Chapter 59: You Look Good When You Smile
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Mr. Host, what was that just now?”
Thinking it had been his own joke that drove Mr. Host into madness, the s.h.i.+ Zhan youth abruptly caught up to Meng Fan after he had descended the city wall staircase and asked him carefully. “Actually, I was just joking with you, I promise next time I won’t drive that stupid car, next time I’ll bring a seven-seater minivan to escort you.”
Meng Fan suppressed the urge to sit on this guy and silenced him once and for all. His mouth twitched as he responded, “It’s okay, I’m just doing it for fun.”
Once they reached the bottom of the city wall, Meng Fan told the minister of his streaming plans today. The minister was curious as to how this guy had so much homework but was happy to let him continue in his studies and find manager Gao at the plaza.
“Coming!”
When Gao bro from the cultural plaza saw Meng Fan, his face beamed into a grin. “Are you still drawing free caricatures for people like yesterday? I saved you a spot and set everything up for you. Two stools, and a small table for your things. Here, I’ll help bring your things over.”
“I got it, I got it!”
The s.h.i.+ Zhan youth was eager to help, das.h.i.+ng off as soon as he heard. He grabbed the table from Meng Fan in one hand and picked up a stool in the other.
Meng Fan saw this and proceeded to take the other stool from manager Gao.
“Oh, you’ve brought an a.s.sistant with you.”
Manager Gao cheerfully walked to his admin kiosk, returning after a while with a box in his hand. He rested the box on the small table and said, “Everyone in the management knows about your drawing business from yesterday. Towards talented street performers, our on-site staff is very supportive.”
This so-called talent, to the management staff was directly equivalent to how many tourists they can attract.
The square harbored an abundant amount of street performers, half of which were the park’s employees while the other half consisted mostly of hired staff and business partners. There was also the occasional casual onlooker who partic.i.p.ated once in a while, Meng Fan being one.
Although he was drawing the tourists their caricatures for free so that the management couldn’t officially profit from it, it was enough that he was able to retain the tourists within the site for a longer duration.
Tourist traffic was the most important element of the park, and the amount of time they spent inside the grounds followed closely as the second most important.
So as long as Meng Fan came, they would support him.
Already, the spot he was in now was much better than the day before.
And there was more.
“I saw there were a lot of people lining up yesterday, so I’ll leave these queue numbers here for them to grab. This will prevent line skippers.”
Manager Gao then pointed in the vicinity of his booth and said with a smile, “There’s an air chiller there and some free plum juice so that the customers in line can wait comfortably.”
Speaking of it, there weren’t that many people in line, twenty or thirty at most. The crowded population mostly came from the spectators.
Of course, the cultural plaza had already possessed these amenities, but not all the street artists and stalls could set up this close to them, let alone receive Meng Fan’s treatment. In the entire cultural square, he could be ranked top 5.
He hung up the “poster” and went live, officially opening for ‘business’. This time, the location for his booth was way better than the day before. Along with his newly gained confidence and calmness from the 50 drawings he had done yesterday, he would at least look like an old-timer to tourists pa.s.sing by.
Therefore, two minutes into the process, even without a pretty girl like Miss w.a.n.g there to support him, the first “customer” approached. In another stroke of luck, this person was another pretty girl.
With yesterday’s acc.u.mulated experience, Meng Fan entered his ideal state of mind with the first drawing and finished the caricature in just over three minutes.
“This fast?!”
“That’s so cute!”
“You’re incredible!”
“Thank you!”
The pretty girl was very satisfied, even displaying her finished caricature to the spectators that had gathered around before happily walking off.
Wait she’s gone.
Just like that.
Meng Fan was dumbstruck!
He wanted to call her and ask if she had forgotten to do something.
But he thought about it and realized he didn’t ask her for a photo.
Even Meng Fan didn’t think the young girl would walk away without taking a photo with him.
This was all because yesterday had gone way too smoothly! He had Miss w.a.n.g to begin the process, and then the confident aunty to carry the audience. He’d been boosted to victory!
But today was different. This time, the girl who had started the process came in with some ‘lip service’, and then left the battle without using a single skillshot.
Her zero output still came second, as Meng Fan was worried that all the people following her would be equally boosted, only thanking him and leaving.
At least he could still earn points for streaming and ill.u.s.trating.
But even if he didn’t care much for the [Group Photo Guru] tas, it was still mosquito meat! He could achieve it easily and refused to let the opportunity go.
Should he be proactively asking for a selfie?
It might seem strange.
Hey pretty girl!”
While Meng Fan had been struggling to ask about a selfie, the s.h.i.+ Zhan youth bravely stood up and stopped the young lady that had got up to leave.
“My boss man here is streaming on 8th Station, his channel name is Meng Fatty’s open server, can you take a selfie with him and post it on your WeChat moments? It would help give him some more exposure.”
The s.h.i.+ Zhan Teen was wearing a Luffy T-s.h.i.+rt with a matching straw hat today. He had looked very clean and fresh to begin with, so naturally, he appeared docile and harmless.
Of course, he didn’t know Meng Fan needed the selfies to raise his experience, but only hoped to increase his online viewers as he was out here streaming in the blazing heat. Besides, he had almost driven Meng Fan to the brink of madness, so in one short second, he decided he would pick up the banner and take on the role of support.
“Oh, sure.”
The pretty girl was very eager, running over with her caricature to take a photo with Meng Fan. She asked him for his channel name again and sent it to her WeChat moments. After she posted it, she paused for a moment and said to Meng Fan, “You have to write your host name on there.”
She was pointing to his “poster”.
Meng Fan took her well-intended suggestion, immediately writing it down before turning to s.h.i.+ Zhan and giving him a thumbs up.
Upon receiving the praise, the s.h.i.+ Zhan youth was in a pleasant mood. He gave Meng Fan a look that said ‘although I almost forced you into madness and I regret that very much, I will turn my smart car into a seven-seater and turn the back seats into one seat to compensate you, so just do your best and focus on drawing and leave everything else to me’.
Simple, and straight to the soul.
“Beep!”
About ten minutes later, an alert sounded from the system in Meng Fan’s “mind”.
This wasn’t for the twenty caricatures he had completed in twenty minutes, but because of the promotional photos, the onlookers had posted on their social media platforms taken with Meng Fan from afar, thanks to s.h.i.+ Zhan’s help.
There were also people who had just treated him as background scenery, posting on their WeChat moments: Ran into a chubby man streaming his art.
As for the stream’s name, most of them did not share it.
Meng Fan didn’t expect that with just a scream from the s.h.i.+ Zhan youth, he was able to finish his task an hour ahead of schedule.
s.h.i.+ Zhan • Real • Supportive • Youth!
“Beep! You’ve taken 100 group photos with different types of people, completing the task [Group Photo Guru]. Reward: points +100.”
“Beep! You’ve completed task [Group Photo Guru], and have received the t.i.tle [Group Photo Guru] (Photogenic +1, smile appeal +1).”
Done!
Meng Fan had clung onto the hope that there would be an upgraded mission after he completed this, similar to the upgraded [Adoration Fever] mission he had received after completing the first set tasks. He didn’t expect it to be over so soon.
Is it not logical to go from 100 photos to 1000, or even 10,000? Why is the system so obnoxious?
Moreover, he had found such a good venue for outdoor streaming, and taking selfies was so handy. How can it be so stubborn and not give him an upgrade?
He waited for a while before confirming that there was indeed no upgraded task. Meng Fan could only bear his disappointment and continued to draw.
Occasionally, he’d look up and see some people taking photos from the side of his eyes. It made his heart uncomfortable as if he had lost two kilograms of spicy dough sticks!
“Thank you!”
Another pretty girl took her drawing. This young lady had a cool looking monolid, but in the caricature, she had been portrayed with double eyelids that turned into half-moons when she smiled. Happily, she took a selfie with Meng Fan.
She looked at the picture, then back at Meng Fan. The monolid girl was surprised. “I didn’t expect you to be so photogenic, you look good when you smile!”