The assistant was pointing at the man who had been making things difficult for Ning Ran – Liu Yuan.
Everyone present was shocked. They had not expected the assistant to say that she had been working under orders from Liu Yuan.
Liu Yuan was stunned. “What the hell are you saying? I don’t even know who you are! How could I have possibly directed you to do this? Don’t you try to frame me!”
Completely ignoring him, the assistant pressed on, “Mr. Liu took some photos and videos of me when we were together. He used them as blackmail to force me into obeying him. He said if I didn’t do as he said, he would upload them onto the internet…”
“Stop speaking nonsense! I’ve never been together with you! Everyone, don’t listen to her!” Liu Yuan cried out in outrage.
Ouyang Qing stood up and berated him, “Mr. Liu, how could you do this to my assistant! Why would you leak the script? Why are you sabotaging Ding?”
“Ms. Ouyang, how can you believe her words? There’s seriously nothing between the two of us! That woman is crazy! She made a mistake and now she’s just dragging me down with her!”
“I’m not crazy! You ordered me to do that!” the assistant insisted.
“That’s enough!” Nan Chen finally spoke up.
Everybody fell silent, not daring to make a sound lest they suffer his wrath.
“Someone needs to take responsibility for this incident. Since she’s your assistant, shouldn’t that person be you?” Nan Chen stared at Ouyang Qing pointedly.
“Chen, I – “
“How you all argue over this is none of my business. All I know is that your assistant harmed Ding Mi with this action of hers. Not only that, but she also even leaked the script to the public. The consequences of her action are going to affect everyone and you need to bear the responsibility for that. Maybe you should back out of the investment this time. The movie will commence as planned. As for the script, we can talk about that another time.”
With that said, Nan Chen did not wait for anyone to reply before he stood up. It was obvious that the meeting was over.
Everybody remained seated, afraid to move.
“Chen, I can explain – “
Nan Chen waved his hand to stop Ouyang Qing from speaking. Turning to Ning Ran, he asked, “Why aren’t you leaving?”
“Oh.” Ning Ran jumped to her feet before looking at Wang Xiaoou. “Can I go now?”
Wang Xiaoou was speechless. Woman, who the hell dares to stop you from leaving when Mr. Chen wants you to leave? Who could possibly make you stay?
“Sure, go ahead,” she replied with a smile.
Ning Ran walked toward Nan Chen, who bent down to pick up Erbao. The little girl giggled being carried by her father.
The family of four left the conference room, leaving the rest to exchange glances.
Looking over at Nan Chen, Ning Ran murmured, “Thank you.”
He glanced at her. “Just don’t be so stupid next time.”
“Hey, I’m not stupid! How would I know that was a trap? You didn’t expect that either.”
“Shut up!” he snapped.
Erbao instantly protested, “Daddy, you’re so mean! Bad Daddy! Don’t you bully Mommy!”
“Yeah, exactly!” Dabao chimed in.
Warmth swelled in Ning Ran. With my two darlings supporting me, I don’t need to worry about Poker Face picking on me!
“I didn’t bully your Mommy,” Nan Chen explained in an exasperated tone.
“You did! You were so fierce to Mommy!” Erbao insisted.
“That’s right!” Dabao continued to support his sister.
Feeling bold, Ning Ran added, “Even the kids can tell that you were bullying me! And you still won’t admit to it?”
Nan Chen stared at his children before switching his gaze to Ning Ran. He did not say anything after that.
After they got in the car, Ning Ran could not help but ask, “What do we do now that the script’s been leaked?”
“We proceed as planned.”
“But the script’s all over the internet. Should we still go forward?” Ning Ran was confused.
“Jin Yong’s classics have been remade so many times that everyone knows the plot inside and out. Yet they’re still very well-received each time there was a new version. It’s not the end of the world now that our script’s been revealed. A script goes through rewriting all the time. It’s very normal for the script to undergo changes while in production. Don’t you know that?”
Mulling over that, she had to admit he had a point. Back when they were filming Sound of Thunder 2, the script was changed so many times. In the end, she had gone from the second lead to the female lead.
“Okay, I think I understand.”
“No, you don’t. The script that was leaked is actually the unedited script. I’ll have someone send you the edited one later,” Nan Chen replied.
Ning Ran was dumbfounded when she heard that. So after all that fuss, he’s telling me the script is not important?
“What? How did that happen?”
“It’s not like this is the first time a script’s been leaked. I saw the first draft a long time ago. I wasn’t satisfied with it so I told them to modify it. The script the investors read was the original draft without any changes. That’s why it doesn’t matter if the public gets ahold of it. By the time the investors read the second draft, I’m already looking at the third or maybe even the final version.”
Ning Ran was amazed and she asked, “Why don’t you let them read the real script?”
“That is the real script. What’s the problem?”
“But you said it was just the first draft. That means it’s not the final script we’ll be using.”
“Technically, that’s still a script. Since we always make changes to the scripts, they don’t need to be informed every single time that was done. They’re investing in this only because they think following my lead will earn them a tidy profit. They don’t care about how we go about producing and marketing this film. They’re just interested in receiving their dividends.”
Ning Ran nodded. “Alright then.”
Dabao piped up, “Daddy, why are you still working with them when they’re so useless?”
Men. They really think differently.
“Producing a movie is an incredibly risky business. Even the most amazing director and actors have a chance of making a failure. That’s why we need more investors to share the burden. That way even if we suffer losses, it won’t be so bad. There won’t be a risk of not having enough funds to produce another film within a short amount of time,” Nan Chen explained patiently.
Dabao bobbed his head in understanding.
After coming out from Star Entertainment, Ouyang Qing and her assistant got inside their car.
The assistant sat down in the front passenger seat while Ouyang Qing sat at the back.
Once they were out of the parking lot, Ouyang Qing had her assistant bring her face closer.
Obediently, the assistant did as told and twisted her head around, moving it closer to Ouyang Qing.
Raising a hand, Ouyang Qing gave the other woman several harsh slaps across her face.
Without her say so, her assistant dared not retract her head.
Ouyang Qing did not stop until her hand was smarting with the force of her actions.
“You useless piece of trash! How could you mess up such a simple thing!” she shrieked.
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Qing. I never thought a kid would know so much…”
“The way you went about it was wrong in the first place! Even if that kid didn’t know, any other computer expert would have been able to do the same! How can you be so stupid!” Ouyang Qing continued to berate.
The assistant was in defiance. That’s not fair! You agreed to this plan, didn’t you? Now that things have gone wrong, you’re blaming it all on me?
However, all she could do was mentally complain. She did not have the courage to actually speak those thoughts aloud to her boss.
Ouyang Qing continued, “Thankfully, you’re not a complete idiot. At least you managed to think of shifting the blame onto Liu Yuan.”
“But now we’ve offended Mr. Liu. What do you think he’ll do?”
“He’s just a small fry. Who cares if he’s angry? He won’t be able to stir up much trouble,” Ouyang Qing replied scornfully.
“So we’re going to do nothing about him?”
“I’ll explain things to him later, telling him that it was a necessary evil for him to take the blame. He’ll understand. Even if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. He won’t dare do anything to us.”
“Well, Mr. Liu is interested in you. I’m sure he’ll agree to anything as long as you personally talk to him,” her assistant simpered.
“He’s just a disgusting pervert! Even looking at him makes me nauseous. He deserves to die for having such vile thoughts!” Ouyang Qing spat.
