Chapter 25: Comedic Heaven

  Although Zhou Xiao understood the trajectory of Oshima Yuko for the next decade or so, he couldn't do anything about it, and didn't even dare to approach her, because the current Oshima Yuko was not the same as the Oshima Yuko from five years ago.

  Although in 2014, it was not unusual for 11- or 12-year-old girls to be part of the AKB48 system, if you were to give Yui a second-generation AKB member now, she would absolutely not come and do it.

  ōshima Yuko, who is now a relatively well-known child actress, will even appear in the upcoming Getsu Kyō next year, although it's only for one episode. This alone is enough to prove her current value, and she can't be compared to someone like Ashida Mana, who is an exceptionally talented child actress.

  In the next five years, she will experience all sorts of human emotions, will be frugal with the children's affairs office, will enter a idol group that will soon die out, will release Lolita-style photo and video works, until the second half of 2005, after making one last effort, she will once again go to Tokyo and join AKB. If there is any disruption or change in this trajectory, Zhou Xiao is uncertain whether Oshima Yuko will still appear on that audition stage five years later.

  "I'll wait for you to grow up, and in these five years, I will also work hard to develop my various careers with all my might, until I can really take on AKB48!" thought Zhou Xiao.

  They have to get up at more than 3 am, and Zhou Xiao and Uncle Inoue don't get off work until 5 pm. Short-term workers are like this, of course, there are also short-term workers who start working late, but these people usually need to work overtime until late at night, because some TV shows and variety shows need to be filmed at night, such as nighttime outdoor scenes, and some variety shows that occupy large public facilities.

  Forced to eat something with Uncle Inoue, Zhou Xiao collapsed onto the tatami mat as soon as he got home. Although it wasn't even 7 pm yet, he was completely out of energy to do anything else. Within two minutes, he fell fast asleep.

  When he opened his eyes again, it was 3 am. Zhou Xiao stared at the dark ceiling and only had one sentence in his mind: this won't do... Although he could earn a lot of money, yesterday he earned 12,000 yuan, if he could continue to do this job, at least he would have no worries about food and clothing. But if he continued like this, what was the difference between him and ordinary people? When could he use his brain to make big money?

  He's worried, doing it for a day and then saying he won't do it? How would Uncle Inoue look at him? But if he continues to do so, he'll probably spend his whole life waiting for someone to suddenly notice him. Don't be kidding, that's like putting his fate in luck, Zhou Xiao doesn't want that.

  "For now, I can only do my best and see if there's any chance to quit later..." Zhou Xiao sighed and got up again. Fortunately, he was still a young man in his teens, well-fed and well-rested, so he was full of energy. But it was different for Uncle Ikegami, who was already over 40 years old and looked somewhat listless while driving today. A person in their forties couldn't possibly recover as quickly as Zhou Xiao, especially with a family and business to take care of. When he got home, he wouldn't be able to just go to bed like Zhou Xiao did."

  "You young people are lucky, at my age now every day when it's time to get up it feels like I'm being punished." Uncle Inoue said while driving.

  For the next three days, Zhou Xiao and Uncle Inoue were doing basically the same work. Although it was busy and brainless, Zhou Xiao had to admit that these few days of running between the TV station and the studio really taught him a lot. Any circle you enter will show you many things that make you feel fresh, even bizarre. Even the work he did himself, if he hadn't done it, Zhou Xiao would have found it hard to imagine how meticulous it was.

  When it comes to camera work, the arrangement of cameras for music shows is particularly meticulous. Especially in Japan's entertainment industry, where there are many groups, TV station staff often rack their brains when arranging cameras during group performances. In a 200-300 second song, the camera angle may switch dozens of times. If it were just one person, it would be easy to focus all the cameras on that individual. However, with multiple people, such as Morning Musume's dozen or so members, the cameras on site often need to switch between close-ups and wide shots. Idol groups are meant to dance in formation, constantly changing positions, making it impossible for the camera operators to familiarize themselves with each member in a short amount of time. Moreover, cameras rarely stay in one place, especially handheld ones, which may capture a two-second close-up before moving on to the next location. After arriving at the new position and stabilizing, they might only get two seconds of footage before needing to change positions again - it's incredibly troublesome and exhausting.

  Zhou Xiao is not a photographer, but in these few days, he has been an assistant to the photographer. With a notebook stuffed into his arms, he followed the director to confirm the location and then accompanied the photographer throughout the shooting process. Although it was just miscellaneous work, without some experience, it couldn't be done. At first, Zhou Xiao, who had no experience with timing, caused the entire recording process to start over twice because of a difference of only one or two seconds. You know, this kind of music program recording has live audiences, and dragging the whole audience through it twice was quite something. Fortunately, it was just a recording; if it had happened during a live broadcast, it would have been enough to be considered a broadcasting accident.

  On the fifth day of working at the TV station, the morning was still spent in a flurry of activity. At noon, Inoue-san found Zhou Xiao: "This afternoon, I've taken time off with Okada, and we're going to take you somewhere else."

  "Oh? Where are you going?" Zhou Xiao asked.

  "You'll know when you get there, you'll like it." said Uncle Inoue.

  After dinner, Inoue took Zhou Xiao to another studio.

  Zhou Xiao followed Uncle Inoue and thought: "If a girl were to take me away like this, it would probably be a very romantic getaway."

  Inoue took Zhou Xiao to the front of the photography studio door, and there was already someone waiting here.

  "Has he arrived? I'm of course fine with you, Inoue-senpai, but I need to say something to him. Is that okay?" The person guarding the door said.

  "Don't worry, tell him! He knows the rules!" Uncle Inoue's attitude was very humble, and in this industry, he was considered a veteran, so many people would call him "senior", but it seemed like just a courtesy. When it came to discussing problems, these juniors who called him "senior" didn't mind that fact at all when speaking.

  "After entering, don't talk nonsense, the positions are all fixed, so you can only watch from the corner and absolutely cannot interfere!"

  "Alright! No problem!" Zhou Xiao nodded in response.

  "Then go ahead, recording is about to start."

  After entering with Inoue, Zhou Xiao finally knew what Uncle brought him to see.

  "Comedy Heaven"!? Zhou Xiao looked at the sign in the center of the studio and took a cold breath.

  Fuji TV's "Comedy Kingdom" is a flagship program that started two years ago, featuring short dramas and manzai. In fact, such programs are relatively rare among Tokyo's five major private television stations, as Osaka is the hub for short dramas and manzai in Japan. The Kansai and Kanto regions have almost entirely different systems, with the latter being less adept at producing such content, resulting in fewer programs of this type on Tokyo-based TV stations.

  Inoue-san seems to still remember Zhou Xiao's comedian ambitions, bringing him here must be with the intention of letting Zhou Xiao learn a thing or two.

  However, today the start time of the program seems to be delayed a bit. Some staff are busy with something, while others are looking at it somewhat boredly, let alone the audience.

  The director on the scene looked a bit anxious, Zhou Xiao saw that the director said two sentences to someone next to him, and then the staff member ran to the back stage. After a while, a person who was warming up the audience appeared on the stage.