Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 54: Trusting someone else

I took Xiao Tao Hong back to her dormitory that evening.

When Zhang Yan returned to the hotel, he saw that the publishing house staff had already packed his luggage and were gathered in the corridor waiting for him to come back.

"Teacher Zhang."

Upon seeing Zhang Yan, the leader rubbed his hands sheepishly and said, "We just discussed it, and since it's not far, why don't we go tonight..."

"Then let's go!"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Yan waved his hand dismissively.

Cheers erupted in the corridor as the team leader checked out of the room while Zhang Yan packed his luggage.

Before long, a van and a truck drove out of the hotel.

As usual, Zhang Yan sat in the passenger seat of the truck. Compared to the minivan that was crammed in like sardine cans, this was practically a VIP seat.

By the light of the neon lights, he glanced back at the truck bed, where about a thousand books were still piled up—more than eight thousand books had been signed in total this time, and thanks to the buzz generated, forty to fifty thousand more had been sold.

The claim of 200,000 copies sold is obviously inflated; only about 170,000 copies have actually been sold so far. However, there's no need to worry about the remaining 20,000 to 30,000 copies; the distributors can keep them and sell them slowly.

The biggest gain from this trip was that Zhang Yan truly made a name for himself as a bestselling author. At least in the slightly larger cities of the four provinces, people knew about him.

…………

It was past 2 a.m. when I got back to Tianjin.

Zhang Yan forced himself to boil two kettles of water, diluted them to lukewarm temperature in the bathroom, quickly washed himself, and then fell into a deep sleep.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he was awakened by the noise outside. Still half asleep, he looked up and called out, "Chen Hong?"

The only people with a key to this house besides him are Chen Hong.

A moment later, Chen Hong, her face covered in flour, peeked in and said, half pleased and half reproachful, "What time did you get back? Why didn't you call me?"

"Two in the morning."

Zhang Yan shifted to a side-lying position and asked, "What time is it now?"

Chen Hong glanced at her watch and said, "It's already past four in the afternoon. You've had quite a long nap—get up and get ready. I'm almost done making the dumplings."

"When did you learn to make dumplings? By the way, shouldn't you be on set right now?"

“I learned it on set. You northerners have a saying, ‘Dumplings for entering the house, noodles for leaving the house’—I heard you’re going back to Tianjin today, and Director Ma specially gave me half a day off, saying that we should focus on filming the supporting roles first.”

Because they talked on the phone frequently, there was no sense of awkwardness between them.

Zhang Yan seemed to have rediscovered the shameless Ying Ri of the past, so he lifted the thin blanket covering him and chuckled, "No rush for dumplings, how about we feed you first?"

"Bah~"

Chen Hong spat and said, "You're thinking about this as soon as you get back—wait, I'm going to wash my hands first."

She wasn't coy at all; she went to the bathroom to wash her face, then turned around and undressed for bed.

This rain is truly like a long-awaited rain after a drought.

When the clouds dispersed and the rain stopped, Zhang Yan felt unbearably hungry. So he cooked dumplings, wrapped Chen Hong in a blanket, and carried her outside. They ate one dumpling each and five dumplings at a time until they were full.

Then the two finally had time to chat about everyday things.

Zhang Yan recounted his experiences along the way, and Chen Hong also talked about the situation on set—in fact, they had discussed many of these things on the phone, but they couldn't help but repeat them when they met in person.

Upon hearing that Zhang Yan had just had dinner with Wang Shuo the night before last, and that Wang Shuo had specifically requested to see him, Chen Hong excitedly clung to Zhang Yan's neck.

"Really? That's Wang Shuo!"

“What’s wrong with Wang Shuo? He still has two eyes and a nose. Let me tell you, when I rolled up my sleeves, he was so scared that he shrank back.”

Seeing that Chen Hong was particularly interested in this matter, Zhang Yan explained it to her in detail from the beginning, which made Chen Hong exclaim in amazement.

"It turns out that the boss of Tetete is also an actor."

"This Feng Xiaogang is quite interesting."

"The screenwriter of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'?! Do you think I have a chance...?"

"Is this Ma Weidu the unlucky guy you mentioned last time who lost hundreds of thousands of yuan running a nightclub?"

"Yang Chong from 'The Troubleshooters'? I remember him as being quite ugly. How can he play the male lead in an urban drama?"

Chen Hong kept pressing for details about the dinner table, as if anything involving Wang Shuo seemed extraordinary.

Zhang Yan was getting a little jealous, and he grabbed Chen Hong's conscience and said angrily, "Just you wait and see, in a few years I can easily put together a party that won't be much worse than this."

Chen Hong giggled and pecked him on the cheek, saying with a smile, "I believe you can definitely do it."

However, she immediately became hesitant: "So, does this mean our 'Tianjin Wei' is going to compete with Wang Shuo's new drama?"

"What, you don't have confidence?" "Of course I have confidence in the production team."

Chen Hong quickly denied it, saying, "Your script is so good, and the production team has plenty of funding. You're sure to make a great film!"

These days, there's no precedent for mainland China spending a lot of money to produce a bad drama, so everyone assumes that well-funded production teams are more likely to create classic works.

That night, because the two of them were too lazy to change the sheets, they had an impromptu encore on the sofa, which made the sofa springs creak and groan in protest.

The next morning.

Zhang Yan was woken up by the vibration of his pager. He picked it up and saw that it was Dou Wei contacting him, so he didn't rush to deal with it.

After getting up, I walked around inside and outside, and finally found the note left by Chen Hong on the coffee table.

Chen Hong has already gone to the film set, and she also asked him to visit the set after he wakes up.

Zhang Yan quickly washed up before calling Dou Wei's pager—the landline at home didn't have international long-distance service activated, so he had to wait for Dou Wei to call back.

As soon as the call connected, Dou Wei complained, "Why are you so slow? Are you a tortoise...?"

Zhang Yan hung up without saying a word.

The phone rang again quickly. Zhang Yan answered, and Dou Wei angrily yelled, "You son of a bitch..."

Zhang Yan hung up again, and when the phone rang for the third time, Dou Wei finally didn't rush to speak.

"Can you speak human language now?"

Zhang Yan said leisurely, "Then tell me, who has offended you this time?"

After Dou Wei went to Hong Kong Island, his temper grew worse day by day, and he would call to complain from time to time.

Zhang Yan asked him why he didn't call Jiang Xin, and he said that Jiang Xin didn't know how to persuade people, but only encouraged him to "fight" with others to the end.

"The people of Hong Kong Island are so damn ungrateful and blindly worship foreign things. They insisted that I make an English song—not even a purely English one, but one with an English title and a couple of English lines in the lyrics."

Zhao Mingyi and Luan Shu even joined in trying to persuade me, almost to the point of saying "endure for the sake of the country," but this isn't the Qing Dynasty anymore...

Zhang Yan didn't say anything, but you could hear him cursing Hong Kong Island, the company, and his teammates on the phone...

Only after Dou Wei had finished ranting did he casually ask, "So you're finally planning to give up on releasing an album?"

Dou Wei suddenly fell silent.

After a long pause, he finally retorted, "Is that all you know how to say?"

"Just tell me if it works or not!"

That definitely works, especially after Dou Wei vented his anger; those words always have a wake-up call effect.

After a moment, Dou Wei changed the subject and asked, "Did you go back to Tianjin?"

"Nonsense, you can tell just by looking at the phone number."

"Then I'll have someone send you a Santana to Tianjin. You want to learn to drive, right? It'll be a good opportunity to find an experienced driver to guide you."

"No need."

Zhang Yan decisively refused: "It's not like I can't borrow a car in Tianjin."

"Then you can keep it for me for now, okay?"

Dou Wei explained, "I originally left the car with Fourth Brother [Guo Chuanlin], but Jiang Xin told me that other band members often drive it out and cause trouble, sometimes even inside the car..."

"I see. You're too embarrassed to ask Brother Guo for the car back, so you're trying to use me as an excuse, right?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to learn to drive? I don't think I'll be able to return to Beijing until the end of the year, so just get a license and drive for now."

Dou Wei acted swiftly this time, and the car was delivered to Tianjin that very afternoon.

So Zhang Yan lied to Chen Hong, saying that there were still some loose ends to be made during the book signing tour and that he could only go to the film set in a few days; at the same time, he used his connections at the TV station to enroll in a crash course at a driving school.

How rushed is it?

If Zhang Yan hadn't wanted to learn seriously, he could have gotten his driver's license by noon after registering in the morning.

After practicing for three days, Zhang Yan drove to the film set on the morning of May 31st.

When he got out of the car, the entire crew looked like they were watching a spectacle, but Chen Hong was the most excited of all.

When Chen Hong heard that it was Dou Wei's car, she was slightly disappointed, but she quickly put her arm around Zhang Yan's shoulder and insisted that he would definitely be able to afford a better one in the future.

At noon, Zhang Yan drove Chen Hong to a nearby restaurant for a treat. On the way, Chen Hong suddenly leaned close to his ear and said, "How about we..."

uh~
It seems that Dou Wei has once again entrusted the wrong person.

(End of this chapter)