Chapter 142: Awesome! (Fifth installment, for the Silver Patron Sky, +3)

Li Shixin was not dressed very formally today. He wore a rather rigid, old-fashioned grey jacket with a black turtleneck underneath. For the sake of comfort, his lower half was paired with loose black suit trousers and a pair of casual leather shoes.

In this outfit, when clean, he still looked somewhat presentable.

However, once stained with mud and dust, visually he was indistinguishable from any other thirty- or forty-year-old migrant worker on a construction site—especially with the addition of a yellow hard hat that would have lost a tier of prestige even if it were made by Armani, set against the backdrop of two massive stacks of red bricks.

Although it was already late December, approaching noon, the temperature in Shanghai still hovered comfortably around ten-odd degrees Celsius.

Carrying only the bricks, Li Shixin made four round trips from the entrance of the construction site back to the foundation, sweat pouring down his dust-covered face.

Seeing that Li Shixin was not slacking off in the slightest and was actually carrying bricks with the solid, earnest diligence of a real migrant worker, Yang Kuan’s two colleagues couldn't help but twitch their mouths.

"Kuan-ge." Xiao Wang, the cameraman, drew in a sharp breath. After patting Yang Kuan on the shoulder, he pointed at his own head: "This godfather of yours, is there something wrong with him up here?"

"Scram!" Yang Kuan stiffened his neck and cursed, waving his hand as if swatting away a fly.

Others might not know, but he did.

No matter what might be wrong with Li Shixin from head to toe, his brain was definitely fine.

He was as shrewd as they come!

Still, Yang Kuan was somewhat baffled as to what Li Shixin was trying to accomplish with this stunt.

Seeing Li Shixin neatly stack a pile of bricks at the foundation and head back, Yang Kuan immediately stepped forward.

"Godfather, what on earth are you doing? If you need us to cooperate in some way, you have to tell us! We can't just stand around watching you move bricks!"

Li Shixin wiped the sweat from his forehead and punched his aching, stiff lower back.

During those previous trips, he hadn't relied on any peak-condition chewing gum; he had genuinely shouldered more than fifty pounds of bricks for several hundred meters.

After four trips, every old bone in his body was protesting.

Seeing that his sweat had mercilessly soaked the back of his grey jacket, Li Shixin decided it was just about time.

He waved at Xiao Wang, who was shouldering the camera: "Xiao Wang, roll the camera."

"Got it! But grandpa, what should I shoot?"

Faced with this question, Li Shixin chuckled. "Put the camera in front of me and just follow me. Starting from the next trip."

"You got it!"

Hearing Li Shixin's instructions, Xiao Wang acknowledged, turned on the machine, and stood right in front of him.

Facing the lens, Li Shixin caught his breath once more.

Gritting his teeth, he walked over to the pile of bricks and called out to the worker responsible for loading them: "Come on! Give me ten more!"

"Old brother, don't push yourself so hard."

Faced with the worker's kind intentions, Li Shixin smiled slightly. "Thank you, young brother, just load them up!"

Watching his already weary, bent waist, the worker sighed and shook his head. He picked up the brick tongs and gave a forceful heave, piling a stack of red bricks onto Li Shixin’s hands, which were crossed behind his back.

With fifty red bricks pressing down on him, Li Shixin’s sweat-soaked face turned an even deeper shade of crimson.

The weight, far exceeding the tolerance of his slender frame, caused the veins on his forehead to bulge, made his body sway uncontrollably, and caused his legs to tremble incessantly.

Seeing this, Xiao Wang’s initial sense of impatience vanished.

Though he still didn't know the true intention behind what this old man was doing, at this very moment, looking at the inexplicable persistence shining in those eyes, watching a man who was clearly on the verge of breaking yet still forcing himself to hold it together, Xiao Wang found his grip on the camera tightening involuntarily.

At that moment, he felt that the old man in front of him...

Was a damn real man!

Leaving the construction site, Li Shixin led Yang Kuan and the others to three more locations. First, for two hundred yuan, he reached an agreement with a food delivery driver and a customer; borrowing the deliveryman's jacket, he stood at the customer's doorstep, simulating a scenario where a delayed delivery resulted in a bowl of spicy hotpot soup being splashed right across his face by the customer. Second, he went to a supermarket and helped unload a truck. Third, he went straight to a shopping mall, replaced a young woman wearing a bulky mascot costume under the blazing sun, and handed out flyers for over half an hour.

After this flurry of activity, it was already past two in the afternoon.

Even just following Li Shixin around as errand runners, Yang Kuan and his crew were thoroughly exhausted.

Looking at Li Shixin—whose teeth were clenched in exhaustion, his face drenched in sweat that had evaporated and left behind layers of salty stains—Yang Kuan finally couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Godfather, tell me, why on earth are you working this hard to shoot all this?"

Li Shixin grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't I tell you? Precision marketing. Let's shoot the commercial first and talk later."

"But what if people don't want it after it's filmed?!"

Seeing his third godson grabbing his arm with a look of heartache, Li Shixin chuckled and shook off his grip.

"Young man, don't be so impatient. Sometimes in this world, you only find out whether something works or not after you try it."

Watching Li Shixin's slightly hunched figure, Yang Kuan let out a heavy, exasperated breath!

"Hoo—rah!"

"Fine! If you want to play, I'll play along with you. Tell me, what are we doing next?"

Pondering the scenes they had filmed so far and sketching out the script in his mind, Li Shixin smiled slightly and pointed at the school across the street.

"Let's go... for the final scene."

***

Xifeng Street Community Primary School.

Xu Xiaoyun, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Year 4, looked at the manuscript in her hand, feeling a sudden sting in her nose.

"Grandpa, do we just need to have a student read this aloud? Are there any other requirements?"

Looking at the somewhat emotional female teacher before him, Li Shixin smiled gently. "If it's not too much trouble, it would be even better if you could guide the students to show a hint of emotional touch."

"What kind of touch do you mean?"

"You know... the kind where tears well up in their eyes."

"That's easy enough. Grandpa, get your cameras in position, I'll arrange it right away."

With Teacher Xu's support, Li Shixin immediately directed Xiao Wang and the others to set up the camera.

"Come on, take out your notebooks. I'm assigning tonight's homework: exercises from page four to page thirty-four. Tomorrow morning I will check them one by one myself. Whoever hasn't finished, bring your parents over."

Watching Teacher Xu step up to the podium and casually drop an ultimate skill that instantly reddened the eyes of a room full of children, Li Shixin's jaw dropped.

Movie and TV directors always say children's emotions are hard to control...

Turns out they just hadn't found the right person!

Just as Li Shixin was grinning, Teacher Xu casually pointed at a little girl sitting in the front row. "Come on, Tong Xiaoxiao. Read this composition aloud with feeling. Everyone else, pay attention."

Through the camera monitor, a spirited little girl walked up to the podium with red-rimmed eyes and picked up the sheet of paper.

"My Father."

"My father is the best father in the world. Although he doesn't look young, he is the most handsome. He seems clumsy, but he is the smartest. He looks fierce, but he is the kindest. However..."

"He always lies to me."

"When chatting with the fathers and mothers of other children, he says he has a respectable job. In the supermarket, when I encounter a plush toy I like, he says he has lots and lots of money. Every time he comes home, he says he isn't tired. I know things aren't really like that..."

Listening to the content of the composition and connecting it to the various scenes filmed today, Yang Kuan's eyes turned red as well.

"Godfather, this advertising concept is genius."

Li Shixin smiled faintly.

"What theme do you want to use?"

"Love can be profound, but work can be easy."

Faced with this question, Li Shixin pondered for a moment and spoke.

Hearing this advertising theme, Yang Kuan and Xiao Wang froze for a second before simultaneously raising their thumbs.

"Awesome!"