ROAMS – Chapter 26

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Chapter 26 – New Owner

Two weeks later, the first official photographs from Beyond Gold and Jade were posted on the internet.

In the main character Li ChuanQing’s standalone photos, Bai Lang was wearing a tailor’s work uniform and he also had a tape measure around his neck.

His eyes were downcast and there was a light smile on his face. There was a bright light which shone onto one side of his face, however this left a contrasting shadow on the other. It hinted that underneath the main character’s quiet smile there were turbulent feelings hidden. With the addition of the loose shirt which was tucked into fitting suit pants, this angle made Bai Lang’s waist and neckline look very long and seductive. Within his elegant appearance there was a hint of sensuality. These oddities made him look even more beautiful and fascinating.

Zhu Kuan successfully used these contrasts and juxtapositions to imbue the images with a strong sense of feelings. From this, his style 10 years later could already be seen. Thus, under Zhu Kuan’s camera, Bai Lang’s image became much more multi-layered and complex than it was previously. 

When the images were published, it immediately became a hot discussion topic among Bai Lang’s fans. Most of the fans expressed they liked it very much, however there were also those who said they missed Bai Lang’s previous warm and family-friendly appearance. Luckily those in the former outnumbered those in the latter. Bai Lang guessed that UNI’s advertisement had also helped pave the way for this change, otherwise based on his past life, he remembered how many obstacles he faced when trying to change his image after Partners.

However Bai Lang actually forgot that after his rebirth, although he was in the body of a 24 year old young person, his everyday actions and dress had already lost the immaturity of a youth. Even in the incident with the photos at the supermarket, the face that Bai Lang had shown the world was that of gentleness mixed with maturity.

Fang Hua also probably had been affected by this. So when Bai Lang attended meet and greet sessions or during promotional activities, the styling she arranged for him reflected his own personal poise, and so his image was that of someone who had matured early and was elegant and sensible. This helped a long way in rounding out Bai Lang’s strong initial impression in Partners.

After three months, Gold had finished approximately two-thirds of its filming. The speed was very fast.

However Bai Lang had been carefully observing the issue of funding this whole time but he hadn’t found any clues yet.

By contrast Zhu Kuan, who was not good at hiding things, had been extremely cheerful as of late.

Bai Lang felt this was a bit odd and so taking advantage of the lunch break, he couldn’t help asking.

“Director Zhu seems to be in a good mood recently. Has something good happened?”

On that day, both Zhu Kuan and Que QiMing were surrounding Bai Lang and his plentiful lunch box. So Bai Lang had an opportunity to casually ask this question.

By this time Zhu Kuan and Bai Lang had already become closer. He didn’t hesitate to use his chopsticks to take a third piece of meat wrapped around asparagus. He stuffed it in his mouth and chewed loudly. “Something good really did happen, haha. During the new year I was actually a bit troubled but I didn’t expect that someone would suddenly stuff a pillow under my head as I slept {T/N: Means unexpected help came}. I can’t believe Old Zhao and I actually encountered something like this. Our fortune must be too good.”

“Old Zhao” was his friend Zhao JingXuan, who was the small boss of a textile company who had invited Zhu Kuan back into the country.

Bai Lang immediately stopped eating. Since he had mentioned Old Zhao, then it definitely had something to do with the funding.

He didn’t think that today his casual question would actually yield an answer. Was the incident about to happen?

Que QiMing was also curious. He smiled and said, “Give us some hints Director Zhu so we can be happy as well ah.”

Zhu Kuan’s pudgy face was wrinkled from smiling so much. He said in a pleased manner, “It’s okay to tell you now. Things are already set and won’t change. So I’m no longer afraid it will affect your mood when filming.”

“Affect our mood?” Bai Lang’s heart leapt. He didn’t care about looking suspicious anymore and immediately asked, “Could it be that the funding ran into a problem?”

Surprise flashed through Zhu Kuan’s face. “Wow, that’s amazing. How did you guess straight away? Or is that you got wind of it before?”

Que QiMing was also shocked. He said with a grave expression, “If there’s a problem with funding then Director Zhu you really need to let us know the details carefully.”

Based on Que QiMing’s long experience, he knew that one of the primary problems that could arise with a movie funded/owned by industry outsiders was that the investment might dry up.

If the owner’s experience was not enough and the team did not cooperate well, then it was very easy to exceed the budget. Then the shortfall would have to be made up. At this time it would be difficult to find a new investor. After all, the movie had already been shot halfway and had already taken shape. It would be difficult to meet a new investor’s requirements to obtain their funding. And if the shortfall couldn’t be made up, then there was a high chance the entire production would wind up being cancelled.

Because Zhu Kuan had carefully planned and tried to save money throughout Gold, the situation should already be good. However, it was still Zhu Kuan’s first time filming a movie in China. It was his first time getting to know the location, logistics, equipment, pre and post editing requirements, etc. So of course there would be many unexpected costs.

Zhu Kuan saw these two people’s faces had changed and was a bit annoyed at himself. He smacked his own mouth. “Aiya, my wife always says that when I’m too smug I say the wrong thing. She’s not wrong.” He came closer and lowered his voice. “Don’t spread it outside, although everything is okay now, however I don’t want to affect other people’s mood when working.”

Bai Lang immediately said. “Of course we won’t. However is there anything we can help with? Director Zhu, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Zhu Kuan didn’t see the genuine panic Bai Lang felt and instead patted his chest and said in a reassuring manner. “Don’t worry, this is your first movie and it’s also mine. You and Old Que have also somehow managed to grasp and express many things that I wanted to show but don’t know how to say. It’s really like the Gods are on our side. No matter what, I will definitely complete this movie well….”

“Then exactly what is the situation that Director Zhu was talking about?” Bai Lang asked the follow up question immediately.

“Ai, it’s to do with Old Zhao. Old Zhao’s family has a few factories which are being managed by their relatives. During the new year that group of relatives, young and old, all didn’t go back to their hometown and couldn’t be contacted. After the new year when they went to check the company, they found that they had embezzled all the money from those factories and run away. A total of 4-5million. Some of them were prepaid fees for goods that hadn’t been delivered yet.  Old Zhao was troubled to death. And the elders in his family refused to allow him to notify the police. He had no choice but to move funds from the other factories but it really was a big problem getting the money around. So the old people in his family told him to cut us off first.”

“And then?” Bai Lang asked and at the same time he was calculating in his heart how much he would be able to help.

The series of books went on the market last year in November. Now it has already been four months. When Bai Lang had gone on the web forums to check, he saw that the first books had come out the same time as the holiday season and had achieved a very beautiful sales number.

If he sold the copyright now, then compared to in the future when the sales of the books should amount to around several tens of millions, he would get much less for it. However even now what he had purchased for 2.3 million should be able to be sold for 3-4 million without any problem.

However he didn’t expect to hear Zhu Kuan say joyfully, “What are you panicking about? The truth is someone actually voluntarily contacted Old Zhao to ask if he could cooperate in investing in the movie. The timing is too much of a coincidence, it really scared me to death. Also the investor doesn’t have any special requirements for the role or the script. They just said they saw the photos from the opening ceremony and the information on plot, and thought that the material was interesting.” 

Bai Lang’s face was shocked.. This was an event that had never happened in his past life. Was it the butterfly effect again? “So the investment is already confirmed? They won’t change their mind?”

“Haha, little brother you really looked even more worried than me.” Zhu Kuan slapped Bai Lang’s shoulders heartily. “Everything is resolved. The contract has already been signed. The other person also paid the large half of the amount already, extremely quick and efficiently. The shortfall has already been taken care of. And the new investor’s budget outline seems to be much more accurate than Old Zhao’s. From now on we don’t need to worry about money, hahaha.” Every time he got happy he really became careless. Right now his laughter was very loud and definitely showed Zhu Kuan forgot to suppress his voice.

“So good?” Bai Lang frowned.

Que QiMing, sitting beside Bai Lang, didn’t have his suspicious personality. After all, looking for investors for a movie was a normal occurrence. Although trying to find one halfway through filming really was more difficult. So Que QiMing looked relieved. He smiled and said, “So it seems like we have a new owner. Can you disclose who it is?”

“If I tell you, you guys will definitely get a fright,” Zhu Kuan told them, playfully swinging his chopsticks. “Our new owner is from the famous and powerful Hong family in the capital.”

When Bai Lang heard that his heart gave a shocked thump.

***

After he finished filming that day, Bai Lang returned to the apartment and felt that his head was swimming in a daze.

Although Zhu Kuan had as usual arranged a tightly packed schedule of shooting that afternoon, Bai Lang still hadn’t recovered from the fright he had gotten at lunch.

Because he didn’t believe at all that the intervention of the Hong family, or that is to say Hong Yu, was by pure coincidence.

Judging by what Qiu Qian had told him about Hong Yu and Su Quan’s close relationship and knowing Hong Yu’s power and influence, it was impossible for him to not know about Su Quan’s movements. That meant that Hong Yu knew that Su Quan wanted to leave him and that he would most likely ask Qiu Qian for help. That meant that the words he had spoken during Rong Ai’s birthday party must have been aimed at Su Quan and Qiu Qian. Underneath his veneer he must be quite sensitive about these two people’s relationship.

And at this time he had suddenly become a major investor for Gold. What was his intention?

At Rong Ai’s party, Qiu Qian’s behaviour was enough to clearly express Bai Lang’s relationship with him. No matter if it were based on contractual obligations or real feelings, he more or less had Qiu Qian’s stamp on him. So when at this time Hong Yu suddenly decided to make a move on Gold, the only reason that Bai Lang could come up with was that Hong Yu wanted to suppress him in order to give a warning to Qiu Qian? Or perhaps use him as leverage in some way to talk terms with Qiu Qian?

No matter what, it seemed clear that he had become embroiled in whatever was brewing between Hong Yu, Su Quan and Qiu Qian.

Thinking of this, Bai Lang could only sigh. He also wanted to mock himself for being so optimistic about his rebirth.

It just showed that even though he was reborn there were still many things that were out of his control and would still proceed in the direction that it wanted. Such as him trying his best to get close to Zhu Kuan, but in the end he was still unable to help him. In fact if things panned out as he suspected, then after finishing filming Gold would most likely encounter some type of insurmountable problem that would lead to it being unable to be screened…

Bai Lang really felt extremely helpless.

Thus after he went home he didn’t even want to move. He sat on the sofa and spaced out.

It wasn’t until he heard the key turn in the lock that Bai Lang looked up. He saw Xiao Li who had brought Qiu XiaoHai back home after school.

After opening the door, Xiao Li nodded at Bai Lang. Then after Qiu XiaoHai went in, he closed it again without coming inside. When Bai Lang or Qiu Qian were home, Xiao Li rarely ever stayed longer. 

When Qiu XiaoHai came in and saw that Bai Lang was home early which was a rare occurrence, his eyes lit up. He immediately kicked off his shoes and launched himself onto Bai Lang’s legs without even taking his schoolbag off.

“Ah Bai~ you’re home ah,” Qiu XiaoHai hugged Bai Lang’s waist and grinned up at him.

“I’m home.” Bai Lang couldn’t help smiling with him.

Bai Lang helped Qiu XiaoHai take off his bag and then held the boy on his lap.

The little child’s body temperature was very warm, just like a hot water bottle. It helped reduce the heavy burden on Bai Lang’s heart by a lot.

Qiu XiaoHai happily lay and rubbed himself on Bai Lang’s chest just as though he was hugging his big rabbit pillow.

“Ah Bai, Ah Bai, today the teacher asked a question in class.”

“What question?”

“The teacher asked who we liked the most at home. I told the teacher it’s Daddy and Ah Bai!”

Bai Lang laughed. “Thank you.”

“Then the teacher asked me, who is Ah Bai ah.”

“Then what did you say ah?” Bai Lang smiled and mimicked Qiu XiaoHai’s manner of speaking.

“I told the teacher, Ah Bai is Ah Bai ah,” Qiu XiaoHai opened his eyes wide and they turned quickly. “Ah Bai isn’t Jiang XinCheng anymore, now you belong to our family!”

“Oh.” Bai Lang raised his eyebrow. “Then what did the teacher say after she heard?”

“The teacher said she didn’t understand. She asked what you did in the family ah.”

“What do I do in the family?” Bai Lang blinked.

“I said you cook ah, you make little rabbit buns, and you also hug me and kiss me. You help me do my homework and you also sleep with daddy!”

Qiu XiaoHai replied extremely confidently.

Bai Lang’s smile froze on his face. “Didn’t we already say that that was our little secret?”

“We did ah,” Qiu XiaoHai nodded his head vigorously. “So I didn’t say it was naked.”

Bai Lang felt completely helpless. “….thanks.”

Qiu XiaoHai didn’t wait for him to finish. He excitedly fidgeted. “Then Chen ZhenZhen said oh, she said that’s what a mommy does!”

Bai Lang didn’t have the chance to ask who Chen ZhenZhen was before he heard Qiu XiaoHai ask, in a somewhat embarrassed manner:

“Ah Bai~ will you be my mommy?”

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