The first ray of morning sunlight shone through a thin slit in the heavy curtains onto Su Tao's eyes.
Her long eyelashes fluttered, and she stretched out an arm from the thin, soft, silky quilt, feeling a little cooler.
She turned over, and her nose and forehead bumped into a fleshy wall.
That woke her up completely.
Opening her eyes, all she saw was a white wall with pink floral prints. Su Tao rubbed her eyes and suddenly realized something was off.
Looking closely, the white wall was Xie Jin's chest, and the pink floral prints seemed to be strawberry prints.
Su Tao covered her eyes and silently turned her head. Xie Jin had been too wild last night, arousing her to the highest point and making her get a little carried away.
Today she felt a bit embarrassed about it.
"Hmm? Awake?"
Xie Jin's low, lazy voice vibrated from his chest. His long arms and legs climbed onto her, hugging her tightly like a koala bear.
Su Tao felt a little suffocated. She grabbed his hands and gently said, "You're squeezing too tight."
Xie Jin loosened his arms a little and kissed her hair, then continued sleeping.
Su Tao was the type of person who, once awake in the morning, could not fall back asleep. She just lay there quietly for ten minutes, but couldn't keep still any longer.
Though it was quite comfortable resting her head on his muscular arm, out of habit she wanted to get up and do something, even if it was just sitting by the bay window reading like she used to.
Because Su Tao slept restlessly, constantly moving around, she finally awakened a certain mysterious body part.
Xie Jin's voice drifted faintly from behind her ear, his breath caressing her earlobe: "If you keep writhing around, you'll have to take responsibility."
Su Tao's breath hitched, her body stiffening as she weakly said, "Then let me go. I was about to get up anyway."
"Sleep a little longer. I won't move."
Su Tao lay there silently, not daring to move an inch. She took advantage of the quiet moment to think about the work she had to do today.
Seemingly unable to fall back asleep, Xie Jin gradually became more alert, but still didn't release her. His fingers toyed with her hair strands as he slowly asked, "Little Taozi, why did you suddenly agree to make up with me?"
Su Tao, whose mind was full of work procedures, silently rolled her eyes. Her soft voice contained impatience: "You've asked this question eight times last night. How many more times do I need to answer?"
"No way, only seven times at most."
Su Tao helplessly twitched her lips. She turned to face him, gazing into his deep, dark eyes sunken from just waking up. "Since you've asked so many times, there must not be an answer you like. Okay, tell me what answer you want to hear, and I'll say it to make you happy."
Xie Jin shook his head. "I just want to hear your answer. Although you answered seven times last night, there were only three types: First, everything before was a misunderstanding. Second, my change made you happy. Third, you still love me."
Su Tao raised her brows. "So what? Aren't those three answers enough?"
"Not enough. You need to give at least thirty reasons."
Otherwise, he would always feel insecure, afraid she was just whimsical and would change her mind again after a few days.
Su Tao was speechless. "Are you sure you want me to forcibly come up with thirty reasons? Fine, fourth, it was all thanks to that scumbag who made me realize how good you are by comparison."
Xie Jin lightly tapped her forehead with his forefinger. Although his face was stern, his tone was indulgent: "If you don't want to say it, then don't. How can you compare me to that scumbag?"
Su Tao leaned forward to plant a kiss on his lips, sealing his mouth.
Xie Jin's eyes darkened as he tried to continue the kiss, but Su Tao evaded him with a faint smile and told him about today’s plans: “I still have to go to the film set today. If nothing unexpected happens these next few days, I’ll stay here.”
The corners of Xie Jin's lips quirked up, satisfied with her arrangements.
“Then I’ll go make breakfast now.” Su Tao really couldn’t keep lying there, or her whole body would feel awful.
But as soon as she struggled to sit up, Su Tao was pressed back onto the pillow by a pair of warm, big hands.
"Keep sleeping. I'll go make breakfast."
He was clearly still sleepy and extremely reluctant to leave Su Tao and the bed.
"You can keep sleeping if you're tired. I'll go make breakfast." Su Tao really wanted to get up.
Xie Jin righteously refused: "No, you've been making breakfast and dinner. What if you get sick of this life? I can't let you get sick of me. From now on, I'll be in charge of breakfast. Also, let's get married next month, okay?"
Su Tao: "..."
If she remembered correctly, it was the end of the month right now.
They wouldn't even be able to book a hotel for next month's wedding.
Why was he rushing the wedding so much?
As expected, a bad problem could be solved with an even worse problem.
Su Tao automatically ignored the topic of marriage and agreed to his previous suggestion. "Okay, you go make breakfast. I'll sleep a little longer."
After breakfast, Su Tao received a call from Tong Mingxuan.
He hadn't slept all night and discussed with his girlfriend, Qingqing, deciding to announce their relationship publicly.
Su Tao expressed her support over the phone and told him to hold off on posting to Weibo for now until she got everything arranged properly.
Su Tao drove to the film set and found the executive producer of Tong Mingxuan’s drama, Zheng Bai, the only female producer at Jiangshu Productions and very capable.
She wasn't too familiar with Zheng Bai privately but knew she was a great person. Su Tao found out through probing her Weibo and Moment that she really liked collecting lipsticks. After scouring through her social media, Su Tao finally figured out her preferences and had a friend buy her entire new limited edition set of her favorite brand as a gift.
Sure enough, when Zheng Bai saw the exquisite limited edition gift box, she was delighted and couldn't put it down.
Regarding this top agent that she'd only heard about but never met, she now looked at Su Tao with new eyes.
"People in the industry all say you can't make a friend Su Tao can't win over. Now I understand why they say that. Just last night I was asking my friend's friend about this limited edition set, yet you've delivered it to me today."
Su Tao smiled gently. "I'm glad you like it."
Zheng Bai worked on-site long-term and had a straightforward, casual personality. She cut right to the chase: "I know you've come to talk about Tong Mingxuan. I saw the news of him being photographed. I also heard he wants to announce his current girlfriend. You've really agreed? You really want to terminate his contract?"
Su Tao shook her head unhurriedly: "Is there any way to reduce the supporting male character's scenes and not hype up a CP between him and the female lead? Just make him a proper second male lead?"
Zheng Bai was startled for a moment, not expecting this to be Su Tao's intention.
She rolled her eyes in thought, then nodded, finding this idea increasingly feasible.
"The original second male lead in this drama didn't have that many scenes. It was President Wang who said to add scenes for Tong Mingxuan. In that case, since we've just started filming, we can use the first version of the script. The previous footage won't be wasted either."
This was exactly what Su Tao had in mind. She knew Zheng Bai had only changed the scenes under pressure from President Wang and definitely preferred the first script.
And adding scenes for Tong Mingxuan already made many people unhappy. Doing this on top of that would leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth.
That's why Su Tao used the gift to first smooth over the producer's anger so they could better discuss this matter.
It looked like studying Zheng Bai's preferences hadn't been in vain. Things were resolved more smoothly than she imagined.
"Oh, right, Su Tao." Zheng Bai took out another script and handed it to Su Tao. "This is the project I'm preparing next. It's my biggest priority in the second half of the year. I'm quite optimistic about Jiang Qi. He'd be perfect for my male lead. Take a look and tell me what you think."
Unexpectedly, there was a pleasant surprise.
Su Tao flipped open the script and got absorbed after reading just a few pages. Moreover, the story seemed increasingly familiar. She looked up at Zheng Bai: "Is this adapted from an online novel?"
Zheng Bai smiled and said, "That's right. I just obtained this IP. You've read it too?"
Su Tao nodded. She had read this novel during college under Zhe Xiarui's influence. Back then, all six girls in their dorm were obsessed with it.
Especially the male protagonist - an exceptionally charming character. The plot was also very good, both sweet and funny.
At the time, she thought whoever could perform even one-tenth of the male lead's appeal would surely captivate countless young girls.
Jiang Qi...was simply perfect.
Moreover, in Su Tao's judgment, this drama would surely explode as long as they faithfully adapted the original novel.
Zheng Bai said, "This drama has another guarantee. I've invited Director Chen Dongdong of last year's hit drama. You know the quality of his productions without me saying more."
With Chen Dongdong directing, it was guaranteed to be a masterpiece!
Su Tao was not only not worried now, but also had some ambition.
"Have you started talking about investment?"
As soon as this was mentioned, Zheng Bai sighed, "Still talking about it. Our executive producer Xu is a straight man and obviously hasn't read the original work. He treated my project as an ordinary one. Wait for it. If he doesn't take the initiative to talk to me about investment, when I make the drama a big hit, he will have to confess to me that he was blind. "
Su Tao suppressed the restless feeling in her heart, blinked her doe eyes and asked, "What's your budget?"
Zheng Bai: "Because the team I hired are all the best, I don't plan to save on props, sets and costumes. Excluding actor fees, I conservatively estimate that each episode may need 750,000 yuan."
She was referring to hundreds of thousands of yuan.
A TV series is about 40 episodes, so 30 million is about right. Actor fees would be a few million more.
If she wanted to use a stock with potential like Jiang Qi, the cost would not be high and the rate of return could triple.
Su Tao seemed to chat casually and asked, "Ruiqui should be very suitable for this kind of project, right? Your supervisor Xu doesn't manage it, haven't you thought about going to talk about it yourself?"
Zheng Bai sighed, "I did talk about it. President Wu of Ruiqui said that their project plan for the second half of the year has been submitted, and it won't be easily changed. I guess it's also because they are a big company with more procedures and checkpoints that are very troublesome to change."
Seeing her at a loss, Su Tao suppressed the joy in her heart, took out a notebook, tore off a blank piece of paper, wrote down a phone number and handed it to her.
"This is Xie Jin's phone number. You can talk to him directly."
Su Tao knew that Xie Jin was not easy to make an appointment with, so she gave Zheng Bai his phone number directly. She was convinced that this drama would make a lot of money. With the idea of not letting outsiders reap the benefits, she built a bridge in between.
Looking at the number on the paper, Zheng Bai was stunned for a few seconds. When she came back to her senses from the shock, she was so excited that she didn't know what to say. She was in her thirties and jumping up and down saying, "Look at me, I've been chatting with you for so long and I didn't even think of it. You are Mrs. Tianjin!"
As soon as the words Mrs. Tianjin came out, Su Tao's face instantly flushed red. After chatting for a few sentences, she hurried away.
Su Tao went to the hotel to find Tong Mingxuan.
Tong Mingxuan, who had been prepared to sink or swim and whose career would never take off, was moved to tears when he learned that he could continue acting in this drama.
He swore to Su Tao that since he had chosen this difficult path, he would surely go all out and reach another peak.
Under Su Tao's guidance, Tong Mingxuan announced the love news ahead of time.
With the PR and tech departments on standby, Su Tao controlled the comments so that he and Qingqing did not receive any negative news.
This matter was finally settled and it was the end of it. Su Tao bought fish and went home with a light heart.
Eating fish every day, she wondered if he would get tired of it.
As soon as Xie Jin got home, he smelled the spicy fish flavor and quickly walked into the kitchen. He hugged his diligent little peach from behind and kissed her cheeks twice, burying his head in her neck and still unwilling to let go.
Su Tao was about to get off the stove when he clung to her so she couldn't work. She gently pushed him away, "Go wash your hands first."
Xie Jin had no choice but to let her go and obediently wash his hands. He took the initiative to serve rice, and then stared at her intently as she brought the boiled fish over.
"Won't you get tired of eating boiled fish every day?" Seeing him eat with relish, Su Tao couldn't help asking.
Xie Jin, who was focused on eating, looked up with a stiff expression and asked, "Tired? Who's tired of it?"
Xie Jin couldn't stand hearing the word "tired" now. He worried every day that his little peach would become disgusted with him and tired of him.
"I mean we can eat something else tomorrow." Su Tao explained.
Xie Jin volunteered, "Okay, I can pan-fry a steak for you too."
Su Tao: "......Then let's keep having boiled fish."
Soon a bowl of rice was finished. He went to serve himself another bowl. Su Tao reached out and pinched his cheek. Although he still looked thin, it felt a little fleshy, and she unconsciously gained blind confidence in her cooking skills.
Xie Jin seemed to see through Su Tao's mindset. He deliberately grinned lasciviously and said ambiguously, "I exercise too much every night, I won't get fat."
Su Tao: "......"
Eat your food!
After teasing Su Tao, Xie Jin laughed softly twice, looking at her flushed cheeks, he was in a very good mood.
His phone on the table rang.
Although he doesn't usually answer strange numbers, he was in a good mood now, so he took the call.
In the quiet room, a clear female voice could be heard clearly from the phone.
Xie Jin immediately looked up at Su Tao, panicked and hung up the phone. Then he felt his behavior was self-incriminating and didn't know what to do.
He could only explain hastily but sincerely: "I don't know how a woman got my phone number. I swear I've never given my personal number to a woman alone before. Business contacts are all scheduled through my secretary. Very few people know my private number..."
The more he explained, the more he felt it was wrong.
Very few people knew his private number. Why did a woman's call suddenly appear?
Doesn't it prove more that he had something going on with this woman?
In a fluster, Xie Jin tried to regain his composure and pretended to call the woman back. "I was a little impulsive just now. Let me call her back and ask clearly. Maybe someone leaked my phone number."
Seeing his flustered behavior, if Su Tao hadn't recognized that the voice on the phone belonged to Zheng Bai, she would have almost believed that he really had something to hide from her.
Su Tao: "Um...you don't have to call back. I was the one who gave her your number."
Xie Jin: "?"
