CHAPTER 175: CHAPTER 175 MR. CHEN’S CHOICE

Recently, Mr. Chen moved back to his hometown from the hospital, so everyone drove to his residence.

On the way, Li Jing already retrieved his car from the restaurant, while both Wen Lan and Wei Jia had their cars. Yang Xiaoxiu was with Wen Lan, so now there’s only Li Jing in his car.

At this moment, Li Jing was pondering over the system.

After signing the contract at the hotel earlier, he had already paid five million to the production team.

But to his surprise, after spending five million, the system didn’t return any corresponding rewards.

Li Jing pondered for a while and finally reasoned that it might be because the expenditure this time was made to help complete an experiential task, so it wasn’t considered enjoying life. The rewards from enjoying life and the final bonus from experiential tasks wouldn’t be allocated together.

However, to verify his hypothesis more accurately, Li Jing specifically went out of his way to buy some expensive snacks he’d never tried before on his way out of the hotel, and immediately received a system reward.

Li Jing speculated that although he was currently engaged in an experiential task, it wasn’t that spending didn’t yield rewards. If the expenditure was closely related to the task, then the system wouldn’t consider it as enjoyment, thus no rewards would be given back.

As for other expenditures, as long as they pertain to enjoying life, they can still earn rewards.

Having figured this out, Li Jing felt relieved and drove along with Wen Lan and others to Mr. Chen’s residence.

Mr. Chen’s residence is located at 672 Jujin Road in the Tianhai Old District.

After getting off the car, as soon as Li Jing walked with the group into the alley, he was met with an overwhelming sense of age.

According to Wen Lan’s introduction, this was a new-style alley built in the fifties and sixties of the last century, with brick and wood structures. Due to the age, the residential style here is full of the era’s characteristics.

This was the first house Mr. Chen and his wife bought in Celestial Sea City, and they never moved out. Compared to the other newly built skyscrapers in Tianhai, this old house appears much more dilapidated and simple.

There are three types of residences within this alley, built by three different property developers. Mr. Chen’s residence is among them, and the exterior retains the typical characteristics of the old Tianhai alley residences.

Seeing that it was Li Jing and Yang Xiaoxiu’s first time here, and they were both full of curiosity and surprise, Wen Lan explained as they walked:

"Mr. Chen and his wife have always been frugal and donated most of their earnings. Their entire house is only about thirty to forty square meters."

As she spoke, Wen Lan showed admiration and sighed, "Although it’s just one bedroom and one hall, Mr. Chen used to humorously call his house a ’one-bedroom, four-hall apartment’, because the single hall served as the bedroom, study, dining room, and living room simultaneously."

After hearing Wen Lan’s explanation, Li Jing recalled the gentle and cultured old man he had seen in the hospital ward and couldn’t help but feel admiration.

Though Li Jing pursued money and material enjoyment, it didn’t prevent him from admiring these people.

It was exactly because Li Jing couldn’t reach their level that he understood how rare such people are in society.

When they arrived at Mr. Chen’s residence, Wen Lan softly knocked on the door first, exchanged a few pleasantries with Mr. Chen, and then they entered the small room one by one.

The interior was extremely simple and unadorned, with only a table and a few chairs in the living room, not even a TV or air conditioning.

Because the space was limited, the staff accompanying Wen Lan stepped outside, leaving only Wen Lan, Li Jing, Wei Jia, and Yang Xiaoxiu inside.

By this time, Wen Lan had already explained their purpose to Mr. Chen and brought out a tablet, showing all the footage filmed by Dai Weiwei.

Mr. Chen picked up his presbyopic glasses, held the tablet handed over by Wen Lan, furrowed his brows slightly, and his gaze fell on the screen through the lenses without speaking for a long time.

It was only after watching all the drama clips of Dai Weiwei’s performance that Mr. Chen slowly looked up, removed his glasses, and, without giving an evaluation, looked at Wen Lan and spoke in a hoarse and low voice, "Isn’t there another one? I’d like to see the other actor’s performance."

"Mr. Chen, the other actor hasn’t participated in the filming of this role yet."

Wen Lan glanced at Yang Xiaoxiu standing behind and then continued to speak to Mr. Chen politely and gently, "But I brought her here, it’s this young lady. She can perform a few segments in front of you, would that be okay?"

"Perform in front of me?"

Mr. Chen was a bit surprised, his aged, murky eyes turned to look at the innocent face of Yang Xiaoxiu and said, "It’s probably not fair to the young lady to act here, right...?"

"It’s fine, it’s fine."

Hearing this, Yang Xiaoxiu quickly spoke up, "Being able to perform in front of you is already my honor. Good acting isn’t directly related to the environment, I’ll do my best to perform well."

Hearing this, Mr. Chen finally smiled and looked at Yang Xiaoxiu, "Alright then, young lady, you can perform here in my living room. However, the space is small, it may not be suitable for large movements."

"Yes, don’t worry, I’ll be careful."

Yang Xiaoxiu nodded and then took a deep breath.

No one knew if she did it intentionally or unintentionally, but at the last moment as she took the stage, she subconsciously turned back to glance at Li Jing behind her.

It wasn’t until she met Li Jing’s calm gaze that she seemed to get a confidence boost, took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and stepped up.

This detail went unnoticed by others, but Wei Jia, who was beside Li Jing, keenly observed it.

She slightly raised her meticulously groomed eyebrows, glanced at Li Jing beside her, and chuckled softly, "It seems that young lady is quite reliant on you."

Hearing the sarcastic tone in her words, Li Jing didn’t mind. Instead, he thick-skinnedly replied, "Actually, you can rely on me too. My chest is broad enough, enough for several people to lean on... ouch!"

Before the words were finished, Li Jing’s face turned pale, eyes went wide, and he gasped.

It wasn’t until Wei Jia released her grip on his hand that Li Jing gritted his teeth and whispered, "Damn, Wei Jia, do you have violent tendencies?"

Wei Jia sneered, "If you keep deliberately provoking me, I don’t mind pinching you a few more times.

I’m tolerating you with all those old flames you have, but it doesn’t mean you can blatantly talk about other women to annoy me."

Noticing that Wei Jia was genuinely angry, Li Jing, mindful of the occasion, found it inappropriate to argue with her and could only mutter under his breath, "Such a petty woman."

"You..."

Wei Jia was just about to retort when her face instantly turned red, and she quickly slapped away Li Jing’s wandering hand.

It turned out that just after Li Jing finished speaking, he retaliated by reaching over and giving Wei Jia’s ample behind a squeeze, leaving her flustered and annoyed but unable to vent her anger in that setting.

Wei Jia glared fiercely at Li Jing’s face which seemed unbothered by the incident, her teeth faintly clenched, wishing she could just swallow him whole.

"Bravo!"

At this moment, Mr. Chen inside the room suddenly clapped and shouted in approval, interrupting the playful banter between Li Jing and Wei Jia.

Mr. Chen looked overjoyed and satisfied. Next to him, Wen Lan nodded repeatedly, a look of surprise blossoming in her eyes.

Clearly, Yang Xiaoxiu’s recent performance not only surpassed Dai Weiwei’s but far exceeded their expectations.

"Good, really good."

Mr. Chen was evidently more excited than before, unable to contain himself as he stood up and walked towards Yang Xiaoxiu.

On seeing this, Yang Xiaoxiu rushed forward to support him, "Be careful, Mr. Chen."

"It’s fine, your performance was excellent."

Mr. Chen held her hands appreciatively and excitedly said, "From the moment you got into character, I forgot you were an actor. It was as if a character from the book walked right out, and even this environment changed because of you."

Wen Lan also nodded in agreement, "Indeed, I was initially worried about you, but now I realize I was overthinking. With your level of performance earlier, this role is undoubtedly yours."

Hearing their words, Yang Xiaoxiu felt both honored and overwhelmed, unsure of what to say for a moment.

Mr. Chen continued, "Young lady, what’s your name? I recommend you for the second female lead. If anyone disagrees, I’ll personally argue with them!"

"Don’t be too worked up, Mr. Chen, let us handle the matter of replacing the actor.’

\"Don’t you worry, this role is surely for Yang Xiaoxiu. I’ll assure you of that,\" Wen Lan immediately chimed in.

"Yang Xiaoxiu... Xiaoxiu..."

Mr. Chen murmured the name, then looked at her again and praised, "Good, it’s a nice name, and you look beautiful too. Do your best in acting. I believe with your skills, you will surely become an excellent actress in the future."

At this moment, Yang Xiaoxiu felt a surge of emotions, her cheeks slightly flushed, only able to repeatedly thank them both.

At the end, she also didn’t forget to glance at Li Jing, her eyes silently thanking him as well.