Chapter 70

Chapter 70

At the celebration party after the awards ceremony, Ye Mingzhao undoubtedly became the center of attention.

This was actually quite normal.

Leaving aside Ye Mingzhao's stunning acting talent, given his background and methods and connections, it was also worth everyone's effort to try and curry favor with him.

In fact, up until now, people rarely viewed Ye Mingzhao as just a simple actor. They were more inclined to see him as a representative of the investor side.

Therefore, at this moment, those who came to interact with Ye Mingzhao, congratulating him on winning the Best Supporting Actor award and at the same time actively handing him scripts, were all hoping that Ye Mingzhao would invest in their projects or their scripts.

When Mark Brown was brought to Ye Mingzhao by Chairman Qi of Starjoy Media, this was the scene of intense attention that he witnessed.

Mark Brown smiled slightly and raised his champagne glass towards Ye Mingzhao. "Congratulations on winning the Best Supporting Actor award. You are one of the most talented actors I've ever seen."

Ye Mingzhao smiled back and asked pointedly, "You are Mr. Brown from Pamun Pictures, right?"

Mark Brown initiated the handshake. "Yes, it's an honor to meet you."

Ye Mingzhao smiled meaningfully. "I hope I didn't disappoint you."

"How could that be?" Mark Brown laughed. "Mr. Ye is as young and handsome as I had imagined, with an elegant demeanor."

Mark Brown's real purpose for meeting Ye Mingzhao was under the pretext of collaborating with Starjoy Media to shoot the *Westward Journey* movie. So during the celebration party, Mark Brown kept the conversation focused on the *Westward Journey* movie.

Ye Mingzhao wasn't in a hurry to probe Mark Brown's real intentions. The two exchanged pleasantries and chatted enthusiastically. Towards the end of the celebration party, Mark Brown smiled and said, "Ye, it's been a real pleasure chatting with you. There's a Chinese proverb that says, 'We feel like old friends at first sight.' That's exactly how I feel now."

"Can we exchange contact information?" Mark Brown said with a smile. "I plan to stay in Xinhai for a while longer before leaving. During this time, I'll be staying at the Xinhai Grand Hotel. I also want to host a banquet for our Chinese film colleagues to discuss the future of cinema. Would you be interested in attending my party?"

Ye Mingzhao was certainly interested.

In fact, upon hearing that Mark Brown was going to Xinhai, he even proactively suggested, "If our schedules align, we can travel back together."

Facing Ye Mingzhao's invitation, Mark Brown naturally accepted with pleasure.

Thus, the next morning, the two returned to Xinhai on the same flight.

As soon as the plane landed, Mark Brown immediately recognized Chu Hengyi standing in the arrivals area and said with a smile, "Ye, is that your family member? He's holding up a sign with your name on it."

Following Mark Brown's finger, Ye Mingzhao saw Chu Hengyi, who stood conspicuously among the crowd, towering above the passing travelers at a height of 1.9 meters.

In his hands, he was awkwardly holding up a cardboard sign with Ye Mingzhao's name crookedly written on it. It was unclear which shipping box he had torn it off from.

"You really are thrifty!" Ye Mingzhao said, somewhat speechless, looking at the shabby sign Chu Hengyi was holding. "Has our company become so strapped for cash that we're using makeshift signs?"

"Coming to pick you up is a personal matter. How can I use company resources?" Chu Hengyi said with a grin, mischievously. "Do you think I'm someone who can't distinguish between personal and business matters?"

Ye Mingzhao bluntly replied, "You are."

Chu Hengyi laughed heartily and casually handed over the shabby sign to Ye Mingzhao, then turned to look at Mark Brown. "So you're Mark Brown?"

No matter what he was thinking, upon hearing this, Mark Brown responded with a polite smile. "Yes, I am Mark Brown from Pamun Pictures—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Chu Hengyi added another line, "Are you approaching Ye Mingzhao under the pretext of making a movie, on the orders of your backer, Hua Rui?"

Mark Brown: "..."

At this point, Mark Brown found it a bit hard to keep smiling.

Chu Hengyi continued, "If Hua Rui wants you to approach me through Ye Mingzhao, you can tell her that I'm keen to meet her. We might as well have an open and honest meeting."

Mark Brown: "......"

Watching Mark Brown, who looked like he'd just been hit by lightning after Chu Hengyi's three questions, Ye Mingzhao sympathetically raised his eyebrows. "Chu Hengyi is just that direct. You'll get used to it."

Mark Brown's expression immediately cracked. He still wanted to struggle a bit, "I'm actually not here for—"

"Whatever your reason, I want to meet Hua Rui," Chu Hengyi waved dismissively, uninterested in Mark Brown's clumsy excuses, "Just think of yourself as an innocent go-between. When you get back to the hotel, help me ask Hua Rui how long she plans to hide."

Seeing Mark Brown, who was left speechless and flustered by Chu Hengyi's questions, Ye Mingzhao lowered his head and smiled imperceptibly.

As the host, despite Mark Brown's repeated refusals, Ye Mingzhao insisted on doing his duty and personally escorted Mark Brown to the hotel.

Chu Hengyi also graciously assisted Mark Brown with all the hotel check-in formalities and casually invited him, "Since you're here, I’ll take you out for a meal sometime!"

Mark Brown, well-versed in Chinese culture, wasn’t sure if this dinner invitation was a trap, but remembering his mission, he could only agree uneasily.

After Ye Mingzhao and Chu Hengyi left, Mark Brown immediately called Hua Rui, who was across the ocean. "They already know the purpose of my visit to Xinhai. Chu Hengyi said he wants to meet you directly."

The lady on the other end of the phone was slightly surprised. "He wants to meet me?"

"Yes, ma'am," Mark Brown paused, then continued, "I believe they mean business."

Madam Hua Rui snorted coldly. Ever since the incident with the Zhou family, she knew her affairs with them couldn't be kept secret, so Chu Hengyi's reaction was within her expectations. What concerned her more was actually Ye Mingzhao's reaction.

"From your observation, what is his relationship with Chu Hengyi like?" Hua Rui asked pointedly. "Are they really as close as brothers, or is it just a facade?"

Hua Rui didn't believe that Chu Hengyi and Ye Mingzhao's relationship was as harmonious as rumors suggested.

One was a true young master who had been wandering outside for eighteen years, experiencing the coldness of the world. After suffering so much and finally returning to the Ye family, could Chu Hengyi really tolerate someone who had taken his place, enjoying the love of his parents and family?

And even if Chu Hengyi could endure it, what about Ye Mingzhao? A man who would even betray his own biological parents for the prosperity of the Ye family—how could he tolerate Chu Hengyi, who threatened his interests?

In Hua Rui's view, the relationship between these two was like travelers meeting head-on on a single-log bridge. To cross safely, one of them must be eliminated; otherwise, neither could reach the other side.

This was the principle of "No room for others to sleep soundly beside one's bed."

Therefore, Hua Rui was convinced that there must be discord between Ye Mingzhao and Chu Hengyi, but they had to pretend to be harmonious due to various considerations.

"But I had just gotten off the plane when Chu Hengyi, who came to pick me up, appeared. This must have been Ye Mingzhao's doing," Mark Brown said gravely. "I sense that their relationship is rather delicate."

"Delicate?" Hua Rui repeated meaningfully.

"Yes," Mark Brown nodded, then realizing that Madam Hua Rui couldn't see him, he explained, "Their relationship isn't as friendly as the media portrays, but it’s not hostile either. It's like they're maintaining a delicate balance. And they seem quite in sync."

This was also what Mark Brown found strange.

Listening to Mark Brown's account, Madam Hua Rui fell into an unusual silence.

After a long while, Hua Rui instructed, "Since they want to invite you to a meal, you might as well accept. Use this opportunity to observe their relationship up close."

*

"You’re being so blunt—aren’t you worried about scaring her?"

On a late summer evening, the setting sun bathed the entire city in a warm, burnt-orange glow.

Ye Mingzhao, looking at the rapidly retreating street scenes and pedestrians on both sides of the road, asked nonchalantly.

Chu Hengyi sneered, "If she were really that timid, she wouldn’t have hired someone to kidnap me back then."

In fact, ever since Chu Hengyi found out that Hua Rui had hired Chu Jianye to kidnap him, and that Chu Jianye had died not long after the kidnapping by falling off a cliff, Chu Hengyi had even begun to suspect that Chu Jianye's death was also connected to Hua Rui.

Knowing the script all too well, Ye Mingzhao was aware that Chu Hengyi's suspicions were not unfounded. Chu Jianye's death by falling off a cliff during the pursuit was indeed due to Hua Rui's people tampering with the brake lines. But it was up to Chu Hengyi to find the evidence himself. All Ye Mingzhao could do was offer reminders at critical junctures and use those to bargain for more leverage.

"Since you came back from the capital, you didn't bring me any local specialties?" Chu Hengyi's gaze passed through the rearview mirror, his eyes seemingly piercing toward the direction of the trunk.

Unfortunately, his eyes were not X-rays and could not penetrate the leather seats and steel frame of the back seat to see what was inside Ye Mingzhao's suitcase.

But just from the sight of Ye Mingzhao's suitcase, which looked identical to when they had departed, Chu Hengyi could confidently assert that the suitcase did not contain the local specialties he had been longing for.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Ye Mingzhao looked calm: "I prepared Mark Brown for you. Isn't this gift surprising enough?"

"That's different," Chu Hengyi quickly replied, "Business is business, and personal relationships are personal relationships. How can you consider an outsider as a gift for me?"

Ye Mingzhao was clearly choked by Chu Hengyi's choice of words and, for a moment, couldn't find the right words to describe Chu Hengyi's vocabulary.

"Do you know what 'education is a lifelong journey' means?" Worried that his next words might hurt Chu Hengyi's delicate ego, Ye Mingzhao cautiously suggested, "You're still young, in your twenties, an ideal time to focus on learning and self-improvement."

Chu Hengyi glared fiercely at Ye Mingzhao through the rearview mirror, "What do you mean? Are you trying to say that the blond guy isn't an outsider?"

Chu Hengyi's voice suddenly rose in pitch, "Are you saying we should welcome this treacherous outsider into our home?"

Ye Mingzhao: "..."

Since the steering wheel was in Chu Hengyi's hands, Ye Mingzhao, for the sake of his own safety, had no choice but to carefully soothe the driver's emotions, "You've misunderstood. I didn't mean it like that—"

Chu Hengyi continued his accusations, "You also think I have a low education level and no culture!"

Ye Mingzhao: "...I didn't."

Chu Hengyi grumbled, "So you discriminate based on education level? You graduated from a prestigious university, so you look down on someone like me who dropped out of middle school to work?"

Ye Mingzhao, clearly puzzled as to how their conversation had veered into such strange territory, could only try his best to calm things down, "Actually, education level and ability aren't directly linked. Your talent for stock trading and your keen awareness of market fluctuations are so strong... Watch the road, don't look at me!"

Chu Hengyi kept his eyes on the road, steadily maintaining the speed at 20 miles per hour, while urging, "Keep going, don’t stop!"

Ye Mingzhao: "..."

Ye Mingzhao’s gaze grew cold as he stared at half of Chu Hengyi’s face. If not for safety concerns, he would have slapped the back of Chu Hengyi’s head.

Thinking of this, Ye Mingzhao's gaze instinctively fell on the back of Chu Hengyi's head—

Come to think of it, that back of the head was quite round.

It looked like it would feel pretty satisfying to slap!