Chapter 94. Overseas Visitors

     At the age of 25, Shu Shuang won the “Most Popular Female Singer” award and successfully won the Hong Kong music scene, becoming the youngest queen of the Hong Kong music scene at that time.

     After that, she was surrounded by scandals and became a frequent headline in the entertainment section. Paparazzi kept an eye on her every day, saying that she became the second wife of a wealthy businessman or that she secretly married and had children with a certain male star.

     However, all this did not affect her career development. She only fell into a trough a few times, but soon recovered. At the age of 32, she was married to a Hong Kong jeweler and lived a semi-retired life as a rich wife.

     In her eight-year marriage, she did not give birth to a child, so she suffered a lot of gossip and criticism, but fortunately, she was open-minded and did not care much about those things, and still lived a free and easy life.

     Two years later, she divorced her husband because of personality differences, and she took away several jewelry stores and 50 million in cash. After that, she lived in her mansion and rarely went out. Although the paparazzi were omnipresent, they could not dig up much information.

     This time, after the paparazzi learned from where Shu Shuang had a daughter in the mainland, they sent people to Xingzhou Island to dig deeper, and on the other hand, in order to grab the headlines, they broke the unconfirmed news.

     “According to insiders, Singer Queen Shu had already given birth to a daughter in a low-key manner. Recently, she went to the mainland to reunite under the pretext of recording a program. She personally admitted in a video call with friends… The biological father is suspected to be a wealthy businessman in the mainland. The two were previously photographed entering and leaving the hotel.”

     This headline scared the friends who had video chatted with Shu Shuang and came out to refute the rumor that this “insider” was not them, and this “rich mainland businessman” – the producer of “Journey to the West” who approached Shu Shuang for cooperation at the time was also stunned. He never thought that Hong Kong entertainment was so shameless and could say black and white.

     After he figured out what happened to Shu Shuang’s daughter, he wanted to dispel the rumor immediately, but the director said, “This is a good opportunity to promote the program! Teacher Shu has adopted the dugong Jingjing, so we will immediately reshoot some scenes for her and release them as a pilot. This will not only dispel the rumor, but also promote our program in a positive way.”

     The producer thought it made sense, so he contacted Shu Shuang. Shu Shuang said she had no objection. After she adopted the dugong cub, she would have the opportunity to interact with the dugong, so it would be okay for the program team to record it.

     However, she was a little worried that the dugong would ignore her, so she asked Cen Yingda, “Is your keeper here? Can I ask her for help?”

     Cen Yingda: “Keeper?”

     Dugongs go to the sea to find food by themselves, and there are no keepers at all.

     But after careful consideration, you will know who she is talking about.

     Cen Yingda said: “She is not a keeper, but the animals in the sea are indeed close to her. As for whether she is willing to help, we have to ask her first.”

     Shu Shuang was slightly surprised. It seemed that the other party was not only not a keeper, but also might have a complicated identity. They could not easily order her around.

     “Then… please ask her if she is willing, thank you!”

     Cen Yingda was also worried that she would overturn the car, so he called Li Yaolin. The latter thought for a while and said: “I don’t want to appear on camera, but I can go and negotiate with the dugongs first, so that they can cooperate with you to carry out your work.”

     So when Shu Shuang was changing into the protective clothing of the reserve, Li Yaolin went over to communicate with the dugong cub “Jingjing”: “Your human mother wants to touch you later, you are not allowed to attack her, understand?”

     The cub patted its tail fin, looking excited. Li Yaolin was worried that the cub’s biological mother would be jealous, so she told her a few words. But she didn’t care at all that the cub recognized a human as its mother. Now that she was full, she was quietly dozing off in the sea, with an indifferent attitude of “why not take the child away to raise it?”

     Li Yaolin: “…”

     It seems that after living such a carefree life for too long, their mother-daughter relationship has become plastic.

     Seeing Shu Shuang and the photographer coming over, Li Yaolin left. She didn’t go far, but sat in the lounge of the reserve, watching Shu Shuang’s interaction with the dugong through the glass to prevent any accidents.

     Not long after sitting down, Li Yaolin received a call from Deputy Manager Song: “Mr. Li, the Shu Shuang incident is very popular in Hong Kong. I think this is a good opportunity to publicize and promote Xingzhou Island and attract overseas tourists. Don’t miss it!” 

     At least half of the people in Hong Kong are eating melons now, and the Hong Kong media not only likes to dig up the materials of the parties involved, but also likes to dig up some “scraps” related to the incident. Many people only know that Shu Shuang recorded a program in the mainland, and very few mentioned Xingzhou Island. If the word “Xingzhou Island” can be added after the mainland, it will greatly increase the exposure of Xingzhou Island.

     Deputy Manager Song has discussed the manuscript with a Hong Kong media, and it will be published in the newspaper tomorrow.

     Li Yaolin said: “It is indeed a good idea to take this opportunity to increase the popularity of Xingzhou Island in Hong Kong and Macau, but we must stick to our bottom line. If possible, try to guide public opinion in a positive direction, and don’t become the executioner of unscrupulous media to spread rumors and infringe on others’ reputation rights.”

     “I understand.”

 

…

 

     The interaction time between the adopter and the adopted animal is generally half an hour. After the time is up, the dugong cub feels that it has completed the task assigned by the island owner, so it waves its flippers at Shu Shuang, and then returns to the sea to its real mother.

     Shu Shuang thinks the cub is so cute and ugly that it almost melts her heart.

     “Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Shu!” The photographer said to Shu Shuang.

     Shu Shuang smiled slightly: “You are the ones who have to work hard.”

     The photographer went back to work overtime to edit the video. Shu Shuang looked at the lounge and found that the girl was still there, so she walked over to say hello: “Hello.”

     Li Yaolin was slightly surprised: “Hello, Teacher Shu!”

     Shu Shuang couldn’t help laughing: “You are not in the circle, you don’t have to call me Teacher Shu like them.”

     Li Yaolin felt a little guilty because she used the other party’s scandal to promote Xingzhou Island. After hearing this, she changed her words: “Hello, Ms. Shu.”

     She paused, and seeing that Shu Shuang didn’t respond, she continued, “I am Li Yaolin.”

     Now it was Shu Shuang’s turn to be surprised. How could she not know some rumors about Xingzhou Island after vacationing on Xingzhou Island for so long?

     For example, the identity of the mysterious island owner that everyone was most curious about.

     Now the other party was standing in front of her, which really surprised her.

     But this seemed to be reasonable. Otherwise, why could only the stationmaster of the reserve management station invite her to help?

     Shu Shuang asked: “I want to know why those mermaids listen to the island owner so much, is there any trick?”

     Li Yaolin also smiled and said: “Maybe it’s because… I’m the island owner!”

     Shu Shuang was stunned, and felt that Li Yaolin was very humorous. She said: “It seems that I can’t learn from you.”

     “But I can tell you about Jingjing’s hobbies and how to communicate with it effectively…”

     The two talked for more than ten minutes, and because they each had work to do, they parted. Before leaving, Shu Shuang suddenly remembered something and said, “Can I make a small request to the island owner?”

     “You say.”

     “I heard that you can leave Xingzhou Island without taking anything, but you must take a limited edition postcard with the island owner’s personal seal. It is said that it has a particularly beautiful meaning. In addition to lottery and blind box opening, there is no third way to get it, so do I have the opportunity to create a third way to get it?”

 

…

 

     The next day, the program team posted the preview that was cut overnight on V blog, promoting the program “Journey to the West” while letting everyone know that Shu Shuang’s daughter was just a rumor.

     A newspaper in Hong Kong also published a clarification in the newspaper, saying that the reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of Xingzhou Island and received a reply that Xingzhou Island would not disclose any information about tourists, but the adoption-related information can be found on the official website of the reserve. If you want to know the truth, you can search it yourself.

     Although not all information was disclosed in order to protect the privacy of the adopter, everyone determined that the adopter was Shu Shuang based on the “Shu*” above and the unique identity card number format of Hong Kong.

     Shu Shuang also stood up to denounce the paparazzi’s nonsense and explained some rumors. For example, the “rich mainland businessman” was actually the producer of the program group, and he came to her to discuss cooperation;

     Another example is that the reason why she has been staying on Xingzhou Island is not to reunite with the non-existent human daughter, but to vacation on Xingzhou Island.

     She posted a post on Instagram to share her daily vacation on Xingzhou Island, and said that the hotels on Xingzhou Island are more livable than her own mansion. It’s a pity that there are no real estate projects on Xingzhou Island, otherwise she would definitely buy a house.

     The truth came out. Except for a few people who thought that this was just a public relations method that Shu Shuang came up with to resolve the crisis, most people understood the melon.

     As the popularity of “Journey to the West” increased, some people in Hong Kong and Macau also became interested in Xingzhou Island, an island located in a fourth-tier small city in the mainland, but highly praised by Shu Shuang. The search views on Xingzhou Island on related search engines soared.

     Of course, some people have a preconceived notion that there can be no such clean attractions in the mainland, especially since Yóushì is famous for petrochemicals and factories are everywhere. How can an island in such a city be comparable to the islands in Southeast Asia?

     They also have some stereotypes, such as “mainland tourists have no quality, love to litter, spit, and talk very loudly”, “tourist attractions are crowded”, “businesses love to overcharge customers”, etc., so they shout on Instagram that they will never travel to the mainland.

     The more radical ones began to verbally attack Shu Shuang.

     However, Shu Shuang did not care about these remarks. She ended her vacation and went to a new destination to record the program when the second episode of “Journey to West” was about to start.

     In mid-May, schools in Macau began their summer vacation. Some Macau students were invited by their mainland classmates and formed a group to travel to Xingzhou Island.

     In addition to these Macau students, some Hong Kong and Macau people who study and work in the mainland also decided to personally verify whether Xingzhou Island really deserves such a high evaluation.

 

……

 

     Li Yaolin opened the APP to check the progress of the task. This year, more than 3,000 overseas tourists have been received. Among these people, most are from Hong Kong and Macau who study and work in the mainland, followed by Japanese and Korean students studying in China. Most of them are fans of Shu Shuang. When they see their idol say good things, they naturally believe it unconditionally.

     In the end, Xingzhou Island did not disappoint them.

     Here is not only the clear sea water that they cannot see in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and South Korea, but also the “Haizi” and “sea fire” phenomena that they cannot explain with science.

     In particular, the people of Macau believe in Mazu very much. They firmly believe that the sea god is Mazu, as for the sayings circulating in the surrounding fishing villages that Xingzhou Island is protected by the sea god and the small lighthouse can guide the lost ships a hundred nautical miles away to return.

     The seafood buffet restaurant is fresh and delicious, and the price is simply a bargain compared to Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and South Korea. They directly say that the taste of this three-star restaurant is comparable to that of Michelin restaurants in Hong Kong.

     – The little housekeeper has already automatically upgraded the star, and the seafood unlocked for the third time in the seafood section of the Sea God Market has also begun to be supplied.

     – Except for a little more people and a little more lively, there are no other disadvantages.

     What actually interested them more was the robots in the seafood buffet restaurant. The Japanese students who were very interested in this aspect did not even eat, but surrounded the robots to watch them work in an orderly manner, and then kept exclaiming beside them: “Sugoi!.”

 

…

 

     Li Yaolin breathed a sigh of relief: “Although it took five months to reach one-tenth of the goal, it is finally a good start.”

     Deputy Manager Song, who had just returned from Hong Kong, was not very confident: “There is still a long way to go before the 30,000 goal set at the beginning of the year. There is only half a year left. Can we do it?”

     In fact, her work progress in Hong Kong this time was not particularly smooth. Although some newspapers and entrepreneurs reached a consensus on cooperation on “using the popularity of Shu Shuang’s scandal to benefit multiple parties”, most of them refused to cooperate.

     On the contrary, the cooperation in Macau was much smoother. Many hotels were willing to help Xingzhou Island advertise through “soft implantation”, but there was also a problem. In addition to foreign tourists, the largest number of tourists staying in Macau hotels are mainland tourists, so the most likely to be attracted to Xingzhou Island are either foreigners or mainlanders.

     This made Deputy Manager Song feel frustrated for the first time.

     Li Yaolin said indifferently: “We want to attract overseas tourists, but there is no need to put too much pressure on ourselves.”

     Although there will be penalties for mission failure, she thought that it would not make her return to the pre-liberation era.

     And these more than 3,000 tourists provided her with a new solution – even if Hong Kong and Macao can attract fewer tourists, there are still international students, right?

     There are more than 500,000 international students studying in China every year, and there are many short video bloggers who are famous for shooting study abroad vlogs. They can definitely be asked to shoot some promotional videos to attract more international students who are keen on traveling and like to visit various parts of China to travel!

     At worst, there will be several international tourism exhibitions held in Yangshi in the second half of the year. She can also apply for a booth and directly cooperate with foreign travel service providers.

     Li Yaolin encouraged her: “There are always more solutions than problems, so there is no need to lose confidence because of a setback.”

     Deputy Manager Song immediately cheered up and said with high morale: “Mr. Li, you are right! I will immediately go to understand and prepare for the Travel Expo!”

     Deputy Manager Song left, and Lin Qitong was looking around the door, not coming in. Li Yaolin asked her with a smile: “What have you done that you dare not see me?”

     “No!” Lin Qitong immediately flashed in.

     “How was your month?”

     Lin Qitong said: “Don’t mention it, this is the first time I feel that vacation is more tiring than work.”

     She wanted to complain about the experience of this business trip, but she swallowed it back when she remembered that it was still working hours, and said: “Coming back to Xingzhou Island is as comfortable as returning home.”

     “You can treat this place as your second home.”

     Lin Qitong said brightly: “That’s a must.”

     Although she didn’t say it, she thought it through.

     ‘Xingzhou Island Image Ambassador’ is not a shackle on her, but a proof that she is a member of the big family of Xingzhou Island. If Sanniang is the head of the family, then she is the eldest daughter of the family, and her every word and action will represent the upbringing of this big family. So if she doesn’t want to be called uneducated, she must be aware of taking on more responsibilities.