BXBX NOVEL Chapter 113 - One-Hundred and Thirteen: Probing
Shi Nian shrugged again and said, “I don’t think it’s a lot of work. Besides, you’re a director, so you should understand that you should be as convincing as possible to sell your act. The sweeter we are now, the more realistic our break-up will be in five years!”
Yun Nan opened her mouth, wishing to refute him, before she thought better of it and resignedly replied, “There’s really no need.”
Shi Nian handed her her bag and stated, “1 think it’s very necessary. Let’s go; I’ll take you to work.”
‘I have my own car!’ was what Yun Nan wanted to say, but she swallowed the
words on the tip of her tongue because Shi Nian immediately continued, “Shi Xiu noticed you were going to work alone, so she called and nagged at me for a long time.”
‘ This pair of siblings are both weirdos,’ Yun Nan silently grumbled.
The elevator descended and stopped on the eleventh floor. The elevator door opened, and seeing the two standing in the elevator, Fang Xi cut her yawn short. “Oh? What a coincidence. Good morning!” Fang Xi greeted Yun Nan and walked into the elevator to lean close to Yun Nan and whisper, “What’s going on? What’s he doing here?”
“I’m sending Yun Nan to work. Care to join us?” Shi Nian swiftly answered before Yun Nan could.
Fang Xi accepted his offer, “Sure! I’m still sleepy anyway.”
Curious, Yun Nan asked, “What did you get up to last night? You don’t look like you’ve slept much.”
“I was busy with public relations, duh!” Fang Xi exasperatedly answered. “My dear, someone is envious of our movie’s box office success and has started to decrease our screening slots. The cinemas have no credibility to speak of; they’ll listen to whoever offers them the most money. They’re still trying to argue the small print in our signed agreement. They don’t know who they’re messing with! I brought them all out together for a meal to discuss the issue with them yesterday. Despite our displeasure with them, we should still be courteous and treat them the way we should.”
Yun Nan reached out and hugged Fang Xi. “Aww, my poor baby. *Sigh* It must’ve been hard on you!”
Fang Xi was someone who would be satisfied with a little verbal reward. She immediately felt better and gallantly patted Yun Nan. “It’s okay, honey. For you and our common cause, this bit of hard work is nothing.”
Shi Nian felt the scene before him was an eyesore and couldn’t help but cough lightly. Fang Xi turned around and sized him up before she inquired ominously, “Chairman Shi, may I ask how many cinemas does the Shi family own? I want to check if any of your cinemas have betrayed us!”
Shi Nian was stunned. “I honestly don’t know,” he replied hesitantly. “But I can get Chang Yuan to look into it. I’ll definitely give you a satisfactory result.”
Fang Xi was quite pleased with what he said. “Alright! That’s more like it. I won’t show mercy if I find out that your cinemas did betray us! Don’t forget, your wife—the Shi family’s Young Madam—and your little sister—the Shi family’s Young Miss—worked on this movie! If anyone dares to betray us… Chairman Shi! Fire them!” So saying, Fang Xi made a throat-cutting gesture.
Shi Nian smiled and nodded. He really had to get Chang Yuan to investigate the matter. When he got into his car, Shi Nian sent Chang Yuan his new mission via WeChat.
Fang Xi dragged Yun Nan to sit in the back with her and suddenly remembered something. “Yun Nan, there was something strange I forgot to mention.”
Yun Nan quietly waited for her to continue, and she did. “Xiao Ya came to thank me. She said she had to thank me for the smooth resolution of Gao Bei’s matter, but I hadn’t done anything! All I did was refrain from pressing her to pay the penalty fee, but seeing how grateful she was, I didn’t say anything. After all, there’ll be more collaborations between us in the future; it wouldn’t be bad if she owed me a big favor.”
“I probed her about it later. She told me it was us Chinese people who had successfully rescued Gao Bei and not the foreign police. They even mentioned my name, though I don’t know such powerful people.”
“It was the Chinese who saved Gao Bei?” Yun Nan asked, also puzzled. “I always thought she had called the police overseas.”
Fang Xi shook her head and remarked, “After hearing what Xiao Ya said, I’m starting to think that the whole thing went too smoothly. Ding Pei does have her ways; she’d hidden that scumbag’s identity so well that even Xiao Ya didn’t see through it at first. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have let Gao Bei be deceived. To be honest, when Gao Bei went missing, there was nothing our local forces could do.”
“I didn’t expect Gao Bei would be rescued overseas so quickly, and that scumbag who tricked her was also caught. Everything went so smoothly; it was as if they had the help of God. Witnesses and physical evidence were sent straight to Xiao Ya, and she was dumbfounded, thinking that someone up there had finally heard her prayers.”
“What’s even stranger was Gao Bei had refused to cooperate and report the incident to the police at first because she didn’t want to air her shame, nor did she want to get into debt. Xiao Ya was so angry she wanted to strangle her. But two days later, Gao Bei suddenly took the initiative and went to her and agreed to file a police report, and the matter was resolved smoothly. Phew, Xiao Ya sure went through a lot of ups and downs.”
Yun Nan was also surprised when she heard. Fang Xi nudged her, indicating for her to look at Shi Nian—he might have had something to do with the whole thing. She wanted Yun Nan to question him, but Yun Nan shook her head gently.
Shi Nian had never asked her about the goings-on of her production team. All he heard were the things she and Shi Xiu usually discussed. Besides, the Shi family was only involved in legal businesses. How could Shi Nian have anything to do with kidnapping, extortion, and human trafficking?
Fang Xi refused to give up and bluntly stated, “Chairman Shi, I don’t want to beat around the bush. Did you or did you not help behind the scenes? If you did, just tell us so we can thank you..”