Chapter 19 - A better choice?

Without any thinking, Lu said, “Replace him. Let Fang take the role.”

The manager got puzzled, “But…Sun was chosen by the director in person.”

Beating the table with his fingers, Lu asked coldly, “I invest the movie. Can’t I make a decision?”

The manager didn’t dare to say more. He just sighed in the heart that Sun was too unfortunate to be the victim of the boss’s playing up to his little lover.

Sun was in his early twenties. Being the freshman who had just started his career last year, Sun had taken parts in a couple of popular movies. Now his career was in a rising state.

Because he was quite similar to Ye Ran both in appearance and style, many network media called him “Little Ye Ran”. Therefore, it was reasonable for the director to select Sun to play the role of Ye Ran in his teenage years.

Fang Qiao, who was sitting beside and had been silent all along, opened his mouth to ask timidly, “Mr. Lu, it is not a good idea to rob the position of someone else. It might be well for me to play a supporting role…”

“No, just take this one.”

Fang, “…”

Although Fang didn’t quite agree on the behavior of rising by squeezing someone out, he couldn’t disobey since the boss had made a decision. So he obediently followed the manager to take the script, and returned home to study the script carefully.

After the meeting, Tan Hao followed Lu to his office. He asked Lu teasingly, “Do you know the relationship between Sun Yingzhe and Ye Ran?”

Leaning against the sofa, Lu looked as if he didn’t care about it. “Yes.”

“Wow, I don’t know our boss is quite familiar with his entertainers.”

Lu rolled his eyes, “Say what you want quickly.”

“Having known the relationship between them, you still replace Sun. So you set yourself against Ye on purpose, don’t you?”

Lu lit a cigarette and said nothing.

“Ah,” Tan Hao responded turgidly, “I get it. You must still be attached to Ye, so you want to attract his attention by this way. Well, I haven’t expected you are so infatuated that you still don’t forget your love in your teenage years.”

Lu pushed Tan out of his office directly.

Lu treated the director to dinner that night. He drank three cups of wine as self-punishment to apologize symbolically for changing the actor.

Looking through Fang’s appearances in ancient costume before, Director Xu didn’t think there was anything improper. Considering that Fang was brought in by the investor, the director had to accept him even if he was unsuitable.

But the movie king Ye was not easy to deal with. Having got the information from somewhere, Ye Ran rushed over even without removing his makeup. He questioned the moment he came in, “Replacing someone suddenly after the contract has been negotiated, Mr. Lu, how did my cousin Yingzhe offend you?”

To replace Sun Yingzhe who was more suitable both from acting skill and appearance with Fang Qiao who was without any qualification or experience, could it be regarded as a better choice? It was clearly bullshit!

“It looks I have offended you somehow.” Ye Ran said directly.

Lu replied easily, “No.”

The dinner ended in discord.

On the way back, Lu sat in the back seat of the car. With the window opened for a while, Lu’s head got clear a little, realizing he seemed to have gone too far treating Ye in this way. Lu knew he was in the wrong indeed to have replaced Sun Yingzhe. What if Ye was irritated and broke the contract? If so, Lu’s brother would definitely kill him.

Lu found he had been too hasty in making decisions about Fang Qiao.

“It was all Fang’s fault,” Lu thought.

Fang went directly to his cake shop after leaving the company. He happened to meet Lin Yao who was coming to take care of the shop by bike after class.

Fang told Lin about the casting in the afternoon, but Lin seemed to be uninterested. Lin was busy sending messages on the phone with his eyebrows frowning.

Fang wanted to move closer to see whom Lin was chatting with so enthusiastically, however, Li stood up suddenly and said he had something to deal with and had to leave first.

He left after being here for just 10 minutes. There must be something fishy! Seeing Lin Yao leave, Fang said to himself, “Has he fallen in love with someone?”

The other assistant girl said excitedly, “Uh, Boss, there was a luxury car waiting outside for Yao for a long time yesterday afternoon.”

Fang Qiao, “…”

Spending the whole afternoon in the shop, Fang made a few creative cakes first, and then took out the script to study.

Fang who was going to play a role in the movie was not every excited. He didn’t have much obsession over acting or being famous. The former was just a kind of work, as for the latter, he decided to let nature take its course.

Besides, he didn’t think he was well-qualified in acting. He had been wandering in the circle of walk-on roles from his debut. Suddenly, he was requested to play a good part in a movie of big-budget. He inevitably felt timid and confused.

Fang leaned on the glass cabinet, reciting the lines with efforts. He felt as if he had come back to his high-school days. The most frightening thing for him at that time was being ordered to recite a passage by his teacher. He had thought he could get rid of this miserable life after graduation, but he hadn’t expected that he would experience the situation again.

Looking at the thickly dotted dialogues on the script, Fang fell asleep a short while later. He slept until night when he was woken up by a phone call from Lu Yanzhou.

Rubbing his eyes, Fang said, “What’s up, Mr. Lu?”

Lu poured his questions all at one sitting, “Where are you? What’s the time? Why aren’t you home yet?”

Fang thought, “…The sugar daddies in these days always keep an eye for where their men has gone, don’t they?”