Chapter 49: Topic

Carrying a man while doing squats was not easy. Mu Chen and Zhong Yibin stubbornly went head to head, their pace increasing.

"Thirty-one, thirty-three… Forty-four, forty-five…" Lin Xiaoxiao was counting enthusiastically at a corner. The audience also followed along to count very excitedly. The pace of the two teams gradually differed. Lin Xiaoxiao counted for one team while Zhu Chang counted for the other.

Zhong Yibin appeared extremely relaxed, he had long gotten used to hugging Chu Qin. The two people seemed to blend into one another. Chu Qin even had the leeway to pick the microphone up to say two statement, "I have this feeling that I'm sitting on a merry-go-round, a spoilt turntable."

The audience erupted into laughter. A merry-go-round would have up-down motions, along with the turning movements of a record player. If the record player was spoilt, the only thing left would be the up-down motions. Just thinking about such a scene was quite entertaining.

Zhong Yibin was holding his breath to improve his strength and thus couldn't laugh. As punishment, he pinched Chu Qin's leg. Chu Qin promptly behaved himself and plopped himself over Zhong Yibin's shoulder without moving.

"My G.o.d… Being a fan to this extent, wouldn't it be considered as dying without regrets…" The girl who gave Zhong Yibin the LED board covered her mouth, excited beyond compare. Just thinking about hugging Qin-ge and having him tightly plastered to her excited her enough to send her into a dead faint.

"Seventy-three, seventy-four…" The content gradually reached a climax.

Mu Chen seemed calm and relaxed but in fact, he was gradually reaching his limit. His palms were sweaty only because the person he was carrying was Qiao Su. Moreover, their position was awkward and was draining after a long period of time. Qiao Su could also feel the strain on him and he turned to watch the two people on the other side.

Those two guys were already an old couple, carrying and being carried was like a walk in the park for them, their bodies blended together well. If not for the fact that there was an audience, Chu Qin would probably place both his legs on Chu Qin's body.

"Chen-ge, if you're tired forget about it…" Qiao Su felt the drop of sweat that flowed down Mu Chen's face to land on his, as well as the breaths were becoming increasingly labored.

"It's no trouble," Mu Chen said lightly and continued the up-down motions.

Qiao Su pursed up his lips, gritted his teeth and grabbed tightly onto Mu Chen. He mimicked Chu Qin's movements and plastered his entire person onto Mu Chen's body. Half his weight was on Mu Chen's shoulders, suggesting that he was a sack.

The closeness of the warm body caused Mu Chen to suddenly burst out with energy, involuntarily increasing the speed of his movements.

"It's about here, let the guests win," Chu Qin patted Zhong Yibin's back and said in a soft voice.

"No!" Zhong Yibin humphed. Mu Chen had never been pleasing to his eyes. After much difficulty, he had an opportunity to beat him down. He couldn't lose no matter what!

"Ninety-two, ninety-three…" The sound of Lin Xiaoxiao counting dragged on the longer it went. This implied that the squatting movements were becoming slower and slower. In the broadcasting room, Teacher Liang watched dumbstruck, internally saying that this week's program would definitely blow up; The film emperor and Shengs.h.i.+'s director engaging in a battle of strength till they were red in the face…

Mu Chen's consumption of energy was significant in the early stage hence his movements became more and more difficult to do. On the other hand, Zhong Yibin was alright. Though he was also dripping sweat like rain, he could still endure it.

"117, 118, one hundred… Ah!" The last number had yet to be counted when Mu Chen's arms loosened, causing Qiao Su to slide down. He quickly reached out his hands to grab him, the two of them falling onto the long-prepared padded mats.

Qiao Su was pressed underneath Mu Chen and he raised his head to watch him blankly. The two of them were extremely close, even their breaths could be felt. Mu Chen panted heavily, sweat trickling down the graceful contours of his chin and dripping onto Qiao Su's neck, before it flowed down his collarbone.

"119, 120, victory!" Zhu Chang on the other end was still counting. The minute he saw them, he instantly burst into cheer.

Zhong Yibin carried Chu Qin as he fell onto the padded mats with a satisfied heart. Taking advantage of the chaos, he pecked Chu Qin on the lips.

Shocked, Chu Qin almost forgot to breathe. Blatantly kissing him under the eyes of so many people and the camera lens was really too exciting.

The good thing was that Zhong Yibin knew his limits. He only gave him a peck before moving away slumping over his body motionlessly like a dead dog.

"Director Zhong, the compet.i.tion is over, don't take advantage of the host," Zhu Chang smiled mischievously and went up to drag people. Lin Xiaoxiao also did the same on the other side.

Father Zhong, who was seated in front of the television, had noticed the intimate att.i.tude of the two and his face was a little dark. "This dirty youngster, it must have been on purpose."

The Zhong family's big brother had already gotten used to it and was very calm.

"How are the ratings this week?" Father Zhong turned and asked his eldest son.

Zhong Jiabin knew that his father couldn't bear to continue watching and was finding something out of nothing to talk about, "Father, we're watching the broadcast, the ratings haven't come out yet." It wasn't like his father wasn't aware that the ratings could not be seen on the spot.

Father Zhong pretended to make a sound of approval and turned back to continue watching the program.

The ending was only shown after the group of people had rested backstage. Thus, on television, Zhong Yibin and Mu Chen no longer had the appearance of being red in the face. It was just that Zhong Yibin still had yet to go down and was hanging around on stage with Chu Qin.

This week's ratings had indeed blown up. Chu Qin's fans were pleasantly surprised and fervently expressed that in the past, they had felt that no one was compatible with their Qin-ge but the minute they saw the ruthlessly handsome Director Zhong, they only thought of kneeling down to sing praises.

Chu Qin and Zhong Yibin were also at home watching the broadcast. According to his usual practice, Chu Qin would send out a Weibo post after the broadcast and thank that day's guests. Chu Qin sent out a post thanking the cast of

and wis.h.i.+ng them high viewers.h.i.+p, before thanking Director Zhong for his guest appearance. He also tagged Zhong Yibin's Weibo account.

After that, he switched to Zhong Yibin's Weibo account and forwarded his post.

"You're quite quick," Zhong Yibin s.h.i.+fted over and slumped on his shoulder to look.

"En… Eh?" Chu Qin made an indifferent sound of agreement when he suddenly saw a hot topic t.i.tled 'Zhong Qin' on the interface. Originally, Mu Chen and Qiao Su were a pair in the drama so when they broadcasted the program, they also hyped up this couple. However, the topic 'Mu Qiao[1]' had yet to rise when this mysterious 'Zhong Qin' had already made it to the top.

When he clicked on it, the content revolved around him and Zhong Yibin. The host for this topic was actually one of Chu Qin's deadly loyal fans. Chu Qin had some impression of her.

[I saw Director Zhong the last time during the program recording. I even tried to pull him into our society. I feel ashamed now that I think about it, ahahahahah!]

[Director Zhong is actually one of Qin-ge's loyal fans, too cute!]

The shots of Zhong Yibin off-stage this week had been cut during the program's editing process and thus hadn't been broadcasted. But the eyes of the ma.s.ses were sharp, and someone dug out the shots of Zhong Yibin when he attended the previous recording. The shots were edited out and swept onto the audience's screens. The young director was dressed in a black suit, his hair inch-length, his hands holding on to an LED board with the words 'Qin Qin' written on it, and his expression serious and strict.

[Goodness gracious, Director Zhong is too cute, I'm about to suffocate!]

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Er Bing: Hehe, they called me cute

Qin Qin: It's cute as long as you guys come

Er Bing: I can be even more fierce[2]! (pounces)

Qin Qin: Oh… I wasn't talking about this!

Lala, I'm the cute ma.n.u.script deposit box. The chick has gone to receive Man Man and only gave me this little bit. You guys can survive on this, *digs nose*.

[1] Interestingly, this sounds like a s.h.i.+p name but the 'Mu' and 'Qiao' characters here have a different meaning to the ones in the characters' names. When placed together, it's translated as log bridge haha.

[2] So there's some word play going on here: the word used for cute here is Meng (which some of you may be familiar with) and the word for fierce is also Meng, just p.r.o.nounced differently.