Chapter 92 – Testing the Limits of Courting Death
After the director’s welcome, the door to the recording studio opened again, and six non-celebrities entered one by one.
Xiao Fang’s gaze swept over them one by one. Before he even got to the last person, he heard his colleagues around him gasp in surprise. Guo Mengyun excitedly tugged on Xiao Fang’s sleeve, pointing at the final person.
The moment that person appeared, his presence completely overshadowed the first five non-celebrities. Firstly, his height of nearly 1.9 meters gave him an advantage over most people. He wore meticulously coordinated clothes, and as he approached, a faint scent of cologne wafted over. His handsome, rugged face practically outshone several of the male celebrities.
Moreover, everyone present found him rather familiar, for no other reason than his overly ambiguous interactions with a certain celebrity in their midst.
Standing before everyone was none other than Fei Xiangnan. He first glanced at everyone present, giving a polite but somewhat distant greeting. When his eyes landed on Xiao Fang, he gave him a look that said, “Aren’t you surprised?” Xiao Fang turned his face away, refusing to look. He was furious!
Then it was time for the other non-celebrities to introduce themselves.
Xiao Fang didn’t hear a single word. All he wanted to do right now was land a long-brewing heavy punch on Fei Xiangnan. No wonder he had been so vain as to spray cologne today. To think he’d kept this from him for so long without a word—it was simply unforgivable!
Xiao Fang’s face instantly puffed up like a pufferfish.
Among the non-celebrities were twin girls. The one with long hair was named Lin Yue, and the one with short hair was Lin Si. Both had been volunteers for many years and seemed very kind. In the past, celebrities and non-celebrities would partner up, but now Director Liang had sought out these experienced non-celebrities in the hopes that they could guide the celebrities and prevent them from looking foolish.
Then there was a middle-aged man named Zhang San, who was said to be the director of an orphanage and had been specially invited by the director. There were also two college students selected for the show, a boy and a girl, named Wang Wu and Li Si, respectively.
After everyone had cordially greeted each other, it was time to draw lots. Besides determining the groups, the lots also contained tasks. If one was lucky, drawing the task of taking care of children was the best, as it had the most interesting content. There were two groups for the childcare task. The other tasks included buying gifts for the children, decorating the children’s rooms, cooking for the children, and finally, the most boring and least interesting task: cleaning.
The orphanage they were visiting for the first episode was not large, with only about sixty-some children, one director, and two supervisors. They mostly took in healthier children sent over from the municipal orphanage. Because their facilities were not as well-equipped as the municipal orphanage, the most they could do was provide care. However, these children did not receive much financial aid, so their conditions were much worse than those at the municipal orphanage. Therefore, this program had to fulfill its promotional role.
Xiao Fang politely let the seniors draw first before taking one himself. He opened the slip of paper off to the side and discovered that his luck was truly terrible. He had drawn the very last task. Fei Xiangnan, standing not far away, saw Xiao Fang’s expression clearly and knew at a glance what he had drawn.
President Fei also maintained his gentlemanly demeanor, showing no airs of a CEO during the filming and letting others draw lots first. At first, everyone was a bit unused to it, but Fei Xiangnan’s attitude wasn’t feigned or uncomfortable to watch. He genuinely placed himself last. The others didn’t say much, but they all unanimously felt that this president was quite easy to get along with.
When it was Fei Xiangnan’s turn, he picked up a slip and glanced at it for less than a second before calmly putting it down, maintaining his smile.
“Alright, everyone take a break and touch up your makeup,” Director Liang called out. This kind of suspenseful moment was usually held back. It was a good time to let everyone rest. After the results of the draw were announced, they would head to the orphanage.
The moment Xiao Fang heard “break,” he stormed off to the restroom alone.
Mo Ze nudged Yu Zhong and whispered conspiratorially, “Why does Xiao Fang seem a little angry? Could it be because he showed up?” Mo Ze’s eyes flickered toward Fei Xiangnan, not daring to look for long. The man’s aura was simply too intimidating.
Fei Xiangnan didn’t even frown, nor did he conspicuously chase after him, acting as if he really didn’t know Xiao Fang very well.
He observed the group of non-celebrities. Only Li Si’s expression was a bit off, and she wasn’t interacting with the others, sitting alone on the sofa looking at her phone. Fei Xiangnan concealed his sharp aura and casually sat down beside her. At that moment, everyone’s attention was on their conversation with Director Liang, so no one suspected Fei Xiangnan’s actions for the time being.
“Hello, you don’t seem very happy?” Fei Xiangnan’s concerned tone, coupled with his handsome face, instantly lowered the guard of Li Si, who was still in college. In any case, she was just a non-celebrity, and so was he, so there was no need to worry about any scandals.
“Sigh, I drew the cleaning task. It feels a bit boring.”
Fei Xiangnan imperceptibly raised an eyebrow and said, “I drew the slip for taking care of the children, but I don’t have any experience, and I’m not as meticulous as you girls. If it’s possible, could I trade with you?”
Li Si’s eyes lit up instantly. She couldn’t have been happier. With that, her impression of Fei Xiangnan improved by more than just a little. She glanced around and secretly made the trade with Fei Xiangnan.
“Thank you. I’ll feel much more at ease with someone as meticulous as you taking care of them. A big and burly man like me is better suited for cleaning,” Fei Xiangnan said self-deprecatingly, completely dispelling the girl’s wariness.
“Not at all. You’d definitely get the hang of it if you took your time,” Li Si said, comforting him in return, a big smile spreading across her face.
Fei Xiangnan smiled back, but the smile was only on the surface, never reaching his eyes.
Meanwhile, Xiao Fang had stormed all the way to the restroom. He had wanted to splash some cold water on his face to cool down, but he couldn’t because of his makeup. For that, Xiao Fang felt an unprecedented sense of humility.
He looked up at the ceiling in despair.
“Is Fangfang angry?” A familiar voice sounded from the doorway. The moment Xiao Fang heard it, he flared up. Forgetting about the other man’s expensive suit, he lunged forward and bit down on his shoulder.
Fei Xiangnan fondly ruffled Xiao Fang’s hair. “Don’t bite so hard. What if you chip a tooth and can’t eat cake?”
This reason successfully made Xiao Fang let go. Thus, Xiao Fang could only express his anger with his eyes. “You actually came here as a non-celebrity behind my back!”
“Now that you’re working, the time I get to see you has been cut by severalfold. I don’t want to spend my days looking at your photos in the office,” Fei Xiangnan said righteously, with the cadence of a complaining husband.
“Don’t I come home every day?”
“What about when you’re filming in the future? You were in Lin City for several months before.” He hadn’t expected to be with Xiao Fang back then, but now he couldn’t bear to be apart from his wife for a moment. “Or are you already getting tired of me?” Fei Xiangnan’s tone suddenly shifted as he scrutinized Xiao Fang with the expression of someone catching a cheater.
Xiao Fang grew anxious. How could he twist his words like that? “I was just worried about you! Your public exposure is so high, it will have a huge impact on you. And does Grandpa Fei not have an issue with this?”
Fei Xiangnan looked as if he had everything under control. “He couldn’t be happier!”
“Huh?” Xiao Fang was dumbfounded.
“Grandpa and Grandpa-in-law are on a united front now. They can’t wait for us to go public sooner. As long as my actions are related to this goal, he supports them all, and no one can say a word against it!”
Xiao Fang looked at Fei Xiangnan, his heart softening again. But the anger from being deceived was far from dissipated. “You’re not someone who likes to be in the public eye. Being exposed like this, a lot of people will surely come to slander you.”
“I’m willing to do it for the day I can marry you openly. And I promise I’ll make sure most people won’t see any negative stories,” Fei Xiangnan’s tone sounded very relaxed, but that’s not what Xiao Fang was thinking.
He knew what kind of person Fei Xiangnan was. Why would a person in power need to show his face in public like this? It was all for…
Xiao Fang held back his final step and walked out with his head held high in a tsundere manner, tossing out a few cold words, “Do as you please.”
Fei Xiangnan knew in his heart that this meant agreement. All that was left was to smooth things over.
Xiao Fang arrived at the recording studio first. The assistant director, cameraman, and a crowd of others swarmed up to him. Xiao Fang was startled by their enthusiasm. There was no need for such a grand welcome just because he went to the restroom, was there?
“Xiao Fang, isn’t President Fei back yet?”
“Is his stomach upset?”
“Does he need me to bring him some toilet paper?”
“Should I hand him some water at the door?”
Guo Mengyun couldn’t stand it anymore and walked over with a serious expression. “Assistant Director, what are you doing? Give me the water, I’ll go.”
This caused everyone in the room to burst into laughter, with the non-celebrities laughing the loudest.
The assistant director looked breathlessly at the clueless crowd. If you knew that President Fei’s net worth, let’s see if you’d still be laughing! The staff shared the same thought. Only Director Liang let out a heavy snort, expressing his disdain for capitalism. But then he heard a discussion break out next to him.
“How can we not serve him well? President Fei invested eight percent in our show.”
“Say, if I go give President Fei some toilet paper now, will he give me a second glance?”
“I’m telling you, this job is mine. Don’t you dare fight me for it!”
The pure and noble Director Liang was speechless.
Amidst the commotion, Fei Xiangnan re-entered the studio. As if anticipating the pointless questions he didn’t want to answer, he gave a uniform reply, “I just had a quick conference call. I didn’t hold everyone up, did I?”
“No, not at all!” everyone answered in unison.
In their hearts, they were silently lamenting their missed opportunity to hand him water and toilet paper.
The recording began, and everyone revealed the results of their draw. In the end, Mo Ze and Lin Yue were paired up to do the shopping, Yu Zhong and Lin Si were in charge of cooking, Guo Mengyun and Zhang San were responsible for childcare, Chu Xiaozhen and Li Si were also on childcare duty, Feng Dang and Wang Wu were tasked with decorating the rooms, and finally, Xiao Fang and Fei Xiangnan were, as expected, responsible for cleaning.
Once everything was decided, they set off for the orphanage in their respective groups.
Xiao Fang and Fei Xiangnan rode in the same car, with a cameraman sitting beside them. The two of them resumed their stranger mode, each sitting straighter than the other. For the sake of the show’s popularity, and since they were a rumored couple, the cameraman felt deeply that he should do something!