Chapter Ch66.1 - Big Boss
The car drove slowly through the street. Li Zhao saw Yan Ting staring at the cotton candy cart on the street and told the driver, “Master, stop by the side of the road ahead.”
The driver quickly stopped by the side of the road and Li Zhao whispered to Yan Ting, “Wait for me in the car.”
Li Zhao opened the door, got out of the car and moved. Yan Ting’s eyes moved with Li Zhao’s back as he watched Li Zhao run past pa.s.sersby, the figure gradually becoming blurred. Soon after, he saw Li Zhao holding two large things in his hand as he hurried back to the car.
The moment the door opened, a chill wrapped in a sweet fragrance floated into the car.
“Here you are.” Li Zhao divided the cotton candy with Yan Ting. “Try it?”
The cotton candy had no weight, like his childhood nihilism. Yan Ting had a memory since he was very young. He still remembered that in kindergarten, children sat together and said that the cotton candy they ate was as soft as a cloud. That day, he sat on the steps and stared at the sky for a long time, imagining what the white clouds would look like.
If he hadn’t seen the cotton candy stall on the street, he might not have remembered his childhood experience.
Yan Ting unwrapped the bag around the cotton candy and licked it lightly. It wasn’t as soft as he thought when he was young and it didn’t bring the feeling of flying. There was even the taste of the artificial flavouring.
“The cotton candy is made of white sugar.” Li Zhao tore off a piece of cotton candy with a clean bamboo stick and fed it to Yan Ting’s mouth. “Mine is strawberry flavoured. Try it.”
The first time Li Zhao ate cotton candy was when he was 10 years old. The uncle and aunt who sent him to the welfare home were worried he would be afraid on the way and bought him cotton candy.
He didn’t know how to eat it and just bit down. The icing covered his face and even his collar was sticky with sugar. He had been scared to death that the uncle and aunt would hit him. The aunt didn’t hit him. Rather, she gently helped him wipe his face and taught him to sing and tell stories.
At that time, he didn’t understand. As he got out of the car, he asked in a low voice if he could call her mother. The aunt cried very sadly. She kept nodding as she finally hugged him. The embrace was very warm—sweet and warm. Later, he came to understand that the aunt’s tears were of sympathy, heartache and kindness.
“It’s sweet.” The cotton candy wasn’t sweet but Yan Ting’s heart was sweet. Even he hadn’t known how much attention he had paid to the cotton candy cart but Zhao Zhao had discovered it.
“Zhao Zhao…”
“Eh?” LI Zhao looked up at Yan Ting, mouth stained with sugar.
“It’s nothing.” Yan Ting reached out and gently wiped the sugar stains on Li Zhao’s mouth. “Thank you.”
The little regret from his childhood was fulfilled here.
“It is just cotton candy. Why thank me?” Li Zhao laughed. “The person who should be thanking you is me.”
“Then we won’t say thank you.” Yan Ting withdrew his gaze and hid all the light in his eyes.
k2018;I don’t need any thanks from you, as long as you stay with me forever.’
Li Zhao subconsciously touched the corner of his mouth, a strange feeling that he couldn’t describe entering his heart.
Good brothers, good brothers, they were good brothers. A bit of intimacy between good brothers didn’t seem to be a problem?
After heating a hot pot meal where both the host and the guests enjoyed themselves, Yan Ting issued a few red envelopes in the ‘Family and Friends Love Each Other’ group before going to bed at night. The five people were as happy as on New Year’s Day.
In fact, Li Zhao also had a WeChat group called ‘Friendly Warm Warm Family’. In addition to him and his three friends, there was Chen Xiaojun’s girlfriend Lin Lin. Fortunately, he didn’t have a girlfriend or else Sister Xia might have to build a ‘Harmonious and Loving Family’ group.
After chatting with his friends for a while, Li Zhao fell asleep in a daze. The next day, he took Yan Ting running and ate breakfast together. Then he went to the company to take cla.s.ses.
As a well-known entertainment company in the industry, Strawberry Entertainment was like a spinning top. All teams controlled public opinion on the Internet for 24 hours a day, striving to solve various problems on the Internet for their artists.
Unlike the trainees in the company, Li Zhao enjoyed one-on-one teaching and even the practice room was for his exclusive use. After cla.s.s, Li Zhao saw many young men and women fashionably dressed in the public practice room.
“These are the newcomers in the company who have been training since early this year.” Da Ke brought water to Li Zhao and said, “They are taking the idol route.”
“They dance really well.” Li Zhao watched the practice seriously and sincerely praised. “It is hard to be a qualified idol.”
“There’s no way, the compet.i.tion is too fierce now.” Da Ke complained in a low voice. “On Zijia Entertainment’s side, they saw us training young idols and also started to follow.”
Fans who were as strong as iron and turnover idols, every entertainment company wanted to grab more fans and take over this market. On Strawberry Entertainment’s side, a variety of master level teachers were invited to teach these young idols. As for Zijia Entertainment’s side, its business ability hadn’t improved much but marketing had been bought everywhere.
Looking at the scenery on the surface, there was no plan in the future for those young idols.
“Forget it, don’t talk about this.” Da Ke took Li Zhao to the lounge. “Just now, I met Lu Hao’s a.s.sistant downstairs. Mr Lu Hao wants to invite you to lunch. Would you like to go?”
“Brother Hao is coming to the company today?” Li Zhao’s footsteps paused. “I’ll go and say h.e.l.lo to him.”
Lu Hao came here today to sign a contract with Strawberry Entertainment. The conditions that Strawberry Entertainment gave him were very generous and gave him great freedom. The conditions listed were more generous than he had expected.
“It is an honour for the company to be able to cooperate with Teacher Lu.” President Sun signed and shook hands with Lu Hao. “I wish you a happy cooperation.”
“Happy cooperation.” The two men shook hands and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
“Speaking of this, it is thanks to Zhao Zhao’s help that we can successfully sign Teacher Lu.” President Sun smiled gently. “Zhao Zhao often told us about how you took care of him in the crew. Thanks to this relationship, our company had the cheek to talk about cooperation with Teacher Lu. Fortunately, Teacher Lu was willing.”
“President Sun, you’re too polite. It is my blessing to be an entertainer of Strawberry.” Hearing President Sun’s words, Lu Hao understood that Strawberry Entertainment was willing to give him such favourable conditions due to the relationship between him and Li Zhao.
It had been spread outside that Strawberry Entertainment really valued the newcomer Li Zhao. In Lu Hao’s own opinion, this was more than valuing Li Zhao. This was simply treating him as Strawberry’s own son.
Lu Hao’s position in the circle hadn’t reached the point to make Strawberry Entertainment sincere. At the beginning, he couldn’t guarantee that Strawberry Entertainment would pay enough attention to him. Fortunately, he was in the crew and showed kindness to Li Zhao.
“Teacher Lu is too humble. Our company is very happy to sign a big actor like you. To welcome you, our company has decided to hold a media conference in three days.” President Sun once again shook hands with Lu Hao. “A good actor like you should have many appearances.”
Lu Hao and his last company had parted on friendly terms. Now that he signed to Strawberry Entertainment, the company was willing to hold a grand media conference for him. This was equivalent to showing him face. He definitely wouldn’t refuse.
“Thank you, President Sun. The company must be tired.”
“It is nice to be tired.” President Sun patted Lu Hao’s shoulder. “Let’s go have lunch together.”
“President Sun, it is unfortunate. Previously, I asked my a.s.sistant to contact Li Zhao to invite him to a meal at lunch…”
“Zhao Zhao is also in the company today?” President Sun’s smile became even brighter. “That’s really great. Let’s go to lunch together.”
Lu Hao felt that after hearing Li Zhao was in the company, President Sun’s eyes seemed to glow. Li Zhao originally intended to invite Lu Hao to a meal. He hadn’t expected President Sun to personally find him and invited him to eat with Lu Hao in an unusually warm manner. Seeing that President Sun was so insistent, Li Zhao had to agree.
Ah, he accidentally saved some lunch money.
Entering the restaurant, Lu Hao saw the kindness of the big boss of Strawberry Entertainment.
“Zhao Zhao, is there anything to avoid?”
“The red wine here is good. Do you want to try a bit?”
“You don’t drink? It is better for young people not to drink.”
Seeing the enthusiasm of President Sun and a.s.sistant Cao toward Li Zhao, Lu Hao felt that he had made some mistakes in his judgment just now. Li Zhao wasn’t the son of Strawberry Entertainment, he was more like their father.
He secretly had doubts in his heart. President Sun was a person in the entertainment industry who could make countless big names afraid just by stomping his foot. How could he be so polite to Li Zhao? Was this old fox trying to please Li Zhao or to please a big person behind Li Zhao?
Look at Li Zhao, who was happily enjoying even the pre-meal side dishes sent by the restaurant. He really didn’t look like he had a backstage. In the circle of actors with a big background, who wasn’t held by a big director or a big producer?
Li Zhao didn’t have the qualifications to partic.i.p.ate in a star drama. In these days, the crew honestly filmed and no one came to discuss changing or adding scenes with the male lead.
Finally, he picked up a movie resource that might be a poisonous cake. It was said that the theme was an alien science fiction movie. Domestic alien sci-fi movies could be roughly divided into two categories: one was rotten to the extreme and the other wasn’t too bad. Was this a movie that an actor with a big background would take?
Only the endors.e.m.e.nt of the Cangshi watch seemed like it came from a big background. However, Cang Huan’s senior executives had publicly expressed their appreciation of Li Zhao in a TV program so Lu Hao felt that Li Zhao got this endors.e.m.e.nt with his personal charm.
Even he felt that Li Zhao was the most likeable young actor in his generation.
“I heard Luo Rong say that your new movie is about to start?” President Sun asked. “The company has arranged a special makeup artist and hair stylist for you. Take them with you when you enter the crew.”
“President Sun, there is a makeup artist in the crew…”
“How can that be? Your current popularity means that if you don’t have an exclusive makeup artist, you’ll be laughed at by your peers.” President Sun laughed. “You just have to be at ease and film. The other things will be solved by the company.”
“President Sun is right.” Lu Hao raised his gla.s.s and touched it to Li Zhao’s gla.s.s. “In your current position, if you don’t have enough followers then others will think you aren’t valued by the company and they will bully you unscrupulously.”
“Thank you, President Sun.” Li Zhao eventually agreed.