Chapter 117: Benevolent Stars Shine
After filming the sports meet scenes, the romantic storyline between "Lin Lingdong" and "E Wen" is pretty much complete. All that's left is to gather everyone together for a few group scenes.
Thanks to the chubby director's coordination skills and lightning-fast filming speed, these group scenes, which spanned the beginning, middle, and end of the story, were all filmed on the same day. As a result, the final scene at night was filmed straight through until after 4 a.m. So much so that when the group of people, who had been working all day and then most of the night, heard him yell "cut," they didn't even know whether to go get a late-night snack or breakfast...
In the end, Yang Jiayao made a grand gesture: he knew a restaurant with good food that was already serving morning tea at this time. Since it was a rare occasion for everyone to get together after filming, it was customary to have a "farewell dinner" together.
So, a group of people removed their makeup and changed clothes, packed their things, and after all that fuss, it was past five o'clock. Then, they drove in a large group to the restaurant that Yang Jiayao had mentioned, and had a passionate morning tea party with the uncles and aunties who had come for morning tea after their morning exercise...
Cantonese dim sum is known for its wide variety of dishes. Using the word "drink" to describe it is just a custom. When you actually have all kinds of top-quality, specialty, and super-delicious dishes, as well as large, medium, and small dishes in front of you to eat, with a complete range of meat and vegetables, it is actually no less than a normal meal.
However, these elderly folks who can sit for most of the day with just a pot of tea and a couple of dim sum dishes don't care what kind of superstars they are. In front of these elderly folks fighting for dim sum, they are nothing. Yang Jiayao, Shang Hanyou, and Cheng Erjian, along with a group of burly crew members (including seven or eight stuntmen because there are action scenes in the finale), still couldn't compete with these seemingly frail elderly folks. After more than ten minutes, they could only sheepishly return with a large pile of leftover buns and snacks.
Upon seeing this, the chubby director, who was very willing to spend money on food, immediately gritted his teeth and exclaimed that it was bad luck. Hong Kong people are more or less superstitious. What if eating this kind of stuff at the wrap party indirectly affects the box office of this movie?
"Excuse me, you two, you can't even beat the old folks." Li Sishi glanced at Shang Hanyou and Cheng Erjian, with whom she had a closer relationship, and looked disappointed.
"If you have something to eat, don't talk so much." Shang Hanyou picked up a steamed bun from the bamboo basket and shoved it at him.
Seeing the kidnapper's gag-like posture, Li Sishi quickly slipped behind Cheng Ershen: "Senior brother, quickly cover me!"
Cheng Erjian, both amused and exasperated, spread his arms in a protective gesture, and the three of them instantly...
It quickly turned into a game of tag, and Xia Yingyun was the first to lose her composure at the sight. She immediately said, "Alright, alright, everyone's hungry, let's eat something first."
In particular, she plays a female police detective in the play, who has to maintain her figure and not eat too much. However, there are many action scenes that day. Even though there are stunt doubles to help with the high-difficulty actions, she still has to do many scenes herself. After staying up all night, she must have been tired and hungry.
Unable to bear seeing the beautiful woman go hungry and only get steamed buns to eat, Li Sishi spoke a few words with the chubby director who also felt sorry for his girlfriend Zheng Shuqiu. Then she borrowed a camera and two cameramen and strolled off to the kitchen.
During the year she fulfilled her duties as Miss Hong Kong, she frequently visited orphanages and nursing homes in various communities as a goodwill ambassador, so she naturally knew how to appease restaurant owners who had a bit of a temper.
After going around in circles and getting Chen Zhiyong to sign a flash card for the boss's daughter, who was in middle school, Li Sishi coaxed the boss into keeping some of the second batch of dim sum for himself, and then told people to go to the kitchen to "move the goods."
.
"See that? That's what you call real skill." Li Sishi picked up a shrimp dumpling and proudly displayed it.
"Alright, alright, you're the best in the world..." Shang Hanyou said casually, with a steamed dumpling in his mouth, before getting to the point, "So—this amazing beauty in front of me, would you be interested in joining the charity team next Saturday?"
In this port city, many groups collaborate with TBL TV every year to organize various charity events, and then donate the money or assets raised in the event to educational, environmental or medical institutions in the name of the corresponding charity to help communities in need—for example, "Joyful Kwong Wah" which Lee Sze-sze previously participated in is one of the representatives of this type of event.
However, compared to the individual fundraising model of "Joyful Kwong Wah" held at the end of the year, where everyone showcases their talents, the "Charity Ren Shi Star Night" held in January is closer to a team competition like a star-studded anniversary celebration, with the winning team receiving a trophy provided by Ren Shi Hospital as a souvenir.
Undoubtedly, the scale of the "Charity Night" held at the beginning of the year is not as grand as the annual event "Joyful Celebration in Guanghua" at the end of the year, but because of this trophy as "proof", Li Sishi, who is short of social activity points, will definitely not be able to refuse.
After all, she has one foot in the entertainment industry and the other in school, and she's currently in the rising phase of her career. Being busy with work naturally leaves her with less time for studying, so her course grades are barely enough. If she doesn't improve her extracurricular activities to make up for it, her final grade will be...
It looks rather ugly.
At that time, the atmosphere in the port city was Westernized, and people who were enthusiastic about charity had a high social reputation. Therefore, every month or two from the beginning to the end of the year, various groups would hold charity events.
Although performing at these kinds of events doesn't bring in any money and may even require donations, it serves as a good exposure platform. Popular celebrities can use the performance as an excuse to promote their songs.
Even nobody can show their face and talent on social media – nowadays there are few ways to get exposure, so charity events are a relatively good option, as they are less likely to be criticized and can bring a good reputation for charity.
People like Li Sishi, who are currently at an intermediate level, are drawn to these kinds of activities because they can boost their social activity points, and they will definitely make time to participate no matter how busy they are.
Shang Hanyou had often seen Li Sishi memorizing scripts and textbooks on set, knowing that she had to balance work and studies. Therefore, he could guess that she would definitely attend the first charity event of the year: with final exams approaching, cramming at the last minute is never a bad thing...
Li Sishi is used to being thoughtful and uninhibited on these kinds of shows, and even Pei Yansang is satisfied with her, saying that she is "capable of taking on important responsibilities"—so it's not surprising that he, as the captain of the "Starshine Team" in the competition, recruited a strong player for his team in advance, right?
Not to mention the other team he was competing against, the "charity team," whose captain was none other than Ling Chen, who had recently had a bit of a falling out with his agent over participating in a charity event.
Logically speaking, since they work for the same company and share the same godfather, their relationship should be deeper than others—but unfortunately, when men's feelings change, it's either for money or for women...
Even if the person everyone is thinking about is still young and not interested in dating, it's normal to try to win their favor whenever possible.
Faced with Shang Hanyou's invitation to join the team, Li Sishi remained silent for a while. Just when he was about to doubt whether that guy from the early morning had beaten him to it, Li Sishi said with a hint of helplessness, "Thank you very much for your invitation, but..."
Shang Hanyou frowned: Could it really be that they beat him to it sometime in the early morning?
Li Sishi shook her head: "No, I don't plan to join any team. I just want to take this opportunity to be a captain and improve my skills."
The scale of "Charity and Benevolence Starlight Night" is relatively small, and Zhuang Menghua also agreed that she should gain experience as a "team leader" in such an occasion: Pei Yansang's record contract is about to expire, and the TV station will definitely continue to promote its own people as the leading female singers, so it's time for Li Sishi to start practicing.
I practiced.
With a wry smile, Shang Hanyou shook hands with Li Sishi, the new captain of the "Ren Shi Team," and could only smile back at her, saying, "Good luck!"
"Let's encourage each other!" Li Sishi smiled as well, her bright smile concealing the smugness in her eyes.
But Shang Hanyou eventually discovered her true colors at the rehearsal: taking advantage of being the female team leader, Li Sishi poached Cen Xilian and Cheng Zouyun from his team, as well as Ye Shanyun and Wen Huihui from Ling Chen's team!
"Didn't you say you had a bit of a cold recently and weren't performing well, so you came to my team to 'relax' a bit?" Shang Hanyou asked angrily, looking at Cen Xilian, who was fully armed and looked ready to burst into song at any moment.
“There’s nothing we can do, there are so many beautiful girls in our team…” Cen Xilian was about to explain when Li Sishi quickly interjected, “There are so many beautiful girls in our team, so of course we have to huddle together.”
On the other side, Ling Chen didn't dare to question Ye Shanyun or Wen Huihui, so he could only look at the remaining people in his team... and then he noticed something was wrong.
"Ah May, is your team still missing one person?" After the two teams were reorganized into three teams, the number of members in their two teams decreased from seven to five, plus the captain, making it six.
But Li Sishi's side only has five people, including her as the team leader.
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m not the only student who needs social activity points for this charity performance…” Li Sishi said, then turned and waved to a boy who was coming out of the corridor. “Our team has a special guest—Nikola, come over here!”
"Sister May!" Xiao Xie, who had grown a little taller than last year, called out sweetly, and was immediately intercepted by Ye Shanyun and Cen Xilian on the way.
"Lemon's grown up so much now..." As a little cutie who was exposed to the spotlight from birth because of his celebrity parents, Xiao Xie was hugged, pinched, and kissed a lot by people in the industry when he was young. Over time, he has grown up and is still the darling of the group. In contrast, his status as the "younger brother" in the industry is hard to change anytime soon...
Although the fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy was almost 1.7 meters tall, he still had the slender physique of a young boy who was growing up. He was being pushed and rubbed by a group of older girls. The two male captains, who had experienced similar situations when they were young, felt empathy and rushed over to help. They managed to save him.
"Thank you so much, Brother Hanyou! Thank you so much, Brother Leo!" He thanked them both in a particularly soft and sweet voice, which made the two of them very grateful.
People couldn't help but smile as they looked at the adorable pet.
With such an adorable little brother as a mediator, the atmosphere among the three teams during rehearsals was noticeably more harmonious.
Xiao Xie was indeed a well-behaved child. At a young age, he already knew how to "please" girls like his philandering father. After a rehearsal, with not many tasks assigned, he took the initiative to go to the tea lady and get all the thermos cups from his team, handing them to the older girls one by one. This made everyone on set laugh and say that he was just like his father.
However, Xiao Xie didn't really like hearing this. Clutching the last pig-shaped thermos, he hid behind Li Sishi and said, "Sister May, this is yours."
"Thank you." Li Sishi smiled and accepted it. She opened it, took a sip, and found that the taste was not quite right. She quickly looked down and found that the color of the tea had changed.
Seeing this, Xiao Xie quickly explained, "I saw that your tea was almost gone, so I brewed you some green tea. This is green tea leaves that Sister Zhuang gave me before. It's very delicious and soothing to the throat!"
Upon hearing that it was Sister Zhuang Ningquan's throat-soothing tea recipe, Li Sishi breathed a sigh of relief and smiled again, "Thank you very much."
Seeing the two chatting so happily, Shang Hanyou, completely unaware of the problem, couldn't help but smile at Ling Chen sitting next to him: "Look at this big guy and little guy, they get along quite well..."
“Ah May has younger cousins, so she’s probably developed feelings for Lemon a bit.” Lingchen stretched. “But Lemon is pretty good too. She’s so good at charming girls at such a young age. She’ll definitely be something special when she grows up.”
"Yeah, who knows which girl will be so lucky in the future..." Shang Hanyou glanced at Xiao Xie with the smug look of an older brother looking at a younger brother, before turning to look at Ling Chen, "Or rather, who knows which girl will be so unlucky in the future—"
"Fourth Brother is just a womanizer, he might not be so," Ling Chen laughed.
“That’s true. All the men in my family are sailors, but I get seasick…” Shang Hanyou nodded thoughtfully. “Genetics is a difficult thing to explain.”
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