"There are two things that we need to pay attention to and follow up on this matter now."

To be sure, Malibu's cliff mansion was a bit bleak at night, with most of the rooms on the three floors darkened, except for a lone lamp peeking through one window in the small living room, bravely casting the light into the darkness of the night. Jenny was sitting on the sofa in the living room, wearing a loose T-shirt and sweatpants, crossed one leg, and holding a cup of flower tea in her hand - very homely, but her tone was as serious as if she was attending an industry summit, "The first point is of course whether Bob's permission was taken by the main department, and the second point is The Hunger Games, Jim, are you sure that our email or anything is not leaking?" ”

Jim stood by the door, picked up the coffee pot in his hand, he filled himself with a cup of coffee, and then shook his head, "Big Dream's network security has always been the best in the film and television company, we use a double firewall, and the usual management is also very strict, you will almost never have the chance to come into contact with the virus, even if there is, it is generally limited to one computer, it is difficult to invade the network unnoticed, and, about the fact that you want to buy "The Hunger Games", even I only found out tonight-"

"Sift through the internal mail and messenger records to see if there is any mention of the Hunger Games, maybe an employee has received the message by accident," Cesare's expression was of course the most calm, but Jenny didn't trust his mask very much right now, and since he said, 'I'm learning by doing', she didn't think she could guess Cesare's true emotions from his performance, because before he said it, Jeanne really thought he was over the course and could come up with a solution in the blink of an eye in the face of any unexpected situation. "There may still be unintentional leaks, although not very big - this is a company that is inextricably linked to Disney after all."

Jenny and Jim both nodded wordlessly, not denying his speculation, there are many times, things are so coincidental, so evil, this possibility cannot be denied, and verifying this conjecture first can also make people feel a little more relieved, without having to face a very embarrassing and tricky fact immediately, although the probability of looking at it now is as high as 80% - although neither Jeanne nor Cesare have taken the initiative to talk about The Hunger Games to outsiders, but the question is, in their own company, will the conversation be so careful? Will you be so careful? Either the company has a mole, or Disney headquarters has sent commercial spies to Big Dream, anyway, no matter what the possibility is, for executives who may guess Big Dream's interest in "The Hunger Games", there will inevitably be a nerve-wracking screening process next.

However, this is all a later story, the most important thing now is the copyright competition, as well as an in-depth understanding of the whole situation, Cesare also tacitly did not stay on this point for too long, but opened the laptop, and concisely introduced the situation, "In our first round of tentative inquiry, I asked for the copyright offer of more than 20 IPs, and Disney selected five of them to enter the game to compete with us - the Holy Grail Artifact series, a series of novels, three have been published, and the sales are very good, and the best-selling novels are on the list, There is also "Host", which is also a boutique IP in the YA (YoungAdult) theme, the "Ender's Game" series, an enduring work with a YA theme, and a classic work across the science fiction theme, as well as "Hugo. The Invention of Cabritt, of course, Dan. Brown's "Lost Symbols" did not let go, but this is difficult to say that it is aimed at big dreams, because although this work is a series, but a writer of Dan's level, of course, needs to fight for copyright, and he can't exclusively license anything to Sony, it can only be said that Sony has a certain advantage. ”

"These are all relatively popular IPs," Jenny frowned, understanding the meaning of Cesare's words - the main part of the work is still relatively subtle, and it doesn't leave too many people to say, after all, these novels all have their own advantages, to say that it only attracts Disney's attention because Big Dream is interested, that Big Dream is somewhat too narcissistic, "Only "Hugo" is relatively unpopular...... It seems that Dick is also afraid of angering Bob and does not want to give Bob an excuse to get angry...... It should be unlikely that Bob will approve of this, but it will be difficult for us to get Bob to support us - the copyright dispute over several works is a minor issue after all, and if we protest, the best outcome can only be co-development. ”

Cesare nodded, "I think the same way, and that's why I didn't call Bob in the first place - maybe Dick was expecting us to do that, and that's what he really meant by the offers for these films." ”

If Disney is a big family, and Big Dream is a well-loved, but after all, half of the bloodline does not belong to the illegitimate son of the family, then this department is the rightful heir, although Robert, the head of the family, loves the youngest son, but he must be fair in handling things, even a little bit of bias, otherwise it will be difficult for him to deal with himself. If Big Dream goes to sue as soon as he is bullied by the department, even if he is facing Big Dream, Robert will be difficult to do, not to mention that although Bob is also happy to see Big Dream grow, he must still want to see the performance of the department improve, and it is very likely that he may not be able to dream of it. Calling at this time may not only affect the relationship between Big Dream and Robert, but also lose room for maneuver - what if Robert pulls the strings, Big Dream and the main department are in tune? Big dreams or not? It's uncomfortable to shoot or not, it's uncomfortable to be aggrieved if you don't shoot, and you shoot the bag, in short, when the department relies on the six major identities to crush the big dream, it's very uncomfortable for the big dream to resist, which may be the original sin of being a small company.

"What about The Hunger Games?" Jenny doesn't pay much attention to a few □□, Cesare said that there are tragic street works in these IPs, and there are also box office works that barely return to the original and a little profitable work, but the only profitable "Hugo" box office is not very much, and it is a 3D film, produced by a big director, which means that the producer's profits are reduced and the payback time is extended, it is a pity to abandon it like chicken ribs, if Disney is interested in taking it, it will be done well, anyway, it is not her money that is losing - she is now concerned about the copyright trend of "The Hunger Games", " What is the offer from Disney? ”

"Of course, this news cannot be known from the author's side," Cesare tugged at the corners of his lips - his movements suddenly paused, and after a moment he continued, "just as the headquarters must have gotten the news of The Hunger Games from within us, we can only get their offer from the headquarters, but we certainly can't compete with the headquarters in terms of money - if we only have the headquarters, we may be able to fight for a while, but ......"

"You mean—" Jenny didn't think of this, she couldn't help but ask, but soon understood herself, and the expletives came out of her mouth, "Shit! He's a scoundrel - he didn't even want to buy The Hunger Games, he just wanted to sabotage our plans! ”

"What?" Jim looked up in shock, he had been typing on the keyboard before, "Why do you say that?" Does the main part want to buy "The Hunger Games"? ”

"If the Ministry wanted to buy it, it wouldn't have made a public offer to Susan," Jenny said bitterly, "at least not allow Susan's agent to go around informing about it - we haven't shown any obvious interest yet, we just asked about the Hunger Games copyright, and the rights agent's phone calls have reached Cesare, which means—"

Jim let out a long gasp, and this time, even his face was surprised: knowing that Dameng had asked more than 20 works, Disney suddenly made an offer for six of them, and one was a little-known work, and I hadn't heard of Dameng asking for a price. At the very least, the strategic concealment has been completely lost, as long as 2 out of 10 companies will associate "The Hunger Games", Big Dream, and Smokescreen, then the road to Big Dream to buy the copyright will have infinite troubles and obstacles, even if the headquarters can't successfully buy the copyright in the end, Big Dream will be difficult to become the last person to receive - will do this, the CEO of the department, Dick. Cook is already clearly going to tear up his face with Big Dream: If I can't buy it, you don't want to buy it, and you can even say that the point is not that I can buy it, the point is that you can't buy it......

"OK, OK," Jim, who was still a little unhappy because he didn't get the news firsthand, has now completely let go of his little emotions, and stood with Jenny and Cesare, and became angry with the enemy, he shook his head, his tone was shocked and angry, obviously not yet recovered from the shock, and said a long series of 'OK' before asking, "So what should we do now, should we join this game and continue to be humiliated by the headquarters?" Or—"

Judging from his statement, Jim has indeed lost confidence in Big Dream, or rather, although he has grown a lot in a few years of experience, Jim is still not good at confrontational thinking - let him hide behind the scenes and be a black hand, which is no problem, but directly with the weak and strong, with the small body of Big Dream to carry the big fist of the headquarters, he instinctively wants to avoid this bloody conflict.

"Stop it now, as if this incident didn't happen, you can indeed play tricks and keep some mystery for the outside world, so that they can doubt whether they are too careful." Jenny said what Jim didn't finish, "Of course, just like you said, it can also avoid losing face and letting the outside world see the struggle within the group......"

If according to Jenny's previous thoughts, everyone has been hit in the face, and she can still be surnamed Chen with her color? But now, after Cesare's many brainwashing teachings, Seeingthebigpicture has also become a habit of thinking for her: from the company's point of view, the situation is already like this, and then rushing up and tearing the headquarters upside down, it will affect the fairy tale series developed by the two sides together, and the cost of fighting is very high, and the big dream and the headquarters have signed a cooperation agreement, and the big dream has not left Disney's plan in the short term, on the contrary, it will buy Disney shares and become a shareholder, endure this breath, do not come forward to compete with the headquarters, let the headquarters successfully win this doomed work, and then get some comforting rewards from Robert, which is also a very safe coping strategy.

However......

She glanced at Cesare, wanting to confirm his attitude towards the matter, "What do you think, Cesa?" ”

Surprisingly, Cesare was not as engrossed in the discussion as he had before, and he was hanging his head and not knowing what to think, a finger tapping mechanically on the dial, until Jeanne called him again, and he shook his shoulder and came to his senses. "What?"

"Do you think in our current form we've really lost all hope of winning The Hunger Games?" Jenny stared at him curiously and repeated her question, "Big Dreams always have some unique advantages, I don't know, apart from money and distribution channels, we can always come up with something to impress Susan-"

"Is Big Dream completely out?" After a brief moment of distraction, Cesare looked like he was completely back to normal, and he groaned a little before shaking his head, "I don't think yet, as you said, we still have some chances to win, but what needs to be considered is the aftermath of Big Dream's fight for the copyright." ”

"You mean—" Jenny said, "Bob's opinion?" ”

"After this trick, Big Dream re-entered the game and viciously ate the copyright of this film, which undoubtedly put the contradictions between the two sides on the table - just like Warner's infighting, becoming a laughing stock in the industry, and maybe even in the news, which of course will not make Bob too happy, in addition, it will also have an impact on our fairy tale adaptation." Cesare's answer really mentioned Jenny's previous concerns, which made her nod her head slightly, feeling that she had achieved a small victory, "In addition, there is Paramount's reaction after the contradiction became public, we and Paramount already have a grudge first, if the Big Six are now afraid of the hacker information we may have in our hands, Paramount no longer needs to bear this threat, and our son in Paramount has been cashed out." Now, knowing that Disney isn't monolithic and that we don't get a lot of support from within the group, what will Paramount do? It's something we can't predict. And what about Sony? What about Universal? We don't have a deep friendship with these two, even Fawkes-"

"Fox should be fine there." When Cesare's inquiring eyes fell on Jenny, she said quickly, "Kevin was very fond of our 'magic software' today, and I could feel that Fawkes was more covetous to me than jealous, and it seemed like they were eager to win us over, especially after 'magic software' - of course, the few projects we talked about today were also very helpful." Actually, as long as we are given enough time, I think Universal will also change its attitude, even Sony should not be a problem......"

As she spoke, she also hesitated: according to the original strategy of Big Dream, it seems that now is indeed not a good time to turn against the headquarters and externalize the contradictions, and the reason why the strategy of this whole 'magic software' with attractive projects is effective is based on the rising status of Big Dream in Disney and the seemingly monolithic foundation of the entire group......

"Thatmotherfucker," Jim apparently thought of the same thing as her, and he scolded indignantly, "Damn Dick. Cook, not even the beast will bite the hand that feeds him - and we've even chosen to throw the first piece of meat to him! ”

"That's because of the difference in perception," even Jenny has seen enough brazenness and ruthlessness in the business world for many years, but she can't help but laugh now, "In your eyes, this piece of meat is a gift of peace to it, but in its eyes, it's a humiliation - I guess Dick thinks that all fairy tale adaptations are his territory, and he must feel that we are slapping him in the face when we come up with this project, and he must have responded." ”

"It's a possible motive," Cesare said coldly as he rolled up his sleeves to reveal his pale golden arms, "Besides, we have been on the Robert route from the beginning, which should have made Dick feel neglected and pressured, which was a public relations mistake, and if we had been focusing on maintaining relationships over the years, we might not have cultivated this dangerous internal enemy." - Actually, if you look at it from another angle, this is also a protest by Dick to Bob, who thinks that Bob is paying too much attention to the specific business of film, which makes him the CEO of the six major film departments, but he has never been able to find the presence of his peers, and Big Dream actually acted as a punching bag in this incident. Acknowledging this may be crucial for us to understand the situation. ”

Of the six existing Hollywood companies today, only Disney is a completely independent media group, not a subsidiary or media division of a consortium - Sony bought Columbia, News Corp. owns Fox, Viacom takes Paramount, Universal is part of Kongscart, and Warner, needless to say, after merging with Time Group to become Time Warner, they also became a division of the consortium, only Disney, from Walter. Since Disney started the company, it has survived on its own, growing step by step to the size it is today. This also makes the CEO of the Disney group traditionally from Disney movies: this is the first company founded by Walt, and it has always been the company's core business, Disney is a movie-driven group, which drives the profits of Disneyland through continuous movies, and also supports various explorations of Disney TV, so the CEO of the group interferes more with specific movies than the rest of the large companies, and it is more ordinary, which objectively does compress the presence of Disney movie CEOs, which also made Dick's position a little awkward - Paramount's Brad. Gray, Fox's Jim. Gian Ropoulos, Warner's Jeff. Robinoff, this is all a prince-like existence in the group, in their own small film kingdom, they are the king, even if they report to the board of directors and upper leaders, they also enjoy very much discretion and decision-making power, but Dick feels constrained within the group, since the era of "Pirates of the Caribbean", the important decisions of Disney's big productions have been made by the CEO of the group, his role is quite limited, more like the role of a big housekeeper.

This feeling of being close to things should make Robert feel safe and satisfy his desire for power, but of course it is another matter for Dick, and whether his protest is justified or not - this is not determined by the big dream, it depends on Robert's will, if Robert feels that his appeal is justified, then this is an absolutely legitimate idea, and conversely, if Robert thinks that Dick's ambition is a bit excessive, then he will not stay in the position of CEO of the film department for a short time......

Almost instantly, Jenny understood Cesare's hint of this line of thought, and she frowned, "This is indeed a good opportunity to get Dick out, but Bob is not a fool, and even if you succeed in influencing his opinion of Dick and making him determined to kick Dick, it can't be done in an instant. How long has Eisner been in the position of CEO of the group? More than three years, of course, Dick can't be compared to him, but that doesn't really help the immediate difficulties, does it? ”

"Indeed, there is no point in discussing this now," although Big Dream is facing a more difficult problem in front of him, but this kind of dialogue between the two sides that you chase after me and don't have to waste any time on explanations is actually enjoyable for both parties, Cesare glanced at Jim, who was still blinking desperately, and showed a fleeting smile, he stood up and pushed a whiteboard from the corner, "Let's sort out the situation and figure out how many strategic lines we have at our disposal in the current situation - first of all, It was our 'Cake Sharing' plan in Italy, and it now seems that it has at least won us over Fox, which, according to Jenny, will be our staunchest ally for a short time, and we have identified four anchorages on this chaotic shore. ”

He drew three circles on the whiteboard, two of which were crossed, "Warner, Fox Security, Motobu and Paramount, Jeopardy." Universal, Sony, unknown. ”

Now that it is confirmed that Big Dream is going to embark on a difficult and glorious path, then in the next period of time, Big Dream will instead be committed to hiding his ambitions, in exchange for a period of peaceful development, this is the common idea of Jeanne and Cesare, and the two sides are the most honest in history, Jeanne only exposed the last of her underwear, using advanced knowledge and her super strategic deployment ability, Cesare also outlined the development path for Big Dream in the next few years, which can make Big Dream sacrifice as little as possible, or not sacrifice at all, win-win with the Big Six, and at the same time dispel the hostility of the Big Six to Big Dreams, and rise to become the Seventh Big as peacefully as possible - this idea is actually quite obvious now, that is, to distribute the cake, and hold what Jenny knows, the copyright or production advantage in the hands of the Big Six, and some movies that are still dormant are regarded as genius ideas of Big Dreams, and given to the Big Six as gifts, and do it with them.

To be honest, this idea also made Jenny feel a certain amount of frustration, and there was a feeling of being defeated intellectually head-on, in fact, some things are as simple as that, a problem of thinking around a bend, but she has enjoyed the prophetic advantage for so many years, she just didn't think about using the resources in her hand so much, or thinking about digging up a good project without an owner first, she didn't think about taking the cornucopia of someone else's house, everyone got rich together, and she had to let others thank her after it was over......

is like a fairy tale adaptation series with Disney, in Jenny's heart, she gave up this project, because this is not a high-quality project that relies on the quality of the film, but focuses more on the qualifications of the production company, relying on Disney's strong publicity and distribution capabilities, and making the original quality of the film very good in the world - this kind of planning film has extremely high requirements for the ability of the distributor, and global distribution is the shortcoming of the big dream, but Cesare proposed that since fairy tales have no copyright at all, Then let the big dream take the lead, the headquarters cooperates, and half of the cake is given to the headquarters, which can be regarded as the favor given by the big dream...... In fact, if it weren't for the head office CEO Dick. Cook's hostility to Big Dream has accumulated to a point that is difficult to reverse, under the aura of 'Big Dream Production, Must Be a Boutique', a minimum of five, with an investment of 100 million, the box office must be 400 million, 500 million or even higher in the world, counting the periphery, the whole plate is at least nearly 10 billion big cake, Big Dream is willing to share half of him, normal people are just how uncomfortable, in front of such a sincere meeting ceremony, they will be somewhat moved.

As for Fox, Universal and other 'outsiders', in addition to those high-quality series of their own homes, Jenny has also prepared a 'magic software' gift package, to be honest, this is purely a means to deceive people, nothing more than to apply grease and powder for the big dream, with a new concept of sweet mouth, to make a carrot. Crawling keywords and other big data statistics,It is indeed the trend of Hollywood for a period of time in the future,But this should be cross-platform retrieval,And it must also be systematic、Standardized service,That's not at all what Big Dream's own technical department can do in a few months,Jenny is now really asking Jim to engage in Facebook-based scraping software,Regularly crawl user Po articles related to "Avatar",And then save it for employees to watch the summary in batches,But this is just to improve the efficiency of manual search, Her main purpose is not to do big data, but to store network feedback in the event that "Avatar" will explode, and prepare materials for possible future research. Fooling Kevin with this set is to add a little more chips to the scales and make Fox's position more friendly, which is a small trick that benefits but does not cost.

――What should I do if the scam is exposed? That's not a problem at all, Big Dream was going to use 'Bob's will' as an excuse to hang Fox, they were going to see 'shareware' as a symbol of falling out with Disney, and since the prospects of such software looked really good, Fox had nothing to say about it - if it wasn't good, why would they want it? So normally, Fox can't hang himself from a tree, it will definitely be multi-pronged, and in just a few months to a year, the concept of big data and cloud data will become popular, in addition to Facebook, Youtube, Netflix and other websites will launch their own big data services, using user tracks to generate revenue for themselves, and in the next few years, Netflix will also be the first to use big data for film and television production, and at that time, Take a batch of TV series produced by Netflix, among the TV series that have invested heavily in production, the ones that have really been well received and formed a trend are "House of Cards" and "Women's Prison", and there are also mediocre TV series such as "Hemlock Bush", big bad dramas such as "Marco Polo", which shows that big data is not a magic answer to all questions, it is nothing more than a new way of thinking. And this mode of deep customization is still difficult to transplant to public television or big screens, and with the blooming of the supply market, the emergence of the first brave man to eat crabs, Fox and other companies can no longer worry about Big Dream's self-made software, even if Big Dream admits that the project failed, they have nothing to say, this is exploration after all, no one stipulates that Big Dream's project cannot fail.

Of course, this is just an add-on, and the real weight is still those projects with potential - because of creative differences with director Ang Lee, Fox is now temporarily stranded "Life of Pi" (this film belongs to the kind that has long been sold and was bought by Fox before Jenny thought about it), Universal is still a secondary production, and "Fast and Furious", which is not highly valued...... For these companies that originally held the copyright, but could not get the attention they deserved for many reasons, the intervention and allocation of Big Dreams, and the transformation can bring the most valuable thing to Fox and Universal - confidence in the box office, which is also equivalent to sharing the six most feared, Big Dreams' unique weapons - Jennifer's intuition that is optimistic about one hit after another, at least before these movies are finished, Fox and Universal will not turn their faces with Big Dreams, and suppressing Big Dreams is also tantamount to suppressing themselves, Everyone knows that there are pearls in their family's copyright library, Jennifer picks one for you, that is, it is a big seller to make one, even if it is a joint venture production at the box office, most people are willing to pay this money, offending the big dream, Jennifer will not pick it for you in the future, you still have to continue to gamble, does that taste good? How good is it for everyone to earn money together? It's good that the big dream is advancing, but while the big dream is advancing, I'm also moving forward, so what's there to worry about?

According to Cesare's original vision, Big Dream will be twisted with the remaining five of the Big Six to form a synergy, creating an island effect on Paramount, a situation that may not be visible in a year or two, but as the cooperative films are released one by one, one by one, Brad . Gray's position as CEO is estimated to be shaky, quite dangerous, even if it's just to stabilize his position, I'm afraid he will take the initiative to show favor to Big Dream at that time, and relying on the rich share of the cooperative movie, Big Dream also has the opportunity to focus on his own master series: comic adaptation, YA novel adaptation, and low-cost three vulgar comedies, these three series cover high, medium and low productions, and they are also the most difficult genre works to hit the street in the next few years, 6 years, enough time for Big Dream to obtain a very rich copyright library, Leave Lionsgate far behind and form its own momentum of development - at that time, the copyright library of Big Dream will present a very strange phenomenon: the copyright library of many companies may be mixed, and a large number of junk copyright dripping stones are accumulating income, but there will be no defective products in Big Dream's copyright library, and each one is a high-quality product, a super high-quality product, and a legendary boutique that can make others drool...... At that time, even if there is no pre-knowledge advantage, it can be regarded as a complete restart, but with such a copyright library and the strategic advantages accumulated in the past ten years, if the big dream cannot be done again, it will indeed be a lack of ability, and it will be difficult to complain about the time and place.

And with such a prospect in the first place, Jenny does have to weigh the cost of wanting to tear her face with Disney Hon, tearing her face itself may not be a thing, she may be sure enough to take Dick. Cook defeated, but if this indirectly led to the failure of the layout, this is no longer to be described as heartache and loss, which will completely interfere with the development strategy of Big Dream, and may make the dream come to naught-

"Through the tentative inquiry some time ago, the attitude of all parties is no longer a fog," Cesare added two chess pieces of Universal and Sony, "After the first round of testing, we did not immediately encounter targeted price increases, which shows that Paramount is at least not so hostile to us now, and they do not want to escalate the conflict, and the calm attitude of the remaining four companies such as Universal and Sony also shows that at this stage they do not regard Big Dream as a threat that needs to be dealt with immediately, Even the value of cooperation with Big Dream is better than the value of hostility, but Disney took the initiative to jump out and scare everyone. ”

He paused, took a few steps back, brushed away the blonde hair that fell in front of him, squinted his blue eyes and looked at the whiteboard, as if thinking about something, and after a while, he lengthened his voice and continued, "This shows that the situation of Big Dream is far from being as bad as we think, Disney is not our only pillar, maybe in the current situation, we can take another approach......"

Neither Jenny nor Jim, who had just kept up, sat up straight and looked at Cesare expectantly - in their eyes that could almost be described as admiration, the corners of Cesare's lips curled up reservedly, he crossed his arms and walked to the whiteboard, clearing his throat, "Tomorrow, Disney's big move should spread all over Hollywood, and whether Big Dream will make a corresponding offer for The Hunger Games will definitely be the focus of the other five major concerns, and we will ......"

#

It was a long and tiring day for Jeanne, and after driving to Cameron's studio early in the morning, her spirit was in a state of tension, and she didn't get a respite until late at night - with Cesare and her habits, any business venture would go through countless repeated discussions and even rehearsals and simulations before it was implemented, and different plans for different changes in the situation would be really put into practice, and because of the urgency of time, this work could not be postponed to tomorrow. We have to settle our minds tonight. They and Jim were busy with it for most of the night: although they didn't need Jim in theory, he, unlike Lillian, was still interested in these things, and it was not unavoidable to take him with them.

After 11 p.m., Jim finally declared himself dead, called a pause to go to the kitchen to practice his cooking skills, and complained for the 10,000th time that there was no takeaway, and the group also entered the intermission, Jenny took the opportunity to hide on the terrace outside the small living room, picked up a cigarette, and held a lighter to make a celestial battle: she could smoke it or not, but she was too tired to lift her spirits - oh, it turned out that the basil that had been planted the other day could also be seen from here......

There was a sudden thrust and pull in the direction of the glass door, and then a faint smell of smoke wafted out—Cesare had somehow returned from the bathroom to the living room, and a cigarette was already in his mouth.

According to Jeanne's knowledge of him, although Cesare often smoked, he almost never took the initiative to smoke, except in social occasions, she looked at Cesare's particularly sculptural face in the shadows, and the indifferent expression of joy and anger, and hesitated to know whether to come out of hiding-she was in a dark place, and judging by Cesare's preoccupied behavior, he may not have noticed her, and it would be rude to interrupt his personal time now......

It was evident that Cesare was a very polite member of the meeting, and he did not mean to step out of the balcony, but opened the door only for the convenience of ventilation - with one hand in his pocket, a cigarette in the other, his blonde hair fluttering in the sea breeze, but his expression became more and more cold, as if he had been caught up in his own thoughts...... He smoked a whole cigarette with great speed, much faster than usual, and even did something very rare for him: he threw the cigarette butt onto the balcony and crushed it several times with one foot on the ground.

Cesare stretched out his hand and rubbed it on his face a few times, then lowered his head and took out his phone, quickly unlocked the keypad and pressed the number, he leaned against the wall, pressed his forehead with one hand, tapped his temple lightly, and held the phone with the other—his fingers also tapping rhythmically on the fuselage.

Cesare had known Cesare for 8 years, and they had gone through so many ups and downs, too many anxious and nervous moments, but Cesare almost never behaved like this - it was obvious that this was a sign of anxiety, and Jeanne really didn't know what to say, she instinctively held her breath, not even knowing how to remind herself of her existence -

In the whistling of the sea breeze, the faint ringtone of colored bells drilled into her ears, and not long after, the ringing was interrupted, and a female voice responded with a smile, "Hello? Cesare? ”

"Is that you?" Cesare closed his eyes and asked in a low voice, his hand running back and forth over his forehead - an expression that had not even appeared on the night that Lillian had broken up with him by escaping marriage -

Jeanne was speechless, she looked at Cesare in shock, at his expression—for the first time in years, at an expression of pain, anger, and loss, and that she had never even thought that he would have such a moment of self-control, such anxiety and depression, and she didn't even know how to describe the feeling of the moment, like a doll suddenly becoming a person, those human details, that feeling-

"Tell me, is that you?"

There was silence on the other end of the line, except for Cesare's calm questioning voice, which was blown by the wind and fell into her ears in pieces, "Is that you?" ”

Without waiting for the other party's answer, after a few seconds of stalemate, he took the phone away from his ear, stared at it for a moment, hung up the phone, and stuffed it back into his pocket.

Jenny swallowed, she felt overwhelmed, but—

She took a deep breath and took a sharp step before she regretted it, appearing in Cesare's field of vision.

"Uh, I'm sorry," she said awkwardly, "I-I happen to be there-"

Cesare's face closed again, not the good one, the serene expressionlessness of the face—but he wasn't too surprised.

"I know." He said, staring into Jenny's eyes and standing up straight, "And now you know - I screwed it up, and I leaked the Hunger Games secrets. ”――

Updated

It's been a late TVT today, and it's all because my cat has been relying on me to play! Come, let's play her nose with your mind!