Chapter Ninety-Three: The Closing Act

He burst out laughing. “You seriously think you’re the emperor or something?”

“And the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Guard.” Even he couldn’t help himself now. Rubbing the top of his head, he said, “Come on, Xiao Liang, get him!”

A rowdy young man in a pair of platform shoes stepped forward from behind.

“Kid—”

He had barely gotten the word out before he saw, at the street corner, a group of armored men charging toward them with blades in hand beneath the sunlight.

“Huh?”

Fire Brother’s eyes widened. There really was an Imperial Guard? How many of them were there, anyway?

“Run! Run!”

The group turned and bolted, but with a middle-aged man carrying a huge belly, four underfed young loafers, and an elderly aunt beside them, how could they outrun a pack of fit, vigorous young men?

They had barely gotten a few steps before the fans had surrounded them.

So handsome. Xiao Qian really knows how to shoot this, and the scenery is great too.

I’ll edit this later!

Perfect, perfect. Cut it down and keep it for Brother Lin’s music video.

They had only just caught their breath, and after running those few steps, everyone was drenched in sweat again.

“All right, all right. Let me ask you this—was cutting in line right or wrong?” Lin Ze asked.

With so many people around them, the woman with glasses, who had been so arrogant just moments ago, no longer had even a trace of her former swagger.

“W-Wrong.”

“So you know it’s wrong too? People stand in line for ages with real effort. What gives you the right to cut in front of them?” Su Zitan had also been infuriated by the way the pair had spoken earlier.

But the mother and daughter said nothing now, just kept their heads down and stood off to the side.

“And you guys—doing live streams these days, if you’re not bringing some positive energy, the first thing you say is to get people to rush into your room and send you a huge gift? Extortion, is it? Robbery?”

The big brother seemed to be a habitual offender. He simply squatted down on the ground, folded both hands over his head, and said nothing at all.

“Hey, I’m talking to you.” Lin Ze gave him a kick on the backside.

“Huh? Understood! I will faithfully obey the emperor’s teachings!”

“Cut the nonsense. From now on, do more positive content, got it?”

Fire Brother hurriedly rubbed his big head. “Got it, got it.”

A true streetwise boss has one essential trait: he can bend and stretch.

The patch of sky over Ehai was arranged in layered banks of white cloud.

The sun, already sinking toward the horizon, glowed with a wash of gold.

“Look, don’t those beams of light seem like stairs guiding us up into the clouds?” Li Xiyan rested her chin in both hands and gazed at the sky.

“Mm… not exactly. That should be the Tyndall effect,” Chen Nan replied, also propping his face in his hands, his pose identical to Li Xiyan’s.

“You know… why does sunlight pass through the clouds and leave behind a band like that?” Su Zitan leaned against Lin Ze’s shoulder, squinting at the sunset.

“Because it met the clouds. And then longing found its name. Just like when I met you, light was given a shape,” Lin Ze said warmly.

Their conversation drifted over to the other two. Li Xiyan glanced sideways at Chen Nan with her beautiful eyes and gave a soft snort through her nose.

Chen Nan scratched his head.

A line like that, from someone like him, sounded perfectly natural. But if he were to say it himself, it somehow felt a little greasy.

“Teacher Li, did you have a good time today?” Lin Ze leaned out and waved toward her.

Li Xiyan turned to look. “I did!”

But then she thought that tomorrow she would be going home, and still had to face all those comments online. She couldn’t help feeling a little anxious.

“When do you want that song you reserved?” Lin Ze asked.

Li Xiyan froze. “Ah… there’s no rush.”

“It’s fine. If you want it now, I can give it to you now. I just have one small request.”

Lin Ze waved to Xiao Qian.

Xiao Qian already knew what he was supposed to do and moved farther away with the camera in his arms.

“This song can be given to you for one or two hundred thousand less, but it has to be released together with the next one from Eastern Emperor Entertainment.”

In Xiao Qian’s camera, only the slight curve of Lin Ze’s mouth was visible, his expression held in a smile.

Shot from so far away, that smile didn’t seem warm at all. On the contrary, it carried a chill.

“It probably won’t be long, either. After all, Zhang Yang has just switched directions, so his next song should come out pretty soon.”

By a little after seven or eight, everyone who had ordered food had already been served, and the restaurant at the Crimson Leaf Inn stopped taking any more guests.

Zhao Funing prepared a few stir-fried side dishes and placed them on a large table, where everyone gathered to sit around it.

The week had now reached its closing moment.

“Everyone, why don’t we guess how much net profit we made this week?” the director asked with a smile from the exit.

“I’ll guess twenty thousand,” Ji Chen said.

Besides the rooms, there had been vegetables for sale, alcohol for sale, and so many events held over the week. On the whole, it felt like they had earned quite a lot.

“Twenty thousand is too little. It should be around fifty thousand at least,” Pei Xue said after thinking it over. “The inn’s location is excellent, and it’s the off-season right now. I remember the rates online are three hundred a night.”

Lin Ze and Su Zitan already knew exactly how much they had made, but neither of them said anything. They just stood by and watched the others guess.

To be fair, it really had been profitable.

“Net profit that high in just one week?” Chen Nan clicked his tongue in amazement.

“I think fifty thousand is low. Seventy or eighty thousand sounds about right,” Chen Weiguo said, stroking his chin as he tallied it up. “Think about how much food and drink we went through every day.”

No one had actually calculated that, but every night when the events were held, the restaurant beside them was filled with fans coming to watch.

“The net profit is eighty-five thousand yuan!” the director announced.

“That much?”

Everyone who had been guessing was stunned.

“The funds we earned this week will be put into next week’s activities as the starting budget for all of you.”

As he spoke, the director looked toward today’s guest stars.

“So, this is your first time taking part in a variety show like this, right? How does it feel today?”