Chapter 249 "Stepmother" Director Team

Lu Yanhe didn't know how to describe his feelings at this moment.

He turned around in shock to look at Li Zhenzhen.

Li Zhenzhen got out of the car and looked at her with a smile.

"What's wrong?"

Lu Yanhe said, "Sister Zhenzhen, what's going on here—"

Li Zhenzhen said, "When we were discussing what kind of task to set for you, someone mentioned the book 'Jump Up,' which is a very popular book. So, we contacted Jiangyin Publishing House to collaborate on this episode."

Lu Yanhe was extremely surprised.

Qin Zhibai was still asking, "What is 'Jump Up'?"

Song Linxin quickly explained it to him.

Qin Zhibai looked surprised and asked, "Lu Yanhe also made a book?"

"Yes, you didn't expect that, did you?"

"No."

“None of us expected this,” Song Linxin said. “However, he also commissioned me to write an article, and it will be included in this book. Remember to buy a copy.”

Qin Zhibai nodded, "Okay."

After a brief exchange, Lu Yanhe understood the matter. It turned out that "The Days of Youth" needed a location and environment for a mission, and Li Zhenzhen knew that Lu Yanhe was collaborating with Jiangyin Publishing House. Wanting to return the favor, she decided to combine one of the missions with "Jump Up".

If Lu Yanhe draws Group C, then his group will do the task. If Lu Yanhe doesn't draw Group C, then another group will do it. Anyway, "Jump Up" will be featured on "The Days of Youth," using the show for promotion.

Lu Yanhe was naturally very grateful to Li Zhenzhen for this.

Their mission for today has also been announced.

As three interns, they worked with the marketing department to negotiate with various e-commerce channels to secure the best possible terms. Xu Xiaoyin would accompany them as a judge throughout the process, giving them scores.

Lu Yanhe was both amused and exasperated.

Song Linxin laughed and said, "This book was edited by Lu Yanhe. There is an article I wrote in it. The only person who is not related is Qin Zhibai. Lu Yanhe and I will definitely work very hard, but Qin Zhibai may not."

Qin Zhibai: "I'm not that kind of person."

"But," Qin Zhibai suddenly turned to look at Lu Yanhe, "why didn't you commission me to write an article?"

"Huh?" Lu Yanhe was startled, not expecting Qin Zhibai to suddenly ask him this question.

Lu Yanhe couldn't very well say that he wasn't familiar with Qin Zhibai, so he shouldn't ask him for a manuscript.

We had at least recorded an episode of "Little Songs Gathering" together before.

Lu Yanhe made up an excuse, saying, "I'm planning to commission you to write more articles later. I can't use up all the friends I know in the first issue."

The reason was rather lame, but Qin Zhibai nodded and accepted it.

"Then we'll wait for your commissioned articles."

-

While Lu Yanhe was recording the show, Chen Siqi finally finished her military training.

Despite applying a thick layer of sunscreen every day, I still got several shades darker.

Chen Siqi was somewhat depressed.

Because I promised YeMai.com I would record a video, I have to do it now, and I can't delay any longer.

As the co-editor of "Jump Up," she, like Lu Yanhe, also needs to record several videos to cooperate with publicity channels, which will be used as promotional materials.

Fortunately, although Chen Siqi and Lu Yanhe trended on social media once in the summer, there wasn't much discussion about her, and her classmates didn't seem to know about it.

This makes Chen Siqi very satisfied with her current life.

After leaving Liu Wei'an's control, Chen Siqi felt as if a new chapter had been turned in her life, and everything was brand new.

Chen Siqi is now very grateful that she worked with Lu Yanhe on the book "Jump Up" during the summer vacation. This prevented her from feeling lost after entering university, and instead gave her something very definite to do.

The reason she felt this way was because one of the girls in her dorm had forced herself to study hard and finally got into university. As soon as military training ended, she started playing video games. At first, she only played at night, but now she spends almost all her time outside of sleeping and class playing games. The game she plays isn't a competitive one, but rather an old-fashioned story-driven game with various dungeons, which is indeed very addictive.

Chen Siqi and she were just roommates and not close, so of course she wouldn't gossip about other people's lifestyles; she just felt it wasn't right. Playing games is fine, of course, but if it becomes the focus of one's entire life, wouldn't that be addiction?

At school, many people are full of energy, but many others become addicted to this sudden freedom and indulge themselves because they suddenly find themselves in control of their own lives, going from being watched by different people 24 hours a day.

Chen Siqi doesn't think she would indulge herself, but having something to do and a clear goal in life is certainly better.

Chen Siqi had thought it through clearly. She wanted to dedicate her four years of university to working on "Jump Up," regardless of whether the book itself could continue, but she was certain she could succeed in self-media. Even without others, she could continue. She wanted to increase her control over her life; the more leverage she had, the more confident she would be in breaking free from the constraints of her father and Liu Wei'an.

Chen Siqi had no intention of destroying them; she simply didn't want to be trapped under their noses like before, feeling stifled and constrained.

-

There are now many different types of distributors for a book.

Physical bookstores, large e-commerce platforms, self-media operation platforms, live streaming rooms for internet celebrities, etc.

As interns, Lu Yanhe and his colleagues actually had very limited tasks to complete.

Jiangyin Publishing House is unlikely to entrust them with important and crucial tasks.

Orders have already come in from many channels. Lu Yanhe was also learning for the first time that the number of physical copies of "Jump Up" ordered has exceeded 30,000.

This is a number that exceeded previous expectations.

After all, it hasn't been officially launched yet, and the order volume from various channels has exceeded expectations, indicating that the market response is better than they anticipated.

This led to a reprint of "Jump Up" even before its official release.

Jiangyin Publishing House initially set the initial print run of "Jump Up" at 45,000 copies, and has now added another 15,000 copies, bringing the total to 60,000 copies.

Lu Yanhe was still quite surprised and asked Xu Xiaoyin, "Actually, this book hasn't officially gone on sale yet. Although the market response has been very good, why not wait until it's officially released and the first batch of copies has sold out before printing more? If we print more now and it doesn't sell in the end, won't we be stuck with it and lose money?"

Xu Xiaoyin explained with a smile: "This is the job of a publishing house. You have to predict the market in advance. If you wait for the market to tell you that you need to reprint, and then you reprint, from the printing plant to the distributors in various places, and then to the bookstores, you will have already missed the wave of the market. You want to buy a book this week, but the bookstore tells you that it is out of stock. Ten days later, the bookstore receives the book, but you may not even remember that you wanted to buy the book. Not providing sufficient stock when it sells well will be a serious mistake for the publishing house."

Lu Yanhe nodded, understanding.

Their task today is to go to the printing factory and become assembly line workers.

The first task is to pack bookmarks into three thousand books and then box them.

The second task is to contact the distributors and channel partners who came to pick up the goods today, and deliver the books containing different peripheral items to the corresponding distributors and channel partners in batches.

Nowadays, when a book is published, it is often accompanied by many related gifts, and bookmarks are just one of them.

Upon hearing about these two tasks, Song Linxin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They sound simple."

But when you actually start doing it, you find it's not that simple.

Three thousand books, one by one, were opened and then bound together.

By the time each of the three of them had packed their hundredth book, their wrists were already sore.

"I'm so tired." Song Linxin shook her head repeatedly. "Let's take a break."

Several people nodded.

During a break, Qin Zhibai asked Lu Yanhe curiously, "Why did you suddenly want to write a book like this? Do you want to be a writer?"

Lu Yanhe quickly shook his head, "I don't have that talent or ability yet. I just did this with my classmates because we all love reading magazines. At first, we wanted to make it into a magazine, but it turned into this kind of themed book."

Qin Zhibai opened one of the books and the first thing he saw was the table of contents.

"Jiang Yuqian also wrote an article?!" Qin Zhibai was somewhat surprised.

"Mm." Lu Yanhe nodded with a smile.

"How did you manage to get her to write an article?" Qin Zhibai asked curiously. "I don't think I've ever seen her write an article before."

“The main problem is that we no longer have that channel. We used to have a lot of newspapers and magazines, but now there are fewer and fewer. It’s mainly because people rarely read these anymore. Everyone has a mobile phone, right?” Lu Yanhe said. “I became familiar with Sister Yuqian after filming ‘The Golden Era,’ so I boldly asked her for help. I didn’t expect her to agree so quickly.”

Qin Zhibai: "So it only took you three months from wanting to make this book to actually making it."

"That's not a short time, is it?"

“But you only graduated from high school.” Qin Zhibai’s gaze towards Lu Yanhe changed as he said, “You are very capable.”

If Li Zhibai had said "You're amazing" to him at this moment, Lu Yanhe would have replied with "Go to hell." But it was Qin Zhibai who said those words. The latter was usually not very talkative, and when he was praised so seriously, Lu Yanhe really couldn't make up a joke to ease the awkwardness of being praised to his face.

Lu Yanhe said, "I hope this book can continue to be published, and I would appreciate your help in promoting it."

“No problem, leave it to me,” Song Linxin said. “This is my first time officially publishing an article. I’ve submitted articles to magazines before, but they all disappeared without a trace.”

"Your Chinese language grades must be very good, right? Your essay clearly shows that you're the kind of student who gets excellent grades in Chinese."

"It's alright," Song Linxin said. "I mainly spend most of my time learning music. I knew early on that I wanted to study music, so I didn't spend much time on academic subjects."

As everyone was chatting, Xu Xiaoyin suddenly reminded them: "Just a reminder, you've only completed 272 books so far, there are still more than 2,700 books to finish. This task needs to be completed before 11:00 AM. We've arranged to pick up these 3,000 books at 11:30 AM."

"Ah—" Song Linxin exclaimed, "Then we only have two hours left, we have to speed things up, what should we do? I don't think we can finish."

Qin Zhibai said, "Let's get started quickly."

"How about we divide the work?" Lu Yanhe said. "Wouldn't it be much faster if the three of us divided the work? One person could be in charge of flipping through the books, one person could be in charge of putting in bookmarks, and one person could be in charge of packing. We could take turns every ten minutes. Wouldn't that be much more efficient?"

"Let's try this."

The three of them immediately began to act according to their assigned tasks.

Previously, I did everything myself, from flipping through books and putting bookmarks on them to packing them into boxes. It used to take three people working on it at the same time. Now it's like an assembly line. I don't know if the speed is much faster, but it's definitely much easier.

-

"Siqi, are you going out?" her roommate asked.

Chen Siqi nodded and said, "I have an appointment to meet a friend."

"Oh, I thought you went to buy lunch. I was wondering if you could bring some back for me."

"I won't be back until tonight, you can eat by yourself," Chen Siqi said helplessly, looking at her roommate who had been playing games since she got up.

"No, I can't leave. The dungeon raid is about to start," my roommate said. "I'll check back later."

Seeing this, Chen Siqi didn't say anything more and left.

She arranged to meet Bai Yu.

Bai Yu didn't do well on the exam and got into another university in Jiangguang. The school wasn't as good as Jiangguang University, but fortunately the two universities weren't far apart, so the two arranged to meet at a fried chicken shop in the middle.

After deciding to create the "Jump Up Editors Club" self-media platform, Chen Siqi contacted Bai Yu immediately.

Self-media needs a writer with sufficient writing skills.

Bai Yu is the most suitable person among the people Chen Siqi knows.

She was also Lu Yanhe's high school classmate and wrote a novel based on the physical book of "Jump Up".

Chen Siqi really liked this novel.

The two had met a few times in private, but were still not very familiar with each other. There were two things to do at this meeting: first, to ask Bai Yu to help her record a video, and second, to discuss what kind of content to create for this self-media platform.

Chen Siqi said, "We have an advantage in doing this self-media because of this book. We have a much higher starting point than others and a group of readers will become our fans. But there are too many people doing self-media now, so we have to find a way to create our own unique characteristics."

Bai Yu nodded.

"Also, what kind of content should we create?" Chen Siqi asked. "Have you thought about it?"

"Didn't you say before that you would write film reviews, life stories, and celebrity interviews?" Bai Yu said.

Chen Siqi: "These are all the most routine things. We definitely need to have one update every day, right?"

"Mm." Bai Yu nodded.

“Different types of content should be arranged in the same way; you can’t just post the same content one after another,” Chen Siqi said. “Currently, our self-media is mainly written by four people: you, me, Xu Zijun, and Lin Yu. In the early stages, we didn’t have any income and couldn’t commission articles. We had to rely on the four of us to do it ourselves. But once it’s established, we may have the opportunity to take on advertising. So, I still hope to operate it as a self-media platform that is moving towards maturity and commercialization, rather than just a few of us playing around with it out of interest.”

Bai Yu pondered for a long time, thought for a while, nodded, and said, "Then we need to think of some interesting content to get everyone to pay attention to our self-media."

“Yes.” Chen Siqi nodded. “Regardless of whether the book ‘Jump Up’ can continue, I plan to do a good job with this self-media. If it can become an influential account in the future, it will be the most proud work of our college life.”

"I didn't think that much about it. I just enjoy writing. I'm already very happy to have a platform like this where everyone can see what I write," Bai Yu said with a smile.

Bai Yu received a royalty of 5,000 yuan for the novel she wrote for "Jump Up," which surprised and delighted her.

But Bai Yu doesn't actually write for the sake of earning royalties—she's always been writing, regardless of whether she gets paid or not.

Chen Siqi: "First of all, I will definitely do the most basic film and television review section. My goal is to have influence over film companies so that they will invite us to the premieres of domestic films in the future."

Bai Yu looked at Chen Siqi in surprise, "Won't this be difficult?"

"Of course it will be difficult, but I want to do it. If it weren't difficult, why would we do it?"

Bai Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "But I don't know if we can make it happen."

"Whether it can be achieved is a matter for the future. Let's do it now, and only after we've done it can we talk about the future," Chen Siqi said. "Bai Yu, we're both going to have four years of university. Do you want to spend those four years just studying?"

Bai Yu: "Siqi, of course I'd love to do this with you. It's not that I'm unwilling, it's just that I feel like we're just a few college freshmen and might not have the ability. I'm worried that what I write won't meet your requirements and won't be able to make everyone like it."

Chen Siqi realized that it was her "grand goal" that had scared Bai Yu.

After these few interactions, Chen Siqi realized that Bai Yu was actually a very insecure girl. Perhaps because she did not perform well in the college entrance examination and only got into an ordinary university, she often revealed a sense of inferiority when talking to Chen Siqi.

Her inferiority complex is different from Xu Zijun's. Although Xu Zijun also has some inferiority complex and sensitivity, she has always been confident in herself. Her inferiority complex is only about her background and family circumstances, but Bai Yu's personality is inherently timid and cowardly.

Chen Siqi reached out and grasped Bai Yu's hand, saying firmly, "Believe me, you are very talented, Bai Yu. Lu Yanhe and I have both witnessed your talent. Moreover, your novel will soon be published, and you will officially become a writer."

-

When Lu Yanhe and his two companions finally managed to pack the bookmarks for the three thousand books on time, a profound sense of revolutionary friendship arose among them.

Indeed, it takes going through hardships and suffering together to develop this kind of relationship.

Lu Yanhe smiled and clapped his hands at them, saying, "Finally finished."

Song Linxin said, "At first I thought this was a really simple job, but now I realize that any job, as long as the workload is large, the level of hardship increases exponentially. I feel like my wrists are about to break."

Qin Zhibai didn't say anything, but judging from his appearance, he must have been exhausted.

Although it was arranged by the production team, "Jump Up" is still Lu Yanhe's work. He said, "Thank you everyone for helping to promote 'Jump Up'."

Xu Xiaoyin said with a smile, "You've all worked hard this morning. You must be hungry, right? I'll take you to the cafeteria."

The production team did not arrange a special lunch for them, but instead took them to the printing factory's canteen.

The cafeteria is small, with about thirty four-person tables and two round tables.

Xu Xiaoyin helped them get their food and then sat down.

All three of them ate heartily, clearly they were really hungry.

Lu Yanhe asked, "Sister Xiaoyin, have you collaborated with other program teams like this before?"

Xu Xiaoyin shook her head and said, "No, this is the first time. It has opened up a new way of thinking for us. We will create more opportunities like this in the future to see if it can help us do more publicity."

Lu Yanhe laughed and asked, "How's Jiazhen's new book coming along?"

"We're still waiting for the ISBN, and we hope it can be released before the end of this year," Xu Xiaoyin said. "Thanks to your recommendation, his new book has attracted a lot of attention, and the first print run is estimated to reach 150,000 copies, which is a rare first print run in recent years."

Lu Yanhe: "I'm glad I could help Brother Jiazhen."

"Did they contact you before, saying they wanted to cast you in the movie adaptation of his book 'Nineteen Years'?"

"We've made contact, but the script is still being written, so nothing's been finalized yet," Lu Yanhe said.

“He’s doing very well right now. His new book hasn’t even been published yet, but he’s already attracted the attention of several film and television companies, who are discussing film and television adaptations. We’re still following up on that,” Xu Xiaoyin said. “Several of our publishing house’s contracted authors have seen Jiazhen’s situation and asked us if you could recommend their books as well.”

Lu Yanhe was flattered and waved his hand, saying, "It's all because Brother Jiazhen's novel is so well-written that my recommendation was effective. My recommendation is not the deciding factor. Please don't flatter me, teachers. I don't dare to say anything more."

Xu Xiaoyin: "Don't be modest. In the current market, you've gone against the trend and made a book like 'Jump Up.' Many writers have told me privately that they admire your actions. Your book has also brought a lot of attention to our publishing industry. It's rare for a celebrity to be willing to do something so thankless at the height of their popularity."

Song Linxin and Qin Zhibai asked, "Sister Xiaoyin, how did you get to know Lu Yanhe? Was it because of his celebrity status that you were able to work with him?"

“No,” Xu Xiaoyin shook her head. “One day, he recommended a novel published by our publishing house in his live stream, which boosted the sales of the novel. I contacted him specifically to express my gratitude. We then collaborated on some projects and became more familiar with each other. Just then, he had the idea of ​​starting a magazine. When we learned about this, we contacted him to try and get the physical publication rights. In the end, it became a themed book called ‘Jump Up.’ The book wasn’t made because we approached him for collaboration. It was his and Chen Siqi’s idea. They were the ones who did it from beginning to end. Yemai.com only provided some funding and technical support.”

Xu Xiaoyin made these remarks specifically in front of the camera to let everyone know that Lu Yanhe's role in the book "Jump Up" was not merely nominal—in the past when magazines were prevalent, many magazine editors did just that.

Lu Yanhe said, "Now that 'Jump Up' is about to be released, I've been nervous for several days."

“It’s definitely possible,” Song Linxin said.

-

After lunch, there is a short break of half an hour.

There was no specially prepared lounge, only a temporary office.

There was only one sofa and a few chairs in the office.

After discussing it, Song Linxin was given the sofa to lie on for a while, while Lu Yanhe and Qin Zhibai rested on the table.

The afternoon was another busy one.

Inventory checks, contacting various parties, loading the truck, and taking stock.

The work itself isn't very difficult; it's all basic and mechanical, so you can get the hang of it quickly. However, it's incredibly draining because you can't relax for a moment.

As the sun set, the production crew's car arrived to take them home.

After the three people got on the bus, Xu Xiaoyin started a debriefing meeting, giving each person feedback and assigning scores.

Xu Xiaoyin said with a smile: "I have to say that everyone's performance today really exceeded my expectations. The celebrities I usually see in the news are very spoiled and difficult to serve. I thought that today's working environment and content would be unacceptable to everyone, but I didn't expect everyone to persevere. Especially the environment during the lunch break, you didn't complain at all, which really surprised me."

Song Linxin said, "Actually, I wanted to complain, but we were recording a show, so I held back and tried to appear hardworking. But when I saw that everyone in the factory was working like this, and we were only working for one day, while they were working like this day after day, I felt that we had no right to complain at this time. Everyone was working very hard, and this was our own choice."

"I've never been to a place like this before, it's really novel," Qin Zhibai said.

"novel?"

"Yes." Qin Zhibai nodded. "I've always been curious about how books are printed when I was a child, and I finally saw it today."

Xu Xiaoyin gave Qin Zhibai an A grade.

Lu Yanhe originally thought that his performance deserved an A from any perspective, but Xu Xiaoyin said, "Yanhe, based on your performance, I should have given you an A, but since 'Jump Up' is your own book and we've known each other for a long time, to avoid any suspicion, I've decided to give you a B."

"Huh?" Lu Yanhe was shocked.

Xu Xiaoyin said, "There's no way around it. If I were to give you an A, all three of you would get an A. But the production team said that each group must have at least one person with a B. Qin Zhibai and Song Linxin worked very hard today, and of course, you did too. But since 'Jump Up' is your book, I can only give you the B to thank them for their efforts."

Lu Yanhe sighed deeply, "Am I really that bad? What am I going to do if I got a B?"

Xu Xiaoyin shook her head and said with a smile, "I don't know about that. The production team just told me to use ABC, but they didn't tell me how the evaluation would be used."

Then, Xu Xiaoyin got off the bus.

The car continued driving, taking them back to the young people's house.

Li Zhenzhen was waiting for them here.

They were the last group to return.

Lu Yanhe and his group reunited with Peng Zhixing and his group. The three groups, totaling nine people, were all visibly exhausted.

"I'm so tired."

"So tired."

"What is your mission?"

...

After everyone chatted for a while, Lu Yanhe learned that Peng Zhixing and his group were tasked with working as waiters in a restaurant, while Li Zhibai and his group were tasked with cleaning the animals' enclosures at a zoo.

Compared to them, they really have the easiest job.

Then, at this moment, Li Zhenzhen came to make the announcement.

"Thank you all for your hard work today. Congratulations on completing your tasks," said Li Zhenzhen. "Now, I have the evaluations from each group of judges, which we will announce later. Before that, I want to tell you about our new rules. This evaluation is divided into group evaluation and individual evaluation. The group evaluation will determine the dinner you will receive, while the individual evaluation will determine your accommodation for the night."

The group of people looked at each other in bewilderment.

"What? There's also a group evaluation?"

Li Zhenzhen: "First of all, I would like to announce that the Peng Zhixing, Xiao Yun and Su Xiao group has received a B rating because your group broke 3 plates and failed to serve the dishes on time 2 times."

Xiao Yun immediately stood up and apologized to everyone: "It's my fault, I broke the plate."

Peng Zhixing quickly said, "It's nothing, it's nothing. Why apologize so formally? Please sit down."

“Yes, it’s nothing,” Su Xiao said.

Li Zhenzhen said, "This is your dinner tonight."

A cart was pushed in by the staff, containing four dishes in total. When the lid was lifted, there was a seafood fried rice, a steamed fish, an eggplant casserole, and a fried egg.

"It's not bad, it's pretty good," Peng Zhixing said. "It's enough to eat."

Then they began announcing the group consisting of Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, and Liu Zhiyin.

"Your group received a C rating because Li Zhibai was too slow in the individual segments, which seriously delayed the progress of members Yan Liang and Liu Zhiyin. He also had a heated argument with Liu Zhiyin, which had a negative impact on the animals."

Lu Yanhe was taken aback.

Li Zhibai simply lowered his head expressionlessly, without uttering a single word.

Liu Zhiyin also lowered her head.

The atmosphere between the two was indeed a bit awkward.

Why are you arguing?

At that moment, Yan Liang immediately gave Lu Yanhe a look, indicating that he was alright.

Li Zhenzhen looked at the two of them.

"So, Li Zhibai, Liu Zhiyin, is there anything you want to say to each other?"

"I apologize." Liu Zhiyin stood up and said, "I do have a rather impatient temper and get angry easily. Today, I couldn't control my temper because I saw that the progress was far behind. I should manage my emotions better."

Li Zhibai glanced at Liu Zhiyin and said, "Don't apologize anymore. It's true that I'm not good at working. Try to have better luck next time and don't get grouped with me. I'm really not a good worker."

The atmosphere was a little awkward.

Seeing that they had nothing more to say, Li Zhenzhen had the staff bring up dinner.

Their dinner was much worse than Peng Zhixing's.

A simple fried rice, a plate of dumplings, a stir-fried vegetable dish, and a steamed sausage.

Li Zhibai's face fell.

Liu Zhiyin, on the contrary, had a normal expression and showed no sign of disgust.

When it came to Lu Yanhe's group, Li Zhenzhen said, "Your group is the only group to receive an A rating today. You have successfully completed today's task."

Lu Yanhe and the other two were overjoyed.

Their dinner was much more lavish, consisting of six courses, many of which were main dishes, including roast duck, spicy crayfish, and crab roe tofu...

"Those with an A rating can stay in a room in the Youth House, while those with a rating below A will not be able to stay in their own rooms tonight and will have to sleep in tents outside the house," Li Zhenzhen announced. "You will also have to set up your own tents."

Lu Yanhe stared wide-eyed in shock.

ah?

"Staying in a tent outside?" Lu Yanhe was stunned.

Li Zhenzhen nodded.

After announcing these things, Li Zhenzhen and her directing team left.

The remaining artists looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Let's eat, everyone's hungry," Peng Zhixing said.

"Then how should we eat? Should we split into three groups?" Yan Liang asked.

Li Zhibai looked a little unwell. He glanced at the dishes in his group, realizing that the three of them wouldn't be able to get enough to eat, and said directly, "I'm too lazy to eat, you guys eat."

Liu Zhiyin said, "If you don't eat, will you have the energy to work tomorrow?"

Li Zhibai's lips twitched.

Lu Yanhe whispered to Qin Zhibai and Song Linxin, "Why don't we eat with everyone? The three of us can't finish six dishes."

Song Linxin and Qin Zhibai had no objections, "Sure."

“Let’s eat together,” Lu Yanhe said. “There’s only one table. Why split up into three groups to eat? The production team didn’t say we can’t share.”

“Yes, let’s eat together,” Song Linxin said. “We only have meat here, no vegetables.”

Seeing this, Peng Zhixing and the others immediately said, "That's fine, let's eat together."

"The production team is so unreliable; we're the only ones who are truly dependable and supportive." Xiao Yun's eyes lit up with excitement. "Crayfish! My absolute favorite!"

Everyone happily brought the dishes to the table.

"Come on, let's first welcome our two new friends, Liu Zhiyin and Su Xiao!" Peng Zhixing said.

Everyone raised their glasses together.

"Thank you, I'm very happy to join this program."

Please take good care of me.

Once they started eating, the conversation flowed much more than during the last recording.

Everyone was talking about what happened during their daytime tasks; they had a lot to say.

Yan Liang said at this moment, "It's a pity that you're not in our group today, Lao Lu. The scene of Li Zhibai shoveling elephant poop is so classic."

“Everyone is eating,” Song Linxin immediately protested.

Li Zhibai looked speechless and said, "I haven't done as much work in the past ten years as I have in a single day."

Lu Yanhe ruthlessly retorted, "That's because you're usually too lazy."

“Exactly,” Yan Liang chimed in. “Old Lu and I are the ones who do all the cleaning in our dorm, you don’t do anything about it.”

"He's so lazy, why are you still friends with him?" Xiao Yun immediately asked.

“After all, apart from being a bit lazy, Brother Bai is still very loyal in other aspects,” Yan Liang added.

Liu Zhiyin picked up her cup and looked at Li Zhibai. "Li Zhibai, I apologize to you again. I shouldn't have lost my temper today."

"Please don't apologize anymore, or I'll be too ashamed to face you," Li Zhibai said. "It's true that I've dragged you down."

Liu Zhiyin said, "There's no such thing as holding others back. We're all in the same group, so we should help each other."

Yan Liang nodded.

Seeing Liu Zhiyin's attitude, Lu Yanhe finally understood why Yan Liang had given him that look that told him not to worry.

Lu Yanhe was genuinely nervous just now, worried that after the departure of the extremely temperamental Meng Li, the arrival of the short-tempered Liu Zhiyin had taken her place.

Peng Zhixing said, "It seems that completing tasks in groups may become the norm for our show. In the future, everyone may be teamed up with anyone. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, so let's make the best of each other and not let the production team get away with it. They just want to see us argue."

"Hahaha."

The atmosphere at the dinner table was harmonious.

...

In the adjacent workspace, Li Zhenzhen watched the live feed, listened to the sounds coming through her headphones, smiled, and thought to herself, "Do you think it's easy for us 'stepmothers' to help you young people truly develop a bond?"

Why assign them tasks?

Why did the production team choose to portray such "villainous" characters?

Only in this way can they gradually understand each other's difficulties, empathize with each other, and then understand and sympathize with each other.

Just like today.

They were divided into three groups and given different foods, but in the end, the three groups still sat down together to eat dinner.

That's the goal.

(End of this chapter)