Even after thinking it over again and again, Wu Wan didn’t dare to call Zhong Yibin and question him. Flustered, he contacted Bai Cheng. After Bai Cheng listened to the entire scenario, he fell silent for a long time. “Wu Wan, if Zhou Zimeng got someone to kidnap and even rape Qianqian, would you forgive Zhou Zimeng?”
“Impossible!” Wu Wan leapt up instantly. To him, nothing was more important than his sister. Anyone who wanted to touch Wu Qianqian was courting death.
“Then do you think that Er Bing will forgive Zhou Zimeng?” The fact that such utterly heartless acts had been committed was a source of disbelief and awkwardness for Bai Cheng.. He didn’t think he could face Zhong Yibin.
Wu Wan was stunned. From Zhong Yibin’s perspective, Chu Qin was similarly a treasure that nobody was allowed to touch. Zhou Zimeng insisted on doing so, yet he still tried to persuade the two of them to reconcile… After thinking to this point, he involuntarily broke out in cold sweat.
“Being magnanimous at others’ expense, you really have some patience. Listen to my advice – quickly shut your mouth and apologize to Er Bing after some time has passed.” Bai Cheng sighed and eventually couldn’t resist advising him, so as to avoid another case of him rubbing Zhong Yibin the wrong way. If that were to happen again, their friendship would really come to an end.
Wu Wan put down the phone and slowly buried his face in his hands,
“Cousin, can it be done!” Wei Yan had already waited half a day in the living room. Seeing that Wu Wan wasn’t come out even after making the call, he couldn’t stop himself from rushing in to inquire.
“You probably won’t be able to go to Shengshi at the moment. I’ll find someone else for you,” Wu Wan said listlessly. In the past, due to Zhong Yibin’s connections, he got to know a few directors, movie-makers and such. Arranging for him to play a small role shouldn’t pose a major difficulty.
After Zou Bo went back, his anger rose the more he thought about it. Qiao Su was nothing more than a third-string actor, what reason did he have to be so unreasonable? If he didn’t teach him a lesson this time, it would be difficult to swindle someone onto his bed in the future.
“What activities does Qiao Su have?” Zou Bo asked his assistant with a gloomy expression.
“Recently, he’s only been involved in publicity for <The Golden Age of the Great Jing>. He’ll be recording for Friendly Confusion this week…” The assistant investigated Qiao Su’s schedule thoroughly.
Zou Bo lit a cigarette. A pair of eyes filled with evil intent could faintly be seen a distance away from the smoke.
Qiao Su didn’t tarry after returning from the villa. He headed to the office of his company’s director on the spot. It was almost 4pm and nearly time for everyone to get off work. Mocheng Entertainment’s director, Zhou Zhen, was packing up his things and preparing to leave early when he saw Qiao Su appear suddenly in a very unexpected manner.
“What’s going on?” Zhou Zhen noticed that Qiao Su’s complexion didn’t look too good and instantly asked after him. Mocheng Entertainment’s situation wasn’t very good during the years he was director. It hadn’t succeeded in raising any newbies to fame and only relied on the veteran celebrities to look after them. Lately, Qiao Su had risen in popularity. From the looks of it, his popularity was on an upward trend. As long as this source of easy money remained with them, he would be in a good position during the general shareholders’ meeting at the end of the year.
Qiao Su’s eyes reddened. He stared at Zhou Zhen for a minute before saying hoarsely, “Director Zhou, I can’t stay in this company any longer. Thank you for all your care these few years.” After saying these words, he turned around and left.
“Ai! Little Qiao!” Zhou Zhen hurriedly went over to grab onto him. “If you have something to say, say it nicely. Why did it turn into you not staying!”
Qiao Su watched him with red eyes, blinking his pretty eyes. A teardrop simultaneously slid down. “You still remember that I said I would rather not have resources than sell myself when I entered the company, right…”
There was a buzz in Zhou Zhen’s head, and he immediately understood what had happened. Qiao Su’s manager was someone who was short-sighted. Qiao Su rose in popularity lately and Zhou Zhen warned him to ensure that Qiao Su stayed with the company, no matter the means used. How impressive, he’d actually used such despicable methods! This wasn’t keeping someone with them, it was clearly chasing them away!
Zhou Zhen’s liver ached from anger. “That bastard, I’ll call him here…”
“No need,” Qiao Su said in a low voice, “I don’t want to see him ever again. Anyway, the contract is about to expire, I…”
“Little Qiao!” Zhou Zhen immediately interrupted Qiao Su as he was resigning and took a deep breath. “Rest assured, I will definitely settle this issue. There’s no rush to talk about the contract, come over tomorrow and we’ll discuss it then.”
After pacifying Qiao Su with much difficulty and sending him out, Zhou Zhen paced about in his office in a violent rage. “Give that idiot Li Liang a call and get him to come to my office now!” Li Liang was Qiao Su’s current manager. He believed that he had accomplished a major feat, even smiling when receiving the call from Zhou Zhen’s secretary. Who would have thought that he would be hit in the face with a stack of data when he entered the Director’s office?
“Do you have a pig’s brain! Doing something like that when Qiao Su is in the crucial period of changing contracts, are you afraid he won’t know that our company is preparing to treat him harshly?” Zhou Zhen grabbed Li Liang’s shirt collar, feeling a burning desire to smash him to a pulp.
The next day when Qiao Su arrived at the company, the secretary invited him to the director’s office. Zhou Zhen was seated in the office with another man. That man had on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and his smile was gentle yet cultured. He was the company’s gold medal manager.
<The Golden Age of the Great Jing>’s release was right around the corner and the drama’s publicity grew increasingly intense. Friendly Confusion also anxiously started to record this week.
The dedicated career-man Film Emperor Mu Chen arrived early as usual. He greeted Chu Qin, eyes involuntarily looking behind Chu Qin. “Qiao Su hasn’t come over?”
“En, he said it’s because of a traffic jam. But they’re quick, they should be here soon,” Chu Qin raised an eyebrow at him, “Chen-ge, why so set on Little Qiao?”
“Nonsense, that’s my wife,” Mu Chen raised his chin.
Chu Qin stared blankly for a moment before regaining his wits. Mu Chen was talking about the characters within the drama. As the actor playing the male empress, wasn’t Qiao Su the wife of Mu Chen, who was acting as the emperor? He smiled and gave Mu Chen a small push. “You gave me a shock, I even thought you two were together!”
“Cough…” Mu Chen started coughing.
“Who’s together with whom?” Qiao Su’s gentle and pleasant silhouette arrived.
Chu Qin turned and dragged Qiao Su over. He put an arm over Qiao Su’s shoulder. He spoke into Qiao Su’s ear, yet his words were said at such a loud volume that everyone could hear them. “Chen-ge just told me that you’re his wife!”
Qiao Su’s breath caught in his throat.
“Ah Chen,” The man following behind Qiao Su smiled faintly as he went up to greet Mu Chen.
“Old Mo?” Mu Chen saw the man with the gold-rimmed glasses and was a little surprised. “Why are you here?” This person was Mocheng Entertainment’s gold medal manager. He heard that he recently wasn’t taking care of any newbies. Even the Heavenly King and Heavenly Empress had been transferred out from his hands as he prepared to switch employers, why would he suddenly appear beside Qiao Su? This person was of some reputation within the circle – His name was Mo Zhuo and everyone called him Old Mo.
“I’ll be taking care of Qiao Su in the future,” Mo Zhuo smiled and pointed to Qiao Su beside him.
Mu Chen looked at Qiao Su before shifting his gaze to Old Mo, his brows furrowing slightly. “To get Little Qiao to stay on, Zhou Zhen really put in quite a bit of effort.” Even his trump card had been taken out, he was truly concentrating his efforts.
Old Mo laughed without saying much, dragging Qiao Su to greet the others. The capability of a gold medal manager was indeed not comparable to that of a small manager like Li Liang who couldn’t raise his head. He knew the majority of the people in the television station and would occasionally bring Qiao Su over to greet someone.
Qiao Su had a naturally cold character, and if the other party didn’t talk to him, he would rarely take the initiative to speak to them. It was to the extent that he had few contacts within the industry. On the other hand, Old Mo was smooth and slick, able to exchange a few words with anyone. It wasn’t long before he brought Qiao Su along to get to know everyone.
“You brat, finally starting to take care of newbies,” Teacher Liang saw Old Mo and was very happy, dragging him along as he spoke.
Mu Chen narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two people walking in the distance. He asked Chu Qin in a low voice, “Why did Qiao Su suddenly change managers? Does he know that Old Mo is about to leave Mocheng?”
The various large companies had long been aware of the news that the gold medal manager was leaving. Mu Chen himself was also one of the bosses of his company and naturally knew of this matter.
Chu Qin let out a sigh and in a low voice, spoke two sentences into Mu Chen’s ear.
Mu Chen’s forehead grew increasingly tense, even his fist gradually clenched tighter, “That bunch of scoundrels!”
When Zhong Yibin came over, he saw the scene of Chu Qin whispering into Mu Chen’s ear. The two people were very close to each other, almost as if they were plastered together. Discontent immediately arose in his heart and he walked over with large strides, drawing Chu Qin towards him. Only after the surrounding people glanced over simultaneously did Zhong Yibin realize that his movements had been a bit too large. Chu Qin was already in his embrace and faced with his puzzled gaze, Zhong Yibin forced out something, “Have you eaten breakfast?”
“…Didn’t we eat together?” The corner of Chu Qin’s mouth twitched.
With a stiff face, Mu Chen slowly turned his back on them, his shoulders twitching a little. He let out a dry cough and went to find Qiao Su. Admittedly, a gold medal manager was nice, but this person was about to leave. This was clearly a delaying tactic on Zhou Zhen’s part. He needed to remind Qiao Su to maintain vigilance and not to be duped.
Chu Qin pushed the annoying troublemaker Zhong Yibin away. The recording was about to start; he was still busy. He picked up the script and went to find the two leads. The two of them happened to be seated together so he started discussing the script with them.
The male empress was the biggest topic of the drama, so this time, the scale of the program’s script was larger. The number of interactions between the two male leads were also higher. Chu Qin separated the two of them and explained a part of the script individually. He asked seriously, “Chen-ge, is this level alright for you?”
After all, Mu Chen had always taken the path of a graceful gentleman in the past. Asking him all of a sudden to be so open could lead to him crumbling.
“No problem,” Mu Chen looked through the arrangements, his smile so subtle it was indiscernible.
Chu Qin patted Mu Chen’s shoulder in gratification. He was worthy of being the film emperor who had traversed the Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment scene; he knew how to be open-minded. Chu Qin turned and went over to speak to Qiao Su. Fearful that Qiao Su wouldn’t understand him, he even took special care to phrase it in a clearer manner. “We’ll let you crack some ambiguous jokes with Chen-ge on stage, is that all right?”
Qiao Su looked through the script and nodded slowly. “It’s fine.”
The author has something to say:
Small theater:
Er Bing: I’m not happy, you don’t even ask me such things?
Qinqin: …Er Bingbing, can you accept this level?
Er Bing: No
Qinqin: Why?
Er Bing: Too pure, let’s play something more high-level