Qi Le An watched the press conference online the next afternoon. The crew played a clip of numerous stars sending wishes to the crew before the press conference to perk up the audience, then the press conference climaxed with Wei Chang Feng’s appearance.
The crew did a good job keeping Wei Chang Feng’s part a secret till this day, the audience exclaimed as they saw Wei Chang Feng as Grandmaster in the show.
Qi Le An locked his eyes on the screen, he admired how Wei Chang Feng handled all the questions with effortless humor and attracted the attention from everyone alike.
Qi Le An had also seen Yan Lang who was seated in the guests area, Qi Le An smiled as he saw how haggard and worn Yan Lang looked.
“Did you enjoy your nightmares, Yan Lang?” Qi Le An murmured.
The crew had also played several behind-the scene clips at the end of the conference, Qi Le An wished he were able to attend the press conference and shared the happiness with everyone.
Qi Le An took a deep breath and comforted himself, ‘It’s all right, I will work hard till the day I’m irreplaceable! Mr. Li is right, this road show tour is a great opportunity to communicate with the audience! I’ve got this!’
Qi Le An’s phone vibrated as he was lost in thought, he took a glimpse at the screen and his heart skipped a beat as he saw it was Wei Chang Feng who had sent him a message.
Wei Chang Feng: I heard you are unwell, what’s the matter?
‘He must have had asked the staff member in Glory, and the staff member made up this lame excuse.’ thought Qi Le An.
Qi Le An: I’m having a cold, don’t worry, I’m fine.
Qi Le An didn’t lay bare the lies for he didn’t want to worry Wei Chang Feng.
Wei Chang Feng: Please rest well.
Qi Le An’s heart melted, he opened his drawer and started to appreciated the photo that Wei Chang Feng had sent him when they were on the set with a big smile on the face, later he put on the ear stud that he had ‘stolen’ from Wei Chang Feng. How he wished he could see Wei Chang Feng and work with him soon.
Glory had placed great emphasis on this road show, they had assigned an assistant named Jiao for Qi Le An. But Qi Le An knew he needed to treat Jiao with respect since he was younger than her.
Qi Le An bought Jiao breakfast the next morning for he didn’t have the heart to have a girl waiting for him under his building at 6 o’clock in the morning.
“Sister Jiao, so nice to meet you, thank you for much for your hard work!”
Jiao was a girl who tended to be exceptionally vigorous at work, “An, nice to meet you, we will be working together for the following month. I’ve checked your schedule, it’s quite tight, we need to work hard together, remember, a little perseverance goes a long way.”
Qi Le An appreciated Jiao’s honesty and attitude, “I won’t let you down, Jiao.”
It wasn’t until now did Jiao took the breakfast that Qi Le An bought for her with a smile, together they went to the train station, the first rays of the morning sun had lengthened their shadows... ...
Qi Le An’s first destination was Nanjing, an hour away from Hai City. Jiao said, “An, we need to make use of every minute, read through the notes I’ve made for you.”
Qi Le An opened the notebook and he was surprised, Jiao had collected materials from the inspirations of the whole screenplay to the interactions between the main characters to behind-the scene stories... ...
“There’s no sensitive materials in the notebook, you can quote anything you find useful”, added Jiao, “Just try to have a good time when you do the interviews, you can be funny and creative when they ask you questions, but don’t say something you are not sure, all right?”
Qi Le An nodded his head, feeling deeply grateful.
There were five crew members including Qi Le An and a Deputy Director who were scheduled to do Nanjing, the main characters only needed to do big cities at the weekend, but supporting characters like Qi Le An needed to do every city.
The Deputy Director attached great importance to this station, he had even held a small meeting before they went on stage.
Qi Le An hadn’t attended any road show in his last life, and he found it exhausting than it looked like, you couldn’t let your guard down for even a second, you needed to stay focused the whole time in case of any emergency and any kind of questions.
Qi Le An felt a bit tired after the first day, and he was burned out at the end of the third day. Red-eye flights every day, early rising in the morning, socializing with local reporters... ... and Qi Le An would squeeze time to read books every day... ...
But luckily, no one had given Qi Le An a hard time for he had been absolutely impeccable. Qi Le An had been feeling exhausted all the time, it worried him when he recalled what the system had said last time, ‘the upgrade will double the energy consumption.’
Qi Le An had slimmed down within just a week, and he started to suffer insomnia. Different hotels every night had only made it worse, he would toss and turn till midnight, he couldn’t just fall asleep like he used to. And he would wake up easily by the slightest noise when he fell asleep.
Qi Le An and Jiao flew to Shenzhen at weekend to join the rest of the team led by Director. Cui.
Hu Bin looked Qi Le An up and down, the he exclaimed, “Little An! Are you being mistreated!”
Qi Le An shook his head, “Mistreated? What are you talking about?”
“Look at those dark circles under your eyes, wait, you have slimmed down as well, right?”
Qi Le An grinned and bantered with Hu Bin, “Isn’t slimming down a good thing in our industry?”
Hu Bin put on a straight face and said, “For a growing boy like you, no, slimming down is not a good thing.”
Qi Le An appreciated the way Hu Bin cared for him, he just smiled and said nothing.
Qi Le An got to relax in Hu Bin’s presence, Hu Bin could carry occasions like that with full composure, the reporters all loved Hu Bin.
Hu Bin was definitely the work hard play harder type. Hu Bin had taken Qi Le An to three dinner parties that night, and after that he had taken Qi Le An to a karaoke bar.
The roadshow was in Guangzhou next morning, but Qi Le An couldn’t get out of bed no matter how hard he tried. Jiao got so worried and opened his door with the spare room key for she couldn’t reach him.
Jiao frowned on seeing Qi Le An who was lying in bed, “An, are you all right?”
Qi Le An opened his eyes with efforts, he was still in a daze when he saw Jiao. Qi Le An thought he could have been able to function if not for the system upgrade... ...
Jiao sighed, “An, I know you have been working like a horse, you have done an amazing job at every city. Today we are going to Guangzhou, it’s one of the biggest destinations, not only Hu Bin is going, Wei Chang Feng will show up as well, can you please please give it a go?”
Qi Le An came to life on hearing Wei Chang Feng’s name, he looked at Jiao and said, “I can do this!”
Jiao was gratified to hear that, “All right, we can pull this off, you have fifteen minutes to get ready, all right?”
Seeing Jiao’s retiring figure, Qi Le An jumped out of bed, he felt dizzy as soon as he stood steady, he leaned on the wall next to him and rested for about half a minute. Then he walked to the table and gulped down a tin of coffee before he had the energy to get ready.
The group took the bullet train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, Qi Le An had fallen asleep in a daze, poor boy had so many bad dreams, he had even dreamed about the car accident that has taken his life.
Qi Le An broke out in a cold sweat and woke up with a start.
Jiao said in a soothing voice, “You can get more rest, don’t worry, I will wake you up later.”
Qi Le An who was drenched in cold sweat just nodded his head as a response.
They arrived at Guangzhou in about an hour, Assistant He gently nudged Hu Bin to wake him up. Hu Bin woke up with a yawn, but a professional star he was, he could manage to look glamorous anytime he wanted, soon he shook his head and no trace of fatigue could be seen on his face.
The organizer hand sent them a chauffeured car services driver thanks to Hu Bin, the group met the venue manager for lunch as soon as they had checked in their hotel.
The venue they picked this time was a VIP hall in a cinema, more fans seemed to have showed up this day due to Wei Chang Feng. Hu Bin and Qi Le An were just getting their makeup done in the lounge and waiting for Wei Chang Feng.
The crew had surrounded Wei Chang Feng as soon as he entered the lounge, Director. Cui had introduced the organizer to Wei Chang Feng while Qi Le An was still getting his makeup done.
Qi Le An stole a glance at Wei Chang Feng after he was done with his makeup, as luck would have it, Wei Chang Feng was looking at him as well.
The two beamed with smiles as their eyes met.
Soon Director. Cui left the lounge to warm up the audience, Wei Chang Feng talked to Hu Bin briefly before he turned around and said to Qi Le An, “Hmm, how come you look even more skinny?”
Hu Bin chimed in, “Poor An, he has been working like a horse, been on the go all the time, plus he has been sleeping poorly.”
Wei Chang Feng looked at Qi Le An with a slight frown.
Qi Le An just smiled meekly.
The staff member knocked on the door and said it was their cue now, so Wei Chang Feng didn’t have the opportunity to talk to Qi Le An more.
The fans went crazy on seeing Wei Chang Feng on stage, they waved their hand banners in order. There were a lot of Hu Bin’s fans as well, but not as many as Wei Chang Feng’s.
Qi Le An noticed there were also fans whose banner was about the drama instead of the specific characters, Qi Le An felt glad.
All the road shows that Qi Le An had attended were quite great, but this one was a whole new level great because of Wei Chang Feng. The MC had even invited a few fans on stage to play games with Wei Chang Feng, the applause and cheering was simply deafening.
Wei Chang Feng made a short speech in the end, “Everyone in the crew has worked hard for this drama, Hu Bin stays up late every night, our young actor An is the most diligent student on the set, he would practise and practise till his delivery was perfect. I hope everyone can enjoy our show, thank you so much!”
His speech was greeted by a roar of applause.
They finally got to walk out of the stage when the meeting had overrun by half an hour.
Qi Le An heaved a sigh of relief when he walked to the backstage, he wished he could have had more energy to interact with the MC and the fans, but at that point he was just glad that he had made it on stage.
However, Qi Le An’s head swam and he swayed dizzily, the next second he had fallen in a faint before they had even make it back to the lounge.
To everyone’s amazement , a figure dashed towards Qi Le An from the the crowd.