Tao Mu’s face went dark. When he posted on Weibo, he knew that he might attract a bunch of ghosts and monsters. But he didn’t expect that the fastest one turned out to be this one.
“What kind of expression is that?” Long Tianao saw Tao Mu’s tiny expression of disgust, and instantly exploded: “I’ve been here waiting for you for a long time. Even if you don’t give me a warm hug, at least shouldn’t you show me a good expression? I haven’t even waited this long for my girlfriend!”
Classmate Long Aotian felt really aggrieved.
“Also, I don’t even mind you standing me up back in H Town. You say, you have been back to Beijing for so many days, and changed your phone number for so long, why didn’t you tell us? Do you not take us as friends or what?”
Us?
Tao Mu raised his eyebrows.
Classmate Long Aotian explained: “Just me and Shen Yu. The two of us couldn’t get in touch with you, and heard someone say that you changed your number. We talked and guessed that you were absolutely intentional. I say, do you dislike us that much?”
Tao Mu snorted softly: “You have a good relationship with Shen Yu.”
Long Tianao was taken aback for a moment, and subconsciously explained: “I met him when we visited your film set last time, and then exchanged Weibo and chatted a few times. I just felt that everyone got along with eavh other.” They mostly got together and talked about Tao Mu.
Tao Mu smiled: “Yes, it seems that you two are really easy to play together.”
Long Tianao: “…..” What did that mean?
Long Tianao looked at Tao Mu in vexation, and asked again: “Don’t change the subject. You say, did you not take us as friends at all?”
Tao Mu rolled his eyes, his expression as clear as day.
Long Tianao’s expression went dark! Fine, he knew he shouldn’t come here to insult himself.
“Let’s go.” Tao Mu was not interested in talking to Long Tianao. The main reason was that there this person was no use to him.
Seeing that Tao Mu was about to slip away in front of him, Long Tianao felt anxious and immediately shouted, “Tao Mu!”
Tao Mu didn’t stop, then he heard Long Tianao yelling from behind: “I can have all the artists under Summer Star Entertainment sign up for FlyNews accounts!”
Tao Mu paused, and when he turned around, his smile was as warm as a spring breeze: “What did you say?”
I just knew you would put on this face!
Classmate Long Aotian lifted his chin so high it practically poked the sky and snorted: “Apologize to me!!!”
Tao Mu looked at Long Tianao blankly, turned around and left.
“Hey, hey, hey, come back.” Long Tianao was frustrated and scolded: “You must be born in the year of the dog! Turning your face just like that. Okay, I won’t have you apologize to me. Phone number. Just give me your mobile phone number. This should be okay, right?”
“Young master Long, you are too polite.” Tao Mu’s smile was once again warm and friendly as ue took out his phone: “Is it convenient to tell me your phone number?”
Damn, no wonder he was in the drama department. Turning his face faster than one turned the page of a book.
Long Tianao grumbled in his heart, but he didn’t dare to show it on his face, quickly reciting his mobile phone number in a straightforward manner.
Tao Mu saved it, and then called Long Tianao. Long Tianao saved the number as quickly as possible, and couldn’t help complaining: “You’re too much. It’s fine if you change your phone number and don’t tell me, but you even delete my phone number! How could you?”
Tao Mu continued to smile softly: “When I returned to Beijing, my phone had an accident and everything was lost.” When necessary, Tao Mu could always tell the right lie to make the situation less embarrassing.
Long Tianao snorted, as if he believed a word!
“Then, have dinner together tonight?” Long Tianao asked Tao Mu: “I can also ask Summer Star Entertainment’s people to come out. We can discuss the specific matters of having the artists register for FlyNews accounts.”
“I really don’t have time.” Tao Mu looked at Long Tianao apologetically, with a sincere expression: “How about noon the day after tomorrow? And it also happens to be Monday. Let’s meet at a coffee shop near your company?”
“Uh, there’s no need?” Long Tianao hurriedly waved his hand and shook his head. He just wanted an excuse to have dinner with Tao Mu, he didn’t want to go to the company!
“Then how about this, I will take full responsibility for this matter, and I will definitely take care of it properly. You can find a time to treat me to dinner as thanks.” Long Tianao said, fearing Tao Mu would slip away again. He immediately added: “Next week, you can choose any day.”
“OK.” Tao Mu responded decisively. Going over the itinerary in his heart: “Then next Friday——”
“Tao Mu!” A voice sounded from across the street, interrupting Tao Mu.
Everyone turned to see a handsome young guy in an equally flashy attire getting out of a sports car and walking towards Tao Mu: “I didn’t expect you to kick up such a storm in Beijing Film. As expected of someone I like, I knew you could do it.”
“Luo Yang?” Long Tianao frowned and stood in front of Tao Mu unhappily: “What are you doing here?”
“Does it have anything to do with you?” Clearly, Luo Yang also hated Long Tianao. Hearing this, he shot back unceremoniously: “What’s it to you?”
Long Tianao didn’t want to point out how Luo Yang made things difficult for Tao Mu back in H Town in front of Tao Mu’s roommates lest Tao Mu lose face. Hit by an inspiration he replied: “Of course it’s my business. We are good friends. I even have his phone number!”
As Long Tianao spoke, he shook his cell phone in front of Luo Yang, “And you, what are you doing here?”
“Of course I came to see Tao Mu.” Luo Yang said, looking at Tao Mu with a smile on his face, “Treat you to dinner next weekend?”
“Not going.” As expected, Tao Mu’s reaction was extremely cold.
Luo Yang didn’t mind too much, stretching out his hand and scratching his nose, he then leaned toward Tao Mu with a smile: “You are still angry with me? I found out you are quite temperamental. I apologized to you several times!”
The three roommates of dorm 301 had been standing beside Tao Mu silently for a long time. At this moment, it was obvious that the atmosphere was wrong, and so they asked suspiciously: “Mu, who is he, do you know him?”
“An investor in the crew I was acting as a martial arts body double.” Tao Mu’s introduction was very objective.
Luo Yang sighed with a smiling face, pretending to be sad: “Why are you so cold towards me, Mu Mu. Are we at least ordinary friends? I even ate the chicken feet you personally made!”
As Luo Yang spoke, he said to the three roommates very familiarly: “By the way, have you ever eaten Tao Mu’s personally cooked food? He cooks very delicious food.”
The three looked at each other, not knowing how to react.
They kept getting the feeling that Luo Yang’s tone and content were implying that he was very familiar with Tao Mu. However, Tao Mu’s attitude was so cold.
Long Tianao snorted unconvinced: “That’s only because you were so brazen and shameless. Tao Mu does not have a good relationship with you. Do you have his phone number?”
Luo Yang: “…..”
Luo Yang couldn’t help but hit back at Long Tianao: “Acting as if you had it from the beginning. If I’m not mistaken, you only get it just now, didn’t you?”
Long Tianao snorted, unwilling to show weakness: “Anyway, you don’t have it.”
“I have it now.” Luo Yang snorted, and as if wanting to piss off Long Tianao, he turned his head and smiled at Tao Mu: “Tell me your new phone number~”
Tao Mu was tired of people like Luo Yang. However, while he might be sick off him, he would not hold back in using him.
While looking at Long Tianao gloatingly, Luo Yang secretly glanced at Tao Mu, who was still as cold as ever, and suddenly said, “By the way, Xiao Heng will be back next week. I am going to hold a welcoming banquet for him. I remember that you two have a good relationship. I would like to invite you to come as well. Tell me your phone number and I will call you then.”
Tao Mu paused, and he directly informed the other of his phone number: “When Mr. Li comes back, you can send me a text message directly.”
Long Tianao sneered, privately thinking that at least his phone number was saved by Tao Mu himself, and then personally called him. You don’t even have this treatment, and you dare to say that you are Tao Mu’s friend. It was likely that the one called “Xiao Heng” was Tao Mu’s friend, right?
You are just a shameless rascal riding the coattails of your friend! What big wolf are you even pretending to be!
Long Tianao and Luo Yang exchanged looks, sparks crackling in mid-air. After a while, they turned their heads away reluctantly.
Luo Yang knew very well that he made a very bad impression with Tao Mu. It was likely that no progress would be made if he continued like this. He looked at Tao Mu unwillingly. After thinking for a while, he finally left, deciding to leave in a dignified manner.
Long Tianao stood next to Tao Mu, watching Luo Yang drive away with a gloating expression on his face. Then he turned to Tao Mu and said, “This kind of person is really shameless, right?”
Tao Mu coldly looked at classmate Long Aotian who was practically shaking his tail and waiting for approval, and said, “You also go back first. See you next Friday night.”
“Wu!” Long Tianao flicked his tail unhappily, and reluctantly said: “Then, then I will go first. I will ask Summer Star’s artists to register for a FlyNews account as soon as possible. I will keep you updated.”
Long Tianao put a little thought in his words here. He felt that if he said that, he would be able to use the excuse of official business to continue to send messages and call Tao Mu. And Tao Mu would definitely not refuse.
Tao Mu’s response was just a wave of his hand, a polite smile on his face: “Be careful on the road.”
In Long Tianao’s ears, it automatically and consciously transformed into “You hurry up and piss off”.
Classmate Long Aotian was particularly unwilling, letting out a howl in his heart. Privately thinking that he hadn’t ever been this timid before, but how come he couldn’t refuse Tao Mu. Sure enough, at that time he shouldn’t have listened to the company’s idiots and taken over Tao Mu’s role.
But then thinking about it again. If he hadn’t taken Tao Mu’s role in the first place, he wouldn’t have met Tao Mu. Then there was no such thing as afterwards! This was really fucking…..too damn conflicted!
The melancholic classmate Long Aotian waved his paw to bid farewell to Tao Mu, and stomped on the accelerator.
The three roommates looked at the car exhaust left in the air, then at Tao Mu and asked carefully, “You don’t like them?”
Tao Mu didn’t intend to speak out about H Town to gain sympathy, but he also didn’t want to hide his emotions in front of his real friends——although he had known dorm 301 for less than half a month. But whether it was character, personality or other aspects, Tao Mu was very satisfied with his three roommates.
Since he wanted to develop a deep friendship, Tao Mu didn’t bother to hide his real self: “I really don’t like them very much. These two people are typical hedonistic sons of wealthy parents. We ordinary people can’t afford to play with them.”
After all, they had to follow the plot. But he just wanted to mind his own business.
The three roommates nodded thoughtfully. Just now Long Tianao and Luo Yang did indeed act very arrogantly, everyone could see it. With Tao Mu’s disposition, it was normal not to like this kind of person. They didn’t like it either.
“That’s right.” Tao Mu recalled something: “I won’t be going back to the dormitory tonight. I have to go back and see our old man.”
Tao Mu promised to go back to visit Song Daozhen every weekend. Military training started last weekend so Tao Mu didn’t bother. But this weekend he must go back. Besides, he also had to discuss with Feng Yuan.
The other three nodded. Chu Sui’an had always been attentive and he asked: “By the way, I found that from just now, some classmates responded in the online message area. In our school beauty and hunk competition, they found that there are a lot of pictures of girls from other colleges and universities. Most of them are girls in Yan Film. They want to ask what’s going on?”
“The registration for FlyNews was originally open to everyone.” Tao Mu didn’t care: “This was my negligence. I’ll fix it up later.”
However, while he said that, Tao Mu had never been a negligent person. In doing so, he naturally had his own “evil motives”——he wanted to take the opportunity to raise the competitive consciousness of Beijing Film and Yan Film, and even several other domestic film and drama colleges. So long as more people participated in the competition, correspondingly, these people would mobilize more people to register on FlyNews in order to get votes for themselves.
Tao Mu was a businessman. Of course, he hoped that the more registered users on the website, the better, and the greater the number of traffic, the better. But this kind of calculation was not easy to put out in the open.
Tao Mu didn’t want to hide his thoughts in front of his friends so the three of them could naturally see through his little calculation. Wen Bao smiled and nudged Tao Mu, and even Du Kang, who had always been obtuse, said, “Don’t mind it, I think it’s good. As they say, unintentional actions may bring unexpected success. Let’s take this opportunity to make it even more big and turn it into a competition for all Beijing schools, or even a nationwide competition for school beauty and hunk. See who is the most handsome and most beautiful college student in China.”
As expected of the best director who could kick up a bloody storm in the entertainment circle when participating in variety shows. Du Kang’s awareness in such things was far beyond that of others.
Tao Mu looked at him with interest: “Are you saying that we should vote for national school beauty and hunk?”
“National school beauty and national school hunk!” Du Kang thought it over, and thought this title was quite interesting: “Yeah. Anyway, the more people there are, the more lively it will be.”
As he spoke, Du Kang winked at Tao Mu: “Don’t you also want it to get more lively?”
Tao Mu was silent but smiled. However, after he went back, he still made some changes to separate the various colleges and universities’ school beauty and hunk voting activities. It was just that that happened three days later. In the past three days, the major colleges and universities in Beijing, especially the students of Beijing Film and Yan Film, had been instigated by some netizens, whether deliberately or unintentionally, during the voting process. All leaving shoutouts in the message area one after another, calling all voters to vote for their classmates to win the title of school beauty and hunk of all Beijing schools.
This competition soon expanded and even included the senior brothers and sisters of Beijing Film and Yan Film who had already graduated. These A-list film emperors and empresses, who were quite famous in the circle, were all pushed out by their own schoolmates in order to wave the banner as if it was a tiger skin (TN: idiom for borrowing sb’s prestige). And the fans of these A-list stars, under the call of these melon eating netizens, even registered for a FlyNews account to vote for their idols. Eventually it evolved into the selection for female idol and male idol in the entertainment circle. What Four Great Kings, Four Queens, Newcomers of the Year…..
But that all happened in the afterword.
In the evening, after the military training, Tao Mu packed up and prepared to return to the orphanage.
Liu Yao, who got the news early, drove his Grand Cherokee to pick up Tao Mu at the school gate. The seat next to him sat Meng Qi as always.
Tao Mu got in the back seat of the car and then greeted brother Yao and brother Xiao Qi with a smile. In order to divert attention, he dragged the topic directly to his own FlyNews website.
Meng Qi smiled and said, “I saw it with your brother Yao. Followed your Weibo and went straight over. Also registered a FlyNews account. I say, you kid, only just a few days in school, and already making such a big commotion. Did your school teacher look for you?”
“Not yet.” Tao Mu chuckled, “Today is Saturday. It is likely that they will find me on Monday.”
Liu Yao, who was driving, squeezed his fingers and said nothing.
Upon seeing this, Meng Qi smiled and asked, “Is there anything you need to help with? Say it early, otherwise your brother Yao will be angry.”
Liu Yao glanced at Meng Qi and snorted. He still didn’t say a word, looking very much like a tsundere.
Tao Mu scratched the back of his neck and said, “There is really one thing. I want to rent an office as soon as possible, the location must be near the university town. It will be convenient for me to recruit programmers and other employees in the future.”
Meng Qi asked again: “How are the business licenses? And also computer servers. Are you still using Beijing Film’s school server? It’s okay now but when the traffic gets heavier, will they still let you use it?”
“I have prepared for that.” Tao Mu had asked Feng Yuan to run the errands for him when he first studied the source code of the website. The business agent he found completed the necessary procedures for a few hundred dollars. As for the server, he also contacted the operator in advance and signed a lease contract.
Tao Mu planned to keep it like this for a few months first, and when his money was drawn from the international oil futures market at the end of the year, he would then buy his own server.
So up to now, the only problem was really the office location. The main reason was that Feng Yuan was unfamiliar with this, and Tao Mu himself didn’t have time to look around. He couldn’t even spare the time to contact the real estate agent to see the venue. So after thinking about it, he could only ask brother Yao and brother Xiaoql Qi to find one for him.
So he really was not casually brushing them off with a perfunctory request.
Listening to Tao Mu’s explanation, Liu Yao stopped harrumphing this time and said directly: “What need is there to look for other offices? Your brother Xiaoqi’s house is big and close, and the environment is not bad either, isn’t it just right? “
Meng Qi nodded, particularly in agreement.
Tao Mu shook his head decisively and said straightforwardly: “That’s not good. Home must be separated from the company. I don’t want a lot of colleagues wandering around in brother Xiao Qi’s house all day long.”
Liu Yao and Meng Qi were taken aback at the same time. This kid was still so distinct as always. Drawing a line that clearly distinguished insiders from outsiders. And the main thing was that the both of them were inside the line.
Meng Qi hooked up a corner of his mouth, feeling suddenly happy: “Okay. We listen to you. Let’s find another place.”
The Grand Cherokee drove all the way to Houhai and stopped at the entrance of the orphanage. Tao Mu first took his brother Yao and brother Xiao Qi to see the old man in Song Ji next door.
Because of the phone call in advance, Song Daozhen had prepared the dinner early. It was all Tao Mu’s favorite dishes. And knowing that Tao Mu was going to be discussing things, he also let the workers in the store off early.
At this moment, looking at the two tails trailing behind Tao Mu, the old man didn’t say anything and just snorted.
It was not just a year or two that Liu Yao and Song Daozhen disliked each other. So no one really paid it any mind. They all washed their hands and sat down to eat while smiling. Anyway, no matter how old man Song acted stubborn and unfriendly, his cooking skill was definitely the best.
Feng Yuan, who had been guarding the door of the orphanage, saw Liu Yao’s car, and hurriedly followed them, greeting them with a smile: “Brother Mu, brother Yao, brother Qi, grandpa.”
“Yo!” Liu Yao looked at Feng Yuan in amazement, stretched out his hand to rub his head, “No longer stuttering?”
“No.” Feng Yuan shook his head. He had been tailing Luo Yang recently and found that his stuttering was too obvious of a trait. It would not be good if it was noticed by someone. So after thinking about it, while he couldn’t change it, he could talk less.
So as a result, his talking style became brief and minimal. People who didn’t know better would only think that this kid just had a cold temper.
Hearing Feng Yuan’s explanation, everyone laughed. Liu Yao nodded his head appreciatively: “Yes. This kid is very careful!”
Because Feng Yuan took the initiative to talk about this matter, Meng Qi did not hesitate, and asked Tao Mu, “What are you going to do about this?”
Hearing this, Feng Yuan also looked at Tao Mu eagerly.
Tao Mu smiled slightly and spoke as he ate, “Luo Yang has a capable sister who has always been a pillar of the Luo family, and is highly valued by the family and group shareholders. As far as I know, there is now a large part of the Luo family business that is taken care of by Luo Yang’s sister. But the father Luo has never recognized Luo Yang’s sister. He wants to hand over the inheritance rights to Luo Yang. Luo Yang’s sister is naturally unconvinced. It’s just that she has yet to find Luo Yang’s weakness before.” After all, he was just a useless dandy who didn’t go to work in the company, and didn’t bother to care about the family business. Otherwise, how could he have the time to serve the plot every day!
“The Luo Group wants to bid for a piece of land in Shanghai. In order to pave the way for Luo Yang, father Luo tried his best to let Luo Yang take charge of this bidding. But the reason why Luo Yang accepted the project was so that he could see his sweetheart, Shen Yu, under the cover of a business trip. And this Shen Yu has many admirers. One of them is Yao Wenxiao, who has a cruel personality and despicable methods. So, I plan to send someone to Shanghai.”
“Are you planning to sow discord?” Liu Yao immediately understood what Tao Mu meant.
Men, especially young people, what couldn’t they do out of jealousy? Tao Mu’s scheme was indeed good. Throwing the dirty work to others, while he could stay back and get involved.
Not only that. Meng Qi blinked thoughtfully, resisting the urge to look at the old man.
The location was in Shanghai, and the admirer was surnamed Yao. This kid must be thinking of setting up an enemy for the Yao family!
Tao Mu was silent but smiled. In truth, this could not really be counted as setting up an enemy. These two were eventual enemies anyway. After all, in his previous life, Luo Yang liked men, and it was Yao Wenxiao who revealed this to father Luo. He just didn’t expect that a coward like Luo Yang actually dared to come out of the closet in front of father Luo, and thus angering father Luo to death——
Of course, these were all one-sided words from Yao Wenxiao when explaining to Shen Yu. As for whether he expected such an outcome, of course outsiders wouldn’t know.
But Tao Mu could clearly recall that after Luo Yang, Yao Wenxiao also used the same method to deal with Yan Sheng. It was just that no one in the Yan family had heart disease, and Yan Sheng’s character and ability could not be compared to that of Luo Yang who was just a rich second generation——he had his own acting career and also founded his own film and television company. In a word, people who were financially independent had a straighter spine than the rich second generations who spent their parents’ money.
Therefore, Yao Wenxiao’s strategy not only failed to make Yan Sheng retreat. Instead, it led to Yan Sheng coming out to his family. Although the Yan family’s opposition was fierce at the beginning, Yan Sheng subsequently won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement for a film and came out directly in front of a global audience at the Oscars awards ceremony.
The Yan family couldn’t stop it, and saw that although Shen Yu was not the real son of the Shen family, he was valued by the Shen family, and had even more importance than their true blood related son. In addition to the fact that Shen Yu was also in the entertainment circle at the time and his popularity was not much less than that of Yan Cheng, so they could only pinch their nose and accept reality.
However, from this point alone, Tao Mu believed that Shen Yu’s harem group was by no means truly united. It was just that in the last life they were crushed by the plot halo and couldn’t make any waves.
In this life, Tao Mu didn’t directly and obviously make any trouble for Shen Yu, and as a result he didn’t give those admirers an opportunity to unite and deal with him together. He even avoided the center location of the plot, Shanghai.
He wanted to see, without him as their public enemy, would this group of admirers still be able to act harmoniously like one big family.
He wondered if Yao Wenxiao, who was a possessive psychopath that wanted nothing more than to kill all the bastards who dared to get close to Shen Yu, be able to hold back his claws and not reach out against Luo Yang?
Of course, even if he really held back, he wasn’t afraid. After all, Tao Mu’s existence was to make it so he couldn’t bear to not strike against Luo Yang.
But it was not enough to provoke just these two people. What Tao Mu had to do was to use this bidding for land to provoke Sheng’an Group and the Luo Group to fight each other.
Otherwise, it would be harder to take down Sheng’an Group in the future.
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