"Who are you looking down on? I’m a professionally trained director, so why couldn’t I shoot a good crime drama?" Old Hu slammed his hand on the table, spit flying from his mouth.

Tang Li wiped her face in disgust, then wiped the spit from her face onto Old Hu’s arm. "Hey, if you have something to say, just say it. Why are you getting so worked up? You sprayed spit all over my face. Are you a Peashooter or something?"

Sister Yun held back a laugh and quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe Tang Li’s face. "Calm down, calm down. He’s just a little worked up."

"I’m not mad," Tang Li said, wiping her face. "I just see you’ve been thriving in the world of dating shows and sweet little rom-coms. A crime drama is a serious genre. Don’t you go and inject some sappy romance into it."

"What’s wrong with sappy romance? Huh? What’s wrong with it?" Old Hu nearly roared. "Weren’t you the one who gave me those scripts?"

"Fine, I can’t win an argument with you," Tang Li said, her face expressionless. "I won’t object if you want to direct it, but can you even handle the workload?"

"Of course I can handle it," Old Hu said, his anger subsiding a little. "There are people to oversee post-production, editing, and all that, so I won’t have to worry about everything. The crew is already assembled, and we don’t need a break-in period."

Only then did Tang Li take the script out of her bag. "Fine. You can handle it as you see fit."

Old Hu practically snatched it from her. "You know, you’re much stingier than you used to be. You were always so decisive before. How come you were so quick to hand over scripts in the past?"

"That’s because sweet rom-coms don’t require much directorial skill," Tang Li said, offering her own reasoning. "As long as the actors perform well and know their blocking, you could pull any random person off the street, sit them in front of the monitor, and they’d be able to shoot it just fine."

"But making a crime drama that truly stands out is really not easy."

Old Hu retorted, "Isn’t that just because I haven’t come across a good script? Besides, it’s not like I was realizing my full potential before. I do have directorial skills. And anyway, who says sweet rom-coms don’t require a director’s skill?"

Tang Li let out a dry laugh. Everyone knew what she meant. "Fine. I’ll be waiting to see how you shoot this one."

She drew out her words, "If you do a good job, there will be more opportunities for us to work together in the future." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Old Hu rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Don’t worry. For the sake of your future scripts, I’ll be sure to give this 120 percent."

The news that Tang Li had once again tailor-made a script for Ye Qian spread, inspiring no small amount of envy, jealousy, and hate. Why didn’t they have such a powerful patron? Tang Li was just too good to her—producing an album for her, giving her all sorts of scripts. It was as if she had thought of everything.

Ye Qian’s ex-husband naturally heard the news as well. He sighed. "How can she be so lucky? To think that even with a child, she’s managed to make it this far."

"I thought her career would be completely over after the divorce. I’m even jealous of her. I haven’t even starred in a major film yet."

His agent sighed too. "Director Liu’s project is about to wrap filming. I heard that once the movie is released, preparations for Ye Qian’s new script will begin. I guess Tang Li doesn’t want Ye Qian to have any downtime. If an actress goes too long without a new release, she can be easily forgotten."

"She’s really considered every angle for Ye Qian. A divorced woman... So getting a divorce can actually boost your status in the industry."

Yao Mingfeng was agitated. "What if... what if I got back together with Ye Qian...?"

"That’s impossible," his agent shot him down instantly. "You’d never get past Ye Qian herself. Women who’ve snapped out of being love-struck won’t give their hearts away so easily again."

"Even if Ye Qian did remarry you, I doubt Tang Li’s resources would be lavished on her like they are now. After all, Tang Li has made it very clear that she finds sappy romance boring. She prefers people who are career-driven."

Yao Mingfeng sighed. "How did it come to this? The more successful Ye Qian becomes, the more I look like a total scumbag for what I did. People always say the failure of a marriage isn’t one person’s fault, but looking at it now, I was completely and utterly in the wrong."

His agent replied, "You’re only feeling this way because Ye Qian is successful now. Deep down, that’s not what you really think. Back then, you insisted on the divorce. Your parents and I both disagreed, but you were adamant, and we couldn’t change your mind."

"That woman hasn’t had it easy. Now that she’s finally gotten this opportunity, be gracious. Be a man about it and just wish her well."

Yao Mingfeng gave a bitter smile. "I used to love her eyes the most. They would sparkle when she was acting. But after we got married, I realized her eyes weren’t bright anymore. She was putting all of her energy into our family..."

The agent said, "She married you when her career was on the rise, took a hiatus from acting to have your daughter. You’re not just an actor; you’re a husband and a father. For a female celebrity, getting married and having children is a monumental decision."

"Look at the married actresses in this industry—how many of them are still active on screen? Their careers are almost always cut short. As a man, you should have recognized her sacrifice. But you didn’t. Instead, you complained that she wasn’t as vibrant as she used to be."

"If you only wanted to enjoy the process of dating, you never should have married her. You just ended up holding her back."

「At the same time.」

"Yao Mingfeng was the one who brought up marriage in the first place," Ye Qian said. "I wasn’t thinking about getting married so early back then. I thought it was perfectly fine to just keep dating."

"But he wanted to get married, and I thought that getting married would be nice too. Someone loved me so passionately, and the promises he made were so beautiful, so I agreed."

"Only now do I realize that you can’t trust a man’s promises," Ye Qian said, taking a sip of her juice. "I still believe in love, but I won’t be so quick to try it again. It’s just too draining."

Tang Li glanced at her. "That’s why when you’re choosing a life partner, you should choose someone who is inherently good and responsible, not someone who’s unreliable."

Ye Qian leaned closer to Tang Li. "You seem to have some strong feelings about that. Spill. Is it about Chairman Wang?"

Tang Li shot her a look. "Oh, you’ve got it all figured out, have you?"

"Hehe, we actors are very sensitive to other people’s emotions," Ye Qian said, looking a little smug. "Everyone in the company knows about the way Chairman Wang looks at you. Too bad your heart is made of stone."

"Then again, it makes sense. Chairman Wang used to be such a player. I heard the second female lead in that last sweet rom-com was one of his ex-girlfriends..."

Tang Li tapped the spot between Ye Qian’s eyebrows with her index finger. "Stop your wild guessing. Wang Mingyu and I don’t have that kind of relationship. We were never together. It’s not that melodramatic."

"Our dynamic was like a game company and a player. Just when you’re about to give up, the company offers you a little bonus to get you to stay. But as soon as you decide to keep playing, they just raise the difficulty again."

"Eventually, I realized there was no point. Life is just a few short decades, so why waste my time on someone else? I just never expected that he’d be the one who can’t let it go now."