It was his bossâ summoning, how could Xiao Jiashu refuse? While stroking his faintly aching cheeks, he walked to the front of their table, and nodded. âJiâge, Kunâge, having lunch?â
âSit.â Ji Mian pointed at the seat opposite him and then called for a waiter, âAdd another plate of black pepper beef steak to my order, Medium cooked.â
âSure, Mr Ji, would you like anything else?â The waiter asked politely.
Ji Mian looked at Xiao Jiashu. Xiao Jiashu immediately waved his hand. âNothing else, thank you.â Beef steak again, and he even added black pepper, it really canât get any better! He really had seen through this Film Emperor Ji now, what gentle character, what kind and charitable, what generous and easy-mannered⊠All lies. He was just a dictator, accustomed to using his own methods to treat the people around him, rarely giving them the right to choose. Just using the two meals with him as an example, he always orders first, and never asks others what they would like to eat.
Xiao Jiashu really wanted to completely refuse, but his good upbringing wouldnât allow him to do so.
âYo, whoâs angered our Young Master Xiao? Why such a black face?â Fang Kun purposely asked, thinking that Xiao Jiashu was still thinking about the matter with Li Jiaer.
Ji Mian, on the other hand, didnât bother to use any superfluous words; he went straight to the point. âHow did Li Jiaer offend you, to make you block her?â
âHow did you guys know?â Xiao Jiashu asked with a face of surprise. Currently, he still didnât understand that in the entertainment world there was absolutely no such thing as 'secretsâ, it all just depended on whether the people around him wanted to expose it or not.
This brat is seriously no good, dares to do it, but doesnât dare to admit! Fang Kun thought with disdain in his heart, but his face carried an amiable smile; he asked in a laid-back manner, âYou two met for the first time yesterday, right? Did you get some misunderstanding about her during that time? Come, come, come, tell us, if thereâs a misunderstanding, we should undo it as early as possible, donât be so extreme. A person must compromise, so later on things wonât be awkward when you meet again. The entertainment circle is small, there are heaps of chances youâll encounter each other again, you shouldnât force someone into a dead end like this.â
If his friend could still speak, his friend definitely would not want to talk about Li Jiaer. Therefore, he had even less of a necessity to explain to outsiders. Let him, from now on, completely bury those unbearable, dirty memories. After all, Li Jiaer had already left, and he had been finally able to do one last thing for his friend. With that thought, Xiao Jiashu waved a hand and said, âThereâs no misunderstanding. The person Iâm targeting is her. I investigated before I started sabotaging her. Thereâs no way Iâve gotten the wrong person.â
Fang Kun, ââŠâ Those words are so straight forward thereâs nothing I can say to rebut!
Ji Mian put down his fork and looked straight at the young man. In a gentle tone, but unyielding attitude, he said, âStill, tell us. There must be a reason why you hate her so much.â
Seriously tyrannical! Xiao Jiashu mouth twitched internally, and his face revealed a look of impatience. At this exact timing, the waiter carried over a plate of black pepper beef steak. The savoury fragrance directly rushed into his nose, but he couldnât even eat it, causing him to be even more indignant. Are all these people blind? Duped by a woman like Wang Shiqi, and even rushing to defend her; he was so pissed off! And what was even more enraging wasâthe steak at this restaurant was super-duper delicious but he couldnât even eat it; he could only stare at it!
Xiao Jiashu picked up his knife and fork and started cutting the steak up into even pieces. He said slowly, âHow about this? Iâll tell you guys a story.â
Itâs here. Itâs here. So there really is a story. Fang Kun pricked his ears and got ready to collect some gossip.
Ji Mian gave a small nod, and gently and politely said, âWe are all ears.â
âOnce upon a time, there was a peasant. The peasant had a big brother and a little sister. He was the middle kid, so he wasnât really valued by his parents. When his parents died, they left his big brother a lot of land, and left his little sister a lot of dowry. When it was his turn, there was hardly any inheritance left over, and he only ended up with barren land located halfway up a mountain. He didnât feel that his parents had been unfair to him, and merely said that this was fate, and silently accepted it. But, he was a very smart guy and he used his free time to study carpentry. He then started building furniture for the people living around him and slowly saved up some money. His brother and sister saw that he was getting more and more well off, and were really jealous. They found a beautiful girlâŠâ
Xiao Jiashuâs story was really long. When Fang Kun and Ji Mian started listening, at first they inwardly thought that his and Li Jiaer longstanding grudge that began from the fight for the family inheritance, and that maybe Li Jiaer was the girl his brothers or sisters had found to seduce him, but didnât expect Xiao Jiashu to see through their plan. Hm, this reason was acceptable (made sense), and the plot was very interesting, so the two became immersed in the story (were sucked into the story).
Oh, perhaps this wasnât a rich family drama fighting for inheritance; it was possible that this was a grudge from a previous lifetime. When Ji Mian and Fang Kun heard the story up to this point, their brows wrinkled slightly. Inwardly thinking that the truth would be revealed in the latter half of the story, they couldnât help but listen even more attentively.
Xiao Jiashu used over ten minutes to narrate how the peasant operated his family business, how he doted on his wife and kids, how he was friendly and kind to his neighbours, before saying, âOne day, when that peasant, who had already become a well-known big official, was passing through a block of farmland, he saw a frozen viper on the side of the paddy-field path. He felt great pity for the viper, so he picked up the viper and warmed it up with his chest. When the snake woke up, not only was it not grateful, it also even ruthlessly bit the peasant to death. See guys, this is the fate of people who carelessly try to be a good person.â
âClang!â This was the sound of knife and fork in Fang Kunâs hands falling to the ground.
Ji Mian, who was about to drink water, almost spurted water out of his mouth. Fortunately, he managed to restrain himself in time.
The story in the beginning was so splendid: The peasant slapping the faces of his big brother and little sister, seizing back the inheritance that was rightfully his; the battle of wits and courage between the peasant and beautiful female spy, their mutual love and fighting; from people of the poor masses, the couple strove and became small nobles; one climax leading onto the next, keeping them at the edge of their seats. But at the ending of the story, youâre actually telling me that this story is really just a freaking extended version of âThe Peasant and the Snakeâ?
Having finally realised that he had been played, Fang Kun felt that his hand was a bit itchy, like it wanted to hit someone. He picked up his knife and fork, and glared viciously at the young man.
Ji Mian wiped away the remnants of water from the corner of his mouth and calmly said, âAssistant Xiao, letting you become an assistant is truly a waste of your talents, you can actually become a screenwriter, your story-telling skills are really amazing.â
âReally?â Xiao Jiashu completely unaware that Ji Mian was being sarcastic, and contrary to their expectations, nodded and said, âSo I had this sort of talent as well. People indeed need to undergo hands-on experience, or else they will completely not realise and understand what theyâre good at, and what their limits are.â
Ji Mian: ââŠâ After a moment of silence, he continued, âYouâre the peasant, Li Jiaer is the viper?â
Xiao Jiashu put down his knife and fork, and firmly shook his head. âIâm not that stupid.â After he finished speaking, he inexplicably hinted by motioning with his chin, his meaning being: If I donât block her, you guys will be that peasant who got bitten to death.
Ji Mian was not a person who rashly believed in people so he had carefully investigated Li Jiaer, and had also met her mother and friends. He had also used a good number of months to observe and study her moral conduct. Compared to this hedonistic young master who was drunk on his own power, he was naturally even more partial towards Li Jiaer. However, judging from the current situation, this young master seemed to have no intention of explaining the reason behind his actions. Which made sense, how would an up-in-the-skies pampered prince like him who had never had to worry about food, ever understand the feelings of the lowly people struggling at the lowest rungs of society? He only knewââto eliminate whomever he didnât like the look of.
If he continued to press on this matter, it would not obtain leniency for Li Jiaer, but would instead incur more animosity towards her. Ji Mian frankly ended the conversation. âIâve finished eating now. Please take your time, Assistant Xiao.â He put down his knife and fork, pulled off his napkin, nodded and left.
Fang Kun gave a cursory smile, and followed after him.
Finally not needing to eat the steak in front of his boss, Xiao Jiashu let out a breath of relief. He hadnât wanted to tell such a long story either, but if he didnât do that, he would have to eat⊠And as that was the case, telling a story was the best choice. He waved his hand to call a waiter over, and said in a quiet voice, âAdd a bowl of thick cream pumpkin soup to my order.â
âYes sir. Please wait a moment.â The waiter conscientiously recorded his order.
â
One after another, the top ten contestants of SUPER New Voice Generation found homes/agencies/bosses. The champion however, had still yet to show signs of glad tidings, and she couldnât even participate in the fan concert, drawing the attention of many people. Some people guessed that she must be working on something big, and maybe the agency she signed with was too awesome, and needed to find a conspicuous day to announce, and hold contract signing ceremony, with numerous media in attendance. With Li Jiaerâs current popularity, this sort of conjecture did not seem like an exaggeration at all.
Seeing all these kinds of news about her, Li Jiaer felt it was very difficult to bear. She had already met with Tiantian Entertaimentâs chairman Zhou Nan and had had a discussion regarding the contract. She had even gone to the audition for the female lead of [Cold Crown Prince, Smart Consort], and had received the directorâs admiration and praise for her exquisite acting.
Before she left, the director told her, âWith you here, I truly can let out a breath of relief. We havenât managed to find any actors with any fame in our cast, and our funds are limited. Weâll be relying on you to hold up this entire drama. Look, we canât even afford to buy decent costumes, all of these costumes were handmade for us by the chairmanâs friend. The actors and actresses also have to bring their own makeup, we donât provide it. We also donât have enough makeup artists. If your makeup skills are good, when the time comes, you can lend a hand and help the actors apply makeup.â
Li Jiaer listened seriously, and agreed to everything. Her cute, smart and thoughtful manner was very charming. The director obtained a very good impression of her, and chose her as the lead actress after her audition. He also gave Zhou Nan a phone call, giving her enormous praise. Zhou Nan was also really satisfied, and softened the terms on Li Jiaerâs contract where appropriate. He then sent his good friend a message, telling him that the matter had been settled.
It was only then that Ji Mian relaxed. The next day, he left for Mt Wuyi to film a big-scale Xianxia drama. Nowadays, he had already slowly started to retreat from acting to work behind the scenes and rarely played the lead. He was only doing a guest appearance this time. He only had a few lines, and his scenes could be filmed in a few takes. He stayed on set for three days and finished filming all his scenes. He rode in his agency car that very night to rush back to town. Afterwards, he got on a plane to return to the capital, never expecting that he would encounter a strange occurrence on the road.
âJi-ge, does that bright dot in the sky look like a flying saucer to you?â His lifestyle assistant asked while pointing out the window.
âWhere?â Ji Mian leaned over to look. Sure enough, he discovered that there was an elliptic circular light moving in the middle of the sky. At first, its speed was very slow, but ended up in front of them in a blink of an eye.
âThis isnât good, itâs dropping!â As soon as the assistant finished his words, an iron lump fell from the sky, landing right on top of their speeding car. The car rushed out of the road railings (slid/ran over the railings), falling to the bottom of the hillside. After the car rolled a few times, it got wedged between two big trees. The lifestyle assistant and the driver had already long fainted during to the severe collisions. Ji Mian, who was seriously injured and at the brink of death, saw a thin human shaped organism with a massive head slowly approach him through the blood in his eyes. When it arrived at the smashed car window, it reached out and pressed its fingertip on Ji Mianâs forehead. A sudden intense burst of pain finally made him lose consciousness completely.
The author has something to say:
I cautiously declare that the person himself (Ji Mian) is still there, he wonât go to heaven, and his soul wonât transmigrate. I just wanted to write something that was slightly different from my previous works. It will still be 'shuang[1]â, it will still be sweet, but the tempo/process might be relatively slow.
Oh right, this novel only has a tiny little bit of Scifi. There will definitely not be any alien invaders, and there definitely wonât be anything like âMy Love From Another Starâ. Besides the Gong (top/seme) being able to see through the thoughts of the people heâs close to and the people he doesnât like, he doesnât have any other golden finger (cheat). This story has no rich family inheritance wars, no aristocratic familial grudges, no overbearing chairman acting cool and unreasonable. This is only a story where this old chap, whoâs decided to withdraw from the entertainment world, gets infected by a little sapling and rekindles his love for acting again. Hm, you could also reword it as: thereâs also another little sapling who loved acting, and is corroded by the entertainment world, and loses his initial heart, a tragedy where everything turns to rot.
Donât take the many landmines(warning tags?) Iâve piled up too seriously, Iâve actually discarded them all, Iâm purely introducing the backdrop, the novel wonât touch on it. This story is really simple, that is: the gong and shou (bottom/uke) act together, and then I have a secret crush on you and think that you donât know. I know that youâre in love with me but I pretend that I donât know and start preparing to keep my distance from you. Suddenly one day I discover, Aiyo, youâre not in love with me anymore, no, Iâm in love with you now, donât go, letâs date! Isnât that really simple?