This actor has something

Chapter 329 Song Festival

The sun had just set.

Summer nights come exceptionally slowly; it's already 6:30, but darkness still lingers.

The rooftop platform of the guesthouse was filled with the enticing aroma of roasted meat. On the long grill, there were about twenty skewers of pork belly, roasted to perfection. The lean part had turned a deep reddish-brown, and the fatty part was a golden brown. They sizzled and dripped oil, which immediately produced a puff of smoke when it hit the charcoal, making the aroma in the air even more intense.

"Is it ready yet? Let me have a taste." Han Hong urged again impatiently, smelling the aroma. At this moment, she felt her saliva was about to drip.

He Daqi nodded, grabbed about ten skewers in each hand, lifted the pork belly skewers off the grill, and then called out to the group of people chatting at the table, "That's enough, bring over the stainless steel plate."

Sun Nan cheerfully carried the plate over. As soon as he lifted the large stainless steel plate, He Daqi placed the meat skewers on it, and the onlookers immediately began to scramble for them.

Looking at the last string of food on the plate, Sun Nan said with a wry smile, "What the hell do we need a plate for? Da Qi, why didn't you just divide it up?" After saying that, he picked up the last string and took a bite without caring that it was too hot.

Today is the second day of the exchange group's visit. There are many new faces this time, but even more familiar faces, such as the singers Han Hong, Sun Nan, and Liu Huan. Like He Daqi, they are participating in the exchange group to South Korea for the third time.

After coming here so many times, I've gotten tired of all the so-called delicacies. After all, eating different kinds of spicy kimchi every day is a bit too much.

In the afternoon, a group of singers got together, and I don't know who suggested it, but they suddenly started talking about having a barbecue that night.

As they chatted, everyone's eyes turned to He Daqi, since he was the only one among the singers who could speak Korean, and they would have to rely on him if they needed to prepare anything.

Upon seeing the situation, He Daqi chuckled and immediately took on all the responsibilities, saying that he could handle it all by himself, and that he could even fill in as a barbecue chef.

There's no need to worry about what to prepare in half a day; he has all the necessary equipment in his villa. Just find a car to bring it over, and buy some pork, beef, lamb, seafood, and vegetables along the way, and you'll be all set. It's very convenient.

So, as evening approached, a group of singers sneaked up to the rooftop platform. Some skewered skewers, others carried tables. There were so many people that even the small grill required two people to carry it.

When He Daqi started grilling, everyone was already drooling. Now that they tasted it, the flavor was even better than they had imagined, and everyone praised it highly.

"Daqi, I was thinking of helping you out earlier, but luckily I didn't try to be a hero and end up making things worse, otherwise we definitely wouldn't be able to eat such good barbecue right now." Tengger was chewing on meat and still wanted to speak, which made his tone sound like it was being muffled in a vat, mainly indistinct.

"I never expected Daqi to be so skilled. To be honest, before I met Daqi, I always thought he was similar to Tang Sanzang in Journey to the West—good-looking but useless. But after getting to know him, I realized that this young man is truly multi-talented. Not only is he fluent in multiple languages, but he also knows martial arts. Wow, Zhou Huimin has such good taste. She, a Hong Konger, has picked up a young man from our Beijing. How can we not be reasonable about this?"

The older woman speaking was named Tian Zhen. She had a very loud voice and was very warm-hearted. Her singing style was the same. This year, she performed "Rainbow After the Storm, Resilient Rose" with the exchange group. Her singing was quite powerful and moving.

He Daqi hadn't paid much attention to her before. It was during the rehearsal before the trip that He Daqi heard her sing this song for the first time, and he was quite surprised at the time.

Hearing Tian Zhen praise him like that, He Daqi laughed heartily and, while putting meat skewers from the box onto the grill, replied with a smile, "Sister Tian, ​​it's just that we don't have any beer here right now, otherwise I would definitely have a bottle with you."

Upon hearing this, Tian Zhen clicked his tongue and said, "It's really annoying not being able to drink ice-cold beer while eating barbecue. It's okay, Da Qi. When we get back to Beijing, your sister will take you to a barbecue restaurant for half a month, and then we'll look into the next place."

“If you want to drink every day, why don’t you come to my place? I have a big courtyard in the Fourth Ring Road and a ranch on the grassland. Just give me a call and I’ll send over a few cattle and sheep so you can taste how amazing our grassland beef and mutton really is,” Tengger interjected loudly.

"No, no, it's not that bad. I'm not like my older brothers and sisters. I'm always busy running around, never having a moment to rest. I can't even find the time to have a nice meal." He Daqi waved his hand with a smile.

It was finally getting dark. He Daqi checked the heat and realized the meat on the grill wasn't ready to be turned over yet. So, before leaving the grill, he took a few steps and turned on the lights on the rooftop.

Commander Li, smelling the odor with suspicion, walked up the stairs to the rooftop, only to burst out laughing when he looked up.

"Well, you guys are something else! No wonder I didn't see you guys at dinner earlier. I asked the others if they had seen you, and they all said they didn't know. Turns out you were secretly having a private meal here."

The group of singers burst into laughter, while others laughed more subtly, inviting Commander Li to try some as well.

Commander Li smiled and shook his head, saying, "No need, I just ate downstairs. How about I grill it for you? It'll be my service."

"Then you should take a break. I'm not bragging, but Li Tuan, your cooking skills might not be as good as Da Qi's," Han Hong said.

"Oh ho, Daqi grilled it? I'd like to have a taste." When he got closer and saw that it really was He Daqi grilling it, and that his skills looked pretty good, Commander Li was quite surprised.

"Li Tuan, is the venue confirmed for tomorrow?" He Daqi asked while scattering ingredients.

"Yes, it's confirmed. Several foreign affairs officials noticed that your South Korean fans are spontaneously promoting the event online, and they estimate that quite a few people will come. So after discussing with the officials here, they decided to keep the venue at the Mapo-gu World Cup Stadium."

"That's good. We don't have to travel for several hours anymore. The first time we came here, we went to three different places, and our butts were numb from all the travel."

While they were chatting, He Daqi's phone rang.

He Daqi's hands were busy at the moment, so without even looking at who was calling, he answered the phone, put it to his ear, held it between his head and shoulder, and continued to spread the ingredients and apply oil.

"Hello, who is it?"

“Daqi, it’s me, your brother Zaishi.” Liu Zaishi’s tone was somewhat aggrieved, perhaps because he felt that He Daqi hadn’t recognized him immediately because he hadn’t saved his number.

It was obvious that they were recording a show, so He Daqi explained with a smile, "Sorry, Brother Zaishi, I was cooking, so I answered the phone without checking who was calling."

"See? See? I told you I have a really good relationship with Daqi!"

He could picture Liu Zaishi's noisy voice coming from the other end of the phone, and he could easily imagine Liu Zaishi smugly showing off to others.

After a moment, Liu Zaishi continued, "Daqi, I saw on the news today that your exchange group has come again, but it didn't mention the specific members. So I wanted to ask if you came along this time?"

"Yes, I'm here, and you'll see me tomorrow. We'll be performing at the World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu tomorrow, and it will be broadcast live on TV."

"When are you free? How about coming over to participate in an episode of Infinite Challenge?"

He Daqi thought for a moment and then said, "How about the day after tomorrow? Should I be the referee again this time?"

"No, it's summer now, so we've decided to do a special episode about cooling off."

"A special edition for cooling off?" The term sounded unfamiliar to He Daqi. "Yes, it's a horror-themed one. Getting scared out of your wits is part of cooling off, right? This time we're planning a horror hospital theme..."

He Daqi was very quick; as soon as he heard about the terrifying hospital, he immediately hung up the phone.

Liu Zaishi thought the signal was bad and kept saying "hello" for a while. When he picked up his phone, he found that the call had been disconnected.

He Daqi guessed correctly. He was recording a variety show right now, surrounded by a group of people who were all a little confused. After all, they had been chatting happily just now, so it couldn't be that He Daqi deliberately hung up the phone, right?
After a long pause, Haha finally spoke uncertainly, "Is Daqi's phone out of battery? Brother Zaishi, could you try calling again?"

“Yes, Brother Zaishi, try again. Daqi just said he was cooking, so it’s possible he accidentally pressed the hang-up button.”

“I guess so too.” Liu Zaishi nodded and dialed He Daqi’s number again.

This time, He Daqi waited quite a while before answering.

"Daqi, did you accidentally hang up the phone just now?"

"Right, right, Brother Zaishi, where were we? I was cooking and didn't listen carefully, I forgot it as soon as I heard it."

"We agreed that you would come the day after tomorrow..."

Before Liu Zaishi could finish speaking, He Daqi interrupted him: "Brother Zaishi, I might not be free the day after tomorrow. How about next time? This time the time is a bit tight. I will definitely participate next time."

Liu Zaishi didn't respond. He seemed to have thought of something, adjusted his glasses, and narrowed his small eyes. After a while, just as He Daqi was about to check if Liu Zaishi had hung up the phone, he heard Liu Zaishi ask in a low voice, "Daqi...you're not scared, are you?"

"How can it be!"

“I’m starting to realize something. As soon as I mentioned the horror hospital, you hung up the phone. It’s obvious you weren’t going to listen anymore.”

“Brother Zaishi, you have misunderstood me too much!” He Daqi explained sincerely.

"Daqi, would you come if we weren't filming a summer-themed special?"

"……meeting."

Liu Zaishi felt as if a crow had flown over his head. If He Daqi were in front of him, he would definitely grab He Daqi's clothes and ask him what was wrong. Wasn't he just scared?

At this moment, the other hosts of Infinite Challenge around Yoo Jae-seok covered their mouths and sneered. Yoo Jae-seok himself slapped his forehead speechlessly.

The PD hunched over and jogged onto the stage, then whispered something in Yoo Jae-seok's ear. The more he talked, the brighter Yoo Jae-seok's eyes became.

After the PD left the stage, Yoo Jae-seok picked up his phone again and excitedly asked He Dae-ki, "Hey, Dae-ki, how many days are you planning to stay here?"

"Um, what day of the week is it this year? Oh, Monday. I should be going back the Monday after my last performance."

"There's enough time! Let's change the theme this time. You're performing tomorrow at 5 PM, right? Let's meet in the morning. The director just came up with a new theme called 'Infinite Song Festival.' You'll be the guest, find a host to partner with, and pair it with a professional singer. Then, prepare for a few days, and we'll do a live broadcast on Saturday. Any kind of song is fine—ballads, rap, rock, even comedy. What do you think? We can discuss the details in person tomorrow!"

Hearing Liu Zaishi's excited voice, He Daqi opened his mouth, but in the end, he was too embarrassed to refuse.

"……Fine."

"Then it's settled!"

The phone call lasted quite a while, and He Daqi had already grilled a whole batch of meat. After hanging up, he put out another twenty or so skewers of meat.

With things on his mind, he hurriedly returned to his guesthouse room after the barbecue. The first thing he did after lying down was to search for Infinite Challenge in the movie library.

Based on the keywords, he quickly found the Summer Special and the Infinite Song Festival. He only watched the beginning of the Summer Special before stopping, while he fast-forwarded through several episodes of the Infinite Song Festival.

You know what, they actually have some skills!
This project was originally conceived in 07, but I guess the PD came up with this idea on a whim just now in order to invite He Daqi over.

Based on ratings, the Infinite Challenge Song Festival is significantly more popular than the others.

Noticing this, He Daqi watched those episodes of the Song Festival again very carefully. The hosts were very serious about their preparations. They not only invited singers to collaborate, but also invited composers to help with the composition, making it seem like they were really going to release an album.

He had agreed to go, but he was worried that he would be embarrassed if he were outdone by a bunch of amateurs, even though he was an amateur himself. With that in mind, He Daqi opened the system and started allocating points to his singing skill.

The main skill performance has reached the advancement period, and it no longer increases with emotion points. So now He Daqi has accumulated quite a few emotion points, and can now luxuriously upgrade other skills.

It's a bit of a shame that, apart from the main skill, the other skills can also be improved, but their effects are not as amazing as the main skill. Even if they are upgraded to a high level, they can only be considered as third-rate singing skills. However, for He Daqi, this is enough.

the next morning.

Because of the appointment, He Daqi got up very early.

Even after a night, Liu Zaishi was still very excited, and when he met He Daqi, he talked non-stop.

It seems that Yoo Jae-seok was inspired by the PD's idea yesterday, because the process he explained to He Daqi was actually quite similar to the later episodes of the Song Festival.

"So... I'm collaborating with you, Jae-seok? And then we'll find a singer to help us out? What song will we sing?"

"Oh dear! I was so focused on the process that I forgot about the most crucial part: song selection!" Liu Zaishi clapped his hands in exasperation.

"Brother Zaishi, I remember when you introduced Kim Jong-guk on a variety show before, you said he was a rising star singer, didn't you?"

"Yes, yes! Zhongguo! We can ask him for help!"

(End of this chapter)