Rebirth 09: Starting from taking charge of Running Man on CCTV

There was a full five seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"What did you say?"

Zhang Lei's voice carried a hint of uncertainty, as if he doubted that there was something wrong with his ears.

"I told you, I've reserved a table for you at CCTV."

Chen Yang repeated it, as if he were saying the weather was nice today.

"Are you coming or not?"

Three seconds of silence followed.

Then Zhang Lei smiled.

It wasn't a happy laugh; it was the kind of bitter laugh that comes when you hear something nonsensical after life has worn you down.

"Chen Yang, have you gone mad from working at CCTV?"

"Leave me a table? You're an assistant director, you probably borrow your own workstation, right?"

"Never mind whether my workstation is borrowed or not."

Chen Yang leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers twice on the armrest.

"Senior brother, tomorrow evening, at our usual spot in Luzhou, 'Zhang Ji' food stall, are you coming?"

"Invite Su Xiao and Liu Gang along as well."

"Just the few of us?"

"Just the few of us."

Zhang Lei remained silent for a while.

"Alright, I don't have much to do tomorrow afternoon anyway."

The weariness in his words was impossible to hide.

"It's news about people's livelihood, so there's no need to work overtime."

Chen Yang didn't respond to that sentence.

After hanging up the phone,

He pulled out the Ctrip booking hotline from his phone's contacts, dialed it, and booked a flight to Luzhou for tomorrow morning.

Hainan Airlines, Beijing Capital International Airport to Luzhou Luogang International Airport, economy class, 480 yuan.

In his previous life, he and Zhang Lei had been working together for over a decade.

This man can turn any crazy idea in his head into reality without missing a beat; he is a top-notch executive in the domestic variety show industry, one that you couldn't find another like him even with a lantern.

But in his previous life, he never became an independent director.

He was over forty years old and had fallen ill from overwork. On the day he was hospitalized, he was still helping Chen Yang revise the script from his hospital bed.

This debt must be repaid in this lifetime.

……

the next day.

5:40 PM.

Luzhou, deep in an old alley in Baohe District.

The "Zhang Ji" food stall has been operating in this alley for almost twenty years. It has no signboard, just a greasy wooden board nailed to the door frame with the two characters "Zhang Ji" crookedly written in red paint.

There were only four tables inside, the plastic stools were wobbly, and the incandescent light bulb overhead was covered in soot.

But Old Zhang's braised beef and stinky mandarin fish are the best in the entire Baohe District.

The crew of "The Big Winner" used to come here for a meal every time they finished filming; half of the scratches on the table were done by them.

Zhang Lei arrived the earliest.

He sat against the wall, with a bottle of Gujinggong cigarettes and a dish of peanuts in front of him. Two cigarette butts were already stubbed out in the ashtray.

The thirty-year-old man's eye sockets were sunken, his cheekbones were higher than last year, and he looked like he had been wrung out of all his moisture.

The collar of my T-shirt was frayed from washing, and there were ink stains on the cuffs. I had just come from the station in the afternoon and didn't even feel like changing my clothes.

Su Xiao arrived second.

The 26-year-old girl had her hair tied in a ponytail, wore a faded light blue shirt, and had no makeup on; there were two dark circles under her eyes.

"Stayed up all night again?" Zhang Lei glanced at her.

"I wrote a new proposal and submitted it to the station."

Su Xiao pulled out a chair and sat down, her tone as indifferent as if she were talking about someone else's business.

"It was rejected."

"What's the reason?"

They said my writing was too fancy and didn't fit the station's current content direction.

Su Xiao unscrewed the Gujinggong bottle, poured himself half a cup, and downed it in one gulp.

Zhang Lei remained silent.

Liu Gang arrived last.

He was thirty-two years old, wearing a wrinkled light gray jacket with a gray stain on his trousers, and carrying a black briefcase with the zipper pull worn off.

There's a traffic jam.

He plopped down and shoved his briefcase under the table.

"I just came back from a commercial performance client. They thought my quote was 500 yuan too high and asked me to go back and revise the proposal."

"Is it really worth making such a fuss over a five hundred yuan?" Zhang Lei frowned.

"As for..."

Liu Gang picked up the wine bottle and poured himself a drink, the veins in his wrist taut.

"My lousy company only has 12,000 yuan left in the account. Next month's rent, utilities, and two assistants' salaries will add up to 8,000 yuan."

"If I lose this job, I'll have to close down next month."

The three people sat at the greasy plastic table, and no one spoke.

An incandescent light bulb swayed overhead, casting a shadow that flickered on the wall.

Zhang Lei stubbed out his third cigarette, staring at the scratches on the table, his voice muffled.

"At this time last year, we were still recording 'Super Winner' at the station."

"It was so exciting back then. We controlled the entire process of a show, from planning to recording to broadcasting, and the ratings were as stable as nails."

He picked up the cup, but didn't drink from it, and then put it down.

"And now? I sit in the newsroom of the local news program every day, editing footage of greenhouses and pig farms."

"Last week, my boss asked me to follow and film a group of middle-aged women in the community doing square dancing, saying that this is a key topic for this month."

Su Xiao poked at the peanut dish with her chopsticks, arranging the peanuts one by one in a row.

"I can't even get close to a variety show."

"The station currently only has two variety shows. One is a show where a leader's relative is nominally affiliated, and the other is a political task that we are cooperating with the province on."

"It's not our turn."

Liu Gang took a sip of his drink and smacked his lips.

"If I had known the station would act this way, I would have been better off starting my own business."

"Didn't you start working alone?" Zhang Lei glanced at him.

"Don't even mention it."

The three people looked at each other, then sighed at the same time.

That energy, I just can't seem to muster it.

It's not that I lack ability, it's that I have nowhere to use it.

With a creak.

The wooden door of the food stall was pushed open.

The evening sunlight streamed in from outside, casting a long shadow on the greasy ground.

Chen Yang stood at the door.

Dark gray casual jacket, dark straight-leg pants, sneakers, and a backpack slung across the right shoulder.

I've lost weight since I left Luzhou six months ago, but my overall energy and spirit are completely different.

He stood there, his back ramrod straight, his eyes revealing a calm yet sharp confidence.

He's no longer the executive assistant director who ran errands for people at Anhui TV.

Zhang Lei looked up and saw him, paused for a moment, and then smiled.

"Hey, Director Chen is back."

"What's this? CCTV's not feeding you anymore? You've come back to Luzhou to freeload off our drinks?"

Su Xiao smiled and moved her chair to the side.

"Haven't seen you for half a year, and you look all smug."

"Did you develop that refined demeanor by serving tea and water to big-name directors every day at CCTV?"

Liu Gang didn't look up, but poured Chen Yang a glass of wine and pushed it towards him.

"Stop talking nonsense and sit down."

Chen Yang walked over with a smile, hung his backpack on the table leg, and pulled over a chair to sit down.

He picked up his glass, but didn't touch it; instead, he glanced at the three people.

Zhang Lei's dark circles.

Su Xiao's old shirt.

Liu Gang's briefcase with the zipper worn away.

He didn't say anything, but tilted his head back and downed the whole glass of wine.

Hiss!

hot.

The aftereffects of Gujinggong burned all the way from his throat to his stomach.

"Alright, stop looking."

Zhang Lei tilted his head and looked him up and down.

"Speak, what's the matter that you've come all this way back?"

Chen Yang put down his wine glass and wiped his mouth.

"Eat the vegetables first."

"Don't try to fool me."

Zhang Lei picked up a piece of braised beef and stuffed it into his mouth, asking questions in a muffled voice.

"You said on the phone yesterday that you had reserved a table for me at CCTV, but I've been thinking about it all night and still can't figure it out."

"You're just an assistant director, where did you get a table to save for me?"

Su Xiao also looked over, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Liu Gang chewed on peanuts, not asking a question, but his ears were perked up.

Chen Yang didn't rush to speak.

He bent down, opened the side pocket of his backpack, and pulled out a brown paper document bag.

Open the seal and pull out a document bound in A4 paper.

Gently push it towards the center of the table.

See for yourself.