Chapter 389

"Zixing, after that short film is finished, when are you coming back?"

On Monday morning, after Xin Zixing wearily opened her eyes, she saw the message Liu Qiao had sent her an hour ago.

It was only 8:30 in the morning.

That meant Liu Qiao had sent this message at 7:30.

The short film had only finished shooting at 3:00 AM yesterday.

To meet the deadline, they had to finish it even if it meant pulling an all-nighter.

After they finished, Lu Yan He left by car in the middle of the night; he still had to make it to class today.

She didn't stay to supervise the follow-up cleanup work; she was truly exhausted and went back to the hotel to sleep.

It was nearly an hour's drive from the set back to the hotel.

She fell into a deep sleep as soon as she returned to her room, and she didn't know how much time had passed when Huang Kai, who had returned in another car, used the room key card she had given him to swipe in.

Both of them were too tired; they didn't do anything, just fell asleep holding each other like that.

As a result, that damn biological clock still made her wake up groggily, and then she saw this message.

"..."

Huang Kai was still asleep, showing no signs of waking up at all.

Xin Zixing replied to Liu Qiao, asking: "What's wrong? We only wrapped up at 3:00 AM yesterday."

Liu Qiao's call came through the next second.

The phone rang.

Xin Zixing hung up the phone in a second and looked back at Huang Kai.

Huang Kai seemed to have heard nothing; the sound hadn't disturbed his sleep.

Xin Zixing quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

She lifted the quilt lightly, got out of bed, went outside, and called Liu Qiao back.

"Director Liu, what's so urgent?"

Liu Qiao said: "Zixing, let me ask you, do you have any thoughts of leaving the Ye Mai Network?"

Xin Zixing had just been startled awake from her sleep and was still a bit dazed. Being asked this by Liu Qiao so suddenly, she was stunned and couldn't collect her thoughts for a long while—she was mainly wondering how the news had spread so quickly. She hadn't told many people about this matter, and those who knew were her closest confidants; it couldn't possibly have been leaked by them.

"No, who said I was leaving the Ye Mai Network?" Fortunately, when Xin Zixing was pondering the matter of leaving, she had already anticipated such a situation and had thought about how to face it. She took only a second to organize her thoughts and then said, "Who is spreading rumors about me behind my back?"

Hearing Xin Zixing say this, Liu Qiao let out a long sigh of relief. "That's good. I thought you were really so angry about some previous matters that you'd lost your head."

Lost her head?

A question surfaced in Xin Zixing's heart: Why did she ever think Liu Qiao was a pretty good superior who understood and supported her?

"You should hurry back. This news is spreading like wildfire. The company's senior management is also asking me what's going on, and some are even saying they want to investigate you."

"Investigate?" Xin Zixing asked incredulously. "Director Liu, are you saying that just because of a rumor and hearsay, you're going to investigate me?"

"I certainly don't agree with it. Don't worry, could I just watch you be bullied like this?" Liu Qiao said.

"This isn't a matter of being bullied or not. I actually think the company probably does hope I leave soon," Xin Zixing sneered and said.

Liu Qiao: "How could that be? You are our great contributor; who hopes you leave? I'll make them leave!"

Liu Qiao's tone seemed to carry a bit of anger as well.

"Perhaps it's just that I want to do too many things, and it has made some people dissatisfied." Xin Zixing smiled listlessly. At this moment, she suddenly felt she was quite good at acting. After all, she was the bedfellow of an actor; through osmosis, she had learned such skills to some extent. "Honestly, for the past six months, I've felt like I'm hitting walls everywhere. Whatever I want to do, I can't get it done. It's completely different from a year or two ago. Before, no matter what I wanted to do, you would support me, but now..."

Xin Zixing gave a light, cold laugh and sighed.

"Zixing, you also have to understand that tall trees catch the wind," Liu Qiao said. "The achievements you've made now have already threatened many people. It's normal for many people to want to suppress you. However, no one can take away your achievements. As long as you persist, no one will be able to overshadow your brilliance later."

Xin Zixing only heard a voice deep in her heart asking softly: So, my achievements also threaten you, don't they?

The moment the bell rang for the end of class, Lu Yan He felt a sense of relief.

He was really too sleepy. He had been dozing off while listening to the lecture. To be honest, forcing himself to stay alert later only kept him from closing his eyes and falling asleep immediately; he couldn't actually hear what the teacher was saying at all.

Lu Yan He wondered, how did those people he saw in movies and novels who were like they'd been injected with adrenaline manage to appear energetic the next day after pulling an all-nighter?

There is no such thing as having the best of both worlds; human energy is limited. If you take care of one end, you will lose the other.

Lu Yan He sighed.

Zhou Mukai asked Lu Yan He if he was going to the cafeteria to eat.

Lu Yan He shook his head and said: "I'm too sleepy. I'm going back to the dorm to sleep."

There was still class in the afternoon; he could only use this lunch break to catch up on sleep.

Hearing this, Zhou Mukai nodded, knowing that Lu Yan He had rushed back in the middle of the night yesterday.

"Do you want me to bring you some lunch?"

"If there's bread or steamed buns or something, just bring me one. No need for a meal; the more I can sleep, the better," Lu Yan He said. "If I don't wake up, you must wake me up."

Zhou Mukai nodded with a smile. "Sure."

Xiao Jing and Mao Jiayang were surprised to see Lu Yan He taking a nap in the dorm; this scene shocked them.

Firstly, Lu Yan He rarely slept in the dorm, and secondly, Lu Yan He even more rarely took naps in the dorm.

Usually, during lunch, Lu Yan He would be studying in the library or in a classroom outside.

Mao Jiayang and Xiao Jing had even talked about this privately, saying it was no wonder Lu Yan He was successful; successful people had extremely abundant energy, and those with insufficient energy would have been eliminated long ago.

At 2:00 PM, Lu Yan He was woken up by Zhou Mukai.

Lu Yan He sat up with a face full of drowsiness, looking blankly at the space under the bed.

The dorm lights were off, and everyone was only using the desk lamps at their respective seats.

"Time to go to class. It's in the Purple Building this afternoon, which is a bit far, so we need to leave early," Zhou Mukai said.

Lu Yan He let out a long yawn and said "Oh."

Mao Jiayang asked: "Big Boss, what time did you go to sleep last night?"

"I... I finished shooting at 3:00, and then I slept the whole way in the car, waking up and falling asleep, I don't even know how long I slept," Lu Yan He said.

"Hard work, tsk tsk, a model for our generation," Mao Jiayang joked with emotion. "Being your roommate, it's too easy to be 'rolled' (pressured to work harder). Every time I want to be lazy, as soon as I think of you, I don't dare to stop."

"Please don't. I want to stop but don't have the time, and I don't dare to stop because I'm afraid that if I don't seize the opportunity now, I won't get it later," Lu Yan He said. "If it weren't for those fleeting opportunities, I wouldn't put myself through so much trouble and suffer. How nice it would be to combine work and rest."

Mao Jiayang: "Damn, I thought you were busy because you liked it from the bottom of your heart and couldn't stand a single minute being wasted. I was thinking, a Big Boss is a Big Boss; while we are all fighting against our own laziness, you have completely overcome the weaknesses of human nature and rush forward every day like you've been injected with adrenaline."

"I beg you, don't build such an image of me outside."

Mao Jiayang laughed out loud.

Mao Jiayang asked: "Then do you have any more work later?"

"Not for now," Lu Yan He said. "Originally, I didn't take on too much work this semester. This short film was taken on temporarily. I will still be very busy later, but there won't be so many things that require me to go to other places."

Mao Jiayang nodded.

"I also wanted to ask you, when will your 'City Travelogue' program go to my hometown to film?" Mao Jiayang asked. "My parents really want you to come over and have been asking me when you guys will go there together to play."

"Do you want the program to go there to film, or do you want Yan He to go there to play?" Xiao Jing asked.

Mao Jiayang said: "Of course I hope for both. And, not just him, my parents have always wanted all of you to go to our place to play."

Lu Yan He said: "I told the program team about your place a long time ago, but I don't know if it's a scheduling issue; there has never been a plan to film in Dongbin. I'll ask again. However, if everyone has time, we can go to Dongbin to play by ourselves first."

Mao Jiayang said: "Our place isn't good to look at in winter. Let's go next summer. Next summer, there will be food to eat, things to see, and things to do."

Xiao Jing: "Next summer, we will have finished our junior year and will be seniors. Will we have time? Won't we all be off doing internships?"

Mao Jiayang said: "I've thought about it; I've decided to go to graduate school. My grades should be fine for staying at this school. How about you guys?"

"Same here," Xiao Jing said. "I'm also planning to go to graduate school, but I might get recommended to Yuming. I've collaborated a lot with Teacher Zhang Ting at Yuming, and I want to work with him."

Zhou Mukai: "I haven't decided yet."

Lu Yan He said: "Me too, I haven't decided."

As a dorm of top students, all four of them maintained pretty good grades. Of course, Lu Yan He's grades were slightly weaker, and whether he could get a recommendation for graduate school was another matter—his GPA ranking in the academy could only be considered average, belonging to the borderline of graduate school recommendations.

In fact, the question of whether or not to go to graduate school had been repeatedly bothering Lu Yan He.

He had basically made it clear that he would definitely be developing in the entertainment industry in the future. So, getting a master's degree was optional for him. It's just that Lu Yan He felt that reading more books never hurt. If conditions allowed, reading more books would lead to more accumulation, which would provide a more solid foundation for understanding culture, literature, art, aesthetics, and characters.

However, graduate school meant continuing to be affected by classes in his work in the entertainment industry, meaning that dilemmas like last night and today would frequently occur. Should he let his studies affect his acting, or let his acting affect his studies?

Having the best of both worlds is very difficult to achieve.

At this moment, an unexpected phone call rang.

It was actually Liu Qiao, the content editor-in-chief of Ye Mai Network.

No, now it was Director Liu.

Lu Yan He was truly puzzled by this sudden phone call.

Usually, Xin Zixing was the one who contacted him from the Ye Mai Network side. Although Liu Qiao had his contact information, they usually only exchanged greetings during holidays and had no further communication.

"Hello, Director Liu?" Lu Yan He answered the phone and greeted him with some surprise.

Liu Qiao said with a smile: "Yan He, are you at school?"

Lu Yan He: "Yes, I am."

"I'm visiting a professor at your school. Do you want to have dinner together later tonight? With Professor Zhao Dezhong."

Zhao Dezhong was a highly respected professor in the School of Literature, who also had great influence in the industry and a high academic status.

Lu Yan He was astonished and didn't know why Liu Qiao would come to visit Professor Zhao Dezhong.

However, since it was a professor from his own school, Lu Yan He also had great admiration for Professor Zhao Dezhong. If there was an opportunity to have dinner with him, Lu Yan He would of course agree.

In the evening, Lu Yan He arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early.

The restaurant was inside the school and was a restaurant contracted by someone else.

When he arrived, Professor Zhao Dezhong hadn't arrived yet, and only Liu Qiao was in the private room.

"Director Liu." Lu Yan He smiled and greeted him.

Liu Qiao enthusiastically stood up to welcome Lu Yan He and said: "Why so formal? Just call me Brother Qiao."

Lu Yan He smiled and followed suit, calling him Brother Qiao.

Lu Yan He didn't have any mental cleanliness issues regarding such superficial matters and refused to call him that; it was just a form of address. If others wanted to show closeness through the address, then he would just be close.

Anyway, what's real can't be fake, and what's fake can't be real.

Liu Qiao said: "I told Zixing a long time ago that I wanted to invite you out to chat about cooperation, but you were also very busy, and it was hard to match our times. This time I came to Zhenhua to visit Professor Zhao, and hearing Zixing say you were back at school for class today, I tried to invite you to see if you could come."

Lu Yan He said with a smile: "Brother Qiao, I've had a cooperative relationship with Ye Mai Network for so long, and Sister Zixing has also helped me a lot, so we don't need to be so polite between us."

Liu Qiao nodded. "Zixing has indeed maintained a very good relationship with you. That Ye Mai Network has been able to achieve such results is also thanks to your tireless promotion and in-depth cooperation. I am very clear about these things in my heart. I was also very angry about the marketing stunt of not using you as a spokesperson last time, but you have to believe that both Zixing and I were firmly opposed to this matter. After this happened, we both raised strong opposition to it within the company, and such things will not happen again in the future."

Lu Yan He smiled and said: "Brother Qiao, my affairs are one aspect. What I found unexpected was that even the relationship between Sister Zixing and Brother Kai could be used for marketing. We are artists, and we are used to entertain everyone. Although we are unwilling, we must accept it. Sister Zixing didn't take advantage of any public figure status, and she is one of your own at Ye Mai Network, yet she was used like this, which made me, to some extent... I'll just say it directly, a bit wary of you all. Business is indeed about interests, but it is also about the code of the 'Jianghu' (the world of martial arts/society). If it's really just about interests and not about the code of the Jianghu, why should I continue to put the electronic version of 'Jump Up' on your Ye Mai Network? Our cooperation is signed year by year. Isn't there any other platform that would offer a higher price? I believe you know that without me saying it. Not to mention all kinds of cooperation, whether it's 'City Travelogue' or the short film shot with Director Wang Zhong this time, to put it bluntly, it's because we have had pleasant cooperation in the past that we trust you. If we are really talking business, then Ye Mai Network is not the most sincere merchant."

Lu Yan He's words were like a soft knife cutting through, inch by inch, speaking the heart-wrenching words into Liu Qiao's ears.

Liu Qiao's face was full of bitter smiles.

"Sigh, I also know that I really have unspeakable bitterness regarding this matter."

Lu Yan He blinked in surprise, looking at him with a puzzled face, as if asking: "What bitterness do you have that is unspeakable?"

Liu Qiao was stunned.

He didn't expect Lu Yan He to play his cards against the norm.

At such a time, shouldn't he echo a few words and express sympathy for his "unspeakable bitterness" situation?

Sigh, he is indeed still a child.

Liu Qiao sighed silently in his heart.

Lu Yan He didn't know what he was thinking in his heart. If he knew, he would only sigh that he was only twenty-one years old; could he be an adult?

Well, he could be considered an adult. But pretending to be a naive college student was not too much.

Liu Qiao smiled, still with a hint of bitterness, and added: "Although I am now in charge of the content business, the company's strategic deployment is not just my part, and not everything is decided by me."

Lu Yan He frowned slightly and said: "Is that so? I thought that at Ye Mai Network, I only needed to get along well with you, Director Liu, and you could handle everything, and I wouldn't need to contact anyone else. Actually, it's also because I'm used to being familiar with Ye Mai Network, so I'm a bit lazy and don't want to establish new cooperative relationships with other platforms."

Liu Qiao was choked by Lu Yan He's words and didn't know what to say.

"Your affairs are of course different, Yan He. To our Ye Mai Network, you have transcended an ordinary cooperative relationship. To Ye Mai Network's users, you have almost been intertwined with Ye Mai Network over these years. Your fans and Ye Mai Network's users have a great overlap. On our website, your support rate and user favorability are far ahead of others," Liu Qiao said. "Besides our Ye Mai Network, it's hard for you to find a second website with such a high overlap with your fan base."

Actually, Liu Qiao was not wrong.

It was indeed so.

For Lu Yan He, his cooperation with Ye Mai Network was almost impossible to replicate.

When both sides started cooperating, it was when the wind was just starting to blow, and they integrated into each other's development paths until their current positions.

This kind of experience cannot be replicated.

Just like an artist, when are his fans the most fanatical?

During the rising period of his career, that kind of fighting and struggling together with his idol—watching him fight monsters and level up all the way to the peak.

That was a period of time.

To this day, Lu Yan He has already reached a certain height and can no longer harvest a group of fans who watched him step by step from the live broadcast room to today and participated in the entire rising process.

They, compared to other fans, are ultimately different.

Therefore, the core meaning of Liu Qiao's words is here.

Ye Mai Network certainly needs Lu Yan He. However, doesn't Lu Yan He need Ye Mai Network? Aren't they in a symbiotic relationship?

If Lu Yan He loses the platform of Ye Mai Network, it doesn't mean he will lose many, many fans, but it means he will lose a large gathering place for fans, and it is a long-term, fixed gathering place.

Lu Yan He smiled slightly at Liu Qiao and said: "Brother Qiao, Sister Ziyan once told me a sentence: good cooperation must be mutually recognized, mutually respected, and mutually promoted. Ye Mai Network and I did achieve this before, right? But can we continue to achieve this in the future? I believe that if Ye Mai Network were decided by you, there would definitely not be such a thing as using my refusal to be a spokesperson for marketing, because you respect me. However, Brother Qiao, if Ye Mai Network is dominated by people who don't respect me, I think I can't swallow my pride just because you respect me. What do you think?"

At this moment, Liu Qiao completely put away the impression that Lu Yan He was just a child.

"I heard Zixing say before that you are hesitating about going to graduate school," Liu Qiao immediately changed the subject with a smile. "Professor Zhao actually plans to take a graduate student this year. Perhaps if you communicate well with Professor Zhao, you will have gains."

Lu Yan He was stunned, and then felt relieved in his heart—

So this dinner tonight was waiting for him here.

Xin Zixing curled her lips in a sneer.

Huang Kai was sitting opposite her.

They were having dinner together tonight, specifically looking for a new restaurant to try something new.

Just as they sat down, a camera flash that someone forgot to turn off flashed from time to time nearby.

Huang Kai and Xin Zixing were already used to it and just pretended not to see it.

Anyway, it had already been made public, so let everyone take pictures.

Huang Kai and Xin Zixing were not too avoidant about this.

Of course, the restaurant's service was quite good. Especially since Huang Kai coming to this restaurant itself was a big sign, they certainly didn't want Huang Kai to have a terrible dining experience here. So, without Huang Kai even asking, the restaurant manager took the initiative to find two waiters to carry a screen over to create a relatively independent and enclosed space for them, isolating the surrounding gazes.

Thanks to this screen, Huang Kai and Xin Zixing didn't have to be too cautious when talking.

After all, in this day and age, there are many people who will even film and find people to analyze lip movements to see what they said.

"What's wrong?" Seeing the sneer on Xin Zixing's lips, he asked.

Xin Zixing put down her phone and said: "Liu Qiao went to find Yan He tonight, and Yan He was complaining to me just now."

Huang Kai frowned slightly.

"What do you mean? Is Liu Qiao bypassing you and wanting to contact Lu Yan He directly?"

"Maybe. After all, Ye Mai Network can accept my departure, but cannot accept Lu Yan He's departure," Xin Zixing said. "That's the bad thing about being behind the scenes; your explicit value is not prominent. No matter how capable you are, in the eyes of senior management, you are still just a replaceable mule. No matter how capable a mule is, it's still just a mule, and people will only hope it works more and works longer, rather than letting the mule take the top position."

Huang Kai asked: "Is Liu Qiao certain that you will leave Ye Mai Network?"

"Whether I leave Ye Mai Network or not, he has already started to weaken my presence," Xin Zixing said. "If it weren't for that sentence he said to me, I still wouldn't have understood. I always felt that it was Zuo Yu targeting me, that Zuo Yu was blocking my path. Now that I think about it, if it weren't for Liu Qiao's tacit approval, why would I have been retreating steadily in my career for the past six months without any support? Tall trees catch the wind, and I posed a threat to people. He said so many things, and the most critical ones were these two."

Huang Kai: "It's okay, losing you is his loss, and it's also Ye Mai Network's loss."

"Believe it or not, the day I leave Ye Mai Network will be the beginning of Ye Mai Network starting to use the story of you and me for massive marketing and traffic attraction."

"Since they want to market us to attract traffic, why should we let them take advantage of it alone?" Huang Kai said. "Then let's accept seventeen or eighteen media interviews and see where they start marketing from."

Xin Zixing looked at him in shock.

"Wouldn't that be exhausting?"

"Better than you being stifled to death," Huang Kai said. "When they take advantage of you, with your personality, it would be strange if you didn't get so angry that you couldn't sleep at night."

Huang Kai hit the nail on the head.

Xin Zixing was too embarrassed to refute.

It was indeed a fact.

Xin Zixing said: "Do you know what kind of rotten trick Liu Qiao used?"

"What rotten trick?"

"I mentioned to him before that Yan He hadn't decided whether to go to graduate school. He invited a big professor from Yan He's academy and expressed his willingness to recruit Yan He as a graduate student," Xin Zixing said. "Originally, Yan He was still hesitating about whether to go to graduate school, but because of this tonight, he directly declined the professor, indicating that he is not considering graduate school for the time being and will focus on his acting career in the future."

Huang Kai was stunned.

"Just refused like that?"

Xin Zixing said: "Yan He's personality is like this. You should never provoke him. Don't look at him as being gentle and sincere in treating others; if you really provoke him, he won't care about how much interest there is, and he will be willing to be a broken jade rather than a whole tile with you."

Huang Kai then realized that Xin Zixing's understanding of Lu Yan He far exceeded his own.

Huang Kai was inexplicably a little jealous.

"You... know Yan He so well?"

"Look at how many projects I've collaborated with him on. Different work is a different experience. Of course I know him," Xin Zixing stared at Huang Kai. "Don't be jealous of me like this."