RALP Chapter 59.2

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Agent Wu arrives at the movie shoot location by the time You Haoyu is already dressed up for the movie character.

He leaves not long afterwards as his work is done for now.

You Haoyu’s attitude aside, at least he’s reliable when he is in the middle of his work. Plus, he also has other work to attend to.

For example, like right now, maintaining his industry connections by having a meal with an experienced information broker of this field.

Though outside of their business this person is also his personal friend, and would often be able to offer him snippets of recent movements and rumours of new projects in the industry.

“It’s almost March now.”

The broker has his sunglasses on. His hair is trimmed to the limit except a long strip down in the middle——A typical mohawk.

He takes a sip of his coffee, “I’ve sent you some mail earlier. None of those work interests you?”

The agent shakes his head, resigned, “of course not, but Haoyu said he is in the middle of a movie so he doesn’t have time.”

“Just a few short commercials that might take up a day or two at most, and he says he has no time?” The man raises an accusatory brow.

The agent sighs, and takes a sip of his watermelon juice.

“I’ll be frank with you. If nothing else, at least take ‘Eve’s ad. It’s the thing most of the players are fighting for right now. It’ll be your loss.”

‘Eve’ is the brand of a low-end chocolate in the country. It’s pretty popular in general, with polls show it consistently leading other brands in recognition and popularity.

Outside of the value for money, it is especially well-known for its well-directed commercials to the point that a new ad from Eve would often go trendy just for their own sake.

The polls also reveal that it has reached the point where people who don’t do chocolate themselves would subconsciously pick ‘Eve’ in supermarket shelves when they have to do gifts.

And the parent company of ‘Eve’ would always do a pair of corresponding commercials for Valentine’s and White Day every year.

Valentine’s was a few days ago, and they’re shooting the one for White Day now.

They’ve got all the ideas and design set up. Now all they need is the male model for the actual ad.

Though given the time, they would definitely have come to a decision by this weekend at the latest.

Of course agent Wu knows, but not even he is sure whether what he said to Mr. Du and that person this morning was the least bit effective.

If that assistant… No, even if he only got the foreigner, he could immediately send him off to the audition.

It would be an excellent debut as well. He would also definitely catch the attention of others, including companies from other fields.

Without them, the competition would be practically hopeless. This ad would be fought tooth and nail for sure. Outside of stars that are already internationally acclaimed and celebrities who only accept work with luxury brands, even top idols would want this opportunity.

Well, it would be better than giving it up entirely, sure.

But really, the current Xinwen Entertainment would be in over its head joining the fight with what it has left.

The agent can only remain silent to his friend’s persuasions. Mm, the watermelon juice is quite fresh indeed, he thinks, looking out onto the street to try and relax with the sight of greenery from their window seat. The sunlight sure is warm casting its rays here.

Suddenly, a familiar figure catches his eye.

Shoulder-length silver hair, half-naked, single pair of pants.

The agent spits out his drink and shoots up.

He flattens his face against the window and, indeed, it was not his eyes playing tricks on him.

Isn’t he CEO Du’s lover? Why is he here? And still looking like he just ran out of his home in a panic?!

A few drops of the spit lands onto the face of the acquaintance sitting opposite him, and so he quietly takes off his sunglasses, showing his small, beady eyes, and puts the sunglasses back on again after wiping them.

He also takes a look out the window, which stuns him all the same.

“Hey, do you think…”

Before he finishes, agent Wu already rushes out.

Ryan is pausing for a moment to ascertain his bearings. When he is about to dash away again, someone calls out to him.

“Wait, wait! You!”

The agent stops the silver-haired man, and still gasping for breath, “why are you here? Is Mr. Du here as well?”

Ryan looks at the man.

While he never paid attention to anyone other than his lover, but he did meet him this morning, so he still remembered him——The person who went on and on talking to his lover.

“Hello,” he greets him.

“Hello…” The agent reflexively answers, “no, wait, this isn’t the time to have greetings!”

When Mr. Du said he was simple in the head this morning, he didn’t believe him at all, but now it looks like there might actually be some truth to that.

Even if the weather is warming up recently, no normal person would run about outside without a piece of clothing on in the middle of the day.

Since he does not see Du You nearby at all, he takes out his phone to call him.

Before he can dial though, someone pats him on the shoulder. It’s the information broker.

“Nice, nice.”

The man in sunglasses examines Ryan from top to bottom, rubbing his chin, “you’ve got a model like this? You guys sure hid him well.”

“No,” agent Wu tells him, “not yet anyway.”

“Not ‘yet’?”

Someone in his line of work is very particular with words.

He laughs, showing a row of big white teeth, “I see, I see, friend. I can feel that this person is the next big thing in the entertainment industry. I can’t wait to start digging up news about him!”

The soul of a media worker is burning fervently inside the sunglasses man.

While that’s what agent Wu also thinks, but it is not really the time or place for an infernal fervour, “wait, I’ll need to contact my boss first.”

“Boss?” His friend asks, “is he related to him?”

The agent hesitates slightly before telling him what he thought.

“I see,” he nods.

An information broker would certainly know things, even more so than agent Wu. A simple same-sex lover is nothing to him.

Unfortunately, his friend seems to be adamant that the one behind doesn’t really want his lover out and about and wasting all this potential.

So he suddenly interjects when he sees him about to dial, “are you sure you want to be contacting your boss now?”

The agent pauses.

“I’m sure you also don’t want the company to stay in its pitiful state like that. You definitely need a hearty dose of stimulation if you want to grow at all. Just do it first and report later. I’m sure if this boss truly realises how much he is worth commercially, he would not reect it.”

If that boss is a capitalist, then sure he might scoff at all the faff of this ‘potential’ talk, but his eyes would definitely turn into dollar signs when they actually see it in action.

And he’s managed to strike the agent where it hurt most.

The broker can read his expression like the back of his hand, “now, let’s just go to the audition immediately.”

The angel and the devil are now fighting over the agent’s head, and the devil comes out on top.

He puts his phone away, “surely ‘Eve’ would do you the favour if it’s just adding someone into the roster on short notice.”

“You jest, my friend,” the man chuckles, “I’m sure that honour is all yours.”

They smile at each other.

While Ryan has no idea what the two are going on about, but he does work out that they seem to want to take him somewhere, and so he feels like leaving, but they grab both his arms.

The sunglasses man has his left arm, “don’t worry kiddo, we won’t do a thing to you.”

Ryan furrows his brows, and the fingernails on his hand extend into sharp claws. His pupil goes vertical as he lands his gaze on their necks.

A quick swipe and he’d be free to look for his lover.

But, his lover also told him he ‘mustn’t hurt’ people, so he retracts his fingernails.

Neither of them realise they’ve just been visited by the grim spectre of death, and are still persuading him.

Though Ryan can’t use his claws, he’s powerful enough, and easily pulls his arms away, “no. I’m going to look for my lover.”

Agent Wu realises the key point of that sentence, and quickly tells him, “I’ll take you to Mr. Du, but before then, go to the audition with me first.”

In the Du Conglomerate HQ, everyone is still having lunch, and the office is empty.

Qin Ge is sitting at his cubicle. He pushes some stuff out of the way and brings out his laptop.

A few keystrokes later, a window pops up on his screen.

The window shows footage of a living room in a mansion. A middle-aged woman is whistling a tune while vacuuming the room.

It’s the real-time footage of a surveillance camera.

Qin Ge pauses the window as a progress bar pops up in the lower part of the window.

He drags it backward.

On screen is now a dumb doggy bumbling his way through the house. He appeared from inside Du You’s bedroom at the very end.

The young man’s face grows cold, but he does not stop and continues rolling the progress bar back, until it was five in the morning——When he was outside the door, the dumb doggy is sleeping and his gege is at home with someone else.

There was about five minutes between him ringing the door and the door opening.

His gege and that person was all dressed up by the time the door opened, which meant they weren’t just waking up.

And that meant they couldn’t have slept through the first few minutes when he was ringing the doorbell.

That means they were probably doing something.

“…”

There it is.

On screen is the corridor leading from the living room. The screen is very dim as the lights were off. You Haoyu is talking with Du You.

There is an audio recording as well, but as the camera was quite the distance away in an inconspicuous location, the audio is sketchy.

You Haoyu “… try… going out.”

Du You said something, and then he nodded.

The fingers on the mouse pause before he rewinds and repeats.

After dozens of replays, Qin Ge’s face has grown gloomier and gloomier.

His eyes reflect only the light from his screen, filled with the silhouette of two certain persons.

The grip on his mouse tightens more and more, until ‘crack,’ and the plastic cannot withstand the pressure anymore.

But he does not seem to notice. He only moves his hand away as he continues to stare in silence at the two people in the video playback.

Then, he closes his laptop.

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TL’s notes: Ehh… Qin Ge is really rubbing me the wrong way now with this blatant invasion of privacy. Oh well, I guess that’s what some people are really into, and who am I to judge?