March 2, 2022

Chapter 90: Separation

“If I hadn’t complained about this homework with my classmates in my original class that day, I didn’t even know that our homework was different!” Xu Lichen scolded angrily, “F*ck, do you know how much more homework is done in Class 5 than Class 8?!”

“Not much.” Zhang Yansheng was not surprised, “There is less homework than our class. You go and learn about Class 1. There are so many homework assignments in Class 1 that your three views will be shattered.”

Xu Lichen glared at her: “I’m going back to Class 8 when the school starts!”

“Okay. Just go and tell the teacher…” Zhang Yansheng’s mouth twitched, showing a sneer of contempt, “I am a scumbag, I am a manure machine, I don’t deserve to stay in Class 5, please hurry up and let me go back to Class 8.”

The video showed a state where the network seemed to be stuck for a moment.

“Zhang! Yan! Sheng!” Xu Lichen wants to be exasperated, “Every time you take the initiative to contact me, you either beat me or scold me, or you just want to piss me off, right?”

Zhang Yansheng smiled: “It’s really not this time.”

Xu Lichen patted the table over there: “You want to talk to me? Why are you looking for me?”

He added: “It’s definitely not a good thing!”

Zhang Yansheng supported her head: “It’s really a good thing. Xu Lichen, let me ask you, how much money do you have in your hand?”

There are many girls who picture his wealth and his color, but no girl really dares to ask him directly how much money he has.

Xu Lichen: “Huh?”

Zhang Yansheng said: “I have a very good project at hand now, and I want to ask you to invest together.”

For a teenager who is still in the stage of ‘why do I have so many homework during the winter vacation’ in his life, she suddenly told him that she has a project that she wants to ask him to invest in. The topic jumped too much, and Xu Lichen was inevitably confused: “Invest for what? What are you investing in?”

Zhang Yansheng pointed her finger at her mouth shape and told him: “Investment — capital.”

The video screen was frozen again, this time on the boy’s confused eyes.

For a long time, Xu Lichen said weakly: “Zhang Yansheng, I feel that you… look like a mystery box. Before opening it, I didn’t know what would be inside…”

“Don’t say too much nonsense. Let’s meet first.” Zhang Yansheng looked at her watch. At this time, some office workers had just returned home and had just eaten dinner. “I will be there at Antler Coffee shop in Laili Square in about 40 minutes. It’s something you will definitely be interested in, so don’t regret it.”

After speaking, she hung up.

“Hey hey hey! Hello? Hello?” Xu Lichen stared at the phone screen, “F*ck!”

What must he be interested in? Zhang Yansheng knows what he is interested in? Don’t regret it? Why does she feel so confident of knowing him that well?

Humph, when I go later, then I must be colder. Raise my chin a bit when I speak, and tell her coldly, sorry, I’m not interested in this thing.

……

“Holysh*t! Holysh*t! Holysh*t! Holysh*t!” Xu Lichen performed a large-scale real incense scene at Antler Coffee shop in Laili Square, “What is this? What the hell is it? Hey, don’t close it, let me watch it again!”

“This is only a three-minute demo.” Zhang Yansheng turned off the player on her laptop, opened her PPT, and jumped directly to a certain page, “The movie is called 《Leaving the Solar System》, and the author of the original novel is Dayang. Do you know him?”

Unfortunately, Xu Lichen didn’t know Dayang at this time. Because although he likes watching sci-fi movies and sci-fi dramas very much, this scumbag generally doesn’t! Look! At books!

“I don’t know!” Xu Lichen said loudly without shame, and kept asking, “Is this made in China? Is this really made in China?”

“Of course, didn’t you see that the actors are all Chinese?” Zhang Yansheng was helpless, “Let me tell you, Dayang is… he claims to be the first person in China’s science fiction literature.”

“Let me tell you the story of《Leaving the Solar System》…”

An hour later, Xu Lichen patted the table: “I will invest! Tell me how to invest! How much do you want to invest?”

Zhang Yansheng said; “I don’t know how much money you have. I just think this project is very good and worth investing in, so I want to tell you.”

“You are loyal enough, so I will remember it!” Xu Lichen asked, “How much do you plan to invest?”

“I can take out 4 million by myself.” Zhang Yansheng told him, “I plan to get 6 million from my dad, and then about 10 million from my grandma.”

“Okay.” Xu Lichen said, “Let me think about it… I probably have 5 or 6 million. I’ll go tell my dad that I wanted to change my motorcycle, and asked him to give me another 200,000 or 300,000, and then I’ll go tell my mother the same thing… Is it okay to make up a million, hmm? What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Zhang Yansheng’s eyes were faint, she was silent for a moment, and asked, “Can’t you just tell them that you want to invest?”

Xu Lichen laughed: “Who would believe me?”

But this method of asking for money is like an elementary school student, who asks for 20 yuan with his father and 20 yuan with his mother for the same reason of collecting money, so he has 20 yuan to go to an internet cafe to play games.

“So, you’re basically not capable, are you really a child in your family?” Zhang Yansheng stared at him.

Xu Lichen’s smile froze on his face.

“Moreover,” Zhang Yansheng continued, “In fact, you also feel that you are a child by heart, so you have to do things in a child’s way, right?”

Xu Lichen felt countless arrows hit his knees, so soft that he wanted to kneel. He said with a strong smile: “What are you talking about, aren’t we just a freshman in high school? If I’m not a child, then am I an adult?”

He’s really a child, Zhang Yansheng thought to herself.

Zhang Yansheng couldn’t even be sure that when she lived to be 21 years old in her previous life, had she really grown up? She doesn’t know if Xu Lichen, who was abroad at that time, has grown up too.

Zhang Yansheng stroked the keyboard of the laptop with her fingertips, and she felt something she had never felt before.

This matter suddenly became more than just eating rebirth benefits.

Zhang Yansheng felt that this incident had a different meaning for her.

She closed her laptop and said, “That’s all I want to tell you. Go back and collect the money, just tell me once you’re done.”

When she stood up, Xu Lichen stopped her. He hesitated for a moment, as if he had made up his mind: “Give me a copy of your PPT!”

Zhang Yansheng looked at him, the corners of his mouth curled up: “I’ll send it to you when I go home.”

The next day, Zhang Yansheng packed up and went downstairs, and Zhang Huan said in high tone, “Hoh!”

Zhang Yansheng felt that her father had a trend of becoming a child in the past two days, and she didn’t want to pay much attention to him.

Zhang Heling let out a “wow”: “Sister, you look like an adult today!”

Zhang Yansheng put on formal clothes, put on makeup, and curled her hair. At first glance, she really doesn’t look like a student. Only by looking closely can you see the youthfulness of her face.

Zhang Huan had breakfast with a smile on his face. After eating, he took Zhang Yansheng to the headquarters of Zhang’s company.

The old lady Zhang, dressed in a professional suit with spirit, has set aside time for Zhang Yansheng and arranged a meeting room for her.

The secretary helped Zhang Yansheng connect her laptop to the projector, and then backed out. Only the old lady and Zhang Huan were left in the conference room.

These two people are very familiar with Zhang Yansheng. One can easily talk and even be a little coquettish, and the other is not afraid of yelling at her. Zhang Yansheng is not afraid.

Now both of them looked at her with smiles and expectation. But when Zhang Yansheng slid the mouse onto the PPT, she clearly felt that her palms were sweating from nervousness.

Because she knows what she is going to do, which is very important to her.

What she is about to do will qualitatively separate her now from her previous life.

Zhang Yansheng took a deep breath, and double-clicked to open the PPT she had prepared.

“If you pay attention to famous foreign science fiction blockbusters, you will find a very unique phenomenon.” Zhang Yansheng spoke calmly, “It’s just that you can’t see the shadow of any Chinese in these sci-fi blockbusters. Interestingly, Chinese people, who account for more than 20% of the earth’s population, will not appear in Western science fiction movies. Because Westerners acquiesce that Chinese people are not allowed to appear, because Westerners’ stereotypes of Chinese people think that they are not science fiction. If they appear in science fiction movies, it will make the whole movie embarrassing.”

“But are Chinese really not science fiction? Do Chinese people like to watch science fiction movies? Is there a market for science fiction movies in China?” Zhang Yansheng pressed the remote control, the PPT turned a page, and the first data appeared.

“This is the global box office and Chinese box office of foreign science fiction blockbusters in the recent years. It is not difficult to see that among the outstanding results of these blockbusters, the contribution of the Chinese box office is huge.”

“Unfortunately, all of these gold-absorbing science fiction movies are foreign movies. Until now, we, in China, can almost say that there is no science fiction blockbuster that can really be made. There is no local sci-fi blockbuster that can be compared with Hollywood.”

“But this is not a market problem. Now, the total box office of movies in the mainland Chinese market is as high as 30 billion yuan. Who is the biggest winner in the market?”

Zhang Yansheng switched the page, and a new set of data revealed the answer: “–Science fiction!”

“Our market likes science fiction. As long as it is a science fiction movie of the same level, it can complete the task of attracting money from the Chinese market. Even our market’s love for science fiction movies has reached the level of craving so much, so that those that are not particularly good or even a bit bad, such as this one, the fifth part of this series has a bad reputation abroad, but it still reaped 1.5 billion yuan at the box office in China! The total box office of the entire series of five movies in China exceeded 6 billion, and they are called gold-sucking monsters. And an excellent sci-fi blockbuster, how much it can explode at the box office in China is simply unpredictable.”

“It can be seen from this that science fiction movies have an extremely large and even unfathomable market in China. And for so long, there has not been a sci-fi blockbuster in China that can be obtained. In fact, it is caused by many reasons — policy, humanities, technology, etc.”

“But now, these bottlenecks are dissolving. In recent years, the radio and television’s review system has been continuously in line with international standards, and domestic special effects companies have already reached a level comparable to international ones. The factors that have stifled domestic science fiction in the past are fading.”

“So, at this time node, Director Xie chose《Leaving the Solar System》.”

“Why is it《Leaving the Solar System》instead of any other novel? I have to say, if I were Director Xie, I would also choose《Leaving the Solar System》.”

“Because《Leaving the Solar System》is a classic masterpiece of its author, Dayang.”

“And who is Dayang?”

“He is known as the first person in Chinese science fiction literature!”

“It can be said that in China, as long as there are people who read science fiction, there is no one who doesn’t read Dayang’s works. Dayang has the largest number of science fiction readers in China!”

Following Zhang Yansheng’s narration, the expressions on the faces of the old lady Zhang and Zhang Huan watching a child’s performance gradually disappeared.

They were gradually attracted by Zhang Yansheng’s narration and began to listen carefully.

***The complete translation of this novel is available on my Patreon account. Please support. Thank you! ^^