SM Chapter 48

Chapter 48: “The World on the Bough” Was Written by Ye Lai

Chapter 48 “The World on the Bough” Was Written by Ye Lai

As he got closer, Ye Lai smelled the sour scent of cigarettes on Sheng Mingqian’s body. It wasn’t strong, but after it flowed into his nose, its power was not to be underestimated, making his nasal bones ache.

Ye Lai didn’t quite dare to look at Sheng Mingqian now. Just now, provoked by Zhou Ran, he had even lied, saying that Sheng Mingqian married him because he loved him. A lie is a lie, and the person he lied about arrived just a few minutes after he said it. He didn’t even dare to look him in the eye now.

Because of his guilty conscience, he could only pray in his heart that his ridiculous lie just now wouldn’t reach Sheng Mingqian’s ears.

Divorced and still telling such lies, making people laugh.

Zhang Yihao, however, misunderstood Ye Lai’s dodging gaze, thinking that he just didn’t want to see Sheng Mingqian. Plus, he himself already had hostility towards Sheng Mingqian.

As Sheng Mingqian stepped over the shards of glass on the ground, Zhang Yihao stood closer to Ye Lai, blocking Sheng Mingqian from getting any closer.

“Director Shèng, what a coincidence, we meet again.” Zhang Yihao’s tone was sarcastic, and his eyes were slanted.

In his eyes, Ye Lai’s marriage with Sheng Mingqian must not have been equal. Otherwise, with Ye Lai’s personality, he wouldn’t have kept it so secret. Moreover, you could tell whether a person was doing well or not from their eyes. Ye Lai often had a layer of dejection and confusion in his eyes.

And Ye Lai’s body was always inexplicably aching. Zhang Yihao felt that this might also be related to Sheng Mingqian.

But now he felt strange again. They had been secretly married for five years, doing everything quietly and secretly, keeping it under wraps so that no one around them knew. Now that they were clearly divorced, Sheng Mingqian was always appearing around Ye Lai. How secretive he was before, that’s how exposed he is now.

What’s the point? What’s wrong with him?

Zhang Yihao didn’t have time to think about this now, so he directly told Ye Lai the matter at hand: “We made a wasted trip today. The contract wasn’t settled. It sounded good on the phone last night, but when I called Liu Zong from the Mickey business department this morning, he didn’t answer. He answered one call just now downstairs, and before I could even speak, he stammered that he suddenly had an important meeting to attend this morning and couldn’t sign the contract. I guess this endorsement is a bust.”

Ye Lai sat on the chair and rubbed his face hard. He seemed to be used to this kind of result. He stood up and put his arm around Zhang Yihao’s shoulder: “If we can’t sign it, we can’t sign it. Let’s go back and see Xin Xin. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the little girl.”

Sheng Mingqian also understood that another one of Ye Lai’s endorsements had fallen through. He raised his arm to stop him, turned his head, and asked Zhang Yihao, “Is it Liu Zong from Mickey Company?”

Zhang Yihao stopped in his tracks, not knowing what Sheng Mingqian meant by asking this, but he just nodded: “It’s Liu Wen, what’s wrong?”

“I’ll make a phone call and ask,” Sheng Mingqian took out his cell phone, and his other hand hadn’t let go of Ye Lai yet, just holding it like that, “I happen to have his cell phone number. I’ve dealt with him before.”

The call was quickly answered. After Sheng Mingqian exchanged pleasantries with the other party, he directly asked about Ye Lai’s endorsement.

Liu Wen didn’t expect Sheng Mingqian to call him. He knew a little about what was going on in the industry, but he really couldn’t figure out what Sheng Mingqian’s call meant, so he directly asked, “Director Sheng, I don’t know what you mean by this?”

“I don’t mean anything. I’m just wondering why Liu Zong suddenly went back on his word when we agreed to sign the contract today, and the person is already here?”

The other party understood that this was an accusation. He chuckled a few times and made up for it with a few words: “Director Sheng, I had a meeting to attend just now. It’s already over. I can be there right away. I have the contract with me. I didn’t go back on my word. It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.”

The contract that was about to be lost was now back in his hands. Sheng Mingqian shook hands with Liu Wen to thank him. Liu Wen kept a smile on his face and said a few polite words to Ye Lai.

Until the endorsement contract was in hand, Ye Lai was still on the verge of confusion.

The fact was that Sheng Mingqian had helped him keep the endorsement, and it hadn’t even been an hour from start to finish.

–

–

The trending search about the divorce had already gone down, and the number of calls to Sheng Mingqian had decreased a lot during this period. He could still occasionally receive a few calls asking him about gossip, most of which he hung up directly, but he had to answer Zhang Fan’s call.

When he first started making movies, it wasn’t that smooth. Zhang Fan was a real estate developer. When he was filming his first movie, no one was willing to invest in him as a new Director. He and Lin Han ran around for more than half a year and didn’t get a single penny of funding. Zhang Fan wasn’t settled in one go either.

The first time they met, Zhang Fan saw Sheng Mingqian’s script and was only slightly interested in the subject matter. He asked a few more questions, but that was all. He had no intention of investing.

Later, he and Lin Han never gave up and went to see Zhang Fan three more times. Zhang Fan saw that they had made so many trips and finally relented and invested in their first movie. No one expected that Sheng Mingqian’s first film would achieve extraordinary results. Despite the small number of screenings, it was reversed by word of mouth. That year, he won the Best New Director Award and received much attention.

After that, Zhang Fan invested in two more of his films. A few years ago, Zhang Fan had made enough money and retired early. He traveled around the world and rarely contacted him. Sheng Mingqian thought that Zhang Fan was calling him because he had something important to discuss, but he didn’t expect him to be so gossipy. As soon as the call connected, he asked him about his divorce from Ye Lai.

That day, after Ye Lai signed the endorsement contract, he said thank you to him, but after returning, he moved. He went to the orphanage several times, but he did not see Ye Lai. The people at the orphanage did not know Ye Lai’s new address, and Zhang Yihao did not say where Ye Lai had moved to. He knew that Ye Lai was hiding from him.

“Mingqian, I was in South Africa some time ago and just saw the news. I heard that you divorced Ye Lai?”

Sheng Mingqian was helpless, pinching his forehead, and sighed: “President Zhang, you’re in South Africa, but the news is so well-informed.”

Zhang Fan laughed a few times on the other end: “Director Shèng, you really keep things to yourself. You’ve been married to Ye Lai for so many years, and you haven’t leaked any information. After the wrap-up banquet that year, I didn’t hear any news from you two. I thought there was no hope for you two. I didn’t expect you to be doing something big in silence, getting married secretly. I’m also your matchmaker in any case. You didn’t invite me, the matchmaker, to a wedding banquet when you got married, and I still saw the news of your divorce online.”

Sheng Mingqian didn’t understand, with a look of annoyance. He only heard two sentences from Zhang Fan’s words. After the other end quieted down, he softly “hmm”ed.

“What are you ‘hmm’ing? If you do the math, you two should have gotten married after the wrap-up banquet of the ‘Skinning’ crew that year, right? You also asked me to go to the wrap-up banquet. Ye Lai had something to look for you, and I pointed him to your room number. The next day, I saw him coming out of your room. You tell me, am I considered a matchmaker?”

“Wait a minute…” The rustling noise in his brain was instantly cleared away. Sheng Mingqian interrupted Zhang Fan, “President Zhang, what did you just say?”

“I said, you keep things to yourself.”

“Not that sentence, the next one.”

“I’m your matchmaker, you didn’t invite me to drink when you got married.”

“The last sentence.”

“Which sentence? I pointed Ye Lai to your room number?”

“Was it you?”

“Director Shèng, don’t play dumb with me,” Zhang Fan on the other end laughed maliciously, “The Assistant Director told me that Ye Lai was interested in you, and you were interested in him too. You two were flirting with each other on the set, and you took him wherever you went. That night, I just helped you along. The next day after the wrap-up banquet, I called you and asked you how you slept last night. You told me that you slept very well. What, you’ve forgotten that you slept very well?”

Sheng Mingqian forgot. He forgot everything. That night at the wrap-up banquet, something should have been put in his wine, because his alcohol tolerance was not bad. Although he drank a lot of wine at the wrap-up banquet, it was far from the point of being unconscious.

When he woke up the next day, Ye Lai was lying next to him. There was also a video recorder in the room, which recorded the video of that night. When he asked Ye Lai what he wanted, Ye Lai finally spoke.

At that moment, he had already defined Ye Lai. Ye Lai had drugged him, and Ye Lai had also taken the video. Those were just Ye Lai’s methods. The events of that night at the wrap-up banquet completely erased everything that had happened on the set before.

That person who was always smiling at him, always running around after him, that piece of pure white, was suddenly covered with a thick layer of black cloth, which also covered his eyes.

Prejudice had already become a mountain, pressing all the past things tightly inside.

After getting married, Ye Lai asked him a few times if he wanted to watch the complete video, but he refused.

Perhaps, the truth was not what he thought?

Sheng Mingqian didn’t know how Zhang Fan’s call ended. When he came back to his senses, he was already holding the car keys and standing by the car door.

The cell phone was still ringing, stopping and ringing again. This time it wasn’t Zhang Fan, it was Lin Han’s call, with the posture that if he didn’t answer, Lin Han would rush over from the other end of the phone.

Sheng Mingqian pressed the answer button and said “hello.”

“What’s wrong with you? Are you sick? Why does your voice sound like sandpaper?” Sheng Mingqian’s voice startled Lin Han, but business was important. “Mingqian, I have something to tell you. Listen carefully.”

Sheng Mingqian impatiently rubbed the top of his head. “I have urgent matters to deal with. No matter how big the matter is, I’ll talk about it after I’ve dealt with it.”

He wanted to go home now to watch that video, to see what exactly was in that video from that night.

Lin Han was afraid that Sheng Mingqian would hang up the phone. He said “hey” to him and quickly opened his mouth: “Don’t hang up the phone. It’s about Ye Lai. The film production company of “The World on the Bough” is now going to sue. The production company has been using high compensation to pressure them, wanting them to let go. Now that the New Year is over, Li Xun’s studio still won’t let go. Now the official lawsuit process has begun, suing the author.”

Sheng Mingqian became impatient. If they wanted to sue, then sue. Why tell him this? He didn’t want to respond and wanted to hang up the phone.

Lin Han opened his mouth before he hung up the phone: “Mingqian, do you know who wrote that novel?”

Sheng Mingqian resisted the urge to smash the phone. Several red veins climbed into the whites of his eyes: “Don’t play riddles with me. Who is it? What does it have to do with me?”

Lin Han continued Sheng Mingqian’s words: ” “The World on the Bough” was written by Ye Lai. At first, the production company thought it was just the same name, but later they found out that it was Ye Lai. Ye Lai authorized everything to Li Xun, and even the contract was signed by Li Xun’s studio.”

Sheng Mingqian was struck head-on, so hard that he couldn’t move for a long time. He opened his mouth several times before barely squeezing out a little voice from his throat: “Ye Lai, which Ye Lai?”

“Which Ye Lai are you talking about? Of course, it’s Ye Lai, who was married to you for five years and is now divorced.”