Chapter 156: Third Sister Teaches Her Son

It has to be said that the best channels for communication among Chinese people are the dinner table and the card table—after such a card game, Li Sishi and Rong Juezhang, this "older cousin," became much closer.

And because of that earth-shattering Nine Linked Rings hand, Rong Juezhang was so obsessed with it that he would call her relentlessly every now and then to urge her to come over and play mahjong, acting like a little devil who wanted to get back up from where he fell down...

Li Sishi hasn't had many gigs lately, and Lu Yiting knows she's not short of money, so she hasn't given her many unnecessary commercial performances. Apart from necessary album promotions and film and television promotions, she's been willing to give her a short break to rest.

After all, Li Sishi will be traveling around promoting the movie in a few days. While she can still stay in Hong Kong and has just finished her driving test, it's good to let her have a break. Of course, not just anyone can join Rong Juezhang's mahjong games. If Li Sishi can join, and if there are any resources or news suitable for her as a newcomer, Rong Juezhang and his seniors will likely think of her first.

Especially with the recent rumors that Rong Juezhang has been in private contact with Rolling Stone Records and may be returning to the music scene after many years, and he is a typical example of someone who is successful in both the music and film industries, it would undoubtedly be more beneficial than harmful for Li Sishi to get closer to this cousin.

Although it looks good to see Li Sishi working with young and handsome actors like Ling Chen, Luo Xuan, and Cheng Erjian, for an agent who is both a looks-obsessed and career-driven person, the more opportunities Li Sishi has to work with, the better, especially with older, more charismatic and bankable male stars.

Most importantly, although Rong Juezhang himself isn't very lucky with awards, he seems to have a knack for bringing good fortune to his wives. Actresses who work with him tend to win awards easily, and he even helped Yan Yingyi, with whom he recently collaborated, achieve a double win, taking home the Golden Film Award for Best Actress for the second time... As a Hong Kong resident who is somewhat superstitious, if it weren't for the scarcity of suitable scripts, Lu Yiting would almost certainly want to find an opportunity for these cousins, who are famous for their good looks, to collaborate.

The top of the Ten Most Beautiful Women and the legendary Miss Hong Kong – no matter the subject matter, it sounds quite attractive to the audience!

Moreover, Rong Juezhang is fond of mentoring newcomers. As long as you talk to him properly, it's not impossible for someone of his caliber to play a supporting role. Compared to the other actors who absolutely need the male lead's position, although this is undoubtedly influenced by their strong box office appeal, in Lu Yiting's opinion, it would be a bit of a "fault" for her beautiful and talented darling MayMay to play a decorative female lead with little screen time.

Occasionally, one or two stable tickets will be available.

If a female lead with decent acting skills keeps playing a decorative role in male-centric dramas, she'll find it hard to shake off the "decorative vase" label, no matter how good her acting is.

They'd rather have nothing than something bad; they're not short of good scripts, and they're backed by TBL, Hong Kong's largest publicity platform. They're not worried about exposure if they don't have roles. Li Sishi's previous films have all been quite successful. If her upcoming film, *Mermaid Romance*, performs as expected, then Li Sishi will have temporarily established herself in the commercial film industry.

You could try taking on a script with higher artistic merit.

However, at present, the focus is still on both the music and film industries: After a month of development, Li Sishi's first solo album was sold out on the first day, and then several paperback and deluxe editions were reprinted. The original first edition was already being resold by scalpers for as much as 500 yuan, which can be described as another carnival for scalpers.

Although this was a somewhat disruptive market phenomenon, it was precisely because of the scalpers' hype surrounding the special edition that the sales of the subsequent paperback and deluxe editions surged, leading to a repeat of the scene in karaoke this year where "One, Two, Three, Each with Their Own Dreams" dominated the screens...

Now, in the streets and alleys of the port city, men and women are bombarded with music and the songs are of really high quality. Anyone who doesn't have a language barrier can sing a few lines of "If I Were a Myth". As a result, Lu Yiting is all smiles every day when she sees the reported data: just based on this momentum, Li Sishi is bound to win some awards at major music award ceremonies this year.

Moreover, the songs on the album haven't fully reached their full potential yet. After the official release of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Mermaid's Tale," the theme songs "Love Talk Myth" and "May This World Be Like a Fairy Tale" will be released, and the widespread coverage of the film soundtracks will create a new sales peak for this album!

This approach of using film and television to promote products has already been proven to be very effective by many crossover artists who have excelled in acting and then singing. Lu Yiting's only concern now is how much revenue "The Romance of the Heroes" and "The Mermaid's Tale" will bring to this album.

If she can reach five platinum, six platinum or above, she will have the leverage to have a proper "discussion" with TBL's music management department to help Li Sishi win this year's "Most Popular Female Singer" award.

Although the highest award in the Jade Solid Gold Awards is the Gold Song Award, given Li Sishi's experience and the current gap between the upper limits of female and male artists' achievements, it would still be quite difficult for her to snatch the Gold Song Award from male singers.

Don't you see, in order to balance Shang Hanyou, Hou Beihua and

These three superstars, who fiercely competed for awards at the ceremony in the early hours of the morning, have even created a "Most Popular Male Singer in the Asia-Pacific Region" award as a consolation prize in recent years.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the "Most Popular Male Singer in the Asia-Pacific Region" award seems to be the most prestigious and prestigious award in the male singer category. In reality, it's just a consolation prize after the "Most Popular Male Singer" and "Golden Melody Award" have already been taken by others. To put it simply, there wasn't enough pork to go around, so they cut an extra piece to balance things out and prevent any more scandals from breaking off relations over the award.

While Lu Yiting was busy with her own affairs, Rong Juezhang's home was also bustling with activity.

"Come on, stationmaster!" Seeing You Jiating's leisurely demeanor, Rong Juezhang, who was dealt a terrible hand, was extremely anxious.

Tonight, Sister Yuan is busy taking care of her daughter and can't come over, so Rong Juezhang, oblivious to the danger, invited You Jiating, who is even better at cards, to join the game. He even thought he could sow discord between the cheating You Jiating and the card-playing Li Sishi, who is terrible at cards...

Unfortunately, what he didn't expect was that You Jiating and Li Sishi had already collaborated on various charity events many times before, and not only did they have a good relationship, but Li Sishi's nickname "MayMay" was even first given to her by You Jiating—so, the two good friends who were united in their efforts to help others, along with their mischievous friend Pei Yansang, gave Rong Juezhang, who lacked maternal love since childhood, a good taste of what it meant to be a "three mothers teaching a son" situation tonight...

"Just play, just play, why are you rushing me? Are you in such a hurry to give me money?" As an old friend who has known each other for many years, You Jiating was naturally not one to be trifled with. She retorted while playing her cards.

"How dare you! Are you still holding a grudge against me for dumping you? Is that why you've been targeting me tonight?" Old friends teasing each other inevitably involves some rambling, and Rong Juezhang casually brought up the plot of their previous collaboration, the movie "Suddenly a Man, Suddenly a Woman," where they played a couple before breaking up, and started teasing them with his chatter.

"That's right, I'm targeting you, you loser!" Pei Yansang, who played a pitiful singer abandoned by him in another movie, "Rouge Box," joined in the laughter upon seeing this scene. "You had a good time being a coward in 'Rouge Box,' didn't you? Watch me make you pay, whether you're alive or a ghost!"

"You're not even that clever as a person, so you're probably not that effective as a ghost either..." Rong Juezhang grinned without any regard for his good looks, and then threw out another 50,000.

"Fifty thousand." Li Sishi also had a ten thousand tile to discard, and seeing him discard one, she immediately followed suit.

"Are you kidding me? If it weren't for eating my food..."

"It was Zhang who killed me, Ah May, you really don't care about sibling ties at all!" Rong Juezhang still felt a pang of pain in his heart when he thought of the bloodshed caused by a 50,000 yuan bill.

"Can't you, as the older brother, give in to your younger sister?" Now that they were more familiar with each other, Li Sishi naturally became less polite and immediately replied with a smile.

“That’s right, a ‘talent’ like you who doesn’t want to get married, to put it nicely, is a single aristocrat; to put it bluntly, you’re a single widow. It’s rare to have such a beautiful and lovely cousin, don’t you know how to give her a break!” Pei Yansang, who has always longed for a warm family, had a long-standing conflict with Rong Juezhang over their ideas. Seizing the opportunity, she laughed and said, “There aren’t many ‘relatives’ who can get along with you. You don’t have a wife, so you should take good care of your sister.”

"What's the use of having a wife? I married both of you in the play, and now you're still ganging up on me, aren't you?" Rong Juezhang replied irritably, touching the few chips he had left in his drawer while playing cards, having lost badly yet once again.

"Hey, hey, I'm scared of you. All you talk about is how to win big. Here, take it, you chicken-headed fool!" Pei Yansang, having roughly estimated the cards Rong Juezhang wanted and seeing how pitifully few chips were in his drawer, loosened his grip slightly as he agreed.

Seeing that the mahjong tile Pei Yansang casually tossed out was the "North Wind" he wanted, Rong Juezhang was overjoyed, and his ramblings became even more incoherent: "Thank you, my dear wife, for bestowing upon me this winning hand—but this time, your husband's winning hand isn't just a small chicken hand..."

Little Four Joys!

Having played cards for so long, the only big win he's ever had, aside from the small three dragons that Li Sishi let him win, is the small four winds that Pei Yansang let him win this time!

Just as Rong Juezhang was about to happily push his tiles to win, a slender, jade-like hand, appearing clear and white under the incandescent light, suddenly gently stopped him: "Wait, I'm going to intercept your move—"

"You can even intercept my Four Winds card..." Rong Juezhang turned his head angrily, but when he saw the card that Li Sishi pushed down, he immediately fell silent.

“Thirteen Orphans, single North, here you go.” Li Sishi took the North Wind from the stunned Rong Juezhang’s hand, then turned to Pei Yansang with a sweet smile, “I’m sorry, Sister Pei.”

"Aaaaaah, are you poisonous?! Last time you tricked someone into choosing the Nine-Piece Chain, and this time you made me choose the Peerless Hero! I don't care, I'm keeping you! You're my 'husband' in the play, after all!" Reluctant to scold Li Sishi, who was smiling sweetly at her, Pei Yansang turned and rushed back...

While stunned, Rong Juezhang opened fire with all his might.

"Thirteen Orphans" is also known as "Peerless Hero". Like "Nine Sons in a Row" that Li Sishi won before, it is a super big hand with an explosive number of points. Pei Yansang, who is good at shirking his debts, naturally wanted to find someone to help him take the blame.

Rong Juezhang, who had intended to balance the accounts but ended up losing all his chips again and incurring a second debt, reluctantly paid Pei Yansang's money. Then, while shuffling and playing cards, he glanced to the side and saw Li Sishi's drawer overflowing with so much stuff that it required force to push it back in...

The contrast was too cruel; seeing his drawer completely empty, he couldn't help but recall that nightmare of the nine-linked rings...

As if possessed, he grabbed Li Sishi's other hand that was helping to shuffle the cards and shouted indignantly, "I'll marry you sooner or later! Then I'll take a share of your fortune!"

“My daddy is now the most famous divorce lawyer in Hong Kong. Are you sure you want to marry me and then divide my assets with me?” Li Sishi withdrew the hand that was pushing the drawer with a half-smile, and gently patted the back of his hand as a reminder.

That mocking gaze made it clear without a doubt that if he were to actually "marry" Li Sishi for such a paltry sum, then when it came time to divide the assets in a divorce, which side would have the better deal...

Seeing Rong Juezhang's renewed astonishment, You Jiating, who had been sipping tea and watching the spectacle unfold, finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.