Chapter 536: Treat Me as Your Escape Route

Huaguo Mountain was shrouded in gloom, thick dark clouds seeming ready to swallow heaven and earth, howling winds tossing trees into twisted chaos, their groans echoing like suffering cries.

One hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals stood in rigid formation, their armor glinting with cold steel under dim light, a sea of iron pressing down with overwhelming force.

The Four Heavenly Kings stood towering like four unshakable peaks, each stationed at a cardinal direction.

The scene slowly lowered, the glinting three-pronged, two-edged blade the first to come into view.

The next instant, its wielder appeared.

He wore a skull crown, his breastplate inlaid with a Buddha's face, a sword hanging at his waist instead of a slingshot.

Tall and broad, his skin was pale and cold, his features sharply defined yet sculpted with angular precision, often appearing sinister in the interplay of light and shadow, starkly different from the traditional image of a handsome divine general.

His third eye on the forehead was black, his eyebrows short, eyes long, his expression detached yet suffused with oppressive weight.

At his feet, a black-furred mastiff crouched and crept forward, its throat rumbling with a low growl, restless and eager to strike.

"Stupid dog, how dare you? Fall back!"

The Easter egg ends here!

What stupid dog? It's just a spoiler dog!

Though everyone knew that after this scene, Yang Jian and the Monkey King would surely fight, everyone still wanted to see exactly how they'd fight.

To be fair, Bai Liang was quite satisfied with the CG's face—nine-tenths identical to his own.

It was done really well~

That air of supreme divinity stirred a faint sense of nostalgia in him.

He hadn't "avoided beef" in a long time, yet here he saw that same feeling reflected in the CG.

He'd turned off the comments while watching, but now he was curious what people had written.

He opened it—and saw nothing.

The dense sea of comments wasn't meant to be read; the popularity was terrifyingly extreme.

This thing had only been released two or three hours ago, yet it had already topped Bilibili's trending chart and was firmly number one in daily views.

"The young man's hot~"

As Bai Liang dragged the progress bar to review the character's details, a fingertip gently prodded his cheek.

"You like gaming too, Big Mi Mi—remember to buy one later."

"How much does this game cost?" Big Mi Mi didn't react with surprise like some girls had—she'd been a net-addicted teenager, now a net-addicted housewife.

Even now, when she had free time, she still played games constantly.

But now she mainly played "Honor of Kings," since playing on a phone was simply more convenient.

Not everyone could turn a giant RV into an esports base like Bai Liang.

Yet in "Honor of Kings," her rank was higher than Bai Liang's.

It wasn't that she was particularly skilled—she just knew how to get KPL pros to carry her.

Bai Liang didn't play "Honor of Kings" much; he thought phone screens were too small.

He'd played most during the time he filmed "You Are My Glory" with Reba.

"It probably costs a few hundred yuan—I'll buy it and give it to you," Bai Liang said with surprising generosity.

Big Mi Mi burst out laughing—what? She'd bought him a Richard Mille, and he was returning a video game?

That was just perfect~

"When's this game coming out?"

"Two or three years? Three or four?" Bai Liang wasn't sure.

Big Mi Mi:

She couldn't hold it anymore—so he was giving her a game as a gift… and it was a blank check?!

This little brother was being way too much!

"Buy me skins!" Big Mi Mi declared firmly.

"Aren't your skins in 'Honor of Kings' already full?"

"The new ones haven't been bought yet—I want you to buy them for me!"

To be fair, "Honor of Kings" made more money—even if the Black Monkey game was perfectly made, its revenue could never match this game.

But their meanings were truly different.

Big Mi Mi was dead serious about the skins!

She looked ready to force Bai Liang to log on right now.

After satisfying her demand, she immediately sent a duo-queue invite.

Offline duo-queue led naturally to online duo-queue.

It was a dual satisfaction—material and spiritual.

But her reputation as a net-addicted housewife wasn't earned for nothing—during gameplay, when Bai Liang carried her, her screams were louder than in bed.

All sorts of filthy, wolfish phrases spilled from her lips without hesitation.

After another match ended, Big Mi Mi leaned against Bai Liang and kissed his neck. "You're amazing, big brother—you're good everywhere~"

"Where?" Bai Liang asked, feigning ignorance.

The older woman said nothing, only slowly lifted her leg and pressed her foot with moderate force onto Xiao Bai Liang.

Slowly, inch by inch, she crushed him.

This queenly demeanor was devastating—he'd never known she had this trick.

To be fair, though Big Mi Mi was always online called "foot-smelly," she had the most beautiful feet among all the girls Bai Liang knew.

The light glimmered faintly over her instep, faint blue veins visible beneath the skin, her ankles slender and delicate, bones clearly defined.

Most exquisite were her toes—each small and perfect; when her toes curled slightly, they formed a languid, elegant pose, like flower buds gently closing then about to bloom in morning light.

But just as he was about to lift his head, she suddenly pulled back, humming, "Let's play another round, big brother~"

Even at an age as fierce as a wolf or tiger, there are limits.

She's been going wild for hours already—Big Mi Mi isn't made of iron~

Bai Liang, for his part, also sighed in relief; after all, he wasn't made of iron either.

Lifting one's head is a stubborn physiological reaction; lowering it means one still has some sense of restraint.

But while gaming, Big Mi Mi casually muttered, "To play Yang Jian as you portrayed him in the game, the progress is crawling so slowly it's almost catching up to the other Yang Jian."

Leaving aside what she meant by playing Yang Jian as Bai Liang portrayed him, Bai Liang was curious, "What are you talking about?"

"That Fengshen movie series by Wu Ershan," Big Mi Mi said offhandedly. "The casting buzz was huge—I even went and checked it out."

Hearing this, Bai Liang vaguely recalled it.

The casting alone took over a year, then there was all that closed training and other stuff.

When the news first broke, Sister Yanzi had also inquired, because back then Bai Liang had just risen to top-tier status thanks to "Wei Wei," and his only film was "Cheng Feng Po Lang"—he hadn't yet reached his current absurd level of fame.

So at the time, Sister Yanzi thought the "Fengshen" project sounded pretty impressive.

But after a little digging, she decided to drop it—they wanted newcomers.

Sister Yanzi gave up then, merely mentioning it to Bai Liang, but he knew even more.

Even if Bai Liang had gone, he wouldn't have gotten a role—he's purely Han Chinese, clearly not what they wanted. This project, launched back in 2017, still has a long way to go before release.

It's probably going to come out around the same time as "Black Myth: Wukong."

After venting about how sluggish this kind of project was, Big Mi Mi then started ranting about these so-called public mass auditions.

She'd seen this nonsense years ago, when she was still with the Teddy Sisters.

Back then, her elder sister Qin Lan's boyfriend Lu Chuan was making a film called "The King's Feast," and they held a massive audition.

Even Reba and Naza showed up—yeah, neither got picked.

In the end, they picked a female artist named He Dujuan—unless you check Baidu Baike, you wouldn't even know who she is.

Of course, that wasn't even the biggest joke about this movie.

The lead actress? After all that searching, they picked the director's girlfriend.

As for Big Mi Mi's role in it? Naturally, "scheduling conflict," "unfortunately had to withdraw."

"Compared to these so-called large-scale casting auditions, even talent shows seem fair and transparent," Big Mi Mi muttered while controlling her game hero.

"Isn't that normal? Just like your Jiaxing's big gift packs," Bai Liang laughed.

"Hey, making fun of me? What can I do? The other artists in the company aren't pulling their weight—Reba's the same, she has to carry people too. But your company's Yan Zong really is too tough—'Glory' could only squeeze in Zhu Zhu Xudan; the rest got scolded right back."

At this, Big Mi Mi couldn't help laughing too.

Sister Yanzi really had a strong presence at Jiaxing—she'd constantly slam tables and yell at the top brass.

They were completely subdued by her, too afraid to even speak up.

Logically, that shouldn't be the case—everyone outside thinks Big Mi Mi is Jiaxing's boss, and with Reba's ties, Sister Yanzi should be treating Jiaxing with respect.

But Big Mi Mi herself knew the real situation.

She yells—fine, she doesn't yell at me.

By then, she might even run off faster than Reba~

Thinking of this, she shifted the topic to something else.

"I heard Gu Li Naza is going to your company?"

"Yeah, that's what she said. What, Miss Mi, you wanna come too?"

"Oh my, you trying to buy out Jiaxing? Buy me and Reba to be your foot-washing maids?" Big Mi Mi blinked, speaking nonsense.

"Cough, cough, cough"—Bai Liang nearly choked, but he wasn't just anyone: "Two people washing feet is a waste."

"So you want Big Sister to wash where?"

"You can choose yourself~ Anything's fine."

Big Mi Mi bit her lip, stopped looking at her phone screen, and began one-handed play: "Anywhere?"

Bai Liang shivered slightly—his attention, once 80% on the game, now dropped below 30%.

"Big brother, what if I join your company too~?" Big Mi Mi juggled three things at once—left hand gaming, right hand "warming," while probing Bai Liang's reaction.

"Sure~ Do you come alone, or bring Jiaxing along as a package?"

"I don't have the power to package Jiaxing—sorry to disappoint you~"

"That's fine—I think if it's just you, Sister Yanzi might be happier."

Hearing this, even though Big Mi Mi had already drifted apart from Jiaxing, her face darkened slightly: "Is it really that bad?"

"She might find it troublesome—after all, the businesses are quite different."

That was true—Big Mi Mi nodded unconsciously.

Bai Liang's company, though growing rapidly, was fundamentally different from Jiaxing or Tang Ren.

Its core business was film and TV investment, production, and distribution—not artist management.

In plain terms: it handled projects, not people.

But in Big Mi Mi's view, both had path dependency.

Just as Jiaxing once relied entirely on her, now adding Reba, Bai Liang's company relied entirely on Bai Liang himself.

If anything happened to him, the company would collapse overnight.

The market's valuation of the company was mostly based on Bai Liang's personal value.

Meanwhile, other companies in the industry treated Sister Yanzi with such respect precisely because Bai Liang's commercial clout and status were simply too formidable.

As long as Bai Liang maintained his current status, his company was a fully operational money-printing machine—almost every project turned massive profits.

So in Big Mi Mi's view, it made perfect sense that Gu Li Naza was heading to Bai Liang's company.

Other companies might not meet the resource demands of a top female star, but Bai Liang's company definitely has massive resource surplus—more than enough to satisfy her completely.

Of course, this is Big Mi Mi's perspective—she's accustomed to thinking from a pragmatic angle.

But when she brought this up with Re Ba, the other woman gave her a strange answer: That little bitch doesn't think that far—she's single-minded.

In plain terms: love-struck.

Big Mi Mi was curious: Could there really be someone who's twenty-eight and still love-struck?

Love-struck at eighteen is common; even at twenty-five it's normal—but at nearly thirty?

Of course, you can't judge everyone by one standard—after all, she knows someone named Sister Tian Tian~

"Hey? Why did Big Mi Mi stop talking? When are you leaving Jia Xing to join my company?" Bai Liang asked curiously.

"You really want me to go?!"

"Didn't you say you wanted to?"

Big Mi Mi: I was just talking! You're actually serious?

Based on her understanding of Bai Liang, if this were a joke, he wouldn't have carried it on this long.

"Then if I ever hit rock bottom, can I come find you? Even if I leave Jia Xing, I still want to try on my own."

"Sure, it's up to you—you can treat me as your safety net."

The words sounded casual, but his tone was unusually serious.

Big Mi Mi bit her lip; at her age, she still couldn't help feeling warmth inside.

She was past the age of believing in such nonsense promises, yet she felt Bai Liang could actually deliver.

Because his reputation in this regard was truly solid!

Even Zhao Jinmai, whom she met today, was proof of that—he gave up the project "Fan Hua" just to act with her.

This matter was brought up again after "Kai Duan" began filming.

Even Sina Entertainment did a special interview on it.

Everyone thought "Kai Duan" and "Fan Hua" were incomparable, yet Bai Liang made the choice without hesitation.

Many thought his choice irrational; some of his fans even complained.

But who doesn't wish to meet someone like him?

Big Mi Mi tossed her phone aside, declaring she couldn't hold back—she'd give Bai Liang a proper "washing" right now!

There was no doubt—they lost this round of the game badly.

(End of Chapter)