CH 8.2

After Feng Xin leaves, Mi Xi is in a good mood, and starts caring about what Feng Xin will do at home and what she can do every day. Chen Ying takes Mi Xi to the garage to pick up the car so they can go to the mall. On the way, he tells her about his plans.

First of all, he has to go to work every day, so he will go out every morning. Generally, if there is nothing special, he will not get home until seven or eight in the evening. In the morning, Mi Xi doesn’t need to worry about it. It’s okay to sleep in. He will leave breakfast on the table. Before ten o’clock, Feng Xin will come in to buy groceries, and Mi Xi can play with her, cook lunch together, and then she can choose what she likes to do in the afternoon, such as writing, shopping, watching movies and so on. Then, before five o’clock, Feng Xin will arrange an afternoon snack for her to pad her stomach. After five o’clock, Feng Xin will go off work and leave. Mi Xi has to stay alone for a while, and when he comes back in the evening, he will take care of her dinner. 

Let this kind of life go on for a while, and once Mi Xi gets a little familiar with the environment, he will discuss with other people how to arrange other matters.

Many of his words Mi Xi doesn’t understand, so Chen Ying explains it again. Mi Xi understands half of what he said and some are even guesses.

“What do you think?” Chen Ying says. In fact, he is just asking politely.

“It’s up to uncle to arrange,” Mi Xi nods seriously. “Thank you uncle for taking care of me.”

“You can answer this kind of question with ‘well’ or ‘not bad’, or ‘okay’ or ‘good.’”1

“Okay,” Mi Xi corrects obediently.

“And don’t call me ‘uncle’—I can’t bear this honor at my young age.”

“Chen Ying.”

“Very good.” Chen Ying likes straightforward things.

The car turns into the underground parking lot of the mall, and Chen Ying’s cell phone rings. 

“It’s ringing.” Mi Xi stares at the glowing thing seriously.

“It’s called a mobile phone. Someone is looking for me.”

Mi Xi nods; she knows this. “This one can talk.”

“Yeah.” Chen Ying turns the car into a parking space, puts on the Bluetooth headset, and takes the call. “Hello.”

Mi Xi stares at the headset again, and Chen Ying points to her seat belt, signaling her to get out of the car.

“Dad. Umm, yeah.” He gets out of the car first and closes the door on his side. “There’s a girl living with me. What did my good brother tell you? His friend’s orphan child? Ha! He’s pretty good at attacking first. Exactly, it’s his friend’s orphan child. No, she’s not that small, maybe seventeen or eighteen.” 

Turning around from the front of the car, he finds that Mi Xi is still struggling with the seat belt. “Well, it’s okay, there’s no problem for the time being. If you have free time, go and scold my brother. He doesn’t care about this himself and is only afraid that you will find out.” 

He opens the car door, suddenly remembers the risk, and hurriedly says to Mi Xi, “Don’t move! I will unbuckle it for you, don’t hit anyone.” He bends over, presses the button, and with a click, the safety belt is released. 

“It’s okay. I was talking to that little miss—she couldn’t unbuckle her seat belt. I’m taking her to buy something. Her clothes and shoes don’t fit. If I won’t take care of it, then you’ll come with mom? How about I send her to you?” Find out what his parents intend, and spare no effort to find another home for her.

As soon as Chen Ying says this, Mi Xi looks over. Chen Ying feels guilty for no reason and beckons her to get out of the car. 

But Mi Xi looks at the seat belt and is a little unconvinced. She tries to buckle it back again, and tries to open it again, this time finding the right way, and she successfully opens it. She’s a little happy, and buckles it back again, wanting to open it again.

Chen Ying watches helplessly as she starts fiddling with the seatbelt, while distractedly listening to his father on the phone who has now started talking business. 

It seems that Luo Yaqin, an older actress who worked with Lingyu before, gave Lingyu a movie script, which tells the story of a group of old actors. The prototype of the story is herself, from young to old, from not popular to popular, then from popular to not popular. The story is warm, brutally honest, and thought-provoking, but it’s a pity that it’s not a popular subject in the market. In addition, the middle-aged and elderly people in the story have lived more than half of their lives. There are no handsome men and beautiful women; no love, or burning passion; no exciting martial arts scenes. And Luo Yaqin herself has lived a miserable life for the past ten years. It will definitely be a big loss in the box office. 

Lingyu Film and Television has already made an evaluation, and no one is optimistic. But Chen Yuanqing still wants to hold a meeting to discuss this matter. He has shown Chen Ying the script before, and now he’s asking for his opinion before the meeting.

“There’s been too many films in the same genre in past two years and it’s just common for them to be poorly received by critics. Will the company make money from this film? We are looking to win awards! A loss of 20 to 30 million is nothing, can we not afford it??” This is Chen Ying’s opinion. The tone is too arrogant.

“Hmph, are you going to tell Director Li just like that?”

“That’s right. Why not? A good script is hard to find, and anyone with eyes and brains can see that this one is. This is a good story. Aunt Luo’s acting skills are even better. Needless to say, she is old now and has been in decline, but she still had a reputation in the world back then. Didn’t she agree to work with you at the time—you know what happened as a result. You want to do it, right?” 

Chen Ying understands his father’s thoughts. Back then, Chen Yuanqing’s film and television company was newly opened, with limited funds, and no reputation at all. Luo Yaqin, on the other hand, was very popular at the time, and her net worth was extremely high. Normally, Chen Yuanqing wouldn’t have been able to afford her talent fees, but he still went to find Luo Yaqin, and who knew that Luo Yaqin would agree! That show made Lingyu Film and Television an instant hit. Chen Yuanqing values righteousness, and he definitely wants to repay this favor. Moreover, this is indeed a good script, but unfortunately there is no money to be made.

Chen Ying knows that Chen Yuanqing has broader thinking than him, and it’s true that the older the ginger, the spicier it is2. He doesn’t want to embarrass those executives who voted against the script. After all, it’s about making or losing money and this needs to be explained properly to everyone, so he needs his son’s support. 

Chen Ying and Chen Yuanqing have a rough discussion about the matter then set a time for the meeting. Chen Yuanqing also raises concerns about the lost 40 million in advertisement agency fees3. Chen Ying smiles, and says that the old man has good eyes and ears. 

Chen Ying talks to him about his ideas, and he wants to figure out what is going on. If the root cause is not solved, there would be future troubles in signing and executing the contract. As he’s talking, he sees that Mi Xi finally confirms to her satisfaction that she can beat the seat belt, and gets out of the car.

Chen Ying beckons her to come over, then he raises his hand and presses the electronic lock, and the car locks with a “beep”. Chen Ying walks towards the elevator still talking on the phone, but stops when he notices Mi Xi going back to the car. He sees Mi Xi pull the door handle hard, confirm that it really can’t be opened, nod in satisfaction, and then walk back to him.

Still talking on the phone, Chen Ying laughs and shakes his head. She unexpectedly still knows to worry about this ah! Really caring!

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FOOTNOTES:

1Chen Ying is teaching her modern phrases and that not everything needs to be answered seriously. He just said something like ‘okay?’ that’s tagged at the end of conversation sentences; he wasn’t really asking.

2The older the ginger, the spicer it is. An idiom meaning the older, the wiser. Personally, it’s one of those phrases that I know from having read too, too many c-novels and translation footnotes.

3This is referring to the Yongkai contract that the other party isn’t signing for some yet unexplained reason.