Chapter 1374 - The charity banquet begins!
Chapter 1374: The charity banquet begins!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Noon.
12:30 PM.
Seoul, Korea.
The air here was clear and smog free. Other than this difference, the surrounding skyscrapers and traffic almost made it seem like back home.
At a restaurant emblazoned with Hangul, the Chinese celebrity team that was now abroad did not behave too conspicuously. They simply found a random restaurant close to the hotel and went in.
Some Koreans were pointing at them and whispering.
“Eh.”
“Look.”
“Those women are so pretty.”
“Are they celebrities?”
“They don’t look like they’re from our country, right?”
“They’re Chinese celebs!”
“Ah, that person is Zhang Ye.”
“Right, I saw a video of him yesterday!”
“It’s really him!”
“According to the news reports, he’s a hooligan.”
“He has a really bad reputation back in China.”
“Yeah, Anson-oppa was beaten up by him before.”
“During the Japanese delegation’s visit to China, he also scolded them.”
“But his singing is quite good.”
When the Chinese celebrity team first arrived in Korea after their flight, the people at the airport did not know Zhang Ye, and no one gave him much attention either. But just a day later, when the Chinese celebrity team appeared in public on the streets of Seoul and in the restaurant, already some people could recognize Zhang Ye without his shades on. This was such an obvious difference from before and was also reflective of Zhang Ye’s increase in popularity on the Asian Celebrity Rankings. Although this change was not enough to cause a qualitative change yet, it was still a good start. This indicated that there was still a lot of room for improvement in Zhang Ye’s Asian popularity. His fame was slowly rising. Zhang Ye’s trip to Korea had already exceeded his target of just making an impression on the Asian stage.
They ordered food.
Then started eating.
Ning Lan was pointing behind Zhang Ye with her chopsticks and smiling. “Are those people talking about you?”
Zhang Ye laughed and said, “Who knows, I can’t understand what they’re saying.”
Xiaodong giggled and said, “Look at our Director Zhang. He’s always so charming and capable. He gets famous wherever he goes to, and even the Asian market has opened its doors to him.”
Zhang Ye pretentiously waved it off. “Keep it down, keep it down.”
The accompanying female interpreter arched her brows. Turning back to take a look, she could not bring herself to tell Zhang Ye that they were mostly speaking ill of him.
Hooligan.
Bastard.
Fighting.
Scolding.
Which of those words had a positive ring to them?
Chen Guang asked, “Eh, where’s Sister Lan?”
Amy said, “She went off early in the morning to take care of some business. I guess she might be picking up the others right now?”
Li Xiaoxian said, “I’ve already sent Sister Lan our location. She’ll be coming over in a bit.”
As they were talking, the others arrived.
Outside, the two Heavenly Queens arrived side by side.
One of them was Xu Meilan.
The other one was Zhang Yuanqi.
There were another five or so other Chinese celebrities behind them. They were all going to take part in this year’s Asian Charity Banquet and had probably arrived today on the same flight as Zhang Yuanqi. Huo Dongfang was also among them. But other than Old Huo, Zhang Ye was not familiar with the rest of the group since he hadn’t had any dealings with them before.
Zhang Ye greeted, “Old Zhang, Old Huo, you’re here?”
Huo Dongfang smiled and said, “You guys have already started eating? Why didn’t you wait for us?”
Zhang Ye said, “Who knew when you would arrive?”
Huo Dongfang went over and sat down beside Zhang Ye. He said, “You’re on fire again. Everyone back home just found out about what happened last night. The media dropped a bunch of reports, and there was a heated discussion on the Internet as well. Just before we boarded our flight, the news was still describing how you laid the stepping stones of the Chinese rock scene. You’re the man! You can’t even rest when going abroad.”
Zhang Ye said happily, “Well, I couldn’t not do anything about it since there was a chance to win some glory for China, right?
Zhao Wuliu laughed. “Right, when it comes to gaining glory for China, it’s a task that’s best left to Teacher Zhang.”
Zhang Yuanqi also came over and sat down. “When we get to the charity banquet’s venue this afternoon, you’ll be walking down the red carpet with me.”
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “The two of us, together? Sure.”
Xu Meilan grinned. “I was arguing with Sister Zhang all day on our way here about that.”
In the lineup of this Chinese celebrity team, the three most popular celebrities back home were Zhang Yuanqi, Xu Meilan, and Zhang Ye. They were all S-listers, so in accordance with previous arrangements, two of them would be required to walk down the red carpet side by side. As Zhang Yuanqi and Xu Meilan were both female, it wouldn’t be that suitable for the two of them to walk together. So Zhang Ye definitely had to pair up and hold hands with one of them while walking down the red carpet to keep a male-female pairing. From the looks of it, they had made the choice before arriving.
Zhang Ye was very happy about it. “Was it really worth it? To argue for so long?”
Huo Dongfang spoke, “Yeah, in the end, they had to settle it with a match of rock-paper-scissors.”
Zhang Ye belly laughed. “Looks like Sister Zhang has got the better luck.”
Zhang Yuanqi said, “How was I lucky? I was the one who lost.”
Zhang Ye was taken aback. He said, “Ah? So you mean that the person who lost has to walk down the red carpet with me?”
Zhang Yuanqi laughed and looked at him. “What did you think?”
Zhang Ye was speechless.
Everyone had a good laugh!
After the meal, everyone started getting busy.
Makeup.
Doing their hair.
Changing clothes.
Some of the celebrities brought along their own teams, while others did not. The charity banquet organizers had also gotten a professional team of makeup artists for the guests. Zhang Ye did not use the organizer’s makeup artists to help him with his makeup, but latched onto Zhang Yuanqi’s team instead to have their makeup done together. Zhang Ye’s makeup was easy to do and only took half an hour to complete. The rest of the time was spent waiting on Zhang Yuanqi. It was now that he realized how troublesome it was for a female celebrity to have their makeup and hair done, taking two full hours before she was ready.
At 4 PM.
The Chinese celebrity team arrived at the perimeter of the venue.
The reporters had already flocked here, with the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese media all gathered around the red carpet, ready to take photographs.
A bit aways, the Korean celebrity team started making their way into the venue. Among them, Zhang Ye spotted a familiar face he had not seen in a long time—Korean star Lee Anson.
The Korean celebrities walked down the red carpet group by group.
The Chinese celebrity team was watching from afar and listening to Zhang Ye’s rambling.
Zhang Ye was muttering, “Lee Anson is still around in showbiz? I thought that he’d have already retired. How nostalgic it is to see a familiar face. I really miss the time I sent him flying with a kick.”
Zhang Yuanqi was speechless.
As was Chen Guang.
And Huo Dongfang.
Over there, a female Korean celebrity tripped over on the red carpet!
The reporters went crazy as they rushed to snap as many photos as they could!
Zhang Ye scoffed. “That was so unprofessional. That falling over motion was so fake. You can just see that her acting is not good. That was clearly done to increase the discussions about her. Look, you’d have to act better if you want to look like you’ve twisted your ankle. If you had fallen over after twisting it, I could have given it to you and considered you a pro. But who would just lie down on their side? Do you think you’re lining up on the runway for a takeoff or something?”
All of Spring Garden was speechless.
After the Korean celebrities finished walking down the red carpet.
It was time for the Japanese celebrity team to do so.
However, the first female Japanese celebrity to walk down the red carpet also fell over within her first two steps. The male celebrities around her rushed over to help her up, with the female celebrity looking completely embarrassed.
The reporters went into a frenzy again!
Kacha!
Kacha!
Flashes were going off everywhere!
Zhang Ye clapped and praised, “That’s a good one! This one’s a real pro! Just look at how she fell over. I bet she practiced it over and over many times. From head to toe, I can sense professionalism all over her. All of her toes were in on the act as well, with drama bursting out of every cell of hers! There’s absolutely no sign that it was a fake fall! Even in the international sporting arena, the strictest of international referees would have to give her a free kick if they saw that! It was flawless!” He looked at the Chinese celebrity team. “Which soccer team does that female celebrity play on?”
Big Qi: “…”
Xu Meilan: “…”
Jiang Hanwei: “…”
“The Chinese celebrity team: “…”
Soccer, your sister!
She’s a renowned movie actress in Asia, alright!
Everyone was at a loss!
This mouth of Teacher Zhang’s, there’s really no one like him!
Do you have to be so sarcastic?
Huo Dongfang clapped him on the shoulder. “Teacher Zhang, I finally know why Sister Zhang and Sister Lan were so unwilling to walk down the red carpet with you.”
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. “Why?”
Amy said, “Because everything you say is likely to offend someone. Anyone else might have a chance of setting things right after offending another person. But for you, everything you say is always so extreme that it leaves no room for any backpedaling! If you let those female celebrities hear what you say, there’s no doubt that they’ll get so angry that they’d fight you!”
Li Xiaoxian giggled, “Pfft!”
Chen Guang also laughed, “Hahahaha!”