After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 25.2

Seeing others making big money, Meng Yuting was unwilling to settle for the small profits of flipping secondhand houses. Finally, she set her sights on a piece of industrial land.

Industrial wastewater had accidentally overflowed on a torrential rainy day, causing heavy metals to severely exceed safety standards, forcing the factory area to be abandoned. It was bought by her at an extremely low price. After undergoing a series of manipulations, it transformed into residential housing sold to residents.

Likely fully aware of what she had done, Meng Yuting temporarily refrained from making further moves after this, choosing instead to observe the direction of the wind. Coincidentally at that time, the real estate bubble burst, allowing her to fortunately and quickly withdraw herself, escaping to S City with a massive sum of money.

Meng Xingshu had unearthed this past history a few years ago. However, because too much time had passed and due to the limitations of that era, collecting evidence was extremely difficult, making progress exceptionally slow.

At tonight’s dinner gathering, there was a prominent political figure from H Province. Meng Xingshu intended to build a connection, so she drank a few extra glasses.

Before getting into the car, she took off her suit jacket and used an odor eliminator, a refreshing citrus scent quickly masked the smell of alcohol around her.

Fang Ruohan was originally handling public sentiment. The marketing purchased by the Meng family contained too many exaggerations, among which the exceptionally egregious ones required the public relations team to contact and delete them.

Seeing Meng Xingshu come out, she quickly opened the refrigerated cabinet inside the car and pulled out a towel. “Teacher Meng, are we going to Jiangping District?”

Meng Xingshu took the towel, carefully wiped her hands clean, and uttered an “Um.”

There was no moon tonight. Piercing through patches of neon lights, the scattered stars in the night sky grew bright one after another, like distant lamps guiding the way.

The end of the road was the S City Children’s Welfare Institute.

The welfare institute’s visiting hours had long since passed, but the elderly woman guarding the gate recognized Meng Xingshu’s car. She waved her hand to signal the security guard that there was no need to question her, letting the car straight through the gate.

“Xiao Jiu,” the elderly woman called out with a smile, “you’re a bit late coming this year.”

The rear car window rolled down, Meng Xingshu’s gaze gentle: “I was delayed by some matters, I’ve disturbed your rest, Granny.”

“Ah, no disturbance, no disturbance. It’s just that there’s only a quarter of an hour left before off hours, so I thought I wouldn’t see you tonight.” The elderly woman hunched her back, looking deeply at Meng Xingshu’s face, her loving eyes narrowing into a slit.

She was advanced in years, and there were many chores in the welfare institute that she could no longer perform. If it weren’t for Meng Xingshu’s financial support, she would have been dismissed from the welfare institute long ago.

Xiao Jiu was one of her two favorite children, she was both sensible and driven. She scrutinized her for a long time before finally feeling a bit more at ease, “Your complexion looks much better this year than in previous years. Is your body feeling more comfortable? It’s been quite a while since I last saw you on television. That’s good, that’s good. Although I am uneducated, I still know how exhausting it is to be a star. You should rest more and be well.”

Meng Xingshu nodded. “Okay.”

After reaching adulthood, Meng Xingshu had always maintained the habit of donating money to the welfare institute. She kept a room for herself inside the institute and would come to stay a few times every year.

Fang Ruohan parked the car and took the lead to head upstairs, while Meng Xingshu took pruning shears and gardening gloves, walking toward the lakeside.

Meng Xingshu was adopted by the Meng family at age nine. Before that, she had stayed in the welfare institute for five years, never thinking about leaving this place.

Beside the welfare institute’s artificial lake grew patches of irises, which she had planted the year she turned eighteen. Ten years had passed, and they had grown increasingly lush. Once the flowering season arrived, they would magnificently bloom into a blue-purple sea of flowers.

But right now it was late June, and the peak blooming period had already passed. Under the daily rising temperatures, the blossoms had completely withered, and the crisp green leaves also presented a wilted state.

Meng Xingshu casually tied up her long hair, rolled up her shirt sleeves, put on the gloves, and clipped away the withered yellow flower stalks one by one.

Under the orange-yellow streetlights by the lake, her figure was stretched long and thin.

At a certain moment, that long, thin shadow paused, and she immediately bent even lower. The pruning shears and the clipped leaves were gathered in her left hand, while her right hand reached out, picking up a flower from amidst the sprouting green leaves.

Perhaps because it bloomed late, the flower had not yet withered. The gorgeous, plump petals resembled the tail feathers of an iris bird, fluttering in Meng Xingshu’s palm. Beautiful and enchanting, it also carried a burst of vibrant life.

She gazed at the flower for a moment, and suddenly felt a strong urge to make a phone call to Ji Youyi, just to hear her voice.

The phone rang five times before it was picked up. The voice on the other end was clear, sweet, and cheerful, like grapefruit juice poured inside a translucent crystal glass. “Hello, Teacher Meng, good evening! Is there something going on?”

Meng Xingshu sat down on a bench by the lake, placing her gloves and shears to one side, leaving only the flower in her hand.

She searched for a reason and spoke calmly: “Are you busy lately? I received a few scripts. When will you have time to take a look?”

“I have time right now!” For some reason, that voice seemed to let out a sigh of relief, as if obtaining some sort of release, instantly becoming cheerful, “Teacher Meng, you can send me work anytime. I’ll handle it immediately as soon as I have time.”

Meng Xingshu looked through the files she had received recently, selected a few decent ones, and sent them over.

Ji Youyi opened the files one by one and couldn’t help but exclaim. “Aren’t these teachers all grand screenwriters in the industry? Letting me shoot them?”

“You don’t want to shoot them? Or…?”

Meng Xingshu said, “I watched Golden Bones, it was shot very well. Fairly speaking, among the directors currently active in the industry, one probably couldn’t find anyone better than you.”

“Very well,” “couldn’t find anyone better than you” Ji Youyi hadn’t expected to receive such a high evaluation from Meng Xingshu, and even less expected that Meng Xingshu had actually gone to follow the drama.

So a person like Meng Xingshu would actually watch a web face-slapping drama?

Although she knew that Meng Xingshu’s decision to seek a partnership with her in the first place must have been due to recognizing her capability, hearing such direct praise with her own ears…

Ji Youyi adjusted her posture, the corners of her lips unable to resist curling upward for a few seconds before she forcefully suppressed them.

Hmph, she, the grand Director Ji, had heard oceans of praise, how could she possibly become conceited over a mere couple of sentences!

Ji Youyi held the phone to her ear with her left hand, wrapping her right arm around the blanket as she lay on her side, feeling as if a certain itchy sensation was rising from her heart.

She pressed her lips together, rubbing her head against the pillow bit by bit to relieve it. When she spoke, the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but tilt up once more.

“Thank you for praising me. But Teacher Meng, think about it: shouldn’t a grand screenwriter be paired with a grand production? Right now, a good script is hard to find in the industry. If we really pick one out, shouldn’t the caliber of the actors, director, cinematography, lighting, and costume design all be raised as high as possible so as not to waste it?”

“If we want to earn a lot, the investment must also keep up. Adding everything up, it would take at least over a hundred million, so it won’t be a small project. In case it loses money, how much would we have to pay back? You ought to look for platforms, companies, and more producers to share the risk, and then find a renowned chief director to back it up so it won’t easily fail.”

Meng Xingshu said. “Why look for another director. You said before that you wouldn’t let me lose money, that is enough.”

“The situation I mentioned is different! What I can help you do is medium return, low-risk. But this kind of high-return project will definitely be accompanied by high risk. If you bring me along, your promotion and distribution will be much harder.”

“If we cooperate on a project, my thought is to save on human resource costs and look for main creators who possess technical skills but aren’t as famous. That way, we can lengthen the production cycle and carefully scrutinize every single scene just like shooting a movie.”

“Once the drama’s quality is guaranteed and the cost isn’t high, it naturally won’t lose money. As for screenwriters, if we really can’t find a suitable one within the industry, what do you think of Li Zhulan? She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature from S University, and her writing foundation…”

Ji Youyi spoke endlessly once she started talking about work. Meng Xingshu listened quietly, as if seeing fresh and sweet grapefruit juice lightly rippling in the glass, making her throat feel parched as she watched.

She licked her lips, her thumb lightly rubbing against the iris petal while carefully controlling her strength, deeply afraid that a slight excess of force would crush it.

Meng Xingshu knew that Ji Youyi saying so much to her had absolutely nothing to do with who she was as an individual.

If a different producer wanted to cooperate with Ji Youyi right now, she would similarly use this enthusiastic, light, and life-filled tone to chat with that person for a long time.

This set of words she used to praise Li Zhulan had already been spoken once back in March, inside her car.

Clearly, she had forgotten, chatting was merely her work. The words she spoke to her could be spoken to anyone, and once she dealt with it, she threw it to the back of her mind.

…But at least, this brief moment of her time right now belonged to her.

By her ear, the girl logically enumerated her arguments one by one and concluded, “So we can chat and come up with a script together, hehe. Teacher Meng, what do you think?”

The phone was quiet for a few seconds. Meng Xingshu focused her mind to listen to the sound of breathing on the other end, listening with fascination.

She suspected she was a bit drunk.

Her alcohol tolerance was actually very good.

The path in the film and television industry wasn’t easy to walk. Before Lingxing became today’s Lingxing and Meng Xingshu became today’s Meng Xingshu, she had to experience far too many worldly wisdoms and human relations.

The few glasses she drank tonight were far from enough to interfere with her sobriety.

Yet under the dense night sky at this moment, Ji Youyi’s sweet voice, her smiling words, and even her even breathing felt as if they were injected with an excessive amount of alcohol.

Beautiful, alluring, easily provoking her impulses, pushing her to say something.

But she was nothing.

She couldn’t say anything.

“Hello? Teacher Meng, can you hear me? Do you have any thoughts? Hello?” A tiny murmur came from the other end of the phone, “It seems the signal isn’t very good.”

Meng Xingshu looked down at the flower in her hand. Her finger moved away, and barely any trace of being rubbed could be seen on the petal.

She stood up, gazing at the shimmering lake surface in the distance, her tone completely smooth and tranquil. “I think it’s feasible. But a script is too important, it still requires prudent consideration.”

“Therefore, let’s meet and talk in person.”