Volume 5: The Age of Storms Chapter 0625 Internal Boutique
After Nan Yi and Ruan Mei had some free time to sit down and eat, Nan Yi picked up the phone and called Wang Li's office.
"Side position?"
Nan Yi listened to Wang Li's heavy breathing and frowned slightly, "I'll give you 20 minutes to clean up the battlefield. I'll be going upstairs in a while."
"Ah... well, I know."
Nan Yi hung up the phone and said to Ruan Mei, "I just saw some stinky tofu for sale outside. Do you want to try some?"
"Okay, I like eating stinky tofu." Ruan Mei said, touching her belly.
"Walk."
Nan Yi and Ruan Mei followed the smell to a stall selling stinky tofu, and saw neatly arranged green stinky tofu on the wire mesh above the frying pan.
Ruan Mei asked curiously, "Hey, why is stinky tofu green?"
"Boss, you are from Taiwan, right?" Nan Yi replied, then turned to ask the vendor, "Boss, are you from Taiwan?"
"Yes, I came from Taoyuan. Try it. It's free if it's not smelly."
While the stall owner was replying to Nan Yi, he was turning the stinky tofu in the oil pan with two bamboo sticks.
"Okay, let's try a piece first." Nan Yi took two pieces of yellow food paper from the stall, put a piece of stinky tofu on it with a bamboo stick, and turned to ask Ruan Mei, "Sweet sauce or spicy sauce?"
"Both. A little more."
"Okay."
Nan Yi picked up a spoon from the sweet noodle sauce jar, first poked a hole in the stinky tofu, then scooped some sweet noodle sauce into the hole, and then did the same with the hot sauce.
"for you."
Nan Yi handed the stinky tofu to Ruan Mei.
"No." Ruan Mei twisted her body and said coquettishly, "Feed me."
Nan Yi smiled gently, picked up the stinky tofu, and brought it to Ruan Mei's mouth. Ruan Mei blew on the stinky tofu, then took a bite gently, chewed it twice, and immediately opened her mouth and fanned her mouth with her hand, "It's so spicy, so spicy."
"Silly boy, who told you to eat so hastily?" Nan Yi took a bite of the stinky tofu and said, "It tastes okay. How many pieces do you want to eat?"
"Four..." Ruan Mei said, "Well, no, five."
"So is it four or five?"
"Five dollars." Ruan Mei bit her lip and said.
"good."
Nan Yi asked the stall owner to fry seven more pieces, spread sauce on them, and put them in a yellow paper bag.
"Leave."
"Well, give it to me. I'll eat while I walk."
Ruan Mei grabbed the yellow paper bag from Nan Yi, picked out a piece of stinky tofu and started eating, nodding as she ate.
After walking a few steps, Ruan Mei turned back and said to Nan Yi: "Please put your arm around my shoulders. My classmates' boyfriends all put their arms around their shoulders."
"OK."
Nan Yi took two steps forward and put his arm around Ruan Mei's shoulders. Ruan Mei was 165 cm tall, and Nan Yi's arm was just the right size for her. The posture wasn't awkward at all.
"Do you want to eat it?" Ruan Mei asked, holding up the bamboo stick.
"You eat first, and then give it to me after you finish."
"No, take a bite first."
Nan Yi couldn't persuade Ruan Mei, so he could only bite off half of the stinky tofu, and Ruan Mei stuffed the remaining half into her own mouth.
The two of them ate and chatted as they slowly walked towards an office building...
Knocking on the door of Wang Li's office, Nan Yi twitched his nose slightly, and a faint odor entered his nose. Frowning, Nan Yi said to Wang Li, "Meeting room."
Wang Li smiled awkwardly, stood up from the big chair, and followed Nan Yi and the other person to the conference room.
The three of them sat down in the conference room, and Nan Yi pointed at Ruan Mei and said, "Ruan Mei, I am your woman. If there is a suitable play for her, let her take part. Let's do it step by step. Let her play a small role first. There are two requirements: one, no flirting, and two, no kissing scenes, not even hugging. My bottom line is holding hands. If you dare to cross the line, I will chop you off."
As soon as Nan Yi finished speaking, Wang Yan immediately showed a bitter face, "Nan Sheng, this is too difficult. Actresses either sell their breasts or their bodies. If they can't do anything, how can we make them famous?"
"I believe you can do it." Nan Yi said.
Wang Ming looked at Ruan Mei from head to toe, pondered for a while, and said, "She is very pure and suitable for youth films."
"You decide what to shoot, just don't cross the line. An actor should act like an actor, and should act in martial arts scenes and clown roles. Let's put it this way, just treat her as a contracted actor of Donglaiwu, one of our own, so you should naturally take care of her in terms of the role. But when filming, there is no need to take any special care of her, she should act the same as the others."
Wang Yan breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself, "Not bad, not bad. This guy is not difficult to serve."
Nan Yi looked at Wang Yan's face and said, "Don't think too much. It's very simple. Ruan Mei is my woman. She wants to be an actress, so I created an opportunity for her to get started. That's all. For the rest, you can still do what you wanted before."
"Okay." Wang Li nodded.
"Tomorrow two people will be here to take up duties. One is Ah Mei's manager, and the other is her assistant. In fact, both of them are her bodyguards."
"clear."
"Okay, let's go first. I see you don't have time to eat with me today. Be careful. Your face is yellow. Eat some sea cucumbers to replenish your body at night. Two will be enough. Eating too much will cause your feet to stink."
After Nan Yi finished speaking, he took Ruan Mei and left Donglaiwu.
"Hey, was that Director Wang Ming just now?" Ruan Mei asked as soon as she walked out of the gate of Donglaiwu.
"Well, is he famous?"
"Of course, he's very famous. You just spoke to him like that. Is Donglaiwu also your business?"
Nan Yi scratched Ruan Mei's nose and said, "You are smart. Just keep it to yourself and don't tell anyone else. I can arrange a movie for you, but not a record. Donglaiwu doesn't have any business in this area and doesn't plan to get involved. I will find a vocal teacher for you first, and you can learn from him first."
"who?"
"Dai Encong, he's very skilled and is recruiting students. All you have to do is pay the tuition."
"Xiao Xu's master?"
"Xiao Xu... yes, that's him."
Nan Yi thought for a moment and realized that the Xiao Xu that Ruan Mei mentioned was Mei Gu. At that time, the record company that Mei Gu worked for gave her a persona as the "second Xu Xiaofeng", and her fans called her Xiao Xu Xiaofeng.
"Then isn't Xiao Xu my senior sister?"
"Okay, no need to make friends with anyone. I have someone else to visit. Do you want to come with me or should I send you home first?"
"Can I go with you?" Ruan Mei asked cautiously.
"Of course, the person I want to visit is also related to the film industry. I'll introduce him to you."
The person Nan Yi was talking about was Pan Disheng. His Disheng Company was also in Central, less than ten minutes’ walk away. Nan Yi did not choose to take a car, but instead took a slow walk with Ruan Mei.
At that time, there were still some undeveloped and under-developed vacant land in Central. Nan Yi and his companion passed by several construction sites. The most famous one was the construction site of the Bank of China Building. The planning and design began in 1982, and the construction started in April this year. It would take at least three or four years to complete.
Passing by the construction site of the Bank of China Building, Nan Yi and his companion walked through Chater Garden and arrived at Queen's Statue Square.
"The place we are going to is the seventh floor. There is no rush to go up. I will take you to the first to fifth floors first. You look at the clothes and I will look at the other things." Nan Yi said, pointing at the Prince's Building.
"Okay." Ruan Mei responded happily.
As the two approached Prince's Building, a bronze statue of Sir Thomas Jefferson came into view. The statue was surrounded by rows of pointed triangular stones. These stones did not exist in the early days. It was said that this was because the early statue absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon after it was erected. At nine o'clock in the evening, the statue would come down and scare people. Even the police were afraid, and the patrolling military uniforms would take a detour.
Later, after being guided by a master, these sharp triangles appeared.
It is nonsense to say that the bronze statue will come down. It is possible that it is due to feng shui considerations. By then, there will be all kinds of strange-looking buildings in Central, swords and cannons will not be uncommon.
Nan Yi was thinking that if the Nan family wanted to build their own building here in the future, in order to prevent the relationship between men and women inside from being too chaotic, should they simply design the building's exterior into the shape of a loincloth?
As they were lost in thought, Nan Yi and Ruan Mei walked into the Prince's Building.
As soon as she entered the building, Ruan Mei's eyes were immediately dazzled by the dazzling array of clothes. Her gaze was drawn away by the clothes, but the soles of her feet were firmly glued to the spot.
Nan Yi took out his wallet, pulled out a card, and fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a stack of very "large" banknotes, selecting ten from them, and placed both the card and banknotes in Ruan Mei's palm, "Go ahead, buy whatever you like, and if you don't have enough money, just swipe the card, there's no password."
Ruan Mei looked at her hands, then at Nan Yi's face, and hesitated for a while. Encouraged by Nan Yi's eyes, she clenched her hands, stood on tiptoe and kissed Nan Yi on the cheek, then ran briskly towards a piece of clothing.
"Campus Belle, arrange two people to follow."
"yes."
After giving the instructions, Nan Yi took out a notebook and started walking through the shops.
Some would just peek inside through the window, while others would walk in and take a closer look. After visiting each store, Nan Yi would write something in his notebook.
Prince's Building was built in 1966. Since then, it has been a favorite shopping place for wealthy people in Hong Kong. There are five floors with more than 60 shops selling brand-name fashion, jewelry, diamonds, audio and electrical appliances. All kinds of luxury brands are available here.
Compared to the openness of Causeway Bay, this place seems a bit closed, with an invisible net isolating most people from the outside. People whose family background is not well-off simply feel embarrassed to come in.
After visiting five or six stores, Nan Yi did not see a piece of clothing whose price was lower than the monthly salary of the working class in Xiangkeng. There must not be many people who are willing to spend more than a month's salary to buy a piece of clothing.
By the time Nan Yi finished visiting all the shops from the first to the fifth floor, two hours had passed. Standing at the elevator entrance on the fifth floor, Nan Yi looked through what he had written.
In order to respect tradition, an "internal boutique" will be set up on the fourth floor of Asia, which will mainly sell relatively valuable and rare fine products, mainly women's products. Customers who can enter the store are at least qualified to be addressed as "Madam" by others.
"Campus Belle, ask where the person is."
