The Christmas event preparations were not yet complete. After finishing breakfast with Wang Liting and the others, Cheng Lele was driven back to Taixi by Chen An.

Because there was an important meeting in the morning, when they arrived at the cinema, Chen An didn’t get out of the car and went straight back to the provincial capital. Only then did Cheng Lele realize Chen An had been working as a full-time chauffeur all morning. She leaned against the car window to kiss Chen An goodbye, and was spotted by Huang Wei who was arriving for the morning shift. Huang Wei decisively displayed paparazzi talent by taking a photo, sending it to Shen Dafeng, and instigating him to ask his brother-in-law for compensation.

Before the meeting started, Chen An received Shen Dafeng’s extortion attempt.

Chen An opened the photo and saw the two people kissing with their eyes closed. Cheng Lele’s hair was flying, the morning sunlight was hitting her face just right, making the entire scene very pure and holy, like a youth movie poster—anyone who saw it would say they matched perfectly.

Chen An sent a red envelope, indicating that brother-in-law was very satisfied, while simultaneously notifying Shen Dafeng of some unfortunate news. Tang Xin was unwilling to add him on WeChat, the reason being “dislike for those who take advantage of their connections—a power-hungry employee who dares to kick the boss out of the meeting room after clinging to the boss lady’s coattails.”

Shen Dafeng worked through the night embroidering a red flag, repeatedly acknowledging that brother-in-law enjoyed supreme authority in the cinema’s organizational system, that his power was not to be overthrown, and asking brother-in-law to convey this to Tang Xin.

Chen An indicated that brother-in-law was very busy.

In the afternoon, Cheng Lele received a call from Brother Duan, saying the production crew had confirmed they could film at Xingchen Cinema. Because there were many things that needed to be re-coordinated, he hoped she could sign the contract today.

Cheng Lele said “thank you, Brother Duan” several times on the phone. After hanging up, she went to check her email.

After downloading the attachment, Cheng Lele scrolled her mouse several times and discovered the contract was seven or eight pages long. She knew that while you could eat carelessly, you couldn’t sign contracts carelessly. She carefully read through several consecutive pages of Party B’s rights and obligations, and felt that if Liang Yuchao sneezed in the cinema, the cinema would be sued into bankruptcy.

It seemed that although General Manager Jiang had compromised and agreed, he couldn’t swallow the frustration of being blindsided in the gutter. He was scheming by digging pits in the contract, planning to settle scores with her after filming, throwing her into a pit and burying her.

Cheng Lele opened edit mode, preparing to personally modify it, but unfortunately, as someone who was half legally illiterate, her revisions were quite inadequate.

With no other choice, she forwarded the contract to Chen An. When the call went through, Chen An seemed very busy, but after hearing about this matter, he immediately said decisively: “Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle it.”

Then that evening, Cheng Lele received an email sent by Lawyer Zheng Wendong to the production crew, with her copied on it. She opened the attachment and saw the contract had successfully expanded from eight pages to fifteen pages, with clauses so detailed that if Cheng Lele choked while drinking water on set, the production crew could be sued into bankruptcy.

In the email, Zheng Wendong stated that he would fully represent Cheng Lele and Xingchen Cinema in all external negotiation matters related to this filming, implying they should stop unilaterally harassing his client.

What was even more fatal was that Cheng Lele’s zero compensation had also been unilaterally changed by Chen An to an unbelievable figure.

Cheng Lele felt she might be the most high-profile walk-on actress in history, right?

Cheng Lele sent Chen An a WeChat message: [Isn’t the quote too high?]

Chen An replied: [Rare things are precious. You deserve it.]

Cheng Lele: [If you act so high-profile like this, what if this thing falls through?]

Chen An: [That would be exactly what I want.]

Cheng Lele: […]

Two days later, the never-before-met Lawyer Zheng Wendong personally visited the cinema to deliver the final version of the contract that had been settled after repeated consultations.

Lawyer Zheng Wendong was an unsmiling middle-aged man, dressed in a suit and tie, with a thin physique, sunken eyes, wearing very thick glasses, but with a sharp gaze—very much like a university professor who would fail you for missing roll call.

He concisely informed Cheng Lele of the key points of this contract. Cheng Lele had the impulse to take out a small notebook and write them down, as if a teacher was covering exam material.

After Zheng Wendong finished his solemn review, Cheng Lele reverently signed her name on the back of the thick stack of papers and handed it back to him with both hands. After Zheng Wendong took it, he informed her that he would also come to the scene on the day of filming, and told her not to casually speak with people from the production crew, to prevent inappropriate words from being recorded on audio or video.

Cheng Lele was shocked: “Is it that serious?”

“Fan circle culture is very toxic nowadays. Liang Yuchao is so popular that he’s easily exploited by people with ulterior motives. If the production crew uses the name of publicity to stir up trouble, we would be the victims.”

When Cheng Lele was planning this event, she had never imagined things would be this complicated.

Seeing that Cheng Lele looked somewhat regretful, Zheng Wendong said: “You don’t need to worry too much. If Anni Entertainment really does this, we’ll handle it immediately. You should trust in Ping’an Xile’s capabilities.”

This was the first time Cheng Lele heard “Ping’an Xile.” She didn’t ask more questions, but was immediately certain this was Chen An’s company name.

Before, Chen An had said his company was doing fairly well and could achieve handbag freedom. Although she occasionally complained that Chen An spent money too freely, in all conscience, Chen An didn’t have a very strong desire to consume. He could live with her in a very old residential complex and could also take her to street food stalls to eat, so she had always thought Chen An just owned a company that was “doing fairly well.”

But Cheng Lele had searched Lawyer Zheng Wendong on Baidu. In earlier years, he taught at our country’s most renowned politics and law university, served as a graduate supervisor, and after resigning, established a famous law firm named after himself. For him to personally represent such a small case, Chen An and his company team had probably played a role in making that happen.

After she also searched Ping’an Xile on Baidu, she immediately began reflecting on whether the reports she had previously sent to Chen An were quite a waste of his inbox space? Was inviting him to personally observe the chaotic reserved screening also very foolish? Would taking time to attend boring meetings and messy trade shows delay his multi-hundred-million yuan business deals? When she talked to him about her dream of successfully running a cinema, had he secretly laughed at her?

She thought for two minutes and felt Little Brother wouldn’t have. Because Little Brother had always been very capable, while she had always been very mediocre, but after all these years, Little Brother still liked her so much, which showed that Little Brother was willingly that blind.