Xiao He sighed inwardly for a moment before closing his laptop again.
This matter truly could only follow Qu Qiuyan's own wishes; outsiders couldn't force it. Perhaps only her biological son, Lin Yipeng, might be able to persuade her.
But no one knew how long that would take.
Xiao He still felt some regret. After all, Thief Catcher had achieved good results, and he really liked this movie. It was just a pity... whatever, no point thinking too much about it—these were issues for the director to consider.
Xiao He temporarily put this matter aside, washed up, and went to bed.
The next day, Xiao He and his group prepared to take the small boat back to the island.
However, today, the area near their boarding point was quite lively.
Just after parking the car in the open-air parking lot, before Xiao He even got out, he saw from a distance that the beach area was crowded with people.
Xiao He was somewhat surprised: "Is it the weekend today? Why are there so many people here?"
Xiao Chen also wondered suspiciously beside him: "Brother Xiao, has our schedule been exposed? Are there more paparazzi and fans coming?"
The previous experience with paparazzi on the island was still fresh in Xiao Chen's memory, so seeing so many people, this thought instinctively popped into his head.
Xiao He also looked at Liu Rulan.
Liu Rulan would definitely know more about these situations than they did.
Sure enough, after observing for a while by the car window, Liu Rulan gave the all-clear: "It should be some variety show crew here to record their program. It has nothing to do with us."
She checked her phone for a moment before finally remembering: "It's the crew of 'Fearless Journey'."
"Fearless Journey?" Xiao He recalled, "Isn't that the challenge-based one?"
"It's called a large-scale outdoor competitive reality show," Liu Rulan said, using a relatively professional term. "To put it bluntly, it's about several celebrities divided into teams competing against each other, challenging some extreme or impossible tasks to attract viewers' attention."
Xiao He: "I think I've watched it before."
Fearless Journey was considered a national-level veteran variety show. Xiao He quite enjoyed watching it on TV when he was younger, but as he grew up, he gradually lost interest in such programs.
And to be honest, most variety shows nowadays had indeed become boring and lacked originality.
"They probably invited some big traffic star this time," Liu Rulan said, getting out of the car first.
She said to Xiao He inside the car: "Director Liu of this program crew also has an unusual background. Since we're passing by, I'll go greet him. You wait here. Xiao Chen, go ask at the boarding point over there when we can depart."
Xiao Chen: "Okay, Sister Liu."
Xiao He nodded: "Then I'll wait for you."
After Liu Rulan and Xiao Chen left, the idle Xiao He leaned against the car window, quietly watching the scenery outside.
Just then, he suddenly heard several girls discussing behind him—
"I'm really fed up! Their program crew is way too excessive! They clearly know our Yinyin can't swim, yet they still force him into the sea. I just saw Yinyin's face turn completely pale!"
"Right? And they already filmed one round, but because the footage wasn't good enough, they made everyone compete again. It's really disgusting!"
"Can Yinyin please not participate in such variety shows next time? It hurts me just watching."
"No choice. Fearless Journey is, after all, a veteran variety show with high national recognition. It's a great resource for Yinyin. All we can do is continue supporting him."
Xiao He turned his head and saw several young girls standing behind the car next to theirs.
He overheard everything they said.
Xiao He slightly frowned.
Was the program crew really this excessive?
Fortunately, his main job now was acting, and neither he nor Sister Liu had any intention of participating in variety shows.
For Xiao He, it went without saying—he wasn't truly after the traffic from variety shows. What he wanted was to "kill" characters and the character recognition that came after it. Participating in variety shows offered him no help whatsoever.
Liu Rulan's reason was even simpler: she believed actors participating in variety shows was essentially a retirement behavior.
Variety shows neither improved professional skills nor enhanced personal value. Besides earning money and traffic by fooling around on variety shows, they provided no assistance to an actor.
Some actors' spark was worn away by various variety shows, even becoming typecast in viewers' minds, unable to play more diverse roles.
Therefore, Liu Rulan had never mentioned variety show participation to Xiao He—though appearing on shows for drama promotion was another matter entirely.
Xiao He didn't reveal himself and continued sitting in the car, listening to the girls behind him complain about the program crew's inhuman behavior.
About ten minutes later, Xiao Chen and Liu Rulan returned together.
"How did it go?"
Xiao He asked.
"The boat rental owner said there are quite a few people renting boats today and asked us to wait a bit longer," Xiao Chen first reported his situation, then complained somewhat grumpily, "We clearly made a reservation yesterday, but he's taking advantage of this opportunity to make extra money. The rented boats haven't returned yet."
Liu Rulan then said: "The Fearless Journey crew is recording a sea competition today. Probably other staff or fans followed on rented boats out to sea."
"Who exactly came today that attracted so many people?" Xiao Chen asked curiously.
Liu Rulan raised an eyebrow and looked at Xiao He.
Xiao He: ? Why look at me?
Xiao He looked completely bewildered: "What's wrong?"
Liu Rulan: "Remember that guy I casually mentioned to you yesterday?"
"Uh—" Xiao He observed Liu Rulan's expression, "The matter about the Lin or Qin surname?"
Liu Rulan snorted lightly and got in the car: "Definitely the young master Qin Yuezhang."
"Oh, him. He came to participate in this show too?" Xiao He was shocked, "He's also participating in the sea competition?"
He had just heard those girls saying how tough the competition was and how excessive the program crew was. Yet the Beijing circle young master Liu Rulan mentioned yesterday would also come to suffer like this?
This didn't match what he had imagined!
Liu Rulan seemed to have guessed Xiao He's confusion and explained quite helplessly: "Of course not. The participants for this competition were already arranged in advance by the script. How could that young master possibly participate?"
When Liu Rulan went over earlier, she saw the young master comfortably resting on a beach chair, with occasional screams and shouts from his fans nearby.
This scene formed a sharp contrast with the other artists rowing plastic boats in the seawater under the blazing sun.
After hearing Liu Rulan's words, Xiao He's expression became complicated: "...So these programs all use scripts now?"
Liu Rulan sneered: "Right, most have scripts. Even many viral memorable moments were pre-arranged scripts by the program crew. In the end, both parties at the center of the event gain traffic and attention, while only the viewers genuinely get angry."
"For example, their competition just now—they had to reshoot because the results didn't match the script's predetermined winning team."
Variety shows in the past might have had some genuine elements, but now...
Don't ask—if you ask, it's actors with three parts emotion, acting out seven parts of your tears. Even Liu Rulan herself sometimes couldn't tell if it was purely performed for the show's effect or genuine emotional expression.