Release that Man

Asking Ou Qianru to keep quiet about the other Ye Shuang from the Luo family was impossible. After all, Ye Shuang had no valid reason to explain why she would come home in a man’s outfit so acquiescing to the talk of ‘her fiancé’ was the only plausible solution. If she had admitted having this ‘fiancé’, there was no reason for her to hide her male self from the relatives. Furthermore, from how Ou Qianru saw it, Mother Ye already treated this man as her future son-in-law… or else why would she ask him to accompany her to the mall and on top of that, buy so many clothes for him‽

No matter how one looked at it, the existence of ‘Ye Shuang’ naturally couldn’t be concealed. Now that Ou Qianru had confirmed the handsome man’s relationship to the Ye family, the offer of the celebrity contract that she had once put on the backburner had been brought to the forefront again…

“Shuang Shuang, you have to trust your Sister Qianru! When has Sister Qianru lied to you before? Plus, you have to trust your cousin, Ah Ze, right? He won’t mistreat your fiancé!” Over lunch, Ou Qianru held a piece of braised meat in her chopsticks and continued to coax her. “Your fiancé has a nice voice and a pretty face; he’ll survive as a singer or an actor… even if he is really talentless in those fields, he’ll still manage to achieve popularity as a model!”

The whole Ye family all turned toward Ye Shuang, who had almost buried her face in her rice bowl, in unison.

Ye Shuang, who thought about faking a heart attack, finally relented. She raised her head helplessly and smoothed down her lustrous hair that was as fluid and glossy as a darkened waterfall. “Sister Qianru, my… fiancé already has a stable career.”

“Stable career?” Ou Qianru nodded. “No worries, tell me what his occupation is, and we’ll make a pro and con list! Human beings have to strive constantly for the better. Trust me, if your fiancé enters the entertainment field, he’ll achieve greatness that can only be dreams for many people. I promise you, entering the entertainment field will provide him with more opportunities than he has now.”

Even if it might sound like it, Ou Qianru didn’t harbor any intention of looking down on the Ye family. She simply didn’t believe that, given the Ye family’s status, they could find a CEO level son-in-law… This was merely a fact, not a prejudice.

First of all, Ye Shuang had no background, no money, and no looks… Wait‽ With a closer look, Ou Qianru realized Ye Shuang had become rather pretty all of a sudden. Regardless, that was not enough for her to fish for a rich, tall, and handsome man.

Ou Qianru used the Ye family’s realistic conditions to speculate the level of Ye Shuang’s fiancé. She believed, at most, he would earn 200,000 dollars a year, and that was being generous already. Naturally, that was no match for a famous celebrity, who could earn that much in a day!

Therefore, Ou Qianru waited patiently for Ye Shuang to provide the family background of her fiancé… If the kid still wished a better life for himself, Ou Qianru had 90 percent confidence that she could sell him this contract. This was a win-win trade; by helping the Ye family’s future son-in-law, she was also aiding the career of her future husband!

Ye Shuang scratched her head and uttered with difficulty, “For one, his family will never agree… Sister Qianru, I know you think you can persuade his parents, but several generations of family ideals cannot be changed that easily.”

Mother Ye’s eyes widened as she stared at her own daughter. Wow, who would have thought my daughter is such a debater…

Locked in Ou Qianru’s blazing gaze, Ye Shuang forced herself to continue. “Furthermore, he is not interested in changing field. I’ll be honest, other talent scouts have offered him similar contracts before, Sister Qianru, but he’s simply not interested. If fact, I believe he feel averse to the whole entertainment industry… Of course, since we’re relatives, if Sister Qianru insist on paying him a visit to persuade him, he won’t turn you away like he did the others, but I’m sure Sister Qianru wouldn’t force him into doing things that he won’t like, right?”

Of course, I would! Ou Qianru almost blurted that out, but thankfully at the last minute, she used every ounce of energy in her body to suppress that.

Since Ye Shuang had laid things out so clearly, Ou Qianru also didn’t think it was appropriate for her to press any further. She stared at Ye Shuang for a whole three minutes before sighing with sorrow and heartache. “A married woman sides with her husband and not her maiden family anymore… When she needed me to help her get a celebrity’s signature, I’m her Sister Qianru, but now… sigh ”

“…” Can you stop being so melodramatic!

The long and arduous meal finally concluded. Since Ye Shuang had clarified her stance, Ou Qianru stopped bothering her… because she could bother the man in person when she saw him next.

While she prepared to leave for work, Ou Qianru glanced at Ye Shuang, who showed no sign of leaving; she asked, “Aren’t you going to be late?”

“Today’s my holiday.” Ye Shuang pouted. “It’s a long and sad story; Sister Qianru, don’t make me go through it again.”

“…” After a pause, Ou Qianru offered, “I’m going to visit an MV Recording Studio today; since you’re free, do you want to come with me?”

Ye Shuang, who wanted to crawl under her sheets, started to reject, “Thank you, but I….”

“Luo Mingxin is guest-starring in the video,” Ou Qianru added.

“Now that you mention it, I feel like going out for a walk!” Ye Shuang jumped up from the sofa to exclaim, “Then, let us depart now!”

“…”

Father Ye reached out to grab Mother Ye, who was about to pull her daughter back. Making use of this opportunity, Ou Qianru waved goodbye and left with Ye Shuang tagging behind her.

Ye Shuang probably broke a mirror that morning or something because her luck was truly something else that day. When she arrived at the production studio, before she got into Luo Mingxin’s video studio, a familiar shadow, who was trailed by two assistants, exited the studio next door.

Fang Mo!

Ye Shuang sucked in her breath, turned around, and lowered her head in one singular motion… The miraculous ease of her motion ironically attracted the attention of the one person who honestly hadn’t been paying attention to her.

Fang Mo was closing the advertisement candidate list that his assistant handed him when he raised his head just in time to see the pretty girl’s smooth martial art performance. Compelled by curiosity, Fang Mo stopped moving and tossed a curious gaze her way.

Do I know this girl?

He studied the girl’s back for quite some time. There was a more mature lady standing beside the girl and the former seemed to be asking the latter what was wrong, before tossing an inquisitive gaze his way.

The girl shook her head and whispered some explanation. The woman stopped talking and nodded slightly at him, as if to apologize for her rude sizing up of him a moment earlier.

Fang Mo smiled, the polite equivalent of a shrug. After making sure he didn’t recognize the young girl, he walked away, putting the incident out of his mind.

“Mr. Fang, the celebrities on the list fit our company’s image best,” the assistant said when he noticed his boss had pulled his attention back. “If we want a better candidate, you’ll have to pay for a more expensive spokesperson. However, we’re not an international product; there’s really no need to use such a high budget.”

Fang Mo smiled and said, “If you had given me this list three days ago, I would have gone along with any one of the names here, but now…”

After meeting that improbably handsome man, Fang Mo wasn’t impressed by these celebrities anymore.

The assistant was confused; he couldn’t understand what his boss was saying. Facing his assistant’s confused gaze, Fang Mo contemplated for a while before finally pulling out his phone to dial a number.

As he pressed the dial button, a mellifluous ringtone rang out not far from Fang Mo. He turned around in surprise and saw that the pretty girl from earlier was looking down at her phone and then at him in terror and shock…