Chickens and dogs fly in chaos and rebirth

Chapter 42

I haven't decided what to study yet, that's okay, I can take my time after the exam.

Pan Ling invited Lin to play games. She sighed, "Drop the handkerchief? That doesn't seem to suit me."

However, Pan Ling was someone who didn't listen to others' opinions, so he forced her to sit down and they relived a childhood game.

After the cheerful song, the children started to cheer. The handkerchief happened to fall on Qiu Shanglin. The one who dropped the handkerchief was a boy. He was a fair-skinned and delicate boy who looked like he had a good upbringing. I vaguely remembered that he was in Class 2. I think he was the class monitor or vice class monitor.

Ignoring the boy's blushing, she stood up boldly amidst everyone's cheers. The rule was that she had to perform a talent show before finding the next unlucky guy.

But what can she perform? Her specialty is counting money…

After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'll sing a bit of Peking Opera for everyone."

The children stared at her expectantly. "Huh? Peking Opera? What's Peking Opera? What is it?"

She blushed at the lack of response from everyone. Seems like she's not popular?

After thinking about it again, I decided to sing "On the Golden Mountain in Beijing".

After the song ended and there was a long silence, Pan Ling slowly clapped a few times, and the crowd came back to their senses, with scattered applause rising from their seats.

She forced herself to finish the game, only to hear Li Wenwen's laughter from another group nearby, clearly mocking her. She secretly vowed, "I will definitely, definitely learn some talent!"

After the midterm exams, there was a two-day holiday. Shanglin used this time to go to the provincial capital and discuss advertising matters with the director of the advertising department of the TV station.

As things stand, while the Mocha Cat brand has established a presence in our province and several southern provinces, it hasn't yet become a household name; it's only popular within a few circles. Given the current sales and profit situation, there's absolutely no need to spend a large sum of money on advertising—this was the opinion of several managers at the company, as Hua Ge had discussed with them.

Shang Lin lacked suitable personnel, and managing the business herself was impractical. Given the production and long-distance transportation issues involving other provinces and cities, she had neither the time nor the energy to manage them. Therefore, at the beginning of Mocha Cat's establishment, she used people from Xu Mi's side, whom Hua Ge had helped find. Before Yin Yeyao left, she had already gradually replaced them, and recruiting from outside—but she couldn't find very good talent.

After all, this is a time when the state guarantees job placement, and companies are scrambling to hire college graduates. Outstanding talents are not going to be found in this small company that has only been established for a few years.

While searching for replacements, Yin Yeyao also had to rely on Xu Mi's talent pool for help. Yin Yeyao consciously reduced Xu Mi's control over Mocha Cat Company, but couldn't completely get rid of it in the short term. Fortunately, Xu Mi didn't take it seriously, treating it merely as her son's plaything. Although she wasn't entirely satisfied, she didn't want to damage it, so she instructed her subordinates to take good care of it—which greatly benefited Qiu Shanglin.

Xu Mi doesn't care, Yin Yeyao doesn't want her, Mocha Cat is all hers.

She had also considered that relying on others for a living wasn't satisfying, as she never knew when her job would be taken away. But talented people were hard to find, so she had to take it one step at a time. Fortunately, the elementary school curriculum was easy, which gave her time to keep an eye on the company's development and keep the progress within a reasonable range.

Now, she wants to advertise, and it's not limited to just one province. She instructed people to contact television stations in several southern provinces and cities simultaneously, planning to operate together. This would require withdrawing a large sum of money from the account, leaving Mocha Company's accounts almost empty.

People at this time don't yet have the concept of living beyond their means, so it's inevitable that some people worry that the company's operations cannot be sustained.

But she persisted.

While continuing to advertise, they also asked sales staff to visit schools more often to secure exclusive rights for school uniforms and stationery. The feedback was not ideal; although Mocha Cat was somewhat well-known, the conservative mindset of schools was not yet ready to accept her trendy concepts.

Shanglin wasn't in a hurry. She knew the power of advertising at this moment. Often, when a TV commercial came on, people would flock to buy it, and any company that didn't have one would become the object of ridicule.

The advertising plan has been basically agreed upon; the current challenge is finding a spokesperson.

The TV station suggested making an animation, directly using the image of Mocha the Cat to deeply resonate with people, but Shanglin disagreed. Humans are most receptive to other humans; cats are cute, but they are animals, not people. She needs to attract not only children's attention but also the eyes of parents and adults; she needs to be very cute, the kind of child that people can instantly fall in love with.

The head of the advertising department helped her find many students, but she was not satisfied with any of them. They were innocent and naive enough, but not clever or brave enough.

On the first day of their holiday, with Zhang Hongwei's permission and accompanied by Qiu Jianguo, they went to the television station. As usual, Qiu Xialin insisted on bringing two along; since they already had one, they figured bringing another wouldn't hurt. "Many lice don't bite, many debts don't worry," she reasoned. "Many children… are easy to raise!"

The director greeted them with a big smile, asking about Mingqiu Jianguo's identity as if they were old friends, and talked about business, seemingly trying to entice the popsicle factory to film an advertisement.

Impatient, Shanglin dragged Changsheng and Xialin around the TV station, curiously looking around.

He was having a great time touching and looking around when suddenly a staff member ran over: "Hey, you there, boy, I'm talking to you, come and help me out!"

Without a word, they dragged Li Changsheng away. He wanted to resist, but Shanglin, curious, pulled Xialin along with him. After thinking for a moment, he didn't move and let them pull him in front of the camera.

The staff member, sweating profusely, explained: "Hey, there's a child who's absent today. You're about the same height as him, so can you fill in for him? Here, put this headgear on you. Just stand at the back and jump out when the host calls your name. Just make a couple of random gestures and pretend to fall to the ground!"

Oh dear, it turns out they were recording a children's program.

Shanglin pulled Xialin to sit beside them, watching with great interest. At the command to start filming, the heavily made-up young host gave an opening speech and introduced several guests before suddenly feigning panic: "Oh dear, the Demon King!"

The children pretended to be panicked and looked around, asking, "Where is the Demon King?"

Li Changsheng's head was covered by a heavy hood, so he couldn't hear anything. He only felt someone push him hard from behind, and he stumbled to the front of the camera. He was stunned for a moment, then remembered the person's instructions. He assumed a horse stance and made a hand gesture, which startled the host who was pretending to hit him.

Not only that, he added his own lines: "I am the all-powerful Demon King, capable of anything from heaven to earth, so why don't you all surrender now!"

The director was taken aback; there was no such line in the script!

The host, quick-witted as ever, continued the performance: "To maintain world peace and prevent the Demon King's destruction, let us defeat the Demon King!"

With a wave of his arm and a pointing gesture, the children swarmed forward, following the script they had rehearsed.

You grabbed his arm, I grabbed his leg; an ordinary child would have been knocked to the ground long ago. But who is Li Changsheng? He started learning martial arts at three and by seven he was invincible throughout the streets. Now, children of similar age are no match for him. At first, they only feinted a few times, but then both sides got a little annoyed. The children used their hands and feet to exert force. Li Changsheng, who was putting on an act, frowned tightly, thinking, "You guys are too ungrateful. Can't you see I'm letting you win? You even dare to pinch me—do you think my flesh is so easy to pinch? Qiu Shanglin would have to think twice before pinching me!"

Frustrated, Li Changsheng used all his skills to shake off the group of clingy kids. The children looked at each other, wondering why the demon king was stronger than the heroes. Seeing that the director didn't seem to be calling a stop, the host gritted his teeth and decided to take the lead.

Missing his shot, he quickly exclaimed, "Hey, you're the Demon King! Get defeated already!"

It took two repetitions to finally rouse the bloodthirsty Li Changsheng. He suddenly realized, "Oh, I'm the Demon King, I have to be defeated—damn it, who says the Demon King must always be defeated? Qiu Shanglin even said, 'The righteous are one foot high, the demons are ten feet high,' why should I be the one to be beaten?"

Considering they were on someone else's turf, though unwilling, they made a few gestures, and after the host delivered a spinning kick, they naturally clutched their chest, crying out in pain: "Ah, ah, ah..."

After babbling and acting in front of the camera for a while, it finally lay down obediently.

Even in death, he wouldn't rest. He should have died peacefully, but he wouldn't. He clutched his chest in agony, rolling around on the ground. After a while, he suddenly jolted, his head lolling to the side—

The host, disheartened, eventually died.

Qiu Shanglin, watching from the side, was practically bursting with laughter. She dared not laugh out loud, covering her mouth as her shoulders trembled, tears streaming down her face. She didn't care about her image, one hand covering her mouth, the other pounding her legs, occasionally wiping away her tears. As for Xia Lin?

It's rolling on the ground.

His sister had stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth, so he didn't dare to make a sound, and snot was running down his face.

After barely managing to complete the entire play, the host angrily ripped off Li Changsheng's hood: "Kid, why didn't you act according to the rehearsal?"

Is he a stranger?

Puzzled: "Who are you? Where's XXX?"

She had just hurriedly pulled Changsheng's staff over, tears still glistening in her eyes, and patted him on the shoulder: "Not bad, not bad, your acting was pretty good!" Her expression was sarcastic.

The director also came over and looked him up and down: "Where did you find such a lively character? Kid, have you acted before?"

Chang Sheng glanced at him disdainfully, threw off the hood, and turned to find Lin.

Pshaw, kid? I'm an adult, an adult!

During lunch, the topic of this scene came up, and the group burst into laughter, recalling the incident. This left Li Changsheng with a dark face and an unpleasant expression.

The director kept praising his camera presence and acting skills. Suddenly, a new idea flashed into Shang Lin's mind.

Excitedly, he grabbed Changsheng: "You should film the commercial!"

Chang Sheng was bewildered: "Huh?"

She almost screamed: "You're going to film the cat commercial!"

The director hesitated: "That's not a good idea. The character is supposed to be a girl, the cute type, but he doesn't look cute at all..."

Shang Lin nodded frantically: "It's him, it's him! And find another girl, any cute girl!"

He lowered his head and whispered to the director, "Like this, like this..."

Qiu Jianguo looked at Changsheng, who had a puzzled expression, and then at the even stranger director. He smiled helplessly and raised his glass: "Sorry, sorry, my three kids are all a bit crazy."

The director smiled knowingly and replied, "Boss Qiu is so lucky to have both a son and a daughter, and they are both so sensible."

The younger sister is assertive and bossy towards her older brother, which is a bit unusual for her.

Qiu Jianguo said smugly, "Hehe, hehe."

"My three children are all better than other people's children..." he thought smugly.

Three children: Qiu Shanglin, Qiu Xialin, and Li Changsheng—they are all my children.

In his and Zhang Hongwei's eyes, the three children were all the same, regardless of their distance from each other. If his wife were to say, she actually loved Li Changsheng more, the poor child being bullied by that devilish girl from Shanglin all day long...

Child star?