Chapter 19 – End of Year Party

In the coming days, Bai Lang spent half of his time at “The Regal Suit” learning tailoring with Li Fu. Actually most of this time was spent helping Li Fu receive his clients. Of course Bai Lang had to disguise himself slightly. Luckily most of the clients would never have expected a star from the television screen to be running about here, so they only commented that he looked like Bai Lang and didn’t think anything else.

At this time Outside Gold and Jade’s female lead and other roles were also casat.

The situation was just as Fang Hua said. Because this film didn’t have many resources so the popularity of the people they found was only ordinary.

The actress for the female lead was called Shen AiRu. The supporting male role was Luo Feng. Both weren’t names that Bai Lang was familiar with from the next ten years. Only the old actor that was playing the villain was someone that Bai Lang knew would win the “Gold Emperor” award for best supporting actor in a few years. With the addition of him who was an actor without any movie experience, then “Gold” was just as some poisonous industry people said: just a rich second generation’s movie dream. After all the investor was a textile company boss and the director was his friend.

Even so, Bai Lang trusted that Zhu Kuan definitely had his own ideas and among them was definitely not wasting the money his friend had entrusted to him. Everything would become clearer when shooting started in the next month. Right now all he had to do was do his best to prepare himself.

Of course this included trying to find the funds that the movie would need in the future.

These days Fang Hua had helped him to contact Total Entertainment’s overseas copyright department and already received an answer.

However according to their valuation, this author was someone that had never had any previous works and also the western fantasy background of the books was probably not something most Chinese people could accept. So they rejected Bai Lang’s proposal to purchase together.

Bai Lang didn’t also did force them. In any case, this way the book’s rights would fully belong to him and he could get a better price when it came to reselling it. So Bai Lang proposed to pay off the cost in one go and the overseas copyright department would be his mediator with G country. The time limit for negotiation was within two weeks as the first book was already on the market and Bai Lang guessed that if things didn’t get settled within one month, then they would miss the chance.

Since their time was limited, the copyright department was not able to settle the price at below 1.5million and finally settled on 2.3million. As for the extra 800,000, Bai Lang struggled for a while then finally made up his mind and went to the bank to get an information pack on applying for a loan.

Bai Lang guessed that base on his small fame as well as the reasonable amount of money currently in his bank account, he could approximately make the cut for this kind of small-medium sized loan. However the only difficulty was that he need to provide some kind of collateral for security. However right now Bai Lang didn’t have a car or a house. He was also too embarrassed to ask Qiu Qian to be his guarantor, since this would be bothering him too much.

As for repayments, there was still quite a few jobs whose payments hadn’t entered his accounts yet. Perhaps he should ask Sister Fang to arrange some more jobs for him.

It’s just that in the same evening that Bai Lang came home from the bank, Qiu Qian pressed him down and licked his ear and said huskily, “If you borrow 800,000 from the bank then tomorrow I’ll go to the bank to pay it back. If you have to owe money, you should owe me.”

Bai Lang sighed. “You have too much free time.” Enough free time to investigate what he was doing at the bank.

Qiu Qian lightly bit his earlobe. “If I don’t watch you closely, what should I do if you run away?”

Bai Lang paused for a second then said, “It’s a buyout so where would I go?”

Qiu Qian met Bai Lang’s gaze, frowning. “If it’s a buyout then does it really all belong to me?”

Bai Lang looked at Qiu Qian expressionlessly. “When you find the next one then be firm and get rid of me ba.”

Qiu Qian heard this and a light flashed in his eyes. But what he said was, “You’re not as clingy as some others.”

Bai Lang lowered his eyes. He answered, “No-” But his next words were blocked by Qiu Qian’s lips and his tongue which entered his mouth.

It was not until Bai Lang’s breathing became difficult that Qiu Qian slowly let go. He said in a husky voice, “…Fine. But until that day, you have to be good.”

Bai Lang vaguely felt that the second sentence was somewhat unnecessary. However he didn’t have time to think about it because Qiu Qian’s evil mouth once again stole away all his thinking.

After the “measuring” incident before, Qiu Qian now loved to explore every inch of his body. Perhaps the previous ways made Qiu Qian feel bored so Bai Lang could only work hard to accustomize himself to this change that was both embarrassing and stimulating.

***

A week later, with Qiu Qian’s help, the Chinese copyright for that series of books was purchased by Bai Lang. This set of books had only been on the shelves of G city for three weeks and it was just about to enter a period of furious sales. So all Bai Lang needed to do was to now patiently wait for a buyer. {T/N: i.e. if there is a publishing house in China that wants to publish in Chinese, they will have to purchase the rights from BL.}

The time was the beginning of December. In January of the next year “Gold” would start filming. Fang Hua had also helped Bai Lang accept a few advertisements that had a young and healthy image. Following on from “Partners” it was a good way to increase Bai Lang’s exposure on the screens.

At this time Bai Lang can be said to have officially gone down a different path to his previous life. He successfully graduated from “Partners” with both his fame and reputation intact and audiences deeply remembered him as being a healthy, warm and friendly newcomer. The company had also used this opportunity to organise a meet and greet event for Bai Lang. This was something that had never happened in his previous life.

However this made Bai Lang very busy for some time. Because this type of meet and greet was scheduled in most major cities, you couldn’t pick and choose too much. So Qiu XiaoHai began to complain that now the person that was always away working changed from daddy to Ah Bai. If there wasn’t Ah Bai then there wasn’t yummy food to eat. Qiu XiaoHai definitely understood the importance of this connection.

***

Since it was the end of the year, other than work, there was also a lot of events planned for end of year parties. {T/N: So the word used usually indicates a formal type event, a bit fancier than the regular office Christmas party. Kind of like a gala.}

In the last few years, the end of year parties of many large enterprises would ask entertainers to come and perform in order to reward their employees for their hard work that year. Thus at this time of the year, artists such as singers, comedians and hosts had profitable jobs.

Bai Lang was an actor so he was not in these categories. It was rare for an actor to be invited, however for partner company’s end of parties, such as UNI, Bai Lang would still appear to support them. Even though he wouldn’t go to the stage to perform and there wasn’t much chance of getting any exposure, however since their companies had a professional relationship, it was good to accept the invitation and go to the party to show his face. This can also be considered a public relations service for Bai Lang.

And so if he participated in some other company’s end of year party, of course he couldn’t reject to go to his own.

This year Total Entertainment’s party was especially grand.

The main reason was to celebrate the movie emperor Su Quan who had actually been signed on for many years but had just finished his overseas activities and returned back to China to progress his career. {T/N: So actually his name is Qu Quan. This is the character whose name I kept saying was too close to Qiu Qian when written in English. So I just changed it to Su Quan so you guys aren’t confused.}

Speaking of Su Quan, he was 33 years old this year and he was already a veteran actor of 15 years.

He was also the box office superstar of the last few years with both acting ability and looks. He was still young and his future was extremely bright.

The year before Su Quan had been in a masterpiece blockbuster in F Country called “Gorgeous”. He had also received numerous movie awards big and small domestically. As for the Golden Emperor award for “Best Male Actor”, Su Quan had won it long ago before changing directions to work overseas.

However what his fans liked the most was probably Su Quan’s looks.

When he was young his features were already exceptional. As he grew more mature, he only gained more of a seductive quality. All his fans said that as long as Su Quan looked at you once in the eye, his imposing power and aura would make you feel as though you were being swallowed by a storm. Even more rare was Su Quan’s acting ability was enough to surmount his looks. He made people feel that the role he played should look this way, there wasn’t any abnormal feelings.

In his previous life Bai Lang hadn’t watched many of Su Quan’s movies. This was because Zhu Kuan had told him that Su Quan’s acting method was predicated on his looks. Even if  you looked for a long time you wouldn’t be able to learn the same method and so he told Bai Lang not waste his time. Bai Lang was not sure if these words were meant to be compliment or not.

Someone as famous as Su Quan usually would have long ago founded their own independent management company in order to have more freedom in their career. However some years ago Su Quan had unexpectedly signed onto Total Entertainment. It really made many industry insiders question if they were seeing things correctly.

However this decision was afterwards thought by others to be actually quite intelligent. After all Total Entertainment had given Su Quan total control of his own brand and at the same time backed him up with strong corporate power. So when Su Quan went overseas to progress his career he didn’t encounter many problems.

Now that Su Quan had returned to the country, it was not just to accept the role as the protagonist in the historical masterpiece “Emperor Feng”, but he also expressed through his manager that  he was no longer interested in filming big blockbusters with a lot of special effects. He wanted to do more roles that involved strong characterization and deep emotions. Hence he had returned to China. Due to the huge sales and success of “Gorgeous”, no one could comment that he had only returned to China because he hadn’t done well overseas.

However what made Bai Lang puzzled was that in his past life he didn’t remember Su Quan ever announcing his return to China.

According to Bai Lang’s impression at the time of his death, other than accepting the occasional big movie in China, Su Quan had stayed overseas. Or was it only that he had been too caught up in his own misfortunes that he had overlooked this piece of news?

Bai Lang saw the huge posters of Su Quan hanging around the entire venue and felt that the events from his previous life were more and more distant.

***

Behind Total Entertainment’s most grand ever end of year party was the Qiu family’s support in letting them use their club and hotel.

This day, the entire hotel was taken over by Total Entertainment. Other than the glittering gold grand banquet hall, if any of the guests drank too much and couldn’t go home, no matter who they were they could obtain the key to a deluxe room for free.

There were about forty to fifty artists signed to Total Entertainment. With the addition of the staff members from the business, advertising, public relations, technical, film and television and other administrative general affairs, there were about three hundred to four hundred employees in the company. This type of spending was really very extreme.

Of course this was also a good time to do promotion.

The grand lobby of the hotel had today been decorated as though it was a red carpet runway. A long red carpet as well as various interview stations have made it easy for the media to come to do interviews.

The champagne flowed and the lights flashed non-stop. Some well-informed fans also had managed to find their way to the hotel and were fighting to a glimpse of their favorite stars descending from their cars. And so when the young film emperor Su Quan’s figure appeared, the entire venue’s excitement reached breaking point. People were clapping and screaming non-stop. The popularity of Su Quan could be easily seen from this night.

However at the time that this happened Bai Lang was already inside. He was sitting beside Rong SiQi and eating peanuts, waiting for the party to start. Fang Hua had taken care of them well. She had arranged for them to arrive early in the order of appearances. This way they could grab the media’s attention and not be affected by Su Quan. Just then when the two of them had come in, they had also received the appropriate amount of interest and interviews.

As for the events inside it wasn’t open to the media at all. Whether it was an artist or an ordinary employee, everyone had their own seats. They could all enjoy a delicious feast and have a good time.

Thus when Su Quan entered the premises, it was almost time for the party to start.

As per the normal schedule of events for a company’s end of year party, of course the boss’s speech could not be missed. Bai Lang didn’t know when Qiu Qian had arrived at the venue. He only knew when he saw the other person, he was already standing on the stage. He spoke some short words of gratitude before heading off again.

Bai Lang couldn’t help looking at where Qiu Qian was sitting a few more times. Sitting on Qiu Qian’s table was all the high level management of the company. The only artist was Su Quan. He was sitting right next to Qiu Qian.

So when the meal had reached its middle course, a voice suddenly spoke up near Bai Lang.

“Look at the person sitting by his side and then think about what I told you before.”

Bai Lang turned around and only saw Ya Qi’s back after the other person threw down his words and left.