When Bei Gong Hai finally separated from his group of enthusiastic fans, he let out a sigh of relief. While the people at the meet were more composed than his usual screaming fans, they were more difficult to handle. They did not get satisfaction from a smile and a few words.Their interest was in his actual work, and they asked targeted questions, as if he was the one who made the movies. One even asked about time travel paradoxes in one of the films he had acted in recently. Simply speaking, they were nerds.
He could not even understand some of the questions brewing in their geeky minds. Luckily, he still managed to shake them off by insisting that he had only come to support his sister. Before long, he found his way to Bei Gong Jiu"s table.
Unlike most siblings from influential families, the sister and brother got along well enough. They were not best friends, but they had an amiable relationship. Therefore, they would show up to each other"s events to show solidarity. Perhaps their friendship could be attributed to being suppressed by their older brother who was a genius in business. Or perhaps it was pretence. No one truly knew.
Bei Gong Jiu smiled at him and continued talking to her fans for some time. She then signed autographs for some enthusiastic girls before an attendant ushered the group away.
"It seems that you will be the more famous sibling in no time." Her brother teased, sitting down.
"How could that be?" She laughed, but she was happy.
She then looked at her brother with concealed tension before deciding to speak about the issue that had been bugging her.
"I saw you talking to a girl earlier before you were mobbed. Is she a friend?" She asked subtly.
The implication in her voice was obvious.
Her brother laughed.
"I met her earlier today. Do you remember the secretive movie I told you about?" He asked.
"Yeah, I think it was something apocalypse." She said trying to remember the name.
Hai had mentioned it in pa.s.sing. He had been mulling about why he was not allowed to publicise the filming of a commercial movie. In general, the more people talked about a movie, the more the public will be interested. However, it seemed that Illusion Entertainment had wanted to suppress the news until today.
"It is The Queen of the Apocalypse." He said, shaking his head at his sister. "It is based on a novel and that girl is the author."
Bei Gong Jiu felt her head spin in a weird way, and her heart beat furiously in her chest. For a moment, she thought her vision had been compromised by shock. Her face became paler as the words sunk in.
It was not that she had figured out everything when she learned that Hu Lei was an author. Her deduction skills were not very good. Her horrified reaction had more to do with a sense of deflation. Her pride and hopes had been busted.
When Hu Lei had humiliated her in the past, she had been infuriated. However, while she was wallowing, Ting Wan had spoken words that had allowed her to withstand the storm and shame and even look down on Hu Lei.
"Isn"t she just a gold-digging s.l.u.t?" Those words had changed her life.
Even if Hu Lei had Zhong Feng backing her up, she was still unmarried and living casually with a man. She was only a highly paid b*tch, trading her body for a good life. For the moment, she could be smug because the man was obsessed with her.
However, there was no way he was going to marry her. He would eventually move on from her when his carnal interest faded. Moreover, there was no way his family would accept that type of low-cla.s.s woman as their mistress.
Bei Gong Jiu had felt comforted. More importantly, she had planned to get revenge. Once Zhong Feng cast Hu Lei aside, she would be waiting to make her miserable.
Now, learning that she was a successful author, her heart felt stifled to the point of suffocation. The fact that she had a movie on the way with high profile actors like her brother showed that her work had some merit. Or perhaps it was Zhong Feng"s backing. Either way, it would be difficult to handle her.
"Oh, what"s her name?" She asked, suppressing the feeling in her heart.
A small part of her held hope that she had not seen the girl clearly even though she knew the truth. To be fair, the woman she had had a confrontation with some months ago was a far cry from the elegant lady she had just seen.
"Her name is Hu Lei, but she goes by Little Ninja Cat." Hai"s lips formed a smile, causing the girls, who were looking at him from some distance away, to squeal.
In his heart, he wondered why Hu Lei could not show a little of that enthusiasm even after he had put in a lot of effort. To him, having someone find out her real name from Sonata Publishing staff was a huge display of his sincerity.
His inner musings caused him to miss the crumbled look on his sister"s face.
It should be noted that though this woman had never actually read any of Hu Lei"s books, the penname was quite familiar. A lot of people raved about the mysterious author and how she had made science fiction likable by the regular non-nerdy people.
These facts felt like a slap to the face. Even if Zhong Feng abandoned Hu Lei, she would still not be a rival that she can destroy. The feeling left her reeling inside. It was like there was a heavy weight sitting heavily on her chest.
"Have you heard from big brother?" She changed the topic abruptly.
She felt that if the original conversation continued, she might really lose it.
Bei Gong Hai frowned at the sudden change, but he did not think much about it.
"No, he has been putting in more hours at the company since that crisis three months ago." He responded with a sigh.
Even if their older brother was powerful and his aura suppressed them, Bei Gong Hai secretly worshipped him. He felt that it was a pity that they did not spend a lot of time together because of the daily demands on their lives.
Bei Gong Jiu realised that she had touched another dangerous topic. How could she be so stupid?
After her confrontation with Hu Lei, the Bei Gong"s group of companies had lost one of their subsidiaries in a hostile takeover. This incident had taken place three days later. The affected business was not a core commercial operation, but it was highly profitable. The facts indicated that it had been acquired by a new money family. But she was quite clear about the matter.
It was a warning.
Naturally, she did not dare tell anyone about her role. And her brother had never been able to discover anything about the freak accident that had cost the family millions.
"I hope he will be able to resolve everything soon." She said with a forced smile.
Her brother nodded with concern in his eyes before rising.
"It seems that you still have more work to do. I also have some matters to handle, so I will make my move first."
With that, Bei Gong Hai left, and his sister was left to deal with his curious fans because they did not dare to follow him.