Mo Sheng replied blankly, “Isn’t steamed fish delicious?” Qi Shejiang sighed, “It’s good, but you can’t say it like that; it should be, having been accompanied for months, I truly can’t bear to part!”
Mo Sheng was a bit nervous at first, but as he spoke more, he got more into it. Qi Shejiang held the performance firmly, and he gradually calmed down inside.
Now it was time for the most crucial part: the “chuamenzi.” Qi Shejiang used “tuochuan,” quickly opening his folding fan as if it were a basket, while walking and reciting the key phrases of the “chuamenzi”: “Dear uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters, please don’t leave just yet. We don’t have any special skills, we only know how to tell a few stories, all depending on your generosity. If you could give me a few bucks, that would really show my abilities.”
You raise a puppy or a bird, and you feed them daily so they can bring you joy. We’ve just been talking and singing together for half an hour. The audience laughed, as Qi Shejiang’s speech was soft and reasonable. It wasn’t just about playing the victim; he compared himself to little birds and puppies, and then he tossed in a line about Mo Gan.
With this approach, the young man was really good at it; he only needed some change, which felt quite affordable. This belonged to the benevolent method and involved some pitiful statements, especially considering that most of the audience were kind-hearted older folks.
Those strategies fell under “guagang” (raking the audience for money). It was quite vivid; it wasn’t that the audience was giving tips, but rather the performer was skillfully extracting money with his words.
When they felt embarrassed, they had to pay up. On site, if younger people went out, they might pay with their phones by scanning QR codes, but these elder folks still had some change on them. Qi Shejiang’s series of persuasive lines had them laughing and feeling soft-hearted, and they ended up taking out the coins to give him. In a little while, Qi Shejiang’s fan was filled to the brim. Next, Qi Shejiang still needed to demonstrate further to the two how to do a short segment and then pull in the audience. He checked the time, called on Qi Leyang to sing a segment, gathered the audience’s attention, and went to the performance table behind to tidy up a bit before standing up to continue speaking. Every time he finished a small segment, he collected money, using various methods while ensuring the audience was willing without nitpicking his performance. However, towards the end, it transformed into “feichuan,” asking everyone to throw money into the center of the stage. Tang Shuangqin, along with his assistant, casually strolled through the park while wearing sunglasses. He had driven past and recalled that Qi Shejiang was coming to help today, so he got out of the car to check on the situation. Deep down, he felt some worry and curiosity. From a distance, he saw a crowd gathered around, with Mo Sheng and others’ voices coming through.
“Hey, business looks good,” Tang Shuangqin was pleasantly surprised; the crowd was clearly better than what they had described before. As he approached, he saw Qi Shejiang tossing out his lines, and the audience was throwing money into the center while the other two took turns collecting it. The boxes they had for money were already full. Although there weren’t many large notes, the quantity was quite impressive. Tang Shuangqin had never seen anything like this, especially how Qi Shejiang skillfully engaged those who had been listening for a long time and wanted to leave without paying, making them hesitant to step away and ending up taking out money instead. This was precisely the kind of flair that Tang Shuangqin had imagined. He excitedly whispered to his assistant to secretly film some behind-the-scenes footage. Tang Shuangqin took a careful look and indeed, Qi Shejiang appeared to be quite tired. He didn’t expect him to be so dedicated; this kid had good character. In total, they collected money three or four times. After a bow from Qi Shejiang, he made way for Qi Leyang to take over while he slumped down to the ground.
Tang Shuangqin noted his sitting posture was a bit odd and walked around to the back of the scene to take a look. He saw Qi Shejiang sitting on the ground, pulling up his pants and taking off the wooden stilts he had been wearing. Although Qi Shejiang was there to help them, he still had to practice diligently himself. Not wanting to waste time, he started putting on the stilts again, glancing at the time before slipping them on. Tang Shuangqin was stunned, finding it nearly impossible to describe his mood. So, Qi Shejiang had been practicing his stilt work while delivering his routine? He had to endure the pain and maintain a calm demeanor, even smiling as he did so. Mo Sheng and Qi Leyang helped Qi Shejiang over to a nearby stone bench. “I’m fine, I can walk by myself,” Qi Shejiang exhaled, just as Luoxia had said, it was endurance training. He could already stand much longer than at the start.
And that wasn’t all; during their performance, he had walked around for quite a while. Moving around was also quite painful for his legs. Mo Sheng and Qi Leyang were both shocked; they had never seen anyone push themselves so hard. Performing while on stilts and delivering the whole act was entirely forcing himself to progress quickly.
They were both shocked and impressed. In their eyes, Qi Shejiang wasn’t even the main character, and there weren’t too many scenes featuring him either. It really felt unnecessary.
“Count how much money we have here,” Qi Shejiang asked.
The two of them poured out the money, counting it one by one. Most were one-yuan or five-yuan bills, along with a few coins.
After some calculations, they totaled three hundred and four yuan and fifty cents, and they didn’t even know which kid had thrown in a game coin. In any case, that was several times more than what they had earned in the past few days.
And this was all done within a single morning, also because Qi Shejiang had taught them several acts in a short time—audience members had spent all their change.
“With this much money, if we could earn like this every day, we’d make over nine thousand in a month,” Qi Leyang said.
They hadn’t graduated yet and had never earned any money, feeling pretty frustrated a few days ago, but now seeing this money, they were overjoyed.
“But this is only because Teacher Jesse is here; we only made three hundred and have to share it, so when you really think about it, it’s not that much,” Mo Sheng lamented. “Making money is really not easy; we still need to learn from you.”
Qi Shejiang coughed a bit; he had spoken quite a lot just now. “It’s also because life is good now, and everyone isn’t short of money… Moreover, we can’t always count on this; for those who make a living from performing, they have to rely on the heavens. If it’s windy or rainy outside, who will listen to you?”
Mo Sheng and Qi Leyang both nodded in agreement, “Alright, we’re just thinking about how to complete the tasks assigned by the director and earn ten thousand soon.”
Qi Shejiang had come to teach them for a few days; afterward, they would have to strive on their own—seeing Qi Shejiang’s determination while he was performing, even if he wanted to stay on, they didn’t dare to ask him to.
“Teacher Jesse, you sit down first; I’ll call a cab,” Mo Sheng said. Just then, he noticed a few familiar faces approaching, one of whom was even taking pictures.
“… Wait, isn’t that Director Tang?” Mo Sheng finally recognized.
“How’s Jesse doing?” Tang Shuangqin seemed to have finally developed a bit of humanity, squatting down to ask Qi Shejiang.
Here is the edited article with the irrelevant content removed:
Qi Shejiang hadn’t expected him to come; he was still filming, “I’m fine; what’s this for?”
