Wen Qianyi was a bit sweaty, not expecting Hai Fu to be so... bleak. She originally just came over to say hi, but now seeing her being genuine and straightforward, since they are colleagues and also living neighbors, she can’t ignore her. Since she is alone, and there is herself and Li Yan, as well as Huang Ying, adding one more doesn’t matter.

"Sister Hai Fu, work’s over, I won’t be polite with you. Eating alone is wasteful and boring, why not join us? We don’t have many people, just colleagues from the company. Come on!"

Faced with Wen Qianyi’s enthusiastic invitation, Hai Fu said ’reluctantly’: "Alright, then I’ll treat you guys! I originally wanted to invite someone to dinner anyway."

Wen Qianyi couldn’t help but smile: "Alright, Sister Hai Fu, you don’t need to be so reserved, aren’t there men here? Why would you treat? I bet they’d feel embarrassed even if you asked for AA share, right?"

Li Yan of course felt embarrassed; dining with girls, whether the girl pays or it’s AA style, he would feel it’s a loss of face.

When Wen Qianyi invited Hai Fu over, his gaze noticed Huang Ying and Li Jie also arriving at the door. He quickly reminded himself: the time for careful words and actions has arrived!

...

The five people gathered together, and inevitably had a round of introductions. Wen Qianyi introduced Hai Fu to Huang Ying and Li Jie. Li Yan introduced Huang Ying and Li Jie to them.

Although everyone exchanged pleasantries, the atmosphere was quite reserved. Because Hai Fu’s reputation in the company was widespread, even considered "notorious," making Huang Ying afraid of her even post-departure. Originally shy and not skilled in socializing, and holding Wen Qianyi in high esteem, she spoke even less; Hai Fu had to wear her company mask and couldn’t be too enthusiastic to scare them; no need to mention Li Jie, she always maintained a cool demeanor in front of strangers, already being decent without her hair partially covering her face.

Thus, the responsibility to liven up the atmosphere fell on Li Yan and Wen Qianyi. This was in Li Yan’s plan, but he had to remind himself to be cautious, to avoid revealing secrets. Wen Qianyi originally intended to dine alone with him, unexpected to end up like this.

The girls didn’t eat much, except for Li Yan, who ate more, and Li Jie, who ate a little more due to her regular intensive training. After over an hour, everyone was finished eating and got more familiar with each other.

After Li Yan called for the bill, he took out a stack of items and placed them on the table: "Ladies, any other plans later? Want to go watch a movie together?"

Wen Qianyi looked at him suspiciously: "When did you buy movie tickets?" He had already arranged for her and Huang Ying, so buying tickets in advance wouldn’t be surprising, but it seemed like he got tickets for all five people. Did he know beforehand that they would encounter so many people?

Huang Ying and Li Jie didn’t speak; they knew about Wen Qianyi, meaning they knew there were four people, just surprised by the addition of Hai Fu.

Hai Fu remained silent; she knew about Huang Ying and Wen Qianyi, just not that Li Jie was added.

Li Yan gave a calm smile and spread out the tickets: "Aren’t I the general manager of a movie company now? Of course, I need to understand the market conditions, it’s the best box office season now, how can I not explore? I want to see if the attendance will be full, if there’s a ticket scalping market, so I bought ten tickets at once. Now we... one, two, three, four, five! Five for us, five for my experiment."

Wen Qianyi rolled her eyes exasperatedly and shook her head in disdain: "You’re a movie company manager, actually reselling tickets! If the news broke out, you’d be famous!"

"Doesn’t matter, if I’m famous, won’t that boost our company’s reputation? Hehe, two birds with one stone!" Li Yan laughed.

"Better not, it’s illegal. If caught, it’d be troublesome."

They all started to persuade him, Li Yan originally just planned to watch the movie with them; he bought extra tickets to avoid suspicion. So after their persuasion, he ’reluctantly’ said: "Alright then, let’s gift them! Any friends who like movies?"

Seeing Li Yan holding up the tickets gesturing, everyone shook their heads.

Li Yan didn’t mind wasting five tickets, but seeing their reluctance to let five tickets go to waste, he decided to call someone. He contacted Duan Haibo to say there were extra tickets, inviting them to bring his wife, sister-in-law, and meet at the theater. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Settling the surplus tickets, with one extra, Li Yan didn’t bother to name it. Although there’s still time till the movie starts, since they all drove, they decided to head to the cinema early to find parking.

Li Yan, Hai Fu, and Wen Qianyi all drove, Huang Ying came with Li Jie’s car, and when they left, there were no special arrangements, everyone headed to the theater just as they came.

...

Once they finally parked, everyone bought snacks. Duan Haibo and Lv Jiajing, Han Jinlong, and Lv Lijun also joined, wanting to use this time for a movie outing. Considering the possibility that weekend tickets might not be easy to buy, they were surprised to find Li Yan having tickets to give.

Other dates are one guy and one girl, but when Li Yan invites, it’s four beauties with different images and temperaments, making Duan Haibo and his group sigh in admiration.

Others mix public and private affairs, Li Yan is "fake private for public," using the movie as a chance to study film-related issues. Such as how the terminal theaters arrange the films, what films are placed in large halls, what in small halls, the frequency of screenings. Going in, also paying attention to the attendance, viewing effects, etc.

Besides these exterior concerns, the movie now can’t just be for entertainment or passing time. For example, his selection of the biggest hit in the New Year’s season, Feng Xiaogang’s film, always sells big due to the Feng Xiaogang + Ge You combo. The cast is always a "strong Ge You, a flow of beauties" in Feng style comedies, the female lead can be a Lan Island or Cloud Island actress, but the male lead must be Ge You.

During seat allocation, he sat with Duan Haibo’s group coupled together. Naturally, they paired up sitting next to each other as couples. For their five-person arrangement, they were observed by these two couples. Perhaps to avoid suspicion, Wen Qianyi, leading the way, sat far right, leaving a seat. Behind her, Huang Ying took the side next to Lv Lijun, considered the far left among them. Among the three left, Li Yan was unreserved, seating himself in the middle, with Hai Fu on his right next to Wen Qianyi, and Li Jie on his left next to Huang Ying.

For them, it seemed like an unconscious arrangement. In Wen Qianyi’s eyes, sitting beside Li Yan seemed inappropriate; now Huang Ying isn’t with him either, which is fitting. The cool Li Jie and the imposing Hai Fu sitting beside Li Yan would undoubtedly make him feel pressured, right? Huang Ying sitting beside him would have been great, but now with so many people, she’s certainly too shy for that. Instead, having Li Jie in between makes her feel more natural.

But this setup by him, seen by Duan Haibo’s group, clearly paints a scene of Li Yan amid four ladies on the left and right!

(October, Old Lai updated more than 330,000 words, erupted several times; unfortunately, didn’t make it to the top ten in the urban category, falling out of the top 50 total chart in the last two days, continuing the tragedy. In the new month, Old Lai will continue to work hard, pleading everyone to cast the basic monthly ticket for Mixed, and let us strive for the urban top six again! Immediately on the 1st, let’s all start strong together, monthly ticket targets of 50, Old Lai will offer three updates, 80 for four, 100 for five! Thank you all) (To be continued, for more content, please log in to www.qidian.com, more Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)