Chapter 50

At eight o’clock in the evening, the latest episode of “We’re Going Traveling” aired on the TV channel on time.

This program aired on both satellite TV and online platforms, with the online broadcast delayed by an hour.

So, when it aired on TV, the loyal audience was already glued to their screens.

Su Xingyao’s fan meeting where he painted a fan had previously gone viral, bringing a lot of heat to the entire show. The TV station had high expectations for this episode’s viewership.

But who would have thought that “Leisure Weekend”‘s attempt to bring down the competition, along with buying press releases for content that was similar between both programs, would cause some viewers to lose interest in watching “We’re Going Traveling” immediately after seeing the similar content in “Leisure Weekend”.

This resulted in a disappointing viewership for “We’re Going Traveling”, with the ratings mainly sustained by loyal fans, while many casual viewers switched off.

Despite the fact that the guest performances in this episode were outstanding, the ratings remained low due to this malicious competition. The TV station was extremely frustrated.

When faced with such a situation, not only was the TV station upset, but the loyal fans of the program were also very annoyed.

They noticed, while tracking the live ratings, that “We’re Going Traveling”‘s viewership on its premiere day was much lower than “Leisure Weekend”‘s first episode.

【I’ve been holding it in, but this program really is a bit disgusting.】

【Another show stepping on others, another bundling of guests, and they even deliberately aired it a day earlier. It’s really creepy when you think about it.】

【What a shame, Su Xingyao did so well, but now it’s all ruined because of the malicious competition from another program.】

【Heartbroken, who understands?】

【These past few days, they’ve been maliciously trying to link Su Xingyao with his old CP, but luckily it backfired, otherwise, it would have been even more disgusting.】

When the TV drama airs, many fans open discussion threads on forums, watching the show while sharing their thoughts and complaints.

Public forums are open to everyone, allowing anyone to join the discussion and reply.

Fans were just lamenting the low ratings of this episode, when soon, “Leisure Weekend”‘s trolls and fans arrived.

【Laughing to death, it’s always about “hard work first,” if you can’t do it, don’t blame others.】

【Why not reflect on why the same theme got rave reviews on a neighboring show while yours goes unnoticed?】

【Is it because your show is bad that you’re blaming others for being too good at filming?】

Once the trolls and fans from “Leisure Weekend” arrived, the tone and atmosphere in the thread quickly became chaotic.

Clearly, “We’re Going Traveling” suffered from the delay, but now the blame for the show’s bad ratings was being shifted onto them, making the loyal fans furious.

After all, their TV was still on—did they not know if it was good or not?

Since the show’s production team knew they had similar content, they put in a lot of effort in post-production to add extra elements.

Although the other side kept dragging down both shows, claiming that once viewers watched one, they didn’t need to watch the other, in reality, the broadcasted episode was quite different from the live streams viewers had seen.

Whether in terms of editing or how the content was presented, the two programs, despite both promoting intangible cultural heritage, were nearly identical in theme but very different in style.

Leisure Weekend directly showcased how guests cleverly searched for clues and completed tasks related to non-material cultural heritage, with a strong focus on commercial activities like live-streaming sales.

In contrast, We’re Going Traveling emphasized the interactions between the guests and local people, gradually painting a picture of a historical yet lively small town through the eyes of the hosts, while also highlighting the local heritage and the craftsmanship of the heritage bearers.

The former was more modern, commercial, and detached, while the latter was more grounded, human, and cultural.

As the program continued to air, the audience, tired of arguing, simply focused on promoting it.

【Don’t mind the trolls, everyone! Come watch! The content this time is really interesting.】

【We’re about to see Su Xingyao’s legendary move, and it’ll be even clearer on TV, so don’t miss it!】

For those who had watched the live broadcast, everyone knew that the highlight of this episode was undoubtedly Su Xingyao painting the fan.

Even though it had already been discussed many times online, when the viewers watched it on TV, they realized that Su Xingyao’s painting and calligraphy, shown on the bigger screen, was a completely different experience.

Many viewers even took out the administrative maps and peony paintings of Xu Xi that they had printed in advance to compare with Su Xingyao’s fan painting.

They then realized how amazing the details of his painting were.

【He even painted the borders between administrative regions so accurately.】

【I just took a picture comparing the printed map and Su Xingyao’s fan painting, and it’s not an exaggeration to say both prints are perfect.】

【Mr. Xiao Su really nailed the essence of Xu Xi’s style!】

【Watching it again, I still think Mr. Xiao Su is amazing.】

【The key is, this is clearly the most difficult and time-consuming job, and yet, he was the first to finish among all six guests.】

【Hahaha, what can we do? He’s Su Xingyao, after all (the other guests are impressive too).】

In the previous live stream, the show ended as soon as it showed Su Xingyao painting the fan.

After that, the program abruptly cut off the rest of the content.

After waiting for several days, viewers finally got to see the progress of the other guests and discovered that not only did Su Xingyao produce high-quality artwork, but he was also incredibly fast.

The most impressive part was that after finishing the fan quickly, during the waiting time for the other guests, he continued to paint four more different fans based on each guest’s personality and needs.

In the end, thanks to his outstanding performance, they managed to create six fans, so that after each guest completed their task, they each received a personalized fan.

【Wuwuwu, I really want a fan painted by Su Xingyao.】

【That fan with the advanced math formulas for Feng Han is exactly what my child needs!】

【Can we get a similar fan with the administrative map design like the one for Xu Xiang’s sister?】

【Family, you don’t understand, my dad just fell in love with the fan that Shi Hongyu had with the calligraphy, he wants me to buy one for him QWQ.】

【My mom also really wants the peony fan from Cen Yi TAT.】

【Family, who gets it? The fan with the sparrow feathers for Tong An’an is driving me crazy!! Even though Su Xingyao painted it on a folding fan, it looks so lifelike and real! This fan is just perfect for such a beautiful woman!】

【Wuwuwu, but I still love Su Xingyao’s cat and dog fan the most. I didn’t know you could paint modern art on a folding fan, it’s so cute, wuwuwu.】

After completing the tasks, the guests opened their folding fans and took a photo together with the President of the Fragrant Fans Group in front of the Fragrant Fans General Group’s entrance.

This group photo was almost like a massive promotional scene, and most viewers who saw these fans were absolutely charmed.

【Is the production team considering releasing a fan collection?】

【I really want to own one.】

【Yes, yes, yes, hurry up and release the six fans painted by Su Xingyao, I’ll definitely buy them all!】

After watching the episode, viewers flooded the show’s comments section.

Some even found the Fragrant Fans General Group’s online store, hoping they would collaborate with the show to release the same fans designed by Su Xingyao.

As the audience eagerly reached out to the production team hoping for a release of the fans Su Xingyao painted, suddenly, a familiar and sinister voice came from the TV.

Zhang Shanfeng: “Has everyone completed their mysterious task?”

As soon as Zhang Shanfeng’s voice came on, viewers immediately stopped typing and became glued to the TV.

【What?? There’s still a mysterious task?】

【Did I miss something? When was this task assigned?】

While the viewers were puzzled, the post-production team revealed the answer.

On the TV screen, the post-production team replayed the footage of Zhang Shanfeng assigning the tasks and handing out phones to the guests in the morning.

At this point, the viewers suddenly realized what was happening.

【No wonder when I was watching the live broadcast, I saw the guests constantly filming. I thought they were just taking photos for memories, but it turns out this was part of the task?】

At the end of the program, this unexpected surprise delighted the viewers.

They were glued to the TV screen, and soon noticed that the guests had handed all their phones over to Su Xingyao.

At the same time, Xu Xiang sweetly said to Su Xingyao, “Brother Xingyao, you’ve worked hard.”

It was then that everyone finally understood. The videos the guests were filming were meant for Su Xingyao to edit!

【Holy… Su Xingyao can even edit videos?】

【I thought the post-production team would edit it, but the guests did it themselves?】

【??? Mr. Xiao Su, you can edit videos too?? This is a little too perfect, don’t you think?】

【Ahh, what’s the format for this? Will I get to see the videos edited by Su Xingyao at the end of the show? I’m really looking forward to it!】

As fans, they were already going crazy with excitement at the thought of Su Xingyao editing the videos for all the guests.

However, most of the casual viewers, though surprised, still didn’t expect Su Xingyao to be too impressive in this area.

After all, no matter how talented these entertainers were, they were still not on par with professional video editors.

So, many viewers instinctively thought that Su Xingyao’s editing would be the usual simple short video cuts.

But what they didn’t expect was that the following footage would completely shatter their expectations.

On the TV screen, Su Xingyao received the other five guests’ phones and sat down in front of a computer, starting to transfer and organize the videos they had filmed.

To emphasize authenticity, the production team even showed footage of Su Xingyao categorizing and processing the videos.

Then, a line of white text appeared on the screen: 【This is just the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Xiao Su handled all the editing alone for a full six days…】

After this text appeared, the screen froze for about five seconds.

Suddenly, the entire TV screen went black.

Two seconds later, a fast-paced background music (BGM) began.

The characteristic subtitles from the post-production team appeared in rhythm as the screen remained dark.

【The following videos were all edited by Su Xingyao.】

【Please, viewers, get ready.】

【Don’t blink.】

【Three.】

【Two.】

【One.】

As soon as the countdown ended, the screen showed the ancient street where the guests were guessing riddles.

The entire scene felt like a first-person perspective.

A peaceful morning, with an old grandmother leisurely sitting at her riddle stall. The camera gently tilts upward, and a few riddle folding fans sway lightly in the wind.

The folding fans resemble a timer, and after swaying back and forth three times, a slender, fair hand enters the frame.

The hand picks up the riddle and then pushes the folding fan forward…

Suddenly, the entire scene seems to speed up.

In less than a second, the camera zooms through the tranquil street and into the towering cityscape.

Then, the hand appears again, as if it’s the commander of the entire city.

With a light flick of the finger, the skyscrapers in the video begin to sway left and right in sync with the movement.

After swaying back and forth twice, all the buildings gradually lean toward the right.

In an instant, all the skyscrapers and buildings perform a 360-degree spin.

It’s as if the entire city is being manipulated by this magical hand, with every landmark obediently following its direction.

After the impressive spinning transition, all the buildings are realigned.

But what greets the eye is a completely new scene.

The central square of Lushui City.

The camera only lingers in the square for less than a second.

The magician’s hand presses the “switch” again, and all the buildings begin their teleportation magic, rapidly moving toward both sides.

At the end of the street, the entire road beneath them suddenly transforms, as if by sleight of hand, into a moving escalator.

The “escalator” rises to give a panoramic view of Lushui City, and then quickly sinks again.

Finally, it heavily descends to a place full of the hustle and bustle of life.

The small white text on the side of the video marks the location.

【Lushui Night Market】

Both sides of the night market are lined with the city’s signature dishes.

On the left, there’s fancy ice powder, on the right, the signature sweet skin duck…

The camera zooms in and accelerates, passing by egg cake, dragon beard candy, brown sugar rice cakes, sweet water noodles, and crayfish…

Various delicious foods appear in quick succession.

The long night market ends, with dozens of different dishes, none repeated.

The magician’s hand appears again, taking a bowl of spicy sour noodles from the lady’s stall.

From the left side of the frame, Xu Xiang enters the shot, shaking a bouquet of vibrant red roses in front of the camera.

The camera swings back and forth between the spicy noodles and the roses.

On the second swing, the bowl of spicy noodles on the right side was already empty, though no one noticed when it happened.

You can even smell the fragrance of the powder through the screen.

Before the audience even had a chance to swallow their saliva, the swaying camera had already focused on the vibrant, dewy flowers in Xu Xiang’s hand.

The camera zooms in on the rose petals, and all that meets the eye is a dazzling and pure red.

On the TV screen, the vibrant camera work suddenly slows down at this moment.

Just as everyone was wondering when it would stop, it quickly reversed.

What appeared before the audience was an endless flower field.

Small text reappears.

【Sea of Roses】

After giving a panoramic view of the edge of the flower field, the magician’s camera, as if riding on a light rail, moves forward into the flower fields.

The audience is immediately swept along, quickly moving through the romantic sea of roses, like a time machine made of petals.

The time machine soon reaches its end.

It’s the 【Painting Immortal Pool】 in Lushui City.

In the center of the frame, the beautiful sculpture of the Painting Immortal stands, and the camera follows her gesture as it moves forward, bringing us to Grandpa’s sugar painting stall.

Grandpa skillfully draws a lifelike golden dragon on the stone slab.

With just a bamboo skewer, it can be picked up and eaten directly.

The magician, clearly tempted by the golden dragon, eagerly goes to help Grandpa grab a skewer.

But the basket is empty, not a single skewer in sight.

Desperately searching for a skewer, the magician slides back and forth on the screen like a moving trackpad.

He then slides over to a vast green bamboo forest.

This is another tourist attraction in Lushui City: 【Lushui Bamboo Sea】.

The stream and bamboo forest are calm and serene.

The magician starts selecting the bamboo he likes best to make the skewers.

As a result, the space in the bamboo forest is manipulated by him, shifting left and right, and then compressing forward and backward.

As the space is constantly compressed and extended, a few local residents smilingly enter the frame.

They are holding traditional scented fans and leisurely strolling along the long path through the forest.

Sunlight filters through the bamboo, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

The magician shields the light with his hand.

As he re-enters the scene, he “magically” grabs a scented fan from an auntie’s hand.

The fan, held high, blocks the sunlight from the bamboo forest.

But the camera, without anyone noticing, returns to the special scented fan-shaped gate of the Scented Fan Association.

The six guests shook the scented fans in their hands in front of the camera, and Tong An’an was still holding the golden dragon that had been skewered on a bamboo stick.

The camera continued to follow the guests as they boarded a large bus.

Once the vehicle started, the scenery outside the window began to change continuously.

It was like watching a silent movie, with the images flashing back wildly on the window.

The scenes showed the fifteen steps of the craft master’s process in making the scented fan, from start to finish.

After the trip, the bus stopped, and the doors opened.

What appeared before everyone was an ancient city gate.

The magician’s long, pale fingers entered the frame one last time.

He slowly and steadily wrote seven characters on the still image—

【Welcome to Lushui City】

With that, the video came to an end.

The audience in front of the television was completely stunned.

After a two-second pause in their breathing, their brains seemed to restart, as if coming back to consciousness.

Then all thoughts were thrown aside, and only one phrase remained:

Shock!!!

Once they regained their composure, the online community exploded.

【What the heck, what the heck, what the heck!】

【How did he do it?? How did he do it!!】

【Su Xingyao, do you know magic?】

【Oh my God, this camera work must be worth millions!】

【So awesome, so awesome, God Su, you must be a fairy!】

The audience, who had originally expected to watch a simple edited video, never imagined that the final Easter egg put in at the end would be so explosive.

Excited netizens were eager to vent their emotions after watching.

As a result, major social platforms were flooded with discussions about the video at almost the same time.

【I won’t let you guys not watch Su Xingyao’s editing video!】

【You’ll regret it if you don’t watch it!!】

【Oh my God, this promotional video is absolutely legendary!】

【God Su, Su School! Su Xingyao forever a God!】

【Right now, I just want to beg for a pair of unspoiled eyes, so that when I watch it again next time, I can experience that heart-racing feeling all over again.】

Suddenly, there were so many discussion threads, and netizens were naturally immediately drawn in.

At first, everyone thought this was a paid promotional effort by the show’s team, but when they clicked on it, they saw that all the comments were from real people having heated discussions.

Seeing a flood of positive comments, many people became curious and immediately turned on their TVs to watch.

As expected, the post-production team seemed to have anticipated that viewers would come running.

They added a subtitle asking everyone:

【Do you want to watch it again?】

【You definitely didn’t watch enough, right?】

【How about we watch it again!】

Netizens who had already seen the promotional video were excited when they saw it would be played again.

New viewers, though a bit confused, were still eager for the chance to watch it for themselves.

So, on the TV, the same video was played once more.

But this time, the video wasn’t exactly the same as before.

After Su Xingyao’s promotional video ended, there was an additional segment.

【Don’t go away!】

【There’s more!】

【Surprised?】

【Let’s all enjoy the process of making the scented fan, drawn by Su Xingyao!】

After the post-production team’s subtitles disappeared, a curved line appeared on the screen.

Compared to the fast-paced, imaginative video from earlier, this sudden slowdown in pace left everyone feeling a little disoriented.

Although there was some confusion, the fact that this piece was also created by Su Xingyao made everyone instantly filled with anticipation.

The image was paused for only two seconds.

As the camera pulled back, those slender, delicate fingers from the previous video reappeared on the screen.

Along with them was a watercolor painting.

As the audience looked closer, they were shocked to realize that Su Xingyao had painted Feng Han and Shi Hongyu.

The two were focused on making fan ribs in the fan bone workshop.

Fans of the two, watching from their TVs, couldn’t hold back their excitement when they saw the painting.

They never imagined that Su Xingyao would paint the scene of their idols making fan bones.

Their fans quickly moved closer to the TV to get a better look, only to find that Su Xingyao’s fingers were quickly zooming in on the painting.

As everyone wondered what he was doing, they were stunned to realize that when the painting was enlarged, the images didn’t blur or disappear.

Even more surprising, a bamboo leaf floating in the air was zoomed in on, revealing a hidden new world.

In the bamboo leaf, Su Xingyao had painted Cen Yi and Tong An’an, who were learning seal engraving from a master.

The image continued to zoom in, and the entire scene of the two from when they were recording became clearer and clearer.

The stamps, tools, the cameraman following them, and even the strands of hair falling from Tong An’an were all clearly revealed as the image expanded.

But Su Xingyao’s hand never stopped moving.

His fingers slid across the cameraman’s lens focusing on Tong An’an, and slowly, a splash of color began to appear on the camera that was filming her.

Su Xingyao’s finger movements quickened, and the content on the camera became clearer and clearer.

To everyone’s surprise, the footage that the camera was capturing turned out to be Xu Xiang, who was learning how to paste fan leaves!

In just a few seconds, the viewers in front of the TV were once again stunned by Su Xingyao’s incredible move.

At first, they had only seen a painting.

But they never expected that Su Xingyao had hidden so many small details in it.

And each of these details, when zoomed in, turned out to be incredibly clear “paintings within the painting.”

It was as if they had entered a mysterious space with layers upon layers, and no one could tell how many paintings within paintings Su Xingyao had hidden in this one!

The viewers, their minds blown by this nested painting technique, could only stare at Su Xingyao’s tablet screen in awe.

Then they noticed that Su Xingyao had showcased all fifteen different steps of making the scented fan using the picture-in-picture technique.

The post-production team had thoughtfully placed a small frame in the lower-right corner.

The viewers compared the frames and realized that Su Xingyao had painted the scenes of all six of them observing the various steps of fan making after their live broadcast.

After painting a total of fifteen nested paintings, this mysterious artwork finally settled on a shot of the master painting on the fan’s surface, one of the steps the six were observing.

In the final scene, Su Xingyao’s finger moved over to the fan surface where the master was painting. He spread his thumb and index finger apart.

The scene of the Qingming Riverside Scroll that the master was painting in the lower-right corner of the video was also clearly re-drawn in Su Xingyao’s nested painting!

Backstage at the TV station.

The director, who had been monitoring the ratings curve, suddenly jumped up from his chair.

He stared at the ratings graph in disbelief, checking it over and over.

The curve showed that the once-dismal ratings of We’re Going Traveling had suddenly skyrocketed in the final minutes of the show’s airing.

The rise was so rapid that it even broke the highest ratings record the show had ever achieved!

Not only that, but the director watched the curve continue to climb, his hands trembling with excitement.

At this rate, in just a minute or two, it could even surpass the highest ratings for any variety show this month!

Looking at the ratings that had directly doubled, the ecstatic director silently thanked Su Xingyao for being the show’s savior and decisively instructed his staff.

“Once it’s finished, arrange for a rerun! Let’s replay Su Xingyao’s segment multiple times in the ‘highlight moments’!”

No one had expected that We’re Going Traveling, which had suffered from low ratings due to sabotage from rival stations, would make a miraculous comeback in the last few minutes and explode in popularity.

Not only did the ratings soar, but the viewership on the delayed online stream, which was broadcast an hour later, also broke the record for the highest number of views in the history of the show.

The internet was flooded with discussions about the two videos from Su Xingyao.

Many viewers couldn’t wait for the program team to release the original videos and immediately started taking pictures of their TV screens with their phones.

Even these videos taken from their TVs, once posted, easily achieved incredibly high viewership numbers.

【Ahhhhh Su Su Su Su Su Su!!!! Mr. Xiao Su, my god!!!】

【Mom asked me why I’m watching TV on my knees.】

【Such an amazing video and picture-in-picture technique, and you’re telling me it only took six days? I don’t believe it, unless you show me the project files!】

【I can hear your calculations from the Pacific Ocean.】

【I heard you all saying Su Xingyao’s video editing is amazing, but you’re amateurs. After watching, you’ll just scream. Us experts, we just kneel down directly.】

【Ahhhhhh after watching Su Xingyao’s edited video, I desperately want to go to Lushui County and visit all those places!】

【Su Xingyao, you should stop doing variety shows and just go film movies for me!】

【Film movies? Go teach me how to paint!】

【The fan with the Qingming Riverside Scroll at the end of the picture-in-picture was amazing. I compared it with the video of their visit, and it was exactly the same!】

【So amazing, the editing and painting skills are top-tier, each of them would crush the domestic entertainment industry. And yet, Mr. Xiao Su released both at once!】

【Is this what it’s like to be a big shot?】

【Su Xingyao is awesome!】

【Brothers, show some respect, call him God Su!】

【Wuwuwu, I’m just a groundhog that can only scream for God Su.】

【Where’s the program team?? Where’s the program team!! Quickly release these two videos separately, I want to worship them again!】

The viewers were anxious and excited, and the official Weibo account of the program team had already been flooded with messages.

But instead of immediately uploading the two videos, the program team, who had been eagerly called upon, didn’t rush to release them. Instead, they posted several tweets in succession.