Next One Is a Babe

Neither Cindy nor Gary said anything in response to this, but it wasn't as if she knew how to explain her present relationship with him either.

She glanced over at Otis and asked instead, "Do you think we look similar?"

Otis actually considered this as he assessed both their faces. He rubbed his chin and said, "I used to think there's some resemblance there, but I tend to be easily convinced by my own perceptions. Now that you've mentioned it, I don't think there are any similarities at all." He turned his gaze toward Cindy and asked, "Well, are you both related or not?"

Cindy gave Gary a perfunctory look, and he interjected without much implication, "No, we're friends."

Otis knew who lan was, and upon hearing Gary's answer, he immediately pressed, "Did you guys meet through lan?" He chuckled heartily before adding, "I have to admit that lan is a special kid. I don't think he has ever dropped off the press' radar before. The investors really have set their eyes on him, you know."

Cindy and Gary offered no explanation for this. They couldn't, and it didn't appear as if they needed to. Whether or not they had indeed met through lan made little to no difference to their dynamics. Meanwhile Otis probably thought that there was no other way for them to cross paths at all if it hadn't been for lan.

Cindy went along with the topic and said, "Perhaps he's trending right now, so the investors and fans are taking note of him at the moment."

Being an investor himself, Otis nodded. "Indeed, he's trending right now. I'm not going to lie-I did invest in a movie not too long ago, and I was planning on asking him to star in it. However, after I spoke with the other producers and investors, they decided to go with another guy. No offense, but lan carries with him a specific brand of risk that we just can't cover for now."

Cindy understood what he meant and said, "Well, you aren't wrong."

While young actors who starred in movies often started trending right around the time the movie premiered, they were expected to perform well. Otherwise, they would receive intense backlash from the public. The way Cindy saw it, it was a good thing for lan not to have been a part of the movie. He wasn't trained in performing arts, and the standards expected of him when it came to acting on the silver screen were much higher than those of his current line of work, and he might not be able to pull off what the audience wanted.

If that were to happen, the movie might bomb at the box office, and lan would be pelted with harsh criticism left, right and center.

Cindy honestly wished that he would return to working on music; it was something he liked, but ever since signing with the agency, his career was no longer centered around music. Perhaps most celebrities were aiming for acting on the big screen, soap operas as well as music, but as far as she was concerned, she still hoped furtively for lan to focus on what he did best so that he could make a name for himself.

If he were to go on doing something he did not have real talent for, he might never leave a strong enough impression among the producers and directors at best, or end up becoming the laughing stock of the industry at worst.

Perhaps lan's identity and status as a celebrity was too delicate a topic to dive into, for Otis quickly changed the subject and started asking about the dishes they had ordered instead.

Gary had been here before, so he knew enough about the menu to explain the specialty of every dish he had ordered earlier.

Meanwhile, Cindy kept quiet on the other side of the table. If she were lucky enough, she might not have to utter a single word throughout this lunch. After all, she had nothing to say to the men sitting across from her.

After speaking to Gary for a while, Otis turned to look at her and said, "There's no need to be so stiff, young lady. Join in the conversation. If you and Gary are friends, you don't have to be shy in front of me. Don't think of me as the head of the department-that'll make me awkward too."

Cindy flashed him a smile. She wasn't sure how he wanted her to see him if not the head of the department. In fact, she was so uneasy that she even began to see Gary as the head of her department. Whenever she thought about her job, she thought about Gary and how his presence was even more overwhelming than the actual head of the department.

It was an unsettling feeling to have. She considered the fact that she was a married woman now, and she couldn't help her guilt when she was in Gary's presence.

She sighed to herself.

Perhaps sensing her unnerved state, Gary glanced at her for a while. Then, he averted his gaze and went on to talk about investments with Otis.