Chapter 57: Liu Yifei

Chen Nuo was not surprised that Qi Yuntian knew about his date with Xia Yehe.

Before she went out with him now, she would always ask for Qi Yuntian's opinion first. Just like last time on her birthday, it was also Qi Yuntian who told her she could come, so she came.

These two seemed to really treat him like some kind of public figure, but in Chen Nuo's view, it was purely worrying about nothing.

Although the mourning period had passed, the loss of a loved one was by no means a scar that could be easily erased. Xia Yehe still did not wear bright-colored clothes, just simple black skinny jeans, a black hooded sweatshirt, and a gray cotton-padded jacket; the chest of the sweatshirt was printed with a portrait of Zhang Manyu.

Seeing Chen Nuo, Xia Yehe ran over, jumping and bouncing with a smile, and stuffed herself into Chen Nuo's embrace: "Tell me, are you reluctant to part with me? Did you know I returned to Shanghai and deliberately come to find me?"

Chen Nuo said with a serious face: "If it weren't for Qi Yuntian stopping me, I would have come yesterday."

Xia Yehe giggled and hooked her arm into Chen Nuo's, "I was still at my hometown during the day yesterday; I only arrived at night."

Chen Nuo asked in surprise: "The night is exactly what I wanted. Why would I look for you during the day?"

Xia Yehe pinched his arm not too lightly and not too heavily, "Little rascal."

Chen Nuo looked sideways and saw the girl's eyebrows were like a painting, her face slightly round, her large eyes with clear whites and blacks, and her skin even fairer and more tender than the Zhang Manyu on her clothes, just like a freshly peeled egg, without a single fine line. She was completely different from the heavily made-up woman he had first met.

"Is Sister Cindy afraid that I might tease her? Cindy is so capable; she has practiced dance since she was young. That waist is more flexible than a snake when it sways. It's me who should be afraid."

Xia Yehe blushed and said with a smile: "Being afraid is right. Hmph, no matter how much you call me sister tonight, I won't let you off."

"Hehe, let me tell you, when the time comes, even if you scream to the heavens, I won't—"

Xia Yehe couldn't handle this old rascal Chen Nuo anymore and pinched his waist hard, "No being a rascal. Where are we going now?"

Chen Nuo said he wanted to stroll around the Bund, but Xia Yehe disagreed.

"There are too many people. If someone recognizes you... that wouldn't be good."

Chen Nuo almost laughed out loud, "Wow, you really treat me like a big star? Believe it or not, if I took off my clothes on the street right now, not many people would even glance at me."

"No~" The previously spicy and assertive woman turned into a cute girl with a milky voice, Xia Yehe grabbed Chen Nuo's arm and shook it back and forth, "Can we, can we go back to the hotel, please~"

Chen Nuo frowned at the sky and said with righteous indignation: "It's so early, I'm not sleepy."

Xia Yehe stood on tiptoe, not caring that this was the broad daylight of a Shanghai street, breathed into Chen Nuo's ear, and said slowly: "Are you, um~ really~ not~ sleepy~?"

Chen Nuo was indeed not sleepy.

It was not even 5 o'clock in the afternoon. He slept at 10:30 every night and got up at 7:30 in the morning, possessing 9 hours of sufficient sleep. He hadn't done anything today either, just sat on a plane and drank some tea; he hadn't broken a sweat or shed a drop of blood, so why would he be sleepy?

But he didn't mind resting a bit.

From the first second they returned to the hotel room, Chen Nuo started resting. Having not seen each other for a few days, Xia Yehe was also very understanding and rested with him. This girl seemed to be really trying to gain weight; she was a bit fatter than the last time Chen Nuo saw her. Her previously thin little bottom had a bit of meat on it, and her femoral heads were not as prominent, which wouldn't make Chen Nuo feel his lower abdomen ache when he rested.

Finally, Chen Nuo and Xia Yehe rested together for over an hour before they started talking about business.

Xia Yehe used her tongue to draw circles on Chen Nuo's chest. Her face was sweaty, and it seemed they hadn't rested very well just now.

"Are you leaving tomorrow?"

Chen Nuo also looked a bit tired, his chest rising and falling: "Yeah, going back to review. There are still over 2 months until the college entrance exam."

Xia Yehe bit him lightly: "Then why did you come here? Our filming is almost finished. I can go to Xichuan to find you then."

Chen Nuo stroked her hair: "It's fine. To see you, nothing else is important."

Xia Yehe was stunned, then suddenly pinched Chen Nuo's waist and gave it a hard twist, "Liar. You aren't that kind of person. Honestly, what did you come here for? Did Director Chen ask you to come and reshoot scenes again? I was almost fooled by you. Hmph!"

"Ouch, take it easy." Chen Nuo held her hand and said: "You were wearing that piece of clothing, I thought you knew."

"What does it have to do with my clothes?"

"You really don't know? Didn't Sister Qi tell you?"

"No, I just usually send a text message to ask if it's convenient before I see you."

"Then why didn't you ask me directly?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't tell the truth. Hehe. Tell me quickly, what did you really come to Shanghai for?"

"To meet the director of that movie."

Xia Yehe frowned, blinked her eyes, looking a bit confused and a bit enlightened, "...Which movie?"

"The one on your clothes. I just watched it last night. Days of Being Wild."

Chen Nuo did not expect that Xia Yehe was actually a fanatical fan of Wong Kar-wai. Her reaction to hearing he came to meet Wong Kar-wai was even bigger than hearing he had won the Berlin Silver Bear award. It kept him from sleeping almost all night.

As a result, at eight o'clock the next morning, Wang Zhihan's phone call woke him up. This person had come to share good news.

Wang Zhihan told him on the phone that the Anxiang Vocational School had hung up eight banners, repeating the fact that Chen Nuo had been admitted to the Beijing Film Academy and won the Berlin Best Actor award eight times over.

The whole school, and even the people of the whole county, knew that the vocational high school had produced an international talent.

If he went back to study, he would definitely be treated like a panda.

In this way, his last bit of hesitation about taking on The Return of the Condor Heroes seemed to have been dispelled.

Then let's film it.

Learn while filming; with a mere 400 points, he didn't believe it was that difficult.

The next day, Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian rushed back to Jingcheng.

On one hand, Director Zhang had almost finished drafting the contract and wanted them to go back for a face-to-face discussion.

On the other hand, there was a procedure to go through before signing the contract.

Zhang Jizhong wanted them to go to the studio that afternoon to take some makeup photos, and he would call the female lead over then to see if the two of them matched.

To use the phrasing from over a decade later, it was to see if there was any "CP chemistry."

If it didn't look right, naturally what was discussed before would fall through.

But Zhang Jizhong's phrasing was not like that. Director Zhang was indeed stingy with money, but his attitude was still very sincere: "Actually, it's just going through the motions, everyone meeting each other. You are both alumni, right? You're about the same age, so you should have a lot of common language."

Since that was the case, they had discussed the contract terms mostly by the morning. At noon that day, Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian were too lazy to go back and forth, so they just found a small restaurant near the studio to eat lunch.

After eating, Qi Yuntian sighed while picking his teeth: "This person is too stingy. OMG, 10,000 yuan per episode, 400,000 for 40 episodes, and it takes half a year to film. Director Peter Chan, we filmed for less than a month and he gave us over 200,000... It seems we should cooperate more with Hong Kong directors in the future. Even if one day you can really enter Hollywood, that's where the big money is. The only drawback is that the Beijing Zha Jiang Mian in LA is terrible; they are all Korean Zha Jiang Mian shops."

Chen Nuo said: "You like Zha Jiang Mian very much? Then why did you order the twice-cooked pork rice bowl just now?"

Qi Yuntian glanced at him sideways and said: "Is it interesting for you to talk to a beauty like this?"

Chen Nuo said: "Mind your image, beauty. If you're going to pick your teeth, just pick your teeth; don't pick your feet, okay?"

Qi Yuntian spat at him: "Is that picking feet? I'm giving my feet a beauty treatment!"

Chen Nuo actually had the same view as Qi Yuntian; 400,000 for half a year was really a bit low. Peter Chan had also spoiled his appetite.

However, he did not agree with Qi Yuntian's view. What big money in Hollywood? It looked like that for now, but that was because Qi Yuntian didn't know how the Chinese economy would take off in the next 20 years. The domestic market and domestic advertisers were the real potential stocks.

The two sat in the restaurant waiting for the time, not caring how many times the landlady rolled her eyes. Their butts were stuck to the stools as if they had been glued with superglue; even holding their bladders, they remained as steady as Mount Tai.

Finally, it was almost time. As soon as the two stood up, the first thing they did was rush to the restroom. After resolving that, they walked over and went upstairs, arriving exactly at three o'clock.

The female lead and her mother had already arrived. When Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian went over, Zhang Jizhong was talking to the two women in the conference room.

"You should both know this person. Speaking of which, he can be considered your junior, Yifei. I have looked for his work to watch; although he doesn't have as much experience as you, objectively speaking, his acting is better than yours. You should learn more from him."

Her mother said: "Director Zhang, don't worry. Xixi and I talked about it before we came. Our mindset is quite correct; it's just mutual learning."

Zhang Jizhong nodded and added: "From my contact with this person, my feeling is that he is a bit arrogant. But he's a young man, and he just won an award, so it's quite normal. I hope Xixi, as his senior, will be more tolerant."

Her mother said: "Director Zhang, we have cooperated before, and you know Xixi's temper; she is very magnanimous."

Zhang Jizhong nodded and said: "I know. I hope you can foster a better atmosphere among colleagues. Don't wait for people to coax you. He is a Berlin Best Actor, why should he? Right?"

Liu Yifei lowered her head slightly, her face calm, and just gave a light "Mm."

But she was furious inside.

Not waiting for him to coax me, do I have to go and coax him? She was a girl, how could she coax him? She had been held in the palm of her mother's hand since she was a child, and the boys around her had always treated her like stars surrounding the moon. When had she ever done such a thing?

Zhang Jizhong was stroking his beard and preparing to say something else when he caught sight of Chen Nuo. He immediately stood up with a clatter and walked to the door with a smile: "Chen Nuo is here. Come, come, come, let me introduce you to each other. This is Chen Nuo, the latest Berlin Best Actor, and this is his manager, Xiao Qi. Chen Nuo, this is our female lead, Liu Yifei, who plays Little Dragon Maiden, and this is her mother, Ms. Liu."

Liu Yifei raised her eyelids slightly and glanced at the boy in front of her.

He seemed different from the men who had come to audition before; he wasn't that old, he was smiling, very ordinary, and had an indescribable feeling. Looking at her, he seemed to carry a bit of curiosity.

"Senior, hello, I am Chen Nuo," the boy said with a smile, extending his hand.

Liu Yifei looked up at the other person and said: "Hello..." Having said that, the grievances she had suffered earlier surged up, and she said: "You haven't been admitted yet."

(End of chapter)