The longed-for village system

Chapter 294 Testing
"Thump!" Old Wang swallowed hard, and asked Chen Qing warily, "Little Chen, what are you trying to do? Let me tell you, our program is being filmed! Don't do anything reckless."

Although Teacher He would occasionally cheat and take advantage of them, and Teacher Huang would often use trickery and force to threaten them, what scared him the most was Chen Qing, especially her smile, which perfectly matched the idiom "a smile that hides a dagger," and was a bright, gleaming butcher's knife.

"Mr. Wang, why are you standing so far away? I'm not going to eat you, I just wanted to say a few words." Chen Qing took a step forward and hooked his arm around Old Wang's shoulder, starting to calculate, "Mr. Wang, as the saying goes, even close brothers should keep clear accounts. Since you brought it up, let's also settle accounts for last night's concert! We won't go into too much, but there must have been at least one yuan per person, right? There were at least five thousand people there yesterday! So, you should give us 5000 yuan, and we'll be generous and not bother with the change."

Upon hearing Chen Qingyi's calculation, Lao Wang's brow twitched involuntarily. If the money was handed over, the show wouldn't need to be recorded anymore, and these people could eat well every day and support the show until the end.

"No, we didn't charge you yesterday, so you didn't get any income from your performance last night." Old Wang decisively found a reason to refuse.

"What? Free? We were doing a commercial performance yesterday to earn our living expenses. We trusted you so much to entrust you with the job of collecting money, and you just offered it for free on your own? Are you planning to pay for it out of your own pocket? That's impressive! Mr. Wang, you're so generous."

Chen Qing reached out his hand to ask Lao Wang for money. Peng Peng and his sister followed suit and reached out to ask for money, saying that even if they couldn't help but cooperate with Brother Chen to ask for money, it wouldn't be a problem.

Teacher Huang also spoke up, "Mr. Wang, you handle this matter as you see fit! One yuan per person is a profit for you no matter how you calculate it. Don't force us to resolve this with force. You should know that we know the location of your kitchen."

Faced with Huang Sanshi's threats, Lao Wang and the others were once again helpless. He was sure that Huang Sanshi would do such a thing. The rules of the show were meaningless to him. Wasn't that how the rules of the Extreme Challenge show disappeared?

"Mr. Wang, please speak up. Do you think it's too much or too little for us to put on a show with so many people? Why don't you ask some netizens if it's too much for us to charge one yuan?"

Teacher He also chimed in, even trying to sway the majority of netizens to their side. He believed that the netizens would definitely stand by them, since everyone wanted them to hold such a performance again next time.

Moreover, 5000 yuan for a performance is practically nothing to them. The lowest-paid commercial performances here cost less than 100,000 yuan. Even the least popular Nazha earns 100,000 yuan per performance, not to mention Zhang Yixin. Chen Qing is priceless.

Old Wang naturally understood this principle. Given their combined value, 5000 yuan would at most be enough for a congratulatory video. However, since they were recording a program, he couldn't possibly give them 5000 yuan.

"Mr. Wang, I'll give you two choices: either give us 5000 yuan, or you won't charge us any fees from now on." Chen Qing gave Mr. Wang two options directly.

Perhaps knowing that this matter could not be avoided, after thinking for a while, they finally made a decision: "We really can't give you 5000 yuan. How about 3000 yuan? This is the most money we can offer you."

Old Wang had also calculated the amount of money. There were still 11 episodes left, and with 3000 yuan, that would only be less than 300 yuan per episode. Spending less than 300 yuan in two days wouldn't make them very wealthy. They could also try to invite some young people with smaller fan bases later on. It seemed that the 3000 yuan wouldn't last long before it was all gone.

The group decided to stop while they were ahead. They were quite satisfied with getting 3000 yuan from Lao Wang. Of course, Chen Qing still extorted some ingredients from Lao Wang for lunch, and Lao Wang handed them over without hesitation. He had already given 3000 yuan, so he didn't mind paying for lunch.

After lunch, Nazha left the Mushroom House, but filming continued. Having finally secured the golden duo of Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat, Old Wang wasn't about to let this rare opportunity slip by. During their lunch break, the group exchanged glances, preparing to take action. Of course, all of this was done secretly, behind Chen Qing's back. Although her sister saw them, she had no idea what they were up to.

"Brother Chen, I have a movie to participate in next. The character I play knows some martial arts and street dance. Can you teach me a little?" Peng Peng was the first to speak, but he wasn't lying. The character he was going to play was indeed like that.

"Dancing? That's Yixin's specialty! You should learn from him, I don't know how."

After hearing Peng Peng's words, Chen Qing turned around. Of course, he didn't doubt Peng Peng's motives for saying this; he really thought Peng Peng was an all-around expert.

"Brother Chen, I study hip-hop, and I don't know any martial arts, so I can't teach Peng Peng this. Why don't you teach Peng Peng a couple of moves?"

Zhang Yixin decisively refused, saying that even if he knew street dance, he wouldn't teach Peng Peng. Their purpose in testing Chen Qing was to see if he knew martial arts, not to test his dancing skills.

"But I've never learned dance! I can do some aerobics, but street dance is out of the question!"

Seeing that Chen Qing denied it again, the group did not give up. It is natural for martial arts masters to keep a low profile and not want to reveal their skills. This time, the elders spoke up.

"Xiao Chen, don't hold back. You may not know how to dance, but you must know martial arts! Everyone has their own skills. Just teach Peng Peng a couple of moves to make filming the movie go more smoothly." Huang Sanshi directly mentioned martial arts, as he wasn't very interested in dancing.

"Is there any restriction on Xiao Chen? I've heard that martial arts skills cannot be passed on privately in many places." Teacher He seemed to be backing down, but in reality, he was pushing Chen Qing to admit it.

"There should be some! I heard that there are stricter regulations on this here, so let's not pressure Xiao Chen." Stephen Chow also spoke up at the right time.

Seeing the group speak one after another, Chen Qing became suspicious and asked them, "What's wrong with you guys? Why are you asking me if I know martial arts? What are you planning?"

"No, what can we plan? We just wanted to help Pengpeng if you could, since you're probably the only one among us who could do it," Teacher He explained.

Chen Qing nodded, accepting Teacher He's explanation. However, he still felt that these people were acting strangely today, as if they were planning something behind his back. Could it be that they were talking about this all night?

The Mushroom House returned to tranquility for the time being. Because Chen Qing had just become suspicious, the group dared not continue to probe. However, Chen Qing's reaction only confirmed their guess. The group never thought that Chen Qing really didn't know the answer, rather than just pretending.

(End of this chapter)