Chapter 64: Lu Kuan's High School Fan

Liu Yifei hopped into the room: "Your girlfriend has left, aren't you going to chase after her?"

Lu Kuan was so choked by her words that smoke practically puffed from his nostrils; was she cursing him?

"Don't talk nonsense, which eye of yours saw her as my girlfriend!"

He stood up again, walked to the door, looked left and right, and then left the door wide open.

"Let me teach you a good rule: don't just enter other people's rooms on set, especially a director's room."

Liu Yifei said disdainfully, "Pfft! My phone is already set to 110, want to try touching me?"

"Would it kill you to smoke less? You nicotine addict!"

Liu Yifei covered her nose, opened all the windows, and looked at the overflowing ashtray of cigarette butts with disgust.

She immediately looked at his decadent appearance and said with contempt, "Can't you pull yourself together? So what if your girlfriend ran off?"

Boss Lu chuckled: "How am I supposed to pull myself together? Why don't you find me another one?"

Liu Yifei did not continue the turn-based banter with him; she pursed her lips, a look of hesitation appearing on her face. She did not know if she should say it.

"Lu... Lu Kuan."

"Yeah?"

"Don't you find it strange?"

"What?"

"Don't you find it strange that my mother didn't come with me?"

Boss Lu had just been about to habitually pull out his lighter, but he put it back down with a dejected look.

"She went to find your godfather, and maybe Zhang Jizhong too, to talk about me buying shares in Red Star Dock, right?"

A thunderclap seemed to explode in Liu Yifei's mind; she stared at the young man before her as if looking at a monster.

"You... how did you know? Did you calculate it again?"

"The entertainment industry is a jungle; the winner takes all, and the loser is left with nothing. It's perfectly normal for them to look for other paths."

Hearing him speak so bluntly, Liu Yifei felt a burning pain on her face; after all, that was her management agency.

Lu Kuan smiled: "Why that expression? Are you reluctant to see me go?"

"In your dreams!" The self-reproach she had been brewing was completely ruined by him, and Liu Yifei stood up, wanting to return to her room.

She had come to tip Lu Kuan off, but since he already knew everything, there was nothing left to say.

Lu Kuan saw her to the door: "Go back to the *Family of Gold* set and finish filming your remaining scenes; wait for my notification before coming back."

"Can I still come back?"

The young girl was already filled with worry.

In her naivety, she could not imagine how Lu Kuan could possibly turn the tables at this point.

"Old Ning, can we still come back?"

The cameraman Xiao Qian from the Youth Film Studio said goodbye to Ning Hao; although they hadn't spent much time together, he still cherished such a work opportunity.

From the director's familiarity with professional skills like lighting and cinematography to the Hollywood-style shooting standards that even their Factory Director Qiu praised, everyone believed this young director was not undeserving of his position.

Perhaps the only flaw was that he was too young and lacked any impressive credentials, leading to the frustration of a scholar meeting soldiers when encountering this bunch of arrogant and unruly people from Xiangjiang.

"Go back and rest for a few days, tell everyone to wait for notice!"

Others might not be clear on it, but Ning Hao had absolute confidence in Lu Kuan.

To prevent any mishaps, Lu Kuan specifically arranged for the cameraman Ning Hao to collect evidence every day, providing all evidentiary materials, including recordings, to the police, and demanding that the other party be held legally responsible for picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

Doing this early would have been useless; if Zhang Tianshuo wasn't kept in check and made to fear the consequences, catching one batch would only lead to another. Cockroaches can never be killed off completely.

Lu Kuan had just hung up the phone with Anita Mui; the Xiangjiang circle was small, so it was no surprise she learned of this immediately.

Lu Kuan had declined her kind offer to mediate; she was merely an artist at the top of her game, and while she had some face in the circle, she was still too weak to stand up against Xiangjiang bigwigs like Emperor Group's Li Shoucheng.

He had his own plans; by not letting Anita Mui get involved in this storm now, Xie Tingfeng would have no face to go and beg her for mercy when he settled the score in victory.

That would be the time for him to beat the dog in the water!

The bustling Jingcheng was lit up as night fell, and various forces were secretly exerting their strength and competing, brewing an even greater storm.

On the morning of May 20, 2002, in front of a newsstand at the Beijing No. 11 School, a thin boy riding a bicycle braked, skidded, and came to a stop.

"Master, give me a copy of the *Beijing Entertainment News* and a copy of the *China Film News*."

"Little Zhang, you're already late, and you're still buying newspapers?"

"Hey! I'm already late anyway, might as well read the paper and go eat a bowl of stewed offal, what's the rush?"

The boy pulled out a handful of loose change without counting it, threw it all on the newspaper stand, and rode off.

"Hey! You gave too much!"

"Keep it! Use it for next time!"

The old woman, suffering from a serious illness, sat in her wheelchair and sighed: "This child is kind-hearted; every time he says 'use it for next time,' but he's said that so many times now."

The old man was also moved: "It's a pity; both adults in his family divorced, and he's all alone, with no one even to make him breakfast."

"What a good child."

Little Zhang found a breakfast stall and wolfed down his food, shaking open the newspaper as he ate.

A piece of news stunned him.

"Young Director Lu Kuan's Production Hits a Snag, Three Xiangjiang Leads Propose Contract Termination"

"Damn it! This is too bullying!"

He refused to admit he was a fan of Lu Kuan; he had only watched the live recording of that song, *Heart of a Dream-Chasing Red Child*, dozens of times, that's all.

Because admitting to being a fan of Lu Kuan was too embarrassing; at school, there were those who liked Liu Dehua, those who liked Xie Tingfeng, and those who liked Zhang Guorong.

Who was Lu Kuan? People wouldn't even recognize the name if he said it.

It was only in the last two months that he seemed to have just emerged, his name appearing frequently in media and newspapers, and mostly linked to second-tier stars.

Things like helping Fan Bingbing write a song or participating in the casting for Zhang Jizhong's *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils*; he had no status at all.

It wasn't until a while ago, when he formed a crew as a director with a ten-million-yuan investment, that he finally gained some real fame in the domestic entertainment industry; after all, in this era, anyone who dared to take out real money to make a movie was a warrior.

Coal bosses with good character and lots of money were not included in this category.

Little Zhang couldn't see the truth from the newspaper, and feeling an itch he couldn't scratch, he rode his bike straight to an internet cafe he frequented; he wanted to check Tianya and Mop.

At this time, the Blue Speed internet cafe fire hadn't happened yet, so minors could easily log on and open the forums.

In this era, if an entertainment enthusiast wanted to find some fun, they generally had these two bases; Tianya was positioned slightly more high-end, focusing on serious and lively entertainment, while Mop was purely for a laugh.

Little Zhang entered the keywords, and the posts were already countless, with many having grown into massive threads.

"Ding ding ding!" The young man's phone rang, and he answered it directly without paying attention, not expecting it to be his father, Zhang Jian.

"Zhang Ruoyun! Where did you run off to, you little brat? Your teacher has already called me!"

(End of chapter)