The Film Queen Is Cold and Ruthless, Only Sends Money - Chapter 20.3

The girl thought for a moment and pointed south. “I heard my grandma mention that there might be a paper-cutting event at the mall today. You could check there.”

She wasn’t particularly interested in paper-cutting herself, but the older generation in her family knew more about it, so she couldn’t provide much additional information.

After thanking the girl, Su Yun pulled out her phone to search for the mall’s location. It wasn’t too far, just a seven or eight-minute bike ride away.

Just as she was about to put her phone away, Jiang Zhi spoke up, “Search for the Folk Art Museum on the map and see how far it is.”

“The He Rong County Folk Art Museum is approximately six kilometers from your current location. Please select your preferred mode of transportation for navigation.”

Su Yun turned off her phone with a sigh. “Six kilometers. The production team really has no mercy.”

Even if they skipped all the tasks, it would still take them half a day just to walk to the museum.

Jiang Zhi nodded. “Setting the location six kilometers away must be their way of forcing us to use transportation.”

But without any money provided, they were essentially given an extra task earning enough for bus fare or a taxi.

Su Yun glanced at their beloved little e-bike, which now radiated an aura of “savings and peace of mind.” With a half-hearted tone, she said, “Let’s pray for the other teams.”

[Hahahaha, go check out Zhao Zhao and Xue Xue’s livestream! They’re discussing performing on the street to earn money!]

[I just came from Lin Yan’s livestream, they’re exhausted from walking! How come Su Yun’s team gets an e-bike?!]

[Pretending to pray but actually gloating. I hope Su Yun can protect herself when the other guests watch the replay!]

Thinking about how the other teams had rushed off in a hurry, Su Yun asked Jiang Zhi, “How do you think they’ll earn money?”

Without any special skills while traveling, things could get tricky.

Jiang Zhi hesitated before guessing, “Sell their phones?”

The only things they had were the phones given by the production team for completing tasks and the paper-cutting supplies they were required to carry.

Surely they wouldn’t try to sell their “infinitely transformable” paper-cuttings. That would be a losing business.

“Huh?” Su Yun took a moment to process this before giving a thumbs-up. “Your imagination is wilder than mine!”

Meanwhile.

At that very moment, Lin Yan and Xu Zhi were discussing where to sell their phones and how much to charge.

Xu Zhi was a surprisingly ethical seller: “I think thirty yuan should be enough for our bus fare today. Asking for more wouldn’t be right, it’s not like these are our phones anyway.”

Thirty yuan was just enough for their transportation needs, nothing excessive.

[Hahahaha, they know the phones aren’t theirs some sense of morality, but not too much.]

[I’m starting to wonder if Xu Zhi is subtly mocking the production team from yesterday. The thirty-yuan boomerang!]

[If the director doesn’t step in soon, the other teams might start plotting to sell off the entire production crew! Hahaha!]

The camera cut to Lin Yan’s livestream, where the director could be seen listening in on their conversation.

She quickly checked her wallet and said to the staff nearby, “Send a message to all the groups: no one is allowed to sell the show’s props privately! Especially not selling the phone for thirty bucks!”

Lin Yan, upon receiving the message: “…”

The deal was cut short before it could even begin.

Jiang Zhi didn’t realize that she had inadvertently stumbled upon Lin Yan’s group’s plan. Seeing the smile in Su Yun’s eyes, she asked curiously, “If we hadn’t rented the car in advance, how would you have made money?”

So far, the only ideas she could think of were selling the phone or performing on the streets.

[I’m curious too! Feels like the other groups have already thought of every possible method, there are only so many ways, right?]

[If it were me, I’d probably complain about the show’s stinginess while begging on the streets, haha!]

[We can’t sell the phone, but maybe we could pawn it?]

Su Yun reminded Jiang Zhi, “Do you remember what the old man said to us yesterday when we were fishing?”

Jiang Zhi: “The old man said quite a lot.”

But from all the useless boasting and advice about taking up fishing as a career, she managed to recall the most relevant line: “He said if we ever ran out of food, we could go fishing with him?”

Su Yun snapped her fingers. “Exactly. At the very least, we have a skill, we could catch a couple of fish and earn enough for the bus fare.”

Then she patted Jiang Zhi’s shoulder and added, “Even though we don’t need it now, it’s still a useful skill to have. Don’t forget it!”

Jiang Zhi: “…”

At this point, she only had one thought: No wonder the old man called Su Yun his protégé.

Her tone was a perfect imitation of his.

The mall’s location was easy to spot, and they didn’t have much trouble finding it.

As soon as they entered, a large poster for a paper-cutting event caught their attention.

Su Yun: “This must be the place.”

She pointed to a corner of the poster, where Jiang Zhi spotted it: “The show’s logo.”

This confirmed it was one of the show’s designated check-in spots.

Indeed, the show’s logo was as hard to miss as the director’s stinginess, Su Yun mused silently.

The paper-cutting promotional event was set up on the first floor of the mall and had drawn quite a crowd.

In the past, the local government of Herong County had supported similar events, but the rigid, traditional designs rarely appealed to their target audience, young people.

Since the show aimed to help promote the event, they had contributed some innovative designs, combining paper-cutting with decorative stands and keychains infused with traditional Chinese elements. The result was far more appealing, and the activity area was bustling with people.

Su Yun picked up a keychain, which featured a miniature version of the paper-cutting artwork they had seen earlier.

Unlike the barely recognizable pieces made by the guest teams, the patterns inside the keychains were exquisitely detailed. Su Yun held it in her hand, admiring it for a long while before setting it down.

To think that she, a self-proclaimed millionaire, had been reduced to this state by the show’s restrictions!

Jiang Zhi noticed Su Yun’s fondness for the keychain but didn’t say anything, she simply made a mental note of it.

Though they had no money, their spirits were high as they wandered around the stalls. That’s when they ran into Liu Yangran and Ye Ying.

The temperature outside had been rising steadily, and the mall’s air conditioning felt like a rebirth to Liu Yangran and Ye Ying.

Seeing the sweat on their foreheads, Su Yun handed them a tissue: “Did you walk here?”

Liu Yangran nodded: “We originally planned to pawn our phones with the shop owner for some money, but the production team said that any money obtained through pawning would count as task expenses and must be repaid by us.”

Unlike Su Yun’s group, who could return the car later to retrieve their phones, Liu Yangran and the others would have to repay the borrowed amount in full to get their phones back, which wasn’t allowed under the rules.

They thought the mall wasn’t too far, so they walked over.

However, Liu Yangran was a bit puzzled. They had set out the earliest and were lucky enough to hear about this mall’s event, meaning they hadn’t taken any detours. So why had Su Yun and Jiang Zhi arrived before them?

Ye Ying also seemed curious and asked casually, “Did you manage to earn money? You took so little time.”

If the other group hadn’t taken a ride, then it was a bit strange.

Su Yun feigned surprise, “Ah, no way. We’re broke right now.”

As she spoke, she even turned out her jacket pockets to prove they didn’t have a single cent to their name.

Seeing Jiang Zhi beside her wearing the same expression, Liu Yangran naturally had no reason to doubt them. “Then maybe we took different routes, and the distances weren’t the same, so we didn’t run into each other.”

This explanation was enough to convince them.

[Hahahahaha, the pedestrian path and the route their e-bikes took definitely weren’t the same!]

[Yangran and Ye Ying are so gullible, they didn’t even suspect that Su Yun and Jiang Zhi might have their own ride!]

Since they had run into each other, they decided to look for the check-in spot together.

“Is it here?” Ye Ying pointed to a standee designed to look like a camera, decorated with various paper-cut patterns and surrounded by people taking photos.

Jiang Zhi nodded, “It should be.”

They took out their paper-cuts and, suppressing their embarrassment among so many well-crafted works, took turns photographing each other.

After confirming no additional tasks were coming their way, they left the mall together.

The moment they stepped outside, they were hit by a wave of scorching heat. Liu Yangran turned to Su Yun and the others, “We’ll head off first then.”

“Be careful on the way. We’ll go in another direction to look around,” Su Yun replied.

As they were about to leave, Liu Yangran noticed two pink e-bikes parked outside the mall and said with a hint of envy, “If only we had a ride too.”

At that moment, Su Yun, the actual owner of one of those e-bikes felt the car keys in her pocket grow conspicuously heavy.

But who was Su Yun? She sighed as if seeing the bikes for the first time, “Yeah, we’re really envious too.”

[I’m dying of laughter, this show’s comedic timing is impeccable! I can’t even imagine Liu Yangran’s reaction if she found out these were actually Su Yun’s bikes!]

[Su Yun, I take back everything I said about your acting! Just look at that perfectly envious tone, the well-timed sigh, and those utterly sincere, unwavering eyes, instant Best Actress material!]

[Jiang Zhi, that indulgent smile on your face, what’s going on?!]

Jiang Zhi stayed silent but didn’t go out of her way to expose the truth either.

Only after Liu Yangran had walked off in the opposite direction did she think to herself:

If they really wanted to borrow something, Liu Yangran’s group should’ve borrowed two bikes.

Because riding double wasn’t allowed.

There are countless paths, but safety comes first.

Proclaimed by Susu & Jiangjiang

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