"How bold? Spill the deets!" Zhao Jiayuan looked at Jiang Mingxi with keen interest.
Jiang Mingxi rolled his shoulders and began spilling.
"I took a look yesterday. Bridgehead Village has a lake in front and mountains behind, and there's a paved road right outside the village.
"Transportation is convenient, and the natural surroundings are great.
"If we could develop a tourism project here..."
Zhao Jiayuan gaped. "Bro, I didn't think you meant that bold. You're jumping straight to development projects?"
Chen Chong sounded very interested. "You want to develop tourism here?"
Jiang Mingxi smiled. "Our show was able to partner with the village here. Looking at the bigger picture, the first priority must be to boost its development.
"But I asked around yesterday, and the village doesn't have any specialty agricultural products.
"I get the feeling the publicity might lean in some other direction.
"So I thought, since you two are so famous, and we're livestreaming anyway, we could go into town and promote the village we're staying in on the livestream.
"If anyone's willing to come here as a tourist, the three of us could be their guides and show them around.
"As for payment, we'd just charge a service fee to cover our meals. Thirty or fifty yuan."
Zhao Jiayuan rubbed his chin and clicked his tongue twice. "You know what? Seriously, I actually think that sounds pretty interesting."
Chen Chong turned the steering wheel, rounding a corner, and added, "But we don't know the mountains here."
Jiang Mingxi said, "That's why we should check out the town first and see if there are any travel agencies or anything. If there are, we can check whether they have any planned tourist routes around here.
"Think about it. We're doing a survival challenge livestream.
"The production team has cut off all help from the villagers. If we want to survive here, there's only one way.
"Head into the mountains.
"There's bound to be an opportunity in the mountains to solve our survival problems."
Yesterday, Jiang Mingxi had also carefully thought back over the book's plot.
After all, he had transmigrated into a book.
But that dumbass author seemed to have devoted eighty percent of the plot to that melodramatic romance.
There had barely been any introduction to anything else.
Jiang Mingxi could only give up on the original plot and rely on himself instead.
Zhao Jiayuan slapped his forehead. "Then why are we even going into town? We should head into the mountains and scout things out first!"
Jiang Mingxi smiled. "If we head into the mountains, we'll definitely get stopped by the obstacles the production team set up. But what if we bring tourists with us?"
Zhao Jiayuan smacked Jiang Mingxi's arm. "How are you so full of wicked ideas? I actually really like you!"
Chen Chong raised his brows slightly and glanced at Zhao Jiayuan in the rearview mirror.
Jiang Mingxi immediately backed away a little. "No need. Rejected. This flower is already taken!"
Zhao Jiayuan spat. "Bullshit! Song Lan won't even give you the time of day!"
At that, Zhao Jiayuan sighed. "Originally, I wasn't going to say anything about you chasing Song Lan. After all, I just wanted to watch you make a fool of yourself. But now I think you're pretty decent, so here's some advice: give it up. You can't land someone like Song Lan."
Jiang Mingxi smiled. "I'll give it a try first."
The town wasn't far from Bridgehead Village.
It only took ten minutes or so to get there by car.
Without phones, the three of them asked for directions along the way and arrived at Yongtong Auto Repair.
They had only just parked when the show's camera crew caught up.
[Oh my god, we can finally see the people we're watching in the livestream. I'm dying!]
[First time I've watched a livestream where the crew has to chase the celebrities around.]
[Other streams have people skirting the boundaries. In this one, the celebrities escaped beyond them, hahahaha!]
Afraid the production team would take back the car they had worked so hard to snatch,
Chen Chong stayed in the car.
Jiang Mingxi and Zhao Jiayuan took the rain poncho into Yongtong Auto Repair.
They had only just stepped inside.
"Do you even know how to fix a car? Could you afford to pay for mine, you broke bastard?" A blond-haired man pointed right in an employee's face and cursed at him.
The employee looked young, only eighteen or nineteen. He tried hard to reason with the customer. "This scratch was already here when the car arrived. We took a video when we received it."
"Bullshit! You think I wouldn't know whether my own car was scratched? Cut the crap and pay up!" The blond pulled the cigarette from his mouth and flung it onto the floor, then raised his hand to hit him.
The chubby owner hurried over to stop him. "Third Brother, Third Brother, calm down. You're a generous man. Don't stoop to his level. He's new and doesn't know the rules. I'll fire him. Please calm down."
While stopping the blond, the chubby owner turned and yelled at the employee, "Get lost! You're fired!"
[What kind of boss is this? He fires an employee without even finding out what happened?]
[That blond's obviously a thug. The owner probably doesn't want trouble.]
[Jiang Mingxi's just going to stand there watching? What kind of shitty celebrity is he? His character really is rotten.]
[???]
The production crew hadn't expected to capture a scene like this when they followed them inside.
The noise of their entrance immediately drew the attention of the people in the shop.
The chubby owner spotted them first. Seeing that the newcomers were carrying a camera, his expression instantly changed. "Who are you people?"
This was a livestreamed show, so there was no point lying.
Jiang Mingxi gave the owner a polite smile. "We're celebrities filming a show around here. We're dropping something off for a little girl's older brother on our way."
The chubby owner immediately snapped at the employee he had just fired, "Get out! Take these people and get the hell out of my shop! Don't let me see you again!"
After that tirade,
he turned to the blond beside him, nodding and bowing. "This way, Third Brother. I'll service your car for free today..."
The blond glanced over at Jiang Mingxi and the others. His chilling gaze lingered on Jiang Mingxi's face for a moment. Without saying anything, he followed the chubby owner into the office inside the repair shop.
Settling into a large leather chair, he crossed his legs and asked, "Which village is that kid from?"
The chubby owner smiled ingratiatingly. "Why bother with him? He's just a brat fresh out of high school..."
The blond kicked the chubby owner. "Just answer the fucking question!"
The chubby owner took a hard kick to the thigh. Not daring to offend him, he could only keep smiling. "Bridgehead Village. But his parents are both dead, and all he has at home is a little sister who's only six. They don't have much money."
The blond ignored the chubby owner after that and waved him out.
Once the chubby owner left, the blond pulled his phone from his pocket.
He opened a WeChat conversation.
There was a photo in the chat. The person in it was none other than Jiang Mingxi.
[Find someone to take care of him.]
That was the job his employer had given him this morning.
The offered price was fifty thousand yuan.
Find someone?
His face looks way prettier in person than in the photo.
With a face that pretty, I wonder how good he'd be to fuck!