The production team looked at Wen Zhenghan with difficulty and said, “You can separate the points, but guests in the same group must act together.”
“Because only five translators came with us, and one follows the filming crew, only four can be provided to the guest groups. If you separate, there won’t be enough translators.”
Hearing that they could separate the points, Shen Fu had no objection.
She rolled the map in her hand and nodded. “Then let’s go.”
Wen Zhenghan couldn’t help looking at her. For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether she had done that just to get his attention, or if she really wanted to split up.
What are you looking at?
Shen Fu paused, then painfully handed him one map.
Wen Zhenghan: “……”
The guests split into four groups and walked toward the jeeps provided by the production team.
Except for Zuo Mei’s group, whose special guest was still waiting in town, the other two groups were chatting. Xu Tiaotiao was asking Xiang Lingyun what it felt like to jump down just now; the two walked and talked.
Only Shen Fu and Wen Zhenghan’s group was as silent as strangers.
Wen Zhenghan held the map and looked at Shen Fu’s back as she silently wrapped her military coat around herself and got in the car. Something in his heart felt increasingly wrong, an elusive feeling growing stronger.
Four guest groups, plus the production team and supplies, a total of six jeeps, drove forward in a long line along the road.
Zuo Mei lowered the window and looked outside.
On both sides of the road stretched endless black soil. Every few dozen meters, a white burlap sack held some crops, and occasionally a few locals bent over planting.
Rather than a tourist city, it looked more like a rural town near one.
Poor and underdeveloped, and they couldn’t even speak the language.
In a place like this, even if a megastar came, no one would recognize them. Forget earning money, even getting locals to toss them a few coins like giving alms would be hard.
Her face grew uglier.
But the more difficult the task looked to the guests, the more the barrage audience got excited: 【Not only can the guests not think of a way to earn money here, I can’t think of one either.】
The car didn’t drive long before they officially arrived at the small town where live filming would happen.
Calling it a small town wasn’t accurate, it was not that small. Several hills were connected, low houses stood everywhere, and many foreigners lived here.
The area was large but sparsely populated, making it feel empty.
The production team had communicated beforehand; two locals came to receive them.
Upon arrival, the four guest groups officially split up and were delivered to four different locations in the town.
Zuo Mei’s group was at the first location.
“Teacher Zuo Mei, this is today’s special guest. That bottle of perfume was personally chosen by him.” A crew member opened the car door and signaled for her to get out.
【The special guest finally appears. The production team hid this from us so hard.】
【hhh the perfume gift was quite tasteful. Judging from it, he must be a pretty high-ranking idol-type male guest. Who could it be?】
Zuo Mei was thinking the same as the barrage, holding high expectations.
Then the door opened, and what entered her sight was a bearded fat man wrapped in a military coat like a green zongzi.
The bearded fat man curiously poked his head out: “It’s you.”
Zuo Mei: “……”
The barrage was shocked.
【Wtf, Director Gong???】
【Hahahahaha sorry, the Empress’s expression looks terrible, but I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts.】
Gong Kuan stretched out his hand and warmly shook Zuo Mei’s. “Long time no see, junior. We last saw each other at your wedding, right?”
Mentioning the wedding? Does he not know she’s already divorced?
Zuo Mei’s expression was extremely indescribable, but she still squeezed out a smile. “It has indeed been a long time. Director Gong, you gave the perfume?”
“Yes.” Gong Kuan asked, “Was it tasteful?”
【It was tasteful, to the point everyone thought Wen Zhenghan gave it hahahaha.】
Zuo Mei’s fans in the barrage were thrown into chaos.
They weren’t even asking for someone high-ranking, just someone pleasant to look at?
But Gong Kuan’s status in directing wasn’t low, so her fans had to hold him up for her sake.
【What’s so funny? Isn’t Director Gong great? Upright and humorous. Looking forward to Director Gong working with Mei Jie.】
【You up there, don’t hope for Director Gong’s Cyberpunk pancake face. Didn’t you see Weibo yesterday? He seems to be planning to work with Shen Fu already.】
Gong Kuan said, “Isn’t Shen Fu on this show? I originally planned to visit her set, but the program team said they needed a special guest, so I came.”
“I even thought Shen Fu would be the one to draw my perfume.” Gong Kuan sighed, looking like he missed a soulmate.
This guy is doing it on purpose, right?!
Did he not watch the earlier episodes? Did he not know she and Shen Fu don’t get along? And he still kept bringing up Shen Fu in front of her?!
Zuo Mei forced a smile. “That truly is a pity.”
Gong Kuan continued, “But I heard you’re doing a PK segment. Don’t worry, junior, I’ll help you with all my strength.”
Zuo Mei didn’t want to talk anymore. She walked straight to the temporary rest area set up by the crew and said with a smile, “Then I’ll be counting on you, senior.”
Their temporary rest area was set up in a small plaza. Local children were playing nearby. This place wasn’t rich, the kids wore either oversized suit jackets or too-short cotton coats.
Zuo Mei and Gong Kuan sat down, looking at the crowd around them, completely at a loss.
The group of foreign celebrities arrived here, and the local people at most glanced at them out of curiosity, or didn’t even look, just walked around them.
They would never behave like in their own country or a developed country, where fans would rush over like crazy.
【I’m dizzy, not a single person recognizes Zuo Mei and Gong Kuan? These two count as top of the entertainment and directing circles back home.】
【The one in front must be dreaming. Do you really think C-entertainment equals the whole world? Don’t say Zuo Mei, even if the eight guests all stood here together, probably no one would know them.】
Just as the barrage said, the other three groups, including Shen Fu and Wen Zhenghan’s group, were in the same situation.
The locals simply weren’t interested in them.
“Do you play any instruments?” Zuo Mei asked Gong Kuan.
People in the circle, even those working as directors, more or less have some artistic talent, and usually dabble in common instruments. Gong Kuan said, “I know a bit of guitar.”
Zuo Mei stood up, told the translator to ask about Cuirujia’s folk songs and to pull up the sheet music on Baidu, then went to the jeep to get the guitar and microphone equipment.
【The Film Empress still has some skills, huh? She knows to ask about local folk songs first, so more people will be attracted over.】
But there were also complaints: 【Why is it that whenever Chinese artists join these money-making segments, it’s always street singing? Is there really no other way?】
Complaints aside, anyone could guess, no way they could find some temp job locally in just one day.
Besides, as celebrities, thinking of themselves as high above others, how could they really go wash dishes or farm or carry loads?
Only this could bring in money quickly.
Yet unexpectedly, what followed was a complete disaster.
Zuo Mei did have a foundation, and she sang beautifully. Though it wasn’t in the local language, the melody was correct.
Gong Kuan’s playing wasn’t a problem either.
But the surrounding crowd still only gathered to take a look, then dispersed with little interest.
Zuo Mei sang until her voice went hoarse, and the hat placed on a table beside them, even after shaking it, had nothing inside.
“Moisten your throat, Teacher Zuo Mei.” The filming crew handed her a cup of water.
Zuo Mei took a sip, checked the time, feeling both anxious and frustrated.
And the PK segment this time had separated the four groups, so she couldn’t even see how Shen Fu’s side was doing.
“Why do you think the people here have zero interest in our performance?” She had no choice but to discuss it with Gong Kuan.
Back home, if she held a concert, her minimum commercial performance fee would be in the tens of millions.
Gong Kuan had played for two or three hours, his fingers swollen, and he was also losing enthusiasm. “Every place has its own culture. London’s street culture doesn’t necessarily thrive here.”
The barrage grew frantic: 【This is too hard. There’s basically no way to complete the mission, right?】
Many viewers wanted to switch to Shen Fu’s side to see what she’d come up with, but since they were abroad, the livestream equipment wasn’t great, so it was half-live, half-recorded. They could only watch group by group.
【I’m dying of laughter, Chu Wei and Gu Qingshuang have already started giving up.】
Chu Wei and Gu Qingshuang were dropped off at a slope in the area.
The atmosphere between the two was stiff, though they still maintained surface politeness.
Gu Qingshuang suggested they look around to understand the local situation first, so she led the translator and the filming crew through multiple turns.
Chu Wei couldn’t decide whether to follow or not, there was only one translator, so he had no choice but to follow.
In the end, after walking and walking, they went into an alley and couldn’t find their original rest point.
The filming crew looked completely lost: “……”
The barrage was mostly entertained.
But the two fandoms continued attacking each other: 【Speechless. Is Gu Qingshuang a road idiot? Can’t lead but insists on leading.】
【And your guy is any better? Has he fully given up? Not an ounce of gentlemanly behavior.】
Over on Xu Tiaotiao and Xiang Lingyun’s side, things were much better.
When the camera cut over, they were playing on swings with a group of children.
They were dropped off near a school. Many children saw the well-dressed filming crew and came over wanting candy.
Xu Tiaotiao and Xiang Lingyun managed to communicate a few sentences with locals through the translator.
But they still couldn’t think of any way to make money from the locals.
“It feels like their lives aren’t very well-off.” Xu Tiaotiao looked sympathetic. Not only did she fail to earn money, she couldn’t resist having the filming crew hand out the local currency they had to the nearby children.
【Xu Tiaotiao gains points here. Even if they lose the PK, she’s very kind-hearted.】
【Could the real test be this? Seeing which group of guests will donate money to locals instead? Didn’t the ending of say there would be a charity donation segment?】
Although that wasn’t impossible, most viewers disagreed.
【You in front, do you think this is some old interview trick to see who picks up a fallen broom? That outdated routine? If the show uses that, then it’s truly lame.】
【What about Shen Fu? What’s going on with her group?】
The barrage had already seen the first three groups and, realizing there was almost no way to complete the mission in this environment, grew even more curious about Shen Fu’s group.
Finally, the camera cut to Shen Fu’s group.
Shen Fu and Wen Zhenghan were dropped off in an even more remote place than the other three groups, a farmland at the end of a road.
Nearby, aside from a few locals farming, there were almost no signs of people.
The weather was cold, with a misty drizzle coming down.
After getting out of the car, Shen Fu tightened her coat.
Wen Zhenghan originally had the same thought as Zuo Mei, once they arrived, even if no one recognized them, with instruments and an amp, performing would make earning money easy.
But once he got out, the local walking past glanced at him, their eyes pausing only on the expensive jacket beneath his military coat, then they walked away indifferently.
He then realized it wasn’t as simple as he thought.
Shen Fu looked at the map, asked the translator about their current location, and discovered that it was more than a hundred kilometers away from another larger town.
“Is it that far? It’s definitely impossible to walk to another place.” Shen Fu asked, “Then why didn’t we see any local cars along the way?”
Once Shen Fu asked this, the barrage also noticed: 【Oh right, the program’s camera filmed the whole way here, and there were basically no cars except the program team’s jeeps, only a few bulldozers in the fields that can’t run long distances.】
【If there are no cars, how do local people go out to buy supplies?】
Wen Zhenghan looked at the fields beneath his feet, thought for a moment, and said, “We can ask the locals.”
But when he looked up, he found that Shen Fu had already taken the translator to find the nearest local.
Him: “……”
But the barrage was fully focused on waiting for what Shen Fu would do and almost didn’t notice this subtle detail.
Wen Zhenghan frowned slightly and walked over.
Shen Fu was asking the local man, “Is this harvest yours?”
The translator conveyed her meaning.
The local was an old man wearing a blue hat, with a relatively new blue work jacket on top, but a dusty gray pair of pants below. It looked mismatched, like something pieced together.
The old man nodded, looking doubtfully at the outsiders: “Are you here to collect?”
Shen Fu asked, “Collect what?”
After chatting a bit with the old man, the translator said, “He says that every so often, people come to collect potatoes.”
Although the program team told the guests that the location was a small town in Cuirujia, the guests had no idea which specific town it was.
Since they didn’t know where they were, they naturally couldn’t understand anything about it.
The barrage finally understood a bit: 【Right, to earn money from locals, don’t you first need to understand how locals make money and live?】
【I’m dying of curiosity, where on earth is this place?】
Shen Fu asked again, “They collect your potatoes, then pay you?”
After hearing the translator’s interpretation, the local shook his head: “They bring many things. We use potatoes to exchange.”
Shen Fu asked, “Like what things?”
The local said, “All sorts of things. Blue cans, iron racks, jackets, and rainbow bubbles.”
The mismatched jacket on him was obviously something he exchanged from those traveling traders.
【So the place is still bartering?】
【Every so often, traders come to collect potatoes and other crops, then bring clothes and other supplies for the locals?】
Shen Fu paused for a moment, and the barrage was also shocked.
After all, society is so advanced now that very few people have ever seen a place that still remains at a bartering stage.
Some Gen-Z viewers had only seen such traveling merchants in Zelda games.
【No wonder when Xu Tiaotiao gave the local children Lari currency, they didn’t seem interested. Maybe adults know, but the kids rarely see it.】
Shen Fu thought for a moment, then pointed to the translator’s simple baseball cap and asked, “For something like this, how many potatoes would you usually trade?”
The local said, “They need at least twenty kilograms of potatoes before they will give us a hat like this.”
【Twenty kilograms of potatoes?! If sold outside, that would fetch at least several hundred RMB.】
【So tragic.】
Shen Fu asked more carefully, “Twenty jin of potatoes, regardless of size? Or do they collect by size? For example, large potatoes, medium ones, and smaller ones.”
The translator conveyed her question.
The local shook his head and said with a bitter smile, “They don’t want the smaller ones at all.”
【No wonder it’s poor. The crops locals worked so hard to grow are taken at such a low value. They don’t even have a price, just traded for discarded clothes from outside.】
This situation was completely outside the barrage’s expectations.
Those who can watch the livestream aren’t necessarily rich, but at least have a smart device. They never imagined there were still places this impoverished.
Or rather, they knew but never cared to find out.
When the earlier groups landed, the locals around them, though plainly dressed, looked relaxed and carefree. The viewers had no way to see that their lifestyle was still at such a primitive stage.
Originally, a large number of Shen Fu haters in the barrage were waiting to see her embarrass herself, but they were unexpectedly drawn in by this plot twist and temporarily forgot to mock her.
Some commented: 【So what is Shen Fu going to do?】
The locals were already so poor. How could she possibly earn money from them?
Wen Zhenghan was also thinking about this: “The other groups will probably fail their missions too. We could give up the PK and go meet up with them earlier.”
But Shen Fu went straight to the production crew.
【Film Emperor is right. What is she planning?】
Shen Fu asked the staff, “If the other groups won’t be using their cars, can we borrow all the empty jeeps?”
The staff said, “It’s not impossible. We’ll go check.”
【Holy cr*p, I think I know what Shen Fu wants to do.】
The town wasn’t large. In a short while, the production team drove over all usable cars. Except for Zuo Mei’s team, because their car was carrying musical equipment that couldn’t get wet, all other teams’ jeeps were lent.
Chu Wei’s group was still wandering in circles, and since their car was parked at the drop-off point, staff simply drove it over.
Xu Tiaotiao and Xiang Lingyun also came over, curious about the huge setup.
The barrage was dying laughing: 【Why didn’t Chu Wei and Gu Qingshuang come? Don’t tell me they’re still lost hahaha.】
In the rain, after coordinating with the program team, Shen Fu had the translators speak to the locals and gather almost everyone in the town who could communicate.
Not long after, the local people agreed and helped carry the potatoes and other crops, bag by bag, onto the production team’s vehicles.
“There are still a lot in the cellar!!”
Hearing that foreigners were going to buy potatoes at a high price, some middle-aged women in the town also ran over, hoping that Shen Fu and the production team could buy the potatoes they had stored for too long and could not sell.
But a jeep only had so much space to store supplies, how could it hold all the crops the entire town had saved?
They could only take the batch on the roadside first.
A white-haired local old lady came over to beg: “I have no one to rely on, and I have no potatoes. Can you help bring back a grater?”
The production team was quite cooperative. After loading all the jeeps with potatoes and crops, they drove off in a grand convoy to sell them outside the town.
Before departing, many locals tried to communicate with the translators, asking them to help bring back the things they needed.
They completely treated Shen Fu and the others as merchants from elsewhere.
Some middle-aged women wanted a scarf, and some children only wanted a piece of candy.
In the past, traveling merchants would buy second-hand clothes and supplies from outside and exchange them in the town. If they wanted something, they had to trade large quantities of potatoes.
Those clothes and shoes often did not fit. Children could only wear adult shoes, both funny and uncomfortable. And the supplies brought often did not include what they actually wanted.
They wanted a flowerpot, but in the supplies brought by the merchants, they might only find a piece of plastic tile.
This was the first time they could say beforehand what they wanted and have the merchants buy it back.
A hundred-plus kilometers, if driven fast, it was only a few hours for a round trip.
By late afternoon, the production team’s staff had already driven back with the translators.
They brought out potatoes and brought back a full load of supplies. In addition, there was leftover lari.
The locals were extremely happy, completely different from their initial indifference. They kept saying thank you and all rushed over to look for the things they wanted.
The dozen or so children who followed Xu Tiaotiao and Xiang Lingyun weaved among them like they were on a treasure hunt.
Xu Tiaotiao and Xiang Lingyun walked over and saw Shen Fu counting a small handful of bills, and asked in shock: “This works?”
【Yeah! This works?!!】
The barrage was also shocked: 【Didn’t they say they had to earn money from the locals for it to count as winning the PK? Isn’t this earning money from people outside the town?】
【You can’t say it’s earning outside money, right? The potatoes were originally bought from the people in town. They just took them out and sold them. And this feels meaningful. The locals all look so happy.】
【+1 This makes me want to play a city-building game. Is there a game where you lead a whole town to prosperity?】
【And didn’t you notice the production team fully cooperated? I suspect when they said “any assistance needed,” they were waiting for this.】
【What about the old lady who wanted the grater? Please don’t forget to buy it, staff, please.】
For some reason, the barrage suddenly felt sympathy for these locals.
Perhaps it was because a balloon that is easily available to them was a rare treasure here.
Some families could trade crops for supplies, but what about those who had no labor ability, like that old lady?
Shen Fu searched among the crowd, then walked over and took a grater out of the pocket of her military coat, handing it to the old lady who couldn’t squeeze in.
The old lady said something through her tears, but there was no translator.
Shen Fu couldn’t understand, and neither could the barrage.
Realizing that Shen Fu didn’t understand, the old lady grabbed her hand and nodded forcefully. The gratitude in her eyes overflowed.
The barrage, usually always fighting, froze and teared up for a second.
【Reminds me of my grandma, sigh.】
When the old lady left, Shen Fu turned back.
They thought she was going to do something unexpected again, but they only saw her hurriedly continue counting the bills she hadn’t finished counting.
【……】
【Pfft.】
In that instant, the barrage broke again, teary-eyed turned into laughing.
Author’s note:
There’s one more update.
*Cuirujia is a fictional name, based on Georgia. This segment references related documentaries.
And the A320 is based on the A330.
