Chapter 94: Revenge

Jiang Shi took three days of sick leave.

At first, the director was not happy about it, but Liu Heping, both directly and indirectly, questioned why Jiang Shi had developed a high fever. The director, knowing he was partly at fault, granted the leave.

But soon, he had bigger problems to worry about.

The reason the production team had been pandering to Huai Zhang was that the biggest investor in the drama was the second son of Chuan Yu Entertainment’s owner. However, on the second day of Jiang Shi’s fever, Chuan Yu suddenly withdrew their investment.

They withdrew the investment, just like that, without even giving a reason. They just pulled out. The director was instantly as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.

He couldn’t get in touch with anyone and finally had to ask Huai Zhang. But Huai Zhang was even more clueless than he was. Under the director’s anxious gaze, he made a phone call. The call connected but was immediately hung up. When he tried again, the line was unreachable.

In that moment, Huai Zhang’s face turned paler than the director’s.

Looking at his expression, the director thought that the tides were probably about to turn.

Before he could even recover, his assistant called to say that someone was willing to invest in the drama and had invited him to dinner that evening.

The director had no time to spare for the distraught Huai Zhang and rushed to the dinner meeting. He was received by a young man in his twenties. His appearance was unremarkable, but he was dressed neatly in a clean suit.

The man extended his hand. “Hello, I’m Chen Lang, CEO Cheng’s special assistant. He has some business to attend to and might be delayed, so he asked me to receive you first.”

The director shook his hand and squeezed out a smile. “If I may be so bold as to ask, which CEO Cheng are we talking about?”

Chen Lang’s smile was flawless. “You’ll know when you meet him.”

And so he waited, for a full three hours.

The complimentary tea was refilled pot after pot. The director drank until his stomach was full of water. Just as it was approaching nine o’clock at night, the door to the private room was finally pushed open.

A man stood at the entrance, wearing a black overcoat. He had short hair and deep-set eyes. He looked very young, but his presence was powerful.

Chen Lang stood up. “CEO Cheng.”

The director also stood up and followed suit. “CEO Cheng.” After greeting him, he forced a smile and eagerly extended his hand. “I’m the director of ‘An Du,’ my surname is Wang, and my name is…”

Cheng Ye bypassed his hand, took off his overcoat, and sat down. He gestured with his chin. “I’m very busy. I only have twenty minutes.”

The director had come in a hurry, without even having time to notify the rest of the crew. He had only managed to hastily prepare some materials. He took the documents and placed them in front of Cheng Ye. “This is some information about the production. Our script was personally written by a famous domestic screenwriter, and even the actors are…”

Cheng Ye flipped through two pages and closed the folder. “I’m not interested in this. How much did Chuan Yu invest before?”

The speech the director had prepared all evening was stuffed back down his throat. He stuttered, pausing for a few seconds before stating a number.

Cheng Ye said, “I’ll invest double that. I’ve had a dream of being a director since I was a child, but I just don’t have the talent. Would you mind if I came to watch?”

The smile on the director’s face widened. “Of course not, CEO Cheng. You can watch for as long as you like. It’s just, about this…”

Cheng Ye leaned back. “Chen Lang will negotiate the specific details with you.”

At this point, he feigned a look of sudden realization. “My apologies, I got busy and forgot. I said I’d treat you to dinner…” He picked up the menu and handed it to the director. “Chen Lang and I have already eaten. Take a look and see what you’d like to have.”

The director let out a burp, his stomach full of water. Since Cheng Ye had put it that way, he was naturally too embarrassed to eat alone. He could only push the menu back. “I also ate before I came. We can get together with CEO Cheng another time.”

Cheng Ye put the menu away with great regret.

The director had arrived with an empty stomach and left with a belly full of free tea.

Inside the private room, Cheng Ye asked Chen Lang, “Since we didn’t order, can we get a refund for the private room reservation fee?”

Chen Lang smiled. “I’m afraid not, CEO Cheng.”

Cheng Ye clicked his tongue, thinking that sooner or later, he would open his own restaurant and poach all of Jiang Shi’s favorite chefs.

He picked up the menu, flipped through it, and ordered a few of Jiang Shi’s favorite dishes, deciding to get them to-go later.

After ordering, he remembered the special assistant who was working overtime beside him.

He had hired Chen Lang at a high price. He was an all-around talent who, among numerous offers, was ultimately corrupted by his money.

And at this moment, the highly-paid special assistant was sitting next to him, watching him order food with a smile, his eyes subtly shooting daggers.

Cheng Ye paused. “You must be hungry. Should I order you some egg fried rice?”

Chen Lang wanted to smash the teapot in front of him over his boss’s head.

Before he could act on it, his boss spoke again. “Is it fried rice made with gold? Fifty-eight yuan for a bowl? I’ll send you a red packet. Go buy it from a street stall downstairs.”

As he spoke, he ticked the box for a double portion of the 288-yuan small cake.

Chen Lang: “…”

For a fifty-eight-yuan egg fried rice, Cheng Ye sent him a fifty-yuan red packet. Special Assistant Chen, with his seven-figure annual salary, felt insulted.

But he still accepted it.

At ten o’clock at night, the street-side night market was just getting started.

Chen Lang, holding the fifty-yuan red packet, stood on the street and looked for a long time before finding a stall that seemed reasonably clean. He ordered a bowl of stir-fried green peppers with shredded pork over rice, which cost fifteen yuan.

Cheng Ye stood beside him. “Boss, egg fried rice.”

Chen Lang was dressed in a suit and tie. Cheng Ye had taken off his overcoat, revealing a sweater underneath. As the two of them stood there, Chen Lang was the one who looked more like the boss.

People came and went on the busy street. The two sat at a low table, eating their late dinner.

Chen Lang held his chopsticks, unable to figure out how he had ended up in this situation. Meanwhile, the culprit sat across from him with his legs spread, shoveling rice into his mouth straight from the plate.

At this age, one’s appetite is large. Cheng Ye finished half a bowl in two minutes, then pulled a squashed piece of bread from his overcoat pocket.

It was the bread Jiang Shi had taken one bite of and rejected that morning. He had stuffed it in his pocket, and it was now just right for dinner.

The corner of Chen Lang’s mouth twitched.

Cheng Ye finished his meal in ten minutes, put on his coat, and was once again a respectable-looking man.

“I’m heading back. Contact me if anything comes up.”

After walking a few steps, he turned back. “Your fried rice cost fifteen. The remaining thirty-five, can you…”

Chen Lang said, “Safe travels, CEO Cheng. I won’t see you out.”

Cheng Ye: “…”

When Jiang Shi woke up the next morning, his fever had subsided, but unfortunately, he had caught a cold. He was forced by Cheng Ye to stay home, rest, and take medicine.

He slept for a whole day and was wide awake by evening. Cheng Ye wasn’t home; he had left him a message saying he had to go out for something and that he would bring back a late-night snack for him.

So, Jiang Shi waited for him at home.

He took out his phone to ask Liu Heping about the situation on set. Having been in the industry for so long, he knew a thing or two about the rules. How could an actor of his status just take leave so casually?

Moreover, his scenes were mainly concentrated in the beginning. If he didn’t film, and the production had to halt, he couldn’t afford the daily losses.

Liu Heping comforted him, “It’s fine. You wouldn’t be able to film even if you were here.”

He said, “I heard that Huai Zhang somehow offended that second-generation rich kid, and he withdrew the investment. The entire production has stopped.”

“But there’s a rumor that the director has found a new investor, one who’s much more generous than the rich kid. The director even went to dinner with him tonight. I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Jiang Shi never imagined that so much could happen while he was just down with a fever. “Huh? So what now?”

“What else can we do but wait?”

And so they waited for another two days before the director personally called Liu Heping.

“I heard Jiang Shi has a fever and a cold. Since he’s sick, he should rest well at home. How about this, I’ll give you guys a week off. Take your time, there’s no rush.”

Just because Jiang Shi wasn’t there didn’t mean the crew wasn’t working.

At the transition between winter and spring, the weather was still cold. The wind made the erected tents flap loudly.

A man got out of a car.

Cheng Ye’s long, cold eyes narrowed, surveying the constructed set.

He was dressed in a suit, with broad shoulders and long legs, his posture straight and tall. A sapphire on his cufflink glinted in the light.

Many people looked over in his direction.

The man lifted his chin slightly. “Let’s go.”

The director led him to a seat.

Cheng Ye leaned back in the chair, his dark eyes carrying an invisible sense of pressure. “Don’t be so formal. I’m just here to watch. You all just do what you need to do.”

The director wasn’t sure what his intentions were. When they first signed the contract, he thought the man wanted to insert someone into the cast, but after several days, he saw no such action. He had assumed the talk about wanting to watch him film was just a pleasantry, but he hadn’t expected him to actually show up today.

The man beside him undid his cufflinks, folded his hands, and fixed his gaze on the filming area, seeming to be genuinely there just to observe.

Could it be that he had taken a liking to someone in the cast?

The director held his script and pondered for a long time but couldn’t come to a conclusion. He could only start filming first.

Halfway through setting up the scene, Cheng Ye turned his head toward him. “Director, which scene is this?”

The director said, “An actor from your company caught a small cold after accidentally getting wet in some cold water. I let him go home to rest, so I moved some of the later scenes forward. We’re now filming the scene where the male and female leads first meet.”

Cheng Ye chuckled. “I came all this way, and this is what you’re showing me?”

The director was momentarily stunned. “Then, what would you like to see…”

“Isn’t there a hero-saves-the-beauty scene later? I’m more interested in that. Let’s film that one.”

“There is such a scene, but…”

The director looked up at the sky. The temperature today was only a few degrees, even a little lower than the day Jiang Shi had been in the water.

That scene involved the female lead falling into the water and the male lead rescuing her. He had originally planned to shoot it when the weather was warmer, but now Cheng Ye had specifically requested it…

Cheng Ye glanced over at him, his gaze cool. “What, is there a problem?”

The director shivered under his cold stare. “No, of course not.” He said to the person behind him, “Go and inform the male and female leads, who are still in makeup, that the scene has been changed. Move that scene up.”

And so, the filming location was changed to the outdoor swimming pool.

After half an hour, Zhou Ying and Huai Zhang finally finished their makeup.

With so much water in the outdoor pool, it was naturally impossible to warm it. After touching the water, Zhou Ying’s face turned pale. “Director, this is too cold.”

Although Zhou Ying wasn’t a major star, she was backed by Chuan Yu, so the director was somewhat hesitant to offend her. But he didn’t dare to offend Cheng Ye either, so he could only look towards him. “This…”

Cheng Ye’s face was expressionless. “Why are you looking at me? As an actor, if you can’t even endure this little bit of hardship, then I can only consider replacing you.”

Connecting this to the previous incident, the director finally understood what this big shot was here for.

A few degrees of water. The moment she went in, Zhou Ying’s face instantly froze white.

Huai Zhang went into the water with her. He carried Zhou Ying and climbed out of the pool. He heard the director shout “Cut,” and then the man sitting beside him said slowly, “The female lead’s hair is covering her face. It doesn’t look good. Let’s do another take.”

The director said, “Huai Zhang, Zhou Ying, let’s do one more take. Sorry to trouble you both.”

Huai Zhang’s expression instantly soured.

He looked towards the man beside the director. The tall, distinguished man adjusted his sleeves, his gaze toward him indifferent.

In the past, he could have thrown a tantrum. But now, the second son of Chuan Yu’s owner was ignoring him, and he didn’t even know what had happened. An inexplicable fear enveloped Huai Zhang. Now with a new investor, he didn’t dare to act rashly.

He swallowed his anger and filmed another take.

“It still doesn’t look quite right…”

Another take.

“The emotion isn’t enough…”

“I still don’t think it’s right…”

…

After an unknown number of repetitions, Huai Zhang finally couldn’t take it anymore.

He was soaking wet, his lips purple from the cold.

“Director, just how many times do we have to shoot this for you to be satisfied?”

He was asking the director, but his eyes were fixed on Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye raised his hand to look at the watch on his wrist, his demeanor lofty and indifferent.

“There are still fifteen minutes left.”