A few days later.
Cloud Street.
Lin Fan stood inside the shop, looking outside curiously. “It looks like all the surrounding guesthouses have increased in price recently.”
“Yep, they’ve all increased their prices. The programme crew is coming soon and with them, a whole load of celebrities. Their fans have all booked the surrounding guesthouses to wait for a glimpse of their favorite celebrities. This has caused the price of the guesthouses to skyrocket.”
Lin Fan chuckled. “The outside was full of people holding signs with their favorite celebrities’ names on them as I came into the shop. This show is really popular.”
Fraud Tian shook his head. “What’s the good of chasing idols? Why doesn’t anyone chase me instead? I’m pretty talented.”
“I think you better forget about all of that. With your kind of looks, I’m afraid you won’t even be able to qualify,” Lin Fan rolled his eyes.
*Ah!*
At this moment, a loud sound emanated from outside. It was a constant joyous sound, coming wave after wave, and every sound louder than the previous one.
“It’s quite crazy outside,” Lin Fan said.
“Let’s go out to see.” Wu You Lan was the first one to open the door as she peered outside.
Lin Fan was stunned when he saw the scene before him. It was more than just a crowd, it was wave after wave of people. The ages of the fans were young and they were majority female. All the female fans were holding signs with their favorite celebrities printed on them as they shouted and chanted their favorite celebrity. It was madness.
“Ze Ze, I love you…”
“Huang Yue, look over here!”
“Ah! He smiled at me! I feel so happy!”
All the fans were extremely lively. The security guards all formed a barricade, protecting the celebrities who were standing in the middle while making a path for them to safely move.
Director Hu gasped in surprise as he saw the torrents of fans all gathered around. It was simply too crazy. He had met a few celebrities before but he had never thought that they would command such a large following.
The programme crew had forked out a large sum to hire all these celebrities for the show but it was absolutely worth it. The first season had twelve episodes in it, and the lowest fee that they had paid a celebrity had already been thirty million dollars. In the entertainment industry, this sort of pricing was reasonable. The most popular celebrity was also the highest paid, getting a total of seventy million dollars for appearing in twelve episodes, but he was a crowd attractor. As long as he was around, any amount spent would be worth it.
Because of the filming, the human traffic on Cloud Street would be controlled. Basically, all the people who were roaming the streets were actors. All the other shop owners felt really thankful. After they had heard this piece of news from Master Lin, they had been completely excited since they could never have imagined that Cloud Street would be featured on a TV show. How exciting!
Although they probably couldn’t do any business today, the long-term impact of having the show filmed on Cloud Street would definitely be good for their businesses.
“Little Boss has genuinely been good to all of us, to even get this opportunity for us,” a few of the shop owners gleefully talked amongst themselves.
“That’s for sure. I heard that some of the big celebrities are even going to help us promote our businesses!”
“I can foresee that Cloud Street will become even more popular after this and I dare not imagine how that would look like. We should all take pictures with the celebrities later and hang it in our shops. It would definitely attract a lot of customers to come and see.”
“That’s a good plan.”
“Hey, something isn’t right. Something is happening outside.”
“It looks like an argument broke out. Let’s go and take a look.”
…
At this moment, Lin Fan was at a loss for what to do. He had forgotten to factor one a very important detail, that there would be a huge crowd every day waiting to buy his scallion pancakes. Now that Director Hu had blocked up the whole street, the townsfolk who wanted scallion pancakes would definitely be unhappy.
“Why should I care about your programme? We’re just here to buy scallion pancakes from Master Lin! Will you not let us in?” one of the guys in the crowd of scallion pancake buyers shouted.
“Yeah. This street doesn’t belong to you guys. What does us buying scallion pancakes have to do with you guys?”
“Move off! Move off!”
Director Hu was at a loss for words. He had never thought that things would turn out like this.
The celebrities who were under the protection of the security guards marveled at the situation, wondering what on earth was going on.
Eight celebrities. Six male and two female.
Huang Yue was extremely pretty and had a really youthful appearance. It didn’t matter whether she was on stage or in real life, she looked absolutely hot.
“Brother Ze, you’re the big bro here. It looks like Director Hu won’t be able to solve this problem, why don’t you go up to help him? Who knows? One of the guys there may even be a fan of yours.”
Li Mu Ze laughed. His popularity was off the charts, with over three hundred thousand followers on Weibo. And he would always play the role of a big brother in his acting roles. Li Mu Ze realized that situation in front of him was really a headache for Director Hu.
“Yue Yue, you overestimate me. But we should all go up and intervene. I think the townsfolk would appreciate an explanation.”
Li Mu Ze chuckled before talking to the crew worker who was standing next to him. Thereafter, he took a loud hailer and a stool.
He stood on the stool and spoke into the loud hailer. “Hello everyone! I’m Li Mu Ze. Could you guys hush down for a while?”
The townsfolk stopped for awhile, looking at the person who was standing on the stool before talking almost themselves.
“That’s Li Mu Ze. He’s a huge celebrity.”
“I finally get to see him in person. I never thought that he would look worse in real life. He really looks much older here compared to on the screen.”
“What does he want?”
Li Mu Ze continued to smile. He really enjoyed this sort of atmosphere of being adored by his fans all around him.
The whole cast of ‘Celebrity Family’ was looking at Li Mu Ze, their faces beaming radiantly.
“Brother Ze is going to work his magic now.”
“Brother Ze has a lot of charisma. I’m sure that he’ll be able to solve this problem.”
“Let’s just sit back and relax and let Brother Ze do all the talking.”
…
“I’m sorry that this has inconvenienced you guys from doing your shopping here. I’m not sure if you guys have seen the show called ‘Celebrity Family’?”
Most of the townsfolk nodded in unison. “We’ve seen it before.”
Li Mu Ze grinned. The answer that the townsfolk had given didn’t come as a surprise. “Today, we’re using this location to film the third season of ‘Celebrity Family’. We’re just going to use this location for a day. Could I ask you guys to do us a favor to let us film this for a day? How about this? After we finish filming this, we can invite all of you to the premiere of this show. How does that sound?”
Director Hu had initially been at a loss on how to settle the issue, but after seeing Li Mu Ze take charge of the situation to offer an explanation, he couldn’t help but smile. Li Mu Ze was really a capable person, both in earning money and in settling disputes.
“Alright.” The townsfolk all nodded.
Li Mu Ze smiled. A problem settled easily in a matter of minutes.
Suddenly, the situation turned around.
The townsfolk all continued shouting.
“Let us buy our scallion pancakes. We won’t disturb you guys, just let us in!”
“Yeah! You guys are just too cruel! If you don’t let us in, we won’t ever watch your shows again, ever!”
“Who cares about celebrities? I just want my scallion pancakes. We won’t disturb you guys!”
Li Me Ze continued to maintain his smile but after a while, it started becoming a little awkward. The place had a few reporters around, and this situation would definitely embarrass him. He immediately got onto the stool again. “Guys, I thought we came to an agreement just now?”
All the townsfolk started looking confused.
“Since when did we agree on anything? We just want to buy things. Can’t you let us buy our things?”
“Yeah! What does this have anything to do with filming? We’re not even here to chase idols. Master Lin only makes ten portions of scallion pancakes every day. If we get blocked today, it would be a great loss for us.”
…
The townsfolk started making a huge ruckus, not giving the celebrities any face at all.
At this moment, a figure walked up behind Li Mu Ze before tapping his shoulder, signaling him to hand over the loud hailer.
Li Mu Ze didn’t know who that person was, but the loud hailer was taken away by him.
Director Hu looked at Lin Fan, immediately walking up to him. “Master Lin, could you help us resolve this issue?”
Lin Fan nodded. “Mmm, don’t you worry. This is my responsibility, so let me handle this.”
Li Mu Ze was stunned. Even a huge celebrity like me couldn’t solve this problem, and you can?
All the reporters who were standing around were surprised. They whipped out their cameras and took photos in a frenzy.
Lin Fan stood on the stool. “Everyone, quieten down…”