Dreaming With My Dragon Lover - Chapter 146

“Mr. Rong Qiuchen … Nice to meet you! I guessed at first glance that you were an actor, otherwise how could you be so handsome! I was quite surprised to see you two come in holding hands just now!”

Yuan Ge has already made up some excuses to explain why he brought Rong Qiuchen here, but the man’s sudden remark makes him panic for a moment, and he hurriedly explains somewhat awkwardly, “Hey, you mustn’t make wild assumptions. It’s his first time coming to a club like this, so he’s a bit confused.”

“That’s quite understandable, quite understandable. I’ve never been to an upmarket place like this before either. I was dazzled as soon as I walked in. But since I want to meet my old friend, I have to treat the occasion with the respect it deserves and choose somewhere special, don’t I?” The man stares at Rong Qiuchen’s long hair as he tries to lighten the mood. Rong Qiuchen thinks to himself, “This man is a real expert at socialising. He has a delicate mind and hides his thoughts well without showing any traces.”

Seeing the two of them checking out each other, Yuan Ge, fearing that Rong Qiuchen will be exposed as a lunatic as soon as he opens his mouth, preempts them by saying, “Nomi, you’ve made it big now! Your company’s TV box works very well. I’ve already installed several of your smart home products in my house.”

When the man hears his own products mentioned, a smile immediately spreads across his face, but he replies modestly, “My company’s technology is definitely no match to Professor Yuan’s top-notch AI designs, but the good thing is that our products are cheap enough and suitable for the mass market. Unfortunately, the brand is not well-known enough and my sales channels are limited …”

After the three have sat down and properly introduced, Rong Qiuchen learns that the person nicknamed Nomi is Yuan Ge’s classmate in the Computer Science department of Fudan University and is now the founder and CEO of Nomi Technology.

Nomi could see that Rong Qiuchen is very interested in Yuan Ge’s past, so he begins to talk about it in a very dramatic way, “You probably don’t know your Director Yuan, he’s quite a character! He got into the Computer Science Department of Fudan University with the highest score back then. All his classmates knew that his father was a world-class AI technology guru, but instead of going to CUT (Capital University of Technology), where his father taught, he went to Shanghai and stayed there for less than a year before escaping overseas. He said he wanted to pursue his interests and do what he loved – going to the UK to study filming, directing and acting. How cool is that? He was the envy and admiration of our class at the time!”

“Come on, Nomi, you are mocking me. You guys probably all think I’m just a player, not pursuing a proper career.”

“People like us, no matter how successful we are, can only be senior programmers at best, not a big star like you! Now you’re going to be the lead actor in King Guan’s movie and soon you’ll be a household name!”

“What, how do you even know about this?” Yuan Ge hasn’t expected that his old classmate is still following the news of the entertainment industry while immersed in research and development.

“Hey, being a businessman is not the same as being a programmer. A programmer only cares about making good products, but when you’re a business owner, if you don’t have contacts and don’t do marketing, the product you’ve worked so hard to build simply won’t sell.” Nomi laughs bitterly as he talks about business, “You know I’m just a computer science guy who started with nothing, and I’m terrible at making business contacts. It’s not easy to mix in with the right business circles and make friends with the big players.”

“So why did you make an appointment to meet at this club today? I’ve heard that the requirements for membership here are quite high in terms of personal net worth. We’re old roommates, you don’t have to be so extravagant and polite to me.”

“You’re a future celebrity, a star director. It’s not what it used to be, can you still meet me at a street stall like in our old student days?”

“A street stall feels more comfortable to me. Besides, I’m just a small-time director at the moment. I don’t even have a single film in the country to show for it. Nomi, your personal net worth is already high enough to get into this club, there’s no need to keep such a low profile all the time, or is it…”

When Yuan Ge sees that Nomi is all smiles, he suddenly has an understanding, “You didn’t ask me to come here today purely to reminisce about the past as an old roommate, did you? Is it because you want to ask me for some inside info? Let me be upfront with you. I don’t know anything about the cutting-edge technology that my dad is working on overseas!”

Nomi hurriedly lowers his head upon hearing this and nervously pushes his glasses, “Mate, how dare I covet Professor Yuan’s tech. But I do have a favour to ask today. I saw the TweeChat update you posted the other day. Since you are now the leading man of King Guan’s blockbuster, can you talk to Master Arthur Guan and ask him to reserve a product placement spot in the film for my Nomi TV Box?”

“I only posted three dots in my TweeChat update and you can tell from that that Arthur Guan and I have a great friendship? Since when did you become so shrewd!” Yuan Ge laughs, “Have you tried to contact King Guan’s marketing department yourself about the placement? I’m just a small-timer. I don’t really know him.”

Nomi looks aggrieved, “His chief assistant Liu Sang was too arrogant, saying that our brand was too small, that tons of companies were lining up to sponsor the film, and that there was no point in putting a low-end product like ours in there to make a fool of ourselves.”