Ye Shaowen saw her face filled with indomitable anger, "What's wrong?"
"Brother~" Ye Xian bit her lip, looking the very picture of despair after being cruelly deceived, "There's something I need to tell you, and you mustn't get angry, okay?"
"Don't worry, I would never be mad at you no matter what."
Ye Xian recounted to Ye Shaowen, without holding anything back, how she had been coerced by Bo Tingshen into signing an unfair contract in order to obtain resources in the film industry.
After listening to her, Ye Shaowen frowned, "Xiao Yezi, you've been duped."
Ye Xian nodded meekly, "I know that now. Brother, this deal is going to lose you a lot of money, isn't it?"
"There will be losses, but not a tremendous amount. Financially speaking, Winston only paying thirty percent of the costs to Zero Degree definitely gives them an edge, but Winston is an internationally renowned menswear brand and one of the Bo Group's enterprises. Having them housed in Zero Degree greatly boosts Zero Degree's fame and traffic."
"Eh?" Even though Ye Xian didn't understand business, from the sound of it, it seemed like her second brother wasn't at much of a loss.
"In the long run, it's what you'd call a win-win situation."
Ye Xian breathed a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate her gamble hadn't gone awry.
The business deal may have been a win-win, but something was quite strange.
Bo Tingshen had never been the type to take advantage of petty gains, nor would he engage in business with someone unprofessional, especially not Xiao Yezi, who was clueless about commerce. So why would he approach her?
Seeing Ye Shaowen still with brows knitted, Ye Xian grew worried, "Brother, you're not deceiving me, right? Is the loss actually huge?"
"I'm thinking there's more to this than meets the eye."
"What do you mean?"
"Bo Tingshen probably isn't out to profit from the business deal, rather, he's aiming to drive a wedge between us."
Ye Xian: "?"
"Think about it, everyone outside now believes I am your financial backer, him included. Forcing you into this uneven bargain is presumably to incite my anger towards you, causing me to abandon you.
In the entertainment circle, the most taboo aspect of a kept relationship is the lover acting willful and selfish, doing something beyond the scope of the relationship that harms the patron's interests."
Ye Xian: WTF?
Her thoughts started to connect, "Then you will abandon me, and I won't be able to make it in the entertainment industry, which means I won't be able to bother Jiang Wanze, the brother he cherishes, right?"
Ye Shaowen nodded emphatically.
"..."
Ye Xian was shocked, revising her opinion of Bo Tingshen's sinister nature once again.
To drive her away from Jiang Wanze, he actually deliberately set a trap for her to fall into. Such deep brotherly love indeed.
"So, Xiao Yezi, I've told you before, Bo Tingshen is a person with heavy thoughts and deep schemes. You mustn't provoke him."
Ye Xian raised her hand, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to stay far away from him next time."
Otherwise, she might end up dead by his hand without even realizing it.
...
Two days later, Ye Xian received a script and a notification to join the crew, sent from Li Jiahua.
The role of Gu Chen was a character the screenwriter added abruptly, appearing from episode 18, with not many lines. Ye Xian skimmed over it briefly and memorized all the scenes.
Today, "Business World" was shooting an exterior scene, and the production team chose a park plaza near the CBD for the location.
Ye Xian arrived at the set right on time, just as a scene wrapped up. Assistant Xiao Wen handed Cheng Jingshu a glass of water. The moment Cheng Jingshu took a sip, she saw Ye Xian and started coughing violently, chocking on the water.
Why is he here? How dare he show his face in her line of sight? After the last episode at Chairman Bao's birthday party, where she lost all her dignity, she dreamt of ripping apart his foul mouth these past few days!