Staying at Su Shangbai's place was blissfully relaxing. Although his home décor was overwhelmingly white, with no work on his hands, Su Shangbai revealed an almost exaggerated level of culinary skill.
From New Year's Eve until the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, he cooked a completely different dish every day, not repeating a single one. The most remarkable part was that every dish tasted genuinely good.
For days on end, Chu Zhi's diet was overloaded with carbs. Forget everything else—just the fact that Su Shangbai would cook garlic crayfish late at night was already questionable.
Su Shangbai defended himself, saying, "If you don't eat supper, where will you get the energy to eat breakfast in the morning?"
It sounded oddly convincing. Fortunately, Chu Zhi had certain unusual means to keep himself in shape; otherwise, eating like this for a week would have easily added ten pounds.
Meanwhile, the Little Fruits in the online fandom didn't stay gloomy for long. Orange Home announced a New Year event: fans could upload photos of happy moments spent with their families during the holiday to the comment section. Winners could make a wish, and the company would try to fulfill it.
Fans' attention shifted as quickly as it came. Within a week, they received more than 6,700 submissions—an astonishing number, considering even major platforms like Bilibili or Xiaohongshu rarely collected that many entries.
There was no helping it. Orange Home's app simply had extremely high engagement.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month, it was not only "Guzi's" birthday but also Grain Day Festival.
Chu Zhi's studio was about to kick off its first workday of the new year, while Su Shangbai was preparing to fly to Singapore.
After all, to live comfortably, one still had to work hard.
"Brother Jiu, you're a shareholder in Da Bai Soft Candy. I really got the better end of the deal," Su Shangbai said. "When our brand expanded into markets like Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand, using your name meant we faced almost no obstacles."
"What do you mean 'got the better end'? I'm not involved in managing it, I just wait for dividends. I'm the one getting a good deal," Chu Zhi replied.
Da Bai Soft Candy had grown into a big brand in record time. Forty percent of the credit went to Chu Zhi, but the other sixty percent belonged to Su Shangbai. His skill in operating and managing the business was formidable.
A man whose hobbies included reading military strategy books was not to be underestimated.
"I know you smoke," Su Shangbai said, producing a pack of special-supply cigarettes. "I just brought these from home today. They might not be the best to smoke, but you can't buy them outside. Think of them as something unique."
"I'll take this New Year's gift, then," Chu Zhi said. He mostly smoked to complete certain 'tasks' and had long switched to milder women's cigarettes, but he was still pleased to accept a gift from Da Bai.
"Come to think of it, Da Bai, you don't smoke?" Chu Zhi asked.
"Only occasionally—when I'm looking at financial reports," Su Shangbai replied.
They chatted idly over their last lunch together. Chu Zhi decided to show a bit of cooking skill himself… by making something simple: coconut chicken.
It was simple enough. Have the supermarket butcher a chicken, drill holes in a few coconuts, pour the juice and scrape the meat into a pot, add a little water, bring it to a boil, then add the chicken.
For the dipping sauce, just mix soy sauce with a bit of lemon juice. That was it.
Simple, tasty, and doable for anyone with hands.
After sending his friend off at the airport, Chu Zhi bought a ticket for an evening flight back to Shanghai, staying one night there.
The next morning, he arrived at the company.
"How was your New Year?"
"My goodness, why is it that every year after the holiday, Brother Qian, your stomach gets bigger?"
"Sister Wang must have been keeping her figure over the holiday. Looks like you've gotten even slimmer."
"Long time no see. Here's to a smooth year ahead!"
Chu Zhi greeted everyone at the studio. Despite the studio's growing workload—especially with plans to expand overseas—they hadn't shortened the New Year holiday. In fact, they had extended it to the ninth day of the lunar month.
Anyone who had worked in an office knew that having a break that long was rare, especially in the entertainment industry, where time was money.
Other popular celebrities like Lin Xia and Li Fei had already resumed their schedules by the fifth.
"Heh, I call it the happiness belly. The bigger it is, the happier I am. I couldn't help it—Bingbing's cooking is too good, she made my stomach grow," joked Qian, whose once-handsome, mature look was now leaning toward middle-aged plumpness.
Wang Yuan responded, "I didn't eat much. There was just too much food on the table, and with all the New Year visits, I didn't have much appetite."
They chatted casually.
Chu Zhi knew well that post-holiday sluggishness was real. He spent the entire morning reacquainting himself with the work at hand without doing much concrete.
It wasn't until the afternoon that the studio truly began running at full speed.
"Brother Jiu, SBS has sent another script. They want to collaborate with you again," said Niu Jiangxue, handing him the first script of the year.
This time, the profit share offered was a staggering 21 percent.
Originally, Niu Jiangxue's plan had been to transition from small-screen projects to big-screen films, but SBS's offer was simply too tempting—an even higher share than most Hollywood stars would receive.
Of course, SBS wasn't doing charity work. Netflix had decided to create a hit drama independently, leaving SBS on the sidelines. The network wanted to place all its hopes on Chu Zhi.
Essentially, they were offering him a portion of the profits they would have given to Netflix. With a money tree like him, getting sponsorship for a project like Descendants of the Moon would be no problem.
Niu Jiangxue was not a money-blinded agent, though. She reviewed the script carefully. It carried the hallmarks of solid Korean romance dramas and a classic "Mary Sue" character design. Although something about it felt off, she still brought it to the table for discussion.
"What is it? Let me see." Chu Zhi glanced at the title: Descendants of the Moon.
The story was about the love between Yoo, the leader of a South Korean overseas peacekeeping unit, and a surgeon.
"What kind of nonsense is this? Does South Korea even have a peacekeeping force? I mean, they can barely manage their own country, and they're supposed to be doing peacekeeping abroad?" Chu Zhi was baffled.
"Why not? Don't they have American soldiers at home to manage things for them?" Qian quipped, landing a sharp blow.
Chu Zhi thought for a moment, then shook his head. "The character setting doesn't work. I can't play a South Korean soldier. No way."
"SBS said they can change it to a Chinese peacekeeping unit. The nationality can be altered," Niu Jiangxue explained. She had noticed the same problem and had initially refused, prompting this counteroffer from SBS.
"I don't want to portray soldiers from another country, and no Chinese soldier would be written like this. Please turn them down for me, Sister Niu," Chu Zhi said firmly.
Niu Jiangxue nodded without hesitation. Next came an offer from Japan for a live-action adaptation of a national-level manga with over a hundred million copies sold. Chu Zhi refused as well.
"Manga characters are almost impossible to faithfully portray," he said.
Wang Yuan agreed that this was true for most live-action adaptations, though she thought that with Chu Zhi's looks, it might not be an issue. Still, given how rarely live-action manga adaptations became huge hits, there was no real need for him to take it.
There were plenty of invitations for TV and film roles, but Chu Zhi's main career was still music, under his self-given nickname "Emperor Beast." Unless the project was truly outstanding, he rejected them all.
In music, there were three invitations to judge music variety shows, plus four invitations to present at music award ceremonies.
For the next few days, Chu Zhi and his management team stayed in the office, selecting which engagements to accept.
The studio's first confirmed schedule of the year was the release of Little Fruits Are Sweet, their third official album. Niu Niu had prepared meticulously for it.
===
Descendants of the Moon – fictional drama title in this chapter, clearly modeled after Descendants of the Sun (태양의 후예) from South Korea.