Chapter 14 - “All you want is to have a new character added, right? I can do it. Please let me do it.” (2)

“Then how do you know he really was that handsome?”

“The way the girl described him! Plus, even the few queens of the night scene who were regulars of Queen were stunned and all tried to chat him up at various times!”

“.. all of them at various times?”

“Yeah! And they have all failed.”

When she got to this point, the excitement had quickly left Jiang Xiaoqing. Her shoulders dropped and she sighed. “I heard that he was like a buddha’s incarnate. The No. 1 night queen of Queen – the one that was allegedly why half the men were there -- approached him in her flesh and blood. She had practically rested her breasts on his arm and all he said to her was, ‘I have no desire toward women’. Listen to that. Is that something a human being would say?”

Gu Nian, “Mmm.”

Jiang Xiaoqing looked over, “What do you mean by ‘mmm’?”

Gu Nian turned toward her as well and smiled innocently. “There are three possibilities. 1. He truly is buddha. 2. He’s impotent. 3. His sexual orientation.”

Jiang Xiaoqing, “....”

While Jiang Xiaoqing was drowning in her own sorrow, Gu Nian turned back around with a smile on her face. That was when she noticed Qin Yuanyuan, sitting across from her, was frowning at her cellphone.

Gu Nian called out to her softly, “Yuanyuan?”

“Huh?” Qin Yuanyuan quickly looked up.

Gu Nian, “What’s the matter? You seem distracted.”

Qin Yuanyuan struggled for a few seconds. “I was thinking about how to bring this up to the two of you.”

“Hmm?”

“I have been here since this morning, right? The Director Team called me over and briefed me on the reason they wanted us here.”

“Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot about that!” Jiang Xiaoqing was reminded all of a sudden. “Why do they need all three of us here? This is so out in the boonies. Do they just need warm bodies here to help out?”

Qin Yuanyuan, “The filming crew added a new actor the last minute and the Director Team wanted us to add another role in the script.”

“?” Gu Nian and Jiang Xiaoqing both looked up at the same time.

Qin Yuanyuan added, “And not a small role at that. Per the Director Team, we will need to bring this new role up to third male lead while not making any changes to any scenes that they have already filmed.”

“....? ?”

When they have recollected themselves, Jiang Xiaoqing was the first to have an outcry. “Adding a third male lead right now? Are they kidding us? Not to mentioned that we have already handed in the script. Have that Zhuo Yixuan add it herself! She’s the only screenwriter by name. How is it that she gets all they glory and we have to do all the hard work?”

Gu Nian, too, shook her head. “This will be too challenging. We have already completed the screenplay per the contract. We are not obligated to take this up.”

Qin Yuanyuan looked distressed.

Jiang Xiaoqing turned and looked at her. “Yuanyuan, don’t tell me that you have already agreed to their request.”

“No, I didn’t,” said Qin Yuanyuan hesitantly. “I said I will talk to you two first.”

Jiang Xiaoqing looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh. “Oh, my gosh. You are such a people-pleaser! What is there to talk about? This is grossly unfair!”

Qin Yuanyuan gave Gu Nian a difficult look.

Gu Nian, too, sighed to herself.

Jiang Xiaoqing was right. Qin Yuanyuan was too much of a people-pleaser. It was not realistic to expect her to turn down the request from the Director Team.

Gu Nian was trying to come up with some ideas when Jiang Xiaoqing had already slammed her hand down on the table and stood up. She was enraged. “Let me go talk to them!”

Gu Nian looked at her with her chin resting on her palm. “Oh yeah? What are you going to say?”

“To confront them about this additional amount of workload that they are asking us to take on. It isn’t like they will pay us additional fees!”

Gu Nian nodded. “And how are you going to handle it when the Director Team implies that they will not pay us our remainder if we decline to add the third male lead?”

Jiang Xiaoqing was stunned a little.

The room went silent immediately.

Jiang Xiaoqing blinked and looked at Gu Nian. “Do you think they will really do such a thing?”

Gu Nian shook her head.

Jiang Xiaoqing let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “That’s what I thought. They wouldn’t be that shameless...”

“I don’t think,” said Gu Nian as she stretched and stood up. “I know.”

Jiang Xiaoqing, “! ?”

Looking at the two dumbfounded faces in front of her, Gu Nian leaned over and patted both of them on their heads. “I don’t think I can count on you two on this one. Let’s go. I’ll be the first to talk to them and see what we work out.”

Jiang Xiaoqing was the first to recollect herself. She dragged Qin Yuanyuan with her and pitter-pattered behind Gu Nian. “You sure are my Monkey King. So reliable.”

Gu Nian yawned numbly. “That title does not sound good at all. I veto it.”

“I don’t care. Hehehe.”