Chapter 12 Let me think carefully about how to coax you.

Yes, knowing there might be a pitfall in the contract, Xia Mian secretly recorded the conversation on her phone while waiting for Xiao Zhao to adjust it.

It's always better to be prepared.

In truth, he hoped deep down he would never need it.

The following morning, Qian Hui sent the joining time, location, contact person, and the publicity schedule for "Infinite Escape" via WeChat.

The message followed by: "I don't have time to take you; the production team will contact you later to discuss transportation arrangements."

Did the production team contact him directly?

Didn't the original owner have an assistant?

That's right, someone like the original owner, who's so sticky and difficult to work with, doesn't deserve an assistant.

Consider it just an experience of life.

He'd love to see what it's like to debut as an artist.

Xia Mian recalled his trainee days, and realized he might indeed have had talent. In the company's monthly and annual exams, he consistently ranked at the top: never falling out of the top two in vocals, and never out of the top three in dance. He also won first place in the appearance award for two consecutive years.

Back then, whenever there were polls related to trainees, he would consistently win by a large margin, topping the lists for "Most Anticipated Trainee" and "Strongest Trainee"...

The program's contact person arrived faster than expected; before Xia Mian could even finish recalling what had happened, the other party had already sent a friend request.

Not wanting to deal with Qian Hui anyway, Xia Mian clicked "accept," and the other party replied instantly: [Hi Teacher Xia, I'm Ranran, the artist coordinator for "Infinite Escape." Which city are you in? Would you like to come by plane or high-speed train?]

summer: [I live in Beijing, I fly there]

Ranran: [Okay, Teacher Xia, the production team requires us to be on set on Wednesday. Would you like to come Wednesday morning or a little earlier? I'll book your ticket. The company has arranged business class for you.]

summer: [Business class?]

Xia Mian didn't quite understand why they didn't buy him a first-class ticket.

Ranran seemed a little embarrassed, and replied a few minutes later: "[Yes, Teacher Xia, I just checked again, and it is indeed business class that I have assigned you.]"

This girl is probably new here and afraid of offending people. After sending this message, she added two crying emojis at the end.

Xia Mian had finally experienced the treatment of a nobody, so of course he wouldn't make things difficult for the young lady. He simply said, "It's okay, I'll upgrade myself."

Ranran: [Okay, Teacher Xia, please send me the tickets after you buy them. The camera crew and I will be on the same train as you. The recording and interviews will start as soon as we set off.]

Summer Sleep is always generous: [Why buy them separately? Send me your names and ID numbers.]

Ranran quickly declined, pulling and tugging at Xia Mian until she got annoyed and finally sent a voice message: "Hurry up, don't disturb my afternoon nap."

The boy's voice was clear and bright, with a hint of impatience, and quite pleasant to listen to.

Ahhhhh, such a cute little puppy! Ahhhhhh!

Ranran just graduated this year and is a little older than Xia Mian. How could she resist her younger brother's pleading? Clutching her pounding heart, she quickly sent over the ID numbers of several staff members.

After getting her plane ticket sorted and chatting with Ranran for a bit, Xia Mian remembered something.

"Infinite Escape" is broadcast live throughout, which means that the actors must stay at the filming location until the end of each instance and cannot leave the set.

However, he and Zhou Pingchuan only verbally agreed to the marriage. They hadn't discussed when to send the betrothal letter, when to exchange gifts, whether to consult a fortune teller to calculate the date for the marriage certificate, the hotel for the ceremony, the wedding dress, the date, and so on.

The rest is easy to discuss, but the most important thing is to have a betrothal letter. Only then can their marriage be considered to have made real progress, and they can finally relax a little.

However, as the more powerful party, these steps should have been initiated by the Zhou family. His insistence on pushing them would seem somewhat beneath him.

If we don't urge them, we're afraid the Zhou family will delay.

Xia Mian thought for a moment and dialed the phone number Zhou Pingchuan had given her the day before yesterday.

The call was slow, and it wasn't until it was almost automatically disconnected that someone finally spoke: "Hello, I'm Jay Chou's assistant."

Zhou Pingchuan gave him his assistant's phone number, which was damn businesslike to the extreme!

"Tell Zhou Pingchuan that Xia Mian wants to see him," Xia Mian said irritably.

"Mr. Xia, is this?" A mouse click sound came from the other end of the line. "Sorry, I didn't see your appointment."

"I didn't make an appointment, just tell him."

The boy's tone was so matter-of-fact that the assistant hesitated for a moment, but then actually went to find Zhou Pingchuan.

A moment later, Xia Mian received a resentful reply from her assistant: "Mr. Jay Chou is very busy right now and it's inconvenient for him to answer the phone."

After saying that, he hung up the phone.

The phone is hung up!

Before, he never needed to call people; everyone was always fawning over him. But Zhou Pingchuan wouldn't even talk to him on the phone. It was truly eye-opening.

Xia Mian angrily silenced her phone, hailed a taxi, and drove straight to the shopping district.

He went to a cosmetic clinic for a skincare treatment, then went for a short stroll and bought two sets of loungewear, two accessories, and a face mask. His bank card balance was -100,000 before he finally returned home satisfied.

Upon entering the room, he glanced at the call log and realized that a certain Mr. Zhou had never contacted him.

That's impressive.

After sorting his clothes, he went to the home gym and worked out for a while. Boys should be a little thinner so they don't look greasy.

He was all sweaty from exercising and ready to shower and go to bed. He went into the shower and had just put shampoo on his head when his phone suddenly started vibrating wildly.

With foam on his face, he was afraid of getting it in his eyes, so he didn't open his eyes and answered the call by feel.

"Did you contact me during the day?" the person on the other end of the phone said.

When her eyes are closed, her other senses are heightened, especially her hearing. The man's voice was low and magnetic, brushing against her ear, and Xia Mian's Adam's apple bobbed inexplicably.

Realizing who this was, his tone immediately became sarcastic: "I looked, but couldn't find him. I thought you had to have a project to be worthy of exchanging a word with Jay Chou."

"I inspect the area during the day."

"Well, you've had a busy day, so get some rest. I won't take up any more of Jay Chou's time. *snap*"

Hearing the busy tone on the phone, Zhou Pingchuan didn't react for a moment.

Xia Mian actually hung up on him?

A rather novel experience.

But perhaps because the boy's attitude was firm but his tone was like he was whining, Zhou Pingchuan wasn't angry. Instead, he found it quite amusing.

When people are around him, they are always extremely respectful, not saying anything they shouldn't say or doing anything they shouldn't do, for fear of making a single wrong move. As a result, his life is often bland and uninteresting.

Now that this willful little kid has suddenly appeared, it's nice to have him act up and throw tantrums every day, like a little pet to spice up life.

Zhou Pingchuan smiled and dialed back.

Xia Mian isn't stupid; if she hangs up again, she'll be incredibly ungrateful.

He counted to five, answered the call, and said in a affected tone, "Mr. Jay Chou has some business to discuss with me."

"No business, so I apologize."

"But I didn't hear any sincerity in your words."

What constitutes sincerity?

Xia Mian pursed her lips: "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou, I don't do unprofitable business. I won't tell you how to coax myself."

Xia Mian didn't think too much and directly used the word "coax".

Zhou Pingchuan raised his left eyebrow and remained silent for a long time.

After a long time, Xia Mian thought Zhou Pingchuan had lost contact, when a deep, magnetic male voice finally spoke:

"Okay, then I'll think carefully about how to coax you."