Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

After wrapping up the scenes at the logging camp, everyone returned to the inn at the foot of the mountain. Since filming had gone so smoothly, the production crew generously gave everyone two days off.

"It’s not often we get to visit the Northeast. If you haven’t seen all the sights you want to see, or bought all the gifts you need to buy, you’d better hurry up. In a couple of days, we’re heading to the film studio to shoot indoor scenes for a while."

The next morning, everyone gathered in the dining hall for breakfast, where Luo Guangkun addressed them while sipping soy milk.

Everyone acknowledged his words and began making plans with those they were close to.

Seeing everyone finish breakfast and leave the inn in pairs and small groups, Ni Bingyan also returned to her room, changed into some warmer clothes, and prepared to head out with Duanmu Li.

The actress playing the second female lead, Su Tong, was a local. She didn’t have any scenes in this location; she had simply come to the set early to get to know everyone.

She was the one who had treated them to that meal of goose stewed in an iron pot, saying it was her way of playing the host.

Ni Bingyan liked her straightforward personality. After adding her as a friend on WeChat, they would chat from time to time, and over this period, the two had grown quite close.

Unsure of where to go after leaving the inn, Ni Bingyan sent her a message asking for suggestions on fun places to go.

"Isn’t your inn right next to a lake? On a cold day like this, you shouldn’t go too far. Just head over there! You can go ice skating, snow tubing, ride an ice sledge, or spin an ice top. If none of that works for you, you can even take a ride on a sleigh. It’s a blast!"

Knowing Su Tong had a young child at home who needed her mother’s company, Ni Bingyan thanked her but didn’t extend an invitation to join. Instead, she and Duanmu Li just followed their phone’s navigation toward the lake.

It wasn’t a long walk, so the two of them went on foot.

By the time they reached the shore of the lake, they actually felt warm!

You had to admit, the cold in the North was a purely physical attack.

"Hey? Sister Li? Look over there. What are they doing?"

Squares were marked out on the ice, and people were bustling about inside them.

Some were setting up tents, some were drilling holes, and others were shaking out mats, obviously intending to place them inside the tents.

"Let’s go have a look."

Duanmu Li had never been here before either, so she had no idea what they were doing.

It was only a hundred meters away or so; they could just walk over and ask, right?

The two of them walked cautiously onto the ice and approached a nearby old man. "Sir," Ni Bingyan asked, "what are you doing?"

"Ice fishing!"

The old man didn’t turn his head, just kept on drilling a hole in the ice.

As he drilled, he realized something was off. ’Judging by her accent, she must be from out of town?’

He turned his head to see two tall, slender young women still there, watching him.

"Well, I’ll be. You girls are tourists, aren’t you? Never seen this before?"

"Yup!"

Duanmu Li, quiet as usual, didn’t say a word, so Ni Bingyan answered with a grin.

The old man was a talkative type, and now that she’d engaged him, he was more than happy to chat.

"You folks from the south eat fish in the winter, don’t you? Well, we people from the Northeast need our fish in the winter, too! The fish are all under the ice, so what’re you gonna do? You gotta drill a hole and either net ’em or fish ’em out, right?"

Ni Bingyan was an avid angler herself, so her interest was immediately piqued.

"Oh, wow! That’s fascinating! Could you tell me more? How do you ice fish?"

The old man glanced at her. ’A young lady who likes to fish... that’s a rare breed,’ he thought. ’Gotta handle this one with care.’

And so he began to explain the techniques of ice fishing to her in great detail.

Regardless of whether they usually go home empty-handed, every true angler possesses the essential skill of telling others how to fish.

The old man went on and on, not stopping until his companion returned with the competition supplies. Seeing that the ice hole wasn’t even drilled yet, the friend was immediately annoyed:

"Hey, Old Zhao, what in the world are you doing? The competition’s about to start, and you still haven’t finished drilling the hole? Stop dawdling!"

"Drilling this thing is a real pain! I said we should go borrow a power auger, didn’t I? But nooo, you insisted those holes have no ’soul.’ You want soul? You come do it! You! Hah! And now you’re getting picky with me? I can’t believe you!"

Seeing the two men laughing as they ribbed each other, Ni Bingyan realized this was just their way of interacting. Instead of trying to mediate, she asked, "A competition? They have competitions for this?"

The newcomer was immediately displeased by her question:

"And why shouldn’t there be a competition? Here in the Northeast, ice fishing is what you do in the dead of winter. If we don’t compete like this, how else would we? You southerners have your ways of competing, so what, we northerners can’t have ours?"

The old man was a bit of a contrarian and his tone was rather aggressive. Ni Bingyan knew her own comment had been careless, so she quickly apologized.

"I’m sorry, sir. I misspoke. Please don’t be angry. I’ve just never seen anything like this before, so I was a little curious."