Meanwhile, at The Nameless Restaurant.

Cui Geng arrived at The Nameless Restaurant to find that Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and other award-winning actors who had played minor roles in “The Successor” were already there. Huang Sibo and the creative team from Fei Huang Studio had also arrived, along with several authors including Yu Fei.

“Hey, Teacher Cui is finally here. Come, take the seat of honor!”

“Teacher Cui, have you gotten too full of yourself? Coming to The Nameless Restaurant without any enthusiasm. Quick, as punishment, eat this large lobster first!”

Everyone enthusiastically welcomed Cui Geng, deliberately leaving an empty seat for him among the crowd.

Cui Geng felt a bit helpless. This must be what they call “years of writing with no one asking, then overnight fame throughout the world.”

Previously, people around him would call him “Old Cui,” or less familiar people would politely address him as “big shot,” but he had never been called “Teacher Cui” before.

Obviously, “The Successor” had been elevated to a pedestal, and he, as the original author, had been lifted up along with it.

Everyone now viewed Cui Geng not just as a simple author, but as a great prophet and social scholar—after all, he was the one who had predicted the Ukrainian election results a year in advance.

Only Cui Geng knew that it had been a complete guess, pure luck.

But this wasn’t something he could explain, nor was there any need to. He could only silently accept it.

Cui Geng sat down and said, “It’s not that I’m not enthusiastic about eating; I was mainly collecting material and lost track of time.”

Huang Sibo asked, “Got trolled playing GOG again?”

Cui Geng coughed lightly with some embarrassment: “Ahem, it wasn’t much, just a teammate going AFK while we had a big advantage. A match that should have ended in twenty minutes was dragged out to fifty, and we even lost.”

Huang Sibo’s expression became serious, filled with righteous indignation: “There’s such a thing? I’ll send a message to Zhang Nan right away and have her severely punish them!”

Cui Geng hurriedly said, “No need. I’ve already reported it. Now in GOG, the system automatically penalizes AFK players once detected, and the punishment is quite severe. The game has already compensated me with tokens. It’s a small matter, not worth troubling the person in charge.”

Huang Sibo nodded: “Good, that’s good. This kind of bad behavior can’t be allowed to grow. Tenda absolutely won’t tolerate such players.”

Cui Geng looked around at everyone present: “Hey, where’s Director Zhu?”

Then he realized: “Oh! The suffering trip hasn’t ended yet?”

Huang Sibo wore a pained expression on his face, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but turn slightly upward: “Yeah, it doesn’t end until the end of this month.”

“I wonder how Director Zhu is doing on the island.”

“But it’s still better than when we went. We went to Shennongjia! Why do they get to play in the sand and sunbathe on an island? It’s not fair!”

Cui Geng coughed lightly: “Not necessarily. At least in the forests of Shennongjia, you didn’t have to endure the sun. A few days ago, I watched Qiao Laoshi’s stream, and everyone seemed to have gotten quite tanned. As soon as training ended, everyone was exhausted, but still forced themselves to frantically apply sunscreen.”

“And that cliff on the island is higher than the one at Shennongjia. Let’s just say both groups suffered, but each in their own way.”

Huang Sibo: “Oh? Is that so? Then I feel better now.”

Lu Zhiyao also expressed some regret: “Alas, Director Zhu couldn’t make it. We’ll just have to reluctantly eat his portion!”

“But speaking of this suffering trip… I see it’s quite popular lately.”

“A few days ago, I wanted to find some time to sign up and try it, but when I checked the official website, they weren’t even accepting registrations. I looked online and found out that reservations were completely booked. If you were a bit slow, you couldn’t get a spot.”

“Who knows when registration will open again, and even if you get on the list, there’s no telling when your turn will come.”

Cui Geng was surprised: “Huh? You want to go?”

“What’s good about going? It’s pure suffering! Don’t believe me, ask Huang Sibo. He’s been there.”

Lu Zhiyao looked at Huang Sibo: “Is that right? How is the suffering trip? Is it really that much suffering?”

Huang Sibo was silent for a moment, then said earnestly: “Well… it is a bit tough, but the rewards are also substantial…”

Cui Geng was dumbfounded.

Good heavens!

These people who had been on the suffering trip had all become so deranged!

And the most bizarre thing was that everyone who had been on the suffering trip would enter a strange superposition state, which could also be called “Schrödinger’s suffering”:

When they went themselves or talked about the suffering trip with irrelevant people, they would definitely complain bitterly, saying it was completely paying money to suffer, way too painful.

But when talking about the suffering trip with people who were interested or curious, they would earnestly say that the suffering trip had very rich cultural foundations and profound spiritual connotations, making it very worthwhile.

Terrible, just terrible!

Do you think others can’t see through your little tricks? Aren’t you just trying to trick others into suffering with you?

Such a crude act—anyone with normal intelligence shouldn’t fall for it, right?

But looking at Lu Zhiyao, he seemed increasingly interested.

“Oh? Rock climbing? Wilderness survival? This island session even includes diving?”

“Qiao Laoshi, Ruan Guangjian, Yao Bo, and the executives from Tenda all went?”

“So this is actually a Tenda elite training camp! No wonder ordinary people can’t get in!”

“Can you talk to Mr. Pei about arranging a special session for us?”

Huang Sibo suppressed his smile and said seriously: “I can submit a report to Mr. Pei. I believe that Mr. Pei, being so loyal, will definitely overcome difficulties to arrange a session for everyone.”

Lu Zhiyao was delighted: “Great! Teacher Cui, you should come too!”

Cui Geng shook his head like a rattle drum: “Sorry, excuse me, goodbye!”

Good grief, these people must have lost their minds. How comfortable is it to play games at Slackin’ Internet Café? Who wants to go suffer in the wilderness or on a remote island?

If you want to die, die by yourselves, but don’t drag me into it!

Cui Geng was afraid they would never stop talking about this topic. Fortunately, he saw the food being served and quickly said: “Alright, alright, let’s eat!”

Everyone had arrived early and after chatting for a while, they were all a bit hungry, so they immediately started eating.

All these precious ingredients on the table were provided in unlimited quantities. You could take whatever you wanted, and everything was delicious!

Cui Geng even developed a bit of decision paralysis: after trying one delicious dish, he wanted another serving, but other delicious foods were also tempting. If he had another serving, he was afraid it would fill him up and he wouldn’t be able to try the other dishes.

After eating a bit to fill his stomach, Zhang Zuting was the first to raise his glass: “The only regret today is that Mr. Pei is too busy with work to come, but I believe Mr. Pei’s heart is with us.”

“I propose that we all raise our glasses and toast to Mr. Pei!”

Everyone responded enthusiastically, each raising their glasses.

Dining at The Nameless Restaurant had always been completely free—you could drink alcohol if you wanted, or water or soft drinks if you preferred. Everyone’s main purpose was to eat, and whether it was alcohol or beverages, they were just accompaniments to the meal.

No one could force another to drink alcohol.

This was a rule established by Mr. Pei at the very first gathering, and it had since become an unspoken rule that everyone consciously followed.

Taking pride in eating more, not in drinking more.

After the drinks went down, everyone started chatting while continuing to eat.

Lu Zhiyao had many feelings to share: “Actually, for ‘The Successor,’ I originally just wanted to show support for Mr. Pei. After all, the two previous films, ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’ and ‘Mission and Choice,’ helped me a lot. Even if just out of gratitude, it was only right to do a free cameo for ‘The Successor.'”

“I didn’t expect that the benefits from a cameo role would be so substantial!”

“I thought I was supporting Mr. Pei, but in the end, Mr. Pei and Huang lifted me up. It’s really embarrassing.”

After the success of “Mission and Choice,” let’s not even mention how much money Lu Zhiyao made. The key was that he became more famous, gained higher recognition, and broadened his acting range.

Too many production teams came to invite him to act, and he got headaches just from selecting scripts.

But Lu Zhiyao had one very firm principle: everything would be scheduled around Mr. Pei’s films. If there were scheduling conflicts, he would decline all other offers!

During his last visit to Jingzhou for free food, Lu Zhiyao had asked Mr. Pei about the new drama. Mr. Pei said that the new drama would be filmed in the United States, and there wasn’t a suitable role for Lu Zhiyao. If he really wanted to participate, he could only play a minor role as a Chinese-American.

Lu Zhiyao thought at the time that Mr. Pei must be being too polite.

Did Mr. Pei think that since his status had risen, he wouldn’t accept minor roles anymore?

That definitely couldn’t be the case!

He would certainly decline minor roles from other production teams, but he had to accept Mr. Pei’s minor roles no matter what!

A person couldn’t be ungrateful. Even if the minor role didn’t pay, he had to participate to repay the favor from the two previous films.

Not only would he participate, but he would also bring along Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and others!

Thus, this group of people ended up playing supporting roles in “The Successor.”

Director Zhu Xiaocai was also very talented, managing to allocate sufficient and suitable screen time for these people in “The Successor.”

Lu Zhiyao played a Chinese-American superhero, Zhang Zuting played a judge in a talent show, and Lin Jiaqiang played a civilian who was a die-hard supporter of Phil.

Others, including Zhang Zuting’s old friends and some staff from Fei Huang Studio, also acted as extras, and it looked completely natural without any sense of inconsistency!

Because Hope City in the film was a fictional city with a mixed ethnic environment, there was room for such casting.

During the filming process, Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, and the others already had a premonition that this film might not be a big hit, and even if it became popular, it would have limited benefit for them.

After all, their screen time wasn’t much in the entire series, and the real protagonist was the foreigner who played Phil.

But they never imagined that not only would the drama become inexplicably and incredibly popular, but it would also greatly benefit their acting careers!

Especially Lu Zhiyao, who gained the most.

Many film critics and media outlets even focused on praising Lu Zhiyao, giving him more attention than the main characters in “The Successor”!