Chapter 49: A Script?
At that moment, a faint smelly scent drifted over. Two bowls of noodles were placed in front of them.
The waiter set the food down, then noticed Liu Zhi carefully peeling the sausage skin with full concentration. Because his hands were clumsy, he was already sweating from anxiety. The waiter glanced at Miao Lei, immediately understood the situation, and smiled knowingly.
Miao Lei quietly looked up at Liu Zhi, so absorbed that she almost lost herself in thought.
There was nothing especially handsome about his face. Honestly, he looked so ordinary that if you threw him into a crowd, nobody would notice him.
But unexpectedly, the heart inside him was incredibly thoughtful.
He even remembered such a tiny and unimportant habit of hers.
By the time Liu Zhi finished “undressing” the sausage, it looked almost like it had already been bitten apart. He was covered in sweat, acting a little silly as he stuffed the peeled sausage skin into his own mouth.
Yet just seeing that beautiful smile from her felt more delicious than any luxury food.
Everything felt too dreamy.
If Cheng Fei saw this scene, she would probably slap the table and shout, Pure! Innocent!
This kind of sweetness seemed like something that only existed in old school romances or in the generation of their parents decades ago.
And yet, it was truly happening between these two late-blooming young people.
…………………………
After working busily for half the day, lunchtime had long since passed.
Gao Ming rubbed his sore eyes while his growling stomach reminded him it was time to refill his energy.
He pushed lightly against the floor with his feet, smoothly sliding the chair backward. Turning sideways and bending down, he reached for the lunchbox in one smooth motion.
Time had passed. Not too long, but not exactly short either.
Yet during this period, he had already broken his habit of ordering takeout for lunch.
Humans really did adapt naturally over time.
Still, Cheng Fei’s cooking skills were genuinely good. At least during the past month, he had never once wanted to go eat outside because of dissatisfaction with the food.
Woman.
Right.
Wasn’t Cheng Fei now technically a real woman?
Just... a rather unusual kind of woman.
Carefully taking the heated lunchbox out of the microwave, Gao Ming prepared to eat.
But the bandages wrapped around his right hand reminded him of reality.
Using his dominant hand to hold a spoon was possible, if he was willing to endure the pain.
Using his left hand felt so awkward that he almost wanted to bury his face directly into the rice bowl and eat like that instead.
His mood instantly worsened by seventy or eighty percent, along with an irritation he could barely suppress.
Still, this whole mess was caused by his own carelessness.
Who else could he blame?
Knock knock!
Someone knocked twice on the office door to his right. Before Gao Ming could even answer, the person had already pushed the door open.
Looking across the entire studio, besides him, who else would dare do that?
“Hey, eating lunch this late?”
Gao Ming put down the spoon and leaned back in his chair with a blank expression.
If Ye Dong did not have something important to say, Gao Ming had already chosen him as the target for venting his frustration.
As best friends, there was naturally no need to hide anything. Ye Dong understood exactly why Gao Ming was annoyed lately.
If the injury had happened to himself, he could not guarantee he would stay calm either.
So he quickly dropped his playful attitude and handed over a USB drive about the size of a photo ID.
“According to Boss Gao’s instructions, the new version is finished.”
Gao Ming blinked once.
Out of habit, he almost reached with his right hand, then awkwardly pulled it back and used his left hand instead to plug the USB into the computer.
Ye Dong went over to sit on the sofa, looking like someone waiting for a final court verdict.
Gao Ming opened the folder, selected the video file, and clicked the mouse.
Then he crossed both hands under his chin.
At first glance, the pose looked exactly like some anime character, which only made Ye Dong feel even more nervous.
Thankfully, Gao Ming eventually nodded, meaning he approved.
But strangely enough, Ye Dong became even more uneasy.
“You really plan to use this as the background story for the new game?”
Gao Ming raised his eyes and asked back,
“Is there a problem?”
First there was the earlier pressure, and now Gao Ming was giving him a nearly deadly stare.
Ye Dong immediately shrank back nervously.
“I... forget it, it’s nothing...”
Gao Ming finally looked away and awkwardly used his left hand to scoop food with the spoon.
“If you have something to say, just say it. Stop stuttering. That’s not like you at all.”
“N-No... actually... it’s pretty good!”
“Really?”
“Really!”
“You’re not lying to me?”
“I wouldn’t dare lie to you!”
“If you lie, every exposed body part on you will shrink by five centimeters.”
“......”
That curse was way too cruel and vicious!
Ye Dong’s eyes nearly popped out from shock. Gao Ming could not help laughing out loud.
If he did not say it that way, Ye Dong would probably keep going around in circles. Gao Ming was not in the mood for that, so he chose the fastest way instead.
“Who told you not to speak honestly?”
Ye Dong awkwardly glanced at him and took a sip of tea to calm himself down.
“The virtual CG is already finished, so why do we still need to film a live-action version? I honestly can’t understand why you’re so focused on this... this kind of old-fashioned story.”
“Simple,” Gao Ming replied. “This is one of my dreams.”
……………………………
The summer heat had been driven away by the rain. The cool night feeling returned once again, but the rain also completely ruined business.
The whole day passed with barely any income.
Cheng Fei could not bear to look at the miserable earnings and closed the shop early to go home.
After returning home, she did not even have time to rest before rushing to make dinner for that “young master.”
Unexpectedly, he had already returned early.
He sat comfortably on the sofa, seriously watching something and so focused that he completely ignored the sound of her opening the door.
Curious, Cheng Fei walked over and leaned forward to look, almost scaring him.
After busying herself for a while, fragrant dishes were once again placed on the dining table in the living room.
At first, after seeing that story on Gao Ming’s screen earlier, Cheng Fei thought he had become bored enough to enter the writing world and was creating some kind of novel outline.
She did not expect the content to be so dramatic.
It mixed political power struggles with love and hatred, exactly the type of story young people liked nowadays.
The story took place in a fictional era inside a united dynasty called Liang, which had existed for more than three hundred years.
The dynasty had once been powerful, then later declined because of foolish rulers. Luckily, heaven had not abandoned them, and now an intelligent emperor had restarted another prosperous golden age.
The male lead was the old emperor’s second son.
Although born into the royal family, he had no interest in political schemes.
He only had two wishes in life.
First, to protect the Liang Dynasty with the weapon in his hand.
Second, to spend his life together with his childhood sweetheart, the female lead.
However, that dream was surprisingly difficult.
Behind the glorious golden age hid countless dangers, while the royal court itself was filled with endless storms.
The people stirring up the political conflict were the male lead’s older brother, the current crown prince, who was kind but also very calculating, and the third brother, who had suffered emotional trauma since childhood and wanted revenge, only to become corrupted by power.
On the surface, the kind eldest brother and the dark-hearted third brother fought for the throne, while the second brother wanted nothing to do with politics.
Unfortunately, fate still dragged him into the conflict anyway.
The truth was that the third prince deeply hated both brothers and the empress because his birth mother had died unexpectedly.
After growing up, he used every possible method to gather officials under his control. He even used people’s dark secrets to blackmail them into serving him.
His goal was simple. First eliminate the crown prince. Then destroy the second prince. Finally force the emperor from the throne and kill him.
He would stop at nothing.
In short, after repeatedly suffering the third prince’s schemes, the male lead eventually used his protagonist “main character power” to defeat the final boss.
A dynasty experiencing two golden ages...
Wasn’t this basically inspired by the Tang Dynasty?
And using officials’ dirty secrets to control them?
Was this some kind of detective drama from the Song Dynasty all over again?
Gao Ming normally did not even watch melodramatic TV dramas, so how could he randomly dream up something like this?
Speaking of dreams, especially strange dreams without clear logic, some people once suggested a theory.
Those dreams were actually the deepest memories from a previous life. Memories that were too powerful could never be completely erased. Instead, they became sealed away.
Over time, those memories slowly leaked out through the cracks of the seal.
Before, Cheng Fei would only laugh at theories like that and treat them as random nonsense from bored people online.
But now, after personally experiencing the supernatural event of her consciousness entering another body, she had started wavering a little.
Looking at Gao Ming, Cheng Fei frowned.
Could this dream... actually be memories from his previous life awakening?
Gao Ming was already somewhat annoyed.
First Ye Dong mocked him, and now Cheng Fei was criticizing him too.
It was not like he had written random nonsense without logic. This was a dream he had experienced repeatedly for several years.
He was simply telling the truth.
He just wanted to add some personal ideas into the game. As the developer, didn’t he at least have that much freedom?
“What’s the problem?”
“N-No... if I have to say it... it’s just a little... a little old-fashioned!”
Seeing several sparks of anger appearing between Gao Ming’s eyebrows, Cheng Fei immediately realized she had accidentally offended him.
What kind of person was Gao Ming?
Ever since childhood, he was exactly the type of “other people’s child” her parents constantly talked about. Teachers called him an “excellent student with both good grades and good character.”
Every school he attended was top-level.
Only a few years after graduation, he had already made his company extremely successful.
To describe it simply. Cheng Fei’s life was like a roller coaster, constantly shaking and struggling.
Gao Ming, meanwhile, was the type of person who seemed to have cheat codes enabled, riding a high-speed train straight toward the peak of life.
A life that smooth naturally turned him into a proud rooster.
Cheng Fei’s eyes spun around like an owl’s. Sitting up straight with a professional fake smile, she quickly corrected herself.
“Old stories are classics! The older something is, the more classic it becomes!”
Hearing that, Gao Ming stayed silent for a long moment. Then he suddenly laughed, startling Cheng Fei so badly that she almost jumped off the chair.
“Well said.”
He had almost denied it just now, and now suddenly it was “well said”?
This guy was definitely planning something bad. And as usual, Cheng Fei guessed correctly.
“Since you also think it’s not good enough, then go ahead and show us your abilities yourself.”
After speaking, Gao Ming crossed his arms and calmly looked at the stunned woman in front of him.
Cheng Fei instantly realized disaster had arrived.
He wanted her to write the script!
If it was just flattering people, she could handle that. But the tiny amount of literary skill inside her stomach was truly not enough.
Whenever final exams came around in school, language-related subjects were always where she failed the hardest.
“Can’t you maybe—”
Gao Ming immediately shook his head and coldly rejected her before she could finish.
During all the time she had known him, Cheng Fei had constantly held frustration inside herself.
Honestly speaking, it was perfectly reasonable to say she envied everything about Gao Ming.
Grinding her teeth, Cheng Fei thought…
Fine! You want to force a duck onto the stage? Then she would go up.
But if the duck fell from the stage afterward, nobody should blame her.
Maybe she would even drag down a bunch of colorful decorations along with her.
She did not care about getting dirty. The one who forced her up there was the one who would suffer in the end.