“Since everyone is well-rested, let’s take a look at the mission card!” As soon as the director finished speaking, the cameraman handed the mission card to Li Jiao while holding the camera in his other hand.
“Today’s task for the Chinese Style team is to perform Chinese Style shows at Dai Gaole Square and Xiehe Square respectively. We’ll draw lots to form two groups – one with three members and one with four. Each group’s mission is to fill this blue-and-white porcelain bowl with tourists’… money?”
Li Jiao’s eyebrows began to furrow as she read further.
Wasn’t this supposed to be about performing? How did it turn into street performing for money?
“That’s right, as you can see, it’s this blue-and-white porcelain bowl in my hand.” The camera timely focused on the vessel in the director’s hand.
When the episode airs later, this segment will include an explanation about blue-and-white porcelain.
“Ah? That big?” Tina wailed.
“How much money would it take to fill this?!” Lu Chexi’s shoulders slumped as he opened his mouth wide with a woeful expression.
Chen Lingxuan, being young, had no concept of how many banknotes it would take to fill the bowl. Seeing their reactions made her eyes widen in shock, and she worriedly asked Li Jiao who was closest to her: “Jiaojiao, is this difficult? I don’t have much experience with this.”
The camera focused on Li Jiao – it was her time to perform.
But Li Jiao just patted Chen Lingxuan’s shoulder and said confidently: “It’s not difficult, not worth mentioning and nothing to fear.”
What a joke – if Chen Lingxuan didn’t know the difficulty involved, did Li Jiao know?
The answer was… of course not.
But she couldn’t lose her commanding presence!
Zhou Wenyuan, who was standing nearby, almost broke character when he heard this and snorted with laughter.
He earned himself a glare from Li Jiao.
“Alright, everyone can now draw lots,” the director stepped forward to guide the process. “However, today’s drawing order needs to be determined by a competition.”
“What kind of competition?” Zhang Xuan, who had been relatively quiet until now, became interested. She loved competitions the most.
“Fei Hua Ling.”
Li Jiao thought, she was familiar with this! Back when she drank every day, they only played a few games repeatedly, and Fei Hua Ling was one of them.
Noticing that some people looked confused, the director smiled mysteriously and continued explaining: “You need to recite poetry lines containing the keyword or its meaning within 30 seconds.”
Huh? This was different from how they played it in ancient times?
Li Jiao rubbed her chin, thinking it didn’t matter anyway – this way was actually simpler.
The other five also nodded in understanding. After all, everyone should be able to recite a couple of poetry lines since they had all gone through nine years of compulsory education.
Only Lu Chexi felt his heart sink. Oh no, his agent hadn’t told him there would be this kind of segment!
What should he do – someone who hadn’t even properly finished middle school!
“Does everyone understand the rules now?”
“Understood!” Tina stood at attention cutely with her hand raised.
“Good. Since we’re traveling in a foreign country, the theme is – please recite poetry that expresses being alone in a foreign land and missing one’s homeland.”
A simple theme.
The director looked around: “As for the order, let’s start from the youngest.”
Lu Chexi grew even more panicked. It wouldn’t do if he couldn’t answer when it was his turn as the third speaker – he needed to find a way to move to the last position.
The youngest was naturally Chen Lingxuan.
She pointed at her own chin, and after getting the director’s approval, immediately recited: “Alone, a lonely stranger in a foreign land, I doubly pine for my kinsfolk on holiday.”
Then Tina smoothly recited a line of poetry.
The camera turned to Lu Chexi.
Pretending to be calm, he smiled slightly and said in a “gentlemanly” manner: “Ladies first, I’ll go later.” Then he turned to look at Li Jiao.
“?” Li Jiao thought this guy must be out of his mind—who did he think he was looking down on? Was he playing some kind of Kong Rong giving up pears game with her?
She crossed her arms: “No need. Since you’re younger, you go first.”
Hearing Lu Chexi’s words, Zhang Xuan also felt somewhat displeased: “This is a competition. Rules must be followed.”
Left with no choice, Lu Chexi stood awkwardly in place for a long moment before finally stammering out during the director’s countdown: “Raise… raise… head to… bright moon, lower head… lower head…”
Even elementary school students could recite this poem, yet he just couldn’t get it out.
Even the few words he managed to utter were in the wrong order, but his enunciation was so broken and unclear that the director didn’t notice.
Finally, Jing Shaoyin, probably thinking the situation had become too awkward, couldn’t bear it any longer and quietly prompted: “Think of hometown.”
Only then did Lu Chexi pass this round.
“From tonight the dew is white; the moon is brighter over my homeland,” Li Jiao instantly followed up.
The first round passed smoothly with no eliminations.
When it was Lu Chexi’s turn in the second round, he knocked his fist against his head, stuck out his tongue and said: “Oops, can’t remember,” voluntarily withdrawing from the competition and happily claiming last place.
The first place naturally went to Li Jiao.
This time the draw was conducted by picking same-colored balls. She reached in and picked blue.
Surprisingly, second-place Jing Shaoyin also picked blue.
Third-place Zhang Xuan got yellow.
When it was Chen Lingxuan’s turn, she was overjoyed to find she had drawn blue.
After observing for most of the day, she felt that although Li Jiao spoke rather arrogantly, she was actually the easiest person to get along with.
“The results are already out, so I don’t need to draw, right?” Zhou Wenyuan said helplessly.
“Count carefully—there are seven of us! The results aren’t final yet!” Tina pouted with hands on hips.
“Ah,” Zhou Wenyuan suddenly realized, “Sorry, the sun’s too bright, my brain isn’t working properly.”
Both of them had drawn yellow balls.
“Never thought the suspense of team assignments would ultimately fall on me,” Lu Chexi rolled up his sleeves, inserted his hand into the box in a very chuunibyou manner, and shouted: “Come forth! Pikachu.”
Truly an idol show veteran—he knew how to create entertainment value.
The cameraman zoomed in on his hand.
“Ah! It’s yellow!” Tina excitedly jumped up.
Though in reality, she deeply disliked being in the same team with this artificial, green-tea behavior man.
“Alright, since teams are assigned, I need to emphasize one more rule before we depart,” the director was being deliberately mysterious again.
The guests made uneasy, surprised expressions.
Li Jiao impatiently tapped her elbow repeatedly with her fingers.
“Our rule is to fill the blue-and-white porcelain bowl. Therefore, before it’s filled, everyone must stay together. In other words, we have seven days for our itinerary in Country F. If you only complete the task on the seventh day, then I’m sorry—we’ll have to end this trip immediately.”
“What?!”
“No way?!”
“Don’t do this!”
Hearing Chen Lingxuan also lamenting, Li Jiao gave her bent back a firm pat: “Have some confidence! We can finish this in one day!”
Chen Lingxuan glanced at Li Jiao, then at Jing Shaoyin. The latter smiled back at her: “Don’t worry.”
She immediately perked up.
Although they were one person short, her teammates were clearly quite reliable.
“Then let’s set off as soon as possible.”