Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Before she could continue with her sarcastic remarks, Wei Shuojie slapped her on the shoulder in frustration.

”Oh, just shut up! I haven’t died from overworking myself to the bone, but you’re about to disgust me to death!”

Ni Bingyan stared at her with lifeless eyes. ”Isn’t this the kind of disgusting thing you want me to do?”

Wei Shuojie fell silent.

Ni Bingyan preferred to let her skills do the talking. Sister Wei, on the other hand, had reached middle age and grown more worldly; she believed that sometimes, connections were more important than anything else.

”Sister Wei, believe me. Connections might be enough to stand out from the crowd, but if you want to reach the very top, you have to rely on yourself.

”Your suggestion is a good one, but please forgive me, I have to refuse.

”Just as I’m unwilling to go fishing with directors and executives, I’m also unwilling to spend my days hunched over a canvas, painting only to give the pieces away as showpieces for others to flaunt.”

Worried that Sister Wei wouldn’t be able to let it go, she added, ”The masters who invited me to the art exhibition said my paintings are full of life, with a natural, charming innocence, free of the artificiality that can come from formal training. Creating art is different from a manufacturing process; it reflects the artist’s inner world. The moment my heart becomes mercenary and ugly, the art I create will be nothing but trash. Far from being treated as treasures, even if I managed to give them away, they would only earn me the critique that my fame is undeserved.”

This time, Wei Shuojie’s silence lasted even longer.

Ni Bingyan didn’t press her. Instead, she went outside to check on the construction worker, then brewed a pot of chrysanthemum tea in the kitchen and brought it out to him, having noticed that he had already finished the water he’d brought with him.

The living room was spacious and empty. As the last rays of the setting sun shone on her through the glass window, the sound of Ni Bingyan chopping vegetables—CHOP, CHOP, CHOP—drifted from the kitchen. Only then did Wei Shuojie let out a long sigh.

’I’m not as clear-headed as she is.’

If she had understood this principle just a few years earlier, she never would have wasted so much time on pointless networking.

Ni Bingyan might seem as busy as a bee all day, never going out with friends, never eating out with anyone, and rarely even calling or texting, but she maintained her relationships remarkably well.

It was because she never engaged in pointless networking.

To put it pragmatically, aside from a small, close-knit group of friends, everyone else in her circle was someone useful to her who also had good character.

How could anyone dislike someone like her, who remembered every collaborator’s birthday and never forgot to send gifts for holidays, even when she was away on set?

Especially since her gifts were always so spot-on.

For example, during the Lunar New Year last year, not a single person in her own family of four disliked the gifts Bingyan had prepared for them.

Likewise, not a single director or actor she had ever worked with had a bad word to say about her. Several producers even contacted Sister Wei afterward to invite Ni Bingyan to star in new films and television series. If her schedule hadn’t been so packed, she would have accepted all of their offers.

”Sister Wei, I’m making an extra dish tonight. When the bricklayer is done, we can all eat together. I don’t know if you’ll have time?”

With a SIZZLE, the scored carp slid into the wok.

Wei Shuojie immediately understood what she meant. Ni Bingyan was asking if she minded eating with a stranger—the bricklayer.

If she minded, she could use the excuse of not having time to leave early.

’So who says she doesn’t understand people?’

Wei Shuojie wasn’t sure why she ever had the impression that Ni Bingyan didn’t understand social graces.

’It wasn’t that she didn’t understand; she just refused to kowtow to anyone.

’She was always so perfectly considerate.’

Having figured this out, Wei Shuojie smiled, relieved. ’Fine,’ she thought, ’I’ll just listen to her on this.’

”Even the busiest person has to eat! You’re making fish—how could I possibly not have time?”

The fresh, wild carp, caught right from the lake, was exceptionally delicious in Ni Bingyan’s hands. Every time she made it, Wei Shuojie would devour a huge bowl of rice.

For someone who was perpetually on a diet, this was incredible. But after meeting Ni Bingyan, it had become a matter of course.

’Eating this dish without carbs would just feel wrong.’

Seeing that she had agreed, Ni Bingyan went to the vegetable rack and pulled out a bag of tender sweet peas.

”I’ll stir-fry another one of your favorite vegetable dishes.”

”Let me help you cook!”

Seeing that she no longer brought up the paintings, Ni Bingyan smiled.

”You can shell these peas, then. I’m going to go have a word with the worker.”

The worker was an experienced man in his fifties, and his work was excellent. The property management office had been very thorough when they found him, worried that Ni Bingyan might be dissatisfied.