APCF -Chapter 6 (1)

As the name suggests, 《Let’s Budget Travel!》 was a travel programme. It accurately captured the audience’s desire to watch big-name celebrities facing defeat and embarrassing themselves, by specialising in dumping celebrities into remote and desolate places or places that required high levels of spending, then providing them with a scant amount of travel funds. The programme would then film the celebrity guests throughout their twisted travels full of challenges and adversities, as well as quarrels and catfights.

When this programme was being planned, MaimangTV wanted to develop it into the company’s flagship variety show. All of the invited guests in the first season were either A-listers or the most talked-about celebrities to give its announcement traction. Once the show aired, it instantly took first place on the topic ranking of variety shows that year.

By this year when the programme had run until its 4th season, the amount of following it had was already dropping. The production side somehow managed to reach a settlement with Noah and invited the legendary hotshot Bo Ye onto the show.

According to the original text, there was a personal relationship between Bo Ye and the producer, and he joined in order to help the variety show. However, during yesterday’s interview, Qi Xingchen clearly saw that Bo Ye was in fact not familiar with the producer beside him.

In short, everything was a mystery.

From the next week onwards, he would have to leave home for a long period of time. During breakfast, Qi Xingchen broke the news of him filming the variety show to the Qi family.

“Is it that budget travel variety show?” Qi Yuji placed down the teacup in her hands, “I thought you were just signing up for fun, you’re not really going for it, are you?”

Qi Xingchen: “I’m really going.”

“I’ve seen a bit of that variety show, it’s too hard,” Qi Yuji became sick with worry, “You have a weak body, would you be able to stand it? Let’s go to the mall together later to buy some things for you to bring along ba.”

Doing exactly what she said she would do, Qi Yuji dragged Qi Xingchen out the moment they finished their meal. Just as they entered the underground garage, two luxury cars parked side-by-side almost blinded Qi Xingchen’s eyes.

There was a silver Rolls Royce and a grey Koenigsegg. Qi Yuji flipped her hair, “You should have told jiejie that you got tired of driving your previous car, what are you taking the bus for? Both of them are yours, choose which one you’d like to drive today.”

She was fluttering her eyelashes when she said this, seeming to be a bit nervous. Qi Xingchen pointed at the slightly more low-profile Rolls Royce.

The corners of her mouth drooped down all at once.

Qi Xingchen saw this situation and immediately tried to remedy it: “This car has an even number, with today’s restrictions, we should drive the one beside it with the odd number instead.”

“YEAH!” Qi Yuji roared at WeChat happily, “Da ge, Xingxing likes my car more! I won this time!”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

“Oh right, Xingxing did you forget? The cars of our Qi family never have car plate restrictions on them. “ Qi Yuji pursed her lips in a sweet smile, “Let’s go!”.

As the rich and powerful family in a Mary-Sue novel, the Qi family really did not need to follow the rules of the car plate restriction. Even when there was a traffic jam on the road, Qi Yuji instructed the driver: “Old Zhang, call Officer Li to send cars to clear the road.”

“No need,” Qi Xingchen was alarmed for a few seconds, then hurried to stop her, “The jam in front is not that bad, we can get past it in less than ten minutes, don’t delay the others.”

“I just wanted to spend more time with you, because it was so difficult to make you agree to go out with me.”

“……But still, there is no need to call the traffic police,” Qi Xingchen looked at the face full of flattery of his jiejie and said helplessly, “I won’t go to the company today, I’ll spend the entire day with you.”

“WAH!!!” Qi Yuji could not be any happier and started planning what to do today.

The first stop she brought Qi Xingchen to was a high-end retail store, and when she stepped in, she shouted: “The clothes ordered for my family’s Xingxing have all arrived, right?”

The boss pulled out two 3-meter-long display racks from the thermostatic repository.

At the salon which was the second stop, after entering through the door, 4 hostesses and 4 bodyguards took the card that Qi Yuji handed over. It was even more serious than an espionage meeting.

Qi Xingchen did not know what they were doing, and Qi Yuji explained: “This salon has a membership system, and only 200 membership cards are given out in the whole H City. The vetting of members is quite strict, where only the highborn and public figures who have reached a certain social rank can be admitted — for example, Bo Ye. He is the only artiste member in H City.”

As it turns out, all of the hairdressers of the top public figures were this fastidious. Qi Xingchen was pressed onto the massage chair in a mini booth by Qi Yuji.

His eyes closed, and when they opened, his hairstyle had changed.

Ever since the original owner was hospitalised, Qi Xingchen’s hair had been unkempt. This time, the styling consultant helped him to cut his hair shorter and dyed it a deep brown colour, making his already fair skin look even whiter.

At this moment, the director’s assistant of《Let’s Budget Travel!》asked him for a photo for the official announcement. Qi Xingchen raised his phone up and pressed the shutter button with a “click”.

“Oh my, you look really good on the iPhone front camera,” the stylist’s eyes shone with admiration, “Second young master Qi, do you mind if the shop uses this photo as a reference picture?”

Qi Xingchen did not mind at all, and he sent a copy of the photo to both the director’s assistant and the hairdresser.

At 9 pm, the programme group announced the first group of guests:

— 《Let’s Budget Travel!》Season 4 Official Weibo: Ripe peaches in the summer, the brightest star in the Milky Way. All that is sweet and wonderful are tied between you both. Welcome, @Tao Tao@Qi Xingchen.

[Picture][Picture]

Not long after, the fans who have been waiting for the official announcement exploded.

【F*ck me, this face! This figure! Where did this fairy little brother come from? Within 3 minutes, Lao niang must get all of his information! 】

…

In just one short afternoon, Qi Xingchen’s Weibo was almost bursting with all the new fans.

In reality, there were not that many, only around 30 thousand of them. But the clocked number of comments under his previous photo had already reached more than a thousand. He picked a few to reply to first but realised afterwards that he really couldn’t reply to all of them and gave up.

Qi Yuji still thought it was not enough, hence while choosing a face mask for him, she was pressing her phone furiously, “Xingxing, the number of your fans are actually less than Tao Tao’s by a few hundred thousand! I’ll buy you a hot search to get some fans.”

“?” Qi Xingchen frantically stopped her, “Don’t buy it!”

Qi Yuji: “……Wu wu wu I already bought it. Sorry Xingxing, I’ll retract it then.”

He never thought that her hands would be that quick. Qi Xingchen was speechless at that moment.

“How much did it cost to buy a hot search?” He asked.

Qi Yuji looked aggrieved: “600 thousand.”

“……Then just leave it ba, I don’t have that many fans anyways, the hot search would go down soon.”

Qi Xingchen was right. Because there was no fan interaction to maintain the heat, he stayed on the hot search for 3 hours before his ranking slowly slid down. In these 3 hours, the number of fans increased by 3 times, reaching 150 thousand.

Qi Xingchen sucked in a breath. Is this the power of capital?