Chapter 782: Cruise Ship Party for the Upper Class in Hong Kong
"How about it? Are you interested?"
Zhuang Hongyi looked at Xiao He, thoughtful. "If you want to go, we can go together. Although these guys haven't successfully replaced the Chen family's status here yet, their development is quite good. There should be many investors and celebrities from the Hong Kong circle on-site. You could go and meet some people."
"Ah, I think I'll pass."
Despite being curious about such a vanity fair, Xiao He declined after thinking about his busy work schedule.
"It's okay, you can think about it first," Director Zhuang said with a smile. "It's in September anyway, and 'the root of evil' should be nearing its end by then. If you want to go, you can just go and take a look. Who knows, maybe you'll have a different experience this year?"
"I'll think about it then."
Xiao He replied hesitantly.
-
"No way."
Inside the room, Liu Rulan stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head vigorously as if protecting a chick.
"You have no idea how chaotic those people are, and it's on someone else's cruise ship! Once you're out at sea, if something really happens, there's no way to save you."
As she spoke, Liu Rulan paced back and forth.
"Ah, Sister Liu, don't get so worked up. I was just asking."
Seeing Liu Rulan rarely break character and act so agitated, Xiao He quickly waved his hands to soothe her.
"Besides, you know that I have a movie coming out during the National Day holiday. I'll definitely have to promote it in advance, so I might be very busy and won't have time to board the ship."
Although he was indeed a bit curious...
A busy life left Xiao He with no time to further experience the "debauchery" of the upper class. At most, he would participate in formal industry banquets, which were purely for eating and chatting. In terms of scale and social strata, they were definitely far inferior to the upper-class banquet mentioned by Zhuang Hongyi.
To say he wasn't curious would be a lie.
Liu Rulan seemed to think of something and calmed down.
"Sorry, I was thinking of some unpleasant things."
Liu Rulan sighed deeply and looked at Xiao He with a complex expression. "It's just that sometimes, people are really easily changed by their environment. Especially after seeing certain things, those with unstable mindsets are easily influenced. Sometimes, even just one contact is enough to make it unforgettable."
Xiao He raised an eyebrow: "I know. It's just like the stage play 'the root of evil'. What ultimately changes the hero is never the gods, but the environment and people he encounters."
This was also why people say that once someone starts to go bad, it's hard to turn them back.
"Exactly, that's it."
Liu Rulan nodded slightly.
"Actually, besides those people in Hong Kong, there are such banquets domestically—you should know this; it's not rare. It's just that the ones we come into contact with are basically screened, and the nature of the banquets themselves is very simple, without all that messy stuff."
Thinking of some past events, Liu Rulan sighed deeply.
Xiao He was a bit puzzled: "Sister Liu, you seem very heavy-hearted?"
"After all, Tong Junhui met those guys at a banquet back then and thought about taking shortcuts, taking drugs to lose weight. And Shu Han also attended such banquets and got the idea to develop abroad."
Liu Rulan said in a gloomy tone.
Xiao He:...
My god, how hard is this level to pass? Taking out two artists for Sister Liu in one go?
Seeming to understand Xiao He's inner complaint, Liu Rulan continued to explain: "Of course, I'm not saying that all the subsequent events were caused by attending upper-class banquets. My point is, while you can indeed broaden your horizons and even gain connections you haven't had contact with before at such banquets..."
It's just that these resources really need to be carefully discerned.
For example, Tong Junhui fell into a pit because of this, while Shu Han did indeed find the connections and opportunities to go abroad, subsequently developing successfully and carving out his own world in Hollywood.
So whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's not necessarily certain.
Liu Rulan was simply worried about Xiao He. After all, this competitive king had spent most of his time in the past few years immersed in work and life and hadn't really come into contact with those things.
In this regard, he was still a newbie who hadn't seen much of the world.
Xiao He let out a long breath: "That's actually not bad. Maybe if I go on the cruise, I can even find new work. At worst, Sister Liu, you can accompany me. You can keep an eye on the work stuff, and I'll definitely be careful about the fun stuff. Don't you know me by now? I'm not that stupid; I won't be deceived."
Liu Rulan remained skeptical: "People who say they won't be deceived are the easiest to deceive—I can only say, never say never."
And...
Liu Rulan looked at Xiao He deeply.
Although this kid was shrewd, he was actually unusually naive in some aspects.
This was still Hong Kong, and there were some regional differences, and the connections were few. Liu Rulan was very worried that if Xiao He got carried away, he would cause some trouble that she couldn't clean up.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. I didn't say I was going." Facing Liu Rulan at this moment, Xiao He really had a headache. "Let's talk about this later! It's only July; it's still early."
"I know," Liu Rulan said, crossing her arms. "I was just urgently popularizing some knowledge for you. But perhaps I'm worrying needlessly. Given your current market value, you should be counted as capital, not prey at the banquet. So that's probably the reason why Director Zhuang is willing to take you."
However, in the eyes of those people, prey are ants, and capital is also prey.
"Sigh, it's really complicated—"
Xiao He scratched his head, but his interest was piqued by Liu Rulan. "But Sister Liu, keep telling me about the gossip from those banquets? Let me 'widen my horizons' too."
Usually, Liu Rulan rarely shared those things with them.
Now that the conversation had led there, he asked as well.
Liu Rulan rested her chin on her hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally relented: "What do you want to hear?"
"Uh... something more bizarre? Preferably something I've never heard of?"
After thinking, Xiao He gave an answer, then looked at Liu Rulan with anticipation.
"This..."
Liu Rulan quickly thought about it and actually found a bizarre piece of gossip from recent events: "Do you know about XX being in a wheelchair a while ago?"
Thanks to his good memory, Xiao He immediately recalled: "You mean the guy who quarreled with his girlfriend in the industry a while ago and was eventually pushed downstairs and broke his leg?"
"I heard it wasn't because he broke his leg from a quarrel, but because he had cosmetic surgery, which meant he could only use a wheelchair for a short time. As a result, his girlfriend pushed him down the stairs—wheelchair and all—which is why he ended up like that."
"What cosmetic surgery? Did he go for leg-lengthening?"
Xiao He was a bit puzzled.
Liu Rulan rubbed her chin, rarely finding it difficult to speak: "It seems that in order to please his financial backer, he met a foreign plastic surgeon at a banquet. So, he went abroad recently to have some 'unconventional' surgery done on his lower parts. But because he didn't tell his partner, he almost scared the person out of their mind when they were sleeping together."
Xiao He: "Hiss... is it the part I'm thinking of? And why does he have a partner and a financial backer?!"
Liu Rulan: "Coincidentally, including that plastic surgeon, they were all met at the same banquet. I actually suspect that guy got scammed."
Xiao He:...
Wait, wait, don't talk, my brain is frying, let me process this properly—