Chapter 16: Banquet

After Chu Qin had breakfast, he received a call from his agent Zhao Bai.

"Thirty-thousand?" Chu Qin carried a cup of hot tea, his eyebrows raised slightly. In addition to regularly filming for the program at the broadcasting station, Chu Qin also partic.i.p.ated in many business activities such as hosting commercial performances. The price quoted for him usually varied from eighteen-thousand to twenty-thousand. The other party offering thirty-thousand was indeed very good already, no wonder Zhao Bai did not reject it.

"At first, I said you have been in poor health recently and are not accepting commercial performances for the time being. The other party then offered this price, so I thought I'll ask you about it first," Zhao Bai looked at the quotation in his hand and wavered.

Hearing that it was a banquet for celebrities, Chu Qin was somewhat tempted. This sort of banquet was no different from an evening party. The process was relatively simple and there was no program, he only needed to recite some lines during the interval between the dancing and speak during the opening and ending.

"What's wrong?" Zhong Yibin held a cup of tea and came over. Seeing the creases on Chu Qin's brow, he came up and kissed his brow.

"Where is the banquet?" Chu Qin, who had originally been about to agree, regained his rationality with this gentle kiss and asked suspiciously.

"At Yunshan Hot Springs, the one opened by Zhou Clan. The banquet is also hosted by Zhou Clan," Zhao Bai honestly answered.

Wasn't Zhou Clan Zhou Zimeng's family… Chu Qin's eyebrows creased. 'Zhao-ge, help me reject it."

"Alright. What is most important is the body, money can be earned at any time," Zhao Bai didn't continue persuading him. He was aware of Chu Qin's condition and knew that he had not regained his agility. It was best not to go.

After ending the call, Chu Qin's heart ached slightly over that thirty-thousand. His annual salary at Shengs.h.i.+ amounted to about thirty-thousand. This sort of price for a commercial performance was a big paycheck, it was enough to buy Zhong Yibin a watch.

He just ended the call when Zhong Yibin received his brother's call.

"Come with me to Jinyun mountain the following day, the Zhou family is hosting a banquet," The Zhong family also had a stake in the Zhou family's new project. This time, the number of people going weren't few so Zhong Jiabin wanted to bring his brother along to get to know some people.

Zhong Yibin didn't really want to go but was reprimanded by his brother and ended up agreeing reluctantly.

The Zhong family brothers were invited to the banquet and at the same time, the Zhou family quoted a high price to invite him to host… Chu Qin slowly clenched his fists. Was this truly a coincidence?

Zhao Bai saw that the other party was a little unhappy after he helped Chu Qin to reject the offer so he recommended Lin Xiaoxiao. Lin Xiaoxiao and Chu Qin were under the same agent. To Zhao Bai, there was no difference between these two people.

The other party was Zhou father's secretary. His boss wanted to invite Chu Qin because the collaboration between the Big Fish Group and Shengs.h.i.+ was a good topic to converse about with the CEO of Big Fish. Inviting Lin Xiaoxiao wasn't much different from inviting Chu Qin, so he agreed. However, because the person had changed, the price also went down. In the end, the deal was settled at twenty-five thousand.

"Zhao Dabao[1], in any case, why didn't you bring it up to twenty-six thousand, twenty-five thousand is too difficult to hear!" Lin Xiaoxiao heard her agent's offer and was so mad that her nose became askew.

"Don't call me Zhao Dabao!" Zhao Bai was somewhat miserable. His real name was Zhao Dabao. After coming to the capital city to work, he felt that this name was too shameful, and he should be called Zhao Bai. "Since you look down on this figure, then let it be twenty-four thousand," Zhao Bai[2] was full of resentment and shoved her down from her high horse.

"Hey, don't!" Lin Xiaoxiao hurriedly stopped him. If it was difficult to hear, let it be difficult to hear. It was still money.

On the day of the banquet, Big brother's secretary sent two sets of formal attire over. If Zhong Yibin refused to part from Chu Qin, then Chu Qin would have to go along. However, Chu Qin just rejected the banquet using his body's condition as the reason. If he went with Zhong Yibin, it would undoubtedly be slapping the Zhou family's face. Thus, Zhong Yibin could only go alone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening! Welcome to the banquet hosted by the Zhou Group. I am the host Lin Xiaoxiao," Lin Xiaoxiao was wearing a red cheongsam[3], revealing her s.e.xy figure. Although she often acted like a lunatic on the show, she was once an artist known for her figure and beauty before she became a host.

There were many men attending the banquet and seeing such a host, they were naturally happy.

"Zhou Director is really ingenious, inviting Lin Xiaoxiao to host," The people surrounding father Zhou clinked their cups against his.

"Haha, this was Meng Meng's idea," father Zhou smiled and praised his family's daughter. There were more topics to chat about after having invited the host of a variety show.

Zhou Zimeng wore a white dress with a diamond-cut. Standing beside her father, she knocked gla.s.ses with other people and smiled slightly, yet her eyes revealed some dissatisfaction. She knew that Zhong Yibin would be invited to the banquet. It would be fun if Chu Qin had been the one hosting today, but unfortunately…

Her eyes roamed around in search of Zhong Yibin's silhouette. She heard that he would come tonight.

"Jiabin, you came!" Father Zhou's eyes caught the Zhong family's brothers standing at the other end of the hall and walked over with his daughter. Whenever they met someone familiar, they would greet the person, only reaching their spot after having expended a lot of effort.

"Uncle Zhou," Zhong Jiabin nodded slightly. He knocked the gla.s.s of red wine in his hand against father Zhou's.

"Your father didn't come?" Father Zhou asked casually.

"Father is overseas, he couldn't rush back in time," Zhong Jiabin spoke at a measured pace. Despite being younger than Father Zhou by twenty or more years, his momentum did not lose to his at all.

The Zhong family's heir was more powerful than even his father, he couldn't afford to offend him. Father Zhou did not dare to be careless and smiled, anxiously gesturing to the daughter behind him. "Meng Meng, why aren't you saying anything after seeing Jiabin-ge?"

"Jiabin-ge, Yibin-ge," Zhou Zimeng greeted the two with a smile.

Father Zhou looked at the Zhong family's two sons outfitted in similar suits. One was enigmatic, and the other was bright and handsome. Both were good candidates for his son-in-law. However, he was still more interested in Zhong Jiabin, he was the Zhong family's heir after all. Zhong Yibin was just a wanderer who was unable to support the family business.

"My father originally wanted to invite Chu Qin," Zhou Zimeng smiled and said. "In the end, we didn't succeed. What a pity."

"Indeed! Your company's Chu Qin is quite a big-shot, even I can't invite him," Father Zhou pretended to be angry, his speech carrying traces of contempt.

Zhong Yibin frowned a little. So the work that Chu Qin rejected in the morning was this. His bones were not healed yet, Zhong Yibin didn't even dare to let Chu Qin remove his clothes himself yet these people wanted to use thirty-thousand to let his baby work while sick… Thinking about this, Zhong Yibin's face turned cold.

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Qin Qin: Ah thirty-thousand, I really want

Er Bing: What can thirty-thousand make you do

Qin Qin: Move my mouth for two hours

Er Bing: I'll give you thirty-thousand, you just need to move for half an hour

Qin Qin: ….. Dirty fly

[1] 大寶: large treasure

[2] It was Lin Xiaoxiao in the raws, but the sentence wouldn't make sense in that case so I changed it to Zhao Bai. It should be an error on the author's end.

[3] A traditional Chinese straight, body-hugging dress with a high neck and slit skirt:

Translator's corner: Am I the only one who's surprised Chu Qin didn't go Ö