Chapter 51: Australia
Regardless of how the online melon-eaters made a fuss, these disturbing gossips couldn’t get transmitted to Sulawesi Island where the signal was intermittent.
Because of the volcanic eruption and tsunami landing, local communication and transportation were greatly affected. It was not until the fourth day after the earthquake that Su Jishi finally reunited with the large crew she got separated from.
Mu Xiulun specially sent a bus to the town’s evacuation center to pick up all the staff of the program. The town was already poor, and no good houses could be found in the village. Hence, the government personnel, who were sent there, gave priority to their own citizens affected by the disaster. Consequently, the program group could only be crowded in a military green tent for the recent days, regardless of gender and status. They all crowded in a large bed at night. The mere rustle of leaves in the wind woke them up, and they simply couldn’t rest.
Compared with this temporary settlement, the dorms Mu Xiulun provided probably were many times better. There were doors, windows and roofs. Electricity was also installed in the shelter, along with collective bathrooms, public toilets…Such simple dormitories would not have been on their radar a few days ago. However, now that they were staying in it, it gave them a trance-like feeling of being in a five-star hotel.
Others were busy showering and organizing the dormitory, but Xiao Xia couldn’t care less about those things and rushed to Su Jishi. She looked her up and down for a long time, giggling and shedding tears at the same time.
“Sister Su…” Xiao Xia cried with joy, “You-You are fine! When you fell, I thought you…”
Su Jishi laughed and raised her hand to wipe away her tears while coaxing her, “How many times have I told you? A fall down a small ditch of three meters can not kill me. Stop crying. If others see it, they will think that I am a big star, exploiting my young assistant.”
Xiao Xia sniffled, her eyes dark and bright with tears: “As long as you’re okay, I’m willing to be exploited by you for the rest of my life!”
Su Jishi, however, countered, “How old are you, yet you’re saying ‘for life’?”
Not to mention that she wouldn’t be a celebrity for life, Xiao Xia also wouldn’t be a second-rate assistant forever, ah. No matter how high the salary was, assistants merely do miscellaneous jobs. It was a serious path for her to develop in the direction of executive agents, managers and brokerage directors in the future.
Su Jishi’s days in the entertainment industry were numbered, and was now on the countdown. But the silly girl, Xiao Xia, beside her, kept chasing after her like a little tail with ignorance and enthusiasm, hoping that she would fly higher and higher.
Su Jishi had a headache. When exactly was a good time to tell Xiao Xia the truth of the matter?
……
At noon, Secretary Gao led the program group to the canteen for lunch.
Mu Xiulun also found a Chinese cook somewhere, and the simple rice in a big pot was cooked with all colors and flavors. The staff of the program had not eaten such appetizing Chinese food for ten days, so like a whirlwind sweeping by, they all wiped down the dining table.
Mu Xiulun was the boss after all, and would not be crowded with others for dinner. At every mealtime, an appointed person would deliver his meals to his office. During the previous days, Su Jishi accompanied him for meals in his office, but today, he waited until the food was cold, but Su Jishi was still nowhere to be seen.
He looked at his watch and asked, “Where is Su Jin? Why hasn’t she come for lunch?”
Secretary Gao replied, “Miss Su has already finished eating.”
“…”
Secretary Gao said, “Miss Su said that since everyone from the crew has arrived, she will eat with the crew from now on.”
“…” There was no visible change in Mu Xiulun’s expression, and he nodded calmly and said, “Okay.”
After saying that, he picked up his chopsticks and finished the lunch in front of him with an impeccable elegance, grain by grain.
It was just that a strange thought popped in his mind —— Had he known this, he might as well have let the program group be stuck in the evacuation center for a few more days.
……
After eating and drinking enough, it was time to start discussing business.
The Chief Director, several PDs and screenwriters sat around a small table, patting their bulging bellies while discussing pressing issues.
The Chief Director said, “Signal came through last night. I talked to the station manager on the phone, and he said that the current online public opinion is now very unfavorable to our crew. Several support groups even organized fans to go and line up at the TV station, demanding the station to give an account.”
Screenwriter A was dumbfounded: “What statement are they after? It’s a natural disaster. We didn’t expect it.”
The Chief Director said helplessly, “Exactly. Fans are scolding us for ‘not expecting’ it. Presently, their biggest question is why the crew did a poor job at emergency planning before filming and chose such a dangerous place to shoot, thus subjecting several artists in such danger.”
Fans’ love for their idols were understandable, but some irrational fans did things that really gave them a headache.
PD B said, “My phone is also going to explode from calls from agencies.”
Chief Director: “Are they calling to scold you?”
PD B: “Not really. The agency is very polite, but they required us to arrange for the artists’ return to China as soon as possible. The rest is all work: Qin Qiu has an upcoming male lead drama; Chen Gangyu has two variety shows to shoot; Yan Changhui and Wei Jing left a crew on leave, and now the whole crew is waiting for their return; Su Jin has two New Year’s Eve parties to record their… ”
Chief Director: “Aigoo, I’m doomed.”
Big shots knocking against big shots. Near the end of the year, artists were also busy working around the clock, and their daily time had to be broken into several pieces. They managed to get six days to come to Sulawesi for ‘wilderness survival’, but it turned out to be ‘volcano survival’ by mistake. For this reason, they were delayed on the island for several days.
Online, the 《Wilderness Winner》program group was trapped in the matter that detonated countless ‘hot’. No matter which website was opened, there were viral posts everywhere, discussing the incident. Fans flocked to their official Weibo account with half of them, scolding the crew, and the other half, praying for the safe return of their idols. It had been a wonder how many fans stayed up all night.
For the TV station and the program group, it was hard to bear the pressure from the agency and the scolding from the fans.
When all was said and done, everything returned to the most basic question —— When exactly could they return home?
The airport on Sulawesi had been closed for several days because of the volcanic ash spread. According to the information available at present, the airport could finally reopen tomorrow afternoon.
Sulawesi was a bizarre K-shaped island, with a small international airport in the north, center and south, allowing travelers to fly to the neighboring countries of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and then travel back to China from there. The problem was that tickets to the three countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei were now selling at sky-high prices. Moreover, there was no lack of market, but it was simply impossible to purchase one.
When they were discussing the flight issue, the group did not shy away from the artists and even took the initiative to ask them if they had any personal connections to get a ticket back to China.
Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. If they had connections, would they still be stuck here?
Xiao Xia folded her hands and prayed silently, hoping that a plane would descend from the sky to take them back to the distant embrace of the great rooster((大公鸡/great rooster – not sure about this. Does it mean motherland??)) with a whoosh.
“—— Why don’t you fly to Australia?”
Suddenly, a clear voice came from behind the crowd.
Everyone subconsciously looked behind them, only to see Su Jishi sitting at the edge of the crowd with one hand on her cheek while the other was playing with a randomly picked stone. The stone was irregular in shape and dark all over, but its darkness was transparent and clear. Suddenly, it looked like a piece of glass0 If there were experts present, they would have discovered that the stone was not as ordinary as it looked. In fact, it was a piece of volcanic glass —— In short, a vitreous rock formed by rapid cooling and contraction after magma was ejected..
The girl’s long, white and slender fingers fiddled with the piece of vitreous rock and spoke languidly.
“If we talk about straight-line distance alone, Indonesia is closer to Australia. It takes a full ten hours to fly back home from here, counting transit time, but it only takes two hours to fly to the Northern Territory, the northernmost point of Australia,” she chuckled, “Once we get to Australia, will you still be afraid of not being able to buy tickets back home?”
Peek-Aboo 
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