Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 275 Your Face, My Smile
After Zhang Yan opened the courtyard gate, he saw Jiang Shan pulling a suitcase, looking like she was going to come and stay permanently.

He couldn't help but feel a headache coming on and said, "What are you up to now?"

"The rooftop of the Snowman's Theatre started leaking after yesterday's snowfall, so I was planning to stay here for a few days," Jiang Shan said, pulling her suitcase and walking inside casually. "I thought there was no one here, but I didn't expect... Why are you stopping me?"

"What do you want to do?"

Zhang Yan said irritably, "You've come to stay here without a word. What if someone sees you..."

"What's there to be afraid of? If I run into anyone I know, I'll just say Chen Hong let me stay here." Jiang Shan said confidently, "Besides, you're here too, so you can keep everyone out when they come. It'll save me the trouble of tending the boiler..."

At this point, Jiang Shan suddenly frowned and stopped, looking suspiciously into the room. She thought she had just seen the curtains swaying.

Could there really be someone else inside?!
Anyway, he wasn't exactly a good person in her eyes, and seeing that Jiang Shan seemed to have become suspicious, Zhang Yan simply cut to the chase: "The problem is there are people inside right now—you're not short of money, can't you find a hotel to stay in for a couple of days?"

Hearing that there was someone inside, Jiang Shan initially thought it was Chen Hong, but quickly realized that this was impossible, because Chen Hong had no reason to avoid her.

Her pretty face darkened, and she spat out, "Pah, what bad luck!"

With that, he turned and prepared to leave.

Zhang Yan breathed a sigh of relief and was about to see her out when Jiang Shan suddenly stopped, turned back to look at the bedroom window, and frowned, saying, "Wait a minute, if she's peeking through the window, she can see me, right? If I don't find out who she is, won't she be able to use her against me later?!"

As he spoke, he prepared to push his way in again.

This is some kind of dark forest theory.

“No, you didn’t come naked.” Zhang Yan quickly said, “Just by seeing you talking at the door, how can we be sure about the two of us… Even if we could guess, we have no proof.”

"Hmph, do we even need evidence for something like this?"

Jiang Shan lowered her voice and said, "Why don't you tell me what's inside..."

"impossible."

Zhang Yan simply pushed it outwards with his hand.

"What, what? I'm a big star!" Jiang Shan said unhappily, clinging to the door frame. "Do you think she cares more about her reputation than I do?"

You talk about face, I find that laughable...

While pushing her away, Zhang Yan coaxed her, "Don't worry, I'll help you intimidate her later, and she definitely won't tell anyone about this."

"deterrence?"

Jiang Shan keenly grasped the key words. Once outside the door, she turned around and stared at Zhang Yan, asking suspiciously, "You're not some pervert who takes pictures of women, are you?"

"Taking photos secretly is perverted; taking photos openly and honestly is called photographic art!"

After saying that, seeing that Jiang Shan was still glaring at him with an unfriendly expression, Zhang Yan sighed, cupped his hands and said, "Alright, I am the legendary Golden Lens Miao Renfeng—are you satisfied now?"

"Bah, obscene!"

Seeing that he had given up on everything, Jiang Shan had nothing more to say, picked up her luggage, and turned to leave.

"Yes, yes, I'm vulgar."

Zhang Yan complained from behind, "Then next time you come, remember to bring a copy of 'Elementary School Students' Morality and Morality'. Let's not do anything else tonight, just focus on raising our ideological awareness."

Jiang Shan raised her middle finger without turning her head.

Zhang Yan watched her leave the alleyway, then quickly went back and locked the door again.

Back in the inner room, I wondered if it was just my imagination, but the two women's hairstyles seemed even more disheveled, and their clothes looked loose and baggy.

Was that Jiang Shan just now?

Upon seeing Zhang Yan enter, Yang Lan immediately asked a question.

Although Zhou Tao didn't rush to speak, he was clearly also very concerned about this issue.

Does it matter who it is?

Zhang Yan picked up her pants and threw them at her, saying, "Anyway, you're going to America after the New Year—hurry up and get dressed, lest something unexpected happens later."

Yang Lan was indignant and dissatisfied, and Zhou Tao's expression was not good either.

Yang Lan was someone she had tricked into getting involved, but she had no prior knowledge of Jiang Shan. If it weren't in front of Yang Lan, Zhou Tao would definitely have pressed for answers, but now she could only silently sing "How Many Good Sisters Do You Have?" in her heart—a song released in the spring of 93.

So Zhou Tao was rather silent when getting dressed and washing up.

Although Yang Lan could clap his hand loudly, he didn't provoke Zhang Yan any further for fear that Zhang Yan would take sides.

This morning was finally peaceful.

After Zhang Yan delivered the two fully armed women to the restaurant where he had left his car the day before, a question suddenly occurred to him: "Your husbands wouldn't..."

"They've separated."

He's not home.

"OK, OK."

Only then did Zhang Yan leave, relieved.

Watching his car drive away, Yang Lan and Zhou Tao exchanged a glance before walking to their own cars.

Although they tidied up a bit, they definitely won't be going to work today; they need to go back and get a proper check-up to see where they're injured.

As Yang Lan walked to his car, he suddenly realized something was wrong; it seemed like his car chain had broken.

"Serves you right!"

Zhou Tao seemed to have won back the game and was about to leave on his bike when Yang Lan grabbed the back seat.

What followed was the same story as yesterday, only the roles were reversed...

…………

After leaving the two women, Zhang Yan met with Jiang Wen and Dong Ping one last time, temporarily entrusting the post-production work to them. He added, "I probably won't be able to come to Beijing before the New Year. Even if I do, it will be just a quick stop. We can discuss any issues over the phone."

Jiang Wen couldn't wait for Zhang Yan to get out of here, but Dong Ping was a little reluctant to let him go. Although Zhang Yan had taken the lion's share, it was really worry-free with him around.

Now that he's gone, Jiang Wen might cause trouble again.

Speechless all the way.

Upon returning to Tianjin, Zhang Yan hurriedly convened a meeting of the company's senior management to discuss the release of "The New Game: Dragon and Phoenix" and the selection of personnel to visit and learn from Hong Kong.

The first topic was naturally Zhang Guoli's summary. He stood up and said, "Mr. Zhang, the background music is basically all done. The song 'I Love the Country More Than the Beauty' is indeed very suitable for our drama."

When Xiao Chong tried to sell the song at a high price, Zhang Yan refused because he was preparing to establish rules and did not want to lead the way in breaking the unspoken rules.

But when he wrote the script for "The New Dragon and Phoenix", he felt that the song and the plot were a perfect match - the core of the story is loving beauty more than power.

So he decisively went back to his old ways and asked Zheng Zhihua to buy the song. He even got two versions: one sung by Han Lei and the other by Tian Zhen.

Under Zhang Weining's direction, both versions have a stronger sense of江湖 (jianghu, the world of martial arts and chivalry) than the original, especially Han Lei's version, which truly expresses the feeling of loving beauty more than power.

After discussing the soundtrack, Zhang Guoli added somewhat helplessly, "The only problem is the special effects. There are very few people in China who do this, and the ones they do are too rough."

“Don’t worry about that,” Zhang Yan said. “I met someone at the Chinese Academy of Sciences a while ago who is quite interested in this. He promised to help us figure out a way—when the people from the TV stations in various provinces come, let’s just show the ones without special effects first. Anyway, it’s just the beginning and the end.”

He paused for a moment, then added, "If my friend can't get it sorted out before the new year, we can try going to Hong Kong Island after the new year."

Then there are the quotas for going to Hong Kong Island.

In a state-owned enterprise, this position would be highly competitive, but in a generally affluent society, going to Hong Kong Island is not uncommon.

Therefore, Wang Jinghua took the lead in saying, "Since both President Zhang and President Chen are going, I will definitely stay and look after the house."

Just as Wang Zhongqi was about to second the motion, Li Songqiang, who was at the very end, suddenly raised his hand.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan asked with a smile, "What, is Little Li going to volunteer himself?"

"No no no!"

Li Songqiang hurriedly said, "What I was thinking was, since the higher-ups want us to contact film companies over there, wouldn't it be better to bring someone who can speak Hong Kong dialect?"

Zhang Yan thought it made sense, so he immediately decided, "Then let's not distribute the spots this time. We can go together when we arrange the employee trip."

(End of this chapter)