I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

In this way, she will become the family's cash cow, which will be more conducive to a smooth transition of the family head's position.

However, these arrangements by the family naturally caused some people to feel slightly dissatisfied.

So, Old Mrs. Yu wanted to use this noon to give them a warning and make sure Lu Ningna could secure her position.

Upon realizing this, both Lu Qingxuan and Lu Liangchen lost interest.

They had no interest in playing a supporting role to Lu Ningna.

Grandma Yu clapped her hands, and the servants brought up a large pile of musical instruments.

She said, "Then... let's start with Chai Xian."

"I??"

Chai Xian never expected to be called on, and could only say with a bitter face:

"Great-Grandma, you know me, I can't do anything!"

Grandma Yu said, "Everyone has their own strengths. We're not monkeys, how could we not know anything? I see you're usually very glib and good at talking, can you tell me a story?"

Chai Xian looked worried and distressed.

Without any preparation, how can you possibly tell any stories?

Seeing Chai Xian's expression, Old Madam Yu's face darkened, and she said:

"Alright, I see that everyone isn't very enthusiastic. Maybe my reward is too vague. So I'll make a promise, and you'll be happy then, right?"

She paused, then continued, "Whoever can deliver the performance that everyone agrees is the best will receive a property from the Lu family to manage for three months. What property? Let me think..."

Everyone immediately held their breath.

After thinking for a while, Grandma Yu said, "Then let's use 'Cloud Capital' as the prize!"

Upon hearing this, almost everyone present changed their expression.

An older man, of the uncle generation, said, "Great-grandmother, isn't this inappropriate? 'Cloud Capital' is not a small media company!"

Grandma Yu waved her hand assertively: "If the prize is too small, they'll take it even less seriously, won't they? This is it! You all know how to perform!"

"Cloud Jinghua" is a well-known cross-platform media outlet with 4000 million followers across the internet. It is operated by a small team of 20 people.

Moreover, it is a local account, with more than half of its followers being from Beijing, giving it a huge influence in Beijing's social circles.

For the Lu family in the past, they had countless media outlets under their control, so a small publication like "Cloud Capital" was nothing.

However, with the acquisition of Aihua, the crackdown on its online troll organization, and the division of its assets, the Lu family has very few media outlets left.

In this way, "Cloud Capital" became one of the few high-quality assets in the family.

Furthermore, although "Cloud Capital" is small in scale, it has a large voice and is well-known in Beijing. Whoever controls this media outlet will become very influential in the entire capital.

A year ago, before Aihua Company changed hands, a scion of a prominent family in Beijing offended someone from the Lu family. Coincidentally, the father of that Lu family member was the person in control of "Cloud Above Beijing" at the time.

After the Lu family member returned home and complained, "Cloud Above Beijing" went into overdrive and began digging up dirt on that member of the powerful family.

Within half a month, that scion of a prominent family was utterly disgraced and had to slink to the Lu family's door with expensive gifts to apologize.

This is the power of the media.

Hearing that Grandma Yu was using this as a prize, even the most sober-minded Lu Qingxuan and Lu Liangchen couldn't help but be tempted.

The uncle standing nearby advised again, "Great-Grandma, you really can't do this. 'Cloud Capital' is no small matter; it's very important to our Lu family. To treat it as a prize is far too frivolous..."

Grandma Yu slammed her hand on the table and shouted:

"Don't try to persuade me. What's said is said. If I were to lie, what credibility would I have left?"

She looked at everyone at the table and said coldly again:

"Listen up, all of you. This old woman means what she says. Don't take this as a joke. I'm giving you all an equal chance this time. If you want to prove yourselves, give it your all. Don't regret it later!"

Chen Sheng listened from the side, trembling with fear.

When he heard that Grandma Yu was using Yunshang Jinghua as a prize, he felt that he was extremely unlucky, the kind of unlucky that was the worst possible outcome!

Yunshang Jinghua: Almost the entire family are fans of this account and check its posts every day.

They learn about most of the happenings in the capital through this account.

And now, he is the closest he has ever been to that legendary account!

He could only dream of gaining control of the account if the younger generation had the best talent!

But what he brought today was Chen Ya!

How he wished he had brought Lu Qianzi or Chen Hai instead of Chen Ya!

Lu Qianzi can compose and sing, and Chen Hai can play the guitar; both can be considered talented.

But none of them came today; it was Chen Ya who showed up!

Lu Qingxuan raised her hand and asked, "Great-Grandma, is any talent acceptable?"

Grandma Yu nodded: "Yes, you can just bring out what you are best at. Anything that can make people applaud is fine."

"So what makes it the best? Are there any judges?"

Grandma Yu pointed to the left and right and said, "Here are Mr. Li Siqing, Committee Member Gao, and myself. The three of us are the judges. Shouldn't that be enough to evaluate you?"

After saying that, to prevent them from overthinking, she added:

"Let me make this clear from the start: the three of us are absolutely fair. We only judge talent, not people. Set up your cameras, record this, and keep a record. If you think our judgment is unfair, any of you can take the recording and tell everyone in your family, and cry foul."

At this point, everyone finally realized that the old lady was really serious this time.

After Grandma Yu finished speaking, she glanced at Li Siqing and Committee Member Gao, who both nodded secretly.

This plan wasn't actually something that Grandma Yu came up with on a whim.

That was her plan from the beginning.

Their purpose in staging this whole thing was simply to find out who had touched Li Siqing's zither.

According to their prior agreement, whether the person subtly offered himself or made a show of force, it at least indicated that he was dissatisfied with his treatment.

So, Old Mrs. Yu came up with this plan.

If you want to recommend yourself and get some exposure, sure!

We'll give you the stage!

If you're dissatisfied and want a higher salary? Sure!

I'm using "Cloud Capital" as a lucky draw prize!

If a family truly produces the greatest violinist of the past 100 years, then using a mere piece like "Clouds Above the Capital" to win people's hearts is not excessive at all.

It's totally worth it!

Grandma Yu's cloudy gaze darted back and forth between Lu Qingxuan and Lu Liangchen.

Mysterious violinist, show yourself!

Chapter 226 As a joke, you are excellent.

After the prize was announced, Lu Qingxuan and Lu Liangchen were eager to try their luck, while Chen Ya remained unmoved.

Chai Xian's expression turned even more bitter.

Even if there were no prizes involved, he still wanted to show off his skills to everyone.

Standing next to someone like Lu Liangchen, a prodigy, or Lu Qingxuan, a woman destined for greatness, would be incredibly stressful.

Whenever he's in this kind of situation, people say he's making a fool of himself, and he really is. He doesn't want to embarrass himself!

If someone isn't truly incompetent, why would they want to play a supporting role?

But what can he do when he doesn't have those skills?

Throughout the entire gathering, the only person he could possibly outshine was probably Chen Ya, who came from the countryside.

Grandma Yu urged, "Chai Xian, hurry up, the people behind are waiting."

Chai Xian made a begging gesture, bowed, and said:

"Great-Grandma, you know me. My skills are so poor, it's like trying to lift tofu with a rope. I'll just tell you a joke, please forgive me!"

A cheerful atmosphere immediately filled the room, and Grandma Yu smiled and said:

"Alright, if I laugh, you pass; if no one at the table laughs, you'll have to drink a penalty cup."

Chai Xian's face grew even more bitter. He then performed a monkey-themed birthday greeting and addressed the crowd:

"Uncles, elders, brothers, and sisters, please give Chai Xian a way out. Please cooperate with me later!"

At this point, the older men sitting in front started laughing and said:

"Chai Xian, you don't need to say anything more. The ugly faces you've made are funny enough."

Grandma Yu, standing nearby, said with a stern face:

“No way, we can’t let him off so easily. Chai Xian, the jokes you tell must be ones that no one has heard before. If it’s just repeating old tunes, then it won’t pass.”

This one sentence added another layer of difficulty for Chai Xian. In such a short time, how could he possibly guess which jokes Grandma Yu hadn't heard before?

He thought about it in silence for a while, and soon he realized that he had created a big problem for himself.

The jokes he was good at were all bawdy jokes, which could make people laugh out loud in private, but how could he dare to tell them in Fushou Hall?

Not to mention Great-Grandma, Lu Qingxuan and Lu Ningna are also sitting here. If anyone disrespects these two, someone will definitely tear him to pieces.

Those jokes without a hint of risqué humor aren't as interesting, and there's no guarantee that everyone will laugh.

After thinking for a long time, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought to himself, "I've got it!"

He cleared his throat and said:

"Speaking of which, there was a man, a countryman, who was visiting the capital for the first time..."

As he spoke, he pointed in Chen Ya's direction, then feinted, and suddenly pointed to the sky, as if he were pointing at Chen Ya, or perhaps he was pointing at the wrong place; in any case, he didn't know who he was referring to.

However, upon hearing the elements of "rural area" and "first time in Beijing," combined with his gestures, some people understood about 70-80% of what he meant.

Chen Sheng was a bit confused. He and Chai Xian had never interacted before, and he didn't understand why Chai Xian would make fun of his own son.

Chai Xian continued, "He has a wealthy relative in the capital. Seeing the prosperity of the capital and the fact that his wealthy relative was willing to spend money on him to impress others, he became arrogant and his desires swelled. He wanted to buy some expensive things so that he could show off to his fellow villagers when he returned."

"Everyone says a man can't be without a watch, so he strode into a watch shop, slammed his hand on the table, and said, 'Boss, bring me all your expensive watches!'"

"As a result, he suffered from his lack of knowledge and went into a watch shop known for its high-end Patek Philippe! When the owner heard him speak so lavishly, he quickly brought out three watches for him to choose from."

"He looked at the first watch and asked the shopkeeper the price. The shopkeeper quoted an astonishing number. He then asked about the price of the second watch, which was even more astonishing than the first. He then asked about the price of the third watch, and the price of the third watch exceeded all his imagination in his entire life."

Finally, the shop owner asked him which piece he liked and which one looked better. He shook his head and said that none of them looked good, and then walked out the door.

"The boss got angry when he heard this and chased after me, asking: 'Our Patek Philippe watches can't possibly be ugly, so why do you think they're ugly?'"

The rural man turned around and said quietly, "A poor guy like me doesn't look good wearing any watch."

Chai Xian is indeed very talented at telling jokes. Jokes that are not funny at first can become quite interesting when he performs them vividly.

Given who this matter refers to, most people at the table understood perfectly, and many burst into laughter.

"puff."

Lu Qingxuan didn't want to laugh, but she couldn't help it and let out a soft laugh.

Then, with a stern face, she turned to Chai Xian and said, "You acted well, but your tricks were a bit despicable."

Chai Xian clasped his hands together and said, "In this desperate situation, this is the only thing I could think of. Please let me go!"

Lu Qingxuan pouted and said, "Fine, I'll let you off the hook since you acted so hard."

Lu Liangchen laughed heartily and said, "That's hilarious, Chai Xian. You have a real talent for telling jokes. I'm impressed."

Only Lu Ningna looked completely bewildered; she had no idea what was so funny.

Grandma Yu said, "I just glanced around and at least four or five people at the table weren't laughing. You'll be punished with five cups of wine."

Chai Xian's face suddenly turned even more bitter than a bitter gourd: "Great-Grandma, could we... drink them separately?"

Let's have a drink first.

After watching Chai Xian swallow a glass of wine as if it were medicine, Old Madam Yu said: