Xu Ye replied to each of the internet celebrities in turn.
With nothing else to do, he went downstairs, wandered around for a bit, and ended up at the warehouse, where he found Qin Zhiwei slacking off in perfect comfort.
“Playing on your phone during work hours. Careful, or I’ll dock your pay.”
“Yesterday’s orders have all gone out and today’s are all packed. If I’m not on my phone, am I supposed to sit here staring into space?” With that, Qin Zhiwei waved him over in a hurry. “Come look at this. These people in the group chat are hilarious. I’m dying laughing.”
“The high school group?”
“Yeah. Less than half of them went to the class reunion last night — mostly Xie Hong and Jiang Lei and that crowd of dumbasses. They filmed it and posted the video in the group. Gu Mengyao’s in it too. Do you want a look?”
Xu Ye wasn’t especially interested, but Qin Zhiwei had already pushed the phone right in front of him.
Xu Ye glanced at it. Gu Mengyao was in bright, gaudy clothes with heavy makeup on, and he couldn’t help doubting himself.
How the hell did I ever fall for her in my last life?
“Li Nan the class president went too. Guy gets to college and never mind class president, he didn’t even make room leader.”
“Gu Mengyao’s boyfriend really is the son of a rich family, though. The KTV they went to last night belongs to his family — Red Apple KTV, I think it’s called, on that street with all the foot-massage parlors. We’ve been past there before, haven’t we?”
Xu Ye remembered it. In a few more years the foot-massage parlors on that street would close down one after another, and the KTVs would be worse still — business getting thinner every year.
Xu Ye asked, “You didn’t go last night. How do you know all this?”
Qin Zhiwei laughed. “Because they’ve been talking about it in the group the whole time. Li Nan even pulled Gu Mengyao’s boyfriend into the group, and a whole bunch of them started flattering him. It’s an absolute disgrace to our class.”
Xu Ye was about to reply when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
He fished it out, saw it was Zhang Xinzhou, and answered.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Xu Ye.”
“Go on. What is it?”
“A media outlet got in touch with the company just now. They want to interview you.”
“Interview me?”
“Yeah. Monkey King: Hero Is Back is getting a great response online right now, right? And the crowdfunding side of it has been dug up too. We’re the biggest investor apart from the production company, so some of the media followed the trail back to us. They want to do a short interview with you.”
Xu Ye thought about it for a moment. It was a chance to raise the company’s profile, so he was quick to agree. “Give them my contact details and have them get in touch with me directly.”
“All right. I’ll set it up.”
Xu Ye hung up, looked up, and found Qin Zhiwei staring at him, blank-faced.
Xu Ye frowned. “What are you looking at your old man for?”
“What crowdfunding investment? What interview? What the hell are you up to behind my back this time?”
Xu Ye: I never told you about this?
Qin Zhiwei shook his head like a rattle drum.
Xu Ye explained. “My investment company was already up and running before the summer break started, and then a project came my way — that film I mentioned to you a few days ago. I put five million into it.”
Qin Zhiwei’s eyes went round. “You mean Monkey King: Hero Is Back? You put in five million?”
“Yes.”
“Christ!”
Xu Ye stood up and clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t get excited. This is only the beginning. Keep at it, and next summer I’ll put you to work at my investment company.”
……
The outlet that wanted to interview him was called Taotao Film. It was an entertainment media company, and its whole business was posting news about the films of the moment on the independent media platforms.
Xu Ye got in touch with them that same evening and arranged the interview for three o’clock the following afternoon, at a hotel downtown.
They also sent him the next day’s questions in advance so he could prepare himself.
The next day Xu Ye slept in.
When he got up he messaged Pei Youwei to say he had something to take care of and wouldn’t be coming to the factory.
At two thirty in the afternoon he drove to the hotel and found the media people without any trouble. The interview started soon afterward.
He had gotten the questions a day in advance, so he already had an answer ready for every one of them.
Most of the answers were the official line.
It was nothing more than praising the film, then praising the film market, and praising himself along the way.
The interview ran about an hour. At the end he shook hands with the host, exchanged a few polite words, and headed home.
Wang Yuxin was sitting at home on her own doing her homework.
Xu Ye went over and watched over her shoulder for a while. She was working on simultaneous equations in two unknowns. He quietly made himself scarce.
“Xu Ye-gege.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I forgot to tell you.”
“What?”
“My mom told me Manning-jiejie and Wang Zixuan are coming to Jiangzhou soon.”
Wang Manning and Wang Zixuan were Second Aunt’s two children. Xu Ye had seen relatively little of the pair of them, because after Second Aunt married she had stayed in Suzhou and rarely came back to Jiangzhou.
His cousin Wang Manning was seventeen this year and should still be in her second year of high school.
As for Wang Zixuan, he was a year younger than Wang Yuxin and should be in sixth grade.
Xu Ye frowned when he heard it. “What are the two of them coming back for?”
Wang Yuxin explained. “It’s the summer break, so Second Aunt wants to come home to see Grandma, and she’s bringing Manning-jiejie and Wang Zixuan along with her. I heard she’s planning to stay in Jiangzhou for a while — half a month at the least.”
“Is there room for them all at Grandma’s?”
“There isn’t. My mom told Second Aunt to stay at our place, but Second Aunt doesn’t want to be in my mom and dad’s way, so she says she’s going to stay at a hotel.”
Xu Ye sighed. “I haven’t seen the two of them in years.”
Wang Yuxin giggled. “Manning-jiejie is an arts student, you know. My mom says she’s really good at dancing now. I’ve seen a video of her dancing and it’s so pretty.”
As Xu Ye remembered her, Wang Manning had still been a wild little thing at about the age Wang Yuxin was now.
She had been dark-skinned, with big eyes.
He had even given her a nickname, Hei Mei. [TL: 黑妹, “dark girl” — a childhood tease about her tan.] But he was nowhere near as close to this cousin as he was to Wang Yuxin, and had never had much to do with her. Later on, though, he seemed to remember Old Zhang mentioning that after Wang Manning finished college she had married a man with decent prospects, and that the marriage hadn’t lasted a year before they divorced — the story was that she had found out he was having an affair. What happened after that, Xu Ye had no idea.
“Oh, Xu Ye-gege, do you have Manning-jiejie’s WeChat?”
“No. I had her on QQ before.”
“Then I’ll push your WeChat to Manning-jiejie. I only added her myself last night.”
“Sure.”
Not long afterward a notification popped up on WeChat.
That was fast, Xu Ye thought — but when he opened it, the person adding him wasn’t his cousin Wang Manning at all. It was a man.
He tapped accept without thinking.
A message came through immediately. “I’m Gu Mengyao’s boyfriend. I heard in your high school group that the two of you used to be together?”
Xu Ye: No.
“I asked Gu Mengyao. She said you chased after her, she turned you down, and then you went and blocked her.”
“I don’t get it. Gu Mengyao is so pretty and such a nice person. Why would you block her?”
Xu Ye: I found out she had AIDS.
“???”
[Video call] Declined
This person is not in your contacts. You need to send a friend request.
(End of Chapter 263)