305 We’re Actually Not That Restrained
Ye Lingchen had no issues with money. In fact, he had too much money lying around.
Previously, Huo Yuanjia’s box office sales had brought him RMB300 million in income. Add to that his RMB500 million from Las Vegas, it amounted to a cool RMB800 million!
After paying RMB50 million to Xiao Feifei for the joint investment of the filming company, he transferred another RMB50 million to Song Qian for the operations of Panda Streaming. With that, he still had RMB700 million remaining.
Now that he looked at it, the RMB50 million was insufficient. That was due to his inexperience and lack of understanding of the market rates.
With that in mind, he felt uncomfortable.
Being that rich, he should at least buy a building that matched his status!
“Lingchen, what are you thinking about?” Xiao Feifei could not help but ask as she observed the expression on Ye Lingchen’s face.
“I want to buy a building!”
“Lingchen, stop joking around,” said Xiao Feifei.
“Sister Feifei, how much does it cost to get a building here?” Ye Lingchen asked coolly.
“This place cost RMB200,000 per square meter. If you consider a building to be around 5,000 square meters, that would require RMB100 million. If you add in the renovations required, then it’ll be at least RMB 1.5 billion. Furthermore, if you get an entire building, the utility bills are also quite costly. If you run a company, the overhead, property costs, maintenance fees, and…” Xiao Feifei elaborated.
“Cough cough, Sister Feifei, let’s stop playing around…”
…
Ye Lingchen’s heart was shattered to pieces from the impact. Poverty had limited his imaginations.
He looked at the stack of materials on Xiao Feifei’s desk and noticed the many resumes placed on top. Many of them were students from Capital City’s multimedia or arts universities, with some of them wanting to be screenwriters.
Apart from that, there were also scripts delivered over from others. TV series, movie scripts, and even scripts for variety shows were in the mix.
“Sister Feifei, with all these materials, how long more do you plan to read them?” Ye Lingchen could not help but frown. No wonder Xiao Feifei lost so much weight. Nobody could withstand this.
These materials were all different, containing almost anything. Ye Lingchen had only taken a quick scan and he could already feel his head hurting.
“Why don’t we have someone do the reviewing?” Ye Lingchen questioned.
“Lingchen, we’re at a critical period now. We must do it ourselves.” Sister Lin was forced to explain it to Ye Lingchen as he was too ignorant about the industry. “Our company has barely started without any piece of work under it. We need to make a name for ourselves in one go. That’s why the first work must be picked with the utmost care. If we have someone else go through the selection, it’s hard to guarantee.”
“Is that so…” Ye Lingchen nodded, then started to flip through some materials on the desk. With that, he could not help but shake his head.
“These scripts are just trash!” With his extreme reading speed, he grew uncomfortable the more he read. Finally, he decided to just trash the entire pile of scripts in his hand.
“The good scripts are long gone, purchased by the big filming companies. It’s too difficult to pick something out with such fierce competition.” Ye Lingchen then directed the conversation at Xiao Feifei. “Sister Feifei, Sister Lin, you both take a good rest. I’m the boss of this company. Just leave the script to me.”
“Leave it to you?” Xiao Feifei gawked at Ye Lingchen but then thought about Huo Yuanjia. The movie that blew the box office away was written by none other than Ye Lingchen himself.
“That’s right. Leave it to me!” Ye Lingchen thumped his chest audibly, filled with confidence. “In three days, I will give Sister Feifei a satisfactory answer.”
“Pfft!”
Xiao Feifei was laughing from Ye Lingchen’s behavior, dissipating a good amount of her recent stress, helping her to relax visibly. “Alright, Lingchen, I’ll leave this to you. However, don’t force yourself.”
“Relax, Sister Feifei.”
After some small talk, Ye Lingchen went downstairs. Xiao Feifei decided to stay back to avoid causing a commotion.
Ye Lingchen stood at the door and looked around, planning to have his lunch before ordering takeout for Xiao Feifei.
Right then, someone with waxed hair in a brown shirt approached him.”Hey bro, are you here for the interview as well?”
That person looked like a student, not much older than Ye Lingchen. He seemed to be a person that mingled easily with others.
Beside him was another friend with slicked back hair, narrow eyes, and a creepy smile.
“I’m Lu Xiaobu and this is Chen Chichi. We’re students from the acting department of Capital City Arts Institute, here for our interview.” Lu Xiaobu explained.
“Damn it! Why did you steal my line?” Chen Chichi pushed Lu Xiaobu aside, straightening himself. “Let me reintroduce myself. I’m the nice guy—Chen Chichi!”
With that, he raised his eyebrows, instantly boosting the level of his creepiness.
“I’m Ye Lingchen. Capital University, language department,” Ye Lingchen answered with a smile, looking at them thoughtfully.
“Nice to meet you. So you’re a language…wtf? What’s your major again?” They thought they had misheard and looked at Ye Lingchen awkwardly.
“Language,” Ye Lingchen stated calmly.
“Language major? How did you get into the interview here?” Lu Xiaobu was suspicious but immediately waved his hand nonchalantly right after. “That’s not the main point! Piupiu[1]! Look over there!”
Following the direction of his fingers, there were three women standing in that direction, and all of them were in their prime. They had some light makeup and dressed fashionably. Both their looks and body shape were above average, definitely at the level of a goddess if placed in any schools.
“Those three beauties standing under the sun, suffering the scorching heat. Brother Ye, I’ll bet that if we invite them to join us for lunch, they will take us up on it!” Lu Xiaobu looked creepily at Ye Lingchen, giving everyone an obvious signal with his eyes. “There’s three of us, and three of them. Just nice. Hehehe…”
Chen Chichi added, “Brother Ye, we’re sharing this wonderful opportunity with you because we click well with you. Let’s not delay, or someone might get ahead of us.”
“Sure.” Ye Lingchen laughed and followed both of them over.
“Hey pretty, it’s fate for us to meet. Why don’t you join us for a meal?” Lu Xiaobu asked.
“This…I think better not,” answered one of them gently. One could tell that she was a well-pampered lady at home.
“Oh, that’s too bad then,” Ye Lingchen replied calmly and started to head off.
“Eh? Eh!”
Lu Xiaobu, Chen Chichi, and the three beauties were all stunned.
“Handsome, don’t go!”
One of the shorter girls called out to Ye Lingchen. “Handsome, why don’t you try again? Maybe we will agree to it. You should know that us girls are quite restrained right?”
“Yeah, and we’re actually not that restrained. No need for three tries. Just twice would do,” said the other girl.
“That’s too troublesome. Forget about it.” Ye Lingchen waved his hand and appeared to take his leave.
“We agree! Is that okay?” All three beauties urgently called out together.
…
[1] The author wrote “piupiu!” in the raw. We believe it’s Lu Xiaobu’s attempt to make finger guns while pointing Ye Lingchen to the girls.