Arriving home.
Xiao Anan was inexplicably shut out of the room.
She couldn't quite figure out what her parents were doing that they had to shut her out.
She secretly peeked, her desire to quietly watch Teletubbies was hard to hide.
Inside the room.
Chen Pingsheng mysteriously pulled Song Yanxi onto the big bed, with a pink curtain by the window at the head of the bed.
The room wasn't big, but it was cozy.
"Husband, what are you doing in broad daylight?"
Song Yanxi thought he wanted to do that. Ever since they had their daughter, they had done that less often.
Mainly because the room was small and there was no soundproofing.
To put it bluntly, the conditions didn't allow for it.
"Song Yanxi, I'll transfer the money I earned today to you first."
As a genuine homebody and warm man, his income must be handed over to his wife to manage.
Chen Pingsheng's card had at most five hundred yuan for himself, which was enough for him to spend for a month if there were no unexpected expenses.
After all, he didn't have any major expenses; the most fixed expense was a seven-yuan pack of labor baisha every day.
His wife helped him buy the remaining clothes and shoes.
"Ding! Your Alipay received four thousand yuan."
Song Yanxi frowned slightly, seeming a little surprised. It was normal for her Husband to give her the money he earned every day.
The key was that four thousand yuan a day was never this high!
The highest was during the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, when he earned over three thousand yuan selling durian in one day.
"Husband, are you doing something bad?"
"Not at all, I just earned it by helping someone move, and I also delivered a truckload of durian for someone along the way."
Chen Pingsheng had already thought of an excuse and coughed slightly: "That, Song Yanxi, I might be able to earn this much every day from now on. You have to get used to it and also enjoy the feeling of being a rich woman."
Enjoy what?
Song Yanxi was still very happy to hear him say that. For a family like theirs, nothing was more exciting than earning more and more money.
"Wife, I suggest we can also go and have that kind of candlelight dinner your Xiao Mei often talks about today."
Song Yanxi rolled her eyes at him, "Why waste money eating that? We can cook two dishes at home ourselves and light a candle, wouldn't that be just as good?"
Uh~ it's quite good.
No sooner said than done, Chen Pingsheng actually went to the small convenience store downstairs to buy those red candles.
By the time he came up, Song Yanxi was calculating the household expenses again.
Including the money he earned today, their little family's total savings amounted to three hundred eighty-six thousand yuan.
It seemed like a lot, but you have to know that this was saved by them being frugal and unwilling to eat or wear for five years since they got married.
"Husband, we'll have enough for the down payment with another one hundred twenty thousand yuan."
Song Yanxi said with anticipation. In 2012 Beijing, the average house price within the Third Ring Road was around twenty-five thousand per square meter.
Their idea was to buy a small eighty square meter place, which would be enough for the family to live in.
Calculated, it would be around two million yuan, and the down payment would be around five hundred thousand yuan.
"After we buy a house, we can be romantic again."
Song Yanxi was usually more frugal than him, wearing the same clothes for several years.
For that kind of candlelight dinner costing several hundred yuan, her mouth was eating, but her heart was bleeding.
It was absolutely not something to enjoy.
Chen Pingsheng stopped trying to persuade her. Just as he went to the kitchen, his sister-in-law Song Wu sent him a message again.
Notifying him to come to their house for the New Year this year.
To be honest, going to your mother-in-law's house when your conditions are average is truly a torture.
Anyone who has experienced it knows.
After the meal was ready, Song Yanxi also lit the candle properly, making Xiao Anan stare in confusion.
She thought she would have a birthday cake in the next moment, but who knew there was nothing, she just giggled silly at the red candle.
She was still young and didn't know what her parents were laughing at.
They were laughing at the hope of life, a little glimmer of the future.
In the evening, Song Yanxi even deliberately accompanied her to watch Teletubbies, with the volume turned up very high. Only after the little one was engrossed did she sneakily pull Chen Pingsheng into the room.
They had to be quick.
Who knows when the little one would come knocking on the door.
No matter how fast he was, he was a strong young man and wouldn't be done in under thirty minutes.
Song Yanxi was so satisfied that tears were flowing from the corners of her mouth.
The next day, after Chen Pingsheng sent his wife to work, he immediately opened the moving group chat.
Now that he had a clear small goal for earning money, his enthusiasm for making money was unprecedentedly high.
In the moving group chat, the one named Shaoshuai was his childhood friend.
He was also the one who introduced him to Beijing to make money. He was a thirty-year-old bachelor who earned over ten thousand yuan every month, living a very carefree life.
He knew all the shops with red lanterns under the overpass.
Moving group chat.
Shaoshuai: "Just got a job, moving a washing machine up to the seventh floor, one hundred yuan, screw that."
There must be no elevator. No one was willing to do this kind of work.
It was raining heavily again today, so they couldn't sell durian. They could only rely on taking some odd jobs to make money.
Sometimes they could get jobs, sometimes they really could only rest.
Dajiang: "I have a job here, do you want to do it together? Just moving furniture, three hundred yuan a day."
Shaoshuai: "Do what? I'd rather go shopping in Xidan with this time, maybe I can shop for a wife."
Chen Pingsheng ignored their boring banter. Although they were all from the countryside, they could all earn over ten thousand yuan a month.
They really didn't care for small jobs.
However, at this moment, the girl he just met yesterday actually sent him a message.
"Chen Ge, are you busy?"
"No, I'm not busy."
"Are you free today? We have a special extra here, two thousand yuan a day, no need to show your face. Do you want to try it?"
Must try it.
Otherwise, how else would you say having more friends opens up more paths?
No matter how unknown Zhao Liying was in the Entertainment Circle, she was still an old extra who had been running around for over four years.
No matter what, she knew more people than newcomers who just entered the circle.
He naturally wouldn't miss such a good opportunity, but he still asked if acting skills were needed.
After all, he really didn't have that.
Zhao Liying introduced it briefly. No acting skills were needed at all, but it was particularly hard work and she didn't know if he could handle it.
To put it bluntly, ordinary extras got at most three to five hundred yuan a day. If it could reach two thousand, there must be special conditions.
After going to the film crew, the assistant director didn't even ask for his name and just told him to take off his clothes directly.
This two thousand yuan was really not earned by humans. It was minus four degrees Celsius, and he was asked to go crazy in the lake naked.
Originally, this scene was supposed to be played by the young male lead, but he tried the water temperature in the lake and left without saying a word.
What a joke, how could he work in such low water temperature?
What if he catches a cold?
Wouldn't the fans feel heartbroken?
There was no other way, the assistant director could only find a stand-in and shoot from a distance.
Several people in the film crew also tried it. As soon as they took off their clothes, no one could stand it, and they were all shivering within a minute.
What were they going to shoot?
It was also at this time that Zhao Liying thought of Chen Pingsheng, who was also from out of town and worked hard to make money.
He did physical labor all year round, maintained a very good physique, and could also endure hardships that ordinary people couldn't.
However, after Chen Pingsheng simply put on some makeup, he walked to the small lake. The clear and jade-like lake water now felt bone-chillingly cold.
As soon as he put his foot in, he shivered from the cold.
"Can you do it? If not, get lost."
The assistant director was impatient and annoyed with these special extras.
Seeing him afraid of the cold, he immediately cursed.
Chen Pingsheng gritted his teeth and jumped into the lake.
His scene was very simple, it was about the young male lead being betrayed in love and venting his emotions in this lake. There were no lines, no expressions.
Just act as crazy as possible.
Because it wasn't the person himself, the assistant director couldn't get close to shoot at all.
Chen Pingsheng was also shivering from the cold, but he kept thinking about his small house.
He also looked forward to his wife's happy look when they moved into a new house. No matter how hard it was, he could endure it.
He thought he only needed to shoot this one scene and it would be over.
Who knew that the young male lead, who was paid tens of millions, couldn't endure any hardship at all.
All his scenes of being frozen in the cold winter had to be filmed today.
The ones that didn't require acting skills were fine, but the most difficult one was a scene where the young male lead accidentally fell into a certain lake and unexpectedly obtained a peerless divine skill.
From then on, he would completely conquer those women who looked down on him and betrayed him.
Then came various regrets.
It was truly a stereotypical plot of domestic dramas, where the protagonist falling off a cliff must obtain a peerless divine skill.
This scene was originally supposed to be filmed by the young male lead himself, but how could he endure such hardship in the freezing cold?
A stand-in had to be used, and he would just reshoot the highlight moments later.
Chen Pingsheng secretly sighed, these people really made money easily.
They earned tens of millions just by standing there.
In contrast, he had to risk his life for two thousand.
From ten in the morning to four in the afternoon, he filmed a total of four scenes in the lake.
His body was almost stiff, but luckily Zhao Liying brought him a bowl of freshly boiled ginger soup.
Working people understand working people the most.
She was still an extra, playing the female lead's maid.
She didn't know how many plays she had played a maid in, and she also didn't know how many people said she was destined to be a maid.
"Chen Ge, warm yourself up by the fire and rest for a while."
Zhao Liying also gave him a white towel. Chen Pingsheng felt much better after changing into his own clothes.
"Your Sister-in-law is about to get off work, I have to go pick her up."
Chen Pingsheng signaled her to go to the film crew to get the money. In this terrible weather, who would suffer this hardship if it wasn't for these two thousand yuan?
Zhao Liying nodded and quickly brought over his two thousand yuan.
They were a large film crew, the kind that invested hundreds of millions.
Naturally, no one was petty about these small amounts of money.
However, when he was about to leave, the assistant director came over.
"You're very good. Do you have a business card? Give me one, and I'll find you again next time there's a difficult scene to act."
He had no business card. He was just a durian seller on the street.
However, Chen Pingsheng still gave him a number.
As long as there was money to be made, he was really willing to do anything.