Chapter 13 - Ungrateful And Treacherous

Ungrateful And Treacherous

Ji Mian looked at Li Jiaer who was sitting by his bed with a smile that was radiant and beautiful yet laden with grief. He couldn’t help but reveal an odd, and immeasurably dark and gloomy expression. He looked straight at her and said clearly, “This incident is in the past, stop before you go too far.”

Stop before you go too far? This was not a positive phrase! Li Jiaer felt a twinge of fear but calmed down when she recalled that He Yi was actually already dead, his father had sold their family property to immigrate overseas and his mother’s whereabouts were unknown. What was there for her to worry about? She didn’t dare to bring up Xiao Jiashu again, but still wanted to receive some safeguard from Ji Mian, hence she lowered her eyes to look at her phone.

At that precise moment, the alarm clock which she had set beforehand sounded. She immediately stood up and said anxiously, “It’s a call from the hospital, something must have happened to my mum. Ji’ge, I’m going out to take the call.”

“Go.” Ji Mian gave a light nod, and closed his eyes to take a nap.

Fang Kun sighed, “Li Jiaer really doesn’t have it easy…”

“Don’t speak.” Ji Mian raised a hand to silence him.

The corridor was extremely quiet. Where exactly was there anyone speaking on the phone? Holding her phone, Li Jiaer hid herself in the stairwell. She rubbed her eyes until they turned red, and dripped two drops of eye-drops into her eyes, partially wetting her eyelashes. She then waited for the right time before returning to the hospital room.

Fang Kun had been worried about her mother from the beginning. Seeing that she seemed to have cried, he opened his mouth to ask, but was cut off by Ji Mian’s cold voice, “Jiaer, I’m a bit tired, I want to sleep for a while. You should go home now.”

Li Jiaer who was just planning to put on a misery show, “…” This script isn’t right! She was still waiting for Ji Mian to ask her why she cried. She would then tell him that her mother was seriously ill and needed a large sum of money for her surgery. If he offered to lend her money, she would firmly refuse. Then, when she switched and signed with Aurora a few days later, she could use her financial straits as an excuse to gain his understanding. Ji Mian came from single parent family, and was really filial to his mother. This something the entire nation knew.

Li Jiaer had planned it out very well. Using this method, she could decline Tiantian Entertainment’s offer, and would not completely offend Ji Mian. This was getting the best of both worlds. And that mother whose “illness had worsened” was currently lying in the nursing home bed counting money. As long as you gave her enough money, she was willing to cooperate with everything her daughter did, just as she had that year when they framed He Yi.

But to her surprise, Ji Mian didn’t act according to her script and actually was directly shooing her out without asking a single word? What problem had occurred in between? Li Jiaer was so stunned she didn’t even how she left the hospital.

Fang Kun looked at Ji Mian speculatively. “Didn’t you see that Li Jiaer was almost about to cry? Something must have happened to her mum.”

“What has something happening to her mum got to do with you or with me? Am I her dad or are you her dad?” Ji Mian asked coldly.

“Those words don’t sound like you.” Fang Kun frowned.

“It is true that I love talent, but I also don’t help just anyone. I really have gotten old. My eyes are no good now.” Ji Mian sighed with heartfelt regret.

“This again?! Your eyes are really good! Not only is Li Jiaer good at singing, her acting skills are also excellent, she has the potential to become big.”

“Treating her own life as a play, acting every second of the day for other people to see, how can the acting skills of someone like that be bad? Go tell Xiao Tao to cut off all contact with Li Jiaer. If she isn’t willing, get her to resign.”

“You want to distance yourself from Li Jiaer? You’re not scared of Xiao Jiashu, are you?” Fang Kun was extremely surprised.

Ji Mian ignored him. He grabbed his phone and dialled a number. “Zhou Nan, have you drawn up a contract with Li Jiaer yet? It’s been drawn up? Then, leave it aside, don’t be in a rush to contact her. She’s already found a good agency, Aurora, that’s right, she’s already finished discussions with them. No, I didn’t know, or else I wouldn’t have introduced her to you. I don’t know what she’s thinking either…” Ji Mian broke off; his expression was a bit strange. A short while later, he finally said, “I’m truly sorry for wasting your time. I’ll invite you out for a meal next time. Sure, see you later.”

After he hung up the phone, he let out a long sigh and an exhausted expression appeared on his face.

Fang Kun said in shock, “Li Jiaer isn’t signing with Tiantian Entertainment but Aurora? Where did you hear that from? You never told me about this!”

“I naturally have my sources.” Ji Mian waved his hand. “Give me a notebook and a pen.”

Fang Kun promptly rummaged out a notebook and pen from his bag, his mouth sighing continuously, “Why is Li Jiaer signing with Aurora? How can she be so careless?!”

Aurora was renowned for exploiting their artists and using malicious marketing and dissipated practices. There were even rumours that Aurora managers were very fond of pimping out their talents, and even enticed them to take drugs in order to obtain complete control over them. Talents under Aurora all had something in common——good looks and youth. Once they got older, and their looks deteriorated, they were immediately abandoned.

However, at the same time, Aurora also had its advantages. Their boss behind the scenes had a powerful background. He had a lot of top-rate resources; they could push someone to fame in a matter of minutes. If Li Jiaer was signing with Aurora for the sake of raising money to treat her mother, then her decision was justifiable. After all, their contract fee was very high, but it was just a shame that such a young girl…

Fang Kun sighed mournfully inside, but heard Ji Mian laugh grimly. He couldn’t help but ask, “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m not. I thought that my own eyes were bad, I didn’t expect that your eyes are even worse.” Ji Mian shook his head as he wrote, his eyes icy.

Fang Kun protested, “My being able to turn you into a grand slam film emperor is already proof of my eyes and foresight. What are you writing? I can’t make anything out of it.”

On the notebook, he could see two lists of names. The first list had nurses, Lan’jie, Chen’ge etc, and there was a cross at the end of each name. The second list had Fang Kun, Chief Xiu, Xiao Jiashu, Li Jiaer… There was a tick at the end of each name. There was a one word comment following the tick or cross, either ‘Dislike’ or ‘Appreciate’. At the end he had written down four words, “Positive Rating, Negative Rating[1].”

What on earth was all this? He could understand it completely when he read it all separately, but it was unintelligible put together! Fang Kun couldn’t make a heads or tails out of it. He was about to ask but then heard Ji Mian order, “Slowly walk outside, do not hang up the phone. Stop when I tell you to stop, and then calculate the distance from where you are to me,” dialling Fang Kun’s number as he spoke.

Fang Kun picked up his own phone and helplessly walked out, mumbling inwardly: Did the crash really break his brain? What are we gonna do? Should I invite a brain specialist to come and give him an examination? He speculated wildly as he walked slowly walked along the corridor. After he walked a certain distance, he heard Ji Mian order, “Stop, guess how far you are from me.”

“Looks around fifteen to twenty metres.”

“Good, you can come back now.” Ji Mian hung up the phone and listened carefully for a while before he wrote down in the notebook——’effective distance fifteen to twenty metres’ and then lightly kneaded his temples. When Fang Kun came in he found him leaning against on the hospital bed; he looked a bit dejected.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Fang Kun started getting a bit flustered.

“Did you know?” Ji Mian slowly spoke, “I clearly remember that I was critically injured yesterday night, a slab of metal had pierced through my heart, my blood streamed out without stopping, five more minutes, or perhaps only three minutes later, I would have been dead. But right now, I’m actually still alive, and I don’t even have a single wound on me.”

“You must have remembered wrong.” Fang Kun cut him off. “Don’t think about it anymore. It’s all just aftereffects of your concussion. What’s most important is that you’re alive. You should celebrate, not question life.”

“You’re right, being alive is what is most important.” These words were a big consolation to Ji Mian. He seemed to have come around to something, and slowly let out a sigh.

—

Three days later, the two left the hospital in disguises. Just after he arrived home, he got a call from Zhou Nan. He sounded really helpless. “Li Jiaer really has declined my contract, and also isn’t intending to be in my drama. Young people nowadays truly are pragmatic, money is the only thing that exists in their heads.”

“I apologise.” Ji Mian sounded ashamed.

“What do you have to apologise about? It’s her choice. Alright then, I’ll keep looking for people, I’m hanging up now.”

“Don’t hang up yet. I heard that drama of yours is short on investors?”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t, you had better not invest. Let me be honest with you. Chuanchuan is directing this film, he’s filming purely for fun. He hired Jess as the art director, the casts’ costume designs and styling is shocking, the colour matching scheme is so dazzling I get dizzy looking at it! The cast was hired only for their looks, not their acting skills, throwing them into the cast if they look good, not caring about anything else. I’m already mentally prepared to make a loss. I can’t drag you down with me.” Speaking of his little boyfriend Zhaochuan, Zhou Nan truly didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.

Ji Mian had a thorough understanding of Chu Zhaochuan’s unreliability, and Jess’ thought provoking aesthetic sense, and immediately gave up the idea of investing. He nodded as he said, “Then, I can only pray for you, pray that your losses will be a little less.”

Zhou Nan said helplessly, “It’s fine so long as Chuanchuan’s happy. The losses don’t matter. Li Jiaer’s matter is nothing. If you still have anyone good, keep recommending them to me, I’m terribly short on people right now!”

Ji Mian readily agreed. After he hung up the phone, he couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh. There was still a smile on his face when he got another call; the screen displayed the two words: “Li Jiaer.”

“Hello, Ji’ge? I, I’m really sorry, I’ve already signed with Aurora.” Her voice sounded very heavy, as if she was carrying a huge load in her mind.

“Is that so? Congratulations. Water flows downhill whereas man struggles upwards[2], I understand. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up, I wish you all the best[3].” After Ji Mian hung up, he immediately blacklisted her number.

Li Jiaer who was just about to put on an “I had no other choice” show, “…” She immediately redialled his number, but she couldn’t get through anymore. Her WeChat message also sank into the big sea. When she logged into Weibo, she was notified that Ji Mian had unfollowed her. The several posts where he had once expressed his appreciation for her had all been deleted.

Very quickly, some netizens noticed, and left comments on Weibo one after another speculating whether or not Li Jiaer had offended the Great God Ji, and was now hated. Because Ji Mian had a really good reputation and also had an enormous number of fans, the surge of criticism was all directed at Li Jiaer.

Li Jiaer’s head was drenched in sweat from panic. These past few years, Ji Mian had become more and more low-key, very rarely would he post on Weibo. Hence, all news concerning him would always start trending on Weibo[4]. If she didn’t settle this matter as soon as possible, the lead story on the hottest-topics page would definitely become “Ji Mian unfollows Li Jiaer” which will cause a huge dent in her popularity. One must know, the reason many people became fans of her was because Ji Mian had repeatedly praised her in the past. This truly was the exemplar of the saying: the success or failure of the affair is all due to the very same person.