Chapter 183 Solemn Nonsense

The film's shooting location was set in a fourth-tier small city.

By the time Chen Qi arrived, dusk had already fallen.

"Come on, everyone, hurry up and get ready. It's getting dark soon."

Zhou Xiao was currently preparing for a large-scale scene.

Upon seeing Chen Qi, who had been personally picked up by Xu Bunian, Zhou Xiao wore a rather complicated expression.

He stared from afar at Chen Qi walking toward him with a look of lingering awe, as if he were looking at a complete stranger.

Wasn't this utterly surreal?

Wasn't it simply unbelievable?

How long had it been since they last met, and yet this guy had somehow churned out a nationwide sensation of a show?

A program created by someone with zero production experience was somehow thrashing all the national satellite TV networks with ease!

To put it without exaggeration, even if he were directing a movie, he wouldn't dare play it out like this!

Thinking about the current influence of *The Singer*, he could not help feeling a twinge of subtle melancholy.

Both of them were directors, so why was the gap between them so vast?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Meeting Zhou Xiao's complicated gaze, Chen Qi felt somewhat baffled.

Zhou Xiao let out a dry laugh and answered the question with another question, "Don't you have a show to run? What brings you all the way out here?"

"Ran into some technical difficulties, wanted to come over and pick your brain," Chen Qi replied with utmost candor.

With Zhou Xiao, there was no need for him to stand on ceremony.

"..." Hearing him put it that way, Zhou Xiao suddenly woke up to the realization.

No wonder some of the camera shots in *The Singer* felt vaguely familiar—it turned out this fellow was using cinematic techniques to produce a TV show!

He stared blankly at Chen Qi, feeling that this guy's imagination truly knew no bounds!

"Director, everything is set!"

At that moment, the voice of the floor manager came through his walkie-talkie.

"Alright, got it."

"Let's talk later, after I finish shooting this scene." Zhou Xiao shook those chaotic thoughts out of his head, exchanged a brief greeting with Chen Qi, and hurried off toward the set.

As shocked as he was by Chen Qi, he hadn't forgotten his own job.

Filming this movie well was what he needed to focus on.

This was his battle for redemption, and he had to win it.

"He's currently shooting a large-scale scene, and right at night too, which is very demanding on the lighting and time. We've been coordinating for days just for this shoot," Xu Bunian explained to Chen Qi.

"Hmm." Chen Qi nodded and walked toward the direction of the studio as well.

On the way here, Xu Bunian had already given him a rough rundown of the movie's progress, so he had some idea of what was going on.

"Alright, everyone get ready."

"Action!"

Filming commenced swiftly.

Zhou Xiao directed at the front while Chen Qi watched from the back, neither interfering with the other.

This particular scene took over three hours to shoot.

Once the crew wrapped up for the day, old acquaintances like Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke excitedly came over to greet Chen Qi.

The few main cast members who had joined later didn't know Chen Qi and were unaware that he was the film's investor, but upon seeing him, they couldn't help furrowing their brows slightly.

They all felt that this person looked somewhat familiar.

Soon after, Zhou Xiao introduced them to one another.

Upon hearing that Chen Qi was the screenwriter of the film, they all greeted him very politely.

When they further learned that he was also the primary investor of the production, instant respect washed over their faces.

Finally, they heard the director address him by name: Chen Qi.

"Chen Qi?"

Hearing a name that seemed vaguely familiar from somewhere, they were momentarily stunned.

Such a familiar name, where on earth had they heard it before?

"Ah!"

A female actress suddenly let out a gasp, covering her mouth in disbelief as she stared at Chen Qi with utter shock.

"What's wrong with you?" The surrounding actors were startled by her reaction.

"Chen Qi? Oh no, Director Chen?" The actress clearly recognized him now, her tone trembling with obvious excitement.

Chen Qi smiled and nodded gently.

The rest of the new actors who still hadn't recognized him looked around in utter bewilderment.

"Director Chen!" Seeing their blank expressions, the actress hurriedly explained, "The Chen Qi who produced *The Singer*! Didn't we watch his performance that night? That song *Dominion* was written and sung by him!"

"What?!"

"Director Chen?"

"It's you?"

Prompted by the actress, the rest of them instantly remembered.

No wonder he looked so familiar just now, no wonder the name rang such a bell!

It turned out to be him!

In that split second, all of them were dumbfounded!

They stared at Chen Qi in sheer amazement, temporarily unable to process the revelation.

...

*The Singer*!

That massively popular singing competition currently sweeping the nation!

The show that single-handedly stirred up the entire music industry!

He was the screenwriter of this production? And also the main investor?

Oh my god!

Realizing that this movie was connected to someone as sizzling hot in the entertainment industry as Chen Qi right now, they were thoroughly shaken!

As far as they knew, there were plenty of people in the entertainment industry dying to get on his good side right now!

"Alright, alright, alright, stop making such a fuss." Seeing their dazed expressions, Zhou Xiao couldn't bear to watch any longer and intervened, "Let's all pack up and go grab dinner. Director Chen is treating."

Chen Qi: "???"

He felt his entire system glitch.

What was going on here?

I was just thoroughly enjoying their look of worship! Why did you have to interrupt them?

And besides, dinner is fine and all, but why am I treating?

"Great, thank you, Director Chen!" Hearing that Chen Qi was footing the bill, several people including Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke eagerly chimed in and rushed back to change their clothes.

Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke were excited simply because there was good food to be had.

They had long since grown sick of the crew's boxed meals!

As for the other actors, having a chance to get closer to Chen Qi was an extremely rare and valuable opportunity!

"Why that expression?" Facing Chen Qi's bewildered stare, Zhou Xiao looked at him in disdain. "Isn't me treating the same as you treating? If I treat, I'm spending the crew's money anyway, and isn't the crew's money your money? Instead of going around in circles like that, you might as well just treat directly. Besides, your show must have made a fortune by now."

"..." Chen Qi felt slightly dizzy from the twisted logic.

The words sounded like they made sense, but why did he always feel like something was a bit off?

Before he could figure out where the flaw was, Zhao Wu, Bai Xiaoke, and the others had already changed out of their costumes and walked out.

They ended up having dinner at a local street food stall.

Well, Zhou Xiao was the one who led the way.

To sum up the street food stall in one phrase: delicious and affordable.

Everyone ate with great gusto.

Naturally, the most discussed topic at the dinner table was digging for various gossips about *The Singer*, with Zhou Xiao being the most inquisitive of all.

How did he manage to invite the initial lineup of singers? How much was the title sponsorship fee? Was there any rigging involved in the voting? Who did he think would ultimately claim the title of Singer King? Which singers would be invited next? Were those singers really as harmonious with each other as they appeared on TV? And so on and so forth.

He asked about everything.

One explosive question after another kept the gossiping souls of the entire table burning fiercely!

Chen Qi remained cautious as well, refusing to fall into any of his traps and only casually answering with a few trivial matters.

"Rigging definitely exists. For instance, my elimination was entirely designed by me on purpose. Didn't you notice how much discussion my elimination episode sparked? I thought about it for a long time before deciding to do it that way. But take these words with a grain of salt, don't go spreading them outside."

"As for the initial lineup, that took a tremendous amount of effort on my part. Appearance fees were one reason, but another far more important reason they were willing to participate was because they were deeply moved by my personal charm."

"The Singer King title is a bit hard to say. Who knows, I might even pull off a resurrection round later on. Anyway, I personally am quite interested in the title of Singer King."

"As for the relationships among those singers, oh my god, I don't even want to talk about it. You guys didn't see how they glared at each other behind the scenes. I'm not exaggerating at all—as long as the cameras weren't rolling, they wouldn't even bother greeting one another. After all, they're competitors, you understand how it goes."

"The title sponsorship fee is actually tricky to discuss, but since we're all family here, it doesn't matter much. To tell you the truth, nobody had any faith in this show at the beginning. Kuku Mobile sponsoring it was purely a favor among friends; they didn't really pay much, mostly just helping me save face so the outside world would think it looked impressive. I had no idea the show would blow up like this either, and now I regret it to death!"

Chen Qi put on a deeply aggrieved and pained expression, reeling off one preposterous lie after another with such a straight face that the entire table was left dumbfounded.

Especially Zhou Xiao and Xu Bunian; when he first claimed he had intentionally engineered his own elimination, they were already half-skeptical, but by the time he finished spinning the rest of the yarn, their whole worlds were spinning.

Have you no shame?

Do you have any shame left at all?

The gazes they directed at Chen Qi were filled with absolute adoration!

You really can just spout utter nonsense with a straight face, can't you?

If I didn't know you just a little bit, I probably would have been completely hoodwinked just like the others.

Wait... you didn't even drink any alcohol! Where on earth did you get this kind of inspiration?

They truly admired his ability to utter such outrageous fabrications with such absolute solemnity!

If it were them, they probably would have burst out laughing ages ago!

"Is... is that really true?" Two actors who clearly looked like newcomers stared blankly at Chen Qi.

Heaven knows how much of a psychological impact Chen Qi's words had just inflicted on them!

There was manipulation behind the scenes?

All sorts of discord among the contestants?

The title sponsorship was practically begged out of friendship?

So it really was true that behind every glamorous facade lay bitter toil and hardship?

"True!" Chen Qi nodded very seriously, and right after nodding, he deliberately added a parting warning, "Take these things with a grain of salt, you hear? Absolutely do not spread them outside."

Zhou Xiao: "..."

Xu Bunian: "..."

Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke: "..."

"Alright, alright, it's getting late, let's go," Zhou Xiao said, finding it hard to watch anymore.

He concluded that it was an absolute tragedy that Chen Qi hadn't pursued a career in acting!

That was unquestionably an Oscar-level performance!

Such a waste!

What a terrible waste!

...

The next day.

Everything proceeded as usual.

The film's shooting continued methodically under the leadership of Zhou Xiao and Xu Bunian.

Chen Qi also continued his studies on set, seizing moments when Zhou Xiao was free to resolve the shooting difficulties he had previously jotted down one by one.

Perhaps partly because he had produced a show of his own by this point, he possessed deep insights into which technical aspects deserved focused attention.

He stayed there for half a month straight.

During these two weeks, he felt his gains were monumental.

And then, he packed his bags to return to the capital.

If he didn't leave soon, Beijing Television was going to come after him with cleavers.

The previous two pre-recorded episodes had already aired, and Vice President Wang, knowing he wasn't in Beijing, had already called him several times.

Today was already Tuesday, leaving merely three days until Friday. Forget Vice President Wang; the entire production team was starting to panic slightly.

Chen Qi, however, remained completely unperturbed.

Record on Wednesday, handle post-production on Thursday, send it off for censorship on Friday, and then broadcast it right on schedule that evening.

How perfect was that?

Having grown entirely comfortable and proficient with running this show, he saw absolutely no problem with this schedule.

What if some mishap occurred?

That didn't exist!

He had already recorded eight episodes of the show; he possessed an abundance of experience.

Upon waking up, he leisurely ate breakfast with Zhou Xiao, Xu Bunian, and the others, and after filling his stomach, he waved goodbye to them.

...

It was already past eight in the evening when Chen Qi arrived back in Beijing.

On the taxi ride back to his rented apartment, he gave Su Xiaoxiao a call.

She had already notified the guests and production crew members, ensuring everyone would assemble for recording on schedule tomorrow. Additionally, she had already arranged for the live audience.

"Alright, I got it." Confirming that all preparatory work had been completed, Chen Qi hung up the phone.

He had to admit that Su Xiaoxiao handled things with meticulous care, arranging every single detail properly. As long as it was a task he handed down to her, she executed it exceptionally well, requiring virtually no extra worry on his part.

Upon returning to his apartment, he took a quick shower and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day.

Wednesday.

Chen Qi arrived at the television station bright and early.

Scarcely had he stepped foot into the building when he received a call from Vice President Wang.

"Director Wang, I'm back. I'm right here at the station now."

Upon hearing that Chen Qi had returned, Vice President Wang finally let out a long breath of relief.

She had been worried sick!

Only at this moment did it belatedly dawn on her that collaborating with a young man like Chen Qi was quite a severe test for one's cardiac health.

Eight o'clock.

Members of the production team arrived at their posts one after another.

Everyone looked energetic and in prime condition.

During the half-month that Chen Qi was away in Beijing, they had been resting as well.

Under Chen Qi's arrangement, the station had directly granted these meritorious employees a half-month paid vacation!

Upon hearing this news, the entire production crew was dumbfounded!

A half-month vacation? And paid, too?!

This was an unprecedented first in the entirety of their working careers!

Not just *The Singer* production team, but the entire television station was left in a daze upon hearing the news.

No one could quite believe it.

A half-month vacation?

Wasn't that a bit too exaggerated?

Were the benefits and perks of *The Singer* production crew really this incredible?

Especially upon learning that this was something Chen Qi had personally requested from the station, everyone was turning green with envy.

Just look at him!

Just look at them!

What kind of fairy-tale treatment was this?

It was bad enough growing up having the legendary "other people's children" used to crush your self-esteem, but now that you were grown up and working, there were still "other people's production teams"?

We're all employees of the same television station, so why is there such a massive gap in benefits and welfare?

However, thinking of the monumental achievements these people had racked up for the station over the past month and a half, they felt somewhat reconciled.

Who could blame them? They just had the good fortune of joining Chen Qi's production team!

This treatment was probably just the beginning; once this show wrapped up, the overall salary and welfare of everyone on this team would likely elevate to an entirely new tier!