Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 117

Originally, according to Zhao Kaile’s own plans, this day should have been spent leisurely lying on the sofa, idly flipping through scripts, complaining as he went, but everything before him was completely different from the scenario he’d mapped out in his head. Not only had he traveled thousands of miles to the other half of the country, but he’d also somehow been dragged by Zhan Hang to meet a parent.

Feng Biqin walked between the two of them without any reservation, occasionally asking Zhao Kaile about his family situation. “Do your parents know about this?”

“……” Zhan Hang said, “Can you not ask so many questions?”

Zhao Kaile gestured that it was fine and said, “My parents passed away when I was young. I was basically raised by my older brother and a few relatives.”

Feng Biqin let out a soft cry of sympathy and lightly tapped her own mouth. “That was auntie asking too much, don’t take it to heart.”

Zhao Kaile smiled without much concern. He felt like he was starting to understand Feng Biqin a bit. She was probably the type who said whatever came to mind when she had family who doted on her. After going through a failed marriage and getting beaten up by the harsh realities of society, she’d found new happiness, and this personality had gradually shifted into a more emotionally intelligent, straightforward, and open demeanor.

But what was strange was that Zhan Hang didn’t seem to think much of his own mother.

Hating Zhan Hongyuan was understandable, but according to Zhan Hang’s own recollections, he and Feng Biqin should have reached a reconciliation long ago.

“Does your brother know about this?” Feng Biqin asked again. “Does he approve?”

Zhao Kaile paused at the question. He remembered how Zhao Kaiming had often given him the straight-to-gay-to-straight talk, afraid that he might actually get tangled up with Zhan Hang… But now, all of Zhao Kaiming’s worries had become an unchangeable fact.

His lips moved slightly as he said with distress, “He doesn’t know yet. I haven’t told him… I’ll find a chance to talk about it later.”

Feng Biqin said, “That’s right, you’re thinking correctly. After all, it’s your lives you’re living, you don’t need to go out of your way to tell other people.”

Zhao Kaile raised his eyebrows slightly at this, a look of admiration in his eyes.

But Zhan Hang said coldly from the side, “And you have the nerve to lecture others? You’re already getting up there in years and still stirring up a bunch of romantic trouble. You and Zhan Hongyuan, I don’t want to see either of you.”

Zhao Kaile’s eyes widened in shock. “……”

What?!!

He never expected that auntie was still playing the field so hard at nearly fifty years old!

Feng Biqin was so angry her face went pale. “Baby! How can you compare me to that kind of person! Mom is just pursuing the essence of life, I’m very happy with how things are now!”

“Are you faithful to your so-called love?” Zhan Hang mocked mercilessly. “When will you find someone you truly like? When will you settle down and find one person to live out your days with quietly?”

Feng Biqin said unhappily, “You have no right to comment on mom’s love life.”

“But you’re meddling in my love life right now, Ms. Feng.” Zhan Hang said bluntly, “You’re not a good role model.”

Feng Biqin fell silent at this, her eyes showing deep sadness.

Zhao Kaile, exasperated, and seeing the situation, could only play peacemaker, coaxing one side and soothing the other, kept busy nonstop.

Feng Biqin sighed, patted Zhao Kaile’s hand, and said in a low voice, “I can’t control him anymore… But there’s one thing. If you two ever argue or fight, you must hold back, you can’t use your hands. Once you use your hands, this family is finished.”

She said it calmly, but Zhao Kaile knew what she was alluding to, and nodded solemnly.

When it was time to leave, Feng Biqin had originally wanted to say a proper goodbye to Zhan Hang, but her precious son refused to cooperate, and she could only leave with a sour face.

“I’m not Zhan Hongyuan.” Zhan Hang thought angrily, how could I possibly hit my wife.

Zhao Kaile completely failed to understand what he was angry about, and could only carefully remind him from the passenger seat where the mud puddles were, where pedestrians were, and where oncoming cars were coming from, afraid that Zhan Hang would stomp on the gas in a fit of anger and cause some unnecessary tragedy.

After returning home, Zhao Kaile coaxed Zhan Hang into going through the scripts with him, picking and choosing until they barely settled on one that was somewhat appealing. It was a modern suspense drama, but the script clearly still had large sections of romance, so the word “suspense” was really only touching on the surface.

“Let’s go with this one.” Zhan Hang said with a bored expression. “A drama with some scenes that aren’t about romance is still more interesting than one where the whole thing is about romance.”

Zhao Kaile made a sound of agreement, then flipped through that script back and forth for a while, saying, “How about we contact the director and screenwriter to make some changes before filming? It’s not set in stone yet anyway.”

Zhan Hang glanced at him and let out a laugh. “Assistant Zhao, you’re even better at throwing your weight around than I am now, impressive.”

Zhao Kaile said awkwardly, “I just want to save what we can…”

Zhan Hang said, “Fine, I’ll have Bai Li bring it up.”

Qihua Entertainment.

Bai Li sat at her desk, carefully listened to Zhao Kaile’s request, her eyes moving between the two of them, then sighed and said, “This is a big project. The director really wants you to take this role, but he might not go to such lengths for you.”

Zhan Hang said, “You bring it up with him first, then tell him if he doesn’t agree, I’m not doing it.”

Bai Li didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “The pay they’re offering is already high enough. What you’re getting now is comparable to a TV emperor who has stepped back to second tier. We can’t push our luck.”

Zhao Kaile wanted to give up as soon as he heard this, feeling that Bai Li made a lot of sense, and could only nod. “That’s true, nobody has it easy. We can’t make a big fuss over a small idea of ours.”

“……” Zhan Hang said speechlessly, “Are you a weather vane? Whose side are you on, Zhao Kaile??”

Zhao Kaile: “……I, I, I’m on your side!”

Bai Li saw the two of them wouldn’t listen, and in front of them called the director, putting it on speaker, her tone courteous yet arrogant. “Director Gu, we’ve looked over the script you sent. Zhan Hang himself is quite willing to take the role.”

Director Gu said delightedly, “Oh! Really? That’s wonderful.”

Bai Li said with a tone of hesitation, “But…”

“But what??” Director Gu said nervously, “Boss Bai, say whatever you need to say, we can still negotiate the conditions, I’m heading to President Wang’s place tonight, you don’t need to worry about money.”

Bai Li said, “It’s not about the pay, it’s the script. Zhan Hang himself feels the script has some issues and wants to make some changes.”

Director Gu hesitated at this and asked, “Uh, what does he feel is the problem?”

“He wants to trim down the male and female lead’s romance plot and expand the suspense elements. What do you think?” Bai Li asked with a smile.

Director Gu could only smile bitterly and say, “Boss Bai, you also know this drama is basically a romance drama. Romance dramas have a bigger audience, slapping a suspense label on it is just to be different and catch a few more eyeballs.”

Bai Li asked, “So you’re saying it’s hard to change, is that it?”

“That’s not quite what I mean…” Director Gu sighed. “The main thing is the screenwriter who originally wrote this script got sick and needs surgery soon. After the surgery she needs to rest, it’ll take at least ten days to half a month. Where am I going to find a screenwriter who meets Teacher Zhan Hang’s requirements right now? It was already decided that she would be the on-set screenwriter…”

Bai Li didn’t respond, didn’t make a sound, as if her attitude was very firm.

Director Gu saw he couldn’t persuade her and could only say, “If Teacher Zhan Hang really isn’t willing to come, then that’s just…”

“We’ll think it over and get back to you in two days.” Bai Li said.

Director Gu let out a breath. “Alright, waiting for your reply.”

After hanging up, she looked at Zhan Hang with a composed expression, her eyes telling him to figure it out himself.

Zhan Hang raised his eyebrows and said, “Then we’ll wait for his screenwriter to recover and come back to make changes, or pass and find another one.”

Anyway, he was going straight into another production the day after tomorrow and didn’t want to run back and forth, afraid of getting too tired and mixing up his roles.

Bai Li went over a few more work matters with him, then glanced at the office door and lowered her voice slightly to ask, “There’s one more important thing. Besides that time you were honey-trapped by Gu Shanshan, are there any other unclear situations you’ve been hiding?”

Zhan Hang was startled at this, looked up at her, and asked back, “What do you mean? Why are you asking this?”

“Recently, several fans have had their scandals exposed on the trending topics,” Bai Li said. “Although they all did their own dirty deeds, it’s just a coincidence that they were all exposed at the same time. There must be a mastermind behind it.”

Zhan Hang didn’t speak, only stared at her.

Bai Li advised, “If you remember anything, you must tell me immediately. Only if we have an internal response plan will we not be caught off guard by our rivals.”

Zhao Kaile also listened in a daze, lowered his head, and casually scanned Weibo and the hot searches on various platforms.

They’d basically stayed away from all this during their vacation, spending their days solidly having fun, completely not expecting that in the blink of an eye so many newly risen stars had fallen.

Was this circle going to have an earthquake? Who were Zhan Hang’s rivals?

Zhao Kaile quickly searched his memories, vaguely able to list a few.

“I’ll tell you when I remember.” Zhan Hang said to Bai Li, then raised a hand, put on his sunglasses with a flourish, got up, and left. “Let’s go.”

Zhao Kaile looked at the half-open folder with scattered thoughts, a vague notion popping up in his mind. He asked Bai Li for that script, saying he wanted to look at it for another two days. Bai Li nodded and watched the two of them leave.

“Brother Hang.” Zhao Kaile said with some worry, following behind Zhan Hang. “Does Sister Li know something again? She wouldn’t ask you this for no reason, right?”

“I’m not sure.” Zhan Hang frowned and said, “I’ll think about it.”

Zhao Kaile looked at his back and stopped asking.

A strange premonition suddenly surfaced in Zhan Hang’s mind, and an abrupt chill ran up his spine, making him involuntarily connect it to the news he’d seen at the funeral shop that day, and the hideous expression Zhan Hongyuan had shown before Feng Xinghuai’s death.