Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Formidable?
Well, it’s indeed so…
Not going into details, she replied with a faint smile, “Isn’t that so? Not only did he found and build RK from scratch, but he also has a net worth of hundreds of millions at a tender age of twenty-eight.”
Her assistant gushed in flattery, “If that’s so, aren’t you even more capable? You’re also 28 years old and a woman at that! I’ve never seen a woman more capable than our Director Qin!”
Capable… woman…?
Qin Yu only responded with an absent-minded laugh.
She then heard her assistant saying, “That Director Chen is truly a strange person, though. He seemed reluctant to deal with us. I previously read an article saying that he has a quirk! He only likes spending time with robots and dislikes interacting with people… Otherwise, why would he insist on investing in a robot hotel when the hotel market is already saturated…”
A chuckle burst out from her. “You can’t take that entertainment news seriously. The core of RK is in producing medical technology products. The company later turned to robotics because one of their shareholders, Ace, advocated the development of the AI robotic system. It has little to do with Chen Yuheng.”
The assistant dawned in understanding then, after thinking for a minute, added, “I still find him… a tad too cold…” As he spoke, he carefully peered at his boss.
Which of her past working partners had not been overflowing with enthusiasm? Putting aside the Qin Group’s impressive assets, just the fact that Qin Yu, a ravishing beauty, was standing before them was enough to send them fawning all over her.
That indifferent attitude of Chen Yuheng, however…
She did not give a hoot about what she heard. Instead, her lips curled as she responded, “Isn’t that good? If he’s overly enthusiastic toward me, hah… I might not work with RK at all.”
Had she not seen plenty of such boot-lickers? There were countless rich children, who relied on their family assets and the help of their parents to start a successful business and thought themselves to be very capable. However, when they were stripped of those resources and backgrounds, all that was left of them was nothing but a joke.
Chen Yuheng was different, though. He was unlike them…
She believed that RK would not let her down during their partnership.
Her assistant had not comprehended the deep meaning of her words, but when he raised his head, he realized that his beautiful and capable female CEO had already walked far ahead of him. And so, he hastily chased after her with her luggage.
…
Located near the bay, the temperature in Xin Hai City was slightly higher than that of Qingjiang City. Even though it was only April now, the humidity of the air here was already akin to that of a summer day.
After Chen Yuheng was done showering and changing into a comfortable set of pajamas, he slowly walked toward the French windows and quietly looked at the scenery outside.
Pei Lijun would be bound to attend tomorrow’s press conference as Huaxin Technologies’ new CEO. Never did he think that they would meet again in such capacities…
His former friend had now become his rival.
His phone rang…
A frown formed on his face when he took a look at it. The call was from Shen Xinran.
Preparing to ignore it as usual, he paused just as he turned away. It was unknown what was on his mind, but somehow, he turned back to answer the call.
“Hey, brother. Are you in Xin Hai City yet? Which hotel are you staying at? Are you tired?”
The man, gazing down at the constantly flashing vehicles’ lights with indifference, replied, “I’m fine.”
“I’m free the day after next, and I would like to visit the Dream City Paradise in Xin Hai City. Brother, will you accompany me there, please?”
He did not respond to her question. Instead, he went silent for a moment before asking, “How’s Ruan Ruan?”
His words baffled the woman on the other end of the line, however. “Ruan Ruan? Brother, what Ruan Ruan?”
He then added, “The robot.”
Only then did Shen Xinran recall Lu Lu mentioning that the robot’s name was Ruan Ruan.
Glancing at the robot beside her, she simply replied, “Oh, she’s quite useful. Not only can she understand basic instructions and hold simple conversations, she even helped me shoot several scenes today. The director was very satisfied with her performance and kept asking me whether the robot can be sold to him. Haha, and so I told him, ‘The robot my brother lent me is, of course, the best robot!'”
This was not what Chen Yuheng wanted to hear at all…
“Is she damaged in any way?” Ace had used a very special and delicate material for the sake of creating the best imitation of human skin, so it was extremely vulnerable to lacerations and abrasions.
“No… No knocks or falls, and there’s not a single strand of hair missing. Brother, if you’re worried, you can personally come down to check the robot.”
At that, it suddenly occurred to her that it was a brilliant idea. She immediately prattled on, “Come, come! You haven’t been to a film set before, brother! I’m playing the role of a princess who will be involved in a political marriage this time, and my costume is exquisite…”
The line on his end went silent. She waited a while for his response, and when she failed to get it, she shouted, “Brother…? Hello?”
“Put Ruan Ruan on the line,” he requested.
That surprised the actress.
Did I hear wrongly…? Did he want the robot to answer the phone?
She looked in the direction where Gu Anbao was dumbly standing next to the wall, then hesitantly stammered out, “Brother, you… want the robot… to answer the call?”
He gave a faint ‘hm’ in reply.
That got her staring at her phone display screen in absolute perplexity. What’s there to talk about with a robot?
She then held up her phone and summoned the robot. “Ruan Ruan, come and answer the phone.”
The robot remained still as if her instruction went unheard.
Thinking that her pronunciation was not sufficiently clear, Shen Xinran repeated herself, “Ruan Ruan, come here and answer the phone.”
Gu Anbao raised her head in a daze and slowly realized that the actress was calling her.
Answer the phone?
… What… phone?
The latter slowly made her way over and reached out for the offered phone. However, something hit the actress right then. She suddenly shied away from the robot’s outstretched hand, put her phone on speaker mode, then said, “Alright, brother, you can speak now. Ruan Ruan is beside me.”
For a moment, Chen Yuheng had nothing to say… After ruminating, he said, “Ruan Ruan, tell me about today’s schedule.”
Gu Anbao’s heart trembled slightly when she recognized the man’s voice… The entire day’s worth of negative emotions suppressed within her immediately surged!
She wanted to vent her feelings…! At the thought of her current identity, however, she suppressed them even deeper down, right at the deepest part of her heart…
“I… I changed clothes today…” She did everything she could to maintain the calm tone of a robot. “And put on makeup… In the afternoon, I filmed two scenes; running in the forest in one scene and for the other one… I was in a cave…”
She could not continue speaking.
The man’s brows were already in a knot. He was worried that the robot’s special skin would get scratched by branches during her run. He continued his questioning patiently, “Okay, so what did you film in the cave?”
As she recalled that scene from earlier in the day, it felt as if those extreme emotions—fear and panic—were still lingering in her body… Her eyes drooped as she struggled to contain the shivering of her body and whispered, “There were a lot of snakes… in the cave…”
She had snakes crawling all over her, and even when her fear had reached core deep, she could neither scream nor struggle… With the lights and cameras aimed at her, they shot over and over again—
Snakes, with their forked tongues out and mouths wide ajar, hovered around her ankles, wrapped around her arms, and slithered along her thighs… Every shot was a close-up, which would be used in post-editing for the ‘actress trapped-in-a-snake-cave’ scene.
When filming was wrapped, she huddled in a corner of the set, shivering uncontrollably non-stop. When the production crew, who were busy running errands, passed by her, they laughed and said, “Look, how interesting is that robot! It can actually shiver.”
She could only silently hold herself tighter and ignore these teasing remarks, unable to spit out a single rebuke.
Chen Yuheng’s frown got increasingly deeper when he heard about the snakes. He then asked, “Did they bite you?”