Chapter 43: Deer Language

In the end, he didn't go to the airport to see them off.

Such chores were usually handled by Old Xue, Xue Zhongding. Now in Hong Kong, he also had a little assistant, Lin Xilei—just like when everyone first arrived, they flew back to Beijing or Taiwan within a window of an hour or two.

As for Lin Jianlu himself, his work commitments in Taiwan had already been completed in practice, so he didn't need to rush over there just yet—but he still had a lot of work to do in Hong Kong.

Mostly meeting people, of course.

Brand representatives, media interviews, followed by magazine photo shoots.

In between, he rushed over to support Tarcy Su at an event to help promote her new album.

As a result, he got cornered at the entrance of the fan meeting and, as expected, was chased by reporters with questions. They didn't even bother asking Tarcy Su anything; instead, one after another, they shoved microphones right up to his nose.

The wild quotes Lin Jianlu had blurted out at his press conference had already made the newspapers here. Who knows how many entertainment reporters had been itching to interview him in person to witness his endless stream of golden sentences.

"Just kidding! You guys actually believe a kiss for a song? At least three!"

"I'm not writing songs for her anymore; the royalties are way too cheap."

"Scandals like this... definitely have nothing to do with me! It must have been Tarcy herself who leaked it!"

"Well, of course! Life isn't easy to begin with. Whenever I can blame someone else, I certainly wouldn't have the heart to blame myself!"

"Hey... a radish rots in the ground, a tooth goes bad, and your wife gets pregnant! Why? You pulled it out too late, that's why!"

From start to finish, not to mention anyone else, Tarcy Su was kept laughing continuously by him.

By that very evening, his quotes were featured in the evening paper once again.

Two days later, Richie Jen came over to promote his album *Depend*, and Lin Jianlu once again joined Tarcy Su to support him. Just like the last time, the crowd ended up being almost entirely made up of his own fans.

To the point where he had to emphasize repeatedly, "Today Xiao Qi Ge is here to promote his new album, *Depend*. Let him sing for you all, I'll sing for you another day!"

On June 27th, he even went to play a game of mahjong with Faye Wong, Leslie Cheung, and Nansun Shi. To his surprise, he won back over seven thousand—he had participated twice before, and both times he had lost more than ten thousand!

Of course, he wasn't the biggest winner; the main winner was Faye Wong. Leslie Cheung also won around two or three thousand.

Nansun Shi lost a lot of money and grew furious out of embarrassment, making an appointment for a rematch another day where she swore she would win it all back. A life-or-death match.

He also arranged a drinking session with a bunch of old veterans.

Lo Tayu, Leslie Cheung, James Wong, Brigitte Lin, Tsui Hark, Nansun Shi, Wong Jing, Manfred Wong, Sylvia Chang, Sammo Hung, Yuen Wah, Yuen Biao, Raymond Pak-ming, and Wong Kar-wai.

He brought Tarcy Su along, which could be considered helping her open up her social circle a bit.

Naturally, she could hardly get a word in. She was just there to gain some exposure.

It was pretty much the same in all social circles: if your own status isn't high enough, you can't get in without someone leading the way. Even if you do get in, you're just tagging along for a meal and a drink, and you still won't be able to get in next time unless someone brings you again—it was only later that Lin Jianlu figured out why those three guardians had escorted him to Hong Kong in the first place.

It was just that he was rather unique; he only needed to be brought around once to become even more familiar with everyone than they were.

When all is said and done, all respect and importance must be earned by oneself.

Yet by the very next day, Gigi Leung had gotten wind of the news.

The reason was simple: Lin Jianlu never hid his whereabouts, nor did he ever care if anyone knew about the vast majority of his activities—he had even shared arm-linked drinks with Brigitte Lin in front of so many people!

She seemed quite idle these days. Unless an old friend—and an acclaimed director at that—came knocking to ask her to act, she rarely took on any film roles anymore.

In her own words, ever since *Dragon Inn* and *Swordsman II*, along with later films like *The Bride with White Hair*, almost all the roles offered to her were male-disguise characters of that sort, and she was simply exhausted from playing them.

Her main profession nowadays could rather be considered that of a columnist.

She wrote columns for two different newspapers, jotting down thoughts on life, reflections, and behind-the-scenes crew gossip to earn some spending money.

In exchange for a round of drinks, Lin Jianlu agreed to write a two-thousand-word article for her.

Ever since their very first meeting, this older sister had made no secret of her fondness for him, and naturally Lin Jianlu wasn't going to turn down her request—he agreed to write about the creative origins of the song *Ten Years*.

Actually, what the hell did he know about its creative origins?

He'd just make it up.

"You... why didn't you take me with you?"

"Hey... what are you imagining? To take you there and have a bunch of old lechers ply you with alcohol?"

"You wouldn't let anyone ply me with alcohol! ... Then aren't you afraid she'd get plied with alcohol?"

"She isn't as pretty as you. Old lechers love plying pretty girls with alcohol; they don't bother with the plain ones! It's super expensive, you know! Moutai, over three hundred Hong Kong dollars a bottle!"

They had arranged to go see a movie together.

Because Gigi Leung had specifically reminded him that if they didn't go see it soon, the second installment of *Young and Dangerous* would finish its theatrical run.

Once again, they barely caught the tail end of it.

In fact, after buying their tickets and walking in, they were the only two people in the entire screening hall.

Halfway through, when Chingmy Yau appeared on screen—oh boy, the sheer sensory allure—Lin Jianlu turned his head to look at Gigi. She hadn't thought much of it initially, but under Lin Jianlu's gaze, her face instantly turned beet red.

After the movie, they went shopping and ate ice desserts. Her hand kept trying to brush against his over and over again, and when Lin Jianlu grabbed it back, she was so happy she looked fit to burst with bubbles.

"Ekin Cheng is a really nice guy, very gentlemanly, and so handsome too!"

"Is he as handsome as me?"

"Heehee, of course he's not as handsome as you!"

Sitting in a coffee shop at the street corner enjoying the air conditioning and sipping coffee, she gossiped about the behind-the-scenes stories from the crew of *Feel 100%*. It was said that Leo Ku went to the film set almost every day, or at least every other day. Naturally, it was to keep an eye on his girlfriend; he was several years older than Sammi Cheng, but his career in recent years simply couldn't keep pace with hers, so he couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. Rumors had it that his attitude toward the male lead, Ekin Cheng, was quite poor.

On a couple of occasions, the two of them even had some friction. If Wong Jing hadn't been presiding over the set as a big boss whom neither side dared to offend, a physical fight might have broken out.

Even so, Wong Jing was furious.

Everyone was saying that Best Film Company would probably never cast Sammi Cheng in their films again.

"I'm different, though! Uncle Jing looks after me very well! The director is very considerate too, so naturally the whole crew is wonderful to me... Heehee! Sister Ge has such immense pull!"

"My foot! That's my pull, all right!"

"Is it? Ah? What did you just say?"

There was a pretentious kind of cuteness to it.

"Come to think of it, it's so strange. You're clearly so young, but why do you like hanging out with people around Uncle Jing's age?"

Well... what a question, filled with hidden motives.

"Because it's fun!"

"Why is it fun to be with them? They're all so old!"

"Being old makes it interesting. Since they're all up in years, they threw away their shame long ago. They speak without any filters, you get to hear stories, and they're great at telling dirty jokes—how wonderful is that!"