Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Unlike other reality shows, *Ni Bingyan’s World Travel* was shot more like a film.

The show opened with heavy, swirling snow.

The world was a sheet of white. In the distance, the serene mountains were but faint gray silhouettes. Nearby, the low-slung houses and the bare trees lining the streets were all tucked under a thick ”cotton blanket.”

The long street was nearly empty of pedestrians.

Suddenly, the camera panned to a line of footprints in the snow.

Following the footprints, the view slowly moved forward to reveal a pair of mud-splattered, camel-colored leather boots.

The camera pulled back slightly, and the owner of the boots turned around, greeting the lens with a broad smile. ”Hey, how’s your day going?”

She was wearing a dark green winter shell jacket, a gray knit hat, and a matching neck warmer. The neck warmer was pulled up to cover half her face, leaving only a pair of smiling, crescent-shaped eyes visible.

”I didn’t expect it to be this cold in the mountains already! We haven’t had a snow this heavy in Beijing all year!”

Aunt Liao couldn’t help but comment as she watched.

Someone immediately chimed in. ”It usually hasn’t snowed by this time of year! The sky’s always gray and hazy, full of smog. Sigh! The air is so much fresher in the mountains.”

”That’s easy enough to fix. We could go hiking tomorrow. We can make it a day trip.”

”In this cold? I’d rather not!”

”It’s around twenty degrees in Guangdong Province right now. How about we go to Luofu Mountain? We could visit those temples that are said to be quite powerful while we’re there.”

”It’s so far, and I don’t feel like going.”

”That’s true. Ever since I got older, I just like staying home. I don’t want to go anywhere.”

After greeting the camera, Ni Bingyan shouldered her pack and started walking again.

The ladies took this opportunity to chat amongst themselves.

CREAK~

It wasn’t until the sound of a door opening that everyone’s attention returned to the television.

Ni Bingyan pushed open the inn’s door, lifted the heavy, army-green curtain meant to keep out the cold, and greeted the woman behind the counter.

”Hello, ma’am! I’d like to check in.”

The innkeeper was knitting a sweater. Hearing the door, she looked up. When she heard Ni Bingyan wanted to check in, she quickly spread her hands apologetically.

”Oh dear, you’re too late. We’re all booked for today!”

”Oh my, this girl. Doesn’t she know to make arrangements in advance when she travels? With this weather and no rooms available, where is she going to stay? What an unlucky start! I thought she had an assistant, right? This is so unprofessional.”

”She does have an assistant, but she’s a very independent girl and likes to do a lot of things herself. That’s why she only has one. It was probably just an oversight, a simple mistake made in the rush of things!”

Shui Sulan admired her independent and self-reliant spirit and would praise her at every opportunity. Hearing someone criticize the assistant, she immediately found an excuse to defend Duanmu Li.

She had met Duanmu Li before, and she was a good kid.

That’s just how she was. When she liked someone, she couldn’t stand hearing anyone speak ill of them, and that extended to the people around them, too.

’If the people around her are no good, doesn’t that reflect poorly on their boss’s judgment?’

As someone used to being the big boss, this was something she found particularly intolerable.

The other ladies didn’t think along the same lines. Hearing her explanation, they latched onto the key phrase: ”one assistant.”

”She should hire a few more assistants. One person just isn’t enough.”

But Aunt Liao, who was more online-savvy, knew a little more.

”They mentioned in the previews that when Bingbing travels, she arranges her own itinerary. The reason she didn’t book a hotel was probably because this is an impoverished area, and the hotels are rarely full. Otherwise, knowing how cautious she is, she would never have been so careless.”

As they discussed, they watched Ni Bingyan accept the innkeeper’s kind offer to stay in the storage room.

Their hearts went out to her all over again, right as the show reached its first minor climax.

After Ni Bingyan agreed to stay, the innkeeper looked up and noticed the director and the cameraman.

”The storage room is a bit small... I didn’t realize you had companions...”

Anyone who saw the look on the innkeeper’s face would have felt embarrassed for Ni Bingyan.

The show was trying to create the effect of her traveling alone, but without a script, the camera simply followed her. Of course other people would see the camera crew. In their eyes, she clearly wasn’t traveling solo.

”Hahaha! This show is so realistic. It would be weird if the innkeeper pretended not to see them!”

Next, Ni Bingyan cleverly diffused the situation. After getting the innkeeper’s permission, she nonchalantly took the camera and set it on the counter.

The rest of the crew left, and the two of them started chatting amiably again.

But as they chatted, the innkeeper started praising Ni Bingyan profusely. When Ni Bingyan couldn’t take it anymore and said she wasn’t that great, the innkeeper immediately got worked up!

This part was hilarious.

One was saying, ”You’re seeing me through some seriously rose-colored glasses,” while the other, red in the face with anger, let loose a torrent of scolding and shot up to yank off her hat and scarf—

”Being all shady and secretive, you don’t look like a good person! I’m going to see just what you look like! How can you slander someone with a clear conscience!”

Ni Bingyan was no match for the innkeeper. Her hair was pulled into a bird’s nest as she cowered pitifully behind the counter, on the verge of tears. But then the innkeeper, holding the hat in one hand and the neck warmer in the other, suddenly remarked:

”Huh? Why do you look kinda familiar?”

Everyone was laughing so hard they were crying, when suddenly a commercial cut in— ”A reminder from NiuNiu Yogurt Drink: The excitement will continue after this break...”

”Oh my god, that was hilarious! I’m dying!”

The men were there today as well. Even Sang Jingwen, who didn’t care for crowds, sat in a corner, quietly shelling melon seeds.

That innkeeper wasn’t an actress. She was so natural, you could tell it wasn’t an act.

Combined with the show’s editing and cinematography, it felt like they were watching a small, single-camera indie film. It was actually quite unique.

But just as they would start to feel touched, something hilarious would happen, making everyone burst out laughing.

The neighbors chatted cheerfully for a bit before the show resumed.

With her cover blown, Ni Bingyan received the highest standard of hospitality from the innkeeper.

”Honey! Quick! Go slaughter the sheep!”

”There’s no need, really! I don’t like lamb! I really don’t! Please spare it!”

Ni Bingyan shouted until she was hoarse, but she couldn’t stop the innkeeper.

The innkeeper, no longer treating her like a stranger, simply asked her to watch the front desk and went home to cook the lamb.

The camera showed her with her bird’s-nest hair, a look of utter disillusionment on her face as she grumbled to the lens, ”Tell me, wasn’t today’s experience a little over the top?”

Once again, the group was bent over with laughter.

And so, Ni Bingyan’s stay at the inn turned into a shift at the front desk. One moment she was calling staff to change bedsheets, the next she was delivering tea, and then she was helping guests order food, as busy as could be.

Watching her spin around like a top, everyone praised her for being so capable.

When other celebrities were on TV, they were just strangers. But Ni Bingyan was different. She was someone they occasionally shared meals with, so watching her show felt much more personal.

Thanks to editing, it wasn’t long before the innkeeper returned to call her home for the lamb feast.

Ni Bingyan, resigning herself to her fate, actually followed the innkeeper home.

During the meal, they all chatted animatedly about the changes in Wutong County. The innkeeper’s son and daughter-in-law were especially full of hope for their hometown’s future.

Ni Bingyan brought up her own name, taking the opportunity to encourage the innkeeper’s granddaughter to study hard.

It was all so heartwarming, until just before the end of the episode, when the camera zoomed in and focused on five clean-picked rib bones on the table.

BURP~

After devouring five lamb ribs, Miss Ni, the very one who had been shouting that she didn’t like lamb, let out an elegant burp.

”Is that it? It feels like we just started watching!”

Seeing the words ”To be continued tomorrow” at the end of the show, Granny Liao shot to her feet.

”It started at eight, and it’s almost ten now. That’s a full one hundred minutes. It was quite long.”

Shui Sulan’s stomach also ached from laughing, but she still had her wits about her.

”Then it’s not that the show was short. It’s because it was so good that it felt like it wasn’t enough.”

Someone commented fairly.

The group chatted for a while longer about their impressions of the show. Before they could disperse, the Sang Family’s chef came in, pushing a large, stainless steel insulated tureen.

”Earlier, when Bingbing was filming, some fans insisted on sending her a sheep. She refused, so they just sent it directly to her company. She’s been very busy lately, so she sent it over for our Chef Yang to stew. She specifically told me to be sure and share it with everyone. It’s getting late, and eating too much meat might make it hard to sleep, so let’s just have some lamb soup to warm up. We can save the meat for tomorrow. How does that sound?”

Older people tend to be light sleepers, and the exciting show had them all worked up. A bit of warm soup was just what they needed.

”Sigh, our Bingyan really is a good kid. You can tell just by seeing how complete strangers are willing to treat her so well. Old Sang, your family has really found a treasure.”

”Isn’t that the truth? My son hadn’t even come back to the country yet, and Yuanyuan already snatched him up.”

”Well, Yuanyuan is a good, filial girl, willing to live with you all. That’s how she got the home-field advantage.”

Shui Sulan and her husband just kept their heads down, sipping their soup, careful not to boast too much.

That would just invite envy.

’Compared to so many daughters-in-law who just dump the kids on a nanny, spend their days playing mahjong and going to the salon, and do nothing but shop, shop, shop... wasn’t theirs just the best?’

’Anyone with eyes could see it.’

Heh!