Chapter 5

    Translation: Finsock

      Su Pei drove back to the hotel, Xiaoyan was with him. Xiaoyan was not very happy, she said to Su Pei “I saw you talking to her.” 　　

　　Su Pei was flipping between apps on his phone, noticing Little Cookie hadn’t sent him goodnight today. He couldn’t tell if it was because she forgot, or if she hadn’t been to sleep yet. Today was a weekend, and Little Cookie could still be watching TV. 

　　He was at a loss on how to reply  “Who was I talking to?” 

　　Xiaoyan said, “Fang Ziling. You shouldn’t talk and laugh with her like that.” 

　　her tone was accusatory. 

　　Su Pei laughed, Xiaoyan’s words sounded childish. He thought it might be because Fang Ziling’s attitude towards the screenwriters was not good enough before, and they had complained about Fang Ziling in private. So, now Xiaoyan felt that he had betrayed them. 

　　”Isn’t it good for her to change her attitude? There are not so many grievances at work, so she can’t let go of small holidays.” Su Pei said. 

　　Xiaoyan replied “That’s not what I meant… Didn’t you pay attention? She was trying to flirt with you.” 

　　”Was she? I wasn’t paying attention.” Su Pei said casually. 

　　The more he understated, the more Xiaoyan felt that he was lying. Did he not notice? Such remarks are almost like he was coaxing a child. Fang Ziling was being obvious, could  Su Pei really not see it? 

　　”She’s like a queen bee, always thinking that men are fascinated by her.” Xiaoyan said calmly. 

　　She still had nothing to say-but Mr. Su, he should be different from ordinary men. 

　　“There was nothing going on.” Su Pei said. 

　　Xiaoyan was clearly unhappy “I saw it all. You have to pretend that it’s strictly business, and that you didn’t pay attention. But if you think about it, she already has Boss…” 

　　Su Pei smiled, “It seems that you already have the imagination to be a screenwriter.”

　　Since that day, Fang Ziling was not mentioned again in Xiaoyan’s weibo.

　　Fang Ziling’s relationship with the screenwriter eased up a lot. With the help of various “ingenuity” in the crew, the male lead could also continue to act. Su Pei felt that his hardest time in the crew had passed. 

　　Recently, He Yiming and Su Pei resumed contact, and they chatted on WeChat from time to time. 

　　He Yiming asked again about Su Pei’s novel, whose protagonist was a doctor. Su Pei was in a good mood, and chatting on WeChat helped him feel calmer, in opposition to how he felt talking face to face. 

　　He Yiming: “How is the doctor? Am I going to see him next year?” 

　　Su Pei: “The doctor is very busy, I can’t let him out.” 

　　He Yiming: “I’m already impatient. You have to give me a tentative release date.” 

　　Su Pei: “I’ll talk about it next time. I’m going to work.” 

　　He Yiming: “Don’t change the subject.” 

In the end, He Yiming got Su Pei’s promise. When they next met, Su Pei would show He Yiming what he had completed. It’s just that the next time I meet may have to wait until the Chinese New Year. 

　　In early December, He Yiming went to participate in an Internet forum. 

　　In this forum, Bo Wenchen was one of the leading people, and it happened to be his company’s anniversary celebration. So during the forum, Bo Wenchen organized many activities and publicized it. 

　　Recently, there had been no activity in the mountaineering club, so He Yiming and Bo Wenchen did not meet in private. The previous talk about investment in film and television did not stop, though. At this meeting, Bo Wenchen was very enthusiastic and invited He Yiming to a party, saying that they had to have a nice chat.

　　Bo Wenchen appeared with his wife at the party. He Yiming had never seen his wife before. He remembered that she was a very low-key woman. She had a husband and a child to care for, and rarely showed her face. Tonight, it was hard to tell the media. Because of proper self-maintenance, she still looked very slim, wore a high-fashion dress, as well as jade and diamond jewelry. Standing next to Bo Wenchen, she looked decent and generous, like a standard rich lady. 

　　Mrs. Bo Wenchen treated the guests politely, and she also exchanged a few words with He Yiming. Mentioning that what Bo Wenchen admired most in the mountaineering club was He Yiming, and praised him for his extraordinary willpower.

　　When the party was over, the media all left. People in their small social circles continued to gather and drink, but Mrs. Bo Wenchen did not attend. 

　　Bo Wenchen and He Yiming were sitting at a table and playing around. Except for He Yiming, everyone at this table was married. 

       Bo Wenchen smiled and said, “It’s better to be Mr. He, not married, still free.” 

　　He Yiming counted the cards held close to his chest before replying “I think you are being closed minded. Marriage doesn’t prevent you from being free.” 

　　Everyone laughed, “Mr. He, you’re too funny!” 

　　Bo Wenchen said, “I didn’t drive her away today, but she wanted to go back. Marriage feels refreshing at the beginning, but that’s it, in a few years it changes. She likes to play with her friends, and I like to play with my friends. It’s uncomfortable to keep her around.” 

　　He Yiming played two games but soon went to the bar for a drink. He was the handsomest and richest among the bachelors on the scene, and he had been looked at one hundred and eighty times this evening. 

　　He had just sat down at the bar when someone immediately approached him. It was just that he was making a grumpy face, and he felt poison at the tip of his tongue. Those little Internet celebrities could only retreat in waves when they tried to speak to him. 

　　He Yiming had just sent away a young girl, when someone else sat next to him. 

　　Just as He Yiming was about to scare off another person, he turned his head and found that the person sitting opposite him was a bit different. It turned out to be a face that often appeared in magazines. He recognized them as the supermodel Chen Xing. 

　　Chen Xing was about 1.8 meters tall and dressed very simply. She wore a black off the shoulder dress, though it wasn’t flashy, it was good at showing off her figure.

　　”Mr. He.” She greeted him generously, seemingly without any hidden motives. Without waiting for He Yiming to reply, she immediately continued. “Please let me hide here for a while.” She smiled and glanced in the other direction of the room. 

　　He Yiming followed her eyes and saw a bald and fat middle-aged man staring at Chen Xing with a smirk. 

　　”Okay,” He Yiming said, “you can also help me scare off people.” 

　　He ordered several glasses of wine for Chen Xing. 

　　After Chen Xing sat down, no one came to chat with He Yiming again. Because everyone knew Chen Xing, she was becoming popular and had signed with several big name brands. She sat down next to He Yiming, and no one else would have a chance tonight.

　　He Yiming chatted with Chen Xing casually. He didn’t care if others would misunderstand his relationship with Chen Xing. 

　　Rather, it was better for home if they did misunderstand. 

　　He had several girlfriends when he was in college. 

　　At that time he was still not completely sure what was wrong with him. Before he was eighteen years old, he was in an overly strict family, and his parents were proud of being “rigorous and serious.” 

　　So he never thought it was weird that he didn’t have a girlfriend in high school. It wasn’t too late to have a girlfriend during and after college. 

　　When he arrived at university, he soon found a girlfriend. This kind of thing was not difficult at all-women are just as lustful as men. His first girlfriend was a good girl, a good daughter-in-law type that his parents liked. She was well-behaved, gentle and hardworking. He felt that boys should be very proud of having such a girlfriend. In fact, he was indeed envied by other male classmates for a while. 

　　But only he knew that there was no sweet feelings for her deep in his heart. 

　　He tried to have a few girlfriends after that, and he finally determined one thing. It’s not that these girls have any problems. For them, feelings are natural, and they naturally want to love him, kiss him, and accompany him. The problem was him, he didn’t have that natural desire for those cute girls. 　

　　His desire lay with Su Pei. 

　　This was his problem. 

　　Now, at this moment, Chen Xing was sitting across from him, her slender and white legs were enough to make a heterosexual man excited. But he wasn’t. He admired her body lines, like a piece of art, but he didn’t desire to touch her. 

　　He drank drink after drink, but was still sober. When he left the bar, Chen Xing held his hand.

 “When can I see you again?” 

　　He Yiming smiled and said, “Maybe next time, baby. Tonight I already have an appointment.” 

　　Nevertheless, within a few days, gossip between He Yiming and Chen Xing soon appeared on the Internet. Because handsome men and beautiful women are all hot topics, so having them sit next to one another was fuel for the fire, it exploded all at once. There are a lot of people who admire He Yiming and Chen Xing on the Internet. 

　　”He Yiming is a real cow.”

　　”Chen Xing just broke up with her boyfriend, right? It’s amazing that she’s dating He Yiming so soon.” 

“I think they are a good match! Chen Xing’ s appearance, female charm, and age are also good.” 　　

　　Su Pei also saw the gossip spread amongst the crew. He Yiming’s scandals were something he had been used to. People like He Yiming really couldn’t settle down. Su Pei hoped he wouldn’t make Chen Xing too sad. 

　　Su Pei hadn’t thought too much about it, the crew and production of the show  was more important to him. His biggest motivation now was that he strived to survive the next two months, go home to rest for a while, and settle the shooting with the cast. This year should have a successful ending. 

　　But Su Pei hadn’t expected that he was too optimistic. 

　　As soon as Su Pei turned on his phone that morning, he found that news had exploded in the work chat. The staff group chat is generally used to send work notices and arrangements, but the content in the group today is different from usual. Everyone is copying and pasting “Call on the crew not to believe in rumors and not spread rumors, otherwise the legal consequences will be up to you to resolve.” 

　　Su Pei quickly discovered that it was in reference t a scandal that broke late last night between Fang Ziling and Bo Wenchen, and it became the current big gossip. Bo Wenchen has a wife, so it’s less ‘gossip’ and more of a ‘scandal’. The news brought a long annoying words such as ‘derailment’ and ‘hiatus.’ but also involves the two most irritating words of “derailment” and ‘adulterer.’ 

　　Although there were rumors about Bo Wenchen and Fang Ziling before, they did not catch fire like this one, and back then there were no photos. Today, there is not only a vivid description of the events, but also photos and small videos! 

　　In the photo, Bo Wenchen and Fang Ziling entered and left the hotel one after another. Although Fang Ziling dressed in a low-key manner, her profile was unmistakable.

　　In the short video, Bo Wenchen and Fang Ziling were in a luxury store. It looked like Fang Ziling was choosing bags, and Bo Wenchen was playing with a mobile phone. 

　　All the rumors from the past settled down immediately. Fans of Fang Ziling used to argue that the scandals were slandering Ziling and were in bad taste! 

　　As soon as the photos and videos came out today, it was useless for Fang Ziling to argue. 

　　Su Pei was watching the terrible news when the director’s assistant called him. 

　　”Hey, Mr. Su? Director Liu asked for you to head to the set now.”

　　Su Pei’s intuition is related to today’s Fang Ziling’s affairs. 

       He asked, “Is it about the script?” 

　　”No… Mr. Su, you will know when you come… So, come right now.”