Chapter 19 : This News Is Really Interesting
Chapter 19 - This News Is Really Interesting
Friday.
Chen Ran sat in front of his computer and let out a yawn.
He had gone to the Zhang house again last night, and Zhang Fanzhi had called.
The two of them had to create the effect of being in love without letting the secret slip, so they naturally spent quite a bit of time on the phone.
As a result, it got too late, so Chen Ran stayed over at the Zhang house.
He stayed in Zhang Fanzhi's room...
The room was filled with Zhang Fanzhi's scent; he felt uncomfortable all over and couldn't sleep for half the night.
"What, the program is about to air, so you're too nervous and didn't rest well?" Liu Bing asked amusingly upon seeing him yawning constantly.
"A little bit," Chen Ran smiled unnaturally, then asked, "Isn't Director Liu nervous?"
Liu Bing said, "I'm a bit nervous, but I've done so many programs that it hasn't reached the point of being unable to sleep."
He was in his forties and had been in the industry for over ten years; he was rich in experience and had produced many shows.
He had also produced programs for Satellite TV, though not as the general director—he was just a segment director for a talent show back then.
After making programs all these years and weathering many storms, his mental state had strengthened considerably.
Chen Ran thought to himself: Actually, I'm not that nervous either. With the program finished and about to air, being nervous is useless.
He did have expectations, though. After all, it was the first program where he was a core creator, so he naturally wanted to see how it would turn out.
"Actually, being nervous is quite good; at least it proves you're still young. When you've done a lot later and find you're not nervous, that would mean you're old." Liu Bing patted Chen Ran's shoulder.
Chen Ran smiled. He originally wanted to say he was only twenty-three and far from the word "old."
But seeing Director Liu Bing's face full of wrinkles, he thought about it and decided not to say such heart-stabbing words.
Director Liu Bing looked at Chen Ran with some envy. By now, Director Zhang's claims had basically been verified—those highly acclaimed segments in Beautiful Zhaonan were indeed all Chen Ran's ideas.
And for Zhaonan Focus, Chen Ran was even more of a core; from the creative idea to the structure and promotion, everything was his idea.
Personally, Liu Bing believed the ratings wouldn't be bad, but regardless, Chen Ran's talent was obvious.
More importantly, Chen Ran was still young—only twenty-three. He had talent and Director Zhang's care; his future was a smooth path.
Thinking back to his own ambitions of doing great things in the television field and looking at the present, Liu Bing lamented in his heart: Time is truly a butcher's knife.
From 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM, it was the time slot for a local dialect workplace sitcom. This was an old program that had aired on the Public Channel for many years and had always performed steadily.
It was also tough on the few actors; they had aged from their twenties to the present. Now they were all married in both the show and real life, yet the show was still being filmed.
For many locals, this TV drama was likely their youth and a source of nostalgia.
Once this dialect sitcom finished airing, what followed immediately was Zhaonan Focus!
This news program, which had been promoted on an overwhelming scale, was finally about to premiere!
……
Whether it was the audience in Zhaonan or elsewhere, the News Simulcast had quite a high priority.
In this time slot, if people turned on the TV, most would be watching the News Simulcast.
Previously, the Public Channel's news program in this time slot mostly just repeated the news that had just aired on the Zhaonan News Simulcast, so naturally, no one watched it.
Now that the news had suddenly been revamped, many people hadn't realized it yet.
For example, Grandpa Yang.
Usually, after he finished watching the sitcom on the Public Channel, he would turn off the TV and rest. Once his wife finished cooking, he would watch the News Simulcast while eating.
This had been his routine for over ten years without change; it was a habit.
But today was a bit different. After finishing the sitcom and about to turn off the TV, he saw an advertisement.
"Don't walk away, the upcoming program is even more exciting..."
"Up next, Zhaonan Focus will be aired!"
"Today's focus content..."
The television was still on when the news highlights began to play.
An elderly woman appeared on screen, wailing: "What a sin! How did I give birth to a son like this? What kind of karma did I accrue in my past life to deserve this!"
Then, another woman spoke: "This isn't our fault. She left on her own; we couldn't stop her even if we tried."
The elderly woman accused: "You won't give me food to eat! You won't give me a place to sleep!"
Voiceover: A seventy-year-old woman wanders the streets, suing her son and daughter-in-law for being inhumane. What is the actual truth behind this?
Then the scene shifted to the next news item.
A crowd of people pointed at an empty office, talking over each other: "Just look! The property management has completely moved out; they didn't even give us a heads-up."
"Now the whole compound is paralyzed. The elevators are broken with no one to fix them, there's trash everywhere—this property management has absolutely no professional ethics."
"If you weren't going to do the job, you should've just told us. Leaving like this, who's going to manage our neighborhood?"
Voiceover: A neighborhood property management company disappears without cause, moving out entirely in a single night. With no one to look after the compound and chaos breaking out everywhere, what is the reason behind this?
Grandpa Yang stopped his hand from turning off the TV, his interest instantly piqued.
"Zhaonan Focus? Is that the news program that's been advertising everywhere?" Grandpa Yang didn't turn off the TV, opting to wait until the commercials were over to take a look.
These few highlights had hooked his interest.
Many people shared his sentiment. There were plenty who had seen the advertisements but had no intention of watching the program, yet upon seeing the highlights, they were suddenly intrigued.
There were also many who had seen the ads and originally planned to take a look; after seeing the highlights, they felt that the show seemed quite interesting.
……
"Ha! And here I thought it was the son being unfilial. Who knew it was this old lady being so unreasonable!" After finishing the first news story, Grandpa Yang slapped his thigh.
The elderly woman had been crying about how her son wouldn't give her food or a place to sleep, but that wasn't the case at all.
She had given all her savings to her eldest son to build a house, but then she found the countryside inconvenient and insisted on living with the second son's family in the city.
This second son and his wife had two children; they both had to work and sent the kids to kindergarten. They lived in a two-bedroom apartment where the couple lived in one room with the children, while the elderly woman shared a room with her eldest grandson. The elderly woman complained that the grandson was too noisy and wanted a room of her own. The couple had no way to provide that as there were no spare rooms, and so the elderly woman threw a tantrum.
As for the claim that they wouldn't give her food, it was even more ridiculous. The second son and his wife usually rushed home from work at noon to cook for her, but because they had to work overtime for the past two days, they gave her money to go eat something outside. She was unwilling, claiming that the second son's family didn't want to cook for her, and she made a scene about running away from home.
Regarding the property management news, the company was even more wronged. During the bidding process, the neighborhood owners had excluded them and wouldn't let them participate. Naturally, they left once their contract expired. The owners had failed to reach a price agreement with other property management companies, yet they expected the old company to continue working without paying management fees. Naturally, the company refused.
Grandpa Yang felt like he was truly having his eyes opened. These were things happening right here in Zhaonan, and both of these stories were from Lin City. He had never heard such bizarre news before.
He shouted toward the back: "Tian Hui, don't start cooking yet! Come over and take a look; this news is really interesting!"