Chapter 551: You Little Punk Taking the Cake and Eating It Too

When Wu Jing was at the dinner table "sotto voce" loudly plotting with Bai Liang about how to sideline Chen Kaige.

The other bros drinking along didn't really react, that's all.

On one hand, the fact that Wu Jing could even say something like that at the dinner table made it pretty obvious how much he'd been drinking.

He'd drunk that much, so naturally the others hadn't drunk much less either.

Today's gathering wasn't some routine social thing, nobody held back when drinking — bottom line was, they were chugging hard!

See, it was when Wu Jing was drunk and buzzing that he couldn't help but let this little gem slip out.

Of course it had an effect.

The ones who'd drunk less, or who were straight-up sipping juice — players like Chen Duling and the others — wished they could just chug a few big gulps of alcohol and pass out, damn it.

The hell kind of thing is that for them to hear?

But after a glance at the big shots at the table, their hearts gradually settled down.

Whether it was Guo Fan or Director Jiao Zi, or Bai Liang himself, upon hearing Wu Jing's words they didn't really react beyond just sitting there amused.

Guo Fan and Director Jiao Zi were both the type who could completely run a film crew, and both were succubi in their respective fields.

So in their view, if a crew could actually be sideline, that just meant the director wasn't a good fit.

"Not a good fit" is all you could say — you couldn't say he lacked ability, after all Director Chen Kaige was still pretty capable, provided there was someone who could rein in his artistic impulses.

As for Bai Liang, he figured he'd already been roped in as a party to this by Wu Jing, so it wasn't really his place to weigh in.

Still, although Director Chen had a big temper, liked to recite poetry, and plenty of people said he was stubborn and self-willed, Bai Liang actually got along with him quite pleasantly.

The guy never put on any big-director airs with him, and on the daily he'd put on a show of "scolding his son" for him; his wife Chen Hong had previously been even more solicitous toward Bai Liang, hardly paying attention to her own son anymore.

Under these circumstances, asking Bai Liang to go along with Wu Jing's "great rebellion" — well, a real man has his limits!

Wu Jing thought for a moment, "Liang-ge, you wouldn't want—"

"Don't say it, I agree."

"Wait, I haven't even said what it is yet—"

"What a joke, don't I know perfectly well what shady stuff I've done?" Bai Liang said, throwing up his hands like a little bear.

Being a person, the most important thing is self-awareness.

With Wu Jing's Japanese-style opening line, Bai Liang didn't need to think hard to know what crap was about to come out.

Just cut the spell short and be done with it.

Agree, agree, agree to everything.

Even if they asked him to sleep with several top female stars, make a few billion, and grab a couple of box-office champions along the way, he'd still have to agree!

Wu Jing: Damn it, you little punk taking the cake and eating it too?

What could a weak, helpless, and pitiful capybara like him do?

He hasn't even snagged a Hundred Flowers Best Actor yet~

"What's the damn use of a Hundred Flowers Best Actor? Whether you get these awards or not doesn't really matter, do any of the bros here actually need these accolades? Guo Dao, do you need them?"

"Is that so?" Bai Liang had a few doubts.

But he'd been a "good student" his whole life — if he had questions, he'd get to the bottom of them.

See, everyone's right here!

So he looked at Guo Fan — the guy had won Best Director at this Hundred Flowers Awards for The Wandering Earth.

Guo Fan heard this, thought for a moment, and said, "Liang-ge, you know me — by my habit, these things are best swapped for a few 'selfless sponsors' from heavy industry. I really need them when I make movies."

Fair enough! Guo Dao here has now evolved from begging for alms and investments to "I don't want to give money, but you better let me use your stuff." Word is he's been getting along great with XCMG — this cyber-succubus is still evolving like crazy.

God knows who he'll "extort" next.

A big chunk of what he plays with has nothing to do with the traditional film and TV circle; in this circle, aside from him, basically nobody can play this way.

Even Wu Jing doesn't have such an irreplaceable skill.

Bai Liang nodded, raised a glass to Guo Dao, then turned to look at Director Jiao Zi.

That guy was, as always, wearing a slightly "shy" look on his face — anyone who'd just met him might be fooled, but in reality the guy was secretly wild!

Damn, his drinking capacity was even better than Wu Jing's.

So Director Jiao Zi gave a "shy" little smile and said, "Liang-ge, you know me — I never ask anyone for anything, I'm just a guy who makes animated films."

Nothing wrong with that — the third-highest-grossing animated film in mainland China.

But among the directors at this table, he really could only rank last, with a "pitiful" 6.5 billion at the box office — he just couldn't beat the other big bros present.

At this point, "second-in-command" indicated he had something he wanted to say again.

Wu Jing: "Liang-ge, I know you — even though you're the youngest, you're the damn weirdest! I always feel like if you really wanted this Best Actor, you'd have had it ages ago—"

"Sigh~ Jing-ge, you're drunk, how come you're starting to talk nonsense?"

Bai Liang waved his hand, saying that was the Hundred Flowers Awards — he really wasn't interested.

What serious filmmaker could care about that? Could anyone who cared about that be a filmmaker?

Cheap!

"Cheers!"

When glasses clink together at the dinner table, that's the sound of dreams blooming.

Bai Liang set down his wine glass, his hand habitually resting lightly on Dulu classmate's thigh; she hurriedly poured him more wine while quietly whispering that he shouldn't drink too much.

"Then Dulu, help me drink a little? These old rascals will call me a fish-breeder~"

"Okay, senior."

Wu Jing, who'd overheard Bai Liang's words, couldn't help showing a look of contempt on his face — you dog, you actually use that kind of excuse to get a Miss to drink for you?

He knew exactly how much Bai Liang could hold — the record was right there, the guy had literally drunk himself into a hospital before.

So dodging drinks was out of the question — this was purely taking the chance to flirt with a young lady.

On top of that, Chen Duling grew up looking especially innocent and pure, so the scene looked exactly like a scumbag rogue deceiving a naive, unworldly Miss.

Bai Liang:. Nice imagination. Please keep it to yourself from now on.

There's a saying: the willing one takes the bait.

A girl like Dudu who's white on the outside but black on the inside is very willing to put herself in a state of being teased.

To put it bluntly: she just likes this kind of thing.

Because she really does keep a "diary." That "Death Note" of hers has no idea how many strange and bizarre things she's updated on it by now.

Bai Liang once had the fortune of taking a look, and he was thoroughly impressed by how solid her theoretical knowledge was.

Too bad the practical side still falls a bit short.

Compared to the battle-hardened girls like Nazha, her combat ability really can't compare.

She's got a bit of that Wang Yuyan flavor from Wu Xia novels — what's the use of knowing a ton of moves? The truly formidable ones just come with their own soundtrack!

It's just that she happened to run into Bai Liang. He's such a good person, always willing to play along with all those little tricks that Dudu thinks she's cleverly figured out.

At this moment, Dudu has this sense that no matter what move she throws out, her senior will accept the whole thing.

This makes her especially happy inside, giving her quite the feeling of "Senior and I really are soulmates."

So, after the evening drinking session ended, fueled by a bit of liquid courage, Dudu declared that she'd let loose for once~

If it's what Senior wants, she can satisfy anything!

From the rather impressive techniques she'd been practicing in the RV, to finally saying things like "want to try something different?" — she agreed to all of it with a blushing face!

The assistant, woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call, was a little resentful.

You could tell she was in quite a rush, maybe she didn't even bother putting on clothes before coming over.

The female assistant glanced at her unusually oversized white shirt, and could faintly see she was only wearing the shirt.

As for underneath, bet a year's salary — she wasn't wearing anything!

God knows what she was doing before she came to open the door. Maybe the "what" can be omitted.

"Alright, get some rest early. We still have to catch an early flight tomorrow morning, so don't wake up too late."

Looking at that eager look on her face, the assistant offered up a silent prayer for her.

Sis, just you wait and see — the moment you start looking forward to something, you won't make a peep, you'll dare to try anything!

And don't wake up too late? Can you even get up tomorrow morning?

Sure enough, the next morning at around five, the assistant arrived right on time to knock on the door.

After knocking for several minutes, a thoroughly exhausted Dudu finally came to open the door.

"Why so early?"

"Sis, you still have fifteen minutes to wash up, eat breakfast, and put on makeup.. Forget the makeup, I brought you a mask, but you really need to wash up properly."

"Fifteen minutes?!"

Chen Duling spun around and bolted back into the room. Her intention was to move quickly, but she simply couldn't.

Watching her strange gait comparable to Zhao Si's, the assistant sucked in a cold breath internally.

Good lord! Is she broken?

Did that bottle of lube even get used?!

The most outrageous part — even in that dead state, while washing up at top speed, Chen Duling still didn't forget to tell the assistant to keep her voice down.

"Senior is still sleeping~"

Ah— the assistant ranted internally: You're worried about him? He doesn't worry about you!

Faced with this situation, the assistant couldn't resist quipping: "Sis, where's the lightbulb?"

Chen Duling: Hmm?!

"Morning, Dudu. You're up this early? Let me go buy you some breakfast~"

From the bedroom of the suite came Bai Liang's voice. He'd just woken up and hadn't had time to put on clothes yet.

Fortunately he was at least wearing a pair of underwear, which for a man counts as sufficient.

In any case, Chen Duling's assistant quickly said hello, then stole glances God knows how many times.

Hiss.. Our sis is eating well!

However, after observing a bit more carefully, she did come to understand why Chen Duling was walking like Zhao Si.

It's not that the purchased item didn't work — the enemy was just too ferocious!

Chen Duling: Who says he doesn't care about me? He's going to go buy me breakfast!

Watching her own sis nod away like a little chick pecking at rice, looking like she's about to devour Senior's loving breakfast!

Now the assistant got anxious. "Sis, there's no time!"

"What did you just ask me?" Chen Duling suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"The previous question."

".. Where's the lightbulb?"

This time it was Chen Duling's turn to fall silent, just quietly looking at her.

Now the assistant understood!

I sought him in the crowd a thousand times; suddenly turning, the lightbulb was right there!

"I- I'll step away for a moment?"

Obviously, that was the case.

In the end, Chen Duling still made her original flight.

Because the flight was delayed.

The strangest part was that the flight was delayed, but it didn't actually hold Chen Duling up at all, because the captain seemed determined to make up the lost time and flew the plane like a maniac.

Of course, even though the flight itself didn't cause any major problems, Chen Duling's own problems were quite significant.

When showing up to scheduled appearances, she had to forcibly suppress the discomfort in her body.

Some relationship guru once summed it up: if a man keeps hurting you, don't hesitate—leave him!

Chen Duling and Bai Liang actually had a bit of that feeling.

When they filmed together before, her knee was constantly under pressure and getting bruised; once her jaw was nearly dislocated, and her hair was even shaved off, taking forever to grow back.

Later, when they appeared on a variety show together, under the cover of heavy rain, she overdid it and almost blew her cover again.

Later, also because of Bai Liang, she nearly "severed all ties" with her close girlfriends.

And now, for Chen Duling, every interaction with Bai Liang was just a process of constantly getting hurt.

But she clearly had no intention of leaving—she was completely infatuated.

It was even worse than before.

Now she had neither the drive to climb higher nor the resolve to back off, as if she'd decided to just hang on in this half-dead state.

Still, it wasn't purely just hanging on there doing nothing.

She did gain something.

Even she herself hadn't expected that, without winning an award, her traffic could blow up that much—all she did was stand there laughing with Bai Liang at the Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony.

With that one laugh, she found herself at the top of the trending searches.

Clearly the two of them are "losers," but the losers' swagger was honestly a bit too arrogant.

"Sis, it's not that bad. Definitely becoming Best Actress would benefit you the most. Some things, once you talk them through, they're in the past, but what gets recorded in the end is still this edition's Best Actor and Best Actress."

Hearing this, Chen Duling thought it actually made a lot of sense, but she didn't want to hear it.