Chapter 69: Tricking Yourself a Wife

They had agreed to go for seafood.

However, since they arrived in the city before dinnertime, they decided to go window shopping first.

Gao Yuanyuan held Lin Jianlu's hand, looking exceptionally joyful, skipping and bouncing around in a rare display of high spirits. When she spotted a music and video store, she suddenly remembered something and eagerly darted inside. She bought an authentic copy of the album *Cruel to the End* and brought it over for Lin Jianlu to sign. Lin Jianlu took it and casually signed his personal mobile phone number right beneath his autograph.

She couldn't help but blush and giggle, pretending to scold him playfully, "Do you always chase girls like this?!"

"Well, naturally. Did you fall for it?"

"Hmph! Fall for what? I am not your girlfriend!"

"Oh, well, that doesn't matter. As long as I am your boyfriend!"

"Pfft... You're impossible!"

She fancied a pair of tight-fitting jeans, but Lin Jianlu bit his tongue and refrained from praising them—her backside was rather flat, and wearing such tight trousers would only highlight her flaws. If it were Brigitte Lin, Rosamund Kwan, or Sylvia Chang, now that would be a different story!

Of course, a couple more years of maturity would certainly make a big difference.

While it was true that some people in this world blossomed at a tender age, boasting voluptuous figures and youthful faces without breaking a sweat, the vast majority of girls truly needed to reach a certain age before their figures gradually filled out.

Strictly speaking about figures right now, girls like Gao Yuanyuan and Xu Jinglei could be collectively classified as beanpoles!

By the same token, Charlie Yeung was very tall, but that didn't stop her from having a flat chest. Faye Wong was actually over one meter seventy, but in the eyes of Beijing locals, nope, still a beanpole! Of course, there was a distinction: Charlie Yeung and Faye Wong at least had some shape to their backsides, whereas Gao Yuanyuan and Xu Jinglei were flat even back there.

When it came to truly stunning figures, Jiang Yiyan was the ultimate bombshell.

His little assistant, Lin Xilei, came a close second.

"Don't they look good?"

"They look great! Buy them!"

"Hmph, you definitely think they look bad! I'm not buying them!"

"Now you mention it, when you held them up against yourself, I thought the trousers looked quite nice. But the moment you moved them away—tch, just so-so, pretty average. Let's not buy them then!"

"Hahaha!"

She laughed uncontrollably, looking both delighted and bashful. "Talking absolute nonsense!"

Hesitating for a moment, she muttered, "Better not buy them after all. Over two hundred yuan is enough for two months of my allowance."

After walking around for quite a while, she bought two hair clips costing a total of six yuan.

Ah, if this were to be reported to her future mother-in-law, Mother Lin would surely be overjoyed: she's a girl who knows how to keep house!

Back in the car, ready to head out for dinner, Lin Jianlu first pulled out his wallet. "You're in your third year of high school now, let me give you some money to buy study materials!" With that, he handed over five hundred yuan, leaving his own wallet completely empty.

She pressed her lips together, looking both pleased and proud. "Why would I want your money? I have my own!"

Since she felt that way, he started to take it back. "Fair enough! You just finished filming a movie and made six thousand yuan! You certainly wouldn't care about my meager five hundred! Fine then, I'll go buy you review books and test papers tomorrow and have them delivered to you!"

She burst out laughing, made a fist, and lightly punched Lin Jianlu's arm. "The ones issued by our school are already more than enough for me to do, don't you dare sabotage me!" As she spoke, she snatched the five hundred yuan note away. "I'd rather spend it on delicious snacks!"

Lin Jianlu chuckled. "Cut down on junk food, it's not healthy. When I get back, I'll take you out for a grand feast!"

She let out a proud little huff, clutching the five hundred yuan in her hand and glancing sideways at him. "Hey, Lin Jianlu, why are you so nice to me?"

"What kind of question is that? What fisherman doesn't bait the water first? What man trying to trick a wife into coming home doesn't offer a few tastes of sweetness first? Otherwise, how else would he trick her into doing the laundry and cooking meals?"

"Pfft..."

She laughed again, giving him a sideways glare. "I am not going to be your wife!"

"Sigh... Actually, I'm not bad at all, really! Apart from being a bit fickle and having a few too many rumored girlfriends, everything else about me is quite wonderful. Look at me—I don't spend money recklessly, I'm diligent at work, and I don't touch drinking, gambling, or carousing. Oh, and I'm quite handsome too. Since you aren't satisfied with someone like me, what kind of guy are you hoping to find?"

She laughed so hard she could barely stand, stars twinkling brightly in her eyes. "Say that first sentence again! What do you mean by 'apart from being a bit fickle'? Is that something you can just set apart?"

"Hey, you don't understand this, do you? It's good for a man to be a bit fickle; a man who isn't fickle can't make big money! You don't understand now, but you will in a few years!"

"Such crooked logic!"

Amidst their bantering and laughter, he started the car and prepared to leave, but suddenly Lin Jianlu's mobile phone rang.

He answered it, and to his surprise, it was Chou Ling-kang, who had just arrived in Beijing.

"Ah, Brother Chou, hello, hahaha! Yes, I'm around. Wonderful, great, no problem!"

In truth, their friendship was fairly ordinary at its core, mainly due to a lack of deep interaction. Counting every single instance, they had only met three times, and they had shared a meal and chatted at the same table just once. However, Lin Jianlu had done him an enormous favor by making a guest appearance for two or three days in his drama *Four Daughters*—across Taiwan and Hong Kong combined, he was the absolute only one to do so!

As a reigning Asian superstar, a *TIME* magazine cover figure, and the Chinese-language music industry's sole Diamond Record royalty, going to cameo in a small Taiwanese drama was an exceptionally heavy favor to bestow, and Chou Ling-kang was clearly deeply grateful for it!

Of course, there was a reason behind it—he was one of Taiwan's four major producers, on deeply friendly terms with Sylvia Chang and Ge Fu-hong, and even shared a sworn-brother relationship with the man behind Ge Fu-hong. Thus, they were all considered part of the same inner circle.

That was quite nice. The man was decent and worth befriending.

In his daily dealings with the crews, actors, and even directors under him, Chou was notoriously harsh-tongued and known for his overbearing demeanor throughout the Taiwanese film and television circles. During that meal together, Alyssa Chia had complained quite a bit about him.

Yet toward Lin Jianlu, he had always maintained the attitude of making a friend.

And that was more than enough.

As long as the attitude was right, Lin Jianlu was always happy to make widespread friendships.

However, after hanging up the phone, he felt somewhat conflicted and explained the situation: "Would you like to accompany me? Or should we go eat first, drop you off at school after, and then I'll head over?"

To his surprise, Gao Yuanyuan readily agreed. "I can go with you! Is he a Taiwanese producer?"

"Mhm, you know Qiong Yao, right? He and Qiong Yao are counted among the four major producers. When you meet him, just call him Brother Chou, we address each other as brothers."

"Got it!"

In truth, Lin Jianlu didn't know that Gao Yuanyuan particularly loved accompanying him to meet people.

The previous time Zhang Guoli and Deng Jie invited them to dinner had been an immensely satisfying experience for her—actually, whether boy or girl, when teenagers were on the cusp of growing up without yet truly having reached adulthood, what they lacked most was neither money nor romance nor anything else, but rather respect!

What made them happiest was being treated as equals by adults and viewed as grown-ups, while what they detested most was being ignored, overlooked, disrespected, or dismissed!

Yet by Lin Jianlu's side, it wasn't even just a matter of being treated like an adult anymore; people actually regarded her as a person of significance—Zhang Guoli and Deng Jie were famous actors, yet they warmly inquired after her well-being and served her food. It was the same on the film set: ever since Lin Jianlu had shamelessly started flirting with her, everyone from director Zhang Yang down to the assistant directors and crew staff never found a single fault with her, treating her with utmost respect.

She naturally knew that all this respect stemmed from Lin Jianlu.

She even knew that if not for Lin Jianlu, even ten years from now, when she was all grown up and constantly acting, she would still be utterly incapable of commanding that level of importance from famous actors and directors of Zhang Guoli and Zhang Yang's caliber—but none of that mattered, because she liked Lin Jianlu too!

They were definitely going to be together in the future!

...

All the way to the hotel, after parking the car, Lin Jianlu held Gao Yuanyuan's hand as they went upstairs.

Arriving on the fourth floor and stepping out of the elevator, Lin Jianlu was momentarily stunned—there were quite a few people standing or squatting in the corridor, seemingly waiting for something.

He led Gao Yuanyuan through the crowd by the hand when suddenly a girl stood up abruptly and called out, "Brother Lu?"

Lin Jianlu stopped and turned his head. "Oh, Bingbing? What are you doing here?"

It was Li Bingbing (originally Li Binbin), who had previously appeared in one of Lin Jianlu's music videos. Among that batch of six girls back then, Li Bingbing was considered second only to Zuo Xiaoqian, and was someone Lin Jianlu quite liked and held high hopes for.

She possessed a refreshing, boyish straightforwardness that Lin Jianlu deeply admired!

"I'm here for an audition! A Taiwanese production crew is casting, so I came to try my luck!"

"Oh..."

Before he could say anything further, a crew member in the hallway must have recognized Lin Jianlu and gone inside to report the news. Right at that moment, a hearty voice rang out, "Ah-Lu, haha!"

Lin Jianlu turned around and saw Chou Ling-kang walking toward them.

Both of them smiled, opened their arms wide, and gave each other a massive bear hug.

"You're getting more and more handsome, while I'm getting fatter and fatter! Damn it!"

"And I'm getting more and more famous!"

"Hahahaha! You rascal! Come, come, come, let's have some tea first, we'll drink until we drop tonight!"