Rear-End Collision

o, don’t worry, take it slow.
Being an actor is a process of waiting and experiencing, and all your waiting and experience will bring you great wealth.
No experience is wasted.” He also joked: “When you become a big celebrity in the future, and you’re asked to play a depressed young actor, it’ll be a piece of cake, no?”

Li Yangxiao had started to cry right then and there, his tears splashing downward.
But he did not want to let Song Chang hear him crying.
He said, “But what if I can’t wait? Song Chang, I haven’t gotten a role in almost a year, I’m going to starve to death…”

“Why are you worrying about that? Do you still consider me a bro or not? Let me tell you that I, your bro, make 15,000 a month! Now multiply that by 161! And there’s a year-end bonus too, which can’t be less than dozens of thousands! I encourage you to mooch off my meals.
With your appetite, you couldn’t possibly eat me into poverty.
Think of this as my investment in a future star.
Just don’t forget about me once you’ve risen in the ranks.”

Li Yangxiao was crying a river.
After hanging up, he stared for a while at the faint figure visible through the clouded glass of the shower.
Suddenly his heart dropped; he grabbed his phone and fled.

When he returned home, he sent a text message to his “financial backer” and apologized sincerely and profusely.
His financial backer did not have much to say and simply replied with a “No problem” and that was the end of it.

Chi Mingyao stayed in W City for several more days and finally signed a business partnership agreement with the Xu family’s cinema chain.
To say that Xu Yan’s face was thick was an understatement.
Every day, he drove his crashed Cayenne around to pick up and drop off Chi Mingyao, refusing to send it for repairs.
Chi Mingyao had mentioned several times that he could take care of it, but Xu Yan always brushed him off with an “It’s no big deal.”

Because of this little favor, the benefits Xu Yan would reap from this agreement would be enough to buy another Cayenne.

But that wasn’t all: in the days after Chi Mingyao returned to Beijing, Xu Yan called, informing him that the Cayenne had already been repaired.

Chi Mingyao was dumbfounded; he called to tell him about this useless bullshit?! As expected, after mentioning the Cayenne, Xu Yan immediately brought up Li Yangxiao: “Young Master Chi, you saw my friend sitting with me the other day.
He’s not bad looking and has had formal training.
He’s just unlucky.
Could you help him out a bit, and make a few connections for him?”

Back when he was in W City, Xu Yan had raised this subject to Chi Mingyao more than once.
After hanging up, Chi Mingyao stared at his phone.
He was extremely unhappy: it was fine that Xu Yan was gaining extra benefits from this business agreement, but now he wanted him to help this nobody of an actor make industry connections too? It was just a crashed Cayenne, how many favors do you want from me?

The thing was, Xu Yan had been the one who had insisted on lending him his Cayenne.
Chi Mingyao seriously suspected that Xu Yan had asked someone to crash into him.
Moreover, at the dinner table that night, Chi Mingyao could tell that, although Xu Yan kept making snide remarks about Li Yangxiao, he obviously had not moved on; he wanted to try again and sleep with Li Yangxiao.

Chi Mingyao lit a cigarette.
As he exhaled a puff of smoke, he thought of something: Xu Yan wanted him to help Li Yangxiao build connections so that he could use this favor to get into bed with him, right? Then he would refuse to repay this favor properly, and make sure that Xu Yan would not be able to sleep with Li Yangxiao.

Chi Mingyao pulled an ashtray over and tapped the ash out of his cigarette, before he picked up his phone, scrolled down to Li Yangxiao’s WeChat, and sent him a message: “Tomorrow, one of my friends is hosting a get-together, and a lot of big names in the entertainment industry will be there.
Do you want to come with me, and take the opportunity to get to know some people?”

Chi Mingyao gazed at the sent text, before he bit down on the end of his cigarette and laughed.

He was going to make Li Yangxiao find his own financial backer.
That way, everyone would be happy in the end: Li Yangxiao would have the resources he needed, he would have repaid his favor to Xu Yan, and Xu Yan would not be able to sleep with Li Yangxiao.

He could exact his revenge without being blamed for it, and make Xu Yan suffer a terrible loss.

Li Yangxiao had finished his afternoon workout.
Drenched in sweat, he took out his phone, looked at it, and was stunned: Chi Mingyao actually agreed to do this for Xu Yan?!

Truthfully, although this was not the first time that Xu Yan had bragged to him, saying that he could introduce him to industry contacts, Li Yangxiao had not taken him seriously.
Even though Xu Yan had become W City’s top tyrant, he was far from the most influential figure.
There were obviously more than a hundred Chi Mingyaos that stood between Xu Yan and the core resources of the entertainment industry.
And from what Li Yangxiao had seen that night, Chi Mingyao was actually quite annoyed by Xu Yan.

But this piece of information made Li Yangxiao see Xu Yan in a new light: so Xu Yan was actually a master of the Thick Black Theory2, while he, Li Yangxiao, was the complete idiot!

Notes

Thanks for reading~ a quick update, I will probably have to start uploading slower, on weekends only, since I have to study ;-; My apologies!

Refers to a company welfare system that pays 16 months worth of salary annually.
Though… if his salary is in yuan, he’s not exactly rich, is he? (15,000 yuan is approximately 2,200 USD) 厚黑学 (hòu hēi xué): Thick Black Theory.
It’s a book written by Li Zongwu, which was published in 1911, the year the Qing Dynasty was overthrown.
It’s compared to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, because there are some similar principles.
It basically teaches that there are two things you must do to achieve success: have a thick face and a black heart.
Having a thick face refers to ignoring non-constructive criticism, while having a black heart refers to stopping at nothing to achieve one’s goals.