Chapter 79
So, when a spacious, high-end reception room gathered a group of respectable, influential elites,
and those people met each other two by two, unexpected chemistry could spark.
All of a sudden, it became lively—well, low-level lively!
It was as noisy as a vegetable market.
Shen Jinfeng did not actually let everyone turn the place into complete chaos. He interrupted the crowd’s eager self-introductions and attempts to recruit him.
“Thank you all for coming such a long way today. I feel very honored. But please allow me to first introduce myself to everyone.”
After getting everyone to sit down, he asked the program staff to help replace everyone’s tea. Only after a while did he slowly begin with a smile.
“Everyone may already know about my past experiences in the entertainment industry. You should know that I am an actor with mediocre acting skills and constant news scandals.”
“Uh, saying mediocre acting is already flattering me. It should be called terrible acting.”
The crowd immediately burst into laughter.
Someone in the crowd instantly comforted him loudly. “It’s fine, Boss! That’s because aside from acting, you’re omnipotent! Everyone has different strengths.”
“Exactly, Boss. Your other skills are especially powerful. God has to close at least one window for you, or else how are other people supposed to survive?”
“Hahaha, there’s nothing worth staying for in the entertainment industry anyway. We don’t care about acting.”
…
Everyone chimed in one after another.
Yun Xueshan was amused. He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes full of schadenfreude as he eagerly waited to watch the show.
Sure enough, Shen Jinfeng also had not expected that the moment his words landed, the crowd would act as perfect hype men, practically stepping the acting profession into the ground.
Uh, this situation was a little awkward.
He gave two light coughs and said, rather embarrassed, “Being an actor is a very challenging profession. To me, it is also an industry that I love and wish to pursue for the rest of my life.”
This happened to answer Feng Chenfeng’s earlier question about his interests and career direction.
Only, the moment this sentence landed, everyone in the room could not help freezing.
“Huh?” Someone let out an incredulous sound.
What the heck?
He wanted to treat acting as a lifelong dream and profession?
Boss, you are leaving so many maxed-out talents unused, leaving so many industries where you could easily climb to the top as soon as you entered—or where top-level guides would lead you—
and instead, you insist on choosing the acting industry, something even you know you are not good at?
Was he manually selecting hard mode for himself?
Was this the way a boss thought?
Knowing there were tigers in the mountain, yet insisting on walking toward the tiger mountain—was this the reason why a boss could become a boss?
Or had the boss conquered all his other skills like this in the past too?
As long as he was willing to put his heart into it, he could improve rapidly and amaze everyone?
But this possibility was truly tiny.
Because they had all seen Shen Jinfeng’s information.
Shen Jinfeng had already been in the industry for over two years. His acting could not exactly be called improved; at most, one could see the tiniest hint of change.
He really belonged to the category of having no talent in this area, right?
Come on, why force it?
Anyone with eyes could tell that Shen Jinfeng’s other skills displayed on the deserted island could not possibly be as talentless as his acting.
Otherwise, even if the twenty-two-year-old Boss Shen had started learning inside his mother’s womb, he would not have had enough time to learn so many skills.
Ahhhhhh! Why on earth did he want to work in the entertainment industry?
They really could not understand.
Everyone was speechless.
So, Shen Jinfeng was serious.
To him, acting was a very challenging thing. So, because he had never encountered anything so challenging before, and now that he finally had, he had to conquer it?
It had to be said, Shen Jinfeng’s words were quite ambiguous.
Or rather, this “dream,” paired with his performance on the livestream of What Kind of Person Are You, was quite ambiguous.
One could not blame Yun Xueshan and the others for thinking that way.
For a moment, no one knew what to say.
They were all people experienced in society, most of them successful figures with maxed-out social skills.
They would not be ignorant enough to casually deny someone else’s interests and pursuits.
There was no hierarchy between professions.
Everyone had their own aspirations.
Moreover, they were here to seek cooperation. They could not possibly offend Shen Jinfeng the moment they opened their mouths.
But they were truly choked by this answer!
What the hell!
If Shen Jinfeng had been persuaded directly by Feng Chenfeng or Professor Gu earlier, they would have felt better.
For a while, everyone fell silent.
They all looked at Shen Jinfeng, their expressions as if they were constipated.
Even He Erwang, Mo Fan, Gu Shengsheng, and the others, who were themselves in the entertainment industry, had expressions so strange it was almost ridiculous.
Although He Erwang himself currently regarded being an idol as a career he wanted to work hard at,
for some unknown reason, seeing a room full of various big shots all wanting to drag Shen Jinfeng into their circles and cooperate with him,
he suddenly felt that Shen Jinfeng’s voyage should be among the stars and the sea, not in the tiny entertainment industry.
Pah, pah, pah.
He tried hard to shake his head.
These people were making him feel like he was being brainwashed!
As for Gu Shengsheng and Mo Fan, who were already actors,
although both of them treated acting as a lifelong career, when they first entered the industry, they had done so either because they were forced or because they needed to make a living.
Their passion and love for acting had slowly developed afterward.
If they asked themselves honestly, it was because they did not know how to do anything else and had no particular interest in other careers. They kept improving out of a sense of responsibility.
Therefore, the fact that acting had actually been chosen by Boss as his dream!
The two of them felt an indescribable mix of disbelief, shame, and pride.
It was like a poor boy suddenly marrying a fair, rich beauty—both humbled and proud, sort of.
Facing everyone’s incredulous gazes, Shen Jinfeng possessed a calm heart.
He waited for everyone to digest the news for a while before continuing unhurriedly, “I know everyone became interested because I displayed some insignificant little tricks during the livestream of What Kind of Person Are You. Everyone can tell me what you need. If I can do it, I will be happy to help.”
Shen Jinfeng’s words honestly sounded a little weak and powerless.
After all, so many people had specially come to find him. He could not let them all leave empty-handed after making a wasted trip, right?
He ruthlessly despised himself in his heart. Sigh, why the hell did he have such a sense of responsibility!
The people who had originally thought their trip was wasted but unexpectedly found a turn for the better immediately lit up!
Although they were deeply wounded by Boss Shen calling those things “insignificant little tricks.”
If the height they could not reach after spending their entire lives specializing in their fields was called insignificant, then acting was insignificant insignificant insignificant!
Hmph.
They could only comfort themselves in their hearts by imagining that if they went into acting, they would definitely act better than Boss Shen!
Shen Jinfeng did not know what everyone was thinking. He simply pointed at a middle-aged man sitting closest to him and said, “May I ask you to go first?”
The middle-aged man was dressed plainly and was not tall, but even sitting down, one could see his well-developed muscles, especially in his arms.
Being called on first, he hurriedly spoke. “Hello, Jinfeng. I am Liu Dake, coach of the national weightlifting team. I saw during the livestream that you could throw an adult wolf up onto a tree with one hand. Your arm strength absolutely surpasses that of the current world champion. I believe you are what legends call naturally born with divine strength.”
Shen Jinfeng’s expression went blank for a second.
He had only thrown a few wolves. How coincidental was it that the national weightlifting team coach saw it?
As expected of an occupational habit—he immediately associated it with outstanding arm strength?
But actually, he had used skillful force. If he joined a proper weightlifting competition, it should be considered somewhat against the rules, right…
He blinked blankly. “I don’t think I’m usually that strong.”
“Could it be that the wolves simulated by the program team were much lighter? Or maybe because the situation was special, I suddenly erupted with strength beyond my normal power?”
Although such situations were rare, they did happen.
His expression was completely innocent.
Liu Dake was stunned. “You haven’t noticed that you’re usually strong?”
Shen Jinfeng shook his head.
Qin Ye, who was listening from the side, twitched the corner of his mouth.
It was true that Shen Jinfeng was strong!
On the deserted island, he could casually grab and pull him. During the wolf fight, he had obviously done it with ease.
But Qin Ye only looked deeply at Shen Jinfeng and said nothing.
As for Sun Xinping, who inexplicably had a pot fall on his head from the sky, he was also baffled. He stammered, “Our program team should have simulated things according to reality.”
As he spoke, he saw Shen Jinfeng’s calm gaze fall on him, and he got stuck. “But we cannot rule out unexpected situations. Also, in the virtual world, consciousness is very important. One’s thoughts can exceed physical strength, so maybe, maybe…”
He was not from a technical background, and for a moment, he could not find the right words to describe it.
But everyone else understood what he meant.
Liu Dake still looked full of suspicion.
Shen Jinfeng directly beckoned to Gu Shengsheng. “Shengsheng, come here. Let me see whether I can lift you.”
The facts proved that he could lift him, but it was definitely not easy.
Because when he tried to raise him up, he exerted so much strength that the veins on his forehead bulged and a faint sweat appeared, but he still could not succeed.
Liu Dake suffered a huge blow. Could his prediction have been wrong?
But after thinking for a long time, he could not figure out the reason, nor could he see any flaw.
It was also because Shen Jinfeng’s image on the deserted island had been too good. No one expected him to lie.
On top of that, he was famously bad at acting. No one expected that he could act, and act without revealing a single flaw at that.
Liu Dake leaned back on the sofa in disappointment, his eyes lifeless. “Fine.”
Shen Jinfeng gave him an apologetic smile and let the next person continue.
This was a female Daoist priest dressed with an air of transcendent elegance. “Fellow Daoist Shen, I am the 157th-generation successor of Mount Emei. Greetings.”
She bowed slightly to Shen Jinfeng in a highly formal gesture.
Shen Jinfeng quickly stood up and returned the salute.
“Hello.”
The female Daoist studied him. “I observed that Fellow Daoist is agile and your lightness skill is superb. May I ask which master taught you?”
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
He was done. This was truly his first time attracting martial sect people in a technological small world.
“I do indeed know a little lightness skill, but I apologize, I cannot reveal my teacher to you.”
Fortunately, the female Daoist did not pursue the matter to the end. She also knew that teacher lineages were inherently rather private, and some masters were unwilling to be known publicly.
“May I ask what cultivation method Fellow Daoist practices? Would we be able to exchange moves?”
This was her true purpose.
Shen Jinfeng smiled faintly. “To my shame, I only know lightness skill. Because my master was unwilling for me to enter a sect or inherit his lineage, he never taught me any cultivation method.”
He had already exposed the lightness skill, so there was no way to deny it.
But as for other cultivation methods and so on—if he said he did not have them, then he did not have them!
No, wait. “However, my master did teach me a few health-preserving techniques to strengthen the body.”
That had also been exposed on the show…
His gaze landed precisely on a middle-aged man separated from them by a sofa. “Earlier, you said you were from the General Administration of Sport? Actually, what I practiced with Qin Ye and the others on the deserted island was a health-preserving technique. I personally feel that the results are quite good. I wonder whether the General Administration of Sport is interested in including it?”
The middle-aged man was the deputy director of the General Administration of Sport. Hearing this, his eyes immediately lit up. This was exactly the purpose of his visit today!
“Really?”
“Jinfeng, will your sect have rules forbidding you from passing it to outsiders?”
After all, among some existing martial arts sects, even though they had quite a few inherited techniques,
those willing to selflessly share them and pass them to outsiders could barely offer a few sets.
Shen Jinfeng nodded. “Of course.”
“I’ll record an instructional video later and organize the corresponding key points and explanations of the movements, then send them to you together?”
The deputy director had not expected it to go this smoothly!
Disregarding his status as an elder, he directly stood up and bowed to Shen Jinfeng to express his thanks.
Shen Jinfeng was so startled that he immediately stood up as well. He bent at the waist more than ninety degrees, clearly bowing lower than the other person.
The onlookers froze for a second, then burst into laughter.
“Hahahahaha, Director Zhao, if you suddenly do this, aren’t you putting the young man in a difficult position?”
The deputy director straightened, rubbed his head, and smiled embarrassedly.
“Those of you after me, don’t copy me. I originally wanted to thank him, but in the end, I received a salute from Jinfeng instead.”
He now looked at Shen Jinfeng like he was his own nephew, and his tone was unusually close.
Shen Jinfeng also smiled. “Hahaha, yes. Everyone here is my elder. Please absolutely don’t bow to me. This junior cannot bear it.”
He made a cupped-hands gesture, provoking everyone’s good-natured laughter again. They all agreed.
The deputy director patted Shen Jinfeng on the shoulder. “Good job, Jinfeng. You’re a good kid.”
“Don’t worry. The honors and prize money you deserve, I will definitely help you fight for the best.”
Shen Jinfeng’s expression stiffened. He was already famous enough. He really did not need more honors.
There was also so much money in his bank card that he could never spend it all.
“No need, no need…”
The deputy director directly interrupted him. “All right, no refusing. What you deserve, you take. Pushing back and forth like this doesn’t look like a man.”
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Fine.
The deputy director sat back on the sofa in satisfaction and became part of the audience.
But the female Daoist from earlier still somewhat did not believe it—or rather, she did not give up.
How could someone have such excellent lightness skill, yet not know any cultivation method?
Such good lightness skill without internal force—was that realistic?
Shen Jinfeng looked toward the female Daoist and was similarly willing to share selflessly. “I can share my lightness skill method and some of my practice insights with Fellow Daoist.”
The female Daoist cupped her hands. “Many thanks, Fellow Daoist. In return, I am also willing to share one of Mount Emei’s secret techniques with you.”
Shen Jinfeng smiled faintly. “All right.”
The female Daoist hesitated for a moment, but finally could not help asking, “Fellow Daoist Shen, I have a presumptuous request. May I take your pulse?”
Shen Jinfeng fell silent for two seconds. His smile faded slightly, but he still answered, “You may.”
He extended his hand and watched as the female Daoist’s expression went from solemn to puzzled to certain.
He let out a quiet breath in his heart.
Good thing he had only just come out of the deserted island yesterday. This body had not even opened its acupoints yet.
What could this fellow Daoist possibly detect?
Hehe.
