Chapter 132 : Chapter 132

Chapter 132: “This is too absurd.”

Given New Zealand's limited emergency resources and high medical requirements, the emergency departments of public hospitals triage patients according to the severity of their condition.

Patients with minor illnesses need to wait until severe cases are treated before they can be seen.

In other words, Li Yamin's high fever, compared to a heart attack, massive bleeding, or missing limbs, was of a Schrödinger-level severity.

If you really go into shock from the fever, OK, I can raise your emergency level from 3, but before that, you'll have to wait honestly in line.

However, thanks to the Hollywood guild system, international film crews that need to shoot in different countries were all “advised” to prepare medical resources in advance to deal with emergencies.

The guild said “advised,” but if the film production company really only took it as advice, it might end up on the list of reasons for a strike at some point.

Considering issues like the crew's budget, the producer of 《SUNSET》 didn't hire a professional doctor or paramedic, but instead signed an agreement with a local family doctor to quickly obtain medical assistance.

After calling and confirming with the doctor in advance, Wanshu Zu took the dazed and feverish Li Yamin to an independent clinic in a nearby community.

Because it was very close to the detached house, he arrived while the doctor was still on the way.

“I have a fever?”

“……Just got caught in a little rain.”

“Weren't you on the rooftop with Marcus Li? And Nora—”

“You're angry again, aren't you? Whenever I had a fever before, you'd get mad at me, saying I was doing this or that again.”

“I thought you would wait for me.”

“There's still a week, I—”

Li Yamin was strapped into the passenger seat, muttering indistinctly without end.

……

Chu Zu was truly speechless: “I'm taking him to see a doctor, and he wants to add to my backstory for me???”

Because it had to interact with Li Yamin, the system had been gathering intelligence from the other little chickens these past few days, just in case.

Preparation was necessary, and now was its time to improvise.

The little yellow chicken said sternly: “Interrupt him! Deny it! The host's persona is decided by the host! We will not acknowledge! We will not compromise! Say NO to the thuggish behavior of force-feeding backstory!”

What kind of adult reminisces about the past by smoking to carve it into their lungs at the drop of a hat?

Humans only frantically recall every detail that was previously in their favor when they feel wronged, using it as a powerful weapon to defend themselves and attack the other party!

The little yellow chicken would not be easily deceived anymore, it understood humans very well!

“It's mainly not about the backstory, it's the flashbacks,” Chu Zu said.

Chu Zu knew clearly how he used to get along with Li Yamin.

With Li Yamin's mind now flashing with memories, the things that could be added were just those.

Wanshu Zu's persona was already established and wouldn't be affected.

But it would force Chu Zu to have flashbacks.

As everyone knows, flashbacks are mentally draining.

One sorrowful recollection from Li Yamin, one brain overload for Chu Zu.

Chu Zu dared not imagine what would happen to his own mental and physical state if Li Yamin spent seven straight days being sentimental, his mind filled with the past of being waited on by nannies.

Even the iron-fisted capitalist Luciano Esposito had been firm in his belief that he was the center of the universe.

Even if old memories were stirred up, they would be quickly filtered through his smooth brain, not subjecting Chu Zu to mental attacks while he was already working overtime with high intensity.

Something even Luciano couldn't do, Li Yamin did with ease.

Chu Zu had the system keep an eye on the setting collection, exited the sea of consciousness, and refused to be dragged into any flashbacks.

He made up his mind to hand the person over to the doctor and leave immediately.

As the little yellow chicken said, don't acknowledge, don't compromise.

Say NO to the thuggish behavior of force-feeding backstory.

……

In fact, Li Yamin wasn't clear on what he was saying, until Wanshu Zu suddenly slapped the steering wheel, the horn blaring in the night, and he slowly regained some sanity from his high fever.

“I have a fever,” he said.

“Either sleep or shut up. Save your words for the doctor.”

Wanshu Zu looked straight into his eyes, “I have to consider how to deal with the reporters who will be contacting me after dawn. I have other work after that. I don't want to hear any of that nonsense, I don't remember that crap.”

Li Yamin stubbornly asked: “Then what did you come to my room for?”

Wanshu Zu averted his gaze, unbuckled his seatbelt, pulled out the key, and slammed the door as he got out.

The car “beeped” twice, and the doors locked.

Li Yamin struggled to see the man's back, the warm lights of the community stinging his eyes.

How could he not remember?

He remembered Nora, but not the person he spent day and night with.

When the doctor arrived, Li Yamin was already asleep.

And when he opened his eyes again in a sickbed, his body was no longer cold, his dizziness had improved a lot, and even his inflamed wisdom tooth didn't hurt as much.

It was already bright outside the window.

In his blurry vision, Li Yamin saw a black figure lying by the bed.

“ Wanshu Zu—”

He wanted to get up, startling the person sleeping lightly by his bed—it wasn't Wanshu Zu, it was Marcus.

Li Yamin felt as if an invisible pair of hands were choking his vocal cords.

Marcus felt his forehead temperature and breathed a sigh of relief: “Zu still has a lot to deal with, he asked me to help take care of you.”

“Miss Zhao also has to go with Zu. Your assistant will be here soon. If you need anything, just tell me—do you need me to get the doctor?”

Li Yamin lay back down.

He was fairly familiar with Marcus; for higher-level projects, Marcus provided legal consultation and advice.

And Marcus was also one of the original studio members.

Wanshu Zu placed great importance on legal matters.

When he first started in the industry, Wanshu Zu felt he wasn't sensitive enough to contracts, so he would send all documents, big and small, to Marcus for him to look over and promptly discover any potential hidden traps.

Marcus was just a fledgling newcomer back then, his fees were very low, and most of the time he helped for free.

He would say he was keeping a tab, but he never asked them for payment for his past services.

Li Yamin shouldn't have spoken harshly to his long-term legal consultant just because of a few words from Nora.

He was just influenced by other emotions and took it out on Marcus.

“I'm sorry……”

Li Yamin deliberately ignored the feeling of being abandoned at the hospital by his manager and forced himself to say, “I should have apologized to you yesterday.”

Marcus's face wrinkled up: “Don't be like this, I'm scared.”

“It couldn't be that Zu sent you to apologize to me, right? While you're having a fever? He's too—”

“It wasn't him.”

Li Yamin found it hard to hide his discomposure, “The thing he said the most was for me to shut up.”

That was hard to respond to.

Marcus used all his life's learning to try not to let the situation get awkward: “You do talk a lot usually. I talk a lot too, and get scolded just like you.”

He soothed, “Relax, Zu has had a sharp tongue since he was a kid. He's like this with everyone he's familiar with. He only acts like a decent person around Nora—he's not targeting you.”

Li Yamin: “……”

Marcus: “……”

Did I say something wrong?

Why does his expression look even worse?!

“You and Wanshu Zu have known each other since you were kids……”

As he said this, Li Yamin felt an inexplicable sense of embarrassment, his throat very hoarse.

He didn't look at Marcus's half-awkward, half-concerned face, only staring at the pure white ceiling.

“I want to ask you something.”

Marcus was afraid he would jump up, rush out the door, and run straight to Wanshu Zu.

Seeing his personality change so drastically was strange, but also a little reassuring—if he really caused any more trouble, Wanshu Zu would attack everyone indiscriminately.

Oh, except for Nora.

“Go ahead, I'm listening,” Marcus said.

Dealing with the reporters who showed up wasn't too much trouble.

Li Yamin being unable to attend was a loss for the reporters, but Wanshu Zu being willing to be interviewed was like losing a sesame seed but picking up a watermelon.

Hordes of domestic media were waiting for Wanshu Zu's return to the country, wanting to grab a headline while the heat was on.

The questions they had prepared were varied, from his love life to his career history.

As long as the man opened his mouth, even if he only said one word, 800-word essays could fill the trending topics of various platforms.

The reporter was also a “veteran of many battles,” but Wanshu Zu was different from the countless celebrities he had interviewed.

His aura was unique, his dress style was calm and reserved.

He was very close to the image of a precise and efficient entrepreneur, but he didn't have a utilitarian or shrewd air about him.

The reporter hadn't prepared questions in advance; the finalized Word document after their communication became a mere decoration, relying solely on improvisation.

It was Chu Zu who was rather surprised.

The reporter's questions were fluent, his attitude was neither servile nor overbearing, and his logic was clear, but he was just holding back.

A simpler evaluation: a master of slacking off who has lost his fighting spirit.

—Are you in New Zealand this time to visit the set, or for a new collaboration?

—In recent years, the film and television industry has changed a lot.

As a manager, how do you help Teacher Li Yamin cope with these changes?

—On set, were there any interesting interactions between the newcomer you signed and Teacher Li?

—In terms of cultivating newcomers, what unique advantages do you think your experience and team can offer Miss Nora?

Chu Zu's answers were like something obtained after consulting ChatGPT, and he even squeezed in some “clarifications.”

Both visiting the set and collaboration.

Yamin himself has a high degree of industry sensitivity; he has planned his own career for the past few years.

The atmosphere on set is very good.

They are the male and female leads with a lot of romantic scenes.

Yamin often helps Nora run lines in private to help her get into character.

However, both of them have straightforward personalities, so after they became familiar with each other, they often bickered.

Lishou Entertainment has provided Nora with a complete management team, but currently, Nora has no plans to return to China for long-term development.

The cultivation of the artist still needs to be communicated with CAA.

The reporter didn't feel like he was being brushed off.

For every answer Chu Zu gave, he nodded his head.

The reporter asked again: “Everyone is very curious, we've rarely seen Teacher Shen recently. Would it be convenient for you to disclose Teacher Shen's work schedule?”

It was still a very tactful expression, but he finally got to the point.

The situation Chu Zu learned from Gu An was that after Shen Weidi's old job ended, all new work was suspended.

No new scripts, no new projects, no new variety shows, no new endorsements.

He wasn't causing trouble either, just staying at home behind closed doors.

Gu An had the key to his house and went to see him a few times.

Shen Weidi was eating well, drinking well, sleeping well, and said he had an idea and wanted to talk in detail after Wanshu Zu returned to the country.

Hearing the words “talk in detail” from Shen Weidi's mouth was comparable to a first-grader doing advanced math while doing a handstand.

Gu An couldn't figure out if this person had gained wisdom, gone crazy, or was half and half.

Calculating the time, Wanshu Zu would be back in a week at most, so Gu An simply gave him a vacation.

Lishou Entertainment is very good at managing traffic stars; exposure is the most basic foundation.

Even if there are no recent works, they would still pull Shen Weidi to a variety show as a flying guest to create some buzz, connect with fans, and get the topic on the trending list.

A name that could be seen every few days suddenly disappeared, and the person vanished too.

If it weren't for the high popularity of “Wanshu Zu's artist's relationship exposed?!”, the fans would have already created entries like “Must give Shen Weidi an explanation”.

Chu Zu made empty promises: “Thank you for your concern for Little Shen, but due to confidentiality clauses, I can't reveal too much.”

The reporter understood.

A confidentiality clause means there's a project.

To have a traffic star of Shen Weidi's caliber lay low for so long, it might even be a big project!

The reporter didn't ask any more questions, only quietly leaving a sentence at the end: “After the press release comes out, I will check with the person on your side.”

“Teacher Wanshu, when you return to the country……”

Chu Zu nodded: “We should have a chance to meet again. I'll treat you to a meal then.”

The reporter's face was full of smiles.

He left contentedly with the interview script and the photos taken during the interview.

Returning to the sea of consciousness, Chu Zu found the system lying on the sofa, engrossed in flipping through the panel.

“Host.”

The little yellow chicken looked up, its beady eyes shining from the panel's fluorescent light.

It looked a little moved, “Marcus is too amazing, not only can he give you a happy childhood, but he can also give you a happy youth, adulthood, and old age.”

Chu Zu: “……”

Chu Zu: “Do you want to hear what you're saying?”

The system rolled to the side, cleared a space, and brought the panel closer to the host: “Take a look, take a look.”

On the panel was the updated main text content of 《Death by Entertainment》.

The little yellow chicken had flipped to the latest chapter.

Incomprehensibly, there was no trace of the protagonists in this chapter.

The events of the main text could be summarized in one sentence—

《Marcus's Exhortation to Learning》.

It was true that Chu Zu had asked Marcus to keep an eye on Li Yamin, but neither of them should have appeared in the main text.

For a whole chapter, no less.

Facing the host's questioning gaze, the little yellow chicken stammered an explanation:

“Because…… because the readers like to watch it too.”

Chu Zu: “Like to watch what?”

Little yellow chicken: “Watch the scheming and backstabbing that belongs to adults, manager training a dog.”

“Wait a minute.”

Chu Zu stopped it, “You wait a minute.”

In the independent clinic.

“So…… what you agreed on back then was ‘do what you're capable of doing’?”

Marcus was stunned.

He had never heard of such a thing in his life.

The head of a company with a considerable market value actually distributed work according to such an abstract standard?!

“This is too absurd, Li. What do you rely on to judge ‘whether someone is capable’? Who sets the standard? Is a person who only knows how to spread butter on toast considered capable of cooking? Or do you have to get some inexplicable master chef certificate to count?”

Marcus was in disbelief.

In his perception, Wanshu Zu rarely used an idealized attitude to handle relationships with people; he emphasized equality and stability.

If you are friendly to him, he is friendly to you.

If you cause a scene with him, he causes an even wilder scene.

He wouldn't place the people around him in clearly distinct categories for the very reason I just mentioned—there is no real “clear distinction” at all.

“What's even more absurd is, do you think Zu was born good at work?”

Marcus couldn't understand it at all, saying, “He studied directing in university, did his postgraduate studies in business, and only started to figure out matters related to being a manager after graduation. He also learned it bit by bit.”

“And look at you, I don't believe your family didn't teach you about business, and you've been in the industry for a long time, understanding the ecosystem and the rules.”

“Why would you decide that you belong to the incapable side, and thus shirk the responsibilities and obligations that were originally yours?”

Li Yamin squeezed his eyes shut.

Marcus's thinking was in line with his job requirements.

Lawyers are good at reading rules, understanding rules, and applying them to the facts.

He straightforwardly said things Li Yamin would never think about.

—The things Wanshu Zu can do, he can actually do too.

Some managers who manage artists demand that they be completely obedient, wishing they could turn them into empty-headed puppets—this usually only applies to artists with little education who can't handle complicated situations.

This clearly didn't apply to Li Yamin.

So they should be another type of manager and artist, also the type Marcus had seen the most: supporting each other, each taking what they need.

After hearing Marcus's words, Li Yamin suddenly remembered the day Wanshu Zu threw his watch.

He had just woken up, was not in good spirits, his face cold and pale.

Li Yamin thought, Wanshu Zu is Shen Weidi and Qiao Tian's manager, of course he should be responsible for this.

And he had helped solve a small part of the trouble, which was enough.

The rest could be left for Wanshu Zu to handle after he woke up.

Because matters related to management and the company had always been within Wanshu Zu's “scope of ability.”

The one thing Li Yamin didn't think about was that Shen Weidi was his nephew, and it was because of his connection that Li Chuyang had pushed him onto Wanshu Zu in the first place.

The company was also his company.

Besides his remuneration as an actor, he also received a high percentage of the company's dividends.

Whether from the perspective of Shen Weidi's uncle or the person in charge of the company, he should have taken the initiative to handle the crisis, instead of running to the hospital after shirking his responsibilities and staging a farce with Shen Weidi at the door of the hospital room.

At that time, Wanshu Zu was very disappointed in him.

When he couldn't figure it out, Li Yamin felt a stuffiness in his chest, unable to cough it up or swallow it down.

Now that he had an epiphany, he didn't feel any better.

The fever made his heart beat very fast, thumping chaotically.

Each time his heart plunged, it felt like it was floating in the air, unable to find a place to land.

Li Yamin started to feel a little scared.

Not long ago, he could still believe that Wanshu Zu had changed, that he had never changed, and therefore he shouldn't be the one at fault.

Now Marcus had connected all the changes with logic.

Li Yamin wasn't an idiot; of course he could tell who the moron was.

But Marcus had no intention of stopping his narrative.

Instead, he dragged his chair forward so that he could hear every word clearly.

“During Zu's hospitalization, you've already proven a lot. You can handle business negotiations, you can communicate well with people, you can express your views appropriately in public—you clearly know how to do these things.”

“As a partner, you shirked most of the responsibility. As his friend, you didn't think about trying to lighten his load as much as possible when he was sick and fainted.”

Marcus paused.

“Honestly, I don't even know if, when you went to see him, you wanted to show off with an attitude of ‘look, Shen Weidi is worse off than me’, or if you sincerely wanted to check on his condition?”

Their gazes met for a moment.

Marcus's every word came from the heart, while Li Yamin's mind was a complete blank, until Marcus sighed.

“You don't see him as a friend, Li. At least, that's what he would think.”

Li Yamin stared at him blankly, his lips moving silently.

Marcus's gaze inevitably carried some disappointment.

He was panicking badly but couldn't refute a single point.

The lawyer's eloquence struck him to the core, sorting out all the messy things with perfect clarity, leaving him with no escape.

Li Yamin's face was pale.

After a long while, he slowly said: “He…… doesn't see me as a friend…… does he?”

Marcus's gaze grew even more disappointed.

“If he didn't see you as a friend, why would he go to your room in the middle of the night to check on you after suddenly remembering you got caught in the rain?”

Li Yamin couldn't say another word.

“When Marcus Li was dominating the moot court, Li Yamin was still being his little idiot.”

After reading the main text, Chu Zu immediately came to a conclusion, “This is the real PUA.”

Chu Zu: “Why did he take the initiative to talk to Marcus about this?”

The system blinked: “But what Marcus said makes a lot of sense.”

Chu Zu completely disagreed: “All issues involving feelings—family, love, friendship—none of them can be reasoned with.”

“Business is business, friendship is friendship. Look at me and Marcus, have we ever, outside of our interests, settled accounts on who did what for the other?”

System: “……Seems not.”

The little yellow chicken had a bad feeling.

Oh no, it seems to not understand humans again!

Oh no, Marcus is a scheming Marcus!

Glancing at the panel, Chu Zu thought for a moment, analyzing the current situation.

The biggest problem was the sudden increase in the main text's content.

It was very likely that a separate main storyline for himself and Li Yamin had been opened.

In that case, when it came to splitting up, there were many more things to consider.

What Chu Zu originally thought was, everyone is an adult in their thirties, with their own goals and pursuits.

Wanshu Zu's dream was born from Li Yamin.

That was a starting point worth remembering for a lifetime, but he was never satisfied.

Some people think youthful recklessness is eternal, while others have an epiphany that there will be no winner in a long tug-of-war.

He did find Li Yamin troublesome, but not to the extent of the system's aversion.

There were many ways to solve trouble.

Wanshu Zu's specialty was control, and he wouldn't do it that way.

If one had to say that Wanshu Zu was a conscience-killing bastard, hypocritical, greedy, and cold, he wouldn't refute it.

He wouldn't see it as a trade-off or a sacrifice.

That was the road to victory, and he had to walk it grandly and magnificently.

Wanshu Zu was just that kind of person.

But this was too difficult to express through the plot in a novel, and it also required squeezing in and creating a plot while the three main characters' storylines were progressing.

The most urgent matter now was to figure out the readers' trends.

“Open the forum.”

Chu Zu said simply, “I want to see what you meant by ‘the scheming and backstabbing of adults…… manager training a dog’.”

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