Chapter 41: Stimulation

"This one of Joey Wong looks good."

"That one suits you; I like this short-haired look of Maggie Cheung, it looks refreshing..."

When Di Ye walked into the video rental shop, he found Xia Fangfei and Huang Ya sitting side-by-side behind the counter, studying the hairstyles of female stars in a brochure. The "shura field" he had anticipated did not appear, so he chuckled and asked, "What is it, are you two going to get haircuts?"

"Not cutting, just looking around."

Xia Fangfei walked out from behind the counter, took Di Ye's arm, and said, "Huang Ya, I'm leaving first, I'll come find you again tomorrow."

Huang Ya gave a hum, closed the brochure, and waved her hand in response, "See you tomorrow."

Seeing the two acting like good best friends, as if nothing had ever happened, Di Ye also pretended to be nonchalant and said to Huang Ya, "Find someone to be on duty here tomorrow morning; you come with me to Tianma Cinema to discuss the opening on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year."

"Okay."

After leaving the rental shop, Xia Fangfei heard that her brother had gone to see *Red Sorghum*, and suggested with great interest, "Di Ye, we've never watched a movie together, let's go see one too."

Di Ye had never watched a movie in an old-fashioned 90s cinema and wanted to experience it, so he asked, "Where do you want to go?"

Having studied in Yuncheng for four years, Xia Fangfei was already half a local, so she said familiarly, "Tianma Cinema is too old. Let's go to Hui Guang Cinema; it was renovated the year before last, the sound equipment is newer, and the chairs are comfortable to sit in."

"Sure."

Hui Guang Cinema was located on Qingyun Road. Its exterior featured a large curved glass curtain wall, which looked very stylish in 1995, but the interior remained the old-fashioned cinema layout, with only one screening hall that could accommodate over 800 people.

Di Ye and Xia Fangfei had dinner first before going to buy tickets, only to find that most of the 6:30 PM tickets had already been sold, leaving only a few seats in the corners.

"How about we buy the 8:20 tickets?"

"That show is too late, we'd have to wait a long time. Let's just buy these."

Di Ye sneakily bought two tickets in the back corner. After the movie started, Xia Fangfei saw the couples around them all snuggled up together, so she followed suit, abandoned her own seat, and sat on one chair while embracing Di Ye, whispering in his ear, "No wonder cinemas are always a dating hotspot; this is really exciting."

"You came here specifically for the excitement, not to watch the movie, right?"

"Of course. I don't like watching these action movies; I just wanted to experience the feeling of a date."

Even so, the lighthearted and humorous plot in the first half of *Red Sorghum* still captured Xia Fangfei's attention. After watching intently for over ten minutes, she suddenly felt something was off, turned her head to look at Di Ye, and asked in a low voice, "Why are you being so well-behaved? You haven't even made a move."

"Because I'm very scared."

Di Ye put on the appearance of a gentleman who remains unmoved in the face of temptation and told a story: "There was a big gray wolf who caught two little white rabbits and brought them home. Then, the two little white rabbits played right under his nose without any sign of fear. Would the big gray wolf suspect that these two little white rabbits aren't actually little white rabbits?"

Xia Fangfei covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled, "If they aren't little white rabbits, what are they?"

"Tigresses."

"Do we look like tigresses?"

"If you were like tigresses, would I dare to catch you and bring you home?"

Xia Fangfei felt this topic was more interesting than the movie. She adjusted her sitting posture, turned her back to the screen, hooked her arms around Di Ye's neck, and said, "Then guess what we two tigresses want to do?"

"I don't know what you want to do, but I know what you want."

Di Ye lowered his head and kissed Xia Fangfei's earlobe, probing, "You want an exciting and thrilling life, while Huang Ya wants a peaceful and stable life, so you don't interfere with each other, right?"

Xia Fangfei's body was very sensitive; she went limp after being kissed, completely losing all resistance, and confessed, "How do you know everything?"

Having probed their mindsets, Di Ye quit while he was ahead and stopped asking. He looked up at the big screen and said, "I saw you were quite into playing the female secretary this afternoon. Do you want to act in a movie?"

"No, I like playing different identities in reality. Movies are all acted out according to a script; it's too fake and not fun."

"Then do you want to be a female con artist?"

"I just like the freshness that comes from switching identities; it doesn't necessarily mean I have to scam people."

This special hobby of Xia Fangfei's made Di Ye's heart race. He instantly thought of many wild ideas, so he couldn't hold back anymore and whispered, "Let's go back to the hotel and continue yesterday's topic: researching what kind of behavior can trigger your sense of freshness."

"Mm."

The next morning, when Xia Jianwu saw Di Ye in the buffet breakfast hall of the Sihai International Hotel, he teased, "Brother, you look a bit wilted. You need to exercise more, otherwise, watch out for my sister stepping out on you."

While eating a tea egg to replenish protein, Di Ye retorted, "You're a brother, is it appropriate to say such lewd things?"

Xia Jianwu held a cup of soy milk and said calmly, "Your mind is too active; you don't look like a loyal person at all. Since you can flirt around, then of course my sister can step out on you too."

Di Ye looked Xia Jianwu up and down. Seeing that this guy had delicate features and a good appearance, and thinking of his outgoing and glib personality—the type of refined scoundrel popular with women—he countered, "You're just projecting your own suspicions. You aren't loyal yourself, so everyone looks disloyal to you."

"No, I'm very loyal."

Hearing this, Di Ye remembered an internet joke from before he transmigrated and said with a smile, "Your so-called loyalty means only sleeping with one woman at a time, right?"

Xia Jianwu choked on his soy milk, put down the cup, leaned forward, and said with the look of someone who had found a kindred spirit, "How did you know? I really don't like one-to-many; there's no privacy and I can't let go."

Di Ye had only been joking and didn't expect to trigger Xia Jianwu to expose himself. He couldn't help but tease, "You're hiding it well. Fangfei always says you're particularly upright, that you're 25 and have never even dated, that you're a virgin."

Xia Jianwu shook his head and laughed, annoyed, "My little sister is the apple of our family's eye. She's been protected too well and is very naive, which is why she was easily tricked by you. If I had known, I should have taught her some anti-scam knowledge back then."

"It wouldn't have helped even if you taught her, because I didn't trick your sister; I'm just too outstanding."

"Can you have some shame?"

Just then, Xia Fangfei walked into the restaurant wearing a bright red trench coat, looking radiant. She came to the table where Di Ye and Xia Jianwu were sitting and asked with a smile, "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing much."

The two coughed in unison and then began to discuss the morning's schedule with a straight face. When they heard that the rental shop near Chenghuang Temple needed someone on duty, Xia Jianwu was very interested and volunteered to be a shop clerk for a day to investigate the potential of the VCD rental market.

Xia Fangfei was not interested in the rental business or shop renovations and had made plans to go out with two classmates. Di Ye then dropped Xia Jianwu off at Chenghuang Temple, picked up Huang Ya, and went to Youdian Residential Quarter to pick up Lu Hanming, preparing to set up the flagship rental store at Tianma Cinema.

"Has Uncle Fan been to the shop to check on things these past two days?"

"No, he took his wife and kids to his father-in-law's place in Jiangcheng; he probably won't be back until the eighth."

"That's good. How much money is in the accounts now?"

"As of 7 PM last night, 512 VCD Players have been delivered, at 2,500 each, totaling 614,000; there are 847 VIP Members, with membership fees and deposits totaling 200 each, for a total of 169,400; there are 10 Golden Members, with membership fees totaling 18,000; plus some miscellaneous customers..."

Huang Ya managed the accounts very clearly, reciting the data item by item, and finally summarized, "After deducting the 100,000 that Bi Wanxi spent going to Guangdong Province to buy discs, and after deducting the rent for the flagship store, there is a total of 1,399,100 yuan."

"In just these few days, we actually made over a million?"

"Not over a million. The VCD Players are calculated by sales price, and Uncle Fan and your dad haven't come to collect the money yet, so that's an extra 660,000."

Di Ye nodded slightly and said, "Try to drag it out until the end of the month before settling accounts with Uncle Fan and my dad."

Huang Ya couldn't help but laugh and said, "You're even misappropriating your own dad's money?"

"His money is my money, what does it matter if I misappropriate a little?"

Di Ye drove the Audi to the Youdian Residential Quarter; he didn't rush to find Lu Hanming, but instead parked the car in a secluded spot, unbuckled his seatbelt, reviewed the stamping technique with Huang Ya, and then asked directly: "Did you and Xia Fangfei reach some kind of agreement?"

"Mm, she accompanies you to travel all over the world, and I accompany you and your parents in Yuncheng."

Although Di Ye had guessed this division of labor last night, he was still somewhat moved; he held Huang Ya's hand and promised: "I guarantee you that no other woman will come to Yuncheng to disturb our life in the future."

"I believe you."