Chapter 31 - “Nothing is more important than protecting you." (1)
Gu Nian was frantic about what she could make up to get out of this but, luckily, Luo Xiu didn’t seem interested in getting down to the bottom of it. He just lifted his hand a little.
Gu Nian’s hand was moved by his action and she suddenly recollected herself and quickly retrieved her hand that had been resting on his wrist. “Sorry. T^T”
Luo Xiu said with a nonchalant look, “No worries.”
Gu Nian: He didn’t even keep on asking after all this. I knew my precious son is a kind and gentle soul. QwQ
Gu Nian didn’t have much time to feel moved by that before she received a look from Assistant Director Lin.
Knowing that she couldn’t let this drag on for much longer, Gu Nian started as soon as Geng Hongyu had put his glass down. “Director Geng, I would like to ask you to reconsider having someone else work on the extra character.”
Geng Hongyu wasn’t surprised by that at all. He didn’t even look over at her. “And why would I do that?”
“My team of three are the ones who created the script and nobody would know the story line, development, and the relationships between the different characters better than we do.”
“What you are saying is I, as the primary screenwriter, isn’t good enough to edit your screenplay?” said Zhuo Yixuan coldly before Geng Hongyu responded to Gu Nian.
“As I have just said, it is a matter of familiarity.” Gu Nian’s voice was languid but she wasn’t backing off. “Even if it’s the same goose*, there are still differences between the birth mother and a stepmother.”
Zhuo Yixuan’s face dropped but she didn’t say anything else.
Geng Hongyu paused for a little, “Same what?”
“Goose (e-zi),” replied Gu Nian without missing a beat. “It’s a term used in the circle to refer to their son…”
Before she finished talking, something occurred to her all of a sudden and her body stiffened. Through the weight-bearing pillar that was bright enough to be used as mirror, the man sitting to her right had looked up and was looking at her nonchalantly.
Gu Nian dared not turn around and her smile swapped back to the little fairy style in a second or less. “Oh, you haven’t heard of that term, Director? It’s what mom-fans used to refer to their idols in the circle. There has been an uptick in mom-fans in the last couple of years and they represent almost half of the fans nowadays!”
Assistant Director Lin interjected with a smile. “You sure know a lot about this.”
Sweating inwardly, Gu Nian maintained her smile and said, “No, not at all. Just common knowledge for a screenwriter is all.”
Geng Hongyu recollected himself. “You are Gu Nian, right? What you said make sense but our team has our own concerns as well…”
The start of his spiel was enough to let Gu Nian knew how firm the primary director was on using Zhuo Yixuan.
Before this conversation, she thought perhaps the director would at least waver a little but… it looked like she was going to have to pull out her last resort?
Gu Nian slowly rested her head on her palm. With a gentle smile on her, she humbly agreed with the director when, in reality, her mind was already somewhere else trying to come up with ideas to further her own agenda.
“… as such,” Geng Hongyu wrapped up his long spiel and finally looked over at Gu Nian. “I hope that you, too, can understand the reasons behind our decision.”
Zhuo Yixuan, sitting across from them, let out a soft snicker and gave Gu Nian a look of contempt.
Gu Nian simply pretended that she didn’t notice at all and nodded docilely. “We…”
“I prefer,” interjected a low, nonchalant, and attractive voice.
Gu Nian’s heart dropped. She turned around immediately wanting to stop him but, unfortunately, when she looked into the dark brown and almost deeply affectionate eyes, she already heard the rest of the sentence.
“To work with Miss Gu.”
Gu Nian, “……”
Tears streamed down the old mother’s cheeks and she was touched, touched, touched and, at the same time, worried that the director would hold grudges against her precious son.
Geng Hongyu frowned immediately. Obviously displeased, he was just about to say something when Assistant Director Lin subtly tugged at him at the very timely moment.
The two exchanged a look and, as though something had just occurred to him, Geng Hongyu cleared his throat and suppressed his anger. With his brows still furrowed, he said, “Our Screenwriter Zhuo has more solid experience and fame when it came to writing screenplay. Don’t you want to give it some more thoughts, Luo Xiu?”
“Screenwriter Zhuo is certain great,” said Luo Xiu as he lowered his eyes and gave a nonchalant smile. “But I am more compatible with Miss Gu.”
Zhuo Yixuan’s face changed colors immediately.
She stood up abruptly and stared at Gu Nian angrily. She then turned to look at Luo Xiu. With a look of being treated unfairly, she said, “Are you saying that I don’t even measure up to an insignificant little screenwriter who can only write scripts for a living?!”
There was anger in her voice and her eyes reddened. When a beauty like her looked like she was about to cry, the men presence could no longer hold still. A few of them wanted to go up and comfort her.
Luo Xiu, the man that she was looking at, however, was unmoved by her. Even the smile on him remained as it was before. “No, we are just more compatible.”