Chapter 57
“Oh! That CEO Ling is always busy huh!” when the words left his mouth, Mo Shaoqing couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. He had gotten used to having a certain someone helping him overcome obstacles, with them gone it was hard to admit he wasn’t used to being alone.
On that night he didn’t give a proper reply to the confession, could that have…. After all it’s not like there was something more between them, there wasn’t a need to know each other’s detailed schedule.
Mo Shaoqing thought to himself, I should first work hard on my own career, instead of thinking about this or that. “Do I have any work lined up?”
“Let me check!” Rui Sha took out her planner and carefully checked, her complexion suddenly changed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Shaoqing, I’ve been going over some details with Brother Ai Da lately, and he’s agreed that you would be good on his variety program, [Weekend Roundup]! However… it seems Xu Che was also invited too, I just don’t know if…”
“So what?” Mo Shaoqing blinked as he responded.
“So.. you will have to be on set with Xu Che for the show, but you won’t be on at the same time so there’s no chance of meeting him on set. At most you’ll see each other offstage, nothing should happen but you never know!”
Mo Shaoqing sighed as he pressed Rui Sha to sit on the sofa, “Rui Sha, these last few days have been hard on you, on the day of the variety show I’ll go alone. Please take a few days off, if you think I’m that sensitive, I’ll have you know I’m an adult, I promise I can take care of the issue myself!”
Mo Shaoqing returned to the restaurant ready to help, only to find that it was running smoothly without him. There was nowhere for him to help out. All he could do was take his cell phone out and swipe. He first sent Jiang Muhe a DM to thank him, but there was no response leaving him to idle on the side.
On the day of the variety program Mo Shaoqing made Rui Sha take a day off while he and Xiao Wen went with the driver to S-City.
Thinking about it, it felt a bit surreal that he would be on [Weekend Roundup]. The old him was just a bystander but now he was going to be on stage, the world was truly unpredictable!
Xiao Wen clenched his hands tightly while asking “Mo-ge, are you nervous?”
“Not at all! But you, you should relax a bit!” Mo Shaoqing teased. He could feel that everyone around him was on edge, as if he could get hurt at any moment.
While they were chatting a text arrived:
Mr. Ling: Where are you?
Mo Shaoqing: I’m on my way to participate on a variety show.
Ling Senhao was sitting at a cafe in the airport. He had to leave the country so abruptly a few days ago, only to find out something so major had happened while he was away. At the moment he was quite anxious and wanted to see Mo Shaoqing as soon as possible.
Typing away, he wanted to abuse his authority and get Shaoqing to pick him up at the airport, but thinking it over it would be bad to hinder Mo Shaoqing’s work so he deleted what he was writing.
Mr. Ling: Want to grab dinner?
Mo Shaoqing: Tonight? (Д ！) Are you back?
Ling Senhao laughed at the emoji and replied: Yup! (^O^)
Mo Shaoqing had already made it to the resting lounge, Xiao Wen handed him a coffee and just as he took a sip saw Mr. Ling’s message and almost spat everything out when he saw the emoji!
Mo Shaoqing: ……
Boss Ling’s cuteness was hard to accept!
Mo Shaoqing was afraid of being misunderstood and quickly sent another message: k ok, but I don’t know how long the recording will go on for though?
Mr. Ling: No problem, I can wait!
Mo Shaoqing: ….
This… he was hooked!
After confirming their plan, Ling Senhao’s mood was much better. Logging onto Weibo on his phone, he switched to an anonymous account and started to read through Mo Shaoqing’s blog posts….
Monica came into the room only to find her poss swiping away at his phone and smiling, Wonder who the unlucky person is now she thought.
Contrastingly, she maintained her composure and respectfully asked: “Mr. Ling, you asked me to come by? Shall we return to the office?”
“No, help me arrange for…” Ling Senhao listed a few tasks before finishing with “After those are completed, then you can return to the office!”
“Alright!” Monica noted all the tasks she and left with a tremendous amount of gossip in her heart.
On Mo Shaoqing’s side, the director was explaining the filming schedule. When that was completed, the host of “Weekend Warriors”, Ai De, followed up with some more details.
At this moment Mo Shaoqing couldn’t help but appreciate how important it was to have a good agency behind him. As a new starlet, one wrong move on a variety show could lead to getting shut out of the industry and getting hounded on by netizens. But with seniors in the industry, they could give him pointers and avoid trouble.
[Weekend Roundup] has been airing as a variety show for over 10 years now. It was quite popular and had three hosts: a young lady named Liang Wei, and two older male hosts, Ai De and Geng Bowen. In order to capture a wider audience they also just added a new member, super model Zhao Jianshu. The show was divided into two segments which was a hit with both viewers and their industry professional guests and celebrities. Guests introduced in the first half were usually professionals from different industries in the private sector while the second half of the show had more artists and entertainers. Since the show had aired for a long time with high viewership, more people wanted to get on this show in comparison to other variety programs.
Mo Shaoqing was invited to appear in the first segment. It would indeed be his first appearance as the owner and Mo’s Private Kitchen, as well as announcing who was behind the business. Originally Rui Sha wanted him to appear in the second segment, but [The Legend of Emperor Ling] was not being promoted on this variety program. It would be too embarrassing for a newcomer like him to be on the second segment so she had passed on the invitation the first time around. But Rui Sha didn’t want to pass on such a good chance to get on the variety program and entered him in the first half. Not to mention Mo’s Private Kitchen had been trending lately, in a single month they gained over 10 000 followers, which was what interested the program scouts the most.
That’s why even though they knew Xu Che would do something if they saw each other, he still decided that the variety program was too good of an opportunity to miss. The variety program would begin filming shortly, the four hosts riled the crowd and the whole room became excited. The theme of the first segment was trending restaurants. There were a total of 5 restaurants selected to participate. There was an owner of a bun shop with 100 years of history, an instagram worthy dessert shop, a new and upcoming brunch stop, a sweet pastry shop and of course Mo Shaoqing who could be considered an owner of a high end restaurant. The main theme amongst all the places chosen was that their products were beautiful to the eye and delicious.
Like how the host Ai De had explained, the guests were to wait backstage until the door revealed them and allowed them to walk on stage. As the guests were not artists, they could casually walk out without performing a song or dance. Mo Shaoqing was tall, of the 5 business owners present he was also the youngest. Adding the fact that he had been trending in the hot searches quite a few times lately, the reception from the audience was welcoming when he was revealed.
Other than getting caught off guard by the blinding lights when he first walked on stage, Mo Shaoqing was overall feeling good. He didn’t need to speak yet, so he was calmly listening to everyone else. The owner of the brunch spot was also listening attentively like a wallflower. Her long flowing hair and the long skirt of her traditional dress made her look very genteel.Before heading onstage, Ai De had told him not to feel too nervous. As this variety show was tailored for entertainment purposes, being too nervous would cause you to lose track of what the host was saying. For example, the 50 something bun shop owner had already stuttered quite a bit while he spoke!
Of course being too confident was also not good. For example, the young lady who owned the sweets shop was interjecting into the conversation which made the bun shop owner more nervous. Although she didn’t know it, she was about to be pulled off to the side by Liang Wei.
Mo Shaoqing was the last guest in the first segment. As he was also an entertainer, there would naturally be more questions for him so he was slotted last. He greeted the audience very naturally and was welcomed by the audience with applause. Ai De quickly started with the questions: “Now that you mention it, Shaoqing, you and I have met a few times already ne,”
Of course this was just Ai De showing his support for Mo Shaoqing, this much he knew. In actuality before this recording, they had never met before. “Yes that’s right, I’m really glad to be here tonight on [Weekend Roundup] and seeing you again, as well as Brother Bowen, Sister Weiwei and Jiashu.”
Liang Wei pretended to be upset and spoke up: “Really? Ai De, you met someone so handsome and didn’t tell me?”
When he caught onto what was happening Geng Bowen chimed in “I think Shaoqing is an alumni from S City Art College right? I also graduated from the same school!”. Speaking to the audience he added “It seems like I’ll have another handsome junior brother now, what do you guys think?”
The audience unanimously gave face and agreed: “Yes ---”
Liang Wei asked with curiosity: “I heard you learned to play the piano for a while now, are you a student in the music program?”
Mo Shaoqing: “Yes, I am!”
“How about we have you play a few songs for us, what does the audience think?”
The audience cheered in response: “Yeah--”
Everything was arranged in advance so Mo Shaoqing wasn’t nervous. As the lights dimmed he started playing. At the end of the song the spotlight on Mo Shaoqing would shift and have the hosts ask him more questions on his restaurant business. Mo Shaoqing continued to answer the questions, striving to answer them thoroughly.
Just before wrapping up Zhao Jiashu suddenly added a question: “Mr. Mo as someone in the music department, how did you get into the entertainment industry? Is there a particular story behind it?”
This was asked off script from the questions provided ahead of time, but Mo Shaoqing didn’t feel flustered and explained a few details. Although this was a prerecorded variety show, the studio audience was real. It wouldn’t be good if he didn’t answer the question at all.
Zhao Jiashu ignored the other hosts and continued to ask questions with a smile on his face: “In fact, it takes many people in the entertainment circle at least 10 years to make a name for themselves, for one to get lucky in the industry like Mr. Mo is quite rare, so how did you go from doing a single play to landing a gig in a big production role?”
Mo Shaoqing was a bit taken aback, these questions were getting quite suspicious. It was one thing to assume that Zhao Jiashu was thinking of questions on the spot for good teaser shots, but for him to follow up with more was abnormal. Before the show started, Ai De had told him that Zhao Jiashu would not be a lead host but would be part of the background. All he had to do was acknowledge his presence, and would not be receiving any questions from him. Not knowing the truth, the audience was eagerly awaiting Mo Shaoqing’s response!