus. There’s also some corn on there.” Li Juan said as he prepared to leave, “It’s good for your health if you have this for dinner.”
“Aren’t you eating with me?” There was way too much food for her.
“I have to go back,” Li Juan said, his face pink.
“Then give me your WeChat, I’ll transfer you the money.” He had ordered online with his phone, so he couldn’t have paid with the cash the program staff let them spend.
Li Juan originally wanted to brush it off and say that it wasn’t a lot of money, but thinking for a moment, he gave her his WeChat.
After the show ended, Tan Jing noticed that Li Juan would message her every so often.
He would say things like “Have you eaten yet?” and “It’s cold outside, make sure you wear enough clothes.”
Tan Jing: “…” Shouldn’t celebrities like him be really busy?
Finally… Tan Jing realized that maybe he wanted to pursue her.
No, that shouldn’t be real. Tan Jing concluded after some thought.
Tan Jing didn’t like to text very much. Typing was too slow, so she would rather make phone calls to discuss matters and scroll through gossip forums.
Soon after, someone new seemed to have moved into the apartment next to hers.
Tan Jing ran right into her new neighbour when she was heading outside.
“Huh, you’re also living here? We’re now neighbours?” Tan Jing saw Li Juan, surprised.
“I’m just here because you live here…” Li Juan explained embarrassingly like a boy who had just stepped into the real world, not like a famous actor at all.
Then, he realized that he sounded too much like a perverted stalker, quickly adding on, “I’m… I just want to pursue you…”
Okay, that was more like it.
For some unknown reason, Tan Jing found his panic cute. She couldn’t help but joke, “I’m an athlete. Running’s my strong suit, so you might not be able to catch up.”
“It’s okay, I’ll just exercise more.”
Tan Jing couldn’t resist laughing. He was really cutely stupid.
...
The author has something to say: Of course the two got together.
Note: The next chapter is Lin Miao’s family of three, and that’ll be the end.