122: TV series plot

"There is one more thing. I just mentioned that I broke up with my girlfriend at school, but I have another girlfriend outside of school."

Ye Su felt it was better to clarify this beforehand to avoid any misunderstandings later.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Upon hearing this, Li Mengyao looked at Ye Su with an expression of disdain. "You have a girlfriend inside and outside of school? You really know how to manage your time."

"Where is your mind at... I didn't date both girlfriends at the same time."

Ye Su didn't mind being mistaken for a scumbag, but he couldn't stand being misunderstood before he had even successfully become one!

Li Mengyao rolled her eyes. "Then you said you still have another girlfriend."

"My mistake..."

Ye Su was embarrassed to admit that he had said it completely subconsciously because he was a traditional man who firmly supported the traditional practice of polygamy.

"What, are you worried that if I ask you to pretend to be my boyfriend and your girlfriend finds out, she'll be angry?" Li Mengyao looked at Ye Su with great interest. "Don't worry, I'm only asking you to sell your skills, not your body. I won't let you betray your girlfriend."

"I'm not worried about that. Based on what I know of her, she'd probably want me to sell both my skills and my body so she could use your money—as a wealthy woman—to keep me as a kept man."

"Uh..." Ye Su's answer took Li Mengyao by surprise. "You and your girlfriend are really interesting. No wonder you two hit it off."

Li Mengyao even started to get a little curious about what the "girlfriend" Ye Su mentioned looked like.

"Why does that sound like it's not a compliment?"

Li Mengyao just smiled without saying a word.

"That's the situation. As long as you don't mind that I'm taken, it's fine."

"Then let's get our stories straight so we don't slip up tomorrow night."

"Whatever you say."

Subsequently, Li Mengyao began to collude with Ye Su on their cover stories, including changing his age to 24, using the antique trade—which he was most familiar with—as his profession, along with some other personal details.

Everything else was fine, but Ye Su was only worried that his disguised identity as an antique expert would be exposed in front of Li Shanhai.

Fortunately, Li Mengyao reassured Ye Su, saying that Li Shanhai had an interest in collecting antiques but was not actually an expert himself.

Even if he really wanted to discuss and explore the topic with Ye Su later, he could just muddle through it.

"Alright, that's roughly the situation. You need to cooperate well when the time comes, and don't slip up immediately."

"No problem."

"If you can help me get through this crisis, we can establish a long-term cooperative relationship. Every time I need you to return for an encore, I'll give you an appreciation fee. I'm being fair, right?"

Ye Su gave a thumbs up. "Fair."

Seeing that it was about time, Ye Su stood up to leave, but remembered one more thing before he left:

"What if your parents don't like me and stuff a check into my hand, saying, 'Here is five million, please leave my daughter,' then what should I do?"

"Can you not have such a vivid imagination..."

"But isn't that how it always is in TV dramas?"

"Then you just take it, and we'll split it fifty-fifty."

Ye Su snapped his fingers. "I was waiting for you to say that."

After waving his hand, Ye Su left the office, leaving Li Mengyao staring at the closed office door, suddenly smiling.

More than a week later, meeting Ye Su again, Li Mengyao felt that there was something different about him, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Ye Su is actually quite interesting."

...

On the other side, Ye Su had just left the jewelry store and drove to the entrance of the Agricultural Science Institute.

Just after parking the car, his phone received a transfer of seventy thousand yuan from Li Mengyao.

"My savings have broken through five hundred thousand."

After Ye Su added the seventy thousand yuan to his calculator, Shen Xinyue walked over from a distance.

"I'm sorry to trouble you to come out and meet me."

Hearing this, Shen Xinyue drooped her eyelids and looked at Ye Su with annoyance. "You're a young man in your early twenties, can you stop with all these polite pleasantries every time you open your mouth?"

"Hehe."

Seeing Ye Su's awkward smile, Shen Xinyue laughed along and waved at him. "Let's go, I'll take you in."

"Alright."

After the two got into the car, under Shen Xinyue's guidance, Ye Su parked the car in the Agricultural Science Institute's parking lot, and then they headed to the reception room inside the building.

"You can drink the water on the table. I've already notified our leader; he should be arriving soon."

"Mm."

Just as Ye Su took a sip of water, a middle-aged man around forty years old pushed the door open and walked in.

Shen Xinyue stood up first to introduce the two.

"This is Director Lin from our organizing unit."

"This is Ye Su."

"Hello, Director Lin." Ye Su also stood up and extended his right hand toward Director Lin.

"Mr. Ye, sorry to keep you waiting." Director Lin shook Ye Su's hand with equal enthusiasm.

When reporting the mutant rose, Shen Xinyue did not hide its source, stating frankly that Ye Su had found her through her connection with the eldest daughter of the Poyun Group, and there should be no issues regarding his social background.

Just the fact that he could get the eldest daughter of the Poyun Group to help him contact Shen Xinyue was enough for Lin Guanglei to think highly of Ye Su and, as he was doing now, enthusiastically chat and befriend him.

"It wasn't a long wait. We just arrived, and while you weren't here, I was actually able to have a drink of water."

"Haha." After a hearty laugh, Lin Guanglei greeted Ye Su. "Let's not stand, let's sit down and talk."

"Alright."

"Thank you, Mr. Ye, for providing our institute with such a rare bud-mutated rose."

"Don't say that. I should be the one thanking the Agricultural Science Institute for being willing to give me an opportunity to cooperate."

After exchanging a few polite pleasantries, Lin Guanglei got to the point.

"Regarding our cooperation, Xinyue has already conveyed your requests to us, so I won't go into that again. The terms of the cooperation are all written in the contract; you can take a look first."

Ye Su took the contract, read through it carefully, confirmed that there were no issues with the content, and that the profit-sharing was clearly stated in black and white in the contract. He nodded in confirmation. "I have no issues with the contract."

"Good." Lin Guanglei continued, "Before signing the contract, I need to declare in advance that the mutant rose is a bud-mutation variety. Although we can shorten the time for genetic screening through [molecular marker-assisted selection],

and we can also achieve flowering twice a year through greenhouse supplemental lighting to further save time, but limited by the growth cycle of the rose, it may take two or three years from propagation verification to final market access. You need to be aware of this in advance."

"Two or three years..."

Ye Su had originally thought this would only take a few months, but he hadn't expected that the fastest it could be done was two or three years.

No wonder he could get a 15% share by giving up the sixty-thousand-yuan transfer fee. It seemed this money wasn't so easy to get after all.

"If you have concerns about the time and would prefer to sell the rose outright for a transfer fee, we can also modify the contract content."

"No need, let's go with this contract."

Ye Su wasn't short of these sixty thousand yuan. Rather than taking the money directly, it was better to treat it as an investment.

Even if he were really short on money, with this contract in hand, he might even be able to get a loan of one hundred or eighty thousand from the bank. Either way, it was better than just taking sixty thousand yuan directly.