Yan Hao and company were very welcoming of Mo Yancheng's arrival and took turns to greet him with handshakes. In a flash, the matter of Qin Lin was quickly forgotten. Qin Lin's face quickly darkened at the situation, though he recovered in seconds and plastered on a smiling facade to greet Mo Yancheng with a handshake as well.
Mo Yancheng, however, withdrew his hand and did not bother to acknowledge him.
Nobody realised this little stunt, however, because besides Yan Hao, Mo Yancheng did not shake hands with Liao Ping, Ma Yunyun and Gu Ran as well.
Everybody was, however, understanding of the Movie King's haughtiness.
"I am not late, am I?" Mo Yancheng asked.
"No, no, we were only just getting started." Yan Hao replied with a smile.
They retrieved the travel funds from the envelope according the program's rules. Just like in the previous season, the seven of them would have to survive three days with two hundred American dollars while finishing five tourist spots.
This time, Ma Yunyun was very conscious about their cashflow and immediately realised that something was wrong. "Were we not using pounds last time? Why are we using American dollars now? There's an exchange difference, you know?"
The production crew replied nonchalently, "Since we are in America now, we would naturally be using American dollars, no?"
Ma Yunyun's face darkened. "So what, if we go Japan next time, we'll use yen instead?"
The production crew did not confirm nor deny anything, which only prompted Ma Yunyun to scowl fiercely. "We only had six people last season to use the two hundred dollars, but we have a new guest now! Should we not at least get some extra cash to compensate for the additional person?"
The production crew shook their head. "You can choose to abandon some guests if you so wish to."
"That's absurd and just petty!" Ma Yunyun started to get angry, and cast a meanigful look towards Gu Ran in hopes that she would do something about it and perhaps argue with the production crew as well.
Gu Ran glared at her and sneered, "The heck you looking at me for?"
It has been at least more than ten minutes since she'd stepped off that plane, and Ma Yunyun hadn't even bothered to look at her. It was only when she needed something that she conveniently remembered her? Hah!
"Aren't you our leader? Talk to them!" Ma Yunyun pouted.
"Last season was last season and this season is this season. I never said that I wanted to play with you guys this season now, did I?" Gu Ran replied with a frosty smile, unbothered by Ma Yunyun's coquettish actions.
Liao Ping observed the scene for a while before laughing, walking up to Gu Ran and patting her on her shoulder with a smile. "Qin Lin is our new friend, don't feel jealous! If we do not take the time to bond with him now, who knows when we would be able to do it again!"
"I'm not interested in being jealous over this." Gu Ran replied without expression.
But Liao Ping did hut one nail on its head with her statement, and it was thatthey had to set up some ground rules for this show as soon as possible lest the production crew continue to step all over them in the future.
Gu Ran walked up and took the envelope from the production crew, before taking Qin Lin's luggage and pushing them over to the production crew. She said coldly, "We will take care of ourselves. As for the person you invited over, you can take charge of him."
The production crew:"…"
"This is your special guest!"
Gu Ran shook her head. "Wrong. This is your special guest."
Yan Hao and company could not help but to smother their giggles behind their hands. The production crew and WQin Lin were too stunned to speak, and did not dare believe that Gu Ran was daring enough to say such things live on camera.
However, thinking back to how Gu Ran handled things in the last season, her brand of dealing with things is pretty efficient too.
Qin Lin was not amused by this turn of events. "Director, you're not going to just send me back now, are you?"
The labor fee had already been paid. If they sent him back now, the production team would be the one to suffer the losses!
In the end, the production team compromised and agreed to give Gu Ran an additional 70 dollars as Qin Lin's living expenses for the next three days.
"Here's a hundred dollars. You'll need to recover another thirty—"
Before the production team could finish speaking, Gu Ran had already snatched the money away. She didn't forget to snipe, "The Movie King's time is precious. Since you've all wasted his time dealing with this, this 30 yuan is just the accumulated interest of compensation."
The production crew:"…"