80 Departure
When Stary landed in Xinjiang, it happened to be the hottest day of the year.
The temperature difference between day and night is large inland, so the five of them brought a lot of clothes and filled a lot of suitcases. The recording started when they got off the plane. Yu Le pointed the GoPro in his hand at the brothers who were carrying luggage down from the turntable one by one, and introduced them one by one:
"1, 2, 3, 4——" Then he turned the camera to face himself, "5! All members of Stary are here, and have landed in Xinjiang~"
After a night's rest at the hotel, the group show officially started recording the next day. The production team had prepared a jeep for them to drive themselves, which was parked in the parking lot of the hotel where they stayed. The body of the jeep was fiery red and the appearance was domineering. The five of them started cheering as soon as they saw it. When the production team called for an emergency stop, Jin Zeyu had already sat in the driver's seat.
He climbed down from the driver's seat with a look of regret and stared at the director: "Is there any other prerequisite for using this car?"
That's a bit unreasonable.
The director team knew they would ask this question, and immediately said generously: "Of course the car is for you to use."
"Then why are you letting us get off?" Yan Fan stretched out her hand to the director. "Sis, we are so familiar with each other now. Where are the car keys?"
"Don't worry, I will definitely give it to you." When Jin Zeyu saw the director's smile behind the camera, he knew something was wrong and became alert instantly. "Then you give it first."
"Here, here, here they are for you." The director took out an envelope that had been prepared long ago from behind his back. "Here are the car keys, your study abroad expenses, and the itinerary for each day. Accommodation has been arranged, and these are the money for your gas and meals."
Yu Le trotted over to take the envelope and handed it to the captain. Pei Zijin pinched the funds, opened it and took a look. It was a considerable amount. According to the strategy he had prepared in advance, this amount of funds was enough for them to have a good time these days.
No way, there really is no fraud?
The director sister looked innocent: "Our main attraction this time is a relaxing and leisure travel variety show, how could there be a fraud?"
"Then everything from now on will be up to you." The director sister turned around and waved her hand, "Give them their luggage."
"Wait a minute." Su Chen keenly grasped what was wrong, "Luggage?"
The five of them brought thirteen boxes and backpacks. After five people sat in the car, it was estimated that at most five or six boxes could be put in. The remaining boxes...
"The program team can keep it for you. If your suitcases can't fit, you can leave them with us. But please understand that it's not easy to check in luggage. It shouldn't be too much for the program team to charge 500 yuan for each suitcase, right?"
“Five hundred!” Yu Le was like a little screaming chicken whose tail was stepped on. He questioned the program team with his ace high-pitched voice: “I’m going to call 12315!”
"It's not much, actually." The director sister had worked with their group several times before, so she wasn't afraid at all. "It's 15 days, which is only 30 yuan a day on average. Your suitcases are also very heavy, which will waste gas."
Jin Zeyu urgently counted the money with Pei Zijin, then opened the trunk of the car to test the capacity, and concluded that even if they squeezed to death in the back seat, at least four suitcases would have to be handed over to the program crew for safekeeping. Considering the safety and comfort of long-distance self-driving, it would be best to reduce the number by eight. That would be four thousand, which would almost empty their pockets.
Jin Zeyu sighed, walked towards the director team and started bargaining: "Two hundred."
"Five hundred." The director sister shook her head. Now it's a seller's market and she won't give in.
"Three hundred, no higher."
"Five hundred, you can choose not to let go."
"Well, package price, I'll give you 1500 so we can put six in." Pei Zijin also joined the bargaining battle, but was still firmly rejected: "1500 can only put three in."
The negotiations reached a deadlock. Yan Fan suddenly looked up, and his clever little brain under the baseball cap began to work: "Can the hotel store it for free?"
Oh yes!
The five of them immediately became proud. If there was no space, they might as well simplify their luggage. It was not necessary for them to carry so many suitcases on the road. They were committed to ensuring that the director team did not earn a penny from them.
The production crew didn't stop them and even made room for them to pack their luggage. Pei Zijin emptied one of his large suitcases to store the odds and ends that he had picked out to take with him or not.
The most infuriating thing was that when they were leaving the company, the agent and the assistant said nothing and just watched them pack a lot of bags for safety reasons.
"You can take fewer shoes. Just bring one or two pairs for changing. Shoes take up a lot of space." Captain Pei plays the role of both father and mother on a daily basis. After packing his own luggage, he went to help Su Chen repack his luggage.
Yan Fan burst into anger and roared, "Yu Le! Who would take such a big doll out for a trip?"
Yu Le fought to the death and refused to let his third brother take his Abebe out, "No, I can't sleep without this!"
"Think about it." He tried to reason with Yan Fan, "Some of us will still be camping, so we should leave a doll behind so we can use it as a pillow and keep warm."
"It won't work if it's this big." Yan Fan said coldly. Yu Le's doll took up half of the suitcase. If converted, it would be worth two hundred and fifty.
Su Chen blinked and thought of a dirty trick. He took out two shoelaces from the shoes he had picked out and offered them as a favor, "You can tie the doll to the roof of the car."
Yan Fan could only reluctantly accept this proposal and gave his brother an ultimatum: "You can take it with you, but you can either put it on the roof of the car, or you have to hold it in the passenger seat for 15 days, or the 500 yuan for your suitcase will be deducted from your daily meal money."
Pei Zijin quickly put out the fire: "Not really, not really, my brother is still growing, he needs to eat better."
In the end, Yu Le still let him take his doll. Spiritual value is also value. For this reason, he had to reluctantly give up a pair of boots and two coats. Then Jin Zeyu manually adjusted the size of the doll.
When his second brother violently crushed the suitcase and zipped it up, Yu Le turned his head away, unable to bear to watch, with a look of heartbroken sadness on his face.
It's suffering.
The streamlined Stary luggage group has achieved significant results, with the number of suitcases reduced from thirteen to nine. However, there are still three suitcases that are difficult to fit into the trunk. The program team also tactfully suggested that they should remove two more, otherwise the back seat would be quite uncomfortable.
Pei Zijin held the 2,500 yuan in his hand with a look of reluctance on his face, and wanted to struggle again: "Can't we tie two more suitcases on the roof of the car?"
Friendly reminder from the director team: "Do you tie it yourself?"
The captain turned his hopeful eyes to his four brothers, but he was destined to be disappointed. The eyes of these brothers were clearer than each other. Jin Zeyu took out his mobile phone and said, "I can search how to tie a knot now."
Short video, your best teacher.
In the end, this plan unfortunately failed. This jeep did not have a special luggage rack installed, and the trunk was relatively smooth. For safety reasons, if I really drove it on the road, I would probably be worried about it falling off.
The two thousand five hundred yuan still had to be spent. The director sister sincerely extended her hand to Pei Zijin: "Take it."
The funding was cut by more than half, and the five people's mood changed from sunny when they got off the plane to cloudy, and they all looked depressed.
"Not enough." Pei Zijin calculated the approximate expenses for the past fifteen days. After losing two thousand five hundred, he knew that he would not be able to hold on to the end no matter what.
Yan Fan watched him count the money and added, "Why don't we just use this money to buy a plane ticket back to Beijing?"
"Alright."
Seeing that several people were about to lose interest in traveling due to the setback, the production team did not intend to make things difficult for them. The director gave them a friendly reminder: "We have a small task here. If you complete it, the production team will provide you with some funding supplements. After all, we are not bad people."
"You guys are so bad." Yu Le complained mercilessly while taking the task from the director.
The tasks provided by the director team were priced. Five pairs of hands reached out for the most expensive task at the same time. Su Chen read the instructions on the task card: "Call a mutual friend and induce him/her to say 'Do you need money? I'll lend it to you' within three minutes without him/her noticing. You will receive 500 yuan in funding."
Pei Zijin became more cautious after being tricked: "Does it have to be word for word?"
"It's fine if the meaning is the same."
It was easy to deal with this. Pei Zijin took out his phone from his pocket and opened the contact interface. The director asked, "Who do you choose to call?"
"Sister Xiaoxiao, our President Yuan." Pei Zijin showed his contact interface to the camera, but the call was not made yet.
“Is it true…?” The director’s question was not even out of his mouth when Stary’s group became excited.
"How dare you say Sister Xiaoxiao isn't our friend?!" The five handsome guys stood up at the same time, their faces full of disbelief, half real and half acting. Yu Le almost stood on the table, more confident than ever before, his chin almost raised to the sky, "She is our best friend!"
Jin Zeyu helped his brothers to make up for it: "Sister Xiaoxiao is both a teacher and a friend to us."
“Alright, alright, alright, let’s fight, fight, fight.” The program crew was convinced.
"But I really don't know if Sister Xiaoxiao will answer the call." Pei Zijin rarely calls Yuan Xiao directly like this, and the five of them don't have the courage to do so. Yuan Xiao should answer the call at this time - as long as she is not busy with something.
When it was time to really dial out, he was still a little nervous. Pei Zijin clicked the dial button, turned on the speaker, and placed the call between the five people. Yuan Xiao answered the call very quickly. She didn't have any ringtones, which was just like her style. She didn't do anything fancy and was very calm.
Her voice came out of the receiver, with some distortion, stable, mature and pleasant: "Xiao Pei, have you arrived in Xinjiang?"
"Why are you calling me? Is there something urgent?"
Yan Fan raised his hand and slapped Yu Le on the back. His brother received the instruction tacitly and started acting from zero frame: "Wuwuwuwuwu, Sister Xiaoxiao, the production team didn't give us money for meals. Wuwuwuwu, it's over, it's over. I'm going to starve to death now."
Program team: ...something feels wrong.
For some groups, completing the mission is fake, but filing a complaint is real.
There was silence for a moment from Yuan Xiao. Stary could tell something was speechless during those two seconds. Su Chen put his face on Jin Zeyu's back to hold back his laughter. The rest of them were also trying to hold back their laughter, facing the task with professional acting skills.
After all, if they didn't have a mission, they really wouldn't dare to talk to Sister Xiaoxiao like this, but boys of this age who are bold and daring are always eager to try to provoke trouble.
Yuan Xiao happened to have no recording assignment for "Ouwei" today, and was in the office dealing with things when she received a call from Pei Zijin. She remembered that their variety show should have started recording by now, so this call...
She tried hard to flip through her memories, recalling some vague impressions of the process of reporting the variety show at that time, and realized that these guys probably weren't really starving to death, but they probably had some mission.
It should be difficult for these five people to starve to death.
"What should we do?" The voice on the phone became somewhat helpless. Yuan Xiao put the phone on the table and continued to work while asking them, "Will you get your salary in advance this month?"
"Well, that doesn't work." Su Chen interrupted, trying to hint that Sister Xiaoxiao obviously knew what they were doing, but just hadn't figured out how she should cooperate.
"Then give each of you a red envelope?"
Pei Zijin looked up and asked the director team with his mouth whether this counted. The director shook his head. Pei Zijin was helpless, as sometimes a boss being too generous could also be a problem.
"Well, you don't have to, sister." Su Chen tried to let Yuan Xiao know through his tone that it hadn't come to that point yet, "Is it possible that we..."
"Well, I'll lend it to you."
She understood.
The five people cheered instantly. Yuan Xiao, who was far away in Beijing, silently pushed his phone away and waited until the noise died down before speaking again: "Anything else?"
"Sister Xiaoxiao, we love you! Thank you so much! Everything is fine!"
Pei Zijin hung up the phone and confirmed with the director team, "This is definitely our mission accomplished."
"Count, count, count." The program crew was helpless. It hasn't even taken a minute, and the boss is too smart and cooperative. What else can they say?
"Oh oh oh!" Their phones rang at the same time. Yan Fan turned on the screen and instantly became excited. "Sister Xiaoxiao really sent out red envelopes! Long live Sister Xiaoxiao!"
Jin Zeyu held up his phone and showed the red envelope that Yuan Xiao had sent in their group to the camera, and said proudly: "This should also be counted as our funding. This is what you asked us to do. I have to spend what I gave."
Program team: ...I don’t dare to speak, this is also their boss.
Stary and his five friends were all smart kids. After completing all the tasks quickly, and with the money given by Yuan Xiao, they not only paid off the bill for storing their luggage, but even had a little extra left. Yu Le and Yan Fan both wanted to get some of their luggage back.
Many of them were specially prepared by them for this trip, and they had to store them reluctantly to save money. Yu Le even wanted to rescue his twisted doll, so he seriously discussed with the director team whether he could reserve a place for his doll on the program team's car for 80 yuan.
Yu Le said very tragically: "I can pay for a meal for it."
But in the end, he was suppressed by his second brother. Captain Pei played the role of the master of the clear soup every day and comforted his younger brother: "If the suitcase is still difficult to collect tomorrow, we will pay the program team for help."
After this opening scene, they finally realized that any help needed from the program crew during this trip would not be free, or in other words, the program crew just wanted to see them solve the problems themselves.
But so what? Growth is always bumpy, but as long as the five of them are together, there is no problem that cannot be solved.
The travel expenses were handed over to the captain for safekeeping. Jin Zeyu got into the driver's seat and called his brothers to get in. The fiery red jeep drove steadily onto the highway and crashed from the city into the endless snow-capped mountains and grasslands.
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