Isn’t money good?

Chapter 22

What shipping! What pairing!

Teacher Ji is uniquely beautiful, devoted only to his career!

The Ji fans all came to their senses and quietly reflected on themselves. The reason they had such delusions must be because they’d been repeatedly slapped in the face so many times that their heads weren’t clear!

After the show finished airing, the afterglow lingered, with discussion and heat remaining high. Yan Shiqiu and Ji Yunnian directly topped the trending searches. Yan Shiqiu even dominated two of them.

Yan Shiqiu Goose Mama#

Yan Shiqiu Call Daddy#

Netizens who didn’t know the truth saw these two trending topics side by side and were completely baffled, yet their curiosity was piqued, so they clicked in.

[Hahahahahahaha, laughing so hard late at night that my head fell off. Just the scene of Yan Shiqiu being pounced on by the goose and holding the goose with that confused look of “where am I, who am I”, looking both pitiful and bewildered, I could laugh about it for a whole year.]

[Big Goose: Mama where are you going.jpg, Mama I’m super fierce.jpg, Listen to mama.jpg, I can help mama.jpg]

[The sister upstairs is talented, requesting permission for the emoji pack.]

[Yan Shiqiu? First time hearing this name, but he’s so entertaining and good-looking, he’s my type!]

[Damn it, my diet plan, these seven dishes and one soup look so delicious.]

[Daddy, food food, hungry hungry!]

[Everyone must watch the full episode, best enjoyed with bullet comments. High energy + face-slapping live broadcast throughout. After watching, I instantly understood the essence of power fantasy novels, plus Ji Yunnian guest starred, and this Ji Yunnian is different from the usual Ji Yunnian, seven years old and not a day more!]

Here netizens were happily selling the show, while on the other side, the Ji fans perked up again.

The Ji fans practically had “Yan Shiqiu PTSD.” As soon as they heard he was trending with Ji Yunnian, they immediately assumed Ji Yunnian was being dragged down and leeched off again. They hurried over to control the narrative and crush Yan Shiqiu for riding on the popularity, only to find that while they were indeed trending, they were trending separately, each uniquely beautiful.

Ji Yunnian made the trending search because the show’s official Weibo had just released a solo behind-the-scenes clip. A two-minute interview.

It had nothing to do with Yan Shiqiu throughout; his name didn’t even appear.

In the interview, Ji Yunnian sat with Chen Feng, both holding cups of goji berry and chrysanthemum tea, which paired with the late-night timing created a very punk health-conscious vibe.

Following Chen Feng’s questions, Ji Yunnian discussed his plans for the latter half of the year and smoothly used the show to promote the movie he had participated in filming that was about to be released.

Very brief, but packed with information.

In the fan group:

[Did anyone else feel that Chen Feng seemed very familiar with Teacher Ji?]

[Quick investigation complete. Turns out Chen Feng and Teacher Ji were high school classmates and collaborated in their early years. No wonder Teacher Ji would suddenly appear as a mystery guest on “Each Grain is Hard-earned.” This was a favor for an old classmate.]

[I care about the guest role Teacher Ji mentioned. After three years, is he finally returning to the small screen? So looking forward to it.]

[There are quite a few productions starting in the second half of the year, but given Teacher Ji’s status, we can reasonably assume he’d only agree to guest in a big production. Since he mentioned it’s a period power struggle drama, it can only be Director Chen’s new series.]

[If I remember correctly, Director Chen’s new series is invested in by the Ji family, right? So Teacher Ji is working for his own company, no wonder he’d take it.]

[Boss Ji: Money-saving tip.]

[Anyway, it’s good news that Teacher Ji has new work!]

[By the way, shouldn’t we apologize? Today’s repeated face-slapping was too painful, and the impact was very bad. Many family members weren’t wearing vests and got recognized.]

[Sister Yan has already posted an apology on Weibo and @ed Yan Shiqiu, said it would be pinned for 24 hours.]

[Should have listened to Sister Yan’s advice.]

……

When Yan Shiqiu received Fang Yuhua’s call, he was lying in bed scrolling through Weibo, having already seen the apology post that Ji Yunnian’s big fan Yan Zhenzhen had pinned.

After quietly listening to Fang Yuhua finish speaking, he responded casually, “Mm, I know.”

Fang Yuhua: “……”

“You haven’t responded yet, right?”

“I was just about to reply when you called me first.” Yan Shiqiu sat up. “You specifically called about this. Are you telling me not to respond?”

“Of course not, you definitely need to respond. I’m just worried you’d reply carelessly.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Good that you know.” Fang Yuhua sighed again, “Ji Yunnian’s fans are really impressive.”

“They apologized so quickly and even spent their own money to get it trending, leaving no time for marketing accounts and media to report on it. Even if someone wanted to take advantage and smear Ji Yunnian, they couldn’t.”

After listening, Yan Shiqiu picked up the tablet from his nightstand, opened Weibo, and indeed saw the topic # Ji Yunnian Big Fan Apologizes# trending.

“The big fan has leadership skills and is rational enough. They immediately correct their mistakes and proactively apologize. That is pretty impressive.” He affirmed.

After a pause, he added: “And tonight’s batch of people weren’t just Ji Yunnian’s fans, but also water armies who deliberately joined in. The ones doing crazy awkward smearing in the middle were them.”

“Right, I investigated that, but couldn’t trace it to the source.” Fang Yuhua asked, “Did you offend someone again?”

“No, I’ve been super well-behaved lately, but I know who it is.”

Yan Shiqiu had a good idea of who hired this batch of water armies. It was nothing more than Ye Peiyuan’s preventive measures against him, because once he became popular and gained influence and presence, it would be inconvenient for Ye Peiyuan to deal with him.

However, Ye Peiyuan didn’t know he had switched cores and only treated him as the original owner, thinking his performance on the show would definitely be mocked mercilessly. So the water army he hired wasn’t clever enough, didn’t know how to adapt, and awkwardly smeared throughout, actually generating a wave of sympathetic passerby fans for him.

It was quite funny.

Ye Peiyuan was probably furious.

Oh well, being furious was good.

“Who?” Fang Yuhua asked.

“Ye Peiyuan.”

“Didn’t you two break up peacefully?” Fang Yuhua was confused. “Why?”

“He must be mentally ill.” He couldn’t explain the real reason.

“…If you won’t say, I won’t force you.” Fang Yuhua asked, “When are you coming back? The last role in Director Chen’s new series was decided today, and they’re taking promotional photos the day after tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll go back tomorrow.”

After hanging up, Yan Shiqiu stared at Yan Zhenzhen’s apology post for a few seconds, then opened the comment section and replied with a hand-reaching-for-handshake emoji.

Two seconds later, Yan Zhenzhen replied with another hand.

The meaning was: shake hands and make peace.

Thus all the turmoil was nipped in the bud. Marketing accounts and media people all sighed in frustration, feeling they’d missed out on big traffic, while the Ji fans were very satisfied and their impression of Yan Shiqiu improved considerably.

The broadcast of “Each Grain is Hard-earned” brought Yan Shiqiu a good wave of new followers. His Weibo follower count increased by 800,000 in one night and was still growing steadily.

Before meeting Yan Shiqiu the next day, Fang Yuhua was still worried he might get cocky and return to his previous arrogant state. When he saw him and found he was incredibly calm and rational, he finally relaxed.

Dropping him off at the residential complex entrance, Fang Yuhua said: “Photo shoot starts at nine. Zhou Yu will pick you up at seven tomorrow. Also, the nanny van the company prepared for you isn’t available yet, we need to wait a few more days.”

“Okay.” Yan Shiqiu nodded.

He handed Fang Yuhua a bag of local specialties he was carrying. “For you, a gift.”

“What is it?” Fang Yuhua took the bag and looked inside. It was hotpot base, Fuling pickled vegetables, pickled chicken feet, shadow beef, twisted dough sticks… over a dozen food items.

Yan Shiqiu smiled warmly. “I remember you’re also from Shancheng?”

“Yes, my wife is too. We haven’t been back in many years.” Fang Yuhua tapped the paper bag with his finger and smiled. “I’ll eat them all properly, thank you.”

—

After returning home yesterday, Yan Shiqiu had thoroughly cleaned his house and was exhausted, sleeping very early.

The next day, he naturally woke up at six.

After making himself a simple breakfast and eating, he put on his hat, grabbed his backpack and headed out. Zhou Yu was very punctual. He had just reached downstairs when Zhou Yu arrived.

“Good morning, Xiao Zhou.” Yan Shiqiu greeted after getting in the car.

“Morning, Brother Yan.”

Zhou Yu was no longer as reserved as before. He asked, “Brother Yan, have you eaten breakfast?”

“I have.”

Yan Shiqiu took out two boxes of tea from his backpack. “These are for you, tea from my hometown. I remember you like drinking tea, you can try it.”

Zhou Yu was somewhat surprised. He turned around and said, “Thank you.”

Yan Shiqiu smiled.

At eight o’clock, they arrived at the photography studio.

Today they were first shooting promotional photos of several main roles, so only the relevant main actors came. When Yan Shiqiu arrived, they had also basically arrived simultaneously.

They had held three script meetings before, so everyone already knew each other and wouldn’t feel awkward meeting again.

Through several interactions, Yan Shiqiu got along well with female lead He Qian and male lead Xie Shaoli. They had added each other on WeChat, and when Yan Shiqiu went through his “breakup”, both had sent WeChat messages to check on him.

“Have you recovered?” Xie Shaoli walked over to ask him.

Yan Shiqiu smiled brightly at him. “Of course, I’m doing great now.”

“Your condition does look good.” He Qian also came over. “Did you help me buy what I asked you to?”

“I did.” Yan Shiqiu took out two packages of shadow beef jerky and handed them to her. “Is this the brand?”

He Qian’s face immediately lit up with joy. “That’s right, exactly this! I had it once before, then searched online for a long time but couldn’t find it. I was craving it so much.”

“Are two packages enough?”

“Enough, enough. Director Chen said I’m still a bit heavy and wants me to lose another 5 pounds. I can only eat a tiny bit occasionally to satisfy my craving.”

“Yan Shiqiu——”

The voice arrived before the person. Yan Shiqiu looked in the direction of the voice and saw Fu Baiqing with a big smile, particularly enthusiastically spreading his arms and flying toward him for a hug.

He stepped aside and avoided the bear hug.

Fu Baiqing hugged empty air and unhappily made a face at Yan Shiqiu. “A hug won’t make you lose any flesh, stingy.”

“Mm, I’m just stingy.” Yan Shiqiu nodded seriously.

Fu Baiqing: “……”

“Do you have time to carry me today? I need you, really really need you!” He clasped his hands together and switched to puppy dog eyes.

Yan Shiqiu remembered how Fu Baiqing had bombarded him with care every day last week, and had specifically told him all kinds of jokes, though most were particularly cold, but he had received that comfort and care.

He didn’t refuse. “Sure, I’ll play with you after we finish the photo shoot.”

The four gathered together chatting and laughing, with Yan Shiqiu surrounded in the middle, his eyes curved in crescents, his long lashes unable to hide the clear light and bright smile in his eyes.

When Ji Yunnian walked in with Chen Hangsheng, this was the scene he saw.

His gaze unconsciously fell on Yan Shiqiu’s face.