Shen Zhining is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d! A b.a.s.t.a.r.d! A b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!!

Sheng Jiaoyang wrapped the overcoat around herself and murmured all the way home. Under Grandfather Yang"s peculiar gaze, she went upstairs and returned to her room.

She threw the overcoat to the carpet and plopped down on the bed. She couldn"t help but recall the shameful scenes from earlier.

The temperature of his palm was still lingering on her skin.

Sheng Jiaoyang covered her face at this thought. She had to admit that Shen Zhining had successfully managed to squeeze Lin Yan out of her mind with his shameless actions. Earlier, if she hadn"t adapted to the circ.u.mstances and lowered her stance in front of him, Shen Zhining probably wouldn"t have let her go so easily. When he wants to act like a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he turns into a madman!

For some reason, she felt as if she"d dug a hole for herself.

She s.h.i.+vered and hastily stopped her train of thought.

The next day, Sheng Jiaoyang went out before sunrise.

When Xu Ping entered the office, she was surprised to see that her seat was occupied.

“Jiaojiao, what are you doing here so early in the morning?”

Sheng Jiaoyang lay on the table and lazily answered, “My cla.s.ses are essentially over for this term, so I wanted to see if there"s any work I can take on.”

Xu Ping was surprised to hear this. Jiaojiao is actually taking the initiative to take on more work? She probingly asked, “Aren"t you planning to spend some time with your family and friends during your holiday?”

“There"s no need. I have to take on more work while I"m young. There"ll be plenty of time and opportunities to have fun in the future,” Sheng Jiaoyang replied wisely.

“Oh?” A thought flashed across Xu Ping"s mind. Did she quarrel with Mr Shen?

“Is there any work in other cities? Other projects are fine too as long as it"s far away from here, the farther away the better.”

“The farther away the better…” Xu Ping repeated. After a moment, her eyes lit up. “There is one abroad, do you want to go?”

Sheng Jiaoyang looked up at Xu Ping and asked, “You"re inviting me there?”

“Cough cough! No, there"s an overseas travel show. Nowadays, overseas travel programs are very popular. Several TV stations have launched these kinds of programs. It just so happens that one of my good friends is the director of an overseas travel program. If you"re interested, I can contact her. With your current popularity, I"m sure there wouldn"t be any issues for you to join the program.”

“Is it a long series?” Sheng Jiaoyang was more concerned about this. She wanted to escape Shen Zhining"s evil clutches, but she didn"t want to constantly stay overseas. After all, the Lunar New Year was approaching, so she had to be home to celebrate the New Year with her grandfather.

“It will take ten weeks to film the whole season, so you won"t have time to stay idle. The program is now in its fourth week. Unlike other travel programs, the guests aren"t fixed and the time schedule is pretty flexible.”

“What are the rules?”

Xu Ping smiled. “My friend said that this is a "survival of the fittest" game. Those who join the game will get an initial survival fund, and then the guests will use their "survival gold" to go along the travel route set by the program team. The guest with the highest survival value at the end will win the surprise gift carefully prepared by the production staff. During the journey, guests can form groups and transfer survival gold to each other. Guests can also get survival gold from other sources through physical labour or other methods that don"t violate the laws and program rules. Additionally, they can request for external help to stand in for them and continue the journey in their stead.”

With these rules, the time arrangement for every guest was naturally flexible. If something happened with short notice, the guests could request the program team to arrange someone else to take over, and they could come back whenever they wanted. When the guests wanted to leave, they could either transfer their survival gold to their replacements or they could spend it all to fail the game and exit the program. In short, this travel program was very flexible in terms of schedule arrangement.

Therefore, the appearance fee for this travel series was based on the artists" value and their availability. The appearance fee for one day was unquestionably different from one week.

“Okay, then please arrange it for me.”

After thinking about it, Sheng Jiaoyang added, “It"s best if I can leave tomorrow morning. Actually, I want to leave after attending my school"s New Year"s evening party. I"ll go back, pack my things, and start on my journey.”

Xu Ping stared blankly at her for a moment before asking, “Why are you in such a hurry?” It"s as if she"s running away.

“I feel unbearably idle if I stay home.” Sheng Jiaoyang slightly raised an eyebrow, seemingly wanting to ask: What, can"t I?

“Okay, I"ll get in touch with my friend.” Xu Ping took out her cell phone and went to make a call. Soon after, she reached an agreement with her friend.

“Jiaojiao, the guest spots are fully occupied already, so if you want to partic.i.p.ate in this program, you can only join in three days. I"ve booked a spot for you, it"s on the 4th of January.”

“The 4th of January?” Sheng Jiaoyang frowned. “Alright, let"s play it by ear.”

“Here are some endors.e.m.e.nts. Do you want any of them?”

Sheng Jiaoyang refused without looking at them. “Nevermind those endors.e.m.e.nts, there aren"t any good ones anyway. It"s not like I"m in need of money.”

Xu Ping wasn"t surprised at all by her rejection. She smiled instead and said, “Jiaojiao, you really spare me from worrying.”

When she was still working as a manager in another company, the artists under her tried every means possible to get more endors.e.m.e.nts. After all, the endors.e.m.e.nt fee was a lot of money. She"d previously rejected a few endors.e.m.e.nts for her artist"s own good, but when her artist had found out, she"d blamed her for blocking her path to stardom.

As someone who wouldn"t put their own interests first, she was definitely suitable to be Jiaojiao"s manager.

“I"m going to school now.” Sheng Jiaoyang stood up.

“I"ll drive you.”

“There"s no need, my driver is waiting downstairs.” Sheng Jiaoyang walked out from behind the desk. As she walked past Xu Ping, she suddenly halted. She stared at Xu Ping and asked, “Did the company a.s.sign any other artists under you?”

“Not yet.” Xu Ping was a little curious about her sudden question.

“If that"s the case, then you don"t have much to do aside from arranging my work, right? You don"t have to come to the office so early. You should spend more time at home with your son.”

Xu Ping was astounded. She felt warmth bubble up in her heart and smiled, “I came here after bringing my son to kindergarten. I"m really lucky to be your manager. Now I can spend more time with him at home, and I can personally pick him up at kindergarten every day. My son will be so happy about this.”

“You can bring your son to my place on the weekend. Xiao An is also five years old, so they can play together.”

“Okay, but my son is quite naughty, I"m afraid that he"ll bully Xiao An.”

“It"s good if he"s naughty. Xiao An is very quiet, so he"s short of a lively companion.” Sheng Jiaoyang left with a smile.

Xu Ping stared at the door and sighed. She"d heard about Xiao An"s situation. In fact, Jiaojiao was still a child in her eyes, so when Jiaojiao had said that she"d adopted Xiao An, she thought that Jiaojiao only did it on a whim. But, now that she looked at it, this didn"t seem to be the case.

When Sheng Jiaoyang arrived at school, she immediately went backstage. The person in charge of the outfits took her to the room where all the clothes were stored. Her outfit was hanging by itself in a corner, distinguis.h.i.+ng it from the others.

“Jiaojiao, you"d better try it on in the dressing room. If it doesn"t fit, we can still make adjustments,” the student in charge of the outfits suggested.

Sheng Jiaoyang took her dress to the dressing room, in which a mirror was placed. She changed into her dress and walked out of the cubicle. She"d donned a long dress with back straps made of opaque layered gauze and looked otherworldly in it. The other students could tell that this dress must"ve been expensive to rent, and it was cla.s.sier than the dress worn by the hostess.

The dress fitted Sheng Jiaoyang"s body perfectly. She held the dress close to the mirror and suddenly froze. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and raised her hand to caress one side of her collarbone, a vexed look appearing on her face.

d.a.m.n Shen Zhining, he"s a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!

Sheng Jiaoyang cast a glance at her bodyguard, who"d lowered her head. She somehow felt that her bodyguard was staring at her earlier. She returned to the cubicle to change back into her clothes. Afterwards, she immediately called Xu Ping and asked her to bring a new dress that didn"t reveal the shoulders, and that was also suitable for playing the piano.

“Does it fit?” the student asked when Sheng Jiaoyang came out holding the dress in her arms.

“It fits, but I"ve had allergic reactions the last two days, so I have some rashes on my body. I"ll have to change my outfit,” Sheng Jiaoyang calmly replied.

“Huh? You have to change your outfit?” The student immediately felt a headache as it wasn"t easy to find a suitable dress. If Jiaojiao had to change her outfit now, it was already too late. She wasn"t sure if Jiaojiao could find another dress that was of the same quality.

“I"ve already asked someone to bring another dress over. It"s just that I feel bad for wasting your goodwill.”

“You"re too kind. I only did what I was supposed to do.” The student breathed a sigh of relief.

As such, the dress was returned to its original hook in the corner.

Many students were already busying themselves backstage. Some were applying makeup, and others were changing into their outfits. Large numbers of people were constantly entering and exiting the backstage area.

The lone dress drew the attention of everyone who entered the dressing room.

“Whose dress is that?” a student curiously asked her fellow cla.s.smate.

“I heard that it"s Xu Jiaojiao"s.”

“No wonder it looks so special. Look at the four sets prepared for the hostess. Those pale in comparison with that one dress.”

“Xu Jiaojiao is a famous star, so how can we be as important as her?”

“Alright, stop being jelly and quickly change into your outfit.”

Neither of them noticed that there was someone else in the dressing room.

The evening party was about to start soon.

Sheng Jiaoyang"s new dress was brought over by Zeng Huan. Since she was a celebrity, she was granted a small private room, so she didn"t have to squeeze together with the other students. Zeng Huan took the suitcase directly to the private room where Sheng Jiaoyang was waiting.

In the dressing room, one of the hostesses of tonight"s party, went ahead to change into her outfit.

Seeing that the otherworldly dress was still hanging there, one of the girls couldn"t help but ask the dressing room supervisor, “The program is starting soon. Why hasn"t Xu Jiaojiao changed into her dress yet?”

“Oh, it"s not convenient for her to wear this dress today. She"s already prepared another dress.”

“That"s right, she"s a star, so she could certainly find a better-looking one.”

The other girl smiled, “Xiaoqi, you"re worrying too much. Let"s hurry and change, the party is about to begin.”

The girl named Xiaoqi reluctantly looked away from the lone dress.