Stop Bothering Me, Emperor Chapter 80 - Movie

Chapter 80 - Movie

Song Xiao: “…” The emperor’s words were really blunt, but if it were Song Zicheng who ran into Xiao Zhengqing’s son, he really might have asked this.
All these years, Song Zicheng would basically never mention Xiao Zhengqing. Once in a while, someone would bring him up, and he would get angry. Xiao Zhengqing, however, didn’t seem to bear much of a grudge against Song Zicheng.
Song Xiao tapped his chin. There was definitely something here that he didn’t know about. Today, Xiao Zhengqing mentioned that he was putting together an animated film related to Chinese culture, and he asked whether Song Xiao wanted to participate in this project. Lowering his head to discuss it with the emperor, Song Xiao discovered that the fellow on his legs had already fallen asleep.
“Your Majesty…” Song Xiao called out lightly, but the emperor didn’t react at all; he was fast asleep.
It seemed that interacting with that erge hadn’t been an easy matter. Song Xiao pushed the coins off the bed and pulled the emperor up to the pillow.
But the emperor was a little heavy. Song Xiao knelt on the bed and dragged him up, huffing and puffing. When he put the emperor down, he himself stumbled and fell. The person who had been sleeping soundly reached out with both arms to easily reel in the empress who had thrown himself into his arms, hauling him into the blankets and hugging him tightly.
Song Xiao twisted around. “Don’t be troublesome. I have to undress.”
Yu Tang opened one eye. “Zhen will help you.” As he spoke, he reached into Song Xiao’s shirt and unbuttoned it from the inside.
Song Xiao pulled out the hand that was groping around, and took off his clothes himself. He picked up the pajamas on the headboard, and when he turned his head, he saw the emperor, who had been so sleepy that he couldn’t even open his eyes just now, staring at him with a pair of gleaming eyes.
“Sleep!” Song Xiao reached out to turn off the lights so that he couldn’t look anymore.
Scared witless by the casino, John did his best to threaten Qiu Mingyan into giving him money. Who knew what evidence he had in his possession, but it had truly frightened her. The following day, there was 300,000USD in John’s bank account.
Qiu Mingyan didn’t have much cash on hand, and she couldn’t transfer more than 50,000USD overseas per day. She even had to find a proxy to manage this matter.
“Wait until I sell a house before I give the remaining 200,000USD to you.” Qiu Mingyan was so angry that her teeth ached. She had no work now, and she was entirely dependent on the child support money from Song Zicheng to raise her daughter. This matter had instantly drained her savings.
After John paid back part of the debt and the interest levelled out, the casino released him, but didn’t allow him to leave the casino. Seeing other people gamble, John couldn’t help feeling his fingers itch, and thought of making a comeback, so he waded in once more.
This bottomless pit alone was enough to drag down Qiu Mingyan.
“Song Xiao, you… can you lend me 5,000USD?” There was a sob in Bai Qing’s voice, and her eyes were red.
School fees were due soon, and Bai Qing usually lived on Qiu Mingyan’s money. Qiu Mingyan gave her a lot, so Bai Qing was accustomed to spending extravagantly and didn’t have any savings at all. Yesterday, the school notified them about paying the fees for next semester, so she called Qiu Mingyan. But for some reason, the other party said that she had reached her quota for foreign money transfer these two days, and told her to wait.
“You can apply for a loan,” Song Xiao said with an earnest face.
“Ah?” Bai Qing’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“Lately, I don’t have any money either.” Song Xiao sighed. “My father has an ex-lover, and taking care of her requires a lot of money, so he didn’t give me any allowance this month.”
Father’s ex-lover? Bai Qing’s heart thumped. Wasn’t that her little aunt, Qiu Mingyan?
No matter how tumultuous Bai Qing’s heart was, Song Xiao merely adopted a sympathetic but helpless expression before he pulled away the emperor, who was secretly snickering behind him, and went to eat seafood.
Yu Qi’s project, which Song Xiao had invested in, had already been pushed out into the market and was very well received. To repay the shareholders, the first dividends were given out during the mid-year audit.
The assistant minister, who had earned some money, was very magnanimous, and treated the emperor to Boston lobster.
“Going home for the summer break?” Song Xiao cut open the lobster and took out a large piece of delicate lobster meat with a fork, dipped it in sauce, then placed it on the emperor’s plate.
“No. It’s very busy at the company here; I have to seize the opportunity to get some things done.” Yu Tang let his family’s wife serve him, and ate a large mouthful of lobster meat with his fork.
Right now, Yu Tang hated that he couldn’t split a minute into two. The family head valued him greatly, and had handed Yu Qi’s entire company over to him, and even assigned him a few separate projects. Yu Tang’s cousins in the family were incredibly envious, and were just waiting for him to screw up so that they could laugh at him.
“Hm, then I won’t go back either. I’ll go to LA and follow up on that project of Uncle Xiao’s.” Song Xiao calculated his remaining money; it seemed that he still couldn’t invest in that project yet. He would have to wait for the year-end dividend.
When summer arrived, Yu Lang, the pampered young son of the family, held a grand outdoor party at the Yu house to celebrate his own birthday. The youngsters in the family all brought their friends over to join in on the fun. Yu Tang, who had just finished his final exams, naturally brought Song Xiao as well.
“Happy birthday, ninth uncle.” Fourth uncle’s daughter, Yu Zhu, brought her little brother, Yu Mu, with her to greet Yu Lang.
“Hi, my dear little niece. Today is a swimsuit party; what’s your uncle to do if you wear such a long skirt?” Yu Lang looked at Yu Zhu’s dress with a smile.
“I brought my swimsuit.” Yu Zhu smiled, and took her brother to change clothes. Standing in the living room on the first floor, she looked up and saw that the study room door was closed, so she asked Butler Cao on the side where her grandfathers were.
“The family head doesn’t like noise, and is doing calligraphy in the study. If young miss has already changed into your swimsuit, it’s best not to go upstairs,” Butler Cao reminded her amiably.
Yu Zhu’s expression changed slightly as she inwardly gritted her teeth. This ninth uncle had really thought it through. It hadn’t been easy for her to come home this one time, and he wanted everyone to wear swimsuits, which the family head didn’t like.
In the study on the second floor, Song Xiao was making tea for the two laoyezis.
“Good technique.” This was the first time third grandfather, Yu Taiying, was seeing it, and he liked it very much.
The family head, Yu Taixian, gave his little brother a proud look, and feigned a reserved air as he raised the cup and tasted the tea. “Xiaoxiao ah, go down and play with the other youngsters ba. You don’t have to care about us two old men.”
Sitting on the side, Yu Tang rolled his eyes. It was clearly grandfather who had insisted that Song Xiao come over to brew some tea for him, yet he was now starting to pretend to be a good person.
Song Xiao lowered his head to steep the tea and gave the emperor a cup, smiling as he said, “I’ve never liked liveliness since I was a child.”
“That’s no good; it’s bad to be like an old man during your youth.” Third grandfather shook his head as he thought about his own family’s grandson, Yu Qi; he wasn’t any fun either, only knowing how to research those electric circuit boards every day.
Song Xiao smiled wordlessly and took out a scroll from his backpack. “This is something my grandpa mailed to me. I don’t come over often, and it’s not for a festival or anything, but I directly brought it over. I hope grandfather doesn’t blame me for my lack of manners.”
Yu Taixian exchanged glances with his little brother and received it with gentle laughter. “This child, still so polite when bringing me a gift.”
Song Xiao smiled but didn’t say much.
Yu laoyezi felt his heart itch and was anxious to open it up for a look, but according to Chinese etiquette, they shouldn’t open a present in front of the giver, so he gave his family’s grandson a meaningful glance. Only then did Yu Tang unhurriedly get up and pull Song Xiao up with him. “Let’s go ba; we’ll go downstairs to play for a while.”
Song Xiao took his meaning, and got up as well.
After the two of them left, Yu Taixian sighed. “A child with such good etiquette is really rare in this era!” There were very few in China who practised traditional etiquette, let alone among American Chinese. Youngsters now made a loud fuss before the elderly, and didn’t think carefully about what they said or did.
“Qu lao’s grandson definitely isn’t ordinary.” As he spoke, Yu Taiying wrested away the scroll in his brother’s hand and opened it in high spirits.
“Don’t touch it, this was given to me!” Once Yu Taixian was done sighing, he realised that his brother had opened his present, and immediately shouted loudly to stop him.
The scroll was a painting of a snowy night in a small town. The entire scroll was painted in streaks and splatters of black on white. A distant mountain, the cold snow, and the people who were out late during the snowy night were depicted in just a few strokes. In the upper right corner was a row of small words, ‘Snowy Night In A Small Town’, and an inscription of Qu lao’s alias as well as a scarlet seal.
“Good, good ah!” The pair of Yu brothers were very excited. Qu lao’s paintings were priceless, and it was obvious at a glance that this had just been drawn this year. Sure enough, as Song Xiao said, he had specifically requested this of his grandfather.
Regardless of how excited the two old men were, when the younger generation of the Yu family saw Yu Tang come out, the original smiles on their faces faded slightly as they gathered in twos and threes to whisper.
There were many deck chairs and beach umbrellas next to the courtyard pool, and an inflatable slide had been set up temporarily. The younger ones had already started playing, but the older ones were standing by the pool and drinking as they chatted.
“Who’s that?” Yu Mu pointed at Song Xiao and asked the person beside him.
“Him ah, that’s Yu Tang’s little footman. He’s been here quite a few times.” The other cousin curled his lip. “I think his name is… Song Xiao.”
Yu Mu blinked. He had recently heard his father mention this name often. He elbowed his elder sister, Yu Zhu, who was next to him. “Don’t you think this name is familiar? Father…”
Yu Zhu immediately gave him a stern gaze. “I’ve never heard this name before.”
Yu Mu met his sister’s eyes for a moment, and fell silent.
Yu Lang pretended not to have heard the siblings’ disagreement, and stepped forward with a smile of welcome. “Xiao Tang, why are you and your friend still dressed so prim and proper? If you don’t change, I’m going to get my brothers to splash you with water ah.”
Song Xiao looked at the courtyard filled with people: handsome men and beautiful women with good figures, blond women in bikinis and men whose muscles glistened conspicuously with oil. Furrowing his brow slightly, Song Xiao lowered his head. This scene of debauchery was really indecent. He said something to Yu Tang, and made to leave.
Since his wife was leaving, Yu Tang didn’t want to stay any longer either. He was about to follow Song Xiao, but was blocked by Camellia.
“Hi, Tang. I haven’t seen you at the recent school gatherings.” Camellia’s enthusiasm still hadn’t faded.
Yu Tang made a noncommittal sound and took Song Xiao with him to leave. “Sorry, ninth uncle. I have to send Song Xiao to his uncle’s place first; I’ll return in a while to celebrate your birthday.”
“Whoa!” As soon as he said the words, there were rowdy screams. A few youngsters rushed over with buckets to splash water right in both their faces.
Yu Lang was wearing swimming trunks, and smiled as he waited for Yu Tang to be humiliated.
Holding Song Xiao, Yu Tang bent down and did a roundhouse kick at the same time, instantly tripping those young men as the water in the buckets fell over their own heads with a splash.
“Sorry, it’s a conditioned reflex.” Yu Tang tidied his clothes and took Song Xiao away.
These people were Yu Lang’s friends. They had clearly heard Yu Tang say that he had to send his friend off, but had still tried to splash him with water; they were clearly being antagonistic. The great general standing on the side was a little annoyed that he hadn’t been able to save the emperor in time just now.
Thus, the Yu family bodyguards immediately stepped forward to block the group of noisy people, giving Yu Tang and Song Xiao a way out.
“What are you guys doing?” Yu Lang saw the bodyguards in black come over and was unhappy.
But the great general had no intention of explaining. On the side, Butler Cao noticed this, and indicated for the maids to bring over towels for the few drowned rats.
“Ninth shaoye, the guests are all here ne,” Butler Cao said with a smile, reminding Yu Lang to not cause trouble.
Yu Lang took a deep breath and went to console his friends.
“In any case, he’s still your elder. You shouldn’t have done that.” Sitting in the car, Song Xiao couldn’t help admonishing Yu Tang. It was now clear that Yu Tang didn’t get along well with anyone in the Yu family, which would be very disadvantageous for his future family affairs.
Yu Tang shot him a glance and passed him his handphone. Baffled, Song Xiao took it; there were three messages displayed on the screen.
“Little Tang ge, you’re coming back soon, no?”
“Yu Lang’s face is completely green, hahaha.”
“Grandfather will ask about this later; I know what to say.”
The three messages were from three different people, and all of them were surnamed Yu.
Fine ba; Song Xiao, who had worried that the emperor wouldn’t be able to rope in connections, had been worried for nothing. Song Xiao curled his lip and returned the phone to Yu Tang. On the surface, this fellow displayed an aloof appearance, while his friends who were hiding in the dark gathered even more intelligence.
This truly was the strategy of an emperor; he appeared utterly estranged from every official, but privately made every official feel that they were the emperor’s confidant.
Xiao Zhengqing was at the company, discussing the character design with the original artist. Seeing that Song Xiao had come, he immediately beckoned him over with a smile. “Xiaoxiao ah, come here; help me see which looks good.”
Song Xiao pulled Yu Tang over and introduced him to Xiao Zhengqing.
“Oh, so it turns out to be the Yu family’s prince.” Xiao Zhengqing really knew how to handle things, and he stood up to shake Yu Tang’s hand. “You’re the child of the main Yu house in A City ba. Haha, I even met you when you were young ne.”
Yu Tang didn’t remember this person at all; it was likely that he had come along for the liveliness of one of the many banquets. However, this person wasn’t anxious to worm his way into a relationship with Yu Tang, and his manner of speaking was also fine, so Yu Tang didn’t say much and called him uncle along with Song Xiao.
“Come, come, take a look at this.” Xiao Zhengqing gave them a few colourful drawings for a look.
“How cute.” Song Xiao couldn’t help reaching out to touch the small thing in the drawing.
In every drawing was a kitten. Some were gold in colour, some were snow-white, and some in a variety of other colours. There were several versions of each kitten.
“In this work, the lead characters are a family of kitties who are also an imperial household. So, not only does it have to be cute, it also needs to have a prominent Chinese classical art style.” Xiao Zhengqing frowned, then pushed a few gold cats towards Song Xiao.
These gold cats were renditions of one of the male leads. Some were moe kitties with heads three times the size of their body, some were handsome cats with unmistakably masculine figures, some were cats with large eyes in the style of typical American cartoons…
“This cat is of the imperial family; is this about a cat dynasty?” Yu Tang sneered. Could a cat become the emperor?
“That’s right, this is a Chinese novel I accidentally came across. It’s very interesting.” Once Xiao Zhengqing brought up this novel, he began to gabber nonstop. “This book is about a young chef from modern times who suddenly transmigrates into the ancient era. Due to an unexpected turn of events, he enters the imperial palace to serve the emperor. Then, he slowly realises that the entire imperial family consists of cats.”
“Ah?” Song Xiao felt that this was very unique. He had originally thought that it was about a fantasy, animal kingdom. Unexpectedly, it was about real society.
Xiao Zhengqing took out a book with a refined cover from his drawer and passed it to Song Xiao. “This is the English version; you should read it.”
This book was called ‘Delicacies Fill The Palace Hall’ and was very famous in China. Because of the subject matter, however, it couldn’t be turned into a movie, and domestic publications were repeatedly blocked. After it was translated into English, it was distributed in America.
The book was a hardcover. The title was written in cursive English at the top, while the bottom was signed with ‘Green Bird’.
“Alright, come help me pick a design.” Xiao Zhengqing opened the book and pointed at a few paragraphs that described the emperor, then had Song Xiao help him pick.
Song Xiao thought about it. “Even as a cat, an emperor must be proud and imposing, but for a movie, it can’t lose its cuteness either.”
First, he eliminated those large-eyed designs that were purely meant to sell cuteness; those were completely not in line with the design of an emperor. Then, he eliminated those handsome cats with normal proportions; after all, the book wrote that the emperor was just a small kitty. Song Xiao looked around, but there still weren’t any suitable ones.
“Lend me this book to read ba; when I’m finished, I’ll give you my opinion once more.” Song Xiao held the book up with a very keen expression.
“If you want to read it, then read the Mandarin edition.” Xiao Zhengqing pulled out another book from who knows where. The cover was brightly coloured, and looked quite cute.
Yu Tang glanced at the author’s name on the cover and raised his eyebrows. “Uncle Xiao, do you still need investments for this project?”
Hearing this, Xiao Zhengqing raised his head. “Of course. It really isn’t easy to get sponsors for this subject matter. Americans don’t really know about this; they only know of pandas, kung fu, and so on. Moreover, the box office for animated films can’t really compare with live-action movies.”
“This film would probably be very marketable in China.” Yu Tang casually flipped through the script.
“That’s right.” Xiao Zhengqing nodded in approval. Compared with American films which pursued popularity, animated films with Chinese elements had been very well received by audiences in the Chinese market in the past. If they heard that this script was adapted from a Chinese novel, it would definitely reap unimaginable results.
However, this was something Americans still didn’t comprehend. The film market in China had only just opened in the last two years, and all sides were still testing the waters. No one dared to rashly try out this sort of animation with purely Chinese elements.
While the two of them were speaking, Song Xiao had skimmed through several chapters on the side, and he laughed secretly to himself.
“What’s up?” Yu Tang turned his head and saw Song Xiao’s appearance, then went over to tap his head.
Song Xiao lifted his head to look at the emperor, then looked down at the emperor in the book. No wonder he had always felt that the emperor was like an animal; it turned out that he was like an arrogant and bad-tempered cat. Picking up a fountain pen, Song Xiao sketched out a few strokes on white paper, and a delicate and cute, yet dignified and imperious cat vividly appeared.
Little Theater
Xiaoxiao: Why do you want to support this film?
Fish Tang: Because it’s by a great author, and I want to use money to pay my respect to her
Xiaoxiao: Speak human words
Fish Tang: I’m her fanboy
Xiaoxiao: …
Green Bird: Nice to meet you, nice to meet you
Baobao Notes
Speaking of animated films, I highly recommend Nezha and I hear Legend of Hei is real good