Additional Inheritance - Chap 10
Chapter 10
Many celebrities pledged items to the charity auction and the proceeds were going to be donated to a rural school.
Shao Qun showed his favour1 for Li Hua by bidding on the t-shirt that she designed with a winning bid of 200,0002. On the stage, Li Hua’s beautiful smile beamed and she frequently glanced over at Shao Qun. It was blindingly obvious that there was something going on between them. However, Wen Xiaohui knew regardless of her status as an A-list actress, or the fact that she was a shocking nine years older than Shao Qun, or even her public flirting with Shao Qun, the media wouldn’t dare publish this kind of tabloid gossip.
Wen Xiaohui felt a little envious of Li Hua; although he didn’t really like bisexuals, all gay men would dream of sleeping with such a charming man like Shao Qun, especially since were plenty of bottoms and few tops in this industry. Shao Qun definitely qualified as top-notch and it would be a pity if he didn’t sleep around.
“Our Huahua is so beautiful,” said Raven loudly with a smug tone.
The stylists sitting next to them looked annoyed and the ones that could control themselves remained silent, but some simply rolled their eyes. Raven’s smile grew even more dazzling.
The auction lasted over an hour and the final total raised was more than four million3. The afterparty was due to commence following the auction, which was actually prime time for networking.
Raven brought Wen Xiaohui along and they headed towards Li Hua.
Li Hua had her arm coiled around Shao Qun’s, her smile was beaming and they both chatted with a famous director. Although she saw Raven out of the corner of her eye, she didn’t show much reaction.
Raven went to stand next to them and he didn’t feel awkward at all. “Huahua, here you are. Hello Director Wang, I’m Raven from Juxing Studio. We met in Hengdian4 before, but you’re so busy that it may have slipped your mind5. This is my business card.”
Wen Xiaohui nodded in a hurry. “Director Wang.”
“Oh, hello.” Director Wang received the business card and stuffed it inside his pocket without a further glance.
Raven turned to Shao Qun again with an expression of undisguised flattery. “Hello, Young Master6 Shao.”
Wen Xiaohui greeted Shao Qun again.
Shao Qun nodded slightly and although he heard Raven, he didn’t look directly at him or Wen Xiaohui.
Wen Xiaohui thought to himself that Young Master Shao’s actions matched his cool appearance.
Raven took out his business card and forcefully handed it over. “Young Master Shao, please visit Juxing when you’re free. I’m Huahua’s stylist.”
Shao Qun received the business card and said “Hmm” with an indifferent tone.
“Hey, I can see my friend over there. I’m going to head over first, you guys continue without me.” Raven used this as an excuse to get out of this embarrassing situation8 and dragged Wen Xiaohui away.
Wen Xiaohui glanced back at Shao Qun and Li Hua was holding his hand affectionately, while his other hand remained in his pocket. Although Wen Xiaohui couldn’t make a psychological assessment, he felt that Shao Qun’s posture revealed his frostiness and indifference.
Raven continued to tug at him. “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen enough?”
“Huh? Nothing.”
Raven sneered, “All you can do is look. The wealthy heir has such high standards that he’s only interested in those who are extraordinarily beautiful.”
“Oh.” Wen Xiaohui was a little dejected that Shao Qun didn’t even look directly at his face, there was a good possibility that he was blind.
As the event drew to a close, people started to leave one after another and both of them followed the stream of people out of the hotel.
Wen Xiaohui received a phone call after he got into the car, he took his phone out to see that it was Director Luo calling him. Wen Xiaohui frowned as he didn’t want to pick up, but Raven was already staring at him and it was clear that he knew who the caller was. He begrudgingly answered his phone and politely said, “Hello, Director Luo.”
“Hi Adi, where are you?”
“I’m in the car.”
“Why did you and Raven slip away so quickly? Let’s go have a couple of drinks.”
“I’m sorry, Director Luo. It’s so late now that I need to go home, or I’ll get told off by my mum.”
“Huh? You’ve already started working, but you’re acting like a child. How can a grown man be afraid of his mother?”
Wen Xiaohui laughed, “My mum is extremely fierce, so I’m genuinely scared of her. I’m sorry, Director Luo.”
Raven who was sitting beside him gave him a meaningful look, but Wen Xiaohui pretended that he didn’t see it.
Although Director Luo was disappointed, he couldn’t do anything about it and they politely exchanged a few more words and then hung up.
Wen Xiaohui could feel Raven’s eyes on his face after the call ended and his expression wasn’t too friendly. Wen Xiaohui felt a little resentful.
“You’re not a primary school student anymore, how could you use this kind of excuse?”
Restraining his anger, Wen Xiaohui said, “It’s not an excuse, my mum is very strict with me.”
Raven sighed, and said in a resentful tone9, “I’m in awe of you.”
Wen Xiaohui remained silent.
Raven pointed to the gearstick in the car. “Here, look at this.”
Wen Xiaohu took a glimpse, but he didn’t think there was anything special about it.
“The standard configuration uses leather, but I upgraded it to buckskin with cherry wood. It cost me an extra 18,000 yuan for this gearstick alone, which is exactly the same as your annual salary.”
Wen Xiaohui didn’t know how to describe his frame of mind at this moment in time.
“I spent 350,000 yuan in total on the interior of my car; the stuff that Luca shows off all the time at the studio aren’t even as expensive, but I still admire him because he knows how to adapt to circumstances.”
Wen Xiaohui hid his clenched fists and secretly fumed: “Fucking adaptable!”
“Luca is indeed much smarter than you, but his intelligence isn’t reflected in his skills, and his looks are pretty ordinary. Xiaohui, I really want to mentor you, but don’t think for a moment that you can rely solely on talent in this industry. China is huge and has a population of one billion, there’s no shortage of talented people. Why can some people succeed, but others can’t? Surely you don’t think that everyone has a father who can give them a boost? The opportunity that many dream10 of is right in front of you. Do you still want to reject it?”
Wen Xiaohui took a deep breath. He didn’t want to put on an act, so he said bluntly, “Raven, I understand your rationale but I can’t bring myself to do it.”
Raven sneered and didn’t say anything else. He turned his head to look out the window.
It was very quiet in the car and the chauffeur was like a robot and did not speak a single word from start to finish. Wen Xiaohui looked out the window at the scenery that flitted by, he reflected on what happened that day and he let out a little sigh.
He had cancelled Sydney-jie’s appointment, dressed up meticulously and tried his hardest to fit in at this place that turned out to be incompatible with him. He met a group of people that he failed to butter up and afterwards, he discovered that his boss wanted to pimp him out to win the favour of an investor. This series of events could only be described with the word disgust and he was unable to find a more suitable word to convey his feelings.
This was different from what he’d imagined, perhaps it was because he’d only thought about the positives and didn’t dwell on the murky and repressive side of the industry. He used to look down on Luca for selling himself for a car and he admired Raven for his achievements; however, they were both selling themselves and the only difference was that one charged more than the other. This wasn’t the kind of accomplishment that he wanted and he would rather give up the opportunity than rely on sleeping with an old man.
Raven didn’t take him all the way home and instead tossed him out at the entrance to the subway.
Wen Xiaohui entered the subway station, he looked at the tracks that ran from left to right in opposite directions – one direction led to his house and the other to Luo Yi’s. He decided that he would go wherever the first train took him.
He soon heard the rumbling noise from a train, Wen Xiaohui closed his eyes, and the sense of anticipation grew in his heart.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that the train had stopped on his left. He took a big stride into the carriage the moment that the doors opened and he took out his mobile phone to send his mum a text message: Mum, it’s too late so I’m going to stay over at my colleague’s house.
When he arrived at Luo Yi’s house, he rang the doorbell, and soon afterwards, the front door opened inwards. Luo Yi looked a bit surprised when he saw him. “Why are you here?”
Wen Xiaohui said cheerfully, “It’s too late, I can’t be bothered to go home.”
“Come on in, it’s a little cold tonight.” Luo Yi looked at Wen Xiaohui from top to bottom. “Xiaohui-ge, you look so handsome today.”
“Hehe, I spent a whole hour putting makeup on and I guarantee you won’t find any pores on my skin.”
“Have you had dinner yet? Are you hungry?”
“I’m starving. I’ve only been drinking and because no one was eating, I was too scared to eat anything.”
“I’ll make you some wontons.”
“Come on, come on. I’m going to change my clothes first.”
Wen Xiaohui returned to the bedroom and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Although he was draped in expensive clothing, the fatigue on his face couldn’t be covered up with powder. The excitement of wearing this suit had been completely worn down; all he wanted to do was to change into his comfortable pyjamas and have a nice meal.
When he went downstairs, Luo Yi had finished cooking the wontons and was waiting for him.
Wen Xiaohui sat down and started eating and it appeared as if he hadn’t eaten in three days.
Luo Yi laughed, “Are you really that hungry? Slow down, don’t burn your mouth.”
Wen Xiaohui wiped his mouth and said softly, “Luo Yi, why didn’t you ask how the evening party went?”
“You don’t look too happy.”
“I’ve met a lot of people, including celebrities, directors, top-tier designers and stylists.”
“That’s really good.”
“What’s so good about that? I bet the people I met will forget me in the blink of an eye11.”
“Don’t worry, sooner or later everyone will remember you.”
Wen Xiaohui laughed bitterly, “I did something disingenuous today.”
“What’s happened?”
Wen Xiaohui didn’t mention Director Luo because he thought that these sorts of things shouldn’t be discussed with a child, but he started talking about the incident with Sydney-jie.
After Luo Yi had heard what he said, he replied, “You’re really in the wrong this time. Wait three days for her to calm down and call her to apologise.”
Wen Xiaohui nodded and then sighed. “I regret my choice, the evening party was pointless.”
“You don’t know that until you’ve experienced it. There are some things that you can do and some that you can’t, but you shouldn’t make an appointment with someone unless you can keep it.”
Wen Xiaohui chuckled, “You’ve activated life mentor mode again.”
Luo Yi also laughed along with him.
“Hey! I got a load of gossip today.”
“Oh, let’s hear it then.”
“You know Li Hua? She hooked up with a princeling who is nine years younger than her, and I met him today. He’s super handsome, I reckon he’s around 22 or 23 year old, but he didn’t bloody look at us when my boss took me along to say hi.”
Luo Yi laughed, “That’s showbiz – there’s all sorts of people.”
“That guy’s appearance is my type, but his personality is awful and not only that, I hear he also sleeps around. Is he not worried about STDs?”
Luo Yi tilted his head to look up at Wen Xiaohui who was gossiping to his heart’s content and he smiled without saying anything.
After Wen Xiaohui finished eating the large bowl of wontons, he patted his belly in contentment and then burped. “It’s delicious – did you wrap them yourself?”
“Yeah, the filling is made with fresh prawn.”
Wen Xiaohui gave him a big thumbs up. “Luo Yi, you are indeed omnipotent.”
Luo Yi took an item out of his pocket and put it on the dining table. The banging noise echoed in the room. “Xiaohui-ge, this is for you.”
Wen Xiaohui stared at it and realised it was a key.
“This is the key to my home, try not to lose it. It’s not easy to get another one cut.”
With a fuzzy feeling inside, Wen Xiaohui retrieved the key. Nothing in this world can replace the warmth of a home. Not a house, but a home12. He smiled as he said, “Thank you.”
Footnotes:
The raws state that Shao Qun gave Li Hua plenty of ‘face’ (concept already mentioned a few chapters back).
Equivalent to $31,000 or £24,000 at the time of translation.
Equivalent to $630,000 or £480,000 at the time of translation.
Hengdian Studios is the largest film studio in the world and most Chinese historical dramas are filmed there.
贵人多忘事, an important person has short memory (idiom).
The Chinese word for young master (a term of respect) is 公子 or gongzi in pinyin. It’s used for Shao Qun because he’s the wealthy heir to a large corporation.
表里如一, external appearance and inner thoughts align or to say what you mean (idiom).
The raws use a phrase which means that he prepared a ladder to get off the stage i.e. covering up his embarrassment.
恨铁不成钢, literal meaning is hating iron for being incapable of being refined into steel, it means to feel resentful towards a person because they’ve failed to meet your expectations (idiom).
梦寐以求, to dream or long for something (idiom).
The Chinese phrase implies “as soon as one turns their head” i.e. in a split-second, but the meaning is similar to the English phrase that has been used.
The concept of home and family are very interlinked in Chinese (same word), so I think this is implying that Luo Yi is his family.
