Chapter 614: I Don't Want to Grow Up

"Come, come, come, A-Yi, I'll toast you with this cup."

Hong Kong, Victoria Hotel.

Cheng Long, who had specially paused tonight's night scene filming for Zhou Yi's arrival, smiled broadly, his arm hooked around Zhou Yi's shoulder, his expression quite excited, even using the word "toast"—

The reason was nothing else; it was simply because Zhou Yi had come to give him face.

For Cheng Long, who rose from the rough and tumble of the Jianghu, he could never refuse something that brought glory to his face.

Zhou Yi had been in the industry for four years; only back when he first debuted did he make a guest appearance in the TV drama "The Pink Ladies" for the sake of Cheng Hao, and even turned that series into the 2003 annual ratings king. How many people watched it just for Zhou Yi's final appearance in the drama and to form a CP with Wan Ren Mi.

The ratings after multiple reruns also confirmed this; the episodes where Zhou Yi appeared were the peak ratings for the series, and he even gained a huge wave of dream girls due to the so-called teasing of a "tearing-comic-man."

Over these years, who knows how many investors wanted to get Zhou Yi to act in films and TV dramas, but the end result was always nothing; Zhou Yi remained the man they could never get.

It was such a Zhou Yi who was willing to give him face; how could this not make Cheng Long happy.

"Uncle Long, if the paparazzi outside hear these words, who knows how tomorrow's newspaper headlines will write about the two of us." Zhou Yi, clinking glasses with him, took a sip with a smile and pointed towards the outside of the restaurant.

"Are you the type of person who cares about outside evaluations?"

Putting down his wine glass, Cheng Long shook his head with a smile: "I've given you the script; come, let me introduce you to your new and old friends."

There was Daniel Wu, with whom he had once met; Cai Zuoyan, who had brought him to this dinner gathering;

Yang Cai Ni, the female lead with no presence in this film, and Wang Jie, who still had not managed to reclaim the top position at Ying Huang;

Huang Yulang, one of the fathers of Hong Kong comics, as well as Yu Rongguang, Sun Chun, and others from the mainland were all on the list.

Of course, the most heavyweight was Xie Tingfeng, the top star at Ying Huang, who in the past could compete with the newly emerged Zhou Yi in popularity and was called one of the twin geniuses, but had now fallen from super A-list to A-list.

"Long time no see, A-Yi."

Xie Tingfeng, who had known Zhou Yi would accept the invitation to guest star, had actually prepared a belly full of opening lines and polite phrases long ago, but at the moment he saw Zhou Yi, this former pride of the Hong Kong circle subtly moved his lips several times, and finally blurted out these few words.

The sharpness in his tone that existed when facing Zhou Yi in the past was gone, and his demeanor had become extremely peaceful.

"Long time no see."

Zhou Yi shook hands with him and said with a smile: "I heard you scared all the major insurance companies in Hong Kong; did you get the same treatment as Uncle Long?"

The end of 2003 was, to some extent, a memorable time point for the Hong Kong insurance industry.

Following Cheng Long, the young Xie Tingfeng was also jointly blacklisted by major industry companies; this kid's style of filming without fearing death even made Cheng Long sincerely shout out phrases like "this son is like me" to the outside world for the first time.

Facts proved that this public relations move was very effective.

The news of his desperate filming and the insurance industry blacklisting directly diluted the legal scandal black mark on Xie Tingfeng; plus, he was handsome, so his reputation was gradually turned around by his "desperate three-lang" stance.

Ying Huang chose the most difficult path of public opinion whitewashing for Xie Tingfeng, but the effect after success was surprisingly good.

After all, the bones were truly broken, and the hospital was truly entered.

"Maybe they thought it was a guaranteed loss with no gain, but not everyone was blacklisted; I can still get insurance for some projects." Xie Tingfeng smiled and used this as an excuse to chat with Zhou Yi.

The scene of the two chatting freely also made many people in the room breathe a sigh of relief.

Yu Rongguang, who played Cheng Long's boss, and Sun Chun, who played Ah Zu's father, came up to greet Zhou Yi afterwards and exchanged contact information. For these two, Zhou Yi only had an impression of the former—

The famous meme "You're playing with your life for a few hundred bucks a month". jpg.

Of course, the drama where Zhou Yi had the deepest impression of this person had to be the future "Wolf Poison Flower"; this drama was his first impression of Yu Rongguang in his past life.

After the dinner, Zhou Yi was simply the busiest person in the whole venue—someone came from this side, a few came from that side.

Cai Zuoyan, who was quite good at assessing the situation, did not try to steal the spotlight at this time; she just sat in her seat, her gaze somewhat wistful.

Those who went up to befriend Zhou Yi, whether they knew him or not, even the big shots she had heard of, all abandoned their original circles and gathered around Zhou Yi.

Especially that father of Hong Kong comics, Huang Yulang.

This big shot of Hong Kong comics, who had experienced ups and downs, belonged to the guest star category just like Zhou Yi and played her father in the series.

This is the world of adults.

Cai Zuoyan felt quite emotional in her heart.

"Let's have tea together if there's an opportunity in the future, A-Yi."

Huang Yulang held his wine glass and clinked glasses as if he were an old friend: "I happen to be going to the mainland next year to discuss cooperation with CCTV."

For Huang Yulang, who wanted to break into the mainland market, building a good relationship with Zhou Yi was necessary.

Who doesn't know that CCTV especially favors Zhou Yi?

If he helps say a few good words in the future...

"If there's an opportunity, definitely."

Zhou Yi smiled, understanding in his heart.

The cooperation between Huang Yulang and CCTV was undoubtedly the future generation of comic adaptation masterpieces, "The Legend of the Divine Weapon Children."

Although they had embraced and reconciled openly, Ma Rongcheng's "The Storm Riders" series, their former rival, had been killing it in the mainland with films and TV dramas over the past few years, greatly increasing its influence; this was undoubtedly unbearable for Huang Yulang, so heading north to seek cooperation to expand his influence was inevitable.

For this, he brought out his classic representative work "The Legend of the Divine Weapon" that he had kept in reserve.

However, if he didn't remember wrong, the initial adaptation version of "The Legend of the Divine Weapon" was rejected by CCTV, and only later was it further modified into the record-breaking anime masterpiece "The Legend of the Divine Weapon Children."

One could only say that Huang Yulang really went all out to enter the mainland mainstream market.

"This Huang Yulang has a background that involves the underworld; you'd better not get too close to him. There are rumors in the Jianghu that Ma Rongcheng was suppressed by him back in the day."

After the dinner ended, Cai Zuoyan, who had had a bit to drink, took Zhou Yi's hand and returned to the hotel room; only after closing the door did she remind him.

Zhou Yi let out a sneer: "Saying that, among that batch of people in the Hong Kong entertainment circle back then, could ten people be found who weren't involved with the underworld?"

Cai Zuoyan: "..."

Damn! It seems what he said makes some sense.

"Although it's the truth, why does it sound like you're being sarcastic when you say it?" After thinking seriously and analyzing carefully, Cai Zuoyan still tasted some other flavor, feeling suspicious.

"How is that possible? You're just sick in the heart yourself."

Zhou Yi, having taken off his suit jacket, casually hung it on the back of the sofa, then threw himself directly onto the sofa, hands behind his head, twisting his waist contentedly: "If your heart is sick, you see everything as dirty; do you understand?"

"I call that shrewdness; not everyone has your ability to suppress everyone who disagrees with you, okay?"

Since there was no one else around, Cai Zuoyan dropped the act, and revealing her shrewd true nature actually gave her an unusual sense of ease when being with Zhou Yi.

Wearing a mask day after day for years had worn her out too.

"When I was little, I always felt I was the chosen one — I could do whatever I wanted and couldn't wait to grow up. But after growing up, I realized I think too much. If I weren't a little sharper, this circle would've eaten me alive long ago."

Simply plopping herself down on the living room carpet, Cai Zuoyan leaned against the sofa and mercilessly criticized the Hong Kong circle she depended on for survival: "If I had a choice, I'd regret growing up by now. I'd rather still be that dumb, silly kid from before."

Even her own father had become a stranger as she rose to fame, exploiting her celebrity to rake in money like crazy.

This year's Twins Hong Kong concert tickets were handled by her father's company, and he actually used every trick in the book — fan merchandise, printed tickets, scalping, issuing fake invoices — to pocket millions.

It was only because Emperor Entertainment Group's PR and crisis-management capabilities were second to none in the Hong Kong circle that the scandal was suppressed; otherwise it would've undoubtedly damaged Twins' pure-and-innocent image.

Zhou Yi, who was lying on his side on the sofa with one hand propping up his head, listening to Cai Zuoyan ramble, clicked his tongue and shook his head repeatedly.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's talk about your script instead, my young master."

Having vented a bit with the help of liquid courage, Cai Zuoyan shook her head, pulled the script she'd been looking after for him today from under the coffee table — very thin, just two pages.

It was Qian Jiang who had submitted it to the production side at Zhou Yi's request and asked them to revise it.

"You play a truck driver who's exhausted from a long haul. He'd just gotten off the truck, was about to rest, and even had a drink, when he got a call from the company telling him to get over there right now to pick up a shipment, so he had to grit his teeth and get back behind the wheel.

"And then, you run over and kill the father of Xiao Feng — the character played by Jiang Wen…"

…………………………

"Who the hell rewrote this script? Get Zhou Yi to play a truck driver? With his skill level — he can't even ride a tricycle without flipping it into a ditch???"

The very next morning, in Hong Kong for some event, Jiang Wen scoffed at the idea: "A stunt double? Without one, with his half-baked skills, can he even get behind the wheel?"