Chapter 7: In the Same Class as Yang Mi

What should one do when one has money?

Of course, spend, spend, spend; buy, buy, buy!

Qi Hui tidied up simply and left his cheap small apartment, which combined a toilet, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and living room into one.

He then moved into a new apartment with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom.

Looking at the spacious and bright new place, Qi Hui nodded in satisfaction and then began to buy, buy, buy.

Phone, change!

Watch, buy!

One must buy a watch; current phones are still feature phones.

It is hard to go from luxury to frugality; Qi Hui, accustomed to the smartphones of his past life, suddenly found himself somewhat unaccustomed to feature phones.

It is better to use a watch directly.

Besides phones and watches, computers are also essential electronic products.

He had long been accustomed to having internet access anytime, anywhere, to search for things.

But feature phones could not meet his requirements, so, naturally, a laptop computer was also a must-have.

After organizing the apartment, Qi Hui let out a long sigh of satisfaction, then turned on the computer, logged into Weibo, and registered an account.

The ancient Weibo interface left him flustered, and it took considerable effort to finish the registration.

However, unlike later on, registering for Weibo now required no phone number; one only needed to fill in an account name and set a password.

The newly emerged Weibo did not attract much attention; netizens mostly gathered in Tieba, blogs, and the Tianya Forum.

As soon as he entered, he saw the topics being discussed heatedly.

Andy Lau announcing his relationship, the Zhang Ziyi "Ink-Splashing Incident," and so on.

Looking at these things full of period flavor, Qi Hui could not help but feel some emotion in his heart.

Of course, discussions of these matters were either on the Tianya Forum or on Baidu Tieba.

Weibo and the like would only truly become popular once entertainment stars started joining.

After playing on the computer for a while, Qi Hui left the apartment and then found a nearby gym to prepare to start working out.

Although he now had six-pack abs, he was actually of a lean build, with a somewhat thin frame.

Although better than Zhang Ruoyun, compared to the northwestern giant Ling Xiaosu, it was still not enough.

The character Hong Shixian often wore suits; without some flesh to support them, the suits would hang loose.

That white suit fitting perfectly was purely luck; Qi Hui could not expect every suit provided by the production crew to fit perfectly, could he?

So, he still needed to exercise and build some muscle.

In the time that followed, Qi Hui's life became very regular.

Wake up early in the morning to run; go to the gym to lift iron at noon.

In the evening, eat some beef or steak and the like to supplement protein.

At night, stay in the apartment playing on the computer and surfing the web.

Browse entertainment news by the way, watch dramas on Tudou, and check out "Chinese Paladin 3" and the like.

Qi Hui was extremely satisfied, feeling as if he had returned to university.

Isn't this much more comfortable than mixing concrete?

He did not prostitute, gamble, or hang out in bars; he had no bad habits; 100,000 yuan was enough for him to live well for a long time.

After living such happy days for a week, the somewhat bored he dialed Zhang Ruoyun's phone number.

"Hello? Senior brother?" Zhang Ruoyun was somewhat surprised: "Why do you suddenly have time to call me?"

Shouldn't you be seriously acting as the male lead?

"The production crew is still in preparation," Qi Hui said. "I plan to swing by your place; do you have time?"

"Of course!" Excitement added a few notes to Zhang Ruoyun's voice; he had long wanted his senior brother to meet his father.

Hengdian Film and Television Base, the filming location for the "Snow Leopard" production crew.

Indoor scenes were filmed for a few days; next came the action scenes and large-scale scenes.

The initial action scenes mainly focused on the male lead's tattoo, having nothing to do with Zhang Ruoyun, so the current Xiao Zhang was very idle.

Qi Hui arrived at the production crew's entrance, but the security guard, expressionless, stopped Qi Hui.

Without permission, one cannot enter without authorization.

With no other option, Qi Hui could only wait for Xiao Zhang to come and fetch him.

About ten minutes later, Xiao Zhang finally came out and glared at the security guard with some dissatisfaction.

He had already called to mention this matter, but the security guard gave him no face at all.

Facing Xiao Zhang's dissatisfaction, the security guard acted as if he saw nothing; Producer Zhang is Producer Zhang, and Zhang Ruoyun is Zhang Ruoyun; although the two are father and son, they cannot be conflated.

"It's all work; don't take it too seriously," Qi Hui stopped the angry Zhang Ruoyun.

Zhang Ruoyun was still somewhat indignant but did not dwell on it further.

"Senior brother, how do you have time to visit the set?" Zhang Ruoyun asked.

"We don't join the crew until three months from now; no rush," Qi Hui waved his hand and said, handing him a pack of cigarettes.

"Three months? That long?" Zhang Ruoyun took the cigarettes from Qi Hui, opened the pack, but his attention was on Qi Hui's words:

"Why is it three months?"

He had asked his old man for that role to help out his senior brother.

One helps in emergencies, not poverty; this production crew should have started filming very soon.

That is to say, if Qi Hui had not obtained the male lead role, he would likely have been cut off from funds.

He couldn't even afford to eat.

"It's just prep for the crew, perfectly normal." Qi Hui didn't think much of it, took out a lighter and lit a cigarette.

"No, it's not like that." Zhang Ruoyun took Qi Hui's lighter, then told the whole story from beginning to end.

Hearing that the role had been given by Zhang Ruoyun's old man Zhang Jian, hearing Zhang Ruoyun's doubts about the timing.

Qi Hui flicked the ash off his cigarette, paused in silence, then laughed:

"Maybe Uncle Zhang got it mixed up, no need to mind it."

"If it weren't for Uncle Zhang, I wouldn't have gone to that crew, would I?"

Though he said that, Qi Hui's eyes narrowed slightly — looks like Old Zhang doesn't think much of me, Qi Hui.

Qi Hui recalled some news from his previous life — Old Zhang had signed some agreements in Zhang Ruoyun's name, and when things went south, Zhang Ruoyun was saddled with over a hundred million in debt.

Little Zhang was so furious he wanted to take Old Zhang to court, and the whole thing blew up into a huge scandal.

One could tell Old Zhang was no pushover.

Of course, that was all in the future.

Judge by deeds, not by heart; judge by heart and no one is perfect. No matter how you slice it, Old Zhang had helped Qi Hui.

Qi Hui wouldn't, based on his own subjective assumptions, write off someone who had helped him as a bastard and a villain.

"That's true enough." Zhang Ruoyun laughed at his words, not noticing the shift in Qi Hui's thoughts.

He said at once: "Come on, I'll take you to meet my dad, and get you a role or something while we're at it."

There were still three months left, plenty of time to film.

"Don't you dare." Qi Hui quickly stopped him: "I'm here to visit and say thanks, don't go pulling anything."

The two walked and talked, heading toward the crew's location as they went.

Soon, Zhang Ruoyun brought Qi Hui up in front of a middle-aged man.

Buzz cut, square face, not one to smile easily.

"Dad, this is my senior brother." Zhang Ruoyun introduced him excitedly: "His very first role was the male lead — impressive, right?"

He had grown up with his grandparents since childhood, yearning for his father and mother's love.

He wanted to prove himself through his own excellence, wanted to build that close, loving father-and-son bond with his own father.

Befriending outstanding friends was likewise a way of proving himself.

"Hello, Uncle Zhang." Qi Hui greeted him.

"Mm, hello." Zhang Jian glanced up briefly, then went back to burying his head in his documents.

He was the producer of *Snow Leopard*, with a mountain of matters to handle every day.

Just a male lead — not some international best actor — not enough to make him look at Qi Hui any differently.

"I heard from Ruoyun that it was you who introduced me to the *Temptation to Go Home* crew." Qi Hui didn't mind his somewhat cold attitude, still all smiles as he said:

"I'm very grateful for your help. This is a small token, please don't take offense."

Saying so, Qi Hui placed a pack of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes in front of him.

Zhang Jian's expression softened slightly. He raised his head and said: "Ruoyun's told me about you — great grades, very outstanding."

"You're in the same class as Yang Mi, right?"