Chapter 316: He Thinks Of You As A Man
“Yes, I heard what you said,” Li Changqing replied flatly. “I’m sure you’re aware of this, but I’m just a lowly manager in Yuelun Entertainment, not the director for Man vs. Wild. I can’t get you on the show. It isn’t up to me.”
Ding Ming almost exploded when he heard that, but he stopped himself in the nick of time.
He switched tactics and used a pitiful, pleading tone instead. “Uncle Li, sorry, I was so anxious that I got ahead of myself. I’ve been in a few shows so far, but all my roles have been tiny parts. Can’t you arrange bigger roles with more screen time for me?”
“I did. You refused to accept them,” Li Changqing said bluntly. “Please Close Your Eyes had amazing ratings, and it was also very well reviewed by both the critics and the general audience. Everyone who participated in that show is now doing really well in the industry.”
“But I wasn’t…”
Ding Ming felt his temper flare up at the mention of Please Close Your Eyes and all the lost opportunities the show represented. It was a sore spot for him; if he had acted in that show, he could have been acting in lead roles by now. But he had not, and now he was practically begging for scraps from the agency. How was he supposed to achieve fame and popularity if he did not have the publicity and exposure that came with respectable acting roles?
He looked at Li Changqing again, and froze when he saw the sneer on the manager’s face.
“Refresh my memory please—what were you filming at the time?”
“I…” Ding Ming faltered. The answer was just too embarrassing for him.
He had joined a different project to play a eunuch. He had essentially given up a good opportunity for a eunuch, of all things. He had thought the historical drama would be a hit, but it had turned out to be a flop of epic proportions.
Ding Ming walked out of Li Changqing’s office, drenched in cold sweat. He knew he was in trouble. Li Changqing was no longer as friendly with him as he used to be, and if he failed to jumpstart his career as an actor in the near future, well, the agency was almost guaranteed to dump him. Li Changqing’s unenthusiastic attitude would be the least of his problems then.
He had to find a solution.
As he mulled over his problem, he saw Yi Ling leaning against a wall, playing with her phone.
He was suddenly hit with a strange, inexplicable feeling. Something told him that he had to get closer to her—yes, all he had to do was get close to her, and he would succeed in getting what he wanted.
Yi Ling’s connections and Yan Huan’s current popularity would be more than enough to make a star out of him.
Li Changqing had been unwilling to help him. Well, he would do it himself, then. He refused to believe that he would be stuck as a background actor forever.
Ding Ming began to walk toward Yi Ling. The closer he got to her, the more certain he was that his intuition was correct.
Closer, closer…
One step, two steps… three steps.
Almost there. Any second now.
But just as he was about to take another step, he heard Yan Huan’s voice.
“Yi Ling, what are you doing?”
Yi Ling looked up, stuffed her phone into her bag, and hurried over to Yan Huan. She did not even notice that Ding Ming had been standing only a step away from her.
Ding Ming froze in place, his foot arrested in mid-air as he stared stupidly at the two women walking away.
Suddenly, Yan Huan turned and looked at him. Her face was devoid of expression, but her deep, dark eyes pierced his heart like a sword.
Ding Ming could not stop himself from staggering backwards. A part of his heart seemed to have been sliced away. He had lost something—was it an opportunity? The opportunity to make it big? Or was it something else? He did not know…
The only thing he was certain of was the horrible sinking feeling in his stomach and the frustration welling in his heart. He wanted to scream…
“Yi Ling, I just saw Ding Ming,” Yan Huan said nonchalantly.
“Huh? Ding Ming? Who’s that?” Yi Ling looked at Yan Huan, puzzled. She genuinely could not recall who Ding Ming was—there were just too many things for her to keep track of every day.
“He’s that male artist you used to manage,” Yan Huan reminded Yi Ling.
“Oh, him?” Yi Ling finally remembered: he was the effeminate pansy she had been forced to manage for a while. She was glad she had kicked him off the team; it would have been absolutely disgusting to have to see his face every day.
“Well, what about Ding Ming?” Yi Ling got out a bag of salted dried plums from her bag and began sucking on them. The plums were a gift from Lei Qingyi; he had told her that since she was always hungry all the time, she should suck on a plum whenever she was bored to stave off her hunger pangs.
Yi Ling had been pleasantly surprised to discover that Lei Qingyi’s advice actually worked.
Right now, Ding Ming was so inconsequential to Yi Ling she would gladly choose any of the plums in her hand above him.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Yan Huan continued walking. “I accidentally saw him holding hands with another man, that’s all.”
Yi Ling’s jaw dropped. She accidentally swallowed the plum in her mouth.
“Eww, Huanhuan! Did you have to tell me that?”
Yan Huan turned to look at Yi Ling. Her eyes moved downwards to Yi Ling’s chest. It was flat as a grassland, with no hills to be seen.
“What are you staring at? Pervert!”
Yi Ling hastily covered her chest.
Yan Huan looked away. “I wasn’t looking at anything.”
Yi Ling breathed a sigh of relief. When she uncovered her chest, however, she heard Yan Huan say:
“Yiyi, a thought just occurred to me. You know how Ding Ming kept talking about your flat chest? Well, maybe it’s because he thinks of you as a man. I mean, he likes men, right?” Yan Huan lied without missing a beat. None of what she had said was remotely true, but she did not hesitate at the least to drag Ding Ming’s name through the mud. In fact, she said it so matter-of-factly it sounded like the honest truth.
Yes, she was telling the truth. Even if it was a lie, she would find a way to twist it into the truth.
“Ugh, he’s so disgusting!” Yi Ling gritted her teeth. She felt like puking. What a repulsive man!
For the rest of the day, Ding Ming tried his best to “bump into” Yi Ling, but Yan Huan thwarted his attempts every time. It was difficult not to run into him while they were in the company building, so Yan Huan knew that she had to take extreme measures to let Yi Ling know that some men were complete trash and had to be avoided at all costs.
She had to teach Yi Ling to cherish her own life, and be sure to stay away from scumbags.
Scumbags such as Ding Ming and Lu Qin.
Yan Huan spent the day shooting a commercial. It went well enough; there was a slight hitch halfway through the shoot, but the problem was resolved by the time they wrapped up.
When it was time to leave, she got into Yi Ling’s car. Yi Ling had just started the engine when she spotted Ding Ming—that pesky fly—approaching them.
“That damned pansy!” Yi Ling spat out. “Why is he always prancing about in front of us? If he has the time to do that he should grab whatever acting role he can get and work on his career. Ugh, I feel sick already!”
She floored the gas pedal. The car zoomed off, leaving Ding Ming in a cloud of dust and exhaust smoke.