NOVEL NEXT In the end, the number of people eating increased to eight: Shi Sheng, the four-man team, Su Yixiu, Fang Liqiu as well as Fang Liqiu’s agent.
Fang Liqiu and Su Yixiu’s history could be traced all the way back to junior high where they were schoolmates. Not long after Su Yixiu left the country, Fang Liqiu did too. A pity they were in different countries and so didn’t get to meet at all.
Shi Sheng could see that these two probably liked each other. Otherwise, with Su Yixiu’s fighting ability, how would he have just allowed Fang Liqiu to speak while only weakly protesting?
“Wan-jie, there’s something going on between Liqiu-jie and that man.” Fang Jinyu’s eyes shone with light as she looked at those two. ‘These two were made for each other!’
“Like we needed you to say it. Anyone who has eyes can see that.” Jiang Ming rolled his eyes at Fang Jinyu.
Shi Sheng pursed her lips and smiled. “Eat.”
‘I(bbb) can finally get rid of two luggages! I’m(bbb) going to celebrate by eating more, hahaha!’
Halfway through the meal, Su Yixiu received a call. He then took advantage of when Fang Liqiu was busy bothering Shi Sheng to escape from the room. When he returned, it was with Lu Qingyun in tow.
“Xiaowan’er, Lu Qingyun’s looking for you.” Su Yixiu stood at the doorway and beckoned at Shi Sheng.
‘I don’t want to go . Not one bit!’
“Wah! So handsome!” Fang Jinyu was the first to see Lu Qingyun and her eyes pretty much turned into hearts. ‘How can there be such an inhumanely handsome man?’
“Little Meatball, you actually found yourself a little lover while I wasn’t looking.” Fang Liqiu’s reaction was also the biggest as she looked like she would jump up to beat up Shi Sheng. “You even found such a good-looking one too. He looks even better than you! Is he going to be the one responsible for looking pretty while you earn money to support the household? NOOO! Little Meatball, don’t think silly thoughts[1]…”
‘I(bbb) don’t want to either! Let’s not continue this conversation, or else I might cry.’
Shi Sheng got up and walked towards a smiling Lu Qingyun. “What do you want?”
Lu Qingyun cast a glance at Su Yixiu who resignedly retreated into the room and shut the door, blocking off the lines of sight of the people inside.
“Come with me to meet someone.”
……
Shi Sheng would have never expected Lu Qingyun to take her to see Grandpa Lu.
Shi Sheng sat on the sofa while feeling very awkward. The old man sitting across from her was wearing a loose Tang outfit[2]
. He had silver-coloured hair and a kindly visage, but those sharp eyes seemed as if they could see through everything.Lu Qingyun lounged casually beside her, a small smile on his face. He didn’t look like he was about to speak up for her.
‘Shit, am I(bbb) here to meet the elders[3]? But why do I feel like there are bladed mountains and fiery seas[4] awaiting me? It’s an illusion, it must be an illusion.’
“Ms Jiang is an actress?” Grandpa Lu spoke. His voice was a rich baritone that seemed to be pressuring Shi Sheng.
‘Fuck, an old fox!’ Shi Sheng cursed inwardly as she scorned Lu Qingyun even more. She kept a smile on her face though as she replied, “Acting is just a side job.”
“Oh? Ms Jiang still has a main profession?”
‘This little lady isn’t simple. If it had been anyone else, they would probably be stuttering by now.’ Thinking of this, Grandpa Lu felt more satisfied with her.
“I’m currently starting a business, though it’s in partnership with someone else. Compared to Grandpa Lu, it’s definitely just a hair on nine oxen[5]…”
Shi Sheng obediently replied to Grandpa Lu’s questions. The more he knew about her, the more satisfied Grandpa Lu was.
“Alright, Xiaowan still has work, don’t you? Little brat, hurry up and send Xiaowan back…” The former was said very kindly to Shi Sheng but the latter was spoken with a glare – directed towards Lu Qingyun, of course.
When the two of them had left, an old man entered from outside the room. Grandpa Lu rubbed his chin. “What do you think of that little lady just now?”
The old man organised his thoughts for a bit before speaking, “A very smart child. Her background is clean too. She deals with problems calmly and doesn’t speak like a normal person. She doesn’t seem… like a young lady.” She was more like someone who had experienced many trials and tribulations.
‘But she’s just a young woman, how would she have been able to experience a lot of trials and tribulations?’ The old man felt this was a bit absurd so he didn’t say it out. But Grandpa Lu had been in the business world for nearly his entire life, would he have missed this?
“Are you done investigating yet?”
“We’ve managed to dig up some of her information. She does have an entertainment company under her name. Her personal wealth should be quite hefty but we haven’t managed to find the exact figures yet.” Some of her assets weren’t placed under her own name so even with the Lu family’s ability, they could only make a rough estimate of the large part of her assets but were unable to make an accurate guess.
Grandpa Lu didn’t seem surprised by this as he laughed, “Let the young people go deal with their own issues.”
He didn’t think a young lady who could build up so much wealth on her own would have ulterior motives for Lu Qingyun since she would be able to cause that money to multiply as much as she wanted.
……
Once they had left the place Grandpa Lu was staying in, the first thing Shi Sheng did was to drag Lu Qingyun to a deserted corner and glare fiercely at him. “Lu Qingyun, shouldn’t you have informed me that we were going to see your grandfather before we actually went to see him?”
Lu Qingyun escaped her grip before unhurriedly straightening out the clothes that had gotten wrinkled when she had just dragged him off. “You did very well. Grandpa is very satisfied with you.”
“If I had…” Shi Sheng humphed before puffing up her cheeks. “This won’t do. I received a scare just now so you have to compensate me. I want to buy clothes, bags, luxury cars and mansions!”
‘If I(bbb) had weaker nerves, I(bbb) would’ve already been scared to death, okay?! I(bbb) had to experience mountainous pressure when facing Grandpa Lu but this bastard didn’t even give me(bbb) a warning beforehand!’
Lu Qingyun suddenly rubbed her head before smiling, “If you manage to get Grandpa to leave the country and not interfere in my affairs anymore, I’ll buy you anything you want.”
‘Who said you could rub my head?’
Shi Sheng was about to slap Lu Qingyun’s ‘paw’ off when she heard him say this and her eyes lit up. “Really? I can buy anything I want? I can spend as much as I want?”
‘Buy buy buy buy buy…’
This was all that was left in Shi Sheng’s head…
Lu Qingyun took back his hand calmly. His ink-like eyes reflected the image of the woman’s whitened face as he smiled. “Really.”
Only later would Lu Qingyun come to know that the decision he made today, was the one he would regret most in his life. Not one of, but the most.
Lu Qingyun sent Shi Sheng back to the site where filming was taking place.
In a short amount of time, news of Shi Sheng having a handsome patron made its way amongst the crew. Though Director Lin didn’t know Lu Qingyun, he did know Su Yixiu.
Su Yixiu had sent Fang Liqiu and the rest back to the set so he left together with Lu Qingyun.
‘The only one Su Yixiu would be willing to follow can only be THAT person from the Lu family.’
Since last year, there had been rumours circulating about that person from the Lu family returning, but no one had actually set eyes on him, so the authenticity of the rumours hadn’t been verified before. Today though, it appeared that person really had come back. Director Lin was rejoicing inwardly that he hadn’t thrown stones down the well[6] at Shi Sheng before.
[1] Used on someone who’s about to or tempted to commit suicide.
[2] It could have been robe but I don’t think even the most old-timey of old-timers would wear it. Unless they were cosplaying. I think it looks something like this (not sure about the colour):
[3] In case you didn’t know, this refers to one introducing one’s girlfriend/boyfriend to their parents/elder generation.
[4] Figure of speech for arduous trials/difficulties/tribulations.
[5] Figure of speech to express how little she has compared to him.
[6] Idiom (?) for mocking someone when they’re down.