Release that Man

One might have assumed some accidents would happen during the shoot to drag the plot out, but everything went smoothly. After taking the last scene on the balcony, the director announced the end of Ye Shuang’s part-time work with a loud and final “That’s a wrap!”

The remaining task was to squeeze out a few promotional pictures, which would be used as posters or flyers, but if there was really no time; the pictures would have to be directly taken from the video using software like photoshop.

Since the official work was over, the rest of the day would be reserved for personal issues. After exiting the apartment in her own clothes, Ye Shuang saw her target, who had come to fetch his own younger sister. She bounded toward him happily. Ignoring Miss Fang, she patted Fang Mo on his shoulder and asked with a raised eyebrow, “You guys going for dinner?”

“You’re planning to join us?” Fang Mo laughed internally. This friend of his had become less courteous to him, the better they knew each other. Instead of being offended, Fang Mo found this rather refreshing, having a close friend from the same sex that he didn’t need to be guarded around 24/7 wasn’t so bad. This relationship felt naturally and easy to Fang Mo; he didn’t feel the need to be formal and careful with his words like he was around other people.

He hummed contemplatively as he looked at the watch on his wrist. “The seafood supper buffet should be starting soon at the Conch Bay, how about we go there?”

Conch Bay was a famous seafood restaurant at San Lin City. It was famous not for how fancy it was but for its specialty seafood cuisine; the best part was that all the seafood was served fresh and could be prepared in many different ways, such as steam, stir-fry, stew, and barbeque. If anyone was in a mood for seafood in San Lin City, then Conch Bay should definitely be their first choice.

Ye Shuang’s main intention was to use dinner as a pretext to discuss her future career with Fang Mo to get his advice and opinions, but when she heard the mention of Conch Bay, her stomach started to grumble.

If I’m not mistaken, the way the buffet is done is for you to take the ingredient that you want and barbeque them yourself? Ye Shuang thought about it seriously and said, “I hear their ingredients are all fresh, and their accompanying sauces are also not bad… Sure, then let’s go to Conch Bay.”

If the ingredients were nice, coupled with Ye Shuang’s cooking skill, the result definitely would be pretty.

Ye Shuang’s current approach to eating out was, if she didn’t have to go to those immoral stalls that served chemically-enhanced food, then that would be for the best. She was quite afraid that Fang Mo would suddenly say, Let’s go take a spin around the night market.

Fang Mo’s assistant had arranged a celebratory dinner for the film crew. Everyone knew the Fang family siblings were close friends of Ye Shuang, so they didn’t think twice when they saw the trio leave the scene together. After all the arrangements had been made, the two parties separated, each heading toward their destination restaurant.

…

Since it was supper buffet, of course, it was self-service.

“You prefer them barbequed or fried?” The three separated into their designated tasks when they arrived at Conch Bay; Fang Mo went to pay, Ye Shuang—the chef—went to pick up the ingredients and sauces, while Miss Fang… Go book our seats, don’t just stand there and stop the world from spinning!

Ye Shuang rolled up her sleeves as she raided the fridge containing all the fresh seafood. She said confidently, “If neither of you have any specific eating habit, I suggest we go for a barbeque. This seafood is so fresh that it’ll taste marvelous with a little squirt of lemon.”

Fang Mo had tried Sister Shuang’s cooking a few days earlier, and he only had praise for it, but he hadn’t tried Brother Shuang’s cooking skill before. Thinking about the fact that this couple’s names even matched each other’s, Fang Mo believed Brother Shuang’s talents wouldn’t be so different from his girlfriend’s.

But if he was really a horrible cook… see those waiters standing at ready?

Therefore, Fang Mo went to pay the bill without any further thought. After he got seated at the table, Ye Shuang soon returned with a few full plates of seafood. Ye Shuang tossed several fresh oysters onto the steel bars and got straight to the point. “Brother Fang, I have something to ask you.”

Fang Mo was first startled, and then he couldn’t help himself from laughing out loud. “And here I thought you’d at least start with some casual conversation.”

“Casual conversation? Why?” Ye Shuang was confused. “I came to you because I do need to discuss something with you.”

When Ye Shuang had sidled up to them to ask about dinner, Fang Mo already knew he had something he wanted to ask him about. After all, no one would go for a chat so late at night, especially after finishing a long day of work. However, Fang Mo hadn’t thought that Ye Shuang would be so direct; they hadn’t even had a bite to eat yet, and he had already cut to the chase, if not for the fact that he knew about his personality, Fang Mo would definitely have a bad impression of Ye Shuang.

But since it was Ye Shuang, Fang Mo naturally didn’t think he was eager to take advantage of him, but rather, he saw it as unpretentious and natural. This was the difference between a friend and a stranger.

“Go on, I’m listening.” Fang Mo shook his head helplessly. After handing the utensils to Fang Fei, he turned toward Ye Shuang to show that he had his full attention.

To put it plainly, Ye Shuang had sought out Fang Mo for career planning consultation.

Due to various limitations, Ye Shuang couldn’t get a normal nine to five job, but she couldn’t just abandon the idea of working either.

Ye Shuang had to reach out to a wider circle of people because she needed to secure an income source as well as a channel to get to know some high-quality male candidates. Therefore, having a stable career was a must.

A normal individual wouldn’t have access to a social circle that was varied as Fang Mo’s, so among Ye Shuang’s group of friends, Fang Mo was the only one who could offer a proper solution to her problem.

“In other words, technically, you’re not averse to taking any short-term jobs and have no limitations, but since you cannot find a platform that can stably and constantly offer such jobs, you came to me for advice‽”

After hearing Ye Shuang out, Fang Mo was silent for a while, probably to clear his thoughts, before saying, “It sounds very similar to personal task completion services… but Xiao Ye, you know this kind of company theoretically doesn’t exist. For one, as the job scope cannot be defined, it is not strictly legal, and two, it’ll be too hard to find a target audience.”

“I also know this issue is a bit of a headache, so that’s why I came to you.” Ye Shuang served a cooked oyster directly from the barbeque netting as a bribe. The oyster meat looked juicy, and coupled with the secret sauce, a heavy hint of the delicious aroma rose to cover Fang Mo’s nostrils.

Fang Fei glanced at her own creation. The meat was not as juicy as his; even the smell wasn’t as delicious as his.

With a twist of her chopsticks, she stole her own creations away from the netting to put on her own plate before Ye Shuang could take them away. Fang Fei lowered her head and started to stuff herself. Humph! I cooked these for myself to begin with! It’s definitely not because I’m too ashamed to serve these next to his!