The other three tried hard to suppress their laughter. These two families clearly had a "hard-working" script. Hopefully, Tian Sijia, who takes the glamorous and sexy route, and Manyue, who is even afraid of caterpillars, will survive until the end of the first episode's recording.
After the guests and farmers are successfully paired up, it's time for Jiang Xiaoman and the other "farmer mentors" to step in.
In the past two years, thanks to Jiang Xiaoman's vigorous promotion, Langshan's local specialties have started to gain traction online, but this is limited to finished products. The program team wants to film how to process farmers' own produce into local specialties and sell them.
Having received their salaries from the production team, Jiang Xiaoman, Lang Ying, and the others diligently accompanied the crew for several days of filming. This stuff was much more difficult than short videos; sometimes, after filming a script, the director would watch the playback on set and, if he wasn't satisfied, they would have to reshoot...
Jiang Xiaoman is not a professional and is very worried that if the production team "faks" the show, the final edited version will be heavily criticized by netizens.
After all, we live in an era of ubiquitous social media. Who with a mobile phone doesn't know how to shoot videos? Audiences are no longer easily fooled.
However, the chief director, Chen Shu, was full of confidence.
That's the good thing about variety shows; they can be filmed and broadcast simultaneously, allowing for timely adjustments to the filming script based on audience feedback.
Not long after the second episode was filmed, the celebrity rural product-selling program, "I Help My Fellow Villagers Sell Mountain Products," with its rather rustic name, was simultaneously launched on J Province TV and Tencent Video.
Friday night is prime time for major TV stations and video websites, so the competition is fierce, with all sorts of press releases flying around and the trending topics almost overflowing.
Even the notoriously poor J Province TV station bought a last-place trending topic for this new program.
The Taiwan authorities only approved the money to buy one trending topic spot.
The reason is simple: this variety show was mainly for the TV station to use in a year-end rural revitalization theme event selection; the data didn't need to be too good, just passable.
The TV station's limited advertising budget was still allocated to celebrity outdoor reality shows airing during Saturday primetime.
Seeing that he couldn't rely on the station, Wei Sheng was almost frantic. However, he didn't have many connections in the entertainment industry, so he could only promote it on his social media accounts and send messages to every "friend" he felt had no hostility towards him, hoping that everyone would actively forward it to help spread the word.
On a film set, when a message was sent by Wei Sheng, rising star Kang Xinyue scoffed.
She really didn't expect that Wei Sheng, this naive and innocent guy, would actually consider her a friend.
When the TV series they filmed aired, Kang Xinyue had her agent hint to Wei Sheng that they could create a real-life couple image, since they were both unmarried (although she had a boyfriend outside the entertainment industry). But Wei Sheng, that idiot, actually refused!
He even foolishly exposed Kang Xinyue's "fake single" identity to her face.
"Sister Xinyue, let's forget about creating a CP (couple pairing). I'm afraid my brother-in-law will get angry, and we'll end up arguing."
Kang Xinyue was furious!
Who are you calling "sister"? Who's your sister? She's only ten months older than Wei Sheng.
Upon seeing the video link sent by Wei Sheng, Kang Xinyue sneered. Since she had nothing better to do, she decided to check out what this incredibly cheesy program was all about.
She knows the countryside like the back of her hand! It's where she grew up.
What kind of photos can you take in a place like that?
Ideally, we could capture some unflattering photos of Wei Sheng, then find some marketing accounts to mock him, so that this country bumpkin can never get a high-end luxury endorsement again!
Thinking of this, Kang Xinyue told her assistant, ran back to the van, and lay down on the bed happily, waiting to see Wei Sheng make a fool of himself...
Chapter 228
When director Chen Shu said that the final film would definitely be more exciting than the filming process, Jiang Xiaoman felt that he was just making empty promises.
However, when Jiang Xiaoman actually saw the finished product, she realized that the person in charge was indeed a professional in this field. Just the opening few empty shots were enough to immediately attract the audience's attention.
"I Help My Fellow Villagers Sell Their Local Products" sounds a lot like a poverty alleviation program on CCTV.
In fact, at the beginning, there were no mountain products in the shot. In a few empty shots, the vast bamboo forest of Langshan Mountain was shown, wild tea trees with dew in the morning light, golden chrysanthemums swaying gracefully in the breeze, and little bees buzzing in the sunlight...
Then, various sounds gradually appeared in the shot: the shouts of fishermen on the river, the tea-picking songs in the mountains, a sizzling sound, something was put into the pot, a cloud of steam rose, and the first one to appear was Jiang Xiaoman!
Kang Xinyue sat up abruptly.
In the chaos, my phone hit my knee, and it hurt terribly!
A chill inexplicably rose in her heart.
This person... looks so much like her boyfriend.
No, she might only look about 50% like her boyfriend, but she looks exactly like his mother!
"Could he be Aunt Yan's illegitimate child? Oh no!"
Kang Xinyue felt a chill run down her spine, sensing that she was not far from being silenced.
Kang Xinyue is currently dating a boyfriend who is not in the entertainment industry. He is several years younger than her and is the heir to the well-known domestic clothing brand, Jin Yan.
When it comes to Jinyan, almost everyone in China knows it. This company has a history of several decades and is currently striving to become a "century-old enterprise".
The current head of Jin Yan is the eldest son of Old Master Jin. However, it is said that this father-in-law was particularly promiscuous when he was young, having had three wives and countless mistresses.
Jin Yan's mother, Yan Susu, was very lucky, because she appeared at an age when Jin was already "no longer able to do what he wanted".
I heard that Yan Susu was originally the Jin family's nanny. Later, when Mr. Jin was going through a divorce case with his third wife, he fell seriously ill. While recuperating at the Jin family's villa, he gradually fell in love with the gentle and obedient Yan Susu.
At that time, Mr. Jin had long passed the age of seeking thrills and just wanted to find an honest and obedient woman to accompany him through the second half of his life.
It can only be said that Yan Susu may not be the one with the best family background or the most beautiful among all of Mr. Jin's wives, but she is definitely the one with the best luck.
Yan Susu's belly was also very cooperative; less than a year after she entered the family, she became pregnant with President Jin's child, who is now Kang Xinyue's boyfriend, Jin Chengjie.
Whether he inherited Mr. Jin's womanizing ways or not, Jin Chengjie is only a junior in college, but he is already a seasoned player in the dating scene. He has been with more women than his father, but he has only ever officially acknowledged one girlfriend, his first love.
Kang Xinyue went to great lengths to persuade Jin Chengjie to publicly acknowledge their relationship.
However, she hasn't dared to formally visit the Jin family to meet her future in-laws yet.
Needless to say, President Jin is a cunning old fox. Who can play tricks under his nose?
And then there's Jin Chengjie's biological mother, Yan Susu. Kang Xinyue doesn't believe that a truly honest and simple rural nanny could really keep a business tycoon like President Jin firmly under her control.
In her opinion, Yan Susu might be some kind of top-tier saintly old green tea.
But now, seeing that face on TV that bore an almost uncanny resemblance to Yan Susu, Kang Xinyue's palms sweated. One moment she felt utterly doomed, the next she was secretly delighted, thinking she might have something on Yan Susu. A jumble of thoughts collided in her mind, ultimately converging into one idea—
She's also going to participate in this celebrity live-streaming sales program!
If the boy on TV is really his future mother-in-law's illegitimate son, and she has such a big handle on him, would she dare to disobey her in the future?
Mr. Jin is getting old, and I heard that he listens to Yan Susu on everything, big or small, at home now.
If Kang Xinyue can get the support of her future mother-in-law, why would she have to worry about not being able to marry into a wealthy family?
Thinking of this, she didn't even want to film the new drama anymore. She quickly opened her phone and asked her agent to help her contact the TV station in J Province.
She's willing to forgo any appearance fee as long as we can get her into the show!
...
Unlike Kang Xinyue, who harbored ulterior motives, the vast number of netizens and viewers who clicked on this program at this moment were already completely captivated by the scenery and folk customs of Langshan.
Chen Shuzhen truly deserves to be called the top variety show director of J Province TV station. Those materials that Jiang Xiaoman, an outsider, found to be a mess, were edited and arranged by him, and the final product was both funny and heartwarming, with occasional tear-jerking moments. After watching the more than one-hour program, it was hard to even cut to the commercial break.
Unlike other rural slow-paced lifestyle variety shows, Chen Shu initially lured viewers in with a leisurely and romantic scene. However, the first episode surprisingly lacked even basic greetings between the guests; Jiang Xiaoman, the "farmer mentor," appeared wielding a rice scoop, ruthlessly declaring—
From now on, the guests will have to earn work points to get their three meals a day!
How are work points earned?
You can earn work points by working for the farmers you are paired with, or you can work for the cooperative.
What? Didn't we agree that we could do live-streaming e-commerce?
Sorry, the cooperative has established live streamers. If you want to become a live streamer, you need to compete for the position.
There was no food on the first day, and it was definitely too late to compete for jobs and earn money. So, the guests changed into loose and comfortable clothes. Actress Dai Yonghui weeded the tea plantation of the tea farmer and collected eggs in the tea garden.
Young actor Song Yi herded an old ox for the farmer, and also cut grass for the ox to eat that night.
Tian Sijia was paired with a large pig farmer in the village. However, as soon as she got close to the stinking pigsty, Tian Sijia's delicate and beautiful face couldn't help but distort.
In the end, the owner couldn't bear to see her suffer, so they let her help gather pig feed and cook pig fodder, and she finally earned some work points.
The female idol Manyue was paired with a farmer. Last year, she tasted the sweetness of beekeeping with Jiang Xiaoman. This year, she made more than 200 beehives in one go. Manyue and her two sisters-in-law were responsible for taking out the mature honeycomb and piling it together. The men in the family would then carry it down the mountain to sell to the cooperative. She was so tired that her makeup was ruined.
All the guests were exhausted, except for Wei Sheng, whose assigned task was to take care of children...
What the heck?
Wei Sheng's fans all felt that the production team was stirring up trouble and trying to fabricate negative stories about their idol.
Haters quickly gathered in the comment section, questioning why Wei Sheng was taking care of children while other guests were helping the farmers. They thought he was slacking off.
No, there really isn't!
The family paired with Wei Sheng was Lang Youjun's family from Langshan Village.
Lang Youjun and his wife have had three daughters and one son, and his wife is currently pregnant with another child. However, it's not true that his family favors sons over daughters.
Lang Youjun is not very educated; he simply believes that the more children a rural family has, the better, as long as they can be raised to adulthood, they will become the family's labor force.
Moreover, he didn't listen to anyone's advice and insisted on sending his two daughters to school. His third and fourth daughters are not yet of school age, but they will definitely be sent to school when they do.
Anyway, the tuition fees are covered by the state during the compulsory education stage. The primary schools in the town still have to pay for meals and books, but Langshan Village Primary School has even waived these two fees.
Isn't this just the state raising their children for them?
Now the news on TV is saying that encouraging childbirth and having children is a contribution to the country. Lang Youjun and his wife have children with complete confidence!
However, last year, after hearing that some villagers were planning to buy houses in the county town so that their children could study there, Lang Youjun and his wife discussed it and decided that they had already had enough children. They decided to stop having children after his wife gave birth to this one, and they also wanted to send their child to study in the county town so that they could support him to go to university.
This couple is really dedicated. Even having a child didn't stop them from raising over a hundred hives of native bees, planting over ten acres of golden chrysanthemum, and also contracting other people's abandoned tea gardens.
Disliking that the big star Wei Sheng was too slow at work, Lang Youjun simply asked him to help take care of the children at home while he and his wife carried baskets up the mountain to pick tea leaves.
On the ground in front of Lang Youjun's house, the third brother, with snot hanging from his nose and tears welling up in his eyes, hugged Wei Sheng's left leg; the fourth brother, looking completely bewildered, hugged his right leg.
Wei Sheng: "..."
I must have owed you guys something in my past life!
Wei Sheng found a baby carrier from Lang Youjun's house, with the fourth child in front and the third child on his back. He ran to Jiang Xiaoman's courier station with a miserable look on his face and bought a lot of snacks for the two kids, finally calming them down.
Then he heard the devastating news coming from the loudspeaker—
"Wei Sheng, you spent 22 yuan on snacks today, so 22 work points will be deducted!"
Wei Sheng felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
If he remembers correctly, the reward for helping Lang Youjun take care of his child for a day is only thirty work points!