After a few hours of car ride, they finally reached the isolated Tonglin County.
After they exited the expressway, the local cars were already there to welcome their arrival.
Nan Chen got out of the car first, and shook hands with all the leaders of Tonglin County who were there to welcome them.
Ning Ran’s car continued to drive ahead, as their destination was not Tonglin County, but an isolated district that was located even further ahead.
The reporters who were waiting at Tonglin County also joined in the queue of the cars. The main entertainment media platforms for Flower City were also here, and they started various shoots to report their process.
Ning Ran suddenly felt nervous.
Just then, Cheng Xiangyun gave her a call and she asked Ning Ran to wait for her in the car for a moment.
Cheng Xiangyun also came along, but she was seated in the car with other staff members. She was able to then meet up with Ning Ran now.
A couple of minutes later, Cheng Xiangyun’s car arrived.
She switched over to Ning Ran’s car and she looked unusually excited.
“There are so many reporters! I heard that there’s more waiting over there! I have never once faced so many reporters before!” Cheng Xiangyun said excitedly.
“What’s there to get so excited about? What they do is to write false information and capture photos anyhow. The sight of reporters makes me traumatized now.” Ning Ran said.
“Not true, reporters and celebrities have a symbiotic relationship. If celebrities wish to have a high rate of attention and be influential, they require a certain degree of exposure. So what will they have to rely on? Who else could it be but the reporters? If there are no celebrities to report on in the entertainment industry, it would mean no news and hence no jobs for them. So this is a symbiotic relationship, and they are not your enemies.” Cheng Xiangyun’s point of view sounded rather logical, but it seemed like there were few reporters today that have professional ethics.
In order to get any news, they could do anything to achieve their goals. Some unscrupulous reporters even resort to breaking into the morgue of the late Queen who had just passed away in order to get shots of the dead body.
That was why Ning Ran was especially scared of this bunch of reporters as she felt that she did not have the abilities to deal with them.
“Given that there are so many reporters today, shouldn’t you be excited that it is going to be your very first time facing them?” Cheng Xiangyun asked Ning Ran.
“Do I still need to get any more exposure? I have already been attacked so badly on the Internet.” Ning Ran threw the question back to Cheng Xiangyun.
“That is different. That attention gained was not deliberate and it was negative. This time round, you’re going to gain positive viewership, as you will be working together with Beauty Zheng. You will be all over the headlines of the various entertainment media platforms. How significant is that!”
“Fine, that’s a very big deal.” Ning Ran still sounded very disinterested.
“Why do I feel like this face of yours is making me angry?” Cheng Xiangyun frowned.
“There’s a whole lot of people who get angry upon seeing this face of mine, you can get in the line and wait till it’s your turn.” Ning Ran joked.
“Let’s keep the jokes aside for now. On a serious note, I had just interacted with Zheng Lunlun’s team, we will have to coordinate with them for the flow of events today.” Cheng Xiangyun said.
“Sure, definitely.” Ning Ran said.
“That means that if the reporters ask anything later, we will try our best to answer them all to let Zheng Lunlun not speak as much as possible. He cannot speak as his throat isn’t well today.” Cheng Xiangyun said.
Ning Ran knew that it was not Zheng Lunlun’s throat that was not feeling well. It was his stuttering that made him unable to speak over five words, else he would get exposed.
“Understood.” Ning Ran nodded.
“Now look at this, these are the questions that the reporters would likely raise later. Look through the answers and memorize them by heart.” Cheng Xiangyun passed two sheets of paper to Ning Ran, which were filled with a lot of words.
“We can even get to know beforehand the sort of questions that the reporters are going to pose later?”
“Yes, the reporters here today are arranged by Nanshi Corporation. The questions that they will ask later are included within two pages. If they happen to ask anything that is out of the scope, remember to remain silent and not reply at all.”
“Not reply at all?”
“Yes, you do not reply. Just use silence to tackle those questions.” Cheng Xiangyun said.
“Will that be a little too rude?” Ning Ran doubted.
“We already have an agreement with them, if they asked anything out of the agreed scope, it is not considered rude if we were to reply to them with silence. If you try to say anything more, there is just going to be a higher chance of making mistakes. The best option is just to keep quiet.” Cheng Xiangyun said.
“Very good, I got it.” Ning Ran did not expect the entertainment industry to have so many tactics. She felt that her knowledge was expanding.
“Alright, all you have to do now is to familiarize yourself with these questions that might be posed by the reporters and learn them by heart. Also, no matter how sensitive the questions might be or how emotional or disgusting they might get when questioning you, you always have to always keep that smile on your face as there are many cameras facing you. Don’t ever pull a long face.” Cheng Xiangyun reminded her.
“I got it; I will try my best.”
“You cannot just try your best; you must do it. You have to make good use of this opportunity.”
“I got it, stop nagging at me, I need to look through these questions.”
After another long distance car ride of over an hour, they finally arrived at their destination, Zhang Zhuang School.
This should be one of the most secluded districts. There was only one school over here, hence the school was not divided into a primary section and a secondary section.
The school was very old and there were construction works going on in its surroundings. They were using the money donated by Zheng Lunlun to carry out a major refurbishment of the classrooms and the hostels.
The students have already lined up in an orderly manner in the school field to welcome the special guests from Flower City.
Ning Ran was also considered one of the main guests today as she had donated five million to the school for the building of school facilities.
Although the money was donated by Nanshi Corporation on her behalf and caused her to be in a heavy debt, she felt that it was worthwhile when she saw these students.
If she was rich, she would also make donations to this school as the students made her feel that it was worthwhile to do so.
“A warm welcome to Mr. Zheng Lunlun and to Ms. Ding Mi. Thank you for paying us a visit.” The hundreds of students on the field shouted this slogan. Ning Ran, who was exhausted from the long distance haul, instantly felt energized and was touched till she could feel tears in her eyes.
Apart from materialistic people, there are still sincere people in this world who are full of gratitude.
Ning Ran instantly understood the pride written all over Nan Chen’s face when he mentioned his charitable acts. If one were to give back to society, there would be a sense of indescribable satisfaction.
Ning Ran had not even come to her senses when Zheng Lunlun started to wave to the students to show his greetings.
It was until Cheng Xiangyun nudged her, that she realized that she should also be doing the same thing.
The reporters who were tagging along had all these recorded down.
Zheng Lunlun walked over to the field and in between the students, giving high fives to the students who were lined in an orderly manner.
It was Ning Ran’s first time doing this as she had never been a celebrity. She started to learn from Zheng Lunlun’s actions.
She suddenly felt that she was enjoying this activity. Seeing the youthful faces of the students had made her feel as if she was back in her youthful days.
Around ten minutes later, the images and videos captured of Ning Ran and Zheng Lunlun interacting with students from the poorer district were viral on the Internet.
Everyone was complimenting them.
Next, Ning Ran and Zheng Lunlun had to present a short speech, but because Zheng Lunlun had a “sore throat”, he only expressed concern towards the students and handed the responsibility of presenting a speech to Ning Ran.
Ning Ran was extremely nervous, but Cheng Xiangyun told her to just treat the students as Dabao and Erbao and just say whatever she wished to. The main aim was to allow the students to be hopeful and continue to look forward to the future.
Ning Ran was indeed calm enough to present a speech which received applause from the entire school students and teachers.
Nan Chen looked at the video clip sent by the staff member and was smiling cheek to cheek.
Although this woman is rather annoying, she has quite a potential to be a celebrity!
