Chapter 162: A New Starting Point for Career

After talking with them, Chen Xin learned that a minor incident had occurred during her time at Jinling University. It involved Lu Yimeng and Song Yi. Pushed to the brink, the two of them had decided on the spot to self-fund a program, applying directly to the broadcasting station for project approval. They did not even need the station to provide a studio, choosing instead to find a location for recording themselves, nor did they take up prime time slots. However, through personal connections and the charm of financial backing, they managed to secure a quite favorable broadcast time slot.

"That fool of a host pushed all the responsibility onto us last time, and now she actually dares to try and step on us to climb higher. If we don't teach her a lesson, she'll think she's the brightest star in the entire universe."

Song Yi came from a good family background and possessed genuine talent. He had always kept a low profile simply because his parents and elders had taught him to do so, but that did not mean he was a pushover to be bullied at will.

"That woman thinks she's so amazing. I told Sister Lu that we should make a program on our own and strive to defeat her head-on. When you get back, you've got to back me up."

"As a guest? No problem!" Chen Xin offered her ideas, suggesting that guests did not necessarily have to be celebrities; the best approach was a combination. Celebrities would be responsible for boosting ratings, while ordinary people would showcase their skills.

At this stage, it was impossible for their show to invite guests from all over the country, but leveraging some connections to invite a few provincial celebrities was entirely feasible. Once they achieved some success, they could invite others later.

"There are also a few famous senior brothers and sisters at our university. You can ask Senior Han to help bridge the connection and see if we can find a few who are attractive and well-proportioned. We can't have a program completely devoid of visual appeal."

Chen Xin had never produced a show before, but she watched plenty of them. Of course, many of her ideas were impossible to implement right now, but simply picking a few straightforward ones to put into practice would yield extraordinary results.

After chatting with Chen Xin for over two hours, Song Yi had filled several pages of his notebook, accumulating enough ideas for at least five or six episodes without having to worry about inspiration. He planned to sort out his thoughts that evening and go talk to Sister Lu tomorrow. If they could proceed according to this plan, he was confident he could make the show a success.

After seeing Song Yi off, Chen Xin finished most of her preparations. She did not bring many belongings—just a rolling suitcase and a travel backpack.

Chen Xin was quite experienced in traveling alone. She had set up a one-touch emergency speed dial on her mobile phone and agreed with Song Yi that she would check in with them every time she arrived at a new place to stay. If her itinerary for the day changed, she would notify them as well. That way, if the scheduled check-in call was missed, it would definitely mean something was wrong. This minimized the likelihood of her encountering danger and ensured that if danger truly arose, it could be handled in the shortest possible time.

Zhang Zhang stood there with teary eyes, wanting to follow his aunt, but Chen Xin was not going purely for leisure this trip; she also needed to research routes and collect information. Bringing a child along would certainly be inconvenient, so she had to negotiate three conditions with him, promising to take him to the seaside for the New Year during the winter break so he could swim every day.

She intended to spend the Chinese New Year over in Binnan this year. Continuing to spend every New Year at the Zhang family home still felt somewhat improper; after all, she was not a member of the Zhang family, and sometimes it felt rather awkward listening to the remarks made by visiting relatives during the New Year greetings.

The Zhang family had a new addition this year and might not have the spare energy to look after them, so it would be better to go traveling on her own.

Chen Xin set off on September 2nd, with her first stop being the provincial capital. Her travel journal would begin from this location.

The provincial capital was also an old city with relatively slow urban construction. Eighty percent of the architecture in the old district was still preserved, while the new district was located on the other side of the river. Although the terrain was less level than that of the old district, the construction costs were much lower. Demolition and relocation had already begun by this time. Many people benefited from this, while even more acted as if they had found a shortcut to sudden wealth, fiercely clinging to their properties as holdouts in hopes of extracting more money.

The inn Chen Xin chose was the former municipal committee guesthouse, which had later been converted into a hotel and opened to the public. She heard people say that a larger and more luxurious municipal committee hotel would be built in the new district, and the current one might be sold for private management.

Being a state-run hotel after all, although the facilities and equipment were slightly outdated, the decoration and security were certainly superior to private hotels. Traveling alone, safety was Chen Xin's top priority. She did not dare go to places that looked like shady establishments, so she chose the guesthouse with the best cost-performance ratio.

Once settled in, the first thing she did was acquire a map of the entire city, which included detailed layouts for hotels, dining, and entertainment.

In an era before global positioning GPS was widely available, map atlases were a traveler's best companions.

Upon arriving at the provincial capital, she first listed all the scenic spots within the city, and then asked locals about good food and fun places to visit. After verifying each one, she wrote her evaluations right next to each location.

Sightseeing spots were easier to handle, as basic attractions generally had their own promotional brochures and descriptions. However, food was a matter of personal taste—what she liked might not appeal to others—so she took photographs of everything and paired them with written descriptions.

After spending three days in the city handling most of the food, accommodation, and transportation guides, she set off for her first stop.

She took a train to that destination—an overnight ordinary express train without air conditioning. The journey lasted four hours; she boarded the train at eleven o'clock at night, arrived at the station at three in the morning, waited in the passenger lounge until five, and then took a long-distance bus to the scenic area.

The scenic spot was not large, and the developed attractions were few. She finished touring all the sights by around twelve noon, and upon exiting, she chose a clean-looking restaurant for lunch.

There were local specialty foods here, but the flavors were quite peculiar—at least Chen Xin did not finish her meal. Afterward, upon the restaurant owner's recommendation, she caught a shuttle bus heading to the county town, arriving in an hour and a half.

This county town was dominated entirely by architecture from the 1970s and 1980s. Food and lodging were unbelievably cheap, but correspondingly, the conditions left much to be desired, guaranteeing only that the bed sheets and quilt covers were clean while offering nothing else.

Chen Xin had been cautious. Before leaving the Zhang family, she had sewn a set of travel quilt covers using plain-colored cotton fabric, adopting a design commonly found later on online shopping platforms. While staying in big-city hotels was fine, the accommodation conditions in these small places were acceptable for budget backpackers, but an absolute disaster for anyone with mysophobia.

There was nothing particularly worth visiting in the county town itself, but the female innkeeper told her that about fifty kilometers away, there was an ethnic minority settlement where the architecture possessed a very distinct character, preserving building styles from hundreds of years ago.

The proprietress took Chen Xin for a college student pursuing art, treated her quite warmly, and even proactively helped arrange a ride there. The vehicle was a small two-row postal truck from the county post office used for delivering local mail and packages. Chen Xin paid twenty yuan, and the driver agreed to drop her off. Upon her return, she only needed to notify the local postal station, and if a vehicle was heading back, she could hitch a ride back to the county town.