Qiao Su grasped Chu Qin’s hand tightly and was brought to the Zhong’s villa in a still-trembling state. Chu Qin consoled him in a low voice, “This is the Zhong family’s villa. Yibin is here, Zou Bo won’t dare to come over.”
“Chu Qin, thank you…” Qiao Su uttered hoarsely after stepping through the villa’s gate. Suddenly seeing Chu Qin when he was so close to desperation was akin to meeting a god. In fact, the friendship between Qiao Su and Chu Qin wasn’t all that deep. They had merely gotten closer recently. But after this incident, Chu Qin was his best friend, surpassed by none.
Song Xiao was in the middle of a conversation with Yu Tang in the yard. Seeing their entry, he stood up to meet them. “You’re fine?”
“Director Song, Director Yu…” Qiao Su didn’t expect to see these two people and greeted them with a pale face and tiny nod. He pulled at his creased jacket uneasily.
Song Xiao smiled to return his greeting and gestured for Qiao Su to go over to sit. Butler Cao appeared in a timely manner and passed Qiao Su a cup of warm water. One would feel chilly after suffering from shock. Though it was currently the height of summer, a cup of warm water would let Qiao Su feel more comfortable.
“It’s not like you’re a newbie, why would you fall for such a trick?” Chu Qin couldn’t stop himself from reprimanding him after seeing that he had calmed down. The way Qiao Su’s company did things wasn’t very proper, and it was only because Qiao Su didn’t listen to them the past few years and attend all the social niceties that he constantly didn’t receive any good resources. After evading them so many times, this shouldn’t have happened.
“The company has been pressing me to renew the contract and my manager said that someone would talk to me about it today,” His chilled hands gradually regained its warmth as he gripped the cup. “I only found out that the person I was meeting was Zou Bo when I was halfway there.”
Within a few words, Song Xiao understood the meaning embedded in them. He turned, making eye contact with Yu Tang. However, Yu Tang wasn’t at all concerned about this matter and was currently holding onto the tablet, playing Tetris. He was immediately given a kick by his family’s wife and had no choice but to put the tablet aside.
“Are you going to continue letting your manager go on like this?” Song Xiao let out a sigh. If it were his Xinghai Entertainment, such a thing would never be allowed to occur. Artists were artists; if they still had to sell their bodies, then they would be considered entertainers during the ancient times. Both them and the company’s boss would drop in class.
Zhong Yibin quickly came back with Zou Bo’s return gift in his hands. It was a huge basket of grapes planted in the villa’s yard. Although he didn’t remember Zou Bo, Chu Qin did. In a few sentences, he thoroughly conveyed Zou Bo’s experiences and influence, allowing Zhong Yibin to accurately grasp the appropriate behavior for interacting with him.
“He left already,” Zhong Yibin pointed outside. The sound of the main gate closing next door could be heard and two black commercial vehicles vanished into the dust. Zuo Bo came today to hunt his prey but now that the beauty ran off, continuing to stay would only be serving himself up to be provoked for no reason by Zhong Yibin’s jokes. Hence, he could only slink off. But before he left, he shot a glare brimming with hatred in the direction of the courtyard blooming with Japanese roses.
“Thank you Director Zhong,” Qiao Su got up and thanked Zhong Yibin.
“He glared in this direction before leaving,” Solitary Darkness duly reported after flipping over the wall.
The corner of Chu Qin’s mouth twitched. Did such a thing require reporting? On the other hand, those two people appeared to be accustomed to it. Song Xiao even happily passed three skewers of barbecued prawns over.
Qiao Su lowered his head, his grip around the tea cup gradually tightening. Zou Bo said that he was the one who acted as a go-between during <The Golden Age of the Great Jing>. He could raise Qiao Su to fame but could also beat him back to his original situation. Him rejecting Zou Bo today would definitely make it harder for him to stay in the entertainment industry. He was very unwilling to be beaten back into the dust just like that after struggling to attain this breakout chance.
Song Xiao couldn’t resist letting out a light scoff after hearing these words. “I chose the cast myself, what link is there to Zou Bo?” This entertainment toad really knew how to blow his horn.
Qiao Su’s eyes lit up. He had just been scared stupid and only just realized now that the four people in the yard included two entertainment company directors. Moreover, their characters were up to mark, he couldn’t be compared to them…
“We can’t let this matter go just like that, otherwise this will happen again in the future,” Chu Qin tried to hold himself back, but in the end, he couldn’t help but voice this. “Your manager needs to be changed. And you must make a big enough fuss that it reaches your boss’ ears, let him know that he will lose you if he doesn’t change your manager.”
“But didn’t you ask me to…” Change companies? The words after weren’t said out loud. Qiao Su gazed at Chu Qin with some surprise. He was about to leave already, what meaning was there in changing managers?
“Listen to me,” Chu Qin winked at him fervently. If he wanted to raise his status, he couldn’t show any signs of giving up on the industry in front of bosses like Song Xiao and Zhong Yibin. He would only be able to obtain better treatment at his new company if he raised his status at the old one.
Qiao Su swallowed all his questions and slowly nodded.
Zou Bo was a despicable person who needed to be denounced. He was also lascivious and had gotten a taste of many popular rookies. In the past, someone had also rejected him but was retaliated against with all sorts of methods. Quite a few of them were also forced to exit the entertainment industry.
“Before <The Golden Age of the Great Jing> is broadcasted, it’ll be fine as long as we don’t let him use his methods to influence the drama,” Chu Qin sincerely wanted to help Qiao Su out, so he raised his voice in reminder.
“He doesn’t have the guts,” Zhong Yibin laughed lightly, kneading Chu Qin’s hand to pacify him. “I will warn him.”
Hearing that his family’s drama could be affected, Yu Tang’s eyes narrowed. “Warnings are mere stopgaps, only eliminating the root will ensure that there will be no future trouble.”
Zhong Yibin stared blankly for a moment. “You mean…” This person’s way of doing things was indeed many times more ruthless than him, yet it still seemed very reasonable. The gazes of these two people conveyed a tacit mutual understanding.
The atmosphere momentarily turned somewhat heavy. Chu Qin opened his mouth in a timely manner, “All right all right, we came out today to have fun, set your schemes aside for the moment. Come come, deal the cards.”
The corner of Qiao Su’s mouth twitched. Was he really dragged over to play Fight the Landlord?
Qiao Su took Zhong Yibin’s car on the way back and listened to Chu Qin the entire way. Afraid that someone like Qiao Su with such a temper would not be able to deal with his boss, Chu Qin planned out what he needed to say and the kind of expression he should have. “The script is all written for you. Your acting skills are good; as long as you don’t have stage fright, you’ll definitely succeed.”
Qiao Su swallowed. “Qin-ge, do you usually handle your boss like this?”
Zhong Yibin’s eyebrows raised. He was the boss, did Chu Qin make an unreasonable scene like this and demand for better salary, a contract, and a work site in the past?
Chu Qin coughed dryly. “My boss won’t have any of it.”
At night after returning home, Zhong Yibin carried the clean Chu Qin onto the bed and pressed him down to interrogate him. “What will your boss have?”
Chu Qin’s face turned red and he answered reluctantly with a righteous expression. “I don’t know. If I knew, I would have long become the deputy director.”
Zhong Yibin leaned over and bit his ear. “You definitely know I have this,” He took out a strawberry-flavored condom.
“You… Wu…”
In the end, Wu Wan still went over to the Zhou house. He listened to Zhou Zimeng’s endless wailing as she recounted the entire event, expressing that she wasn’t aware of the situation and that Luo Yuan had acted on his own initiative.
Hearing Luo Yuan’s name, Wu Wan was somewhat disgusted, “You could have looked for me if you had problems, why did you go to Luo Yuan?” That grandson of the Luo family was a dandy through and through. The few of them all had some means of earning a living, only Luo Yuan was entirely dependent on his family. He’d even crashed into someone while street racing last year.
“Would you be able to discipline Chu Qin for me even if I went to find you?” Zhou Zimeng glared at him unwillingly. This Wu Wan only knew how to smooth things over every time.
“Everything’s going well, why would you want to teach Chu Qin a lesson?” Wu Wan looked at Zhou Zimeng and suddenly found that she was very unfamiliar.
“I was bullied by Chu Qin. None of you believe me, so I can only tell him…” Zhou Zimeng covered her face and burst into tears. She knew that Luo Yuan liked her, so she used this small bit of affection to let him jump into the pot of boiling water for her. In the end, the water did finish burning but the fire ended up spreading to her.
Wu Wan came out from the Zhou house, at a loss. This was the first time he realized that his childhood friends had grown up and changed. Zhong Yibin didn’t call after he lazed around at home for a few days. On the contrary, it was his cousin Wei Yan who rushed over furiously and knocked on his door.
Wei Yan was currently studying at a film school and needed to intern during summer vacation. Previously, when he brought Wei Yan to get to know Zhong Yibin, Zhong Yibin also agreed to let Wei Yan take up a role in a crew that was about to start filming. However, summer vacation was about to end, and he had yet to even see the crew’s shadow.
“After the karaoke, someone from Shengshi contacted me and asked me to wait till mid-August. But it’s already nearing the end of August and there still hasn’t been any news. Second cousin, did you offend Zhong Yibin?” Wei Yan was extremely uneasy. He gave Shengshi a call today but the person on the other end treated him very coldly, completely unlike the previous time.
Wu Wan crawled out from his bed in a daze. Er Bing would definitely carry out anything he agreed to do. Was he shrugging off these commitments because he wanted to break off ties?
The author has something to say:
Small theater: <April fools’ day gift>
Qinqin: Today is April Fools’ Day, everyone says the opposite