Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Chapter 335: Chapter 268: Frenzied Journey

“Your dance teacher took a fall and unfortunately re-aggravated an old injury—it’s a hairline fracture. We haven’t found a replacement yet, so I’m not sure if this is good news or bad news for you.”

The downside was that because of the variety show, her practice time was already limited. Now, who knew how long this would set her back.

The upside was that she got a day off. Besides going on a date with her boyfriend, she could also properly work on her travel itinerary.

Her last trip to Wutong County gave Ni Bingyan a lot of experience with solo travel, but it also revealed many of her own shortcomings.

For example, she should have booked her hotel in advance.

Before you actually arrive, you can never be sure what the situation will be like.

If she ran into peak tourist season again and couldn’t find a place to stay, it wouldn’t be nearly as convenient in a foreign country as it was back home.

Secondly, whether for the sake of the show’s entertainment value or for budgetary reasons, creating a proper travel itinerary was essential.

Furthermore, you’re bound to run into unexpected situations when you’re traveling. To handle that, it’s best to have several backup plans.

“This dance is already choreographed. It’s actually better if we don’t find a new teacher.”

“Art is a very personal thing; everyone has their own ideas. A new teacher would inevitably want to offer their own suggestions. If the choreography keeps getting changed, I’ll have to adjust, and that would actually slow down my progress.”

“Besides, I have her on WeChat. I can record a video of my practice for her, and she can tell me what needs correcting. She can continue teaching me once she’s discharged from the hospital. In any case, there’s still a long time before filming begins.”

Ni Bingyan knew the teacher’s situation better than anyone.

Yesterday, the moment she realized something was wrong, she immediately took her teacher to the hospital for a check-up.

She had just returned from a business trip and was only practicing in the company’s dance studio. Since Sister Li and the others were on vacation, she was the only one there.

The teacher had injured her leg and couldn’t put any weight on it, so Bingyan simply carried her piggyback to the elevator, drove her to the hospital, and then carried her into the emergency room.

She didn’t leave until after the check-up was finished and the teacher’s family had arrived.

That’s why she knew perfectly well that it was just a minor hairline fracture. The teacher would be out of the hospital in a few days, so there was really no need to replace her.

Dancers at her age, no matter how careful they are, always have some chronic old injuries. The teacher just twisted it by accident.

‘It’s already awful for her. How devastating would it be to lose this job on top of it all?’

Wei Shuojie sighed.

“Alright, that works. But that’s only because it’s you. If you say you’ll practice on your own, you’ll actually do it. If you were the undisciplined type, I’d have to find a new teacher to keep an eye on you, one way or another.”

Then she couldn’t help but laugh. “I was so worried you’d get hurt and it would affect the shoot. Turns out, it was the teacher who got injured.”

“Alright, alright, how can you laugh when the teacher is injured? I’m going to work on my travel itinerary. Want to help me brainstorm?”

Ni Bingyan didn’t want to gossip about others.

‘Talking about people behind their backs, whether you’re saying good things or bad, is not a good habit.’

“I’m not laughing at her. I just think the situation itself is a little ironic.”

Wei Shuojie stood up, waving her hand dismissively as she walked away.

“We’ve already been over this. Your travel itinerary is completely up to you. As long as it’s not a war-torn country, you can go wherever you want. As long as you don’t break the law, you can do whatever you want. We have no script. What we want is authenticity.”

Pei Jin and the other two were adamant about this. Ni Bingyan, of course, knew the benefits of this approach, but the risks were huge!

“I’m just a little worried about the show’s quality. If we spend the budget and the show doesn’t turn out well, so many people will be dragged down with me!”

‘If it were any other project, it wouldn’t matter. If it lost money, I could just pay for it out of my own pocket.’

‘But this is a TV show. If we film it and no one watches, if the ratings are low and we can’t attract advertisers, it’ll be embarrassing for everyone involved—whether it’s the investor, Song Fuling; the director, Pei Jin; or Wang Xi, who pulled strings for us.’

‘And the fans who got involved would surely be disappointed too.’

‘When I go out to film a movie or record a show, I just have to do what the production team asks. I don’t have to bear any other responsibility.’

‘Is the box office good? Are the ratings high? Is the final product entertaining?’

‘As long as I do my part and do it well, no one can blame me.’

‘But this show is different.’

Wei Shuojie never expected that Ni Bingyan would feel so much pressure after filming began for what was supposed to be such a laid-back variety show!

“Your fans are pampering you. They want you to go wherever you want, freely. This project was never about making money in the first place, so don’t let them down. Just follow your heart, have a blast, and let them enjoy watching you do it. That’s all that matters!”

‘If she were a little more shameless, she could even publish an autobiography titled *My Overbearing Fans Spoil Me Rotten*!’

‘This is a career that relies on the audience and fans for a living. When something like this happens, you should be like one of those authors who gets a donation, feels all giddy inside, but doesn’t say a word. Just be content and enjoy it!’

‘Why do you have to be so melodramatic?!’

‘ARGH! I could just strangle her!’

Wei Shuojie’s glare must have been quite sharp, because Ni Bingyan meekly shrank back.

‘That’s exactly the problem!’

‘Someone who won’t even let another person treat them to a meal would naturally feel uneasy taking advantage of a situation like this. It’s completely normal!’

“This kind of love… it feels so heavy. I can’t do anything for them, yet they’re so good to me. The truth is, most of them don’t even know who I really am. They’re just paying for an idealized version of me in their heads. If they find out I’m not who they imagine me to be, they’ll surely turn from fans into haters, right?”

Ni Bingyan was a mentally strong person, but she had occasional bouts of self-doubt.

Wei Shuojie rarely saw her this conflicted. Realizing it was her old insecurity flaring up again, she thought for a moment before trying to console her.

“Teamwork and careful planning can only reduce the chance of errors. Truly amazing things often happen by chance. Don’t worry so much. Making mistakes isn’t the end of the world. Who knows, maybe the audience will enjoy watching you get into trouble?”

‘So don’t worry about whether you perform well or not.’

‘Even if you do poorly, nobody will care.’

‘Some people are well-liked by many people even if they’re not great performers.’

When she first saw the show’s proposal, she had been conflicted too. No script at all, just letting Ni Bingyan do whatever she wanted… would that really work?

What if the network aired one episode and then pulled it because of low ratings? Not only would it be humiliating, but the entire investment would go down the drain.

But Song Fuling had casually told her, “It’s just money, isn’t it? Think of it as paying for some fun. Don’t do that whole scripted thing. Everyone’s tired of it.”

Eventually, they had persuaded Wei Shuojie as well.

Ni Bingyan was a strange case. When she followed a script on variety shows, she wasn’t particularly brilliant. But once you let her be spontaneous, it was a completely different story.

After all, this was the incredible woman who could make the trending topics just by slacking off, digging up lotus roots, or being a curious bystander!

Ni Bingyan sighed.

When she’d first accepted this variety show, she’d thought it was fascinating and had a high chance of making money for the investors. But now that filming had actually begun, she couldn’t help but doubt herself.

‘It was a difficult conflict to put into words, so she decided to just let it go.’

After seeing Wei Shuojie out, she started working on her itinerary. She opened a website and started searching, when suddenly, inspiration struck Ni Bingyan.

‘Next stop, London. Why not kick off a fanatic’s tour!’