Entertainment Circle’s Mascot - Chapter 30

The situation was about to erupt, at least in the eyes of the onlookers outside of the ring and the fence. However…

Lian Qing heard the auntie behind him suddenly shout, “Da Wang, Xiao Wang, I’m giving you the little baby. You must take good care of it. Mommy will come to see you later.”

As she spoke, the woman had already picked up the little orangutan and handed it over to one of the big gorillas, much to Lian Qing’s surprise and concern. The gorilla took the baby and let out a loud roar. Lian Qing quickly pulled the woman back behind him and changed his stance toward the gorilla.

The gorilla immediately bared its teeth and became angry.

At this moment, the middle-aged woman behind Lian Qing reached out and tugged on his clothes, revealing her head and shouting at the gorilla, “Da Wang, Xiao Wang, don’t worry. Mommy is just playing with this brother. You guys be good, ah!”

At the same time, she reassured Lian Qing, “Don’t be afraid. I raised them both, and they’re very well-behaved. They just thought you were trying to take me and their babies away, so they were protesting.”

Lian Qing looked at the two gorillas skeptically, their dark eyes scanning back and forth between him and the woman, seemingly confirming his intentions toward her. After a moment, they waved at the woman in a human-like manner, then gave Lian Qing an indescribable look before turning and walking towards a large rock inside.

Lian Qing stood there in a daze, replaying the gorilla’s look in his mind. Even after the woman pulled him away, he remained stunned.

Luo Zisheng patted his shoulder with concern and asked, “Little Monk, what’s wrong with you?”

Lian Qing looked at him and said blankly, “Did they just… they seem to look down on me?”

After scrutinizing for a while, he finally realized that the gorillas’ eyes seemed to be full of disdain.

Auntie said softly on the side, “Not that they seem to. I’ve been their caregiver for a long time, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that they are looking down on you and think you’re a big fool.”

Lian Qing: “…” Official certification is indeed the most lethal!

Luo Zisheng and others: “Hahaha…”

Lian Qing pursed his lips and asked pitifully, “Why does it look down on me?”

Auntie smiled and said, “Maybe it thinks your two poses are too silly…but hey, silly is cute!”

She was clear-minded that although this kid was a bit silly, he had a good heart. In the situation where he mistakenly thought that the gorilla was going to attack them, his first reaction was to protect her behind him. They were just strangers who had just met!

Was “silly and cute” a compliment? Lian Qing thanked Auntie for her praise with a wry smile, and then was pulled by Luo Zisheng to watch the small segment recorded by the cameraman.

On the screen, after Lian Qing struck two very handsome poses (as he thought) when the gorilla turned around and left, the look and expression that regarded him as a fool were truly expressed clearly and distinctly.

The laughter of Luo Zisheng and others has become “hehehehe” and they couldn’t stop laughing. Lian Qing was helpless and aggrieved, and could only let them laugh.

After everyone finished laughing, Luo Zisheng friendly patted Lian Qing’s shoulder and comforted him, “It’s okay, maybe the gorilla’s aesthetic sense is different from ours. At least in my eyes, you’re still handsome.”

Lian Qing muttered softly, “I was already handsome.”

“Hmm? What did you say?”

Lian Qing shook his head. “Nothing, let’s go and turn in the task quickly.”

The others naturally had no objections, so they all went to the gate to turn in their tasks.

When they arrived at the gate, the other three had already brought their respective princesses and were waiting there. As soon as they saw that it was them, they immediately gathered around them – mainly around the princesses that belonged to Lian Qing.

Qian Linsen said, “Whose princess is this? She’s so pretty.”

Sun Yazhi asked, “Miss, are you also a caretaker?”

Li Chengsi said, “Ah, finally a normal princess. The program team finally got something right for once…”

It was only then that Lian Qing noticed that the three princesses that they had brought were not at all like princesses – one was an old lady, and the other two were men dressed as women?!

He suddenly realized that the princess belonging to Brother Luo, the auntie who insisted on being called “older sister,” was actually quite normal. As for his own princess, she was even more normal!

Obviously, the others thought the same way. When they found out that the princess belonged to Lian Qing, the older brothers openly envied and were jealous.

“Come on, Little Monk, how much did you bribe the program team? I’ll bribe them too, but with one more dollar than you!”

“Tsk, Little Monk, are you a lucky koi fish or what? The most beautiful princess in the whole place, and you’re the one who got her! No, I’m feeling very unbalanced now. The program team is too biased!”

“Yeah, think about it. He got to be a hero and save his beauty, how romantic. What about us? Saving aunties, grandmas, and little brothers! Can it get any more depressing than that?”

………

The besieged Lian Qing felt helpless and nervous as everyone surrounded him. He didn’t think that rescuing a beautiful princess was a glorious and lucky thing because he didn’t care about it at all.

Fortunately, the program director appeared and attracted everyone’s attention.

The director spoke a bunch of words and then waved his hand, saying, “So, let’s go to the next location now.”

They didn’t investigate Lian Qing’s help in saving the princess, as it seemed that such tricks had been done by predecessors before and were also allowed. Lian Qing felt relieved and raised his hand, saying, “Director, what about the milk and hotpot barbecue?”

The director looked suspicious for a moment before saying, “The next place we’re going to is the hotpot barbecue site. As for the milk, come find me to collect it after the filming is done.”

Lian Qing raised his hand again and asked, “Can you ship it to me?” There were a total of seventeen boxes, too many to carry on board.

The others laughed, while the director sighed helplessly and said, “Leave me your address, and I’ll contact the manufacturer to send it to the nearest location to you.”

The little monk took advantage of the situation and immediately acted cute. He sweetly said, “Thank you, Director. You’re really nice!”

The director was pleased to hear this and waved his hand, saying, “Let’s go!”

After thanking the zoo staff, they got into the car and drove straight to the beach. Lian Qing saw a long sponge board floating on the sea and a high tripod with a plate every so often on each side of the board. There seemed to be something inside the plates.

On the beach, a bit of a distance away from the sea, there were five tables set up. The tables had hotpot and barbecue dual-use stoves, and various tools, but unfortunately no meat or vegetables.

Lian Qing looked at the sponge board on the sea and then at the empty plates on the tables. He had a bad feeling.

As expected, the director shouted with a loudspeaker, “I promised Lian Qing that we would have hotpot and barbecue for lunch today. However, due to budget constraints, you must work hard and get the plates with the names of meat and vegetables on the sponge board. After you get them, you can exchange them for the corresponding things.”

They had tricked the program group again. Feeling self-righteous and unlucky, Lian Qing raised his hand and asked, “Director, what does the budget have to do with this game?”

“Yeah, if the budget is limited, why play? Just give us the meat directly. Otherwise, the game will surely be a waste of resources!” someone else chimed in.

The director remained calm and said, “Oh, this has nothing to do with the budget. I just said it casually. Now, let me explain the rules.”

The people who play this game must wear roller skates with four wheels and step on the sponge board. The surface of the sponge board is smooth, and once the skates step on it, they will inevitably slide forward, making it difficult for everyone to grab the things on the shelves.

Li Chengsi exclaimed: “It’s good enough to get two things!”

“Yeah! The director is getting worse and worse, always making these difficult things.”

“Ten of them… I’d be happy with just half.”

……

Lian Qing looked at the ten shelves in distress. Judging from the amount of food he had eaten at the hot pot restaurants he had been to, he might not even be able to eat all ten without a main dish.

Before he could finish worrying, the staff brought the roller skates. Since they were specially prepared with four wheels, everyone could easily stand on the sand after putting them on.

The first to take on the challenge was Qian Linsen. He stepped on the sponge board with confidence, and his shoes moved slightly. The next second, a burst of high-pitched male voices echoed on the beach.

“Ah ah ah ah…”

Screams rang out for a few seconds, followed by a “plop” as Qian Linsen fell into the water, becoming a soaked chicken instead of retrieving anything from the shelves.

Without thinking, Lian Qing shrunk his neck and watched as the staff dragged Qian Linsen ashore, feeling a chill in his heart.

The second person to go up was Sun Yazhi, who also slid all the way over and quickly grabbed two plaques. Once onshore, he saw that one was vegetable and the other meat, which was not bad.

Next was Li Chengsi, who used his weight and skill to his advantage and retrieved three plaques, two vegetables, and one meat.

The only ones left were Luo Zisheng and Lian Qing. Luo Zisheng stomped onto the sponge board, his mind and body were both agile. He directly pounced on the frontmost shelf, tightly grasped it, and smoothly retrieved a plaque. Afterward, he repeated the same strategy and pounced toward the next shelf… until he was ready to pounce toward the fifth shelf, but his angle was off and he fell into the water.

After being rescued and brought ashore, Luo Zisheng happily waved four plaques in front of Lian Qing, saying, “Little Monk, this method works. You can refer to it.”

Lian Qing handed him a towel and shook his head. “It’s too unstable.” He was mainly worried that four dishes wouldn’t be enough for him to eat!

“Okay, then you figure out a way yourself. Jiayou.”

“Thank you.” Lian Qing finished speaking and stood in front of the sponge board, taking a deep breath.

Suddenly, behind him, Luo Zisheng’s voice rang out with great moving and tragic flavor, “The wind whistles as the cold water ripples; once a hero embarks, he never returns…”

Lian Qing turned to look at him and said seriously, “I will come back. Thank you!”

After saying that, he didn’t care about what others thought and stepped onto the sponge board. Before even starting, his feet were slipping a bit. He calmly stood in place and recalled the “loophole” in the drilling rule that Luo Zisheng had taught him.

He shifted his center of gravity down, took a few steps forward, and slipped to the point where he couldn’t move forward. Lian Qing gritted his teeth, lifted one foot, and stomped hard.

With a loud “bang,” one of the little monk’s feet penetrated the sponge board, firmly holding his stance. Next, he lifted the other foot and stomped down again with another “bang.”

Lian Qing calmly lifted the foot that had sunk into the sponge board behind him, extended it forward, and stomped down again…

In this way, step by step, he “walked” to the first shelf and gracefully took one of the cards. Then, he continued toward the next shelf…

Onlookers: “WTF!!!”

Prop master: “My props…”