Chapter 42: Making Money Is So Hard

Recently, Shen Yan had been constantly bumming meals...
Mostly because during his first visit, Shen Yan had shared the story of his tragic childhood, which made Shi Shi's mother very sympathetic...
Coupled with the fact that Shen Yan was exceptionally skilled at buttering up middle-aged women...
He had now reached the point where, every day after wrapping up filming, Shen Yan would go over to scavenge a dinner!
There was even one day he didn't go, and he actually received a "scolding" phone call from the auntie...
However... to be honest, the auntie's cooking skills were... rather average.
Besides, she was of the Hui ethnicity and did not eat pork.
Which was quite depressing!
Shen Yan's absolute favorites were braised pork knuckles and trotters...
Though the seafood soup wasn't bad either...
"Let's go, don't keep the auntie waiting too long!"
Liu Shi Shi watched in surprise as he collected his boxed lunch and handed it over to his assistant...
"...You're going to have a proper meal, yet you're still taking a boxed lunch?"
ρίου"Didn't you see me give it to Xiao Chen?"
"Why did you give it to him?"
"To save it for my midnight snack... Besides, this food is the fruit of my labor, why would I refuse it?"
"...Aren't you afraid of getting fat?"
"Not at all, my daily calorie consumption is huge..."
Shi Shi remembered something: "What do you usually do back in your room? Read the script?"
Shen Yan casually explained: "Write things... I'm currently serializing a novel online, and I need to update ten thousand words every day... I also accepted a new book commission from *Wuxia Weekly*... I've already written two-thirds of it, it's called *Bandits*."
"Wait a minute..." Shi Shi was stunned: "Updating ten thousand words a day... and you also wrote a new book?"
"Yeah... I type very fast, basically writing until one in the morning every day..."
"What's the web novel you're writing called?"
"...*Lord of the Mysteries*, it belongs to the wuxia plus eastern fantasy genre..."
"Ten thousand words a day? You are truly amazing!"
"Just trying to make a living, sister!"
"...Then what is *Bandits*?"
"A commissioned piece for *Wuxia Weekly*. Once the serialization of *Lotus House* ends, I'll go straight into serializing *Bandits*..." After a brief pause, Shen Yan added, "Bandits is a wuxia story centered around the growth of a female protagonist..."
Liu Shi Shi: "A female protagonist?"
"Yes..."
Liu Shi Shi glanced at him suspiciously: "You aren't writing this for me, are you?"
Shen Yan was slightly speechless...
He was just about to say, "I hadn't even met you yet when I started this book..."
But looking at her face, he changed his tune instead: "...Yes, I wrote it specifically for you!"

Liu Shi Shi immediately beamed with joy and nodded, though she said aloud, "I don't just take on any role, you know..."
"...As soon as I finish writing it, I'll bring it right over for your perusal!"
"Very well..."
Shi Shi gave her official approval!
And casually asked, "You write until one in the morning every day, aren't you tired?"
"I need to make money..."
"Isn't your acting fee enough for you to spend?"
"My pay is only five thousand per episode... For shooting *The Weaver Bird* this time, I only appear in ten episodes, so I only made fifty thousand yuan... Don't I have to think of ways to make more money?!"
Shi Shi was somewhat moved: "...You really have it hard!"
Shen Yan was speechless: "Talk as if you're super rich. I asked the other day, your acting fee is only twelve thousand an episode!"
"...That's still better than you... It's double yours... No, almost three times!"
"...So you're saying you're loaded, huh..."
Liu Shi Shi said exasperatedly, "At least more than you!"
Shen Yan squinted at her sideways: "How much? Let me tell you, I have a project here with an investment of ten thousand, and I guarantee it will double within half a year. How about it? Interested?"
Liu Shi Shi: "...Investment? Invest in what? I have three hundred thousand in my hands! Are you trying to borrow money?"
Shen Yan was momentarily dazed—she was way too easy to trick!
He hurriedly changed his words: "No, I was just joking with you... I don't have any project to invest in..."
"If you need money, I can lend it to you!"
"I really don't need any..."
......
Shen Yan temporarily dropped the idea of investing; he was waiting for the story of the 10,000 bitcoins used to buy pizza to spread, and then he would buy a little...
During that time, Taobao even had sellers!
Buying around 5,000 would be plenty.
One shouldn't be too greedy in life...
In truth, bitcoin's real takeoff happened when exchanges started rising around 2017 and 2018.
In the single year of 2017, there were 14 digital currencies that surged over a thousandfold, and a total of 97 currencies with an annual increase of 1,000%!
Could he possibly buy a million of them straight away, advance to a cryptocurrency tycoon, achieve primitive accumulation and endless explosive returns through digital currency, and invest in every single awesome company he had heard of in recent years—Meituan, Toutiao, Didi—hitting the target every single time, investing in China first and then America, instantly becoming a deity in the investment world? Although the money earned might not necessarily exceed cryptocurrency trading, his social connections, status, and prestige would soar tremendously...
But that was impossible!
You have to keep the butterfly effect in mind. If those million bitcoins were missing from the market, certain people wouldn't have acquired them, and those very people happened to be the main driving force behind bitcoin's explosion in 2017...
And then, with no one acting as the driving force...
Bitcoin was very similar to Dutch tulip bulbs; it had no intrinsic value, or rather, not such a high value, and only generated a bubble because people hyped and speculated on it.
Shen Yan could be said to be utterly clueless about stocks and the like...
He only knew that Tencent and Kweichow Moutai would go up in price.
Just like he knew housing prices would go up!

The problem was, he couldn't afford a house.
He currently had less than two hundred thousand yuan to his name, not even a damn chauffeur-driven van...
He'd have to buy a car soon too...
Sigh, he was dead broke!
Well, he would just have to keep bumming meals...
Pity that Shi Shi's mother only stayed for about ten days before leaving.
He was going to have to endure miserable boxed lunches again.
......
Yuan Hong had initially suspected that Shen Yan harbored ill intentions toward Liu Shi Shi...
Yet after spending a month in the same cast, he never saw Shen Yan make any moves.
The two of them merely bantered and bickered...
Moreover, every day after wrapping up filming, Shen Yan would head straight back to the hotel.
He never participated in any activities, gatherings, or the like...
Most of the actors in the cast would gather together after filming every day, or go get massages together...
Oh, legitimate massages, blind massage therapists!
Filming was still very tiring, especially action scenes...
*The Weaver Bird* had quite a few action scenes...
Yuan Hong found it rather strange, so he simply took the initiative to ask Shen Yan: "Little Shen, I've noticed you go straight back to the hotel every day after filming... Don't you want to hang out with everyone else?"
Shen Yan was currently eating Shi Shi's leftover food. Hearing this, he looked up: "...I have to go back and prepare my homework for the next day..."
"Your lines aren't even that many!"
"Still need to prepare. As you know, this is my first time acting as a male lead... I don't want to delay the shooting schedule because of me!"
"...Then do you have any hobbies?"
"Hobbies?" Shen Yan pondered, "I don't seem to have any!"
His assistant Chen Xu chimed in: "When our Brother Yan has free time, he plays the violin, and occasionally when he's in a good mood, he plays the guitar and sings!"
Shen Yan nodded: "Right, whenever I feel a bit restless, I'll get up and play a piece on the violin..."
Liu Shi Shi was astonished: "You even know how to play the violin?"
"I'm a singer, you know..." Shen Yan explained, "My first EP is already recorded... It's going to be released next month!"
柳 "You... you're a singer? Then how come I've never heard you sing?"
"...Well, I'll sing for you right now then!"
"Go on, sing!"
"There is a girl in the village named Xiaofang..."
Shen Yan burst into a zero-frame-delay rendition of *Xiaofang*, though it was the Imagine Dragons *Natural* version...