Oh, Liming Group shares—wait, Liming Group?!
Shao Yichen stared in astonishment.
She took the contract and saw that it was written very clearly in black and white—these were indeed Liming Group shares—and not just five percent, but over seven percent.
And the name listed as the shareholder was definitely her own.
Even if she sold her entire small media company, it might not be worth this seven percent stake!
Shao Yichen suddenly felt the paper in her hands burning hot. She immediately stuffed the contract back into Li Xingyu's hands: "W-w-what are you joking about?! The ring is one thing, but can shares be given away so casually?!"
"I'm not giving them to you," Li Xingyu corrected. "This is merely the return on your investment."
Shao Yichen: "I don't remember making any investment??"
Li Xingyu: "Do you remember what you did after you received your share of the box office proceeds when your first film ended its run?"
Shao Yichen: "...What did I do?"
Shao Yichen carefully recalled, but realized she truly didn't know what she had done. Scroll through her phone? Play games all night? Drown her sorrows in bitter wine?
Discovering he couldn't establish resonance with Shao Yichen, Li Xingyu reluctantly revealed the answer: "Don't you remember? You transferred two million yuan to me."
Shao Yichen vaguely remembered that something like this had indeed happened.
"But at that time I was transferring those two million as your salary!" she hurriedly explained. "I only called it an investment because you wouldn't accept the money... Besides, how could there possibly be an investment with such a high return rate?!"
Marx said that with a 300 percent profit, capital would dare to commit any crime.
But if Shao Yichen's transaction were called an investment, the profit far exceeded 300 percent—it would be 3,000,000 percent!
Such a ridiculous investment simply doesn't exist!
Shao Yichen reasoned logically and emotionally, arguing forcefully, trying to persuade Li Xingyu to take back this frightening contract. But Li Xingyu's attitude was even more resolute than hers: the shares had already been transferred to her, and were now her property. What she did with this property going forward had nothing to do with him; she could do whatever she wanted with it.
He even sincerely said: "If not for your two million back then, the private equity firm Le Ziyao and I started would never have had initial startup capital, much less any possibility of defeating Wu Ming. My ability to reclaim my shares and even set some traps now is all thanks to that initial startup capital."
"These five percent shares are worth far less than the help your initial capital provided me. I even feel that this portion of shares is too small."
Li Xingyu continued: "Although I have another twenty-five percent of shares, they hold special significance as they were given to me by my mother, and I really don't want to divide them among others. I'm very sorry about this—otherwise you could have owned even more—"
"—That's more than enough!" Shao Yichen quickly interrupted.
Looking at the serious-faced Li Xingyu before her, she was momentarily at a loss.
If she weren't in this world that didn't belong to her, if she didn't have this system, in her heart she actually... didn't have much resistance toward Li Xingyu.
After all, Li Xingyu's concern for her was clearly visible, and she did care about him more than others.
But the system's rules, which had once been her lifeline, now felt like shackles. She didn't dare engage in too deep a relationship with anyone because she feared that one day she might be sent away by this system that cared about nothing except making money, and wouldn't even chat with her...
But could she reject Li Xingyu?
...She couldn't.
Shao Yichen asked herself honestly: didn't she want to date a handsome guy?
Of course she did!
As she pondered back and forth, caught in a dilemma, Li Xingyu waited quietly opposite her.
Finally, Shao Yichen steeled herself and spoke.
With resignation, she said to Li Xingyu: "Before I give you my answer—would you like to hear a story?"
"Just to be clear, I don't have a mental illness or delusions—most importantly, don't laugh after hearing it."
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
A quarter of an hour later.
Li Xingyu had patiently listened to Shao Yichen's dry recounting of the entire story.
He summarized: "So, you were reborn into this world?"
Shao Yichen nodded.
"You make films because you're compelled by a film system?"
Shao Yichen hesitantly nodded: "Though actually, I later found filmmaking quite interesting..."
"Your first three films were all intended to lose money, but each one ended up profitable."
Shao Yichen nodded bashfully.
Li Xingyu: "Pfft."
Shao Yichen immediately jumped up: "You promised not to laugh! Do you think telling you these things isn't embarrassing for me?!"
"Sorry, sorry," Li Xingyu apologized sincerely. "I didn't mean to."
"But you're still mocking me in your heart!"
Shao Yichen was very sad, playing Chopin on the balcony.
She shouldn't have expected anyone to believe her fantastical story.
Across from her, Li Xingyu finally composed his expression and waved at Shao Yichen: "That's not what I meant. I laughed because your story of desperately trying to lose money is truly amusing... Ahem, putting the rebirth thing aside for now, I actually believe there is, um, a mysterious organization helping you handle some affairs related to filmmaking."
He clearly couldn't bring himself to say such an unrealistic word as "system," so he substituted it with "mysterious organization."
Shao Yichen saw that his expression didn't seem dismissive, but rather somewhat shocked.
After all, he didn't seem like someone who would believe in such supernatural things, and she had made a significant decision to be completely honest with him.
Unexpectedly, his acceptance seemed fairly good; at least he didn't immediately have her committed to a mental institution.
She couldn't help asking: "How are you accepting this so easily?"
"Because after you transferred that cash to me back then, I actually wanted to transfer it back to your account—but I discovered that the transaction had absolutely no record whatsoever, which could be described as a supernatural phenomenon." Li Xingyu spoke casually, but Shao Yichen sensed something akin to hacking a system and breaking the law.
Li Xingyu didn't elaborate further on this topic, but started a new one: "So, your biggest concern now is that you're afraid of losing money on future films and returning to your original world? Is that right?"
Shao Yichen was about to refute, but then thought that this seemed somewhat accurate... Although she had previously wanted to return, if given the possibility to stay now, she wouldn't be averse to seizing it.
She fell silent and reluctantly nodded.
"I don't think that's something to worry about," Li Xingyu smiled seeing Shao Yichen's reaction. "For you, making a film lose money is actually quite difficult."
Shao Yichen momentarily couldn't tell if he was mocking her or stabbing her heart.
She quickly defended her previous efforts: "But the films making money before were mostly coincidental... For instance, there were always critics reversing the public opinion, competitors underperforming, actors discovering hidden potential... Without these coincidences, my films would have just been utterly mediocre failures..."
"I don't think so," Li Xingyu shook his head. "Regardless, the scripts were still your own creations."
On this point, even Shao Yichen had to agree—after all, the scripts were the only works she had fully handled herself.
"I believe that even without those coincidences, your scripts wouldn't have been buried," Li Xingyu pressed his advantage. "No matter how much effort you put into other aspects, your talent in film creation is undeniable! Losing money three times in a row is practically impossible for you!"
Shao Yichen didn't know whether to be moved by Li Xingyu's trust or saddened that her previous money-losing plans had been completely invalidated.
"And those events that seemed coincidental—in reality, if your films weren't fundamentally high quality, no amount of coincidences would have allowed them to seize the opportunity to become popular."
"I think you shouldn't worry too much about these things," Li Xingyu concluded.
Shao Yichen fell silent.
Ultimately, she still doubted herself.
Having been lazy for so long, did she really have talent in film creation? Could she really manage an entire film crew properly?
...Could she really create good works?
Seeing Shao Yichen still hesitating, Li Xingyu suddenly said: "Would you like to make a bet with me?"
Shao Yichen instinctively looked up: "Huh?"
The word "bet" seemed so inherently incompatible with Li Xingyu's personality that Shao Yichen momentarily short-circuited.
"Let's bet on whether this film can make money," Li Xingyu smiled. "If it doesn't make money, then everything that happened tonight never occurred, and I simply enjoyed a straightforward but happy birthday wrap party."
"But if this film receives a good response—it proves you're a competent and talented director."
"At that point, you can no longer use the film system as an excuse to refuse considering my pursuit."
Hearing the word "pursuit," Shao Yichen gradually blushed.
The evening's stimulation had been too intense; she had only just realized that she had just been confessed to.
Seeing no reaction from her, Li Xingyu added: "If you don't want to accept my pursuit, or if you already have someone you like, you can simply reject me—"
"—I don't!"
Shao Yichen instinctively tensed and refuted, then became so embarrassed she wanted to bite off her tongue.
How she seemed so eager! Was that appropriate?!
But this was truly how she felt.
In the end, she could only mutter: "...How could I possibly reject you."
Li Xingyu feigned ignorance: "What?"
Shao Yichen: "...I said with your looks! No one could possibly reject you!"
And that includes me, she thought, though it wasn't just because of his appearance.
Li Xingyu didn't say anything more, but his smile became even more pronounced.
Author's Note:
Single dog author crying woof woof.
The next chapter will be the premiere (lies down slowly)
Thanks to all the little angels who cast emperor tickets or watered me with nutrient solution during 2020-10-03 11:53:18~2020-10-04 11:29:14 period~
Thanks to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Little Jing 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!