Shen Xici’s heart softened: “It really doesn’t hurt. I—” He paused. “I’ve been very smart since I was little. Every time that man wanted to hit me, I would run to the fortune teller’s house in the village. The fortune teller’s surname was He. People in the village secretly said that Grandpa He’s fortune-telling was accurate because he had invited immortals or demons and ghosts to his home. That man was afraid, so he didn’t dare chase after me.”

“Could you get away every time?”

Why was it so hard to gloss over this?

Shen Xici was helpless: “Not every time, but it was just getting beaten once. I would protect my vulnerable spots. Grandpa He taught me once and I remembered it all, so the injuries weren’t serious.”

These were all past matters. He had already felt bad about them during those years. There was no need to make Sheng Shaoyan feel bad again because of him.

“Alright, watch the movie. Teacher Wen acted especially well in this part. I need to watch carefully.”

After the movie ended, before the lights in the screening hall came on, Shen Xici and Sheng Shaoyan left first. Returning by the same route to the Maybach in the parking garage, Shen Xici took off his mask and looked at his phone. In the crew’s group chat, real-time box office data was being updated at intervals.

Showing Sheng Shaoyan the box office screenshot, Shen Xici sighed: “Really scary. This pressure—I don’t know if Director Wan and Teacher Zhong can sleep well tonight. Fortunately, I’m not the director or lead actor.”

Hearing “Teacher Zhong,” Sheng Shaoyan’s eyes darkened. He changed the subject without a trace: “You’re not the lead?”

“Of course I’m not—” Shen Xici silently shut his mouth.

He wasn’t the lead in this movie, but he was the lead in the next one!

Moreover, the Spring Festival slot’s competition was more terrifying than the National Day slot—the pressure multiplied several times. When ‘Fleeting Life’ was released, it would be his and Lu Jiming’s turn to be unable to sleep, anxiously monitoring real-time box office data all night!

Sleeping until 2 PM in the afternoon, Shen Xici had been sent home by Sheng Shaoyan last night. It was already past 3 AM. Holding the attitude of “while I’m not the lead actor, box office doesn’t have much to do with me yet,” he slept soundly.

Grabbing his phone from the bedside, Shen Xici sent Sheng Shaoyan a message: “Good afternoon, I’m awake. How about you?”

Unexpectedly, the other replied instantly—”Good afternoon, I’m in a meeting in the conference room.”

???

The gap between people was too big, wasn’t it? He went to bed at least half an hour earlier than Sheng Shaoyan, slept until now and his mind was still a bit foggy, but unexpectedly, some people were already working!

Not wanting to talk to this type of person who could go a day and a half on four hours of sleep, Shen Xici lay in bed, first putting on his smartwatch, briefly checking the displayed heart rate and blood pressure values. After confirming there were no abnormalities, he continued lying in bed contentedly, picked up his phone, and dialed a string of numbers.

After a series of beeps, the call was answered. A slightly weary female voice responded: “Hello.”

It was Ge Lanjing—Shen Xici was all too familiar with this voice.

Knowing that Ge Lanjing was always decisive and efficient in her work, hated nonsense, Shen Xici directly stated his purpose: “Hello, I’m Shen Xici. I currently need a manager to work with. Do you have time recently? Could we meet and talk?”

“You’re Shen Xici?”

“Yes, I am.”

“The Shen Xici who acted in ‘Mountain Range Line’ and ‘Capital City Massacre’?”

Shen Xici answered again: “Yes.”

Unexpectedly, Ge Lanjing sounded as if her patience had reached its limit: “I don’t care who you are. Tell him—Yan Chao, the great manager Yan, Director Yan—is toying with me fun? If you have this time, why not go flatter President Ye instead!”

The call was hung up directly.

Ge Lanjing mistook him for someone else?

Shen Xici stared at his phone, sorting through his thoughts.

In his previous life, he and Ge Lanjing met a year later. At that time, Ge Lanjing had already resigned from her original company and worked solo for more than half a year. Her daughter was also two years old. Perhaps because her experience at her previous company wasn’t pleasant, she rarely mentioned it. She just held her breath and worked hard to go further and stand higher.

Shen Xici had an impression of the name “Yan Chao”—the director of the manager department under Jiarui Media’s film and television business division, Ye Mei’s capable subordinate. He vaguely remembered this person later had a scandal exposed about frequently harassing female subordinates.

Shen Xici had previously speculated that Ge Lanjing’s previous company was Jiarui Media. Now it sounded like Ge Lanjing and Yan Chao’s relationship was exceptionally bad. However, with Sister Lanjing’s personality, it would be impossible not to have conflicts with scum like Yan Chao.

Shen Xici called again.

Ge Lanjing’s tone was very impolite: “What now? Does Director Yan have some new instructions?”

Shen Xici was very patient: “I really am Shen Xici. If you don’t believe me, I can video call you to prove I’m really not deceiving you.”

On the other end, Ge Lanjing wore a well-fitted light-colored suit, walking beside the green belt below an office building, holding a can of ice-cold beer.

The glass exterior wall of the office building reflected sunlight, making her eyes sting.

A week before her due date, she had handed over her work and taken maternity leave. Unexpectedly, her daughter underwent surgery before she was even a month old. After that, the whole family carefully took care of her. Her daughter’s poor health combined with separation anxiety—no company could extend maternity leave indefinitely. She had no choice but to resign.

Now her daughter was one year old, her health finally much better. She quickly began looking for work, but the entertainment industry seemed to be full of gold everywhere. Correspondingly, competition was also very fierce.

These past days, she had heard too many things like “Sister Lanjing, it’s not that I won’t help you. You know this work intensity—having a child is your biggest disadvantage.” “You can’t follow your artist running all over the country while still worrying about your child at home. For many artists, being distracted at work is a big taboo!” “Sorry, unmarried and childless better fits our needs.”

Today, a colleague who had a good relationship with her before knew she was looking for work and helped arrange an internal referral. She made full preparations and came for the interview. Unexpectedly, when she pushed open the conference room door, she discovered the interviewer was actually Yan Chao.

Her nemesis.

The two of them had entered Jiarui Media together. Ge Lanjing was very disgusted by Yan Chao’s behavior—fawning and flattering in front of Ye Mei, the general manager of the film and television business division, but behind her back being a male chauvinist who claimed all women in the world shouldn’t come out to work or show their faces in public.

Unexpectedly, a year later, Yan Chao had already gone from being a manager to manager director.

Holding her resume, Yan Chao casually flipped through it, snorted with laughter, and lightly tossed those pages to the ground, mocking: “Ge Lanjing, you’re a woman—what kind of work can you find? Just go home and take care of your child.”

What was wrong with being a woman? What about having a child? What about being over thirty? Did that mean she didn’t deserve to work?

Swallowing the ice-cold beer, reality made Ge Lanjing acutely aware that these past days, all the responses she received were telling her this message—she was a woman, she had given birth to a child, she didn’t deserve to work.

This realization pressed down on her heavily, making her unable to breathe.

Or was this just how the world was?

For a moment, a feeling of disheartened despair washed over her. Ge Lanjing said into the phone: “Whether you’re Shen Xici or not doesn’t matter anymore.”

Unexpectedly, the person on the other end interrupted her.

“Where are you right now?”

Fifty minutes later, Ge Lanjing walked under the shade of roadside trees carrying her bag. Without looking back, she could confirm Shen Xici was still following behind her.

Because two young girls walking toward them were whispering something, their expressions excited, suppressing screams.

Unable to stand it anymore, Ge Lanjing turned around and strode over, grabbing Shen Xici’s sleeve and pulling him behind the green belt: “Do you know your current fame level? You only wore a mask and came over—what if your fans recognize you?”

Actually, she didn’t understand at all. She had just mentioned a place name on the phone, and half an hour later, Shen Xici was standing in front of her.

She thought she was hallucinating!

Then it became like this—she walked aimlessly ahead, and Shen Xici followed behind her without saying a word.

Shen Xici: “I’m just a newcomer. No one is operating for me. I don’t have much fame yet.”

Ge Lanjing found it absurd: “Are you kidding me? No one signed you? Impossible! Are the talent scouts at those film and television companies blind?”

She had scrolled past Shen Xici’s hot searches. Out of professional habit, whether it was the Child of the Mountain God photo set, or the later crew visit livestream and knocking incident, and various leaked behind-the-scenes footage—she had carefully watched everything and determined in her heart this was a newcomer actor with extreme potential.

Meeting him in person, she was even more certain of this assessment.

Beautiful appearances suitable for cameras were rare. Even rarer than this appearance was the temperament Shen Xici carried. He was still very young, but he was very calm—a quality that settled after experiencing much, extremely rare.

Such a newcomer, and no one signed him?

What kind of joke was this?

Shen Xici’s email inbox and private messages were indeed piled with collaboration invitations from various companies, but he definitely couldn’t say that. Shen Xici avoided the important and dwelt on the trivial, beginning to play the pity card.

“My team consists of just me and my assistant. My first movie premiered today, but there’s no one to help me operate—how to catch this wave of exposure and traffic, how to convert it. Moreover, I have another movie releasing during Spring Festival, and I’m the lead.”

Ge Lanjing: “Spring Festival? You’re the lead? Not ‘Capital City Massacre’?”

Shen Xici continued: “Right, not ‘Capital City Massacre’. In ‘Capital City Massacre’, I play a supporting role. The movie I’m leading is called ‘Fleeting Life’. It’s set in the Republic era.”

Ge Lanjing frowned, recalling: “‘Fleeting Life’? How come I haven’t heard any news about it? There’s not much time left until Spring Festival.”

Shen Xici immediately decided to use Lu Jiming, saying innocently: “The director is a newcomer. This is the director’s first film. Maybe the director forgot to promote it? I forgot to ask about promotion before.”

“Nonsense! Spring Festival is right around the corner, and there’s not a shadow of promotion—how can you compete with other movies? Even good wine fears deep alleys. Are you planning not to promote at all and just release directly?” Ge Lanjing became more anxious as she listened. Seeing Shen Xici’s bewildered expression made her even more anxious.

Such a good artist—why did he keep finding detours for himself?

Shen Xici was very familiar with Ge Lanjing. Taking the opportunity, he said sincerely: “So I really need someone who can help me. Sister Lanjing, about our collaboration—will you reconsider?”

The emotions on Ge Lanjing’s face faded bit by bit, returning to an expressionless state. She stood in place for a while, then turned to leave: “I just finished maternity leave. I have a one-year-old daughter with poor health at home. Collaborating with me will only delay your future. You have better choices.”

Afraid that Shen Xici was too young and had just entered this industry, easily cheated by unscrupulous management companies, before leaving, she couldn’t help but break it down for him: “You can wait a bit longer. After ‘Mountain Range Line’ has been released for a while and your popularity and heat have risen, then when you negotiate contracts with those established management companies and capable managers, you’ll have more leverage to fight for better treatment.

Remember to compare multiple options and carefully review contract terms. Don’t rashly sign contracts directly. You have the conditions and ability. You’ll definitely be able to stand very high in the future.”

Finishing, she didn’t linger, continuing forward.

Shen Xici stood in place, watching her back. Thinking of his previous life when Ge Lanjing drank at banquets until she vomited so many times, he suddenly raised his voice: “Sister Lanjing, you said I’ll definitely stand very high in the future—then what about you?”

Ge Lanjing’s hand gripping her bag suddenly tightened.

Shen Xici continued: “Don’t you want to become a top-tier manager, so that in the future, at any banquet where you’re present, everyone only needs to drink juice and beverages instead of alcohol?”

“Don’t you want to reach the center of power and become the person who makes the rules?”

“Gender isn’t the boundary—prejudice is. Don’t you want there to be one more woman in the decision-making layer?”

“Sister Lanjing, we can work hard together.”

The wind moved the branches and leaves of the roadside trees, making rustling sounds.

Not far away, Ge Lanjing stopped.

On the 51st floor of Mingde Building, Sheng Shaoyan ended his meeting and opened his chat page with Shen Xici.

Thinking that Shen Xici only had three days off, yesterday had already passed, and after tomorrow, Shen Xici would return to the crew again—who knew when there would be another chance to meet—he sent a message: [Dinner together tonight?]

Before long, a new message appeared on the screen: [Sorry, I have some work-related matters to handle tonight. Rain check?]

Replying “okay,” Sheng Shaoyan had Yu Zhou bring in documents related to Field Bank’s financial discrepancies. Seeing there was still time, he added: “Have Lin Yueshu come in too. Let’s have a short meeting.”

This small discussion meeting with only a few people participating wasn’t short at all, continuing until the lights came on without ending. During a break, Lin Yueshu drank a sip of black coffee to wake up. After reading the latest email she received, she spoke: “President Sheng, Field Bank’s current market price on NASDAQ is $35. Compared to last month’s price of $125 per share, the market has clearly lost confidence in it. New York hopes you can buy it.”

Sheng Shaoyan looked up, unmoved: “Not enough. Tell them—three dollars per share, I can consider it.”

Lin Yueshu quietly exchanged glances with Yu Zhou—as expected, a black-hearted capitalist. Field had been glorious a hundred years ago, but in President Sheng’s hands, it had fallen to the miserable state of three dollars per share, as if it were a clearance sale.

Who knew if people from the Field family would actually want to jump off a building when they heard this number.

After Sheng Shaoyan gave instructions, his hand habitually typed “Shen Xici” in the search box. The latest news jumped out.

He originally thought it would be like before, also praising Shen Xici’s performance in ‘Mountain Range Line’. Unexpectedly, this time, several obviously secretly taken photos appeared.

In the first few photos, seemingly in a place like a villa district, under streetlights, Shen Xici was talking and laughing with a man. In the last photo, uncertain whether it was overlapping angles, the two people’s hands were next to each other, circled in red by a marketing account.

Although the distance was far and the streetlight dim, the photo very blurry, Sheng Shaoyan still recognized that the man standing with Shen Xici was Zhong Yue.