CH 48

Shen Xi was very quiet as he slept. Perhaps because his body was still a little uncomfortable, he would occasionally frown. Li Mingxuan kissed Shen Xi with pity, carefully tucked him in, gently closed the door and went to the living room.

Since last night, Li Mingxuan’s whole mind had been on Shen Xi, from worrying that the effect of the drug would cause discomfort to Shen Xi to worrying that Shen Xi would be disgusted with him when he woke up. Only now, when Shen Xi went to sleep peacefully, did Li Mingxuan completely let go of his worry, and only then did he have the intention to pursue the matter of last night.

With his finger swiping across the address book, Li Mingxuan called Zhao Wenping.

Zhao Wenping was not the least bit surprised to receive a call from Li Mingxuan, and not only did he give a detailed account of what happened last night, but he also made a point of mentioning some of the things he had found out today. He apologised to Li Mingxuan for his mishandling of the matter. He had hoped to protect Fang Luowei through Shen Xi because of the presence of people from the Film Bureau, but he never thought that the other party would be so bold as to use the drug, and by mistake that glass of wine would be even drunk by Shen Xi.

According to Zhao Wenping, last night Chen Zhiwei thought of taking several of the cast and crew out to dinner on a whim. Fang Luowei was able to go with them because of his relationship with Shen Xi. No one expected that they would meet Shen Rong at the hotel. Their crew was entertaining people from the Film Bureau. The director of the movie, Zhou Xiaozhou, was an acquaintance of Chen Zhiwei, so Chen Zhiwei couldn’t decline the enthusiastic invitation and they sat down together. At first, the atmosphere was quite good; but as everyone got drunk, Hao Zhenmin started making advances on Fang Luowei. Chen Zhiwei could not tear his face off because of the status of the other party, so he could only desperately block the drinks for Fang Luowei until Shen Xi came over.

Li Mingxuan didn’t care about what happened. After listening to Zhao Wenping’s account he just picked out what he thought was the main point, “Did you just say that last night they entertained the people from the Film Bureau in order to get the permit for the movie to be released?”

Anyone familiar with the movie industry knew that the two most crucial steps for a movie were to get investment and to get the movie’s public release permit. Without a permit, it meant that your movie could not be released to the market and would always remain unable to see the light of the day. Naturally all the investment in such a movie would not be recovered and would only be wasted.

Zhao Wenping didn’t expect Li Mingxuan to be so perceptive and pick out the key point directly, so he nodded at once, “Yes, Zhou Xiaozhou’s movie has just been sent for review. You know, usually at times like this the producers have to be in contact with the Film Bureau to facilitate the movie to pass the review smoothly.” Speaking of this, Zhao Wenping deliberately added, “Hao Zhenmin is the deputy director of the Censorship Department.”

“I see.”

Li Mingxuan got the answer he wanted and didn’t say anything more, hanging up the phone straight away.

Although Zhao Wenping did not explicitly say what happened last night, he still got the meaning of Zhao Wenping’s words. Fang Luowei was just a whim for Hao Zhenmin, the other party would hardly have thought of using a drug, so it must have been instigated by someone behind the scene. As for the instigator, Li Mingxuan couldn’t think of anyone else who would dare to do so, except for Shen Rong. No matter what Shen Rong’s purpose was, whether it was to please Hao Zhenmin or to get under Shen Xi’s skin, the wine was eventually drunk by Shen Xi, and Li Mingxuan’s face turned completely cold at the thought.

After pondering for a while, Li Mingxuan dialled Lin Yao’s number.

“Hello, this is Li Mingxuan.”

“No one comes to the Three Treasure Hall (you wouldn’t come to me if you hadn’t something to ask of me). Last time you looked for me, you poached one of my gold medal agents. What is it that you are looking for me now?” Lin Yao obviously had a good relationship with Li Mingxuan and spoke rather casually, with a vague hint of sarcasm.

Li Mingxuan couldn’t help laughing, “There is indeed something. I heard that you have a good relationship with the people above the Film Bureau. I need you to do me a favour?”

“What kind of favour?”

“Help me cut the release of a film, Zhou Xiaozhou’s ‘Against the Current’.”

“Against the Current?” Lin Yao was very surprised, but chuckled lightly, “I’ve heard of this film. They say the bastard son of the Shen family took part in it, investing most of his net worth into it. It’s a bit unkind of you to cut it like that.”

Li Mingxuan was unfazed by Lin Yao’s teasing, “How about it? Can you help?”

“Yes, of course, it’s just a matter of saying hello.” To Lin Yao, this was just a matter of raising his hand, so he was naturally happy to do Li Mingxuan a favour.

Li Mingxuan smiled and thanked him, then changed the topic, “I’ve got a piece of land in South City to build an entertainment centre, are you interested?”

A hearty laugh came over the phone, “Of course I’m interested, you know I’m planning to build a new movie theatre and I am worried about the lack of space. But things can’t be that simple, can they?”

Li Mingxuan smiled faintly, “There’s one more little thing.”

“I knew it. What is it?”

Li Mingxuan didn’t hide it anymore and simply asked, “Do you know Hao Zhenmin?”

“Hao Zhenmin? The deputy director of the Film Bureau? Did he offend you?” Lin Yao’s words were full of surprise.

“It’s sort of like that.” Li Mingxuan gave a faint “en”.

Lin Yao immediately figured it out, and after a slight pause, quickly replied, “I know, speaking of which, it’s time for Hao Zhenmin to retire at his age, so wait for the news from me.”

Li Mingxuan had always admired Lin Yao’s straightforwardness. “Good, let’s have dinner together some other day.”

After hanging up, Li Mingxuan tossed the phone aside. With Lin Yao’s help, it was estimated that there would never be a release date for ‘Against the Current’. He just didn’t know how his uncle would feel about Shen Rong losing such a large amount of money.

The thought was only fleeting, and Li Mingxuan soon returned all his thoughts to Shen Xi. In a short while, Xiao Xi was going to wake up and he wondered what Xiao Xi would like to eat when he woke up.

Shen Xi slept straight through the night, and this time he was woken up by hunger.

Amused, Li Mingxuan brought Shen Xi the dinner that had been kept warm, and while Shen Xi was eating, he lightly mentioned what he had entrusted Lin Yao with.

“No release permit?” Shen Xi gave Li Mingxuan an odd look and smiled gleefully, “Shen Rong will be heartbroken when he finds out the news.”

Shen Xi’s face was full of cunning, indescribably energetic. Li Mingxuan suddenly found himself liking this look of Shen Xi more than his usual quietness.

He couldn’t help but reach out and rub Shen Xi’s head, softly assuring, “Don’t worry, this will never happen again.”

Shen Xi lowered his head and did not say anything. His past experiences had taught him that the only person he could really rely on in this world was himself.

A glimmer of imperceptible sadness flashed in Li Mingxuan’s eyes as he rubbed Shen Xi’s hair without saying another word.

After dinner, Shen Xi could no longer sleep and lay bored in bed playing games. Li Mingxuan quietly accompanied Shen Xi, flipping through the documents in his hands and occasionally looking at Shen Xi. Neither of them spoke, and a faint warmth flowed through the room until Li Mingxuan’s mobile phone rang. After glancing at the screen, Li Mingxuan took the phone and walked to the living room. Shen Xi stared at Li Mingxuan’s back for half a second, then reached out, fished out his phone and sent a text message to Lao K.

The drugging incident last night could not be separated from Shen Rong’s shadow, and although Li Mingxuan had already made a counterattack, it was far from enough for Shen Xi to just make Shen Rong lose a sum of money.

“Send a copy of the photos of Shen Rong and Tian Wenyao together by courier to Mr. Tian and Tian Wenyao’s fiancée.”

Lao K replied quickly, but his message had nothing to do with what Shen Xi said. “Xiao Xixi, are you alright? I heard from Luowei that you were drugged, how are you?”

Despite being separated by the phone screen, Shen Xi could feel the rich atmosphere of Lao K gossiping. Thinking about last night, Shen Xi’s expression was distorted for a moment.

“I hope they’ll receive the photos by the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

“When have I ever let you down, Xiao Xixi, but are you sure you don’t want to talk to me about the drug?”

“Fuck off!”

“Eww, are you annoyed, Xiao Xixi?”

Shen Xi stared at this last text message, imagined the look on Lao K’s face at this moment, and immediately deleted all the text messages bitterly, then stuffed the phone under the pillow.

Not long after, the phone beeped. Shen Xi pretended not to hear it. The phone did not stop as he expected, but kept on ringing, so much so that even Li Mingxuan who was in the living room was alarmed, his eyes signalling Shen Xi that something was wrong.

Shen Xi fished out his mobile phone with a stern face. To his surprise, Lao K did not mention the drugging incident again, but brought up Chu Qianqian.

After quickly reading Lao K’s text message, Shen Xi frowned, thought for a moment and then simply replied with the word “good”.

“Xiao Xixi, you also think this plan is good, right? I was inspired to adjust it by your experience.” As soon as Shen Xi’s text message was sent, Lao K immediately replied, proudly giving credit to Shen Xi.

Shen Xi looked at the words, enduring hard, but finally chose to turn off the phone and ruthlessly tuck it under his pillow.

As for the plan mentioned by Lao K, Shen Xi had heard Chu Qianqian propose it once before. He had always been laissez-faire towards Chu Qianqian and did not interfere with the process; he just needed the final result.

The two of them had not seen each other since they last met at the Shen’s house, and had only been in contact by phone. Shen Xi was used to Chu Qianqian reporting to him regularly on the progress of things.

Due to the outbreak of the Yunrou incident, Shen Dehan had put all his energy into Shen Group and inevitably had no time to pay attention to Chu Qianqian. Chu Qianqian was not anxious about it. She kept in touch with Shen Dehan and met him occasionally.

Lao K had initially questioned Chu Qianqian’s inaction in impatience, and was in turn severely despised by Chu Qianqian.

“Do you think Shen Dehan is stupid? According to his age he is close to being my grandfather. How do you think I am going to fall in love with him when there is such a big age gap?”

Lao K was stumped by Chu Qianqian’s question. It was indeed impossible for Chu Qianqian to fall in love with Shen Dehan under normal circumstances. On the contrary, if Chu Qianqian took too much initiative, it would make Shen Dehan feel that something was wrong.

Looking at Lao K’s dumbfounded look, Chu Qianqian smiled in satisfaction, “Don’t worry, I have always had a very professional ethics when taking money for doing things. ”

Chu Qianqian had always been very clear about her position. She wanted to make Shen Dehan fall in love with her, not treat her as a mistress like Zhou Mingmei. If she acted too eagerly, it would only make Shen Dehan think that she had her eyes on his money. Then, what difference would there be between her and the woman Shen Dehan had had before?

Chu Qianqian’s intention was actually very simple. Under normal circumstances she would never fall in love with Shen Dehan, but what if something big happened suddenly? The trick of the hero saving the beauty, although old, has always worked well. Through this period of getting along, Shen Dehan’s impression of Chu Qianqian became better and better. In this situation, what if Chu Qianqian was raped and happened to be saved by Shen Dehan? It would be logical for the traumatised young girl to fall in love with her saviour while in shock.

The incident of Shen Xi being drugged yesterday gave Lao K new inspiration.

If Chu Qianqian had been saved by Shen Dehan while being drugged, Lao K did not believe that Shen Dehan would still be able to control himself. Instead of letting Chu Qianqian fall in love with Shen Dehan passively, it would be better to make Shen Dehan feel guilty and instead give the initiative into Chu Qianqian’s hands.

There was nothing wrong with this idea no matter how Shen Xi picked it apart, but when he thought of the source of Lao K’s inspiration, his face couldn’t help but turn black.

“What’s wrong?” Li Mingxuan, who had finished answering the phone, noticed Shen Xi’s expression and came over worriedly, “Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

Once this was mentioned, Shen Xi’s expression became even more ugly. Glaring at Li Mingxuan bitterly, Shen Xi grumpily rolled over and lay down, “Sleep!”

Li Mingxuan was taken aback by Shen Xi’s tone, and then thought of something and couldn’t help laughing.