Chapter 24 - Cliff
Unfortunately, Da Ke’s heart collapsed but he failed to stop Li Zhao’s selfie. He despairing looked over and barely maintained a polite smile. “Zhao Zhao’s foundation is so good that any photo shot would be beautiful.”
Li Zhao’s facial features were good plus his skin was in great shape. The angle of this selfie was bad but it was still good-looking. Fans saw this selfie with no filters or photoshop, even the angle was very casual, and guessed this was taken by Li Zhao himself.
“My baby is really a born beauty. He looks so good despite the terrible selfie angle. I can, I really can.”
“There is no double chin at this angle. Husband, for you, I am willing to eat less rice.”
“Zhang Xiaoyuan, come out to die. Why haven’t you taught the baby to take a selfie?”
“Surely Zhang Xiaoyuan didn’t deliberately let the baby shoot like this so that we will no longer like Baby. Then he will take Baby home to open a noodle restaurant?”
“Zhang Xiaoyuan, you heartless dog!”
“Zhang Xiaoyuan, forget it. Even if my Baby takes a selfie where his face is turned into a pumpkin, I will continue to like him. Please roll out of the entertainment industry alone.”
The excitement of the entertainment industry had no effect on those who didn’t follow celebrities. Special a.s.sistant Qin had half a day of leave to help his family. Once he returned to the company, the atmosphere of the a.s.sistant department was a bit strange.
“Boss.” The a.s.sistant took out a bag of something with colourful wrapping. “Do you want to have one?”
Special a.s.sistant Qin looked stunned. Why did this look the same as the gift Li Zhao had given him?
“Corporate benefits?” Special a.s.sistant Qin asked. He wondered when the company had arranged such benefits.
“It seems you don’t know.” The a.s.sistant lowered his voice. “This morning, the boss’ bodyguard brought it. It is said to be a gift from the boss’ friend.”
“Since it was given by the boss’ friend, you should keep it safe.” Special a.s.sistant Qin stated. “This heart is too rare.”
“Right? The boss’ friend is very kind. He went out to play and brought something back for us.”
“This type of natural food is good for the body when eaten. The boss’ friend must be a person with good taste.”
Everyone rushed to give praise. They might’ve never seen or heard of the big boss’ friend before but since the boss specifically arranged for the bodyguard to bring things over, it indicated that the friend had a great status in the boss’ mind. Thus, it was right to give praise.
As the a.s.sistants of Yan Ting’s company were frantically praising Li Zhao, Zhang Xiaoyuan was looking at Weibo and found that he was being scolded again. He didn’t do anything.
“Are you being scolded?” Luo Rong handed the planning book to Zhang Xiaoyuan before taking a drink from the refrigerator. He threw it at Zhang Xiaoyuan with the mentality of comforting the other person. “As a mature agent, you should learn to endure scoldings. The more popular an artist, the more the agent will be scolded. If you can’t endure it, just think about the money in your bank card and you’ll let it go.”
“Thank you.” Zhang Xiaoyuan smiled bitterly. “I’m not angry. I just have a psychological shadow regarding the words ‘open a noodle store’.”
“Today, I came to find you to discuss Zhao Zhao’s development route.” Luo Rong watched Zhang Xiaoyuan’s face.”I think you can see that the company wants to focus on developing Zhao Zhao.”
Zhang Xiaoyuan took a sip and placed the drink on the table. “Brother Luo, I might be known as Zhao Zhao’s agent but he is the child I grew up watching. I personally hope that when the company arranges Zhao Zhao’s development route, it can respect Zhao Zhao’s personal choices as much as possible.
“Please rest a.s.sured that the company won’t discourage Zhao Zhao.” Luo Rong had several first-tier artists under his hands. Thus, once the company arranged for him to work as an executive person for a new person, he thought that Li Zhao was a senior person of the company.
However, through his observation of Li Zhao and Zhang Xiaoyuan, neither of them seemed to have a high background. Was it really that Li Zhao’s ability was so valued by senior management that they arranged for him to come here?
“Zhao Zhao’s facial features are outstanding and appealing to viewers. This is conducive to building a fan base for him.” Luo Rong folded his arms over his chest. “However, this isn’t enough. As an artist, he needs a better sense of the lends, fashion sense and expression management. I have decided to arrange teachers for him in these regards. Do you have any comments?”
Zhang Xiaoyuan wasn’t a fool. He knew that these arrangements were really good for Li Zhao. Previously, they had no money and contacts. Even if he wanted to ask teachers to teach Zhao Zhao, he couldn’t contact any professional teachers. Now that Strawberry Entertainment took the initiative to mention these things, he happily agreed.
“Mr Ting, Li Zhao is a rare good actor. The company has arranged teachers to give lessons to him while he is in the crew and he has made rapid progress. Every teacher praises his talent.” The president of Strawberry Entertainment took the initiative to call Yan Ting and talk about the company’s arrangements for Li Zhao. Yan Ting responded casually.
Once President Sun hung up, his a.s.sistant Cao Jia wondered, “Boss, Mr Ting’s att.i.tude is so cold and he doesn’t seem to value Li Zhao very much. Did we get it wrong? Perhaps Mr Ting’s a.s.sistant really did just talk casually.”
“You are still very young.” President Sun smiled and drank from his teacup. “It is usually very difficult to talk to a person like Yan Ting on the phone. Yet today, he listened to me for so long. Doesn’t this show how much he values Li Zhao?”
“Our Strawberry Entertainment has so many big names yet Yan Ting didn’t mention them, only Li Zhao. If this isn’t considered as special then what is special?” President Sun gave a mysterious smile. “What did Yan Ting say when he mentioned Li Zhao to me?”
“What did he say?”
“Li Zhao, that child.” President Sun explained. “A 20 year old boy is called a child by Yan Ting. This isn’t a normal statement.”
“There are so many ways.” Cao Jia suddenly smiled. “President Sun, you are so strong. I couldn’t hear so many meanings from his words.”
“Okay, you heard these words but don’t spread them.” President Sun looked seriously. “I’m afraid that Mr Ting will come to our company to find trouble for his child.”
“Ting Ting!” After a day of shooting and one hour of etiquette cla.s.ses, Li Zhao lay on the bed after taking a bath.
On the phone screen, the silhouette of Yan Ting working could be seen. Hearing Li Zhao call for him, Yan Ting stopped tapping on the keyboard and looked over. “Hmm?”
“I’m dying.” Li Zhao held a pillow and lay weakly. “I didn’t expect you to be working so late. You are still working overtime at night.”
“You don’t want to shoot?”
“That’s not it,” Li Zhao said. “At first, I just wanted to make money. Then I thought about how people like my role and became very happy.”
“Actually…” Li Zhao lowered his voice and put his face in front of the phone screen. “I have a small idea in my heart.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t seem to have told you. Do you know that I grew up in an orphanage?” Li Zhao scratched his head with a bit of embarra.s.sment.
Yan Ting gazed at Li Zhao and opened his mouth after a long time. “No.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Li Zhao shifted the topic. “I’ll say the important thing.”
“Do you think my real parents will see me on TV?” Li Zhao’s hair was still wet and he looked very good as he lay on the bed. “I was very good as a child. No one taught me after school but I still got first place in my cla.s.s.”
“I used to think that my parents accidentally lost me and have been looking for me all these years. I might look like my parents or I might look like my grandparents. Perhaps when they see me on TV, they will lament that their lost child should’ve grown up to be as handsome as this boy on TV.”
Li Zhao spoke these words and laughed. “In any case, anything is possible.”
Yan Ting was silent as he watched the happily laughing child on the screen. He wondered if Li Zhao had thought that perhaps his parents never looked for him, perhaps his birth wasn’t expected so he was abandoned by his parents.
However, Yan Ting couldn’t say this in front of the bright smile. “They will be proud of you.”
“That’s not true.” Li Zhao yawned. “Ting Ting, I’ll go to bed first. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” After this, he pulled the quilt over his body and lay down sleepily, not even disconnecting the video.
“Li Zhao, Zhao… Zhao?” Yan Ting looked at the sleeping child and reached out to disconnect the video. Then once his eyes fell on the other person’s soft hair, he stopped his movements.
Perhaps it was because the child was sleeping so soundly that Yan Ting felt a rare sleepiness. He held his mobile phone in his hand and left the study. Yan Ting put it on his bedroom cabinet, turned around to take out another phone and called Special a.s.sistant Qin.
“How has the lost children’s gene bank project been in recent years?”
Special a.s.sistant Qin was surprised when he received the phone call. The boss usually had no interest in anything, like he wasn’t born with the most basic feelings. The left and death of others had never been able to impress the boss.
“The progress is limited due to limited funding.”
“I will provide financial a.s.sistance in a private capacity.” Yan Ting went to the window and looked out into the darkness. “Arrange it as soon as possible.”
“Okay, Sir.” Special a.s.sistant Qin hung up and excitedly called Dr Sun, his tone high. “Dr Sun, the boss has taken the initiative to help others! Is this a sign that his condition is improving?!”
Dr Sun spoke calmly, “Mr Qin, don’t get excited. First, we need to find out whether Mr Ting’s behaviour is due to compa.s.sion or if it is to help a specific person.”
“What’s the difference?” Special a.s.sistant Qin didn’t understand. Even if it was for a specific person, it was a good thing.
“Who can guarantee that this specific person will stay with Mr Ting for the rest of his life?” Dr Sun sighed. “For a person who has no desire to live, the most terrible thing is when he decides to live well only for the person keeping him alive to leave him.”
“it is like pushing a man who is standing on the edge of a cliff, ensuring he will never live again.”
Special a.s.sistant Qin’s face was white with fright. “Then should I find a way to keep that person away?”
Dr Sun shook his head. “Mr Qin, even if Mr Ting is ill, we shouldn’t affect his right to make friends. It isn’t fair to his friend or Mr Ting.”
“I see.” After a moment of contemplation, Special a.s.sistant Qin could only nod helplessly. How good would it be if that person could pull the boss away from the edge of the cliff?
The author has something to say:
Zhao Zhao: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, where is my friend?
Baby Ting raised his hand: Here!