Chapter 216: The Prelude to the Storm Your role... was...
Regardless of what Rong Juezhang thought to himself about this "unprofitable business," Li Sishi had already walked to the acrobatic performance area on the other side of the stage, and then she could immediately see Xiao Xie surrounded by a group of elders.
Especially Xiao Xie's biological mother, "Aunt Na" Li Minna, and his biological father's fourth brother's god-sister, "Sister Yuan" Tang Yuanyuan, both of whom doted on him. As Xiao Xie's godmother, Sister Kang's concern for this godson outweighed her ambiguous grudge with Sister Yuan. Therefore, when these three surrounded him to show their concern, from Li Sishi's perspective, Xiao Xie's expression was a mixture of sweetness and endless troubles...
Xiao Xie can be rebellious towards outsiders, even his own father and fourth brother, but he can't handle the subtle pressure from his mother, godmother, and Aunt Yuanyuan. Not only does he have to be surrounded by them and obediently listen to their teachings, but he also has to comfort them from time to time and tell them not to worry too much about him...
Having finally escaped this sweet trouble, Xiao Xie lowered his head and picked up two large, fan-like props from the side to maintain his balance. He glanced to the side and saw Li Sishi smiling as she watched him being "besieged" not far away.
Seeing Xiao Xie's face turn red instantly, Li Sishi quickly waved to him, telling him not to worry too much: "Your mom and the others are just worried about you."
"I...I'm not a kid anymore..." Seizing the last bit of time, Xiao Xie said softly, as if arguing or explaining.
He came up to the stage as an outsider through his parents' connections, but even so, because of his status as a second-generation star, he received the joint support of two wealthy female prime ministers from a certain charity foundation, who will donate a total of 200,000 yuan for his "Thunderous Ascent to the Peak" performance.
Although he was no longer willing to rely on his parents' fame, Xiao Xie wasn't the type to be too naive. He understood that this performance project was partly a way for his parents to pave the way for his future entry into the entertainment industry, and partly because the performance was both a charity event and a technically demanding one. Therefore, accepting the project wasn't about taking away someone else's resources; rather, it was more about using his family's fame to raise funds for those in need, without having to worry too much about complicated interpersonal relationships.
However, driven by all these factors and his own personality, Xiao Xie, who felt he was ready to perform on stage, was probably filled with a strong desire to not be seen as a child star anymore. After Sister Yuan announced the start, he spread his arms out to the left and right and began to walk the tightrope in a seemingly dangerous but orderly manner.
Amidst the tense anticipation of a large crowd, he steadily completed his round trip, prompting enthusiastic applause from both the stage and the audience.
Applause encouraged and appreciated the young boy who, despite his young age, worked harder than many adults on stage.
However, just when everyone thought that Xiao Xie was already "brave" enough for daring to challenge a tightrope walking performance after only a few days of intensive training, they didn't expect that he would be even braver than that. After returning to the starting position, Xiao Xie put on a black blindfold with the help of the staff, as if he was planning to walk the tightrope again blindfolded.
"Son, don't scare Mommy, Mommy can't stand being frightened..." Seeing this, Aunt Na's heart, which had just been at ease, jumped up again, and her eyes began to well up with glistening tears.
"It's okay, Mommy, don't worry about me..." Compared to Aunt Na, who was staring intently at the figure on the tightrope, Xiao Xie, who was on the tightrope, turned around and gently comforted her while tentatively walking on the tightrope. His repeated "Mommy, don't be afraid, don't worry" sounds like a small wolf cub, not yet fully grown, bluffing and pretending to be the king of the forest. The contrast was so cute that it evoked a lot of pity.
He probably thought he looked very manly, mature, and responsible—but in reality, to most people, including Li Sishi, his behavior, which was almost like acting cute, and his particularly soft and adorable voice when coaxing people, just made him seem like he had become a mother without any pain in an instant…
Rong Juezhang, who strolled over slowly, saw Li Sishi's series of changes in expression. After silently mourning for the poor boy who was just beginning to experience love for a second, he also unceremoniously revealed the kind smile of an elder: "It has to be said that in the early years, every Spring Festival, Xiao Xie and other second-generation stars of similar age would always be taken to the TV station by their parents to get some recognition. During that time, these second-generation stars were held and taken care of by countless artists."
Especially Xiao Xie, who inherited his parents' good looks from a young age and grew up to be particularly charming and adorable, was held not only by artists of his generation but also by artists of Hou Beihua's generation—but as a result, this kid not only wanted to compete with his "uncles, aunts, and brothers" in his career when he grew up, but also wanted to compete with them for girls...
Ah, the world is truly full of wonders.
Finally, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Xiao Xie, blindfolded, once again completed the journey steadily, earning an even more enthusiastic round of applause, which not only contained encouragement and support but also a sense of admiration for his fighting spirit.
Most celebrity offspring, relying on their parents' fame to gain exposure on stage, usually choose easy and simple tasks. But Xiao Xie, on the other hand, made his very first official public appearance...
Regardless of his future performances and achievements, he absolutely deserves the applause tonight for taking on such a challenging blindfolded tightrope walking acrobatic performance!
Not only were the audience members satisfied with Xiao Xie, but the two wealthy female prime ministers who had witnessed him walking the tightrope were also very pleased. At the suggestion of Sister Kang and Sister Yuan, they each donated an additional 50,000 yuan to show their appreciation for Xiao Xie's performance.
Meanwhile, family audience members in the telephone reception area kept calling the hotline during and after the performance to donate a total of 300,000 yuan.
Although this was not as good as Li Sishi and Rong Juezhang's previous performance, where they raised 1 million yuan individually and 1 million yuan through the hotline, totaling 2 million yuan, their first official appearance raised a full 600,000 yuan for Guanghua. Moreover, they had not yet officially entered the industry, but relied entirely on their previous popularity and their sincere dedication to this challenging performance. Therefore, when Xiao Xie heard about this achievement, he couldn't help but smile shyly under the pats of his relatives and friends.
"Congratulations!" Li Sishi also went up to congratulate him, which made him smile even more broadly.
Then, those bright, round eyes, still bearing a hint of boyishness, glanced at Li Sishi and casually asked, "Sister May?"
What do you do after your performance?
Seeing his "humble" look, Li Sishi thought for a moment and said, "If you have other work, go do it; if not, then go around helping others or make arrangements with the party staff to go home and rest early."
"Oh, I understand." Xiao Xie nodded obediently and then asked, "So, Sister May, what are you planning to do later?"
"I plan to go backstage to change clothes first, then come back to check on the outdoor filming crew, and later help support the friends who flew back to perform. Then I'll try to go home as soon as possible," Li Sishi replied.
This year she only has this one program scheduled, so she doesn't need to stay up until the middle of the night like last year to wait for the whole event to end before leaving. The reason she's staying until now is actually to support the friends she knows.
When Li Sishi changed out of her ancient costume and into a simpler dress for a more casual look, the big screen had already started broadcasting footage of the location shooting team from the early morning.
The location shooting team received the most personal sponsorships in the early morning, so the host assigned to them was Jiang Zhiwei, who is particularly good at extracting money from these big shots.
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As for the performance segment he was in charge of this time, it was called "King of Shooting Through the Basketball Barrier," which tested his shooting skills. According to the rules, if he could hit each of the nine squares of the basketball grid, he could raise 100,000 yuan for charity. If he could hit the highest basket on the top of the nine squares, he could raise a large sum of 1 million yuan for charity.
And in the early hours of the morning, the grueling training paid off, as he hit the tallest and most valuable 1 million yuan donation hoop on his third shot. Including the two nine-square grid hoops he had previously hit, he had already secured a total of 1.3 million yuan in personal donations right from the start, drawing cheers and screams from the fans surrounding the event venue.
However, it's unclear whether his luck was exceptionally good or bad this time in the early morning. Before the nine-square basket was even fully filled, he suddenly hit the most valuable basket at the top again...
For a moment, not only were the basketball team members lined up in two rows helping to retrieve and pass the ball in the early morning stunned, but even the host Jiang Zhiwei and the sponsor standing next to him were momentarily speechless by his unexpected move.
"This ball is a gift—don't worry, Ling Chen will pay the million himself!" Jiang Zhiwei joked casually, which immediately startled Ling Chen, who was carrying the basketball, and made him turn around sharply.
Although he could afford to donate the 1 million yuan, he has already contributed a lot of time, effort, and money during this period. If he were to be "scammed" out of 1 million yuan of his donation because of his good pitching skills, then his sacrifices would indeed seem a bit too great...
However, the sponsor has already personally sponsored their location shooting team with a total of 1.9 million yuan in donations. To demand an additional 1 million yuan because of his "mistake" seems a bit excessive...
Just as Ling Chen was holding the ball, looking a little lost, Jiang Zhiwei, having confirmed that the camera had captured his momentarily stunned and adorable expression, immediately burst into laughter and waved his hand, jokingly brushing off the slightly embarrassing blunder: "Hahaha, I was just kidding! Hurry up and keep shooting, it's timed!"
"Received!" Ling Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief, carefully looking at the baskets that hadn't gone in yet, and tried again, one shot after another.
Seeing that the outdoor filming crew had already secured 1.9 million yuan in individual donations by the early morning, and that the donation hotline was still ringing non-stop in the phone line area, Li Sishi felt reassured and turned her attention back to Shang Hanyou, who was rushing back to the stage to perform with Grandpa Fu Xiu.
Shang Hanyou's performance lacked the gimmick of midnight and Xiao Xie.
The challenge, though seemingly minor, is quite high: while singing, he must inhale and exhale during the breaks in the song's interlude, filling four hollowed-out calligraphy characters with light blue "ink" within the time limit of one song. This particularly tests his lung capacity and timing.
But Shang Hanyou, who rushed back in the end, also performed the project quite well. Then he quickly waved goodbye to Li Sishi and Rong Juezhang, who were watching his performance and acting as operators in another area, before leaving again to catch his flight.
After supporting her friends' performance, Li Sishi went home and washed up. Before going to bed, she checked the total amount of donations raised by Guanghua this year. After learning that the amount of donations had once again broken last year's record, Li Sishi finally felt at ease and went to sleep, preparing to get a good beauty sleep so that she could look her best for tomorrow's photo shoot.
However, plans never keep up with changes. The next day, while Li Sishi was doing her makeup test for the role of "Qiu Xiang," Lu Yiting suddenly stormed into the dressing room, grabbed her, and pretended to leave: "This is too much! Let's go!"
"What happened, Sister Ting?" Li Sishi asked, her hair only half-combed and her face only covered with a layer of foundation, looking completely bewildered.
Her almost bare-faced appearance possessed a unique and captivating charm, like a lotus emerging from clear water.
Although still furious, Lu Yiting took a deep breath and tried her best to explain to Li Sishi in the calmest tone she could when she saw Li Sishi's puzzled expression: "Your role... has been changed."
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