CH 11

Chapter 11: “August 17 2010 at 9:23 pm.”

Gu Ruijia was someone with a poor eye for investment, but he was very spot on when it came to stepping on a minefield.

Ye Fei was clear in his heart that he wanted to, but Yan Xiao wasn’t the least bit cooperative.

“Get lost!” Ye Fei’s calm and collected expression hid his dissatisfied lust. “Do you still want me to look after you?”

“There’s nothing to be done.” Gu Ruijia smiled meanly. “The dude has money and never owes anyone.”

Ye Fei put his phone on the coffee table, then put his hand around Gu Ruijia’s neck and pressed down, smiling all the while. “I don’t owe you money, but I do owe you a beating.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Gu Ruijia pressed his hands together then flapped them in the air like a distressed hen. “Don’t do it, don’t do it, brother, I was wrong, alright?”

Ye Fei exerted a little more strength until he made Gu Ruijia cry out for both dad and mom, and only then did he finally show mercy and let the other go.

Gu Ruijia muttered and complained while tidying his hair that resembled chicken feathers, “You’ve changed, you’re no longer the Ye Fei you used to be!”

Ye Fei numbly got goosebumps, he moved to the other end of the sofa with the computer in his arms, and continued to check the scripts that had been sent to the mailbox.

Tianxi Entertainment had a mailbox dedicated to receiving scripts solely from outside the company. Usually, this kind of thing was checked by the employees, and the ones that seemed good were listed together and reported to Gu Ruijia.

But with Gu Ruijia’s foresight, Ye Fei really couldn’t trust the person he’d put in charge, hence he chose the scripts himself.

As he read the scripts, Gu Ruijia was idle and bored. There was nothing to play on his mobile phone, so he talked about gossip one after another.

“I’ve lost money on a few projects, but I’m actually rather smart. A few days ago someone tried to fool me, but I immediately saw through them!”

Ye Fei closed a script he didn’t understand, not bothering to raise his head. “How?”

Gu Ruijia lifted his chin and proudly said, “What was that script called again? Oh, I remember… 《Superspace Rescue》! That man hyped it up. What five years of hard work and ten years of revision, bah!

“Who doesn’t know that there’s no market for sci-fi films nowadays, and even if there were, our special effects couldn’t possibly keep up. We’d only be making another second-rate drama, so how could I possibly fall for it!”

He looked at Ye Fei with an expression that begged for praise.

Ye Fei: “…”

Ye Fei wasn’t sure whether this was good or bad luck on Gu Ruijia’s part.《Superspace Rescue》was a big summer hit two years from now. In spite of not looking good on all fronts, it relied on word of mouth to counterattack step by step, not only becoming a huge box office hit as the dark horse of the year, but also breaking the box office’s record in film history.

Ye Fei had seen this movie. Apart from a few flaws in the special effects, the characters and plot of the film were perfect. The audience who’d been slandering it one second were brought to tears, then in the next were amused by the director’s cold humour and couldn’t help laughing.

At that time, almost the entire network was the water army of《Superspace Rescue》. All the actors who’d participated in the show, even down to the minor roles who’d only shown their faces a few times, changed from unknown names to well-known actors.

However, unlike its grand popularity after the broadcast, the pre-financing aspect of《Superspace Rescue》had been downright difficult. Director Song Wen had spent three years searching for anyone willing to invest. In the end, he’d sold his house and car, and borrowed a sum of money from relatives and friends, barely managing to set up a studio by himself.

Ye Fei remembered watching Song Wen’s interview back then, and how the man had regretfully said that if the investment had been sufficient,《Superspace Rescue》would have been definitely better.

Unexpectedly, this movie was actually found by Gu Ruijia.

Ye Fei looked him up and down, his eyes turning very strange.

Gu Ruijia was stunned by his gaze, he hugged himself and cowered. “What are you doing?”

Ye Fei closed his laptop. “Did you keep the contact information of the director of《Superspace Rescue》?”

Gu Ruijia thoughtlessly blurted out, “No ah, why on Earth would I keep a swindler’s…” Before he finished speaking, he suddenly had a realisation. “You’re interested in this screenplay?”

Ye Fei made an “en” sound.

Gu Ruijia endured and tried to restrain himself, but in the end couldn’t keep it in and persuaded, “It’s not that I don’t trust you, but science fiction movies are really no good nowadays.”

His words were indeed true. The only reason why European and American blockbusters were popular at the box office was because of their special effects, and especially their huge fan base.

But the selling point of《Superspace Rescue》was not in its special effects, but the warmth of human nature. Director Song Wen was good at digging into the details, and the movie was full of heartwarming interactions in the midst of the highs and the lows, making it an enjoyable and heartfelt watch.

Ye Fei tapped his fingers on the table. “Let’s see the script first .” He picked up a cup and took a sip of water. “Gu-ge, contact the director for me.”

“Don’t call me that.” Gu Ruijia clutched his head, his tooth aching. “I’ll contact him, give me two days.”

It was only a chat anyway, investing in it was not yet certain.

Ye Fei nodded. “Then I’ll leave it to you.”

With a pearl in the form of《Superspace Rescue》, reading other scripts would naturally be a little less pleasant. Ye Fei simply put the laptop down and prepared to discuss further tomorrow.

“Say, you’ve done so well today, why don’t we celebrate?” Gu Ruijia winked at Ye Fei. “Don’t leave tonight, I’ll call Zhou Zhensheng and Sun Qiong. Let’s have some fun together.”

If it was in the past, he wouldn’t even dare to mention this, for fear that Ye Fei would lecture him again about how fooling excessively around would make one lose dedication. However, things had changed; in the right mood, Ye Fei could be even crazier than him.

“Fine.” Ye Fei lazily leaned back on the sofa, his eyes closed. “You arrange the rest, and leave the liquor to me.”

Gu Ruijia snapped his fingers. “No problem!” Afraid that Ye Fei would change his mind halfway through, he nudged him again. “You should hurry up and call Yan Xiao.”

Ye Fei didn’t even open his eyes. “What for?”

Gu Ruijia glared at him, “Hey, seriously ah! You have to tell Yan Xiao if you’re not going home, so he won’t worry.”

Worry? Ye Fei grunted lightly. Yan Xiao would rather not have him appearing in front of his eyes.

He waved a hand and perfunctorily said, “It’s all right, don’t mind him.”

“I say, you’re almost being too much.” Gu Ruijia shoved the phone into his hand and urged, “Hurry up, be a man and tell him.”

Gu Ruijia really couldn’t figure out how Ye Fei suddenly became such a scumbag. Looking at his actions time and time again, asking for a divorcing and then not reporting home, if this was posted on a forum, he’d be scolded a thousand stories high1!

But some people were just close while others were distant, and as his brother2, what else could he do except to advise him?

Ye Fei wanted to say that he and Yan Xiao really didn’t know each other that well, but looking at Gu Ruijia’s glaring eyes, he reluctantly dialled Yan Xiao’s number. If not, his ears would likely not get any rest today.

At the same time, Yan Xiao was in a meeting.

A lively piano tone suddenly rang out in the conference room, interrupting the PowerPoint presentation of one of the executives.

They all looked at each other, sweating for the man who had forgotten to silence his mobile phone.

Who didn’t know that the president hated this kind of behaviour the most? A reprimand wasn’t a big deal, but their biggest fear was that the boss would stare at them expressionlessly, not saying a word, then directly inform the HR department to recruit new employees.

The music continued and the executives’ hearts nearly stopped beating. They were motionless, with their heads bowed low, not even daring to glance around. In their minds, they continuously speculated which deity had the guts to keep the phone ringing without pressing the reject button.

Were they trying to provoke the boss!

Yan Xiao frowned, looked around and was about to speak when Cheng Minghao who was next to him suddenly came over and whispered, “Xiao-ge, it’s your phone.”

Yan Xiao was startled, and fished out his phone.

On the lit screen, two big characters were displayed brightly: Ye Fei.

From the day he’d gotten Ye Fei’s number, Yan Xiao had set a separate ringtone for him. However, Ye Fei had never taken the initiative to contact him, which was why Yan Xiao had taken a while to recognise it.

“Continue.” Yan Xiao swept a quick glance at the executives around the long table, dropped a word, then took his mobile phone and left the conference room.

There was no particular expression on his face, except that his ever-average as if measured with a ruler pace seemed somewhat hurried.

Cheng Minghao rolled his eyes and followed suit.

He was really too curious, knowing that Yan Xiao never saved other people’s numbers. He had a good memory by nature and could remember phone numbers with a glance, and his address book was always empty.

However, today Cheng Minghao had seen Ye Fei’s caller ID!

With a glance, one could see that the lineup was different from theirs, which only had a string of numbers.

In the corridor, Yan Xiao had already picked up the phone: “Ye Fei.”

“I’m not going home tonight,” Ye Fei’s voice came from the other side, slightly distorted through the phone, but still very pleasant to hear. “Just letting you know.”

Yan Xiao was quiet before asking, “Where are you going?”

Ye Fei replied quickly, “At a friend’s house to have fun.”

Yan Xiao opened his mouth, wanting to ask him which friend’s house he’d be at, what they’d do for fun the whole night, and whether he needed Yan Xiao to pick him up when they were done. However, when the words came to his lips, all that left was, “Have a good time.”

Ye Fei gave an “en”.

Silence reigned between the two; Yan Xiao wanted to hear more of Ye Fei’s voice again, but before he could find a topic, Ye Fei was already impatient.

“I’m hanging up,” he said, then all that was left on the other side of the phone was an endlessly busy signal.

Yan Xiao held the phone and lowered his eyes slightly.

“Ye Fei is going to play, huh?” Cheng Minghao came over and saw that although Yan Xiao seemed no different from usual, he was clearly in a low mood, and smiled, “No way, you’re unhappy about this? I thought you two didn’t have a good relationship. I didn’t expect this.”

Yan Xiao hadn’t even talked about love with Ye Fei at the start, then abruptly wanted to get married. The two hadn’t been in the same picture much after getting married either, so Cheng Minghao had always thought there was something fishy about their marriage.

Yan Xiao gave him a cold look. “We have a good relationship.”

Cheng Minghao was taken aback, and he quickly raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, okay, I was wrong. But if you don’t want him to go, just say so.”

Yan Xiao was silent for a long time then said, “He doesn’t like proactive and unreserved people.”

“Huh?” Cheng Minghao recalled the few times he had come into contact with Ye Fei and found it unlikely. “No way, it doesn’t seem like that. How do you know? He said that?”

Yan Xiao nodded his head.

Cheng Minghao still didn’t believe it. “Maybe you heard him wrong, when did he say that?”

“August 17, 2010 at 9:23 pm.”

What Ye Fei hated, Yan Xiao firmly remembered and never did, yet Ye Fei still didn’t like him.

Therefore, could Yan Xiao ever learn what to do to make Ye Fei care even a little bit for him? Yan Xiao wasn’t greedy, for him, just a little bit was enough.

Hyacinth: sigh… these poor men who lack the word communication in their vocabularies, rip ah. Just kiss each other and roll on the floor in an impassioned embrace, guys! GRJ is obviously the most enlightened one here smh. On the other hand, just made a kofi acc so if you wanna, pls tip me? >.< <3