CH 26

Unfortunately, Ning Xi didn’t notice Chang Shi Gui’s reluctance to return. She went into the makeup room to get her makeup removed.

There were several makeup artists chatting and gossipping together. When they saw her come in, they greeted her warmly and when she sat down, they began removing her makeup, hovering around her. Before Ning Xi was popular, the same makeup artists were polite and alienated from her. Compared to now, the difference was not a mere one point.

This was also normal in the entertainment circle. Ning Xi didn’t think there was anything strange in this behaviour.

After removing her makeup, Ning Xi walked into the locker room to change her clothes. She had removed her costumes halfway when she heard Zhu Moli’s voice from outside. It seemed as if she was complaining to her makeup artist about the latter pulling her hair while removing her wig.

The makeup artist seemed to apologise and it quietened down outside.

Ning Xi opened the door and went out. Zhu Moli looked up. Seeing her there, she snorted.

The scornful snort appeared to be extremely harsh in the quiet dressing room. The air in the room became stagnant. Ning Xi looked at Zhu Moli with a slight smile. She then nodded at all the makeup artists in the room and went out.

From the perspective of the few makeup artists there, Zhu Moli’s sensitivity, EQ and thoughts were not as good as her junior, Ning Xi’s. A person not afraid of anything was still afraid of comparison because it was easy to put the person down and raise the other person up.

Obviously, Zhu Moli became a good figure to highlight Ning Xi’s goodness.

Ning Xi never considered herself to be an innocent, clean, white lotus. If she, who had worked hard and lived alone for so long still believed that everything and everyone in the world was true and beautiful, she might as well not live.

“Miss Ning,” She was about to sit in the front seat of her car but was stopped by a man in a suit. He was the assistant who was always by Chang Shi Gui’s side.

“Can I help you?” Ning Xi asked courteously.

“While coming to visit the sets this time, our boss brought gifts. This is for you, please accept it.” The assistant smiled and handed a big box to Ning Xi.

“Thank you,” Ning Xi didn’t open the box in front of him to see what was inside. She behaved as if it was just an ordinary gift.

The assistant looked at her behaviour and said nothing. Laughing, he said, “Then please drive slowly.”

Listening to him address her as the respectful ‘you’, Ning Xi’s brows moved. She smiled at the assistant and let the driver raise the window up.

“Boss, Miss Ning took the gift,” The assistant returned to the car and reported to Chang Shi Gui who sat in the backseat. “She just left the crew by car.”

“Did she like the gift?” Chang Shi Gui asked.

“This…” The assistant felt that his boss was acting silly, but as an assistant, he couldn’t tell the truth sometimes. “Miss Ning didn’t open the box, so I don’t know whether she liked it or not.”

Chang Shi Gui frowned, his forehead wrinkling. He thought with some regret that he knew he should have personally given the gift to her so that he could know whether or not she was satisfied.

But thinking about facing Ning Xi and giving her the gift, he suddenly felt the temperature rise on his face.

After a long time, he took out his mobile phone and sent a message.

“Sister Xi, you have a message.” Xiao Yang gave Ning Xi’s phone to her.

Ning Xi opened the phone and chuckled after seeing the message.

Seeing Ning Xi laughing, Xiao Yang asked with a look of seeking gossip. “Sister Xi, I think Mr Chang pays special attention to you. Do you think he is interested in you?”

“A lot of men have interest in good looking women. It doesn’t mean that they really like that woman. This is just like us women admiring a handsome guy. Just a layer of skin, not the so-called love.” Ning Xi opened the box and inside, was a beautiful comb.

The comb was not as precious as a bracelet or a necklace, and not as mundane as books or pens. “If a man has a special interest towards you, you immediately think he loves you, likes you. If love is something like that, then it’s too cheap.”

“Then you mean to say that Mr Chang doesn’t like you but is just interested in you?” Xiao Yang was a little discouraged. “Che, really boring.”

“In that case, what is not boring?” Ning Xi sent a message back to him. “If the other person loves me and is unable to extricate himself, wouldn’t it be interesting if I don’t marry him?”

“Sister Xi…”

“What?”

“No, I won’t marry.” Xiao Yang felt that Sister Xi’s idea was very dangerous. It was no wonder that Brother Zhang was always worried that Sister Xi would make a cake of herself sometime.

“Don’t be concerned about such a small matter,” Ning Xi said, waving her hand. “Take the example of this matter of giving a gift, okay? If a man really likes a woman, with me being present there, how could he let other people send me gifts on behalf of him?”

Xiao Yang suddenly realised. “Yes ah, I see in those company presidents and Cinderella TV dramas. The male lead would only behave like this with the second female lead. If it is the female lead, then the male lead will personally take action.”

Ning Xi: …

Although that was true, what was this example? How did she turn out to be the evil second lead?

In another car, Chang Shi Gui, seeing the message, “Thank you, the comb is very beautiful,” showed a satisfied smile.

Next time, what reason could he find to give her another gift?

Returning to the hotel, Ning Xi soaked herself in a hot bath, removing all the fatigue from her body. When she looked at her back in the mirror, she saw that her back had really turned green.

She opened the computer and logged into Weibo. There were many likes and comments. She thought for a bit and sent out a new post.

Ning Xi: It was both a terrible day and a good day to meet those pranksters involved once again. Also, thank you for your concern. I am doing good.

As soon as this post was sent out, some people quickly responded. Most people felt that they should punch that bastard. Others thought she should take a piece of wood, take hold of the person and destroy him. Another netizen volunteered to be her killer for free.

Seeing these happy, encouraging comments, Ning Xi couldn’t help but smile. Her pale fingers typed out a sentence on the keyboard.

Everyone should pay the price for the evil they commit…

She looked at the words she had just typed. She stared at her mouse, hesitating for a while, as the cursor stayed on the ‘post’ button. But she finally decided not to post it as she deleted the sentence and shut down the computer.

With the concerted efforts of the crew, ‘Tán Hǎixiān jì’ was fully and completely shot. Everyone ate together at a banquet. After all this time, they had all established good feelings for each other. So they interacted well at the banquet.

Ning Xi hadn’t been back home for even two days when Zhang Qingyun arranged for her to attend “Happy Chat” as a special guest. Once Ning Xi understood the program and its flow, she agreed to it.

This program, “Happy Chat” had a high reputation among the younger demographic. The ten guests on the show were returnees who had lived abroad for several years. They would all discuss current events and talk about similar instances in other countries. What were the differences in the reaction of the local people and the government?

Along with a host, the program would also invite a special guest to be a star hosts. These star hosts were frequently trashed or praised after each show, mainly depending on how they behaved.

This was Ning Xi’s first talk show that she was attending, and Zhang Qingyun had arranged such a challenging program for her. She couldn’t help but say to him, “Brother Zhang, is this because you trust me or because you want to stop me?”

“But you’re a graduate of such a great university. Don’t be scared, stay positive!” Zhang Qingyun opened the door for her and gestured for her to get off. “Ning Queen, please.”

Ning Xi got off the car and saw a skyscraper – the TV station.

However, this episode of the show was about food discussions. It had nothing to do with IQ.

Ten young people sat around the rectangular conference table. Ning Xi sat next to the host and smiled sweetly at the camera. “Hello, friends and dear audience. After giving a lot of red envelopes to the host, I have managed to enter this show as your guest host, Ning Xi.”

The host looked horrified. “Who told you to say that?”

Ning Xi showed a cute and ignorant expression, “Brother Zhao, wasn’t it you who said that I shouldn’t be nervous during the show and just say what I think?”

“That can’t be said, Ning Xi.” Zhao Ming shook his head. “This child is too honest. We should all behave as if we haven’t heard anything.”

The other guests booed this sentence of Zhao Ming. Some people called Ning Xi to sit next to them, so as to not be cheated by Zhao Ming, that hypocrite.

“The other day, you all were calling me Brother Zhao with such enthusiasm. Today, the moment a beauty comes, your face has changed, I can see through the lot of you!” Zhao Ming clapped his hands and turned to the camera. “Good, now, the topic we are going to discuss today is food. Everyone should talk about what kind of delicious food they ate abroad when they were studying.”

Once all the guests finished speaking, Zhao Ming asked Ning Xi, “Ning Xi, I heard you also returned after studying abroad. What kinds of food have you eaten there?”

Ning Xi made a pained expression and looked at the camera. “Brother Zhao, if you are asking me this question, then you certainly don’t know which country I studied in.”

Zhao Ming and the other guests looked at her curiously.

Ning Xi spread her hands and said, “Since you’re all curious, I’ll tell you. The country I stayed in is called Uni-ted-King-dom.”

“My God!” Zhao Ming said with a shocked look. “Then you must have eaten a lot of eel, squid, jelly and such weird specialities like the Stargazy pie!!”

“Brother Zhao, Stargazy pies are very cute, you don’t scold it.” A strange guest said, “What do you think about Earthworm biscuits?”

“Earthworm biscuits?” Zhao Ming looked at Ning Xi. “Ning Xi, have you heard of this dish?”

“It is prepared by mixing dark cookie powder and earthworms and baking it in the shape of a biscuit.” Ning Xi’s expression was twisted. “This is a very ‘special’ dish. In fact, many dishes in this country are very strange.”

“How are they strange?” Zhao Ming’s expression seemed very frightened. If one looked at only acting skills, his was definitely high up the ladder.

“Just by looking at me you’ll know.” Ning Xi stood up and turned to the camera. “Before leaving the country, I was a big, fat girl. After coming back, I am now only half the size that I was before.”

“Half?!” Zhao Ming exclaimed. “How much fatter were you before?”

He didn’t forget to look at the camera and say, “Dear audience and friends watching TV, if you want to lose weight, this show must not be missed!””

“Very fat,” Ning Xi thought, stroking her chin. “Maybe it was like the difference between the Stargazy pie and the yellow croaker fish. Although they are all fish but…” She looked at them helplessly. “You know what I mean.”

Zhao Ming looked at her knowingly. “It seems studying abroad is not easy!”

The fact that Ning Xi was willing to reveal the news of her being fat on this program was a good publicity point for the show. As long as these words were cut out to make ads and publicity material, the program wouldn’t be lacking attention.

Ning Xi was very hot recently. Not only did she have a lot of male fans, but her female fans also numbered to a lot. Regardless of how long she would be hot, at least for the moment, she was a topic of discussion. For the program team, that was enough.

Since she had taken this direction, he was willing to help her lead the conversation to a few more interesting topics to increase the audience’s favour towards her.

“So all beauty is because of exercise,” Zhao Ming turned to the other guests. “It is no wonder you are all so handsome. Turns out you were all just hungry!”

“Brother Zhao!” One of the guests who was slightly chubby protested. “Brother Zhao, there’s one more here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot that there is a guy who does not belong to that group.”

Immediately, the audience burst out laughing.